Gen 3 Best Friends (ADV)

[Umby]

To prevent confusion, this isn't for resource purposes. It's more of an open discussion.

Basically I want to see pairings of Pokemon in 3rd Gen that allow a certain kind of synergy between each other (like SkarmBliss) and why. It can be defensive, offensive, a combination of both, or that cool, gray area in between. I'll start with:

Celebi + Suicune

Defensively, Celebi covers both of Suicune's weaknesses while Suicune can take hits from most of what would hit Celebi. On stall teams, Leech Seed and Pressure can cause a major annoyance, especially with access to Recover and Rest/Sleep Talk respectively.

Offensively, both Pokemon have the ability to set up against common special walls. Celebi can use Leech Seed + Calm Mind to set up easily against Snorlax with some HP/Def investment. While not a tank, Suicune can use an offensive spread (252 SAtk / 252 Spd) to outpace and rip apart Zapdos on incoming. Both Pokemon have the ability to force non-CM Blissey out through use of their respective recovery moves. Aside from that, their moves (plus Hidden Power) allow for great coverage, capable of tearing down a good chunk of many teams, as seen in Jabba's infamous team.

This pairing, in particular, gets torn apart by Regice and can be worn down to uncomfortable levels by the common Sandstorm and Spikes. The rare Drill Peck Zapdos can sink its talons in deep as well.

 

[Jorgen]

It's hard for me to think of things that aren't totally obvious (SkarmBliss, Mag + Anything that hates Skarm, etc.), but I'll just go ahead and say Skarm + Dugtrio.

Skarm walls a lot of things to hell and back and sets up them Spikes, but what it suffers from is a complete inability to do anything to Magneton.

Enter Dugtrio. It doesn't really provide a lot of defensive synergy with Skarm, but what it does do is give Skarm users some play against Magneton; you have to be just as careful when laying Spikes as they do with bringing in Mag. Plus many things that either sweep on the Special Side (e.g., Raikou, Rachi, offensive Celebi) and some things that could actually harm Skarm physically (looking mostly at you, Tyranitar, though I guess Metagross with its Explosion also counts) all get revenged by Dug, making Skarm's life easier. Skarm doesn't exactly help Dug out much on its own, though, outside of baiting many of the things that Dug would love to double-switch on.

This is not so much a pairing to base a whole team off of, but rather a pairing intended to ensure that Skarm is useful even if a Magneton lurks in the corner. It doesn't hurt that Duggy does a bunch of other cool stuff other than giving the Skarm user play against Mag. Since Skarm is by far the most defensively synergistic Spiker in the game, this pairing makes it much easier to use it to its fullest effect, thereby making it much easier to cover the remaining bases with your other 4 Pokemon (e.g., pretty much anything Flying-type, Spikers that can also Spin) instead of worrying too much about redundancy or a potential lack of Spikes.

 

[danilo]

Choice Band Aero + Choice Band Ttar

Choice Band TTar is really great against a lot of teams in ADV. Its normal checks like Swampert and Claydol can't consistently switch into Tyranitar over a long period of time. Tyranitar's immunity to Psychic and its great bulk also allows it to switch into attacks a lot. Finally, Sand Stream means that Milotic and even Salamence are much worse checks to Tyranitar. After wrecking havoc for a bit, Choice Band Aerodactyl cleans up mid to late game. Things like Swampert and Cune are either too weakened to wall Aero or they're just not around anymore.

This core doesn't really have any defensive synergy but the offensive synergy is pretty good. This core works pretty well on offensive teams with other physical power houses like Lax and Salamence who can also check Pokemon.

 

[M Dragon]

Gengar + Tyranitar
They work quite well together, covering most of its weakness, and its a common combo in 95% of TSS teams atm.

Salamence + Metagross/Jirachi
An offensive combo, very solid defensively and ofensively, covering each other weakness. Salamence and Metagross have similar counters (bulky waters), so one can lure/weaken them so the other has an easier time. In the case of Jirachi, it can heal Salamence, and they complement each other quite well.

Skarmory + Claydol + Blissey
Skarm + Clay resist every physical attack in the game, while setting up Spikes (skarm), and removing your opponent's hazards (claydol). Blissey covers special attacls. This is the classic ADV stall core.

 

[EnvoyOfTheEnd]

Choice Band Salamence + Dragon Dance Tyranitar
They homies for life. Choice Band Mence is great because it weakens or kills the opponents walls, letting tyranitar easily clean up late game. Salamence can come in on earthquakes, water type moves, or grass type moves aimed at Tyranitar, while tyranitar can take ice beams for salamence, despite not resisting them. Mostly an offensive combo, but they work very well together.

 

[splasheffective]

Skarmory + Swampert
Skarmory walls things on the physical side, where Swampert can tank special hits...
While both of them are usually bulky on the physical side, Pert's defenses are equal, so I would change it's nature to Sassy and move the EVs over to SpD.
Skarm can set up Spikes and both can phaze.
Pert has an x4 weakness to Grass, while Skarm resists it x4.
Skarm has an x2 weakness to Electric, while Pert is immune.
Skarm has an x2 weakness to Fire, while Pert resists is x2.
IMO it's better than SkarmBliss, but that is because of synergy, not Base Stats.

 

[meteor64]

Explosion Gengar + Dugtrio

Thiscombo kinda functions like the Aero+Duggy Sacrifice strategy in that something dies in order to let Duggy finish a specific threat, however the neat way that it works is that every single Gar check in the game besides Dusclops is vulnerable to this.Blissey, Lax, Regice, Celebi, TTar, Jirachi, Raikou, Metagross- all of them weakened to the point at least where EQ (or HP Bug for Celebi) can simply finish them off and remove them from the game. Perhaps the most prominent of these are Blissey, Regice and Lax, who, when removed, often leave teams with no way to deal with heavily offensive and uncommon threats like Superachi,Superbi, Raikou, Moltres and Jynx. Gar's fast boom leaves your opponents no quarter to attempt moves like Dragon Dance or Agility either, meaning you have an extra defense mechanism against DDtar and the odd Agiligross if things get dire.

 

[HUARGH]

Porygon2 + Magneton
If Dugtrio kills Magneton, Porygon2 revengekills Dugtrio.

 

[Arhops]

Swampert/Houndoom (and Zapdos is you want)

These two work well since houndoom counters the grasses that ruin swampert. Also houndoom can pursuit celebi and execcutor (I've seen it!). Zapdos would work with these too since vaporeon walls this and breloom sweeps it.

 

[Typhlito]

How about this?

Metagross/Zapdos

When put together, they have good offensive and decent defensive synergy. Pokemon that metagross is not able to muscle through such as suicune (assuming it didnt get up too many CM's) can be worn down by zapdos while pokemon that give zapdos trouble such as regice and ttar can be handled by metagross. Snorlax can be an issue though if it manages to use a curse or 2. As for their defensive synergy, it does have a few crucial holes. While zapdos can cover for metagross's ground weakness, it cant protect it from dugtrio. Areo can also hurt both pokemon with its banded quake edge even though you could play around it with prediction.

So this combo can work but it could use some team support.

 

[fireblaster1357]

CB Metagross/DD Salamence

Metagross can wear down bulky waters or flat out kill with explosion, and ddmence can set up and sweep/dent the rest of the team.