Pokémon Legends: Z-A Team Discussion

[Perriechu]

The Johto and Unova starters are both massive boots for me, but the prospect of Mega Meganium is enough to sway me to start with Chikorita :p

The rest of my team will just be heavily rotated between who I just want to use / haven't used in recent playthroughs etc, box link & exp share make teambuilding a bit more interesting so since SWSH I always end up with a final team of around 30 to pull from

 

[GodBroj]

https://richi3f.github.io/pokemon-t...+tyrantrum+aegislash+scolipede+starmie+emboar This is a pretty soild team for any play through. I plan on using mega ped for vgc and this team covers about every base.

 

[Eriorguez]

I'm going with Totodile on principle, but I'm not building a team until I know what species are actually in the game. And how the mechanics actually work, and how the new megas work.

 

[Vengeance417]

I'm probably not building a 100% set team, either, since I want to try out all the new stuff. I do know Feraligatr will always be on the squad. Mega Charizard X (if it's obtainable in the main story), and Mega Beedrill might be on my team a lot (but not always) because they're tied for my (current) favorite Mega, and Tyrantrum as it's my favorite Kalos mon.

 

[Worldie]

Legit question, am I the only one who tackles pokemon games with "I'll choose the starter then whatever I fancy on the way"?

 

[CynicalGiant]

Legit question, am I the only one who tackles pokemon games with "I'll choose the starter then whatever I fancy on the way"?

I only really do that in legends games, otherwise I stick to a planned team ahead of time. I knew in legends arceus before even playing it that I was going to put Kleavor, Ursaluna, and Samurott on my team with the other 3 slots just being whatever.

 

[Vengeance417]

Legit question, am I the only one who tackles pokemon games with "I'll choose the starter then whatever I fancy on the way"?

Correct. You're the only player in the entire world to do this. No one else in all of history has tried this novel concept.

 

[missangelic]

I think that if you are capable of understanding how to play Pokemon, one of the best ways you can play newer games in the series is by constantly swapping between Pokemon in your PC. All of the changes from Gen 6 onwards have made this the ideal way to play Pokemon if you're an adult / have a brain. It's easier than ever to swap Pokemon from PC, change movesets, and gain party-wide EXP. Elements of the earlier parts of the series that encouraged grinding kind of incentivized this playstyle, but it's easier than ever to pull this off and get the best-feeling power curve the new games can provide to experienced players.

I played SV mostly blind, but playing it like I was trying to casually catch em' all before the Elite 4 made the experience fulfilling, slightly challenging, and, most importantly, extremely dynamic. I could tailor my party to be six members that were effective for any challenge, but I'd always have some variety in there to ensure I was filling out the dex and trying all of the new gen 9 Pokemon. NPCs weren't exactly challenging, but they became more engaging than they'd otherwise be because my whole party would generally match them in levels that fit the area, rather than overleveling or the exp curve making the game boring or on-rails, I got to strategize and try to overcome NPCs with a couple hundred different Pokemon. Spending time in an area felt less wasteful, as I could always use the time to level up more Pokemon and try to find if there were rare Pokemon I missed. Even though the late-game challenges became pretty easy, it was super satisfying to go through blind and realize that the Baxcalibur I'd spent so much time babying from Casseroya Lake onward could wipe 3 of the Elite 4.

I'll be doing this again for Legends ZA. I still plan to make certain Pokemon front and center, just like how I used Skeledirge a ton in Violet. I plan to run a core trio of Feraligatr, Chesnaught, and Charizard, three of my faves and also two of my team members from my first playthrough of X. I do want to make sure I get a good sample of everything the game offers, so I will be running the elemental monkeys, Bunnelby sans Huge Power, and god's weakest warrior, no Return Watchog. I'm excited to see how the power curve of the game goes with the whole Z-A Royale system and the gradient between early-game forgettable fodder and the Mega-capable 600 club of Tyranitar, Garchomp, Dragonite, etc.

Somewhere in the middle, I really want to use Hawlucha and Clefable. Hawlucha's Mega Evolution animation was peak, and I think it has a ton of potential as a good offensive Mega that fits my priority of wanting to use new things and Gen 6 Pokemon. Fighting / Flying is obviously going to make it really useful for a lot of challenges, and its status as a single stage Pokemon makes it really good independent of needing any kind of attention for evolving it. On the other end, Clefairy has been one of my favorite Pokemon for a long time, so I was thrilled to see it randomly shown off in some IGN pre-release material a few weeks ago. Clefable definitely gets gutted a bit by the removal of abilities, but I think it's still going to be pretty good just on the grounds that it's a stone evolution, Fairy-type, and well-rounded.

Unlocking Mega stones by defeating rogue Mega Evolutions seems like the perfect excuse to raise up a huge reserve of counterteam options. I think one of the cooler parts of going in blind is seeing what teams I'll be able to make on the fly for whenever I can snag a new Mega stone. If we can bring 6 of any Pokemon we want to these boss battles, there's no reason not to go in with a squad of 6 counterpicks. Scrappy-less Mega Lopunny isn't ready for my team of Aegislash, Slowbro, Clefable, Gengar, Starmie, and Talonflame. Carbink hasn't appeared in any pre-release stuff that I've seen, but trust that da binky is going to be my ultimate weapon against Mega Houndoom.

 

[bdt2002]

I’ve decided on my first three team members a few days in advance of Day 1, but as I’ve said I don’t know if I’ll be getting this game Day 1 or… at all, but let’s say that I do. These would probably be my first three. Of course, some of that depends on availability of Chandelure but I also have other slots I want to fill out. Every team I’ve made since Scarlet & Violet (and my Legends team prior to discovering the secret Turtwig spot blind), which… isn’t that many given the lack of a new game, lol, has had at least one Water, Poison, and Psychic-Type on it as those are my three favorite Types in no particular order.

Raichu may have taken Ampharos’s spot but the Megas are DLC exclusive and I just recently heard something that interests me about Mareep in this game, but even if that was the case I prefer Pichu over Pikachu and Raichu anyway and Electric could be good in a game about speed control and likely lacks a Ground specialist. I may also elect to go dual starter with a Chespin (Chandelure takes the Fire slot) like I did in Hisui with Cyndaquil and Turtwig, but that also depends on availability.

Does anyone have any suggestions for Poison or Psychic-Types I could use? I’m heavily interested in Scolipede right now for the former, as a homage to my fastest Shiny hunt ever being a Friend Safari Whirlipede in Pokémon X (only two encounters!).

 

[Count Bleck]

Well, datamines and stats and designs have been Leaking through the last few days. While the battle system itself is still a wild unknown for me, has anyone's teams been changed by any recent developments?

 

[RocketSurgery]

Well, datamines and stats and designs have been Leaking through the last few days. While the battle system itself is still a wild unknown for me, has anyone's teams been changed by any recent developments?

The datamine more or less solidified my team for base game by assuaging my concerns over what mega emboar looks like and confirming my lack of enthusiasm for mega feraligatr. The picks I had for the two empty slots above also proved to be awesome and will be going on the team. So here's what I plan on (still spoilered since we're not in the datamine thread):

ZA planned team

Depending on how easy shiny hunting is, I might go for shiny Banette.

Since we have a putative dex and megas for the dlc as well, I also have a tentative idea of a team for that, but maybe that's better left for the datamine thread so that this thread doesn't become all spoiler tags.

 

[CodeFour]

My son (7) is hype about pokemon for the first time in his life as of two months ago. I've bought every Jazwares figure we could find in stores. We beat LGP together a few weeks ago. I preordered the Phantasm Flames premium collection.

I'm gonna play this game exclusively with him and we'll catch and use whatever he wants along the way.

We're starting with Totodile. Final team will probably have Pikachu Charizard Gengar plus two others well see. Off all weekend should be a good time.

 

[Vengeance417]

Finished my playthrough this morning, and wanted to share my team c:

The Squad and my explanations, some spoilers so don't click if you haven't beaten the game yet

Deinosuchus the Feraligatr:

Gaaaze into the face....of feeeaaar.

Totodile was my starter. and Deinosuchus didn't disappoint. Swords Dance + 160 Attack when Mega made this thing a beast. Liquidation was a nuke, as was Outrage when I used that for a bit, Breaking Swipe provided good team support, and Aqua Jet was probably my favorite move on the set. So damn fast.

Fabio the Ampharos:

L'Oréal photoshoot.

I used Totodile, so of course I had to use Ampharos as I'm a Johto Boy. Fabio provided Thunder Wave support for the majority of my run, and was a special nuke when Mega. Disappointed that Dragon Pulse wasn't accessible (at least to my knowledge, would suck if I missed it...). Probably put in the least work compared to the rest of my team, but I still enjoyed his presence, and I love Mega Ampharos. I opted not to use the freebie shiny and stuck to the original Mareep that I caught.

Lucy the Gardevoir:

She runs a bakery when she doesn't battle.

This is the Mystery Gift Ralts that appeared in every gosh darn trailer, and I came to realize there was a reason for this push; Mega Gardevoir might just be the best Pokemon in the game. Calm Mind + Draining Kiss was broken, so much so I didn't even bother with Moonblast unless I needed the extra Fairy coverage for one of the rogue megas. Mystical Fire not only provided anti-Steel coverage, but support vs special threats. Lucy was easily the best mon on the team, by a longshot.

Sarabi the Pyroar:

I told her to stop hunting other people's Pokemon...

I don't know why I opted for Pyroar. I saw the mega leaks and was pretty disappointed with the Mega (which turns out is postgame only anyway), but something told me to use it. and I'm glad I did. Sarabi's part Normal-typing actually came in clutch vs Ghost-types, especially Ghost Rogue Megas like Banette and Froslass. Other than that, I tried a variety of sets; WoW for physical support, Work Up for more damage output, Snarl for special threats, and Overheat was great for mobs. Since no Mega until postgame, she held a Charcoal. Overall, not spectacular, but pretty good.

Joan of Arc the Chesnaught

She's happy to have defended Lumiose.

Really happy with Chesnaught. While I was saddened by the fact she can't Mega Evolve for a little while, Leftovers, Leech Seed, Spiky Shield, solid bulk, and the defensive typing made her such a tank. Wood Hammer and Brick Break were the offensive moves I opted for. Chose not to use Close Combat since her role was a more defensive one. Solid mon.

Starscream the Skarmory:

This photo was so fucking hard to get, oml

This slot was originally my Heracross and then Krookodile as seen below. I also had an Aegislash, but that mon was so fraudulent that they were fired from the photoshoot. The passive Stance Change made it take damage while switching modes. Honestly, you're better off with Doublade.

So I still wanted a Steel-type after Aegislash failed me, and then I remembered that Skarmory got a Mega. What a sleeper threat Starscream was. While most of its moves are low BP (Wing Attack + Steel Wing, for example), that was made up by their fast recharge turns, Swords Dance, and base 140 Attack when Mega. Even with the low BP moves, SD at minimum two-shotted its good matchups. Brave Bird can also be used for nuke potential, but I liked the swiftness of the weaker attacks. Its high Speed also made dodging attacks much easier. Superb mon, highly recommend, but it does come pretty late into the game.

The reserves:

Athena the Heracross:

She frequents this fruit stand.

The original 6th member. Having received it very early on, Athena was the original powerhouse when everyone else were still babies. Pin Missile was surprisingly strong, taking enemies out with a single use. Once I got Chesnaught, though, I retired Athena, but was happy for her services.

Samael the Charizard:

Yeah, they're dating...

The nepo-baby Pokemon, yes I know, but I don't care. Charizard's one of my favorite Pokemon, and I wanted to use it again now that we got Megas. Samael was my Fire-type Mega reserve since Pyroar couldn't Mega. I experimented with both X and Y, and while I love Zard X, I settled on Y. I already had 2 other Dragon megas, and I wanted Y's raw Fire-type burst damage, which came in clucth for Mega Victreebel, Mega Froslass, and Mega Venusaur.

Sarcosuchus the Alpha Krookodile:

Deinosuchus said something that offended Sarcosuchus...

Caught around the midgame as an alpha Krokorok, and for a while, was the strongest team member. I like using Ground-types, and Krookodile's one of my favorites, so naturally, Sarcosuchus was fun to use, especially when it got EQ. The Dark-typing also helped for Psychic-types. Bulk Up made it a beast. Ended up making it a reserve as I wanted a Steel-type.

Thoroughly enjoyed this game, despite the railroading at the start being pure agony.

 

[CodeFour]

Haven't got far. That first ingame trade for Heracross has been super useful. The pin missle range is great for zone 5

 

[Magcargo]

Seeing all the complaints about Aegislash have led me to just run Doublade instead and its been performing decently. The start as Honedge is pretty rough, but you get a good move set of SD / Shadow Claw / Shadow Sneak / Iron Head and go to town with a filler item like Scope Lens or Sitrus Berry. This is a bit nostalgic, since back when I was playing XY, I didn't even know Doublade evolved into Aegislash and ran it for the entire game lol.

I have a rotating party of around 13 members. That said, it does seem like the ZA Battle Zone NPCs scale a bit weirdly. I was hoping for a more linear level scaling, but they are all stuck at around Level 35 currently with "strong" trainers being around level 44. I don't see as many of these strong trainers as I was expecting. This lets a lot of my weaker shitters like Emolga and Vivillion keep up. and tbf they've been performing pretty great still. Emolga with Charge T-Bolt combo is strong. Vivillion is also solid with a wide coverage pool.

 

[Missingno.1998]

I am not too far into the game, but my team so far is:

Bayleef
Kirlia
Floette
Clefairy
Swirlix
Fletchnider

Running an all Fairy team has been tough so far. They all have almost the same coverage, so I don't have that many options. I plan on flipping out Swirlix, Clefairy and Fletchnider for Mawile, Carbink and Dedenne once I come across them. I did well with an all Fairy team for X/Y, but I'm a little scared for this game.

 

[CodeFour]

the game moves too fast for me are stat buffs worth it? I see in the top right it will say stats returned to normal are they lasting long enough to be worth it?

 

[Elkos]

I think they're a decent recharge filler along with debuff moves at least.

 

[Noah3475]

I viewed the Lumiose City Pokedex for purposes of planning a team, but I am spoiler free regarding the plot. I am about half through the campaign. As in any other Pokémon game, my planned team has no type overlap. I will use three Generation 6 Pokémon and three other Pokémon which have new Mega Evolutions. Spoilers are marked for new Mega Evolutions:

Noah3475's Pokemon Legends: Z-A Team

->

 

[Prof. Almeida]

This was the team I finished the story yesterday. Want to change things now for post-game and pvp

 

[Coronis]

Ended up going with Feraligatr, Ampharos, Heracross, Charizard, Gardevoir and Excadrill. Amphy sadly was by far my least used. The early trade Heracross is great value. Excadrill was probably my main mon as the game went on. If I do another run I’d probably try a team with one or some mons that aren’t Megas, to make it a big challenge and force me to use plus moves which I almost always forgot about.

 

[Omastar68]

Um. I'm probably something of a rare case here-esp for me, I usually flesh out a team of 6 fully. I guess for a time I did, but I didn't even use my starter....(think I accidentally released lol, didn't get 3rd stage so dex could get rough, but I digress.)

What I mean is mostly one mon did te work for me-indeed, near 100 at end vs 60ish below 70 the next highest lvl(I think.) That mon is my coveted florges, op mon imo. Or at least here, there are roadblocks regularly. I think this game HIGHLY caters to her, and not by accident given the main premise of everything coming from Floette getting killed in the war. Moonblast has been awesome since the start of the move, though much of the real strength comes from giga drain and kiss letting her actually live like forever. 4th move is tricky, ish. Eventually went psychic for poisons I guess? But no poison or steel seems specially bulky enough for moonblasts, + move or no. That is, not w/o any 4x resists in the dex anymore. Super solid, migh give her a go again in next game comp(this game seems bad for that, though I do very much like it on the whole,) despite some naysayers. True original fairy. I've never been one to, in past gens, make the starter op and 5 HM slaves. But besides some of the absolute hardest battles(and even there coulda just been less frugal w/ revives...,) didn't need rest of the team. Or mega evolution lol.

EDIT: I do TECHNICALLY always use 6 though. Ofc won't double post, but just fwiw cool I got 3/6 same as above. Barbaracle, Victreebel, and Gengar. All very good, they're just not florges.

 

[R_N]

Well my team was pretty solidified but now that I'm nearing the last...third? of the game I can say with certainty this is it:
Meganium
Gardevoir (via Mystery Gift)
Heracross (via the trade)
Ampharos
Pyroar
Barbaracle



Meganium...kind of didn't see much use until recently. I just had things to cover it most of the time. But it's...fine. I think the general battle system benefits it. And the mega is just a nuke. That's always useful. Leech Seed is a move that isn't as useful as I wish it was.

Gardevoir & Heracross feel just, busted. Like yeah Ralts & Kirlia are a little weak, but they have good stab and are virtually always useful. It's easy to see why in a normal playthrough they're tucked away and why the gardevoirite takes a long time to get. Meanwhile Heracross is forced on you and like...every attack it has access to at every point of the game is just extremely useful at all times. And you get access to its mega fairly quickly. I feel like speedruns might revolve around it

Ampharos I picked up on a whim early on since electric seemed handy and despite its popularity I've just never used one that I can recall. Had some ups & downs, but has been pretty consistent. Really starts singing once it gets those extra special moves. Another one that's a shame to be so late to a mega.

I've used Barbaracle before (& Gardevoir, years ago in some gen 3 run), but I really liked Mega Barbaracle so I decided to use it again. I will say, I forgot how long it took to evolve and I feel like the way the TMs and movesets fell here that for a while it was less than stellar. Water Gun & Bubble Beam on a physical attacker...But it still saw a lot of use due to its rock moves before then. And after evolving? Very handy. Shame the mega is so far into the game, I only just now got it.

Litleo is in a similar boat; I alwasy forget how long it takes to evolve and its moves take time to get online. But it gets what it needs when it matters. I've never used one before, but it's pretty nice. I think Pyroar's one of those mons no one thinks a lot about since it's not like, super stellar but it's got good speed and good special attack. This game definitely helps in giving it extra coverage with Earth Power but Fire/Normal isn't hideous before this.Anyway I've used it a bunch, fire is just always handy! Sssstill don't have the mega, though.

Kind of feel like the game really pushes you to use the megas, and hwo knows hwne I'll get the chance to mess with them after this, so I've obliged, I'll be interested in seeing how many folks wind up with teams similar to mine: 6 megas.

 

[VividBunnie]

My end of story team was Mawile, Gyarados, Chandelure, Bois, Ampharos, and Chesnaught. In reality, it may as well have been just been the first four with Ampharos existing to do thunderbolt + t wave and Chesnaught bc I couldn't have been bothered to set up a replacement. Mawile and Chandelure were the only real deliberate picks (Mawile bc it was my favorite Mega then and Chandelure when I found out it got one) with Gyarados being there because Feraligatr's lousy IVs causing me enough headaches that I detoured to get an alpha and build that up. Bois was Bois and more or less stayed around because multi-hit moves with 185 base attack with SD was hard to replace. Tbh it kind of annoyed me the Rogue mechanics alone is why I benched any option that couldn't Mega unless they were helpful elsewhere but it was fun to yolo through this game either way.

 

[R_N]

Tbh it kind of annoyed me the Rogue mechanics alone is why I benched any option that couldn't Mega unless they were helpful elsewhere but it was fun to yolo through this game either way.

It's a bit late now, and definitely less effective since you have to keep activating it, but for what it's worth Plus Moves from un-mega'd Pokemon still do quite a number. Pyroar didn't melt through Mega Mawile as fast as Mega Gardevoir melted Mega Hawlucha or Ampharos, but it wasn't a slog either.