Hows my Team!

[LinuxUser]

Ok i have a team i am training on pokemon black for wifi battles and random match up battles and i would like to know what people think of my team!

heres my team:

Infernape lv 100 ability blaze

moves: Close combat, flamethrower, protect, bulk up

Gallade lv 94 ability steadfast

moves: X scissor, stone edge, psychic, close combat

Flygon lv 83 ability leivtate

Moves: Fly, dragon claw, crunch, earthquake

Rotom lv 100 ability levitate

Moves: Shadow ball, thunder, thunderbolt, toxic

Haxorus lv 100 ability mold breaker

Moves: swords dance, night slash, outrage, x scissor

Metagross lv 92 ability clear body

moves: hyper beam, earthquake, metor mash, psychic

What do you think of my team? should i change any moves?

[Lord Of Storms]

are you going for competiteve battling or just for fun, i love your team because i assume like myself i battle with my favorites rather than the best, other than a bit of training, i would give metagross stealth rock and possibly explosion and maybe chose different moves for some pokemon and infernape, but what do i know you probably should not be taking my advice to serious, because im not that good, but there are some good competiteve battlers here such as Damian that could possibly help you if you want that kind of advice good luck ! and i hope to battle with you again soon~

[LinuxUser]

thanks! all i am looking for is a decent team for battling. one that doesn't have to win all the time but can get me some wins

[TheManyFacesOfGlalie]

I completely dislike Swellow because of it's inability to attack or stall well. It is way outclassed I'd use a Staraptor instead. Along with that, Pinsir and Gallade aren't too great either. Overall, it hard to use them very well unless you're pretty experienced. It's possible, but very very difficult and you definitely wouldn't be able to use them on a team like this, it would need a lot more strategizing, almost completely around those Pokemon. So aside from those 3, the Pokemon are decent choices together on the same team if you plan to run an offensive team. I can't really help that much though without knowing natures, IVs, EVs, etc since those make a big difference and make it easier to figure out their jobs.

[LinuxUser]

ya I noticed swellow didn't have much attack so I was thinking about switching it. I think gallade is fine but i was going
to switch pinsir for a tyranitar, wailord or rotom. which of those do you think is the best?

[Lord Of Storms]

i would personally substitute it for a tyranitar with sand stream, i just like those and there pretty decent, but rotom is good especially with different type advantages, oh! and also my moveset for my metagross is bullet punch, zen headbutt, stealth rock, and explosion, because bullet punch takes care of his lack in speed but these are only my opinions >.<

[LinuxUser]

thanks! I think I am going to use rotom. i have one on my soul silver that I already got to lv100 and is really good. for metagross I would teach it stealth rock but I don't know how.

[Lord Of Storms]

it either could be really complicated or really easy, you just trade it over from black and white to B2 orW2 if you have it then go to the move tutor in the nacren city i belive then you trade it back over to black or white, and to get explosion is in the battle subway for 48 points, but you can look up walkthroughs for both on the internet, good luck!

[reshilegend]

my moveset for my metagross is bullet punch, zen headbutt, stealth rock, and explosion, because bullet punch takes care of his lack in speed but these are only my opinions >.<

Explosion is not that good in 5th gen, try earthquake/meteor mash/pursuit/hammer arm instead. Also, Choice Band/leftovers are good items that Metagross can use.

[Lord Of Storms]

i know i just like explosion because its fun to use, im not that good at competetive battling

[TheManyFacesOfGlalie]

ya I noticed swellow didn't have much attack so I was thinking about switching it. I think gallade is fine but i was going
to switch pinsir for a tyranitar, wailord or rotom. which of those do you think is the best?

I like Rotom-W, the Washing Machine form of Rotom. Wailord is just a pain imo and I'd consider using Tyranitar, but I wouldn't call it a replacement for a Pinsir.

[TheManyFacesOfGlalie]

thanks! I think I am going to use rotom. i have one on my soul silver that I already got to lv100 and is really good. for metagross I would teach it stealth rock but I don't know how.

Stealth Rock is via a move tutor in B2/W2 for Metagross that would be a good idea for itt

[LinuxUser]

oh I dont have black 2

[TheManyFacesOfGlalie]

oh I dont have black 2

I'm sure if you ask someone here if they could tutor Metagross to learn Stealth Rock they'd do it. I can't since I also don't have the game lol I always have to get someone to do it for me.

[LinuxUser]

updated

[TheManyFacesOfGlalie]

Flygon is one of my fave Pokemon ^^ I'd give it a Choice Band to increase the damage it can deal, and with Levitate, it can switch in easily to a Ground-type attack that they may have intended to use on Metagross, not to mention it also doesn't take damage from Electric-type moves, which would make it easy to switch into an Electric-type move as well, provided you scout for one first, since you have nothing that would attract one very well. I recommend giving Gallade protect to do this, since imo it's most likely to take an electric-type hit neutrally. It can also take Fire, Poison, and Rock easily, as it resists all of these attacks as well. With Flygon the only attacks you need to watch for are Dragons with a 2x weakness and Ice with a nasty 4x weakness. Luckily, Metagross and Infernape will be able to take those if you switch them into an attack. Lastly, remove Fly for Fire Punch, remove Crunch for U-Turn, and Dragon Claw for Outrage. Sadly, Flygon doesn't have a very diverse movepool and his Special Attack is really nothing to be proud of, so that's probably the best set he can have. Instead of this, you could attempt using a Muscle Band and use it for late-game sweep via Tailwind, but I think it would benefit more from the Choice Band's power.

[TheManyFacesOfGlalie]

For Rotom, it should probably be a Rotom-A... It really can't do much without the speed boost, since it's slow and very frail. Thus, if you really want to use a normal Rotom, it needs a Choice Scarf. Since it can use Trick, you should totally use Trick so that it gives them a Choice Item they don't want. That's an effective way to break Walls such as Blissey or Chansey, since they won't be very happy about being locked into an attack and losing the Leftovers or Eviolite. After that, give it Volt Switch. Volt Switch is useful for keeping momentum by still dealing damage and allowing you to switch out for a better offensive Pokemon to finish of the walls you've started to break, and Infernape is extremely useful for breaking down Chansey and Blissey. Third move should be Shadow Ball so that you have a decent STAB attack. There are a few options for the last move. If you want it to have a good attacking move, you could do Thunderbolt. I'd personally run Ice-type Hidden Power since, aside from Flygon (which would fold to one), you have no coverage over Dragon-types. Thunder Wave can help you to further cripple walls if you want it to be TNT (it begins to make walls crumble). Maybe even Dark Pulse, since no one here seems to cover Ghost-types, albeit Gallade might be better for that by giving it Shadow Sneak.

[Baby Koga]

That's a really cool team. Infernape is one of my faves. I also like Gallade and Rotom in its normal form. As a suggestion, I would get rid of a guillotine on Haxorus and replace it with either swords dance or earthquake. I've been swept plenty of times by a Haxorus who set up on swords dance. The earthquake could be used to take advantage of it's ability mold breaker. Secondly, you could replace psychic with psycho cut on Gallade as he's more an Attacker Pokemon.

Other than that, I think it's a sturdy team. All the best with it! :)

[LinuxUser]

There is two problems with what you suggest. first i need a fly pokemon or a flying type move on my team and black doesn't have a move tutor. i really wish black/white had a good move tutor like hg/ss

[Lord Of Storms]

yeah black does have a move tutor i believe, its in mistraliton city, where the move familys house it, im sure you can find it

[LinuxUser]

i don't think black 1 does. i have been there and i go there all the time to relearn moves

[Lord Of Storms]

oh i guess your right it is the move "relearner" but not tutor, yeah your right that is quite strange

[TheManyFacesOfGlalie]

They normally just give move tutors to the remakes, like Diamond and Pearl didn't have move tutors, only Platinum did. Also, you don't actually need a Flying-type move; Fire Punch would cover Grass and Bug, and Psycho Blade would cover Fighting, which means you cover everything a Flying-type covers anyways.

[LinuxUser]

no I mean I need a fly pokemon. I get really annoyed having to go back to the pokecenter every time I need to fly.

[Lord Of Storms]

yeah i know what you mean, i just dont like wasting a move spot for fly....

[TheManyFacesOfGlalie]

no I mean I need a fly pokemon. I get really annoyed having to go back to the pokecenter every time I need to fly.

To be competitive I think you really need to just deal with that tbh, albeit it really is annoying. I normally don't leave Nimbasa since I do like everything there but when I do need to fly it's hard to hunt for a Fly Pokemon. It's also inconvenient on a team though, cuz they can just switch into a Pokemon that resists you while you're in the sky.

[LinuxUser]

well If I need better moves i can switch later because right now I am going the elite four over and over

[LinuxUser]

update! what do you think of it now?

[samueln]

i think the team is cool i would probably have fire blast [ i u want a mixape] or flareblitz for fun though they have side effects its better for u to take the risk

[LinuxUser]

I think my team is good for now. I'm not a compitetive battler

[Lord Of Storms]

yeah your team is much better, but by the way my chimchar knows assist through breeding, i like it just because its a fun move and more reliable than metronome, lol

[Kamina]

my suggestions ~

Infernape
bulk up -----> mach punch
flamethrower -----> overheat (maybe)
Protect-------> U turn

From the set you have at first i assumed you are running a mix infernape set.
Infernape is not a tanky pokemon in the first place so it would not be wise to teach it bulk up (it will have a hard time setting up) and only one of your moves would have been boosted by it. If flamethrower is going to be your only special attack you might as well make it overheat so that you can do more damage but it does limit its sweeping potential. and like bulk up protect is mostly for pokemon who are bulky and can heal up damage via leftovers. With u turn instead you can keep momentum in your team.

Galade
Psychic ----> Psycho cut
Psycho cut is a physical move and galade is a physical attacker so it will do more damage.

Flygon
Fly---> fire punch
Greatflechling already gave a good reason as to why it should be done

Haxorous
nightslash -----> EQ
EQ has a higher base power and with mold breaker even pokemon with levitate cannot avoid it

Metagross
Hyperbeam ------> stelth rocks or any other move
meteor mash/eq/psychic already hits every pokemon with neutral damage so there is no need to keep hyperbeam since it only does a little more damage than a STAB Psychic.

Rotom
Thunder----> Voltswitch
if you are not running rain it is very risky to run thunder because of how inaccurate it is. with volt switch you will increase the momentum of your team. but if you expect to be facing a lot of rain teams i guess you could keep it

[LinuxUser]

with gallade I was going to switch those moves(just need black2) for metagross the same goes and for rotom I was going to switch thunder for hex. with flygon I won't live I need a fly pokemon. I think infernape is fine though