What Pokémon to complement my Alpha Sapphire team?

Question

I’m playing alpha sapphire for the first time after not playing poke for years, my current plan for the team is:

Blaziken
Gardevoir/gallade
Sharpedo
Crobat
Flygon

What can I pick to complement it perfectly? And should I replace someone?

Comments

I think you should get a Marill so you can teach all your useless HMs to it. Also is there a good reason to use Sharpedo when Gyarados has the same type and better stats?

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Better special attack.

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Why would you care about special attack when you can just spam crunch all the time? Gyarados also gets intimidate.

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metagross, also train its speed stat

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Metagross is post-game, so they can't use it.

Answer 1

Since you said "current plan", I'm going to assume that you only started the game or have not started at all. So most importantly, you'll need an hm salve. Linoone is a good choice for this and it can be caught really early. Give it the hms Rock Smash, Cut, Strength and Surf.

Now for your team, I suggest removing Gardevoir and Gallade. In game, you do not need to use psychic types, and as for fairy, the only advantage it would give would be against Drake but you have a Pokemon who can learn an ice type move for more reliable damage against him. It also gives an advantage against Sydney but Blaziken already has the fighting type. Kirlia can be a good Pokemon against Brawly, but later it is pointless to keep. It offers no advantages against other gyms unless you count Winona's Altaria. Golbat/Crobat also provides the coverage you need against Brawly as well as being 4x resistant to fighting types.

Next, for Sharpedo, I suggest you consider Gyarados as an alternative option. Intimidate is a very handy ability especially against Drake's dragons. You can use it as a water hm slave for Dive and Waterfall, the second which is a standard move for it anyway. Give it the moveset Waterfall, Ice Fang, Dragon Dance and Dive. It's role is to simply provide coverage with its damaging moves plus you won't get earthquake until later and you have Flygon for that. While Sharpedo is also a good choice, Carvanha can only be caught at route 118 and 119 while Magikarp can be caught really early. Even in dewford town you can already catch it.

If you chose to remove Gardevoir/Gallade, you will have five Pokemon at this point, counting the hm slave. You can use Kyogre as your last Pokemon but if you chose not to, I would recommend Magneton/Magnezone. It will provide you with additional help against Wallace and Winona. Its steel typing also allows you to be at an advantage against the mossdeep gym, who have rock type. Since neither of the mossdeep gym leaders' Pokemon have ground type, Magneton/Magnezone will allow you to easily defeat them as it resists all of their damaging moves.

Comments

Why do you need heart scales? Why can't you just learn crunch at level 41 and keep it? When is crunch not one of Gyarados's 4 best moves?

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Because you need Dive to traverse the map. I mean Gyarados' moveset until you reach the pokemon league would be Dive, Waterfall, Ice Fang and Dragon Dance. Once you reach the league, forget Dive and relearn Crunch, which is why you need heart scales since iirc that is the only way to remember moves.

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Why do you need waterfall and dive at the same time? When you get waterfall, wouldn't it be better to forget dive than forget crunch?

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I just left the two for good measure until you reach the pokemon league. I'm not particularly sure if you need Dive to reach the league, but I do know you need it to do stuff like the seafloor cavern and reaching the final city so I just suggested it that he keeps it until the league, where you won't need both

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You stop needing dive before you get waterfall, so I don't think Gyarados ever needs 2 physical water attacks at the same time.

Answer 2

Water-Types are far across Hoenn, so a Grass-Type or Electric-Type would work best for your last member. You shouldn't have an issue against Ground/Rock, so Electric would do you best.

Electrike is easy to catch from Route 110 and does you well, but Magnemite is an alternative that requires the 5th badge to resonably get. Both will help you against Water-Types.

(If you chose to use Manectric, it has a Mega Stone at the Cycling Road)

Answer 3

I'd replace Sharpedo with Gyarados, for starters. Crobat is a very weak Pokémon and definitely needs to be replaced. Swellow with Aerial Ace worked wonders for me in Alpha Sapphire, but Altaria has better moves for type coverage if you want to go with that.

This should be obvious, but once you get the legendary Pokémon, you should put it on your team. And like sumwun said, an HM slave would be useful, as it would allow you access to the HMs without replacing vital moves on your party Pokémon.

And for the final member of your party, I'd recommend the electric type Magnezone. But the only place to evolve Magneton is New Mauvile, which you can't access until you capture the legendary Pokemon. For now, a Manectric will round out your team quite nicely. Teach it Discharge, and it'll knock out the opposition for you like it did for me.

You should give your team members held items as well. If you're not sure which Pokémon you're going up against, I'd recommend giving a few different party members Mega Stones in case you want to Mega Evolve one, but don't know which one. Leftovers and choice items are popular choices for held items, but I find that Red Cards prove a little more useful.

Comments

First, New Mauville is accessible as soon as you can use surf.
How is Crobat that much weaker than Swellow? Crobat's base physical attack is 5 points higher than Swellow's. Also how can he/she/it add both an HM slave and an electric Pokemon if the team already has 5 Pokemon?

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These are just suggestions. In-game teams are a matter of preference, and I mostly went off of experience. For me, Crobat was never as useful as Swellow (and I've used both in-game), and I sometimes switched party members out from the PC and back in as needed. That way, one can have an HM slave and still have six party Pokémon for battling gyms.

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Can you explain why Swellow is more useful?

Answer 4

Go with Gardevoir over Gallade because she can learn Moonblast. Gallade is good but Blaziken can already learn good fighting moves

Second, you’re gonna need another water Pokémon unless you want to teach Sharpedo Waterfall, Dive and Surf. Latias can learn surf but Gardevoir is already a dragon killer and psychic type. I’d maybe go with Ludicolo for surf and grass coverage