What is a good in-game team for HeartGold and SoulSilver?

Question

Share your best in-game teams for Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver on this thread! Teams should be aimed toward making casual runs of the game efficient, enjoyable and hassle-free.

Please follow these guidelines regarding detail in your post:

1. For every Pokemon on the team, give recommended moves for use throughout the playthrough. Ideally, comment on more than just the four moves you'll finish with post-game.
2. You can include items, abilities, etc. but they are not necessary.
3. Provide explanation and detail. Justify your Pokemon and moveset choices; possible discussion points include ease-of-use, team synergy, and coverage for key battles.

Please also follow these guidelines regarding the contents of your team:

1. If you recommend a Pokemon that is restricted by version exclusivity, trade evolution or events, please mention alternatives for people who cannot get the Pokemon. Do the same if you recommend moves, etc. that are only available by breeding or grinding.
2. There are some unspoken rules of in-game teams, such as to keep the starter on the team and avoid legendaries. It's kind to give other options if you break these rules.
3. Do not recommend Pokemon, moves, etc. that are only available through glitches and cheats. Please also avoid Pokemon etc. that are only available through trade or transfer.
4. Original content only. You may use ideas you found elsewhere, but do not steal written content.

Submit your team as an answer, not a comment. To keep things tidy, we will remove any teams posted as comments in this thread. If you want to update your post, use the 'edit' button.

Please be sparing with images and formatting.

Answer 1

My team for battling Red:

Typhlosion:
Eruption
Thunder punch
Dig
Lava plume

Very consistent and reliable always. Eruption for a powerful fire type move that deals a lot of damage, thunder punch for water types, dig for coverage and lava plume when the users hp gets under half.

Ampharos:
Thunderbolt
Magnet rise
Signal beam
Light screen

An amazing attacker who was consistent and powerful. Along with steelix, it was my other ace. Thunderbolt is the strongest electric type move in my opinion, magnet rise to get rid of the ground weakness, signal beam for psychic coverage and light screen to increase special defense.

Heracross:
Close combat
Megahorn
Night slash
Rock slide

Consistent and reliable. It made my life a lot easier when fighting Whitney and suprisenly against Morty, I completely swept him with aerial ace like it was nothing. Close combat for a powerful fighting type move, megahorn for the strongest bug type move, night slash also for psychic types and rock slide for flying type coverage.

Crobat:
Fly
Cross poison
Steel wing
U-turn

Probably my weakest member of my team but was very reliable when I needed it. Fly to get around, cross poison for a strong poison type move, steel wing for move coverage and u-turn for psychic types and for a free switch out.

Gyarados:
Aqua tail
Ice fang
Dragon dance
Dragon breath

As soon as you get it at the lake of rage, it pays dividence right away. Consistent and always reliable. Aqua tail is a reliable water move that Gyarados benefits from with it's high attack, ice fang for dragon coverage, dragon dance to boost stats and dragon breath for more dragon coverage.

Steelix:
Earthquake
Iron tail
Stone edge
Aqua tail

I can’t praise steelix enough in heartgold. This thing won me so many battles and came in clutch battle after battle and countered everything. While onix isn’t very good, steelix makes up for it once you can get it if you can make the trade. I remember fighting lance and because his dragonite had an electric type move, I couldn’t use gyarados so I used steelix. It hit 2 critical hits on both of them and easily knocked them out. When I battled Sabrina I didn’t have megahorn so steelix was my next best option and it crushed Sabrina handily. Easily one of my favorites and one of my most surprising aces I’ve ever had. Earthquake is a powerful ground type move, iron tail for a strong steel type move and stone edge and aqua tail for coverage.

If you can't trade to get Steelix (if you can, I'd recomand Steelix over Rhydon)

Rhydon
Earthquake
Stone Edge
Megahorn
Surf

Even though you can't fully evolve Rhydon into Rhyperior, Rhydon still does very good. Earthquake for a strong ground move, stone edge for a powerful rock type move, megahorn for psychic types and surf to get around on and coverage.

Comments

You can evolve rhydon by giving it a protector (in mt.ember i'm pretty sure) and trading it.

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This is under the assumption the person can't trade. If they can, I'd suggest using Steelix instead because of how dominant it is instead of Rhyperior. If the person can't trade, I'd just suggest using Rhydon instead since it's basically Rhyperior but with a few less stats.

Answer 2

This was the team that did quite a good job at carrying me.

Typhlosion= Flamethrower, fire blast, giga impact. the hardest hitter out of the starters and my personal fav. Does well against Bugsy, Jasmine, Pryce, and Koga's bug\poison types.

Ampharos= Thunder, discharge, iron tail, hyper beam. all around very good electric type with a pretty vast moove pool. Sweeps Falkner, does quite well with Clair's water\dragon types, and destroys Lance's Gyrados.

Espeon= psybeam, psychic, quick attack, swift. good option if you want to friendship evolve an Eevee. only issue is that it takes a while for it to learn a psychic move. Once it learns bite, it will hurt Morty and his entire team, goes well against Chuck's brute force, and does a number on Koga's whole team.

Yanmega= u-turn, ancient power, solar beam, air slash. Yanma can be obtained very early and when it evolves it is a strong Pokémon .

Poliwrath= blizzard, surf, focus blast, waterfall. Poliwrath as a good surfer and has some petty good ice moves for Lance's elite Dragons, and hits Karen with her dark types.

Ambipom= strength, earthquake , iron tail, brick break. Vast move set . Could be useful depending on the moves you give it, with earthquake it could destroy red's Pikachu and if you give it a fighting move it could do damage to his Snorlax, also with grass knot.

Answer 3

This is the team I used in SoulSilver and it worked pretty well for me. I don't think any of these are version exclusives, so it should work for HeartGold as well.

Feraligatr @Muscle Band
Ability: Torrent
Moves:
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Ice Fang/Ice Punch
- Earthquake
Location: Elm's Lab (starter)

Your starter. Waterfall is a great physical STAB, and the only one Feraligatr can get pre-league. Bite destroys Morty's team, and Crunch is even stronger, plus the defense drop is nice. Earthquake covers electric and is just a great move all around. Ice Fang/Punch is coverage for grass and wrecks Lance's Dragonites, but you can't get Ice Punch until the battle frontier, so Ice Fang is probably the better option for a playthrough. The Muscle Band helps its strong physical attacks.

Ampharos @Magnet
Ability: Static
Moves:
- Thundershock -> Discharge/Thunderbolt
- Signal Beam
- Power Gem
- Thunder Wave
Location: Route 32

A really strong Pokemon that you can get before the 1st gym, plus one of your only options for electric-types in the game. Mareep is really nice to have against Falkner, plus static has saved me more times than I can count. Thunderbolt is for STAB/Discharge if you don't want to use the TM. Signal Beam is good against bulky grass types, especially Will's Exeggutor. Power Gem is just for additional coverage, and Thunder Wave is good for guaranteeing paralysis without relying on Static. The Magnet boosts its already strong electric attacks.

Nidoking @Poison Barb
Ability: Poison Point
- Earth Power
- Sludge Bomb/Poison Jab
- Megahorn
- Surf
Location: Route 35

A great Pokemon that you can get pretty early in the game. Its a mixed attacker with a good speed stat. Earth Power is STAB. Megahorn is coverage against Psychic. Sludge Bomb is STAB, and although Poison Jab is physical and through level up, I don't feel like being stuck with Nidorino until level 43 to get it. Surf is coverage against ground and then it doesn't have to be taking up a move slot on Feraligatr. Have your mom save money at the start of the game, and she'll buy you a moon stone to evolve your Nidorino around the time you get to Olivine City.

Machamp @Black Belt
Ability: Guts
Moves:
- Revenge/Low Kick
- Cross Chop
- Rock Climb
- Rock Slide/Stone Edge
Location: Goldenrod Department Store (trade)

For those who constantly complain about Whitney and her Miltank, this is my solution! A great physical attacker that you can get right before fighting the pink demon herself, Machamp should be one of the top contenders for a spot on any Johto playthrough team. Cross Chop is strong STAB coverage. Revenge and Low Kick can be very useful in some scenarios. Revenge is great against Pokemon that outspeed Machamp (which is most Pokemon) and Low Kick is great for big and bulky Pokemon such as Jasmine's Steelix and Red's Snorlax. Rock Climb is for traversing late-game caves and Rock Slide/Stone Edge is coverage for flying and bug. Even if you can't get someone to trade with to evolve Machoke, it's still a very strong Pokemon. I didn't evolve my Machoke until after beating Red, and it still pulled its weight and more.

Togekiss @King's Rock
Ability: Serene Grace
Moves:
- Fly
- Air Slash
- Aura Sphere
- Extrasensory/Psychic
Location: Egg from Elm's Assistant after beating Falkner

The infamous Serene Grace paraflinch Togekiss in all its glory. You had better pray to Arceus that the gift Togepi doesn't hatch with Hustle. Fly is for traversing Johto, Aura Sphere is coverage for Rock, and Air Slash and Extrasensory are used for flinching the living daylights out of your opponents. The Togepi should hatch with Extrasensory. Unfortunately, you can't get a shiny stone until post-league as a first place prize from the bug-catching contest, and Togetic is a very lackluster Pokemon to be stuck with, so I used a Noctowl with Air Slash/Extrasensory/Hypnosis/Fly until you beat the league. If you put the Togepi in the day-care as soon as you can, it should stay at a good level with the rest of your team until you get the stone to evolve it.

Houndoom @Expert Belt
Ability: Flash Fire
Moves:
- Dark Pulse/Crunch
- Flamethrower
- Sunny Day
- Solar Beam
Location: Safari Zone

A strong and fast glass cannon to support the rest of your team. Dark Pulse and Crunch are STAB, and although Houndoom has a slightly stronger special attack, I prefer to use Crunch for things like Alakazam or Gengar, with low physical defense. Flamethrower is STAB. Sunny Day is great for boosting Flamethrower and getting the 1-turn Solar Beam to cover Rock, Ground, and Water. Sunny Day is also crucial for getting rid of the hail during the fight with Red. You can't get Houndoom until post-league, so I used Furret until then.

Furret @No Item
Ability: Run Away
Moves:
- Cut
- Whirlpool
- Rock Smash
- Strength
Location: Route 1

HM slave. Use until you can get Houndoom.

I won't pretend that this team is perfect, or that there isn't any better options, but it got me through the game with pretty much no trouble at all. I think Bugsy was the hardest battle. As a tip, when you get to the tutor in Ilex Forest who teaches you Headbutt, give it to any Pokemon that still have moves like tackle or pound. It's a pretty strong move for early game, plus it can flinch.

Comments

I recently used a very, very similar team in HG/SS that I was planning to post here... wow. I might still put it here. In case I don't, these are the most relevant differences:
* Headbutt via Ilex Forest is great for Croconaw and Nidorino early-game. It's stronger than their other moves for a reasonable period of time and creates paraflinch.
* TMs from Goldenrod City. I used Thunder on Ampharos and Blizzard on Nidoking for the whole playthrough and found both very useful. Also, Choice Specs for Ampharos.
* I think No Guard Machamp (from Mt. Mortar) is better in the long run. Whitney is very doable with paraflinch and Double Kick, and the perfect accuracy on Cross Chop and Submission saves a lot of hassle.
* I had two HM users instead of Houndoom and Togekiss. I think Nidoking matches strongly enough against the Kanto leaders that you don't need another Pokemon.

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@Fizz yeah I stacked headbutt on everything that I could. Also I would have preferred Machamp to have No Guard so I could use DynamicPunch, but I was using the trade Machop because the boosted exp is extremely nice to have for a playthrough, especially in Johto with the weird level curve. I also didn't want to get involved much with Mt. Mortar because I always get super lost there... I don't think I even went inside until I beat the league

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I dont seem the point of using Noctowl until you are able to get Togekiss, you might as well just use Fearow as its high atk stat and insane speed stat makes it viable enough and you can get a gift spearow at the exit of Goldenrod City from a guard at lv. 20. As for Houndoom, I would just use Magmar as its special atk stat is really solid with its atk stat still being decent enough to use psychical moves and its incredibly fast as well, you get it pior to facing the 4th gym were it will have a dark type move right away when you catch it. Hopefully, this helps :)

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Heracross is a better alternative for players who don't trade, mostly because of its high physical attack. Togekiss is worse than Tauros because it comes at a low level and has low attack stats. Houndoom arrives late and at a low level. Take Houndoom off the team so you can keep your HM slave, and the other Pokemon can gain more experience.

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P.S You can evolve Magmar in the Kanto-Post game after you get Rock Climb once you give it the Magnemizer then trade it to get Magmortar, although its a tedious process its worth it as Magmortar is a great special attacker with a wide movepool access to Thunderbolt, Psychic and Focus Blast which makes it useful even against Red.

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@Tops123 yeah I realized a bit into the playthrough that noctowl kinda sucks... I really only used it because I liked it and suggested it as a pre-togekiss mon because it has a similar moveset and usage, though much weaker. Using Magmortar instead of Houndoom is also a good idea, Houndoom was a pokemon I decided on mid-playthough purely because it had the best STAB typing to support the rest of my team that I could think of.

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its a good team, just replace Togekiss with Fearow and Houndoom with Magmar/Magmortar

Answer 4

Typhlosion, Ampharos, Crobat, Lapras, Machamp, Alakazam
In most pkmn games there isn't a correct answer to "the best in game team" however some of the earlier games are limited on the Pokemon available so realistically there is a best team available. My team will consider the best Pokemon for the toughest gyms (Whitney, Morty, and Claire) and the best Pokemon for the elite 4 and champion. If you think another Pokemon should be considered amongst the Pokemon I list, your opinion is wrong. Yes it is that simple. I will provide alteratives if you can't trade or don't want to use the trade glitch.

The clear and obvious choice for starter is Typhlosion. Meganium sucks, and Lapras and Gyarados are clear cut better than Feraligatr.
1. Typhlosion (no debate)

Pidgeotto and scyther are the two toughest Pokemon you will meet at the beginning of the game. You could temporarily do the in game trade for onix too, but Ampharos is nearly essential for any team. It is available early, super easy to level up, hits hard, and has a great move pool. The only other electric option is jolteon, who doesn't hit as hard, gets worse moves, and is a pain to evolve. Yes its faster, but that isn't relevant in the big battles that Ampharos is useful.
2. Ampharos

Crobat over Fearow is probably the most controversial pick here. Fearow levels up faster because its an in game trade, you can get it earlier, and it learns the best one turn flying typ move. In every other way Crobat is better. Crobat has the same base attack, but has wayyyyy more speed and surprisingly great defenses. Much less frail than Fearow. Fly hits as hard as drill peck, since it is in game nobody should care about two turn moves. Poison typing is useful defensively and doesn't hinder it too much with its speed. You need a flyer.
3. Crobat

My god Lance is a complete cakewalk if you take the time to get lapras. Adjust your game to the right time and you can have ice beam ice type lapras by the fifth gym. Lance is crippled by ice types and the strongest ice type user is available. What are you doing if you dont take lapras. Enjoy one shotting all three dragonites.
4. Lapras.

Machamp vs. Heracross is a debate. These are the two best fighting types, if you can't trade take heracross. However, Machamp is pretty clear cut better. You need to understand that the bug type absolutely sucks in this game. It adds a ton of weaknesses and it offers little offensively. Fast psychic types knock heracross out before he can get megahorn off. (the only good bug move) Since it is ingame we won't consider heracross's hidden ability, but we will consider machamps regular ability. Dynamic Punch/cross chop with no guard is a hack. No guard allows all of Machamps attacks to hit, meanwhile dynamic punch and cross guard both have 100 power. Machamp has better defenses than heracross, a higher attack, access to the elemental punches, a better move pool, evolves faster (in game trade), and has better typing.
5. Machamp.

What if I told you that you could have a 135 sp attack, 120 speed Alakazam before the third gym? Well you can! Thanks to the trade glitch Alakazam will blitz Whitney, Outspeed and be super effective against Morty's ghost poison types, and destroy the following fighting gym. Alakazam is OP and essential to all early generation teams. If you aren't trading for whatever reason and want to fill this last slot I would consider adding gyarados. Gyarados is attainable by the third gym. The brute strength and great typing early will be very useful. Don't be afraid to have a second water type as there are three water HMs.
6. Alakazam

There is the correct best ingame team! If you think one of the following Pokemon belong over one of the Pokemon I listed, you should replay the game or check the stats. Pidgeot, Nidoking, ninetales/arcanine, any grass type, slowbro/slowking, electabuzz or magmar, Vaporeon, Flareon, Noctowl, LANTURN SUCKS, xatu, sudowoodo, Espeon, Pinsir, Mamoswine, or Jynx. All of these Pokemon can be replaced by more practical or better in game Pokemon. These are not bad Pokemon, but there are better options. This list includes Pokemon other people tell you to use that you shouldn't in this game. For example, Arcanine is the best fire type in the game, but by the time it is available we don't need fire type Pokemon for any of the tough battles left.
Movesets aren’t that important just use common sense.
Crobat tears apart Morty and the Psychic type gym. Having a separate flyer is annoying. Gyarados is acceptable to use, but Lapras is better in every way. Ice type is so important to have for lance. Gyarados two shots the dragonits, Lapras one shots. Lapras has a better in game moveset too.

Comments

I can tell that you have not read my original comment in a while, you are arguing with yourself at this point. I said in my original comment that if you don’t want to trade you should swap heracross for machamp and gyarados for alakazam. Your last two comments have gone after me for using trade Pokémon and for using heracross over machamp , although you did not address heracross in your last comment so I’ll assume I got you there too. I have a whole paragraph in my original comment about why gyarados is a great option you should check it out. I know that you would prefer krabby, farfetched, and tauros (the stupidest of the three) but go back and check it out.

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What's wrong with using a team that isn't a speedrun team and looks weird?
Do you really think the repel trick is just as "abusive" as the GTS oversight or RNG manipulation? Why do you think that?
I searched "best speedrun teams for hgss" on Youtube (and on Tor browser, to make sure my browsing history wasn't affecting the search). These were the first 4 results that weren't irrelevant Mysticumbreon videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=943JU83aguU (glitchless manipped, used Cyndaquil and Raikou, posted 1 year ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBghEgNW4eg (glitchless manipped, used Cyndaquil and Raikou, posted 1 year ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siJpSWLpbOk (glitchless manipped, used Cyndaquil and Raikou, posted 1 year ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5pi5ikuIVI (glitched manipless, used Cyndaquil and Magikarp, posted 1 year ago)

I also searched "best speedrun teams heartgold soulsilver" on Google (and Tor), and these were the first 4 relevant results.

https://www.speedrun.com/pkmnhgss (glitchless manipped, world record set 4 months ago, and glitched manipped world record set 3 years ago, both used Cyndaquil and Raikou)
https://www.speedrun.com/pkmnhgss/guides (guides for learning how to do the exact runs in the previous link, updated 2 years ago)
https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/full_speedrun_of_pokemon_heartgoldsoulsilver_to_beat_red_.html (used Totodile, last posted in 2010)
https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/k8ggqz/npcs_react_to_speedruns_pok%C3%A9mon/ (glitched manipped, used Raikou, posted 4 years ago)

Of these 8 search results, the only one that mentions Feraligatr at all is the most outdated one.
First time I brought up calculations, you said these things in response.
"Why you are using +3 attack and +3 speed when doing your calculations I have no idea. How can you assume that is in place?"
As I already explained, these are dragon dance boosts. Lapras can't learn dragon dance by level up and I didn't want to use X items.
"Yes if you use a gyarados that is eight levels higher than the champions best poke on you will easily beat him. Using a lapras that is eight levels higher would be better though! Why not give lapras or dragonite that little boost you are giving your gyarados when you do these calculations?"
A wild Lapras is caught at level 20, and giving it 89,383 experience raises it to level 43. A wild Magikarp is caught at level 50, and giving it 89,383 experience raises it to level 58. Why is it unfair to give both of them the same amount of experience when doing these calculations?
"You did assume that gyarados uses outrage and you assumed that aerodactyl will use rock slide. That is not a guarentee."
First, I never assumed any Gyarados will use outrage. Second, HGSS Lance's AI is pretty smart, and as far as I know, he will always use either a status move or whichever move is expected to do the most damage. Maybe you can get his Dragonite to use safeguard, but I do believe his Aerodactyl is guaranteed to use rock slide. Third,

Lvl 46 0 SpA 30 IVs Gyarados Dragon Pulse vs. Lvl 51 84 HP 0 IVs / 84- SpD 0 IVs Gyarados on a critical hit: 45-54 (26.7 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO

This is literally the worst case scenario. The player's Gyarados has 0 IVs and a special defense lowering nature. Lance's Gyarados uses dragon pulse every turn, and it lands a critical hit every turn. And the player's Gyarados still lives long enough to use 3 dragon dances.
None of Lance's Pokemon know dragon rage.
Raising underleveled Pokemon isn't "kind of the whole game". The game also involves exploring all the places, winning boss battles, competing in the Battle Frontier, and listening to the soundtrack. Avoiding underleveled Pokemon makes all of these other things easier. And if you like underleveled Pokemon so much, why do you use Lapras instead of another underleveled Pokemon like Route 32 Wooper?
Your original answer also said "Gyarados is acceptable to use, but Lapras is better in every way." This is what I was arguing against, not myself.
I might continue arguing about Heracross after you explain why the GTS oversight is less "abusive" than the repel trick.

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A level 51 Gyarados is much better than a level 51 Lapras against Lance because it can set up 4 Dragon Dances against Lance's first pokemon and then has very high odds to outspeed and OHKO the entire rest of his team without any need to use healing items. Lapras instead gets out-sped by most of Lance's team and so has to use Healing Items in order to avoid fainting. It's bulky, but it still takes a good chunk of its health from Thunder for instance. It's very good against Lance, but it can't solo his whole team without items like Gyarados can.
It also takes WAY less time and effort to get a level 51 Gyarados than a level 51 Lapras, so Gyarados is also the more time-efficient choice. To get a level 51 Gyarados you just have to catch a level 50 Magikarp and evolve it whereas to get a level 51 Lapras you have to level it up from level 20.

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"Unfortunate" doesn't begin to describe this team, this game rewards Lapras and nothing else, I am beyond convinced at this point. After getting completely tooled with my opponent responding months later and refusing to explain why he picked Tauros, arguing this way somehow felt even worse than I had thought possible. My preparation was superior, my play was superior, and he used Krabby, so I don't see a reason to continue engaging in an activity where what is within my control is overwhelmingly outweighed by what is not.

I am absolutely not done with my mockery, and you'll be getting a dupe account. This community is infected to its roots with a degenerative disease that grows stronger over time but stops short of criticising sumwun. In-game teams used to have a casual spirit at their heart, this has been transplanted and replaced with a Level 50 Gyarados that feeds on vitriol and mockery from people that just want to play the game with their Lapras and Typhlosion. The environment you fostered has trapped us all like this in a vicious cycle, and escaping it would require me to use a Tauros and a Krabby. None of the countless speedrun teams you put us through here will ever amount to one single shining glimmer of fun. I would make this the end, but my seething rage is still ongoing, and I would never let sumwun be better at teambuilding than me, so I'll suffer through a few more arguments for my own sake.

One last thing before I leave you all without movesets for my chosen party members, before you do everything in your power to hide my answers and comments, box them up and shove them to some cobwebbed corner of your godforsaken website, and hope they disappear forever so you can get around to "not levelling up team members". From this moment on, everything you say matters to me. The foulest Pokemon you use with intent to be efficient will calmly enter the Hall of Fame before my Ampharos, and the moves you choose will bring all the pain of a Fire Blast Quilava towards Whitney's Miltank. You are a skilled teambuilder, while I carry on, brimming with rage distilled from playing suboptimally.

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I swear to God y'all's tone when you guys say less than serious things sounds like you suddenly became a Ph.D or something lmao.

Answer 5

Meganium @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Overgrow
- Earthquake
- Giga Drain
- Petal Dance
- Light Screen

Magcargo @ Quick Claw
Ability: Flame Body
- Ancient Power
- Amnesia
- Flamethrower
- Lava Plume

Magnezone @ Metal Coat
Ability: Sturdy
- Thunder Wave
- Discharge
- Flash Cannon
- Screech

Miltank (F) @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Scrappy
- Body Slam
- Milk Drink
- Zen Headbutt
- Strength

Slowbro @ Mystic Water
Ability: Own Tempo
- Surf
- Psychic
- Dig
- Whirlpool

Rhyperior @ Soft Sand
Ability: Lightning Rod
- Earthquake
- Avalanche
- Dragon Pulse
- Rock Wrecker

(If magnezone is unavailable to you I would recommend ampharos)
(If you cannot trade to get rhypherior Rhydon still performs well)

Answer 6

Here is my team and I can make sure that this is the most competitive team in-game Heartgold and SoulSilver:

Feraligatr @ Mystic Water
Ability: Torrent
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang
- Crunch
- Earthquake
Starting with the starter, Feraligatr has a good learn-set, better than two else starter in the game. With a solid
base stats and nice type match-up with the Johto gym leaders, my jolly Feraligatr is doing good job now.

Arcanine @ Charcoal
Ability: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Extreme Speed
- Flare Blitz
- Reversal
Next is Fire-type, Arcanine, which is a great one with a high base stats and cool nature, is one of the best fire-type Pokemon choice. Despite learning Flare Blitz in level 48 as a Growlithe, it still do a good job, especially during post-game. Try to get Extreme Speed with Heart Scale, it's really good, and Reversal for a suicide bomb.

Jolteon @ Magnet
Ability: Volt Absorb
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Light Screen
The third one, Jolteon. A Fast and Furious eevolution one. I think it's better than Ampharos as it can control the fight more flexibly and do a solid damage.

Heracross @ Muscle Band
Ability: Guts
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Megahorn
- Rock Slide
- Protect
Doing a great damage to opponent, Heracross is almost the best Bug and Fighting type Pokemon to choose.
Due to the type, I put on it Protect for some case.

Crobat @ Poison Barb
Ability: Inner Focus
Adamant Nature
- Poison Fang
- Fly
- Roost
- U-turn
Flashy bat can destroy fighting type Pokemon easily, and it's also the best Flyer before post-game.

Nidoking @ Soft Sand
Ability: Poison Point
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Sludge Bomb
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
Good base stat, matchup type and large learn-set.

After beating the Elite Four, I suggest changing Crobat and Nidoking for these ones, way better and more powerful.
Dragonite @ Expert Belt
Ability: Inner Focus
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Extreme Speed
- Dragon Dance
- Fly

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rock Polish
Undoubtedly, Two Pseudo-legendary Pokemon are greatly strong and destructive. You can get both Dragonite and Tyranitar before Elite Four, as Dratini and Larvitar. Training it during the game, then get the achievement.