Barraskewda (F) @ Mystic Water
Ability: Swift Swim
Nature: Modest
- Liquidation
- Drill Run
- Crunch
- Aqua Jet
I caught an Arrokuda at Hulbury and I considered adding it to my team over Drednaw, but decided not to. Later on when I expanded the team, I decided to add it. Arrokuda is one of the most fish-like Pokémon I have ever seen, it looks more like an actual fish than a Pokémon, so I wanted to give it a try just because of that. It quickly evolved into Barraskewda, which is also very fishy. Barraskewda became my second Water-type on the team.
Liquidation was the main move, the best Physical Water-move that Barraskewda gets. Drill Run for coverage, mainly against Electric-types which it is weak against. Crunch for extra coverage and Aqua Jet for priority or if I needed a weaker Water-type move. It learns several other interesting moves like Throat Chop, Brick Break/Close Combat, Ice Fang, Poison Fang and Psychic Fangs, but the moves I went with worked.
I gave it the Mystic Water in order to boost the power of its Water-moves. Swift Swim is the regular Ability for all Barraskewda, it made it blisteringly fast during rain, but I'm not sure if it made that much of a difference since it is quite fast already. Maybe against opposing Swift Swimmers like Seismitoad. Unfortunately, my Barraskewda had a Modest Nature which lowered its great Attack and raised its useless Sp.att.
Barraskewda was quite good. It was fast and rather strong but very frail. If an opponent survived and had a chance to strike back, there was a big chance that Barraskewda would faint. I also feel that the lowered Attack from its Modest Nature hurt it quite a bit since it didn't always hit quite as hard as I would have wanted it to. It was still quite good but not the best, and I picked Drednaw over it for the Champion team because Drednaw felt like the more reliable choice. But Barraskewda was an obvious choice for the Reserve team after I had beaten the game.
Grimmsnarl (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Frisk
Nature: Naive
- False Surrender
- Play Rough
- Drain Punch
- Fire Punch
My second but not last Fairy-type. I was really interested in giving Impidimp a try, I had seen it during the pre-release and I thought Dark/Fairy was a cool type combination. I expected it to evolve into something but had no idea what. I caught a Morgrem in the Glimwood Tangle as well, but I decided to go all the way from scratch and train an Impidimp instead. It quickly evolved into Morgrem and then after a while into Grimmsnarl. This was not how I expected the final evolution to look like, it became unexpectedly brutal but in a good way.
False Surrender was the main Dark-type move and a cool signature move. A move that never misses is also always good to have, but I never really had any direct use for that side effect. I went with Play Rough as the Fairy-type move. Which is a bit unusual, I usually go for accuracy over power and I have wanted Fairy to get another Physical move ever since Gen 6. Grimmsnarl got just that in the form of Spirit Break which is also its signature move. But I still went with Play Rough. Why? I don't really have an answer. Drain Punch in the third slot for coverage and to recover HP. I wasn't sure what to use as the last move though. Grimmsnarl learns all the elemental punches and I didn't know which one would give the best coverage. I went with Fire Punch in the end because I didn't have a second Fire-type, but I thought I could use another Pokémon with a Fire-type move at least. There are a lot of other options too such as Fake Out, Shadow Claw, Stomping Tantrum, Leech Life, Power Whip, and several other Fighting-type moves. I'm not sure which moves give it the best coverage but the four moves I went with worked pretty well.
I changed the item for Grimmsnarl a few times during my playthrough but let it hold the Assault Vest towards the end. It had an all-out offensive set and I thought it could benefit from the Sp.def buff. My Grimmsnarl got Frisk as its Ability, I guess Prankster might have been the better alternative to use with a Bulk Up set or something, but this worked too. It had a Naive Nature which now that I look at it is a bit ironic since it raises its low Speed but lowers its Sp.def, which means that the Assault Vest might not have helped as much in the end.
Overall, I thought Grimmsnarl was quite good. A Physical Dark- and Fairy-type was pretty useful throughout the game. It was quite strong and fairly bulky too. Not that fast but not exactly super slow either. Pretty solid on the whole. That said, I decided to go with Hatterene over it on the Champion team since Hatterene felt more reliable on the whole. Grimmsnarl got added to the Reserve team after I had beaten the game since it was still quite good and it felt much better than Alcremie as a Fairy-type.
Polteageist @ Big Root
Ability: Weak Armor
Nature: Timid
- Shadow Ball
- Giga Drain
- Hex
- Shell Smash
Ghost is my second favorite type. After I had beaten the 5th Gym, I had 13 Pokémon on my team but not a single Ghost-type. That had to be changed. I had seen Sinistea at that point but I hadn't caught one, so I decided to do so. I had also obtained the two different pots and I thought that maybe I could use one of them to evolve it? That turned out to be the case and I got Polteageist added to my team! It is a pretty fun Pokémon.
Shadow Ball was the main move, Giga Drain for coverage and to recover HP. Hex in the third slot because it never really learned anything better, I checked through all my TMs and TRs and there wasn't a single better move I had that it could learn. The last move was Nasty Plot for the longest time, it was a great set-up move. A bit risky since Polteageist is frail, especially on the Physical side, but it often worked. I later changed it for Shell Smash once Polteageist learned that. As said, I didn't teach Polteageist any other moves and it seems like there wasn't a whole lot of other offensive options, the only ones I can see are Psychic, Dark Pulse, Hyper Beam and maybe Stored Power. One of them would probably have been better than Hex but this was still functional.
I never managed to obtain the Spell Tag during my main playthrough, so I let it hold the Big Root instead in order to buff the recovery from Giga Drain a bit. Its Ability is Weak Armor which could be combined with Nasty Plot for great effect, if Polteageaist survived a hit from a Physical move as it used Nasty Plot, it got +2 to both Sp.att and Speed in the same turn, but at the cost of -1 to Defense. It got a Timid Nature which was pretty good, boosting Speed while lowering its useless Attack.
I thought Polteageist was pretty good. Not the best but it could get the job done. I like it. I never really understood the form differences for it and Sinistea though, and I'm not sure which form I have. I did not add it to the Champion team but it was an instant addition to the Reserve team after I had beaten the game.
Sirfetch'd (F) @ Leek
Ability: Steadfast
Nature: Naive
- Brick Break
- Knock Off
- Leaf Blade
- Swords Dance
Guess what I like? Farfetch'd. It is my second favorite non-legendary bird from Kanto (#1 is Dodrio). I used Farfetch'd in several playthroughs of R/B and I had great success with it. The fact that it got boosted Exp. from the trade made it grow quickly and it had a powerful 210 Base Power move in Slash, it also had Fly for coverage. I have used it on FR/LG as well and IIRC it worked pretty well there too. Last time I used it pre-S/S was on SoulSilver where I unfortunately had a pretty bad experience with it, but that didn't make me like it any less.
I accidentally spoiled myself on Farfetch'd getting an evolution in S/S. I also think I learned that it was exclusive to Sword. I found it very interesting but I wasn't sure if I wanted to use it. I found it very odd that they were giving a new evolution to an old Pokémon, I never thought they would do that again on a larger scale after all the extreme hate they got for many of the new evolutions in Gen 4. As I played through the game, I encountered a Farfetch'd in the wild. But it was different somehow. A Galarian form! Capture time. And this partly explained how it has a new evolution, the Galarian form was the only one that could evolve.
After that, I decided to not add Farfetch'd to my team immediately, but I was considering it. And once it was time for the team expansion, it got added. I really wanted to evolve it quickly, but I didn't know how to evolve it. In the end, I looked up its evolution method on the internet. Very unique, but not too hard. I got into a battle with a wild Wobbuffet and spammed noneffective moves until I got 3 Crits, then it was a Sirfetch'd!
Brick Break was the main move, stronger alternatives such as Close Combat exist but Brick Break worked well enough for me. Knock Off for coverage, Fighting and Dark has great synergy together and it does extra damage if the opponent is holding an item, though that rarely happened. I wasn't sure what to use in the third slot and had Steel Wing there for a long time, but eventually changed it to Leaf Blade. Not sure what the best option is, there are a few other options too such as First Impression, Brave Bird and Poison Jab. Swords Dance in the last slot to boost its Attack to high levels.
I broke my own rules and gave it a hax item in the form of the Leek, but since it is a signature item, I thought it could be acceptable. Its Ability is Steadfast and I have a memory of how it activated on at least one occasion after Sirfetch'd got flinched, it was a good way to boost its Speed. The Naive Nature also helped to make it faster at the cost of lowering its Sp.def.
I liked Sirfetch'd overall. A really cool Pokémon and a very welcome way how to make an often forgotten Gen 1 Pokémon memorable again. I didn't consider it good enough to be on the Champion team, but it was not the worst either so I added it to the Reserve team.
Frosmoth (M) @ Never-Melt Ice
Ability: Shield Dust
Nature: Serious
- Ice Beam
- Bug Buzz
- Air Slash
- Quiver Dance
Frosmoth was the overall last member I added to the team. I had 14 Pokémon but I thought I should add one more to get up to 15, giving me exactly 2 and a half teams. I didn't have a Bug- or Ice-type on my team, but I had caught a Snom which is both of these types. So it became the last member of my team.
It was very weak, so I wanted nothing but to evolve it quickly. I leveled it up but it didn't evolve so I looked up its evolution method... high Friendship and level up at Night? Oh well. I did everything I could think of to raise its friendship level and it worked because it evolved pretty much immediately.
Its moves varied a bit. I had Icy Wind in the first slot for a while but taught it Ice Beam after obtaining a TR. The same goes for the second slot which was Struggle Bug for a long while before being upgraded to Bug Buzz. Air Slash in the third slot because Frosmoth learned it through level-up, I wasn't sure what else to use and I decided to stick with it. Other alternatives would have been Dazzling Gleam or Giga Drain, not sure which is best. Maybe also Hurricane, but I prefer Air Slash because it has way better accuracy. U-turn would have been an alternative too. Quiver Dance in the last slot as a set-up move, it boosts Frosmoth's high Sp.att, decent Sp.def and its not-so-great Speed, making it a huge threat if it manages to set up.
I gave it the Never-Melt Ice to boost the power of its Ice Beam. It had a Serious Nature which does nothing to its stats. The Ability was Shield Dust which could be useful to block extra effects from moves though I'm not sure if it ever came into effect.
Because Frosmoth was the last member I added to the team, I didn't get to use it that much compared to the others. It was good at times, but I never managed to get a grip on how good it actually was. Because of that, I did not add it to the Champion team. But I did feel like it was better than at least some other members of the team, so it got a spot on the Reserve team.
Flapple (F) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gluttony
Nature: Jolly
- Grav Apple
- Outrage
- Wing Attack
- U-turn
Applin is a cool Pokémon. When I first saw it, I thought it looked so fun and quirky that I really felt like giving it a try. So I caught one and added it to my team. But it took a while before it evolved. I first trained it to level 25, then dropped it, then I decided to give it another try and see if it would evolve by level 30. But it didn't. As a last resort, I decided to give it to that kid in Hammerlocke who asked for an Applin. That turned out to be just what I needed since it ended up starting a side-quest which gave me a Tart Apple in the end, letting me evolve my Applin into Flapple! Because of the way it was ordered in the Pokédex, I thought that Flapple had an evolution for a long while. But it turned out that it was just Applin which had another Shield-exclusive evolution named Appletun.
Grav Apple was the main STAB move. After it had evolved into Flapple, I taught it Seed Bomb through TR only to have it learn Grav Apple one or two levels later... It was really good though, and I like its secondary effect of always lowering the targets Defense. The second move varied throughout the game. I had Fly at first, then changed it for Dragon Rush but I never used it because I dislike the low accuracy, so I replaced it with Outrage after beating the game. Though I'm not sure if I ever used it either. Wing Attack in the third slot for coverage, Flapple learned it upon evolving and it stayed. U-turn in the last slot because I couldn't think of anything better. In retrospect, I guess I could have taught it Dragon Dance through the move relearner, but I never did that.
I gave it the Sharp Beak to hold because I never found a Miracle Seed and I didn't obtain the Dragon Fang until after I had beaten the game. I guess I could have given it berries instead to combine with Gluttony, but that didn't happen. The Sharp Beak boosted the power of Wing Attack, so it was at least something. It had a Jolly Nature which was pretty good for it as it is a Physical attacker so it had no problem with having lower Sp.att, and getting boosted Speed is never bad since it has an average base 70. Its Ability was Gluttony, the other alternative was Ripen which is new and therefore much cooler, but neither of them would have been that useful since I never gave it any berries to hold.
Flapple was quite a fun Pokémon. I was considering going with it over Eldegoss on the Champion team but it felt somewhat less reliable on the whole since it lacked bulk and recovery moves, many of its offensive moves also felt lackluster or unreliable. So it got on the Reserve team instead.