Team for the R/S Challenge

[TheDeuce]

With the R/S Challenge coming up, I figured I should get some sort of team ready to take them on with, and here it is...

Salamence@Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
- Fire Blast/Flamethrower
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Return/Brick Break

Starmie@Focus Band
Ability: Natural Cure
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic

Medicham@Shell Bell
Ability: Pure Power
- Brick Break
- Shadow Ball
- Bulk Up
- Recover


Once thing I noticed about Ruby/Sapphire so far is that it's hugely offensive, Regice is the only defensive pokémon that even seems playable (possibly Dusclops...) So, I made my team with that in mind. Starmie is my special attacker, Medicham is physical, and Salamence offers a bit of both. I am confident that this lineup can successfully stop a lot of the pokémon that you'd expect to see a lot of. Latias/Latios/Flygon/Salamence are stopped by Starmie or even my own Salamence. Crawdaunt/Armaldo/Zangoose/Regice are stopped by Medicham.

Also, I expect the starters to be big, in which case Salamence is my counter to them, the only one that even comes close to worrying me is Swampert, it's only got the one weakness, and grass attacks are very hard to fit into a moveset.

Questions/Comments are welcomed.

[Spectreon]

When it comes to Latios/Latias, you may wanna try Medicham instead. a mojority of them will be holding Souldew, which is a big boost to both Special Attack and Special Defense. Trying to over power it with Special attacks may prove a waste. But Cham Bulking and Shadow Ball will be deadly to it.

May wanna switch your Items a tad. I think Leftovers on Starmie, and a Chesto or Lum berry for Medicham, so it can Bulk, Rest and wake up in turns, not having to wait 2 turns for initial Rest. Also placing Recover on Starmie over Thunder or Ice Beam may not be a bad idea. Flame Thrower over Fire Blast. More PP, better accuracy. Less Powerfull, but you dont wont to accidently miss either.

[invisible]

ya, spectreon may be on the right track. recover is just a killer move for link battles, since you can't use items. a self recovery is just big, so you might want to drop ice beam for that.

for your medicham, i suggest taking out bulk up or shadow ball and replacing it with psychic. sure, its attack is alot better, but it still gets stab, and could help in situations where you'll fight an opponent you can get the type advantage on.

[Red5bv06]

Salamence - Fly over Return/Brick Break, it is just slightly better IMO. I'm just as wary about Fly as you probably are, but it seems to work well on Salamence.

Starmie - I respect the all special sweeper, but it NEEDS some defensive moves, too. Definitely put on Recover, and I would suggest Confuse Ray, also.

Medicham - Looks great, possibly Rest/Chesto over Recover, but I prefer Recover.

[TheDeuce]

Thanks for the help, truthfully this is the first Starmie, I've ever played without Recover, it's just that I've been playing a lot of Ruby/Sapphire against others lately, and it's like almost completely offense, there's next to nothing defensive about it, that's why I dropped Recover, I truthfully have used it maybe twice out of 15 battles when it actually did anything useful, this moveset's been much more successful for me

[Spectreon]

Forget Fly, go Aerial Ace. Fly is 2 turn attack, not always a good thing. Plus if you wnated to take the time, an awsome breeding method for Salamance.

Tailow>Swablu/Altaria>Bagon>Bagon

yes Bagon is here twice. The Idea is to breed Aerial Ace to Swablu, level up to Altaria (learns Dragon Dance upon evolving), then taking those too and breeding first Bagon (dont even dare evolve this one, or you will regret it). Train Bago to level 49 to learn Dragon Claw, and breed again. Now you have Aerial Ace, Dragon Dance, Dragon Claw, and then ad Earth Quake or other Attack based off AT stat. Please note that Bagon eggs are a pain to hatch, take the longest n game so far that i have noticed.

[invisible]

now that's a tough breed... but actually, the starmie of full offensive doesn't seem like too bad an idea. it has really good speed, and high sp atk, so it would be able to sweep pretty easy... but recover is still pretty good, especially if your opponent isn't hitting you for half your life...

[Dek]

Ok, this question is gonna make me look like a complete n00b. What is this ability thing that the Pokemon are given?