Help me pick pokemon for my Unova team?

[jujii]

I need help picking pokemon for my unova team, as I like too many of them to choose from. Right now, I have a Krookodile, Samurott, and Scizor. Some factors that may help is how hard it is to catch the pre-evolution(with right ivs), coverage, etc). If any could pick three from the list and good reasons why, it would be very helpful!

These are some potential pokemon I would like to pick from:

Mienshao, Hydreigon, Chandelure, Eelektross, Volcarona, Zoroark, Braviary, Reuniclus, and Ferrothorn

[Rache]

Personally I'd go with these:

-Chandelure, as it covers your fighting weakness and gives you a strong special attacker with a large variety of coverage options.

-Eelektross to cover your ground weakness. It's slow but has a lot of good coverage options and no weaknesses as long as its Levitate ability is active. It's pretty pitiful as a Tynamo though, so you'll likely need to Exp. Share it until evolution (39).

-Mienshao as most of your team is pretty slow and it does very well in the late story battles. Mienfoo evolves quite late (50), but it's not dead weight until then.

 

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These are fine options that can fit on your team, but here's why I'd personally take the ones above instead:

 

-Reuniclus is a great mon that can honestly fit on almost any team as it's pretty bulky, hits very hard, and can reliably set itself up with stat boosting and healing moves. It's very slow though, and your team is already stacked with slow Pokemon. I recommended Chandelure over it mostly for its average speed, better coverage, and slightly better immediate power, but if you like Reuniclus more, it's a fine replacement.

 

-Zoroark is decent, but it's competing with Chandelure for its role and shares its STAB with Krookodile. Zoroark's more reliable coverage options are fire and grass type moves, which Chandelure also provides in addition to its different/more useful set of resistances and immunities. If you really want to use Zoroark though, it can replace Mienshao, but it doesn't provide as much value.

-Ferrothorn's similarly competing with Scizor. It's a great mon in its own right, but they win and lose a lot of the same matchups. Ferrothorn does have the advantage of being a great water and rock answer though, so it does provide some value to this team that Scizor doesn't, although it's a lot slower and doesn't hit anywhere near as hard. If you want to use it, Scizor would be the best mon to replace. If that's not an option, it would be fine over Eelektross.

-Braviary is a decent Pokemon, but Rufflet evolves so late (54) that it'll only be able to help you with the Elite Four. It doesn't do much for your team until then unfortunately. While Mienfoo can hold its own reasonably well until evolution (especially in the ice gym), Rufflet is going to struggle immensely late in the story. If you want to use it despite this though, Eelektross would be the one to replace.

 

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These I'd reject outright:

 

-Hydreigon, as the level caps prevent it from evolving before the Elite Four. You're capped at lv56 for this region, and it's a Zweilous until lv64.

 

-Volcarona for the same reason. It's stuck as a Larvesta until postgame as it doesn't evolve until lv59.

 

_______________________

 

With that being said though, you can get away with throwing almost any of these together onto a team and still expect to beat the region. You might struggle a bit in certain battles if you don't have an answer to what you're facing, but you don't need to put a huge amount of thought into your team to avoid encountering anything unbeatable. If you don't like the recommendations, it's okay to just go with your favorites.

 

Edited September 14, 2021 by Rache

[jujii]

30 minutes ago, Rache said:

Personally I'd go with these:

-Chandelure, as it covers your fighting weakness and gives you a strong special attacker with a large variety of coverage options.

-Eelektross to cover your ground weakness. It's slow but has a lot of good coverage options and no weaknesses as long as its Levitate ability is active. It's pretty pitiful as a Tynamo though, so you'll likely need to Exp. Share it until evolution (39).

-Mienshao as most of your team is pretty slow and it does very well in the late story battles. Mienfoo evolves quite late (50), but it's not dead weight until then.

 

_______________________

 

These are fine options that can fit on your team, but here's why I'd personally take the ones above instead:

 

-Reuniclus is a great mon that can honestly fit on almost any team as it's pretty bulky, hits very hard, and can reliably set itself up with stat boosting and healing moves. It's very slow though, and your team is already stacked with slow Pokemon. I recommended Chandelure over it mostly for its average speed, better coverage, and slightly better immediate power, but if you like Reuniclus more, it's a fine replacement.

 

-Zoroark is decent, but it's competing with Chandelure for its role and shares its STAB with Krookodile. Zoroark's more reliable coverage options are fire and grass type moves, which Chandelure also provides in addition to its different/more useful set of resistances and immunities. If you really want to use Zoroark though, it can replace Mienshao, but it doesn't provide as much value.

-Ferrothorn's similarly competing with Scizor. It's a great mon in its own right, but they win and lose a lot of the same matchups. Ferrothorn does have the advantage of being a great water and rock answer though, so it does provide some value to this team that Scizor doesn't, although it's a lot slower and doesn't hit anywhere near as hard. If you want to use it, Scizor would be the best mon to replace. If that's not an option, it would be fine over Eelektross.

-Braviary is a decent Pokemon, but Rufflet evolves so late (54) that it'll only be able to help you with the Elite Four. It doesn't do much for your team until then unfortunately. While Mienfoo can hold its own reasonably well until evolution (especially in the ice gym), Rufflet is going to struggle immensely late in the story. If you want to use it despite this though, Eelektross would be the one to replace.

 

_______________________

 

These I'd reject outright:

 

-Hydreigon, as the level caps prevent it from evolving before the Elite Four. You're capped at lv56 for this region, and it's a Zweilous until lv64.

 

-Volcarona for the same reason. It's stuck as a Larvesta until postgame as it doesn't evolve until lv59.

 

_______________________

 

With that being said though, you can get away with throwing almost any of these together onto a team and still expect to beat the region. You might struggle a bit in certain battles if you don't have an answer to what you're facing, but you don't need to put a huge amount of thought into your team to avoid encountering anything unbeatable. If you don't like the recommendations, it's okay to just go with your favorites.

 

Thank you so much!