Youngster here trying to develop a well rounded team! Suggestions for a newb?

I am a long time player of the games since a young age, but I have only recently got back into Pokemon with Insurgence. I want to create a balanced team with good type coverage. I don’t know anything really about the meta game with breeding and IV’s and EV’s, and I keep seeing people talk about Pokemon that are just week or only good to a certain point. So I want to make sure my current team is solid and eliminate any glaring weak-links. Any advice will be super appreciated. Right now I am working with Delta-Charmeleon (lvl 26), Ponyta (lvl 28), Croconaw (lvl 27), Baltoy (lvl 26), Skiploom (lvl 27), and Nidorano (lvl 26). I feel like I have a good type coverage with these mon currently, but I think that Baltoy and Nidorano might be my weak links. I like that Nidorano has poison sting, peck, and double kick but all those moves are relatively week even on the types they are super effective against. I’m wondering if I should bring back Onix or introduce Abra to my team. If there is any other type that might work well please let me know. Thank you!

If you’re ever in doubt about a particular pokemon, or just want to know more about its stats and usage, visit Smogon.

1 Like

Your team offers good offensive and defensive coverage and should function fine for an in-game run (any team used well will, tbh).

That being said, Pokemon can be defined as good or bad primarily by their movesets, stats, and abilities.

In your case, Nidorino can be both a good and bad Pokemon depending on its ability. With a truly superb learnset but underwhelming stats, Nidoking must leverage on its Hidden Ability, Sheer Force, to push out damage. Hidden Abilities are naturally occurring in Pokemon Insurgence, so treat them as normal abilities you can find on wild Pokemon. Considering how early you get Life Orb in this game, and with early access to abusable move TMs such as Thunderbolt, Sheer Force Nidoking is a good fit on any team. That being said, if your Nidoking lacks Sheer Force, it will probably fall off heavily mid-late game. Given that you are in an early stage of the game, I would recommend replacing your Nidorino as such.

Some general comments on the rest of your team:

  • Delta-Charizard will eventually be a huge powerhouse, particularly when mega evolved. A definite keeper.
  • Rapidash is a subpar Fire-type with a limited movepool. Explore other Fire types (there are many), such as those found in the Friend Safari.
  • Feraligatr is a solid physical Water-type, though outclassed by certain Pokemon such as Azumarill. That said, if you like Feraligatr, you’ll be fine just using him.
  • Claydol is fun, being rather bulky defensively and having strong STABs to muscle through his opponents. You may find his speed frustrating, so if you desire a stronger, faster, albeit frailer Psychic, Abra is a good pick.
  • Skiploom sucks but you can teach it Swords Dance for some rofltactics.
  • Don’t worry about IVs and EVs just yet. Have fun with your team.

Bulbapedia, the Insurgence wiki, and Smogon (mentioned by above poster) are all your friends. Use them.

PM me if you need anymore advice or help.

1 Like

Thank you for your great and helpful advice/suggestions!

Jumping in to add some stuff here.

Rapidash actually isn’t too bad; Being one of the faster Fire-types (after Talonflame, Pyroar and Infernape), it can put in some work with base 100 Atk STAB Flare Blitz, with Megahorn and Poison Jab for coverage. Unfortunately, Wild Charge and Drill Run, two of Rapidash’s most useful moves, aren’t available as of the current version, which reduces its usability by quite a lot. It’s more of a personal preference thing on whether you want to use other Fire-types.

I’d like to point out that Claydol is bad offensive wise. If you want to use it, remember to slap Toxic on it for it to be useful against mons that aren’t incredibly frail. That, or just flat out replace Claydol - over half of your team is weak to Ice-type right now, and Claydol shares its Ground-type STAB with Nidoking anyways. I’d suggest something like Bronzong for a defensive mon, and Alakazam/Reuniclus/Beheeyem for offense.

Jumpluff is, as Nittan said, pretty bad, but it does have a niche in a fast Sleep Powder and other support moves tha go through Substitutes due to Infiltrator. Given that you have the Hidden Ability variant, of course. Of course, you aren’t likely to meet a sub user ingame, so Prankster Whimsicott would probably be more useful for support uses, especially since Sleep Clause isn’t a thing ingame.

2 Likes