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Pokémon
Roles
In order to build a successful team, each Pokémon in your team
must play an important role. Every Pokémon has something that
it can do, and a well-balanced team has a variety of the
following roles in it.
SWEEPERS
Pokémon that can hit hard with a variety of moves are called
Sweepers. There are three types of sweepers: Physical Sweepers, Special
Sweepers, and Mixed Sweepers.
Physical Sweepers
Physical Sweepers use physical attacks to hit the opponent. The best
physical sweepers have a high Attack stat and can learn a variety of
physical moves. Some physical sweepers can also learn moves that boost
their Attack power, such as Dragon Dance, Swords Dance, and Bulk Up.
Many physical sweepers use the items Choice Band or Life Orb.
Example:
Tyranitar @Choice Band
-Stone Edge
-Earthquake
-Crunch
-Pursuit
Other Popular Physical Sweepers: Garchomp, Metagross, Aerodactyl, Rhyperior, Salamence, Weavile, Heracross, Lucario, Electivire, Gyarados, etc.
Special Sweepers
Special Sweepers are like physical sweepers except they use special
attacks instead of physical attacks. Some special sweepers can also
learn moves that boost their Special Attack power, such as Calm Mind. Many special sweepers use the items Choice Specs or Life Orb.
Example:
Salamence @Choice Specs
-Draco Meteor
-Flamethrower
-Hydro Pump
-Dragon Pulse
Other Popular Special Sweepers: Alakazam, Gengar, Azelf, Lucario, Raikou, Porygon-Z, Heatran
Mixed Sweepers
These Pokémon can use both physical and special moves effectively.
Good mixed sweepers have both high Attack and Special Attack. It also
helps if they get STAB on both physical and special attacks (meaning one
of their attack runs off the Attack stat and the other runs off Special
Attack). Many mixed sweepers use Life Orb, since it increases the power of both there Attack and Special Attack.
Example:
Infernape @Life Orb
-Flamethrower
-Close Combat
-Grass Knot
-Nasty Plot
Other Popular Mixed Sweepers: Dragonite, Salamence, Electivire
WALLS
Walls are Pokémon with great Defense or Special Defense or both.
Their job is to defend against Sweepers and their hard-hitting attacks.
Many walls have Rest or other recovery moves, because this helps them
survive longer. Walls are also good with moves like Thunder Wave and Will-o-wisp
that cause status effects because this cripples Sweepers even more by
lowering their Speed or Attack stats.
Physical Walls
These Pokémon defend against physical sweepers. The best physical
walls have high Defense and few weaknesses to common physical moves.
Example:
Skarmory @Leftovers
-Drill Peck
-Roost
-Spikes
-Whirlwind
Other Physical Walls: Weezing, Forretress, Donphan, Hippowdon, Gliscor, Steelix, Regirock,
Cloyster, Rhyperior, Tangrowth
***Bulky Waters
Bulky Waters are a special group of Water Pokémon that have good
HP and Defense. They aren't "real" physical walls because
since they are Water types, they don't have too many useful resistances. But
they can be used to defend against strong physical sweepers like Garchomp
and Tyranitar, who have weaknesses to Water or Ice.
Example:
Milotic @Leftovers
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Recover
-Hypnosis
Other Bulky Waters: Suicune, Vaporeon, Slowbro, Gyarados, Blastoise
Special Walls
These Pokémon defend against special sweepers. The best special
walls have high Special Defense and few weaknesses to common special moves.
Example:
Blissey @Leftovers
-Seismic Toss
-Thunder Wave
-Softboiled
-Aromatherapy
Other Special Walls: Snorlax, Regice, Empoleon, Cradily (in the Sandstorm)
Mixed Walls
These walls have both high Defense and high Special Defense to handle
both special attacks and physical attacks effectively. The problem with
mixed walls is that they usually have low offensive stats, which means
they can't really hurt the opponent much. They usually rely on healing,
status, and support moves to help them in battle.
Example:
Cresselia @Leftovers
-Ice Beam
-Reflect
-Thunder Wave
-Moonlight
Other Mixed Walls: Umbreon, Registeel, Claydol, Dusknoir, Bronzong, Uxie, Spiritomb
SUPPORTERS
Support Pokémon use supporting moves that help the team out and
thus, making it easier to win. Supporters are often also Sweepers or Walls,
so you'll see a lot of previously mentioned Pokémon appear again
in these lists.
Spikers/Stealth Rockers
Spikers use the move Spikes. Spikes is a Ground move that damages the
opponent everytime they switch Pokémon (unless they are Flying-type
or have the trait Levitate). If you use Spikes 3 times in one battle,
the opponent's team will take 25% damage everytime they switch. 25%
is actually a lot of damage, especially if the opponent switches a lot,
so Spikes can be very annoying.
Stealth Rock is even more annoying, since nothing is immune to it. It also takes only one turn to fully set up and any Pokemon weak to Rock type will take 25% damage simply by switching in (Pokemon with 4x Rock weaknesses will take a whopping 50%).
Example:
Skarmory @Leftovers
-Drill Peck
-Roost
-Spikes
-Whirlwind
Other Good Spikers/Stealth Rockers: Forretress, Cloyster, and virtually any physical wall that can learn either of these moves.
Spinners
Spinners use the move Rapid Spin to counteract Spikes/Stealth Rock/Poison Spikes. Rapid Spin will remove all these moves from the arena so
that you won't take damage when you switch Pokémon.
Example:
Starmie @Leftovers
-Rapid Spin
-Surf
-Thunderbolt
-Recover
Other Spinners: Forretress, Cloyster, Claydol, Donphan
Baton Passers (BPers)
Baton Passers use the move Baton Pass (duh!). Baton Pass takes any stat
changes your current Pokémon has and transfers them to the next
Pokémon that you select. So if you use Swords Dance to boost
your Attack and use Baton Pass, the next Pokémon that comes out
will automatically have a boosted stat.
Baton Pass transfers more than just stat boosters. Mean Look can also
be passed. So you can trap the opponent with Mean Look then pass to
a Pokémon that can easily finish off the opponent (and the opponent
can't escape!).
Substitute can also be passed. For more info on this, read the SubPassing
section in Move Combos.
Example:
Ninjask @Liechi Berry
-Swords Dance
-Substitute
-Baton Pass
-Silver Wind
Other Good BPers: Umbreon, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Espeon, Leafeon, Smeargle, Celebi,
Scizor, Togekiss
Hazer/Pseudo-hazer (Phazers)
Hazers are Pokémon who use Haze. Haze cancels out all stat changes.
This is important since it means that Pokémon who use stat boosting
moves (especially Baton Passers) will have their stat boosts eliminated.
Pseudo-hazers use Roar or Whirlwind. These two moves make the opponent
switch out and they are similar to Haze because when you switch out,
all your stat changes are gone.
A lot of Pokémon can learn Haze/Roar/Whirlwind, but in order
to be a good Haze/Phazer you have to have good defenses. This is especially
true for Phazers, because Roar/Whirlwind always go last so your opponent
has a free chance to hit you.
Example:
Weezing @Leftovers
-Haze
-Pain Split
-Will-o-wisp
-Sludge Bomb
Other Good Hazers/Phazers: Steelix, Hippowdon, Donphan, Suicune,
Skarmory
Clerics/Healers
Clerics use the moves Heal Bell or Aromatherapy to heal the entire team
of status moves. Good Clerics should have high HP or defensive stats
so they can successfully heal the team even after taking a hit from
the opponent. Clerics often have a recovery move so they can heal their
own HP to survive longer.
Example:
Celebi @Leftovers
-Heal Bell
-Recover
-Psychic
-Leech Seed
Other Good Clerics: Blissey, Miltank
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