Rate My Team... It's Retro-Fabulous ;)

[Elekidkid]

Back in the days when we didn't have berries and natures... ten whole years ago. Anyway, here's a little team of my favorites from the RBY era... enjoy and have fun rating. It's been qute a while.

Starmie
Surf
Thunder Wave
Double Team
Confuse Ray

A divergence from the norm, but as much of an offensive powerhouse that Starmie is, it also serves so well as an annoyance. Fast enough to get that paralysis out first then confusion and Double Team. I've always been a fan of Parafusion and that coupled with increased evasion means that Starmie will be getting hit very rarely. Surf is there over Pyschic because it's got that little extra bit of power that Psychic lacks. Could, however, be easily swapped with good ol' Tobey.

Electabuzz
Thunder Wave
Thunderbolt
Reflect
Ice Punch

Can never have too many T-Wavers, I've gotta say. Something I've always lived by and has saved myself in many a battle. Reflect right away to bring up Electabuzz's less-than-stellar Defense, T-Wave, and begin the beat-down.

Parasect
Spore
Swords Dance
Leech Life
Body Slam

The oldschool psychic-type killer. Not particularly useful at all, but had the unnatural ability to take down Mewtwo in a way nobody could conceive. 100% accuracy sleep is also a nice touch. Body Slam over Slash because the Swords Dances won't work if a Critical Hit happens. A bit problematic to start, but as long as it can live long enough to actually put the opponent to sleep, all should be well. Fingers should stay crossed for that, though.

Primeape
Rock Slide
Body Slam
Double Team
Low Kick

First off... I don't believe in the rule that there should be only one DT'r. It's sacreligious. Anyway... the purpose of Primeape is to switch in later once an opponent is paralyzed (and maybe even confused) and DT up. Based mostly on Luck, Primeape's function is to just pummel opponents. Body Slam is there for the possibility of paralysis on anything that may have been switched in.

Magmar
Flamethrower
Ice Punch
Confuse Ray
Psychic

Magmar's been one of my favorites for quite a while and serves a similar purpose as Primeape. Confuse Ray gives it the benefit of the doubt on occassion and the other attacks are designed to take out any pesky opponents. Its staying power is just as good as Primeape's, so it probably won't be able to be much of the sweeper that it intends to be, but with luck on my side, who knows?

Tauros
Rest
Submission
Take Down
Earthquake

Here because I know Primeape and Magmar will fail, but I just like them too much to not include. Tauros comes out, tramples the enemy, and then takes a nice nap afterward.

So go have fun with it. RMTs don't seem to appear here too often anymore, so go as wild as you want. I warn you, it's been quite a while since I last created a team, let alone for RBY.

[Poryhedron]

I'm slightly perturbed that you have at least a 1x weakness to everything it's possible to have a weakness to, but with only three 2x'es and no 3x'es, you're in good shape.
Took me a bit to remember why Magmar can have Ice Punch...

[Blademaster]

I'm slightly perturbed that you have at least a 1x weakness to everything it's possible to have a weakness to

Wait, do you mean offensively or defensively? Because defensively, I don't see any Steel, Dragon, or Normal weakness (Yeah, Normal isn't super-effective against anything, and Steel didn't exist in RBY, and Dragon type moves didn't exist back then [except Dragon Rage, which wasn't super-effective anyway]...

You know what? On second thought, just forget I said anything. :p)

In all honesty, I think you could use Double Team more on Parasect than on Primeape, but that's just my opinion. Otherwise, lookin' good.

[Elekidkid]

Haha, yeah. The glory of trade-backs. And there's no weakness to Ghost types there. Or was Lick not Ghost type back in RBY? Was so long ago...

My general theory is that, rather than trying to eliminate all weaknesses, it's better to compile fighters that compliment each other well enough with sets that can cover if necessary. Of course, I was never too successful in battles on-line, so the theory is kind of off-base. I tend to play for fun... which is why it's always so satisfying when my all-Poison team beats people on the bots. If I could only get it to work on my Mac... :sigh:

Double Team as opposed to Body Slam, maybe? Could work, could work. The Paralysis from Body Slam may actually totally screw me over.

[Blademaster]

It was just a suggestion; if you get rid of Body Slam, you probably won't need Swords Dance, either...

Ummmm... Spore, Leech Life, Double Team, and Toxic/Mega Drain?

[Elekidkid]

Well, Swords Dance is kind of necessary for Leech Life; neither the move itself nor Parasect have the Attack stat to really take advantage of it without some help.

I couldn't really see Toxic either, just because I'd have so much paralysis running around, ya know?

[Blademaster]

Yeah, I wasn't really giving it too much thought last time, so I checked around serebii.net and found a few other options:

1. Slash, Dig, Take-Down, and Double-Edge

Parry's Attack may not be great, but if memory serves, it's one of his best qualities, so I guess any of those right there could work - you got a move to deal with super-effective Fire and Rock types, a move with a decent (in RBY, almost assured) Critical Hit ratio, and two moves that just do heavy damage. Certainly not the worst options.

2. Skull Bash and Solarbeam

Yeah, waiting a turn sucks, but if this is just an in-game Parasect, it shouldn't be too big a deal, and both moves are pretty strong...

3. Substitute, Rest, Mega Drain

Just a few random moves that could be good if nothing else works. I don't remember if Giga Drain was around in RBY, but...

So, let's see what we've got...

Spore, Leech Life, Swords Dance, Mega Drain, Substitute, Rest, Solarbeam, Body Slam, Slash, Dig, Double-Edge, Skull Bash, and Take Down.

OK, well, Take Down is just a weaker Double-Edge, and Skull Bash is just a weaker Double-Edge that trades recoil for waiting a turn, so let's ditch both of those right now. Rest and Substitute probably aren't any good on Parasect - I think his HP and his Defenses are pretty low, so... yeah. That brings us to nine. Body Slam is probably not too useful - Spore and Double-Edge can cover what it did, only better, and Mega Drain AND Leech Life (the former being Special, which Parasect isn't really known for) probably aren't needed, so I guess that's out. Solarbeam can probably go, too...

That just about halves our set and leaves us with Spore, Leech Life, Swords Dance, Dig, Slash, and Double-Edge...

Well, what do we need? Spore is pretty much Parasect's staple attack, and Swords Dance+Leech Life is your anti-Psychic move(s), so...

Dig, Slash, and Double-Edge are left.

My advice is Slash, personally - it almost always CH'es in RBY, making it stronger than any other attack Parasect has. His low HP makes Double-Edge is risky, and as useful as Dig is, I remember Parry having it in Pokemon Stadium; it almost never did any major damage, IIRC.

So, yeah, my advice is Spore, Leech Life, Swords Dance, and Slash. A great moveset? No. The perfect anti-Alakazam? No, but a pretty good one regardless.

That's my two cents, anyway; now, I'm broke again.

EDIT: This post took like a half an hour... And I just realized the end result was me changing one move.

I... am an idiot. -_-'''''''''

[DaBlackBandit]

Starmie
Surf
Thunder Wave
Double Team
Confuse Ray

Starmie does not learn Confuse Ray in R/B/Y, and he it doesn't need Double Team, when it learns Recover. Drop DT for Recover and put Blizzard, Thunderbolt, or Psychic over Confuse Ray.

Electabuzz
Thunder Wave
Thunderbolt
Reflect
Ice Punch

Again Ice Punch is a G/S/C trade back, put Psychic over Ice Punch. And Seismic Toss over Reflect.

Parasect
Spore
Swords Dance
Leech Life
Body Slam

Substitute over Leech Life or Body Slam.

Primeape
Rock Slide
Body Slam
Double Team
Low Kick

Focus Energy over Double Team in Stadium. Hyper Beam over it if your not using Stadium.

Magmar
Flamethrower
Ice Punch
Confuse Ray
Psychic

Submission, Body Slam, Hyper Beam, Mimic over Ice Punch, since it's Illegal. Fire Blast might be better for power.

Tauros
Rest
Submission
Take Down
Earthquake

Tauros does not learn Submission. So you have to drop it for Blizzard. Body Slam over Take-Down. Hyper Beam over Rest. The only other Tauros is Horn Drill/Fissure/Body Slam/filler..

[Elekidkid]

Hm, check that out. I could've sworn Tauros could learn Submission. Ah well. I guess it can be substituted for Thunder. I would go with Blizzard, but it's just far too inaccurate, whereas Thunder can at leasat fit in with the paralysis theme that I've had going on through the time rather than causing a different status ailment that gets totally boned by sleep/freeze clauses. And maybe I should've mentioned that I consider trade-backs fair game, eh? The way I look at it is that, if the move was available in RBY, it's legit if it can be legitimately learned by a Pokemon. Has the meta-game really changed much regarding that?

Hmmm, I think we just have quite the different battling styles, DaBlackBandit. I see why you're suggesting the powerhouse moves, but I've always been one to go for reliability within my attacks rather than damage, you know? As such, moves like Blizzard and Hyper Beam don't appeal to me much just because of their glaring downsides.

[DaBlackBandit]

Hmmm, I think we just have quite the different battling styles, DaBlackBandit. I see why you're suggesting the powerhouse moves, but I've always been one to go for reliability within my attacks rather than damage, you know? As such, moves like Blizzard and Hyper Beam don't appeal to me much just because of their glaring downsides

No, I'm just going with the standards that work so well. If you want accuracy use this for Tauros

Body Slam
Thunderbolt / Ice Beam
Substitute
Earthquake

The reason people use Blizzard and Thunder over Thunderbolt and Ice Beam, is Tauros's special isn't the greatest. So a more poweful move is needed. Plus Blizzard is better in R/B/Y then Thunder, since so many things are weak to it. Grass, Flying, Rock, Ground, Dragon. Plus it has a chance to Freeze, and unless someone melts you with a Fire attack, you aren't going to be dong anything.

Don't use Double Team it's cheap unless its against the computer. He won't survive a rest, they'll bring a special attacker and in like 2 or 3 hits, he will be dead.

[Elekidkid]

Rightright, I forgot about that; Freeze only recently started wearing off after a few turns, didn't it?

So I've never really seen the use behind Substitute; it always seemed like a bit of a waste. A turn you could spend attacking somebody you instead take to lessen your health only to probably lose the substitute right after. What exactly is so great about it? Could probably help my team-building if I understood this much, as it seems to be quite the popular move.

[DaBlackBandit]

Rightright, I forgot about that; Freeze only recently started wearing off after a few turns, didn't it?

So I've never really seen the use behind Substitute; it always seemed like a bit of a waste. A turn you could spend attacking somebody you instead take to lessen your health only to probably lose the substitute right after. What exactly is so great about it? Could probably help my team-building if I understood this much, as it seems to be quite the popular move.

Yes, Freeze just recently started to wear off.

Substitute works in Stadium to block all statues effects. (Freeze, Burn, Paralysis, Poison, Sleep, Confusion.) On Net battle and Gameboy link Substitute only blocks (Freeze, Burn, Paralysis, and Poison).

Hyper Beam works for Tauros because he get's a STAB for for it. (Same Type Attack Bonus). Plus he's fast, and has a high critical hit ratio. Plus Hyper Beam has a 150 Base Power for Tauros, so it's good for Finished off Pokemon and OHKOing Low defensive Pokemon (Chansey, Alakazam, Jynx)

Body Slam work for paralysis and it's speed and high critical hit ratio.

Earthquake is for Gengar

Blizzard is for Exeggutor, who resist Earthquake and Hyper Beam.

Thunder can be substituted for Cloyster, Blastoise.