Team built around Lucario

[Kestrel]

I want to do two things, if they can be combined even cooler!

My 4 favorite pokemon to work in a team with Lucario as the leader, or whatever advice you have on good Lucrios teams in general.

Lucario
Scyther
Jolteon
Galade/Gardevoir (I like them both...so, up in the air)

I've been using this team builder, to see the outcomes, but I need advice.

http://www.marriland.com/tools/team-bui ... 7|934|0|0|

This says my biggest disadvantage will be against Flying types,

But I don't know much about the strategies for moves and abilities, I'm rather new, but the gym battles I got involved in at PaxEast this year inspired me to try.
Thank you for your time!
-Kestrel

[Draexzhan]

Hi

It's easy to just slap six good pokemon onto a team and call it a day. The hard part is getting pokemon that work well with each other. I've been battling competitively for a few years and I still feel I have much to learn in that regard. Anyways, here's some ideas, and I'm going off the assumption that your Lucario isn't a mega.

Lucario is a bit of a glass cannon; a late-game sweeper. It can be an amazing pokemon, but you'll need to deal with anything that could be a hindrance first. I noticed amongst the four pokemon you listed, you don't have any that can set up entry hazards. Focus sashes are a big problem for Lucario. You may want a pokemon that knows stealth rock such as Hippowdon.

For a mega, you might want to try Mega Charizard Y. Many pokemon that check Lucario fall victim to Yzard pretty easily.

[Aurethious]

I'll echo what Draexzhan suggested and also throw out that you might want a bulky Water type who you can bring in to take the Fire type attacks that will be aimed at your Lucario and Scyther. Personally, I like Blastoise. Usually, it will also have Rapid Spin, which will help you clear entry hazards from your side of the field.

Also, you could consider Jellicent as well. Will take those Fire attacks for you. Being a Ghost type, it can block opposing Rapid Spin attempts if you taken Draexzhan's advice and use Stealth Rocks. Also, if forms a nice little defensive tandem with Hippowdon with Hippowdon being strong against physical attacks and Jellicent being strong against special attacks. On top of that synergy, if Jellicent has Water Absorb, you can use it to not only take Water attacks meant for Hippowdon but heal itself with them.

[Kestrel]

[Reiam2]

Focus sash is a held item that allows a Pokemon who is at full health to survive a one hit knock out. If a poke switches in that has a focus sash into stealth rocks, or any other hazard, then the sash is "broken". As for Mega Lucario (which is my favorite Pokemon as well), he is unfortunately banned from the PPL and most over Pokemon leagues for that matter. But he is still really fun to play around with because he is just so powerful. If you wanted to build a Lucario for the PPL, my personal favorite build is a choice scarf build. With moves being Aura Sphere, Dark Pulse, Dragon Pulse and Psychic. Choice scarf is another held item that when held increases the Pokemon's speed by 50% but limits the Pokemon to only using one move. This set can also be used with a focus sash as Lucario has a base speed of 90 and can be pretty quick if EVed into speed. There is also a physical set for Lucario that works a little better with a focus sash in my opinion, and that set usually is Close Combat, Earthquake, Stone Edge and Extreme Speed/Bullet Punch (if you want the extra STAB move).

Sorry for the wall of text, but with good teammates for Lucario, I have used both Hippowdon and Jellicent in the past, and they are both fantastic with him, as Aurethious pointed out first. I have also used a Specially defensive Gliscor instead of Hippowdon, but either of them work.

As for advice for battling that I would offer is figure out which way you like to battle and build teams around that battling style. For example, when I first started playing competitively I built a team of all glass cannon power houses and repeatedly lost because I could not work out how to use each Poke effectively and when to switch in who at what time and so on. But after a ton of tweaking and playing around with different Pokemon's natural strengths and weaknesses I learned that I like the bulkier, damage sponge approach to battling. But at the same time I also learned how to play the other strategies that are out there for different Pokemon teams, I just prefer my bulky method over any other one.

Once again, sorry for the wall of text.

[AssumptionPrime]

[Kestrel]

Thanks AssumptionPrime, too new to this, I didn't even think of banned things! But it's good to know my favorite Lucrio is still ok to use.

Reiam2 I don't know how I feel about the scarf's effect...hmmm I'll look for other items. That said my play style....I suppose it's a bit like how I fight in RL, I fight Florentine, and that means I hit hard and fast, and dodge a lot. My target is the enemies back. Usually since I'm using one weapon to block and the other to come in, I like my attacks in Pokemon to also be a good balance.

I'm not exactly an all out kind of player, but I will opt to hit over moves that take more than one turn, or leave an effect. I like my pokemon's abilities to handle the more side stuff like burn or par and such, or heal, then to take a move to do so, and lose a chance of hitting and knocking out the opponent.

Don't worry about leaving a story, I do it too, I love to write, you should see the story I posted on the "Introduce yourself here" section. lol

Thank you everyone so far for teaching me a lot! Please fill my still empty cup!

[Reiam2]

[Aurethious]

[Kestrel]

The feed back in such a short amount of time has been amazing! I've never been on a forum where I was both greeted so quickly and didn't have to wait forever for someone to reply to a post!

My reply will be short for the moment, but I'll edit this an add more in response to the feed back I just got!

Thank you all so much! It's been a big help, I'm someone who mostly played the games before the DS, and few at that - because I couldn't get a hold of them, and then couldn't afford the DS later. Now I have friends that are really determined to have me play with them, and bought me the DS and missing games and caught me up.

That said I'm really new at a lot of the strategies that have come up since the last time I really played. EV's IV's, nautres, abilities even! So, initial question aside, if people have anything they want to pitch, I'll be happy to learn!

(Guess I had more time than I thought)

Aurethious, thanks again for wonderful post, I was familiar that Water Absorb and Hydration were different, I wanted to throw it out there, that I was also looking at the other ability. Which is better do you think? You might get more out of Water Absorb but Hydration you can use as long as you put raindance up, less restricted right?

I had no idea Stealth Rock could do so much...That's scary....

Blastoise instead of Jellicent then? So that and Charazard? I'll plug that into the team builder I found and go over the data.