Overview of Current Main Team Members
*Asterisks indicate Pokemon who get significant improvements due to Dream World.
Abomasnow - No significant change.
Absol - No significant change.
Ampharos - No significant change.
Arcanine - Wild Volt? Close Combat as an egg move? Ouch.
Arceus - Can now be fully EV'd. Yay!
Azelf - Psycho Shock; Explosion nerfed
Azumarill - No significant change.
*Blastoise - Rain Dish, Boiling Water
*Blaziken - SPEED BOOST
Breloom - Dream World Technician is a cool alternative to Poison Heal
Celebi - No significant change
Charizard - Solar Power is an alternate option
Clefable - Unaware is useable
Claydol - No significant change
*Dragonite - Multi-Scale is huge; Dragon Tail, Windstorm, and boosted priority ExtremeSpeed are all good, too
Empoleon - No significant change
*Espeon - MAGIC MIRROR
*Exeggutor - Harvest is cool stuff
*Feraligatr - Encourage tears stuff down like crazy
Flygon - No significant change
*Froslass - Cursed Body > Snow Cloak
Gallade - No significant change
Garchomp - No significant change
Gardevoir - Psycho Shock; new moves and Dream World ability give it a niche in multi-battles
Gengar - No significant change
Glaceon - No significant change
*Gliscor - Who gave this guy Poison Heal?
Gyarados - Overconfidence is an alternative to Intimidate
Heracross - No significant change; Overconfidence is viable
Houndoom - No significant change
Infernape - Iron Fist is an alternative
Jirachi - Doom Desire is now a Base 140 Power, 100% accurate move that gets STAB (but it is now affected by type effectiveness).
Jolteon - Volt Change could be fun
Kingdra - Boiling Water
Lanturn - Boiling Water, Volt Change
Lapras - Boiling Water, Hydration as alternate ability
Latias - Psycho Shock; it loses Soul Dew until further notice
*Leafeon - Chlorophyll
Lucario - Nasty Plot, boosted-priority ExtremeSpeed; Justice Heart is a cool ability too
Machamp - No significant change
Magnezone - Alternate abilities, Sturdy and Dream World Analyze, are worth playing with
*Mamoswine - Thick Fat, Icicle Drop
Manaphy - Tail Glow is now +3 to Special Attack. Wut?
Marowak - No significant change
Meganium - No significant change
Metagross - No significant change
Mew - New TMs, can now switch between TM moves at will
Miltank - Herbivore adds yet another fun ability for it to use
*Ninetales - DROUGHT
Porygon-Z - Psycho Shock, I suppose.
Roserade - No significant change. Technician is useable.
Rotom - OH NO THE ALTERNATE ROTOM FORMS LOSE THEIR GHOST TYPE WHATEVER AM I SUPPOSED TO D-oh wait, Wash form is now a Lanturn-variant with Levitate. Cool.
Salamence - Dragon Tail; Overconfidence can be used, but it loses Outrage
Sceptile - No significant change; Unburden could be used if desired
Scizor - No significant change
Shaymin - No significant change
Skarmory - Sturdy is now a usable ability
Staraptor - Reckless is a good alternate ability
Starmie - Psycho Shock
Swampert - Boiling Water
Togekiss - No significant change
Torterra - No significant change
*Typhlosion - Flash Fire
Tyranitar - No significant change
Vaporeon - Boiling Water; Hydration as alternate ability
*Venusaur - Chlorophyll
Victreebel - Growth boosts +1 Attack and Special Attack, +2 in sunlight
Yanmega - No significant change
Now, without further ado, the Pokemon up for promotion...
Pokemon Promotions (Non-Dream World-dependant)
Definite
Aggron: A Pokemon we always wanted to try out. Aggron, this time around, has more to play with than just Rock Head Head Smash: Sturdy and Heavy Bomber (with Dream World Heavy Metal). Since Aggron was Ruby-main team, it may be worth using again.
Altaria: It's cute, and a solid Pokemon even without its new Cloud Nine ability. I think it's time to try it out.
Cloyster: Oh, goodness. Icicle Spear buff, Shell Blade, freaking Shell Break (+2 to Attack, Special Attack and Speed, and just -1 to Defense and Special Defense? What?)... this guy's too good not to use.
Electivire: Previously skipped due to lack of a worthwhile physical Electric attack; Wild Bolt fixes that up nicely.
Gastrodon: The new and improved Storm Drain and Boiling Water are both fun; Sand Strength is a good alternate ability from Dream World.
Golem: We're using him on principle, since all the other Trade Masters of Gen I are now main team. Not that Golem is any bit bad; in fact, the upgraded Sturdy does wonders for him.
Gorebyss: A Pokemon we've always been meaning to use, but could never squeeze it in. Gorebyss is still a threatening rain sweeper, but now it has one new trick up its sleeve: Shell Break. This move can quickly turn Gorebyss into a massive powerhouse... and it can also Baton Pass it to teammates. Ouch.
Hitmontop: As far as the Hitmons go, it's either use one or use them all. With so many Fighting-types in the new generation, I'm hesitant to use all, so I'm going with the coolest one. Hitmontop's biggest gain is a new and improved Hi Jump Kick; past that, it's the same spinner/priority abuser as last gen.
Kabutops: Using him more on principle since Omastar will also be used. Good Pokemon by all means.
Ludicolo: Old Gen III main team member, will probably see use once again with the advent of auto-rain.
Luxray: Suffered from lack of good physical STAB, but now it gets Wild Bolt. Guts is a good alternate ability.
Omastar: Potent Rain-abuser, now also potent Shell Break-abuser.
Poliwrath: Since Politoed is in there, might as well use its Water-Fighting cousin for some fun times.
Porygon2: This is an interesting case: this will, indeed, be the first time we use a pre-evolved form alongside its evolved form. This is due to a new item, the Pre-Evolution Stone, that boosts the defenses of not-fully-evolved Pokemon. Porygon2 is unique in that its pre-evolved form is actually bulkier than its evolved form (and is meant to be played as such), so... well, here goes!
Quagsire: What's with all the sudden usage of the Water/Grounds? Well, Whiscash will unfortunately be left out... but anyways. Quagsire. Unaware. Should be interesting.
Shiftry: Old Gen III main team Pokemon returns, for a round of Sun-abuse! And abuse of its new Growth.
Tangrowth: Why didn't we use him before? Hard to say. Why are we using him now? Easy to say: Sun-abuse. Although Regeneration is a great ability, too.
Venomoth: Veno-what? Yes, believe it or not, Venomoth became awesome this generation. Why? Butterfly Dance + Baton Pass. And it still has Tinted Lens for awesome coverage.
Pokemon Promotions (Dream World)
Definite
Alakazam: Magic Guard is awesome. That is all.
Crawdaunt: An Adaptability user with dual-STAB? Sounds good to me!
Ditto: Eccentric. This ability is what Ditto needed, period. With this, we can actually use Ditto on our team.
Magmortar: Using him on principle along with Electivire. Dream World Vital Spirit is preferable to its current ability.
Nidoqueen/Nidoking: Both get Encourage, and have massive movepools with which to abuse the ability. Nidoking is more offensive, but the two are a package deal and if we use one, we use the other.
Octillery: Inconsistent is... well, it's inconsistent, but when it works, it's downright broken. Octillery always was a fun Pokemon to play with and now it's even more fun.
Politoed: DRIZZLE. That is all.
Sharpedo: SPEED BOOST. High speed torpedo-sharks are GO!!!
Slowbro/Slowking: Regeneration is a cool ability.
Volbeat: Another "Wait, what?" Pokemon we're going to be using, although it needs its Dream World ability Mischievous Heart. For what? +3 Special Attack Tail Glow + Baton Pass, all with priority!
Closing Notes
So, in addition to the 68 current main team members, we are adding an additional 30 from past generations, and, of course, the Generation V main team (expected 42 from there). This all adds up to a nice total of 140 main team members. This is, of course, a lot. Obviously, we won't be minding all of them at once. The fifth-generation new Pokemon take priority; Dream World-dependant Pokemon won't enter until they are actually released, and any old-generation Pokemon will start out as simply entering our team if there is a need for their position to be filled. All in all, it looks to be a fun generation.
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