This challenge was a lot of fun. I'm not used to playing with so many defensive Pokemon, so it was quite different from what I usually do, especially since it was the first time I've used most of these (all except Crobat and Drifblim). Having three great Pokemon with good special def (Quagsire, Bronzong and Umbreon) was a huge advantage against Cynthia. Here's a breakdown of the team, well, mostly based on what happened during the E4 and champ battles today, since I've actually had the Gyms beaten for a while now.
- Quagsire (MVP) ‧ Like I said, it was my first time using him, and he exceeded all my expectations. I remember I had to postpone his evolution so he could learn Earthquake at an earlier level, and it was a slow grind as a Wooper, but after that, he pretty much destroyed anything that stood in his way. He had Yawn for a while, and it was a lot of fun to use, but I ended up replacing it with Rain Dance; that helped against Bertha. I used him a lot at the League, and I think it was three times that he was left with 1HP and pulled through, we got that lucky!
- Bronzong ‧ Aah, Steel types. Great typing and stats, he was able to take anything that was thrown at him. I actually used him against Cynthia's Togekiss today; not a single Focus Blast missed, and he took them all, and retaliated with Zen Headbutt (okay, okay, it took a bunch of potions to pull it off). For the League battles, I gave him EQ and Feint Attack, which were super effect on a bunch of opponents, and Stealth Rock, with worked quite well -- though I forgot to set it up against the aforementioned Togekiss, who was the main reason I had SR in the first place /facepalm
- Crobat ‧ Yup, the same one who beat Roark's Gym as a Zubat. Crobat has never disappointed me, even though his strategy relies a lot on luck: Confuse Ray and Bite's flinch chance. He's just so fast, I don't think I've seen anything non-priority to outspeed him.
- Umbreon ‧ He was amazing until later in the game, but at some point I realized that he doesn't really have much of a movepool. I tried Sucker Punch, but settled for Payback when he started to be too slow. In the end, I gave him Toxic + Protect, and Quick Attack to finish off the job. Still, even with his poor attack, he did very good.
- Glalie ‧ So Ice Fang can both flinch and freeze the opponent, that's so cool! Ice Shard is there for priority, and the others because I couldn't be bothered to change them. Now that I think about it, that is his moveset ever since I caught him as a Snorunt. Well, he was caught very late in the game, so it's not that really that weird. Anyway, I was planning on making this one a special attacker, since everyone else except Drifblim were physical attackers. Thing is, his nature and stats didn't turn out my way, so I just went with it. He did well, especially against a certain Garchomp today, hehe.
- Drifblim ‧ I kinda neglected him throughout the game, so in the end I had to grind a bit; he was actually 10 levels behind the rest of the team at some point. For the League battles, I gave him all damaging moves and changed his item depending on what best at that moment, especially since he was my only special attacker. I, uhm, let him faint quite a bit, to trigger Aftermath, so I don't think he gained much exp today. I actually wanted to his him a bit more, but the others were always better alternatives.
To end this on a funny note, I only realized that everybody except Brozong was male when I was planning my strategy against Volkner and I wanted to pit a female against his Rivalry Luxray.
