Suggest Replacement Team Members [X/Y]

Please :)

Currently just outside Laverre City and my team is:

Lvl 44 Gardevoir
Lvl 44 Lucario w/Lucarionite
Lvl 43 Absol
Lvl 40 Talonflame
Lvl 40 Delphox
Lvl 32 Lapras (surf)

Looking at the level spread it's easy to see which three are my favourites and which ones rarely get used.

As such, I'm looking to replace Talonflame, Delphox and Lapras. Talonflame is obviously useful due to Fly, but in battles someone always does better.
Likewise Delphox, she is outshone by Gardevoir and Lucario.

I'm trying not to look at the wiki pages during this playthrough (first run through a new Gen for me) so I'm not really sure what Poke's I'm missing or could catch to form a more balanced team.


Other pokemon of note I have are:

Lvl 28 Axew (Rivalry, so a bad ability, I think)
Lvl 34 Venusaur w/Venusaurite (if I add him back to the team he'll get Black Sludge)
Lvl 58 Gengar w/Gengarite (thank you GTS)

That's all I've really been training, the rest are the same level as caught.


So, ideally what I'm looking for is suggestions to replace Delphox, Talonflame (not sure about this) and Lapras. However, any replacements for Talonflame and Lapras need to have the same utility (fly and surf).

Also if you suggest adding Venusaur back in, what moveset would you recommend?


Thanks in advance, and apologies for all the questions >.<

If your Talonflame's got Gale Wings ability, then I'd wouldn't recommend you replacing it, as it could be quite helpful to you; with the combination of this ability and moves such as Brave Bird and Roost, you'd be able to get through opponents quite easily. I've used it plenty of times before, and it always managed to impress me. If it doesn't have Gale Wings, then it's all up to you if you'd like to remove the Pokémon or not.

As for which you should put into your team, my suggestion would be to perhaps try Gengar. It might be too great in terms of defenses, but offensively, it could definitely cause some major destruction. Venusaur would be good option, too; unlike former, this one does play defensively, and could stall your foes for huge amount of turns.

My Talonflame has Flame Body, unfortunately. How would I go about finding one with Gale Wings?

Not keen on using the Gengar since it is way overlevelled for my team, and I want to use all Pokemon that I've personally caught/bred (at least until post-game). Maybe if I catch and level up a Haunter...

Would a Sneasel be a decent addition? Just caught one and I've always thought they were cool since Gen II, but I've already got three physical attackers :(

If you really want Sneasel in your team, you should replace Absol with it. If you want to keep Absol in your team, then I wouldn't add Sneasel if I were you.

If you want to replace Delphox, you should replace it with Venusaur. You already have Talonflame as your Fire type.