Choosing Pokemon for Battle Tower Team.

[-GameMaster-]

Okay, so over the last few years of playing Pokemon Emerald on and off, I've decided I'm finally going to get to a 100 win streak in the Battle Tower.
I've EV trained a large amount of Pokemon over the past few years, and I wanted to know which ones could make a reliable team. Feel free to add new Pokemon to the list, changing movesets on existing ones and adding holdable items:

1. Heracross
Adamant EV's: 4 HP/ 252 Att/ 252 Spe
-Megahorn
-Rock Slide
-Earthquake
-Brick Break

2. Starmie
Modest EV's: 4 HP/ 252 S.Att/ 252 Spe
-Surf
-Psychic
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam

3. Blissey
Bold EV's: 252 HP/ 252 Def / 4 S.Def
-Refresh (Emerald version doesn't have Roselia to breed with for Aromatherapy)
-Softboiled
-Toxic
-Minimize

4. Metagross
Adamant EV's: 252 HP / 236 Atk / 12 Def / 8 Spe
-Aerial Ace
-Explosion
-Earthquake
-Meteor Mash

5. Latios
Serious EV's: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Thunderbolt
-Calm Mind
-Psychic
-Ice Beam

6. Slaking
Adamant EV's: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-Hyper Beam
-Shadow Ball
-Earthquake
-Return

7. Swampert
Brave EV's: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SpA
-Surf
-Brick Break
-Earthquake
-Ice Beam

8. Aerodactyl
Jolly EV's: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Double Edge
-Aerial Ace

9. Tyranitar
Adamant EV's: 252 HP / 240 Atk / 16 Spe
-Aerial Ace
-Crunch
-Rock Slide
-Earthquake

10. Salamence
Adamant EV's: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-Flamethrower
-Rock Slide
-Earthquake
-Dragon Claw

11. Milotic
Bold EV's: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 SpA
-Surf
-Recover
-Ice Beam
-Toxic

12. Dragonite
Timid EV's: 4 HP / 252 S.Att / 252 Spe
-Slam
-Outrage
-Thunder
-Fire Blast

13. Blaziken
Adamant EV's: 80 HP / 232 Atk / 196 Spe
-Sky Uppercut
-Rock Slide
-Flamethrower
-Earthquake


Those are probably the ones worth mentioning. Please tell me which would make a reliable team. I don't mind adding a new Pokemon, changing movesets and EV training all over again.

Thanks in advance

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

If you can't get Aromatherapy on Blissey, go with Heal Bell. You can get Heal Bell by breeding with Skitty (pretty much the only thing Skitty is good for).

On Metagross, I'd drop Aerial Ace. It doesn't hit anything noteworthy that Metagross has trouble with and has a rather low base power. A neutral Meteor Mash hits harder than a super effective Aerial Ace. Go with Agility or Rock Slide. After Agility Metagross outruns the majority of the frontier, and if you also get the attack boost from Meteor Mash Metagross becomes fairly unstoppable, while Rock Slide is situational but hits Gyarados and Zapdos for super effective damage.

Ice beam is a bit redundant on Latios. Flying types are hit by Thunderbolt, Grass types don't scare a dragon, and with levitate you shouldn't fear grounds too much whilst Dragon Claw also hits dragons. Latios generally runs best with either a full sweeper moveset or Calm-Mind-Recover.

Latios
-Psychic
-Dragon Claw
-Thunderbolt
-Surf

Psychic is mostly neutral STAB coverage, but it gets notable OHKO's on Gengar and Heracross, two pokémon that can cause trouble with Ice Punch and Megahorn respectively. Dragon Claw is secondary STAB that hits opposing Latios/Latias, and other dragons hard. Thunderbolt and Surf provide additional coverage, Thunderbolt being useful to hit water types that frequently carry Ice Beam and Surf getting useful hits on pokémon like Aggron and Steelix, although Surf can be replaced by Calm Mind or Recover.

CM-recover Latios
-Psychic
-Calm Mind
-Recover
-Thunderbolt / Dragon Claw

CM-Recover is a way to get around pokémon like Blissey that can recover repeated hits, and it can be used to build up against a non-threatening foe. It also allows you to get around Mirror coat users like Swampert and Wobbuffet.

Tyranitar works best as a Dragon Dance sweeper in my opinion. The AI is generally stupid enough to let you set up at least one Dance, and after DD Tyranitar is almost unstoppable. It requires breeding from a dragon through Charizard, but it's worth it.
Tyranitar
-Dragon Dance
-Rock Slide
-Earthquake
-Crunch / Aerial ace

I've never used mixed Salamence, but I guess it works. Alternatively you can go with special Salamence (Dragon Claw / Fire Blast / Hydro Pump / Crunch) or DD-mence (Dragon Dance / Aerial Ace / Earthquake / Rock Slide).

Dragonite is in 3rd gen a bit like a lesser Salamence. Less speed, less offensive stats, and no Intimidate. Although it has better defensive stats, it lacks a recovery move and is not nearly as defensively capable as pokémon like Suicune. Apart from Thunderbolt Salamence does everything better.

Blaziken isn't really worth using at this level in the Frontier. It lacks imporant speed to make up for its fragility. Although it has decent offensive stats, it's too slow to take full advantage of them, and unlike Metagross, it can't take repeated hits reliably while attacking.

 

[-GameMaster-]

If you can't get Aromatherapy on Blissey, go with Heal Bell. You can get Heal Bell by breeding with Skitty (pretty much the only thing Skitty is good for).

On Metagross, I'd drop Aerial Ace. It doesn't hit anything noteworthy that Metagross has trouble with and has a rather low base power. A neutral Meteor Mash hits harder than a super effective Aerial Ace. Go with Agility or Rock Slide. After Agility Metagross outruns the majority of the frontier, and if you also get the attack boost from Meteor Mash Metagross becomes fairly unstoppable, while Rock Slide is situational but hits Gyarados and Zapdos for super effective damage.

Ice beam is a bit redundant on Latios. Flying types are hit by Thunderbolt, Grass types don't scare a dragon, and with levitate you shouldn't fear grounds too much whilst Dragon Claw also hits dragons. Latios generally runs best with either a full sweeper moveset or Calm-Mind-Recover.

Latios
-Psychic
-Dragon Claw
-Thunderbolt
-Surf

Psychic is mostly neutral STAB coverage, but it gets notable OHKO's on Gengar and Heracross, two pokémon that can cause trouble with Ice Punch and Megahorn respectively. Dragon Claw is secondary STAB that hits opposing Latios/Latias, and other dragons hard. Thunderbolt and Surf provide additional coverage, Thunderbolt being useful to hit water types that frequently carry Ice Beam and Surf getting useful hits on pokémon like Aggron and Steelix, although Surf can be replaced by Calm Mind or Recover.

CM-recover Latios
-Psychic
-Calm Mind
-Recover
-Thunderbolt / Dragon Claw

CM-Recover is a way to get around pokémon like Blissey that can recover repeated hits, and it can be used to build up against a non-threatening foe. It also allows you to get around Mirror coat users like Swampert and Wobbuffet.

Tyranitar works best as a Dragon Dance sweeper in my opinion. The AI is generally stupid enough to let you set up at least one Dance, and after DD Tyranitar is almost unstoppable. It requires breeding from a dragon through Charizard, but it's worth it.
Tyranitar
-Dragon Dance
-Rock Slide
-Earthquake
-Crunch / Aerial ace

I've never used mixed Salamence, but I guess it works. Alternatively you can go with special Salamence (Dragon Claw / Fire Blast / Hydro Pump / Crunch) or DD-mence (Dragon Dance / Aerial Ace / Earthquake / Rock Slide).

Dragonite is in 3rd gen a bit like a lesser Salamence. Less speed, less offensive stats, and no Intimidate. Although it has better defensive stats, it lacks a recovery move and is not nearly as defensively capable as pokémon like Suicune. Apart from Thunderbolt Salamence does everything better.

Blaziken isn't really worth using at this level in the Frontier. It lacks imporant speed to make up for its fragility. Although it has decent offensive stats, it's too slow to take full advantage of them, and unlike Metagross, it can't take repeated hits reliably while attacking.

First of all, thank you for your time.

I placed Aerial Ace on Metagross to stop double teamers like Ludicolo and Blissey. Makes it much easier to deal with them.
Now, I should probably mention I have a couple of new Pokemon:
Alakazam (Modest, EVs: 252 S.att, 252 Speed, 4 HP), Gengar (Modest, EVs: 252 S.att, 252 Speed, 4 HP), Breloom (Adamant EV's: 52 HP / 252 Atk / 204 Spe) and Snorlax (Adamant EVs:144 HP / 68 Atk / 132 Def / 164 SpD).
Thought I should mention them, as they could be valuable team members.

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

Double teamers are annoying indeed. I use a DD-Salamence to deal with those, set up multiple Dances while they Double team and then destroy everything with AA. Salamence gets STAB on it, which makes a big difference.

Of your new suggestions, Snorlax is truly a beast. Especially the classic Curselax set that is used competitively very much in 3rd gen:

Snorlax @ Leftovers
Trait: Thick Fat
Careful nature
252 HP, 252 Sp.Def, 4 Def
-Curse
-Rest
-Return
-Earthquake / Shadow Ball

The only thing that prevented this thing from being banned in 3rd gen competitive play was the existence of Roar and Whirlwind. The AI doesn't use those moves, feel free to set up multiple Curses to make your defence impenetrable, taking huge hits with ease, whilst your attack grows larger and larger. Curselax is such an indestructable beast that you shouldn't be surprised to win many battles with Snorlax alone. If you don't have access to Slowpoke to breed Curse from, you can also get it on Snorlax from the chain Torkoal => Rhydon => Snorlax.

Breloom is similar to Blaziken in that it has a good attack stat, but no speed or defences to back it up. It gets some useful tricks like Sporepunch, you can always try, but I'd say it is quite risky.

With Alakazam, whilst it is good, question why you would use Alakazam over Latios. Latios gets Thunderbolt, Alakazam gets thunderpunch. Latios gets STAB Dragon Claw, Alakazam gets Ice Punch. Latios gets significantly more bulk as well as Levitate to take the occasional hit. The only thing that Alakazam really has over Latios is a better Sp.Atk, but 5 base points in Sp.Atk is not worth 35 base points in Def, 25 in HP, and 25 in Sp.Def.

Gengar is a good pokémon, but it is similar in Alakazam that it can't take hits. Gengar has the additional problem of Shadow Ball being physical, so it doesn't get any useful STAB offence, which is lacking compared to Latios' dual STAB coverage. Gengar also has no advantage over Latios in terms of movepool.

 

[LimeSoda]

I have that exact same blissey, without perfect IVs, and it still works great. I have Seismic Toss on it though instead of minimize, and aromatherapy. [which im aware you cant get]

ST hits everything and toxic is obvious. I am influenced by the above guys post to go with Snorlax then too, and then definitely salamence since it's such a strong physical sweeper. The only problem is you don't have one poke that hits with special attacks then.. so that actually is probably not a good team

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

I wouldn't go with Snorlax and Blissey on the same team at the same time, they both have the same weaknesses to fighting types. Counter + Cross Chop Hariyama can cause trouble if it takes out Salamence with Counter. Snorlax is great in the battle tower, the dome, and the palace if you have an impish one (impish makes it go Rest at low health). Blissey shines mostly as a special wall or as a doctor in the Pyramid and Pike, where it can use Softboiled to cure the rest of the team outside of battle, and Heal Bell to cure status inside battle. I wouldn't use either in the Arena, as the Arena only gives 3 turn battles and no real time for set ups (especially if your foe stalls with Protect). In the Arena pokémon that hit immediately hard with loads of type coverage are best, like 4-attack Latios, Metagross, and Salamence. Type coverage is more important in the Arena as you can't switch and you lose points for not very effective hits.

But Blissey does indeed need Seismic Toss, she needs to be able to deal damage to her foes, and Minimize is luck-based and shouldn't be relied on.

 

[-GameMaster-]

Okay, so after a lot of EV training, I built a new team:
1. Ninjask @ Lum Berry
Impish (Already fast enough for Battle Tower, so decided to bulk up it's poor defense)
-Substitute
-Sword Dance
-Slash
-Baton Pass

2. Curselax @ Chesto Berry
Adamant
-Curse
-Rest
-Shadow Ball
-Body Slam

3. Metagross @ Leftovers
Adamant
-EQ
-Aerial Ace
-Explosion
-Meteor Mash

Not sure about the hold items and moveset, so feel free to contribute.