[Meta thread] Iron's PokeRole Adventure: The Skull Ruins

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

Alright, based on your guys opinions, I've revised my team format to be the following:

- Angie
- Michael
- Posei
- Oinari
- Pixie / Anubi
- Edmundi / Anubi
 

Posei, Angie, and Michael are must picks for the reasons we've all stated, and between those three they pretty much cover each other's weakness while also shoring up their strengths too. I decided to leave Dunny out based on the good points brought up by you Dragonstrike, and the fact that on reflection he doesn't have all that much variety in his offenses, which can easily get stuff by a Normal or Dark type. Oinari's also being brought along despite her weakness for her potential, added deterance for the Ghost/Dark/Psychics in the Skull Ruins, and simply because part of the reason I bought her was for the Skull Ruins Dive itself, so not bringing her along would defeat that purpose entirely.

My last two choices are a bit more decisive though, and really making me wish Trainers could cart around more than 6 Pokemon at a time. Pixie is one of Terra's most adaptable and disruptive Pokemon period and quite hard to take out, and Edmundi has Wide Guard and heavy offense going for him. However, Anubi is just a capable fight and I can rush him to learn Heal Pulse to provide more healing for the party, so he could replace either one of the two. He's also the only one besides Posei that can increase his STR with Nasty Plot (At least, right now. Oinari can eventually learn Hone Claws/Nasty Plot, and Angie can get Coil), and the frog has to deal with Belly Drum's crippling downside if he wants the extra POWER. Between his sweet of Priority Moves, STABs, Blaze Kick, and Final Gambit, he can also pull his weight when it comes to just hurting the opposition. Finally, if Terra/the group comes across a Lucarionite in the Ruins, then Lucario could have access to his Mega Form even without a Keystone, as Iron mentioned and demonstrated Pokemon don't need one to trigger it (albeit at some unknown risk level).

So, I want to know your guys opinion: should I add in Anubi over Pixie/Edmundi, or just leave him out of things entirely?

On the note of Dunny versus Normal types, do note that they buffed Foresight in Pokerole so that it also makes Normal types vulnerable to Ghost type moves.  Not sure that buff was necessarily needed, but few Ghosts are able to use Foresight (Duskull line and Sableye are the only ones that can)

Looking at that lineup...I'm going to echo Spirit a little here and say go with Pixie and Anubi.  Anubi has the panic button and easier buffing going for him (plus potential Heal Pulse) alongside decent coverage moves, and the combination Intimidate, Snatch, and Super Fang are kinda too good to pass up when Pixie is the only pokemon in the whole group (that's safe to bring) with those particular skills.  Even just one Wide Guard user can give a whole team enough momentum to set up and/or do significant damage without being particularly vulnerable to the enemy's damaging moves, so Doublade will probably be able to just fine on its own (particularly with Intimidate and Strength debuffing moves backing that buff up), even if double Wide Guarders would be great for easier spamming of the move.  Plus, if you can manage to beeline for Heal Pulse, I might not necessarily have to bring Ditto for the purpose of getting more usage out of that move.

One the note of Mega Evolution: If it were that easy, I could have had a Mega Charizard/Absol for awhile now.  That wild M-D-Houndoom was a bit of an edge case by my understanding.  How wild pokemon are able to Mega Evolve isn't exactly fully understood, but it's generally assumed that it's only possible under very specific conditions.  P-Arcanine did hint that there are other ways to trigger Mega Evolution besides a Key Stone, but minus the Scimitar Gauntlets (since they have to literally replace your arm to even work at all) and the artificial Mega Stones Almanac makes (which have downsides to compensate for their ease of use), we haven't really encountered any of those methods yet.  'Course, there might be clues as to what some of those methods might be in the lower layers of the Skull Ruins.  Generally, it seems to have been implied that trainer triggered ones (that don't involve Almanac/Scims) will typically require that strong bond.