5th Gen Pokemon Black/White Team (Early Game) + Onward

[YellowSwagMaster420]

I'm going to be starting Pokemon Black/White 1 pretty soon. I need to know what starters to choose and what teams to be basing them off of.

I will be catching as many Pokemon as I can, training them and then transferring them over to my gen 6 games and eventually Sun & Moon. But I want a well-balanced team to help me in the games. I'll eventually play the sequels but I'm focusing on Platinum & Yellow right now and I don't want to go through too many games at once.

Again, I have Black AND White. Please suggest a starter and strategies on how to move around their weaknesses as i know some of the starters don't always have the greatest stats. Much appreciated! ^^

 

[Ho-Oh]

Spoiler:

Warning this is super messy but stuff is bolded. I sometimes talk about evolved forms but generally the strongest in the evolution line is fine.

Good choice in games! Tepig and Oshawott are best to start with. You don't get access to water types early on other than Oshawott (which is super useful) and with Tepig it won't struggle gym wise for most of the game (until the fifth/sixth gym). So with that said,

Oshawott in White is awesome. It can learn lots of useful TMs (surf most importantly) and it's final evolution, Samurott is super strong. You'll get a grass monkey early on (to face your first gym leader) but you should probably ditch it after the gym because you'll have access to other grass types really soon. White is the best one for this as you get access to Petilil (which works a bit better than Cottonee, the Black exclusive can). Fire types aren't that common early on but that's OK because there's cool fighting types instead. Sawk or Throh is fine to help with any weaknesses you might have covered with a fire type.

So far we have...
Oshawott - Nuvema City, Water Type
Petilil - Pinwheel Forest, Grass Type
Sawk or Throh, Outside of Pinwheel Forest, Fighting Type.

Collectively their weaknesses are Psychic, fire, bug, ice, electric, grass. Your fire, bug and ice weakness can be patched up with Roggenrolla which is also early on. Which leaves you with water, psychic, ground, big grass and electric weakness. Swoobat is also early which can help you with Psychic and ground.

But that brings back ice, grass, electric and water. Cool thing is you don't face many of them early on. So! Go catch a seismitoed - Elesa's Nimbasa gym can do nothing against you then (just use water attacks). Level it up on the side. Your final Pok?mon comes later and replaces one of these.

So if that all sounds confusing...

To beat Striaton gym: use the monkey provided.
To beat Nacrene gym: catch a Sawk or a Throh just outside Pinwheel Forest.
To beat Castelia Gym: catch a Roggenrolla and use that in combination with your other Pok?mon (Leavanny can be defeated by over levelling everything).
To beat Nimbasa gym: Use Seismitoed and use water attacks against it.
To beat Driftviel gym: Use Samurott.

THEN. Once you get to Chargestone cave your team should change.

WHITE
Team pre-Driftviel gym
Oshawott
Woobat
Roggenrolla
Petilil
Sawk/Throh
Seismitoed

Team post Driftviel Gym
Samurott
Ferrothorn (found in Chargestone)
Scrafty (found in desert)
Musharna (found in the Dreamyard)
Chandelure (found in the ghost like tower)
Emolga (found just before Driftviel)

Which should get you through the e4 fine.

For Black,

Tepig turns into a part fighting Pok?mon so grab a Leavanny in pinwheel forest to help with Psychic attacks. You're not going to get good water types soon so grab a Seismitoed. Its one weakness, grass, is irrelevant as you have the other two and it helps with Tepig's weakness. As suggested before use a Throh or a Sawk until after Castelia when you should get a Scrafty. Go grab a Gothitelle after Nimbasa and you're set. For your last spot you can go with a dragon (Axew) or a flying type to help with fly.

So because this is annoying on phone...

THE massive reasoning is in spoilers. Sorry lol typing on phone is annoying.

White
Chandelure
Samurott
Ferrothorn
Scrafty
Musharna
Emolga

Black
Emboar
Leavanny
Seismitoed
Scrafty
Gothitelle
Haxorus / Braviary

 

[YellowSwagMaster420]

Spoiler:

Warning this is super messy but stuff is bolded. I sometimes talk about evolved forms but generally the strongest in the evolution line is fine.

Good choice in games! Tepig and Oshawott are best to start with. You don't get access to water types early on other than Oshawott (which is super useful) and with Tepig it won't struggle gym wise for most of the game (until the fifth/sixth gym). So with that said,

Oshawott in White is awesome. It can learn lots of useful TMs (surf most importantly) and it's final evolution, Samurott is super strong. You'll get a grass monkey early on (to face your first gym leader) but you should probably ditch it after the gym because you'll have access to other grass types really soon. White is the best one for this as you get access to Petilil (which works a bit better than Cottonee, the Black exclusive can). Fire types aren't that common early on but that's OK because there's cool fighting types instead. Sawk or Throh is fine to help with any weaknesses you might have covered with a fire type.

So far we have...
Oshawott - Nuvema City, Water Type
Petilil - Pinwheel Forest, Grass Type
Sawk or Throh, Outside of Pinwheel Forest, Fighting Type.

Collectively their weaknesses are Psychic, fire, bug, ice, electric, grass. Your fire, bug and ice weakness can be patched up with Roggenrolla which is also early on. Which leaves you with water, psychic, ground, big grass and electric weakness. Swoobat is also early which can help you with Psychic and ground.

But that brings back ice, grass, electric and water. Cool thing is you don't face many of them early on. So! Go catch a seismitoed - Elesa's Nimbasa gym can do nothing against you then (just use water attacks). Level it up on the side. Your final Pok?mon comes later and replaces one of these.

So if that all sounds confusing...

To beat Striaton gym: use the monkey provided.
To beat Nacrene gym: catch a Sawk or a Throh just outside Pinwheel Forest.
To beat Castelia Gym: catch a Roggenrolla and use that in combination with your other Pok?mon (Leavanny can be defeated by over levelling everything).
To beat Nimbasa gym: Use Seismitoed and use water attacks against it.
To beat Driftviel gym: Use Samurott.

THEN. Once you get to Chargestone cave your team should change.

WHITE
Team pre-Driftviel gym
Oshawott
Woobat
Roggenrolla
Petilil
Sawk/Throh
Seismitoed

Team post Driftviel Gym
Samurott
Ferrothorn (found in Chargestone)
Scrafty (found in desert)
Musharna (found in the Dreamyard)
Chandelure (found in the ghost like tower)
Emolga (found just before Driftviel)

Which should get you through the e4 fine.

For Black,

Tepig turns into a part fighting Pok?mon so grab a Leavanny in pinwheel forest to help with Psychic attacks. You're not going to get good water types soon so grab a Seismitoed. Its one weakness, grass, is irrelevant as you have the other two and it helps with Tepig's weakness. As suggested before use a Throh or a Sawk until after Castelia when you should get a Scrafty. Go grab a Gothitelle after Nimbasa and you're set. For your last spot you can go with a dragon (Axew) or a flying type to help with fly.

So because this is annoying on phone...

THE massive reasoning is in spoilers. Sorry lol typing on phone is annoying.

White
Chandelure
Samurott
Ferrothorn
Scrafty
Musharna
Emolga

Black
Emboar
Leavanny
Seismitoed
Scrafty
Gothitelle
Haxorus / Braviary

I actually just started playing Black and I choose Oshawott xD. I'll choose Tepig in White though. My team so far (I'm in Nacrene City and I haven't challenged Lenora yet.)

Oshawott
Woobat
Patrat (Needed an HM Slave to learn Cut and I didn't want to teach it to my other Pokes)
Purrlion (For speed, will put in box later though)
Munna (I was jumping for joy when I caught it xD)
Roggenrola (Coincidence you suggested it xD!)

I also nickname my Pokemon (I don't usually but I've started to sorta challenge myself)

Woobat - Nightwing (I'm sure you know where this is from)

Muuna - Hope (After a Dolphin Tale, Hope, Winter's buddy. Winter, the disabled Dolphin we saw the other day at the Clearwater Aquarium. I think Muuna looks like a bottlenose dolphin. sue me xD)

Purrlion - Mitten. After my grandparents kitten that passed away.

Jack - SAMUROTT JACK : D

Roggnerola - Rocky. I hold no regrets.

Thanks for the advice! I'll be sure to post my progress here! : D

 

[YellowSwagMaster420]

An update:

I managed to evolve my Oshawott into a Dewott, I caught a Sawk and a Sewadaddle.

My Dewott Jack is at level 19

My Sawk Goku is at level 20 (more than Jack because I beat the second gym with it),

My Munna Hope is at 15

Rocky my Roggernrola is at 14

NightWing my Woobat is at 16.

I'm right outside Pinwheel Forest and I was doing some grinding >_<'

 

[Caliber70]

I finished Black 1 around a week ago, playing Black 2 now for the first time.
i cheat coded and level-3-spawned my team into the area outside of the starter town, because you know... team experimentation. this is my team currently, all level 38-40 range:

Infernape - recently taught it fire pledge, he knows close combat and sword dance and nasty plot
Sceptile - taught it grass pledge the same time i taught fire pledge. sunny day + leaf blade + dragon pulse i think. grass pledge replaced solar beam, so here sunny day is a little obsolete.
Starmie - scald, ice beam, psychic and Psych up
Jolteon - raindance, thunder, charge beam, and shadow ball
Gabite - Dig, Strength, Iron head, and Dragon Claw
Staraptor - Fly, Close combat, work up, and return.

obviously my team has a theme on it: high speed one shot team. however recently i feel my Staraptor is not doing well, it never seems to pull its weight on the team. i am thinking of replacing Staraptor. what do you think? Aerodactyl for speed and attack? i usually avoid using legendaries unless as HM slaves.

before the E4 i will drop leaf blade and dragon pulse with energy ball and Xscissor to Sceptile, and he will deal with psychics and as backup dark types, Jolteon shadow ball for ghost and psychics, Starmie for fighting and as backup ghost killer, Infernape as the main dark. Starmie the main dragon killer with Garchomp as backup dragon. i have experimented teaching aerial ace and acrobatics to the Chimchar and Treecko lines, i never knew STAB made such a big difference.

how have your experiences playing with Staraptor been like? are all flying types just outside the starting towns always doomed to be the weakest links?

 

[YellowSwagMaster420]

I finished Black 1 around a week ago, playing Black 2 now for the first time.
i cheat coded and level-3-spawned my team into the area outside of the starter town, because you know... team experimentation. this is my team currently, all level 38-40 range:

Infernape - recently taught it fire pledge, he knows close combat and sword dance and nasty plot
Sceptile - taught it grass pledge the same time i taught fire pledge. sunny day + leaf blade + dragon pulse i think. grass pledge replaced solar beam, so here sunny day is a little obsolete.
Starmie - scald, ice beam, psychic and Psych up
Jolteon - raindance, thunder, charge beam, and shadow ball
Gabite - Dig, Strength, Iron head, and Dragon Claw
Staraptor - Fly, Close combat, work up, and return.

obviously my team has a theme on it: high speed one shot team. however recently i feel my Staraptor is not doing well, it never seems to pull its weight on the team. i am thinking of replacing Staraptor. what do you think? Aerodactyl for speed and attack? i usually avoid using legendaries unless as HM slaves.

before the E4 i will drop leaf blade and dragon pulse with energy ball and Xscissor to Sceptile, and he will deal with psychics and as backup dark types, Jolteon shadow ball for ghost and psychics, Starmie for fighting and as backup ghost killer, Infernape as the main dark. Starmie the main dragon killer with Garchomp as backup dragon. i have experimented teaching aerial ace and acrobatics to the Chimchar and Treecko lines, i never knew STAB made such a big difference.

how have your experiences playing with Staraptor been like? are all flying types just outside the starting towns always doomed to be the weakest links?

I'm not one for cheat codes, since I want to transfer all these Pokes into Sun & Moon when it comes out. ^^ ;

But I've liked Staraptor when playing Platinum. I have a Staravia in that game right now. I don't really think your Staraptor has a very good move set?

I would get rid of Work Up and Return. At least Return since I know that doesn't do much damage unless friendship levels are high. Staravia can learn Take Down by leveling up but it's accuracy is only 85% It's power is 90, though.

Through breeding, it can also learn Double-Edge which is a 120 Power Attack and it's accuracy is 100% Again, I posted this thread because I want recommendations for MY teams. I'm not very good at all of this ^^

 

[Caliber70]

I'm not one for cheat codes, since I want to transfer all these Pokes into Sun & Moon when it comes out. ^^ ;

But I've liked Staraptor when playing Platinum. I have a Staravia in that game right now. I don't really think your Staraptor has a very good move set?

I would get rid of Work Up and Return. At least Return since I know that doesn't do much damage unless friendship levels are high. Staravia can learn Take Down by leveling up but it's accuracy is only 85% It's power is 90, though.

Through breeding, it can also learn Double-Edge which is a 120 Power Attack and it's accuracy is 100% Again, I posted this thread because I want recommendations for MY teams. I'm not very good at all of this ^^

friendship works like this:
distance traveled together +
level up +
fainting -

with Starly running with me since outside the starting town, and leveling up to lvl 40 i would imagine the friendship is at max or near max. so yes i have seen return one shot some monsters, but usually they are the weaker bunch of pokemon. i can easily relearn moves with move NPCs, but of course i usually avoid moves with recoil.