Note: This is a blog post I wrote back in 2021, when I had challenged myself to beat the radical red league with all monotype teams. This is definitely not as relevant as it would be a year ago as the version 3.0 has been revealed for radical red; but I'm posting it here to share my experience and views. I have yet to check out what the new version of radical red has to offer and it might inspire me to write more about this incredible rom hack! Hope you guys enjoy giving this a read.
Following is what I would describe as the best team in postgame to challenge the Pokémon league in radical red 2.3a. Disclaimer that it should be very obvious that this is not the only team that would work; you can plan out a similar or better composition with your own creativity. This is the one I found to be the most easy to sweep up the Pokémon league with.
This team is quite simple in composition. I should point out the first Pokémon I absolutely knew I wanted to use in this: Tapu Fini! It has the amazing misty surge ability setting up a free safeguard. This has multiple benefits. It blocks lance’s primal dialga from resting up, most importantly it blocks out the annoyance that is gary’s yveltal using the dark hole signature move that has a high chance to put mons to sleep. Tapu fini has an amazing typing that makes it resistant to stab of water types; particularly your chances of running into 2 dracovish and also takes care of kingdra and the dragon types in this league.
Kyurem was one of the best tech mons I found. Above I discussed how majority of the teams have a focus sash on their lead and then also keep taunt users and stealth rock to provide setup or take it away. Kyurem with learning both icicle spear and dual wing beat takes great care of zoroark, aerodactyl and garchomp as well as pheromosa. Moreover it has the choice scarf to outspeed them; not to forget freeze dry on its moveset allowing it to hit kingdra, swampert, dracovish, dragonite, salamence and more for 4x super effective damage.
Typhlosion’s job is plain and simple it clicks priority eruptions to magnify the power further I used choice specs. The other moves I kept were heat wave for lorelei’s hail team and sunny day. Priority sunny day can be huge if you stumble into lorelei’s rain team. It doesn’t stop there either. It can take out extremely fast and strong sweepers like zacian and scizor on bruno’s team as well as spectrier and gengar which mean trouble for this team with their nasty setups. It is also a great option for melmetal another tank you need to account for.
Mega salamence is plain and simple. I was intending to keep it along fini to form a solid dragon, fairy and steel type core. Salamence helps me sweep bruno’s entire lineup if he choses to lead with infernape. It goes something like: infernape uses pyro ball into my dragon dance; then I roost as infernape taunts me. Next turn I pick off infernape with dual wingbeat and get another moxie attack boost. I keep sweeping till he sends out urshifu with scarf; then you have to mega to outspeed at +1; it is quite simple.
Last two mons fit in well. Zygarde can be obtained in its power construct by simply changing it to H.A. this is one of the strongest mons that are available for use by the player. Zygarde is there as a potentially viable answer to eternatus one of the most threatening mons in the entire league and then it takes great advantage of the move coil and more importantly taking damage. Its role can be of a revenge killer on this team. When it needs that extra bit to bounce back. Also having thousand arrows on this set is the best moves as you do not have to worry about ground immunities even.
For corviknight… according to my own leads and plans against each member I could real use a bulky steel type. Especially when I am facing the dragon dance mence and dragonite as well as gary’s mega metagross. Ferrothorn worked really well however it was quite prone to fire type moves that these mons carried and had no form of recovery. Corviknight filled both these niche and with rocky helmet was quite an important part of this team’s success.
Teambuilding really is one of my favorite aspects of competitive side of Pokémon. The problem solving aspect is quite intriguing to me. This is why I decided to explore further take great advantage of the extra perks of being champion and try the mono type elite four team challenges. Following is the dragon type team I build:
Yes I did take full advantage of the game corner mons being able to be shiny with all the extra money I had collected. Dragonite is a simulation of a salamence; since I didn’t really want to reuse mence here too; however it failed in the role quite much. Dragapult was a hard hitting choice banded member of the team and was responsible to removing major threats like eternatus and pheromosa from gary’s team alongside many others. Also having sucker punch gave it the edge I needed against agatha’s gengr, spectrier and dragapult. By far the MVP of this team is mega altaria. Ith a moveset of calm mind, roost, moonblast, and cotton guard it stall sweeps Bruno, agatha’s final few mons, lance and then gary too. I didn’t expect it to be this good on the team at all!
What I did expect to be good was the mega sceptile. I saw a monorun a while bac with this mon and decided on a similar swords dance technician based moveset. Though it wasn’t the star of the team; mega altaria easily takes the crown for that. Turtonator and goodra were the defensive walls with valiant shield, body press, rocky helmet and shell trap it bodied zacian; one of the most difficult mons for this team to counter. Goodra was a damage sponge and bought this team the time it needed to reposition.
Being highly motivated the next monotype team I go for is the fairy type. I knew this is one of the best types in the game however the team I carelessly ev’d and trained to level 100 is quite lackluster. I would 100% redo this team; because the gary battle’s win came down to playing with rng factors and A.I’s algorithm. Klefki and tapu fini; both which I trained but sat out on the bench would have been better candidates on the team. It was just not the best for green.
Next league win was with the fire type team. This team I did have to reboot after realizing I had too little resources against lance. After the reboot I changed the charizard y mega with mega blaziken which greatly helped between its speed boost, swords dance and fire as well as rock and then earthquake coverage. Emboar with bulrush was a revenge sweeper, sunflora is here to handle lorelei’s team better as I had dropped the solar beat carrying charizard y. from my experience in the radical red hardcore mode; I knew how good a victini can be; so I opted for it. Having torkoal was a great support; the standard rocky helmet utility against mons like dragonite and melmetal in the Pokémon league. It really was quite helpful.
This was such a cool team to win the league with… I believe the best I have had up till this point. Having tapu fini; which I earlier explained as the best mon for the league with a rain mode, dracovish and then gorebyss was all too good. Gorebyss with the noticeable buffs of dazzling ability with added fairy typing gave it the edge it needed when combined with shell smash setups…
Grass was the toughest one up till this point. I completed this league run on 8th August 2021. I struggled but somehow made it to gary the first time only to realize there was no win con for me in this one. I had to go back replace gourgeist for a celebi and then teach useful moves like encore over whimsicott’s grassknot, re-EV my zarude to take physical hits even better, and teaching more coverage to my kartana. I really had to reset many times and play turn by turn to earn this hall of fame.
As easy lorelei and Agatha were for this team; as tough Bruno, lance and then gary became in the end…
At this point anything on this challenge should seem like an easier type to work with. Steel type was the one I choose next because I knew this type has the potential to do well. However I was a bit beat down by the prevalence of fire type coverage in the league such as flamethrower on dialga, mega salamence’s fire fang, eternatus’ flamethrower, infernape and the fighting types. However it was still an easy time. Mega Metagross is one of the best you can have against this league, jirachi put in great work with a physically offensive moveset + serene grace being able to land flinches and ice punch freezes often. Bisharp was great against Agatha especially when grimmsnarl decides to use spirit break against it. Ferrothorn was the standard and the best rocky helmet defensive mons I will use quite often on the league teams here. Samurott was just a fun choice on the team given its new blademaster ability and coverage. Klefki put in great work with light clay and dual screens setup.
I really felt like flying type was going to give a big challenge. However! It ended up being really fun. Choice scarf landorus hits very important mons in the league for significant damage, skarmory; is one of the best mons to fill the physically defensive rocky helmet carrier due to it being able to carry roost. Gyarados being initially a flying type and then switching to dark type was an amazing utility to bait attacks and set up a dragon dance to turn the games round. Moltres being the least used member was here to handle the bulky steel types. The dodrio was a focus sash + endeavor + quick attack set that put in amazing work, almost like a better destiny bond as I am able to switch it out readily after the ko. Minior was an experimental choice but it put up quite some work with the white herb, shell smash and acrobatics. This was an unexpectedly fun team to play with.
Up next was ground type and I was quite scared. I did recalibrate as I was trying to finalize the team and added in mudsdale and garchomp in place of camerupt and a trick room setter. Being able to have 2 mons with slack off + physical defense and rocky helmets in hippowdon and mudsdale was phenomenally good. Not to forget I have a scarfed moxie krookidile to snowball through teams. Ombined with the utility of storm drain gastrodon and its recover + special bulk… this team was definitely and rather unexpectedly one of the best up till this point. It was not only enough to make it through the elite four; it was swiftly making it through the challenge.
Mudsdale with slack off, body press, iron defense with the stamina ability is one of the best mons I have overlooked during my teambuilding process in all past runs of radical red. It really is a star on this team.
Following up is the dark type. Having variety and utility with tons of options with the dark type was quite liberating. Both the fast megas carry the move destiny bond… its importance can’t be beat to remove solid mons from the lineup. Due to both their speeds (speed boost was on sharpedo) they could pick up kos before taking another clean ko with destiny bond. Sniper boosted wicked blow drapion is the entire point of this mon. grimmsnarl was quite useful. Not only for prankster and light clay screen setups. But its spirit break coverage did really well against some of the league.
Normal team was next up th list, despite my confidence… it was a complete fail. It was reminding me of my first fire type team. Picking the crème de la crème from the list of normal types as in mega kangaskhan, porygon2, snorlax and feeling clever with the touch of castform and sawsbuck seemed promising however I was completely stuck at Bruno… I definitely need to rebuild this team… and build it well to pass through the league.
This new direction to the team took advantage of unique mons like ditto and combined with strategy and bulk to tackle this league.
Mega Audino was quite an amazing option here. Being able to use wish, calm mind, draining kiss and yawn all in one set can snowball teams when left unchecked. It is a phenomenal check to league walls like primal dialga and yveltal. Ditto could pick up important checks like copying and removing zacian and other overpowered threats; especially when paired with choice scarf. After learning that endeavor was a viable strategy from the flying team; I took to raticate to fill in this role. Its sucker punch was also useful against Agatha. I really love girafarig; especially with the buff of getting parental bond alongside boomburst… it could pick up a lot of mons solo. Castform and heliolisk were great and quite powerful coverage options to cover up the league.
I was scared to use the electric types in the league… I figured it would give me a similar experience to grass types. Particularly for one big reason… Gary’s primal Groudon. However my physically bulky rotom wash with rocky helmet, toxic, pain split and foul play was entirely dedicated to countering and removing it from the field; especially as I can switch easily into it baiting a precipice blades. Tapu koko gave the offense boost this team needed. Raichu is the mon to use here; with rising voltage and surge surfer, being further backed by regielecki being further boosted by terrain and rising voltage in addition to its ability. Luxray is here to provide essential priority and cover against Agatha. Zeraora really didn’t have much of a purpose beside the fighting coverage for mons like melmetal.. however its phiycal moves ended up being much more useful.
Rock Type was a really fun team to put together. If you have read a bit above… you realize that how helpful baiting water attacks from storm drain was. This role is filled by cradily; further buffing it up was the new signature move sappy seed and barrier with recover. Aerodactyle was a great tool with dual wingbeat and dragon dance against fighting types and sash carriers of the league. Terrakion can provide speedy offense; whereas tyranitar’s rock typing helped buff up defenses and against agatha’s ghost types. Stakataka ends up being a beast; iron defense in combination with body press, trick room and coverage options can pick up teams if set up properly. Magcargo was really an afterthought on this team; it didn’t provide too specific of a purpose other than being able to provide fire coverage against steel types.
I had the same problem with this team as the normal type. Putting together big mons like mega gengar, blacephalon and spectrier might have sounded much more promising but I hit a brick wall against Bruno.. so I had to backtrack. I reused two mons and rebuilt the team. Mimikyu and dragapult were fantastic additions to the team. Dragapult is able to pick off major threats in the league. Chandelure can take smaller hits much better than blacephalon, mega banette is immune to ghost attacks of Agatha while providing priority destiny bond. Aegislash was here to fill the role of bulky rocky helmet carrier. I found this fairy, dragon steel core within this team that really helped it push over the edge. Decidueye was a great utility mon against lorelie’s teams carrying water type mons and especially against bruno’s rapid strike urshifu with rocky helmet.
Psychic team is up on the lineup. First up the defensive tools of meowstic’s double screen and mew’s iron defense + body press combo with roost can stall out entire teams. Delphox is here to provide a fast offensive fire types for the biggest obstacle in steel types of the league. Indeedee became an amazing defensive switchin to stop spectrier from snowballing this entire team. Lunatone is a niche choice here but it has good coverage and takes on groudon relatively well. Tapu lele was my out against gary’s yveltal.
After the fail of keeping up the effective electric terrain on my electric type team; having 2 members being able to set it up was much more useful. it saved me from quite some dangerous priority attacks be it aqua jet from urshifu, yveltal’s sucker punch, metagross’ ice punch, dragonite’s extreme speed and marshadow’s shadow sneak.
I was not sure how well would this one go; however the toughest challenge I had with this team was with lorelei. Afterwards; this team picked up rather relatively well. Let us break down the elements: darmanitan had to be the start of this team. Here I use the zen mode to give it the auto fire and ice typing as well as enhanced stats to deal with mons better. Froslass and delibird are mainly destiny bond tactics, mamoswine is here for steel types, groudon and eternatus in hopes to land a single hit on them. weavile is a simple but effective addition. Here is when I discovered that I can also use counter as a tech in combination with focus sash; this ended up being a great tech against some tough physical attackers in the league.
Poison team has a lot more variety to it in comparison to what I thought a mono poison team would look like. The different moves and secondary typings; especially the abilities played really well with each other. Nidoking is obviously the main sweeper of this team having the sheer force with access to great coverage options. Qwilfish now has access to prankster in combination with both types of spikes and destiny bond with thunder wave. Mega garbodor’s ability compliments toxic spikes setup as its ability parasitic waste in mega form helps to recover 50% of its health for the damage it deals. galarian weezing is able to resist good stuff especially in combination with the levitate ability. Naganadel was thought of as promising however the A.I doesn’t let you take advantage of beast boost much, the speed stat was its strongest weapon. Last but not the least the dry skin carrying Toxicroak is great against lorelei’s water type team and to block out lance’s dracovish locked into fishious rent.
Fighting Team looked like a tough one to beat the league with, that was until I replaced the defensive cobalion with electrivire. It improved the matchups I was so weak against super well. Having built so many monotype teams I had a good idea of the elements that can cover the weaknesses of a mono type. Gallade’s Destiny bond, Mirror Coat Loppuny, Counter on urshifu were useful techs. Mega Blaziken was super useful in between the swords dance and speed boost setup. Not the easiest team; however it did really well as compared to what I expected of it.
Bug Type was the last challenge in my way. I for sure thought it was going to be the toughest however it wasn’t that bad at all! I had studied up on quite some people’s teams who used pinsir, heracross and volcarona on their mono bug league teams; however you won’t see any of them here. I feel like centiskortch is much better between the flash fire ability allowing it to switch into fire type attacks and then the newfound mountaineer ability in its mega form allowing immunity to rock type attacks makes it a great defensive pivot for a mono bug team. Not to forget; it gets access to coil and flame charge in combo with the defense lowering fire lash; it is built to snowball teams.
Shuckle, Araquanid and even scizor to an extent are mostly defensive. The items of leftovers and rocky helmet really helped them shine. Galvantula provides fast pivots with volt switch and compound eyes + thunder for water types and the dreaded yveltal. Having sticky web option on galvantula became very key to outspeed and deliver the finishing blow to mons that switch in. speaking of ko’ing mons I was quite surprised by the potential of download + great special coverage of genesect, if it gets the special attack boost; it can do a lot of work on this team. Pair up this very decent speed with a special attack boost and an item like life orb opened up the victory lap for this team in many situations.
13th August, approximately 9:30 A:M is when I completed this challenge.
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