Help a noob out (Poke rate and suggestions please)

[Riveli]

So I only recently started learning in depth about IVs and EVs, as well how to train EVs and how natures affect stats. I'm currently 1 badge away from entering the Kanto League and I'd like to put some of that knowledge to use, but I'm still kind of lost. What I'd like to do to help me understand a little more is post my current team in the spoilers below to be rated, and I'd like to get reasons why they rate well or poorly. Maybe give me some tips on what I should be looking for when I'm catching Pokemon in terms of stats and natures.

 

[spoiler=Current team]

 

[Galaxyrise93]

Not an expert myself but my thoughts on that team vs E4 and in general for a new player:

 

Firstly for the "story," almost anything is fine, just try and land super effective moves wherever possible while avoiding the same being done to you. So Raichu is your best bet against the 1st of the E4, her Ice+Water (and a little psychic) is great against all except Poli and Rai, only Rai is good against her. Venesaur is good against her, but so are her moves against you, risky.

 

For Bruno the 2nd E4, Pidgeot will do best as Flying > Fighting and use Venesaur/Poli for Onix.

 

3rd is Ghost/Poison for which you don't have an amazing answer yet; something with psychic or crunch would do wonders.

 

4th is Dragon so Ice will work wonders, as well as water for Tyranitar and Charizard (electric also v Chari) so you have some options there. Your Poli has icebeam which will be great but Speed of 9 and not fully trained may be slower than the opponent and just get thunderboltd out. May want to train its speed to max if you're having trouble.

 

Last is your rival and he is very generic, you have good coverage against all except Alakazam so just don't get countered by him and you'll be fine. Against I recommend something with Crunch.

 

As for what to look for in future pokemon (while keeping in mind that just for story it doesn't matter too much), you want natures to add to your moveset/strengths. Your Pidgeot for example uses flying type moves that hit physically so its Attack is important. But yours is 5 and reduced by its nature. So a nature that either boosts Attack or at least doesnt hinder it would be good for that type of mon. Same issue with Venasaur, a lot of special attack moves yet its nature hinders it. Obviously Venasaur is a starter so you didn't have a choice, and for story its fine, but thats the kind of thing to look for.

 

Not related to Natures or Iv/Ev but your Raichu basically has 2 moves, Flash and generic electric attack, flash you have for caves so it makes sense, plus it isn't useless in battle just meh. But changing Thunder and Electroball to moves that aren't electric would give your Raichu a greater chance to be most effective against upcoming, unknown enemies. Right now his coverage is 1 dimensional. A type of thing to consider.

 

TL:DR Look for natures that add to what your pokemon is there to do (Timid if you need to be fast and don't need physical ATK moves for example). And high IVs in the stats which your pokemon is there to use. 31 IV in ATK on a gengar is useless as his moves will all be SP-ATK. Then lastly, train EVs to match what you are there to do, your Poliwrath would want speed and SP-ATk given its moveset.

 

Unrelated tip: invest (time or pokedollars) in a Gyrados, so great for story (Haunter/Gengar too)

 

Good luck have fun.