Plus, it learns Rest, which lets it recover all its HP and heal all status changes. Fire In general, Fire Pokémon are not quite as powerful as Water or Electric types, but they're an excellent choice against Grass, Ice and Bug types. Most players tend to train Charizard the most out of all their Fire Pokémon. Although the flying lizard has good stats, it's also very vulnerable to Electric and Ice attacks. It's better to stick with a single-type Fire Pokémon. Best Pokémon: Arcanine, Moltres, Flareon Arcanine rocks. Although Flareon and Moltres are excellent Fire types, this Fire Lion has got the Speed and HP to make a difference in any battle. If you're looking for something with a bit more Special power, try Moltres. The only problem is that it doesn't learn any decent techniques by itself (use TMs) and the fact that it's a dual type, but its stats are awesome. Finally, add Flareon to your team if you want pure Attack power. Water Water types are abundant in all the Pokémon games -- which is a good thing if you've got a lot of Electric and Grass Pokémon. But there is simply no better choice against Ground, Rock and Fire types than a powerful Water Pokémon. Best Pokémon: Blastoise, Gyarados, Cloyster, Starmie Blastoise remains the most balanced Water Pokémon in the game. With the exception of Speed, it's got all the right stats to knock out those nasty Ground, Rock and Fire opponents. Another favorite is Gyarados. Sure, it's a dual Flying type -- but you wouldn't use a Water Pokémon against an Electric type anyway, right? Gyarados just looks cool and has wonderful Special, Attack and HP stats to boot. Another worthwhile dual Water type is the Ice Pokémon Cloyster. Only the most powerful attacks can get through this floating bad boy's insanely high Defense. Teach it moves like Blizzard and Surf and check out what it can do. You may also want to check out the dual Psychic-type Starmie. Electric One look at our Stadium section should tell you that Flying and Water Pokémon are everywhere. Both are vulnerable to Electric attacks, making Electric Pokémon the single most important addition to any team. Best Pokémon: Jolteon, Zapdos I suggest you train both a Jolteon and a Zapdos. Jolteon, which is hands-down Eevee's best evolution, is one of the fastest Pokémon in the game and dishes out powerful special attacks. To make things even better, it learns Thunder Wave and Thunder on its own (two very important moves) as well as the Bug technique Pin Missile. This makes it a strong contender against Psychic types as well. The legendary Zapdos, on the other hand combines Flying and Electric attacks. You should teach it Thunderbolt or Thunder as well, as Fly. Two essential choices. Grass Tangela is the only true Grass type Pokémon. All others are dual types, which makes them vulnerable to a lot of attacks. It doesn't help that Grass types are already vulnerable to four types on their own... Still, a good Grass type can save the day when going up against Electric, Rock, Ground or Water types. Best Pokémon: Tangela, Exeggutor, Venusaur Tangela has the advantage that its Grass attacks cause a lot more damage than its fellow dual types' attacks -- even though other Grass Pokémon may have higher stats. Mega Drain and Bind are two of the most useful Grass attacks. Bind can drive your opponent nuts because he/she can't get a hit in -- and Mega Drain can be very powerful against Electric, Rock, Ground and Water opponents. All the alternative choices are dual types. The wacky Exeggutor has a ton of HP and can learn both Sleep Powder and Solar Beam. Venusaur has amazing stats, so it's definitely worth your while as well. Just keep it away from Psychics. Ice Ice Pokémon are rare - and there is no "single Ice type" in the game, only dual types. While that leaves them open to many attacks, these Pokémon often have some of the best attacks. They are also the premier choice against Dragon Pokémon. Best Pokémon: Articuno, Cloyster Articuno is an underappreciated powerhouse. Bring it up to level 60 (so it learns Mist) and teach it Blizzard and Fly and you will have the most powerful Dragon slayer in the game. Plus, Ground attacks can't hit it. If you're looking for a Pokémon with higher Defense stats, Cloyster is again a great choice. Fighting I almost never use Fighting Pokémon. Sure, they're fast and take out Normal types better than any other Pokémon, but one Psychic or Flying attack and they're history. The other problem is that there aren't all that many great Fighting techniques. The best, Seismic Toss, can be learned by a lot of non-Fighting Pokémon and causes damage regardless of type anyway. Best Pokémon: Hitmonlee No other Fighting Pokémon beats Hitmonlee.

Hitmonchan may have slightly higher Special and Defense ratings, but Hitmonlee has got the Speed, HP and Attack stats to punch all other Fighting Pokémon out of the ring. Teach him Hi-Jump Kick. Poison There aren't many good Poison techniques, which is why many gamers will stay away from this type altogether. To make things worse, they're really, really weak against Psychic and Ground attacks. While I tend to not use Poison types too often, I'm actually a big fan of using Poison techniques to bring down powerful, hard-to-hit foes. The trick is to poison an opponent early on with Toxic, then follow up with Sleep, Bind , Stun or Accuracy-lowering techniques that don't cause any damage but prevent your opponent from hitting you. Toxic works over time and eventually takes off more and more HP. This can be very effective. Best Pokémon: Weezing There are a bunch of good dual types like Venusaur, Vileplume and Gengar, but Weezing is definitely the most powerful "true" Poison Pokémon. Sadly, Weezing doesn't learn Toxic on its own (you need to teach it from a TM) -- which means you might as well teach Toxic to a faster, non-Poison Pokémon and skip this type altogether. However, Weezing's Explosion move can be a really nasty trick to take down someone's star Pokémon. Ground The best thing about Ground Pokémon is that they can learn Dig. While it's a two-part move, it's a great defensive move to evade your opponent's attacks as well as a very powerful Ground attack. You will definitely need a Ground type at some point, so don't forget to train one -- even if it's slow and weak in the beginning. Best Pokémon: Golem, Dugtrio Dugtrio is a true Ground type, whereas Golem is a dual Ground/Rock type -- both can learn the powerful Dig and Earthquake Ground techniques that will instantly knock out Fire, Electric and Poison Pokémon. It's actually a good idea to train both Golem and Dugtrio. Golem is slow, but very powerful (and can use Explosion at level 43) and Dugtrio is a little weaker but very fast. Either one can be the Pokémon of choice against Electric opponents. Flying Flying Pokémon are cool, but they have one fatal flaw: they are ultra-weak against Electric attacks. There is just no way around it. If you face an Electric opponent, call back your Flying Pokémon. If that's not a choice, then use the evasive Fly move to get out of the way. But use a Flying type against Grass, Fighting and Bug and you can only win. If you ever face an opponent who uses Dig -- switch to a Flying type. Ground attacks can't harm Flying Pokémon. Best Pokémon: Zapdos, Articuno, Gyarados Zapdos is amazing. This dual Flying/Electric type is the only Flying Pokémon that has good resistance to Electric attacks (although even it won't last through a Thunder hit dealt by a strong Electric type). Keep it away from Ice and Rock Pokémon and you will find it to be one of the top Pokémon in the game. Articuno is another powerful bird type, just as the flying sea snake Gyarados, but Zapdos is definitely the superstar among all Flying types. Psychic This is perhaps the most important Pokémon type in the whole game. Psychics have very few weaknesses and are absolutely devastating against Poison and Fighting Pokémon. They also dish out some of the best status-altering techniques and are versatile when it comes to learning non-Psychic techniques. A powered-up Psychic with the technique Psychic, Recover, Thunder Wave and a fourth non-Psychic maneuver like Seismic Toss, Dig or Blizzard is almost unstoppable. Best Pokémon: Mewtwo, Mew, Alakazam, Starmie No question about it, Mewtwo is not only the best Psychic type, it's the best Pokémon in the game. With the exception of Defense, Mewtwo's stats are simply out of this world. It's also able to learn a lot of great non-Psychic techniques. A powerful Mew -- if you're lucky enough to own one -- is a good contender to a Mewtwo, even though it's not quite as powerful. But Mew can learn EVERY TM and HM in the game, which makes battling a Mew an unpredictable endeavor. Finally, Alakazam is a good choice for players who like to be a little more down-to-earth with their Psychic Pokémon. A Kadabra is also not bad (especially when it comes to speed), but you may want to use a Hypno instead because of its superior Defense stats. Bug If you want to train a Bug Pokémon, train it for one reason only: to take out Psychic Pokémon. The problem with Bugs is that they have mediocre stats and don't learn many worthwhile Bug techniques. I actually prefer to use a Jolteon equipped with the only decent Bug attack (Pin Missile) instead. Best Pokémon: Scyther,

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