Pokémon Black and White/Species Strategies (Gen IV Families)

This page contains information on every Pokémon family first introduced in Generation IV, including stats, movesets and evolutionary lines. All evolutionary lines are put together, even if an evolution or pre-evolution was not introduced in the same Generation as other members of its evolutionary family.

Spiritomb
Spiritomb has no weaknesses and strong Defence and Special Defence which makes it a considerable tank. Despite its strong defences Spiritomb has low HP although this can work in your favour if it knows Pain Split. It also has Pressure to wear down the opponents PP more quickly. It's Hidden Ability is Infiltrator which means Light Screen, Reflect, Mist and Safeguard will be useless against it.

Although it is slow, Spiritomb is not too shabby when it comes to aggressive combat, being able to use Nasty Plot to power up Special Attacks. Spiritomb can make up for its lack of Speed with either Sucker Punch or Shadow Sneak.

Since Spiritomb has no type weaknesses it is not a Pokemon that should be taken lightly. It won't be sweeping due to its low Speed but it's defenses and healing techniques can allow it to hold off multiple opponents.

Moveset 1

 * Dark Pulse
 * Hypnosis
 * Dream Eater
 * Silver Wind

Moveset 2

 * Dark Pulse
 * Confuse Ray
 * Psychic
 * Nasty Plot

Moveset 3

 * Dark Pulse
 * Confuse Ray
 * Psychic
 * Pain Split

Moveset 4

 * Sucker Punch
 * Will-O-Wisp
 * Shadow Ball
 * Pain Split

Gible, Gabite and Garchomp
Like all most Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon, Garchomp suffers from a double weakness, Ice types. Fortunately it can learn a wide variety of moves to take them out and thanks to its great Speed and a very high Attack stat, there's a good chance that it will knock out its opponent before it gets hit by an Ice type move. As a Dragon type, Garchomp can use Draco Meteor but Physical combat is where it is in its element.

Gible evolves into Gabite at level 24 and Garchomp at level 48 but it's worth the wait because Garchomp, despite its double weakness, is one of the strongest Pokemon outside the Legendaries. The anime, which shows Cynthia's Garchomp blocking a move as powerful as Frenzy Plant using only the fins on her arms, exaggerates its defensive prowess but it can still take a hit pretty well and even Ice type moves are not guaranteed to take it down. Garchomp has the highest HP of all non-Legendary Dragon types, which helps when it comes to taking hits.

Garchomp works well in a Sandstorm thanks to Sand Veil, but you probably won't want to waste a moveslot with Sandstorm so if you're going to activate Sand Veil, use Garchomp on a team with Hippowdon, Tyranitar, or just another Pokemon that can use Sandstorm. Garchomp's Hidden Ability is Rough Skin which will hurt the opponent whenever they attack it physically.

Moveset 1

 * Dragon Rush
 * Draco Meteor
 * Stone Edge
 * Earthquake

Moveset 2

 * Dragon Rush
 * Giga Impact
 * Brick Break
 * Crunch

Moveset 3

 * Dragon Claw
 * Fire Fang
 * Swords Dance
 * Earthquake

Riolu and Lucario
Riolu and Lucario are perhaps two of the coolest Pokemon ever invented. Riolu's moveset is not as big as Lucario's but it still has some useful moves such as Copycat and Nasty Plot. Riolu has a much lower Special Attack stat than Lucario and therefore must rely on Physical Attacks unless it knows Nasty Plot. It evolves into Lucario via a close friendship with its trainer.

Lucario is awesome as a sweeper having a very large moveset, reasonable Speed and access to ExtremeSpeed, and high Attack and Special Attack. It can act as a mixed sweeper, a physical sweeper or a special sweeper depending on the trainers choice of moves and can raise its considerable offensive stats even higher with Swords Dance or Nasty Plot. Unfortunately it is somewhat weak defensively but its unique typing gives it resistences other Fighting types don't have, especially against Psychic and Flying. However it also now has weaknesses to Fire and Ground type moves.

While Riolu is only a fairly average Pokemon, Lucario can be extremely powerful. Both of them have a Special Ability that is activated by flinching. Steadfast is arguably the better ability because it raises Speed but Inner Focus prevents them from flinching at all and thanks to ExtremeSpeed, Bullet Punch or Vacuum Wave, they may not need a Speed boost anyway.

Moveset 1 (Riolu)

 * Copycat
 * Force Palm
 * Endure
 * Reversal

Moveset 2 (Riolu)

 * Nasty Plot
 * Vacuume Wave
 * Copycat
 * Hidden Power (Dark)

Moveset 3 (Lucario)

 * Aura Sphere
 * Dark Pulse
 * Dragon Pulse
 * ExtremeSpeed

Moveset 4 (Lucario)

 * Aura Sphere
 * Dark Pulse
 * Dragon Pulse
 * Psychic

Moveset 5 (Lucario)

 * Aura Sphere
 * Shadow Claw
 * Flash Cannon
 * ExtremeSpeed

Moveset 6 (Lucario)

 * Close Combat
 * Shadow Claw
 * Swords Dance
 * ExtremeSpeed

Arceus
Arceus is the god of all Pokemon so naturally it is extremely powerful, arguably the strongest Pokemon you will ever meet. All its stats are equal and very high so you can use it as a sweeper, a wall, a staller, pretty much anything you wish. However the most interesting thing about Arceus is that it can be literally any type thanks to its Multitype ability. Give it an Elemental Plate and you can have arguably the most powerful Pokemon of any type under your command. No doubt about it; Arceus is not a Pokemon you would want to mess with.

It is interesting to note that despite being a god, Arceus does not have access to all TM's, HM's or Move Tutor moves, even though Mew does. Nonetheless it still has a very large movepool. Arceus's Signature Move is the devastating Judgement which will always get a STAB boost as it changes to whichever type Arceus is when it uses it. It is also the only non-Dragon type, apart from Smeargle and an event Jirachi, that can learn Draco Meteor, although it must be holding the Draco Plate when you take it to the Move Tutor in order to learn the attack. Arceus can be used as an all out attacker, but for those of you who want to make it almost impossible for the opponent to defeat you, teach it Recover. Even with Draco Meteor's side effect of dropping its Special Attack, Arceus is still capable of sweeping entire teams with ease.

Nonetheless Arceus is not unbeatable even when it's at Level 100, the level it learns Judgement at. Heal Block can be a life saver against it if it has Recover and Disable can work too although its accuracy is less reliable. Furthermore Arceus cannot change its Elemental Plate in the middle of battle and therefore a team with a variety of different types, like Cynthia for example, may be able to find flaws in its fighting style.

Moveset 1

 * Judgement
 * Recover
 * Hyper Beam
 * Draco Meteor

Moveset 2

 * Judgement
 * Ancient Power
 * Hyper Beam
 * Draco Meteor

Moveset 3

 * Judgement
 * Ancient Power
 * Hyper Beam
 * Earth Power

Moveset 4

 * Judgement
 * Recover
 * Toxic
 * Protect