We have all lobbied up for raids and we take a good, long look at our recommended and we think to ourselves… what is good about this team? Some players believe that using their recommended team is fine, even in small raid groups, and others rage that recommended is the bane of their existence. So, what is your recommended based off of and what makes it (usually) so bad?
To start, your recommended is based heavily on resistances, aka, what will last the longest in battle. This usually disregards attacking power and will normally put in Pokémon with neutral or not very effective moves into your raiding team. Usually, if there is a Pokémon with a resistance to the raid boss’s moves and that Pokémon knows a super effective move, it will be put in without doubt, but that still does not mean it is good.
For example, against Latias with the charge move Thunder, the game might recommend you a Groudon with Dragon Tail as a fast move, regardless of whether the charge move is effective or not. Thanks, Groudon, knew I could count on you.
This is another example of a recommended team you might see against a Latias with Thunder:
Cringy right? Flygon is probably the best out of the bunch of these (though mine has a measly Stone Edge move set), because it can hit super effective with its fast move and take that resisted thunder very well. Will you win the raid in a small group? Well… that is debatable. If you are in a very large group (I would call large 10+ for most T5 bosses) then go ahead and use your recommended, that way you will lose less in revives and potions.
However, other than just being a trash battle team for both gym and raid battles, what is the recommended good for? Well, it is phenomenal in one category; it will tell you exactly what charge move your opponent possesses. When you see a Golem and Groudon team when you are fighting Latias (same went for Kyogre) then you know right away that it has Thunder and you can plan your own team accordingly. Some move sets are harder than others, so it can also help you judge just how hardcore you need to go to win or if your group is of big enough size to take it down. Sometimes it is hard to tell what move it has, because the counters could be similar, or overall misleading, but 4 out of 5 times this should work!
So, when you see that trash recommended and you determine what move the raid boss has, then what? Well there are a few things you can do. You can click each Pokémon in your recommended and swap them out for something else (though this can be a bit hard with lag) or you can make a premade battle team (also called a battle party) and swipe over to that instead.
Premade battle teams are amazing and they allow you to just swipe over a few times to find your optimal team. It is truly astonishing how many people do not make battle teams and either hand pick every battle or roll with their recommended team. It is very easy to access your battle teams, if you open up your Pokémon tab and swipe your finger to the right!
You can hold up to 5 pre-made teams at one time and they are specific to device (so if you get a new phone you have to make all your teams all over again, so remember what’s on them!). This is what a premade team looks like:
Alright, now stop judging my counters. This team can be accessed at any time with a swipe or two (or five) on the lobby screen for a raid, ultimately saving you time and frustration if you encounter some lag and keep swapping around unwanted Pokémon into your recommended.
We hope that this article has helped you understand recommended as well as give you some insight into pre-made battle teams. If you do not use pre-made teams, give them a try! We promise that they are more efficient if used correctly! Keep in mind that though you have the option to put a Pokémon in a pre-made party into a gym, doing so will remove it from your roster. So if your team starts dropping out of your party like flies, stop putting them in gyms.
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