I decided to return to Emerald and try to finally get all 7 gold symbols. With the help of this thread I've been progressing quite well, and I've got one streak I figured might be worth sharing. I cleared 231 rooms in the Battle Pike on a retail cartridge level 50.
Salamence @ Lum Berry
Adamant nature
6 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
Dragon Dance
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Metagross @ Choice Band
Adamant nature
128 HP / 252 Attack / 128 Speed
Meteor Mash
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
Suicune @ Leftovers
Timid nature
252 HP / 220 Def / 4 Sp. Attack / 32 Sp. Defense
Surf
Ice Beam
Calm Mind
Rest
Salamence @ Lum Berry
Adamant nature
6 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
Dragon Dance
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Metagross @ Choice Band
Adamant nature
128 HP / 252 Attack / 128 Speed
Meteor Mash
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
Suicune @ Leftovers
Timid nature
252 HP / 220 Def / 4 Sp. Attack / 32 Sp. Defense
Surf
Ice Beam
Calm Mind
Rest
I loved having Salamence as a lead in this team because it was fast enough to run away from wild Pokemon and intimidate presents good opportunities for switching to Suicune to set up in tough battles.
A lot of times the hints I got were for "whispering" rooms, where Metagross could destroy the enemy team with Earthquake in double battles. Salamence would either use Rock Slide for decent damage and flinch chance or use Fly. Something I noticed was enemies would often focus their attacks on Salamence, so he could use fly to avoid the damage while Metagross defeated them all and they'd both finish the battle at full health. I wanted Aerial Ace on Salamence but didn't have the TM left in any of my GBA games to trade it over. I have been enjoying using Fly, both for the double battle benefits I mentioned and because it allowed me to totally avoid any damage from Slaking.
The 4 Sp. Attack EVs on Suicune were an accident, and I'm pretty sure they were useless since in level 50 you need 8 EVs for 1 stat gain. I bred Salamence and Metagross for good IVs, both considered "quite impressive" with flawless attack. The Suicune I got in Colosseum a year or two ago and it just happened to have a decent nature and perfect HP IVs.
I think I did have a fair amount of luck making it as far as I did, with many rounds where I barely fought any battles. I'd say the biggest threat to this team is BoltBeam users, and the round I lost ended up having a Starmie and a Gengar on the team. The battle started with Salamence vs Starmie and I expected Ice Beam so I switched to Suicune, but for some reason it chose Thunderbolt. It used Thunderbolt again the next turn and killed me before I could use Calm Mind. Metagross killed Starmie and their second Pokemon, then got killed by Gengar. Salamance took either an Ice Beam or Ice Punch and it was over.
A lot of times the hints I got were for "whispering" rooms, where Metagross could destroy the enemy team with Earthquake in double battles. Salamence would either use Rock Slide for decent damage and flinch chance or use Fly. Something I noticed was enemies would often focus their attacks on Salamence, so he could use fly to avoid the damage while Metagross defeated them all and they'd both finish the battle at full health. I wanted Aerial Ace on Salamence but didn't have the TM left in any of my GBA games to trade it over. I have been enjoying using Fly, both for the double battle benefits I mentioned and because it allowed me to totally avoid any damage from Slaking.
The 4 Sp. Attack EVs on Suicune were an accident, and I'm pretty sure they were useless since in level 50 you need 8 EVs for 1 stat gain. I bred Salamence and Metagross for good IVs, both considered "quite impressive" with flawless attack. The Suicune I got in Colosseum a year or two ago and it just happened to have a decent nature and perfect HP IVs.
I think I did have a fair amount of luck making it as far as I did, with many rounds where I barely fought any battles. I'd say the biggest threat to this team is BoltBeam users, and the round I lost ended up having a Starmie and a Gengar on the team. The battle started with Salamence vs Starmie and I expected Ice Beam so I switched to Suicune, but for some reason it chose Thunderbolt. It used Thunderbolt again the next turn and killed me before I could use Calm Mind. Metagross killed Starmie and their second Pokemon, then got killed by Gengar. Salamance took either an Ice Beam or Ice Punch and it was over.