A Notable Note

When building a team, it's good to keep your pokémon's stats in mind at all times. You should be aware of their strongest and weakest points, so you can equip them with the perfect moveset. This is probably the most important when considering new attack moves - most pokémon will have one attack stat that's higher than the other. Of course, with many level-ups, trainers are prompted to teach their pokémon a new move (and replace an old one). I often used to find myself hesitant to disrupt the current moveset, wondering, "Is this new move really worth it?" But I quickly familiarized myself with what exactly each of my pokémon are good at (...Is it bad that this all feels very paternal to me?), and can now concentrate on  teaching them moves that will be the most useful - and effective - in battle. For instance, my level 32 Kadabra's stats currently look like this:
(And yes, I do still have a Kadabra at level 32. Shut up.)

Attack         33
Defense       25
Sp. Atk        81
Sp. Def        59
Speed          78

Clearly his special attack is where it's at. But when he reaches level 34, I'll be prompted to teach him Psycho Cut. Since he has such a weak attack stat, it probably wouldn't really be in my best interest to do so. I mean, yeah, Psycho Cut is a decently powerful move, but why would I waste a move on something that will almost certainly do less damage than any special attack I could teach him? He already knows Psybeam and he'll be learning Psychic (with a damage of 90 hp) at level 40. I'd rather just wait it out til then.

Anyways, if you want to dig deeper into the convoluted realm of IVs, you should start paying attention to the nature values of all the pokémon you catch and/or plan to use (although this is only a thing with 3rd Gen and beyond). Now, I could sit here and explain how exactly all of this works, but it's a little confusing, and it's also explained really well on this webpage. But for all of you who are just too lazy to open a new tab (don't worry, I understand), I'll lay down the basic gist: a nature value gives a 10% increase in one stat and a 10% decrease in another. So basically, if you have a moveset in mind (which, since you're even bothering, you probably should), you can find he perfect pokémon to teach it to.

So, that's my rant. I'll let you get back to real life now.
But first, a (very) short recap:
It's been a slow past couple of days. I've more or less exhausted every open route, and have been resentfully dealing with those douchebags Team Rocket. They really get under my skin - but mostly just because of all the goddamn Zubats. Hopefully I can beat Archer today and finally move on to Blackthorn City. I could really use some new trainers to battle.

[Progress: 76/256]