Choosing a lead in the Battle Factory

For Rounds 1-4 (bad AI), just use the best Pokemon as your lead (or a Baton Passer). You want to minimize the number of pivots because most pivots aren't safe.

For Round 5+:
- You still want your lead to be a strong Pokemon. Leading a very weak Pokemon is a bad idea because you will be forced to switch out often, which increases variance.
- Consider what will happen if you need to switch your lead out. If your lead is Arcanine and your other Pokemon are Vaporeon and Salamence, you have free pivots against Surf and Earthquake, the two most common moves you will need to switch out against. If you decide to lead Vaporeon instead, you don't have a free pivot against Thunder/Thunderbolt, which makes Electric-type leads unnecessarily risky. If you decide to lead Salamence, you can pivot into Vaporeon against Ice moves, but this risks a freeze and leaves Vaporeon weakened against many Water types that it can't effectively damage. Thus, Arcanine is the superior choice.
- Consider what will happen if your lead faints to something like a crit or freeze. Do your remaining two Pokemon have common weaknesses? In the team example above, leading Arcanine is safe because Vaporeon and Salamence have no common weaknesses, but leading Vaporeon is risky because Arcanine and Salamence are both weak to Surf/Ice Beam users.
- Consider what will happen if your opponent leads a setup mon (most commonly Double Team or Curse). Will your lead be able to take it out or weaken it so that one of your other Pokemon can revenge kill it?
- Setup mons (Dragon Dance, Bulk Up, Calm Mind, Endure) are usually NOT good leads. This is because they often cannot set up without risking costly deaths to criticals or statuses. When you get crit after using a second Calm Mind or Dragon Dance, you haven't damaged your opponent at all, which means you won't be able to revenge kill it, thus putting you at a 2v3 disadvantage. It's also helpful to save your setup mons for unlucky situations where you must win 1v2 or 1v3 (backdoor sweep).
- Pokemon that will be OHKO'd by non-super effective moves are generally poor leads because it's unlikely you'll be able to safely pivot. For example, if your lead dies to a Double-Edge from Dodrio or Ursaring, you will likely be in trouble because few Pokemon can pivot into such a powerful move.
- Pokemon that have 1-2 severe weaknesses are generally good leads because they can bait weak moves (e.g. Aerial Ace vs. Heracross) that are easy to pivot into.
- Pokemon that make excellent pivots are often NOT good leads. This is because they are often better used as a free pivot from a different lead.
- Pokemon that make poor pivots are often good leads, for the same reason.
- Intimidate leads are generally good because they make it easier to safely pivot.
- Extremely slow Pokemon are usually poor leads because they are usually bulky enough to pivot safely into a variety of attacks, and always giving your opponent's lead a turn increases variance (flinches, Double Team, etc.)
- Tanks are poor leads because they increase variance and are best used in 1v2 or 1v3 situations.
- Choosing a fast Pokemon as a lead is OK if you have another fast Pokemon available for revenge killing. If you have one fast Pokemon and two slow Pokemon, it's often best to lead a slow Pokemon. Consider this scenario with the fast Pokemon as the lead:
	1: Fast lead 2HKOs opponent's lead
	2: Fast lead weakens opponent's second Pokemon and then dies
	3: Your second (slow) Pokemon takes a hit and then finishes opponent's second Pokemon
	4: Your second (slow) Pokemon dies to opponent's third Pokemon
	5: Your third (slow) Pokemon loses to opponent's third Pokemon in a 1v1

The worst leads are, in order of value:
- Steelix (Electric, Poison, Rock, Normal, Bug, Steel, Ghost)
- Skarmory (Ground, Poison, Grass, Normal, Bug, Steel, Ghost)
- Misdreavus (Normal, Fighting, Ground)
- Flygon (Ground, Electric, EQ/RS, sometimes Fire)
- Claydol (Ground, Electric, EQ/RS)
- Crobat (Ground, Fighting, Grass, Bug)
- Gengar (Normal, Fighting, Ground, Poison, Bug)
- Lum Berry users
- Altaria (Ground, Grass, sometimes Fighting)
- Dusclops (Normal, Fighting)
- Xatu (Ground, Fighting)
- Charizard (Ground, Grass, Bug)
- Metagross (Poison, Psychic, Normal, Steel, Ghost)
- Dodrio (Ground, Ghost)
- Fearow (Ground, Ghost)

The best leads are, in order of value:
- Gyarados (Intimidate + bait Electric moves)
- Tauros (Intimidate + poor pivot)
- Heracross (poor pivot + bait Flying moves)
- Intimidate Arcanine (Intimidate + bait EQ + poor pivot)
- Swampert (bait Grass moves)
- ALL OTHER MONO FIRE TYPES (bait EQ + poor pivot)