Anyone got any tips for Pokemon Black 2?

After 5 years of not being allowed to play Pokemon, I FINALLY CAN! I just ordered Pokemon Black 2 from Amazon and it's going to arrive tomorrow. I'm a complete newbie to Pokemon and I know next to nothing about the game, does anyone have any tips for Black 2?

Note: I'm aware of the no WiFi on DSi thing so I'm not expecting to be able to play online. I am also aware this is a very old game but I don't have a 3DS so I can't get any of the new ones.

Well, if you want to start off easy, I would recommend having a Tepig as your starter. Tepig may be hard-headed sometimes, but it's worth raising.

Try to balance out your team. All your Pokémon should be around the same level. Take some time to battle the other trainers and hunt for wild pokemon in the tall grass and caves. Try to have at least 1 pokemon from each type category.

It's best to use Pokémon with high base stats that can be caught at convenient moments in the game and can learn a wide variety of attack types. You can check a site like Bulbapedia or Serebii.net to find out stuff like that.

It might be best to raise only four Pokémon and use the two remaining slots for HM users. HMs are needed to get through the game, but aside from Surf/Waterfall and Fly they're pretty garbage moves that you don't really want your main fighters stuck with. HM moves can only be deleted by a Move Deleter and you have to progress a fair amount in the story to reach them. I replace my HM users with the game's Legendary once I reach the Elite 4 since they always come at high levels.

I don't recommend training anything you don't intend to keep on your team until the very end. I feel like it's a waste of EXP to use only temporary team mates. Playing this way, I find I get plenty of EXP from trainer battles alone so I rarely have to grind on wild battles.

Of course, this is just how I play and I'm pretty obsessed with efficiency. You might have more fun if you just play with the Pokémon you like best. Pokémon games are pretty easy so you can get through them using almost anything. There are very few Pokémon that are so horrible that they could be considered unusable.

Thanks, everyone! The game arrived this morning and it's AWESOME. I followed your advice and it's going great so far.