A Competitive Team

[brandyandy23]

[quote=Tag;496012]

Skuntank@Shuca Berry / Quick Claw
Nature: Adamant (-Sp Attack, +Attack)
EVs: 232 HP, 252 Attack, 26 Speed
Ability: Aftermath
Moveset:

Substitute
Swagger
Punishment
Explosion

[quote]

Well this set looks quite familiar now doesn't it? :) My brother told me about this thread and I thought I would help out. There are a few things that I would change up. First off, I would swap Hitmontop for Heracross. I know that my bro has recently been using this set and it has been very effective.

Heracross @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Guts
Nature: Adamant
EV's: 252 Attack, 152 Speed, 104 HP
Moveset:

Megahorn
Close Combat
Stone Edge
Pursuit


This set can punish everything shy of Skarmory, Jirachi, Metagross, Bronzong, and Forretress. Pursuit will handle Psychic-types that switch out in fear of a Megahorn, while Close Combat adds a huge STAB attack. Stone Edge covers the Flying weakness.


As for a special sweeper, I would suggest either a Starmie or Gengar. Both will be able to deal with the main threat to your team right now whom is Skarmory. I'm sorry I don't have more tiem to give more advice as I have hockey practice. All I have to say is that I no you would like to use as few OU Pokemon as possible, but your team will get shredded without atleast 4 quality OU performers.

[Zapirak]

I LOVE YOUR TEAM, the miltank idea is good, so is the metronome hitmontop or w/e. I think a good spec sweeper like starmie or manectric (not as mush manectric lol) could work.

[Cytolysis]

I would suggest moving this to the Rate my team forums because the raters there are more into competitive battling.

[R3I]

Originally Posted by Tag

I'm in the serious development of my first competitive team. I've been reluctant to post this because I don't want to reveal my team to the whole community, but admittedly I need some help. While it's not finished yet, and while I'm sure that I'll be switching things in and out as time passes, here's what I've got so far:

-->Drapion@Leftovers
Nature: Impish (-Sp Attack, +Defense)
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Defense, 6 Speed
Ability: Battle Armor
Moveset:

Whirlwind
Toxic Spikes
Knock Off
Crunch

It seems like you're trying to build a UU team, am I right? Because it should be noted that Drapion will be ripped apart in standard gameplay because of its weakness to the ubiquitous Earthquake and the fact that it takes neutral damage from Close Combat. That being said, Drapion makes a decent physical wall in UU because of its defenses and speed, but it does not make a very good lead. This is because it is essentially rendered useless by Taunters or put asleep by sleepers because of its mediocre speed. If you want something that can set up Spikes fast and can still be of use in late game, I suggest you consider Roserade. With Timid nature, it reaches an impressive 306 speed with 252 Spd EVs, and carries a semi-reliable sleep-inducing move in Sleep Powder. With a Focus Sash, you're guaranteed at least one layer of Toxic Spikes if Sleep Powder misses on the first turn. If it hits, you can easily set up two layers of Toxic Spikes, and switch out to a suitable counter, leaving Roserade with the Sash and ready to sweep another day with a variety of decent movepool options (Leaf Storm, Grass Knot, Energy Ball, Sludge Bomb, a variety of Hidden Powers).

-->Hitmontop@Metronome
Nature: Adamant (-Sp Attack, +Attack)
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 HP, 6 Sp Defense
Ability: Technician
Moveset:

Triple Kick
Aerial Ace
Agility
Rock Slide

This is certainly not the right thing to do with Technician Hitmontop. Whereas Triple Kick does seem like a tempting choice with Metronome, Life Orb is overall a much better item because it does not force you to keep using the same attack just to get a power boost. Additionally, Technician Hitmontop relies primarily on priority moves, which is why it can afford to invest in its horrible HP stat. Therefore, you definitely want a Fake Out and Mach Punch combination on this set, because these two moves alone are enough to KO Tyranitar, Porygon-Z and Weavile, three very threatening sweepers. For the third slot, you'll want Close Combat because it is the most damaging move in Hitmontop's movepool, and can be used against bulkier opponents that won't fall to Mach Punch. Hitmontop's defenses are high enough to last one hit, so then you can just finish it off with Mach Punch, or another priority move. In the last slot, you either want Bullet Punch or Sucker Punch. Sucker Punch is probably the better option because it allows you to deal with Psychics and Ghosts (which you would be completely walled by otherwise). The problem with not having Bullet Punch though is that you can't reliably KO Roserade without risking being hit with a Sleep Powder. Technician Hitmontop makes a threatening late-game sweeper, because by then most of its counters will have already been weakened and in KO range of Hitmontop's plethora of priority moves.

-->Cloyster@Metronome
Nature: Impish (-Sp Attack, +Defense)
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Attack, 6 Defense
Ability: Skill Link
Moveset:

Spikes
Spike Cannon
Icicle Spear / Ice Shard
Rapid Spin

Very similarly to Hitmontop, it uses a Metronome with a multi-hit attack to do tons of damage. The reason I do this with Cloyster is because of the ability Skill Link - it more or less makes it so that multi-hit attacks, like Spike Cannon and Icicle Spear, always hit 5 times, no matter what. With Metronome, I'm sure you can imagine what kind of damage this would do, even to a Pokemon with sub-par physical attack. Either way, Cloyster is a total physical wall and is great at laying spikes while absorbing physical attacks to assist Drapion. It's also my way of countering spikes, because unless I see any Omastar (and I really don't expect to, as great as it is) I'll have no worry of a Spiker using special attacks, and I can deal with their spikes where they probably can't deal with mine without switching. The only issue I'm having is choosing between Adamant and Impish - any suggestions?

-->Miltank@Leftovers
Nature: Impish (-Sp Attack, +Defense)
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Defense, 6 Speed
Ability: Scrappy
Moveset:

Seismic Toss
Stealth Rock / Thunder Wave
Heal Bell
Milk Drink

Look familiar? It's Blissey in cow-form. xD This set works very, very well because I only need one attack - Seismic Toss can hit Ghost-types because of the ability Scrappy, so I can deal a solid 100 damage to anything. Contrary to Blissey's ability to wall of Special Attacks, though, Miltank can't take all that many Special hits, while it does a pretty good job of tanking physically. Heal Bell is obvious enough, of course, to dispel team mates' status ailments, and Milk Drink's use requires no explanation. Like I said, it's Blissey in bovine form.

From here, I'm kind of stuck on the team, though - there are a few issues I'm having when it comes to including all of the things I'd like to have present in this team. Here are the things I feel I'm lacking at the moment:

• Weather Effect - A lot of Pokemon sets (and even some entire teams) are based around weather effects these days, and having one of my own to counter another's could be extremely useful, aside from the fact that most Pokemon that are synergetic with weather effects are pretty strong. I'd prefer to use something with Rain Dance and Sunny Day, because I don't want my other Pokemon to take damage in compensation for one of my other Pokemon. Also, using Sunny Day in combination with a Pokemon that's weak to water or using Rain Dance in combination with a Pokemon that's weak to Fire is always nice - I'd like to have as much synergy with this as possible.
• Type Coverage - I'm having a little trouble creating overall type coverage on the team, particularly when it comes to dealing with powerful Pokemon I plan on seeing pretty often, particularly Skarmory, Metagross, Blissey, T-Tar, Dragons, and even some things like Porygon Z, Heracross, Aerodactyl, etc. Basically, I feel like I need an Electric Attack, a Fire attack, and a fighting attack, preferably special, special, and physical accordingly. A Sunnybeamer seems to be a good choice in that sense, but I'm having trouble balancing type coverage between only two remaining slots - this has me debating on dropping one of the other three, as much as I'd prefer not to. ;/ I'm willing to work to change members of this team, however, if need be.
• Special Sweeper - I have no solid special sweeper, and that's definitely something I need - more likely than not a good Sunnybeamer will fill this role, since it would fill multiple roles for me.
• Special Defenses - Right now I have three Pokemon that have terrible Special Defense and great physical defense - obviously this is a problem. Of my remaining two slots I'd like to have at least one Special Wall, or at least something with a particularly effective Mirror Coat to send Special Sweepers away. I want things to be decently balanced - while physical sweepers are way more common then special these days, that doesn't mean I can just bulk up physically so that I can be completely screwed by Gengars, Alakazams, and the like.
• Weaknesses - I'm trying to avoid as many common weaknesses between Pokemon as possible, obviously in an effort to create team variation and so that I don't get pwned by one consistently super effective attack throughout my entire team. So far I feel I've done a decent job of varying weaknesses - at the moment only two weaknesses have been repeated, and I'd like to keep it that way. I want no more than three repeated weaknesses throughout the entire team, and if at all possible I don't want any two Pokemon sharing more than one weakness (ie Hitmontop and Roserade are both weak to Flying and Psychic, and that's bad). I'm also considering 4x weaknesses doubled weaknesses. This seems harsh, no doubt, but most sweepers have great type coverage and I want to avoid exploiting that if at all possible.

So those are my current issues. I've actually got a few Pokemon that I can sub in for any of those 4 (of the exact same types) for variation, that I will post later. For now I'd like possible ideas on how I could incorporate the things I want into the team effectively and make a balanced, competitively applicable team. Thanks.

Made a few changes. Will finish tomorrow.

[Dani]

You guys realise this is a 2 year old thread, right? Tag posted it in 2007. It's now 2009...

Going to have to close this.