how to rate, build and plan teams/pokemon?

I know it's quite the broad category, but I'll give you a bit of help with my background.

- I have a bunch of experience with min/maxing a character's stats in games such as Dragon Age, so i'm more likely to spend all my points in one place because I know the values of an effecient stat build to match the moveset.

- I've read up on the meanings and the methods of IV's and EV's, and I know how to properly EV train a pokemon once I have a statset that I want. I also know where to look to find a pokemon's base stats for comparison's sake.

- I am very familiar with all pokemon... from the first generation. I know that snorlax is a huge tank and dragonite is the most epic non-legend there is... in the first generation. (also know a bit about gens 2-3, but not much at all)

- I have never played a competitive match, unless you're talking about between me and my friends who hacked a team full of mews.

- and finally... I picked up Black version just the other day, and i'm fairly sure I have a steep barrier of entry to deal with.

basically, and I hope i'm posting in the right section, I want to know how the competitive scene builds their teams. What's good in a base stat set, what do I look for in move sets, and, if there is a metagame banlist, where do I find it?

Luckily for you, we have a great Compiled Guides thread that contains a team-building guide to help players who are new to competitive battling.

After you've read through some of these guides, you can ask any questions you may have about movesets/strategies in the Request a Moveset / Simple Q&A thread.

Smogon is also a good place to look for competitive battling information.

*closed*