Rate my first competitive team ever!

[prophet789]

Hey all, this is as the title suggests my first proper team ever, and I can assure you I kind of know what I'm doing. Any help is aprichiated:

Weavile@Focus Slash
Jolly - 40 HP/ 252 ATK/ 216 SPE
IcePunch
Swords Dance
Night Slash
Brick Beak

Electivire@Expertbelt/Lifeorb
Adamant - 6 HP/ 252 ATK/ 252 SPE
Crosschop
Earthquake
Icepunch
ThunderPunch

Swampert@Choice Band
Adamant - 252 HP/ 252 ATK/ 6 DEF
Earthquake
Waterfall
Icepunch
HammerArm

Gengar@Choice Skarf
Modest - 4 HP/ 252 SPA/ 252 SPE
Psycic
Energyball
Shadowball
Focus Blast

I just noticed that my Gengar uses a lot of ball orientated move (insert balls joke here!)

Blaziken@Choice Skarf
Adamant - 6 HP/ 252 ATK/ 252 SPE
SkyUppercut
Flare Blitx
Earthquake
ThunderPunch

Salamence@Choice Band
Adamant - 4 HP/ 252 ATK/ 252 SPE
Dragon Claw
Earthquake
Flamethrower
Stone Edge

Thanks guys

 

[Espy Psyche]

This team is too offensive. You need some kind of defense on it. Since you seem to like Choice items so much, let me suggest Lotus-class defense since the two go hand in hand with each other and Stealth Rock.

First, let's fix two of your attackers (Gengar and Salamence).

Gengar @ Choice Specs
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 6 HP
Nature: Timid (Spd+/Atk-)
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast

Salamence @ Choice Band (even though I prefer Dragon Dance personally, I'll let you keep the CB set)
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 6 HP
Nature: Adamant/Jolly (your call, Adamant for power and Jolly for speed)
- Dragon Claw/Dragon Rush (again your call whether the accuracy for power trade off is worth it)
- Earthquake
- Aerial Ace
- Stone Edge

That'll do for two choice attackers. Now, let's look at supporters since I see one in your team already (Swampert). We'll keep him, just change his entire role.

Swampert @ Leftovers
EVs: 142 HP/136 Atk/200 Def/32 SDef
Nature: Relaxed (Def+/Spd-)
- Ice Punch
- Roar
- Waterfall
- Rest

Now, instead of attacking (which Swampert can do but isn't that great at), it can help defend with resistances and support by forcibly switching (and erasing buffs from by doing so) enemies.

Now let's scrap Blaziken. It can't support or defend. In its place we can put...maybe SR and a spinner. How about Donphan, since the Grass weak it and Swampert share is easily resisted by Salamence and Gengar (4x for each iirc).

Donphan @ Leftovers
EVs: 200 HP/188 Atk/122 Def
Nature: Impish (Def+/SAtk-)
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake

Donphan can spin off enemy spikes, Ice Shard for priority against physical Dragons (enemies like your own Salamence), lay down Stealth Rock, and kill some stuff with Earthquake.

Now, the other two Pokemon, your Lotus-class defense. Now is when we scrap Weavile and Electivire.

Gardevoir @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 212 SDef / 44 SAtk
Nature: Calm (SDef+/Atk-)
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Calm Mind
- Wish

Gardevoir is much better than it looks at blocking special hits. Its resistances are not shared by other special walls, and its much higher attacking power than Blissey or Regice makes it a perfect candidate for a special tank. It can take Focus Blasts from stuff like Infernape easily even after it plots up, and it counters mixed sweepers that use Fighting moves for Blissey/Snorlax/Regice like nothing else can.

Leafeon @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 138 Def / 120 Atk
Nature: Impish (Def+/SAtk-)
- Curse
- Wish
- Leaf Blade
- Aerial Ace

Leafeon is a physical tank. Cursing Leafeon is one of the few Pokemon that can beat Curselax one on one at the end since Leafeon has as much firepower and more defense along with a better recovery move. Heracross can't come in on you because of AA and you'll survive a Megahorn after one Curse. You can actually bring down most Gyarados with Leafeon too because 25% critical Leaf Blade is your friend. After a couple of curses you'll even laugh off STAB Flare Blitz from Arcanine or Infernape.

I think I've made a team that's completely Infernape-proof and pretty Hera-proof. Might have a little Tyranitar trouble though.

 

[SmashBrony]

Listen ta espy psyce.
Ya also can try the BulkyMence set...
I can't remember from the top of my head what excatly it was, but I heard it was reliable....

 

[Mike Ukiuki]

You need a sp.def wall. Like Blissey, Dusknoir, Cresselia it's up to you I would take out leafeon for one of them. So that's my advice.

 

[devilicious]

Too many Choice Items. Ugh.
And guys, offensive teams do exist and they do work very well sometimes. There's no absolute need for walls, if you play well with resistances.
Also, try to spell the item's names right next time: Focus Sash, Choice Scarf

First, Weavile is a sucky lead in my opinion. If you want to keep it, give it Taunt and Pursuit at least.

Second, Choice Band Swampert is... eh. I know this is a pure-offensive team, but seriously, Swampert has better things to do. Go for
Swampert @ Leftovers
240 HP / 216 Def / 52 SpA
Relaxed
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock
- Surf / Roar / Toxic

Your team gets a SRer and maybe a PHazer, not to mention some added Defense. Toxic is there because you have Cresselia problems.

Third, Electivire... I don't like it either. Not to mention you don't have anything that attracts Electric moves, so getting that Motor Drive boost will be difficult. I'd suggest either changing it to a Sp. Def wall or a better Pokémon. If you want to keep it offensive, I'd say go for a Swords Dance Lucario or, maybe, a Garchomp.

I'd recommend also not having more than two Choice users, but that's up to you.
If you feel like following my advice, go for a Dragon Dancing mixed Salamence.

In short
- Give Weavile Taunt and Pursuit
- Electivire sucks and has no synergy with the team. Change it for Lucario or Garchomp.
- Swampert could help you way more by doing support and not CB.
- You have too many Choice Users. Follow my Swampert advice and consider DDMence.
- Cresselia will Thunderwave your whole team besides Swampert.

 

[sims796]

As Dev..Der...the great UU battler said, offensive teams work all as well as defensive teams. I perfer to strike a balance, leaning more towards defence. But anywho...

All offensive teams CANNOT surive without some sort of defence. Celebii, or, as great UU said, Swampert, are great pokes that hits hard and can provide defence.

Even pure defensive teams uses Toxic & entry hazards as a means for Offense, and they even have a few hard hitters(like Pert & Celebii...)

 

[MM_Zero]

I highly recommend you change the salamence to DDmence, 4 choice items are far too many (you should have only 2 at the absolute most). The one turn you spend using a dragon dance gives you the same as a choice band boost plus a choice scarf boost (I think, correct me if I'm wrong.) And plus the life orb boost will make it even more powerful. Choice items are great for dishing out some immediate killer damage, but however, they can easily get you locked in to something you don't want to and gives your opponent some possible free turns to send in something to counter it+possibly set up. So lets change salamence to this.

Salamence @ Life Orb (leftovers works, but you'll have a significant drop in power)
Adamant (Jolly won't really do much for you)
120 Hp, 252 Atk, 128 Speed (you can shift some HP Ev's to speed if you wish, but not too many, as dragon dance should handle speed problems)
Dragon Claw
Dragon Dance
Earthquake
Brick Break/Stone Edge/Rock slide

I find brick break useful to handle some dark types and blissey, but you can use rock slide or stone edge for things like Zapdos. You might want to even change the 4th move to Fire Blast to handle steel types. But again after a DD, salamence should be able to handle most things with Dragon Claw. Hope this helps.

 

[ABYAY]

Deoxys-Speed really rips you to pieces. Consider Spiritomb or Cresselia.

The team is heavily offensive based, but any sweeper that can set up some extra speed or attack is going to give you a ton of problems. Cut back on the offense some and have at least 2 walls. Electivire is becoming Failvire, and you have nothing that even entices the use of electric, so you can flat-out drop that. Spiritomb or Cresselia can go there. Swampert can become more wall based with...

Swampert@Leftovers
Relaxed
240HP/216def/52sp.atk

Hydro Pump
Ice Beam
Earthquake
Roar/Stealth Rock

This is the main Swampert set, acting as a nice tank to take some hits with. Hydro Pump will 2HKO Skarmory and Weezing with the above EVs as well.

I'll give a further analysis later. Very short on time.

 

[sims796]

As me & Devirichi said, fully offensive teams work perfectly fine, ask BeachBoy. Two walls aren't necessary if you know what you are doing.

That still doesn't warrent adding in Choice items to everyother poke.

I say add in a Celebii & Swampert.

 

[ScyKinG]

One quick observation :D

From just glancing over your team, it seems to be weak to bulky waters

 

[sims796]

Gengar should handle them fine. But that's his own fault for GIVING EVERYONE FREAKIN CHOICE ITEMS!

Yeah, bad idea.

 

[ScyKinG]

Gengar's energy ball not gonna do much to any bulky water =/ especially the most OU bulky water, Suicune. After 2 Calm Minds lol maybe 1 this team is torched. Especially with no phazer.

 

[sims796]

Sorry, when you said bulky water, I thought Swampert. kinda forgot about the rest :P

But any bulky water that uses Calm Mind (Suicune) usually falls from a Blaziken T-Punch.

But since almost this entire team is choiced, that makes thebulky water problem even MOAR serious, and it was bad as it is.

Why doesn't Gengar have T-Bolt?

 

[ScyKinG]

Blaziken can't handle Suicune, proving my point epic Suicune rape =/


Standard Calm Mind Suicune With ZERO calm minds.

vs

a Blaziken with Max Attack

Damage: 115 - 135
Damage: 33.72% - 39.59%


Its a 3hko, and a lot more than that when you know the Suicune will Calm Mind up
​

 

[sims796]

Blaziken can't handle Suicune, proving my point epic Suicune rape =/


Standard Calm Mind Suicune With ZERO calm minds.

vs

a Blaziken with Max Attack

Damage: 115 - 135
Damage: 33.72% - 39.59%


Its a 3hko, and a lot more than that when you know the Suicune will Calm Mind up
​

Oookay...

Try fully reading my posts, instead of bits & pieces.

Sorry, when you said bulky water, I thought Swampert. kinda forgot about the rest :P

But any bulky water that uses Calm Mind (Suicune) usually falls from a Blaziken T-Punch.

But since almost this entire team is choiced, that makes the bulky water problem even MOAR serious, and it was bad as it is.

Why doesn't Gengar have T-Bolt?

Also, if he gave Gar Specs (why the hell didn't he?) this problem wouldn't matter much. Plus, after he fixes that Swampert, Suicune won't matter not one bit.

 

[DeagleBeagle]

Psychic on gengar doesn't have quite as much priority as other moves like tbolt and stuff.

And the swampert set is a little offensive, after all it is a wall not a sweeper.
I suggest giving it the set with roar sr. This set should work out fine: Roar sr EQ surf/hydro pump/rest.

The salamence is pretty good but in my experiences a mixmence seems to almost always be better. Dracometeor is the main reason to use salamence, since it gets stab and ohkos many things. It can also be used physically to finish off pokemon like blissey that try to wall it.

This set is great because it covers almost any type and it can be used to stop blissey and other special walls with low defense from stopping it.

Life orb Dracometeor Flamethrower brick break roost.

Roost is to recover the recoil damage plus it can be used to make salamence into a physical wall. Since it has intimidate it is as if it has 50% more defense until the foe switches out. But you usually switch out with salamence after one or two turns anyways, so it doesn't matter that much.

Pretty good team other than that though.

 

[ScyKinG]

Oookay...

Try fully reading my posts, instead of bits & pieces.





Also, if he gave Gar Specs (why the hell didn't he?) this problem wouldn't matter much. Plus, after he fixes that Swampert, Suicune won't matter not one bit.

I did, and I reposponded to the part about Blaziken being able to take care of Cune.

 

[sims796]

While leaving out everything else. I said full well that he does indeed have a bulky water problem, so you focusing on that one sentence didn't really help your case all that much. Especially when I am focusing on the bigger picture, rather than using bright colors to get some point across. Responding to one sentence, despit ethe fact that I had said you are just about right, doesn't make much sense at all.

For the record, I had thought he had used Choice Band Blaziken.

Also, that Swampert can easily handle Suicune, unless it has HP Grass for some reason. But, he should be changing it anyway.

 

[ABYAY]

okay okay...let's not get into a heated argument. Bulky Waters really cause problems, so Putting Specs or at least giving Gengar something like Hypnosis (drop the Choice) will help majorly. Also, I'll plainly say it. Psychic sucks on Gengar. It doesn't help with its weaknesses at all, and gives it no big type coverage. Shadow Ball/Focus Blast/Energy Ball or Thunderbolt/Hypnosis or Thunderbolt can easily suffice. Wish support would also be nice on this team, but the only good wishers these days are Vaporeon and the Eeveelutions (the others are hard to get, barring Gardevoir and a few others.

Actually, HP Electric Vaporeon can at least wall other Bulky waters, but you might want Roar on it. Surf/HP Electric/Wish/Roar would be nice.

After a second review, offensive teams actually work, but they require nearly perfect team synergy and teamwork.

Cut back on the Choice as well. It would help, as said 12000 times before.

 

[sims796]

As I said, with Swampert here, the bulky water problem isn't such a big deal, unless they carry HP Grass for whatever reason. What, Suicune? Can't do enough without risking some good EQs. If Waterfall does around 25 percent, Ice Beam isn't even worth considering. No argument about that, unless you want to try & pick one part of this post to post on.

Hell, BeachBoy made a team with just Celebii with Stealth Rock & Reflect as his main defense, and it works wonders, so it really isn't too hard.

However, I did not notice that he said it was his first team. So he should focus now on an even team.