Please Rate/Fix My Team!

Hey! I just signed up to the forum, and in fact just got back into PKMN. I used to play a lot(for fun, never competitively), but was too lazy to breed for IV's and train for EV's. However, I've somehow found the motivation and just finished up my first team! So please, tell me what you think, and if you have any suggestions! Oh, and I'm planning to add a Blissey or Dusknoir if not both at some point, once I get them bred with good IV's and all that good stuff.


1. Swampert(Retiari) @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Nature: Impish
-Stealth Rock
-Avalanche
-Waterfall
-Earthquake

Just my lead. Set up Stealth Rock and sponge up damage. Avalanche for the predicted attack since he's slow, and more type-coverage, other than that basic STAB.

2. Breloom(Bestiari) @ Toxic Orb
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Nature: Jolly
-Spore
-Seed Bomb
-Focus Punch
-Substitute

Sub-Spore move set. Seed Bomb for the STAB. I prefer Sub over Stone Edge for some safety and because he can recover it so quick.

3. Metagross(Hoplomus) @ Lum Berry
EVs: 140 HP / 252 Atk / 28 Def / 88 Spd
Nature: Adamant
-Meteor Mash
-Earthquake
-Agility
-Rest

Agil-Gross, for tanking/sweeping. Mash for STAB, EQ because... it's EQ, Agility so he can Sweep, and Rest/Lum for recover, and if I switch into damage they'll see no leftovers and might make them mis-predict thinking I'm banded.

4. Ninjask(TestTiger) @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Def / 128 S.Def
Nature: Impish
-Substitute
-Protect
-Swords Dance
-Baton Pass

Pure Baton Passer. I know I could go with X-Scissor, but I like the protect for a free level of speed. Sub for free level of speed/ block status ****/ if they don't break it it's a free SD.

5. Tyranitar(Laquari) @ Life Orb
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Def / 168 Spd
Nature: Adamant
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Crunch

Basic Physical Sweeper. DD incase I don't PB into him, EQ + SE for STAB. Crunch for team type coverage, it's the teams best way to deal with Azelf / Gengar etc.


6. Starmie(Murmillo) @ Life Orb
EVs: 252 S.Atk / 4 S.Def / 252 Spd
Nature: Timid
- Recover
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Surf

Revenge-Killer/ Special Sweeper. Recover off some LO recoil when I can't predict their switch or whenever. The rest for type-coverage. I've thought about going Choice Specs + Grass Knot instead, but for now I'm trying this.


Anywho, thanks if you read through this and feel free to give me any of your thoughts/opinions on what I can do to improve the team or any individual.

P.S. - Like I said I'm wanting to incorporate Blissey(Probably counter) / Dusknoir at some point, so if you feel either of them would play a good/better role(I was thinking of taking out Ninjask) that would also be good to know.

This team is gonna have some problems with Salamence, especially Dragon Dance variants. With one boost it can take out your entire team when played correctly. I'd put something like Scarf Jirachi > Ninjask, which is pretty ineffective as a midgame Baton Passer given the presence of Stealth Rock in almost every battle. Scarf Jirachi also gives you some insurance against other fast sweepers since this team lacks immediate speed and priority attacks.

DD Tyranitar always wants max speed and a Jolly nature is preferred to outspeed positive base 115 speed pokemon after one boost.

Agility Metagross another attacking move > Rest, otherwise you're walled by a lot more defensive pokemon. Thunder Punch is good for getting past bulky waters, or Ice Punch for Zapdos and Gliscor.

Just a few nitpicks.

Ok for one, you have no rapid spinner. With stealth rock, spikes, and toxic spikes being very commonly used your team is just asking to get stalled. Also, without a rapid spinner your ninjask is fairly useless for two reasons:
1. Stealth rock will take down ninjask
2. Mid Game baton passes as stated before make no sense.

If you really want to used ninjask, I suggest you move it to first in your party with a focus sash.

However, your starmie could easily be a rapid spinner. You would just simply need to take off recover and give it rapid spin

Also on your metagross set, rest doesn't make sense. If you have metagross for the purpose of sweeping then I suggest you put a life orb on it or band it and replace rest with either thunder punch or explosion.

There is also another problem seeing as you have no real reliable check on scizor. I saw you wanting to replace ninjask, so I would say to replace it with rotom-H. With rotom H you should use the move set: overheat/thunderbolt/shadow ball/trick. He should be holding a choice scarf. This not only gives you a check on scizor, but also gives you another check on gyrados if your starmie faints and can really mess up some pokemon trying to set up with trick.

Hope this helps.

Thank you both for the advice! I'll do some fixes and after I get things sorted out probably post another team with updates. Once again, thanks and I really appreciate it!

weaselvic said:

You should take advantage of Metagross' nature, Adament. Don't have special moves like Earthquake or moves like Rest or Agility. But try replacing it with some other Physical moves, preferably STAB (like Meteor Mash). For your ninjask, I don't see why you should have Swords Dance, for you don't have any damage-dealing moves on it. Either add moves like Fury Cutter or remove it. I really like your Tyranitar though. Adament + Dragon Dance = Total Uber Pwnage. Especially with Stone Edge and Crunch. But I personally think you should add more Physical + STAB moves. I like the Earthquake though, it is perfectly reasonable. Maybe you should replace Crunch with something?

Click to expand...

1. Earthquake IS a physical move
2. Agility is so I outspeed pokemon to prevent revenge-kills(Although I'm going to try removing Rest for T-Punch).
3. Having more than one offensive attack of the same type on a pokemon is just inefficient.
4. Ninjask Batton Passes the Swords Dance off to a sweeper like Tyrannitar or Metagross, hell, even Swampert if necessary.
5. If Ninjask did know offensive moves I would use X-Scissor for STAB..
6. Tyranitar has a STAB move for both of it's types. You tell me to add a STAB move by replacing Crunch( a STAB move).

I'm new here so could someone chime in and tell me if he's just trolling me, or if he's really this uh... ya know.

I'm not sure if anyone said this, but Breloom should preferably be adamant.