Pokémon White Team

Latios Master said:

This is the team I plan on putting together when I get Pokemon White. I selected my four favorite gen 4 Pokémon, as well as my second favorite Pokémon behind Latios, Rampardos. I've been out of Pokémon for a couple of years, and the last time I put together a competitive team was for gen 3. I've spent a lot of time during the last couple of months trying to learn as much as I can about the current metagame. One thing I prefer not to do is use legendaries, but I can be talked into using one if you think it will help my team. It's hard to have a balance of who are my favorites and what's good in battle. If you think this team is terrible, please tell me, but please give me suggestions as to how I can make it better.

Well, keep in mind that this is the competitive forum... meaning, we don't have any bias against using legendaries and they will probably be used against you or suggested at one point or another. We do have a ban list, though it's not just "legendaries" but simply Pokémon that are too powerful for the rest of them. You can find our ban list here.

Competitive Pokémon also use EVs. You can find a detailed explanation of those at like Serebii.

#497 Serperior: Grass, Jolly, Overgrow, Item: Light Clay
EVs: 252 HP / 24 SpD / 232 Spe
Taunt
Leech Seed
Light Screen
Reflect

My favorite starter from gen 5. I'm not sure if he works as a good lead.

Serperior's niche is using Leech Seed. Basically, if you're not doing that, then you're using an inferior version of something else. Otherwise, Serperior does alright as a dual-screen lead I'd suppose. EVs are for maximum bulk and speed.

#553 Krookodile: Ground/Dark, Jolly, Moxie, Item: Choice Scarf
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Crunch
Stone Edge
Earthquake
Pursuit

I'm not sure on the item. I'm also not sure about Sandstorm and Dragon Claw. I don't know if I should use Intimidate as his ability instead.

Overconfidence outclasses Intimidate for the most part. Sandstorm and Dragon Claw also both are bad. If you want to use Sandstorm, bring a partystarter like Tyranitar or Hippowdon. I'm suggesting a Choice Scarf set since you seem to lack any way to deal with +1 anything with more speed than TTar. x_x

#567 Archeops: Rock/Flying, Jolly, Faint Hearted, Item: Flight Jewel
Acrobatics
Endeavor
Rock Slide
Earthquake

My favorite gen 5 Pokémon. I don't know if I should use Endeavor. I had a hard time deciding between Rock Slide and Stone Edge.

I'm not really fond of this Pokémon at all because of how badly Stealth Rock maims it. If it switches in, eats SR, and then takes any kind of hit at all its basically dead weight on a team because it can't hit hard at all any more. Sure, Flight Jewel Acrobat is cool for one turn or whatever, but...

#609 Chandelure: Ghost/Fire, Timid, Flash Fire, Item: Leftovers
Calm Mind
Shadow Ball
Flamethrower
Hidden Power [fighting]

My favorite Ghost Pokémon.

HP Fight is preferable but Energy Ball works I guess if you can't get that.

#121 Starmie: Water/Psychic, Timid, Natural Cure, Item: Leftovers
Recover
Rapid Spin
Thunderbolt
Surf

If I went with my favorite Water type it would of been Feraligatr or Sharpedo, but I have too many glass cannons as it is. Rapid Spin would really help this team because of my Stealth Rock weakness, but I had a hard time finding room for it. I need Water, Electric, and Ice attacks, and going without Recover is a bad idea.

Starmie isn't the supernova that it was last gen. And yeah, you really do need to make room for Rapid Spin because otherwise SR and Spikes are going to eat your team alive. I'd run Rapid Spin over Ice Beam. Also, I'd ditch Expert Belt and run Leftovers. Adds to survivability, especially since you aren't looking for a "glass cannon" per se.

#409 Rampardos: Rock, Mold Breaker, Adamant, Item: Focus Sash
Zen Headbutt
Earthquake
Rock Polish
Stone Edge

My favorite Pokémon not named Latios. It's probably a bad choice for a competitive team, but I really want to use it.

I had Absol on this team for awhile, the only one from my gen 3 team that I considered using again in gen 5. Not the same Absol.

asdlkfjsd Rampardos is really bad in this metagame. It loses to all of the things that are prominent: Fighting Pokémon, Ground Pokémon, Steel Pokémon... You can actually run Latios if you wanted...

Please help me.

Um, yeah. I'm not very good at all with picking out overall weaks but this team needs some real work if it wants to be remotely viable in this metagame. Also a note on Dual Screens like you have on Serperior... usually, the idea for those are that you set up a Pokémon with a move like Dragon Dance or Butterfly Dance, a move that increases Speed and an offense while they hit you with less-than-usual damage so that by the end you can just sweep them cleanly.

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