RMT - First Team

This is the first time I've ever tried to build any sort of competitive team, so go easy on me :P

Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash
- Nature: Jolly
- EVs: 252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
~ Stealth Rock
~ Taunt
~ Earthquake
~ Stone Edge

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
- Nature: Adamant
- EVs: 252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
~ Crunch
~ Stone Edge
~ Earthquake
~ Focus Punch

Breloom @ Toxic Orb
- Nature: Adamant
- EVs: 252 Attack / 208 Speed / 48 HP
~ Spore
~ Focus Punch
~ Seed Bomb
~ Substitute

Starmie @ Choice Specs
- Nature: Timid
- EVs: 252 Sp. Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
~ Surf
~ Thunderbolt
~ Ice Beam
~ Psychic

Blissey @ Leftovers
- Nature: Calm
- EVs: 252 Defense / 232 Special Defense / 24 HP
~ Wish
~ Protect
~ Seismic Toss
~ Toxic

Skarmory @ Leftovers
- Nature: Impish
- EVs: 252 HP / 252 Special Defense / 4 Defense
~ Brave Bird
~ Roost
~ Spikes
~ Whirlwind

Basically... I lead off with Aero, set up Stealth Rock and then try to clear up as much as possible. If the going gets rough, I switch out to Skarm to try and stall/inflict spikes damage. Starmie is for late sweeps, but it feels as if Breloom is doing that exact same job (and frankly he is a bit redundant considering Starmie's impressive Speed + SpAtk). Ttar gets rid of annoying pokes like Gengar, though he requires a ton of switching due to CB...

My biggest problem is balance; I'm not sure if my typing and coverage is so great here. Additionally, it seems like I have a few "overlaps" (pokes that serve the same purpose).

Also, my main goal is to build a largely offensive team. I don't really know see anything concreteness to this team, so I'm more than willing to switch in different pokes. Should I still throw in a few walls as a precaution, or is it a better idea to just stack 6 sweepers?

Thanks in advance for any help and criticism! ^^
- Hessian

Give Starmie a Life Orb and this moveset:

-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Recover

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Thats the standard for CB Tar, and put Pursuit >> Focus Punch, since Focus Punch requires really good prediction on CB set, and since you say you are new to battling, I'm forced to assume you don't have sharp prediction.


Why in the world do you have Speed EVs on Blissey? Thats the most pointless thing ever, move the 232 Speed EVs to Sp. Def.

If you are stacking up Spikes you NEED a ghost to block Rapid Spin. Id prolly drop Wish Bliss and put Stealth Rock on her (SR/Toxic/S-Toss or Flamethrower/Softboiled) since nothing really benefits from Wish and then drop the outdated, useless Aero for Rotom-A or something.

Do what gamer said too with Starmie.

.Gamer said:

Give Starmie a Life Orb and this moveset:

-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Recover

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Thats the standard for CB Tar, and put Pursuit >> Focus Punch, since Focus Punch requires really good prediction on CB set, and since you say you are new to battling, I'm forced to assume you don't have sharp prediction.


Why in the world do you have Speed EVs on Blissey? Thats the most pointless thing ever, move the 232 Speed EVs to Sp. Def.

Click to expand...

Huge botch on my part there, I accidentally read my "SpD" as speed so yeah they are actually on Sp. Defence and not Speed :P Thanks for the other tips by the way!

Dark Azelf said:

If you are stacking up Spikes you NEED a ghost to block Rapid Spin. Id prolly drop Wish Bliss and put Stealth Rock on her (SR/Toxic/S-Toss or Flamethrower/Softboiled) since nothing really benefits from Wish and then drop the outdated, useless Aero for Rotom-A or something.

Do what gamer said too with Starmie.

Click to expand...

Any suggestions for a good dark poke that would complement my current team? I might consider dropping Blissey anyways considering the fact that I can wall a lot of stuff with Skarm already.

Also, in regards to Rotom... what sort of set would I be looking at if I wanted it to replace Aero's lead spot? Or would something like Breloom be a better choice for an opener, then have Rotom take a switch-in role?

Seems like a pretty standard team. You have lots of spike setup, but not really anything to prevent spike setup from the opposing team. (although you don't really have any blaring SR/TS/Spike weaknesses so, it shouldn't be too much of a bother) I'm not going to cite you a specific suggestion since i have been out of the comp. for 6 months, however I would like to offer the following general suggestion: I found when i was experimenting with team building, It was immensely helpful to use shoddy battle to test out teams, and see how they work. A team may look good on paper, but until you actually go out there and see how that kind of team works for you and your battling style, you don't truly know how successful it can be.

As I see it, another problem with that team is that you do not pack a single Fire type attack. Considering that pokemon like Foretress and especially Scizor are quite popular in today's metagame, and that they both have only one weakness and that is to Fire type attacks (x4 effective, take note), it doesn't seem wise.

About Rotom, if you want to put it on the lead spot I would advice making it an anti-lead sort of thing. Give it a +speed nature and max it's EVs in speed and special attack, and the give him either a Choice Scarf or a Focus Sash.

For the Choice Scarf:
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt
-Hidden Power Ice
-Trick
This set requires some prediction as to what your opponet is going to do. If you see that you have a super effective move, and the opposing pokemon is concidered faster without a choice scarf, you should go for that move unless something seems fishy. If your opponet is obviously a Focus Sasher trick him your own Focus Sash to cripple it and you will now be sashed and ready to attack on a switch (if your opponet used a move like Stealth Rock he will have to switch, if he used an attack switch in to a pokemon that resists it and scare it away / kill it). Also remember to watch out for switch ins of pokemon that are immune to ghost once you are locked into shadowball and etc. for pokemon that are immune to thunderbolt.

If this is too much prediction for you to handle you can just slap a Focus Sash on it right away, giving you the freedom to switch moves right away, and replace Trick with Overheat if you are using Rotom-H or just have a crippling move like toxic / t-wave and so on. This however means that some lead pokemon will be faster than you, so you will have to outplay them anyway.

Also if you do not want to use Rotom as a lead, you should deffinetly get a Rotom-H for the Overheat to fill up that missing Fire type attack on your team. Having said that, leading with Breloom isn't recommended because experienced battlers would use this chance to switch in to a pokemon they do not care for sleeping currently and ruin your spore tactic due to sleep clause which is usually a better bet anyway in the late game. Breloom's surprise switch in is what makes it so frightning, as late game players might be unprepaired for such a thing.

I hope this helped. :)

Wow, awesome feedback guys! I really appreciate it :) Yeah, BrainDamage, I uploaded this team onto Shoddy the other day and was testing it out; like you said, I had trouble getting rid of Skarm (my only real solution was to bring out my own Skarm, which the guy stroked like a champ with his Ape...). I'll give Rotom a spin online and see how he does.

Regarding Breloom, I'm considering pulling him out and placing a Timid Latias into the team instead. He'll likely be running an Offensive CM set, but this raises another problem for me. If memory serves, Blissey is weak only against Fighting types and Breloom subbing+f.punching was probably the only thing that could deal with, say, a WishBliss wall. Any suggestions on what I can bring in for Breloom while still providing maximum coverage (Ape maybe?)

I don't understand how you got the idea that Breloom is the only thing that can deal with a wishbliss wall. Blissey's defense stat is extremely poor, any physical sweeper who packs a fighting move can easily set up and kill it.
Even ones who do not have a fighting move like Mence can DD Outrage it, example: EQ on the wish, set up DD on the protect, and proceed to KO.
Regardless, Infernape IS infact a good choice to have due to the fact that you do not have a Fire type attack on your team, you seem to ignore that but it IS crucial.

Azelf @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 SpAtk/252 Speed/4 HP (Timid)

~ Nasty Plot
~ Psychic
~ Flamethrower
~ Grass Knot

What about using this guy? He basically has half of Infernape's moveset minus the fighting move, but I'm also planning on having Azelf take over Aero's lead spot as well.

Regarding your comment on Blissey, I suppose I'll pull Breloom out and stick in a DDmence (Life Orb, Naive, 252 Speed / 232 Attack / 24 Sp Atk), running DD, Outrage, EQ, Fire Blast instead.