First Competitive Build. Battle Spot Singles!

[Jakob024]

Hello, all. I have been playing Pokemon since I started Red/Blue when I was near 6-7 years old. I have just recently started breeding and playing competitively. I am really interested in it and have been spending all my spare time in it when I bought my 3DS about 3 months ago. I am looking for lots of advice and constructive criticism. I will take everything into consideration. Like I said this is the first time I have built a team.

Now, I have done a LOT of research and so I wanted to go with a "Fire-Grass-Water Core/Bulky Offense" Team. I do have two Glass Cannons, but those are more of leads and one of them is Hazard control.

Tier: Battle Spot Singles

Fire-Grass-Water Core/Bulky Offense

1st Rapid Spinner
Pokemon: Starmie
Item: Leftovers
EV Spread: 252SpA/252Spe/4SpD
Nature: Timid
Ability: Natural Cure
Moveset: Recover, Rapid Spin, Scald, Thunderbolt
Role/Strategy: Lead/Hazard Control/Check for Physical Attackers. Starmie will be used for those 3 roles. I have been thinking about switching Thunderbolt for Psychic/Psyshock for a while now, but Thunderbolt has been more useful so far. The leftovers are to support Recover. Scald is for STAB and inflicting Status on Physical Sweepers. He does have more of a utility moveset I know, but since it will be leading a lot I wanted a more powerful EV spread.

2nd: DD-Nite
Pokemon: Dragonite
Item: Wide Lens
EV Spread: 252Atk/252Spe/4Def
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Multiscale
Moveset: Dragon Dance, Dragon Rush, Aqua Tail, Iron Head
Role/Strategy: Dragonite is a Setup Sweeper. After Hazards have been taken care of he can come in and sweep. I chose Wide Lens, Dragon Rush, and Aqua Tail for surprise. Most people expect Dragonite to have Outrage and Choice Band from what I've seen. Aqua Tail is over Fire Punch because of the Wide Lens and more Base Power. I've actually thought about switching it to Fire Punch to help take care of Ferrothorn/Venasaur/Other Steel stypes. I've also thought about switching from Iron Head to Iron Tail as well because of the Wide Lens

3rd: Technician
Pokemon: Breloom
Item: Life Orb
EV Spread 252Atk/252Spe/4SpD
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Technician
Moveset: Spore, Seed Bomb, Mach Punch, Rock Tomb
Role/Strategy: Status Inflicter. Breloom has a lot of possibilities and works well in a lot of teams. I'm still not the best with using him though. One of it's best qualities in inflicting status. Could be very useful for certain walls, and hindering Setup Sweepers. A lot of people choose Bullet Seed, but I chose Seed Bomb because I don't want to rely on how many times it hits. I'd rather have Seed Bomb do a certain amount of damage every time.

4th: Choice'gar
Pokemon: Gengar
Item: Choice Scarf
EV Spread: 252SpA/252Spe/4SpD
Nature: Timid
Ability: Levitate
Moveset: Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb, Dazzling Gleam, Thunderbolt
Role/Strategy: Revenge Killer/Lead. During certain teams Gengar can come out and outspeed certain leads. Also if I can predict any other Choice Scarf users Gengar could outspeed a lot of them. With a choice scarf he is a great Revenge Killer.

5th: Calm Minded Screaming Wall
Pokemon: Sylveon
Item: Rocky Helmet
EV Spread: I don't know the exact spread. I know there 252 in HP and Sp Atk is almost full. The rest is spread around in Sp.Def,Speed, and Defense.
Nature: Modest
Ability: Pixilate
Moveset: Calm Mind, Wish, Hyper Voice, Psyshock
Role/Strategy: Stall/Wish Passer/Special Set Up Sweeper. Sylveon is a great all around Pokemon, and is my main "stall" type Poke. His main goal is to be a check to Dragons, but has been great in a lot of different situations and has saved my butt a few times in my practice runs. If I feel a Poke is damaged heavily but can be useful later on I can pass a wish when the time is right. I was actually Burned while facing a Milotic with Leftovers, Aqua Ring, Recover, Scald, and Ice Beam. I was still able to Calm Mind Boost 3 times while using Wish Simultaneously. After that, even a Recover wasn't enough for me to stop them. So, he is even an amazing wall breaker even in a Neutral battle. You might be thinking, "Why the Rocky Helmet though?" Even though Sylveon is my wall, her Physical Defense is sub-par. The Rocky Helmet will definitely discourage physical hits. While I can usually wish off the damage before they can finish. If I predict a Physical Hit I will go ahead and use wish to recover the next turn. This will end up in hurting the other Poke more than hurting Sylveon. I will almost use Sylveon as my second or third choice in every battle. Wish works great to restore Dragonites Multiscale.

6th: Mega'zard X
Pokemon: Mega Charizard X
Item: Charizardite X
EV Spread: 252Atk/252Spe/4Def
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Tough Claws
Moveset: Dragon Dance, Flare Blitz, Dragon Claw, Earthquake
Role/Strategy: Mega/Physical Set Up Sweeper/Revenge Killer. Charizard usually comes out in every battle as well. It's main attack is Flare Blitz. After Dragon Dance, it can pretty much put a dent in everything. Also if a Poke is damaged pretty badly Charizard would be great to come in off the KO and finish it off. Dragon Claw is great too. After a Dragon Dance, Dragon Claw can be very deadly with Tough Claws. Due to having Flare Blitz as the main attack I refrain from switching him into any attacks, except for unboosted resisted predictions. Sylveon's Wish is also great to take Charizard off a Flare Blitz timer.

Well, there you have it! My first competitive build. I'll take as much criticism as I can get. Also, if you have any advice or anything at all you could tell me to help me in future builds I will gladly accept it. I'm really into the competitive scene, and when Sun&Moon come out I want to be very successful and be able to build off of the Knowledge I have. I tried to do that with this team, but it did take some research to get it all worked out.

Thank you!

 

[PlatinumDude]

Offensive Starmie doesn't have space for both Rapid Spin and Recover. A bulkier variant that utilizes max HP and max Speed can afford both. Also, offensive Starmie appreciates the extra power of Hydro Pump and the third moveslot for an extra coverage move. Tl;dr:
-Hydro Pump
-Psyshock/Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam/Hidden Power (Fire)
-Rapid Spin
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SAtk/4 SDef/252 Spe
item: Life Orb/Expert Belt
Ability: Natural Cure/Analytic

or
-Scald
-Psyshock/Reflect Type
-Rapid Spin
-Recover
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 Spe
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure

Even with Wide Lens, Dragon Rush is barely more accurate than Stone Edge, which is also a somewhat unreliable attack. Outrage should be Dragonite's Dragon STAB. It also really likes the +2 priority of Extreme Speed to pick off weakened attackers (that's an egg move). I understand that Iron Head lets Dragonite hit Fairy Pokemon, but it really has no space for it when Earthquake or Fire Punch are more important alternatives that let it hit Steel Pokemon. If using Outrage, Lum Berry is a fantastic item to let Dragonite cure post-Outrage confusion or a random status taken while setting up Dragon Dance:
-Dragon Dance
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Extreme Speed
Nature: Adamant/Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe
Item: Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale

However, Garchomp is still a worthy consideration over Dragonite, as it's exceptionally versatile in Battle Spot singles:
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Stealth Rock/Swords Dance
-Dragon Claw/Rock Tomb/Fire Blast
Nature: Jolly/Naive
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Item: Focus Sash/Lum Berry/Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin

or
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Dragon Claw/Dual Chop
-Stone Edge/Rock Slide/Fire Fang
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Item: Choice Band/Choice Scarf

or
-Swords Dance
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Dual Chop/Draco Meteor/Stone Edge/Fire Blast
Nature: Naive/Jolly
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Item: Life Orb/Lum Berry

On Technician Breloom, Seed Bomb is vastly inferior. A 2-hit Bullet Seed is only oh-so-slightly weaker than a single Seed Bomb:
252 Atk Breloom Seed Bomb vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 69-82 (39.4 - 46.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Technician Breloom Bullet Seed (2 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 66-78 (37.7 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

The power difference isn't that much, really.

You get 2-3 hits from Bullet Seed on average and a 3/4/5-hit Bullet Seed always outdamages Seed Bomb.

You'll have to re-breed for a new Shroomish/Breloom, I'm afraid:
-Bullet Seed
-Mach Punch
-Rock Tomb
-Spore
Nature: Adamant/Jolly
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Item: Focus Sash
Ability: Technician

In Battle Spot, you can get away with using more than one Mega Evolution on the same team (2 at the most), as you can pick the right Mega depending on the matchup. The secondary Mega can be Gengar, as it can utilize Shadow Tag to trap and eliminate potential counters:
-Shadow Ball/Hex
-Sludge Bomb/Focus Blast
-Will-o-Wisp/Taunt
-Destiny Bond
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 Spe
Item: Gengarite

or
-Shadow Ball
-Sludge Bomb/Focus Blast
-Focus Blast/Taunt/Icy Wind
-Destiny Bond
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SAtk/4 SDef/252 Spe
Item: Gengarite

or
-Perish Song
-Protect
-Substitute/Disable
-Shadow Ball/Taunt
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 HP/4 SAtk/252 Spe
Item: Gengarite

 

[Jakob024]

I am noticing through practice that Dragon Rush isn't so valuable. It's been helpful sometimes, but it does still miss. I have another variant with Outrage, I've just been worried about becoming Fairy Bait. That's why I went with Dragon Rush/Iron Head, thinking someone would see my 'Nite and predict the popular DDnite and swap into a fairy, where I would hit it with Iron Head instead. I have thought about Garchomp as a replacement a lot. Thank you for the sets.

I will rebreed my Breloom for sure now that I know that. I will also rebreed and set up a different Starmie for this set and use him for utility. I've been getting great results with this one so far, but I do feel as if he is a little weak. Though his scald has burned and put out a few things I didn't expect him too.

I thought about also having him as a mega, or replacing Charizard for Heatran and making him the only Mega, but that's a great Idea, having them both ready to Mega Evolve. Say I wanted to use Charizard as a mega this time around, and I needed Gengar to check/counter something else would he still be useful without the Speed Boost for the Scarf.

One last question, I've been having quite a problem from Mega Kangaskhan. I thought Breloom would be a great counter. I know that he always uses Fake Out to Mega Evolve, so I always switch in on that first turn, but I get knocked out before I get the spore off. I suppose that's why you recommended Focus Sash. Is Breloom a good check for Mega Kangaskahn, or should I look into replacing something?

Thank you for your response. I'm tweaking the team now and will go ahead and run some tests.

 

[Jakob024]

An Idea, would it be useful to run Mega Gengar, Mega Charizard, and a different Choice Scarf Ghost? The thing is Mega Charizard X is great, but regular Charizard sucks. That's why I was thinking of having an extra ghost in case I really really needed Mega Charizard. I still am thinking about replacing Charizard with Heatran. Of course I'm sacrificing speed and gaining a OHKO to Earthquake. I could always run the Balloon Heatran though.

Any ideas?

 

[PlatinumDude]

An Idea, would it be useful to run Mega Gengar, Mega Charizard, and a different Choice Scarf Ghost? The thing is Mega Charizard X is great, but regular Charizard sucks. That's why I was thinking of having an extra ghost in case I really really needed Mega Charizard. I still am thinking about replacing Charizard with Heatran. Of course I'm sacrificing speed and gaining a OHKO to Earthquake. I could always run the Balloon Heatran though.

Any ideas?

Not exactly. Mega Gengar is already a good revenge killer in itself, given its already high Speed and ability to trap with Shadow Tag.