Need some opinions on my battling team.

[Jigsaw Complex]

So i've been a long time pokemon fan, but i've never in 12 years of playing pokemon have battled another person. I had a few friends that played, but we never got together other then to trade, lol. I was working on a team when Diamond came out but my former roomie stole my DS and Diamond.

Anyway, i got Platnium and SS 2 weeks ago and i've been working on a team to casually battle online. So any non insulting/threatening tips/opinions/pointers are welcomed :)

Blastoise - Bold @ Leftovers
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
-----------
Surf
Ice Beam
Rapid Spin
Bite

Arcanine - Jolly @ Life Orb
120 HP / 152 Atk / 236 Spe
-----------
ExtremeSpeed
Flare Blitz
Thunder Fang
Iron Head

Torterra - Impish @ Leftovers
20 HP / 252 Atk / 236 Spe
----------
Wood Hammer
Earthquake
Stone Edge
Superpower

Staraptor - Jolly @ Sharp Beak
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-----------
Brave Bird
Return
Close Combat
Roost?

Heracross - Adamant @ Muscle Band
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
-------------
Night Slash
Close Combat
Aerial Ace
Stone Edge

Nidoking - Rash @ Life Orb
80 Atk / 252 SpA / 176 Spe
----------
Earth Power
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt
Super Power

But last night, i got to thinking, and i'm toying with the idea of Switching Torterra and Arcanine for Sceptile and Infernape. If i did that, i would still have Nidoking for Ground and because Infernape covering fighting, i could possibly drop Heracross and pick up Scizor or Gengar. I'm not sure though.

Like i said, i thank any non jerkish opinions :)

 

[Aurafire]

If this team is indeed for casual battling then I won't go into all the weaks your team has considering Heracross is OU and therefore, this whole team must be considered OU as well. Same thing with Staraptor, who's banned from OU.

If you did want an honest rate, you'd have to change mostly everything unless you wanted to drop both Hera and Staraptor in favor of a fully UU team. Nothing on this team can handle common OU threats (an in depth list can be found here.), so that would probably be your best option here, in which case it would be easier to rate your team.

I mean, it's hard to gauge how we should treat this team since we can assume it's not for OU competitive purposes, know what I mean?

 

[Jigsaw Complex]

Hmm, i see. I honestly just put together the group that i wanted for fun and casual battles. I understand what you mean though. I didn't really fully understand the difference in tiers though. If i was to be more serious with this team, i would indeed have to do some tweaking. Thanks for setting me in the right direction though :)