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New Player's First Competitive Team

Celestrael

    • 6
    Posts
    8
    Years
    • Seen Aug 4, 2016
    Hello! I'm new to the community. I played Pokemon through Gold/Silver as a kid, and have returned as an adult. I have become Champion on X and I'm starting to build my team! I'm not interested in Smogon's rules (I tried to delve into that, got terribly confused and moved on) or any of that. I plan to just battle my boyfriend, childhood friend and through the Link!

    I'm pretty overwhelmed by all the complexities of the game now, and could use some help navigating! I first made a list of Pokemon I like:

    • Cinccino
    • Froslass
    • Mismagius
    • Milotic
    • Aegislash
    • Sylveon
    • Emolga
    • Cresselia
    • Uxie
    • Luxray
    • Hoopa
    • Malamar
    • Mienshao
    • Mawile
    • Togekiss

    I guess I have an affinity for Ghost, Fairy and Psychic! Then this is what I came up with for a team (but am very open to adjustments):

    • Aegislash
    • Cinccino
    • Emolga
    • Togekiss
    • Hoopa
    • Mawile

    Thoughts on builds, natures, strategies etc would be super helpful! I've been pouring over online resources but it's all very overwhelming and I'm not entirely sure where to start. Any help would be ever so appreciated!
     
    So I've done more homework, studying strategies and move sets and all that jazz. I've decided I wanted to go for a balanced team that's focused on shutting down/stalling out the popular strategies. Mostly, I want to tackle Trick Room and Weather strategies. The Pokemon choices aren't very orthodox, I know, but I want to play with Pokemon I like not necessarily the ones that are "the best"! Here's what I have:

    Balanced Team
    - Altaria/Mega Altaria – Heavy Sweeper with Cloud Nine (to cancel weather effects)
    - Weavile - Revenge Killer with Knock-Off, Icicle Crash, Ice Shard, Pursuit and Pressure ability.
    - Cincinno – Speed Sweeper (for Trick Room groups that are slow) with Tail Slap, Bullet Seed, Rock Blast, Knock Off & Skill Link ability.
    - Cresselia – Support with Light Screen, Reflect, Trick Room (to cancel Trick Room), Moonblast.
    - Togekiss – Stallbreaker with Nasty Plot, Air Slash, Thunder Wave, Roost & Serene Grace ability
    - Audino – Cleric Toxic/Healing Wish/Protect/Wish with Leftovers and Regenerator ability


    My biggest concern with the line-up is how to deal with Steel. I feel that is probably my Team's kryptonite, although, you can't really have EVERY base covered in 6 Pokemon. Weaknesses are going to happen?
     
    Last edited:
    Cresselia and Audino should be able to switch in safely to a Steel attack since they are both quite strong defensively. Through experimenting with different Pokemon and battling more you should be able to improve your team's coverage. For instance, if you find your team weak to one type or one particular Pokemon such as Scizor, you try using a Pokemon that resists that type (e.g. Magnezone with magnet pull, choice scarf and hidden power fire which wrecks most commonly used steel types). You repeat that process until you arrive at a team which is relatively balanced and able to counter every type.

    P.S. I don't know how advanced your knowledge is exactly for multiplayer(competitive) Pokemon battling but here is an extremely long basics guide i wrote https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PwDKKWjfZbEq4qDqUK7GdMY6wYQw-kqg2PhmE8LuOME/edit?usp=sharing
     
    Last edited:
    If you intend on playing Smogon tiers, Aegislash is banned to Ubers. Dedicated Trick Room isn't a very viable strategy in singles because you have to spend a turn setting it up and switching to the appropriate attacker, meaning that said attacker will only have 3 turns to use Trick Room before it expires.
     
    I don't intend to do anything with Smogon's tiers or their rules. I don't even understand the point of them, honestly. I'm just going to be doing ranked battles through the global link thing (thus the absence of banned legendaries in my list. There's a lot of them I really like, but they are no nos) and with friends.

    Instead of preparing for Trick Room, do you see an opportunity for a strategy I could deploy myself with my choices? Also the Weavile could be switched out to bring back Aegislash or something else.
     
    To be honest, no one can really critique your team if you're intentionally not trying to be optimal. You're free to use what you want but understand that it comes with the caveat of not being able to win every game. Trick Room can be stopped by Taunt users and I definitely advise you bring back Aegislash to help prevent Steel types from totally sweeping you.
     
    I can help you the best i can :) Im admiring how you use Togekiss :D

    Try my strategy for Togekiss?
    Modest / Timid Togekiss
    EV's on either Spe/SpD or Spe/SpA or SpA/SpD
    I use Sweet kiss on everything that learns it
    Ability Serene grace + Air slash = 60% chance to flinch
    Roost for SpD Investment, Tailwind for Spe Investment
    Nasty plot for SpA Investment / Thunderwave for SpD/Spe Investment

    This is my choice
    Modest Togekiss
    EV's on 100 SpD / 156 Spe / 252 SpA
    Sweet kiss
    Air slash
    Tailwind
    Nasty plot

    But, this whole thing is just a suggestion.

    hope i helped!
     
    TogeKisser said:
    I can help you the best i can :) Im admiring how you use Togekiss :D

    Try my strategy for Togekiss?
    Modest / Timid Togekiss
    EV's on either Spe/SpD or Spe/SpA or SpA/SpD
    I use Sweet kiss on everything that learns it
    Ability Serene grace + Air slash = 60% chance to flinch
    Roost for SpD Investment, Tailwind for Spe Investment
    Nasty plot for SpA Investment / Thunderwave for SpD/Spe Investment

    This is my choice
    Modest Togekiss
    EV's on 100 SpD / 156 Spe / 252 SpA
    Sweet kiss
    Air slash
    Tailwind
    Nasty plot

    But, this whole thing is just a suggestion.

    hope i helped!
    Click to expand...

    Paralysis is more reliable than confusion, as the opponent is forced to miss a turn 25% of the time. Paralysis also significantly lowers the victim's Speed, compensating for Togekiss' own not-so-stellar Speed:
    -Nasty Plot
    -Air Slash
    -Thunder Wave/Heal Bell
    -Roost
    Nature: Timid
    EVs: 252 HP/80 Def/176 Spe
    Item: Leftovers
    Ability: Serene Grace

    Out of your list of current six, I'm afraid that Weavile, Altaria, Cresselia, and Togekiss (to an extent) are the most viable options. Audino is straight-up outclassed by walls like Cresselia itself and Hippowdon because of its lack of resistances. Get Aegislash back in there, too:

    Weavile:
    -Knock Off
    -Icicle Crash
    -Ice Shard
    -Low Kick/Pursuit
    Nature: Jolly
    EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe
    Item: Life Orb/Focus Sash
    Ability: Pressure

    Cresselia:
    -Psychic/Lunar Dance
    -Ice Beam
    -Thunder Wave/Toxic/Trick Room/Lunar Dance
    -Moonlight
    Nature: Bold
    EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
    Item: Rocky Helmet

    Aegislash sets if you're interested:
    -Shadow Ball
    -Flash Cannon/Sacred Sword
    -Shadow Sneak
    -King's Shield
    Nature: Quiet
    EVs: 252 HP/252 SAtk/4 SDef
    Item: Leftovers/Weakness Policy

    or
    -Substitute
    -Toxic
    -King's Shield
    -Flash Cannon/Shadow Ball
    Nature: Modest/Timid
    EVs: 252 HP/252 SAtk/4 SDef (Modest) or 252 HP/4 SAtk/252 Spe
    Item: Leftovers

    or
    -Iron Head/Shadow Claw
    -Shadow Sneak
    -Sacred Sword
    -King's Shield/Swords Dance
    Nature: Brave/Adamant
    EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 SDef
    Item: Life Orb/Weakness Policy
     
    Thank you for the great replies guys!! I'm so appreciative of the information.

    PlatinumDude, would Blissey be a good replacement for Audino?
     
    Eviolite Chansey is actually bulkier than Blissey. The downside is that you have to watch out for Knock Off.

    Flinchhax Togekiss is easily checked by any Electric type, but if you want a very powerful Fairy on your team, I would run Gardevoir. If you drop Altaria, Mega Gardevoir/Aegi/a good Fighting type like Blaziken or Terrakion form a strong core. Aegislash and Gardevoir also make great complements to Chansey due to their immunity/double resistance to Fighting. You can also run a Dragon instead of a Fighting type, Fairy/Steel/Dragon cores are pretty strong atm although many Dragons are overprepared for online.

    Like holy crap Mega Gardevoir/Aegi/Blaziken or a Dragon are incredible if you intend to play online, esp. in 3v3 play. Mega Gardevoir/Aegi/Blaziken/Weavile can be good in this comp/Chansey/something immune to Ground, pref. with Intimidate sounds like a great team to start online play.
     
    Would anyone happen to know where I could acquire 6IV Ditto? Apparently I need them to breed the team. This is all so difficult. Lol
     
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