Please rate my Platinum Casual Competitive Team

2Blue4u

Red Doesn't Come Close
  • 23
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    15
    Years
    • Age 35
    • Seen Sep 20, 2014
    We've been planning a tournament for a while. We had one in December, but nobody was ready then, so we're planning it for three weeks for now. As far as I can tell, I'm the only one there who cares enough about IV's, since I have the upper hand of RNG manipulation and being able to control what nature my pokes will be. The tournament bans all legendaries (including Heatran, Phione, etc.) as well as Salamence, Dragonite, Tyranitar, and Metagross.
    Originally, we thought it would be cool to have a signature Pokemon on our teams, where everybody had one signature poke that nobody else could use. This turned out to be flawed, however.
    I spent a few weeks breeding my Pokemon and getting the right team, since I was concerned with IV's. I finished my EV training, but have to level it to 70 in three weeks (which isn't a big deal, since three weeks is A LOT of time.)
    Here's what I'll end up with-
    (Most standard rules don't apply, including sleep clause, OHKO clause, item clause, and unique Pokemon rule.)

    Swampert (lead)
    Relaxed nature (22/19/31/28/31/7)
    Item- Leftovers

    248 HP/ 212 Defense/ 48 Special Defense

    Stealth Rock
    Roar
    Ice Beam
    Earthquake

    Breloom
    Jolly nature (7/31/21/8/0/31)
    Item- Toxic Orb (Poison Heal)

    12 HP, 252 Attack, 244 Speed

    Substitute
    Seed Bomb
    Spore
    Focus Punch

    Gyarados
    Adamant nature (31/31/31/24/31/1)
    Item- Leftovers

    252 Attack, 4 Defense, 252 Special Defense
    (It had an appalling speed stat, and since I wasn't going to outspeed most of the competition and Gyarados has decent defense capabilities as is, I decided to put the 252 in Special Defense rather than Speed to resist hits.)

    Waterfall
    Stone Edge
    Earthquake
    Dragon Dance

    Forretress
    Relaxed nature (30/30/31/19/5/15)
    Item- Shed Shell

    252 HP, 112 Attack, 144 Defense
    Though it didn't have a terribly low speed stat, I decided I wanted to stick with this Pineco/Forretress because a spread that covers your three most sufficient stats is hard to find. I thought they were 31's at the time, but I was unfortunately mistaken.

    Earthquake
    Gyro Ball
    Spikes
    Rapid Spin

    Umbreon
    Careful nature (31/22/28/3/31/26)
    Item- Chople Berry

    252 HP, 128 Special Defense, 128 Speed

    Baton Pass
    Mean Look
    Wish
    Taunt

    Gengar
    Timid nature (20/14/14/31/26/31)
    Item- Leftovers

    4 HP, 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed

    Hypnosis/ Thunderbolt (Haven't decided yet)
    Substitute
    Shadow Ball
    Focus Blast


    I'm not 100% on strategy yet. I tried to make a team based mostly on type advantages, so I guess it's mostly defensive, since I based it on how it would resist and compensate for each Pokemon's weaknesses. (Forretress was my signature Pokemon at the time, which is partly why I had two water types- neither of which share a weakness with the other.)
    I suppose entry hazards are a major theme in this set. Swampert lays down stealth rock, and Forretress lays down spikes (and if Swampert holds out as well as I think he will, roar will prove beneficial.)
    I tried to make it fairly balanced. I've got three sweepers, two walls, and one baton passer in this lineup (I decided on Umbreon because I wanted variety in my team.)
    Anyway, I think I've covered it for casual, but I'm really not sure on team synergy so much. Do you think this team synergizes well? I haven't had the chance to test it yet, since most of my Pokemon are in their 30s or 40s right now.
     
    move sets

    The only poke in that line up i've used is Umbreon. So I know about its high def and low spd. Yours cant attack. Take advantage of its low spd and teach it Sucker Punch. Take it to the move tutor by Pastoria and dump Taunt. If a fighting type goes out like Machamp you dont want to provoke cross chop and lose your chople berry. Umbreon has great atk so Sucker Punch is good. To make sure it hits hold iron ball or lagging tail. Also find a way to put Fake Out or a psychic move in there. Mean look Two possible sets
    Baton
    Mean Look
    Psychic or wish
    Suckerpunch
    Mean Look wil keep it in while you sucker punch. Enemy will stop atk moves. Chance to use Wish. Set two
    Look
    Sucker Punch
    Baton
    Fake out
    if it can learn it
     
    It looks pretty good to me! ^^
    Everything looks all good.
    Though, I really don't see much usefulness with the Umbreon... The Mean Look/Baton Pass is good for trading to Pokemon that set up, which your team only has one, Gyarados. May I suggest something Like Swords Dance Scizor, or if ya wanna go special, Nasty Plot Azelf?
     
    It looks pretty good to me! ^^
    Everything looks all good.
    Though, I really don't see much usefulness with the Umbreon... The Mean Look/Baton Pass is good for trading to Pokemon that set up, which your team only has one, Gyarados. May I suggest something Like Swords Dance Scizor, or if ya wanna go special, Nasty Plot Azelf?

    Good point. I was considering that...
    The Umbreon is really more fit for a baton pass team.
    The problem with Scizor is that I'd have to get rid of Forretress, since shared weakness.
    The problem with Azelf is that he's legendary, and therefore banned.
    Hmm... I'll look through and see what my team should improve upon.
    Does something like stealth rock and spikes really work well enough for this team? Should I go more offensive and forgo the entry hazards?

    Between Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Rapid Spin, and various attack options, it is rare that Forretress will have enough room on a set to run Stealth Rock. Any team that relies upon hazard abuse should use another Pokemon with Stealth Rock to take full advantage of Forretress's talents as a Spiker. Non-Rest variants of Forretress, especially sets with Shed Shell over Leftovers, will often find themselves getting beaten down by residual damage over the course of a match, as a result of their lack of healing. For this reason, Wish support is exceptionally useful for keeping Forretress alive to continue its job as a team supporter.

    Defensively speaking, Forretress's stand-out flaw is its double weakness to Fire. Having Pokemon that can sponge Fire-type attacks in addition to some of its disadvantageous neutralities is crucial to forming a defensive core with Forretress. Good examples of this include Tyranitar, Swampert, which also resists Rock- and Electric-type attacks, Dragonite and Gyarados, which resist Water-, Ground-, and Fighting-type attacks, and Blissey, which doesn't resist any type commonly directed at Forretress, but has enough special bulk to absorb most special attacks with ease. All of these Pokemon have ways to support Forretress further, whether it is with Roar, Stealth Rock, or Wish. As it is always looking for opportunities to switch in and set up, it's also a good idea to pair Forretress with Pokemon that lure in resisted attacks. Dragon-types make great teammates, as in addition to resisting Fire, they lure in a number of types that Forretress is resistant to. Defensive Psychic- and Ghost-types make good teammates as well, though they do not resist Fire. It should be noted that Celebi has five weaknesses that Forretress is resistant or immune to.

    As Forretress's greatest utility is its ability to set up entry hazards, it is imperative to pair it with a Ghost-type Pokemon to keep your opponent from Rapid Spinning the hazards away. Ghost-types also tend to draw in Dark- and Ghost-type attacks for Forretress to switch into. The most obvious candidates for the job are the Rotom formes, as they are capable of handling every Rapid Spinner in some way and provide a backup switch-in to physically attacking Steel-types. Conversely, Forretress is itself a Rapid Spinner, and any team hoping to use it for this purpose will require anti-Ghost support of some kind. Tyranitar, Scizor, Heracross, and Weavile are all capable of switching into Ghosts on the right move and all know Pursuit to dispose of them.

    Being a slow defensive Pokemon with limited attacking coverage, Forretress is incapable of maintaining offensive momentum. For this reason, it will usually put out the best results when used on a stall team that is capable of addressing the many dangerous threats it draws in. While Forretress can be used successfully on balanced teams to support more offensive strategies with its entry hazards, it's important to remember that Forretress isn't a Pokemon you can simply stick onto a team as the obligatory Steel-type. It really shines as part of a defensive core intent on forcing switches and taking advantage of secondary damage.

    Above is from Smogon.com. I was looking at my team synergy and trying to decide on new members, and Scizor was all I could think of. And that contradicts Forretress. However, like Forretress, Scizor is very much a "build around me" poke. In that line-up, I'd replace Forretress with Starmie, which would kind of eliminate what my team is.
    Now that I think about it, Umbreon is really good for wish. It also allows me to set up something like, say, substitute Gengar or Breloom (when there is a clear type advantage), or dragon dance Gyarados, like you said. I could also mean look baton pass into, say, Swampert, who could roar the team into entry hazards while they are unable to switch out because of mean look.
     
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