The "What's your team?" thread!

Dusknoir doesn't have any synergy with the team, IMO. Most of your pokes have good physical defense, and some even have deterrents (Intimidate, Hypnosis, etc.). Dusknoir's primary job is dishing out small amounts of damage at a time, while burning physical attackers. Not to mention it adds more to your Dark/Ghost weakness, which you only have one unreliable resist to both (Empoleon). You may want a wall that resists both of those types, but it isn't necesarry. It's just a good idea not to damage your late-game sweeper on switches early on.

Either way, you'll probably want a special wall, since some of your weaknesses that are large vulnerabilities (Ice, Grass, etc.) are special based, most of the time.

So.... Blissey? Why not? Thats only one fighting weakness, and I have plenty of resists to it right?

Actually, that's a second fighting weakness, considering your Empoleon. You only have a single fighting resist (Starmie) too (if you're still using Flygon over Salamence), which could be a problem if you plan on using Blissey.

Hmmm... I wonder what kind of special wall I could use then...

What about Gyarados? Not really a wall, but hes got good Spec Defense and can attack really hard. Plus its a fighting resist and ground immunity.

A special wall doesn't need to have fighting and ground resists. His 4x electric weakness makes him an easy target as a special wall too, in short, it's a bad idea.

Claydol is UU and adds to your Grass weakness, lol. Stick to OU's, Storm.

Now, by now I'd be giving suggestions, but I'm not a wall expert. I'm only a full-out offensive player, I've only used a standard team once. And that was years ago.

Ok, I looked into it, and I have some good options.

Hitmonlee or Hitmontop would seem like a good choice with 110 base sp def.
Same with Flareon, Kecleon with 120, Meganium, Milotic.... endless options....

What about Spiritomb?

Milotic has too many special weaknesses, high stats aren't everything. Don't use it.

Everything else is also UU, and wouldn't work in OU. Don't use them... >.>;

Spiritomb is more of a utility counter than a wall. His stats are nice, but his HP is too low without a reliable recovery move.

Yea...

How about this.

Bronzong
Swampert
Empoleon
Hippowdon
Dugtrio
Cradily

Sandstorm support for the team + Revenge kill and Cradily can now toxic Stall if needed, making everything much better in Sp Def.

ironic. i'm building a sandstorm team.

Tyranitar
Skarmory
Swampert
Heatran
Hippowdon
Scizor/Mamoswine

i can't choose between the final 2 cause both work really well for this team.

i never knew pokemon could be much more in depth than the simple fire beats grass method

Shadow*91 wrote:

ironic. i'm building a sandstorm team.

Tyranitar
Skarmory
Swampert
Heatran
Hippowdon
Scizor/Mamoswine

i can't choose between the final 2 cause both work really well for this team.

I won't be reviewing teams here anymore, Wiichat is a better alternative for that, so use Wiichat's "What's your team?" thread, alright? Wuddle, Fox, and Strype are all much more experienced than me, both in playtime and a wide array of strategies. I'm not perfect after all, so I might say something stupid every once in awhile. They're better strategists anyways.

Although, I will say, you may want to drop Hippowdon; a lot of things that counter TTar, counter Hippowdon. This isn't necesarrily bad if TTar's your sweeper, since Hippowdon can sacrifice itself to weaken it's counter, allowing a sweep. But if that's not the case, you'll probably want to get rid of Hippowdon.

Or Skarmory, although Skarmory is better for this team, I'd think.

bigwillly wrote:

i never knew pokemon could be much more in depth than the simple fire beats grass method

Almost every pokemo gamer doesn't know. It's one of the major reasons people would hate pokemon; it's supposedly simple, easy, and thus "childish". Rumours, gotta hate 'em.

My Lv. 60 Gyaridos knows
-Rain Dance
-Aqua Tail
-Thunder
-Hyper Beam
Should I teach it Bounce or Ice Fang?
Note: This is for the Battle Frontier only, not locally.

Gyarados doesn't need, or want a Flying move. Definatly teach it Ice Fang; put Ice Fang over Hyper Beam.

It'd also be wise to teach it Earthquake instead of Thunder. Gyarados' special attack is pretty low, Earthquake does TONS more damage, trust me. You don't have to, but it'l definatly help you in the long run.

Also, I don't blame you since you just joined, but this belongs in the "What's Your Team?" thread. Any other team-related business should go there, alright?

CK wrote:

Also, I don't blame you since you just joined, but this belongs in the "What's Your Team?" thread. Any other team-related business should go there, alright?

Which is why the "Merge Topics" button exists. =D

Thanks. The reason I considered Bounce is because I like teaching moves that are the same type as the Pokemon. Why? Because (unless it's a wall or tank) if there was a fire Pokemon without a fire move, it comepletely take away the threat of being fire type.
Oc: I have a pretty crazy team.
Empoleon
-Swords Dance
-Waterfall
-Metal Claw
-Drill Peck

Torterra
-Seed Bomb
-Earthquake
-Crunch
-Rock Climb

Crobat
-Defog
-Fly
-Cross Poison
-Wing Attack

Golem
-Rock Slide
-Earthquake
-Double Edge
-Rock Smash

Gyaridos (already mentioned)
-Rain Dance
-Aqua Tail
-Thunder
-Ice Fang (thnx)

Venasaur
-Energy Ball
-Sludge Bomb
-Earthquake
-Strength

This is purely in-game, otherwise Crobat wouldn't know Defog and Golem wouldn't know Rock Smash.

Espmaster1 wrote:

Thanks. The reason I considered Bounce is because I like teaching moves that are the same type as the Pokemon. Why? Because (unless it's a wall or tank) if there was a fire Pokemon without a fire move, it comepletely take away the threat of being fire type.

Ya, I see your point, it's something that's an absolute gimme for a poke's moveset, pretty basic stuff. Gyara doesn't get a good flying move though, so there's not much point. Especially when Water/Ground/Ice covers a lot more types than Flying would, in place of any of the moves.

Swords Dance Empoleon on a non-competitive team?! ... ... ...

I love it! You've got quite a bit of originality, Espmaster.

TheOriginalOne-CK wrote:

Swords Dance Empoleon on a non-competitive team?! ... ... ...

I love it! You've got quite a bit of originality, Espmaster.

Yeah, I thought it would be a good psysical attacker if it knew Swords Dance.

What I'm doing now since I've beaten Mt. Stark is trade over a Quagsire ot my Pearl to level up. I'm also thinking about retiring as an explorer and deleting those HM moves for better moves (except of course for Fly).

Edit: Can Empoleon learn Steel Wing? Because if so, I think it'd be alot more reliable than Metal Claw.

Well, there are a lot better Swords Dancers, but originality ftw. Ya?

Yeah, Empoleon does learn Steel Wing. The power boost over Metal Claw is nice, but there are better physical moves. Since Empoleon is slow, a really good move would be Avalanche. A 120 power Ice Move is a lot better than a 105 power Steel Move (Steel Wing). Steel has crappy coverage, and Ice lets Empoleon take out Grass types better (does more damage than drill peck), and let's it pummel dragon types that normally wall it completely.

Earthquake is a good option too, mainly to smash electric types that could easily stop Empoleon's sweep. Since you have 3 pokes weak to electric (Gyara being 4x weak, which is definatly not good), Earthquake would be a very good idea, since Empoleon should be able to take atleast one electric hit, and then smash back with a 1 hit KO.

I agree that Avalanche would be a good move for Empoleon, but the thing is that I have 2 ground type Pokemon on my team (and three when I'm done with Quagsire which will be replaced for Venasaur) and they both [/all] know Earthquake, so personally I think I WILL dump the Steel Type STAB, because it covers rock (which would been covered by Waterfall) and Ice, which would take a strong hit from Waterfall or Drill Peck.

Also, what should I replace Defog for on my Crobat? I'm trying to stick with Physical Attacker, because apparently because of its IVs its Physical Attack is Significantly higher.

I'm also working on my Diamond team (my only competitive team).
So far:
Groundon
-Earthquake
-Solarbeam
-Flamethrower
-Thunder

Infernape
-Close Combat
-Blaze Kick
-Swords Dance
-Stone Edge

Moltres
-Sunny Day
-Solarbeam
-Heat Wave
-Air Slash

Exeggutor
-Sleep Powder
-Hidden Power Ice
-Grass Knot
-Explosion

Who else should I use?

Alright, Avalanche it is, good choice. Just be careful if your ground types get eliminated (this can be easy to do, considering Grass/Water ruins Golem, and Torterra is 4x weak to Ice, not to mention your entire team totals up to 4x weak to Ice).

Crobat's base Sp. Atk is lower than it's Atk anyways, IVs shouldn't matter for which one's higher. But yeah, Crobat's physical movepool is nearly non-existant. All you could really do is slap on U-turn to get an idea of what the enemy's doing, switch to a counter and demolish them, as well as get a small amount of damage on them out of it. Not many other options besides that.

Groudon? On a competitive team? Lol. In competitive battling, Groudon is in the uber tier. Using a single poke in ubers means your opponent can use all the dangerous banned legendaries. Drop Groudon, or you'll get slaughtered by a slew of Kyogre and Palkia.

Although I do give props to you for having a Sunny Day team, most people new to competitive battling just use a crazy offensive team with no strategy (like I once did for a loooong time XD).

... Anyways, I'm usually not one to give advice on pokes to add to the team. I will however, recomend Roserade, even though you already have a grass type. It's speedier than Exeggutor, and learns weather ball. This gives it a 100 Base Power fire move to demolish steels and other grass types with, it's a pretty nice suprise attack if the opponent is inexperienced with Roserade.

You'll also want a bulky poke to set up Sunny Day, holding ofcourse, a Heat Rock (no, not exeggutor ). Moltres isn't a good choice for Sunny Day, unless it's a Focus Sash lead, after all. And even then, it's too slow IMO.

I'll do Roserade for Groundon, sure. I just thought Groundon would be good for putting sunshine on the battle. But I guess your right about the ubers, I forgot about that.

Do you think Deoxys Defense form could set up a Sunny Day?

All Deoxys forms are uber.

Well, since pretty much everything learns Sunny Day, you'll either want something bulky (in all defensive stats), something that's very fast, and something that preferrably benefits from it (unless it's a suicide lead, like Focus Sash Ninjask). I'm definatly not an expert in Sunny Day teams, though... You might want to bring that question to Wiichat's "What's your team?" thread.

Umbreon!
Well, he's the best non-uber Pokemon that has good defense stats in both areas that I can think of. The uber choices are Registeel and the already mentioned Deoxys Defense. And plus he's unexpected.

Well right now my team should look like this when I'm done:

Infernape
-Blaze Kick
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge
-Swords Dance

Roserade
-Solarbeam
-Weather Ball
-Sunny Day
-Sludge Bomb

Moltres
-Flamethrower
-Air Slash
-Solarbeam
-Extrasensory

Umbreon
-Mean Look
-Toxic
-Baton Pass
-Sunny Day

For and extra twist

Gallade
-Psycho Cut
-Close Combat
-Night Slash
-Thunderpunch

and...ummm...

bigwillly wrote:

i never knew pokemon could be much more in depth than the simple fire beats grass method

I'm such a noob, I don't even use that. For me it's the "higher lvl = pwnage" method. ;D