Help with Team modifications

[MFJ]

I've been having trouble finalising my team and I was wondering if anyone could help me with it. Here it is so far:
Muk @ Black Sludge
Ability: Poison Touch
Nature: Careful
EV's: 200 HP/ 104 Atk/ 56 Def/ 148 SpD
- Poison Jab
- Brick Break
- Curse
- Shadow Sneak

Function: Mixed Wall; This is basically set up to take hits while also being capable to putting up a fight of it's own. His role is more or less to soak up damage from an opposing teams more troublesome sweepers for the rest of the team. The bulk makes up for the lack of speed so Muk should be able to take a few decent hits before being taken down with Black Sludge offering a means for it to stay healthy. Poison Jab would be the centre piece of the moveset offering STAB as well as the chance of inflicting poison. Brick Break and Shadow Sneak are in for coverage as well as priority (in the case of Shadow Sneak), while Curse basically offers free buffs in Attack and Defence due to speed being such an irrelevant stat in Muk's case.

Magneton @ Eviolite
Ability: Analytic
Nature: Sassy
EV's: 252 HP/ 252 SpD/ 4 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Light Screen/Reflect
- Thunder Wave

Function: Specially Defensive Wall; Its defences are already reasonable so with the addition of the Eviolite, it can be relatively bulky. Due to having no investments in Special Attack ( easily its best stat ), Analytic will easily remedy this when Magneton attacks after the opponent. Therefor enabling it to deal a decent hit. The use of either light screen or reflect is to support Magneton and the rest of the teams i staying on the field for at least one more turn. Finally, the aim of Thunder Wave is to slow down the the physical sweepers for the rest of the team. ( That is if they can't be poisoned by Drapions Toxic Spikes e.g Noivern )

Hawlucha @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
Nature: Jolly
EV's: 252 Spe/ 252 Atk/ 4 HP
- Hone Claws
- High Jump Kick
- Acrobatics
- Stone Edge

Function: Simple physical sweeper intended to go in, hard and fast. Speed and Attack are prioritised in combination with the Uburden/Sitrus Berry combination to make Hawlucha a fast and deadly threat to the opposing team. Acrobatics and High Jump Kick offers STAB, made even more formidable when paired with Hone Claws with it's Accuracy + Attack boost. Stone Edge is thrown in for coverage.

Drapion @ Black Sludge
Ability: Sniper
Nature: Impish
EV's: 252 Def/ 252 HP/ 4 Spe
- Taunt
- Toxic Spikes
- Knock Off
- Roar

Function: Mah lead; Taunt helps it stall other leads (specifically the slower ones). Toxic Spikes is thrown in for obvious reason and I've been running Roar along with this to set up a scenario where in a few turns I could (potentially) leave a good few Pokemon on the opposing teams poisoned. Considering switching Roar with Poison Jab, though. I gave it Sniper as if it was to get a critical hit with aSTAB Knock Off and getting rid of an item, it would deal serious damage.

Chandelure @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Infiltrator
Nature: Modest
EV's: 252 SpAtk/ 252 Spe/ 4 Def
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Psychic

Function: A fast heavy hitter thats main aim is to cause devastation where possible, while also having the ability to ignore screens and subs. Special Attack and Speed EV's play crucial role in Chandelure's role as a fast attacker with high power special moves with great coverage making it another crucial part of making up for deficits in speedy attackers elsewhere in the team.

Lapras @ Leftovers:
Ability: Shell Armour
Nature: Impish
EV's: 252 HP/ 250 Def/ 6 Atk
- Ice Shard
- Waterfall
- Curse
- Avalanche

Function: Defensive Wall; The main function of curse is to obviously raise my defence and attach. However, the loss of speed is more likely to ensure I attack after my opponent meaning that STAB Avalanche's power is doubled coupled with the attack rise ( And I will be able to take a priory hit from the defence rise ). This Speed drop can be slightly be made up for with a priority Ice Shard. I chose Waterfall as it is another STAB move which can deal a decent amount of damage. Finally, Shell Armour along side Leftovers ensure Lapras can survive faster with the "immunity" to Critical Hits and the constant regaining of health.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

[Ununhexium]

Okay you really need yo try this out on the ladder. Two of these pokemon were NU last gen. Boosting sweepers are not walls.

Drapions is the closest thing on your team you have to a suggested move set.

On chandelure, run trick over psychic to cripple walls, and run fire blast over flamethrower unless you are really paranoid.

Hawlucha should run swords dance for the extra power and I would recommend red card over sitrus berry as it can really nab you some free turns as it can force switches and force out anything that doesn't OHKO it.

Please use suggested EV spreads. Remember, 4 evs makes one stat point.

 

[MFJ]

Tha

Okay you really need yo try this out on the ladder. Two of these pokemon were NU last gen. Boosting sweepers are not walls.

Drapions is the closest thing on your team you have to a suggested move set.

On chandelure, run trick over psychic to cripple walls, and run fire blast over flamethrower unless you are really paranoid.

Hawlucha should run swords dance for the extra power and I would recommend red card over sitrus berry as it can really nab you some free turns as it can force switches and force out anything that doesn't OHKO it.

Please use suggested EV spreads. Remember, 4 evs makes one stat point.

Thank you! I really appreciate the help. Do you have any suggestions about what Pokemon I should have on my team to make it better. If not, no problem.

 

[Ununhexium]

Tha



Thank you! I really appreciate the help. Do you have any suggestions about what Pokemon I should have on my team to make it better. If not, no problem.

over muk i would use bulk up toxicroak. muk isnt really a wall so toxicroak retains the poison STAB with another good STAB.

I would run max SpA on magneton, with probably choice specs.

On lapras, i really have no idea

 

[ouchalargerock]

Muk

Muk @ Black Sludge
Ability: Poison Touch
Nature: Careful
EV's: 200 HP/ 104 Atk/ 56 Def/ 148 SpD
- Poison Jab
- Brick Break
- Curse
- Shadow Sneak


Function: Mixed Wall; This is basically set up to take hits while also being capable to putting up a fight of it's own. His role is more or less to soak up damage from an opposing teams more troublesome sweepers for the rest of the team. The bulk makes up for the lack of speed so Muk should be able to take a few decent hits before being taken down with Black Sludge offering a means for it to stay healthy. Poison Jab would be the centre piece of the moveset offering STAB as well as the chance of inflicting poison. Brick Break and Shadow Sneak are in for coverage as well as priority (in the case of Shadow Sneak), while Curse basically offers free buffs in Attack and Defence due to speed being such an irrelevant stat in Muk's case.
Okay, if you are running Curse, get rid of your EVs in Speed, as you are lowering your Speed with your set-up move, and as you said, Speed is not important in Muk's case. Also, be careful Poisoning things with this, as you lose the chance to Badly Poison any Pokémon with Toxic Spikes.

Magneton

Magneton @ Eviolite
Ability: Analytic
Nature: Sassy
EV's: 252 HP/ 252 SpD/ 4 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Light Screen/Reflect
- Thunder Wave

Function: Specially Defensive Wall; Its defences are already reasonable so with the addition of the Eviolite, it can be relatively bulky. Due to having no investments in Special Attack ( easily its best stat ), Analytic will easily remedy this when Magneton attacks after the opponent. Therefor enabling it to deal a decent hit. The use of either light screen or reflect is to support Magneton and the rest of the teams i staying on the field for at least one more turn. Finally, the aim of Thunder Wave is to slow down the the physical sweepers for the rest of the team. ( That is if they can't be poisoned by Drapions Toxic Spikes e.g Noivern )

Nitpick, Noivern is a rarely Physical Sweeper. Anyways, as this will probably be coming in pretty often to put up screens (hopefully?) running Volt-Turn over Thunderbolt may be a better option. Also, running a Calm Nature would make more sense as you use the Speed Stat, but not the Attacking Stat.

Hawlucha

Hawlucha @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
Nature: Jolly
EV's: 252 Spe/ 252 Atk/ 4 HP
- Hone Claws
- High Jump Kick
- Acrobatics
- Stone Edge

Function: Simple physical sweeper intended to go in, hard and fast. Speed and Attack are prioritised in combination with the Uburden/Sitrus Berry combination to make Hawlucha a fast and deadly threat to the opposing team. Acrobatics and High Jump Kick offers STAB, made even more formidable when paired with Hone Claws with it's Accuracy + Attack boost. Stone Edge is thrown in for coverage.

Eh, this works fine. Except, y'know. It's banned. Maybe running Braviary over this would work?

Drapion

Drapion @ Black Sludge
Ability: Sniper
Nature: Impish
EV's: 252 Def/ 252 HP/ 4 Spe
- Taunt
- Toxic Spikes
- Knock Off
- Roar

Function: Mah lead; Taunt helps it stall other leads (specifically the slower ones). Toxic Spikes is thrown in for obvious reason and I've been running Roar along with this to set up a scenario where in a few turns I could (potentially) leave a good few Pokemon on the opposing teams poisoned. Considering switching Roar with Poison Jab, though. I gave it Sniper as if it was to get a critical hit with aSTAB Knock Off and getting rid of an item, it would deal serious damage.

This works fine, let's you Shuffle and Put up Toxic Spikes.

Chandelure

Chandelure @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Infiltrator
Nature: Modest
EV's: 252 SpAtk/ 252 Spe/ 4 Def
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Psychic

Function: A fast heavy hitter thats main aim is to cause devastation where possible, while also having the ability to ignore screens and subs. Special Attack and Speed EV's play crucial role in Chandelure's role as a fast attacker with high power special moves with great coverage making it another crucial part of making up for deficits in speedy attackers elsewhere in the team.

Um, Fire Blast over Flamethrower. Running Trick over Psychic is most likely a good idea, as your Choice Scarf will hinder you quite a bit as Chandelure is your only Spin-Blocker, which it can function a lot better as with no Blastoise. You could also opt for a Life Orb Set with Will O Wisp over Psychic and Hex over Shadow Ball due to your team's huge emphasis on status.

Lapras

Lapras @ Leftovers:
Ability: Shell Armour
Nature: Impish
EV's: 252 HP/ 250 Def/ 6 Atk
- Ice Shard
- Waterfall
- Curse
- Avalanche

Function: Defensive Wall; The main function of curse is to obviously raise my defence and attach. However, the loss of speed is more likely to ensure I attack after my opponent meaning that STAB Avalanche's power is doubled coupled with the attack rise ( And I will be able to take a priory hit from the defence rise ). This Speed drop can be slightly be made up for with a priority Ice Shard. I chose Waterfall as it is another STAB move which can deal a decent amount of damage. Finally, Shell Armour along side Leftovers ensure Lapras can survive faster with the "immunity" to Critical Hits and the constant regaining of health.

Not using Water Absorb is a bit silly. You have a Pokémon weak to Fire, which is a core member of your team, not to mention Scald being such a prominent attack, and it's chance to screw you over. Other than that, you may want to use something else, such as Jellicent as another set-up sweeper may prove bad.

Now, those are just improvements for your current sets. Many of these things can be replaced.

Your team has 4 Pokémon weak to ground.
You also have a lack of Defog/Rapid Spin.

I recommend some sort of Flying-Type, preferably Xatu

You can easily replace one of your many Poison Types (Muk seems like the best Choice) as you already have Toxic Spikes support.

Hope this helps.

 

[MFJ]

Muk

Muk @ Black Sludge
Ability: Poison Touch
Nature: Careful
EV's: 200 HP/ 104 Atk/ 56 Def/ 148 SpD
- Poison Jab
- Brick Break
- Curse
- Shadow Sneak


Function: Mixed Wall; This is basically set up to take hits while also being capable to putting up a fight of it's own. His role is more or less to soak up damage from an opposing teams more troublesome sweepers for the rest of the team. The bulk makes up for the lack of speed so Muk should be able to take a few decent hits before being taken down with Black Sludge offering a means for it to stay healthy. Poison Jab would be the centre piece of the moveset offering STAB as well as the chance of inflicting poison. Brick Break and Shadow Sneak are in for coverage as well as priority (in the case of Shadow Sneak), while Curse basically offers free buffs in Attack and Defence due to speed being such an irrelevant stat in Muk's case.
Okay, if you are running Curse, get rid of your EVs in Speed, as you are lowering your Speed with your set-up move, and as you said, Speed is not important in Muk's case. Also, be careful Poisoning things with this, as you lose the chance to Badly Poison any Pokémon with Toxic Spikes.

Magneton

Magneton @ Eviolite
Ability: Analytic
Nature: Sassy
EV's: 252 HP/ 252 SpD/ 4 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Light Screen/Reflect
- Thunder Wave

Function: Specially Defensive Wall; Its defences are already reasonable so with the addition of the Eviolite, it can be relatively bulky. Due to having no investments in Special Attack ( easily its best stat ), Analytic will easily remedy this when Magneton attacks after the opponent. Therefor enabling it to deal a decent hit. The use of either light screen or reflect is to support Magneton and the rest of the teams i staying on the field for at least one more turn. Finally, the aim of Thunder Wave is to slow down the the physical sweepers for the rest of the team. ( That is if they can't be poisoned by Drapions Toxic Spikes e.g Noivern )

Nitpick, Noivern is a rarely Physical Sweeper. Anyways, as this will probably be coming in pretty often to put up screens (hopefully?) running Volt-Turn over Thunderbolt may be a better option. Also, running a Calm Nature would make more sense as you use the Speed Stat, but not the Attacking Stat.

Hawlucha

Hawlucha @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
Nature: Jolly
EV's: 252 Spe/ 252 Atk/ 4 HP
- Hone Claws
- High Jump Kick
- Acrobatics
- Stone Edge

Function: Simple physical sweeper intended to go in, hard and fast. Speed and Attack are prioritised in combination with the Uburden/Sitrus Berry combination to make Hawlucha a fast and deadly threat to the opposing team. Acrobatics and High Jump Kick offers STAB, made even more formidable when paired with Hone Claws with it's Accuracy + Attack boost. Stone Edge is thrown in for coverage.

Eh, this works fine. Except, y'know. It's banned. Maybe running Braviary over this would work?

Drapion

Drapion @ Black Sludge
Ability: Sniper
Nature: Impish
EV's: 252 Def/ 252 HP/ 4 Spe
- Taunt
- Toxic Spikes
- Knock Off
- Roar

Function: Mah lead; Taunt helps it stall other leads (specifically the slower ones). Toxic Spikes is thrown in for obvious reason and I've been running Roar along with this to set up a scenario where in a few turns I could (potentially) leave a good few Pokemon on the opposing teams poisoned. Considering switching Roar with Poison Jab, though. I gave it Sniper as if it was to get a critical hit with aSTAB Knock Off and getting rid of an item, it would deal serious damage.

This works fine, let's you Shuffle and Put up Toxic Spikes.

Chandelure

Chandelure @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Infiltrator
Nature: Modest
EV's: 252 SpAtk/ 252 Spe/ 4 Def
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Psychic

Function: A fast heavy hitter thats main aim is to cause devastation where possible, while also having the ability to ignore screens and subs. Special Attack and Speed EV's play crucial role in Chandelure's role as a fast attacker with high power special moves with great coverage making it another crucial part of making up for deficits in speedy attackers elsewhere in the team.

Um, Fire Blast over Flamethrower. Running Trick over Psychic is most likely a good idea, as your Choice Scarf will hinder you quite a bit as Chandelure is your only Spin-Blocker, which it can function a lot better as with no Blastoise. You could also opt for a Life Orb Set with Will O Wisp over Psychic and Hex over Shadow Ball due to your team's huge emphasis on status.

Lapras

Lapras @ Leftovers:
Ability: Shell Armour
Nature: Impish
EV's: 252 HP/ 250 Def/ 6 Atk
- Ice Shard
- Waterfall
- Curse
- Avalanche

Function: Defensive Wall; The main function of curse is to obviously raise my defence and attach. However, the loss of speed is more likely to ensure I attack after my opponent meaning that STAB Avalanche's power is doubled coupled with the attack rise ( And I will be able to take a priory hit from the defence rise ). This Speed drop can be slightly be made up for with a priority Ice Shard. I chose Waterfall as it is another STAB move which can deal a decent amount of damage. Finally, Shell Armour along side Leftovers ensure Lapras can survive faster with the "immunity" to Critical Hits and the constant regaining of health.

Not using Water Absorb is a bit silly. You have a Pokémon weak to Fire, which is a core member of your team, not to mention Scald being such a prominent attack, and it's chance to screw you over. Other than that, you may want to use something else, such as Jellicent as another set-up sweeper may prove bad.

Now, those are just improvements for your current sets. Many of these things can be replaced.

Your team has 4 Pokémon weak to ground.
You also have a lack of Defog/Rapid Spin.



I recommend some sort of Flying-Type, preferably Xatu

You can easily replace one of your many Poison Types (Muk seems like the best Choice) as you already have Toxic Spikes support.

Hope this helps.

Thank you, this does really help. However, I don't have access to a trick Chandelure so do you have an other suggestions for it. Furthermore, in terms of Poison Types instead of Muk, I've been deciding between a Crobat or a suggested Bulk Up Toxicroak. Are there any others you suggest instead?

 

[Ununhexium]

Bulk up toxicroak is probably the better choice here. It can remove toxic spikes and set up a sweep with little difficulty with bulk up. Just remember to choose the move that serves you best. It can also really break down stall by setting.up sub and spamming bulk up.

Sorry Brawlfest,but stall breaker crobat might not be the best here.

 

[ouchalargerock]

If you could update the OP with any changes you have made, I could continue on from there, so I know which things you decided to use.

For Muk, I was implying that you should replace Mukwitg something other than a Poison-Type, such as Xatu which has Magic Bounce and Defog. I agree with Ununhexium, though. Use Bulk-Up Toxicroak over a Crobat.

 

[MFJ]

If you could update the OP with any changes you have made, I could continue on from there, so I know which things you decided to use.

For Muk, I was implying that you should replace Mukwitg something other than a Poison-Type, such as Xatu which has Magic Bounce and Defog. I agree with Ununhexium, though. Use Bulk-Up Toxicroak over a Crobat.

I support the idea of a Defog Xatu, but wouldn't that also remove my Toxic Spikes as well? So, wouldn't a Rapid Spinner be much better. Possibly Claydol or Sandslash. Any other suggestions? Also, I still don't know what should be done to my Chandelure as I don't have access to trick. P.s Thank you for all of this help and advice. I clearly need it. Thanks to Ununhexium too.

 

[ouchalargerock]

It would, but in the end, I think this Gen is more about smart Hazard Placement over a Suicide-Lead. Honestly, if you prefer to use a Rapid-Spinnner, I recommend either Cyrogonal or Claydol to amend the serious Ground Weakness.

As for Chandelure, without access to Trick, a Scarf Set may prove to be difficult to pull off. Perhaps using a Life-Orb Set with Will-O-Wisp over Psychic (and maybe Hex over Shadow Ball). Sorry :/ You could purchase a copy of Black 2/White 2 though ;)

And it's no problem, that's what these threads are for.