Rating Basics

[Jimbon]

Welcome to Rating Basics!

With the introduction of Rating 102, we feel that the original concept of Rating Basics isn't as effective now. At the same time, however, it isn't fair to our beginning Team Raters to have no place to turn to for advice. Rating Basics 2.0 solves all of these problems, giving Rating Basics a much more direct approach to answer your questions and help you out.

The idea of this thread is to encourage you guys to post rates that you want critiqued (whether they be your own, or someone else's). We will post our thoughts on the rate, giving you ideas on what to improve, as well as giving our own potential rates for the team. However, don't feel like you aren't allowed to post your own thoughts! We encourage all users to post their critiques to the rate so that as a community, we can work together and fix our mistakes. We RMT Mods will be sure to moderate this thread if anything gets too harsh, but other than that, disagreeing and working together to fix mistakes is how we become better raters, and better people.

:D

[ToF]

Echoing what kd24 said, the point of a rate is to fix problems with the team. While Scarf Terrakion is a good "fix it" solution, it doesn't solve the OP's inability to switch into Rotom-W and Toxicroak after a Substitute is still problematic. These are the kinds of things you need to address as a rater.

When I rated teams, I would try to minimize large changes to keep the identity of the team the same. I would recommend that aspiring raters do the same; anyone can mold teams that they rate into the same bog standard cookie-cutter crap. The successful raters IMO are the ones that identify the problems upfront and suggest solutions to those problems without changing the basic core of the team. In this case, the idea is to achieve either a Terrakion or Dragonite sweep; I personally wouldn't have touched either, but rather would have replaced Starmie for something that handles Toxicroak and Rotom-W better (the OP stated that Psychic on Starmie is for Toxicroak, yet he probably forgot Sucker Punch KO's). These are things you need to pick up on and address next time :)

[Snorlaxe]

hey RMT! as you may remember, i was a really active (and pretty good) rater about a year and a half ago. with the new "reboot" of the forum, i think i wanna give rating another go. however, i want to make sure that my rating skills havent gotten too rusty in the time that ive been inactive. would you mind looking at one of my rates to identify areas where i could improve? i really want to become a better team rater; posting advice in RMT has always been something ive enjoyed, and though i havent done it in a long time, i want to get back to posting quality advice. one thing i really want to work on is being concise in rates, as this is something ive struggled with in my past career as a team rater. this is a rate i recently made on this (rather unorthodox) team. i wanna see how you guys think i could improve. :)

Originally Posted by Fat Snorlaxe

cool team, but theres some problems to address. first of all, you have three glaring weaknesses to ground-type attacks, but only one pokemon that resists them, which means dealing with earthquake users is gonna be tricky. you also completely lack a resistance to dragon- and rock-type moves, which is a huge problem, as some of the most threatening pokemon in the game (namely dragonite and terrakion, respectively) utilize such attacks.

in order to fix this problem, i think one of your fire-types is gonna have to go. ninetales is obviously irreplaceable, and i think that victini is too useful to let go, so chandelure should probably be replaced. i think the best pokemon to replace it with is a tank bronzong (the first set found here), as this gives you a ground, dragon, and rock resistance, as well as access to stealth rock (an important hazard which your team currently lacks). even though bronzong is weak to fire, youre still packing three solid fire resistances, so it's not too big of a deal.

i know you say you dont like sleep powder on venusaur, but i think it might be worth a shot over sludge bomb. sludge bomb is mostly used to hit dragon-types that resist energy ball, right? well, dragons are already covered well by porygon2 and (if you choose to add it to your team) bronzong. sleep powder is great because you can pretty much take out one of the opposing pokemon from the match permanently, giving you a huge advantage over the opponent. i also think life orb could be worth a shot over leftovers on venusaur. lefties is good, but life orb gives you an extra kick and allows you to secure some important koes. the extra power life orb gives is especially helpful because you arent running any entry hazards at the moment, so this will allow you to whittle down the opposing mons health more quickly.

you should also probably try out a timid nature on ninetales. while i realize this will limit the amount of mons you can outspeed in trick room, it will make dealing with threats much easier outside of trick room. ninetales is hardly bulky, and seeing as you'll be operating outside of trick room most of the time, being able to outspeed as much as possible is important.

if you find that revenge killing some threats is proving tough, you could always try changing rotom-w to a choice scarf variants. im not sure how well you handle threats when using this team, so its up to whether or not this would be a beneficial change. im just throwing it out there.

i like the trick room + sun concept this team utilizes, its original and seems pretty effective. good luck with your team!

thanks a ton~

[franky]

should anyone come across this post, i just want to mention another solid rule i go by when rating a team: fixing any excess mess after fixing something. simply put, after you suggest a pokemon to change, you have to step outside the box again and look at new problems that may trouble the team after fixing it. the last thing you want to do is open up another problem after fixing another one. although i'm not too fond with pokemon changes, i only do it when its absolutely necessary. minimal changes are probably the best way to fix a team. this includes a simple tweak in the ev spread or moveset. the problem with changing one pokemon is that it tends to shift the team, which more than often opens up more holes than patched ones, therefore causing you to change another pokemon to alleviate the problem you just created. if anything! my advice is to stay away from large changes unless its absolutely necessary. get out of the mindset of perfecting the person's team, instead, look at the team as a way to improve it - not necessarily build his entire team to your tastes.

[IronBullet93]

First off, this is an excellent step forward for the RMT forum. Thanks kd, Haunter and Bloo for having the initiative to set up this new program, this should definitely make "fitting in" a lot easier for new and upcoming raters. I'd just like to emphasise what franky has said, in particular dont do anything more than what needs to be done. Just stick to the basics, a small and simple change help a team out a lot more than you might think. Another, albeit less important point, is to present your rates well. Your rate might be a lot of help, but if its lumped into one paragraph it could put off the reader a bit. There's no harm in separating your rates into different parts, for example: the problem, the solution, and additional comments. Theres no harm in putting some extra time in making your rates look clear and concise.

[Moo]

Hey, I've got a few suggestions for your team.

I ran a similar team, and from my experience, you'll need a spin-blocker to keep your entry hazards up. If your opponent can't get rid of entry hazards, they'll be worn down, and you'll be able to sweep with ease. I suggest swapping Arcanine for Sableye

Sableye (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Night Shade

This thing really is fantasic. If I'm not mistaken, it's the only spin blocker in UU with Recover (the only decent one, anyway). This means it'll be very difficult to wear down, and more often than not, your opponent won't be able to use rapid spin. It also has priority Will-O-Wisp, which is fantastic for crippling physical attackers. That, combined with priority Taunt, lets Sableye also shut down stall. A word of warning though: be careful switching into Donphan, as Earthquake will do around 70%.

Good luck with the team, I hope i helped.

Hey I posted this rate a few minutes ago. Is it a bit too short? I kinda felt like I got the point across in a coherent manner, but I could use a second opinion

[Oblivion IX]

I'm really excited about this project! I've been rating teams on and off throughout the course of a few months and am thrilled that there's now a place to help me and others improve. Anyways, here's my latest rate that I recently posted Dragons's Rising From the Ashes team. I hope you guys can look over it and make suggestions on how to improve in the future. Thanks in advance.

Hello, Dragons. Pretty cool team you’ve got here, but I am concerned that it lacks a way of handling Volcarona. The fiery moth can set-up against a large portion of your Pokémon and proceed to rip through the rest of them using its fine selection of moves. To remedy this problem why not use Jellicent in place of Gengar? It will make a fine addition to your team it still possesses the ability to block Rapid Spin and can stop Volcarona cold thanks to its unique Water/Ghost-typing, Taunt and Scald. Another benefit it brings to the table is that it can slowly deconstruct stall teams by preventing their recovery and ability to status you with Taunt while damaging them with Will-O-Wisp, its one attack, and entry hazards.

You’re also going to have some trouble facing physical Dragon-types such as Haxorus. Once they set-up a Dragon Dance then your team is going to have one hell of a time trying to stop them and their barrage of insanely powerful attacks. My suggestion here is to use Skarmory over Ferrothorn. The metal bird can successfully wall the aforementioned threats while allowing you to maintain the ability to provide entry hazard support for your team. Obviously, this change will also give your team a better way of keeping Fighting-types under control. This means that you can potentially use a different moveset on Celebi without having to worry about Fighting-types running straight through your team. The ideal moveset would consist of Giga Drain, Earth Power, Hidden Power [Ice], and Nasty Plot. This is a great because you’ll be able to penetrate Heatran’s defenses which makes pulling off a Latias or Metagross sweep much easier. However, if you choose to go in this direction then you need to run Hidden Power [Fire] on Latias so that you can still break apart the common Rotom-W/Scizor core. Finally, one final nit-pick of mine is to run an EV spread of 248 HP / 252 SDef / 8 Spd on Heatran if you're going to run a defensive variant. Good team, good luck, and I hope my suggestions help.

Movesets:

---

Jellicent @ Leftovers l Water Absorb
Bold l 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spd
- Scald l Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt l Recover -

Skarmory @ Shed Shell l Sturdy
Impish l 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spd
- Brave Bird l Roost -
- Spikes l Whirlwind -

In-Summary:

---

- Jellicent > Gengar
- Skarmory > Ferrothorn
- Change EV Spread on Heatran

Optional:

- New Moveset on Celebi
- HP [Fire] on Latias

[Tomahawk9]

While you did a good job at identifying the Volcarona weakness, the way you fix it doesn't seem to be the best option imo. I always wonder how people beat Volcarona with their Jellicent. Best-case scenario:

• Volcarona is send out against Ferrothorn.
• Volcarona uses Quiver Dance while Jellicent switches in.
• Volcarona Quiver Dances while Jellicent Taunts (not Taunting would gave Volcarona to set up even more Quiver Dances).
• Volcarona 2HKOes with Bug Buzz while Jellicent fails to do notable damage to a SpDef boosted Volcarona.
• Volcarona sweeps.

A better fix would be as easy as Roar > Will-O-Wisp on Heatran. With Roar, he can take an attack from Volcarona (being immune and 4x resisting its STABs), and Roar him out forcing him to take Stealth Rock damage. Also, this is a smaller change, which is usually preferred. Trying to stick as much to the original team is important.

[kd24]

one thing i notice if that even when you suggest jellicent > gengar, volcarona can still get up to two quiver dances and won't be affected "too badly" by jellicent...at the same time, something like life orb latios would worry me too... a simple change would just be adding toxic to either jellicent or heatran over will o wisp, because doubling up on will o wisp seems kind of silly, especially when toxic on one of them can really shut down that stuff

edit: like tomahawk said, you could also go roar on tran (altho id be more worried about 3 atk volcarona). the jellicent change is optional all the way through, you need to decide if it helps the team succeed.

[LizardMan]

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpos...5&postcount=15

Is one of my most recent rates. Is there anything I can improve upon?

[Haunter**]

HP ice on Rotom is a good suggestion imo, but it's not really necessary as baloon Heatran already revenge kills most DD dragons. Trick helps him to deal with stall teams that seem quite problematic for this team.

I agree that crunch>bullet punch is a good change, it's better to cover Jellycent and Reuniclus, though he's forced out by Terrakion. Despite being very offensive this team seems pretty weak to stall.

I disagree with your suggestion on Heatran, balloon Heatran does set up SR quite easily and as stated before it's his best bet against dragons, should they set up a DD on Breloom. Also, just a nitpick: when you suggest a set try to not put too many optional moves. In your example, protect and roar can make a huge difference between making Heatran set up fodder for things like DD Haxorus and allowing him to phaze effectively.

Hope this helps.

[IronBullet93]

@harsha2014 it's a solid rate, but one thing you should keep in mind is to include what his team loses from implementing your suggestions. For example, the loss of bullet punch means that his only form of priority comes from Scizor. This would lead me to suggest investing more EVs into Scizors attack. This does affect its ability to take Draco Meteors and such, but these attacks are now easily absorbed by the new Heatran set. And the loss of balloon for revenge killing DD dragons and such doesnt matter too much with the addition of HP Ice on Rotom. Notice how your three suggestions have been linked.

It also isn't necessary to comment on every Pokemon, if a Pokemon is fine as it is then just move on. It helps to be concise. Good luck!

[extremebeta]

Hey! I've new to rating teams so don't expect too much ^^. This is my most recent rate on Chillarmy's team. Thanks in advance!

Hey, Chillarmy, that's a great team you got there. I really like the fact that you're using Crawdaunt, I realize its power and I'm planning to try out it now! Anyways onto your team, Volcarona, Scrafty and Haxorus are huge threats to your team. With Hurricane Volcarona in rain is now rising in usage you have to be prepared for it.

252SpAtk Life Orb +1 Volcarona (Neutral) Bug Buzz vs 252HP/92SpDef Bronzong (+SpDef): 64% - 75% (217 - 256 HP). Guaranteed 2HKO.

252SpAtk Life Orb Volcarona (Neutral) Hurricane vs 12HP/0SpDef Scizor (Neutral): 73% - 87% (210 - 248 HP). Guaranteed 2HKO.
Scizor will be OHKOed if it had taken any prior damage.

252Atk Technician Scizor (Neutral) Bullet Punch vs 4HP/0Def Volcarona (Neutral): 22% - 26% (69 - 82 HP). Guaranteed 5HKO.
Scizor

252SpAtk Life Orb +1 Volcarona (Neutral) Bug Buzz vs 40HP/0SpDef Politoed (Neutral): 89% - 105% (295 - 348 HP). Guaranteed 2HKO. 32% chance to OHKO.
As you can see after SR, Politoed will be guaranteed OHKO by +1 LO Bug Buzz.

To fix this problem, I suggest running Choice Scarf Landorus over Scizor. Though Landorus doesn't wield as much power as Scizor does, its speed excels with a scarf. Its Base 125 Attack is nothing to laugh at (72% - 85% to Volcarona with Earthquake), what's more is that it also has U-turn which allows it to scout like your Scizor. However the downside is that you miss that priority Bullet Punch, which can save you from DD Dragons. Switching your Scizor for Landorus gives you a weakness to DD Scrafty. However Scrafty isn't too common and Landorus does 52% - 61% to it with Earthquake (though Drain Punch will just get most of the HP back). Which is why Scarf Terrakion is another option to consider if you want to replace your Scizor.

Now onto your Scrafty problem, DD Variants won't outspeed Scizor after on DD and gets 86-101% back from Superpower. The problem is Bulk Up Variants. After one BU, Scizor's Superpower only does 46% - 55% to Scrafty, which can be regained from Drain Punch. In the paragraph above I said Scarf Terrakion (in place of Scizor) could check it for you. It can... Scarf Terrakion does 76% - 89% to +1 Scrafty, not an OHKO but if it had taken any damage prior it would be KOed.

Moving on... Haxorus. It's only a threat if it has Mold Breaker, other wise your Bronzong can handle it. After 1 DD, it can 1-2HKO your entire team, and Scizor's scarf Bullet Punch won't do much (36% - 43%). This can be fixed with Scarf Terrakion or Landorus (again lol). Scarf Landorus can outspeed and do a huge amount with HP Ice and Terrakion's Close Combat will take a chunk out of it too. Scarf Landorus has the edge over Terrakion here because it can switch into Earthquake while you have to sacrifice a Pokemon to get Terrakion in.

Summary:
Quote:
Scarf Landorus/Terrakion over Scizor.
Reason: Having more speed and having moves to take out some specific threats.
Sets:
Quote:
Landorus @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -Spe)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- X-Scissor
GL with your team.

[Snorlaxe]

scarf landorus/terrakion is a good suggestion on that team imo (in fact, as you might have seen, i posted a rate before yours on that exact same team advising him to use scarf terrakion). however, to me it seems that you typed an awful lot of information for just one change. simply having a massive wall of text doesn't improve a rate; in fact, it just makes it messier and more difficult for the OP to make out what you're trying to get at. like i said, it is a good suggestion, but i feel that you could present the same suggestion and give adequate reasons as to why to use scarf terra in just five to seven sentences, as opposed to a massive text wall. just work on making your rates shorter and more concise and you'll be rating better in no time.

im no expert team rater though, so this is just my two cents. feel free to disregard it if you wish.

[extremebeta]

Alright thanks a bunch, I'll take that into consideration next time!

[Joeyboy]

Ok so recently I've given a few "smaller" rates. By this I mean I've not suggested anything too dramatic, only moveset changes. So I guess I just wanted some feedback on whether or not I had given adequate explanation for each small change. Some examples:

...

---

Really great team man! The type synergy is really great, and I really like that your team does a good job paving a way for a Reuniclus sweep (I too have a team that does this, though with a different approach :)

So the first threat that comes to mind is Sub CM Jirachi. While Gastrodon walls any standard Water Pulse/Thunder Variant, all it takes is a Psyshock/Thunder(more effective imo anyway) variant to do a lot of damage to your team. My first recommendation is changing Earth Power for Earthquake on Gastrodon. This makes a world of difference against Jirachi as it can hit the weaker physical side. There are practically no downsides to this as you've not invested in any SpAtk and Earthquake has a higher base power.

A small change I would like to suggest is running Quick Attack over Superpower rather than over Pursuit, so that Scizor is running BP/U-Turn/Pursuit/Quick Attack. Superpower is really used to hit, specifically, Heatrans and Ferrothorns on the switch-in. Your team doesn't really mind either of those pokemon; Ferrothorn is perfect set-up bait for Reuniclus and Heatran can be dealt with by Latios, your own Heatran, or even revenge killed by Terrakion. Pursuit on the other hand can be used to reliably trap and kill some really problematic pokes, specifically Latios and Latias. Your only resist(Heatran) has no bulk invested and Gastro can't take repeated Draco Meteors. Now while a Choice-locked Pursuit can be easy to set-up on I believe your team will be able to check any of those threats(example SD Lucario can't reliably sweep with your CS Terrakion in the wings). Quick Attack I believe will also be more helpful than Superpower because it turns Scizor into an even better Revenge-killer for numerous other threats.

Another thing of note this that your main rain counter(Gastrodon) can be very easily lured and killed by those Random HP Grass 'mons on Offensive Rain teams. Really thats just something to look out for, but if you keep having trouble with it let me know :)

Hope you try these suggestions out, lemme know how they go!

Good Luck!

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3459900 The RMT

...

---

Great team man! Your synergy is really quite something. I enjoy the mini-cores you have for dealing with enemy team styles. (Heatran/Latias for Sun, Celebi/Rotom for Rain etc)

First thing I see though is that Hidden Power Ground Volcarona takes this team to the cleaners. In the sun it can set-up on Rotom-W and also Scizor trapped into a lame move. The unfortunate thing is that not much counters HP Ground Volcarona(unless you want to switch 'mons, which I believe would be detrimental). So I recommend running Quick Attack on Scizor. This would let you sufficiently check Volcarona no matter what. You would run Quick Attack over either Superpower or Pursuit.

Now the choice is really up to you, and I suggest you test both options out to get a feel for both. On my Scizor I run Quick Attack over Superpower; I do this because my team has a lot more trouble with Lati@s as opposed to Heatran/Ferrothorn. Pursuit can be a pain to be locked into, but getting rid of Latios can obviously be beneficial, as Heatran is your only resist. Though without Superpower you will not be able to hit those Steels as hard. Though I think Superpower is the weaker option as your team can handle those 'mons it would hit hard, quite well (Rotom and Heatran for opposing Heatran; Celebi and Heatran for Ferrothorns.

Quick Attack would also give you more insurance against SubBounce DD Gyarados, who again sets-up on Scizor and can't be touched by your Rotom's Volt Switch.

I would also like to second Snorlaxe's suggestion of Bulk Up Breloom for the reasons already stated.

I know it's a small change but your team really seems pretty solid(will keep looking for other threats though :), hope you try it out, and let me know how it goes.

Good Luck!

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3459730 The RMT

So am I giving sufficient evidence for my suggestion? Am I bringing up odd threats as examples? Are these changes "too" small? Also for the second one I gave a second post, replying to the OP saying "that Celebi couldn't be replaced because it checked fighters", where I showed him how ineffective Celebi was at checking said 'mons; that can be linked as well.

Thanks!

[Haunter**]

Your format is pretty good but if you don't link to the teams that you rated we can't evaluate your rates properly.

[Joeyboy]

yeah haha must have been more tired than I thought last night :D

I've edited them in now haha

[Haunter**]

I looked at your first rate and it looks pretty solid. Only thing you forgot to suggest is a nature change on Gastro as he won't do much to Jirachi with EQ running bold. He can run either relaxed or sassy. Gastro also needs some Atk EVs to score a guaranteed 3hko on defensive calm mind Rachi.

Another change I would probably suggest is expert belt on Latios. Heatran is his only hope to stop SD Scizor from completely murdering his team so bluffing a choice set and killing it with Latios would be extremely beneficial.

Dropping superpower on his own Scizor is a double edged sword as it makes him even more weak to opposing Scizor and allows Magnezone and Heatran to completely wall it. Don't forget to mention, when you make changes, that those changes might expose the team to previously covered threats.

Finally, I noticed he's slightly weak to CM Virizion so, probably, running psyshock on either Latios or Reuniclus could be worth testing (preferably the latter).

[Thundur]

I just recently decided to get into rating teams. These are two of my first rates. I would really like feedback so I can become a better team rater.

The team rated: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3460152

The rate:

Hey,

Pretty cool team. After battling this team earlier today, I think I can give an accurate rate. Since you have no spinner, hazards can wear down your core members pretty quickly letting certain Pokemon sweep through. One major problem is Celebi with the correct support. Since you do not have a spinner, hazards will wear down Chansey pretty quickly to the point wear Celebi can KO with a +2 Giga Drain. Also, CM Reuniclus seems to stand out as a threat as after a couple of boosts, it can dent your team quite a lot. If she packs Psyshock, she can easily pass Chansey. Even without Psyshock, Reuniclus can CM and Recover untill she can beat your Chansey. Because of this, I second NWO's suggestion to put a CM Roar Latias over Suicune. This will also help against Sub Bulk Up Toxicroak as you can Roar them out. Sucker Punch will have no affect.

Your EVs on Breloom are not very efficient. Since you are going with the Bulk Up set, the EVs for that set will work better. A 232 HP / 216 SpD / 60 Spd spread with a Careful nature on Breloom will help a lot. Since you are already boosting your defense, there really is not much use putting 252 EVs in defense. This spread allows Breloom to tank hits from both sides of the spectrum. 60 Spd EVs allows Breloom to out speed standard CB Scizor.

In a nutshell,

• CM Latias over Suicune
• Change Breloom's EVs

Over all, pretty cool team! GL.

The team rated: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthr...=1#post4039109

The rate:

Hey,

Pretty cool team. I really like the use of Mew. At a first glance, Rotom-W looks like it could be quite problematic since Latios has no source of recovery. The standard set can Will-O-Wisp every thing bar Heatran and Starmie and use his duel STABs to power through your team. A quick solve to this would be to put Recover over Psyshock on Latios. This will prolong his life letting him check Rotom-W more efficiently. Although Latias lacks the immediate power of Latios, she looks like she could make a good addition to your team. If you are going to try a set out, a HP Fire CM Latias could work over Latios. HP Fire Latias lures in Scizor just like Latios. Latias can also sweep pretty easily once all of her threats are eliminated. She is definitely worth a try.

Although Life Orb powers up Heatrans attacks quite a lot, I think an Air Balloon would work better over Life Orb. I would also put HP Ice over HP Grass. With these changes, Heatran can serve as an emergency check to Dragonite and Gliscor, wich are both KOd by HP Ice and will not be able to touch Heatran with his Air Balloon active. With Life Orb not wearing down Heatran as much, he can serve as a better check to Sun based teams. Air Balloon is quite nice as it gives you many opportunities to set up Stealth Rocks or attack. The opponent will have to waste a turn trying to break Heatran's Air Balloon while you have a free turn to do anything, really putting you at an advantage.

Lastly, Conkeldurr looks like he can be a large threat to your team. Since Starmie has Leftovers over Life Orb, she can not inflict enough damage to stop his sweep. Although I like Ice Beam on Mew a lot better than Psychic, it is definitely worth it to use Psychic over Ice Beam on Mew to give you means of dealing with Conkeldurr.

In a nutshell,

• Recover > Psyshock on Latios or CM HP Fire Latias > Latios
• Air Balloon > Life Orb on Heatran
• HP Ice > HP Grass on Heatran
• Psychic > Ice Beam on Mew

Pretty cool team! GL.

[Moo]

Made a pretty decent rate on this RMT

Is this an ok rate? I mean, the team was poorly made, with moves like Attract, so I sort of just spent the whole rate showing him how to fix up his team, and didn't manage to look over it for threats. That's ok, isn't it? Also, he had a Slaking, but I didn't just tell him to replace it with something better, just for the sake of getting rid of it, because he obviously wanted to use it

[Pippy]

Here a rate I just did for this team.

The rate

---

One significant weakness I notice is a weakness to standard DDNite. Dnite can come in on any of your pokes bar Jelli locked into ice beam, DD up, and sweep. Sure, you can roar it out with Swampy, but that only delays the inevitable, as Swappy will take a massive hit before he does. To remedy this, I reccomend running a defensive Swampert instead:

Swampert @ Lefties
Nature: Relaxed, Ability: Torrent
Evs: 240 HP/216 Def/52 SDef
Stealth Rock/Earthquake/Ice Beam/Roar

This will allow Swampy to take on Dnite much better, as he will be able to take hits while retaliating with ice beam.
As for your water problem, I recommend running Ferrothorn over Forretress. Losing RS stinks for Staraptor (btw I suggestion Intimedate over Reckless for a little more survivability), but the ability to deal with water types, take special hits, and provide TWave support for Scrafty more than makes up for it. Here's the set:

Ferrothorn @ Lefties
Nature: Sassy, Ability: Iron Barbs
Evs: 252 HP/88 Def/168 SDef, IVs: 0 Spd
Spikes/Thunder Wave/Power Whip/Gyro Ball

Ferrothorn is the bain of water types existence, and fits the team surprising well. Swampy and Ferro form a nice defensive combo, as Ferro can handle the water and grass types that plague him, while Swampy can eliminate fire types that trouble Ferro. Ferro also works well with Scrafty, as his TWave support can help him outspeed threats that would otherwise outspeed and kill.
If water types still scare you, you can always run Energy Ball over Shadow Ball, though I don't recommend it.

Otherwise, it's a solid team. Gl with it! ;)

Any suggestions on how I can do better?

[San_Pellegrino]

Where are the other TRs…

Originally Posted by Fat San_Pellegrino

@ Thundur

His team, it looks to me, was made to capitalize on Suicune’s bulk and replacing Suicune is certainly not the way to go. What seems like a better suggestion in my opinion is using Scizor over Ferrothorn (who arguably isn’t doing much for the team anyway that Breloom already does). The main reason I don’t like Latias is because it is absolutely redundant with the already unnecessary duo of Breloom and Ferrothorn, and doesn’t cover enough to warrant the change. Scizor dispatches everything from Haxorus to Terrakion both of which are big problems to the team, especially their CB verisons. Your second rate has the same basic issues, but the attention to EVs is pretty good.

@ Moo

I’m no expert in UU but the rate looks very solid. I’d point him out to go into Battling 101 at the end too, simply because it seems like he could use more metagame knowledge, rather than team help so early on. Not much to say – I usually avoid giving heavy handed rates on these teams, but pointing them out to B101 like kd24 says, is not a bad idea.

@ harsha

When you make EV suggestions always tell them what the EVs help them to tank or KO, probably supported with relevant calcs. There’s not much else to say about the rate.

I'll get to the rest of you guys eventually.

[Pocket]

Originally Posted by Fat Pippy

Here a rate I just did for this team.

The rate

---

One significant weakness I notice is a weakness to standard DDNite. Dnite can come in on any of your pokes bar Jelli locked into ice beam, DD up, and sweep. Sure, you can roar it out with Swampy, but that only delays the inevitable, as Swappy will take a massive hit before he does. To remedy this, I reccomend running a defensive Swampert instead:

Swampert @ Lefties
Nature: Relaxed, Ability: Torrent
Evs: 240 HP/216 Def/52 SDef
Stealth Rock/Earthquake/Ice Beam/Roar

This will allow Swampy to take on Dnite much better, as he will be able to take hits while retaliating with ice beam.
As for your water problem, I recommend running Ferrothorn over Forretress. Losing RS stinks for Staraptor (btw I suggestion Intimedate over Reckless for a little more survivability), but the ability to deal with water types, take special hits, and provide TWave support for Scrafty more than makes up for it. Here's the set:

Ferrothorn @ Lefties
Nature: Sassy, Ability: Iron Barbs
Evs: 252 HP/88 Def/168 SDef, IVs: 0 Spd
Spikes/Thunder Wave/Power Whip/Gyro Ball

Ferrothorn is the bain of water types existence, and fits the team surprising well. Swampy and Ferro form a nice defensive combo, as Ferro can handle the water and grass types that plague him, while Swampy can eliminate fire types that trouble Ferro. Ferro also works well with Scrafty, as his TWave support can help him outspeed threats that would otherwise outspeed and kill.
If water types still scare you, you can always run Energy Ball over Shadow Ball, though I don't recommend it.

Otherwise, it's a solid team. Gl with it! ;)

Any suggestions on how I can do better?

You picked a hard team to rate. His team to me seemed like 6 mons slapped together without working towards a unified purpose. Rather than patching up weaknesses that he noted, I would explain to him the fundamental basics of team-building and provide him essentially a sample team for him to try out that would give him a good idea of what a decent team should end up like. You can see my rate that I posted on his RMT if you wish.

What he really needs is a better grasp of the OU metagame and battling in general, which is more appropriately supplied in Battling 101.

[New World Order]

Originally Posted by Fat Pippy

Here a rate I just did for this team.

The rate

---

One significant weakness I notice is a weakness to standard DDNite. Dnite can come in on any of your pokes bar Jelli locked into ice beam, DD up, and sweep. Sure, you can roar it out with Swampy, but that only delays the inevitable, as Swappy will take a massive hit before he does. To remedy this, I reccomend running a defensive Swampert instead:

Swampert @ Lefties
Nature: Relaxed, Ability: Torrent
Evs: 240 HP/216 Def/52 SDef
Stealth Rock/Earthquake/Ice Beam/Roar

This will allow Swampy to take on Dnite much better, as he will be able to take hits while retaliating with ice beam.
As for your water problem, I recommend running Ferrothorn over Forretress. Losing RS stinks for Staraptor (btw I suggestion Intimedate over Reckless for a little more survivability), but the ability to deal with water types, take special hits, and provide TWave support for Scrafty more than makes up for it. Here's the set:

Ferrothorn @ Lefties
Nature: Sassy, Ability: Iron Barbs
Evs: 252 HP/88 Def/168 SDef, IVs: 0 Spd
Spikes/Thunder Wave/Power Whip/Gyro Ball

Ferrothorn is the bain of water types existence, and fits the team surprising well. Swampy and Ferro form a nice defensive combo, as Ferro can handle the water and grass types that plague him, while Swampy can eliminate fire types that trouble Ferro. Ferro also works well with Scrafty, as his TWave support can help him outspeed threats that would otherwise outspeed and kill.
If water types still scare you, you can always run Energy Ball over Shadow Ball, though I don't recommend it.

Otherwise, it's a solid team. Gl with it! ;)

Any suggestions on how I can do better?

Quick note, Swampert loses one on one against DD Dragonite. Even with Ice Beam, Swampert will fail to KO through Multi Scale, while Dragonite can 2HKO with ease. You correctly identified the DDNite problem, but didn't really provide a solution. Like Pocket already touched on, this team needs much more fixes, but for future purposes, pick a better way to check DD Dragons.