(S)Crafting a Decent Team

Mk, so...since i've been into competitive since early september, teambuilding has not been my forte...ever. Here and there I've made teams I enjoy and have had mild success...that is, escaping from the 900s on the ladder and somehow making it back up to 1000ish range. The last time I was able to do this...I ran a rather good HO team. I learned, though, as I played on, HO was easily beaten if you're above 950ish on the ladder, which served disadvantageous, seeing as HO was really simple for a poke-rookie skill-wise and noob teambuilding-wise. I've googled tips for teambuilding since then twice, from which I am now beginning to benefit.

Maybe it's because I hang around the competitive section of serebii a lot, I can't be too sure. At least I've met a few ppl there that have helped me learn, 2 of which happen to be very good "smogonites." Because serebii has such awful team raters for the most part, I decided to post this one on smogon and actually get good advice that doesn't end up encouraging me to continue using something that's just absolutely awful.

One thing I've always hated was peaking with a good 3-4 game win streak and then dropping the next 5 randomly and getting slaughtered in every game along the way. In my noobish days I'd peak with nothing but luck on my side, breaking the 1100 mark for the first--and only time--on the smogon server. (I reached >1200 on the PO server in ubers once...since then, I go there with an ubers team just to regain confidence in my skills.) Recently, though, with hax finally evening out for me, I can only peak >1050 or so.

And it sucks losing with a team one has so much confidence in like I do about this one. I've gone through a couple edits with this team and have been met with mild success. Still, though, I stayed true to my core: the one poke I've dubbed the urban monster through success with it on 2 previous teams...good ol' scrafty. Eh, just in case one of my past opponents recognizes the team, I've been laddering with this team as "Urban Dew". But that's not really info that was needed to be known, so whatever. As I type this RMT, I'll explain what edits I've made as I feel that it might make this post somewhat shorter. (Pardon me, but for some reason, I treat an RMT like an essay I'd do for college.)

Might as well join the crowd who explains how they built the team...*sigh*. Scrafty was my core and had to do something about its fighting weakness in tier packed with fighting types. I built this set to mimic the bulk up set, replacing the nature, ability, and EV spread--as well as bulk up itself--with that of the dragon dance set. My thoughts went straight to ghosts to protect scrafty. I was debating between jellicent and gengar for a while before realizing the better synergy between gengar and scrafty. This would change later, though, as I felt gengar wasn't being all that effective. After getting the cat getting my tongue in a battle versus a friend using a staraptor, I settled on using one myself due to the ghost immunity to help gengar and because I hadn't used staraptor competitively before. Of course, with the phrase "brave bird everything" ringing in my head, I chose smogon's DW staraptor set just to see what it could do. I then continued on to get an electric immunity to benefit staraptor. I settled on gastrodon, one poke that I'd used in the past and met with mild success. With storm drain, I felt free to get a poke weak to water, which happened to be infernape. Recently impressed by the concept of mixed pokemon sets, I went ahead and used the set found on smogon. Due to the number of dragons running rampant in OU, I needed a steel. I went for good ol' sp def jirachi in order to troll and set up rocks. However, rachi was later replaced with forretress, a rapid spinner, due to the fact that I was tired of seeing toxic spikes.


STARAPTOR ("Dinosaur")
Reckless
Choice Scarf
Adamant Nature, 252 atk 252 spd 4 sp def
~Close Combat
~U-Turn
~Double-Edge
~Brave Bird
I don't know how, but this thing has got to be the best poke to make someone ragequit in the lower mid ladder where I exist. Close combat to punish heatrans and whatnot, u-turn to get the **** outta there, brave bird to mess up anything that doesn't resist the flying type, and double edge just to be there for the reckless boost.
I originally ran the smogon set with LO and jolly. However, its speed wasn't really impressive to me at all. I talked to a friend of mine who convinced me to run scarf instead. Since this decision, I've seen at least 3 ragequits against it.


JELLICENT ("Curses")
Water Absorb
Choice Specs
Modest Nature, 252 sp atk, 172 hp, 84 spd
~Water Spout
~Scald
~Ice Beam
~Shadow Ball
This is the one jellicent set I've never experienced anyone use so I thought I'd give it a go just for personal experience with the set. I have to give credits to the author of the jellicent page with his/her use of damage stats on OU threats, or else I wouldn't have used it. One of the first times seeing it in action, I watched as a water spout 2HKOed a slowbro of all things. Despite seeing action rather rarely, the damage it did at some points allowed me to sweep or stall later. Water spout is for punishment, scald is there for the burn hax, ice beam is there for dragons, shadow ball is for anything that thinks it can deal with a jellicent (especially damn gastrodons).
I have to tack on 2 additional paragraphs to this bad boy because of edits and something I'm considering, the latter being the first to be discussed. I'm possibly considering replacing ice beam with energy ball due to the fact that I'm eaten up by water types...
As for teambuilding, this spot was originally occupied for subdisable gengar. However, despite excellent synergy with scrafty, I was trolling more with gengar and it wasn't being as effective as I'd hoped it to be. Even if I should consider putting it back on the team, I don't know how I'll be able to say goodbye to the magnificent jelly...other than the fact by arguing that specs-jelly is probably more of a pain in the rain than out of the rain.


FORRETRESS (no nickname :( )
Sturdy
Leftovers
Calm nature, 252 sp def 252 hp 4 def
~Volt Switch
~Stealth Rock
~Rapid Spin
~Toxic spikes
Sadly, the only thing that deals with water types...and something to get up my rocks. I threw on toxic spikes because I was tired of seeing my own pokes get poisoned by an opponent's and thought I'd get a little revenge. Rapid spin to blow away hazards and volt switch to gtfo.
I originally had a jirachi here, the standard specially defensive one with rocks if I remember correctly. However, it just didn't seem to fit with the team, and I needed a spinner.


SWAMPERT ("UUm, wha?")
Torrent (if DW didn't hate it, this would be water absorb and not damp or torrent)
Leftovers
Calm nature, 252 sp def 252 hp 4 def
~Roar
~Rest
~Sleep Talk
~Surf
For some reason, I felt like going rogue here with one poke I've enjoyed using since I began competitive pokes and for some reason went against the smogon guide and built a resttalk set. Personally, I don't mind it; however, it doesn't stop me from feeling like a noob and an idiot. But, hey, it provides the one thing that I needed: pseudohaze. I was tired of getting set up on and needed a ground type to take electric attacks. Rest is for the healing, sleep talk is to get a +0 priority roar, and surf is just a filler move.
I've considered adding toxic here and just making this a stallpert, feeling as if this one has great potiental to do so.
This replaced tank gastrodon, which fit really well on the team but was dropped due to pokes setting up and sweeping me.


INFERNAPE ("George Bush")
Blaze
Life Orb
Hasty nature, 252 atk 252 spd 4 sp atk
~Overheat
~Mach Punch
~Close Combat
~U-turn
This is how this team says "screw you skarmory." It's nothing but the classic mixed sweeper set. I recently fell in love with mixed pokes when I ran a team of 5 mixed pokes + a revenge killer. This nape also gets the pleasure of being this team's revenge killer with mach punch. Overheat and CC are for STAB coverage of course, while U-turn blah blah blah run.


SCRAFTY ("UrbanMonster")
Moxie
Leftovers
Jolly Nature, 252 atk 252 spd 4 hp
~Substitute
~Dragon Dance
~Drain Punch
~Crunch
Now, the core of this team, the urban monster. After seeing how well sub-bulk up scrafty did on a previous team, I decided to edit that set and convert it to sub set. It's basically the sub-bu scrafty's item and movepool minus dragon dance with DD scrafty's nature, EVs, and ability. I can't say that I have seen much use with this poke, sadly, but the coverage on it is scary good and can threaten most pokes in the metagame. Sub is to set up DD behind, blah blah, and drain punch and crunch are STAB coverage.

Problems I've noticed is the lack of coverage on water types and rain and sun being nuances...there's probably more, I don't remember, I just wanna submit this sucker because I've been working on it too damn long already.

That's the team. Go nuts, go as hard as you want, I don't care.

And remember, I'm still noobish.
 
If you really have troubles with set up sweepers, I'd go for Unaware Quagsire. but if you don't want to replace that Swampert, change Surf to Waterfall since Swampert has a higher attack stat.
 
If you really have troubles with set up sweepers, I'd go for Unaware Quagsire. but if you don't want to replace that Swampert, change Surf to Waterfall since Swampert has a higher attack stat.
Pardon me while I slap myself for forgetting good ol' quaggy. Thanks for reminding me, lol.
 
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! ;)
 

Pocket

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Your team lacks a way to break Skarmory / Hippowdon that would prevent Scrafty or Staraptor from sweeping. Whenever you're making a team around a certain Sweeper, you need to ensure that you have ways to break through their defensive cores. Sure you have Infernape, but that's only gonna force them out. Your team right now just seems like 6 Pokemon slapped together; it's not working together to meet a particular team's goal or purpose. In order to work towards your team's goal, you must identify what OU mon threatens your team's goal (sweeping with Scrafty and Staraptor (?))

Scrafty and Staraptor are both walled by Skarmory and Hippowdon, so this roadblock must be removed or exploited effectively. Offensive threats include Scarf Terrakion, Conkeldurr, and CB Scizor - your team should be able to handle these threats and find ways to dispatch them or exploit their presence.

I suggest adding a Magnezone over Forretress. Having a Magnezone would not only remove Skarmory, but also removes Scizor-locked into Bullet Punch that can shoot your two Sweepers out of the air.

I also suggest DDGyarados over Jellicent - it can capitalize on the opponent's switch to Hippo or Scizor on your Staraptor and Scrafty to set up its own sweep. It would also appreciate the removal of Skarmory. It also does a good job in checking Fighting-types that switches into your Scrafty, namely Conkeldurr

To further bolster your team's protection against Terrakion and Rain threats, I suggest adding specially defensive Jirachi over Swampert. Jirachi can deal with Tornadus, and can deal with Terrakion in conjunction with Gyarados's Intimidate support. Add Celebi over Infernape to patch up the team's weakness to Rotom-W / Rain.

Try laddering with this line-up for now. It's bound to be a rough start, but it's heading towards the right direction imo, with useful utility and wall-breaking offense.

Magnezone @ Leftovers / Chople Berry
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
~ Thunderbolt
~ Hidden Power [Fire]
~ Flash Cannon
~ Metal Sound / Volt Switch

Enough Speed to outrun Adamant Scizor. Chople Berry lets Magnezone survive +1 LO Superpower from Scizor (not +2 though).

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -Spe)
~ Waterfall
~ Double-Edge
~ Stone Edge / Bounce
~ Dragon Dance

Double-Edge to 2HKO most Rotom-W. You can go with a bulkier set, though.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe
Careful Nature (+SpD, -SpA)
~ Iron Head
~ Thunder Wave
~ Wish
~ Fire Punch

Celebi @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 12 SpA / 176 SpD / 68 Spe
Calm Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
~ Leaf Storm
~ Hidden Power [Fire]
~ Thunder Wave
~ Stealth Rock

Lots of SpDef to deal with Starmie, etc. Thunder Wave prevents Celebi from being totally useless in Sun. A good mon to set-up SR. Enough Speed to outrun Jolly Scizor, and roast it in return with HP Fire (after SR damage).


As for minor changes, I would give Scrafty Ice Punch over Substitute, to have a much easier time in breaking Dragonite, Landorus, and Gliscor. I would also consider Shed Skin > Moxie for status protection that will allow Scrafty to set up on more mons.
 

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