My First Competitive Team!

[SillySkiZo]

Hey guys, I'm new to the community and new to competitive Pokemon. I hope to learn alot here, nd hope you guys have a lot of criticism for me! thanks! By the way, sorry I don't know how to put the pokemon's picture in xP Here it goes:


Politoed @Leftovers
Drizzle
Bold
4 Spe/ 252 HP/ 252 Def
-Scald
-Toxic
-Encore
-Protect

Politoed is here as the rain bringer, and the whole team is reliant on rain. Scald is a strong STAB move, which burns things that resist Toxic, which is always good (Espescially against physical threats!). Toxic is there to break a wall from the start, and annoys almost everything. Honestly, who enjoys getting hit by Toxic? Ok, maybe Gliscor but that doesn't count. Encore can catch an unsuspecting enemy with it's pants down and almost force a switch out or stall for time. Protect is to get the stall when you need anything from another Leftovers heal to another Toxic hit.

Toxicroak @Leftovers
Dry Skin
Adamant
244 HP/ 252 Atk/ 12 Def
-Bulk Up
-Substitute
-Drain Punch
-Sucker Punch

I really love Toxicroak. Without the rain, he can be a huge threat if you underestimate him. With the rain, he has the potential to be a wreckingball that stalls at the same time. Dry Skin is what really makes this a rain set. After a Substitute, Toxicroak regains almost all of his HP back after 12.5% from Dry Skin and the Leftovers heal. The substitue hopefully gives him a turn to Bulk-Up, and then reak havoc on the opposing team. Drain Punch keeps him healthy on top of his Dry Skin/ Leftovers as well as being a strong STAB move. Sucker Punch is there to stop Ghost/ Psychic types (Noticably Espeon) in there tracks, as well as to stop revenge killers.

Tangrowth @Leftovers
Regenerator
Relaxed
252 HP/ 252 Def/ 4 SpA
-Sleep Powder
-Power Whip
-Earthquake
-Leech Seed

I love this Tangrowth set. In the rain, his fire typed enemies have a slightly tougher time taking him on. The idea is to Sleep Powder off the whistle, have a turn to Leech Seed, and then either switch out or stay in depending on the situation. Power Whip is a reliable and powerful STAB move that hits things that don't resist it hard. Earthquake is thrown on to counter any Steel types that switch into it trying to get cute. Regenerator is the coup de grace of Tangrowth. Healing 1/3 of his HP on the switch out switches him from a formidable physical wall into an imposing tower of doom.

Jirachi @Leftovers
Serene Grace
Sassy
252 HP/ 252 SpD/ 4 Spe
-Iron Head
-Thunder
-Wish
-Water Pulse

Props to False Sense for making Jirachi fit perfectly onto my rain team. He really is the triple that. Wish Support can be vital to the team, as it allows almost anything a safe switch-in. Tangrowth is going to have >1/3 HP anyway, so Wish is going to bring his HP back to almost full. Toxicroak already is going to have the Dry Skin/Leftovers boost after the switch anyway, so Wish is going to bring him in on almost full health. Thunder is a ridiculously strong move, that in the rain gets 100% accuracy. On top of Serene Grace, that's scary. Base 120 Thunder, 100% Accuracy, Double the paralyisis rate? Hello Jirachi. Follow this up with a rain-boosted Water Pulse and you can turn a pokemon into an ugly mess. Iron Head is a good STAB move, and flinch is always a good thing.

Dragonite @Life Orb
Multiscale
Mild
252 SpA/ 128 HP/ 128 Spe
-ExtremeSpeed
-Thunder
-Hurricane
-Outrage

Dragonite came here to turn rain into an offensive weapon. Thunder is a starong move that hits countless pokemon hard, and with 100% accuracy it's fantastic. Same goes for Hurricane. Outrage is a reliable STAB move that hit's almost anything hard, and ExtremeSpeed is for revenge killing. You might be wondering why I chose SpA EVs over Atk EVs. The answer is simple: Thunder and Hurricane are special moves. Plus, his Atk stat is very respectable without Evs being invested. The HP EVs give him more bulk, and the Spe EVs are there to allow him to outrun many pokemon. Thanks for the suggestion Pokemasta77! :D

Porygon-Z @Silk Scarf
Adaptability
Modest
252 HP/ 252 SpA/ 4 Spe
-Nasty Plot
-Ice Beam
-Thunder
-Tri-Attack

Porygon-Z has a special place in my heart. With his goldlike SpA, why wouldn't he? Very little resists a Nasty Plotted Adaptability/Silk Scarf Tri-Attack, and Ice Beam and Thunder are there for incredibly strong coverage, and Thunder gets that rain boost.

I know this team is most likely below average, but hey I have to start somewhere right? Please give me some feedback as well as constructive criticism :)

[Pokemasta77]

Welcome to the community! Actually this team is not that bad. It has creativity. I just made an RMT with Tangrowth and said more people should use it. You are not really using the rain a lot. I think you should change Jirachi to a Wish Support Vaporeon. Use Hydration as the ability to use the rain better. May I also recommend Dragonite with Extremespeed Thunder Hurricane and Outrage. Thunder and Hurricane get 100% accuracy in the rain. You also dont have anything to deal with entry hazards. May I recommend Rapid Spin Satrmie for this task. Sorry if I sound like I am remaking your team. I hope this helps you!

[False Sense]

Hi. Well, for a first team, it's not too bad. I would like to make a few suggestions though:

1.) You might want to add pictures and descriptions. Your thread may get locked otherwise.

2.) Jirachi's moveset is a little out of place for a rain team. Fire punch is weakened and loses a lot of it's utility. I'd suggest changing Jirachi's moveset to better suit a rain team. For example, get rid of fire punch for water pulse, and change Body slam to Thunder. These moves are boosted by rain and Jirachi's ability, and can prove to be quite annoying together.

3.) Venomoth seems a little out of place here. You may want to consider changing it to something that can benefit more from the rain or support your team better.

4.) Since you're using rain, you might as well change Porygon-Z's Thunderbolt to Thunder.

Other than that, the team doesn't look too bad. Hope you can improve it.

[SillySkiZo]

Thanks! So I think I'm going to definitely change the Jirachi to have Thunder/Water Pulse, as well as the Porygon-Z to have Thunder. I think I might also replace Venomoth with Dragonite. How do I insert the pictures, btw?

[Arcticblast]

Use image tags.

Smogon Community runs on VBulletin, which comes equipped with BBCode, and with that IMG tags. Let's say you want to post a picture of Tangrowth. Simply go to Tangrowth's strategy dex page here on Smogon and right click on the image. An option should come up that says something along the lines of "Copy Image URL." This will copy the URL of Tangrowth's sprite (http://www.smogon.com/download/sprites/bw/470.png). To insert the picture, click on the little button with the mountains on the post editor and insert the URL in the popup. Alternatively, type [ IMG ]http://www.smogon.com/download/sprites/bw/470.png[ /IMG ] without the space bars. And lo and behold...
Tada!
In case you need to see that, you can quote my post and copy the text in those tags.

Also, I'll give this a rate sometime this weekend.

[Pokemasta77]

I will warn you before this happens. Explain each pokemon more or this may be locked. Look at my RMT for an example if you would like. It is called Flygon Ownage.

[SillySkiZo]

How is it now?

[Pokemasta77]

Thats better!

[SillySkiZo]

Originally Posted by Fat Arcticblast

Use image tags.

Smogon Community runs on VBulletin, which comes equipped with BBCode, and with that IMG tags. Let's say you want to post a picture of Tangrowth. Simply go to Tangrowth's strategy dex page here on Smogon and right click on the image. An option should come up that says something along the lines of "Copy Image URL." This will copy the URL of Tangrowth's sprite (http://www.smogon.com/download/sprites/bw/470.png). To insert the picture, click on the little button with the mountains on the post editor and insert the URL in the popup. Alternatively, type [ IMG ]http://www.smogon.com/download/sprites/bw/470.png[ /IMG ] without the space bars. And lo and behold...
Tada!
In case you need to see that, you can quote my post and copy the text in those tags.

Also, I'll give this a rate sometime this weekend.

Thanks! I look forward to the rate!

[bluehoundoom]

Hey there! Decent first team but some of your natures seem to be out of whack. You're running Jirachi with two special moves and yet a Careful nature and then your Mixed Dragonite has Modest. If you want mixed, I would suggest a Sassy nature for Jirachi and then a Mild nature for Dragonite. And a minor nitpick, Adament is spelled like Adamant. Hope I helped a bit.