My First Competitive Team

Ok so I've played pokemon since the first gen (I was 5) and I've finally started trying my hand at battling competitively. I've won somewhat consistently on Pokémon-Online but I feel like my team may have a hole or two but don't know exactly what they may be.

Lead-Mamoswine
Focus Sash
Thick Fat
Jolly
252 Att
4 Def
252 Speed

Stealth Rock
Ice Shard
Endeavor
Earthquake

I mostly use Mamoswine for SR, but endeavor has proven to be a nasty surprise to a lot of teams which I can then usually finish off with shard. Earthquake is there for when I need a good ground STAB. He works well, but can be pretty frail, which is where endeavor really shines.

Scizor
Choice Band
Technician
Adamant
248 HP
252 Att
8 SpD

U-Turn
Bullet Punch
Pursuit
Superpower

Scizor honestly hasn't impressed me too much on my team thus far, but maybe I'm just not using him right. I know quite a few people use him as a scout due to U-turn and Pursuit, but so far for me he's been more of a revenge killer or even a last-resort counter to a few threats. I usually use Bpunch if I need a priority move due to Mamoswine's frailty.

Salamence
Lum Berry
Moxie
Naïve
252 Att
4 SpA
252 Sp

Dragon Dance
Outrage
Fire Blast
Earthquake

Everyone needs a dragon right? I mostly use Salamence for a sweeper. After a dragon dance he's a true beast. The lum berry is so that he can easily use Outrage once I'm confident I've eliminated their steal type, and moxie ensures that the carnage never has to stop once he gets started.

Jolteon
Choice Specs
Volt Absorb
Timid
252 SpA
4 SpD
252 Sp

Volt Switch
Thunderbolt
Shadow Ball
Hidden Power Ice

Ok so I'm guilty, I picked Jolteon primarily because he's always been a favorite of mine, luckily, he seems to function really well on my team. Volt Switch helps him switch out with a hit so long as it's not against a ground type while Thunderbolt deals strong damage. Shadow Ball hits hard on unsuspecting enemies as well as HP Ice (it took down a TON of dragons OHKO)

Volcarona
Chesto Berry
Flame Body
Modest
160 HP
252 SpA
96 Sp

Quiver Dance
Rest
Fiery Dance
Bug Buzz

Volcaron is a beast after a pair of quiver dances, and any extra are always welcome. Basically, I quiver dance until I need to use rest to heal up while awakening with the Chesto Berry, and then the sweeping begins. Not much can stand up to Fiery Dance or Bug Buzz even if they hit for neutral or reduced damage.

Jellicent
Leftovers
Water Absorb
Bold
248 HP
216 Def
44 Sp

Taunt
Toxic
Scald
Recover

Jellicent is my stall-wall. I taunt to prevent other walls from recovering or inflicting status, toxic to drain their HP, and recover for survivability. I chose scald over surf because it's not TOO much of a damage reduction, and in the unfortunate chance I get taunted I still have a shot for burn damage.



So far I have a winning ratio (not sure how to check win-loss ratio yet, I just started yesterday). Most of my losses have mostly been from bad moves on my part from inexperience. Endeavor on Mamoswine has actually worked remarkably well. Quite a few times I've taken an unsuspecting Tyranitar or wall down to 1 HP, AFTER I set up stealth rocks. I'm looking for any constructive criticism and tips. Thanks in advance

Hi,

First of all, welcome to Smogon!

Looking at your team, it has a big weakness to entry hazards, above all to Stealth Rock. It hits hard Volcarona and Salamence which are you main sweepers so you need a Rapid Spin or a Magic Bounce user. Therefore, I'd change Jellicent into Starmie. Starmie can use Rapid Spin to spin entry hazards and it has a similiar typing among Jellicent so it can switch into some water attacks too with a bulky EV spread. I will post its set below in this same rate. Then, your team is a bit weak to Tornadus-T, you haven't switch into it and you can only revenge-kill it with Mamoswine and Scizor if it hasn't 100% of HP. To fix this weakness, I suggest you to use Special Defensive Rotom-W, replacing Jolteon. It's the most useless pokèmon in your team and Special Defensive Rotom-W allows you to have a good switch into Tornadus-T so I think it's fine. Finally, on Mamoswine I'd use Adamant nature replacing Jolly nature to hit as hard as possible, Adamant nature is simple a better nature than Jolly on Mamoswine so I suggest you to use it.

Anyways, nice team! Here's the sets you should use:



Good luck, I hope I helped!

Hi, there

Your team is very weak to entry hazards, especially Stealth Rock, so the best thing you can do right away is to put a Rapid Spinner, then I would say to put Starmie instead of Jellicent.
I would also change the set of Volcarona, giving Leftovers> Chesto Berry and Roost / Giga Drain> Rest, in this way when Volcarona needs to recover energy can do so freely all times they want by using Roost while increasing the statistics with Quiever Dance, or attacking with Giga Drain, which on the one hand against the various Water present in the Rain Team, especially against Keldeo.
Council Adamant > Jolly of Mamoswine, it allows many more Okho in the presence of Stealth Rock with Ice Shard which is the priority.
In addition to the weakness in the Entry Hazards, which we solved using Starmie are weak at Rain Spam, particularly Tornadus-T, and considering that like Pokemon immune to electric moves that you have two Mamoswine and Jolteon, one I deliver thee to put Rotom -W specially defensive, so as to cover for about Tornadus-T ee lend a hand to Starmie against various moves Water. That is all.
Good luck, with your team!

Sets

Hello.

Cool team you got there, espically one for a first timer, so kudos to you on that. Anyways, this team is very well put together, and hopefully with this rate, it can get even better. So without further adu, let's get on to this rate. First up, on Salamence, I suggest using a Choice Scarf over your current Lum Berry. Choice Scarf Salamence is a deadly late-game sweeper once the steels are gone, you can easily wipe out the opposing team with ease. Staying on the topic of Salamence, if you chosoe to go with the Scarf, I would replace Dragon Dance with Dragon Claw. Dragon Claw is a very helpful alternative if you don't want to suffer from Outrages nasty side effects. Next up, I would like to agree with Alexanders suggestion of Special Defensive Rotom-W over your current choice of Jolteon. As previously stated by the other raters, Jolteon is the weak link in this team and Rotom-W gives you a great Tornadus-T switch-in. Well, that's all I have to say for now. I hope my advice helped. Have fun and good luck with your team!



~Dr Ciel~ (The doctor is OUT)

I really appreciate all of the tips guys and I'm working at adding them to my team. One question though, I thought I could only use each item on one pokemon on my team? Is it allowed to use Leftovers on both Rotom-W and Starmie?

Yeah, you can; nobody plays with item clause. I think having multiple pokemon with the same item is banned at official Nintendo tournaments, but you should be fine on simulators or in normal Wifi battles.

Nutrix said:

Yeah, you can; nobody plays with item clause. I think having multiple pokemon with the same item is banned at official Nintendo tournaments, but you should be fine on simulators or in normal Wifi battles.

Click to expand...

Mkay thanks.

And I've been using the improvements and so far it's working really well. Starmie was a good option but I'm still getting used to him. I just kinda wish rapid spin did more lol.