First Competitive Team -- How Can I Make this better?

[Kaiburr66]

I've played every Pokémon generation since R/B/Y all the way until our current X/Y. Every time I ever wanted to dabble into the world of competitive battling, I was sort of scared away by all the complicated EV and IV talk with all the numbers and mathematical formulas people were posting! I didn't know what any of it meant, and while I understand it all a lot better now, I'm still a noob haha! I don't have much competitive experience (outside of testing teams recently using Pokémon Showdown!) so this team isn't going to be the end all be all of pokemon teams. I'm also aware that I was silly to start this right as gen 6 has come out, but I needed to start at some point, yeah? Anyway, here we go!

Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Transform

The idea behind the Ditto start actually came to me when I couldn't figure out how to start my team off in the first place. I figured, what better way to learn how to start teams than by seeing how other players start their teams first-hand! The choice scarf allows me to 1HKO or at least cripple many starter sweepers. It also gives me access to first turn Spikes/Stealth Rocks/Etc depending on the enemy starter. I have won soooo many matches because I 1HKO the enemy's starting Gengar, Latias, Lucario, etc. because of that OP scarf. ;) Ditto also becomes an amazing revenge killer as he copies all stats when he uses imposter. Enemy has a +4 SD Lucario? No biggie, Ditto has a Choice Scarf and Lucario knows Close Combat. GG.

Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SDef
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Will-O-Wisp
- Shadow Ball
- Recover

Jellicent gives me immunity to water, normal, and fighting attacks and a good resistance to special attacks and some annoying types like Ice or Fire. Scald and Will-O-Wisp provide burn to the enemy team as well as decent damage on scald. Shadow Ball for annoying gengar/starmie switch-ins and recover/leftovers for the added tankiness to keep him alive. Plus, he has a mustache.

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spd
Impish Nature
- Brave Bird
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
- Whirlwind

A HUGE physical wall and spike setter. Rocky Helmet punishes those silly outraging dragons or other physical attackers who happen to hit skarmory. Sturdy prevents 1HKO from the likes of Magnet Pull Magnezone and whirlwind allows me a get out of jail free card if I predict the magnezone switch. Stealth rock for hazards and roost is there for the sustain! Great pokemon is great. This guy tanks those Ice Shards aimed at garchomp like a man!

Garchomp (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Stone Edge

Using Scarf instead of Band means that I will outspeed most threats that come my way. The movepool covers a lot of bases with Dragon, Ground, and Rock types. Rough Skin allows some extra revenge damage against those physical sweepers/tanks that live through its onslaught. This is the Pokémon that usually earns me my victory (other than Ditto) just because of his incredible speed with Scarf and his raw damage with Outrage/Dragon Claw.

Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon

Magnezone was chosen to counter the best counter to my Garchomp -- Skarmory. With Magnet Pull, Skarmory can't switch out and gets 1HKO (sometimes 2HKOd) by thunderbolt. With modest nature and choice specs, Magnezone is a pretty decent Sp. Attack sweeper as well! It is mainly used to get over water walls and other water types that often pose a problem to my team. HP Fire is used to get over the commonly seen Scizor and other steel types that it locks in with Magnet Pull.

Alakazam (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Alakazam is another personal favorite and I absolutely love Magic Guard + Focus Sash. Being the weak defensed sweeper that he is, this guarantees he will be able to at least get one attack off on the enemy pokemon. With his bolstered speed stat, Alakazam will likely get off two attacks before getting KOd by another pokemon if he fails at sweeping the enemy team.

That's my team guys! Please give me any criticism you have as I am trying to get as good and experienced as possible for the upcoming X and Y meta and pokemon Bank release! I've been doing quite well with this online so far, but I am excited to see what fixes you all recommend. :)

 

[starwarsfan]

I don't know why Alakazam and Magnezone have Hidden Power [Dark]. Since most Alakazam run ice, I would run fire to allow you to act as a Scizor lure. I would also run fire on Magnezone to KO the steels he's supposed to trap.
I don't like Ditto on this team, you have two other revenge killers. I would swap him for Custap Skarmory and get up some hazards for Milotic to shuffle around.
That's it for now, I'll be back with more.
Edit: Swap Garchomp for LO Latios. Latois hits specially, allowing him to soften some of Haxorus's counters and vice-versa.

 

[AWailOfATail]

First off, switch your sets from a list to something like this:

Terrakion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge

(Just an example, I claim no ownership)

You can click Import/Export Data on the Teambuilding screen on PS for the sets of that team. It'll make things easier to read. Anyway, onto the team.

Ditto: Standard Ditto. Only thing I see is no EVs: put 252 into HP. The rest don't matter. Also, give it 31/30/30/31/31/31 IVs for HP Ice.

Milotic: Why run Milotic without Flame Orb? So many things could OHKO it without that boosted Defense in the beginning.

Haxorus: Fine, not sure why it's not fully speed invested, but wtv.

Garchomp: It's a Garchomp. If you're running scarf, there's really only one set.

Magnezone: Lol HP Dark. Should be fire/ice.

Alakazam: HP Dark again. IVs need fixing. (Or just click on Hidden Power (Fire) in the move list)

WEAKNESSES
Not many, but Keldeo could probably run circles around the whole team (except Alakazam).

Fix those main problems. I'll do more (aka calcs and such) when I get on a computer. Good luck with the team!

~AWailOfATail

 

[Capteon]

Hi Kaiburr, I have just a few suggestions for your team.
First of all, on your Milotic, your EV spread needs a little tweaking. If you're going to use Milotic you should either choose a defined defensive or specially defensive spread, and you look like your leaning towards defensive. Since Milotic already has quite a lot of special bulk, I would recommend taking off the special defense EVs and going with a 252 HP/252 Defense/4 Sp. Attack spread with a Bold nature.
For your Magnezone, the main job is to trap steels so your Garchomp and Haxorus have an easier time doing their own jobs attacking. Since Magnezone is a fairly slow pokemon, I'm not sure what you're planning to outspeed with your current spread. For his role as a trapper/Skarmory counter, I would run something close to a 252 HP/252 Special Attack/4 Special Defense EV spread while keeping the Modest nature. For his moveset there isn't much he can do with Hidden Power Dark, so I would suggest a Hidden Power Fire replacement, and replace Hidden Power Dark on your Alakazam with either Hidden Power Ice or Fire (as well) or Calm Mind.
I may be back with suggestions regarding your ditto lead, but I hope these few tweaks help you for now. Good luck with this team and any future team builds, and I hope I helped.

 

[Kaiburr66]

Edited my team to appeal to some of both of your fixes starwarsfan & AWailOfATail!

Changed the HP on both Magnezone and Alakazam to Fire to blow up steels and because I didn't have any other fire type attacks on my team (which was super bad tbh) so that was a welcome change. Milotic is now holding a Flame Orb. Fixed the EVs and IVs for Ditto, not sure why I forgot to post them lol! If I swap out Garchomp for Life orb Latios, I would have 3 Special Attackers on my team with 1 Physical (Haxorus). Is that a bad move to side so heavily on one side of damage? Tried to keep it balanced with 2 and 2.

 

[Kaiburr66]

Capteon thanks for the input! Updating the Milotic EVs now. Was hard to decide what to do specifically so I tried to get a mixture of everything. Magnezone probably would benefit from HP more than Speed so I'll plug that in instead no questions asked. Thank you!!

 

[Kaiburr66]

Thinking of making Haxorus a DD/SD Haxorus. Thoughts?

 

[AWailOfATail]

Probably would do well, at least as long as it's not outspeeded. DD on a wall while they switch to a Scarfer > Haxorus's speed, and that's a waste of a turn. I'm guessing you'll replace Aqua Tail? It's not like you need that specifically for any one poke. Oh, and btw, Scarfed Latios kinda wrecks this team. Can't really OHKO it with anything, and they usually carry HP Fire for Steels. Not quite sure how to deal with it. Add a Heatran maybe?


Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 4 SpA / 200 SpD
Calm Nature
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Toxic / Will-o-Wisp
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Not exactly sure where that would fit in, though.
(And yes, I made those EVs myself. A long time ago. Not exactly sure what it lives against.)

 

[DaveScottMustaine]

DD Dragon Gem Haxorus? Just sayin

 

[Kaiburr66]

Probably would do well, at least as long as it's not outspeeded. DD on a wall while they switch to a Scarfer > Haxorus's speed, and that's a waste of a turn. I'm guessing you'll replace Aqua Tail? It's not like you need that specifically for any one poke. Oh, and btw, Scarfed Latios kinda wrecks this team. Can't really OHKO it with anything, and they usually carry HP Fire for Steels. Not quite sure how to deal with it. Add a Heatran maybe?


Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 4 SpA / 200 SpD
Calm Nature
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Toxic / Will-o-Wisp
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Not exactly sure where that would fit in, though.
(And yes, I made those EVs myself. A long time ago. Not exactly sure what it lives against.)

I figure a scarfed Haxorus with DD would make it pretty fast, faster than my Garchomp (which already outspeeds a whole lot of stuff). Aqua Tail would definitely be leaving as it is easily my least used move on him. Ditto is usually able to Draco Meteor the Latios (since Ditto is scarfed it will always go first) and that isn't typically a problem. If it's running Dragon Pulse and not meteor, its a bit harder unless it has been DD once ore twice but that isn't common. I'm finding my biggest problem is Mamoswine, ESPECIALLY if it is not running Superpower since my Ditto can't 1HKO it w/o that, and its pretty much gg if my Alakazam's Focus Blast misses. Mamoswine is just so fast!

DD Dragon Gem Haxorus? Just sayin

Will likely be giving this a try. :)

 

[starwarsfan]

I figure a scarfed Haxorus with DD would make it pretty fast, faster than my Garchomp (which already outspeeds a whole lot of stuff). Aqua Tail would definitely be leaving as it is easily my least used move on him. Ditto is usually able to Draco Meteor the Latios (since Ditto is scarfed it will always go first) and that isn't typically a problem. If it's running Dragon Pulse and not meteor, its a bit harder unless it has been DD once ore twice but that isn't common. I'm finding my biggest problem is Mamoswine, ESPECIALLY if it is not running Superpower since my Ditto can't 1HKO it w/o that, and its pretty much gg if my Alakazam's Focus Blast misses. Mamoswine is just so fast!

Will likely be giving this a try. :)

um, what?

 

[AWailOfATail]

1) If you DD with a Choice Scarf, you're stuck with DD.

2) Scarfed Latios and Scarfed Ditto speed tie. You got a 50 50 shot of winning.

3) Mamoswine's speed is terrible compared to the common scarfers. Ice Shard has +1 priority, that's why it's going first.

4) If it's not running Superpower, Air Balloon Heatran should stop it. Put Air Balloon on Magnezone maybe?

 

[Kaiburr66]

um, what?

1) If you DD with a Choice Scarf, you're stuck with DD.

2) Scarfed Latios and Scarfed Ditto speed tie. You got a 50 50 shot of winning.

3) Mamoswine's speed is terrible compared to the common scarfers. Ice Shard has +1 priority, that's why it's going first.

4) If it's not running Superpower, Air Balloon Heatran should stop it. Put Air Balloon on Magnezone maybe?

Oh guys. Guys guys guys. Please erase that entire comment from your memory. I don't know what I was thinking. Long day at work I suppose. :( Embarrassment was super effective!

2) I haven't not gone first against Latios yet (and Ditto is my go-to against Latios every time) so I must have absurd RNG luck! I'm not looking forward to losing to it =/ More reason to use Heatran, I suppose?

3) This is why I'm glad you all are here. I totally forgot that Ice Shard had that "This move always goes first." text. No wonder. I was so confused because I didn't remember Mamoswine ever being particularly fast. Good to know.

4) So would the idea be to swap Haxorus out for Balloon Heatran?

 

[AWailOfATail]

That depends on how much you need Magnezone. It truthfully doesn't seem to be doing anything for you right now. (Then again, I've always been against Magnezone. Dugtrio FTW) If you feel like you'll still need Magnezone, then yeah, Haxorus. And don't worry about that last post, that's what we're here for.

Oh, and Air Balloon Magnezone would work just as well. Or you could switch Milotic to something, oh I don't know, better?
(Yes, I know it's your favorite poke. But you don't see me using Persian in OU, now do you? If you keep using it, though, I respect your decision.)

 

[Kaiburr66]

That depends on how much you need Magnezone. It truthfully doesn't seem to be doing anything for you right now. (Then again, I've always been against Magnezone. Dugtrio FTW) If you feel like you'll still need Magnezone, then yeah, Haxorus. And don't worry about that last post, that's what we're here for.

Oh, and Air Balloon Magnezone would work just as well. Or you could switch Milotic to something, oh I don't know, better?
(Yes, I know it's your favorite poke. But you don't see me using Persian in OU, now do you? If you keep using it, though, I respect your decision.)

Magnezone 1HKOs Ferrothorn and Skarmory with no resistance whatsoever. If I am predicting any Choice _____ itemed Lucario or Scizor (generally my assumption if I don't see life orb or leftovers) Magnezone switches in during bullet punch and 1HKOs both of them as well. Otherwise, I stick to Alakazam for the latter two as he can kill either with Focus Sash letting him survive anything they throw at him. I'd probably remove Milotic before Magnezone. I love Milotic, but there are too many moments when I just don't like her in competitive battling. I switch into her whenever I need to poke something and I actually LIKE when she faints so I can switch something in w/o running into a move first. She's literally a meatshield that occasionally gets a burn off with Scald. I like her spot as a tank on the team, so I'd want to switch in a beefy Pokémon to keep that role alive.

 

[AWailOfATail]

Then you've obviously never seen Ferro on a rain team.
252+ SpA Choice Specs Magnezone Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 208 SpD Ferrothorn in rain: 184-220 (52.27 - 62.5%) -- 98.05% chance to 2HKO
Also, Skarm should always run Sturdy. Although it really can't hit back. Ok, I'll accept it. It might not OHKO, but it'll trap them. And yeah, I'd then change Milotic to Heatran. As for liking it when it gives you a free switch in, why not run a slow poke with U-Turn?

 

[Kaiburr66]

Oh! I forgot about Rainy Ferrothorns. If they're using leftovers, it takes 2 to 3 HP Fires to kill them, and they usually just sit on power Whip since nothing else does much if they've already SRd. You mean like playing a different wall that can use U-Turn that has a slow-ish speed stat? What about Gliscor? I find him pretty annoying, think he could fill that role?

 

[Kaiburr66]

What if Milotic was swapped with this:
Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 248 SDef / 16 Spd
Impish Nature
- Roost
- U-turn
- Toxic
- Earthquake
With an already high stat of defense, the EVs in Defense give it a huge physical wall capability, HP EVs for tankiness and the stat is kept at a multiple of 8 to allow for maximum poison heal gain, and the 16 speed EVs to outrun some taunters like a max speed adamant nature scizor (picked that up from the Smogon website's strategydex, but tbh I have never seen a scizor use taunt so far). Between Poison heal and roost, this guy will take forever to put down and toxic allows for stall, U-turn gives me the ability to switch into something nice, and earthquake is earthquake lol.

Gonna try out your Heatran suggestion in place of Haxorus!

 

[DaveScottMustaine]

What if Milotic was swapped with this:
Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 248 SDef / 16 Spd
Impish Nature
- Roost
- U-turn
- Toxic
- Earthquake
With an already high stat of defense, the EVs in Defense give it a huge physical wall capability, HP EVs for tankiness and the stat is kept at a multiple of 8 to allow for maximum poison heal gain, and the 16 speed EVs to outrun some taunters like a max speed adamant nature scizor (picked that up from the Smogon website's strategydex, but tbh I have never seen a scizor use taunt so far). Between Poison heal and roost, this guy will take forever to put down and toxic allows for stall, U-turn gives me the ability to switch into something nice, and earthquake is earthquake lol.

Gonna try out your Heatran suggestion in place of Haxorus!

Outrage STAB on Haxorus with a boost of DD and Dragon Gem can 2HKO Ferrothorn. You should consider put Dragon Gem to Garchomp or Haxorus, DG STAB Outrage is one of the deadliest move, and the best wallbreaker nowadays.

Edit: You should try SD Dragon Gem Garchomp, it is a beast

 

[Kaiburr66]

Switched the team up a bit and Ditto got a cool 4 pokemon sweep in this one http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-57852288

Still playing around with the team roster and had an interesting 105 turn game that I won o.O http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-57853587

 

[AWailOfATail]

Gliscor seems to be working for you. It does leave you with 3 Ice weaknesses though. But why are you running SD AND DD on Haxorus?

 

[Kaiburr66]

That's true. I generally lose my gliscor when I'm not expecting someone to be running HP Ice or the occasional random Icy Wind (though Jirachi typically can't 1HKO him with icy wind usually) so ice is definitely a problem. This will probably force me to switch haxorus out again. I'm currently not liking SD or DD too much and I think a baton passer would accomplish that set up for haxorus easier. I'm running both SD and DD because I wanted to try both of them out with Dragon Gem to get a feel for how powerful his Outrage would be with either boost. Like I said, haven't been too big of a fan of the moves so far. Garchomp does Haxorus' job so much better and more consistently so I think I need to replace Haxorus with a different pokemon.

I gave heatran a run and it did pretty well for the most part! Lot of Pokemon use surf/waterfall/etc that I wasn't expecting. Keldeo became more annoying. Typically people switched out Latios if I switched heatran into it. Flash Fire is cool if I'm predicting a fire move and I switch heatran in.

Blissey and Chansey are super annoying. Through wish, soft boiled, heal bell, and an offensive move (typically seismic toss) I find it difficult to take them out (unless I land a lucky critical with outrage). How do I beat them?

 

[noobcubed]

Just a thought - I reckon the reason you were using HP dark is because Ditto doesn't copy IV's of the opponent, upon which the type of your Hidden Power depends. So you should be tweaking Ditto's IVs to give you a different Hidden Power type.

Also, no Stealth Rock? I guess you can use Ditto to copy the Stealth Rock setter like in FLCL's stupid Assist team, but still. Rocks are needed.

 

[GeneralMLD]

`One thing Id throw out there is giving a focus sash to Magnezone.

I find that online matches, ground attacks, especially earthquake, are very common and my magnezone is OHKO more often then id like. So its a nice surprise to them as he can live on to finish them off with his allready high special attack.

 

[Kaiburr66]

I tweaked Ditto's IVs for Ice type HP! I'll update the OP to make note of that!

Maybe I should include a Skarmory with Spikes and stuff over my Haxorus?

Will try Magnezone with Focus Sash! Sometimes locking in with those choice specs means I can't use a different move on the pokemon they switch in and it forces me to switch when I didn't want to! Cool idea!