First Competitive Team, Please Help

[ButchCoolidge]

So before you guys tear my team apart, I'll preface it with the background I have in competitive battling: none. The last time I played Pokemon was when Pokemon Red and Blue first came out. Recently I picked the game back up and found out about the community here and the more competitive side of the game. I think it's awesome, but I'm far behind. I did some research and tried putting together a team a few nights ago, but I've been getting destroyed in just about every match I've played on Pokemon Showdown, and I'm not sure if I should chalk that up to inexperience or to poor planning on my part in the formation of this team. From the battles I've played so far, it seems I struggle the most with Rain Teams.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin

This is the spin support for Salamence. Hydro Pump over Surf because I don't really have any other options to deal with Tyranitar and Hydro Pump will 2HKO.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Nature: Adamant
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Scizor is here to scout with U-turn mostly. I'm not really liking Superpower, but everyone else seems to love it so I'm assuming I'm just not using it correctly. Pursuit is there to deal with any Ghosts.

Salamence @ Life Orb
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Naughty
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast

This is the pokemon I've built my team around. My goal is to dance and then sweep, but I'm having a very hard time getting the set up before getting OHKO'd with Ice Beam or Ice Shard. I chose Fire Blast over Roost because of Ninetales' Drought and to deal with Ferrothorn.

Ninetales @ Life Orb
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Fire Blast
- Will-O-Wisp
- Energy Ball
- Hidden Power Fighting

I love this Ninetales, but I'm not so sure it fits in my team. Energy Ball is nice because it helps deal a little bit of damage to rain teams, which as I've mentioned is what gives me the most trouble.

Chancey @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Nature:
- Wish
- Protect
- Seismic Toss
- Toxic

She's in here to take anything but fighting moves, pass wishes, and poison opponents.

Deoxys-D @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Nature:
- Spikes
- Recover
- Taunt
- Night Shade

I included Deoxys-D to take the fighting moves and to lay spikes in the process. Night Shade just to deal some kind of damage.

 

[TGMD]

Hey ButchCoolidge, you don't have any descriptions for your pokemon, this does not fit the required standards, please read the RMT Rules and edit your RMT, otherwise a mod will lock this thread. You may also want to look around the forums at other RMTs and see how they're presented to get a good idea of what's acceptable.

 

[ButchCoolidge]

Sorry, fixing now.

 

[King of Blades]

Ok.

When I first look at this team, I see no clear goal. I see a mesh of different pokemon that may have just been thrown on here for type synergy. Unfortunately, a Pokemon team has to have a clear-cut goal. Is it offensive? Chansey and deoxys-d combo would like to say otherwise. Is it defensive? Salamence and Starmie make me wonder about this. Is it sun? You have a ninetales but no sun abusers to speak of. If you would be so kind as to tell me what kind of team you want to create in your reply post, I could help you a lot. For example, do you want to build an offensive team? If so, is it going to be hyper offensive or balanced offense? Weather or non-weather? Defensive / semi-stall or stall? Is there a particular pokemon you want to base it around? (ex: sweep with salamence) I honestly can't tell at this point. If you could decide a goal and tell me, I will update with a full rate later.

 

[ButchCoolidge]

My goal here is to clear out threats to Salamence, and then sweep with Salamence. I apologize for the lack of information about my team, but if it isn't clear to you already, I am still very much so learning my way through these new pokemon moves. I tried adding pokemon that can support Salamence and defeat it's weaknesses. Starmie is there for rapid spin support, and I chose Chansey and Deoxys-D to take hits because I was under the impression that I needed a sort of sponge in this game. If there is a better way, and I'm sure there is, to set up Salamence for a sweep I would GREATLY appreciate the help. Coming into this generation of Pokemon from RBY is overwhelming to say the least.

Also, I'm open to using Dragonite instead of Salamence if that is desirable.

 

[King of Blades]

Ok, first of all, I would suggest replacing chansey with heatran. Chansey, while good defensively, just sits there and slowly whittles the opponent's hp down. This totally ruins your team's offensive rap and you will quickly find that your team is offensive enough to where you will desire for all of your pokemon to hit somewhat hard quickly. This is where heatran comes in. Heatran can do many things. These include, but are not limited to: absorb special moves, sponge fire attacks for scizor, set up stealth rock, and phase out dangerous set up sweepers.

Heatran @Leftovers / Air Balloon
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Sp. Def | Calm | Flash Fire
- Fire Blast / Lava Plume
- Hidden Power Ice / Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Roar

This is a specially defensive heatran. Either Fire Blast or lava plume can be used for STAB. Fire Blast hits hard, but lava plume can burn valuable physical attackers. Hidden Power Ice hits dragons and ground types. Earth Power hits tyranitar and other heatrans without air balloon. Stealth Rock ensures guaranteed damage to other pokemon when they're up, meaning salamence can sweep more easily. Roar phases out pokemon you don't want in your general area of the battlefield. If you yearn for both attacking coverage moves, either Stealth Rock or roar can be replaced with them. Air Balloon is great for making heatran one of the best mamoswine checks. Heatran can kill it before mamoswine can hit heatran with an earthquake after breaking the balloon. If you're lucky, heatran can switch in on earthquakes. Just don't try it if you're predicting anything else, or heatran will lose his air balloon, be outsped, and die a horrible death to dramatically shaking ground.



At this point, ninetales isn't really needed as you already have a better fire type and almost no need for sun support. I would suggest replacing ninetales with virizion. Virizion can provide dual screen support for salamence as well as being a formidable check to rain teams. Ice types can't afford to switch into it, lest they get their soul shaken by powerful fighting type moves. Most people also don't expect the dual screens variant, much less seeing a lot of virizion anyway.

Virizion @Light Clay
EVs: 252 Speed, 252 HP | Hasty | Justified
- Giga Drain
- Sacred Sword
- Reflect
- Light Screen

This is a dual screens virizion. It can support all of your party members by reducing damage from all moves once reflect and light screen are set up. Giga Drain allows it to hit water type pokemon for super effective damage. It also makes virizion quite hard to kill with a combination of special bulk, recovery, and light screen. Sacred Sword is the fighting STAB that is so effective at eliminating a multitude of pokemon. Close Combat is not recommended, as it ruins the bulkiness of this particular set. Virizion is also, in my opinion, one of the best checks to scarf rotom-w. It can strike hard with giga drain. It doesn't mind either STAB. Hidden Power Ice does negligible damage if you consider the fact it's super effective. Virizion doesn't mind trick either. This would essentially turn him into a a bulkier, less powerful version of scarf terrakion. Light Clay doesn't do squat for choice scarf rotom either.

I would also suggest moving deoxys-d's Special Defense evs to physical defense. This allows him to take physical hits from threatening pokemon such as choice band terrakion while striking back with night shade.

Hope this helps!

 

[ButchCoolidge]

Thanks for the suggestions! I've added them and I'm already enjoying much more success. Looking forward to improving even more