First Competitive Team

Hey all, this is my first time coming up with a competitve team and I decided to go UU because I could be a bit more creative. For a long time I've been quitely reading through the forums and I felt like I might be able to make a team...so I did. I really enjoy using bug types so I tried to base around that; only choosing bugs or bug-like pokemon. Obviously its going to have weaknesses due to the limit I put on myself and my lack of knowledge, but hopefully its decent. Also due to my inexperience I used most of the EV's and movesets from Smogon. Any way enough of my rambling...lets start:​

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Kabutops @ Focus Sash
Battle Armor / Adamant
[72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spe​

Stealth Rock
Aqua Jet
Stone Edge
Waterfall​

Kabutops looks enough like a bug right? Anyways I'm using it as my lead for mainly two reasons. First of all it can set down the all important SR, and with its high Atk and decent speed it may be able to kill something. Also my team is obvisously going to have a weakness to Fire and Rock which a nice waterfall can handle. Focus sash is there for a safety net as I set up SR. I'm not sure the potential movesets of some pokemon and I would hate for a pokemon with something like HP Grass to One Hit KO it. If the opponenets lead does take it down to one HP I can switch it out and then it becomes a useful revenge killer with Aqua Jet. I think a Venasaur would pose the most threat to this. A set running Sleep Power could render it nearly useless or a set running a scarf will kill it quickly.
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Drapion @ Leftovers
Battle Armor / Impish
252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def​

Toxic Spikes
Crunch/ Poison Jab
Earthquake
Whirlwind​

Once again another non-Bug buglike pokemon. Drapion serves as my physical wall with its bulky defenses, and can even serve as a decent special wall. Facing a Venasaur without Earthquake or HP Ground it should force a switch. It can set up toxic spikes for conjuction with SR and use whirlwind to continually damage incoming pokes (I think this is called phazing....please confirm?). Earthquake should do some pretty good damage. For its second attacking move I am leaning towards Poison Jab. Crunch provides more coverage but that is towards Ghosts and Psychics and with many of my team members knowing Bug moves, I think Poison Jab should be effective. Let me hear your opinions on it.​

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Scyther @ Life Orb[/FONT]
Technician / Jolly[/FONT]
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP[/FONT]​

Swords Dance
Bug Bite
Aerial Ace
Brick Break​

FINALLY, the first actual Bug type, and who better then one of the kings of UU itself. Scyther is obviously going to be my physical sweeper and can come in something it can handle and Swords Dance. The Jolly nature is for extra speed and after one Swords Dance it should be very deadly. Great type coverage with Technicaian boost on two. Im not going to go too into detail on this set but I do have one complaint. Even though Life Orb increases its damage exponentially, I'm not sure if I want my Scyther to generate recoil like that because it makes for an easy revenge or scarf kill. Any suggestions on a different item?​

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Armaldo @ Leftovers
[Battle Armor / Careful
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD​

Stealth Rock
Toxic
Rapid Spin
Stone Edge​

Sorry about the small pic I couldn't get a bigger one lol. Anyways Armaldo is my super wall. It already boasts huge Def stats and 75/80 in HP and SpD respectively. These are actually my EV's designed to cover both ends of the defensive spectrums pretty well. I'm hoping this thing works as well as I think it will. First it can set up SR along with Kabutops and Toxic a lot of pokemon. It is also very important because it is my only Spinner. Being that half of my team is Bug (and 2 of those 3 are Bug/Flying) getting rid of SR is essential. Also Stone Edge for a decent STAB move to go along with its already large unboosted attack score.
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Yanmega @ Choice Specs
Tinted Lens / Timid/Modest
252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 Def​

Bug Buzz
Air Slash
Hidden Power (Ground)
U-Turn​

Now we go to my special sweeper...Choice Specs Yanmega. I've heard some deadly things about the poke and im anxious to see them. Im kinda leaning towards Timid for that extra speed also. Bug Buzz and Air Slash give good coverage while HP ground should combat Fire and Rock types well. U-turn is simply for scouting out the opponents moves.​

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Sceptile @ Life Orb
Overgrow / Hasty
252 Atk / 80 SpA / Spe 176​

Leaf Storm
Hidden Power Ice
Leaf Blade
Low Kick​

Last but not least is my Mixed sweeper; Sceptile. With great speed and above average stats in Atk and SpA it can support this moveset. Leaf Storm does massive damage and HP Ice gives good coverage. If Leaf Storm is used and Sceptile is still out, it can use Leaf Blade to still benefit from STAB without using the now weak SpA scores. Low Kick adds some diversity in helping take down walls and large pokemon.​

Well this is my team. Note that I haven't started building this team yet and I am open to changing some of them but thet must fit in with the bug theme. As I said before there are some weaknesses to them but I'm hoping it turns out well. Thanks for rating my first team!​

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Just a small nitpick: Yanmega is BL, so you can't use it in UU. If you're looking for a replacement, Specs Venomoth would be a decent choice.

Venomoth @ Choice Specs
Timid Nature (+spe, -atk)
4 def, 252 spatk, 252 spe

Bug Buzz
Psychic
U-turn
Sleep Powder

GL

Fiddle sticks...I just realized that too. That Venomth set is fairly interesting though and would allow me to sleep pokemon. Anyone that rates, could you please offer an alternative solution to my yanmega?

Hrm... within the bug theme, I think Venomoth is your best option. Not a whole lot of other choices really, though Compoundeyes Butterfree is excellent for inducing sleep.

If you're having problems with Scyther's set, switch to Choice Band and drop SD for U-turn or Quick Attack. Also move the 4 HP EVs to Def, so Scyther can switch into SR twice without dying.

anyone?

Hey Excalibur, nice team, but it has some problems though, i noticed it's weak to certain Pokemon so i'll just post how to get rid of them.

Threats:
- Arcanine
- Houndoom
- Spin blockers

How they can threaten your team:
The only counter i see to Arcanine is Kabutops, but that's a suicide lead so it'll die before the battle even starts. Arcanine can Initmidate your Sceptile, so Low Kick will do almost nothing, it can switch in on Scyther and blast it with Intimidate and leave it with +1 Atk if it's SDed or at -1 Atk if it's not, Drapion may be able to stop it using Earthquake, but Intimidate will kick again. It can also Will-O-Wisp your team while you switch out and cripple your sweepers.

How to take care of these threats:

Having two SRers is in one team is absurd, so i suggest using a Choice Band Scyther lead over Kabutops.

Scyther @ Choice Band
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Jolly
Technician (obv)
- U-turn
- Quick Attack
- Aerial Ace
- Bug Bite

Now that you have a revenge killer and a scout, why would you keep Specs Yanmega ? (Especially that it's BL which means it's banned from UU.)
I suggest using Flash Fire Arcanine > Yanmgea

Flash Fire Arcanine will grant you an immunity against Fire which your team is heavily weak to, this means it can switch into Flamethrowers and Flare Blitz from Houndoom and Arcanine respectively and take them like a champ.

Arcanine @ Life Orb
252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 Spe
Flash Fire
- Flare Blitz
- Morning Sun
- Will-O-Wisp [preferred to burn Registeel and Venusaur, but who would keep Venusaur on RK9]
- ExtremeSpeed


You have one spot left now; give it to RestTalk Milotic, RestTalk Milotic won't just stop Arcanine hard, but it will also stop Houndoom from playing around with your team.

Milotic @ Leftovers
Calm
252 HP, 200 Def, 56 SpD
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Ice Beam
- Surf

While this version of Milotic is walled by Water-types, Ice Beam is necessary to hit Altaria which will otherwise grab a couple DD's and sweep your team with Earthquake and Dragon Claw/Outrage unless Sceptile can stop it with HP Ice.

In short:
- CB Scyther > Kabutops [Be careful with lead Ambipom's Fake Out when using Scyther since it's frail as hell.]
- ResTalk Milotic > Empty spot
- Flash Fire RK9 > Yanmega

I also would like to note that Swellow can be a problem, especially that a lot of your team members are weak to it's heavy Brave Bird.. but it can be revenged with Scyther and/or Arcanine.

I know i killed your theme, but teams like this shouldn't really need rating since it's themed..


[P.S: This is my first detailed rate, hope i didn't do anything wrong. :P]

Is Kabutops a good option to stop Arcanine? If so I could make my scyther a lead and give my Kabutops a bigger movepool (and without SR so only Armaldo would have it) and more speed EV's. Would this be a potential counter?

It would be a check since some Arcanine run HP Grass.

Whatever Arcanine carries, Milotic can take it. So it's the definite counter.

Hi there Excaliberx18, just a small nitpick.
Change Hidden power Ice on Sceptiel For Rock slide, your team could do with something to deal with LO moltres,Banded Scyther. Nice creative team by the way, Good luck.