I'm new, please help

[Cherpib]

Will someone please tell me how to improve my team. I'm new to competitive pokemon. I have won 2 games and lost 4 on Wi-Fi but I feel like the problem is my team rather than how I use it so will someone please help me make some changes to make the best team I can make.


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Leads:

Caspar (Gengar Lv100)
255 Happiness - Timid - Black Sludge - Levitate

Ev's| Def-4 SpA-252 Spe-252

Substitute
Shadow Ball
Thunderbolt
Hidden Power (Fire)

I chose Gengar because not only is it awesome looking and I have loved it since red, blue and yellow, it is extremely fast, has interesting typing and has good type coverage (Water, Grass, Steel, Psychic, Flying, Ghost, Bug and Ice)
and can deal with a lot of common leads with max Speed and Special Attack.

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Fossil (Aerodactyl Lv100)
255 Happiness - Hasty - Focus Sash - Pressure

Ev's| Atk-100 SpA-156 Spe-252

Stealth Rock
Stone Edge
Earthquake
Fire Blast

This may seem like a strange Aerodactly setup as the vast majority of them are running taunt instead of fire blast. The reasoning is team preview. When an opponent sees Aerodactyl, they will assume that you are running Taunt to prevent stealth rocks or spikes. As such, they will neglect to send out their Stealth Rock user in exchange for a more suitable Scizor or Forretress which should dominate the rock type Aerodactyl. This is where Fire Blast and 252 Speed EV's come in and paired with 156 EV's on Special attack I am hoping to OHKO both! (although Forretress will survive due to Sturdy).

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Cores:

Solar (Venusaur Lv100)
255 Happiness - Modest - Black Sludge - Chlorophyll

Ev's| HP-4 SpA-252 Spe-252

Sunny Day
Solarbeam
Hidden Power (fire)
Sleep Powder

I wanted a Grass-type to be capable of both supporting and sweeping teams effectively. Sunny Day gives Venusaur 1 extra turn to put a pokemon to sleep and then smash through with Solarbeam. Hidden Power fire is bosted to 105 BP in the sun which destroys common checks like Steel and Grass-types.

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Apollo (Heatran Lv100)
255 Happiness - Calm - Leftovers - Flash Fire

Ev's| HP-248 SpD-252 Spe-8

Lava Plume
Roar
Protect
Toxic

Lava Plume is chosen due to its high 30% burn rate, which makes Heatran incredibly difficult to take down on the physical side. I chose roar because I already have Aerodactyl with Stealth Rocks,it is useful for phazing out an enemy sweeper or troublesome wall and because Heatran is notorious for causing switches, It will allow it to accumulate a lot of Stealth Rock damage from Aerodactyl.

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Cola (Swampert Lv100)
255 Happiness - Adamant - Choice Band - Torrent

Ev's| HP-172 Atk-252 Spe-84

Earthquake
Stone Edge
Superpower
Waterfall

This set utilizes Swampert's good bulk to tank hits and retaliate by hitting hard thanks to the Choice Band boost. Earthquake is its main STAB move, which hits surprisingly hard, harder than I originally though it would, 2HKOing standard Ferrothorn after Stealth Rock damage as well as 2HKOing Jellicent. Waterfall hits opponents such as Gliscor hard, and it can even 2HKO Skarmory in rain, which is quite a feat. Superpower is mostly used to deal with Swampert's nemesis Ferrothorn, which has a good chance of being OHKOed by it. Stone Edge is also a good option in the final slot, allowing Swampert to hit Gyarados hard. I could swap stone edge for Ice Punch which would help me with some threats like Celebi or Dragonite.


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Revenge Killer


Clay Claws (Dugtrio Lv100)
255 Happiness - Jolly - Lum Berry - Arena Trap

Ev's| Atk-252 Def-4 Spe-252

Substitute
Hone Claws
Stone Edge
Earthquake

I chose Dugtrio because with Substitute giving him chance to get a few hone claws in, he can raise his attack to unbelievable ranks. With arena trap if an opponent brings in pretty much any electric, flying, steel, or rock type I can get 2/3 hone claws in with my substitute and I can easily OHKO with earthquake (STAB) or Stone Edge. And as a lot of people still don't realise that Dugtrio can pose a real threat they can often carelessly use attacks that don't break the Sub in 1 move which makes them really pay.

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I'm no pokemon god, infact, I'm pretty terrible. Because of this I'm willing to change any member but please be constructive and don't be harsh. I'd appreciate that.
Thanks to anyone that helps me out!

 

[Kidogo]

Hey cherbip, welcome to smogon! This is pretty good for a first team, but there's definitely some stuff to work on. Before I get to the rate, here are a few notes:
It's very helpful for potential raters if you have pictures of your pokemon. That will help people visualize the team as a whole. A shortcut to adding pictures it to hit the "insert image" button and then type in this url: http://media.pldh.net/pokemon/gen5/blackwhite_animated_front/###.gif (### is the 3-digit dex number).
The typical format for a mon's would look like this:

Hide

Politoed @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Toxic
- Protect
- Encore

I personally find this easier to read, and so will many other potential raters.

Okay, now onto the actual team!
The biggest problems I see in the team are two things: you don't an overarching structure or "goal" for the team, and you're using several mons that are typically not very viable in OU without a ton of justification. I'll start with the first point.
Generally, a team is classified as "offensive", "defensive", or somewhere in between. This specifies mostly through what means the team is going to try and beat the opponents--stall teams do it mostly through hazards and status, while more offensive ones go with all-out attackers. Either way, he team has to have a gameplan, and each member should serve a specific function within that plan. It seems to me that your team is more on the offensive side, so your gameplan should be to break through the opponent's defense with powerful attackers. Having a SR lead is great, and then a core of sweepers with a revenge-killer to back it up. However, a FWG core, while nice, is less helpful in an offensive core than in a defensive one. Instead, you want sweepers that compliment each other in terms of what stops them. I'll suggest some below.
The other issue I mentioned above was the fact that some of the pokemon you're using are simple not very good in OU or very outclassed. Venusaur isn't very good outside of sun teams, and having to spend the turn setting up sun is kind annoying. Swampert was very good in gen 4, but is pretty lackluster gen 5. Dugtrio is great on teams where you need a specific threat, like heatran or tyrnaitar, out of the way, but otherwise is super frail and pretty weak and not a great choice. I'll go over the alternatives below.

Starting from the SR mon:
Aerodactyl has a definite niche in OU as a suicide hazard lead, but there are some better options. I would personally suggest either Focus sash terrakion or Deo-D lead, as both excel at setting up hazards early-game while having better matchups than aero most of the time. Terra has the advantage of maintaining offensive pressure and being to feign a different set. A good terra set would be:

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Terrakion @ Focus Sash
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt / Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge

This should serve much the same purpose as aero while having much more offensive presence. Taunt or SD is a personal choice mostly--taunt is great against other SR leads, as well as the omnipresent deo-d. SD on the other hand lets you immediately threaten the opponent after rocks are up--for example, if you lead against something like ttar and SR as they switch to say skarmory, you can then go for the SD and immediately start punching holes.

The other option for this slot is Deoxys-D itself. You already have a spinblocker in gengar, so your hazards, once set up, would be fairly safe. Deo-D excels at setting up multiple layers of hazards while preventing slower leads from doing so--it can't do any sort of damage and can be a bit of set-up fodder. A set I'd recommend would be:

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Deoxys-D @ Mental Herb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave

Deo-d has very nice base 90 speed and with full investment, it can outspeed and taunt all the slower SR leads. Meanwhile, Mental Herb lets you recover from a taunt from faster lead terrakion, for example, letting you thunder wave them and then taunt them right back. Spikes and Stealth Rock are great in combination on the field, as they do a ton of damage when the opponent switches, a huge boon for an offensive team. Meanwhile, thunder wave helps you not to be set-up fodder--basically any stat-upper that comes in gets quickly twaved while you set up hazards, letting you kill them with whatever mon you send in next.
I think the decision between these two depends on which you value more: getting spikes as well as SR up and basically guaranteeing no SR on your side, or getting SR up while maintaining an offensive presence while still doing a good job vs other SR leads.

Now gengar. This looks p good actually, the only thing i might suggest is possibly changing the item to LO if you want a 3-attacks set, or maybe instead changing one of the moves, probably HP fire or fblast, to a utility move such as destiny bond or pain split. LO will give you more power than lefties, while having destiny bond allows you to take down potential spinners. Pain split on the other hand works really well sub and LO, allowing you to beat common counters such as bliss/chansey. Just a thought though, your current set is fine.

OK, now let's talk about the offensive core. If you want to keep the FWG core, I'd suggest swapping venusaur for NP celebi or SD/CM virizion and swampert for something like gyarados. On the other hand, if you want to go for a more offensive sweeping core, you could try something like Dragonite / Scizor / Lucario, which have great offensive synergy together. If this interests you I can add specific sets, but this would be a large change to the team so I won't go into it for now.
If you decide on retaining the FWG core, as I said I would suggest keeping heatran while changing venusaur to either celebi or virizion (pretty much the only viable offensive grass-types in OU) and swampert to gyarados. Since the goal of an offensive team like this is to keep pressure on the opponent, having mons that can wreck with a single turn of set-up will help you to break through the opponent's backbone. A good gyarados set is:

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Gyarados @ Life Orb
Trait: Moxie / Intimidate
EVs: 52 HP / 252 Atk / 204 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Bounce

EVs outspeed base 120s at +1, max attack, and give a little extra HP. Moxie is great since oftentimes the opponent will just sacrifice something to a +1 gyarados before sending in a "counter", only for you to gain an extra attack boost and plow through their team. Intimidate makes setting up easier though, so both are good options. The attacking moves offer good coverage, while EQ can go > bounce or SE. I think you'll really appreciate this > swampert since it's much stronger after a boost and can really plow through teams with hazard support.
For the grass member I'd probably say virizion since celebi is a bit too slow to sweep effectively. Virizion can either go physical or special, whichever you prefer really. I'd personally suggest special since otherwise gyara and virizion could be easily walled by something like skarmory. A good special virizion set is:

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Virizion @ Leftovers
Trait: Justified
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Giga Drain
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]

While this set can be a bit weak at times, it's very sturdy and thus can set up pretty well. It also has nice synergy with gyarados in terms of them not sharing counters. EVs are simple, max SpA and speed. Item could be changed to life orb but I prefer leftovers for the ease of setting up.
Tran looks p solid, don't have much to add.

Now for the revenge killer. There are a few problems with duggy. It can't switch in at all, and it is super weak. It has little coverage, so it really can't outright KO most of the stuff it needs to, and it's not fast enough to revenge boosted threats. I would suggest using a scarfed landorus instead of duggy, to keep some of the synergy. A good set is

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Landorus-I @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spe, -SpD)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]

This set can revenge basically all pokes at +1, and is much more powerful than dugtrio. Earthquake is powerful STAB and hits steels and grounded mons, SE gives great coverage and hits gyarados, Thundurus-t, and other fliers super-effective. U-turn helps keep momentum and is great with hazards on the field, while HP [ice] hits dragons accurately, as well as doing a huge amount to gliscor and landorus-t, who otherwise wall the set. This set should help you vs set-up sweepers a lot more than dugtrio, as well as working better with the team as a whole.

All right, this was a very long rate but I think you've got a lot to work off of here, GL with the team!

 

[Cherpib]

Thanks a lot, ill make sure to do the layout like you said next time I post a team to be rated. I'll definitely take all of your advice on board and get to building my team right away. Top class answer thanks a lot! :)