My First VGC Team! :D

[LumpyPoppers]

Hey guys. This is my first RMT on Smogon and also my Team for my first attempt at VGCs in January I think (Southern Cal VGCs are in January right?) Now I'm in no means the best at doubles but with my respectable singles battling experience of all tiers (even LC. Best tier evar) and the help from my fellow smogonites, I plan on winning this thing. Or at least get mighty close!

So what i was going for in this team is a combo of two of the most used strategies in VGC 2012: Rain and the TerraCotta core. Rain is self-explanatory, but for those who strictly do singles, the TerraCotta combo basically is having a Whimsicott with a low attack stat at using Beat Up on a Terrakion to get Attack Boosts then Rock Sliding the opposition. So without further ado, my VGC 2013 team:

The Leads:

Whimsicott@Focus Sash
Timid||Prankster
252HP/4Sp.Def/252Speed
-Beat Up
-Tailwind
-Charm
-Helping Hand

Politoed@Wacan Berry
Quiet||Drizzle
252HP/252Sp.Def/4Sp.Def
0Speed IVs
-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Encore
-Protect

I lead with these two since they are what i need to help my team sweep. I'll usually switch Toed out first turn since i want to preserve him in case of a weather war. Then i switch in Terrakion And Whimsicott beats him up. After her sash is broken Tailwind goes up and he can outspeed everything. Charm and Helping Hand are mostly there in case her focus sash wasnt broken and she can do other stuff. As for Politoeds moveset, if i see something harmful to whimsicott ill use Politoed to take care of them. Encore forces switches on Fake Out users, Scald and Ice Beam are coverage moves, and Protect is on everything in VGC. As for the Scald vs. Surf debate i chose Scald since passive burn and attack drop are much more useful than a spread move as Terrakion can just clean up.

The Others.

Terrakion@Life Orb
Jolly||Justified
252Atk/4Def/252Spd
-Close Combat
-Rock Slide
-Earthquake
-Protect

He's my main sweeper as not much can take a +4 Rock Slide in VGC. Rock Slide and Earthquake provide that EdgeQuake combo and not to mention theyre pretty handy spread moves. Close combat is mainly filler but eh. Protect is protect and it did save his ass a couple times on PO

Kingdra@Haban Berry
Modest||Swift Swim
252Sp.Atk/4HP/252Speed
-Surf
-Dragon Pulse
-Hidden Power Electric
-Protect

My main rain abuser. With Swift Swim AND Tailwind, she will be outspeeding everything. Surf is a nice spread move thats very handy, HP Electric is for pesky water types that Teryaki doesnt like, and Protect again. Now you may be wondering, "Light. Why not Draco Meteor? Its much stronger and can net some pretty crucial KOs." Well i chose Dragon Pulse since my Kingdra probably will be staying in for a while and those Sp.Atk drops will make her useless.

Thundurus@Electric Gem
Timid||Prankster
4HP/252SpAtk/252Spd
-Thunder
-Rain Dance
-HP Flying
-Protect

This is my back-up sweeper in case i see something that threatens most the above Pokes, or a weather starter of some sort. Thunder and HP Flying are STAB with the former just hitting things hard, and the latter hitting Ludicolo and Fighting Types. Rain Dance is in case Abomasnow or TTar are out there causing me trouble.

Parasect@Leftovers
Impish||Dry Skin
196HP/252Def/60Sp.Def
-Spore
-Rage Powder
-Seed Bomb
-Protect

My defensive rain abuser. I chose him since he has Spore (no Sleep Clause! Woot!) his Bug typing {to cover Teryaki) and Dry Skin (again for Teryaki.). I opted for a physically defensive set since Terrakion is mainly going to be Targeted by the plethora of fighting types running around. Rage powder is so that one of my sweepers can take a shot unscathed and im not gonna be using Seed Bomb much but its for those Gastrodon that counter Rain oh so well. Dry Skin also goes hand in hand with Surf from Kingdra as it heals it and only hits the other side.

 

[voodoo pimp]

Welcome to Smogon! Now, at this point we haven't gotten any official confirmation on what the rules will be for January, so you might not want to put too much effort into a team until you know if it will be viable or even legal.

That said, I'll make a few suggestions. To start with, you might not want to be so set on a specific lead pair, because you need to be able to be flexible depending on what your opponent has. For instance, you usually won't want to lead Politoed against Abomasnow, especially considering most of your team can't take two Blizzards.
I assume Politoed's EVs are a typo (since Sp.Def is listed twice)? If it does have 252 Sp.Def, then that's inefficient; you could get the same or better in both stats with a Sassy nature instead. Also, you might want to consider Hydro Pump over Scald for the power, since burns are too unreliable in such a fast metagame.
Terrakion doesn't hit much with Earthquake that isn't already hit by one of its STABs, so I'd recommend X-Scissor instead.
Kingdra has basically no use for HP Electric (the only things you'd want to use it on are Water/Flying Pokémon and Empoleon, none of which are common), so I'd strongly suggest Hydro Pump or Draco Meteor (yes, Special Attack drops, but you'll still like the option when you're about to get KO'd or something really needs to die, and keep in mind that two Draco Meteors in a row still does more damage than two Dragon Pulses) instead. Also, you probably don't need to run max Speed, since Kingdra isn't very common so the speed tie won't come up often.

Also, I haven't seen "Teryaki" before. Is it a typo, or some abbreviation I'm not familiar with?

 

[Phozon]

Ahhhh a "bread and butter" rain team by VGC standards.
Whats good man? I've been playing VGC for about 4 years so I've seen many rain teams and this one is looks well done.
One this is, is that I must agree with Voodoo Pimp, don't have "leads" you want your team to be able to switch up leads depending on what your opponet brings. Another thing is that switching out in VGC is always a risky play. If you bring in your Terrakion like you said you would to sponge the Beat Up and your opponet aims for the poke in that spot, you could put yourself in a very very bad place.
Also for Kingdra I would highly recomend a Sub lum kingdra:

Kingdra- Lum Berry
Timid- 252Sp.Atk/ 252 Speed/ 4 HP
Sub
Hydro Pump/ Protect
Surf
Dragon Pulse

Alot of people have no choice but to use T-wave on Kingdra in hopes of shutting it down. This set allows you to abuse kingdra to the fullest ( baring a prankster T-wave ). Also, MAJOR Cresselia problem! Cress spams T-Wave and Icy Wind which can seriously cut the speed of some of your pokes on your team, I'm thinking more towards Terrakion. I would recomend X-Scissor on Terrakion. Also, you got a Zapdos problem too. Even in the rain a Zapdos' Heat wave can and will 2HKO your Parasact if the Zapdos is fully invested in Sp.Atk, which most are. You have ways to handle Zapods, just be careful of the ones that carry Discharge and T-Wave.

Also, Sun Teams could become a HUGE problem. Venasaur or any other sun abuser can easily come in and just flat out 4-0 your team. I know you have Thunderous w/ Rain Dance but if their weather setter is still alive, they will switch it out just to make sure they get their weather back up. Just make sure that you learn over time how to play this team so that you can win the weather war. It's really something that can only come experience of playing the VGC meta.

I can also see Trick Room teams becomeing a huge problem as well. I used one a TR while back and if you don't have a Taunter then this team is not going to stand a chance. I would recomend Taunt> Charm on Whimisicott. It will solve your TR problem and you might even be able to get some other good uses out of it for shutting down Cresselia's w/o Icy Wind.

Other then that your team seems solid. I hope you enjoy the VGC meta [:

 

[LumpyPoppers]

Thanks for the rates guys. I'm really noobish at doubles, and my singles centered mind likes to switch a lot. And yeah those 4Sp.Def EVs on Politoed are for Sp.Atk. :P typos. And I wanted a -Spd nature but if a different nature and spread are more optimal by all means tell me. I could never make my own spread if my life depended on it. I'll make Scald Hydro Pump on Toed and replace Earthquake with X-Scissor. My mind was just like "SPREAD MOVES ON EVERYTHING" I didn't realize that ground and fighting have almost the same type coverage. And I don't do damage Calcs either so I didn't know Draco Meteor was still stronger than Dragon Pulse after the drop so I'll change that. And Phozon, the SubLum Set looks really cool. I'll Probably use that one.

Oh and Teriyaki is what I call Terrakion. Sorry :P

EDIT: btw guys how viable is VoltTurn in VGC? really wanna try it because this one seems pretty obvious to some vets.

 

[Phozon]

Volt Turns is never a real good idea in VGC. The idea is high synergy in all 6 of your pokes. I came from a different site where they're like the Smogon of VGC so I learned alot from them. There are alot of singles stratigies that cant be applied to doubles because they just don't work the same.

And it's ok that your new. We all where at one time [:

 

[LumpyPoppers]

Volt Turns is never a real good idea in VGC. The idea is high synergy in all 6 of your pokes. I came from a different site where they're like the Smogon of VGC so I learned alot from them. There are alot of singles stratigies that cant be applied to doubles because they just don't work the same.

And it's ok that your new. We all where at one time [:

Awwwwh man. Oh well. VoltTurn is really annoying in Singles and I really would like to utilize it in doubles. Oh well. Btw what site was that? Maybe I could go there and learn some more stuff before January.

And being new is pretty cool. It's like discovering treasure. :)

 

[voodoo pimp]

Thanks for the rates guys. I'm really noobish at doubles, and my singles centered mind likes to switch a lot. And yeah those 4Sp.Def EVs on Politoed are for Sp.Atk. :P typos. And I wanted a -Spd nature but if a different nature and spread are more optimal by all means tell me. I could never make my own spread if my life depended on it. I'll make Scald Hydro Pump on Toed and replace Earthquake with X-Scissor. My mind was just like "SPREAD MOVES ON EVERYTHING" I didn't realize that ground and fighting have almost the same type coverage. And I don't do damage Calcs either so I didn't know Draco Meteor was still stronger than Dragon Pulse after the drop so I'll change that. And Phozon, the SubLum Set looks really cool. I'll Probably use that one.

Oh and Teriyaki is what I call Terrakion. Sorry :P

EDIT: btw guys how viable is VoltTurn in VGC? really wanna try it because this one seems pretty obvious to some vets.

Well, if you're investing in Special Defense then a Sassy nature would be much better for you. You can get the same Special Attack and higher Special Defense (or vice versa) since Politoed's base Special Defense is higher.

Quiet 4 SpA/252 SpD = 122 SpA and 152 SpD
Sassy 108 SpA/148 SpD = 124 SpA and 152 SpD
Sassy 92 SpA/164 SpD = 122 SpA and 155 SpD

Of course, if you really want to work on improving more than two stats like that, you'll want to start doing some damage calculations to see what you can KO/survive with various spreads.

As for Draco Meteor vs Dragon Pulse, that's simple math :P 140+70>90+90