Gen 6 teambuilding frameworks

[dice]

warning: this is mainly just me spouting what's on the top of my head and has no real order as i wrote this spontaneously. so, some of my ideas may be kinda confusing since i may have not articulated my thoughts clearly as i wished. sorry.

people always get really uptight about these threads for some reason as the word "frame" sparks connotations of restrictions, robotic teambuilding, and creation of teams in a reactive mindset for many people. so, oftentimes, animadversions blatantly ignoring the op are posted as they do not agree in building with any sort of restriction in mind.

so, to prevent this, i'll post a preface with my personal opinion on the matter:

-anecdote snippet-

every single one of my teams is built with a defensive mindset. but i also equally build with an offensive mindset. even if i start a team with an offensive core, (e.g. icy wind gengar + arceus-ground) i ensure that each pokemon has their specific niche fulfilled to the extent which i feel redundancy is not an issue and that the role that the pokemon is performing makes it the most ideal pokemon for my team. this is why i always rethink a team after i complete the sets. this is also why i run things like refresh on arceus-normal. this allows me to have my ekiller be an arceus-ghost check. i'm running an offensive pokemon with a defensive set of mind; this is how i try to get the "most" out of all my teams. so, my own personal definition of a framework would be a basic checklist of things a team needs to succeed for a certain playstyle (stall, ho, etc.) which the best teambuilders have all similarly created independently. or, in fact, an objective pattern. most of these things are defensively inclined checks; however, i always keep in mind offensive synergy. typically, this is from the core you originally build around which maintains the offensive synergy of the team. but there are many other ways to have a well-rounded team which has both offensive and defensive synergy. i'll elaborate more later in this post.

here are two teams posted in this subforum by hack and i and i'd like to delve into similarities between them.

hack's team

my team

for two offensive teams with very different sets and purposes, they have very similar pokemon. i lined them up in such a way that you could see it. this is because both hack and i had very similar ideas when we made these teams. this is the "teambuilding framework" for both of our teams, dialga acts as the primary kyogre check and stealth rock setter. we both also utilize kyogre; however, i use a scarf set to help check cm arceus and mewtwo as i have separate stallbreakers while hack uses specs to help tear down stall with his spikes. i utilize rayquaza for a ground-type check and he is my primary stallbreaker while hack uses giratina-o which fairs much better against mewtwo and ekiller. we both use geoxern. as i hinted above in mentioning offensive synergy, i use focus blast xerneas to open up ferrothorn for kyogre. i didn't build around this core, but i justify each and every moveslot on my team by thinking "how does this affect the composition as a whole". i didn't particularly need substitute as i fared well against stall, so i thought about how xerneas could help its partners and focus blast stuck out to help with its partnered kyogre. we both also use ekiller to break down pokemon like xerneas or mewtwo and it acts as a general sweeper and revenge killer. the last pokemon really sets our teams apart though. in my case, i use gengar as a way to check ekiller, xerneas, and help break down stall. shadow tag helps my team in general to kill pokemon which threaten me the most. hack, however, uses greninja for spikes. as you can see, his ground type-check is also condensed into a ghost while my ghost and ground-type check are separate. this deviates our teams and effectively changes several sets we both used for the optimal build.

this is what i mean when i say "framework". it is moreso a collection of pokemon or sets you have to use, cover, etc. to create a good squad.

other examples of this can be found more obviously in common sun teams. groudon / palkia vs groudon / waterceus teams have very distinct similarities despite very different choices in pokemon. i'd like the thread to kinda focus on how these "frameworks" come about and your own opinion on them.

what "frameworks" would you like to comment on? where have you seen them? can you create a text-based list from these concepts to form the "framework"

this thread is kinda just a general discussion of effectiveness and notice that frameworks have and their impact on your building. i find that frameworks more elegantly express proper teambuilding as opposed to band-aid building in that "i'm weak to x so i'll use y"

 

[shrang]

I find that identifying a strategy/Pokemon first to be essential to building a good team. Every team needs a direction, and no, "winning" does not count as a direction/strategy. I generally find that building around a certain Pokemon is the easiest way to churn out a team. This tends to work pretty well for more offensive/balanced teams and is a little less useful for stall builds (I'm not really a stall player so that's not my forte).

http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/uber-offense-guide.84947/ <= I wrote the teambuilding section in this gen 5 article that never got published, and it highlights how I build teams. The article is quite old, so forgive me if there are flaws in the team itself (there are quite a few), and it is merely a team that got churned out for the purposes of highlighting a method.

Basically, the method is:

1) Identify Pokemon/set/combo that you really want to use and stick to it
2) Identify essential conditions for which that strategy must work (eg back in gen 5, if you used Kabutops, Kyogre was essential)
3) Identify key threats that would stop your strategy and put in measures to remove them (eg if you're building around ExtremeKiller, you'd want something like SD Lum Berry Groudon to lure out and cripple Giratina-O with)
4) Identify top threats in Ubers that you need to have a solid answer to and put in answers to address them - basically your GeoXerns, Ekillers, Kyogres, MMYs, S-tag, etc etc
5) Add in anything else that you feel may be helpful for you to pull off your strategy (eg hazards, weather, etc) - at this stage you should be looking at a prototype team of 6 that should work coherently
6) Test out your team to identify immediate weaknesses and make adjustments and changes to address those issues

Note that in every one of those steps you should also be considering secondary Pokemon/strategies that you could be using and incorporating them onto your team.

 

[Sweep]

One thing I'd like to touch upon is the use of moveslots to enhance a team's framework. Dice pointed out that Focus Blast provides good coverage on GeoXern for teams utilizing Choice Scarf Kyogre to help break Ferrothorn. Another example of a move that can help improve a team is Earthquake on Life Orb Ho-Oh. Earthquake can be used on offense to help break Heatran for GeoXern lacking Focus Blast. In return, Xerneas can run another coverage move to assist Ho-Oh and Defog Giratina-O (Thunder to smack physically defensive Ho-Oh, for example). This concept isn't difficult to grasp, but I feel there is a difference between using legitimate coverage moves that will prove to be consistent over time and "lure" moves that are often dead weight. I generally dislike lure moves because they only have a specific target or two and are prone to inconsistency & add little to a team framework. For example, support Arceus-Ghost with Stone Edge has the potential to smack Ho-Oh for massive damage, although it wont OHKO unless you decide to run attack investment. However, Arceus-Ghost can run far more consistent moves that can actually support the rest of the team. Defog is self-explanatory -- especially on an Arceus forme not Goth-prone -- Will-O-Wisp checks Kangashkan and Refresh-less EKiller, and Recover and Judgment are mandatory. Even Roar has its uses to phaze mons like CroXern, even if it isn't as good a choice as it was in Gen 5. All Stone Edge does is act as a crutch for teams built with a massive Ho-Oh weakness. Other examples of lure moves include Fire Punch Kangaskhan and Hidden Power Grass Kyogre. There are naturally some exceptions: Ice Beam on Groundceus and MM2X can be considered lure moves, I guess, though I consider hitting two prominent Pokemon that otherwise stonewall them to be reasonably legitimate coverage.

I prefer using valuable moveslots on moves that will prove to be as consistent and beneficial to the rest of the team as possible. That is NOT to say that creativity and innovation cannot be rewarded! Just look at pokeaim's Refresh EKiller set that came into existence towards the end of last SPL. Refresh EKiller gives the user's team a better overall match-up vs. Stall, a way to revenge weakened Nasty Plot Darkrai etc. al, a win condition and a Ghostceus check all in one move. Refresh is not nearly as good a choice on teams that have LO Rayquaza, since Rayquaza generally fares well against Stall and can pick off weakened sweepers with its own ExtremeSpeed (a WoW Ghostceus check is still needed to support these two). SD Rayquaza and SD Arceus naturally do a great job of pounding each other's checks so the other can potentially sweep as is; just make sure their movesets maximize the odds of this happening while still fitting with the rest of your build.