About building teams

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DanTheMan111

So far on shoddy I haven't had much success, barely scraping out .500 if that.

So far only one of my teams has gelled perfectly together, a semistall UU team, but the strategy fell apart without out cress (I couldn't replace her with uxie because uxie was my lead) or gonZ (who could replace it?). I think, looking at the sheer number of teams saved to my hard drive, that part of it is theorys that I come up with that don't work....

An example, a team that uses omantyte to get up stealth rocks and spikes, then use a team of super powerful choicers to Ko after entry hazrads. Sounds good right? Well I won my first three games, but I realized that a few pokes killed it. Scizor had checks but no counter, scarf rachi destroy'd my team, Heatran threaten'd every one of my choiced pokes if it got a free switch.

Sorry for saying this without saying everyone on my team, but the point is that most of my teams look good on paper but seem to struggle in game. The team always starts with a theory, so now I'm going to try out something different. I'm going to list the "best" pokemon for each role than see which pokes have the best synergy and throw them together to see if it works.

I guess my question is how do you guys start teams? I see RMTs that are based around one late game sweeper (like agiligross or subteya empoleon), or two defensive pokemon with synergy (skarmbliss or hippobliss for example), but how do you make them?
 
The late game sweeper approach is a personal favorite of mine, as I play offensive. However, one of my favorite teams is designed to wreak havoc with the unblockable barrage that is MixMence's Draco Meteor. I use Scizor to force favorable switches (like Gyarados) by using CB Uturn. I also pack a spinner Starmie because the Stealth Rock damage really is a problem. From there, I just beat down holes with Draco Meteor, and when I know Mence is going to die, use Outrage.

This way, damage is maximized without having to use Roost. I then clean up with Lucario and CB Scizor Bullet Punch.

See what I did above? I took one of my favorite pokemon sets, MixMence, and found ways to eliminate the problems and get it to take center stage. Find an aim for your team and figure out what you need to get it done.
 
1) You build a team around a specific Pokemon. For example, you want an Empoleon sweep; first you choose the set, then you do your best to support an Empoleon sweep (Taking out bulky waters and special walls)

2) You build a team around a playstyle; for example HO or stall.

3) You build a team around a specific strategy such as Rain Dance, Trick Room, Gravity, whatever.


When it comes to actually making the team it gets more complicated. What threats do you need to be able to handle? What do you do if your strategy fails, or gets countered (Tyranitar comes in after your last Rain Dancer is dead; a Scizor gets a free Swords Dance and can sweep with Bullet Punch despite Trick Room being active) you have to ask, and answer, questions like these.

It's a lot more than just complementary typing and synergy.
 
As Nestle has already stated, I too typically start out with an idea or a theory based on a sweeper, a play-style, or a specific strategy, but it's usually different each time in the way it works out. Sometimes the team may take off right from the start, while others may fall flat. I find that adapting, changing, and fixing the team's holes are just as, if not more important than creating the team.

Since the metagame is always changing, not every idea is going to work. Sometimes what I end up with is completely different from what I started with. And sometimes one idea may lead me to scrap the team and work with something totally new. It's also a learning process too, you're not going to automatically come up with a brilliant idea without being exposed to the environment for an extended period of time.

DanTheMan111 said:
An example, a team that uses omantyte to get up stealth rocks and spikes, then use a team of super powerful choicers to Ko after entry hazrads. Sounds good right? Well I won my first three games, but I realized that a few pokes killed it. Scizor had checks but no counter, scarf rachi destroy'd my team, Heatran threaten'd every one of my choiced pokes if it got a free switch.
Click to expand...
Basically what I'm saying is, you said you have these problems with your team, so find ways to fix them without losing your goal. Don't be satisfied with using a team, it not working, and then deciding it will never work...Not sure if this is what you were looking for, but I hope it helped ^_^;
 
If you're playing OU use this fancy graphical represenation
Flowchart.jpg
(not really)

As for the actual team building part, play to your style. I came in to competitive pokemon at a bad time, where stall was prevalent, so I can literally only think in terms of Stall (or HO, but thats not that difficult tbh). So do what you feel comfortable with. If you like playing semi-stall, but your teams aren't working (as is the case) start over from scratch. Try to use different movesets and different pokemon but accomplish the same thing (which I assume in semi-stall is a late game sweep).

For example, using a Empoleon Sweep, you want to get down Toxic Spikes, have a spin blocker, and have something to get rid of anything carrying Mach Punch.

Usually when I try to start a new team, I decide on what I want to do first. Currently I'm trying to teach myself to play more offensively, so I'm trying to build a semi-stall team (its going horribly btw) centered around SD Lucario Sweep, since he is pretty anti-metagame atm. So I have Magnezone to support me for taking out stuff like Scizor and Skarmory who can hinder his sweep.

I hope I answered your question, since it wasn't that clear to me.
 
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