My first team. I need serious help.

[MoreThanLuck]

So this is the first team I have ever made, it's just a standard OU team. This isn't really a rate my team, so much as dear lord help me not suck haha. So first off here is the team in it's entirety.

So what I've got at this point is...

The Team

Gengar @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SpDef
Modest Nature
- Focus Blast
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb

Alrighty so Gengar's main job here is to have some fairly decent type coverage, and come in and hit hard. I have the life orb here to help with that, by adding power to his moves. I chose the moves I did because they cover some pretty common types, and other fairly common leads. Like I have thunderbolt to take on Politoed or other water leads and I think the other moves have fairly good coverage also. And Levitate also helps against ground types.

Metagross @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 52 HP / 204 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Agility
- Zen Headbutt
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch

Metagross is here to try and help cover some things that Gengar can't, and just generally pick up the slack where gangar left off. You can see that it's my only physically defensive pokemon and also my only pokemon with physical attacking moves. I like this set with Metagross, as it gives it the ability to potentially sweep, after an agility, but also able to take a few hits with the boost in HP. Zen Headbutt is there as a STAB move and Ice Punch is for taking on dragons, grass types, and the ever present flying types like the genies.

Jellicent @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SpDef
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover
- Ice Beam

So Jellicent here is my special wall, and also my main counter to dragon types. I wanted something kind of bulky and tough enough to take a couple solid hits, and have the ability to stall out the opponent with Toxic and Recover for myself. Then Scald and Ice Beam are just my other attacking moves, and I chose Scald over Surf for it's burn chance. This gives Jellicent the ability to either take on pokemon by outlasting them with toxic and recover or actually powering through them with special attacking moves.

Venusaur @ Leftovers
Trait: Overgrow
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Growth
- Hidden Power Fire
- Energy Ball
- Synthesis

So Venusaur is my grass type attacker just for some better type coverage really. I chose to go with Overgrow as opposed to Chlorophyll because obviously this isn't a sun team, but might switch back to that because of the abundance of them now it seems. I put growth in there to give it some ability to sweep, and chose energy ball as my main STAB move. Hidden power fire is just there for some other type coverage, especially against steel types. And I like putting a recovery move like synthesis on all my pokemon just to give them some resilience.

Volcarona @ Life Orb
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Morning Sun

So basically Volcarona is here as a fire type for type coverage and also as my special sweeper. It's got Quiver Dance to boost stats and then attempt to plow through the opponents and also has some recovery options with Morning Sun, which would be more effective against a sun team. Fiery dance and Bug buzz are there because they provide good type coverage, and obviously they all get STAB.

Hydreigon @ Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Focus Blast
- Surf
- Fire Blast

Hydreigon is here as yet another special attacker, and to provide some more type coverage. It's really meant to switch in against an opponent it's strong against, hit for super effective damage and get out. I have Draco Meteor specifically to be super hard hitting, and then to switch out after. Focus Blast, surf, and Fire Blast are there to provide some type coverage against a wide range of pokemon, and are generally pretty strong moves. Then I have an expert belt really to help out with trying to OHKO opponents with super effective moves.

So obviously I have a ton of problems at this point. I have no physical wall or attacker besides Metagross having physical moves and basically all my pokemon rely on special attacks. There's almost no diversity in my team, as at this point it's basically a few different typed special attackers. On top of that, my EV training is amateurish at best, and I just generally lack diversity. I was thinking about putting in something like a Rhyperior as both a physical attacker and wall, and maybe add in a physical sweeper.

I'm clearly a noob and could really use some help and advice. Thanks everyone, I really really appreciate it.
​

 

[NeLLY979]

If you're going to use Life Orb on Volcarona, get a Spinner, as it will be destroyed by Stealth Rocks and Toxic Spikes.

 

[LilOu]

Just as @NeLLY979 said, volcarona loses 50% hp going out with some rocks in the floor, so you MUST have an spinner (starmie, forretress, donphan, etc) search on Smogon.

 

[Skore]

Hmm, so you seem to have covered some basic ideas mentioned all over the forum.

You have your FWG core, a steel type, a hard hitting dragon and a fast offensive sweeper.

Sometimes it's best to evaluate what kind of team will beat yours to get a hint of what you may want to tweak.

Firstly, as has been mentioned. Stealth Rock. It's the most common entry hazard as it needs just one turn to set up and with Volcarona you lose 50% HP on switching into it.

Firstly I'd think of the item. Life Orb on Volcarona may be overkill as it's job is to come in set up and sweep however the added power can't be denied if you are denied a chance to boost. Morning Sun seems an odd choice if you are not running a Sun team. Volcarona has access to Giga Drain which gives offensive recovery against water types that may switch in and also Roost which is not weather-dependant on the amount healed.

Secondly you have Venusaur, which is a fairly slow pokemon outside of Sun. You may get more mileage out of your grass type by switching to something faster and therefore less prone to having it's sweeping cut short.

I would suggest either Celebi or Roserade. Both have nice speed, excellent Special Attack and come with their own benefits but seeing as you have no entry hazards of your own I would reccomend giving Roserade a try.

Roserade@Leftovers
Timid nature
Ability: Natural Cure
4 HP / 252 SpAtt / 252 Spe
~Spikes/Toxic Spikes
~Leaf Storm/Giga Drain
~Hidden Power Fire/Ice
~Sleep Powder

And my last piece of advice as I'm sure others have wisdom to share is to think about keeping entry hazards off your side of the field. There are 2 ways to do this, a pokemon with rapid spin or a pokemon with the Magic Bounce ability (Espeon or Xatu).

If you're going for a rapid spinner I would reccomend Starmie. It's fast though frail and has access to a lot of coverage moves to round out your teams needs as well as having fairly string Special Attack. Magic Bounce is a much harder way of keeping hazards off the field so I'd reccomend getting used to spinning hazards away first.

 

[MoreThanLuck]

Hmm, so you seem to have covered some basic ideas mentioned all over the forum.

You have your FWG core, a steel type, a hard hitting dragon and a fast offensive sweeper.

Sometimes it's best to evaluate what kind of team will beat yours to get a hint of what you may want to tweak.

Firstly, as has been mentioned. Stealth Rock. It's the most common entry hazard as it needs just one turn to set up and with Volcarona you lose 50% HP on switching into it.

Firstly I'd think of the item. Life Orb on Volcarona may be overkill as it's job is to come in set up and sweep however the added power can't be denied if you are denied a chance to boost. Morning Sun seems an odd choice if you are not running a Sun team. Volcarona has access to Giga Drain which gives offensive recovery against water types that may switch in and also Roost which is not weather-dependant on the amount healed.

Secondly you have Venusaur, which is a fairly slow pokemon outside of Sun. You may get more mileage out of your grass type by switching to something faster and therefore less prone to having it's sweeping cut short.

I would suggest either Celebi or Roserade. Both have nice speed, excellent Special Attack and come with their own benefits but seeing as you have no entry hazards of your own I would reccomend giving Roserade a try.

Roserade@Leftovers
Timid nature
Ability: Natural Cure
4 HP / 252 SpAtt / 252 Spe
~Spikes/Toxic Spikes
~Leaf Storm/Giga Drain
~Hidden Power Fire/Ice
~Sleep Powder

And my last piece of advice as I'm sure others have wisdom to share is to think about keeping entry hazards off your side of the field. There are 2 ways to do this, a pokemon with rapid spin or a pokemon with the Magic Bounce ability (Espeon or Xatu).

If you're going for a rapid spinner I would reccomend Starmie. It's fast though frail and has access to a lot of coverage moves to round out your teams needs as well as having fairly string Special Attack. Magic Bounce is a much harder way of keeping hazards off the field so I'd reccomend getting used to spinning hazards away first.

Thank you! I'll certainly switch out Venusaur and let you know how it goes. Now with regards to Starmie, do you have a moveset you recommend? And who should I get rid of? I would like to keep Jellicent so maybe a different Spinner would be better?

 

[desklamp]

Ok, now that its edited lets get to work. First off, you really need to use Stealth Rocks, only a few teams can pull of not having Stealth Rocks, it is such a good move and the damage helps net kills and wear down stall and VoltTurn teams.

When I look at this team I see Venasaur and Volcarona without Sun. Let's put Sun on this team. I personally prefer Specs Ninetales since Ninetales has 2 goals:
1. Set up Sun
2. Outlive the enemy weather

Specs Ninetales lets it be a hit-and-run poke, smacking things hard and switching out before it gets killed. Let's run this set:

Ninetales @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drought
Nature: Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
EVs: 252 SpAtk/ 252 Spe/ 4 SpDef
-Overheat
-Energy Ball
-Hidden Power Fighting
-Flamethrower


Now then, for this set, there is a very small problem that needs to be remembered, HP Fighting requires an imperfect Speed IV, so Ninetales WILL lose speed ties with other Base 100s, otherwise HP Fighting is good for hurting Tyranitar and hitting Heatrans. However, Ninetales' main goal is to out live your opponents weather starter (if they have one). The move set is standard and comes with coverage moves for waters and Tyranitar as well as 2 Fire moves. Overheat is immensely powerful while Flamethrower is there for the accuracy and lack of status drop, in case Ninetales needs to sweep late game.

Ninetales should replace Gengar, since Hydreigon should be your primary special attacker/revenge killer. Also, switch Hydreigon to a Choice Scarf item and Timid (+Spe, -Atk) nature so it can revenge kill stuff like Tornadus-T.

Next, we need a rapid spinner to support Volcarona. I suggest Donphan to replace Metagross. Donphan loses its Water weakness in the sun(But taking Surfs/Scalds to the face still isn't healthy for it) and complements your team well. He spins to save your Volcarona and sets up SR, as well as bringing much needed physical bulk to your team.

Donphan @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
Nature: Impish(+Def, -SpAtk)
EVs: 252 HP/80 Atk/176 Def
-Stealth Rocks
-Rapid Spin
-Earthquake
-Ice Shard


EVs let it 2HKO Haxorus with EQ after SR damage. Also Ice Shard for the Therian trio and dragons.

Finally, all that's left is to change your Venusaur's set. It gets Chlorophyll, use it. Also, replace Synthesis with Sleep Powder, Venusaur is a sweeper and doesn't need the recovery, while Sleep Powder guarantees a free Growth in the sun.

Likewise, either replace Volcarona's Morning Sun with Hidden Power Rock, to hit Salamences and Gyaradoses, or alter the EV spread to a bulky Volcarona so you can tank hits and set up more easily.

Remember that these are suggestions that you are free to ignore or use. I basically saw an incomplete Sun team and turned it into a Sun team. You need weather, or a weather counter to survive in this metagame, and since you had 2 sun abusers, I went ahead and turned this into a Sun team.

 

[Doom Dawg]

Read everything and follow this step by step, I used a logic to write this, so some moves I point out for some mind at the beginning of the message might be completely altered until the end.

Think about synergy, you really need to set up rocks. It takes only one turn and harms any Pokemon the opponent might throw in. So seriously you need a Pokemon to use SR, the same way you need a spinner because of your Volcarona. Venusaur is just ULTRA slow for the metagame, unless you are using a sun team. Even though I had great ideas for your team. By that I mean an anti-metagame team. We need to think about weather and no weather, and how you may benefit from it!

So first let's correct the SR problem. So let's analyze two situations, your team needs a spinner because of Volcarona. It needs more Physical sweepers. Needs someone to set rocks. Infernape looks as a perfect choice, it you ditch Volcarona off. Then you maintain the FWG core.

Infernape @ Life Orb
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
- Flare Blitz
- Mach Punch/U-Turn
- Close Combat
- Stealth Rock

This set is really straight forward. Mach punch revenge kills, Close Combat is a STAB move to deal with the "Mineral types" (rock, steel, ice) and pink blobs. Flare Blitz is a powerful fire move that deals with other users like Ferrothorn and Forretress that love to set hazards. This set is a major threat to Ferrothorn, Heatran, Pink stuff and Forretress; important to mention that most Chlorophyll users cannot harm the ape. Setting up the rocks is easy, scare off an opposing Pokemon and set your rocks safely.

Your team is an offensive threat and there are too much weaknesses to Gengar. To keep up the pace, I suggest changing that big fat jelly for something like Rotom-W. The Trickster is amazing... Even though I am not the biggest fan.

Rotom-Wash @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power Ice
- Trick

Rotom-W and Infernape together are amazing as they deal with every threat together (Ok, 90% of them). If you choose to have U-turn on Infernape you will lose a priority move, but you will obtain a powerful Volt-Turn engine... The Hydro Pump is STAB and packs a punch, is even possible to OHKO Therians in Rain (someone Damage Calc please?)
Hidden Power Ice is to give you an Ice move which you lack and it is Ultra important, because of the Dragonite and Salamence fever!

Why do you have a Gengar with 4 attacking moves? Try taking out Sludge Bomb and using Substitute. Poison types offensively suck, really, they are only super effective against grass types. You might even try to run an Icy Wind set. Look Gengar's OU page here in Smogon for it. The two I recommend are Substitute+3 Attacks, Icy Wind Lead, and the Sub Disable set. The latter is not for beginners as it requires a handful of prediction.

Metagross is the next one, try to profit its Bulk changing its set to the following

Metagross @ Air Balloon
Trait: Clear Body (laugh at Intimidate)
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake
- Hammer Arm
- Stealth Rock

The deal is TAKE OFF THE STEALTH ROCK FROM INFERNAPE ADD INSTEAD U-Turn. Now Infernape has Flare Blitz | Close Combat | Mach Punch | U-Turn. You need no speed when you have Bullet Punch. Now you have two revenge killers and two physical attackers, which one of them is laying rocks for you! You can take Terrakion and Cloyster fairly well.

Moving on the next victim is Venusaur! He is way too slow, and it is not as useful outside from a Sun Team. Celebi is a well deserved substitute, which maintains the FGW core and it is plain awesome on the support and on the offensive side (against stuff that do not resist him/her).

Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 220 HP / 252 SpA / 36 Spe
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
- Nasty Plot
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power Fire
- Earth Power

Celebi can sponge the incoming status effects aimed at your team with Natural Cure. This set is a Semi-reliable recovery-wise. This is because Giga Drain is not always the 50% recovery given from the move recover. If you feel the urge you can simply swap Earth Power for Recover. I would run Earth Power to avoid getting walled by Heatran...
It has the worst typing in the game, but it fits your team perfectly.

Hydreigon is not the faster and it goes along pretty well with the team. Maybe you could try a Scarf version of it to avoid being owned by faster pokemon... Like Terrakion, Infernape, Volcarona at +1 and stuff of the Like.

Phew *_* this took a Long Time

PS: remember Stealth Rock on the Metagross and the Infernape with Flare Blitz, Close Combat, Mach Punch and U-turn. Your team now is not weak to rocks and is not really Terrakion weak... Pretty uncommon teams like this. I really like it :p

The lightbulb dude is making a Sun Team, just remember if you are following what he says use Dragonite instead of Hydreigon, here is the set:

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake

I am really biased when it comes to Sun teams as they are my favorite and as Dragonite is the best Dragon EVAR. Surely Flygon earns his part too in my heart.

 

[Unbreakable]

Man, I wish my RMTs could get this much attention, even though I'm in the same "help me not suck" boat. I've got a friend that's telling me that battling in the lower tiers will work my personal skill more due to fewer usable mons, therefore fewer obscure threats to worry about (and as a bonus, no auto-weather!). Still, let's work with what we have. As you've no doubt already seen, how to get good at this game largely depends on whom you ask. Let us then follow the mantra of Jeet Kune Do: "Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless." Here goes.

Since the goal of any good team rate is to fix the team with the least amount of change necessary, let's first take a look at Gengar. He does hit hard, yes, but with Latios/Latias (collectively, Lati@s) running around with the same speed and often carrying a Psychic move to wipe out the Ghost, it's critically important that Gengar be able to get the speed tie with them. Therefore, switch its nature from Modest to Timid to ensure that speed tie and to outrun the musketeers (Terrakion and his ilk). Sludge Bomb may be powerful, but rare is the chance for him to use it effectively. Substitute is possibly the best move in the game for people that are still on the learning curve, not to mention Gengar uses it quite well if it's not in the lead position, so I'd recommend running that over Sludge Bomb.

Next, and this cannot be stressed enough, if you're going to run Volcarona, you need a way to either prevent your opponent from setting up Stealth Rock or remove them from your field before he comes in. Offensive pressure can work for this to some extent, but a better way is to employ a Pokemon that knows the move Rapid Spin. Metagross is your main counter to dragon-types because of its steel typing, NOT Jellicent, so substitute the water-type for a Starmie with a Timid nature, 4 HP/252 SpAtk/252 Speed and a moveset along the lines of Rapid Spin | Hydro Pump/Surf | Thunderbolt | Ice Beam (either one in the second slot depending on your preference) and you keep your fire-water-grass core mostly intact.

Venusaur looks silly if it's not being run on a sun team, let's be honest with ourselves here. If you need an offensive grass-type with some decent bulk, Celebi is your mon. The Tinkerbell set in particular is designed to do whatever you need it to do at the time, be it offense, defense or support, so I would imagine it's a great "panic button."

Finally, think about that Volcarona. It's got very good special bulk, and physical attackers are mostly loath to incur the wrath of its Flame Body, but what's interesting is your idea of running a weather-sensitive Recover. Adding Hidden Power Ground instead provides much-needed coverage against its number one counter of Heatran and offers coverage against rock-types like Terrakion or Tyranitar (though Bug Buzz is preferred for the latter), or if rain is an issue you can run Hurricane in the fourth slot, enabling the moth to function in both sun and rain. Hurricane is basically a flying-type Thunder, with perfect accuracy in rain, reduced accuracy in sun, and a decent chance to cause confusion instead of paralysis, and with a Quiver Dance under its belt that goes a long way.

Summary of changes:
-Gengar: Modest to Timid; Sludge Bomb out, Substitute in
-Jellicent out, Starmie in
-Venusaur out, Celebi in
-Volcarona: Morning Sun out, Hurricane or HP Ground in

 

[Motagua]

Hey MoreThanLuck welcome to smogon! I would like to say that although your team is balanced in terms of synergy, it gets shredded in battle as without Rapid Spin support, Volcarona is not able to pull out a sweep; Venusaur outside Sun sucks SERIOUSLY and having 2 Ghost types is just begging for Tyranitar to Pursuit the crap out of them.

My first suggestion would be changing Gengar´s set to a standard Substitute + Disable. Gengar is so frail that he is prone to revenge killing by priority or being Pursuited. Substitute allows Gengar to scout the switch-in and Disable the oponent´s move as he breaks the Substitute. This works greatly against Choice locked pokemon as they are forced to switch out giving you another turn to set-up, while in other situations, you can proceed to attack the foe with the unresisted coverage offered by Shadow Ball + Focus Blast.

Second, I totally agree with Unbreakable´s suggestion of using Rapid Spin Starmie as it will remove Stealth Rock, a move that will chip away 50% of Volcarona´s health, giving him more chances to set-up if removed. It still keeps the decent synergy of your FWG core and to add more, Starmie is an excellent sweeper by himself that can clean most troublesome Rain teams.

Third, replace Venusaur with Choice Band Breloom. Outside Sun, Venusaur is outclassed as a Grass type by an even large amount of other pokemons that can do a better job. Breloom became one of the most dangerous offensive monsters thanks to his new ability, Technician. Breloom gives you priority against Terrakion allowing you to check him and OHKO with Mach Punch. Bullet Seed is a ridiculously powerful move as even in 2 hits it has a base 75 power thanks to Technician, while Stone Edge hits the Flying types that resist his dual-STAB combination like Dragonite, Salamence or Volcarona. For the last moveslot, Spore is always an excellent move to get out one of your foe´s pokemon from battle while Low Sweep lowers the foe´s Speed in one stage.

My final suggestion will be to use Hidden Power Ground on Volcarona. It´s pointless to use Morning Sun outside Drought if you are not using a Sun team where Sandstorm and Rain will cut his recover to a disapointing 25%. Since this is an offensive Volcarona, there is no point in running a recovery move (He gets Roost btw) and you are usually better running a coverage move. HP Ground allows you to get through Heatran as most balanced teams rely mostly only in Heatran to stop Volcarona.

Although at this point your team is balanced, you need something to revenge kill the Therians and Dragons. Also this team needs Stealth Rock as without it, Dragonite can sweep through your time as Multiscale allows him to survive super-effective attacks. Mamoswine achieves this as he is able to excelently check the Therians while his priority Ice Shard revenge kills any Dragon. He is also able to set-up SR and plus Thick Fat gives him resistance to Bolt-Beam and neutrality to Fire moves. He can replace Hydreigon as you already got strong special attackers on Gengar, Starmie and Volcarona.

Overall summary of changes:
- Sub Disable set on Gengar
- Rapid Spin Starmie > Jellicent
- Choice Band Breloom > Venusaur
- HP Ground on Volcarona
- Mamoswine > Hydreigon

Below are the sets and good luck. Hope this rate helps you out although I had to make a lot of changes.

Set Summary Changes

Gengar (M) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Disable
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump

Breloom (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 240 HP / 100 Atk / 160 SDef / 8 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Spore / Low Sweep
- Stone Edge
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch

Mamoswine (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Superpower / Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock

 

[Iminyourcloset]

Well... I can't really seem to top the comments above me.. I'll try to do a more "short and sweet" type thing, and I'll just sorta be brief about it, as to not cause TL;DR syndrome:

First of all, you can either keep volcarona, and add a spinner, or ditch volcarona. This is totally your choice. If you decide to add a spinner, I'd suggest one of these three: Starmie, Donphan, or Forretress. they all have their perks, Starmie can be some offensive prowess, Donphan can be bulk and physical attacking, and forretress can wall and set up hazards. you can choose who you want to replace, I'd suggest Jellicent for Starmie, and Forretress for.. idk.. Gengar? but it's your choice, whatevs.

If you decide to ditch volc, you can always try Nape, (which I believe has been covered above) or maybe, for more resistances, Heatran. I think it would fit somewhat snugly on your team.

Now for Gengar. This has been covered above, but I might suggest you replace Gengar. You already have a spinblocker, and a special sweeper. Just to say, Gengar seems to be replacable, if you want a spinner. If not, there's plenty of good sets out there.

Hopefully, I'm A) not crazy at the moment, B) I make sense, and C) I haven't just repeated what other people have said.
Good luck, and may your team become awesome!