How to build a good team?

Al_Gore_Strike!

Hello dear smogoners!

I have a important question, as I'm new to "serious" battles.

How do I build a good team? How do I pick my 6 monsters of total chaos? What's to keep in mind while choosing?
What's important/must have?

P.S.: Did they change Razor Wind this gen?
 
It's hard to list everything that's important for a team and probably also impossible to have everything in one team and still have it be functional.

Some of the stuff some people feel are essential, others feel they don't really need or can't fit in. For example take rapid spinning. Some people say a rapid spinner is absolutely critical because spikes and stealth rock will wear your team down and destroy it. Other people just don't have room for one because they run an offensive team and plan to beat their opponent before they rack up too much damage from said spikes/stealth rock.

The best way to start is just to start battling people and experience for yourself. You'll eventually get a grasp of what you need to stop the stuff that has been beating you. Take a look at the RMTs here, the list of the most used pokemon on shoddy and get a general idea of the pokemon being used and what they are used for.

Then just make a team, any team. It probably won't be very good but the point is to have something to go into battles with because battling is the quickest way to learn what you'll commonly face up against and what is important for your team; what works and what doesn't. It definitely beats hours of research to form a perfect team and it's way more efficient.
 
Astrohawke's post is pretty spot on with what I'd say but sometimes that isn't a response a question like yours is looking for. You want the down and dirty gist of it. Fortunately, Great Sage took the time to go through and make a beginner's guide to team building. I don't agree with everything in it but naturally every person has their own preferences and style. It's a bit lengthy but it has the information you might be looking for to get started:

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?p=534558#post534558
 
Start you team with you favorite pokémon and then get counters to pokémon that counter your team.

Let's say you have an Heracross weakness, get yourself a Gliscor. Your team is too weak to ice? Get a Milotic! Weak against bolt-beam? Magnezone! lol
 
Portugeez said:
Start you team with you favorite pokémon and then get counters to pokémon that counter your team.

Let's say you have an Heracross weakness, get yourself a Gliscor. Your team is too weak to ice? Get a Milotic! Weak against bolt-beam? Magnezone! lol
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I'd say take this with a grain of salt. Yes, you should be using pokemon you like, but they have to be functional: I love that samurai duck Farfetch'd but I'll never use him unless I decided to play NU.
 
The easiest thing to do is copy someone good's team verbatim. Obtain the permission, of course... It's BY FAR the most effective way to start if you are new to this. Then you can build your own teams later...
 
white said:
The easiest thing to do is copy someone good's team verbatim. Obtain the permission, of course... It's BY FAR the most effective way to start if you are new to this. Then you can build your own teams later...
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WEAK. Just do what they said above, that's how I did it. I used my favorites, got killed over and over again...now I sometimes win.
 
just read some RTMs and then read some analysis's. after an hour of reading you will understand how the game works. i never even played advanced or D/P and that's what i did
 
Yeah, battling really is the best way to learn. Read up on some stuff, stick six OUs on a team and start battling. You'll quickly learn the dos and don'ts, the goods and bads, and what works and what doesn't. Your first team will probably suck, but as you play more, you'll get used to the game and know what your team needs and doesn't need. Your teams will, in time, get better.

Oh, and a little piece of advice I like to add is use the metagame's weaknesses to your advantages. If you notice that a lot of people seem to have a huge Gyara weak, put a Gyara on your team and start killing stuff. Don't take this too seriously, but it's worth keeping in mind ;)

Also, make sure you have all of the essential components. A team with no walls is probably going to get destroyed by every sweeper that comes along. A team with no sweepers is going to have trouble actually doing anything to the opponent. Now, things like Stall teams work well even without sweepers, but that's because they're still executing their own strategy and hurting the other team in their own way. An all offensive team can work, too, so long as the sweepers are bulky enough to take a lot of hits or you have a Wish Sweeper (WishMence anyone?)

Basically, make a team, get out there, and start battling. You'll get better with time.
 
Really, it can be summed up with this statement: Provide and counter threats, with unity. You have to threaten your opponent's team, while countering it, all with a unifying strategy.
 
I can't help you much, but try to make sure you're not doing the blender thing: don't just throw 6 Pokémon together and hope you sweep someone.
 
Another good way to get your teambuilding skills good is to try and stray from the analyses just a little bit. Using lesser used pokemon can be easier for this since it allows you to be creative. You don't need to use lesser used pokemon obviously, just use pokemon with large movepools so you can try to make up your own set and EV spread. Only by trying out new things will you ever actually get past stage 1 of teambuilding.
 
Bologo said:
Another good way to get your teambuilding skills good is to try and stray from the analyses just a little bit. Using lesser used pokemon can be easier for this since it allows you to be creative. You don't need to use lesser used pokemon obviously, just use pokemon with large movepools so you can try to make up your own set and EV spread. Only by trying out new things will you ever actually get past stage 1 of teambuilding.
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QFT. Always make sure your team works well together(it takes loads of time to actually make a very good team but just keep going). Synergy is one of the most important things IMO

@I am Gengar: Also helps your postcount lol
 
Perhaps. I honestly wouldn't "be creative" with your first or second team; you need to have a feel for the metagame to pull it off. Read lots of RMT.
 
Pikachu of Doom said:
We need a compilation of good teams people could draw experience from as well as borrow to test out and get started battling.
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I distinctly remember someone else proposed the exact same idea and even made a thread for it.(Sadly a couple of members spammed the thread out of it's intended use and was gone or buried deep inside Stark Mountain). It could work but we need the help of the mods(sorry if this is considered wrong mods please excuse my ignorance thanks :D) to help keep it clean besides that I'm rather unsure if it could work to it's full potential.
 
I found it easier just to copy some random Top 100's team, and worked on from there. I saw the team's weaknesses (for example, to stall teams) and made changes. Pretty soon I had made 20+ different versions, all with different pokemon and different movesets to adjust to my experiences. Ladder play is critical. If there comes a point when you just can't seem to get a higher rate, then review your team. There is a weakness; find it, change it, adapt, move on. Right now, I have a standard team of my own and am 1480 in rate.

Making teams become fun once you get the hang of it :)
 
It was on a RMT and the person said they were top 100.
Edit: I wouldn't be surprised if they were Not lying ;) The biggest weakness was stall teams and that kind of sucks once you get to 1500+
 
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