Dragonite Team

[tjjerome]

I know I just put a team up yesterday but I'm just getting started and I could really use the help. I've never actually played competitively before so there are probably some blaring errors here and that's why I'm asking for help. I completely redid my team from yesterday and came up with this. I'm still not getting very many wins with it though. What are your suggestions?

Forretress @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SDef
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Volt Switch
- Toxic Spikes

Forretress will allow me to set entry hazards like Toxic Spikes and Stealth Rock as well as to remove them from my side. Volt Switch lets me make a clean getaway and inflict some damage as well.

Blissey @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Aromatherapy
- Flamethrower
- Wish
- Toxic

Blissey can withstand most Special Sweepers and neutralize them with Toxic. She can remove status problems from my team. She has Wish to give Dragonite another chance to take advantage of his ability: Multiscale.

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- ExtremeSpeed

Dragonite is this team's core. Under the protection of Multiscale, he can use Dragon Dance to power up on the first turn and then sweep. He holds a Lum Berry to recover from Outrage.

Metagross @ Life Orb
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- ThunderPunch
- Hammer Arm
- Zen Headbutt
- Earthquake

Metagross is on this team for one reason: to absorb Ice Beam for Dragonite. His high SDef and natural resistance to Ice lets him do that and retaliate with one of his four moves, depending on the user.

Latios @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
IVs: 30 SAtk
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Recover
- Thunderbolt

Latios will most likely start off the match for me. He can take care of Physical Walls that Dragonite might have trouble with like Cloyster, Forretress, and Skarmory.

Starmie @ Choice Specs
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- Ice Beam

Starmie is another Special Sweeper designed to take over for Dragonite's flaws. It can take care of Ground-type threats like Landorus.


Now obviously this isn't perfect. It might not even be good for all I know. That's why I'm asking for your help. What do you think? I know one problem I've encountered is the use of Hurricane. Any suggestions on how to defend?

 

[Sayonara]

Hi, solid team! I find that your team is rather weak to Choice Scarf Landorus. It wrecks Metagross with Earthquake, while it can use U-Turn to weaken Latios and Starmie. The latter and Blissey also won't like being hit by a Sand Force boosted Earthquake. To fix this problem, I would recommend a Choice Scarf Rotom-W instead of Starmie.

Unlike Starmie, Rotom-W is a more reliable way to counter Landorus, since it is immune to its Earthquakes. Additionally, Rotom-W isn't weak to Pursuit, and gets STAB Hydro Pump and Volt Switch. Hydro Pump is a powerful STAB that really hurts anything that doesn't resist the move, aside from Blissey and Chansey. Volt Switch gives your team momentum and switch initiative, consistently applying offensive pressure. Hidden Power Ice can be utilized to deal with Dragonite, as the washing machine outspeeds +1 Dragonite. Finally, Trick helps deal with stall, and it severely cripples opponents like Blissey. Nice team, and good luck!

Rotom-W @ Choice Scarf | Levitate
Timid Nature | 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
~ Volt Switch
~ Hydro Pump
~ Hidden Power Ice
~ Trick

 

[Honus]

Neat team, you may want to expand on your descriptions, though.

Anyways, this team looks a bit weak to stall teams despite having two spinners. I think you could put a Choice Band Scizor over Metagross. Choice Band Scizor can actually do a few things for this team. First it can Pursuit Blissey, this is pretty big, as with hazards up and the 50~% it takes from being Pursuited should make it easy for Latias to come and pick off. Scizor can also help take down Physical walls that Dragonite has damaged, as +1 DD Dragonite Fire Punch does around 55% to Skarmory and Skarmory usually phazes after that. At this point Scizor is able to lure Skarmory in and ko it for good with Superpower, often substantially increasing Dragonite's ability to sweep. Additionally, this team really seems to have trouble with opposing Scarfed Salamence, as it has the potential to hurt all the members of this team and outspeeds them. Forretress can't really do much to hurt it while everything else hates EQ or Outrage. Late-game, Salamence could definitely get a sweep; the less common DD Salamence is probably even more threatening, as it has a choice of moves to destroy this team with. Blissey feels really out of place on this team, given its offensive nature and I think you could try a Scarfed Landorus over it, so that you can revenge kill Scarf Salamence, along with many other prevalent metagame threats such as Volcarona, Terrakion, Dragonite, etc. Scarfed Landorus is a great glue Pokemon for offensive teams and really helps patch up some weaknesses for it, while Blissey doesn't do a whole lot offensively. Finally, I'd like to suggest Trick over Psychic on Starmie. Trick completely cripples special walls that come in and try to take on Starmie, thus making a sweep much easier for Latios, as it will be taking on the same special walls that would switch in on Starmie, most likely.

Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit

Landorus (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn

Change Summary:

Starmie:
Psychic->Trick

 

[LUST]

Please elaborate more on each Pokemon's role otherwise I would have to lock this thread. Check out the RMT Archive and other active threads to see the kind of detail we usually look for.