first attempt at competitive play

[bphom]

Scizor @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SDef
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Brick Break
- Pursuit

Scizor has always been my favorite pokemon so of course I needed to include him in my team. Scizor just has massive power and is so clutch in some games because of bullet punch. The reason why I have brick break instead of superpower is because i don't think there's a way for scizor to learn it in this gen. Even still, I'm mostly using him to finish off weak mons with bullet punch.

Blaziken @ Life Orb
Trait: Speed Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Hi Jump Kick
- Protect
- Flare Blitz

Multiple speed boost and swords dance stacking on Blaziken makes him one scary opponent for one to face. He is my answer to Aegislashes running around. I'm not too sure if i want to keep blaziken or possibly use baton pass instead of swords dance.

Mawile @ Mawilite
Trait: Intimidate-Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Play Rough

Mega-Mawile is my new favorite in this generation. The thing is so bulky that it can withstand quite a bit to set up swords dance and sweet with sucker punch. Its amazing typing gives it so many resistances. Not only that, it's ability changes into Huge Power and even without a swords dance, it can do some really decent damage. I could have used Azumarill in place of mawile but the typing is what made me choose mawile over it.

Rotom-W @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 232 HP / 56 SAtk / 220 Spd
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunderbolt

And of course you I added the rotom to pair up with the Scizor. The reason I went for the Volt Switch and Thunderbolt is because sometimes I don't want to switch out the rotom because it's so bulky that it can stay in and kill off whatever it's facing. I'm not too sure of will-o-wisp though. i kinda like thunder wave but the extra damage burn does really does help me get the ohko's.

Gengar @ Focus Sash
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Dazzling Gleam

Gengar is amazing in this generation. I opted out of doing the mega gengar because i felt the original gengar will suffice and megamawile would serve a better purpose taking up the mega spot. Gengar is an awesome check to fairies and all around with that STAB shadowball, it can take out most things.

Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- U-turn
- Surf

The reason why I chose Hydreigon was partially due to personal prefernce. I've always liked this Dark/Dragon typing and with its amazing movepool, I thought it'd be a perfect partner for mega-mawile. I originally had Hydreigon and Aegislash but I cut Aegislash for Mawile but I think how they both cover each others' weaknesses is still the same.

Please let me know what you guys think. I've tested this against friends and the team seems really solid. But to be honest, I feel the team lacks something or a purpose. I feel like it's just a bunch of good mons splashed in together without any good reasoning.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Kibblecat]

For a first attempt, I don't think you've done all that badly here; you've clearly done some reading in to what works and what doesn't. Where you see a picked-out group of your favourite Pokémon, I see a viable Hyper-Offensive strategy that actually manages to cover a lot of bases here, and just needs some refining on the individual sets. It's more obvious that it's one of the first RMT's you've posted, but that's not what I'm here to comment on, as even in that respect, you've done well.

I'm going to clarify on "Hyper Offensive" that it doesn't have to, and in this case probably won't (once we're done with it) mean a group of 6 all-out attackers - the best offensive teams are often the ones that use their bulk and defensive pivots extremely well, as much as their fast and heavy hitters. Which brings me nicely on to the first thing to pick up on - you'd really like a defensive pivot that you can use to keep off revenge killers, cripple opposing attackers reliably, and use as a pivot (hence the name) to switch around rather than bringing frail attackers in on neutral hits or sometimes even taking dents from not-very-effective ones. You've got a prime Pokemon that does a great job of this on your team already, but he's running a Choice set, which won't let him do that effectively despite his bulk - Rotom-W. You're running Specs with very little SpA investment, which seems a little redundant when there are other Pokemon that do bulky choice-offense better, too. His Choice set is great, generally speaking, but I don't feel it adds much to your team, particularly not when comparing this set, which adds everything the choice set does, and more:

Rotom@Chesto Berry
Bold Nature w/ Levitate
248 HP / 232 Def / 28 SpA
Rest / Hydro Pump / Volt Switch / Will-o-wisp

This one will be sticking around for longer, and has a much better bulk to be able to come in and wall big boosting threats that you don't want to be switching other things in on, even if you could threaten once you got in; things like Aegislash, Scizor, Lucario, Tyranitar, Charizard-Y and various other dragons, etc. He also makes a great lead that can stop Smeargle from setting up or dispose of him before he can Spore anything; if he Spores Rotom, you'll wake up immediately and Volt Switch, to something faster or with priority, having already broken his Sash with the aforementioned Volt Switch. Watch out for Kings' Shield, but otherwise its' a great chance to get Scizor in.

The next thing to make this more efficient at doing what it does, is to look at the amount of Choice sets you're running. Others may differ on this view, quite legitimately, but I'm always wary of running too much Choice; even with VoltTurn options, it can slow down the team. Its' good that you've included those options on all of your Choice sets, in my opinion. Although I've already suggested we drop one Choice item (Rotom) I'm gonna go ahead and say that I don't think Choiced Scizor is adding a whole lot either; again, its a great set, and it's used because it works well, but I think if you're simply using him as a revenge killer, you'll be better off Lefties/Life Orb and some recovery, as he'll likely be forcing switches anyway, rather than staying in to take huge chunks out of fresh opponents. By switching Brick Break for Roost, and Choice Band for Lefties/Life Orb, you'll end up with a more omnipresent threat, rather than one that's forced out by any kind of fire move, or just a switch based on good prediction. Plus, since you'll be trying to force switches or get revenge kills with Bullet Punch, then clever play on your part can land you with U-turns on switches, granting you an upper hand or chance to set up, can nab you a kill or dent something with Pursuit, or can just get you an easy Roost. I like U-Turn and won't suggest you change it, but try out X-Scissor too at some point; it can be a late game finisher (although you're not running SD, which is why I'd stick with U-Turn). Losing Brick Break isn't losing too much as its' really only a less-useful alternative to Superpower pre-Pokébank, and the fighting coverage on Scizor only really exists to hit a few defensive threats for SE that you won't have dramas with anyway (namely Chansey/Blissey, Ferro, etc.).

Your Focus Sash is a bit redundant on Gengar; otherwise I wouldn't specifically make changes to his set, but unless you're running a dedicated lead set (which there isn't really an incredible one for Gengar) something will almost always break the sash before you get use out of it. Consider Life Orb or Expert Belt for some extra damage (Belt can bluff a Choice set, and is useful in item clause, but otherwise isn't as good, generally speaking). Also, although the set is solid and does a great job at being a versatile, fast specially-offensive threat, perhaps in your testing, try out SubDisable and Black Sludge, on a 252 HP / 252 Spe set, with coverage options of your selection (I like Shadow Ball and Focus Blast; provides more or less perfect neutral coverage). You may find it can help Blaziken and Mawile find opportunities to come in and set up, or otherwise just makes Gengar a pain in the ass for certain threats, because all of a sudden, they can break his sub once and then can't hit him for SE anymore. Another thing worth bearing in mind - if you want something that does the Special Sweeping job just as well, if not better, but can make good use of Sash too, regardless of the field setting, try out Magic Guard Alakazam.

Concluding my comments on the team, a couple of tiny things:

-Flamethrower over Fire Blast on Hydreigon; it still 1HKOs Ferrothorn/Forretress and 2HKOs Skarm (may even 1HKO); any situation that would benefit from the extra damage on Fire Blast would benefit more from just pressing Draco Meteor or U-Turn instead. Consider Dark Pulse or Focus Blast as an alternative to anything except Draco Meteor on that set too.
-Definitely stick with the SD/Life Orb Sweeper set on Blaziken; your team won't gain much from Baton Passing as it's a team that will want to be switching in and out to keep up it's threat (as individually, all of these are Pokémon that every good team will be prepared for), making any boosts pretty redundant. Your only exception is Mawile, who might benefit from Speed Boost but would prefer Attack boosts which she can provide for herself, or else has to set up herself once she's got her Baton Pass - hard to pull off and not worth it for one, maybe two, team members. Plus, running two STABs himself, Blaziken likes to keep his own boosts and works really well setting up SDs. Protect is a great inclusion.

Finally, a couple of general pointers - if you look in the guides and stickies here for raters as well as the posting guides for the RMT, you'll find a lot of things that you can do yourself; I arrived at most of this by "taking a step back,' from the team; i.e. considering, in the very broad sense of the overarching metagame, how it achieves what it wants to achieve, and what specifically might pose difficulties or make it harder - it puts one in a much better position to then decide what your best options and next steps are. You'll find the rating guide here
Try also running through the threat list in more specific detail than I have; of course, not every single set listed will be really common, or a set that you have to spend time being 100% prepared for (you'll know what I mean when you see the sheer amount of things on the list) but, checking your team through the threat list is a great way to learn the metagames, and to finely detail your team's viability by prioritising who your biggest threats are and how you'll prepare for them. It also makes you think harder about how you'll play once it actually comes down to a battle, on top of how you compose the team in the first place, as you'll need to not only consider what you're using to address threats, but also how your Pokémon address them and what you'll do to execute that effectively in a battle. You'll find the threat list here.

I hope I've made some useful contributions, and made some suggestions that you'd be willing to try out. Everything I've said would fall in to (in my mind) the category of 'minor tweaks' rather than 'huge changes,' as generally speaking, it's not a team where a huge amount needs changing - although you may go through the threat list and find something huge that I'm missing! Congratulations on a good first attempt that's resulted in a respectable team, and welcome to competitive battling! Have fun!

 

[welsknight]

For a first attempt, I don't think you've done all that badly here; you've clearly done some reading in to what works and what doesn't. Where you see a picked-out group of your favourite Pokémon, I see a viable Hyper-Offensive strategy that actually manages to cover a lot of bases here, and just needs some refining on the individual sets. It's more obvious that it's one of the first RMT's you've posted, but that's not what I'm here to comment on, as even in that respect, you've done well.

I'm going to clarify on "Hyper Offensive" that it doesn't have to, and in this case probably won't (once we're done with it) mean a group of 6 all-out attackers - the best offensive teams are often the ones that use their bulk and defensive pivots extremely well, as much as their fast and heavy hitters. Which brings me nicely on to the first thing to pick up on - you'd really like a defensive pivot that you can use to keep off revenge killers, cripple opposing attackers reliably, and use as a pivot (hence the name) to switch around rather than bringing frail attackers in on neutral hits or sometimes even taking dents from not-very-effective ones. You've got a prime Pokemon that does a great job of this on your team already, but he's running a Choice set, which won't let him do that effectively despite his bulk - Rotom-W. You're running Specs with very little SpA investment, which seems a little redundant when there are other Pokemon that do bulky choice-offense better, too. His Choice set is great, generally speaking, but I don't feel it adds much to your team, particularly not when comparing this set, which adds everything the choice set does, and more:

Rotom@Chesto Berry
Bold Nature w/ Levitate
248 HP / 232 Def / 28 SpA
Rest / Hydro Pump / Volt Switch / Will-o-wisp

This one will be sticking around for longer, and has a much better bulk to be able to come in and wall big boosting threats that you don't want to be switching other things in on, even if you could threaten once you got in; things like Aegislash, Scizor, Lucario, Tyranitar, Charizard-Y and various other dragons, etc. He also makes a great lead that can stop Smeargle from setting up or dispose of him before he can Spore anything; if he Spores Rotom, you'll wake up immediately and Volt Switch, to something faster or with priority, having already broken his Sash with the aforementioned Volt Switch. Watch out for Kings' Shield, but otherwise its' a great chance to get Scizor in.

The next thing to make this more efficient at doing what it does, is to look at the amount of Choice sets you're running. Others may differ on this view, quite legitimately, but I'm always wary of running too much Choice; even with VoltTurn options, it can slow down the team. Its' good that you've included those options on all of your Choice sets, in my opinion. Although I've already suggested we drop one Choice item (Rotom) I'm gonna go ahead and say that I don't think Choiced Scizor is adding a whole lot either; again, its a great set, and it's used because it works well, but I think if you're simply using him as a revenge killer, you'll be better off Lefties/Life Orb and some recovery, as he'll likely be forcing switches anyway, rather than staying in to take huge chunks out of fresh opponents. By switching Brick Break for Roost, and Choice Band for Lefties/Life Orb, you'll end up with a more omnipresent threat, rather than one that's forced out by any kind of fire move, or just a switch based on good prediction. Plus, since you'll be trying to force switches or get revenge kills with Bullet Punch, then clever play on your part can land you with U-turns on switches, granting you an upper hand or chance to set up, can nab you a kill or dent something with Pursuit, or can just get you an easy Roost. I like U-Turn and won't suggest you change it, but try out X-Scissor too at some point; it can be a late game finisher (although you're not running SD, which is why I'd stick with U-Turn). Losing Brick Break isn't losing too much as its' really only a less-useful alternative to Superpower pre-Pokébank, and the fighting coverage on Scizor only really exists to hit a few defensive threats for SE that you won't have dramas with anyway (namely Chansey/Blissey, Ferro, etc.).

Your Focus Sash is a bit redundant on Gengar; otherwise I wouldn't specifically make changes to his set, but unless you're running a dedicated lead set (which there isn't really an incredible one for Gengar) something will almost always break the sash before you get use out of it. Consider Life Orb or Expert Belt for some extra damage (Belt can bluff a Choice set, and is useful in item clause, but otherwise isn't as good, generally speaking). Also, although the set is solid and does a great job at being a versatile, fast specially-offensive threat, perhaps in your testing, try out SubDisable and Black Sludge, on a 252 HP / 252 Spe set, with coverage options of your selection (I like Shadow Ball and Focus Blast; provides more or less perfect neutral coverage). You may find it can help Blaziken and Mawile find opportunities to come in and set up, or otherwise just makes Gengar a pain in the ass for certain threats, because all of a sudden, they can break his sub once and then can't hit him for SE anymore. Another thing worth bearing in mind - if you want something that does the Special Sweeping job just as well, if not better, but can make good use of Sash too, regardless of the field setting, try out Magic Guard Alakazam.

Concluding my comments on the team, a couple of tiny things:

-Flamethrower over Fire Blast on Hydreigon; it still 1HKOs Ferrothorn/Forretress and 2HKOs Skarm (may even 1HKO); any situation that would benefit from the extra damage on Fire Blast would benefit more from just pressing Draco Meteor or U-Turn instead. Consider Dark Pulse or Focus Blast as an alternative to anything except Draco Meteor on that set too.
-Definitely stick with the SD/Life Orb Sweeper set on Blaziken; your team won't gain much from Baton Passing as it's a team that will want to be switching in and out to keep up it's threat (as individually, all of these are Pokémon that every good team will be prepared for), making any boosts pretty redundant. Your only exception is Mawile, who might benefit from Speed Boost but would prefer Attack boosts which she can provide for herself, or else has to set up herself once she's got her Baton Pass - hard to pull off and not worth it for one, maybe two, team members. Plus, running two STABs himself, Blaziken likes to keep his own boosts and works really well setting up SDs. Protect is a great inclusion.

Finally, a couple of general pointers - if you look in the guides and stickies here for raters as well as the posting guides for the RMT, you'll find a lot of things that you can do yourself; I arrived at most of this by "taking a step back,' from the team; i.e. considering, in the very broad sense of the overarching metagame, how it achieves what it wants to achieve, and what specifically might pose difficulties or make it harder - it puts one in a much better position to then decide what your best options and next steps are. You'll find the rating guide here
Try also running through the threat list in more specific detail than I have; of course, not every single set listed will be really common, or a set that you have to spend time being 100% prepared for (you'll know what I mean when you see the sheer amount of things on the list) but, checking your team through the threat list is a great way to learn the metagames, and to finely detail your team's viability by prioritising who your biggest threats are and how you'll prepare for them. It also makes you think harder about how you'll play once it actually comes down to a battle, on top of how you compose the team in the first place, as you'll need to not only consider what you're using to address threats, but also how your Pokémon address them and what you'll do to execute that effectively in a battle. You'll find the threat list here.

I hope I've made some useful contributions, and made some suggestions that you'd be willing to try out. Everything I've said would fall in to (in my mind) the category of 'minor tweaks' rather than 'huge changes,' as generally speaking, it's not a team where a huge amount needs changing - although you may go through the threat list and find something huge that I'm missing! Congratulations on a good first attempt that's resulted in a respectable team, and welcome to competitive battling! Have fun!

Wow. Damn near a novel, there. You obviously put a lot of thought into your rating! When you have time, would you mind giving my team a look-over (link in my signature)?

Also, bphom, I agree with Kibblecat on Rotom-W. I also would like to point out that you have no form of hazard removal. However, 3 of your team members have Levitate, so you may not need it. If you can fit it in (maybe on Scizor in the form of Defog), you should at least consider it.

Lastly, Mawile's biggest weakness is its speed, which is easily remedied if you put Baton Pass onto Blaziken. This would also give Blaziken more overall utility, so he could be used not only as a physical sweeper, but also as a speed boost passer. I know I am disagreeing with Kibblecat on this one, but I think sacrificing one moveslot for the ability to pass those lovely speed boosts on to the next team member if Blaziken is about to go down is well worth it.

 

[tab]

Read the rules please, your descriptions aren't good enough. PM me with improved descriptions and I'll unlock this for you.