First Competitive team (noob needs help here :P)

ya ok so right off the bat, I'll admit I'm a total n00b at competitive play, so I apologize in advance for any silly mistakes I make, but I've been researching and studying competitive play for a long time now, and think I've made a pretty ok team. All suggestions and CONSTRUCTIVE criticisms welcome

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Bronzong Leftovers Levitate

252 HP/84 Atk/80 Def/92 SpD

Stealth Rock
Earthquake
Protect
Toxic

Ok so I decided to lead off with Bronzong simply as a tank who can hold his own against most other leaders, or at least long enough to set up stealth rocks. I have him using earthquake to counter fire types, and toxic and protect is just there to stall out most other things til they die.

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Tentacruel Black Sludge Clear body
252 HP/240 Def/16 spe

Rapid Spin
Toxic Spikes
Ice Beam
Scald

Originally I was going to lead off with tentacruel and switch into bronzong in case the opponent led with something like celebi, terrakion, or jirachi, and I probably will do that, but we'll see later. Tentacruel is mainly used to counter leaders that try and set up spikes or rocks right off the bat, and to set up his own toxic spikes. He's also one of my few counters against dragons, which I've realized to be a real threat to this team.

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Infernape Life Orb Blaze
252 ATK/4SpA/252 Spe

Close Combat
Fire Blast/Overheat
Stone Edge
U-Turn

Infernape's purpose is to purely sweep and scout with uturn. I haven't decided if I prefer fire blast or overheat, but am leaning towards fire blast. There's not really much to explain for infernape.

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Celebi Leftovers Natural Cure
220 HP / 252 SpA / 36 Spe

Nasty Plot
Giga Drain
HP Ice/Fire
Psychic

After watching a video of my friend's celebi completing sweeping out an entire team by itself and two nasty plots, I decided I wanted that in my team, and I feel Celebi works well here. Once Nasty plot is up I can get rid of threats to Infernape such as Gastrodon or Tentacruel, and I can either use HP Fire to counter famous steel threats like scizor, ferrothorn, or skarmory, or HP Ice to add more of a threat to dragons. I was using Psychic as basic STAB, but now I'm considering switching it out for a T-Wave to cripple enemies.

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Rotom W Choice Specs Levitate
252 SpA/252 Spe/36 HP

Volt Switch
Hydro Pump
Trick
HP Fire/Ice

Rotom W is pretty comon these days, and this is a standard rotom. He can trick his opponent to lock them in with choice specs, and use hydro pump and volt switch to sweep out most threats to Celebi and Infernape. I'm still torn Between HP fire for dealing with grass and steel, or HP Ice for Dragons.

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Scizor Choice Band Technician
252 Atk/252 Spe/36 HP

Bullet Punch
U Turn
Pursuit
Superpower

A standard but effective scizor, this scizor is the common revenge killer we all know and love, and I don't think I need to explain his purpose. I'm considering switching him out with a choice Landorous for a different variety of moves.
 
Nice Tentacruel picture!

Anyways, you can't have that EV spread on Scizor and Rotom-W since their sum of their EVs are above 510. But I'm sure that's just a silly mistake that you made.

I suggest giving Celebi HP Fire and Earth Power over Psychic. Earth Power+HP Fire+Giga Drain gives a surprising number of teams troubles.

Definitely use Leftovers on Tentacruel over Black Sludge. It only counters Trick for about 2 turns, and then cripple one of your Pokemon for the rest of the match. There's nothing that would stop the Trick user from using Trick again so it gives the user a dangerous item to give to you.

Overall a pretty good team, especially for a first. And I really like that Tentacruel picture, did you make it yourself?
 
Hey, this is a pretty good team for your first one. It seems to me like it would make quite a great rain team with a few small changes. Scizor and Bronzong have their only weakness halved due to rain, and Rotom-W is better in the rain as well.

So I'd recommend changing your Infernape and Celebi into a Toxicroak and a Politoed. The sets would be as follows:
Politoed@Choice Specs
Modest
-Hydro Pump
-Ice Beam
-Hidden Power Grass
-Perish Song
232 hp/252 spA/24 spe (for bulk) or
4 hp/252 spA/252 spe (for speed)

Toxicroak@leftovers
Adamant
Dry Skin
-Bulk Up
-Substitute
-Sucker Punch
-Drain Punch
244 hp/252 att/12 def

My last change would simply be to give tentacruel rain dish > clear body and to give Rotom-W Choice Scarf and HP Ice

Hope this helped
 
You have a great team with just a few synergy problems. Hope this helps. :toast:

Bronzong:

You say that you want to hold your own against Fire types as well as take on general leads. However, this Bronzong cannot seem to be able to do that all by itself. For what you're trying to accomplish, taking on Fire types as well as dealing with other leads, there's a much better option:

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@ Air Balloon | Flash Fire
Timid Nature | 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
~ Stealth Rock
~ Substitute
~ Lava Plume
~ Earth Power

This set will accomplish everything that you're looking for and more. With Stealth Rock, you get 12.5% damage to most things upon switch in. With Heatran's speed, you'll be able to do this much faster. Speaking of speed, Bronzong lacked it. Although Protect was able to get around that, Bronzong would never be able to take Wil-O-Wisps/Thunder Waves/Flinches. However, Heatran's Substitute allows it to prevent statuses. Air Balloon gives you that pseudo-Choice impression if you want to keep it a surprise for later on that you can switch into Earthquake. Lava Plume gives you the status that Bronzong wasted a slot on with Toxic and STAB with a 30% chance to burn. This will decimate those physical attackers who think they can switch into your attacks all willy nilly. Earth Power takes over Bronzong's Earthquake and comes off of Heatran's much higher Special Attack as well as providing great synergy with Lava Plume.

| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |

Tentacruel:

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@ Leftovers | Rain Dish
Bold Nature | 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe
~ Rapid Spin
~ Toxic Spikes
~ Ice Beam
~ Scald

Tentacruel seems perfectly fine in this case. A few, minor suggestions would be to change Black Sludge to Leftovers because if your opponent has Trick, chances are, they'll trick a Choice item onto Tentacruel and then Black Sludge onto Infernape/Celebi or even Rotom-W. After that, make sure Tentacruel is using a Bold nature to increase Defense to take on those Outrages and Dragon Claws. Rain Dish is better than Clear Body because there's no point in decreasing Tentacruel's offensive stats via Intimidate because Tentacruel is using Special Attacks anyways. Rain Dish also helps against Rain-themed teams by providing more healing, 1/6 to be exact.

| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |

Infernape:

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@ Life Orb | Blaze
Naive Nature | 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
~ Close Combat
~ Overheat
~ Stone Edge
~ U-Turn

Infernape's best chance to scout is with Overheat. It seems that sweeping is better left to Celebi if you set it up right. After throwing a few Overheats around to find the Heatran and how your opponent plays it, U-turn out. The next thing would be to eliminate Heatran at all costs. Stone Edge deals with Dragons, so you shouldn't have to worry too much. A Naive nature is best for Infernape to increase Speed but without decreasing Attack or Special Attack to get it.

| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |

Celebi:

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@ Leftovers | Natural Cure
Modest Nature | 220 HP / 252 SpA / 36 Spe
~ Nasty Plot
~ Psychic
~ HP Fire
~ Giga Drain

Celebi seems viable however, there is another option that you should consider:

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@ Life Orb | Syncronize
Timid Nature | 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
~ Nasty Plot
~ Psyshock/Psychic
~ Aura Sphere/Fire Blast
~ Shadow Ball/Roost/Fire Blast

Mew is essentially a more straightforward Celebi. Nasty Plot stays the same because it boosts both Celebi and Mew. Psyshock and Psychic are your options over the Psychic offered by Celebi. Celebi is basically walled by Blissey/Chansey unless +6 is reached, and even then, Giga Drain will not last the war against either of the Egg Heads. Psyshock 2HKOs both Chansey and Blissey with 1 or 2 Nasty Plots depending on their set ups. Psychic is the same as with Celebi, a Special STAB Attack. Psyshock is recommended to break walls and to ease Infernape's final sweep. Aura Sphere and Fire Blast allow for more damage than HP Fire and without sacrificing Speed. Both deal with different threats, Heatran and Scizor/Skarmory respectively. However, all three, along with Magnezone are severely damaged by Aura Sphere. Shadow Ball rounds out the coverage with the fabled Psychic, Fighting and Ghost combination that hits everything for atleast neutral. Roost is there if you plan on mid-game sweeping and then letting Infernape do a little damage. Then, Roosting up and going for another sweep. Both Mew and Celebi function the same, but it depends on if you need the defensive nature of Celebi or can skip it in favor of a bit more offense.

| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |

Rotom-W:

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@ Choice Specs | Levitate
Timid Nature | 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
~ Volt Switch
~ Hydro Pump
~ Trick
~ HP Ice

HP Ice is the better option for Rotom-W because it creates the sought-after Electric/Ice combination. Adding to that is Hydro Pump, so coverage is plenty. Timid nature should be used because Choice Specs already provides enough power. Your HP distribution was a bit off because it added up to more than 510 EVs, so you should get that fixed. I suggest 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe.

| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |

Scizor:

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@ Choice Scarf | Sand Force
Naive Nature | 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
~ Earthquake
~ Stone Edge/Rock Slide
~ U-Turn/Hammer Arm
~ HP Ice/Hammer Arm

You are right in needing a revenge killer. Landorus, as you considered, is much more effective on your team. For one thing, you claim that you have a weakness Dragons. Choice Scarf outspeeds all +1 Dragons except Latios/Latias, which Heatran should take care of. Earthquake and Stone Edge provide the generic combination that hits everything for neutral except for some other rare Pokemon which you most likely won't experience in OU. U-turn to stick with Scizor's Choice Banded U-turn for scouting. However, if you plan on strictly using Landorus for revenge killing then replace U-turn with Hammer Arm. If you do, then your last slot should be HP Ice to take care of Dragons and Grass type Pokemon while at the same time compensating for the U-turn if you choose not to use it. Likewise, if you go with Stone Edge as your second move, then HP Ice is recommended because Stone Edge is a bit risky to use constantly due to the chance of missing.

Heatran over Bronzong
Possibly Mew over Celebi
Landorus over Scizor
Small changes in terms of nature, abilities, and EV spread on rest of the team

Good Luck with your team! Message me if you have any comments or questions! :pimp:
 
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