First Competitive Team

[Stupido]

Hey all,

I've been watching videos on youtube of competitive pokemon for a long time and finally decided to jump in. I think I'm adequately knowledgeable of the metagame, but am very new. Please be brutally honest with me. If the team sucks let me know and please help me make it better. Thanks, and without further ado:

**Swampert@Leftovers (lead)**

252 HP/ 252 Def/ 4 Atk
-Stealth Rock
-EQ
-Ice Beam
-Roar

Basically I will generally lead with Stealth Rock as it is a simple entry hazard to set up. Then I'll proceed to EQ and Ice Beam appropriately. I want him to survive a long time though, so that after I also have spikes support (from the Forretress later on my team) I can shuffle with roar. Also, if anyone tries to set up on me I will roar them away too. I don't think too many leads threaten this swampert so he should hopefully be relatively safe to survive the opening and come out later.

**Forretress@leftovers (Spiker and Rapid Spinner)**

252 HP/ 112 Atk/ 144 Def
-Spikes
-Rapid Spin
-Gyro Ball
-Explosion

Forretress is there to wall physical attacks while laying down spikes. I'll probably just try to switch into him with prediction of a physical attack and proceed to spike and rapid spin as necessary. Gyro Ball is an attacking option that takes advantage of my abysmal speed + STAB. Finally Explosion will allow me to hopefully drag something down with me if things are looking ugly for Forretress or if I get all the spike layers I need set up.

**Scizor@Lum Berry or anything that cures burn (Physical sweeper)**

248 HP/ 252 Atk/ 8 Speed
-Bug Bite
-Bullet Punch
-Roost
-Swords Dance

Scizor is my main physical offensive threat. I will try to swords dance if there's an opportunity (scizor's not too bulky). Then Bug Bite for type coverage. Bullet Punch is my main move + Priority. Technician helps. Finally, Roost is for survivability.

**Moltres@Life Orb (Special Sweeper)**

252 SpAtk/ 252 Speed/ 4 SpDef
-Fire Blast
-Hidden Power Grass
-Air Slash (are there any good special flying moves?)
-Roost (because of life orb damage)

Moltres is my special attacker mainly. No setup, but he already has pretty high Sp.Atk anyway. Fire Blast is STAB of choice. Air Slash also for STAB and type coverage. Roost to counteract LifeOrb damage and also add some extra survivability. Hidden Power Grass is just if I predict a switch to a water type or even possibly ground types.

**Vaporeon@Leftovers (Bulky water/wish supporter)**

252 Def/188 HP/ 68 Speed
-Wish
-Protect
-Ice Beam
-Surf

Vaporeon is my very bulky water pokemon. He passes wishes and can also heal himself with wish + protect. With wish and protect he can also PP stall a little if need be. Ice Beam and Surf are just for type coverage and STAB respectively. I fear dragons so thats why Ice Beam.

**Dusknoir@Leftovers (Tank/Rapid spin preventer)**

252 HP/ 248 Def/ 28 SpDef
-Pain Split
-Will-o-Wisp
-Earthquake
-Thunderpunch

My tank. Will-o-Wisp to halt physical attackers and just spread status in general. Pain split for recovery and a little offense. ThunderPunch to counter gyarados because of my lack of electric types (is this a good counter?) Also, with Stealth Rock and Spikes I don't want anybody Rapid Spinning them away, so as long as I have dusknoir and I predict a rapid spinner it won't affect me.



That's the team. Again, please be brutally honest. I'd love to get into the battling tutor program, but I'm too new to the forums. So hopefully you guys can help me out.

Also, am I allowed to have that many pokemon with leftovers? If not, can you suggest some other helpful battle items? Finally, some of my pokemon are UU... they're still legal for OU play right?

Thanks for any help.



P.S. can somebody tell me how to insert sprites into a post? Do you just save the image and insert it?

 

[Stupido]

bump. Any help?

 

[Scimjara]

Hey Stupido seeing that no one has rated this team yet I will. Interesting first competitive team you have yourself I have a few suggestions that hopefully help you out!

Before I get into my rate I will answer your questions.
"Also, am I allowed to have that many pokemon with leftovers? If not, can you suggest some other helpful battle items? Finally, some of my pokemon are UU... they're still legal for OU play right?"

Yes you are allowed that many pokemon to have leftovers as the item because item clause isn't part of standard rules. Further in the rate I will suggest the more appropriate item if needed. Yes UU pokemon are viable in standard play but not vice-versa.

Knowing that you are fairly new to competitive play it will take a while before you fully adjust to the OU metagame. As for the team you have a rest talk rotom weakness even a pain split rotom is still a big threat for this team and it's hard to handle. Seeing that you can't do anything in return beside have swampert roar it out but you still get burned with willow wisp taking residual damage every turn. Or have moltres come in play and try to revenge kill it with fire blast blast but you take 1/2 damage by stealth rock since you weren't able to rapid spin the rocks with forretress due to rotom being part ghost. If you havent already realized after battling with moltres you can tell it's not viable in OU because of the horrid sr weakness and limited attacking coverage it has leaving you walled by common pokes such as heatran and easily get up by a bulky gyarados etc. I would suggest you use LO heatran over moltres because it helps switch safely into rotom's willow wisp with the ability flash fire and ohko in return.

Heatran @ Life Orb
EVs: Naive
4 Hp / 252 SpA / 252 Speed
~ Fire Blast
~ Earth Power
~ Hidden Power Grass
~ Explosion

Now if you haven't noticed you have a problem with taunt gyarados seeing that it can easily sweep your team by using taunt on swampert or dusknoir who try to phaze it away or cripple it with willow wisp. After a dragon dance it can 2hko dusknoir with waterfall figuring the opponent waterfalls immediately not risking to get hit by thunderpunch twice. The only counter you have for gyarados is vaporeon but you use ice beam as your fourth move which isn't necessary for this team while hp electric would be the better option. So I would highly suggest you use hp electric over hp grass for taunt gyarados.

I hate to break it to you but dusknoir is completely useless in the current meta game being completely outclassed by rotom form. This helps you handle current threats alot easier as well as being a better spin blocker. So I would suggest you use rest+talk rotom in place of dusknoir since this also allows you to take incoming status moves and rest.
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Move Set Suggestions
Change lum berry scizor to choice band scizor:
Since that allows you to scout and trap weakend pokemon or revenge kill pokes with bullet punch.
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Good Luck with the team!

 

[Stupido]

First off, thanks a ton for helping. But what exactly is rest+talk rotom? Also, as far as vaporeon goes what can I change ice beam to in order to counter gyarados? I'm pretty sure its IVs won't let it have HP Electric.

Thanks