• Check out the relaunch of our general collection, with classic designs and new ones by our very own Pissog!

First Competitive Team

micky93

Hey folks,

I'm new to the scene, but i've spent a lot of time preparing a competitive team. I've run a couple of competitive battles, and i've achieved victory a couple of times, after tweaking my base setup, so I was hoping for some general feedback for my team.

Rhyperior: Leftovers
Solid Rock
Earthquake
Megahorn
Stealth Rock
Stone Edge
Adamant: HP 244, Atk 16, SpD 248

I've got Rhyperior to soak up as much damage as he can, as well as set up a Stealth Rock if possible. Basically he's there to provide setup, and retaliate if possible.

Lapras: Leftovers
Water Absorb
Ice Beam
Surf
Thunderbolt
Toxic
Modest: HP 252, SpA 200, SpD 56

Lapras is in as a Special Sweeper, but the high HP lends a lot of survivability. I've found that Lapras is highly efficient, able to take down a couple of resistant foes with little trouble, and help keep the fight in my favour, as well as poisoning enemies when it begins to look bad.

Electivire: Expert Belt
Motor Drive
Earthquake
Fire Punch
Ice Punch
Thunderpunch
Adamant: HP 4, Atk 252, Spd 252

Electivire is just a straight-up physical sweeper, no surprises, no gimmicks. Moves were chosen for maximum type coverage, and overall, he has worked quite well. Although he hasn't been an efficient sweeper, with prediction, he can tear through teams.

Venusaur: Leftovers
Overgrow
Energy Ball
Leech Seed
Sleep Powder
Sludge Bomb
Calm: HP 252, Def 4, SpD 252

Venusaur plays a central role in my team, as an annoyer. Leech Seed + Leftovers gives him decent health regeneration, plus Sleep Powder forces the switches, as I'm sure you all know. He can soak up a lot of special damage, but his physical defence leaves a lot to be desired. However, he can certainly hold his own in a neutral fight, thanks to his health regeneration.

Arcanine: Leftovers
Intimidate
ExremeSpeed
Flare Blitz
Morning Sun
Toxic
Careful: HP 252, Def 6, SpD 252

Arcanine is the most recent addition to my team, filling in for the original Blaziken. I found that Blaziken was a little too frail for late-game sweeps, so I opted for a more defensive Arcanine. Although he isn't quite as bulky as Rhyperior or Lapras, he can take hits quite well, and dish out a nice STAB Flare Blitz to cripple the enemy. With Morning Sun and Leftovers, he gets some nice regeneration, and Toxic as a support move for forcing switches.

Alakazam: Life Orb
Synchronize
Energy Ball
Focus Blast
Psychic
Signal Beam
Timid: HP 4, Spd 252, SpA 252

Alakazam serves as my primary Special Sweeper, thanks to his high speed and SpA. However, his frailty has limited his effectiveness, but given adequate support, he has easily been able to defeat multiple foes. However, Electivire has proven to be more effective, but the two compliment each other well, in that Alakazam can generally defeat those who are troubling Electivire, and vice versa.

Soo, yeah. That's my team. You've probably noticed I'm rather dependent on Leftovers, which is probably something I should avoid.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, and I'm looking forward to seeing you all out on the battlefield :)

Thanks,
Micky
 
Electivire actually gets more coverage if you replace Fire Punch with Cross Chop on the Expert Belt set. Electric, Ice, Fighting and Ground combined hit 13 of 17 types for super effective damage, which is more than the combination of Electric, Ice, Fire and Ground.

Lapras - Special Sweeper with Toxic? Replace Toxic with another attacking move (I suggest Dragon Pulse so you can nail the likes of Kingdra for a nice amount of damage.)

You talk about Venusaur's health regeneration, and how supposedly good it is. People can switch out of Leech Seed freely, making it a matter of PP stalling while constantly shuffling around to drain Leech Seed's PP and remove it's effects all at once. Unless Venusaur's opponent is locked into battle with Venusaur, the health regeneration isn't as good as you think. Plus, with Sleep Clause in effect (which it is, most of the time), only one opponent can be asleep at any given time.

This is a personal nitpick: I'd appreciate more lengthy descriptions, so I can assess what your team is trying to do and gain an understanding of the synergy between each of your team members. It seems rather lacking and, therefore, unclear right now.
 
Thanks for your reply!

I was originally running Cross Chop on Electivire, but I found that after Blaziken/Arcanine went down, I had nothing to counter pokemon like Scizor, so I opted for another fire attack, whereas I had other pokemon were running a fighting type.

As for Lapras, I was going for a bit more of a balance, rather than all out offensive, but running Dragon Pulse seems like a good idea, I'll give it a shot.

And yeah, you're right about Venusaur. The health regen isn't anything major, just adds to his survivability a bit. Despite that, I've found that its helped take at least one extra hit, which can really make a fair difference in battle.

As for your personal comment, I realize its hard to make a judgement based on limited information. But at this point, I'm still rather inexperienced, so I don't quite know what information is important and what isn't. If you need to know something about my team, go ahead and ask, and I'll try to answer as best I can.

Thank you very much for your help, its greatly appreciated.
Micky
 
Is it worth pumping Rhyperior full of SP. Def when quadruply effective Grass and Water attacks almost invariably OHKO anyway? Solid ROck soaks up physical attacks and the ocassional weak Focus Blast and Ice Beam, but it doesn't seem worth it when you can capitalise more on its strengths. You have WA Lapras to suck up Water attacks and Venusaur to suck up Grass, as well as Arcanine to resist Ice. It seems, if you opt for Adamant, you'd want to focus on Attack over SP. Def.
 
I've noticed that DDGyara rips through your team, setting up on Arcanine, then sweeping or at least heavily denting everything.
To remedy this, I suggest replacing Electivire (which I've found to be too weak to be very effective) with a Scarfed Rotom-H.
I'd also noticed your lack of a fast scarfer to revenge kill threats, and this will remedy that.

Rotom-H @ Choice Scarf
Timid 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Thunderbolt
Overheat
Trick
Hidden Power Ice

The official set lists HP Ground or Shadow Ball, but I suggest Hidden Power Ice seeing as you have no good way to hit dragons.

I'm rather confused about the aim of this team. What are you trying to accomplish? What do those bulky EV spreads on some of your pokemon help you survive? What is your general strategy during a battle?

Anyways, hope this helps.
 
@Lamprey:
By pumping Ryperior with SpD, I was hoping to balance out its major weakness, which is something i generally prefer to do rather than optimize my advantages. I find that a balanced pokemon is usually more helpful than a specialized, but then thats only with my limited experience, so I'll give your advice a try. Thanks :)

@ Woodchuck:
You are probably right about Gyarados, but I haven't yet come up to such a problem. Electivire generally deals with the problem before it gets out of hand. But, once more, you know a lot more than I do, so I'll gladly try out your advice. As for the purpose of the team, I've been looking for a balanced team, to help ease me into competitive battling, as specialised teams generally seem to be a bit more advanced. As for the defensive EVs, theres no real explanation other than I prefer Defence over Offense, just my style of play.

Thanks for all your help, I'll get back with the results as soon as i can.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top