Hi jox, nice teams and thanks for the shoutout!
Considering your reputation as a builder, and seeing how our thread for sample teams is a bit outdated, I imagine that a lot of users will be turning to this dump for teams. Now, I realize that helping newer players get into the tier probably wasn't your primary intention when you decided to build around a Shattered Psyche Pumpkaboo Ghostspam core; as such, I'll try and give my thoughts on each team, and rate how friendly I feel the team is for someone newer to LC.
The trubbish fits
ItzViper482 perfectly, by the way
This team seems to be solid in the traditional sense, packing a large number of glue Pokemon to ensure at least one switchin to each of the largest threats in the current metagame (outside of Staryu, if you count that).
- The Timburr set is quite nice for this team.
- The Mareanie spread is suboptimal; running 116 HP gives you an extra SpA point for free. That being said, your team has hazard removal, so you're probably better off with an EV spread of
196 HP / 20 Def / 92 SpA / 100 SpD (with a Bold nature) to heal an extra point from Regenerator and have improved damage rolls against most Knocked Off Pokemon.
- Adamant Scarf Pawniard fits this team fairly well.
- Hidden Power Ground Gastly seems too niche to really be worth running here; I would go with
Psychic to ease the pressure off of Mareanie when it comes to dealing with Mienfoo, as well as heavily damage Foongus and opposing Mareanie.
- Vullaby is fine.
- Roar isn't too good on Mudbray in a post Torchic metagame; you may as well run
Rock Slide.
New player rating: 8/10. For the most part, this team is very straight forward, but it can be somewhat reliant on Mareanie for several threats due to how easily Mudbray is worn down, so newer players will have to get used to choosing their moves with Diglett in mind.
This team would have been exceptionally solid in mid 2017.
-
Synthesis on Foongus is where it's at to be able to hold your own in Foongus mirrors, especially since your team doesn't have a sleep absorber. You're also heavily reliant on Foongus to directly switch into Fighters, so it's important that you keep it healthy.
- Grime time seems fine.
- Timburr should be running
Fire Punch to better handle Croagunk, since you don't have Psychic on Staryu.
- If you still want a Hidden Power Fire user after replacing it on Foongus, Staryu could probably afford to run it over Ice Beam (now that you have a Foongus switchin).
- Slow Onix is pretty cool. I think it fits this team well.
- Wingull rounds out the team nicely.
New player rating: 6/10. The limited means to regain momentum means that VoltTurn teams will be able to run circles around new players who aren't comfortable with using builds of this style, but it seems fairly simple to use otherwise.
This team could be fun in tours, but it's somewhat reliant on the user being able to maintain momentum throughout the match. This teams has visible holes to some key threats, such as Scarf Snivy and various Diglett cores, that may be difficult to play around.
- Chinchou is fine.
- Snivy is fine, but you may want to consider
Defog for hazard stacking and more Snivy-resistant webs builds.
- Elekid is fine.
- If you're really worried about Croagunk,
Haze is usually enough, and helps against a few other things as well. I'm not usually fond of the move at all, but I suppose your team doesn't mind it.
- Pawniard is fine.
- Timburr is better off with
Fire Punch over Ice Punch for Croagunk.
New player rating: 3/10. While it's not a bad team when used by a competent player in a tour setting, it has too many difficult matchups for me to recommend it to someone just getting into LC.
Man, this team is
extremely weak to Diglett. I'm usually okay with stacking Diglett weaknesses due to how easy it is to pressure, and I find that a lot of teams that may seem weak to Diglett on paper can handle it well in practice, but the primary means to do so on this team, Timburr, is prone to being worn down.
- Wingull is fine.
- I don't think you need Fire Punch on Grimer here, seeing how you already have it on Timburr and Snubbull. Shadow Sneak would probably be more consistently useful.
- Timburr is fine.
- Diglett is fine.
- Snubbull is fine.
- Chinchou is fine.
New player rating: 1/10. Getting smacked by Diglett with little to no counterplay is not how you get a newer player to enjoy LC. It also carries weaknesses to Snivy/Foongus (Grimer is easy to wear down and Wingull can't switch in directly) and Ponyta.
This team looks like a lot of fun, as it looks like it's really good at punishing the opponent's mistakes. That being said, missteps on your part seem just as costly - you also have to predict perfectly against some important threats like Scarf Magnemite and Thunderbolt Staryu.
- Vullaby is fine.
- Slowpoke is fine.
- Diglett is okay but Memento doesn't seem to offer team much;
Sucker Punch or Rock Slide would probably be more useful.
- Snubbull is fine.
- Pawniard would probably be better off
Jolly in this case to outspeed Scarf Magnemite, which can be rather annoying for your team, and help with Pawniard mirrors.
- Abra seems fine.
New player rating: 3/10. It's reliant on the player being aware of common sets due to how much you need to outplay your opponent to a degree that shouldn't be expected of newer players.
Not a fan of Corphish in a post-Torchic metagame, but it's refreshing to see Water spam once in a while.
- Berry Juice Corphish seems odd considering what Corphish is usually trying to do, but I suppose it has some surprise value.
- Hidden Power Ground probably isn't too useful for this team;
Hidden Power Fighting should help against Pawniard, seeing how your Corphish is Berry Juice and your Mienfoo is slow.
- Onix is fine.
- Mienfoo might want to run
Fake Out over Acrobatics to help deal with Shellder.
- Grimer is fine.
- Wingull is fine.
New player rating: 5/10. The choice of Pokemon and sets may give newer players odd impressions about the metagame, and it's a little reliant on surprise value, but it's not a terribly difficult team to use.
A fairly matchup based offensive team; it'll be fantastic at gaining momentum against some builds, but the lack of good switchins to a lot of common threats - most notably Fighting-types - means that it's quite high risk, high reward.
- Wingull is fine.
- Timburr is fine. I like that you're prepared for Mareanie instead of Foongus on a team like this one.
- Onix is fine.
- Elekid is fine.
- Gee, you really like HP Ground Gastly. I don't think it's a great choice right now - Grimer isn't that common anymore, and you don't have an Abra to support.
HP Fire would do wonders for Ferroseed here, and I would also consider running
Psychic over Substitute for (fast) Mienfoo.
- Well, Grimer isn't that common for anybody except you, apparently.
New player rating: 4/10. This team could work fine in the hands of someone who's comfortable with using it, but a lot of threats aren't really intuitive to play against for this team for a newer player, such as Magnemite, Foongus, and Fighting-types.
Another extremely Diglett weak team. Mienfoo is a little better than Diglett as your means to pressure Diglett because it doesn't get worn down as easily, but a lack of Mach Punch means that it's also easier to trap (though blowing tectrage on Mienfoo makes Diglett easier for Onix and Mareanie to handle).
- Wingull is fine.
- Grimer is fine.
- Onix probably wants an EV spread of
76 HP / 236 Atk / 196 Spe to help against tectrage Diglett.
- I would honestly just run Sash Abra with Hidden Power Fighting or a filler move here so that Diglett doesn't plow through your team quite as easily, but I guess if you want the wallbreaking you can stick with Life Orb Abra.
- Mienfoo is fine.
- Mareanie doesn't really need Haze in a post-Torchic meta; I would go with
Iron Defense to at least prevent Mareanie from being easily revenge-killed by Diglett.
New player rating: 2/10. Again, getting swept by Diglett is pretty lame. Magnemite and SD or LO Pawniard can also be hard to deal with.
I would honestly never run Scarf Snivy without a trapper - it just feels too matchup based otherwise due to Snivy being completely shut down by Foongus. It's a reasonably well built team otherwise, though a tad weak to opposing Abra and Gastly.
- Onix is fine.
- I guess HP Ground is actually usable this time around since you have an Abra to support, but I would still remove HP Ground on Gastly for
Psychic to help lure Foongus.
- Kenny is fine.
- Abra is fine.
- Staryu is fine.
- Eviolite Snivy probably fits this team better, but Scarf Snivy isn't a bad set.
New player rating: 4/10. Choosing the wincon with this team for a given matchup may be difficult for newer players, and it has some moderately large holes that can be rough to play around.
Normally I envision fightspam teams to be built with Diglett to combat Snubbull, Foongus, and Mareanie, but this team seems to have turned out quite well anyways.
- Timburr is fine.
- HP Ground doesn't offer much for Gastly here.
Psychic would help with your lack of Fighting switchins, especially for 14 speed Croagunk.
- Mienfoo is fine.
- Onix is fine.
- Grimer is fine.
- Wingull is fine.
New player rating: 9/10. Having to predict well when switching into Fighting-types could be a minor issue, but other than that, it's a solid and straight forward team that will get newer players comfortable with utilizing some top threats.
Not a fan of Eviolite Larvesta right now, but this is one of the teams that better utilizes it. This team has some old sets that have fallen out of style - Eviolite Larvesta among them - but I don't think it performs too terribly in the current metagame.
- SturdyJuice Magnemite is fine. You probably need it for this team.
- Staryu is fine - a defensive variant is probably your best bet on this team.
- Larvesta is fine.
- Diglett is fine.
- Grimer is fine.
- Onix is fine,
New player rating: 5/10. It's VoltTurn, and you can't really go wrong with that. However, rocks paired with a good spinblocker mostly shuts Larvesta down, and the lack of a clear sweeper to play towards can make this team a bit more difficult to use.
I actually really like this team - Psychium Pumpkaboo is a bit gimmicky, but it can definitely do work. Everything synergizes really well, and it feels like it could work quite well even without the surprise value of Psychic Pumpkaboo.
- Grimer is fine.
- Shellder is missing 36 HP EVs for a spread of
36 HP / 236 Atk / 36 Def / 196 Spe.
- Onix is fine, but I don't think Adamant is worth it;
Jolly is helpful for Pawniard and when you need to force speed ties.
- Pumpkaboo looks great.
- Timburr is fine.
- I suppose HP Ground gets a pass on this Gastly. I still hate that move, though.
New player rating: 3/10. This is very much not an autopilot team.
- Onix is fine.
- Staryu is fine, though it may suffer from giving up momentum on this team.
- Magnemite is fine, but I don't think you need HP Fire Magnet Pull that much - Scarf Magnemite might be better off here.
- Timburr is fine.
- Trubbish is trubbish.
- I don't believe in Snatch, but seeing how you have a Trubbish, this team is pretty much irredeemable anyways.
New player rating: -3/10
This looks like a solid standard team other than the Scarf Ponyta. If Diglett and Ponyta were changed to LO and Z variants, respectively, and Timburr was replaced with Mienfoo, it would probably make for a very good ladder team. But that's boring, and boring isn't what jox does.
- Onix is fine.
- Mareanie is okay, but you're pretty good with Knock Off absorbers and I don't think you need another - I would probably run
Knock Off over Covet. Don't forget to run 12 Atk EVs for free if you do this.
- Vullaby is fine.
- Diglett is fine.
- Timburr is fine, although slowfoo fits this team really well.
- I suppose if you plan on using Scarf Ponyta, this is the team to use it on.
New player rating: 7/10. A solid build overall that doesn't punish minor mistakes on the player's end too harshly. Scarf Ponyta relies on surprise value a little bit too much for my liking, but it's not an outright bad set.
I think that this is definitely one of the better Shellder builds out there. It's certainly not the most traditionally solid team in the world, but it's good at maintaining momentum and sets up Shellder's sweep well without being too reliant on it the way ShellDig teams tend to be.
- SD Pawniard gives the team quite a bit of trouble, so I would consider replacing Hidden Power Ground and another move with
Substitute and Hidden Power Fighting. For the second move to replace, Sucker Punch helps a bit against Abra and opposing Gastly, but it's far too weak to really deter smashers; ditching Shadow Ball is an option if Abra-Gastly become unbearable, though.
- Vullaby is fine.
- Shellder is fine. This is your check to opposing Shell Smashers, by the way.
- I think Onix would prefer
Taunt over Protect; you already have deterrents to High Jump Kick, and it'd be nice to make sure smashers don't set up on you. A
SturdyJuice variant would be somewhat helpful against opposing Abra and Gastly.
- Foongus is fine.
- I feel like Magnemite could be better off a bulky Eviolite variant. This would make the team annoyingly slow, but it'd help to check Shellder and better trap Pawniard.
New player rating: 8/10. An exceptionally straight forward team with obvious win conditions that, while having a few holes, allows for counterplay without huge amounts of metagame knowledge.
This is hyper offense, through and through. It seems like it'd almost be akin to webs in terms of reliance on matchup - there are some teams that stand little to no chance against this one, but you're put on an enormous back foot if your opponent brings an Elekid/Wingull/Scarf Chinchou/offensive Staryu.
- My god I am so so sick of seeing Hidden Power Ground Gastly right now. Why is it everywhere???
Psychic or Dazzling Gleam
- Onix is probably better off as
Endure SturdyJuice to act as a safety net here.
- Croagunk is fine.
- Staryu definitely wants
Thunderbolt over Hidden Power Fire or even Recover for opposing Staryu and Wingull. Something funky is going on with your EV spread, but I'll assume you have a specific calc in mind.
- Taillow is fine. I'm not a huge fan of the Pokemon in general right now, and giving up Brave Bird means you can't OHKO Fighting-types, but the team supports it well.
- Vullaby is fine.
New player rating: 2/10. Having a new player learn the tier with this team would be like having them learn the tier with webs; they would never learn what makes the Pokemon common to good matchups worth using, and they would have no idea of how to deal with the key Pokemon of the worst matchups.
VoltTurn without Mienfoo isn't normally something you see every day, but there are two of those teams in this dump alone. It seems like it turned out well here, with a much more offensive take on VoltTurn than the Larvesta build earlier.
- Seeing how you're running three attacks on Chespin, I would probably go for a more offensive EV spread of
188 Atk / 76 Def / 236 SpD with an
Adamant nature to better threaten switchins. For example, this lets Chespin 2HKO Pawniard and OHKO z-Ponyta after Stealth Rock more often than not with Stomping Tantrum, as well as always OHKO Wingull after Stealth Rock with Seed Bomb.
- Vullaby is fine.
- I guess Adamant helps Bunnelby with some rolls, but not being able to reliably outspeed Scarf Magnemite (even without Earthquake, you still deal 12 HP damage on average to it with Return) still makes me a bit nervous.
- You're missing 12 SpA EVs on Mareanie. I think Covet is acceptably useful on this team as it doesn't often let opposing Knock Off users come in for free, though I would still personally go with Knock Off.
- Onix is fine.
- Is this the only Magnemite set you run?
New player rating: 8/10. VoltTurn is great, and while this team may not be as consistent as standard foodig fare, it's just as easy to use, has few overly poor matchups, and should generally produce good results.
Scarf Mudbray sort of sweeps this, but I suppose it isn't too common at the moment. It's a weird mishmash of things that lose momentum and things that need it, but it does have its good matchups.
- Grimer is fine.
- Magnemite is fine.
- Spritzee is fine.
- Meowth is good.
- Mudbray is fine, but Substitute doesn't feel like it offers enough to be worth using here. I would probably go with Bulldoze (Bulldoze into Earthquake usually catches offensive Staryu from full, and always after Stealth Rock) or Heavy Slam.
- Staryu is fine.
New player rating: 5/10. It seems pretty reliant on the user knowing specific rolls to succeed. It doesn't flat out lose to the biggest threats, but struggles to safely come in on some things like Wingull and opposing Staryu.
