My First Ever Shoddy Team!

[Seneschal]

This is my first ever team after many, many alterations. Since I am relatively new to Shoddy and Smogon, please don’t be too harsh on me!
My team at a glance:


Hippowdon w/leftovers
Adamant Nature
176 HP/134 Def/200 Sp. Def
-Earthquake
-Crunch
-Curse
-Slack Off

Hippowdon is my lead: his principle aim is to set up sandstream, although, after rejigging my team, this isn't really necessary. However it is an excellent counter to Cresselia, Heatran, Azelf, Alakazam and Gengar, which, with the exception of Heatran, would easily beat my team otherwise. Earthquake is STAB; crunch is a useful secondary attack; curse boosts his two most crucial stats, atk and def, since the sand stream boosts sp. def; finally slack off is for stalling and for just generally keeping him alive.

Skarmory w/lum berry
Careful Nature
120 Hp/252 Atk/136 sp.def
-Brave Bird
-Roost
-Spikes
-Whirlwind

Skarmory sets down spikes and uses his resistances to switch-in easily. Spikes + Whirlwind is a nice combo if I can get it, and Brave Bird coupled with 252 atk ev’s is a nasty shock for my opponent.

Suicune w/leftovers
Calm Nature
164 Def/200 Speed/144 Sp. Atk
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Calm Mind
-Signal Beam

Suicune is here to provide variation in attack and weakness. Surf gets STAB, Ice beam hits grass types who otherwise resist most of my team, Signal Beam is a nasty surprise for frail psychics like Azelf and calm mind boosts its already good sp. Atk and sp. Def stats.

Shuckle w/leftovers
Relaxed Nature
252 HP/244 Def/16 SP. Def
-Toxic
-Rest
-Swagger
-Stealth Rock

Ah, Shuckle. A very underrated pokemon in my view; sand stream sends its sp. Def through the roof, so the majority of the ev’s go into def. Shuckle provides many roles on my team: he sets up stealth rock, stalls with rest and poisons pokemon to boot. Finally, he possesses swagger, a move I’ve never seen mentioned in any moveset before; it may be a novelty, but in conjunction with toxic and rest it often proves a nightmare to bypass.

Electivire w/Expert Belt
Naïve Nature
252 Atk/188 Speed/68 Sp. Atk
-Cross Chop
-Thunderbolt
-Fire Punch
-Earthquake

Extreme lack of originality here – I took this moveset straight from the Smogon’s moveset pages. This is probably the weak link of my team since it takes sandstorm damage, but I couldn’t resist its incredible type coverage. Unfortunately, just about everything switches out from it so its rarely any use, so help in suggesting a replacement would be useful.

Lucario w/Focus Sash
Jolly Nature
4 HP/252 Atk/252 Speed
-Extremespeed
-Swords Dance
-Close Combat
-Earthquake

Lucario is meant to be a late game sweeper, however this is difficult with stealth rock and its poor defences. Despite this, Lucario can still sweep whole teams whether it’s at the end of the battle or still in the middle before SR is set up. Extremespeed secures OHKOs on some thing, close combat destroys walls like regice and blissey. Earthquake is good for type coverage, and obviously swords dance + focus sash usually is for sweeping.

This team has many weaknesses, and, since its my first team, suffers from a novice’s hand. Gyarados with earthquake is deadly since after a dragon dance it outspeeds and OHKOs Electivire, and waterfall kills shuckle easily enough. There are too many other threats to list them all here.

Any help and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[martinky24]

First of all, your hippo doesn't get a spD raise in SS. Only rock types do, and he isn't a rock type.

Signal beam on suicune isn't that necessary. It hits psychics hard, most of which will get demolished by surf after a couple CM's anyway. Dark pokes are usually pretty frail as well, bar Umbreon. It hits grass for SE, but so does Ice Beam. You'd be much better off with HP electric on him. Gyara and Vaporeon won't give you as many problems. Or even Roar.

You'd be better off with another item on Lucario. Instead of switching him in on something that can do damage, and will activate the sash, switch him in on something that needs to switch out (Bliss, or a Poke locked onto a move it resists). Life orb is probobly your best bet. Shuckle, skarm, and hippo is too much defence. I see that hippo is more offensive on your team, but a decent surf will easily KO him.

Skarm doesn't need lum berry. It doesn't matter if he gets paralyzed. Or burnt really, with roost. Lefties > Lum on him.

And there is more, but i need to go. Good luck.

 

[Seneschal]

since the sand stream boosts sp. def

...That was stupid, did I really say that?
I agree with HP electric, however it didn't seem to work before...I'll have to check.
The problem is Lucario isn't that fast, so he'll probably be killed anyway. I wanted a pokemon that could wait until the end then sweep. I tried Scizor but it failed, so I turned to Lucario, who has since just become a generic sweeper. Preferably I'd want something better than Lucario...any ideas?

 

[martinky24]

Hm, yeah I'd work on HP Electric. There is a specific EV thing you need though, because Cune's legendary. You might have to look it up somewhere.

And yeah, maybe that's true about Luke. But if you rely on the sash, then a quick Ice Shard or BP from an opposing poke could kill you much easier than normal. But, he resists most priority moves, so if he had higher HP he could probobly live them... Hm. You'll just have to play around with both also.

And also, EVIRE. Sure you'll be getting electric attack thrown at you because of skarm and cune, but I don't think he fits. Hippo could absorb those attacks, or even shuckle, who they would just bounce right off of. Maybe a Heatran (although used very commonly) to take fire moves, and hit back hard.