My first Gen V OU team

With Black and White out recently, I've become more interested in the Gen V metagame than I originally thought I would. Quite a few new Pokemon have caught my eye, and although I seemed to have trouble fitting some of them onto my team, I finally made one I could test out on PO.



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As I don't have much experience yet, I'm not as accustomed to things like damage calculations. It'll be something I expect to get better at with time, but for now I don't have enough knowledge about them to greatly influence what moves I choose. Here are the movesets:


Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Veil
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Outrage
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Aqua Tail

Because Gen V introduced Team Preview, leads don't seem as well defined as they used to be. Garchomp is already quite fast, so should I choose him as my lead for a particular match I have Stealth Rock ready to go. Outrage may not be the best choice for someone leading a match, but I've found it useful for mid-game and beyond whenever I can get Garchomp in on a slower dragon (because a Dragon Dance boost won't save them). I chose Aqua Tail to deal with certain Pokemon that might use a Balloon, catching them as they come in predicting an Earthquake. As of yet, I haven't had too many opportunities to try this, so I don't even know if I'll stick with it.


Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Rapid Spin
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Psychic

Although no one on my team is particularly weak to Stealth Rock (based purely on type), I only have one Levitater on my team too, and it would certainly help to get rid of the residual damage. I chose Ice Beam over Surf because I already have a Pokemon that can deal with Skarmory and Gyarados, plus as a back-up for enemy dragons. Psychic is meant for the Fighting-types - even though Conkeldurr can survive it with the right spread, it does bring him to low health, allowing me to finish it with one of my priority-users.


Conkeldurr @ Leftovers
Ability: Guts
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 120 HP / 252 Atk / 136 SpD
- Bulk Up
- Mach Punch
- Drain Punch
- Payback

With so much talk surrounding Excadrill, this guy is pretty much a given to counter him. Besides that, he serves to counter special walls like Blissey, because my special attackers need all the help they can get. Out of all the Pokemon on my team, a boosted Conkeldurr has impressed me the most, and I've run straight through several teams after boosting twice and absorbing status. I chose Payback since I have other ways to cover Flying-types, plus so I'm not totally helpless against Ghosts and am forced to switch after setting up.


Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit

My second-most-commonly used lead and revenge-killer. While using him as latter may not be the most ideal way to handle things, I also try to get him in on certain NVE attacks to scare the enemy away. Prediction is something I'm still getting used to, so I like U-turn to ease transitions into suitable counters. However I'm finding him quite susceptible to opponents setting up on him, because they know whatever moved I'm Choiced into won't damage them. Fortunately, when the situation calls for it, I have a way to get out of incoming Fire moves, as shown below.


Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
- Heal Bell
- Wish
- Thunderbolt
- Toxic

The obligatory Special wall. Reading around, I found out that Chansey/Blissey makes a good cleric as well as a good healer. I decided to combine the two so I could give my other offensive Pokemon (especially the Choiced ones) extra chances to get back in the battle, and to be as healthy as possible when they do. I chose Blissey over Chansey mainly for Leftovers recovery, giving me a little extra health to survive as Wish takes its sweet time to activate. I didn't want to be totally helpless against Gengar, so I opted for Thunderbolt over Seismic Toss. I have a couple of other changes in mind, but as I've yet to try them out in a battle I'll save that for extra comments.


Eelektross @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
- Acid Spray
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower
- Grass Knot

Levitate gets this guy quite a few safe switch-ins, plus I was impressed by his coverage. Acid Spray helps deter Calm Minders as they set up, provided they don't have a Sub or are Steel-type (for which Flamethrower deals with most of them), and puts extra pressure on switching when I have Stealth Rock up. I have Grass Knot over HP Ice because I have ways to deal with dragons and need something to deal with bulky Waters and otherwise heavy opponents (Hippowdon and Tyranitar in particular). Despite my initial feelings on Eelektross, he's always felt a little shaky in battle - I feel like he's not bulky enough for something so slow, giving enemies that I even have neutral attacks for ample opportunity to set up something for later.

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The team I outlined above is the first I've had any semblance of success with on the various PO servers, so at least I'm glad to know I'm not a total loss at this game. :V I had given quite a bit of thought into making this team, but I'm not stopping there. Even as I wrote this post, I went over in my head a few changes I'm likely to make:

- If I'm going with a Special move over Seismic Toss on Blissey, I should probably use the Serene Grace ability for better chances at spreading status. I already have Heal Bell if I need to cure Blissey, and I don't have to worry about switching out to do it.
- Eelektross is a big issue, as I described above. I had overestimated his defensive capabilities, but Levitate is something most other Electric-types would kill to have. What else comes to mind that can fill his role? Rotom-A, specifically his Wash Forme. He offers more resistances than a pure Electric-type and is supposedly a fair counter to Rain teams (I only faced one before and lost, but not as badly as I thought I would, even with several bad predictions early on).
- I mentioned that, based on type alone, no one on my team is weak to Stealth Rock. But as I played a match earlier tonight I realized that Blissey's Wishes could be used to offset any entry hazard damage, provided I can switch into something my Pokemon resists. With this support and with Rotom-W as an alternate Water-type that's also immune to the two kinds of Spikes, I may have room to switch out the Rapid-Spinner-Starmie for a bulkier Psychic-type like Reuniclus (who happens to be immune to all hazards). I know that enemy Conkeldurr are a relatively big threat to this team, and Reuniclus is more capable than Starmie at immediately threatening it, as even Payback shouldn't kill without a bit of boosting (damage calcs would help here).

I'll try out some of these changes the next chance I get (not now, since it's late), but any advice is appreciated. This metagame looks more interesting than Gen IV did way back when, so I'm anxious to learn as much as possible about it. Hopefully I provided good enough descriptions for the raters.
 
Hey buddy,

Give Garchomp either Fire Blast or Stone Edge over Stealth Rock. CS SR is asking to be set up on.

Starmie wants either HP Electric for coverage or Recover for longevity.

Conkeldurr functions better with Stone Edge > Payback.

Chansey takes hits better than Blissey.

Don;t know about Elektross.

GL
 

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