My first team, rating appreciated!

NAPS272

*Not necessary to read opening paragraph*
Hey smogon, its been about a year since I last battled, and I've just returned. Wanting to start fresh, I decided to take up something new and try and play in the UU tier as opposed to OU. I found myself watching many UU battles on youtube, trying to get a feel for the tier and metagame. Once I felt that I had collected enough information I built myself a team on Shoddy battle , using smogon sets since I didn't have a feel for the metagame. In my first battle, I found myself to be confused at most times, not knowing what to do or what was coming. This lead to a quick 5 - 0 loss on my part. Knowing that this team would not cut it in any kind of battle, I quickly revamped my team, play testing it and replacing pokemon. It has now been about 3 weeks, and I've concluded that there is something that I'm just not getting when it comes to building teams.

So I've turned to the smogon community, the place where I turned to when I first started my Wi-Fi battling career almost 3 years ago, in hopes that more experienced users then I would be able to assist me in making this team stronger. Do keep in mind though that this is the first UU team I've ever made, and my first RMT. Constructive criticism is appreciated!

:D

Without further delay, I present my UU team:

Nidoking:
EV's: 80 HP / 252 SpA / 176 Spe
Item: Focus Sash
Ability: Poison Point
Nature: Modest
Moves:
>Earth Power
>Ice Beam
>Taunt
>Stealth Rock

The classic smogon Nidoking lead.
Pretty straightforward, use Earth Power to OHKO any Arcanine or fire type leads, or use it to put a big dent on any registeel leads. Use Ice beam on any Swellow or Torterra leads to OHKO, or put a dent in any Venusaur lead. Stealth rock for the obvious reason, and Taunt for any leads that like to set up entry hazards or status afflictions, such as Uxie or Mesprit. If Nidoking lives beyond being the lead, it can be a useful late game wall breaker, but more often than not, I find it too slow or at too low HP to do anything than be out-sped and killed.

Lanturn:
EV's: 40 HP / 76 Def / 140 SpA / 252 SpD
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
Nature: Calm
Moves:
>Ice Beam
>Thunderbolt
>Surf
>Toxic

I find that my Lanturn is one of the most helpful pokemon on my team, as he can sponge many of the attacks that come at my attackers, and in some games he may even knock out a pokemon or two! Surf is the main stab attack here, and is paired nicely with Thunderbolt, with these two moves Lanturn is able to hit many pokemon super-effectively. Ice Beam rounds off type coverage as Lanturn is now able to hold its own against grass and dragon pokemon without fear of being walled completely. Toxic is useful against bulky water types that switch in to sponge a surf. Non rest milotic and blastoise do not enjoy being poisoned. (Lanturn is my favorite pokemon on this team, and is the one pokemon I would like to keep. Although he can go is necessary.)

Claydol:
EV's: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpA
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Moves:
>Rapid Spin
>Toxic
>Shadow Ball
>Earth Power

Claydol functions as the physical wall on my team. Once again, the move set is pretty straightforward. Rapid spin to get rid of entry hazards that my attackers don't like, Earth Power as a STAB move, Toxic is just there as a nice status inflicter, in case any bulky pokemon want to come around to Claydol's grill. I opted for shadow ball over stealth rock, because Nidoking usually gets rocks up anyways. Shadow ball gives me more type coverage against psychic types and ghosts who try to switch in to block the rapid spin.

Swellow:
EV's: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Guts
Item: Flame Orb
Moves:
>Protect
>Facade
>Brave Bird
>U-Turn

Simple Swellow.
Protect on the first tun if needed, then proceed to attack. Facade on anything that doesn't resist it, Brave Bird for super effective damage on grass types, or just to hit things that resist Facade. U-Turn for things that Swellow is completely walled by. Lanturn makes a good partner here, because he loves to absorb electric attacks thrown at swellow :D

Blaziken:
EV's: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Item: Choice Scarf
Ability: Blaze
Moves:
>Flare Blitz
>Super Power
>Thunder punch
> Stone Edge

Blaziken is my choice scarf revenge killer. I find he comes in very handy and usually nets 1 to 3 kills per game. With this move set he hits most pokemon in UU for super effective damage, walled only by Slowbro and possibly some others. I was thinking about replacing his scarf with a Life orb, or replacing the whole thing with a special Choice scarf Altaria. One problem I encounter is that people can predict his moves very easily and can easily switch into a counter, forcing me to switch and offering them a potential set up.

Kabutops:
EV's: 252 Atk / 72 Hp / 184 Spe
Nature: Adamant
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Moves:
>Swords Dance
>Aqua Jet
> Waterfall
> Stone Edge

My final pokemon, a swords dancing fossil.
Kabutops usually comes into play late game, I can bring him in on something that is weak to it, then get a free swords dance on the switch. Other times I can use him to finish off a weakened sweeper with a STAB life orb aqua jet. Kabutops also offers an opportunity to take advantage of opposing rain dance teams. Using his ability, I can turn the tables on a team using their own set up.

Thanks for reading guys, any help you give me is really appreciated. I'm open to all ideas you have to offer.

:D
​
 
IMO claydol isn't the best physical wall you could use since it has MANY weaknesses that make it too hard to switch in. Because f this i would suggest using a registeel since it can tank hits from both sides of the spectrum. Here's th moveset:

Leftovers Careful
Moveset EVs 252 HP / 100 Atk / 156 SpD
~ Stealth Rock
~ Thunder Wave
~ Earthquake / Seismic Toss
~ Iron Head / Shadow Claw / Explosion

Although it has evs invested into special defense, you can switch those evs and put them into defense and change the nature to impish so it can be a better defensive tank. My personal favorite set for registeel would be this one right here

Leftovers Careful
Moveset EVs
~ Curse
~ Iron Head
~ Rest
~ Sleep Talk
252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 SpD

After one curse, it becomes an amazing defensive tank as well as a special tank and can also switch in to many pokemon. Since it's a tank it should have a way of recovery and that's where rest +nsleep talk comes in.

Also, i would suggest changing lanturn to a milotic , IMO milotic is much better and you can run the moves, surf icebeam HP grass and recover so it can heal and has better coverage. Use the bulky water set .

Hope i helped
 
A few more points to add to swampmargo. If you feel that scarf Blaziken is difficult to play with, I suggest changing to the mixed wall breaker set from Smogon. Scarf Altaria is a definite no no. Altaria's base 70 spatk will be doing pitiful damage unboosted and even though its defenses and speed look good, it will be hard-pressed to revenge kill a lot of pokes.

Swellow should be used more as a lead, since midgame after stealth rock has been set, constant switches (also through u-turn) will ruin it and it is often left completely walled by rock and steel types who can easily set up as you switch.

Lanturn should definitely be replaced with Milotic as with its lack of recovery, it won't be walling for too long due to it being worn down consistently by special moves.

Kabutops is more suited for rain dance teams and if you opt for registeel over claydol, that would give you a total of 5 pokemon in your team weak to ground and since earthquake is such a common move, I suggest changing your late game sweeper to a subplot mismagius or swords dance/ dragon dance feraligatr.

Just to note, next time when making a team, try to focus on a fire, leaf, water core as it grants your team numerous resistances and synergy, in which this team is a bit lacking. Anyway, the team layout is good and with a few minor adjustments this team will do quite well in the UU environment, gl.
 
Ok, there are quiet a few things to change.

First of all (and more obvious) since you are not using a Rain Dance team I recommend you to run 252 speed evs on Kabutops so that it can at least speed tie with other neutral natured base 80s.

Your team is really Water type moves weak (which are very common), for this reason since Lanturn can't always absorb them all, once it is KOed you are pretty much screwed and this is another reason why you should replace Lanturn with Milotic (or Slowbro) as they also help covering your weakness to powerful sweepers such as SD Feraligatr (which would OHKO every member of your team if it has set up once [Lanturn takes a shitload of damage from Return but survives if it's max hp]).

Last thing is that I see no point in running a Taunter (Nidoking) along with a Rapid Spinner (Claydol) also since they share some common weaknesses and rely both on the same of STAB move. Now the best thing to do is replacing Nidoking with a Claydol itseld (running a trick scarf lead set) able to cripple most leads, Rapid Spin entry hazard and lay it's own SR.

The spot left can be filled with a powerful sweeper such as Nasty Plot Mismagius, which also gives your team a much needed immunity to Fighting and Normal type moves .

Hope to have helped you,
Good Luck.
 
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