My First Team

[jamheald]

So, as the title says this is my first team that I believe is actually good. I've only been playing "competitive" Pokemon for about a month now, so please do be forgiving but constructive.

The team in my opinion is quite balanced though definitely tends towards offense. So let's go.

Volcarona @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 240 HP / 216 Def / 52 Spd
Bold Nature
- Bug Buzz
- Fiery Dance
- Quiver Dance
- Roost

Volcarona is where the team began. I was looking at the the usage statistics and noticed that Volcarona was a good answer to so many of the top Pokemon and so I decided to make a team around it. I decided to use the bulky Volcarona for a few reasons, it takes people by surprise (since I'm not using sun), I lack great sources of defense elsewhere and it generally just lets me set up a lot of Quiver Dances. Fiery Dance is used over alternatives for the accuracy and the potential +1.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Surf
- Rapid Spin
- Thunderbolt

So, what with Volcarona being 4x weak to Stealth Rocks I felt like a Rapid Spinner was a must and Starmie is the one that suits me most. The three other attacks are very obvious and provide great coverage. Finally Natural Cure lets me take statuses for my other Pokemon, when I have my prediction pants on.

Breloom @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Bullet Seed
- Low Sweep
- Mach Punch
- Spore

Completing the classic Fire, Water, Grass is Breloom. Breloom lets me deal with a lot of threats with its good offensive typing. Having a priority move is very useful and Spore is great as always.

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Superpower
- Stone Edge

Mamoswine provides the ground support for my team. It packs some massive damage with the set I'm running and is still fairly decent at switching into certain attacks. The moves I'm using give me good coverage and fill a few gaps in my team, obviously including a great priority Ice STAB.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 88 Def / 252 HP / 168 SDef
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Power Whip

Ferrothorn does a lot for my team. Its good defensive stats gives me a bit of a wall to rely on and its access to hazards lets me boost the offensive nature of the rest of my team. Thunder Wave gives me an option to try and cripple an opponent who wants to set up on me while I'm putting up hazards. Finally Power Whip is just a nice move to have.

Latios (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Psyshock

Latios gives me a great revenge killer and yet another option to sweep. Its four moves give it great coverage even against Specially Defensive opponents. Also just having a Choice Scarfer there is really nice I've been finding.

So, comments?

 

[undisputed]

Hey!

I can see that you're relatively new to competitive Pokemon, so I'd like to welcome you to Smogon. A big part of Pokemon success is practice and experience. You'll consistently get better the more you play. My personal recommendation is to try and learn as much as possible by yourself - failure is probably the best learning tool I've ever had. When you feel like you're ready to go to that "next level," sign up for the Battling 101 program. I would do my homework and request a top player if you sign up though. Anyway, enough of that, let's focus on your team.

I really like the work you've done so far. You've got a better weatherless team than most people can make, so good job. The biggest issue for me is that Bulky Volcarona doesn't really fit with the rest of your team. Bulky Volcarona is incredibly hard to stop on a Sun team with proper support; however, the rest of your team is very frail. You should be setting up hazards with Ferrothorn and using it as a general pivot to open up a sweep for one of your 4 offensive Pokemon. Right now, Volcarona needs multiple turns of set-up, so it just slows down your pace even if you can get a Quiver Dance.

To fix this, I think you should run the straight-forward Offensive Volcarona. Nothing really special: Fire Blast / Bug Buzz / Giga Drain / Quiver Dance are your moves, and 252 Sp Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def as your EV Spread. As I mentioned above, this Volcarona poses a much more immediate threat to every type of team. Fire Blast and Bug Buzz are your obvious STABs, and Giga Drain is a little bit like Roost allowing you to regain HP. Giga Drain is also essential for beating Terrakion, which is basically Volcarona's number one concern. I envision you saving Volcarona for the end-game once you scout for Dragons like Dragonite or Salamence (or Fire/Steel Heatran, I guess). Do your best to keep Stealth Rock and other hazards off the field, but in all likelyhood, you won't be able to do that all the time. Just take any decent setup opportunities you can.

Furthermore, I really hate Low Sweep Breloom. I just don't get personally. I'd much prefer you to use Swords Dance over Low Sweep. SD is a much bigger sweeping threat, and any good player will realize you just have to sacrifice a useless Pokemon to stop Breloom for the rest of the match. SD Breloom is also more effective against a wider variety of teams. Swords Dance will help it plow through defensive teams with Celebi, and a +2 Mach Punch is more than enough to mow down Offensive teams. Low Sweep is really only effective against offensive teams provided Breloom can 2HKO whatever the switch-in is.

You might consider Stealth Rock over Superpower on Mamoswine, which frees Ferrothorn to use Gyro Ball or Thunder Wave. I think Superpower is useless most of the time since Earthquake hits almost every Steel just as hard. The extra "hazard versatility," as I call it, will give you more opportunities to get hazards on the field. Ferrothorn realistically won't get more than two chances to use Hazards by itself (it has to pivot for your team a lot), so Mamoswine can take advantage of a good matchup and use Stealth Rock. Given the amount of Tyranitar and Steels in this metagame, Mamoswine shouldn't have a very difficult time using SR, in my opinion.

Finally, give thought to Scarf Timid Latios. The main benefits are that you can run Trick for problematic set-up Pokemon and defensive walls. You also outspeed Scarf Keldeo/Salamence, which is a pretty big deal. I can't tell you how irritating it is to have a Keldeo sweep ready, only to be stopped by a surprise Scarf Timid Latios. Really effective if you can dodge Scizor/Tyranitar too.

Good luck!