My first team

Disco

Well I just found Smogon, really cool site :D Anyway I have never really tried competitive battling before so I am horrendously inexperienced haha, but I'm here to learn! I decided to make a team, which I will just be fighting friends with so it doesn't need to be THAT good :P

Anyway to make my team I just picked pokemon I like/seemed relatively popular in battling, as that seemed like a good way to go. This team is just an idea at the moment, I still have to breed and EV train the damn things so I want to check there are no glaring weaknesses in my squad before I begin! Well after that drawn out introduction (I thought I shouldn't just jump straight into things in my first post haha) here is my potential team. I've mostly used the suggested movesets off smogon as I thought that would be a good place to start, althouhg I expect as I become more experienced I will switch things round a bit to suit my style of battling more. Anyway on with the team!

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----------------------GYARADOS--------------------------
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Gyarados @Leftovers
Evs: 212 HP / 16 Atk / 180 Def / 100 Spd
Adamant Nature
-Earthquake
-Ice Fang/Waterfall
-Taunt
-Dragon Dance

I've always liked Gyrados and this seems to be a pretty standard moveset for him so I went with it :D


----------------------GENGAR----------------------------
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Gengar @Life Orb/Black Sludge
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest/Timid Nature
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt
-Hypnosis
-Focus Blast/Hidden Power [Ice/Fire]

Gengar is pretty cool and I guess this is another typical moveset but hey if it works then I guess I'll use it!


-----------------------TYRANITAR-----------------------
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Tyranitar @Choice Band
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spd
Adamant Nature
-Stone Edge
-Earthquake
-Crunch
-Pursuit/Focus Punch

He's big and looks pretty unstoppable so I went with him! Although choice band seems to rely quite a lot on prediction as far as I can see so I guess I will have to play a bit till I get used to that.

----------------------TANGROWTH------------------------
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Tangrowth @Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 6 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
-Power Whip
-Leech Seed
-Sleep Powder
-Knock Off

I love tangrowth, I don't think he's particularly popular but I dont care haha. I guess he's just kind of there to annoy people with sleep/knocking off items and of course power whip to do damage. However I'm not sure the people I will be fighting (my friends) will be particularly reliant on their items so I might try to think of a different move for the final slot.


-----------------------PORYGON-Z-----------------------
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Porygon-Z @Life Orb
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
Ability: Adaptability
-Tri-Attack
-Thunderbolt/Dark Pulse
-Ice Beam/Hidden Power [Fighting]
-Nasty Plot

Never used him in the game before and thought it might be something fun and new to try :)


----------------------GARCHOMP==-----------------------
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Garchomp @Life Orb
EVs: 16 HP / 252 Atk / 240 Spd
Jolly Nature
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Swords Dance
-Fire Fang

As I said I've never tried competitive battling so I've neve really used things like swords dance, but I'm willing to give it a try and to learn about everything like that, so I guess this set will be fun to try.

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So that is the team I am thinking of making, thanks to anyone who actually reads all that, it probably doesn't actually make too much sense because of my lack of experience haha! But anyway, any help is much appreciated, competitive battling seems pretty daunting at the moment but hopefully I will be a quick learner :D And sorry if this is a stupid place to make a first post!
 
There's one thing I don't like about this team. It's just good pokemon thrown together with no thought. I mean, you have Tyranitar, which does nothing except hinder 2/3 of your team. I honestly think this won't work. Sorry to be blunt.
 
Fix the font tags first of all >O<

Tar does not fit in this team looking at it. If you want a strong CBer with Pursuit use Weavile.

Give Gengar Scarf because you have no speed at all on this team. I will give you a better rate later once those tags are gone they hurt my eyes
 
Yep sorry about that not sure what happened there!

Don't be sorry Castlevania, as I said this was my first team so I need any help I can get? Would you mind telling me how tyranitar hinders my team? As I said I still have to breed train these pokemon etc, so any of them can be replaced at this stage :)

Kingler, okay I see what you mean about speed I will have a think about what I can do to inject some speed into my team :D

Any more help is greatly appreciated :D Like I said because I'm new to this everything is pretty confusing, but I'm learning :)
 
Well, Tyranitar has Sandstorm, which does 6% damage to every pokemon not Rock, Steel, or Ground for a starter. As KinglerDude said, you could go for another CB Pursuit, maybe a Bulky Metagross or Weavile.

In terms of another thing I see, this team has no special Defense, and will be ripped apart by common threats. To try and add some more depth defensively, you could go with Shuckle over something, with the added 50% Sp Def boost in sandstorm.
 
Alright I'll try to rate this now:

You are like Castle said, Lacking Synergy. It looks like you just picked 6 pokemon you thought looked good and built a team around them with standard sets. I really don't like that.

When he said TTar hinders this team, it means only one pokemon benefits from sandstorm that he makes while all the others suffer.

I think making Tar into Weavile would help a lot.

There seems to be no real walls ,barring tangrowth, to this team and without speed you won't be threatening anyone with them.

If you want to build a team off Tangrowth or Tyranitar you should do that. I say forget this project and start from scratch.

If you don't want to make a new team I will try to give the best advice I can. With Gengar you want him to hold Expert Belt or Leftovers. Life orb and SS is doing 16% damage each turn and with SR up he is gonna be 4HKOed not even being attacked at. IMHO I think Knock off is a useless move. It gives the opponent one free turn to set up so While you are there Knock Offing that opponents leftovers, he may now have a sub up and begin to sweep you. So get rid of that on growth for something else. Just max out Chomps speed so you have a chance on other chomps because at this point you have no speed and are getting murdered. This team looks like it would Auto Die to a ScarfChomp. Can I suggest Cresselia? She can Ice Beam, thunder wave, rest, CM, psychic ect. And if you lose Tar for her she can use Moonlight.

Hope I helped
 
Well, no, Cress would have to be RestTalk, because of Sand being infinite. But yeah, it would work.
 
I meant get rid of Tar for cress that way you can abuse moonlight if you hate the chance of messing up on resttalk
 
Oh okay I see what you mean, thanks a lot! I definitely see what you mean about not putting enough thought into the team, the weaknesses you have pointed out are bad enough and I am sure there are for more. Like I said I am completely clueless in terms of competitive battline so all of this help is extremely valuable, thank you very much. Is there some sort of beginners guide to competitive battling I should read to learn the basics? Or do you just have to kind of throw yourself into it haha :P

I have no qualms about changing this team around, I want to make sure it works reasonably well before I start training it, because it is going to take a long long time to train them all, they may as well work well together! Thanks again for all your help, any other opinions are appreciated :)
 
I can see Starmie giving this team a lot of problems, unless you get in CBtar and Pursuit it to death. I suggest you to Scarf that Gengar, to have some speed on this team. You can also get Starmie's that think they're faster, and he's a very good revengekiller.
Heatran can also hurt your team a lot, as Choice Specs can 2HKO/OHKO anything on your team with some prediction. I suggest you replace Tyranitar, with a reliable special wall. Snorlax or Blissey could fit this job.

Scarfchomp also tears through this team, as it can OHKO/2HKO anything once it can get in, besides Tangrowth. Be careful as Tangrowth is 2HKOd by a Fire Blast.

I'd really use max speed on Garchomp, so you can at least tie with other Swords Dance variants.

Like Castlevania said, this looks like 6 pokemon thrown together.

I suggest you to check out the Smogon's Guide to teambuilding, which can be found at http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26128.
 
Wow thanks a lot, some great suggestions and a lot of things to think about :) And that guide was just what I was looking for, I will give it a read and see what I learn :D Wow people sure are helpful here haha :heart:
 
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