My first try at a VGC Team

[Project Galaxy]

The title say it all. I'm gonna go down to the regional down in Georgia this weekend and I figured I'd come on Smogon for a little advice on my team. What I've got is a Goodstuffs team with countering Trick Room and Rain in particular since they seem to be all the hullabaloo. And when I played in the winter international wifi toruney, those 2 teams gave me a lot of trouble. So I kept that in mind when constructing the team. After toying and testing with my current team, I've found that perhaps my biggest hurdle to overcome is that I don't have a whole lot of experience in competitive play. But hey, we all gotta start somewhere, right? With that in mind, I figure that my team could always use modifications, improvements, and possibly even replacements, so if you have any suggestions for me, go right ahead. Without further adieu, here's the team:

Latios@ Dragon Gem
Timid Nature
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Ability: Levitate
-Draco Meteor
-Psychic
-Thunderbolt
-Protect

So Latios is here as my main special attacker and DG is there to get those KO's in. Thunderbolt takes care of water types because rain teams are annoying :P I'm debating if I should go with HP Ice because Gastrodon's Icy Wind might not be enough and I really like the prospect of slowing down tailwind teams. Thoughts?

Hitmontop@ Life Orb
Adamant Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Ability: Intimidate
-Sucker Punch
-Close Combat
-Fake Out
-Wide Guard

Hitmontop is my priority/fighting type for the team. Fake out is here for obvious reasons and also to go up against trick room teams. I think he's got good synergy with Latios because he can take out those pesky dark and ice types. Wide guard is here to protect against spread moves. I'm still a little iffy on this guy. I'm not sure if I should go with another fighting type such as Terrakion. I was running Mach Punch and the Technician ability for a little while but after battling other people using Intimidate, I saw that the attack drop is really useful...

Weavile@ Focus Sash
Jolly Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Ability: Pickpocket
-Night Slash
-Ice Punch
-Taunt
-Fake Out

So Weavile is my taunt user against trick room while also providing ice and dark coverage. Fake Out is here because the guy outspeeds any other Fake Out user. Also sending him out with Hitmontop is funny because double fake out. The thing is, though that he's super fragile and it was a bit of a problem when I was testing out the team. If you have any recommendations for someone else that could replace him, feel free to chime in.

Volcarona@ Charti Berry
Modest Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Ability: Flamebody
-Heat Wave
-Bug Buzz
-Protect
-Hidden Power Ground

Volcarona is my fire and bug coverage. Heat Wave is there to hit both opponents provided hax doesn't hate me. The EV spread is there to maximize Sp Atk and Speed. The Charti Berry will hopefully let me survive a rock slide. Hitmontop can also take down opposing rock types, so there's another pair that works well together. Also, he's one of my favorite pokemon :) HP Ground is here because I lack an Earthquake user. Not much else to say about 'em.

Gastrodon@ Sitrus Berry
Quiet Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpDef
Ability: Storm Drain
-Muddy Water
-Icy Wind
-Earth Power
-Protect

Gastrodon serves the purpose of being my rain counter. Storm Drain obviously is here for obvious reasons. I really like the idea of sending out Volcarona and then switching him for Gastrodon to get that boost. 2 immunities is nice too. I was running a more defensive set with recover, but I just found that he was doing too little damage and doubles is so freaking fast paced that I decided that offense was the way to go. Protect just seemed the way to go for me. And no speed investment leaves me with a decent Mon in Trick Room.

Ferrothorn@ Leftovers
Brave Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def
Ability: Iron Barbs
-Explosion
-Power Whip
-Protect
-Gyro Ball

So Ferrothorn was the last one I settled on, and while I think I've made a good choice in picking him, I'm not sure which way he should be utilized. Explosion is certainly a nasty little surprise, but in that case, I have to run a more attack oriented EV spread, and well, Defense is the name of the game for Ferrothorn. I've tried both Def. and Off. Ferrothorn and it would seem that they have mixed results. He also serves as a nice counter to rain with that power whip and all. Oh yeah, if they try pulling trick room on me, I've got an abuser here and I've noticed that several trick room abusers are indeed weak to Ferro's coverage moves.

 

[Detective Scruffy]

I don't have much experience with VGC so i will just comment on the reason u built this team: to counter rain and trick room. rain will almost never be able to break through the core of Gastrodon + Ferrothorn without the use of a powerfull pokemon like Choice Band Terrakion. Ferrothorn is also good for giving iron barbs to all those Fake Outer's. Now about Trick Room. The only way to beat it is to have slower pokemon, which usually doesn't happen because they are tailored with 0 Iv's and a - speed nature.
~On a sidenote: Your choice of berry on Volkarona is wise as u are able to survive Rock Slides after the spread modifier decrease and the berry's help! :)

 

[Project Galaxy]

Thanks man! I really tried to create the team so that everyone could work well together. I guess I'll just have to rely on Weavile's Taunt. Yeah, I really don't like those pesky rock slides :P

 

[redghost]

Hi,

Ignoring the no pictures...

Gastrodon and ferrothorn have awful ev spreads.
Good players are not going to spam the water attacks if you lead with volcarona and have gastrodon in reserve.
Gastrodon is best served with more investment in sp.defense to sponge a major attack or survive a non boosted grass attack without a berry. A popular set runs 28s.atk
108 def and 120 sp.def to better withstand attacks.

252/252/4 seems to work sparingly in doubles because of all the hard hitters.

 

[Mrmuffin123]

Your team seems nicely balanced, I like the weavile. But Imo I think that pressure would be better, I don't trust the pickpocket because it might lock you into fake out with a choice item. The offensive ferrothorn is interesting too, but defensive would proberally be better since its more popular than physical attacker.