My Terrible Team (Needs Lots Of Help)

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healthylunch

Though I've been a fan of Pokémon for some time and have long browsed the hallowed halls of this university of Smogon. I've never truly had much luck with team building and have merrily skipped my down the ladder for a great long while now. This is an example of one of my many terrible and unispired teams and I'm posting this here in the hope that some kind smogonaught would find it in their heart to guide me to the light and show me what I've been doing wrong, so without futher ado...

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Infernape @Focus Sash
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 4HP/252 ATK/ 252 SPE
Nature: Jolly
Moveset: Fire Punch, Mach Punch, Stealth Rock, Taunt
My lead, idealy he is supposed to taunt the opponent and prevent them from setting up their entry hazards, whilst setting up his own. Unfortunatley this is rarely the case, as I tend to time my taunting terribly, or get taunted myself by faster leads...

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Celebi @Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/ 4 DEF/252 SPE
Nature: Calm
Moveset: Recover, Swords Dance, Nasty Plot, Baton Pass
Celebi, Celebi, Celebi. A most strange and unpredictable beast. I personally have the phantom two hundred and fifty first pokémon working a shoddy, second rate baton pass strategy. Naturally the plan is, that I try to get Celebi to work up 2 or 3 sword dances or nasty plots before tagging out to Dugtrio, Latios or Gengar depending upon what i'm up against. When I can get 3 nasty plots off and then blast out,I can then usually proceed to sweep the enemy team. But I would just like to put some extra emphasis on 'When I can get 3 plots off'. As typically my poor Celebi is torn right out of the sky, by a big scary Scizor before she can work up as much as a single plot.

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Gengar @Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Evs: 4 HP/ 252 SATK/ 252 SPE
Nature: Jolly
Moveset: Shadow Ball, Destiny Bond, Thunderbolt, Psychic
Ahh Gengar, despite his having the best dancing skills of any pokémon out there, I sense that I am not quite using him to his full potential. He has as standard a sweeper set as any you're to see and is just generally clichéd...

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Latios @Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
Evs: 4HP, 252 ATK, 252 SPE
Nature: Modest
Moveset: Dragon Pulse, Psychic, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt
Another pokémon, another standard sweeper set, yes I put two special sweepers on my team and no I don't know why, (or anything about team building for that matter).

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Dugtrio @Life Orb
Ability: Arena Trap
Evs: 4 HP, 252 ATK, 252 SPE
Nature: Jolly
Moveset: Earthquake, Stone Edge, Stealth Rock, Sucker Punch
Dugtrio ordinarily a physical sweeping revenge killing machine. Though in my hands maybe not so, whilse most Dugtrios are capable of creeping in at the last possible moment and landing that decisive finishing blow, mine tends to only creep directly into the direct paths of ice beams. What am I doing wrong?

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Machamp @Life Orb
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP, 252 ATK, 4 SPE
Nature: Adamant
Moveset: Dynamic Punch, Earthquake, Ice Punch, Fire Punch
It's a Machamp and a poorly executed one at that, not much to say about it really...

Well to quote those looniest of toons, 'that's all folks' and I truly thank any who are willing to take the time out to help.
 
You have 2 fighting types and 3 pokemon weak to ghost/dark type moves. Alakazam with shadow ball and psychic/psyshock wrecks this team.(period). There are a number of other Pokemon who can do the same. Another pretty obvious problem is 2 very fragile stealth rock users, wasting a move slot. And at times probably not getting the job done. Not to say that dugtrio is bad at setting up rocks. It can work very well. It just needs to be used correctly. If I really were to change your team to make it work I'd need to change more than 2 Pokemon and I'm prohibited to do so. PM me if you want help.
 
Hey there and welcome to Smogon! This quite the odd team you got there. I would like to make some very helpful suggestions that you could try and make this team even better. First off, I would suggest that you use a Choice Scarf Infernape. When equipped with a Choice Scarf and with the right EV's placed, Infernape can outspeed a lot of Pokemon in the metagame as well as be an excellent scout and even a late-game sweeper. Moving on to Celebi, you're better off using a Standard Nasty Plot over your Baton Pass Set. When given Nasty Plot, Celebi can use its wide array of coverage moves to KO a lot of the meta, in addition, it has some decent bulk that your team needs. hat your team needs. As for Gengar, I would suggest that you use a SubSplit set over your current one. Due to the fragility of Gengar, he needs a way to heal itself and Pain Split is the premier choice here. As for Latios, I highly suggest you use Choice Specs over Life Orb. When equipped with a Choice Specs, Latios can use that huge special attack to KO a huge chunk of the meta. On Dugtrio, I would suggest that you use Reversal>Sucker Punch and a Focus Sash>Life Orb. The reason for Focus Sash and Reversal is that you can take a hit and then use Reversal to deal heavy damage. As for Machamp, your last Pokemon, I suggest you use a Lum Berry over Life Orb to prevent status from hindering you. I also suggest that you use Payback and Stone Edge over Ice and Fire Punch. Payback helps you hit Ghosts and Stone Edge gives you the infamous EdgeQuake combo. You should also change to a 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd. That's all I have for now. I really hoped I helped. You also might want to add some more detail to your descriptions. Have fun and good luck with your team!

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Infernape @ Choice Scarf Lv. 100 -- Blaze
Nature: Naive - EVs: 108 Atk / 148 SAtk / 252 Spd
Fire Blast
Hidden Power [Ice]
U-turn
Close Combat

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Celebi @ Leftovers Lv. 100 -- Natural Cure
Nature: Modest - EVs: 220 HP / 252 SAtk / 36 Spd
Giga Drain
Hidden Power [Fire]
Earth Power
Nasty Plot

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Gengar @ Leftovers Lv. 100 -- Levitate
Nature: Timid - EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Substitute
Pain Split
Shadow Ball
Focus Blast

Latios.png

Latios @ Expert Belt Lv. 100 -- Levitate
Nature: Timid - EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Surf
Hidden Power [Fire]
Draco Meteor
Psyshock

~Dr Ciel~
 
Heya, cool team. ^^,

I tend to somewhat agree with Dr. Ciel's recommendations for Celebi. The set is somewhat gimmicky, and is just begging to be Scizor/T-Tar/U-turn bait, and in many cases you won't be able to use stat-boosting moves multiple times in a row, even with the EV spread. I honestly think you should do away with this set.

If you think making Celebi a set-up sweeper on its own is too big of a change (seeing as how Celebi is also functioning as your special wall), I would recommend using a more efficient defensive set.

Celebi @ Leftovers Lv. 100 -- Natural Cure
Nature: Calm - EVs: 252 HP / 240 SDef / 16 Spd
Giga Drain
U-turn
Perish Song
Recover

The set above has incredible bulk, and can force out Lati@s, Jirachi, and Alakazam, among many other Special Attackers with its bulk and resistances. Lati@s fail miserably to K.O. Celebi with Draco Meteor or Hidden Power Fire, while Celebi can force either out with Perish Song, recovering during the count down and using U-turn on the switch-in to an appropriate counter. CM Jirachi meets a similar fate, and Celebi doesn't mind being paralyzed thanks to its ability. Running U-turn enables Celebi to elude Tyranitar and Scizor on the switch-in and counter accordingly.

And, really, there tons of options for Celebi to explore over U-turn if you find yourself unhappy with the moveset.

Moving on to your lead, have you considered using Focus Sash Azelf over Infernape? With access to Fire Blast, Stealth Rock, and Taunt, Azelf has very similar coverage barring Mach Punch, and a blistering speed stat of 115 to boot, making it a somewhat more reliable a Stealth Rocker. In addition, Azelf has access to useful moves such as U-turn and Explosion (used with a normal gem in the case of the latter) which it can abuse to scout and eliminate threats to your team. It's ability is Levitate giving your team tres Ground-Type/Spikes immunities.

Here is the set if you want to give it a try.

Azelf @ Focus Sash Lv. 100 -- Levitate
Nature: Timid - EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Stealth Rock
Taunt
Fire Blast
U-turn

Lastly, I find Dugtrio to be more beneficial to teams that engage in Weather Wars. If you find that it isn't working for you, I would suggest replacing it with Choice Banded Scizor, who can effectively revenge kill or clean up with Technician-boosted Bullet Punch. Alternatively, you could try slapping a Choice Scarf on the recently released Genesect (might as well abuse it while you can, right?).

Because your team wants so badly to have a Dragon-type resistance, and these two can walk all over Dragons locked into outrage or spamming Draco Meteor.



Scizor @ Choice Band Lv. 100 -- Technician
Nature: Adamant - EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Bullet Punch
Superpower
Pursuit
U-turn

Genesect @ Choice Scarf Lv. 100 -- Download
Nature: Rash - EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Bug Buzz
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
U-turn

By the way, on the Genesect set, you may want to run Flash Cannon instead of Bug Buzz, because the team is already kind of weak against Hail Teams, and it really rounds out the coverage, but Bug Buzz has greater Base Power. Both moves provide reliable STAB.
 
Thank you all 3 very much for the help and I shall try modifying my Infernape, Gengar, Celebi, Machamp and Latios accordingly. Also as per Vallhalla's suggestion I will also try swapping my Dugtrio out for a Scizor, once again many thanks...

*UPDATE*
So I played ten matches with my new and improved team (as seen above). I lost 6 and won 4, whilst this is a great improvement on my previous win streaks, I would still like to improve a little more. It seems that Machamp, though vastly better, is still a bit of a weak link and I was wondering if anyone would know a compatible pokémon to replace him with.

Thanks in advance...
 
Conkeldurr, which btw is the main reason machamp is now UU. Try this set:

Conkeldurr@Leftovers
Nature: Brave
EVs: 120 HP, 252 Atk, 136 SpD
Ability: Guts
Ivs: 0 Spe
Moves:
Bulk Up
Drain Punch
Mach Punch
Payback/ Stone Edge

Try this set and watch it work wonders for your team. Bulk Up on the switch and wreak havoc with what should be 624 Atk. Drain Punch provides recovery for longevity and coupled with Leftovers will keep this guy fighting for a while. Mach Punch for priority. Payback can be run for psychics and ghosts, which I recommend, or Stone Edge for flying types. Guts is there because after a guts boost this thing is an absolute monster. 0 Spe IVs and Brave nature for a more reliable Payback. However if you choose to run Stone Edge, you can opt for an Adamant nature and 31 Spe IVs. Hope this works for you.
 
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