New Team - First Time So Help Me Out

[Overcast2020]

Hey all,
This is my first time on RMT and I am new the whole competitive pokemon battling scene, but I have read alot and I think I have a pretty good understanding of what needs to be in a good team.

So firstly, here is an overveiw of the team:

Here we go:

Changes in Bold

Azelef @ Focus sash
Ability: Levitate
Evs: 212Atk/44SpA/252Spe
Naive Nature (+Spe -SDef)
-Stealth Rock
-Phychic
-Explosion
-Fire Blast

This Little Guy is a great lead. I have used him a bit on Shoddy and he destroys plenty of the common leads. He also sets up SR which really helps my Gyarados sweep when its time and is generally good to have. He is a suicide lead but, if he does manage to stay alive, he is a pretty good mid-late game sweeper incase Gyarados does not do its job. It also provides the only phychich type atack on the team which can help against ghosts.

Gyarados @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
Evs: 4HP/252Spe/252Atk
Adamant Nature (+Atk -SAtk)
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge


Gyarados cleans up the mess at the end. He effectively sweeps once his counters are cleared up. Porygon 2 is removed by heracross and other counters like Tangrowth and Matagross and effectively removed by Heatran. One His counters are removed, he easily can win games for this team.

Heracross @ Choice Band
Ability: Guts
Evs: 104HP/252Atk/152Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk -SAtk)
-Megahorn
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge
-Night Slash


Heracross is great. I chose to use night slash over the more common pursuit because the only time in going to be using a dark attack with him is on the predicted switch in, where Night Slash is superior to Pursuit. Heracross does good damage to most opponents and removes porygon 2 with Close Combat which opens up the feild for gyarados. Switches in and out alot so benifits from rapid spin support from tentacruel.

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
Evs: 4HP/252Spe/252SAtk
Naive Nature: (+Spd -SDef)
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-Hidden Power (Ice)
-Explosion

My team's revenge killer. My team is not very good defensively so I rely on this guy to remove any big threats. I ussually do not use fire blast right away, even if it is the best move, because heatran is so popular that I can get a lot of suprise kills on my opponent expecting to get a nice flash fire boost but instead getting a super effective Earth Power. HP Ice is for dragons. And once he has done his job and I am ready for a sweep, i will ussually explode opening it up for gyarados OR I might have to use explosion earlier on to remove a threat that my team needs gone.

Porygon 2 @ Leftovers
Ability: Trace
Evs: 252HP/216Def/40SAtk
Bold Nature (+Def -Atk)
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Recover
-Thunder Wave

In my opinion, he is the best check against the top OU threats. He stops gyarados and Salamence from setting up and also can stall against many walls if nessisary. He provides some defemsive ability to my team. He also switches in on heatran, vaporeon, and jolteon to use their abilities against them. Thunder wave support also stops some faster opponents from stopping my gyarados sweep.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Timid Nature / Pressure
EVs: 188 HP/176 Spd/144 SAtk
-Thunderbolt
-Heat Wave
-Hidden Power Grass
-Roost


Here for Tentacruel. Counters fighting; outspeeds lucario, and beats scizor.

Thanks for reading. Remeber I am new so dont be to harsh but still tell me everything I need to know. BTW this team is under .500 on Shoddy so it is not doing to well.

Rate Away!!!!

 

[Luxormaniac]

Overall better than most people's first RMT when they're convinced that Hyper Beam is the game's best move.
Quite sound.

Azelf- good.
Gyara- good.
Heatran- good. Keep up with outpredicting, it works. Always be bold.
Heracross- <--- is slow, so run a scarf. And 252 Speed EV's.
Porygon2- good.
Tentacruel- drop Giga Drain for Ice Beam. Waaaaaaay better coverage, Salamence won't chomp down on it. You don't have a bad swampert weakness anyway.

Overall, quite sound. More battling will increase your rating btw so don't worry about the 500 thing. You're doing fine. Good job reading and learning before posting, you don't seem noobish at all. Congratulations.

Hope this helps!

 

[Overcast2020]

Thanks alot, really appreciate it.

I changed Heracross to Scarf and 252 Speed Evs.

And I changed Giga Drain on Tentacruel for Ice Beam

Thanks Again

Anyone Else??

 

[Erazor]

On Porygon2, why are you running discharge and thunder wave on the same set? Use thunderbolt with thunderwave. Discharge is used to open up another slot, as it has a 30% chance of paralysis already.
Basically, Discharge and thunder wave overlap.

 

[hardbodycore]

the abreviation for speed is "spe" spd = special D.

 

[Imran]

I don't know why you changed your Choice Scarf Heracross to a Choice Band Heracross, you already have one scarfer on your team (Heatran) and you could really do with the massive power that CB Heracross brings to the table, this team is not going to break through heavy stall without that power. Also change the EVs back to the standard CBCross EVs that you had from the analysis, that'll be cool. So change Heracross back to CB Cross for now, and we'll take a look at how we can re-arrange your team a little to help it out a bit.

I'll start with Nitpicks on the sets, for example, Lead Azelf should really be running a more physically orientated spread, try a Naive nature with the EV spread 212 Atk / 44 SpA / 252 Spe. That will make for a much more powerful explosion, something that will be really useful for you. This is because lead Azelf rarely has too much time early game to do much more than SR and then Explode, so getting of a powerful Explosion is really what you want to be focusing on. Ice Beam is good on Tentacruel, keep it. I agree with the above poster, you might as well run Thunderbolt and Thunder Wave or Discharge and Toxic, whichever you prefer, as (like he said) Discharge and Thunder Wave overlap slightly and sorta do similar jobs. You might as well run Earthquake on Gyarados as well, Stone Edge does for all Dragon's not named Flygon who generally doesn't like to take +1 Waterfalls anyway so I'd consider simply running Dragon Dance / Waterfall / Stone Edge / Earthquake.

The plan is to set up Gyarados I assume, so the main thing that I'd question here is what Tentacruel is doing. Yes I know it's rapid spinning but it seems a waste of a Pokemon for a move that is pretty unreliable anyway (theres no guarentee you can find a time to use it, even if you do, your opponant can use that turn to set up on you) So I'd seriously consider replacing it. Zapdos is something that comes to mind for me, allows you a little more powerful offense should you need it, it can still counter Fighting types quite well, as long as you allow it to Outspeed Lucario, and still covers Scizor nicely, as tentacruel did. I just feel the pinch offense here would be so much more useful to you ^_^:

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Timid Nature / Pressure
EVs: 188 HP/176 Spd/144 SAtk
~ Thunderbolt
~ Heat Wave
~ Hidden Power Grass
~ Roost

It outspeeds Lucario so that you can revenge him nicely and deal with Scizor etc... In fact I have already expalined it to you so why do I bother >_> Anyway there you go, theres nothing else I can see right now unless you can think of anything else specific that you want help on, I'd be sure to help out, hook me up with a PM or whatever and we'll try to sort it out! Good Luck

 

[Overcast2020]

Thanks.

I changed spd to spe to represent speed.

And i changed everything that Goldfan suggested. Thanks.

This is going better than I expected.

Anyone else??

 

[darkrai lucario]

Good team, looks cool, but lets have a looksie...

For Azelf, I think the EVs are unevenly spread. Why are they mostly in attack? Explosion will kill anything that doesn't resist it regardless, so they really don't belong there. Put them in SpA instead; then he turns into a bit of a sweeper himself. SRer is a good idea for Azelf to set up, and its teammates. I wouldn't give it a naive nature, either. Try something like a mild nature; azelf is already so fast that speed boosts dont matter, specially not after all of the EVs you invested.

DDDos...one of the major competitive threats. You might want to give it leftovers just in case, when its DDing. Or you can give it Choice Band...then it wil murder virtually everything that doesn't resist it with waterfall.

This sounds n00b-ish but you might want to use a rain dance-thunder combo on zapdos. Its DEVASTATING.

overall score: 7 out of 10

HAPPY BATTLING! :D

 

[Overcast2020]

DrakaiLucaio,

I like your ideas and they are pretty good

BUT

Azelf is a lead and it ussually does not have enough time to sweep. Once it SEs it ussually has to explode right away cause it has been hit. The attack Evs ensure a lot of damage even against those who resist it.

Gyarados doesnt conme in untll late game anyway so CB is pointless but, i might consider leftovers incase i make a mistake setting up but, the power from LO is great.

I would try you Zapdos idea but it can mess up Heatran alot. Firstly, the rain would weaken Fire Blast and secondly it does not encourage the opponent to use water attack so it will be hard to switch in for a flash fire boost.

But still thanks for the rate and I will consider what you said.

Anyone else??

 

[boundersting1]

this looks like a good team, especially for a beginner, welcome to smogon btw lol, i do reccomend changing fire blast to taunt though, you can screw up slower suicide leads, and maybe even run a +spe nature to get the jump on other azelfs

 

[Overcast2020]

Thx alot

But ive tried taunt and it never works to good. i always end up being attacked when i use it. I know its probably cause im new and i dont have good prediction skills but it seems like a very risky move for me to use. Besides, i always get trapped by scizzors and fire blast is quite useful.

And I am running a plus speed nature.

Anyways thanks though ill definetally try taunt again.

Anyone else??