(OU/RMT) New to all of Competitive pokemonishness.

[Akirai]

Another first timer greets you all. I've been playing Shoddy for ~3 days now, first with a funky Baton Pass team I found on this site, and now with a home made selection (since well, the fun part about Pokemon is building and personalizing your own team). It mostly consists of premade templates taken from the University, with a minor adaptation here or there. In general its been succesful, winning 5 out of 5 matches (not counting the obviously bad full eevee team).

Donphan@Leftovers
Impish
HP4,Att252,Def252

Earthquake
Rock Slide
Stealth Rock
Rapid Spin

Donphan leads. Earthquake seems to kill most other leads, OHKO or 2HKO, and is also my best Electric counter (Earthquake vs ground based Electrics, Rock Slide vs Zapdos) who gave me some trouble when I was running a Hippowdon (first two matches or so). Stealth Rock and Rapid Spin offer some utility and set-up potential.

Weavile@Expert Belt
Jolly
HP40,att252,spe216

Pursuit
Night Slash
Ice Punch
Brick Break

Weavile provides me with STAB Ice and Dark moves. Deals mostly with Dragons, Grass and Psychic types so I can Sub-Baton Pass with Vaporeon (which is omg OPed btw).

Togekiss@Leftovers
Jolly
HP252,Att4,Sp252

Air Slash (60%Flinch)
Shadow Ball (40%SpDef-1)
Body Slam (60%Prlz)
Roost

Togekiss is strong. He doesn't die thanks to high Health and (Sp)Def, and is very capable of Flinching anything to death (especially Fighters and Grass) while being very effective at dealing with Ghosts (Shadow Ball lowers their bad defenses even further). It's a shame neither Normal nor Flying has SpA version of Air Slash or Body Slam. I was thinking of running Thunder Wave > Body Slam and Facade/Tri Attack > Shadow Ball.

Vaporeon@Leftovers
Calm
HP192,Def252,Spe64.

Surf
Wish
Substitute
Baton Pass

Surf scares off a few fire attackers, which is pretty nice. It's also the only water attack on the team. Wish provides team healing and super high HP Substitutes provide good options for my Azelf and Breloom to set up.

Azelf@Life Orb
Timid
HP36,Spe220,SpA252

Psychic
Thunderbolt
Flamethrower
Nasty Plot

Switch into Azelf with a Substitute, Nasty Plot once, kill pretty much everything. There's only a few pokemon this sweeper can't OHKO (Blissey 1, 2 and 3 >.>) with Nasty Plot boosted hits, either super effective or neutral. The type coverage is good enough it'll only rarely have to shift out.

Breloom@Toxic Orb/poison heal
Adamant
HP44, Att252, Spe212

Mach Punch
Seed Bomb
Spore
Swords' Dance

If your opponent is packing lots of SpD, this guy can stop them dead. A lot of teams have only one guy with high Def; I just sleep him or swords dance and proceed killing him anyway (I'm stubborn I guess).

So far I like the team, but I was wondering whether anyone had ideas to improve it?

 

[Erazor]

Change Weavile into :
Weavile @ Choice Band
jolly nature
252 atk/ 252speed/ 6 def
-ice shard
-pursuit
-brick break
-night slash

It helps you revenge kill things, especially DDMence after a couple of DD's. Otherwise, it walks over this team.

 

[Orion]

For Donphan, give it 252 HP instead of Attack, so that you live a bit longer. Donphan generally wants to be as bulky as Possible, since his job is to take hits, not dish them out. Hippowdon or Swampert arguably does such a set better, and if you find Zapdos being a problem; simply give either one of them Roost. Hippowdon also has access to Slack Off, something Donphan really wish it had, meaning Hippowdon is always the preferred option over Donphan if you don't mind Sandstorm. It doesn't seem like that's the reason you removed him, so I will suggest bringing him back with Earthquake / Slack Off / Stealth Rock / Roar.

To Togekiss, I have no idea why you are running Jolly, especially when your primary attacks are Special, and Togekiss' SpAtt is massive. And Air Slash is a Special-move, fyi. Thunder Wave or Body Slam is just up to wether you want 60% Paralyze hitting Grounds (and dealing some minor damage) or 100% Paralyze not hitting Grounds and Jolteon/Electivire/Lanturn. For the final move (Shadow Balls spot) Nasty Plot or Air Slash are the most common moves. Nasty Plot boosts Togekiss' already enormous SpAtt to incredible proportions, while Aura Sphere is a strong and reliable attack that combined with Air Slash gives very good coverage. When it comes to Nature, go Bold or Calm, so you give Togekiss a little added bulkiness to live longer, making him more of a pain to take down. With paralysis, you don't really need Speed anyway.

Vaporeon does not need Speed EVs. Put them in Sp.Defense or HP instead.

Your Azelf will fall versus Tyranitar or Heatran. An easy fix to that is Hidden Power Fighting. Replace Thunderbolt. Also, Azelf has NO use for HP EVs, just put them all in Speed, so that you tie with other 361'ers should the need for that arise.

Now, generally, anything with setup rapes this team. Lucario, Scizor and Gyarados comes to mind. After they have set up their respective boosting-moves, you have no chance to win the battle, actually. A Pokémon that counter all those are a Defensive Gyarados. You might get problems against the other Gyaradoses, but if you pack Stone Edge, that's cool. If you use:

@Leftovers
[Impish]
252 HP, 216 Def, 40 SpDef
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

you got all three checked, and you have a generally bulky an great Pokémon. Breloom doesn't really do all that much, so this Gyara can come in over him.

 

[Akirai]

Thanks for the advice guys. I changed the set up around a bit and it's definitely working better.
@Erazor - I like that Weavile better, though I'm probably going to try Aerial Ace on it. Would that allow venge kills on Fighting types or are they in general too sturdy to take on?

@Orion - the new Togekiss and Vaporeon are a lot better. I don't know why, but I can't get the hang of Hippowdon as a lead Pokemon. He always seems to end up dead too early, leaving me without roar and ground type. As a lead, I've replaced him with Skarmory (Whirlwind, Spikes, Roost, Best Bird) who I just seem to work better with (less deaths, more usage = me happy). As the team looked overly weak to physical moves and lightning attacks, I switched in Rhyperior (Rest/Sleep Talk/Earthquake/Stone Edge) for Gyarados. I'm also thinking of replacing Azelf with Alakazam (as Trick is neat) but I'll first try it with the current lay out.

 

[Orion]

If Hippowdon fails you as a lead Pokémon, just switch his place with a different Poké on your team. Rhyperior has a great Defense, but his weakness to the ever-common Ground and Fight as well as having two 4x-types cripples his walling abilities. I'd say Hippowdon is better han Rhyperior, so just switch those two. Also, setup is still an issue, Gyarados with Taunt and DD will in particular be your biggest issue.
If you fit in HP Electric somewhere on Vaporeon, that is easily taken care of tho, so try to do that. SubPass isn't all that necessary, and you'll benefit more from having HP Electric and Yawn/Protect/Ice Beam.

And to boundersting1: wth?