Rate, Don't Laugh at this Lurker's first Competitive Team

Don'tShootMeSanta

Don'tShootMeSanta

It is to my great displeasure that I bring you my first RMT! Although I've lurked on smogon and played competitive pokemon on and off for almost 2 years, my teams almost all seem to fail miserably. My main problem is probably my use of unconventional sets and a lack of balance throughout my team. So then, try not to cringe while you critique this strange mix of bulk, priority, and rain that has been my staple team for the last month.

Talonflame
talonflame.gif

Ability:Gale Wings
Item:Choice Band
252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 Hp, Jolly Nature

Brave Bird
Flare Blitz
Steel Wing
U-turn

The teams main lead, Talonflame rips through any pokemon that doesn't resist him. Otherwise, he U-turns away from defensive leads like T-tar and Rotom-W. His main problem? Choice band means constant switching out, which hurts with a 4x weakness to stealth rock. His longevity is hurt by recoil as well, especially when I'm revenge killing and cleaning up teams. Still, OHKO'ing Greninjas was never this much fun.

Gliscor
472.gif

Ability:Poison Heal
Item:Toxic Orb
252 Atk, 184 Hp, 72 Spd, Adamant Nature

Earthquake
Ice Fang
Protect
Swords Dance

Um, yes, I myself am not even sure what this Gliscor is supposed to do. He started off as an offensive variant to surprise any bulky pokemon who thought they could come in and wall him. However, with almost no defensive investment, gliscor can't set up or even attack half the time. Protect is for longevity, earthquake as the main attack, and ice fang kills 2hkos the many OU dragons that beat this gliscor one on one anyways. He has actually become my main answer for countering other gliscor, as he beats any stall/taunt variant one on one and can even set up. This guy still really needs help though...

Trevenant


Ability: Harvest
Item: Sitrus Berry
252 Spd, 252 Hp, 4 Def, Calm Nature

Protect
Leech Seed
Will-O-Wisp
Curse

Sitrus Berry, Spd investment, protect, and leech seed let this tree wall many things that would otherwise 2hko him for ever. Will-O-Wisp is a fantastic support move that with proper prediction can let him wall physical pokemon. Ghost-type curse may seem extremely gimmicky, but it has its uses. It goes through protect, and surprises magic bounce pokemon on the switch. It also allows trevenant to take on pokemon like ferrothorn one on one. the 50% hp cut is almost always halved by sitrus berry, and with protect and leech seed, recovering HP is not a problem.

Goodra


Ability: Hydration
Item: Damp Rock
252 Hp, 252 Spa, 4 Spd, Modest Nature

Dragon Pulse
Thunder
Rain Dance
Rest

I know what you may be thinking, "Hydration Goodra doesn't work". Your'e probably right, but let me defend him. This Goodra has ample opportunities to set up rain dance on Rotom-W, eating all statuses, moves, and healing with rest. After the opponent gets over the shock that they are seeing a hydration Goodra, perfect accuracy thunder surprises many pokemon and has an awesome 30% chance for paralysis. He may not be an extremely powerful attacker, but he packs quite the punch with investment, and doesn't go down easily with rest recovery. Unfortunately, this Goodra can only enjoy his torrential reign when steel types like scizor and foretress have been removed from play. He also can't stand up to his physical dragon buddies to save his life.

Rotom-W
479-wash.gif

Ability:Levitate
Item:Leftovers
252 Hp, 252 Spd, 4 Spa, Calm Nature

Volt Switch
Shadow Ball
Will-O-Wisp
Hydro Pump

This Rotom doesn't do much except soak up damage and spread status. He needs to rely heavily on rain and type advantage to deal much damage, and still fairs poorly there. Volt switch seems like an okay move, but sometimes I'd rather stay in and hit again with more electric stab. Shadow ball is an.... interesting coverage move that surpises ghosts, and psychic types, but he's still not hitting them hard anyways. Does this washing machine need a different moveset, ev spread, or a complete overhaul?

Scizor
212.gif

Ability: Techinician
Item: Scizorite
252 Atk, 252 Hp, 4 spd, Adamant Nature

Superpower
Bullet Punch
Roost
Swords Dance

The teams mega, mascot, and premium revenge killer. Scizor enjoys swords dancing his way to success, and surprising the other team by roosting away damage when they least expect it. Adamant lets him revenge kill things with unrivaled power, as he doesn't need to be outspeeding things with Jolly anyways. I'm not sure whether to go with super power or X-scissor, as one lets him kill opposing steel types, and other provides some better coverage without lowering his attack and defense. This scizor can find many opportunities to set up a swords dance, but this also provides the opponent to bring in their fire type coverage that is the bane of all scizors.


So now that you've thoroughly examined, analyzed, and ridiculed my mediocre attempt at a team, expose it's major flaws for me! Suggest moves, sets, and even different pokemon where appropriate. Just... tell me how I can salvage this team!
 
Perhaps use an easier to read format, such as the Showdown import/export format. Replace Rotom-W's Shadow Ball with Pain Split. Scizor needs Bug Bite over Superpower for STAB. Give Trevenant Substitute instead of Protect. Gliscor... oh dear. Replace Protect with Acrobatics, give it Hyper Cutter, and dump Toxic Orb and leave it with no item. Otherwise it's good.
 
I am gonna be a little harsh here and I apologize for that but this team aint to good what i reccomend is change the attack to defense ev's on gliscor and then give him toxic>swords dance also knock off>ice fang in most cases. i would suggest carrying horn leech>protect on trenevant as it gives him a stab attack some form of recovery besides leech seed and best of all it makes you not complete taunt bait. change rotom to physically defensive as it allows you to check t-flame better and use pain split>shadow ball. Last but not least i would change goodra to eiter an assault vest variant or a offensive variant as you lack any dedicated special attackers and the hydration set isnt that good and change the ability too gooey.
 
That confused gliscor is now a defensive toxic variant, and I changed Rotom-W to have defense EV's, which is working wonders. I added most of the move suggestions and changed Goodra for an assault vest attacker. It works way better, considering it performs a similar role and has two extra coverage moves. It's still a very flawed team, but its better now. =P
 
You REALLY need something to fend off rocks, because Talonflame doesn't like them, nor does Gliscor. While your team isn't bad, it's a little..unbalanced, but not that bad.
 
Skymin50 said:
You REALLY need something to fend off rocks, because Talonflame doesn't like them, nor does Gliscor. While your team isn't bad, it's a little..unbalanced, but not that bad.
Click to expand...

Gliscor isn't weak to Stealth Rock.

Steel Wing is useless on Smogonbird because you're only hitting TTar really, and you can get out of there with U-turn. Make this a "last resort" move like Tailwind or something.

Make Gliscor a defensive one, as people have said. You usually run HP > Defense when you only have 252 EVs. In your team, the best EV spread for that Goiscor would be changing Defense EVs to HP EVs. Though again, in this case run a defensive one.

Tree: max HP max Defense because you don't need Speed on that thing. Curse could be useful, but you want to survive, and they can simply switch. Make this Substitute, or a STAB.

Hydration Goodra doesn't work, it's a pointless gimmick. Cursedra is better (not joking that set is actually fun.) Use an AV Goodra with your EVs, Modest, Dragon Pulse, Flamethrower/Fire Blast, Muddy Water, and Sthunderbolt or Sludge Bomb.

Rotom: stop running max Speed on stuff like this. Also Calm nature out of nowhere. Run a fully defensive or fully soecially defensive one with the appropriate nature (Bold or Calm) and replace Shadow Ball. It's not STAB anymore, run Rest and hold a Chesto Berry or just run a Hidden Power that can beat a normal counter. (Fire or Ice)

Make Superpower on Scizor Brick Break. It's weak, but Scizor relies on its great Defense and you don't want to lower it.
 
Clearing up the hydration confusion, rain in general is a gimmick. Swift swim is a gimmick, hurricane is a gimmick, etc.
 
dbzmariogeno the EV's on Trevenant and Rotom-W were special defense ev's not speed. I guess I used the wrong abbreviation. That WOULD be an extremely random investment =p. Fixing up Goodra and Gliscor seems to have made the biggest improvement to my team. Better to make the most out of what a pokemon can do then to make it do many things poorly.
 
I recommend changing goodra into specially defensive tentacruel for hazard control and a good defensive check to special lucario which seriously threatens your team if talonflame can't revenge.

Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Sludge Bomb
- Knock Off/Toxic-Spikes

You can also consider a physically defensive spread on rotom-w which tends to be the more favorable of the two in this gen. Another Change I think might help your team is changing scizor. It seems to be one of your main win conditions besides band talonflame. I recommend something that is faster and can threaten things more immediately. Mega Lucario, Mega Pinsir, Dragonite are good options to fill scizor's position. I agree with the above changes to Rotom-W and Gliscor's movesets.
 
I've noticed the same with scizor, the team seems to lack just a bit of offence. What kind of dragonite set would fill the gap? I would consider it over scizor.
 
Dragonite @ Lum Berry/Weakness Policy
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage/Dragon Claw
- Earthquake/Fire Punch
- ExtremeSpeed

This set has problems with fairies so the rest of the team will have to work to deal with them. Also you have to choose between being able to hit ferrothorn and skarmory hard with fire punch or heatran with eq.
 
One small nitpick, replace Protect on your Gliscor with Substitute. I think it works better because Gliscor can set it up on things it forces out, such as physical Aegislash and some Tyranitar, then get a free Swords Dance and then have max health once again after the sub is broken. Protect gives your opponent free turns, and Substitute does exactly the opposite. Therefore, Gliscor should only run Protect on a Toxic stall set. If you want to get free Swords Dance, use sub, just watch out for Cloyster and Infiltrator/Boomburst.
 
Replace Goodra with E-Belt Lati0s. You can still take a hit or two from Rotom-W, Mega Venesaur and Mega Charizard Y, but you have better offensive capabilities to check faster threats and you have access to defog.

Latios @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Dragon Pulse
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Thunderbolt
 
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