• Smogon Premier League is here and the team collection is now available. Support your team!

Team Building

I begin searching for a lead that i like. Than i'm going to search another pokemon that i like (This varies really by the days). First when i find a pokemon that i like, i'm going to look to its stats and moves and than decide of it's become bulky or a sweeper, but now i can't pick every pokemon because if i choose for example a Azelf as a lead. I don't pick a pokemon of the same type.

Mostly when i don't like a pokemon verry much and i'm going to play with it, I like it more and more.
 
Well, when I create a team I have one central thing in mind... don't create anything bog-standard. If I wanted a standard team I would just copy paste something and go with that but I think that's really boring. So avoiding too common things, at least to a certain extent, is my main priority with creating teams - this doesn't mean I will never use common pokemon, as you are about to see if you scroll down, but I always add my own touch to the team. Some people create teams the way they do because they know they'll be very powerful whether in general or against a certain opponent they know they'll face, I could never do that.

I want something that challenges me to make the most out of great potential but which will generally not stand up to your average standard team in a slugfight. This is because to me, winning itself is pointless - it's a good game that counts, but I still aim to win and don't just design teams like a kid picking candy.

I never create teams that try to cover everything. Rather, I want to make sure that my team covers itself - ie. that it's really a team that always works well together and not just a bunch of strong pokemon hoping to face the right enemy team. Pokemon that perform well in the role I give them or even exceed my expectations and fulfill more than what I intended for them to get placed in my mental registry of good pokemon.

Then I think of what I want this team to do. Take my most stable team for example, it consists of:

Forretress
1. Gyro Ball - SR - Spikes - Rapid Spin
Relaxed 252/252 hp & def, Leftovers
---------
Vaporeon
2. Surf - Heal Bell - Wish - Roar
Bold 252/252 def & sp. def, Leftovers
---------
Machamp
3. Dynamicpunch - Stone Edge - Rest - Light Screen
Careful 60/192/252 hp/def/sp. def, No Guard, Leftovers
---------
Rotom-w
4. Shadow Ball - Hydro Pump - Confuse Ray - Thunder Wave
Calm 252/108/150 hp/sp. atk/sp. def, Leftovers
---------
Smeargle
5. Spore - Substitute - Belly Drum - Baton Pass
Jolly 252/252 hp & spe, Own Tempo, Leftovers
---------
Dragonite
6. Agility - Dragon Claw - Fire Punch - Earthquake
Adamant 248/184/78 hp/atk/def, Leftovers


The pokemon I started with was my favorite, Dragonite. I knew I wanted him to be the final sweeper but I didn't want to use DD so I decided to Smeargle-pass. From here on, I had four team slots to use which I considered a separate team; these four slots should be completely independant from the last two. The objective of these four team slots would be to wear out, scout and semi-stall my opponent's team as much as possible.

With that in mind I put Forretress as my lead, because I wanted a rapid spinning double-spiker. Forretress's only flaw is its inability to deal with leads such as MixNite, otherwise it works great - especially against stuff like Metagross that can't boost one of its offensive stats while Forretress is spiking.

Next followed a lot of trial and error. I originally used to have Spiritomb there, but then I decided to put in Rotom-w which I am happier with. I did this because I thought Rotom-w would simply work better. The ghost is there to spin block and be a catch-all lockdown against sweepers.

Vaporeon was added to give longevity and sustainability to the four slots. I wanted something that could help me scout which is additionally useful because of Spikes, and I wanted Heal Bell & Wish to support Rotom-w & Machamp.

Machamp is there to give physical punch as well as help me soak up special hits. With 295 sp. def and 336 hp + Leftovers before Light Screen, Machamp is very good at taking special hits. After he's done he'll Rest, I'll switch to Vaporeon who will Heal Bell & Wish, then switch back to Machamp for another go. I figured that 296 attack doesn't really need to be boosted because Machamp's primary purpose must stay to with the 4-slot plan, and that plan is not one of offense.

Dragonite can in emergencies be used as a cleaner which is helped a lot by Forretress. I want to use Dragonite as a cleaner only as my last resort and never voluntarily switch into either Smeargle or Dragonite unless the time has come. Agility helps me outspeed things that a single Dragon Dance could never do unless I'd switch EVs, which would make him much more vulnerable to priority moves and attacks in general, which is not good because I always expect to take a few hits. Expecting to stat-up without getting damaged in the process is just foolish.

Of course, my thoughts are more spontaneous and anarchic when I actually make the team but I hope I provided some insight. That was for that team. Otherwise I usually throw random pokemon together with a vague plan that I've taken a liking to, test it out, make changes and go like that.
 
At first, I come up with Pokémon that I want to use, and then I try to "fill in the holes". In UU, for example, this is often a Pokémon set that I saw in the megathread, or a Pokémon that could become a suspect, or an OU dropout. I could be building around any number of Pokémon; sometimes I feel like putting five specific Pokémon into a team. However, when it comes to playtesting, no Pokémon is safe. There are many times in which I originally built a team around a certain Pokémon and then removed that Pokémon in playtesting. Just about every team concept I've done has used some version of this method.
 
Often times, I build my teams not around what I like, but what my opponents like. Surely you have seen how Scizor is down almost 5% in the stats, Ok, well let's work with that. Perhaps, with Scizor down, Tyranitar is up, what could work to fight Tyranitar??

With an ever changing metagame, I tend to base my teams off what I think is the best fit for the time.
 
I usually start out with the stars of the show. For example, Feraligatr and Absol for my UU team. Lead Uxie with Momento dual screens are perfect setup for them, Absol SDs and Feraligatr DDs.
Articuno, which is one of my favorite NU Pokemon, used on the lead position. It losses to Typholosion, so Ninetales which as Flash Fire and is immune to fire gives it great synergy, Nasty Plotting on the switch respectively.

I usually build heavy offense teams, so I start with potential sweepers, and then look for the proper support Pokemon to give them the jump they need.
 
What I do is start with a concept. I'll want to use Rain Dance or Gravity or a certain offensive/defensive core of Pokemon. "Alright," I say to myself, "what works best with the given concept?" So, you know, I'll look at everything that stands to gain something under the rain or Gravity, or works well with the "core" Pokemon I want to use so badly ("You know who doesn't get enough love? Breloom. Now, who makes a good teammate for him?").

In the process of building the team up, I'll usually just add the first things that come to mind, because like Peppy Hare always said, I "never give up" and "trust [my] instincts". Whatever comes to mind first is probably most agreeable with my own battling style, so I'll throw it in.

Phase Three is field testing and tweaking, which is pretty much a matter of saying, "Crap, Gyarados consistently causes problems for my team. Do I have a Pokemon that could handle Gyarados, if I just gave it Hidden Power Electric or whatever?" If nobody can, only then do I start replacing entire Pokemon.
 
JonTheRed said:
Phase Three is field testing and tweaking, which is pretty much a matter of saying, "Crap, Gyarados consistently causes problems for my team. Do I have a Pokemon that could handle Gyarados, if I just gave it Hidden Power Electric or whatever?" If nobody can, only then do I start replacing entire Pokemon.
Click to expand...

How many times will you run that team before making a change?
 
I always start on paper. I usually have 2 walls, some sweepers, and a lead. One of my friends uses ALL SWEEPERS, and it's really fun to just kick his butt. I enjoy having 1 starter on my team (swampert) and don't change him or get rid of him, I just make a new team.
 
I prefer working from a base and looking at what each thing lures in. With enough differences and some overlap one can cover most threats. It is also important to know the metagame you are playing in and what is popular.
 
Everyone needs to start somewhere.
Number one step I perform is to pick one specific Pokémon.
From that I move onto the next step, which is to make this Pokémon shine in the team.
I build around while covering its weakness and find ways to get rid of counters that may prevent it from performing its job.
Finally I'll come up with something very balanced.


Another way is to pick a theme.
For example now I'm working on a team abusing Prafusion.
You just need to find one good start in order to build a great team.

Even the best players in the world needs to start somewhere.
 
Zombiewski said:
How many times will you run that team before making a change?
Click to expand...

Well, that depends on how troublesome the problematic Pokemon actually is, though I'd say two or three run-ins with the homewrecker might be enough, depending on the circumstances. If it turns out my problem is with something seeing obscene usage (like Scizor), I might even deign to fix things immediately.
 
To borrow a term from Magic the Gathering, I modify netdecks.

1. When I want to build a new team, first I find a list of teams that I like/were successful (RMT forum is great) and try them all out 5-20 times.

2. I narrow it down to which I like best, and then play with it several times until I feel I know the team inside out.

3. At this point, I can start making changes to the team to shore up my perceived weaknesses, or use a different pokemon or set I would like to try out.

4. Then I test my changes and assess whether I have made the team better or worse. If worse, revert back to old version and change the team in another possible way. If new version is better, go to step 2.

The process is never-ending, but usually I end up with something distinctly my own.
 
Team building is very enjoyable, which unfortunately creates many bad threads in the RMT forum. I usually build around a specific pokemon, like for example if I wanted to build something around SD scizor the process looks like this

scizor has trouble with fire and water pokes, so we add in gyarados to resist them
gyarados has trouble hurting water pokes so we can also add in jolteon, helping scizor with water while simultaneously covering gyarados's electric weakness.
since that forms our base we can spread out more, so say we want a phazer. bulky swampert phazes while giving us another fire and electric resist, and checking many threats with its versatility.
then we finish off with a specially defensive togekiss, giving us another ground immune and spreading around thunder wave to help our sweepers out.
since our 5 stand on their own pretty well any suicide lead will do. aerodactyle gets up SR, and can shut down many other leads since we have 2 sr weak pokes and only 1 resist.

team build complete
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top