Team Help

[ForKhaz]

I have been watching competitive battles for a few months now, and decided I should give it a try myself. So I decided to make a RU team, and could use some advice.

Here is my team:

Sceptile @ Grass Gem
Trait: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Earthquake
- Acrobatics
- Swords Dance

Physical sweeper. Grass gem to boost leaf blade, then unburden for a huge speed boost. Also, using the gem gives acrobatics a lot more power. So far, it has worked very well. Solid late-game sweeper, capable of breaking common walls with ease after a boost.


Aggron @ Choice Band
Trait: Rock Head
EVs: 116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Aqua Tail
- Head Smash
- Earthquake

Massive physical damage and can make use of it's natural bulk. Also, nice for taking out flying types with rock head. Overall pretty hard hitter. Head Smash takes out it's common checks, Aqua Tail, Earthquake and Heavy Slam are there for coverage.


Klinklang @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 100 HP / 252 Atk / 156 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Gear Grind
- Shift Gear
- Wild Charge
- Return

Gear grind has decent neutral coverage and great damage when coupled with shift gears. Also, being a steel type, he has a good amount of resistances. Wild charge to cover some pokemon who resist gear grind. Return covers what Gear Grind and Wild Charge can't hit hard enough.


Kabutops @ Life Orb
Trait: Battle Armor
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rocks
- Rapid Spin
- Aqua Jet
- Stone Edge

Entry hazard set up and spin support. Aqua jet and Stone Edge to add some powerful stab damage. Most people expect the swords dance variant but I choose this as I have no way to set up the entry hazards. Overall hard hitter and solid mon.


Slowking @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 212 HP / 252 SAtk / 44 Spd
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Psyshock
- Fire Blast

Decent bulk with good move coverage to take on a wide variety of type, mainly fire types and dragon. With Regenerator + Leftovers, a recovery move seems redundant. It hits pretty much everyone in the tier hard with those coverage moves and a modest nature.


Sigilyph @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Flash Canon

Flash canon to give coverage v. rock and ice which could otherwise take it down, roost for some staying power, and powerful psychic and air slash stab to make good use of it's great speA. My original choice was Rhydon, but someone told me that something immune to ground would be better as I already have Aggron and Klinklang weak to it.


So what do you think? Any advice on where to go from here?

 

[WhiteDMist]

Please read the rules and give your team descriptions. Also, look at what else makes a good RMT. If you need help learning about the metagame, take a gander over to Battling 101 and get some tutoring! Some of your sets do need work, so that would be an excellent start (a hint: NO FLASH CANNON ON SIGILYPH!). Good luck and welcome to Smogon! :)

Edit: Ok, you have some descriptions. Since RU isn't my tier, I only have a few suggestions. For Sigilyph, Flash Cannon offers no coverage. Psychic hits most Ice and Rock types much harder due to STAB. Hidden Power Fighting is much more useful to hit what Sigilyph is vulnerable to, namely Steel and Dark types. The other things I feel I should comment on are Kabutops and Slowking. Kabutops is running an offensive EV spread, so I think it may be trying to do too much by setting up Rocks and Rapid Spinning. Perhaps Rapid Spin can be replaced with Waterfall or Swords Dance? The other thing is the fact that Slowking lacks the bulk to be your defensive backbone, and it lacks the power to actually be too threatening. Perhaps Choice Specs would be the more efficient option in order to use SLowking's full power and coverage. I'll let other raters give their thoughts on these matters.

 

[ForKhaz]

Please read the rules and give your team descriptions. Also, look at what else makes a good RMT. If you need help learning about the metagame, take a gander over to Battling 101 and get some tutoring! Some of your sets do need work, so that would be an excellent start (a hint: NO FLASH CANNON ON SIGILYPH!). Good luck and welcome to Smogon! :)

Edit: Ok, you have some descriptions. Since RU isn't my tier, I only have a few suggestions. For Sigilyph, Flash Cannon offers no coverage. Psychic hits most Ice and Rock types much harder due to STAB. Hidden Power Fighting is much more useful to hit what Sigilyph is vulnerable to, namely Steel and Dark types. The other things I feel I should comment on are Kabutops and Slowking. Kabutops is running an offensive EV spread, so I think it may be trying to do too much by setting up Rocks and Rapid Spinning. Perhaps Rapid Spin can be replaced with Waterfall or Swords Dance? The other thing is the fact that Slowking lacks the bulk to be your defensive backbone, and it lacks the power to actually be too threatening. Perhaps Choice Specs would be the more efficient option in order to use SLowking's full power and coverage. I'll let other raters give their thoughts on these matters.

Thanks for the advice. I wanted spin support because I am afraid of toxic spikes wearing down an already frail sceptile who is my main sweeper. I realize I was afraid of putting too much into offense and having little, if any support. I chose leftovers on slowking after a few battles where I wish I could have made use of his other coverage moves, especially late game when my options were limited. My main concern when using this team is fire types. Sceptile was able to OHKO a Magmortar with Earthquake after SR damage, but Magmortar is rather frail, which is the main reason I chose Slowking. I have been thinking about going a defensive set for slowking, but fear that may make me to physically reliant. A Will-o-wisping Duskonoir gave me some trouble yesterday, but luckily it was the last pokemon, and I was able to wear it down with Klinklang after aggron succombed.