VGC 2013 regionals team

Hello I am a new member here on smogon and This is my first VGC team I have made for RMT. I will try the best to tell you a descriptive introduction on each one. So without further ado lets look at my team.


Gandalf (Alakazam) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Focus Blast
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball

This pokemon is as you can see in the EVs is a special sweeper. I gave it a life orb for extra power on all its moves so it can it harder and thanks to it ability magic guard it won't take any damage after attacking. With shadow ball Alakazam can hit pretty hard on both Latios and Latias and with energy ball it can KO a Gastrodon and a Quagsire without a rindo berry.Psychic is for damage to no guard Machamp and hitmontop without suckerpunch.

Darmanitan (F) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
- Earthquake

Now this is the other sweeper,its a physical sweeper for pokemon that Alakazam can't take out with any of his moves. Flare blitz is for cizor, Metagross, and pokemon that don't resist this move that can't take one of these. Superpower is for Tyranitar and Blissey or Chansey. It's holding a focus sash for defense and if he goes against rain teams.

Gastrodon (M) @ Rindo Berry
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Muddy Water
- Recover

Now this is the rain stopper of my team. This Gastrodon has storm drain to block surf and muddy water from Kingdra and Politoed. I used a special defense one to survive draco meteor and an energy ball from special attackers. To stall a little bit I gave it recover to restore some HP. It holds a rindo berry to give it basically no weaknesses.

Cresselia (F) @ Colbur Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Icy Wind
- Signal Beam

This is my stat dropper and wall for anything. Cresselia uses icy wind for Latios to bring down its speed then use ice beam to do major damage. Psychic is for STAB and to do damage to fighting types. It holds colbur berry to weaken Hitmontops sucker punch and Weaviles night slash.

Scrafty (M) @ Fighting Gem
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Hi Jump Kick
- Drain Punch
- Fake Out
- Crunch

This Scrafty is used as fake out support on sand teams and rain teams. It uses fake out on sand rush Excadrill then with drain punch it KO'es excadrill and uses it moxie ability to set up freely then go form there. Crunch is given to him to hit Cresselia hard.

Thundurus (M) @ Electric Gem
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Focus Blast
- Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Dark Pulse

Thundurus is the final pokemon on my team and is the paralyze maker. I use it's ability to the fullest with thunder wave and hit rain teams with thunderbolt. Thunder wave is to stop Laitos, Kingdra, and Cresselia with paralysis and lower their speed very low so my sweeper of Scrafty can do damage or set up.

That is my VGC team in a nutshell and I how you can make alot of changes to help me and my team it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for helping me in advance.
 
Here's what I have to say.

One of the most important moves in VGC is Protect. You do not carry it once. I'm going to try to change the team as little as possible.

Alaka: The descriptions you are giving don't seem to really justify using it. I really do not like Focus Blast, missing on this can cost you countless matches. Anyway here is the set I suggest. Not straying to far, but some changes.

Ability: Magic Guard
Nature: Timid
Item: Life Orb
EV: 28 HP/252 SpAtk/228 Speed

Shadow Ball
Psyshock
Energy Ball/HP Fire
Protect

Shadow Ball is fine hit Latios like you said, Cress, for supereffective damage, etc. Psyshock > Psychic always for me. Hitmontop has more use than No Guard Machamp, and it's way more difficult to OHKO Hitmontop with Psychic than Psyshock. Other than Scrafty your team looks like it can struggle against Gastrodon so I'd keep Energy Ball in there, but Alakazam will struggle against Scizor, so HP fire will not only be a surprise, but give you a fire move in the event Darmanitan is KO'd/You do not choose it. Alakazam is not good defensively so Protect is a must, while a partner can potentially take care of it.

Also why 228. To out speed everything with 116 and below. I don't believe in putting it up to a 50/50 chance for this Alakazam to move before the other Alakazam so now you know that it won't. Then I put the rest of the Ev's into HP.


Darmanitan: Looks very promising, but there is one key thing I'd like to fix.

Ability: Sheer Force
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Scarf
EV: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Speed

Rock Slide
Flare Blitz
Superpower
Earthquake

Having Focus Sash + Flare Blitz kind of defeats the purpose. Also increases the chance that it will get killed. So use the Scarf to really get it's speed up, and pick the appropriate move. Your Darmanitan was very good, just the item needed fixing. :)


Gastro: Wouldn't change a thing. ;)

Cress: Eh.......................... It has to go. You need a type to resist Dragon types, so have a Metagross! :)

Nature: Adamant
Item: Steel Gem
EV: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Speed

Bullet Punch
Meteor Mash
Zen Headbutt
Protect

This Metagross can be an offensive powerhouse. Steel Gem... Can be used to finish off Pokemon in conjunction with Bullet Punch, or to add that extra power to make Meteor Mash a devastating force. Zen Headbutt > EQ because only Thundurus would resist it, and it is a powerful alternative STAB.


Scrafty: A few things I'd like to change.

Ability: Moxie
Nature: Brave
Item: Chople Berry/Expert Belt
EV: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def

Fake Out
Drain Punch
Crunch
Protect

I think the standard smogon set works best here. Chople Berry allows it to survive a massive hit from Montop's Fight gem Close Combat. Then the rest is to deal damage, restore a little HP here and there, maybe raise a little attack. Expert Belt can be used if you want more power for your moves, but it will no longer survive Fight Gem CC.

Thundurus: It's a little to focused on attacking. With the removal of Cresselia, you can give it some more status support.

Ability: Prankster
Nature: Calm
Item: Sitrus Berry
EV: 196 HP/60 SpAtk/252 SpD

Thunder Wave
Thunderbolt
Taunt
Protect/HP Ice

Okay here you can fully take advantage of Prankster with T-wave to cripple fast threats/defensive tanks. Thunderbolt with the option of HP Ice for extra coverage. And Taunt which is one of the most useful moves. Fear Sableye no more! I use this Thundurus all the time and it works really well.


I hope I did a good job and you can use some of this! Good luck!! :)

P.S.

http://sprites.pokecheck.org/

Go here for moving sprites. Copy and paste them.
 
Okay so what golden piloswine said is completely correct, but one minor change I would recommend is mienshao instead of scrafty otherwise your team is too slow even with scarf darmanitan your team can still be walked on by fast offensive teams.

Mienshao is a faster fighting type with the same goals as Scrafty but with a little less bulk and a lot more speed.

Ability: innerfocus
Nature: Jolly
Item: Expert Belt
EV: Spe HP/252 Atk/4 Def

Fake Out
Drain punch
Rock slide
Protect


Hope I helped and good luck.

Chenkovsky.
 

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