Other Your Teambuilding Process (ORAS)

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Hello everyone hows it going? I decided that I wanted to revamp this thread for ORAS due to the metas changing with all of the new megas and move tutors. I also want this to be a resource for people to share their teambuilding processes and give players new and old different looks on how to build in this meta.

I will start this off by sharing the way I build a Bulky Offensive team as it is my favorite playstyle.

1. This is obvious and is on most people's list, finding a pokemon to build around. This can be a Mega Evolution, Hazard Setter, Cores, or anything in between for me. I like to build around many interesting pokemon that have certain niches in the OU metagame as it gives me a lot of options and variety when I build. When it comes down to Cores I will either create one myself or just be like most players and go to the good cores thread. I will build around Balance, Offensive, Defensive, or Weather Cores as I think all of them can provide interesting options.

2.Figure out the overall concept of the team and start adding pokemon after. This is important for me as I think that some of the newer players when they build overlook what type of team they may want to build. This usually depends on what you like. "Maybe I want a Volt-Turn team as Pokemon X can form a decent Volt-Turn core with Pokemon Y." When I get my overall concept figured out I move on to finding other pokemon.

3. Hazard Setter/Spinner/Defogger/Prevention. So these spots are almost mandatory on most Bulky Offensive/Balance Teams. For me spinners usually can come down to pokemon like Starmie, Excadrill, Hitmontop, (Yes, Hitmontop) or Tentacruel I usually like spinner over defoggers but it all comes down to preference and can change from person to person. Hazard Setters is a long list but I usually like it to be something Physically defensive that has a chance vs Gross, Lop, Diancie, etc. Defoggers are less common on my teams because like I mentioned I am not the biggest fan of losing my hazards. But when I do Latis come to mind as well as mons like Empoleon or Skarmory. Hazard prevention is basically the Magic Bouncers.

4. Stallbreaker/Wallbreaker/Fat Balance Breaker This category is another one where I try to think with an open mind as there are tons of things to break Mega Sableye or Sp.def Talonflame. This can be a Mega or just a powerful mon like CB Victini. (Which is amazing Btw) Or something with wallbreaking potential from lower tiers that is neglected.

5. Offense Breaker/Revenge Killer/Priority User. This is another thing that is wide but to get some mons out of the way: Diancie, Keldeo, Talonflame, Landorus-Therian, Bisharp, Manectric, Raikou, Tyranitar, Excadrill, Landorus-I, Thundurus-I, etc. These all being standard and effective at this there are many that are not used and not as popular as these, which can spice things up or surprise the opponent.

6:Fairy/Bulky Steel This is nearly mandatory with all of this fairy/Dragon spam and with offensive steels running around. Not much to talk about except for a role like this I love Tran/Clef as one of these as they check a lot of the meta and have a lot of versatility.

7. The patching stage. Before I make a finished draft of the team and before testing it I try to make sure that major things are covered up although it is impossible to check every single pokemon in the meta as something can always beat you. Its usually patching huge holes I may have missed.

8. Test on the ladder or Fight Friends. This is the most tedious stage but if you got friends who are decent battlers then you can battle them but the ladder regardless of whether you have the patience or not it is the best way to do this. You face more variety of playstyles and get tons of matches.

9. Repeat 7-8 Until your satisfied or Scrap the team. Some teams and concepts are bad from the start so you may have to unfortunatley scrap them. But if it worked out then I guess you got a new team.

I hope you guys enjoyed this guide and I would love to see how many others build after all of these meta shifts. (Note I may update this thread if we have a big meta shift in ORAS.) :]
 

SketchUp

Don't let your memes be dreams
This really depends on the teams I build. Since ORAS I've built every archetype at least once and building for every team was different.
When building balance:

Stage 1
This is the stage that is done before you enter the teambuilder. I only make new teams when I think: I want to build a team around this set or around this core. So I basically have 1 or 2 pokemon ready before the teambuilding really starts. I take for this example a team that got me to a few good results in OU tours and did pretty well mid ladder. I wanted to build around Sub PuP Victini so I started the teambuilding phase with only one pokemon.

Stage 2
I don't think many people follow this certain teambuilding guide, but it works very good for me when building a team. I look for weaknesses to my pokemon / core. For this example pokemon like Quagsire, Landorus-Therian and Garchomp give me issues. I look for a pokemon that can defeat these pokemon, so I basically have a flexible core that can be changed a lot. I repeat this until I have 6 pokemon, which is pretty weird and often gives me a strange first look at my team.

Stage 3
Now I look at the threatlist and I see that sand offense and stall with quagsire or slowbro give me problems. This is probably the most important stage for your team because it transforms your 2-minute-team into a well rounded team. I often end up with only keeping 2 or 3 pokemon from my first draft, but the positive point of this teambuilding 'strategy' is that you can easily change your team from offense to balance or from stall to semi-stall. This is the stage where the most creativity is, because you have to find lures, own ev spreads or niche pokemon to fix weaknesses to your team. Tough part is that you need to look for a point of balance in your pokemons sets. We take Hippowdon for example. The first spread I used was a physical defensive spread, but with only 1 switch in to electric spam (AV Raikou, who has no recovery) I needed an extra switch in for Raikou and Thundurus so I made Hippowdons spread mixed. Now comes the issue: not only is Hippowdon my best switchin for Talonflame and Mega Scizor, it is now also pressured a lot because it has to check many pokemon at the same time. With a mixed spread Mega Scizor and Talonflame are bigger problems for my team and because it does more jobs at once, it is not gonna stay healthy all the time. Add the issue that I need both Whirlwind for Mega Scizor and Stone Edge for Talonflame and Thundurus, and I have a very difficult situation. This situation often ends up where I need to change HP Fire for HP Ice on Tangrowth for example, so SD Roost Mega Scizor won't 6-0 me and Landorus-T is already dealt with another pokemon. This takes a lot of time but at the end you have a well rounded team.

Stage 4
While you are also testing your team a bit in Stage 3, Stage 4 is the stage where you test your teams to find very big threats to your team. Of course it is impossible to make a team that can handle all threats. In this stage I end up with a list of the biggest threats to my team and I have to look which is most common to prepare for. Of course your team is left open with a big threat for your team, something that gets a kill every time it comes in, but what is the most important you have to prepare for? For example: My team is weak against the following 5 pokemon: Modest Mega Gardevoir, Bulk Up Talonflame, Low Kick Bisharp, SubSD Hawlucha and Reflect Type Starmie. It is important to find a certain change to your team that won't hurt your team that much, but helps a lot against the mentioned threats. The two most common pokemon/sets of the list are Starmie and Gardevoir. For me it is fine to have a weakness to SubSD Hawlucha. First of all, it is uncommon af and second of all, you can play around it if you keep your pokemon healthy enough. These minor changes are very important in some matchups. There are some important things to consider such as: I have 3 ground resists, but can I defeat all pokemon that use these ground moves or are some problematic?
 
I have two types of Processes. One that I do if I have a lot of time. The second one if I'm really lazy and want to mess around on Showdown.
My ideal Team Building Process:
My teambuilding process is different from both of yours. Both of you guys start with a pokemon you want to build the team around; I don't. Rather, I think of the style I want my final team to play with. I really like Stall, but I've done Volt-Turn, Trick Room, and Bird Spam before.

Then I come up with a list of pokemon that are crucial to this theme. So for my Bird Spam team, Talonflame, Staraptor, and M-Pinsir were all on automatically. I then get a list of their weaknesses and come up with 1-2 pokemon that will shore up any common faults.

Then I grab a SR setter, and a Physical and Special wall. Often times I'm sandwiching multiple jobs on the same pokemon by it really helps if you have a desginated pokemon that is your Physical/Special wall. It takes a lot of guesswork out of knowing how you're going to handle certain threats. However, this is also the most optional step because some team styles (like TR) use more strong pokemon and less walls. This is basically the step where you figure out how to hard-stop the meta's biggest threats.

And lastly I add a revenge killer. This is usually Bisharp or Talonflame because the way the current meta's going, both are extremely useful to stop super statted-up threats, however it can be anything. This step is non-negotiable because often times if you forget to account for a threat, clever use of your revenge killer can sort it out. Then I test a bunch and finalize my team.

My "Abridged" Team Building Process:
1) Grab a super strong Physical sweeper/mega.
2) Grab a super strong Special Sweeper or mega.
3) Grab a Physical wall [Hint hint Slowbro], a revenge killer [Hint hint Talonflame], and stick Stealth Rocks somewhere.
4) Ladder a bit and identify your weakest pokemon. Then replace if with a cool pokemon your opponent used.

Ironically, my "abridged" process has led to my most fun teams and to a lot of successful teams.
 
Uhm I build Balance a lot and my teambuilding strategy goes as follows

1.) Find a win condition
Find the primary wincondition of your team, say, let's use bulkyDD ZardX as my first example. This is basically the cornerstone of everything you build around.

2.) Help said Wincon
Find a pokemon or two that assists your wincondition offensively or defensively. if your wincon is say double Dance Lando t, run something to eat up moves from watertypes like azumarill, keldeo, or rotom-w that might cause set up/revenge kill problems. usually like celebi or amoonguss. Offensively, if your pokemon has trouble getting past a certain pokemon, add a lure, like Hp fire protect Diancie for TGRD scald/eball manaphy to nail ferrothorn. Or also pokemon that can reliably deal with defensive checks/counters for that pokemon. In this case i would go with Diggersby for Zardx, as Diggy wears down/outright kills most of Zardx's checks/counters like hippo, lando t and slowbro.

3.) Add on/Patch up team with support pokemon
Start adding pokemon to patch up holes in your team, like something to deal with gengar who annoys diggersby and what not. Usually includes hazard control pokemon. I try to pick defensive pokemon that don't cover the same threats/weak to the same things so i can expand the things my team deals with. That means not using latias as my defogger because having additional weaknesses to scarf garchomp/latios sucks, as well as Zard x can deal with Zard Y (kindof, it's good to have a better check but if you can't something like this can do. you can't cover everything perfectly, but in this metagame you can cover everything to some degree). Right now Thundurus i is a problem b/c twave shuts down zard x, so i might add AV raikou onto the team to deal with that as well as take on gengar for diggersby. Raikou also gives me a better way of dealing with zard y.

4.) Build a defensive core off of existing pokemon on your team
Right now the example team i have has Diggy, Zard X and raikou. using Raikou as a base as well as taking into account pokemon that i check offensively, i create a defensive core. You're basically just turning whatever defensive support you had into a core, or if you don't have any simply creating a defensive core to help Adding hippowdon to absorb ground type moves that raikou and zard x hates is a good start, as well as gives me a hazard setter. from there my team is kinda weak to azumarill and other water types so i add Grass Type Amoonguss or Potentially Celebi to the field. Amoonguss has spore which is an amazing utility and Celebi has heal bell. Celebi is also weak to pursuit trappers, but thats not an issue as hippowdon sits on Ttar and Bisharp. Celebi can also switch into slowbro and overly haxed by twave like amoonguss can be.

5.) Patch anymore holes, and make sure you have all the utility pokemon you need.
Add on anything that is useful defensively or offensively and make sure it mixes well with your existing pokemon. Gardevoir is an issue so i'll be using a defogger that can take it on like skarmory or scizor. If you lack a bulky steel/fairy add it on here. trust me, you need those resistances.

6.) Double check.
Look for holes in your team and change pokemon around if need be. If you feel you can't cover something try switching around some pokemon to make a difference. if you feel a pokemon is not adequately preforming a role or isn't really helpful to the team replace it with something that is. Looking over the example team i don't feel like i can get past heatran easily, as diggersby has trouble switching in and bulky zardx lacks earthquake. Having some sort of water type would be good. I then replace Diggy with Keldeo, and if that doesn't feel right, something else.
 
Hello Everyone. I would would like to share the method in which I build Sand Offense

Before I go into the steps I would like to add a personal threat list I make sure my sand team has a to deal will all pokes on this list because my experience these pokes cripple sand offense if the team isnt prepared.

Sand Offense major threats:
Mega Sableye
Chansey
Breloom(Focus Sash) - God I hate that little shit
Landorus T- Scarf
Skarmory
Bulky water types like (suicune, Rotom-w alomomola)
Hippowdown

1. When building sand offense I usuallt start off with the obvious sand core Tyranitar + Excadrill. I personaly never use Hippowdown because it forces you to play too defensively which can waste sand turns. For Tyranitar you can usually go with the standard smooth rock set because of its bulky andto u can switch it in and out more to preserve the sand better but tyranitar does have a great move pool if you want to use things like my special lead sash ttar in-order to surpise/counter lead pokemon like ferrothorn, skarmory, bulky lando-t etc... For Excadrill you can pretty go with the standard set and choose between adamant or jolly nature. Jolly is mainly if u dont want to have speed ties with other adamant Excadrills.

P.S Choice banded and Scarf Tyranitar can be also used in sand offense but would have to put in though on what your hazard setter is. Ones I like you use that isnt Tyranitar and sash lead fake out In
Tyranitar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock

My special Tyranitar set if anyonei interested.

2. Choose a Mega evolution. Other than excadrill the mega evolution should be the main focus of the team. In sand offense you usually would liketo use megas that gives off alot of offensive pressure like( Charizard X or Y, Gardevior- Heracross, Medicham, Lopunny, Manetric, Metagross, Sceptile) To be honest you can use almost whatever mega you like because it really depends on how you build the team and its stragety but I do highly recommend your mega be a powerhouse so you can to massive damage to the things that usually wall excadrill.

** The next steps does vary depending on steps before the testing phaze does vary depending on what mega evolution you use for the team. Your mega evolution may be one or mor e of these roles but I do highly advise that if your team has the space a poke thats similiar to your mega's role so that you mega doesnt have the pressure alone of handling specofoc threats. Example of this is haxing Zard Y and Thundurus on the same teams so Zard y isnt the onthing thing that can get rid of physicall walls.

3. Grass types/Spore counter. lead momentum if very important in sand offense so you want to have coverage against thing that can stop you from setting up hazard entirely. Breloom is a huge weakness to sand offense specially it if leads becausettar cant do literally anything against it. You want to make sure you at least have a poke that ensure you that either u can counter breloom so you wont have to either sack a poke or make something sleepl fodder in to deal with it. If your hazard setter isnt Tyranitar Then you want your lead to at because about get hazard up and break it sash so it can be revenge killed easier(exp. Lum berry garchomp). Lum Dragonite is my favorite set too use on sand teams especially to deal with lead sash breloom because of lum berry + multiscale no matter what breloom does you can alwasy kill it with Dragon claw then focus sash
Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- ExtremeSpeed
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance

4. Stallbreaker. Sand teams usually need a stall breaker that fit wells with the team because stall can be a very bad match up against against sand offense if not prepared. pokes to espcially watch out for are Mega Sableye skarmory and chansey. I poke I love too that deals with 2/3 of the pokes mentioned in the previous sentence and helps with step 5 is Banded Azumarill since it can 1HKO Ferrothorn, Mega Sableye, Chansey. But choosing your stall breaker really depends on your team. Heres a like that helps me choose stall breakers for a team http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/the-dons-oras-ou-team-building-compendium.3527745/#post-5999980

5. Speed Control, Priority and statuses. The reason why Scarf lando is a threat because of its fast speed and the abilty to give your opponent switch momentum if your not prepared for. Relying no drill for speed can be probramatic if He dies mid game. So having ways to add extra speed or controlling iton the field always help. Having at least one that does decent amount of damage with prio moves like Bisharp, Azumarill and Talonflame will help u gain offensive momentum when need especially when facing off against offensive team like other weather team like rain because it almost ensure you have back up if u lose the weather wars. Also moves like thunder wave is really help because it helps ensure you dont get sweep by certain pokes and make revenge killing much easier by decreaasing the speed of your opponents pokes . Its the main reaosn why I love using Prankster thundurus on most my sand teams. In short priority and speed control Is important in sand offense because it help either gain or shifts momentum in

Team testing phase.
Have you have a basic build for your team Testing it out is very important. I recommend you play 3-5 games when testing and against different playstyles if your able to.Sometimes testing your team on the ladder is the best because thier no better training than actual experience. I would recommend making Alts to test team if your worried about losing ELO Remember no team can be perfect but u can build as close to perfect as possible. Also dont be a afraid if u lose a few matches at first because your loses does alot more to better your skills as a player than your wins. So try recording your replays when testing when you either win or lose and then review them to see why you won or lose, Hindsight is always 20/20 when you acknowledge your mistake. I know its frustrating but it does help.

Also dont be afraid to make edits after realizing your team is weak to something after each match. I hope this helps have a nice day everyone.

P.S Remember this is sand offense you need and aggresive playstyle to go with this team. Knowing when to sack pokes, Revenge kill and Keeping offensive momentum is very important in the team.
 
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AM

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There is no way I can actually answer this with just one playstyle lol. There are way too many variables to take into account so the only thing I can say is I use stuff that's fun. Building for something that isn't fun or stereotypical makes the game incredibly boring and if you're not having fun either on a general level of fun or a competitive one then what's the point? So yeah more along the lines of my teambuilding process is a day by day thing depending on playstyle. I guess I could make a more constructive layout if someone asks but there are different ways I build for different teams and cores.
 
Also to go off Am's post I am gonna say that I do try to build around fun stuff as well. To the newer players: AM is exactly right when he says if you aren't building with something fun you can lose interest in the meta. So don't always stick to standard stuff.
 
Lol, shadow_sneak, you can't read this cause I'm supposed to battle you tomorrow.

I basically always play somewhere in the spectrum of balance to HO, long stal games bug the crap out of me. Anyways, here's how my building process usually goes.

1. Choose primary win condition:

This is basically always my mega, but I've begun branching out more recently. Even more often it's a sweeper in general. I usually like to go with unique sets- things that don't scream "hey, over here! Look what Im gonna do!" SubSalacBD Ches, for example. I think sets like this are always more fun to play since they require some creativity, they can be very effective (careful of crossing the line of unique into gimmick, though), and often lack weaknesses of common sets. Not to mention, just like AM said, why play boring sets?

2. Secondary win condition

Often this is the other half of the core, as the team is built around these two. I like to have my secondary win con to be special if the primary is physical, or physical if the primary is special (though this kind of goes without saying). Frequently, my secondary win con is the more reliable of the two, but the less absolutely terrifying under the proper circumstances, if that makes sense. They are often bulkier sweepers, for that reason.

Actually, I tend to like to have the entire team be a POSSIBLE

3. Identify weaknesses of above

Look amongst centralizing threats (like keldeo) first, obviously, then move down the viability rankings. Don't allow a seemingly outclassed threat like volc to catch you off guard though, or you might just get 6-0ed. Seems obvious, but it's easy to forget about a less used threat like that. Oh, also, don't foget hazard control, winning that war will likely win the game.

4. Find a mon that covers above:

This is obvious, but there are a few things I'd like to mention. Don't be afraid to check lower tiers. Cobalion, Amoongus, and Alomomola are all examples of threats that aren't very common in OU but are totally viable all the same. So long as it's on the viability ranking- unless you're CTC, that is... Which, if you were, you wouldn't be taking tips from random smog-goers.

6. Test

Testing a team is really important for finding any flaws (and improving your self obviously). /ds is a really helpful command (enter it in the chat, then enter parameters like moves, types, etc. and then type "all". A list of mons with the terms will come up- it's really helpful!), also, find some people that can give you constructive criticism, it's cliche, but two heads really are better than one.
 
90% of my teams are Bulky Offense/Hyper Offense, with the occasional weather team. My process is like so.
1) Decide on a 'mon or set I think would be interesting. I've been trying out the newer megas recently (I have about seven UU teams, each based around a different mega). However, I recently tried building a team around slowing down the opponent as much as possible, and my first step involved Nuzzle Emolga, of all things.
2) Find things which have good synergy with the first team member. For example, as Emolga is weak to Stealth Rock, I added Hitmontop in, as he not only gets access to Rapid Spin but can use his STAB to take out Rock- and Ice-type threats to Emolga, and resists Stealth Rock himself.
3) If step 1 wasn't a mega, I try to add one in here.
4) Check for any major weak points in my team and use the remaining 1-3 slots covering them.
5) The testing process. If I find myself falling to one threat or type in particular, I'll replace something to fend it off. If I learn that something else does one of my mons' job better, I'll consider swapping it in.
 
Almost all of the teams I build are heavy offense and I'll usually follow a similar team structure.

Hazard setter: Usually a suicide lead bc I'm not creative and can't help myself. Atm I like max atk, max speed adamant custap forry bc it can clear hazards with spin, get multiple layers and boom to hurt something bad and block defog. Even tho forry is piss weak explosion still hits shit hard.

Then a cleaner.
Usually a fast Mon like mega aero, rp lando, exca, loppuny, scarfers, serperior etc. Or a strong priority Mon like cbnite, talon, cb scizor, azu.

Pivot.
Something to tank hits and mess with the opponent. Either gain momentum like scarf landt, mmanec, jirachi, etc. Or a hard hitter that has good resistances: azu, lati, keld, av bisharp, ttar, landt.

Then three hard hitters to break fat teams like specs keld, zardy, cbttar, landorus, mamo, cb tyrantrum. You get the idea.

Try and cover as many top threats as you can.
 
I pretty much just build standard offence teams (because i'm balls at building balance, and don't have the patience to play out a stall game). When i'm building for one of my offence teams, i first pick a center point of the team (whether it be a key idea for the team, like sand offence or using a volt-turn loop, or just picking a pokemon with which i want to sweep my opponent's team with). This is decided by pretty much whatever i feel like using at the time.

Once i have my sweeper, i scroll down the viability rankings to see which pokemon it can not sweep, and which pokemon prevent its sweep. Then i find 2 pokemon which between them can deal with most or all of the pokemon the stop my sweeper. These are my wall breakers, and in battle their purpose is to detain of the threats to my sweeper, and just generally weaken my opponents pokemon.

My next step is to find a late game cleaner. This is a pokemon that comes in after my sweeper, and pretty much just sweeps away the rest of my opponents time. This could be anything from a strong pokemon with a high priority move, like cb dragonite or talonflame, to a powerful choice scarf pokemon like keldeo or landorus t, or even just a pokemon with a high speed bracket, like weavile. I usually pick my late game cleaner based on what i haven't covered yet, for instance if i need water coverage i'll go with keldeo, if i need a ground immunity i'll go for landot or scarf lati.

Then, I add a pokemon with stealth rocks. Stealth rocks are essential on most offence teams (or even most teams in general), and i make sure to always have some way of getting them up on the team. On a more hyper offensively orientated team, i would use an offensive rocks setter, like mamoswine, and on a more bulky offensively orientated team i would use a defensive rocks setter, like heatran or ferrothorn. My stealth rocker needs to be a pokemon that can definitely get them up, so it needs to either fast enough to get them up before it dies, or bulky enough to live a hit for sure, and then get them up.

And my last pokemon is just a support pokemon. This may be rapid spin or defog coverage if i don't already have it, or if i actually need it, because recently i've been building a lot of teams that don't really care for hazards, and as such don't need hazard removal. Or this could just be a pivotal pokemon like rotom w, or scizor. This slot could also just be filled by a type you don't yet have, but want to cover, or it could be a wish passer of some sort, like clefable.

After that, i just try out the team for a little while, and like everyone, i make adjustments and edits as i see fit from seeing it in battle.

Things i try and incorporate in each time are: a water type (preferably one that can take hits), a ground type, a ground immunity, a dragon type, a steel type, a sponging pokemon (usually used in my 'support' slot), a stealth rocker, a hazard remover if needed, a revenge killer (quite often goes in my 'late game cleaner' slot), a pokemon with reloable recovery and bulk, and a set-up sweeper.
 
1-picking your main mon) pick a mon that I am really really keen on at the time, say for example when serpior came out I was desperate to abuse it, so that gives you the drive to make the team as solid as possible, enthusiasm for your team is always important
2-Build a core around that) mon, it's important to support th mon that you center your team around, say if i picked feralaigatr, it's important to build around his weaknesess and strength so for example, megaman and mega sceptile make good team mates as they cover the strengths and weakness of gatr, eg resisting electric attacks, taking care of bulky waters ect.
3- finalize that core)It's no good having a core that only supports the one pokemon, it's important that the core works such as a trinity, G/W/F cores or Fa/Dr/St make good starts to this i find for their defensive synergy, so for example I build a team around serperior, the core will be a fire/water/grass core, what make the best partner for the is? In this case talon flame deals with steel types and fighting types, while gyarados-mega deals with threats uch as hatran ect.a nd serpeior deals with bulky waters and such as an example core.
4- Hazard control ) lot of my teams use types that don't like stealth rock, it's important to find a hazard remover, be it defog or rapid spin. one of the first to come to mind is latios, who can help make up a second core usually of dragon/fairy/steel or dragon steel and has great offensive presence without being terribly frail, then my attention turns to latias if i have a bulky build or healing wish support and finally rapid snipers in the form excadrill and starmie, through i generally don't use rapid spiners and tend to stick to the lati, often as they suit my teams better
5- The syncing last three) Okay I have my core and possibly a defogger/rapid spinner, but now i need to gel in my last three pokeon to work and generally this is pretty much a patch job, but it's the hardest part I find, as often I find a bit limited ,due to limiting factors such as requiring to take out additional threats, while having a sr setting (normally leave SR till the final core), requiring the 3 to gel together properly while gelling with the previous core.
6- Stealth rock) I generally leave this till last unless my main core needs it, sr can be a pain as many setter can hare similar weaknesses to previous members of my team i find, my primary choice of setters tend to be clefable heatran, and landorus as my go to guys for stealth rock setting
7- Review) Finally a review of the team, mainly a compare and contrast of the viability rankings s,a and b ranking to see if they are obvious weaknesses in the team. Finally post the team with details on the rmt forum for proof reading/display
 
Alright, let me give this a shot

1. Find a Pokemon I want to use. This is me choosing a Pokemon, anywhere between S and B ranks (occasionally dip into C+) that I feel like playing with at the time. From there I'll typically survey a bit and check the Good Cores thread for Cores the Pokemon works well with, or just to see good ways in general to play it.

2. Adjust and assess the core. After picking the core, I'll look a bit over the workings of the mons themselves, how their movesets work towards their role, and if perhaps I could adjust it either out of preference or to achieve greater efficiency for what I expect to encounter (for example, if Chesnaught and becomes more common, I might want to run Outrage on my CB Tyrantrum when it might not have had it before). This step is usually only necessary if the core is a bit aged and the metagame has shown some new trends.

3. What benefits from the core's strong suits. This step tends to be something that can go one of two ways depending on whether the core is offensive, defensive, balanced, or what mons are in it. For example, if the core is primarily hazard control, then I'll try to find a win-condition that benefits strongly from having Rocks gone and down (Such as Zard-X or Bulky DD Gyarados)

4. Partners to the core's purpose Now, what makes this step different is that my previous step was Pokemon benefiting from the core's job being done, while this is partners to help the core actually do that job. If the core consists of slower wallbreakers such as Tyrantrum or Kyurem-B, then this might be Pokemon like Klefki, who can lay Spikes or spread status to mitigate their speed. This step is also where I consider synergy with the optimal win condition. Typically in this and subsequent steps, I'm willing to edit Pokemon already chosen if I think it benefits the team overall at this step

5. Loose/Unfulfilled roles. For this final step, I try to assess what important roles (revenge killer, laying hazards, cleric support, etc.) that the team still needs assessed after having added helpful partners to the core. This could also be by adjusting members again if I can do so without losing too much. For example, if I need something with a bit more speed or more punishing to Physical attackers rather than just deterring, I might change Lando-T to Tank Garchomp as my SR setter and Physical tank.


After those, it comes down to tweaking and experimenting on the ladder to assess other problems I might not have foreseen in teambuilding, or might be bigger than I expected. For example, if Scizor turns out more common than anticipated, I might then think a Scizor weakness more important to try and hammer out of the team.
 
This seems like an interesting project, so I'll share how I usually build Hyper Offense teams!

Step 1
I usually start off with a suicide lead that can set up Stealth Rock. Azelf can get past Mega Sableye with Skill Swap, has a great speed tier, can go out with a boom with Explosion to stop Rapid Spin and Defog, while also being able to stop opposing leads from setting up or getting hazards up with Taunt. Azelf is almost a must on HO teams, as it can provide many things that other suicide leads such as Garchomp can't. (Garchomp can't stop Rapid Spin or Defog and can't stop the opponent from setting up on it or getting up their own hazards)

Step 2
Next, I add a sweeper. This is usually a mega Pokemon such as Mega Diancie, Mega Charizard X, or Mega Pinsir. This is usually your main win condition.

Step 3
Next, I add a wallbreaker. They should have good offensive synergy with the sweeper from step 2. By offensive synergy, I mean that they share common counters so that one can weaken the counter so that the other can sweep, or they can handle each others checks and counters well. For example, if I chose RP Mega Diancie as my sweeper, Keldeo would be a great choice as a wallbreaker, as it can beat Chansey, while RP Diancie can defeat the lati twins.

Step 4
Next, I add a secondary win condition. You should rely on this pokemon in case your main sweeper goes down. Usually, after your sweeper and wallbreaker have done their jobs, the opposing team should be weakened. BD Azu is a great Pokemon in this case, it can set up a BD and clean through weakened teams once their answer is gone.

Step 5
I always like having a birdspam check on my HO teams, as Talonflame can be quite annoying for HO teams to deal with. In this case, most of the time it's either Raikou or Thundurus. Raikou provides nice volt switch utility, while also being a great switch in for Gengar. Thundurus can slow down stuff with thunder wave, making getting off an SD / Rock Polish / Dragon Dance with one of your sweepers easier.

Step 6
Finally, I add a scarfer, or a good cleaner. Landorus-T and Garchomp are both decent cleaners, with good speed they can clean up the remains of the team after your wallbreaker and sweeper have done their job. This is kind of similar to a secondary win condition, except they don't have to have a set up move. Pokemon that are naturally fast, such as Tornadus are also good choices, although Hurricane's shaky accuracy can be a problem.

In general, you should be focusing on the team's offensive synergy, as HO relies on pressuring the opponents walls so that one of your pokemon can break through it. It is common for teams to stack like 5 special attackers onto a team, so that they can pressure the opponent's special walls.

Step 7
The final step is tweaking. This could be adjusting your Pokemons sets or EVs, such as changing your specs keldeo from a wallbreaker to a scarf set cleaner. Test your team out on the ladder and make changes according to feedback that you collect.
 
step 1:
build a shit team

step 2:
get to high ladder and get rekt by an under-used threat

step 3:
"wow what a threat, I should use that"

step 4:
bulky lando, bulky rotom, the threat that rekt me + 3 other threats

step 5:
1950 87gxe

works every time ladder is ez
 
This is not a teambuilding thing, but I must say that many of these Guideline have helped me create great teams. I hope this thread got more activity tho :(
 

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Ok so I'm usually shit at building but sometimes I make semi decent teams, so I guess I'll bite. I'll sort of go through my thought process of building a team, and the best way from me to do this is by giving an example.

I always start off with what I want to build around. Usually it's a sweeper because offense > everything, but not always. Sometimes I'll start with a random mon like Hippo and go from there, but generally speaking, I pick a mon or core to build around and go from there. So once I have my mon (I'll use Metagross), I'll pick the most obvious teammate I can think of. In this case it's Keldeo. If I chose something like Volcarona tho, it would be a Mega Diancie or something. Generally speaking, I try to cover the biggest weakness first.

Once I do that I pick a rocks setter. Usually this is one of Garchomp, Ferrothorn, Heatran, Landorus-T, Azelf, or Hippowdon. I legit don't think I've ever strayed away from these bar a few times like when using Clefable or something. Idk. Anyways I pick from that pool the best candidate for the job. In this case, I have a solid wallbreaker coupled with a mon that can do anything. I'll just go with Pursuit Gross (specifically a bulky variant to take on Latis better) and SubCM Keldeo so I can break balance. Given these two mons, Garchomp seems like a good fit to take on offense better. Specifically, I'll be using Tank Chomp.

Now I fill holes. Right now I'm seeing an annoying weakness to Thundurus. It can T wave gross, and it takes on Chomp and Keldeo pretty easily. Obviously I need to fix this. Raikou seems like a decent option because it gives me a solid check to Thundy while also pivoting with Volt Switch and checking non Jolly SD Talon really well. At this point in the process I will go over what I have and make changes accordingly. Sometimes I'll even scrap the team entirely if I feel that the team is shit, or if I think of a better way to tackle 'x' problem. I've already chosen 4 mons, so these last two really need to fill in the remaining holes. However, every mon needs to do something, so I am extremely picky at this point.

Right now I see a glaring weakness to Ground types. I have no immunities / resists, and two weaknesses. This is especially problematic when facing stuff like SR Excadrill or Scarf Lando T. I also have zero switch ins for Landorus I. Given these criteria, two mons come to mind immediately: Torn T and Celebi. Torn T (specifically AV) has regenerator and can Pivot with U Turn, and gives me a solid Lando check while also checking a bunch of other things thanks to its great speed and coverage. On the other hand, Celebi gives me a decent Lando check and also checks annoying things like fat waters, grounds, and electric types. It, too, can pivot with BP / u turn so I don't have to worry about unfavorable matchups.

So like I said, I am very picky at this stage. I need to fill holes, and the mons that fill them must contribute to the team. So weighing in on my options, I have opted for AV Torn T over Celebi. My reasoning for this is simple, at least to myself: a crippling bug weakness. As I stated before, scarf Lando t is really annoying for my team so far. And having a mon that pretty much dies to U-Turn doesn't sit well with me. Torn T, on the other hand, gives me a bug resist and a ground immunity. Furthermore, it has a wide array of coverage options, which I can use to my advantage. The biggest one that comes to mind is knock off, which lets me cripple the fat mons and other things that want to switch into torn t. It also has regenerator, so I do not have to worry *too* much about removing rocks (tho it's always helpful). I can also opt for icy wind to hit Lando hard, and also slow down switch ins should I Mispredict.

Now, it's time for the last slot. So far, I have pursuit gross, SubCM Keldeo, Raikou (which I have decided to be AV), Tank Chomp, and AV Torn T. I have a solid VoltTurn core, a good hazard setter, a great wallbreaker, and a primary wincon. Now I need something that will round the team off. My build has already pointed towards bulky offense at this point, so that eliminates most fat mons, as well as certain offensive mons that I personally feel don't work well on these teams such as Bisharp and Gengar. What I want in the last slot is something that fits well with what I have while also contributing to the team in some way. One thing that immediately comes to mind is that priority seems annoying. Fast things in general seem a bit annoying, especially if they end up outspeeding torn t. This includes DD mons like Zard x and mega Altaria.

What I want is something that can clean efficiently while also being able to revenge kill something should it get out of hand. Additionally, I would prefer if it would give me a secondary ground resist / check since I still have a bit of a problem with fast grounds. Given all of these criteria I set out for myself, I decided that Choice Band Azumarill is a good fit. It gives me a solid priority move to work with in Aqua Jet, and it fits well with what I have so far. It checks DD mons relatively well and it also cleans and revenge kills with Aqua Jet. Additionally, it gives me another fighting, dark, and dragon check thanks to its great typing and bulk. It also nukes stuff with CB Play Rough which helps late game when its time for Keldeo to sweep.

So that whole thing is a look at the inner working's of my brain when I decide to construct a team. It is by no means perfect, but it gets the job done. The team that I 'built' also follows the general checklist that every builder should have: Talon check, fight, Dark, dragon, fairy, ground, and fire check, an electric check, a t wave immunity, a way to revenge kill, a wincon, and a Bisharp check. There's probably more that I'm forgetting but for now, this'll do.

Hope this was somewhat helpful to anyone who struggles to build good teams.

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
Evs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Pursuit
- Hammer Arm

Keldeo @ Leftovers
Ability: justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / SDef / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Secret Sword
- Scald

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 76 SDef / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Dragon Tail
- Toxic
- Earthquake

Raikou @ Assault Vest
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe
Timid nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power Ice

Tornadus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 136 HP / 156 SAtk / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Knock Off
- U-Turn
- Icy Wind

Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 168 HP / 252 Atk / 88 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play rough
- Knock Off
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
 
My team building process almost always starts on Showdown, especially if it is for what I consider my main team.
I just mostly try to find good Pokémon are the various roles and types until I feel like I've made a balanced team and I try it out on Showdown. I keep playing and adjust when I feel like something isn't working by taking out and adding members. Once I feel confident about my team, I will start to actually build it on my DS. Usually after battling against friends and random people using the in-game version is when I notice some more flaws. Hell, my original competitive team (Gen V Sandstorm) had two slots that were constantly changing, starting with Excadrill and Scizor which eventually became (after experimentation with things like Mamoswine, Donphan, etc.) Gliscor and Terrakion.
The funny thing that I didn't notice until after X and Y came out and I kept failing with my then team was that my teams tended to lose frail members and gained more bulky ones. Even if something relatively frail was on it, the bulky ones would be the key members (such as the Jellicent/Ferrothorn core in my Gen V Sandstorm team. They are without a doubt the MVPs of that team and that Generation for me). This led me to my first personal rule of OU teambuilding:
Run nothing but bulky Pokémon.

There are two major rules for my teams that I follow rather faithfully:
1) Never have more than two of the same weakness.
2) Try to have (at worst) a 1:1 ratio when it comes to weaknesses and resists/immunities.
The first one I usually obey without difficulty. The second one is mostly followed, though my current OU team has two Ice weaknesses and only one resist. It still works well and my Chansey tends to compensate very well on that front.

Another rule I have is to try to balance physical and special attackers, though it doesn't always work out perfectly.
I do build fun teams and I just use the physical/special attacker rule and pick what I like within that limitation. This did produce some teams I'm proud of, like my Hoenn Dex team and my mono-Poison team. They both proved to be much stronger than I expected of teams I kinda slapped together.

One final thing: If I can't easily build it on a game card, I won't use it (unless it is purely a Showdown team). Hidden Power? I only used it once since a friend gave me an Eevee with HP Ice and the correct nature I needed for a Jolteon. Rare event move? Nope. Legendaries? Very rarely (though I am considering an UU team with Extreme Speed Entei since I do have that). Abilities I don't have access to? If I can't do it, I can't do it. This is actually why it took me a while to train a Sylveon since I didn't have a Hidden Ability Eevee in Generation V to get Hyper Voice. It wasn't until ORAS that I finally did it.
Speaking of lack of move tutors, before ORAS, I avoided move tutors since it would require me to use previous gens, which I couldn't get perfect IVs. I knew that what ever the next game release was, it would have the tutors, so I just patiently waited. Also, I am not transferring Pokémon from Platinum, to SoulSilver, to Black 2 and finally to Bank just to get Defog on some Pokémon. Screw. That. I will stick to my Excadrill.
 
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So I like to build really bad stall teams at first... And some would argue they stay that way. However,

1: General Theorymoning Gone Mad: Find a theoretical defensive core. Generally, typings that look like they could work well together. VenuTran was in theory a good core that ended up working in practice early on, however I've tried cores like GyaraNaught cores and found it to be less effective. Anyways, a two-three man core is always the most interesting start. In this core you should either handle rocks or defog. If you handle neither, it better involve a lot of taunts, wisps and recovery. One of my more favorite theory cores for this stage is RhyNaught, which handles rocks, spikes, seeds, attack power and a lot of the physical meta. These are creative picks, but they do need to set a good foundation for the team. Let your third mon be more creative if you can.

2: Specific Counters: Your core will have obvious weaknesses. If it doesn't, remake it so it does. Something in pokemon without weakness generally has very few strengths (take Eelektross... I'm still sad that stall team sucked). Whatever these weaknesses, you should devote one pokemon to cut off a good bit of them. In the case of RhyNaught, keldeo kinda ruins you, as do special attackers in general, scizor, and some things I forget (give me a break, it's been like three months). I generally like to run Chansey into this simply because Chansey is the literal glue and thoughtless answer to nearly everything special. There's no brain in that pink blob... just more glucose and lipids. Other options include Slowbro Mega (since you kinda handle electrics with Rhy? And let's be honest, special wall elsewhere: it will work) or that old CBBNite spread. Or Mega Latias... That thing is godly after darks bite dust. Anyways, find the third member to round out the initial core. This one really doesn't need anything special by virtue of solidifying specific threats to the core... It doesn't have that luxury to be specific.

3: Round out Spinner/Defogger: Your fourth mon needs to take either rocks or defog/spin, supposedly rounding out from the initial. Since defog mons are REALLY FREAKING RARE, what I like to do here is find a mon with an attribute of stall breaking, general bulk to the side I don't have, or some added utility I generally would consider a luxury (U-turn Celebi for example). If you're planning to RMT your stall and get really popular, definitely put a lure here so everyone knows exactly what's coming. Trust me, it works like a charm (RMT'd a Magic Coat P2 in DeoSharp era, next match someone from OU room led bisharp over deoxys and wrecked it from the start).

In this case, I'll assume I took Latias-mega, since even though Slowbro-m is a really solid core with RhyChes, I need special bulk and Latias would've fit that more. Therefore, here I would round at the special bulk with Tentacruel, since it's a generally good spinner, good special bulk, and has a luxury in abilities (Liquid Ooze/Rain dish) as well as moves (acid spray) that give him niches vs unforeseeable mons. In this case, I like him because he offers a decent check to RD manaphy in his SPdef Rain Dish Acid Spray set. While he can't win that fight, I can easily synergize a faster mon into the team (see 5) and cover this weakness off. Also, Latias is going to be decent vs manaphy for a while, so this gives me a fighting chance. If I start CM first, my win. The last niche here is that he can take on CM Sableye-mega and counter special fairies not named Gard. While I don't know if either of these exist right now, this was pretty key a few months back.

4: Pick Chansey: Jokes aside, by now you're probably missing a cleric. If you have one, congrats on the free pick. Go round out a few more counters. If not, your cleric options are really, really limited. One of the sad things about stall is there is not so much diversity in this pick (sadly, Wish latias+Heal bell lanturn is a less than optimal combination for clerics). You have the choice of the eeveeloutions (-flareon, -glaceon, -leafeon, -jolteon) Chansey, Clefable, Audino (no seriously, audino cleric + regen isn't complete shit. The mega on the other hand...), Almomola, Gard-M, Toge, and that lickilicki thing. Seriously. When I have to mention that tongue pokemon as a legitimate contender (who to my knowledge is completely and utterly outclassed by chansey), there's a lack of depth. I picked Chansey, btw. I wonder why.

5: Speed or Niche, your choice: So, as you're theorymoning your greatest team you've ever created, you'll probably mention it to someone who knows how to play the game, too. All of the sudden, you hear that a kyurem will rip your team to shreds. But no! Not your perfect team! However, it is true. And not only that, a freaking Sash Talonflame just wrecked your shit on the ladder (okay... that better not happen, but still). And then you get obliterated by a speed passing scoli to hera! Oh the humanity, what a tilt! Spare me, oh great ELO Gods!

Look, you're not going to counter Gard+Kyub+Manaphy+Stacy'sMomOnRoids in one pick. There's always soo many loose ends at the end of any stall team, and it's one of the reason that the view is a competent player should beat stall like 80% of the time. They get to move first, guys. Well, not this time. Because to be honest, you realize the only way to beat all that stuff is to run the Millennium Falcon when it's traveling through Hyperspace. Use it, then! Your job is to win, not to conform to someone's definition of an archtype. Sometimes this leads to stupid things like scarf latias to beat Grininja and what-have-you (brb trying to remember why I did that). Sometimes, more practical picks like max speed cobalion exist. Or priority... always trust priority, since no one ever got outsped by faster priority. In the case of Niche picks, sometimes your team sucks so bad that it loses to like 10 threats unconditionally. Yeah, you could redesign your team but it beats everything else! "Put me in, coach!". Things like P2 with a completely situational ability (trace) can handle this. He's got good bulk, he's pretty good at attacking and he picks up a lot of random help. He ISN'T going to solve those threats, but he just might do it once in a while. It's like a more reliable quick claw. These are the mons that kinda show up in d-tier on these sets since most of the time they're useless (sun setter venu once or twice, taunt resttalk MGyara) but they serve as a chance.

Yeah, no stall is ever going to be perfect. However, if you go so anti-meta they have to use echolocation to catch you on sonar, you might pick up a few games you might've never won prior.
 
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