Help with team building!!

[Aldroc]

So I've been playing Pokemon for years now....... but PokeMMO is the first game that has thrown me into the competitive scene. What I usually did was take my starter and just work around its weaknesses and that worked for me till the end of the game. That is not the case now. So I finally started reading a lot about competitive pokemon online and have grasped the basics such as importance of natures, evs, ivs, etc. I also think that I'm not that bad at battling since I can win almost 60% of the random OU battles in Pokemon Showdown. But when I battle with the team I've built, I lose. I lose horribly!! At most I can take one or two of my opponent's pokemon out and my whole team crashes out. I've tried a lot of different things, complete offense, stall teams, weather teams, balanced teams...... but none works for me. Right now this is the one i was hoping to run:

Cloyster @ Leftovers  
Ability: Shell Armor  
EVs: 220 HP / 104 Atk / 180 SpA / 4 Spe  
Quiet Nature  
- Spikes  
- Explosion  
- Surf  
- Ice Beam

My lead... kinda obvious.... Spike and surf and once its done, explode and take something down with you.. 

Claydol @ Leftovers  
Ability: Levitate  
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SpD  
Relaxed Nature  
- Rapid Spin  
- Psychic  
- Ice Beam  
- Earthquake  

My spinner and you could also say a wall..... people are generally unprepared for a claydol as much as I've seen

Dragonite @ Leftovers  
Ability: Inner Focus  
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  
Brave Nature  
- Ice Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Fire punch 
- Focus Punch  

Sweeper.... really confused with this guy... should I do someone else? should I run a different set?

Dusclops @ Leftovers  
Ability: Pressure  
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD  
Careful Nature  
- Roar/Whirlwind  
- Shadow Ball  
- Protect  
- Toxic  

My only phazer and one heck of a wall..... atleast I think it is...

Metagross @ Leftovers  
Ability: Clear Body  
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Atk / 40 Def / 32 SpD / 8 Spe  
Impish Nature  
- Earthquake  
- Rest  
- Sleep Talk  
- Meteor Mash  

My tank and most trusty pokemon on this team..... this is the only guy who lets me keep a little bit of pride...

Sceptile @ Leftovers  
Ability: Overgrow  
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe  
Hasty Nature  
- Leaf Blade  
- Thunder Punch  
- Aerial Ace  
- Brick Break

My speedy finisher... the idea was to weaken the team enough with the others so that Sceptile could literally steam roll the other team with huge atk and spd stats....

 This team is almost ready in-game as its been completely ev trained and all i need to do now is give them appropriate moves. So I test it on Showdown and i lose every single game!!! I felt sooo down as I had put so much effort, time and money into this team, just for it to suck completely... I know I've immediate type weaknesses (Ice is a major threat) but it should do something... anything?? Apparently not. What am I doing wrong?? I like to think I've good prediction skills and have landed a focus punch or two in some battles..... also the fact that i win almost 60% battles in those random team matchups should say something? So I suck at team building and need some serious help...

Edited February 27, 2017 by Aldroc

[Minsu]

First of all, I'm not going to suggest any new pokes. I'm just going to be pointing out my suggestions for your own team that you have right now.

Dusclop is pretty good, I don't have any suggestion for this one. 

Also, on Metagross light screen on reflect might be effective if you are going for a tank Metagross. (But all in all you should get a metagross sweeper not tank!)

Sceptile is okay, 4 spa ev is useless put it on hp it might not help abit but it's better than being useless at that sp atk section if you are going to use a physical sceptile.

Dragonite needs Extreme Speed and that nature isn't the best, dragon dance is needed if you want atk and speed boost. 

Claydol is pretty good, it should have abit of sp atk evs tho just imo.

Cloyster is an okay lead, if it can survive 2 or 3 hits and set up, it's great.

 

 

 

 

[NikhilR]

There's so many things wrong with this team. I'll suggest some changes but that won't be enough until you know more about the OU meta. Start off with watching replays from OU tournaments.

 

1) We have gen3 pokes and moves, but our mechanics are mostly post gen6. So we have the physical special split and explosion is nerfed. So the latter is no longer powerful enough to take down one of your opponent's pokes.

 

2) Cloyster is a bad spiker but it's at least a better spinner. Bulky Offensive Starmies can put in a lot of pressure on Dusclops which prevent it from being an effective spin blocker. Also shadowball is special and you have careful clops, that alone reduces the damage output of shadowball vs Starmie. 

 

3) Bulky Defensive Claydol is absolutely horrible in OU. It's not a good enough spinner vs Forretress and its offense is 0. Starmie / Tentacruel are usually better spinners. 

 

4) Dragonite is banned in OU, so no point in changing it. Also you have 4 physical moves and you're running a -speed nature with full speed investment. Should use a -spak nature that boosts speed or attack.

 

5) Metagross uhh, well its a bad set with rest talk imo. You don't really need to wall anything and that lack of thunderpunch gives you a bad matchup 1v1 Starmie / Milotic.

 

6) Sceptile isn't strong enough to clean up and the rest of your pokemon don't have much offense to weaken your opponents to the point where Sceptile can clean up. 

 

Idk in what gen you tested your team on showdown. Showdown's gens have access to legendaries that we don't and that can punish you a lot, so it isn't surprising that you lost. Right now I've just covered what is wrong with the pokes you used but there's a lot more that's wrong with the team. Just spectate matches between good players and you'll have a better idea. 

[Murcielago]

As NikhilR has suggested this team is almsot complete trash, the whole thing should be scrapped.  The only thing I like about it is that dusclosp and cloyster can have some good synergy with the proper build.

 

I am not going to waste my time giving out advice to players who are not on BREW.  I would encourage you to attempt to join a top tier team with experiance players who can help out.

 

I cannot speak for other teams, but brew is recruiting and we are looking for the future A-list talent players.  As in, if you play with us for a year or so you will be one of the best in the game (if thats what you looking to do)...

[LifeStyle]

 

[Aldroc]

Thank You SOOOO Much Everyone!!!!! You guys have really helped me out and I'm going to build another team from scratch........ though dissapointed at that, I think its the best way to go! Would you guys mind if I post my next team on this thread? Also I tested my team in Gen 3 OU in Showdown as someone was asking. Thank You soo much for the help!

[TJXD]

8 hours ago, Murcielago said:

 

Im pretty sure nobody outside of Brew has any idea of what the fuck Brew is.

[Aldroc]

This is what I was thinking about to build:

Arcanine @ Leftovers  
Ability: Intimidate  
EVs: 184 HP / 180 SpA / 144 Atk  
Mild Nature  
- Flamethrower  
- Crunch   
- Extreme Speed  
- Roar

Thinking of using this guy as a lead.... can counter popular leads(skarmory, forretress, etc), access to Intimidate is always a plus, maybe even stop ninjask from setting up through Extreme Speed or maybe roaring it away? 

Starmie @ Leftovers  
Ability: Natural Cure  
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Spe / 40 SpA  
Timid Nature  
- Rapid Spin  
- Recover  
- Surf  
- Thunderbolt  

Spinner as a lot of people suggested.... can dish out some damage if needed.....

Metagross @ White Herb  
Ability: Clear Body 
EVs: 188 HP / 160 Atk / 160 SpA  
Brave Nature  
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Psychic
- Thunder Punch  

Mixed Sweeper.... as suggested, changed the rest talk set.... is it better? Hes' been given the white herb so as to get curse boost baton passed from the umbreon..

Umbreon @ Leftovers  
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SpD  
Careful/Calm Nature  
- Curse  
- Baton Pass  
- Taunt  
- Moonlight/Wish  

Wall and curse passer.... Metagross should sweep pretty well if this worked.... taunt to prevent phazing and confused with moonlight or wish... i can baton pass wish but moonlight will help umbreon survive longer.... which one is recommended??

Lanturn @ Leftovers  
Ability: Volt Absorb  
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 SpD  
Modest Nature  
- Thunder Wave  
- Confuse Ray  
- Thunderbolt  
- Surf  

Having loads of trouble with this one.... this seems fun but is there anything better to run here? I don't think I will be able to run a spiker efficiently so any other suggestions??

 

Now the final slot is the fast finisher... I've got a few candidates for this... which one should I go for??

Aerodactyl / Jolteon / Sceptile / Espeon / Alakazam???

And what should their movesets be?? 

Is this team better??

 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2017 by Aldroc

[Murcielago]

11 hours ago, TJXD said:

Im pretty sure nobody outside of Brew has any idea of what the fuck Brew is.

Pretty sure ur a dork.

 

at op: umbreon is trash.  Lanturn is trash. Don't use that junk.

 

on mixed meta ur not going to ev spa... At least not per my advice...

 

roar on arcanine? Replace that with double kick or toxic.

 

... And in all honesty arcanine ain't all that great right now, and if ur going to roar use skarm instead.

 

at the end of the day no one is just going to post the elite teams here publicly.... 

Edited February 28, 2017 by Murcielago

[xStarr]

12 hours ago, Aldroc said:

This is what I was thinking about to build:

Arcanine @ Leftovers  
Ability: Intimidate  
EVs: 184 HP / 180 SpA / 144 Atk  
Mild Nature  
- Flamethrower  
- Crunch   
- Extreme Speed  
- Roar

Thinking of using this guy as a lead.... can counter popular leads(skarmory, forretress, etc), access to Intimidate is always a plus, maybe even stop ninjask from setting up through Extreme Speed or maybe roaring it away? 

Starmie @ Leftovers  
Ability: Natural Cure  
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Spe / 40 SpA  
Timid Nature  
- Rapid Spin  
- Recover  
- Surf  
- Thunderbolt  

Spinner as a lot of people suggested.... can dish out some damage if needed.....

Metagross @ White Herb  
Ability: Clear Body 
EVs: 188 HP / 160 Atk / 160 SpA  
Brave Nature  
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Psychic
- Thunder Punch  

Mixed Sweeper.... as suggested, changed the rest talk set.... is it better? Hes' been given the white herb so as to get curse boost baton passed from the umbreon..

Umbreon @ Leftovers  
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SpD  
Careful/Calm Nature  
- Curse  
- Baton Pass  
- Taunt  
- Moonlight/Wish  

Wall and curse passer.... Metagross should sweep pretty well if this worked.... taunt to prevent phazing and confused with moonlight or wish... i can baton pass wish but moonlight will help umbreon survive longer.... which one is recommended??

Lanturn @ Leftovers  
Ability: Volt Absorb  
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 SpD  
Modest Nature  
- Thunder Wave  
- Confuse Ray  
- Thunderbolt  
- Surf  

Having loads of trouble with this one.... this seems fun but is there anything better to run here? I don't think I will be able to run a spiker efficiently so any other suggestions??

 

Now the final slot is the fast finisher... I've got a few candidates for this... which one should I go for??

Aerodactyl / Jolteon / Sceptile / Espeon / Alakazam???

And what should their movesets be?? 

Is this team better??

 

 

 

 

This should  help you.

 

Roar is bad on Arc, if you go offensive arc I suggest hp elec for gyara or even a msun to restore and even hit more.

Ninjask is NU and I doubt it would be in OU since Baton Pass is banned.

 

Metagross should get lefties.

And no White herb since Umbreon won't be able to baton pass as it is banned like I said .

 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2017 by xStarr

[LifeStyle]

11 hours ago, Aldroc said:

 

Baton pass is banned in singles, so any strategy around using BP should be scrapped immediatly (RIP Ninjask).

Arcanine as a lead should be fine, seen lots of people start a match with Forretress/Metagross tho if you're using it as a sort of mixed sweeper I recommend a different set:

 

Arcanine @ Life Ball

Ability: Intimidate

EVS: 6 HP / 188 Attack / 136 Sp Attack / 180 Speed (Implying the Arcanine IVS are 31/31/31/30/31/31)

Hasty/Naive Nature

Flamethrower / Hidden Power Electric / Crunch / ExtremeSpeed

180 Speed EVS lets you hit 151 speed with a +Speed Nature, making it outspeed every 85 or below base Speed with +Speed Nature Poke (Not counting Scarf Choice sets ofc)

Some examples of damage calcs from 188 Attack + 136 Sp Attack:

Spoiler

136 SpA Life Orb Arcanine Hidden Power Electric vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Gyarados: 160-192 (93.5 - 112.2%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

136 SpA Life Orb Arcanine Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Metagross: 176-210 (94.1 - 112.2%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

188 Atk Life Orb Arcanine Extreme Speed vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Alakazam: 93-110 (70.9 - 83.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

188 Atk Life Orb Arcanine Extreme Speed vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Alakazam: 93-110 (70.9 - 83.9%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after 3 layers of Spikes

188 Atk Life Orb Arcanine Crunch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Starmie: 114-136 (83.8 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

188 Atk Life Orb Arcanine Crunch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Starmie: 114-136 (68.2 - 81.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

By now you should figure that in order for Arcanine to be more of a threat to other teams then you're gonna need Spikes Support, good choices to pair with Arcanine are Skarmory and Forretress (Probably a better choice since it can also give you Rapid Spin Support):

 

Forretress @ Leftovers / Shed Hull

Ability: Sturdy

EVS: 252 HP / 252 SP Def / 6 Def

Careful Nature

Pin Missile / Earthquake / Spikes / Rapid Spin

Your answer to Normal Spam. It's also basically a free switch against Skarmory, can spin and spike against it (unless Taunt Skarmory), ofc there are such things as spin blockers but we'll get to that later. Leftovers for some recovery, Shed Hull if you're scared of Magneton, you can choose Pain Split over Earthquake if using Shed Hull and you can get free recovery against stuff like Milotic/Chansey/Porygon (Since most lack HP Fire), but keep in mind you won't be able to beat Rapid Spin Tentacruel anymore.

 

Now you're gonna need a Pursuit Trapper, something to get rid of Spin Blockers found in most Spike teams (Pretty much only Haunter and Dusclops)

Options are Houndoom (Free switch vs Dusclops, Speed ties with Haunter so could turn into a 50/50), Aerodactyl (Gotta play around Sub Haunter and Dusclops just reks you), Metagross (Bulky Pursuit is nice vs Haunter, Clops will probably be gay), etc.

 

Right now best option sounds like Aero, it's fast, it has Ground immunity, it can Pursuit trap Alakazam/Haunter/Anything locked to EQ (most notably Flygon)/etc, oh yeah and it has the gay Rock Slide spam.

 

Aerodactyl @ Choice Band

Ability: Rock Head

EVS : 6 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed

Jolly Nature

Earthquake / Rock Slide / Double Edge / Pursuit

Pretty simple, gotta go super sanic speed, flinch all the uguues to death.

 

Now, I won't spoon feed you more than I already just did, so I leave you a challenge to find the 3 last members for a team like this. Somethings you need to keep in mind:

Sweeping Coverage

Defensive Weaknesses / Resistances

Should probably start by finding something to keep Water types in check, since RK9+Forre+Aero lose to things like Specs Starmie/CB Swampert/DD Kingdra/etc.