First attempt at making a team...

[Cornbread]

After a hardcore reading session on Smogon, I decided to try and design my own team for battling. I've never done real competitive battling before, so I have zero experience. This is pretty much totally from in-game experience and whatever Smogon told me.

+---------------------+

Dragonite
Nature: Quiet
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk, 128 SpA, 128 Spe
Item: Life Orb
~ Draco Meteor
~ Fire Blast
~ ExtremeSpeed
~ Roost

Smogon described Dragonite as an "anti-lead" so I thought I'd go with it. Basically meant to hit hard, with a variety of attack types to try and cover all my bases. I was hoping to fit Thunder in there somewhere, but I'm really not sure which move I should switch out for it or if I should switch any of them out for it at all.

+---------------------+

Torterra
Nature: Impish
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 170 HP, 170 Def, 170 SpD
Item: Leftovers
~ Earthquake
~ Wood Hammer
~ Leech Seed
~ Crunch

Basically a tank. The idea was that he could sit there and take minimal damage while hitting with some powerful moves over a variety of types, as well as laying down a Leech Seed if needed.

+---------------------+

Bronzong
Nature: Sassy
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP, 86 Atk, 80 Def, 92 SpD
Item: Leftovers
~ Stealth Rock
~ Gyro Ball
~ Hypnosis
~ Explosion

Bronzong is intended to serve three purposes. Firstly, he puts down Stealth Rock. Then, if needed, he can switch in (high Def and SpD ) and use Hypnosis if needed. If the opponent has a really tough Pokémon, I can use Explosion as a last resort.

+---------------------+

Weezing
Nature: Bold
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 SpA
Item: Leftovers
~ Flamethrower
~ Thunderbolt
~ Will-O-Wisp
~ Poison Gas

The idea for Weezing here is for him to use Will-O-Wisp and Poison Gas to inflict Status Ailments, and act as a tank in place of Torterra or Bronzong if need be. Really nothing more to him.

+---------------------+

Absol
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Super Luck
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Spe
Item: Life Orb
~ Swords Dance
~ Sucker Punch
~ Superpower
~ Psycho Cut

A hard hitter for one thing, and a Dark-type to cover up Psychic and Ghost for another. High Atk and Speed, plus Swords Dance and the priority Sucker Punch is all meant to hit hard and fast. I wasn't sure whether to do Absol or Honchkrow, but figured Absol would do better. Opinions, por favore?

+---------------------+

Cloyster
Nature: Bold
Ability: Shell Armor
EVs: 252 HP, 4 SpA, 252 SpD
Item: Leftovers
~ Rest
~ Sleep Talk
~ Spikes
~ Ice Beam

Honestly, with Cloyster, I got the other five down and thought "okay, who else should I put in here? I know! I need a Water-type." and that was that. The Ice Beam and Spikes are nice bonuses that, in all honesty, SHOULD have been the original reason I picked out Cloyster. Oh well. I'm definitely open to any better ideas for this last one.

+---------------------+

Please be gentle I am a total noob

EDIT: Oh, and another thing. Every single one of these has either Leftovers or Life Orb for an item. Please suggest any items you think would fit better.

 

[SharKing]

Try Toxic over Poison Gas on Weezing.

 

[DRWS!]

Suicune would be beter as a Resttalker over Cloyster in OU methinks. Also, Torterra could be replaced with a mixed Sweeper, as Bronzong is already Tank-y, and Torterra finds it ahrd to tank with so many common weaknesses.

I'll try give a more comprehensive rate in the morning

 

[Our Wasted Years]

Try Toxic over Poison Gas on Weezing.

Weezing needs Pain Split, not two status moves.

 

[Angad]

Focus Sash on Absol, I know from use of one, that it will likely not survive a hit to get in a swords dance without a Focus Sash.

 

[Our Wasted Years]

Focus Sash on Absol, I know from use of one, that it will likely not survive a hit to get in a swords dance without a Focus Sash.

Please tell me why a non-lead needs a Sash and also why a sweeper needs a Sash.

@OP: don't put a Sash on, keep Life Orb.

 

[Dexington]

Yeah, a sash is broken by rocks, spikes, sandstorm or hail as you switch in. Very useless unless led with.

4 members of your team are defensive, which would be ok if you had more stalling moves (toxic + protect, any healing move, etc.) I'd say clear Torterra for CB Scizor if you want physical or Roserade if you want special.

 

[Cornbread]

Wouldn't Suicine be banned, since it's a legendary?

And I saw that Smogon recommended Pain Split for Weezing, but I liked the idea of having something that can inflict more than one status ailments... though now that I think about it... there's no point... heh

Also, if a Focus Sash is best on leads, should I put one on Dragonite?

And I can assume by your responses that I haven't failed miserably in making a team. Yay!

 

[SSJ4Jesus]

The only pokemon banned in OU are these ones.

Why are you investing 128 Spe EVs into the lead dragonite? What in the 177-208 speed range are you trying to outspeed? I don't think the lead dragonite needs a sash, as the pokemon that would OHKO you, you'll want to switch out of anyways. I could be wrong though; I've never used, or even seen a lead dragonite.

 

[Cornbread]

Okay so...

1. Switch Cloyster for Suicune.
2. Switch Torterra for something offensive.
3. Replace Weezing's Poison Gas with something else. (Pain Split or something different?)
4. Take the 128 Speed EVs from Dragonite and reallocate them. (I'm thinking now 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 SpA, what do you think?)

 

[Troggy]

Okay so...

1. Switch Cloyster for Suicune.
2. Switch Torterra for something offensive.
3. Replace Weezing's Poison Gas with something else. (Pain Split or something different?)
4. Take the 128 Speed EVs from Dragonite and reallocate them. (I'm thinking now 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 SpA, what do you think?)

I am glad to see that you gave it a good first try. You can definitely build from here. The common thing that new teams lack is a sense of purpose. I struggle myself to accomplish this, even when I am trying to build around a certain idea or Pokemon. This team, while it has standard sets and Pokemon, doesn't have a clear direction or way to win.

When you have so many defensive Pokemon / walls, the most common goal would be to win through indirect damage or 'stall'. While your team is relatively balanced type wise, it will not effectively counter and defeat most standard teams.

You can try turning this into a stall team, which would mean adding Toxic Spikes, adjusting your wall choices a bit, adding a Rapid Spin blocker (AKA Ghost), and choosing a sweeper or two that can take the most advantage of hazards like Scizor, Salamence, etc (Things that can OHKO the most Pokemon provided enough hazard damage has been accumulated).

However, if you are just looking for a generally offensive team with some defense behind the sweepers, you will need to re-evaluate most of your choices here. In that case focus on coverage, and what you have to counter major threats (Salamence, Heatran, Scizor, Flygon, Lucario, Infernape, Metagross, etc...some teams include almost all of these Pokemon).

As far as the sets/spreads you have right now, most of them are reasonable. I'd agree with your new idea for Dragonite, because it's silly to invest in Speed with a -Speed nature. I believe what you have now is the Smogon spread for anti-lead Dnite. The reason that is the case is that Dragonite is designed to hit as hard as possible with one of the first two moves, so that he can easily make the kill second turn with Extremespeed. He is a good candidate since very few leads can OHKO him. When this set first came to light, Frosslass leads jumped in use because they are one of the few leads that can easily beat this Dragonite.

On Torterra I'd start off by investing 252 in HP for general tanking, THEN put the rest in the defenses. Determine how much you want in each by thinking about which kinds of attacks you envision Torterra taking. Generally he has more useful physical resists, so EV'ing mainly in Def would make sense.

Absol is a bit of a hard sell in OU. There are a lot of very sturdy Pokes that can take his attacks, and there is the omnipresent Scizor Bullet Punch that will send him to his doom. Lucario can also cause problems since he has a 4x resist to Sucker Punch. Absol can definitely cause damage in OU, just be aware that you will need to find your opportunities and take advantage of them since Absol is easily sniped by Priority. You could consider an alternate set like the Choice Scarf, but it's hard to say at this point which would serve the team better due to it being in its infancy.

Agree that you need Pain Split on Weezing over Poison Gas. Increasing his durability is a great asset and will let him shut down physical attackers multiple times during a match.

As for your items, Life Orb and Leftovers are two of the most common. What you might consider is making 1-2 of your Pokes choice item users. It's hard to say right now which ones, but some examples would be Choice Band Torterra or Choice Scarf Absol. Using Choice items appropriately adds power to your team, and can allow you to counter threats you wouldn't be able to otherwise. Again, for now, just keep this in mind.

It's hard to say whether a team has succeeded just by looking at it, you're going to have to start testing it out to see what works and what doesn't. That's when you can apply some of the suggestions I have made. Good luck!

 

[Cornbread]

I am glad to see that you gave it a good first try. You can definitely build from here. The common thing that new teams lack is a sense of purpose. I struggle myself to accomplish this, even when I am trying to build around a certain idea or Pokemon. This team, while it has standard sets and Pokemon, doesn't have a clear direction or way to win.

To be honest, I browsed Smogon till my eyes bled and picked the individual Pokémon strategies (as opposed to an entire team strategy) that I thought would be most useful.

When you have so many defensive Pokemon / walls, the most common goal would be to win through indirect damage or 'stall'. While your team is relatively balanced type wise, it will not effectively counter and defeat most standard teams.

You can try turning this into a stall team, which would mean adding Toxic Spikes, adjusting your wall choices a bit, adding a Rapid Spin blocker (AKA Ghost), and choosing a sweeper or two that can take the most advantage of hazards like Scizor, Salamence, etc (Things that can OHKO the most Pokemon provided enough hazard damage has been accumulated).

Okay, stall team is new vocab for me so let me make sure I have this right - in a stall team, you let the opponent bounce attacks off of you while slowly whittling down their health, then have a few offensive sweepers to take them down in one fell swoop?

I believe this was my intention with Weezing and Bronzong - two tank-y Pokémon that use either status ailments (Weezing) or entry hazards (Bronzong). And I was hoping to combine the defensive tank-ishness with offensive capabilities on Torterra. Is that spreading it too thin?

As far as the sets/spreads you have right now, most of them are reasonable. I'd agree with your new idea for Dragonite, because it's silly to invest in Speed with a -Speed nature. I believe what you have now is the Smogon spread for anti-lead Dnite. The reason that is the case is that Dragonite is designed to hit as hard as possible with one of the first two moves, so that he can easily make the kill second turn with Extremespeed. He is a good candidate since very few leads can OHKO him. When this set first came to light, Frosslass leads jumped in use because they are one of the few leads that can easily beat this Dragonite.

Oh wow, I did give him a -Speed Nature, didn't I Guess I should have remembered that while applying EV's. But my intention was for Dragonite to hit fast and hard, acting as the AntiLead that Smogon described (yes that was their moveset I used). So should I use a different nature (I'm thinking Rash or Mild right now), or should I stick with the Speed decrease? Does it matter all that much to have higher speed on a Dragonite who's being used as a lead/anti-lead?

On Torterra I'd start off by investing 252 in HP for general tanking, THEN put the rest in the defenses. Determine how much you want in each by thinking about which kinds of attacks you envision Torterra taking. Generally he has more useful physical resists, so EV'ing mainly in Def would make sense.

252 HP is a better idea - that will be changed. But if I do keep Torterra, should I keep trying to make him a tank or should I EV up some of his offense as well? DontRunWithScizor mentioned that Torterra isn't as tank-y as I might like, so should I keep him defensive, make him offensive, or replace him entirely?

Absol is a bit of a hard sell in OU. There are a lot of very sturdy Pokes that can take his attacks, and there is the omnipresent Scizor Bullet Punch that will send him to his doom. Lucario can also cause problems since he has a 4x resist to Sucker Punch. Absol can definitely cause damage in OU, just be aware that you will need to find your opportunities and take advantage of them since Absol is easily sniped by Priority. You could consider an alternate set like the Choice Scarf, but it's hard to say at this point which would serve the team better due to it being in its infancy.

Absol wasn't meant to be a prominent member of the team - really I just wanted a Dark-type to counter any Ghost or Psychic that might pop up, and I discovered Absol's nice use of Sucker Punch afterwards. So I never really intended him to be a main attacker, more of a backup in the case of Psychic or Ghost types that he could (hopefully) take down quickly with increased damage and a priority STAB move.

Agree that you need Pain Split on Weezing over Poison Gas. Increasing his durability is a great asset and will let him shut down physical attackers multiple times during a match.

Wait, so if I use Pain Split once, and have half HP left, then use it again later in the battle, I'll probably stay around the same HP, won't I? See, when I first saw this move, I thought, "Wow, that takes off like a huge chunk of my HP as well, if I'm gonna sacrifice myself I may as well have Explosion." (which I didn't do, but the point is I didn't see Pain Split as very useful), which is why I replaced it with Poison Gas.

As for your items, Life Orb and Leftovers are two of the most common. What you might consider is making 1-2 of your Pokes choice item users. It's hard to say right now which ones, but some examples would be Choice Band Torterra or Choice Scarf Absol. Using Choice items appropriately adds power to your team, and can allow you to counter threats you wouldn't be able to otherwise. Again, for now, just keep this in mind.

The Choice items seem like they have a pretty big drawback :/ I rather like using multiple moves in a battle.

 

[Tortamorph]

Personally I think you should have a Blastoise or a Leafeon. But thats just cause the are pretty freaking awesome.

 

[Tortamorph]

Also are you going to use this team in an actual game? cause if so that Absol looks like its going to be freaking annoying.

 

[Cheesus Is Lord]

Okay, stall team is new vocab for me so let me make sure I have this right - in a stall team, you let the opponent bounce attacks off of you while slowly whittling down their health, then have a few offensive sweepers to take them down in one fell swoop?

I believe this was my intention with Weezing and Bronzong - two tank-y Pokémon that use either status ailments (Weezing) or entry hazards (Bronzong). And I was hoping to combine the defensive tank-ishness with offensive capabilities on Torterra. Is that spreading it too thin?

You'd need more residual damage to make a stall team work. As was mentioned earlier, Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes (Spikes too, if you can get them) will be enormously helpful to a stall strategy. Probably even necessary. If you wanted to set up a Sandstorm for residual weather damage and structure your team around that, it would help too. You could do this with Tyranitar and get a Dark type to replace Absol in the process.

Wait, so if I use Pain Split once, and have half HP left, then use it again later in the battle, I'll probably stay around the same HP, won't I? See, when I first saw this move, I thought, "Wow, that takes off like a huge chunk of my HP as well, if I'm gonna sacrifice myself I may as well have Explosion." (which I didn't do, but the point is I didn't see Pain Split as very useful), which is why I replaced it with Poison Gas.

Pain split is very useful. Weezing is a wall and supposed to take hits well. Let's say you're at 50% and a foe with full health comes in. If you know they do about 40% per hit, you can Pain Split on the attacking move. They hit you, knocking you down to 10%, and you Pain Split. If you both have similar HP, you'll both get put at 55%, which means 61% for you with Leftovers recovery. You can then either get out of there with more HP and damage to your opponent or finish it with some attack.

The Choice items seem like they have a pretty big drawback :/ I rather like using multiple moves in a battle.

Choice items are all about prediction. You bring in a Pokemon on something that can't deal with it, and smack the incoming counter hard - hopefully much harder than they expect. Then you leave. Eventually, you can wear down Pokemon enough that they can't take the hit anymore, and you can sweep. At least, that's how it would work ideally. In the case of a Scarf, it's different in that you hope that their counters/checks rely on being faster than you. In any case, Choice users can win games by messing with prediction, but as you say, they have to be used carefully, since they can open up opportunities for your opponent to come in for free.