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Help me build a team

J

jc10757

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I've finally decided to take the first steps into competitive battling, and am stumbling more than words can express. Any insight y'all can provide would be greatly appreciated. I was looking into a sunny day team, but the acquisition of my new Celebi pushed that away. The team I have so far is:
Celebi@leftovers
Nature: docile
Ability: Natural Cure
Calm mind
Return (will swap for Giga Drain when I hit the required level)
Hidden Power (ice)

Shifty
Nature: docile
Ability: chlorophyll
Dark Pulse
Grass Knot
Toxic
Hidden Power (Ice)

Ninetales
Nature: Hardy
Ability: Drought
Sunny Day
Will O Wisp
Inferno
Confuse Ray

Walrein
Nature: Naughty
Ability: Oblivious
Surf
Earthquake
Ice Beam
Protect

Salamence
Nature: Calm
Ability: Intimidate
Dragon Claw
Hone Claws
Fly
Zen Headbutt

Gengar
Nature: Quiet
Ability: Levitate
Venoshock
Protect
Sucker Punch
Shadow Ball

Also, this is my very first post, so if I didn't put something, or put it wrong, sorry! Anyhow, thanks for any help, and have a good one!
 
Firstly welcome to the forums! And also welcome to competitive battling, it is a bit daunting at first but through practice and time you'll get the hang of it.

For starters I'd recommend changing the natures of your Pokemon so that they provide benefits to stats that they need. For example Gengar has a Quiet nature (+Sp. Atk, - Speed) so while its special attacks are stronger his speed is hampered which affects his potential.

Also I suggest researching your Pokemon to learn their base stats and see where they excel. Going back to Gengar, here are his base stats (courtesy of Bulbapedia)
HP: 60
Attack: 60
Defense: 60
Special Attack: 130
Special Defense: 75
Speed: 110

As you can see Gengar has excellent Special Attack but his Attack is on the low side so it's not wise to have Sucker Punch on it. Although you have the benefit of hitting first, with Gengar's low Attack it wouldn't be significant.

I won't delve into deeper mechanics just yet but for now I suggest doing research on your Pokemon to find their strengths and how to apply them to be a first good step to learn about competitive battling.

EDIT: Shameless plug but we have a mentorship program here in the forums if you are interested. Once you're in you'll be assigned a mentor who will guide you on the ins and outs of battling and help you with your team :)
 
Do i hear a fellow Texan! Great to have you join us my man. I'd recommend you check out the BBL Mentorship Prgram. We have plenty of experienced competitive battlers who are looking to help those interested in comp battling. I'll also be doing a Celebi analysis this Saturday if you want to see some other movesets.
 
Sorry, Koala, I'm from the "winter wonderland" of Georgia XD anyhow, I just put a post on the mentoring thread, and might have to resend it like I did this one, my phone is stupid.
 
Also, I'm looking into a rain dance team now, and I'm not sure where to start on that...
 
jc10757 said:
Also, I'm looking into a rain dance team now, and I'm not sure where to start on that...
Click to expand...
I'm a bit more experienced with that :)

- Have a Politoed with Damp Rock and Drizzle in the team. I'd advise having a second Rain Dance user on the team in case Politoed has trouble activating Drizzle again.
- There are a lot of Abilities that make use of the rain: Swift Swim, Dry Skin, Hydration, Rain Dish. Since your main strategy revolves around having rain active then it'd be good to have abilities that synergize with rain.
- I'll send you a copy of my rain dance team, just to help jump-start your team :)
 
I've been looking at teams on many places, like Smogon, and I've seen Ludicolo used in place of Politoed. Thoughts?
 
OK, awesome! Would you say Ludicolo is a good secondary Rain Dance user, with Rain Dish?
 
Also, don't know if you have been to the mentoring thread recently, but I requested you to be my mentor, since you introduced me to the forum
 
Politoed is useful in that, due to its ability of Drizzle, the rain is immediately activated upon sending it out. Therefore you don't have to use a turn to activate rain via Rain Dance.
When considering a rain team, there are several other small factors to consider: Thunder is 100% accurate, fire type moves are weakened, etc etc etc.
Goodra is one of my new favorite Pokemon that I would recommend for a rain team. It can take hits like a champion, whilst simultaneously healing itself from burns, paralysis, sleep, burns and freezes via its Hydration ability.
 
Are there any pokemon you'd recommend in place of Goodra? I'll use it if I must, but I'm nowhere near as familiar with it as I am with previous generation pokemon, because my local community considered it OP and banned it :p
So any alternates would be great, if not, I'll pick it up. Thanks!
 
Thanks! And one more thing, if y'all don't mind. Should I run a legendary if I can acquire one? If so, which one?
 
First off, what banlists are you even playing with? Are you doing UU matches or something?
 
Pretty much, yeah. It was REALLY dumb, and I wish I had never done it, but it was just a school thing, so it didn't really matter in the long run... but regardless, I'll use anything, because now I'm actually taking this seriously, with real competitive battle
 
Thanks for signing up for the mentorship program, we're always happy to share our knowledge with people jumping into the world of battling. I can't guarantee you'll get me but I'm sure whoever you get will be more than happy to help :)

What other rules does your local community play by? As AnybodyAgrees has said, Vaporeon would be a viable option for setting up Rain Dance thanks to its bulk and access to Wish. As you've seen from my PM I use Goodra as my backup Rain Dance user, moreso to cover an Electric weakness that's more pronounced in rain teams.
 
In general, here is a list of banned Pokemon if you are playing OU, which I would say is the most common tier.

Arceus
Blaziken
Darkrai
Deoxys
Deoxys-A
Dialga
Giratina
Giratina-O
Groudon
Ho-Oh
Kyogre
Kyurem-W
Lugia
Mewtwo
Palkia
Rayquaza
Reshiram
Shaymin-S
Xerneas
Yvletal
Zekrom
Click to expand...
 
There were just a few additions. The OP dragons, like Salamence, Garchomp, Tyrantrum, etc.
 
Our community played by what I assume to be smogon reg, all level 50 single battles, with 3 Pokémon, or 6 Pokémon double battles. No items from the bag, only what the Pokémon are holding, etc... again, what I assume smogon reg to be.
 
I believe smogon typically does full 6 v 6 single battles, or VGC involves 4 v 4 double battles. I do not usually see other variations.
 
Please note: The thread is from 12 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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