[RMT] My first team in a long time..

[Erik]

Well after lots of breeding and caffeine I've assembled my first competitive team. I've built the team that I wanted, how I wanted and paid no heed to 'guides.' So anyways this is it..

Lucario♂
EV's: 252 Sp.Atk/252 Spd/6 Def
IV's: 5/6
Nature: Serious
Ability: Steadfast
Item: Lucarionite
Moves:
Aura Sphere
Flash Cannon
Dragon Pulse
Nasty Plot

Zoroark♂
EV's: 252 Sp.Atk/252 Spd/6 HP
IV's: 5/6
Nature: Timid
Ability: Illusion
Item: (Undecided)
Moves:
Extrasensory
Night daze
Flamethrower
Nasty Plot

Sylveon♂
EV's: 252 Sp.Atk/252 Sp.Def/6 Spd
IV's: 6/6
Nature: Timid
Ability: Cute Charm
Item: Pixie Plate
Moves:
Moonblast
Draining Kiss
Misty terrain
Reflect

Vaporeon♂
EV's: 252 Sp. Atk/ 252 HP/ 6 Sp.Def
IV's: 5/6
Nature: Timid
Ability: Water Absorb
Item: Leftovers
Moves:
Scald
Ice Beam
Acid Armor
Aqua Ring

Jolteon♂
EV's: 252 Sp.Atk/252 Spd/ 6 Sp.Def
IV's: 5/6
Nature: Timid
Ability: Volt Absorb
Item: Zap Plate
Moves:
Discharge
Shadow Ball
Thunder Wave
Light Screen

Leafeon♂
EV's: 252 Atk/252 Def/6 Spd
IV's 5/6
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Leaf Guard
Item: Meadow Plate
Moves:
Leaf Blade
X-Scissor
Synthesis
Swords Dance



So that's it, my first attempt at building a competitive team since gen 3.. My play style is usually a combo of offence and defense. Usually drop a Light Screen or Reflect then bring in a DD/Sweeper and Nasty Plot/Swords dance. Any tips, advice, or criticism would be helpful, I'm still working on adapting after being away for gen's 4-6. At the moment I haven't participated in a singe Wi-Fi battle yet.. Though I'll get around to it eventually.

Anyways, thanks for the read through. If I forgot to mention anything let me know.

 

[Alexey]

Note that what follows is not a thorough analysis of the team.
-----------
Well... unless you're playing Ubers, you want do drop Lucarionite. Because MLucario is banned to Ubers.
If you are playing Ubers, you drop everything bar Lucario and Sylveon.
If you're playing VGC (doubles)... I have to give some thought as to what can be retained.

------------
Please, do not take it as an offense, but I fear that you didn't assemble a competitive team, but, rather, you've bred a bunch of random competitive Pokes. At least by GenVI standards (and I wasn't around during GenIII), that's what it looks like.

 

[Erik]

I'm not sure how the tiers are exactly.. I primarily just built a team around Pokemon I like. I've no real intention of participating in any tournaments, more-so just random battles for fun. Breeding wise I just wanted my Pokemon to be in peak form as I presumed many wi-fi battlers would do the same. From my standpoint I've never followed 'fan/community' assumed rules and play the/any game based on how it was made by the developers. If I were to participate in an official/unofficial tournament then I'd abide by the rules put in order for the event obviously. But anyways keeping the story short its just a generalized team for random/casual battles with a mild competitive drive behind it's structure. I'm just seeking insight/opinions from folks more familiar than myself with the newer generations, to point out my potential flaws and strengths. If someone does want to organize a skirmish with me then by all means I'll follow whichever rule set they want to go with, if any.

Thanks for the details though, I'll put it to thought for my next team. I guess I should re-phrase my OP to casual team, I sorta jumped the gun due to impatience. It was intentional yet unintentional at the same time, I've just got a lot rolling around my noggin at the moment.

I haven't decide on whether or not I'm gonna build a Smogon doctrine team yet or not, as I haven't even scratched the surface of that yet. I've been busy just re-adapting to everything that has changed over the last decade. I've only got 147 hours of game play logged and a good 3/4 of that was spent breeding and researching all the new Pokemon, moves, and mechanics. I don't mean to ramble on too much, I just want to leave as much detail as I can since I'm new here and still some what behind the times.

 

[TerraTF]

One of my first takeaways is that there's no real direction in the style of team it is besides being an Eeveelution team. It's not really an offensive team, a defensive team, or even a decent balanced team. It's just 6 random Pokemon put together. For your next team I'd recommend picking a direction and going with it. Also don't be afraid to look at standard sets for ideas as they're generally better than just random sets that are just made up.

 

[UB-01 Kenobi]

You invested in a Defense over HP on Sylveon and Leafeon, which is a huge no-no most of the time. In addition, since your Leafeon is Jolly, you'll want to invest in Speed over HP/Def anyways. Sylveon has the same problem but worse - Speed is far from. Sylveon's strong suit and a Timid nature is wasted on it. You want Bold for a mixed wall or Calm for a special one, and your EV spread should be 252 HP/252 (Sp) Def/4 (other) Def. Packing Misty Terrain is a waste, replace it with Light Screen and give Sylveon Light Clay, and replace one of your 2 STAB moves with Heal Bell and the other with Hyper Voice. Zoroark should be Naive and pack Sucker Punch over Extrasensory, U-Turn over Nasty Plot, and Knock Off over Night Daze with an EV spread of 252 Atk/4 SpA/252 Spe. Luke has two problems and can be fixed two ways: Dragon pulse needs to go for sure, and you need Vacuum Wave for sure. You can either replace Aura sphere for Vacuum Wave and replace Dragon pulse for Dark Pulse, thus attaining perfect neutral coverage in Fight/Dark/Steel, or replace Dark Pulse for Vacuum Wave directly and have a stronger STAB to net OHKOes on slower foes that lack priority, like MTyranitar in Sand. Either way you want a timid nature, Serious is useless. Plus, I would advise dropping the Lucarionite all together since almost every truly serious match you'll none in will be a Smogon match or a VGC match, and this is clearly a Singles team so most real battles you'll be in (not counting the random noobs running around challenging people on the PSS) will be a Smogon one. Offensive Vaporeon is inadvisable, use 252 Hp/252 Def/4 SDef Bold with Wish, Protect, Scald, and either Ice Beam or Toxic. Jolteon should be replaced for either Raikou holding Assault Vest with Volt Switch, Thunderbolt, Hidden Power Ice, and Extrasensory (for MVenusaur), if you keep MLuke, or MManectric with Thunderbolt, Volt Switch, Overheat, and HP Ice (if you drop MLuke). Jolteon is utterly outclassed by Raikou and MManectric and you shouldn't use it unless playing strict UU or RU. Finally, I know I gave you some advice on Leafeon, but it ought to be replaced as well - Ferrothorn, Relaxed, 252 HP/48 Def/208 SpD with Stealth Rock, Leech Seed, Spikes, and Power Whip would do nicely. Note that all this is assuming you have access to Pokebank'd B2W2 mons with tutor moves, and if you want Raikou you'll need to hack, RNG, or trade to get a good one (you might need to do the same to get am HP Ice !anectric unless you like breeding).

 

[Alexey]

Dammit, while I was watching football, everyone have already said everything I had to say. Well, I'll just sum up.

For better or for worse, but "casual" in GenVI means "battling for 90% of the time against people with teams of 6 boxart legendaries who have no idea what they're doing". Or, as GB put it above, "the random noobs running around challenging people on the PSS". Any proper matches will have to be arranged through the internet, and they will stick something the battlers agree upon - usually one of the metas, and this "one of the metas" will usually be a Smogon tier.
So it's probably better to pick some specific direction.

 

[sharkshocker]

Here's some generic tips just to round things off.
- Look into getting the right nature for your Pokemon. The Serious nature on Lucario doesn't improve its Sp. Atk or Speed so try using a Modest or Timid nature, while it lowers Lucario's Attack stat you won't be using it so no downside. Your other Pokemon have better natures so you have an idea how this benefits them.
- When planning movesets for your Pokemon try to consider what it has trouble against and plan accordingly. GB made a lot of good suggestions for what movesets to use and as you can see they either help provide coverage against a lot of types or answer against specific threats.
- Adding on to what people have said about "direction" try to organize what you're trying to do with your team. You're playing to win, how do you achieve it? Seems your main strategy is "setting up Light Screen/Reflect to open things up for a SD/Nasty Plot sweep". Streamline your team to maximize that strategy. Give one Pokemon both Light Screen/Reflect + Light Clay to maximize their effect and cover both defenses. Moves like Thunder Wave and Misty Terrain detract from the strategy so scrap those, and make sure that those who would be sweeping have good elemental coverage. Leafeon only has Bug/Grass attacks so it can't do anything to a Steel type like Skarmory who's liable to Whirlwind you.
- Don't feel like you're being forced to follow a "doctrine" when looking up recommended sets on Smogon, rather use it as a starting point since those sets have been tested and have been proven to be more reliable. Read up on them and understand how they're effective (and thus recommended) since that will help you improve your battling sense...plus it's been a while since gen 3, there's been a few new things Once you become more accustomed to battling then you can fix things on your team to suit your own play style.

Best of luck and welcome back to the world of battling!

 

[Erik]

Man this gets confusing rather quick.. perhaps I'm just too accustomed to RTS and action games hehe. I guess I can make a few adjustments, I just tend to test and adapt with strategy. So for I've theorized it but haven't tested it. Still working on farming my EV berries so EV training is easier. Also Pokemon Y is the only game I have currently, so obtaining pre-gen Pokemon is some what a hassle since I can only trade for them. I guess the best thing I could do is find some friends so I can do some trial battles here and there. Currently I don't really know anyone via the 3DS, most of my friends on PC/Steam are Shooter/RPG gamers or waiting for Smash Bros. >.>

Well anyways, thanks for the advice. I suppose its back to the drawing board and to bed. Got a Zapdos to catch tomorrow, if i can get the right nature..

 

[sharkshocker]

Man this gets confusing rather quick.. perhaps I'm just too accustomed to RTS and action games hehe. I guess I can make a few adjustments, I just tend to test and adapt with strategy. So for I've theorized it but haven't tested it. Still working on farming my EV berries so EV training is easier. Also Pokemon Y is the only game I have currently, so obtaining pre-gen Pokemon is some what a hassle since I can only trade for them. I guess the best thing I could do is find some friends so I can do some trial battles here and there. Currently I don't really know anyone via the 3DS, most of my friends on PC/Steam are Shooter/RPG gamers or waiting for Smash Bros. >.>

Well anyways, thanks for the advice. I suppose its back to the drawing board and to bed. Got a Zapdos to catch tomorrow, if i can get the right nature..

Heh it does take a while to get back into things but XY has improved on a lot of things to help competitive players.

If you want to test out teams, you can try using Pokemon Showdown!. It's an online battle simulator that lets you build teams and battle people online so you can get a feel for your team before you commit to building it.

If you're having trouble resetting EVs I can recommend having your window open at Super Training so you can farm for Reset Bags (which automatically erases all EVs on a Pokemon)

You can explore this forum and ask for battles if you want (we're also running a gym league here if you want to try #shamelessplug) and if you're looking for trade partners you can drop by the Trade Station and look around.

 

[Erik]

Bah what a bad day.. was working on re-organizing my team a bit and finishing the Battle Chateau. Got up to take a little break and have a smoke, and the next thing I knew I blacked out in the kitchen and ended up in the ER for 3 hours.. Apparently I have really low blood pressure which makes me prone to fainting. Any who first time that's ever happened, perhaps I've been a little too addicted to Pokemon lately lol.

But anyways I changed my team a little, havn't gotten around to redoing any EV's yet just some moves.
Changes so far:
Sylveon - Dropped Misty Terrain and replaced with Light screen. Also managed to acquire a Light Clay.
Jolteon - Dropped Light Screen and replaced with Substitute. Dropped Shadow Ball and replaced with Volt Switch. Dropped Discharge and replaced with Thunderbolt.
And that's all so far, now lets hope I don't end up in the ER again lol. Gonna have to start getting a bit more exercise and take some more breaks, my Pokemon aren't the only thing that needs trained apparently..