1st Team (BW OU)

[Decmaster]

Well, here I am. You've probably never seen me around in the competitive video game section before. I've been trying to get into the game for a while, but haven't been able to construct a good team. Until yesterday, when I logged onto Pokebeach and saw TPO3's article on the portal. I read through it, hoping that I'd learn some great tips about how to build a team. And, it's safe to say that I really did. Eager to try out my knowledge, I opened up Pokemon Online and built my first team in quite a while. So, here goes.

I decided that first, I'd go with my main Pokemon. Considering my love for Kingdra, I thought I'd start there.

Kingdra @ Scope Lens
Modest Nature (+Sp.A, –Atk)
Trait: Sniper
252 Sp.A / 252 Spd / 6 HP
Ice Beam
Surf
Dragon Pulse
Hidden Power Fire

Kingdra is the main Pokemon of my team. He's got some pretty good Special Attack. Since I've noticed that Dragon is a pretty big type in the game right now, I decided that Kingdra couldn't hurt. Surf and Dragon Pulse get STAB, which is nice since Fire and Dragon are used a lot? Ice Beam can be used to take out any Dragons who might have a way around incoming Dragon type attacks and can also take out grass moves. I don't exactly know what Hidden Power to give Kingdra, so I gave it Fire. I gave Kingdra a Scope Lens because with Sniper and Scope Lens, there's a great chance for a critical hit and because of Sniper, it will do a lot more damage.

Next, I wanted to find a lead. I had always found that Froslass was fun to use, and had a great variety, too. So, naturally, that's what I chose.

Froslass @ Focus Sash
Timid Nature (+Spd, –Atk)
Trait: Cursed Body
252 Sp.A / 252 Spd / 6 Sp.D
Spikes
Ice Beam
Taunt
Destiny Bond

This lead is quite fun and frustrating to come up against, I'm sure. Start with a Taunt, depending on your opponent's lead. If it's not a threat to 1HKO you, then use it. After a Taunt, start Spiking to your heart's content. A Focus Sash ensures at least one turn of survival. Then, once you are low on HP, Destiny Bond and take one of your opponents Pokemon with you. Ice Beam is a good move to use if you have to use Froslass later in the game, and is fun to take out Dragon types with. The final great thing about Froslass is it's Ghost typing, allowing no anti-lead Rapid Spins, if I'm correct.

Next, following the article, I needed three core Pokemon, ones to back up my main, Kingdra, and help counter the metagame. However, this is where it got tough for me. I realized that I have no idea what people use these days. Coming from a long time in the TCG, I have a completely different idea of what people use. In the TCG, people use: Yanmega, Magnezone, Kingdra, Cinccino, Zoroark, Reshiram, Emboar, Zekrom, Lanturn, Gengar, and more. So, when I first read that article, I was thinking, "People use Heatran, Blissey, Tyranitar, say what?" So, having nothing to go on as to counters, I decided to go for weakness and resistance first, as it was a good start.

Heatran @ Charcoal
Timid Nature (+Spd, –Atk)
252 Spd / 252 Sp.A / 6 HP
Trait: Flash Fire
Flamethrower
Eruption
Flash Cannon
Earth Power

I figured that Grass types were going to give Kingdra some trouble, without STAB on Ice Beam or HP Fire. And, I figured that Heatran had to be popular for a reason. I figure that it's a versatile enough moveset, and with STAB Flamethrower and Eruption with Charcoal, Grass and Ice types had better watch out. And now that I think about it, Heatran just destroys Ice types. I'm not sure if they're used that much, but overall, Heatran sounds like he is a tough force to reckon with.

Onto my next core option, I decided that I wanted something versatile that had a lot of options, so he really couldn't get stuck. So, looking at Hydreigon's nice stats and diverse movepool, I figured he'd be perfect.

Hydreigon @ Expert Belt
Mild Nature (+Sp.A, –Def)
252 Spd / 128 Sp.A / 128 Atk / 2 HP
Trait: Levitate
Dark Pulse
Earthquake
Draco Meteor
Rock Slide

Hydreigon is a great way to counter a lot of Pokemon. With his diverse movepool, nothing is really a problem. Draco Meteor can take out opposing Dragon types. Rock Slide has fun with annoying Bug and Ice types. Dark Pulse has STAB, and so does Draco Meteor, hitting for a lot of damage if necessary. Because of the diverse movepool, an Expert Belt is necessary, in my opinion. Earthquake hits a lot of Types for weakness, something that I don't exactly have otherwise.

Next, I decided to follow the article, and use Rotom – Wash. Why? Because it looked like it could have fun wreaking havoc with ease. And I'm glad I threw it in.

Rotom – Wash @ Shell Bell
Modest Nature (+Sp.A, – Atk)
128 Spd / 128 HP / 252 Sp.A
Trait: Levitate
Thuderbolt
Hydro Pump
Pain Split
Will–O–Wisp

Rotom – Wash is a great Pokemon overall. With STAB Hydro Pump and Thunderbolt, Fire, Flying, Water and more types had better watch out. Will–O–Wisp is a wonderful way to keep Physical Sweepers from doing their job. Pain Split can easily be a way to keep Rotom–W alive for another turn or two. Rotom–W is a great Pokemon to switch out against Gyarados, especially when they use Earthquake. It's a free switch. Plus, Thunderbolt will almost always 1 or 2HKO a Gyarados and other Waters and Flyings, too.

To finish up my team, I had one more space. The article said something about finding a weakness and covering it with the last Pokemon, I figured I'd start there. I noticed a general lack of coverage against Fighting types, same as the article. So, I decided to go with the same Pokemon, too. Gliscor. (With some minor changes)

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Impish Nature (+Def, –Sp.A)
252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Trait: Poison Heal
Swords Dance
Taunt
Earthquake
Facade

Gliscor has a great combo within. Toxic Orb will poison you. Doesn't sound too good, does it? Well, that's where Poison Heal comes in. It will actually heal your HP for poison, and it heals a nice amount, too. But there's even more. Facade, an average 70 Power attack, is doubled if Gliscor is poisoned! It's going to be hard to get around that. Swords Dance can be used a few times to power up Gliscor's attack. And Taunt is useful against Pokemon that want to spam non-attacking moves. Overall, Gliscor is a great Pokemon for this team.​

So, there was my team. Eager to try it out, see if it worked, I quickly logged on to the Pokemon Online server and started a match. I lost. I wanted to try again, so I lowered the interval between ranks and tried again. Again, I lost. I kept on losing and lowering the interval. I must have played twenty matches, and the only time when the outlook was good for me, my opponent forfeited. Well, so much for a great team. So, now, I turn to the esteemed members of Pokebeach, the ones with the knowledge of the competitive scene that I have yet to find. What my goal is with this RMT is to find where I went wrong in my team-building process. Maybe I chose the wrong Pokemon? Maybe I chose the wrong Pokemon to try and counter against?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Professor Palutena]

First of all, I would change Kingdra's ability to Swift Swim, and give it Leftovers, Life Orb or Expert Belt as an item. Drizzle+Swift Swim is banned on the same team, but you don't have Drizzle, meaning that Kingdra can easily annihilate a weakened Rain team. For its moves, I would use Waterfall, Surf, Draco Meteor and Hidden Power [Fire] or Rain Dance. Use this EV Spread; 92 Attack/252 Sp.Attack/164 Speed, as it gives you extremely powerful Surfs, and makes it very hard to revenge kill you (You outrun all Pokemon with 100 Base Speed with one boost). Finally, use a Mild Nature, as it won't decrease either of your offensive stats.

Froslass looks fine. I would consider changing the ability to Snow Cloak though. Cursed Body doesn't work all the time, and Froslass isn't exactly going to be taking many hits. Snow Cloak gives it a chance to set up another layer of Spikes against opposing Hail teams. Its up to you though, as neither ability is a guarantee to work.

Bit of competitive advice for you: Ice types aren't common in OU at all. Unless its a Hail team, the only OU Ice type is Mamoswine. Also, items like Charcoal don't give a big enough boost when compared to Expert Belt, Life Orb and Choice Items.

If you like offensive Heatran, I would consider running a Flame Charge set. With the moveset Flame Charge, Flamethrower, Hidden Power [Ice], and Earth Power, Heatran can easily outrun, and KO a large variety of the metagame. Use a Modest Nature, and either Expert Belt or Life Orb. I love seeing people switching in their Gliscor to counter Heatran, only to be outsped, and KOed by Hidden Power [Ice].

As a Mixed Sweeper, I find that Hydreigon is outclassed by Salamence, who boasts better offensive stats, as well as a speed boosting move and a recovery move (Though its not wise to run both on the same set). Salamence also has Intimidate, keeping it bulky. So, you could switch Hydreigon for mixed Salamence, or you could use Wallbreaker Hydreigon. I'll cover both in the two following paragraphs.

Mixed Salamence's goal is to beat down the opponent's team, opening up for a sweep (In this team, Kingdra would sweep). For moves, I like Fire Blast (Flamethrower could work as well), Draco Meteor, Brick Break and Roost. For nature, EVs and item, I would use Naive, 4 Attack, 252 Sp.A/252 Speed and Life Orb. This gives Salamence lots of power behind its Fire Blast/Flamethrower and Draco Meteor, as well as letting it speed tie, at worse, with Pokemon with Base 100 Speed that haven't boosted their speed. Roost will heal off Life Orb recoil as well.

Wallbreaker Hydreigon's moves are Fire Blast, Draco Meteor, Taunt and U-Turn, and it holds a Life Orb. Not many Pokemon will like taking a Draco Meteor from Hydreigon, especially if Hydreigon runs a Modest Nature, with 252 Sp.A/252 Speed/4 HP EVs. Taunt stops Blissey from stopping Hydreigon cold, though its usually best to U-Turn to a Pokemon that can handle her.

Pick whichever Dragon you like. Both are very good if you use them correctly.

Three changes on Rotom-Wash. One, Shell Bell is a very bad item, and Leftovers is always preferred over it. Secondly, I would slightly change the EV spread to 112 HP/252 Sp.A/144 Speed. The third change is a Bold Nature. This gives Rotom-W as much bulk as it can, while still hitting many Pokemon hard.

One thing I would change to Gliscor would be Ice Fang over Facade. Without Ice Fang, you are stopped by an opposing Gliscors. Everything else looks great.

For a new player to Competitive VG, you have quite a good start Decmaster. Competitive VG isn't very easy the first time, but I think you'll enjoy it once you get the hang of it. If anything in my changes didn't make sense, let me know and I can explain them to you.

 

[Dork Void]

I agree with most of Bippa's changes, but I think Earthquake is better than Brick Break on Salamence if you decide to run it over Hydreigon, which I recommend. Earthquake gets pretty much the same coverage as Brick Break, but its more powerful. Actually, Dragon and Fire provide unresisted coverage other than Heatran, and due to Brick Break's low base power and not being STAB it often fails to OHKO Heatran due to Heatran's impressive natural bulk. Earthquake, however, is a higher power and hits Heatran more effectively, guarenteeing the OHKO. The only reason to run Brick Break over Earthquake would be the Air Balloon, but since Heatran can OHKO Salamence back with Dragon Pulse you need to be able to OHKO it.

 

[Equinox]

In my opinion I'd change a few things around. You're pretty much Blissey weak, considering only one Pokemon (Gliscor) can only really hope to defeat her, so I recommend you change Kingdra's set around to

Kingdra@Life Orb / Leftovers
Jolly nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Speed
~ Dragon Dance
~ Waterfall
~ Outrage
~ Substitute

Or you can change your Hydreigon to Scrafty, which is also a Dark Type but also is part fighting. He also has coverage to, so don't worry. The set I recommend:

Scrafty@Leftovers / Life Orb
Ability: Shed Skin
Jolly nature
Evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
~ Dragon Dance
~ Crunch
~ Drain Punch
~ Ice Punch

With this set, Scrafty is already bulky enough to take hits, Dragon Dance is quite nice as it boosts his troublesome speed and his pretty good attack. Shed Skin is nice in the fact that Scrafty can set up without having to really worry about taking status damage. Also, being a Dark and Fighting type, he has pretty much near perfect coverage, with pretty much I think Dragon being the only thing he doesn't hit for SE, which is why Ice Punch is there.

 

[patrick329]

On Kingdra, I would suggest HP Electric over HP Fire. This is a result of Bippa's post. If you are able to sweep weakened rain teams, HP Fire will be useless and HP Electric is super effective, and also with Ice Beam it has better coverage.