Battle Spot Babbies First Step Into Competitive

[einselftausend]

Dear Smogoners, this is my very first attempt at building and actually battling with a competitive Pokemon team. Sun & Moon have me hyped for the ingame ladder, so I've decided to go for the Battle Spot Singles format. This squad has gone through around 30 showdown battles and I'm eagerly looking to improve so I've decided to ask for advice over here. :)

My general strategy revolves around Mega Blaziken cleaning house and supporting it with the rest of the team. More about that on my individual monsters.

Blaziken-Mega @ Blazikenite
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- High Jump Kick
- Knock Off
- Protect

Mostly a mid- to late game sweeper and wallbreaker (though there aren't that many dedicated walls on Battle Spot). Usually comes in after problematic opponents have been eliminated and proceeds to miss High Jump Kick and makes me lose. I'm debating whether it would be wise to go for a stone move instead of Knock Off since that is used rather rarely and I'm having big problems against Volcarona.

Gengar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Shadow Ball
- Destiny Bond
- Focus Blast

Mainly used for pregame mindgames trying to make people think this is my backup Mega. Revenge kills what killed Blaziken quite well and can handle / force out setup monsters with destiny bond.

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch

I usually lead with either this or Zapdos. The two together might be a bit redundant though, but Willowisp saved me quite a lot of games and I'm lacking water moves if I don't bring him.

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield
- Sacred Sword

This is a weird one. Shares ground weakness with Blaziken but can sponge a hit and retaliate quite well. I usually bring him when I have no clue what else to bring (which is probably a bad sign lol). He doesn't really seem to fit a designated role on the team and I'm very open to replacement suggestions.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Roost
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Used as a lead (rare) or as a switch in to problematic physical attackers (mainly Garchomp and Mega Kangashkan). Surprisingly sturdy and versatile.

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head

Another one of those "don't know what to bring, so I bring this" type of members of the team. Doesn't really fill a designated role other than being a decent revenge killer and lead, but I'm very open to changing him up as well.


The team's probably hot garbage but I've done decently well, winning maybe 2 out of 3 games so far with it. However I feel there's still a lot of room for improvement and I'm looking forward to hearing your suggestions! Many thanks in advance, and have an amazing day/evening/morning. :)

 

[Omastar68]

lol, this isn't bad, but there's some stuff I think you should change.

I agree on a rock move for Blazi, probably Rock Slide. Volcarona is a reason, but you also got Char Y which looks mean and Talon switches. TBH I don't like Knock Off. You break Gengar with Flare Blitz, and Koff really isn't enough for Cress or Slowbro anyways-and your team is strong against them too. Lati twins are also targets, but they're rare and not especially threatening to you.

Gengar I'd change Focus Miss for Icy Wind. You have lots of fighting coverage, but only one weak ice attack. IW is also great with sash, living a hit from a faster mon and making it slower. Maybe hurts you some vs. Kang...but you have Blaziken, Aegi, and 2 mons that punish contct. Plus even Rotom is phys. def. Also, Gengar would just die to sucker Punch anyways. Also it's some help with other Sash Gengar, so after their IW you can Spe tie for a chance to win.

This team does not beat mega Venu very well at all. She kinda walls all your stuff :( CB Chomp could help a bit with that, but really not much.

Um, that's kina all I got xd. Hopefully that's some help.

 

[Solerme]

Hello sir, i'll start saying that your team already looks not that bad. You have a nice Blaziken/Aegislash/Zapdos core that works pretty well.

Now, thinking about improvements i would start with Mega-Blaziken:

First of all i don't think you need a 252/252 spread; a good set might be this one:

Blaziken-Mega @ Blazikenite
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe -> 148 HP / 252 Atk / 108 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- High Jump Kick
- Knock Off -> Baton Pass
- Protect

With that speed you'd be able to outspeed full speed mega gengar after one speed boost, by 1 point (reaching a number of 201), gaining some bulk in return and hitting as hard as possible. You can lower your HP, putting 148 EVs in speed if you want to outspeed Adamant Heracross (some of them run Substitute, so it might be a good idea to attack directly instead of protecting) without waiting a Speed Boost; 172 EVs if for some reason you want to outspeed Timid Heatran before speed boost or Scarf Modest Rotom after a speed boost. Baton Pass could be a really good idea on Blakizen, either giving him the chance to pass speed to a partner, to scout, or just to escape Shadow Tag (since Knock Off wouldn't kill most mega gengars)

Second point, since you are using a sashed Gengar, i would put Icy Wind on him over Focus Blast (since it already has neutral coverage with shadow ball vs steels and you even have blaziken for that). This because having the combination of Focus Sash and Icy Wind gives you the opportunity to KO threats like Mega-Salamence, lowering its speed in the first turn and killing it in the second one, that could otherwise threat your mega.

Then, imo, Zapdos and Rotom-W look kind of redundant, so i'd just replace one of them with another pokemon. Maybe another Mega, such as Mega-Salamence that works pretty well with either Aegiaslash and Zapdos/rotom and even with normal Blaziken, or a grass pokemon completing the fire(blaziken)/water(rotom)/grass core, such as Breloom (even if this mon works at its best with a Focus Sash).
Another good partner might be Cresselia, covering blaziken's ground and psychic weakness, taking care of some threats such as offensive variants of Talonflame (the bulky Special Defense one would beat Cresselia), and healing him back with Lunar Dance if it is paralyzed or injuried.

The other mons looks fine in the team to me. I'd just do minor chances:
-I really like Aegislash in every Blaziken teams since, like i already wrote, they fit very well with typical Blazi partners such as Thundurus or Zapdos. I would just remove Sacred Sword for a more standard King's Shield.
- You might try 116 speed EVs on Zapdos if you want to outspeed Jolly Breloom, with 252 hp, rest in Def and a Bold nature. But hey, you still have baton pass for that so w/e. Rocky Helmet could be a good item on it, even tho Lefties are fine.



And well, for now it's all. I hope i helped a bit :]

 

[einselftausend]

Thanks a lot guys, really appreciated! I'll change things up a bit, especially the Icy Wind on Gengar sounds very promising. Cheers!

 

[cant say]

Since you're a beginner I think you should go for something tried and tested to help you get a feel for the metagame before diving straight in. You've already got the popular Blaziken + Zapdos core which is great, you can found this core out of you replace Rotom-W with Ferrothorn. BlazeZapThorn is a great three-Pokemon core and variants of it have been reaching the top of the ladder for a long time. You state yourself that Rotom-W + Zapdos is redundant, and Ferrothorn does the physical wall thing better anyway.

One other thing, you should try to fit Suicune in somehow since without Rotom-W you lack a bulky Water-type. It should replace either Aegislash or Gengar. This gives you two really solid cores on the team in Blaziken + Zapdos + Ferrothorn & Garchomp + Suicune + [Ghost-type]. With Ferrothorn on the team you're doubling up on Steel-types with Aegislash in the team so it makes sense to drop that and keep Gengar.

You'll want to learn how EVs work at level 50. With Zapdos, using 252 EVs in Def with a 30 IV gives the same as 248 EVs, so you're wasting 4. Either move them to another stat or make the IVs 31/1/31/31/31/30.

Use Poison Jab over Iron Head on Garchomp. Fire Blast or Fire Fang are also cool on choiced sets.

sets

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip / Bullet Seed
- Gyro.Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed

You can reverse the EV spread and Nature to Sassy if you'd like a specially defensive wall to complement Zapdos' (and possibly Suicune's) physical build. But physically defensive Ferro is usually best.

Suicune @ Chesto Berry / Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam / Icy Wind
- Calm Mind
- Rest / Substitute

Yeah another physically bulky mon for your team may seem like overkill but you kinda need them for different stuff. But again, you can try specially defensive Ferro.

 

[NOVED]

I'm gonna agree with a lot of what has been already said. I don't think Rotom-W is really that important since you already have Zapdos. Wisp is nice but you can replace it with another mon that deals with physical attackers. I really like the suggestion of Ferrothorn as well because the Blaz-Ferro-Zap core is a really good one.

I feel like Zapdos would be better off with a status move over one of the coverage moves you have. Toxic helps your matchup vs Cress a lot more imo. I think HP Ice is probably expendable if you run Icy Wind on Gengar like solerme suggested and if you fit Suicune in like cant say suggested. I also think Leftovers would be better on Ferrothorn and Rocky Helmet would be better on Zapdos. Zapdos isn't really incredibly bulky like some other mons in the meta so having that Helmet to get off chip damage on stuff like Blaziken and Kanga is really important imo.

On Chomp, I don't like the coverage move for fairies. Earthquake on Fairies will honestly be fine. I think the last slot is better off as Sleep Talk or a fire move. And personally I think the power of Stone Edge is the way to go for rock coverage but if you really hate to miss Rock Slide is okay, but you lose a lot of power vs bulky thundurus.