DPPt/HGSS A RMT, deserving Critical Criticism!

[Marky]

I thought I knew all there is to know about raising a good team, but I can see that I was wrong, after I read the Basics To A Competitive Team" posts. So, without further ado, I present to you the audacity of the Not-So-Perfect team.

On a side note, these Pokemon are level 100, so don't be afraid if what I need to do to make them better requires raising a new Pokemon over again. I can cover it!

Dragonite: Inner Focus
Dragon Pulse
Flamethrower
Aqua Tail
Thunderbolt
Item: Draco Plate

Charizard: Blaze
Flamethrower
Focus Blast
Dragon Claw
Blast Burn
Item: Charcoal

Sceptile: Overgrow
Leaf Blade
Rock Tomb
Giga Drain
Dragon Pulse
Item: Miracle Seed

Tyranitar: Sand Stream
Dark Pulse
Thunderbolt
Aerial Ace
Dragon Claw
Item: Leftovers

Flygon: Levitate
Earthquake
Flamethrower
Dragon Claw
Crunch
Item: Dragon Fang

Salamence: Intimidate
Dragon Claw
Crunch
Fire Fang
Stone Edge
Item: Dragon Fang

So yeah, there you go. By the way, I know I have a severe Ice weakness in my team, but unless you have another extremely good reason for me to change Pokemon, I prefer to keep the ones I have.

Thank You

 

[NiceHat]

You have 6 pokemon with all attack moves, 5 are weak against ice and 3 are weak against dragon. You should consider some support pokemon (Stealth Rock, Baton Pass, etc), and almost never should you have two of the same type of attacks on one pokemon. Also items that only increase one type of attack are not very good. An all out offensive team will definitely lose in high level play.

 

[KoL]

NiceHat is correct, your team definitely needs some more defensive Pokemon in, preferably ones that resist Ice attacks. The Ice-type is a very popular type for offense-oriented Pokemon, and if you end up coming across a quick sweeper with an Ice attack your whole team is doomed. Weavile, for instance, will be faster than all 6 of your Pokemon and gets STAB on Ice attacks, which means Dragonite, Sceptile, Salamence and Flygon are all history. It also gets Brick Break, which means Tyranitar is history too. Although Charizard would probably be able to beat Weavile, it doesn't change the fact that that 1 Weavile can wipe out 5 Pokemon in your team by itself without breaking a sweat.

Although I have no business telling you what to and what not to use, I can recommend Pokemon for your team. I won't tell you who to remove, but consider getting some defensive support Pokemon for your team. Vaporeon, for instance, can Baton Pass Substitutes to protect your team from enemy status effects such as Burn and Paralysis, and can also heal your other party members too. Milotic is a flexible and strong Water-type who is just plain hard to kill. Suicune can stop the opponent from boosting their stats with moves like Swords Dance/Nasty Plot by using Roar, and can boost its own stats with Calm Mind. Keep in mind that the above 3 Pokemon also resist Ice-type attacks, so if that aforementioned Weavile does turn up, he'll have a much harder time causing damage than before.

Of course, you don't just want defensive types that protect you from Ice attacks - you want the defenders to be balanced too. Skarmory, thanks to its Steel/Flying type and huge Defense stat, is very good at stopping opponents who rely on Physical attacks (Weavile again.) Blissey on the other hand, has a very high Special Defense stat as well as the highest HP stat in the game (714 HP maximum) so Pokemon who rely on Special Attacks will have a very hard time causing damage to it. Combine these two with some well-timed switches and you have a near impenetrable wall of defense. Skarmory can also use Stealth Rock (which NiceHat suggested) to punish your opponent if they switch a lot, and Blissey can remove any status effects inflicted on your team with Aromatherapy.

The first thing you need to do with your team is balance it out more, and these Pokemon I've suggested are examples of how you can do this. Don't think that you absolutely have to use the ones I've mentioned here and no others - there are tons of good defenders out there who I haven't mentioned who are just as effective. Who you choose for this and who you replace is entirely up to you.

 

[Marky]

So let me try this then: I replace Flygon with:

Milotic
Aqua Ring
Recover
Hydro Pump
Attract

How would that fare?

 

[KoL]

For Milotic, try one of these:

Milotic @ Leftovers

- Surf
- Ice Beam/Dragon Pulse
- Recover
- Mirror Coat/Confuse Ray/Aqua Ring

Surf is better than Hydro Pump overall, so go for that instead of Hydro Pump. Ice Beam will take care of dragons more effectively than Dragon Pulse will, but with Ice Beam other Water-types will be able to wall you - your choice which attack you go for. Recover for healing, and the last move is filler. Mirror Coat is to stop people trying to Thunderbolt you to death (which they will sometimes) and punish anyone foolish enough to try. Confuse Ray is a much more reliable move than Attract for stalling the opponent, so go for that instead. Aqua Ring can help with recovery, although I think Recover is good enough by itself.

Milotic @ Flame Orb

- Surf
- Ice Beam/Dragon Pulse
- Haze
- Recover

This is a Hazing Milotic. After one turn Milotic will receive a burn from the Flame Orb, which will increase its Defense stat considerably (it'll need this to Haze Physical Sweepers.) Other than that, the rest is the same as the one above. Don't worry too much about the damage from the Burn - Recover can easily handle it by itself.