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1.Start by Choosing a Mega Pokemon!!
If this is your first time building a VGC team I can not emphasize enough on how important this is. This will help you stray away from building a team based on a single strategy that your team is relying on to win. Your goal in team building should be to create a team that can be successful against many different types of teams. A few of the good Mega Pokemon to start with include Kangaskhan, Mawile, Metagross, Charizard Y, Salamence, Venusaur.
2. Add Team Members that Complement your Mega Pokemon.
Offensively- If you have Mega Mawile on your team, you will not be able to do much to Steel type Pokemon. Adding a Fire type Pokemon to your team will complement Mawile by threatening the Steel type Pokemon that Mawile can not deal heavy damage to.
Defensively- If you have Mega Mawile on your team you're obviously weak to fire attacks. When selecting team members to defensively complement Mega Mawile, it's a good idea to put Pokemon that resist Fire type attacks. This will help you by having a Pokemon to switch in safely and receive little damage when you need to switch out Mawile.
3. Learn the Common Threats & How to Counter Each.
In the VGC 2015 Metagame Megathread you will find many wright ups on common VGC Pokemon threats & what counters them.
The main Pokemon you should prepare for are
4. Remove your Team's Weakness
You can do this by inputting your team in this Team Weakness Chart. Your goal is to have a lot of green and less of the red. The Fairy/Steel/Dragon core is very popular because it creates a well rounded defensive team.
5. Learn the Speed Tiers
It's very important to know if your Pokemon will out speed your opponents. This CHART can help you know what Pokemon are likely at act first.
6. EV Train With the Info You've Gathered
Some Pokemon just work best with a plain 252/252/4 EV spread, but for others they can help your team more with custom EV's. When I say to EV train with the info you've gathered up to this point, I'm referring to the Pokemon you want to out speed and what common threats you want to survive attacks from.
An example would be if your team needs Rotom-W to survive a Solar Beam from Modest 252 Charizard Y
You could accomplish this with a Calm natured Rotom-W with 252 HP EV and 132 SpD EV.
You can check Pokemon damage calculations HERE.
7. Test the Team on Pokemon Showdown BEFORE You Build it in Game
There is nothing worse than spending hours breeding and training a team only to find out it doesn't work well together. On Pokemon Showdown you can input a team in a few minutes and test it out.
8. Have Patience with the Team
It might seem silly that I've included this as the last tip, but it's very true. More than likely when you first try the team you wont start off by winning a ton of matches. You have to become familiar with the team before you play well with it. That is unless you're Justin Flynn, he gets a new team and wins a sub tournament right away :P
I hope this info can help some of the beginners on this site make a great team! If you feel that you need any additional help you're more than welcome to PM me. Also you can visit the Competitive Battling Mentorship Thread HERE
#TeamForum
Thank you @
