[RATE MY TEAM] VGC newbie over here, any help is appreciated before I start going to tournaments

[DanielJames]

Well, kind of a newbie anyways. In the past, I've usually stuck to single battles. I went to an official tournament last year though and placed 7th (out of 12). In any case, with ORAS out now and the new VGC rules, I feel like there is so much to cover. I had a team that tested good on Showdown but then got destroyed in Ranked Battles online. So I went back to the drawing board and started doing some research. Between these forums and some other sites, I put together this team. I would like to go to more tournaments this year, but only if I feel like I can actually compete with the best of them. So far my record with this team on Showdown is 4-3, so obviously there's room for improvement. Most of the EV spreads and movesets are from suggested builds I found.


Milotic @ Assault Vest
Ability: Competitive
EVs: 252 HP / 28 Def / 160 SpA / 64 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Icy Wind
- Dragon Tail

Milotic is a champ at taking hits and dishing them out in return. Scald/Ice Beam are the main attacks while the other two provide support more so than damage. Icy Wind does spread damage and lowers speed, Dragon Tail stops opponents from setting up or switching out unfavorable match-ups.

Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Protect

Nice attack and typing. Good Knock Off user, plus Iron Head does a lot of damage to other Sylveons. Sucker Punch is nice while picking off weaker Pokemon.

Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Shadow Ball
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Ground]

This thing only knows how to be in beast mode. The only move that matters here is Hyper Voice.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 232 SpD
Calm Nature
- Protect
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Grass]

A good switch in when Bisharp is going to get hit with a Fire-type attack. Get the boost and then use Heat Wave. Thinking about switching HP Grass for Flash Cannon.

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Double-Edge
- Protect

A little unsure about this one. I wanted a Mega on my team and I haven't used Mega Salamence all that much so I figured why not. STAB boosted Double-Edge does an incredible amount of damage. I also needed a Pokemon that could use Earthquake.

Arcanine @ Binding Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Def / 128 SpD
Bold Nature
- Fire Spin
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
- Morning Sun

This one is completely up in the air. I saw this build on here and found it interesting. Binding Band+Fire Spin+WoW means that an opponent's on Pokemon is losing 30% health per turn without even being attacked. Plus they can't switch out. I figured that it'd be a pretty decent counter to Cresselia. This build has been really situational though. Intimidate is nice though, especially with normal Salamence.

[IceyGamer]

I want to use that Milotic strategy not going to lie.
Bisharp is solid
Sylveon I'd spread out the 248 HP EVs into Sp.Def but keeping it still high. So something like 170 HP and 88 Sp.Def just to give an added bulk to that specific area.
Don't know much for Heatran sets.
Salamence is being used in Doubles so you don't want him locked up into Outrage not knowing which pokemon it attacks. Go for a Dragon Claw instead for the STAB boost.
Arcanine needs some work. I'm not the best for his set but I know somebody here on the forums and mentor you more than I can.

[tygaa2]

I would take off dragon tail on mitotic because its a physical move and mitotic is a special attacker.

I agree with Icey about sylveon

Bisharp looks good!

The EV's heatran has in SpD should be in SpA

I would change outrage to dragon claw on salemence because your opponents can use protect and then your Pokemon will be confused.

I like the bulky support Arcanine! I would change firespin to either flare blitz or over heat depending if you prefer physical or special. This is because those moves are powerful enough to KO annoying things like ferrothorn

[DanielJames]

(Jan 5, 2015, 02:25 PM)IceyGamer Wrote: I want to use that Milotic strategy not going to lie.
Bisharp is solid
Sylveon I'd spread out the 248 HP EVs into Sp.Def but keeping it still high. So something like 170 HP and 88 Sp.Def just to give an added bulk to that specific area.
Don't know much for Heatran sets.
Salamence is being used in Doubles so you don't want him locked up into Outrage not knowing which pokemon it attacks. Go for a Dragon Claw instead for the STAB boost.
Arcanine needs some work. I'm not the best for his set but I know somebody here on the forums and mentor you more than I can.

I'll try out the different EV spread on Sylveon and switch Outrage for Dragon Claw, thanks!

(Jan 5, 2015, 02:27 PM)tygaa2 Wrote: I would take off dragon tail on mitotic because its a physical move and mitotic is a special attacker.

I agree with Icey about sylveon

Bisharp looks good!

The EV's heatran has in SpD should be in SpA

I would change outrage to dragon claw on salemence because your opponents can use protect and then your Pokemon will be confused.

I like the bulky support Arcanine! I would change firespin to either flare blitz or over heat depending if you prefer physical or special. This is because those moves are powerful enough to KO annoying things like ferrothorn

Dragon Tail on Milotic is used purely for support. There aren't any other special attacks that Milotic can take advantage of besides one of the Hidden Powers. It also forces out unfavorable match-ups and prevents other Pokemon from setting up. What move would you recommend.

[Rogue]

Do not take Dragon Tail off of Milotic. It isn't there for providing great offensive pressure. Many good players keep their intimidate users in the back so they don't give boosts to things like bisharp/milotic leads. Dragon tailing will give it a chance to force out an intimidater and give you your boost. Lando is very common this format and I've witnessed a match myself where they led with Lando against a Milotic, Milotic got the +2 Special Attack from intimidate, Lando U-turned out immediately, and in that same turn Milotic Dragon Tail'd a hydreigon into Lando. Giving it +4 Special Attack.

You can't get anything like that by running a Hidden Power without losing such favorable momentum.

[Hero]

My milotic is a special attacker and I have dragon tail, recover, ice beam, and scald on it. Dragon tail is used just to take out unfavorables. Im still deciding what held item would be best though. I often switch between weakness policy or life orb to be quite honest.

[tygaa2]

(Jan 5, 2015, 03:27 PM)naitre Wrote:

(Jan 5, 2015, 02:27 PM)tygaa2 Wrote: I like the bulky support Arcanine! I would change firespin to either flare blitz or over heat depending if you prefer physical or special. This is because those moves are powerful enough to KO annoying things like ferrothorn

Removing Fire Spin from that Arcanine set makes the whole thing useless. No point in running a Binding Band if you aren't using Fire Spin, so if you go with an offensive Arcanine, OP, you'll need to revamp the build completely.

I like the Specially Defensive Heatran. It'll definitely keep Special Attackers like Thundurus from causing too many problems for your team and keep M-Gardevoir at bay so you can take a Focus Blast, which most M-Gardevoir users don't expect.

I didn't even notice binding band. The main job of bulky aranine is to spam will-o-wisp on physical attackers thats what I meant as I like the role

[DanielJames]

(Jan 5, 2015, 03:39 PM)Rogue Wrote: Do not take Dragon Tail off of Milotic. It isn't there for providing great offensive pressure. Many good players keep their intimidate users in the back so they don't give boosts to things like bisharp/milotic leads. Dragon tailing will give it a chance to force out an intimidater and give you your boost. Lando is very common this format and I've witnessed a match myself where they led with Lando against a Milotic, Milotic got the +2 Special Attack from intimidate, Lando U-turned out immediately, and in that same turn Milotic Dragon Tail'd a hydreigon into Lando. Giving it +4 Special Attack.

You can't get anything like that by running a Hidden Power without losing such favorable momentum.

(Jan 5, 2015, 04:48 PM)tygaa2 Wrote:

(Jan 5, 2015, 03:27 PM)naitre Wrote:

(Jan 5, 2015, 02:27 PM)tygaa2 Wrote: I like the bulky support Arcanine! I would change firespin to either flare blitz or over heat depending if you prefer physical or special. This is because those moves are powerful enough to KO annoying things like ferrothorn

Removing Fire Spin from that Arcanine set makes the whole thing useless. No point in running a Binding Band if you aren't using Fire Spin, so if you go with an offensive Arcanine, OP, you'll need to revamp the build completely.

I like the Specially Defensive Heatran. It'll definitely keep Special Attackers like Thundurus from causing too many problems for your team and keep M-Gardevoir at bay so you can take a Focus Blast, which most M-Gardevoir users don't expect.

Thanks! Yeah, the Heatran I like. That's why I'm wary of running Arcanine since I already have a fire-type on my team.

I didn't even notice binding band. The main job of bulky aranine is to spam will-o-wisp on physical attackers thats what I meant as I like the role

Thanks for all the feedback so far! It's been helpful. The main problem this team runs into are Prankster users. Still trying to figure out how to get around that.