[REQUEST] I need advice on my VGC 2016 Team

[OdysseusHestia]

Alright as obvious by the title I built a VGC 2016 Team that I need some advice with. I built in in Showdown and I'm experiencing some difficulty continuously winning battles. I do win more than I lose though. I knew the main pokemon I would be facing would be P-Kyogre, P-Groudon, and Mega- Rayquaza so I tried to build a team good enough to get rid of them quickly. The Team is fast past trying to get rid of as many pokemon as possible gaining an advantage over the opponent. I'm pretty much an amateur to making teams so bear with some of my stupidity especially when it comes to EV spreads. (I don't know how to do Gifs so Its not going to look cool)

First Pokemon I want to start off with is:


Palkia @ Lustrous Orb
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 Sp. A / 4 SpD / 252 Sp

• Earth Power
  
• Hydro Pump
  
• Spacial Rend
  
• Flamethrower/Protect (not sure which one)
  

The thought behind Palkia is help to get rid of P-Groudon. Earth Power should be able to 2HKO. Palkia can tank any most of the moves that most Groudon's have. Hydro Pump is there for STAB and Spacial Rend is there for the STAB along with the high crit rate and for pokemon that where water and ground type attacks would be insufficient. I also took note that my team that I didn't have enough Fire type attacks on the team. Fire attacks can work against Scizor, Ammongus, and Ferrothorn I noticed we might see alot in the meta. Protect is Protect. The EV spread was kinda thrown on there. I know that for sure I wanted to give Palkia enough Speed and Sp. Atk to be able to take P-Groudon. Speed is important when taking down Mega- Rayquaza or any Dragon type I may be facing.

Next Pokemon:


Zekrom @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Sp

• Dragon Claw
  
• Bolt Strike
  
• Rock Slide/ Volt Switch (Not sure which would be more effective)
  
• Protect
  

Zekrom's job is to sweep P-Kyogre with Bolt Strike which is OHKO. And also a Dragon Claw can take care of any dragon type. Rock Slide for type coverage. Flying types like Zapdos can become annoying when trying to use volt switch or Bolt Strike. Protect is protect. EV spread is all Atk and Speed. Trying to get as many out speeds as possible without losing to much power.

Next Pokemon:


Sableye @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 140 SpD

• Fake Out
  
• Quash
  
• Foul Play
  
• Taunt
  

Sableye is basically what makes my team so powerful. Sableye uses Fakeout to stop anything that might stop hurt Zekrom or Palkia turn 1 and then the sweep begins. Zekrom then OHKO's P-Kyorgre. P-Groudon loses half of its life and then the Palkia faints it next turn. Taunt is to stop Xerneas from setting up and any other pokemon from setting up. Quash is to help get out speeds. I noticed that Palkia and Zekrom can be very slow. Foul Play can be very effective against the the contrary combo and Aegislash and Swords Dance Scizor and also very powerful physical attacking pokemon like P-Groudon. I didn't know the proper EV spread for Sableye so I just went half. I need some advice for that.

Next Pokemon:


Mega-Gardevior @Gardeviorite
Ability: Pixilate
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Sp

• Hyper Voice
  
• Ally Switch
  
• Psychic
  
• Hidden Power Fire
  

Mega Gardevior's job to protect my dragons and also sweep at the same time. I can ally switch to protect one of my pokemon. For example try using a dragon type atk on palkia and i ally switch protecting it. Plus its hard to predict and most people wont see it coming. Remember how I said that i didnt have many fire attacks :D Hidden Power Fire. OHKO Scizor and Mawile. Psychic for stab and Ammongus and Crobat which is heavy in this meta.

Next Pokemon:

Crobat @Black Sludge
Ability: Inner Focus
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Sp

• Super Fang
  
• Cross Poison
  
• Brave Bird
  
• Heat Wave/ Haze
  

Crobat's job is to use Super Fang one pokemon that are harder to kill or just in case my sweepers are gone then out speed with the Brave Bird. Cross Poison for pesky Fairy types i.e. Xerneas. Brave Bird for sweeps and Grass types i.e Breelom(which i also seen alot of) and if cross poison isn't going to cut it. Heat Wave another Fire type attack I thought of adding for type coverage or Haze for Xerneas who likes to use Geomancy or any reduced stats against me. Jolly to out speed other Crobats and I didn't know what to do for an item.

Final Pokemon:

Empoleon @Assault Vest
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Quiet
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 HP

• Aqua Jet
  
• Scald
  
• Ice Beam
  
• Flash Cannon
  

Empoleon has one many games because he can tank many hits especially during late game and also can dish out some heavy damage with Flash Cannon and Ice Beam. Though he is slow Aqua Jet allows me to get priority for pesky focus sashed pokemon or pokemon that wont just die. Flash cannon helps against Xerneas and Fairy types and Ice Beam helps with many dragon, flying, grass types and there is alot of those in this meta. Assault Vest helps with Special Defense. The Rare typing can cause issues for the opponent. Steel resisting dragon types and Fairy.

I'm not willing to change Zekrom nor Empoleon any of the other pokemon would be fine.

Here is some battle videos:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2016-307790415

Please help me with any ideas you might have. Thanks

[ChaseInfinity]

You're missing a couple things for the members of the forum to be able to properly critique your team, please refer to this: http://pokemonforever.com/Thread-IMPORTA...NG-A-BUILD so you can make the necessary changes

ps: may wanna try some more complex ev spreads 252 252 4 isnt the best for certain pokemon

[SenpaisLittleEevee]

I would change some of the moves on the crobat, Heat wave on a physical mon is not that good, maybe run it defog or haze instead, Sash would also be a decent item for Crobat as well.

Maybe turn the Empoleon into a physical one and change its ability to Defiant? An adamant 252 Att / 180 Def / 76 SpD would add some defence to it so it probably wont get heavily damaged by super effective moves. Change Scald to protect, ice beam to rock slide and Flash cannon to Water fall.

Now since you are giving up on that flash cannon fairy types are going to be a problem. I recommend somehow fitting an Aegislash onto the team, dealing with those fairys and also spread moves like EQ, Rock slide ETC with wde gaurd.

The Aegislash could be ran with an impish nature, 252HP, 100 SpA and 152 SpD
-Wide guard
-Kingshield
-Shawdow Ball
-Flash Cannon
(maybe switch it with the palkia or sableye)

Other than this I have nothing else to say

[OdysseusHestia]

(Dec 21, 2015, 08:29 PM)ShinyEevee Wrote: I would change some of the moves on the crobat, Heat wave on a physical mon is not that good, maybe run it defog or haze instead, Sash would also be a decent item for Crobat as well.

Maybe turn the Empoleon into a physical one and change its ability to Defiant? An adamant 252 Att / 180 Def / 76 SpD would add some defence to it so it probably wont get heavily damaged by super effective moves. Change Scald to protect, ice beam to rock slide and Flash cannon to Water fall.

Now since you are giving up on that flash cannon fairy types are going to be a problem. I recommend somehow fitting an Aegislash onto the team, dealing with those fairys and also spread moves like EQ, Rock slide ETC with wde gaurd.

The  Aegislash could be ran with an impish nature, 252HP, 100 SpA and 152 SpD
-Wide guard
-Kingshield
-Shawdow Ball
-Flash Cannon
(maybe switch it with the palkia or sableye)

Other than this I have nothing else to say

Thanks for the input

[Doctor Monroe]

Mind if I battle u on Showdown. My user name is Kable Monroe1234
Your team looks good

[bradar485]

In regards to your crobat, I would say maybe go full support on it since you mainly planned to include it for super fang. A crobat set that I like for support is:

Crobat@focus sash
Jolly natured
-SuperFang
-Taunt/haze
-Tailwind
-acrobatics/u-turn

For the ev's I'd probably tinker with the speed points for a while to figure out what it needed since it's on such a high tier, the rest could be put into bulk since it's attack will most likely not be a selling point on it anyways.

He could come in to set up tailwinds for you and since you're not really boosting your guys he could haze your opponents boosts or else get some key taunts in depending on your style. Since he's pretty vulnerable to taunt it's smart to keep an attacking move. Brave bird is strong but breaks his sash and his damage output isn't stellar anyways. So you could bank for the sash break and try acrobatics or just spam u-turn in the face of any taunts for dat quick switch.

A main problem with crobat is incarnate thundurus. Which is suuuuuper common and you'll need to think out a hard counter for it if you go with my advice.... So honestly it may not be the best support option for vgc(but it would be a definite reason to opt for rock slide on Zekrom, since he's immune to thundy's T.waves and takes very little damage from him outside of h.p. ice). The other side is if you're using it as an attacker, there are certainly better choices. Plus you have sableye as a support tech already. I agree with shiny evee on the changes to empoleon and that aegislash would be a good call for you so either crobe's or sableye would be on the chopping block in that case.

Sorry for being so long winded, I hope I'm on base with my ideas. I like how you picked legendaries that YOU like with the top threats in mind, that's admirable.