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Newcomer to VGC - Adam - May 19, 2015 Hello everyone! I'm rather new to the website, but I've been a follower of Justin for a while now. I've always wanted to get into competitive battling, and with VGC '15 and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire I'm making a strong push to become good at it! Since I'm new, I don't have much experience building teams or battling, so I decided to ask all of you awesome people for some help  :D  This is the first team I have built myself, and any help, advice, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Greninja @ King's Rock Ability: Protean EVs: 252 ATK + 252 SPE Nature: Jolly Mat Block Rock Slide Water Shuriken Fling When I started thinking of what I wanted my team to be, I decided I wanted something that could set up and really REK my opponent's team, if not sweep it. So, with that in mind, I decided to go with a Mat Block Greninja here. My thought process was that because of Greninja's speed (along with the speed EVs and Jolly nature), he could get off Mat Block more times than not without the opponent moving first. This would allow my booster to get a free boost on turn one. Then I chose Rock Slide for coverage against the likes of Talonflame, Togekiss, Thundurus, etc. Next, I decided on the 3rd move and item, which are Fling and King's Rock. I felt like King's Rock was a solid choice, giving Rock Slide a boosted chance of flinching, and using Fling with King's Rock will also cause a flinch. The last move was kind of a toss up so I just threw Water Shuriken on him because it's a physical move and for the STAB boost. Charizard @ Charizardite X Ability: Tough Claws Nature: Adamant EVs: 60 HP + 156 ATK + 120 DEF + 172 SPE Dragon Dance Steel Wing Dragon Claw Flare Blitz The next team member I chose was the booster/potential sweeper to pair alongside Greninja. I chose Mega Charizard X because with a Dragon Dance up, it can OHKO a wide variety of Pokemon with ease. I chose the Adamant nature to boost his attack and minus his unneeded special attack. So the first move I put on him was Dragon Dance. This move, along with a Mat Block from Greninja, would give Charizard a free boost on turn 1, giving him massive attack and speed. The next few moves were for coverage and damage. Dragon Claw and Flare Blitz were obvious choices because they are very powerful moves that also receive STAB boosts, and Steel Wing to give him coverage for fairy and rock types. The EV spread is rather random, as I found it online. I didn't quite know how to spread them, so I researched it and came up with these numbers. Blazziken @ Focus Sash Ability: Speed Boost Nature: Jolly EVs: 4 HP + 252 ATK + 252 SPE Baton Pass Flare Blitz Low Kick Bulk Up After I chose my booster and protector, I made an interesting choice for this team. I chose Blaziken because of its Speed Boost ability and the fact that it can learn Baton Pass. The Focus Sash ensures that he'll get at least +1 to speed, as Blaziken isn't the most defensive Pokemon out there. The choice was made with the thought process of wanting another lead option to counter Fake Out Pokemon that could REK Greninja's Mat Block setup. Blaziken is one of my favorite Pokemon, and I think that the opportunity to boost speed every turn, along with attack and defense with Bulk Up, would be HUGE to Baton Pass to Mega Charizard X and create a possible sweep scenario. The EVs for this one were simple; I wanted him to be fast and hit hard, with a little help in HP as well. Hitmontop @ Lum Berry Ability: Intimidate Nature: Impish EVs: 244 HP + 132 DEF + 132 SpD Quick Guard Close Combat Feint Fake Out I chose Hitmontop next to be the Quick Guard user to pair along with Blaziken as a potential lead duo and Fake Out stopper. I didn't have much knowledge of Quick Guard users, so I chose Hitmontop largely because of Justin's daily World Championship Practice videos  :D  I went with Impish and Intimidate to raise my defense and lower their attack, as I wanted to make him as bulky as possible so that he could take a hit, setup Quick Guard, and maybe get a hit or two in. So I chose Quick Guard to stop those nasty Fake Outs, Feint to try and predict those Protects and still deal damage, Fake Out so he has value coming back in to the battle and shutting someone down, and Close Combat for a strong STAB fighting move. The EV spread reflects the fact that I want him to be bulky, as I went with HP and a balance between defense and special defense. I chose a Lum Berry to keep him from getting burned or paralyzed etc., and because I chose to put a Sitrus Berry on a later Pokemon on my team. Clefable @ Leftovers Ability: Magic Guard Nature: Bold EVs: 252 HP + 200 DEF + 56 SpD Follow Me Icy Wind Thunder Wave Protect At this point, I knew I had a lot of attacking potential, so I decided I needed a tanky Pokemon. So i chose to have Clefable due to its high HP and defensive stats. I gave it Follow Me so it could draw attention away from Blaziken and Greninja who aren't very defensively strong, Icy Wind to deal damage AND lower the opponent's speed, Thunder Wave to lower the opponent's speed and possibly get the paralysis hax, and Protect for lasting power. I gave it the EVs I did to try and make it a tank and balance her Defense and Special Defense, and the Bold nature to boost Defense. This one I'm not so sure about as a member of the team, but it has proven to provide some crucial speed drops and attention drawing. Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry Ability: Prankster Nature:Bold EVs: 180 HP + 164 DEF + 164 SpD Thunder Wave Thunderbolt Taunt Protect? Last but not least, I chose to have Thundurus as he has the Prankster ability that can setup status effects and has some relatively good bulk. I gave it the Sitrus Berry to gain HP once he gets taken down under 50%, and Bold nature to boost defense, because he isn't much of a physical attacker.I have Thunder Wave and Taunt to make my opponent be slower and keep them from using status moves on me, and the Thunderbolt for damage output and STAB boost. The last move was and still is a mystery to me; I'm not sure what else to run it with. At the moment I have it running Protect, but I'm not sure that is the best move. Thank you to everyone for taking time to read this write up and for helping me improve my team and my competitive battling skills as a whole! Stay awesome everybody   P.S. Hey Justin, feel free to use this team in your World Championship Practices homie  kappa RE: Newcomer to VGC - terrorkid94 - May 19, 2015 Your team might have problems against physical walls RE: Newcomer to VGC - Adam - May 19, 2015 Thanks for the help! I noticed that , I don't really know what special attacker to bring in and who to take out though. RE: Newcomer to VGC - terrorkid94 - May 19, 2015 I would sugguest showdown you can test new pokemon on your team with out breeding RE: Newcomer to VGC - Adam - May 19, 2015 Yeah I tested this team on Showdown and I went 6-4. Probably just luck though RE: Newcomer to VGC - terrorkid94 - May 19, 2015 Save the battles and post links to them RE: Newcomer to VGC - Marcusube - May 20, 2015 Seeing as how Greninja isn't a very powerful special attacker nor does it have Skill Link, why try running a Kings Rock set? It'd make more sense to just run a mixed Greninja with Mat Block, Scald, Gunk Shot and Low Kick/Ice Beam with a Focus Sash. Scrap Steel Wing for Protect. Flare Blitz in all cases does more damage to Fairy types since 120 * 1.5 > 70 * 2 Baton Passing in VGC almost never works plus it just makes the Pokemon you passed to the obvious target. A set with Heat Wave/Overheat, SuperPower/Rock Slide, HP Ice and Protect with a Naive nature and Life Orb does more offensively. Wide Guard works better than Quick Guard on Hitmontop seeing as how Fake Out users generally outspeed it meaning Fake Out would always hit before Quick Guard plus it makes no sense to run BOTH Fake Out and Quick Guard. Pick either Icy Wind or Thunder Wave. Speed control is important but to this level it is overkill plus Thundurus has Thunder Wave already. Also you should run Moonblast for coverage against Dragons, Dark types and Fighting types as your team lacks coverage to those. Hidden Power Ice, not Protect on Thundurus. The EV spreads on your last 3 Pokemon do not fully capitalize on their defensive potential. Putting in HP EVs and then balancing out the defenses is not how an EV spread should be made. Find the Pokemon that the one you're EVing has trouble with and use the EVs to reduce damage taken and increase damage output.