Play 101- Knowing your role

In this topic I’ll try to explain the basics of building and using a good competitive team. I’m assuming you already know about IVs, EVs, Natures, and team roles. If not then read the other topics first and come back when you’re done.

Building a good competitive team is a tricky task. You can’t
just throw a bunch of good pokes together and call it a team. If you don’t use pokes that cover each other’s weakness and work effectively together, you’ll find yourself on the losing end of an embarrassing sweep all too often.

ALWAYS REMEMBER it is important to use a few pokes you really like in battle. After all, this is only a game and if you don't have fun playing it then what's the point?

Lesson 1: Know your role
There are many different battles roles in competitive play. Among them are sweepers, tanks, walls, and supporters. A good player must know how to use each type effectively and which types will best fit his team. There are generally two schools of thought in this area, fast sweeping teams, and slower tankish teams. I’ll briefly explain the basics of both.

Fast Teams: The idea behind speed teams is to load up on fast sweepers and attempt to take out your opponent quickly and with overwhelming power. Speed teams generally have 3-4 fast sweepers, maybe a support poke, and 1-2 walls/tanks. Choosing your wall is an extremely important step here. With only 1-2 defensively minded pokes you need to make sure you cover as many types as possible. Choose walls that have some form of recovery move and make sure that they cover each other’s weaknesses well. Speed teams also normally only have one support poke in them. If you plan to use a speed team you need to pick a support poke that covers your teams needs the best. Do you need a roarer or a spinner more? Do you want to set up stealth rock or would you rather have the option to wish pass? Many support pokes can fill multiple roles, so it’s important to figure out what you’re team needs the most and then choose a supporter that offers you the best options. Finally you need to pick your sweepers. Make sure that you chose pokes who will be able to either boost their stats quickly (through sword dance and nasty plot) or hit hard with out setting up. You must also make sure your sweepers have good type coverage and that at least one or two can switch in fairly easily.

Tank Teams: Tank teams are built to wear down the opposition and prevent you’re opponent from setting up a sweep. Tank teams generally consist of 2 walls, 1-2 tanks, a support poke, and 1-2 sweepers. Recovery moves are important for tank teams because they allow you to wear down your opponent slowly. Make sure that at least two of your pokes have a way to recover HP other than leftovers. It’s also a good idea to make sure at least one of your tanks has a way to boost its offensive stats. This could be through the use of calm mind, curse, or dragon dance. Support is also important for tank teams, especially rapid spinning and stealth rock. Tank teams are designed to cause a lot of switches so making sure stealth rock is set up as early as possible is important. You’ll also want to make sure you have a rapid spinner who can keep spikes and SR away form your side of the field. Finally you need to choose a sweeper. Pick something that is fast and doesn’t necessarily need to set up. The sweeper’s role on a tank team is to come in late game and finish off your opponent’s weakened pokes, so being able to OHKO isn’t as important as it is one a speed team.
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garage floor tile
Berlin Hotel

You seem smart. What about this for a Speed Team?

Weavile-Atk Sweeper
Salamence- Mix All three of these have 6 different types
Jirachi-Special Sweeper Only Problem: Alakazam. If Weavile's
Tentacruel-Toxic Spikes AND Rapid Spin
Latias/Snorlax/Blissey/Cresselia-Toughie
Latias/Snorlax/Blissey/Cresselia-Toughie

Latias
Pros: Recover, Dragon Pulse, Calm Mind, Awesome Base Stats, Pretty Goddamn Fast
Cons: Typing Fail, Really Hard to Get One with good IVs and Nature (not breedable)

Snorlax
Pros: Both an HP Wall and can deal some Atk Damage, Is a king at Rest and Sleep Talk, Movepool, No Toxic Spikes Effect
Cons: Speed FAIL, Low Kick or Close Combat from practically any Physical Sweeper will own (lvl20, 200 EVs in Atk Weavile crippled a lvl50 Snorlax with Low Kick)

Blissey
Pros:
Overshadows Snorlax as being the king of all HP and Sp.Def. Wall, Softboiled, Can Stall Like Hell
Cons: Same as Snorlax, but Defense is even worse.

Cresselia:
Pros: Not So Slow, Amazing defensive stats, is a pretty good Screener, and can stop other Speed Teams with Thunder Wave.
Cons: Attack stats really.... fail. Again, a non-breedable, hard to get IVs and good Nature, Legendary.

The Legendary Problem shouldn't be a Problem, we have Serebii for that.
Sweepers:
Hm.... should I replace Jirachi with Alakazam? Alakazam is faster, but in any sort of defense it fails. Also, that'd make both Weavile AND Alakazam able to be attacked by Toxic Spikes, while if I have Jirachi it's just Weavile that'd be poisoned.
Night Slash, Crunch, Pursuit-most expected, Bug Bite, Shadow Ball, Shadow Sneak (priority), omfg. That leaves the speed of the sweepers 125, 120, and 100, which is actually pretty fast and the only things we can worry about even if Weavile and Alakazam faint will be Crobat, Aerodactyl, Jolteon, Zapdos, Infernape, Latias, Azelf, and Espeon, most of which won't show up (except for Zapdos and Jolteon, maybe Infernape, but 2 out of 3 can be Earthquaked and Zapdos, we'll be faster than him after a Dragon Dance or we can deal with him with Calm Mind+STAB Dragon Pulse, and Azelf and Latias can be dealt with Crunch, as the opposing Alakazam if Alakazam comes.)

So the Wall Choices are in favor of Snorlax and Latias, but Blissey is tying with Snorlax. If we have Blissey, nothing against opposing faster Psychics if Weavile is dead, and effected by Toxic Spikes, but if we have Snorlax, the HP and Sp.Def. will be lower.

The Sweeper Choice is truly a tie: Jirachi's got the typing and the stats, Alakazam's got the breeding, the speed, and the Sp.Atk.
Whew! Hope you get this, because I didn't just write all of this for no one to read...

Latias does not have a bad typing, Snorlax makes up for its low defense with curse, You shouldnt use blissey if you dont have something to switch into that can take physical hits, and cresselia is bulky enough to set up multiple calm minds and forces switches, making it easy to get it's special attack high enough to sweep. Definetly pick Jirachi over Alakazam, since Jirachi works much better in OU. Your team has a bit of a Tyranitar weakness, so you might want to look for ways to counter tyranitar.

"Crobat, Aerodactyl, Jolteon, Zapdos, Infernape, Latias, Azelf, and Espeon, most of which won't show up" Zapdos, Latias, Infernape, and Jolteon are pretty common. Azelf isnt insactly rare either.

Yeah Dev I meant Dactyl and Bat, along with Nape and Espeon, that's what I meant.
Anyways, Latias is weak to Ghost, Dark, Bug, Ice, and Dragon. Ouch. But with Recover and Calm Mind, it should own.

How bout choosing Snorlax and Latias?
Or Snorlax and Cresselia?

I'm not going with Latias and Cresselia, cause that would make 2 Psychics on my team (Jirachi doesnt count since all of its Psychic weaknesses arent weaknesses.)

So that leaves Latias vs. Cresselia.

Dev. Latias vs. Cresselia? After all, you are the Psychic Gym Leader.

It depends. Do you want them to be specially bulky CM sweepers? If you did, i would go with cresselia. If you wanted more speed and power, you could use Latias, but its not nearly as bulky. You might want a pokemon on your team that can tank bug attacks, like skarmory. If you do choose to use skarmory, then use cresselia because they make a great defensive couple. You might want to choose a mixvire instead of Weavile and make Jirachi a physical attacker, because you probably will have trouble with skarm/bliss.



We need to do this in PM, not on here. Lol.