Yeah OK im not the best battler but i made this guide for another site and i thought i might as well post it here. It might help some of the inexperienced players and give the experienced ones something to do.
Well the 4th generation has brought us the greatest gift of all time: Online, wifi, competative play. With it, hundreds of forums and websites have sprung up, sporting lots of different skilled trainers ranging from the new guys to the national tournament winners. However, because of this you can’t just be content to beat your next door neighbor anymore: You have to have a good, well build, EV trained team to cope with the competetive metagame. Read on!
Let’s go through the terms used to describe pokemon first:
Wall – A pokemon that has high defense (good ones have at least 400), and can take hits. It usually counters physical sweepers. They have usually a recovery move, an attacking move, a status move and one other depending on the pokemon. Examples are Skarmory, Weezing, Regirock.
Special Wall - A pokemon that has high special defense (good ones have at least 400), and can take hits from the special side. It usually counters special sweepers. They have (usually) a recovery move, an attacking move, a status move and one other depending on the pokemon. Examples are Blissey, Regice and Snorlax. These are also called "Sponges" occasionally
Mix Wall – A pokemon that has good defence and special defence. They can counter both special and physical sweepers, and have the same kind of moveset as walls. However, these can be more inclined to set up with moves such as curse. Examples are Shuckle and Umbreon.
Sweeper – An attacking pokemon that uses physical moves. They generally have some kind of set-up as well to either boost their speed or attack. Good attack and speed are needed, as the idea is to faint the opponent in one or two hits. Examples are Garchomp, SD Lucario, and Flygon
Special Sweeper – An attacking pokemon that uses special moves. These aren’t as commonly used with set-ups as physical sweepers as there aren’t many good special attack boosting moves out there. Calm mind and nasty plot are two of the best. Common examples are Porygon-Z and Starmie.
Mixed Sweeper – As you may have guessed, this is a sweeper that uses both physical and special moves. When used correctly this can lay waste to a SkarmBliss (UmbreonWeezing) combo with 2 hits. 2 of each kind of move is normal. However this kind of sweeper tends not to have as high of either attack as its mono counterparts as you have to put EVs into both stats, as well as speed. Examples are Salamence, Infernape and Electivire.
Tank/Special Tank – This is almost like a sweeper/special sweeper, except that the speed is sacraficed for more of one type of defence. This allows it to take hits and set-up with moves or just to straight attack. They generally have more attack than a sweeper. It's common for them not to have a recovery move. Examples of this are Swampert, Dragonite.
Cannon – The extreme version of a sweeper – the speed and attacking freak. It has ridiculously low defence, but ridiculously high atk/sp atk and speed. It generally carries a focus sash and no set-up moves – it doesn’t need them and will die if it does. Take extreme care against choice band/speced versions of these too – they will destroy you. Examples of these are Gengar, Alakazam and Weavile.
Baton Passer – Quite simply, it BPs stat changes to another pokemon, generally a kind of sweeper. A swords dance or agility is common. Speed boost Ninjask is the most common of these, as one protect can BP a level of speed, and a protect and substitute can basically do an agility. Examples are Drifblim and Ninjask.
OK, now that we have that out of the way, let’s get on to the real nitty-gritty – Actually MAKING the team.
Two general formulas for teams are:
The defensive side
Phys sweeper
Spec sweeper
Wall
Spec Wall
Mix wall
Mix sweeper/Fragile Cannon
OR the more attacking side
Fragile cannon (to lead)
Mix sweeper
Mix wall
Phys Sweeper
Spec sweeper
Tank/ Spec tank
Of course there are many, many other types of teams you can build. For example, my own team consists of:
Physical Sweeper
Mix Sweeper
Spec Sweeper
Spec Wall
BPer
Physical Tank
Special Tank
Sponge
Mixwall
Now let’s put this formula actually into practice. Take the first one:
Phys sweeper - Electivire
Spec sweeper - Starmie
Wall - Weezing
Spec Wall - Blissey
Mix wall - Umbreon
Mix sweeper – Infernape
There we have a respectable team that would win battles. Any base will work as long as it does not have half its team on the same type – i.e. Not more than 3 special sweepers or physical walls. As long as it has balance, it should do fine. However be careful of having too much balance, as you may not be aggressive enough to seize the victory. Also, make sure you have good coverage in your team - both offensively and defensively. There is no point having 6 fire moves on your team, but no water ones, for example, Similarly your walls will be rendered useless if they are all the steel type or whatever
Subject: Team Building-Article #1 
Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:53 pm
face own
