Can someone give me the basics of competitive team building?

Question

I'm not gonna ask you to build me a team; I just want the know-how.

Comments

http://www.smogon.com/dp/articles/intro_comp_pokemon - go look at that smogon article. It's a good read, even if it's 2 generations out.

Answer 1

Here are some pointers I've accumulated through my time here on the site and the pro himself, JaJa (who's name should still be JarJar):

• Find beneficial natures and use BSTs to your advantage. Sylveon has a Speical Attack of 110 and a Special Defense of 130. I'm using that to make my Sylveon an unstoppable rampaging pink beast, with Pixilate Hyper Beam (a special move with STAB, 195 Base Power, and 90% Accuracy)
• (Almost) Never have 3 or more STAB moves. Ever. This is a big no-no because you need coverage. Aromatisse is weak to Poison and Steel. It can learn Psychic, which takes care of Poison types, and Thunderbolt to help take down Steel Types who don't have stellar SpDef. With two coverage moves, you'll be able to counter Pokemon more. However, there are exceptions to this like Skuntank having Sucker Punch/Crunch/Pursuit.
• Use strategy and play tricks with the enemy. Use a Blissey with Toxic and stall & wall. Use a Pokemon like Forretress to set up entry hazards for when the enemy's Mega Evolution/main Pokemon comes into play. Use Trick to swap out your Iron Ball for a better item. Use a Rotom with Thunder Wave/Hex to put out major damage. Strategy wins battles.
  -Priority Moves. Learn Priority moves like Aqua Jet, Extremespeed, etc. so you can attack before the opponent can attack you. Offense is the best defense, after all.

Hope this helped you :)

Comments

hey..... i think you should read mines :)

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First off, welcome to Pokebase! The community here is great.

Anyways, you'll need to get your answer approved before I can read it. It gets approved by mods, so you'll just have to hope you catch them online one day.

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I thought I might just put it out there that there are very few but some cases where a pokemon would use 3 of he same type of attacking move. Skuntank and Houndoom both can run 3 dark type move in sucker punch, crunch and pursuit letting them have a move to give them the upper hand in many situations. Other than that there might be a couple more I'm missing but that should be about it.

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I'll edit that Jaja.

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read mines :)

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Since when is Aqua Tail prioritized?

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Aqua Jet :/
My bad

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Man, you've got the best answer, but I don't wanna give it to you. You've already got too many points.

Answer 2

Important information is in bold.
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1. Roles:

The basic competitive team has

• 1 physical wall
• 1 special wall
• 2 physical sweepers
• 2 special sweepers

You can have mixed sweepers and mixed walls, physical tanks or special tanks just make sure that they can still dish out a mixer of attacks or take a mixture of hits between. For the sake of mathematics count them as

• Mixed Wall - 0.5 physical wall and 0.5 special wall.
• Mixed Sweeper - 0.5 physical sweeper and 0.5 special sweeper.
• Physical Tank - 0.5 physical wall and 0.5 physical sweeper.
• Special Tank - 0.5 special wall and 0.5 special sweeper.

thus 2 mixed walls are needed to replace a physical and special wall and 2 mixed sweepers are needed to replace a physical and special sweeper [this is only a guide for beginners in competitive battling].

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2. Stats [IVs + EVs]:

You need IVs and EVs that support a Pokemon's role within your team.

[EXAMPLE]: In order for a wall to do it's job probably - take hits for your weaker Pokemon - it needs the Individual and Effort values to make it's HP/Defence/Special Defence as high as possible otherwise it will be fainted easily and not serve a functional purpose.

Make sure that you match a Pokemon's stats with its role in a team; for example, don't have a frail Pokemon function as a wall for your team. However...

There are exceptions so: just because a Pokemon has certain base stats, it doesn't mean that it should have a certain role.. There are a few reasons why:

• A Pokemon may have the stats to play numerous roles - like Pokemon with equal stat distributions: Glalie, Ditto, Jirachi etc - and so it's role depends on it's movepool.
• A limited movepool may prevent a Pokemon from excelling in certain roles, like a potential great physical sweeper with a mostly special movepool or generally weak attacks.
• A Pokemon may take on a different uncommon role in order to take opponents by surprise; examples include powerful legendaries having moves supported by their weaker attack stat that is still high.
• Abilities may prompt a Pokemon to take a different aproach in battling - storm drain increases a Pokemon's special attack which may prompt them to may special moves even if their stats don't support this.

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3. Moveset:

When thinking about movesets consider:

• STAB - Does the move get a Same Type Attack Bonus?
• Type Coverage - Does a Pokemon's moves allow damage to be dealt to Pokemon of a variety of types (take into account the moves of the rest of your team).
• Weaknesses - Can this Pokemon or another cover it's weaknesses - The entire team needs to cover most of it's weakness between them [this is only a guide for beginners in competitive battling].
• Roles - If you are a bulky Pokemon (wall) then have defence and special defence boosting moves, HP restoring moves and status moves to weaken the opponent as your attacking stats will likely be bad. Think about roles and the moves needed for the roles to be excelled in.
• Combinations - Think about combinations of moves with: other moves, abilities and items (e.g. Toxic Spikes/Stealth Rock/Spikes and Whirlwind/Roar, Shell Smash and Sturdy or Trick and Choice Item).
• Strategy - An overall strategy can support your entire team via one or a few move(s) or ability(s) (e.g. Sandstorm, Trick Room, Psych Up, Baton Pass). This can mess with an opponents strategy and allow your team to have a more efficient moveset (e.g. more moves are available as Pokemon don't need to stat boost they just use Psych Up or are Baton Passed to).
• Tactics - Tactics can mess with an opponent's strategy without your team becoming over-reliant on certain things happening; an example includes using Rain Dance to weaken fire attacks that your team is weak to, like Scicor or Ferrorthorn, and preventing opponents from damaging you via a hail or sandstorm as well as receiving other perks from the weather, like: Solar Power or Ice Body activating, getting a doubled special defence in a sandstorm or Solar Beam only taking one turn.
• Potential Threats - You need to be able to deal with an opponents strategy or tactic such as Roar/Whirlwind/Haze/Clear Smog a Pokemon who has a Substitute or has increased their stats or Rapid Spin/Defog to clear away hazards...
  ... don't waste move slots by trying to have a counter for every strategy and tactic: there will always be a team that can beat yours.

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EDIT:

Basics:

• Physical Wall = High Defence Stat
• Special Wall = High Special Defence Stat
• Mixed Wall = High Defence and Special Defence Stat
• Physical Sweeper = High Attack Stat
• Special Sweeper = High Special Attack Stat
• Mixed Sweeper = High Attack and Special Attack Stat
• Physical Tank = High Defence and Attack Stat
• Special Tank = High Special Defence and Special Attack Stat

A Little Bit More Advanced:

• Drainer = A Pokemon that drains the HP of an opponent.
• Annoyer = An annoyer... a Pokemon with a combination of moves that usually prevents the opponent from doing anything useful whilst reducing their HP (e.g. flinching, paralysing, poisoning, burning, confusing, attracting, Whirlwinding/Roaring into hazards etc.). [This role has many roles within it that are more specific].
• Staller = A Pokemon that strategy envolves wasting turns to damage the opponent (e.g. Toxic and Protect).
• Spinner = A Pokemon with Rapid Spin to remove hazards.
• Hazer = A Pokemon with Haze to reset stat changes.
• Spiker = A Pokemon that sets traps, like Toxic Spikes.
• Baton-Pass = A Pokemon that baton-passes stat changes to another Pokemon.
• Shuffler = A Pokemon that uses Whirlwind/Roar to shuffle Pokemon. [This role has many roles within it that are more specific, like Toxic-Shuffling - shuffling Pokemon onto Toxic Spikes or poisoning them then shuffling them].

Of Course there are loads of roles in a competitive Pokemon battle.

Comments

Imo this should get BA.

Answer 3

1. Get a strong Pokemon to send out first with not many weaknesses and strong moves and stats. I Highly would do a fast Pokemon with good Defense stats. LIKE Garchomp OR Slow Bulky Pokemon LIKE Snorlax , Metagross , Vaporeon,

2. have moves like extremespeed , bullet punch , Aqua jet , mach punch , ice shard , ........ So that you can finish your enemy's Pokemon off if your other Pokemon did not get the job done.

3.Have a Balance team. Have Fire moves , Water moves , Grass moves , ice moves , electric moves , Steel moves, Fairy moves , Fighting moves , and Ground Moves.

4 . Have at least 2 Bulky tanks on your team. LIKE Snorlax , Goodra , OR Lapras , Snorlax , OR Lapras , Goodra , . Have at least two Sweepers on your team LIKE Garchomp , Excadrill , Heracross , ...... and Have At least 2 mixed Pokemon ( Good ALL Around stats ) LIKE Kingdra , Blastoise ,Vensaur , Dragonite ,

5 . DO COMBO'S ...... like Yawn/Protect , Dragon Dance/Outrage , Calm mind/Psychic , Thunder Wave/Waterfall , Hone Claws/ Fly , Swords Dance/Outrage ,

6 . Always try to get Reflect And Light Screen Up to Double your Defenses.

HOPED I HELPED :)

Comments

Very good. Here's a couple of pointers for future answers:

Clean up the grammar and spelling. Nobody wants to read a jumbled answer like this.

Use caps a little bit less. "I Highly would do a fast Pokemon with good Defense stats. LIKE Garchomp OR Slow Bulky Pokemon LIKE Snorlax , Metagross , Vaporeon." should be "I would highly recommend a fast Pokemon with good defense stats, like Garchomp, or slow and bulky Pokemon like Snorlax, Metagross or Vaporeon."

Learn the forum format. Bullet points are annoying, as you have to click the button for bullet points/numbers for each point after 2.

Other than that, it's good!

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A good answer, but words like "Sweeper" and"Tank" don't really help me. This will be my first time building a competitive team, and I'm not really familiar with the terminology.