Hi there guys. Would love some help :)

[Yeyin]

Hey guys, i literally decided to delve into the wifi batlleing scene yesterday so be gentle and constructive . Would love guidance or imrpovements in how ive set up my team. In my head the logic and set up behind these makes sense but i might be completely wrong so yeah, help, constructive criticism and guidance would be much appreciated, thankyou

Metagross
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 96 Def / 160 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Zen Headbutt
- Hidden Power [Water]
- Meteor Mash

Scizor
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 36 Def / 100 SpD / 120 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- X-Scissor
- Night Slash
- Swords Dance

Nidoking (M)
Ability: Poison Point
EVs: 120 Atk / 160 Def / 160 SpD / 68 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Ice Punch
- Shadow Claw
- Hone Claws

Gengar
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 136 SpD / 120 Spe
Modest Nature
- Dazzling Gleam
- Shadow Ball
- Venoshock
- Confuse Ray

Venusaur
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 108 HP / 200 Def / 200 SpD
Calm Nature
- Giga Drain
- Venoshock
- Earthquake
- Magical Leaf

Scrafty
Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 100 HP / 150 Def / 150 SpD / 108 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Poison Jab
- Power-Up Punch

 

[notsoclutch]

Welcome to the fun and often infuriating world of competitive Pokemon. Um. To start, I just want to kind of talk about team philosophy and roles on a team. Currently, it seems like you are trying to do way too much with each of your team members. For instance, your Gengar is a bit off. You are running bulk on a Pokemon without the necessary natural bulk to take even uninvested hits from other Pokemon. With it's speed tier, it really needs to run max speed or most other offensive Pokemon will beat it. Actually, with the speed you currently have it running, it is outsped by base 100s that are very common.

I'm going to be very brunt about this, your team needs a lot of work. If you'd like some help, we do have a group on this site dedicated to helping get newer players into competitive battling Here
We go over a lot of team building stuff and could definitely help you better understand how to build sets and the like.

For now, I'd just work on matching up types and optimizing Pokemon to certain roles.

 

[matt]

You have three pokes weak to fire with no decent wall gg u alrdy lost in a competitive battle sry if it's harsh but it's the truth

 

[Yeyin]

*Wipes tears away*

On a serious note all i did was base a team of pokemon i generally like along with the poison spikes/venoshock combo aswell as me guessing at things.

Plus all you've done is say my team is bad with no advice or guidance. I only decided to get into this kinda thing yesterday so i dont even know what a wall is either, so using terminology i dont even know about has gone in one ear and out the other.

 

[matt]

Clutch covered the basics so I thought I could skip the full explanation. Lol

Wall is like having something to take a hit example
U have um heatran abd the opponent throws out milotic
Now it's gonna use a water move to hurt ya so u need to switch pokemon to something that can live through a water hit so u either need another water type or a grass type.... Once u get typing down this'll 've really easy

 

[notsoclutch]

*Wipes tears away*

On a serious note all i did was base a team of pokemon i generally like along with the poison spikes/venoshock combo aswell as me guessing at things.

Plus all you've done is say my team is bad with no advice or guidance. I only decided to get into this kinda thing yesterday so i dont even know what a wall is either, so using terminology i dont even know about has gone in one ear and out the other.

Honestly man, I like where your head is at, but I think you may need more help than a few comments on a thread are going to be able to provide. I'd be happy to help you build a team around some of these Pokemon that you enjoy using. However, what you currently have are four Pokemon with no real role and two that aren't optimized well for the role that you currently have them in and you happen to be very weak to things like Psychic types with dazzling gleam and fire types in general.

It honestly takes a bit of time to truly get a good understanding of how to build a team, so please don't take any of this the wrong way. However, if you watch people like Shofu, Pokeaim, etc or look into Smogon or our mentoring programs, you can learn how to specialize Pokemon and to build one heck of a team.

 

[Yeyin]

Oh no im not taking this the wrong way at all I just didnt expect someone to come in and say summin like 'You have three pokes weak to fire with no decent wall gg u alrdy lost in a competitive battle'

Ive had abit of help from someone already and any other form of help is much appreciated. I just wanna use Mons that i generally like and that aren't Legendaries, I'm kinda against the whole thing that people use Legendaries personally but that's just my inner hipster getting the best of me

 

[The Fifth Whisper]

Oh no im not taking this the wrong way at all

I just didnt expect someone to come in and say summin like 'You have three pokes weak to fire with no decent wall gg u alrdy lost in a competitive battle'

Ive had abit of help from someone already and any other form of help is much appreciated. I just wanna use Mons that i generally like and that aren't Legendaries, I'm kinda against the whole thing that people use Legendaries personally but that's just my inner hipster getting the best of me

Mmm. I'm sad I see this so much. No point in bashing Legendaries-- if they were too OP for their tier, they'd be out. Smogon does love banning things.


Regarding the team posted at the top of the thread, there are a few things that come to mind. There's not much explanation for each 'mon, but I'll try to see what I can do.


The first thing that comes to mind is that there are no items-- this makes it a little rough for us trying to review the team. For example, Assault Vest Metagross fills a different purpose in a team than Mega Metagross, and due to the presence of both Metagross and Scizor, it's hard to tell which is the Mega and which is the regular form.


If that's Mega Metagross at the top, there are a few things that need to change. Metagross in general does not get much use out of Hidden Power Water-- if you're interested in running Mixed Metagross, I believe some people have found that Grass Knot is a good move on it. Other options are the elemental Punches, specifically Ice Punch to shut down the Dragons that populate the OU tier. I would also recommend changing Meteor Mash to Iron Head, due to 100% accuracy at the cost of a little base power, though whether you like the chance to get those sweet Attack boosts or flinches here and there is entirely up to you.


Scizor is in a decent place, though perhaps Night Slash could be swapped for Knock Off to do more damage against anything not named Mega Slowbro. Many people also prefer to run more EV investment in HP than splitting it between the defenses, which is true for Metagross as well.


Nidoking is an interesting case. Due to the presence of two other physical sweepers (Swords Dance Scizor and Bulk Up Scrafty), a third isn't entirely necessary. I would recommend replacing Nidoking with Tentacruel, who can also set up Toxic Spikes, but can also use Rapid Spin to get rid of Sticky Webs, Stealth Rocks, and the occasional Spikes. Tentacruel also offers good general bulk and a nice chance to burn things with Scald, and using Haze in the fourth moveslot can shut down potential enemy sweepers like CroCune.


Gengar is in a decent place right now, though I would recommend investing less in bulk and going for a simple 252SpA-252Spe spread to maximize the damage it can do. Confuse Ray is a generally unreliable move, and though it can win you a few games of confusion hax, a move like Focus Blast to help knock out Steel-Types or a move like Substitute to ease the tension of prediction can help in many more situations. Due to its speed tier at 110, you may also want to run a Timid nature, to avoid being outsped by Lati@s and instead roll dice on the speed tie game with them.


Magical Leaf is an odd choice on Venusaur, though I approve of Giga Drain, Venoshock, and Earthquake to do more damage to Heatran. I would recommend using one of the various Hidden Power moves, perhaps Hidden Power Fire, to help alleviate your Ferrothorn problem. Another option is Sleep Powder, though due to the fact that you're running Toxic Spikes, it may not work very well. Again, investing in a little more HP and a little less in the defenses generally makes a pokémon bulkier.


Finally, for Scrafty, I would recommend running Crunch over Poison Jab and another coverage move, perhaps Poison Jab or Stone Edge, over Power-Up Punch. Bulk Up Scrafty doesn't really need to go fast to do its job, though-- you can drop the speed investment and just go 252HP/252Attack to maximize your bulk and offensive potential.


As far as items go, I would recommend running Metagrossite on Metagross, Leftovers or Lum Berry on Scizor, Leftovers on Tentacruel, Life Orb on Gengar, either Leftovers or Life Orb on Venusaur, and Leftovers on Scrafty.


I hope some of this helped you out! Good luck

 

[matt]

Oh no im not taking this the wrong way at all I just didnt expect someone to come in and say summin like 'You have three pokes weak to fire with no decent wall gg u alrdy lost in a competitive battle'

Ive had abit of help from someone already and any other form of help is much appreciated. I just wanna use Mons that i generally like and that aren't Legendaries, I'm kinda against the whole thing that people use Legendaries personally but that's just my inner hipster getting the best of me

was I harsh??? .... I was just being honest and pointing out a great weakness that can/will eat ur team up :/

if ud like I can also offer any assistance on top of clutchs

 

[Yeyin]

@TheFifthWhisper thankyou allot for the help man Appreciate the effort too, helped me in knowing move sets ect too

@matt No you wasn't harsh i just didnt expect someone to say summin like that without any improvement suggestions, its nbd man dont worry . I literally just wanna make a team out of Pokemon i generally like without Legendaries (IMO Legendaries shouldnt be allowed to be used in teams since they are Legendaries xD) But sure man any help is appreciated

 

[matt]

@TheFifthWhisper thankyou allot for the help man Appreciate the effort too, helped me in knowing move sets ect too

@matt No you wasn't harsh i just didnt expect someone to say summin like that without any improvement suggestions, its nbd man dont worry . I literally just wanna make a team out of Pokemon i generally like without Legendaries (IMO Legendaries shouldnt be allowed to be used in teams since they are Legendaries xD) But sure man any help is appreciated

"You have three pokes weak to fire with no decent wall gg u alrdy lost in a competitive battle sry if it's harsh but it's the truth" ........ " NO DECENT WALL" <------- the suggestion was you get one and decrease the amount of pokes u got weak to fire

 

[Yeyin]

"You have three pokes weak to fire with no decent wall gg u alrdy lost in a competitive battle sry if it's harsh but it's the truth" ........ " NO DECENT WALL" <------- the suggestion was you get one and decrease the amount of pokes u got weak to fire

At that point i didnt know what a wall was

 

[matt]

At that point i didnt know what a wall was

hence my follow up example but now u do haha