Inexperienced Team Builder - Rate This One, Please! For Use in Pokémon Black :)

[Roseheart95]

As you may see from the team below, I often pick different kinds of Pokémon that may not be so commonly used (possibly for good reason, but I like to try different things out ). The team below is not bound by tiers because I'm only planning to use it on Random Matchup in Black so far. I also haven't ever made a team for the fifth generation, so we'll see how this goes... all critique welcome, don't hesitate to be harsh if you need to!

Here goes:

Maractus @ Heat Rock
Ability: Chlorophyll
Evs: 252 Speed/252 HP/4 Special Attack
Nature: Timid
- Sunny Day
- Leech Seed
- Hidden Power (Fire)
- Giga Drain

An annoyer, basically. Sunny Day starts and increases speed. Leech Seed is then planted, and then Giga Drain or Hidden Power as appropriate. Then it's just a case of fighting for survival. Cotton Spore was a consideration at one point, but I don't think it would be useful enough. HP to help it survive, Speed to increase it as far as possible, and Special Attack to give the attacks a a teensy boost.

Raikou @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Evs: 252 Special Attack/252 Speed/4 HP
Nature: Timid
- Calm Mind
- Thunderbolt
- Substitute
- Hidden Power (Ice)

A pretty standard special attacker, I think, Pressure is pretty much because Volt Absorb isn't available for it yet, although I'm not sure who would try to use an electric-type move on Raikou anyway. EVs are to maximise special attack and to give it a bit more HP since its Speed is good anyway. Calm Mind is for a boost, and the rest of the moves for coverage, apart from Substitute, which can be used to set up a Calm Mind, as well as getting in more hits.

Infernape @ Choice Band
Ability: Blaze
Evs: 4 Hp / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
Nature: Adamant
- Stone Edge
- Flare Blitz
- U-Turn
- Close Combat

One of the physical attackers on this team with all attacking moves, using whichever appropriate for the opposing Pokémon's type. Maxed out speed due to frailty, with Choice Band giving a boost in attack. Infernape will probably often be selected as one of my three Pokémon with Maractus, so that if there's any Sunny Day left, it'll be able to make use of it.

Nidoqueen@Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Special Attack/252 HP/4 Defence
Nature: Modest
- Sludge Bomb
- Shadow Ball
- Flamethrower
- Thunderbolt

Sludge Bomb is to make full use of STAB as well as Nidoqueen's ability. Flamethrower and Thunderbolt are for coverage, as well as Shadow Ball. The Ev spread is pretty standard - Special Attack for power, HP and Defence for durability to the end, especially with Life Orb.

Basculin @ Expert Belt
Ability: Adaptability
Evs: 252 Attack/252 HP/4 Speed
Nature: Adamant
- Aqua Tail
- Crunch
- Zen Headbutt
- Taunt

All the moves here are for coverage, Taunt makes use of his speed. I'm not sure whether to replace Aqua Tail with Waterfall, seeing as it's more accurate, but aside from that I feel quite happy about this set. Adaptability with increase the power of Aqua Tail, and the Ev spread is, like Nidoqueen's, quite standard for a physical attacker. I haven't seen the Expert Belt used much in competitive battling, so I'm not sure about that. I've found BrightPowder to be quite useful in my time, but putting that on Basculin seems a bit to me like having it there only for the sake of having an item. So if you have a better suggestion, please let me know!

Noctowl@Mental Herb
Ability - Tinted Lense
Evs: 252 HP/252 Special Defence/4 Defence
Nature: Calm
- Reflect
- Roost
- Whirlwind
- Toxic

My most defensive Pokémon, Noctowl is built for durability. Tinted Lense adds the finishing touch to the spread of Evs, and Roost supports it's longevity even more. After setting up Reflect, Noctowl will Whirlwind and Toxic all the opponent's Pokémon (barring steel and poison-types...), using Roost when required and continually once its finished and setting up Reflect again frequently when needed as the opponent is slowly poisoned. Either that or I'll switch out. Mental Herb is in case of Taunt.


Well, there you have it... I'm not sure I'll be too keen to get rid of any Pokémon, but hopefully you can help me tweak these sets to make a team with a couple of Pokémon which my opponent may not be used to/expecting, as well as some they will be. Any rate, long or short, will be appreciated.

Thank you!

[Boredom]

I have a few things I can point out:

First for the roles that you have them doing Maractus, Basculin, and Noctowl are easily outclassed by a lot of things, I can give you a few examples if you'd like but this is your team in the end.
Second Smogon and other websites tier their Pokemon because some are just better at certain jobs than others which is why they're overused and that's my opinion, but I digress.
A problem I noticed on your team is that Raikou and Maractus are your only Pokemon who use special attacks. Another problem here is that you said you were planning to use this team for random match-up however in random match up you must have a different item on each of your Pokemon and you have Life orb on 4.

Maractus: If you're going to use him I recommend giving him Giga Drain and Hidden Power Fire instead of SolarBeam and changing his item to a Heat Rock to make Sunny Day last longer. Giga Drain gives him a STAB move as well as a form of regeneration, and although it doesn't hit as hard as SolarBeam you won't be in trouble if your opponent prevents you from setting up weather or changes the weather on you. Hidden Power Fire lets him exploit the sun for an attack.

Raikou: No real complaints for this guy except that I would recommend giving him Hidden Power Ice over Hidden Power Water because it lets him hit more things and it won't lose power in the sun. Substitute might be good as well because it will help him set up Calm Mind and give him a free attack on occasion( if you were to do this I recommend Leftovers). Aura sphere is another possibility over Shadow Ball as it is great against steels.

Infernape: Getting a swords dance off on Infernape is very difficult as he is very frail even with extra health. I'd give him an EV spread of 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spd. As for moves a standard moveset for him is Close Combat, Flare Blitz / Fire Punch, U-turn, and Stone Edge / Mach Punch.

Nidoqueen: Even though Nidoqueen has a slightly higher attack it also works fairly well as a special attacker and it gets a wider variety of moves that way (just a thought). If you're going to use physical then Earthquake is a fantastic STAB with a 100% accuracy and high base power. I would remove roar because with only 3 Pokemon in Random match up roar isn't as useful. To answer your one question I would recommend Crunch over Sucker Punch because Crunch gets an extra bonus from Nidoqueen's Sheer Force.

Basculin: For Basculin I recommend putting Taunt on him because he has an above average Speed and this will prevent you from being walled.

Noctowl: Noctowl works well as a special wall but since yours knows do attacking moves I'd recommend giving it a Mental Herb so you don't become taunt bait.

[Electrolled]

Just a small suggestion, Raikou has speed ties with Starmie and Azlef, so putting some more speed in there would be very helpful, and using Aura Sphere would be a good choice. But you'd have to give it a rash nature.

So, if your Raikou had a Timid nature, it could outrun Starmie and Azlef with speed ties. Shadow Ball would take out Azlef, and Thunderbolt would take out Starmie. But you'd need max speed on it, taking out a bit of HP.

[Roseheart95]

[QUOTE=Boredom;14998718]I have a few things I can point out:

First for the roles that you have them doing Maractus, Basculin, and Noctowl are easily outclassed by a lot of things, I can give you a few examples if you'd like but this is your team in the end.
Second Smogon and other websites tier their Pokemon because some are just better at certain jobs than others which is why they're overused and that's my opinion, but I digress.
A problem I noticed on your team is that Raikou and Maractus are your only Pokemon who use special attacks. Another problem here is that you said you were planning to use this team for random match-up however in random match up you must have a different item on each of your Pokemon and you have Life orb on 4.[QUOTE]

I do like to try out different Pokémon and would feel restricted only using the most common ones. I know there would be some people who disagree, but that's how I feel. And, yeah, the reason I like random matchup is that there aren't rules about tiering, although that may come at a price, of course. And I forgot about that rule! After looking at your post, I'll go over my team again and see if there are still any duplicates. As for the special attacker balance, I think, then, that I may well change Nidoqueen to a special attacker, as you've suggested.

Maractus: If you're going to use him I recommend giving him Giga Drain and Hidden Power Fire instead of SolarBeam and changing his item to a Heat Rock to make Sunny Day last longer. Giga Drain gives him a STAB move as well as a form of regeneration, and although it doesn't hit as hard as SolarBeam you won't be in trouble if your opponent prevents you from setting up weather or changes the weather on you. Hidden Power Fire lets him exploit the sun for an attack.

Thanks for helping me think of the different possibilities that the opponent might throw at me. I'm taking that as I won't need Synthesis anymore because I've got Giga Drain?

Raikou: No real complaints for this guy except that I would recommend giving him Hidden Power Ice over Hidden Power Water because it lets him hit more things and it won't lose power in the sun. Substitute might be good as well because it will help him set up Calm Mind and give him a free attack on occasion( if you were to do this I recommend Leftovers). Aura sphere is another possibility over Shadow Ball as it is great against steels.

I've changed Hidden Power and replaced Shadow Ball with Substitute and added Leftovers over Life Orb. I've decided against Aura Sphere pretty much because it's unavailable to me, not having the event Pokémon and not really feeling like I want to trade for it, since I don't really have many valuable Pokémon to give in return.

Infernape: Getting a swords dance off on Infernape is very difficult as he is very frail even with extra health. I'd give him an EV spread of 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spd. As for moves a standard moveset for him is Close Combat, Flare Blitz / Fire Punch, U-turn, and Stone Edge / Mach Punch.

All right - I was a bit uneasy about putting recoil moves on him, but I didn't realise how frail he was, so I guess it doesn't really matter. This set is looking a lot better than what I had - thanks. I've put a Choice Band on him as the item, then, hoping that'll be better.

Nidoqueen: Even though Nidoqueen has a slightly higher attack it also works fairly well as a special attacker and it gets a wider variety of moves that way (just a thought). If you're going to use physical then Earthquake is a fantastic STAB with a 100% accuracy and high base power. I would remove roar because with only 3 Pokemon in Random match up roar isn't as useful. To answer your one question I would recommend Crunch over Sucker Punch because Crunch gets an extra bonus from Nidoqueen's Sheer Force.

Special it is - and I suppose you're right about Roar, too, I hadn't though about that much. Seems a bit pointless now. I've given her a special set, and all moves have a secondary effect.

Basculin: For Basculin I recommend putting Taunt on him because he has an above average Speed and this will prevent you from being walled.

Noted - especially since I don't have a taunter yet (would've been Noctowl, could it have learnt Taunt). I've put it instead of Superpower.

Noctowl: Noctowl works well as a special wall but since yours knows do attacking moves I'd recommend giving it a Mental Herb so you don't become taunt bait.

Hadn't thought of that, either. I'll probably try and set up Reflect as it's about to go down then, if I need to.

Thanks for all your advice! I'm going to go and rethink the items now.

Just a small suggestion, Raikou has speed ties with Starmie and Azlef, so putting some more speed in there would be very helpful, and using Aura Sphere would be a good choice. But you'd have to give it a rash nature.

So, if your Raikou had a Timid nature, it could outrun Starmie and Azlef with speed ties. Shadow Ball would take out Azlef, and Thunderbolt would take out Starmie. But you'd need max speed on it, taking out a bit of HP.

I've decided on a Timid nature with Substitute over Shadow Ball/Aura Sphere (See above). Your advice has been noted, so speed evs are now at 252. Thanks for your comment!

[Rairyan]

if this is for pokemon black this topic should be in game rates

[Roseheart95]

if this is for pokemon black this topic should be in game rates

Sorry, the title does seem a bit misleading - this is for Random Match Up over the GTS, so competitive battling.