HALP! New at team making

[Spud]

So I wanted to learn about competitive battling today so I did. Now I threw together a team and basically would like to know if I'm doing it right. :U


Roserade @ Focus Sash
Nature: Timid
Ability: Natural Cure
-Grass Knot
-Hidden Power (Ground)
-Sleep Powder
-Toxic Spikes
This would be my lead. Toxic Spikes for poison plus Sleep Powder for those immune to Toxic Spikes and Ground type Hidden Power for them fire types.


Starmie @ Leftovers
Nature: Timid
Ability: Natural Cure
-Rapid Spin
-Recover
-Surf
-Thunderbolt
Used mainly for getting rid of Stealth Rock, Spikes, etc.



Gengar @ Wide Lens
Nature: Modest
Ability: Levitate
-Focus Blast
-Hypnosis
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt
Sweeper immune to Ground, Normal, and Fighting.


Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Nature: Impish
Ability: Sandstream
-Earthquake
-Ice Fang
-Slack Off
-Stealth Rock
Wall good against physical moves. Also has Stealth Rock for extra damage. Thinking of switching Ice Fang for Toxic.


Poliwrath @ Leftovers
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Water Absorb
-Bulk Up
-Focus Punch
-Rock Slide
-Substitute
Thinking of switching this out. Also realized I'd rather not have more than 1 water Pokemon in the team.  Suggestions for a better Pokemon would be nice. :)


Infernape @ Life Orb
Nature: Naive
Ability: Blaze
-Close Combat
-Fire Blast
-Hidden Power (Ice)
-Nasty Plot
Using this to diminish walls.

Help my poor team. ;-;

[So_So_Man]

Im not into competitive battling (yet), but wouldn't it make more sense for roserade's hp to be water because of things like charizard?

[Spud]

Im not into competitive battling (yet), but wouldn't it make more sense for roserade's hp to be water because of things like charizard?

I've only though of encountering a Heatran. Ground has 4x damage so that's why it was chosen. Water is being considered now as it has more consistent damage since ground usually has a good multiplier on a Pokemon, or does poorly I find. Also, water can actually hit Flying types... >_>

[Wedge]

Alrighty, first things first: you're pursuit weak. Starmie and Gengar are both going to be raped by Scizor hardcore. You say Infernape is going to hurt walls, but what does it need to hurt them for? You have no real sweeper that's going to go through someone's team besides Infernape.


Erm.

Ok, first of all, it's not necessary to have dedicated walls, etc etc. That was ADV gen broski. Nowadays, you really need a team strategy to pull through and win. Your team is lacking in both synergy between team members and a central strategy. If I were to just look at the Pokemon, I'd say you were running some sort of weird semi-stall mixape sweeping team... maybe... but guess what. Scarf Latias beats EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR POKES. That's right. 1-2 Draco Meteors will beat every Poke. Now, mixape can't sweep with a friggin latias in the way, especially a scarf on. Roserade's gonna go down early and LO + sand is going to severely limit ape's lifespan. You have to think about these small things. Every single part of your team should be focused on a single goal. Don't spread your actions, or you'll end up going nowhere. Whether your strategy is a SDScizor sweep or a spikes stall, you have to STICK WITH YOUR STRATEGY. otherwise, your team is just 6 random pokemon thrown together for no apparent reason.

Let's look at this team. lets say you want a mixape sweep. What stops mixape?

Mixape checks:

Latias
Tentacruel
Cresselia (not priority)
Zapdos (to an extent)
Starmie


Hmm, looks like three of these can be taken out with an easy PURSUIT, right? And look, all of them are special attackers too! So we have two options here:

Sp.Defensive CBTar
Sp.Defensive CB Scizor

CBTar carries sandstorm, but that doesn't really matter too much since mixape isn't coming out until the end anyways, so we'll keep both options open

Infernape also hates anything faster than it. What's faster than it?

Scarfers
Gengar
Azelf
Latias

hey look, more pursuit weaknesses! we also have u-turn weaknesses! Scizor looks like a good choice then especially for scouting. The priority is also good for taking down salamence, something infernape loathes do to resistance to all of its attacks. Scizor it is. We also need a scarfer of our own. Latias looks like a good choice due to Draco Meteor's insane power and coverage. So we'll include that. Latias also has a pursuit weakness which allows inferape to come in on a locked pursuit and set up a nasty plot :D!!! good stuff!!!

Scizor is really really vital to our team because of pursuit, so let's figure out how to protect it. heatran looks like a good idea because of the typing synergy. life orb heatran can really open up teams, so we'll go with that, using hp grass to take out things like vaporeon that trouble mixape. a grass type would also work well because bulky waters like vaporeon, some starmie, etc etc really really hurt mixape's chances since it needs to be able to ohko them with grass knot. breloom and celebi are our best choices, though breloom has sleep powder which really works well and focus punch can hurt stuff like salamence that decide to come in. yea, that's a good idea.

Our team so far:

Mixape
Scarf Latias
Sp.bulky CB Scizor
LO Heatran
Breloom

We now need a lead. Stealth rock is SUPER SUPER SUPER important to mixape since it nets him certain ohkos he wouldn't normally get. azelf can set up rocks, prevent other rocks from getting up, AND explode, so let's give him a test run.

So your team would end up being:

*note
Spe = speed
SpD = special defense

Azelf @ Focus Sash
Naive Nature
252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 Atk
Stealth Rock / Taunt / Explosion / Psychic

Scizor @ Choice Band
Careful Nature
252 SpD / 200 HP/56 Atk
Bullet Punch / U-turn / Superpower / Pursuit

Heatran @ Life Orb
Timid Nature
252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 Atk
Explosion / Fire Blast / Earth Power / Hidden Power Grass

Latias @ Choice Scarf
Timid Nature
252 SpA / 252 Spe / 6 HP
Draco Meteor / Surf / Thunderbolt / Trick

Breloom @ Toxic Orb (Poison Heal)
Adamant Nature
252 Atk / 48 HP / 208 Spe
Spore / Substitute / Focus Punch / Seed Bomb

Infernape @ Life Orb
Naive Nature
64 Atk / 252 SpA / 192 Spe
Fire Blast / Close Combat / Grass Knot / Nasty Plot

Whaaaaat? 2 fire types???? Don't worry. This really doesn't matter. All that matters is team strategy and team synergy. You have two water resists for them, two ground resists, neither is weak to rock, you have plenty of times you can switch in the rest of your teammates, so you're good to go.

Do I guarantee this team will work? No. In fact, it could be a miserable failure. Why? Because it's not been TESTED. This is just half the teambuilding process. The other half is TEST TEST TEST. See how this team works, if you decide to use it. Try it on shoddy for a week. Make note of what you have trouble with, what your team cannot break, what pokemon break your team, and make sure you know what your team does well against and if you can play around obstacles or not. Then, in a few days or a week, come back and make a new thread. Tell us everything that happened, and then we'll be in a much better position to rate your team. Give us detailed descriptions of what EACH MEMBER DOES AND HOW IT CONTRIBUTES TO THE TEAM. Every little detail helps. 1-2 sentences does NOT give us enough info to rate a team.

Yea, so I hope that what I wrote is understandable, and I can tell you if you follow my advice, you'll have a working team in no time ;)

[Spud]

Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it. I have taken note of everything and will be back sometime next week.