Rate my first OU team please, any constructive criticism/tips will be gratefully received.

Question

This is my first competitive team, there is no real theme I just went with what helped me get wins on pokemon showdown, any advice will be appreciated.

Toxicroak @ focus sash
Ability: Poison touch
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed and 4 HP
Nature: Jolly
-Cross Chop
-Sword Dance
-Ice Punch
-Sucker Punch

Toxicroak serves as my lead, starting off with a sword dance to power him up and using the Focus Sash to survive the first hit and then attacking with his powered up attacks, Cross Chop for a powerful STAB move, Ice Punch for dragons and Sucker Punch for anything faster than him and anything weak to dark.

Garchomp @ Choice Band
Ability: Rough skin
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed and 4 HP
Nature: Jolly
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Fire Fang
-Dual Chop

Garchomp is my revenge killer, he is sent in after one of my pokemon is defeated to finish off the opponents, he can also take out other dragons and outspeeds most quite well.
Outrage is brilliant for him as it is 120 base damage, plus STAB, plus the bonus that the Choice Band gives, Dual Chop is also effective against opponents using substitute as it is another STAB move and can break through and damage the opponent.

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Defense and 4 speed
Nature: Bold
-Wish
-Protect
-Scald
-Icebeam

Vaporeon is used to scout out the opponents moveset, defeat dragons and get powerful STAB, super effective attacks off on opponents pokemon that are weak to water or ice, another upside to Vaporeon is the support it can give with Wish, due to it's large health pool.
Finally Vaporeon can be switched in to battle opponents water type pokemon and often gain health in the process.

Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Defense and 4 Special Attack
Nature: Bold
-Calm Mind
-Psyshock
-Focus Blast
-Recover

Reuniclus is my special sweeper/tank of sorts, the overcoat ability rids me of any weather problems that may be affecting my enemy, leaving the leftovers to gain a continuous stream of health rather than having to be constantly making up for the damage that weather provides.
Psyshock is a powerful STAB move that adds the option of hitting at an opponents Defense stat or their Special Defense stat whilst maintaining the benefits that come with specialising in one type of attack.

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Defense and 4 attack
Nature: Impish
-Stone Edge
-Slack Off
-Ice Fang
-Stealth Rock

Hippowdon is my physical wall, but he can also be turned offensive when he needs to, with Ice Fang hitting dragons hard and Stealth rock laying down some entry hazards he can really inflict some damage whilst soaking some of the opponents attacks, Slack Off means that he can carry on going for a long period of time and soak up more damage

Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 200 HP, 252 Defense and 56 Special Attack
Nature: Bold
-Wish
-Grass Knot
-Seismic Toss
-Flamethrower

Blissey is my Special Wall/Tank, it's huge health pool and base Special Defense stat coupled with her surprisingly aggressive moveset make her troubling for my opponent, wish on Blissey is crazy, it's max HP is 702, meaning that any pokemon receiving this wish is most likely going to be at 100% health.
Flamethrower and Grass Knot have been thrown in to add an aggressive side to Blissey and often end up KOing my opponents pokemon.

Comments

Don't really see the point of Grass Knot on blissey, Vaporeon/Toxicroak are drizzle-based pokemon rather than sand, so it isn't a good idea to be running them with a Hippowdon .
Earthquake > Stone Edge on Hippowdon
Dual Chop is dodgy. Outrage > Dual Chop any day xD

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Tbh, I wouldn't use Toxicroak as my lead. I advise not to attempt a sweep first thing in the game. xD

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What do you recommend I have as my lead?

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Leads usually have entry hazards and stuff. And for reuniclus, I would have magic guard ability with life orb.

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Why did you tack in Hippowdon? No one benefits from Sand Stream on your entire team. You're just buffetting everyone else apart from Garchomp and Reuniclus.

Vaporeon & Blissey are redundant on this team. Why didn't you give a Wish Pass Blissey Protect? She can easily be KO'd with a fighting type move without Protect.

Answer 1

One positive thing it's safe to say about this setup is that all the pokemon you trained are all acceptable and fitting to many strategies in OU battles. Unfortunately, the team you created doesn't work well as a team. Having an OU battle isn't just about having 6 great pokemon that each specialize in a different field. It's about 6 pokemon that are not only well constructed but also have allies, abilities, and moves that blend together. These transitions of a complicated act are what wins a match. Just to let you know this team has a great variation that can be used in the future but you just can't have a leading toxicroak that has no moves to stage the battle later on. The move sucker punch in a leader??? If the educated opponent will be using moves like spikes, toxic spikes (lesser in this situation seeing how toxicroak is a poison type), stealth rock, and status altering moves and your toxicroak is using sucker punch what will happen? An OU team needs a spinner that can get rid of spikes for an effective shifting battle style. I see a bunch of individual strategies but no strategy applying to the whole team. Because I don't see a group working as a team in any way without major reorganizing I will show you a team to model one after. I specialize in the steel type so I will model an OU mono steel team. Skarmory as a lead can use staging moves I listed earlier and is a great wall. Forretres can use rapid spin which clears the field of staged effects plus nasty attempts to kill a defensive wall like Forretres. Sandstorm can benefit my entire team with abilities that boost evasiveness and power if I choose the right species. Metagross is a multi-purpose tool that can take heavy damage and return heavier damage while covering my team's weaknesses. You have a fantastic eye for training strong pokemon through EVs, IVs, and natures. Now all you need to do is learn to blend strategies. Good luck.

Sincerely, Simon Stone

Comments

if an 'educated' opponent strated setting up hazards
an 'educated' player would start spamming swords dance and preparing a sweep =.=

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"Unfortunately, the team you created don't work well as a team"
Sorry, but i highly disagree with that statement. Sure, his team isn't extremely top quality, but pretty decent for someone new to competitive. Now, i don't see any problem with synergy, considering he has about 2 pokemons bulky for each specific defense, and hazards really arent a problem, since nothing in his team is affected greatly by it. I'd say his team is just fine, though he could use a Choice Scarf pokemon.

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I am well aware of his/her new status in this field. I do believe he/she requested constructive criticism as well. If this player would like to become better it is necessary to practice new strategy. As for how to do so I suggest using the most common strategies. That is to start with staging effects, not a build which can easily backfire and should not be attempted by a new player. And I should point out that sand stream is doing more harm than good. Perhaps if Garchomp had the sand veil ability then that would change but it doesn't. Again, no spinner is present and no staging moves are in play. Could I ask again if nothing else could improve but an item?

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No. I utterly disagree.
I'd like you to tell me these 'common strategies'. The requirement for a spinner is dependant on the team, since some teams take barely any damage from hazards then putting in a spinner would be next to useless.
Additionally, Garchomp cannot have a Sand Stream ability. Check your facts before you say them.
Staging moves. Wtf is that? If you mean hazards, Hippowdown has Stealth Rocks. Blissey/Vaporeon also provide wish support to his team members which is a great idea.

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Well, just fine in the aspect that the changes you suggested dont really do so much for the team either. Sets are what are really setting him back (i mean, it's kind of a no-no to use sweeping Blissey) as well as abilities (Overcoat Reuniclus when he could use Magic Guard). In respect of a spinner, it is rare to see both Spikes and SR in the same team, and usually, it's stall teams, which this team, spinner or not, would stand no chance against if it is decently built. However, i do agree that Sand isn't being beneficial, and it is a great suggestion to replace it and/or other pokemons.

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My apologies for commenting that Garchomp should have "sand stream". I meant to write "sand veil" I much more beneficial ability that has not yet been mentioned. As for the rest I will explain now in more detail for knightofdragon so that perhaps he/she can work with me to achieve the best
possible answer for the author of this question. Imagine this: Toxicroak
comes out in an OU match and uses swords dance. The opponent knocks it
down to 1HP using an extraordinarily common earthquake attack. Then the
foe attacks by a better speed stat (Toxicroak can be out maneuvered by
many OU pokemon), by using choice scarf, or by using a move that goes
first. In addition the lead has no staging benefits. Now the user sends out
Hippowdon to take advantage of sand stream and stealth rocks. This part is
fine but I might add weakness two which is spikes are in play by now. You
say his team has little weakness to spikes? Weakness to spikes is judged by
how many pokemon in the team are of the flying type and how many have
the ability levitate. Other factors can be healing moves or abilities in both
status and HP. Having spikes hurt his/her team is too much a burden to
carry. It outweighs the benefit of a "wasted move slot" on rapid spin. In fact
I have calculated that about 80% of common fighting moves found in OU
battles can defeat Blissey in only three turns after spikes are in play. This is
because with spikes down Blissey looses 176 HP from the start of battle.
Then I assumed it's defense was 500 to ensure that no one challenges my
calculation. With majority of the fighting types used Blissey can attack once
with 3/4 health then faint after its next attack without using wish. This
defeats not only the use of wish on an ally but also severely hinders basic
strategy entering battle because if a fighting type uses a fighting move three times with base power 100 it becomes 150 by type match and then doubles to 300 by effective advantage (Not including base attack that varies).  Blissey will faint. Spikes also damage 100% of this team! How can anyone say  that spikes are not effective against it??? Also again I might add from my previous post that sandstorm is doing more harm than good and may linger for an entire battle if it is benefiting the foe.

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garchomp cant have Sand Veil in OU only Rough Skin thats why he has it

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What are you talking about? Of course Garchomp can have the sand veil ability. It's sand stream it can't have and I already explained that.

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Uh, buddy,

 http://www.smogon.com/bw/articles/bw_tiers

So, since this Team is Competitive (used on a Simulator) and follows Smogon's Tiers, Sand Veil is Banned. That's why it can't be used. Hope I cleared this up.