Help me improve my jack-of-all-trades team

Question

I'm new to competitive battling (started on P-Showdown a week ago), and am therefore inexperienced with items/abilities/movesets/the overal meta. I've experimented some, and have seen some success, but on other occasions had my a** handed to me. If you could analyse my team, and suggest a few improvements and any general tips for team building I would highly appreciate it.

My team, as it stands, is this:

Tapu Koko @ Air Balloon
Ability: Electric Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Roost

Talonflame (M)
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Acrobatics
- Tailwind
- Swords Dance

Greninja (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Extrasensory
- Dark Pulse

Excadrill (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Brick Break
- Rapid Spin

Tyranitar (M) @ Zoom Lens
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 56 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Def / 100 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Avalanche
- Seismic Toss
- Rock Slide
- Stealth Rock

Venusaur-Mega (M) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 200 Def / 108 SpA / 200 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Curse
- Giga Drain
- Leech Seed
- Amnesia

As I said, I am new to the competitive scene, so part of the problem is just not knowing how to play my team to its fullest extent. However, I have noticed a few recurring issues.

I have tried to make an adaptive team, but don't know whether I should instead just focus on just 1 of excadrill/tyrannitar sand rush, or Mega-Venusaur. No matter what I do with Venusaur's EVs or moveset, I just can't seem to wall properly.

There are many other things I am sure are impacting

I also find talonflame not living long enough to set up tailwind or swords dance and then attacking (and again, instead of having several different team setup options on hand, should I just build my team around 1 e.g. tyrannitar/excadrill sand rush?)

I don't want to ramble, so I'll leave it at that. I hope my team's not too terrible, and any advise would be tremendously helpful.

Comments

I have not played comp yet but using air balloon on Koko just removes electric terrain effects until the opponent hits it, so that is just useless

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what you need is a magneton because electric types/ steel types have the advantage against muk and grimer

Answer 1

Yeah this team definitely looks like it was made by someone of your experience level, but I'm sure that's of no surprise to you. The important thing is that you're aware of it, and that you're under no illusions that anything you make by hand is 'good', at this point. People with years of experience in competitive are still very much learning.

Whilst it will be helpful to go through some of your choices and discuss why they don't exactly fit, I'll share a few resources with you that might point you in the right direction for teambuilding. Visit smogon.com/stats; this updates every month with data dumps of everything you could want stats-wise from Showdown. Click on the latest month, and any of the metagames you see will link to raw usage stats, useful for understanding meta. moveset/ is awesome, and goes into incredible detail on what sets, spreads and strategies people are using.

Smogon itself is also a good general resource for strategy. Check out their strategy Pokedex; articles are written by people with good knowledge of the game, and are very detailed as to how you should use Pokemon and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Looking through the OU directory should also help you understand the meta. Their forums are also good for strategy once you know what you're talking about.

With all of that said though, we'll discuss this team.

• Excadrill sweeping late-game is your 'win condition'. This means you should play it so it stays alive. A secondary win condition like your Talonflame is never a bad idea, and can help wallbreak or cover if your main one is a poor fit for your opponent's team. (But we'll get to that soon.)

• Air Balloon is a very niche item. Koko generally works best with Specs to threaten offence teams, or Scarf to be a reliable answer to speed-boosting enemies.

• Offensive Pokemon have little use for Roost. If Tapu Koko does get a free turn from forcing the opponent to switch, use Volt Switch or predict their play to keep momentum (i.e. when your Pokemon in play counters the opponent's and they have to play reactively). Use Hidden Power Fire to help break Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor, which are a bother to sand offence teams like yours.

• U-Turn is becoming increasingly meta over Volt Switch, because nothing is immune to it, guaranteeing that you switch safely. This might be worth it to you if you find Ground types pressure your play too much.

• Talonflame has fallen out of favour after Gen 7's Gale Wings nerf. Mega Charizard X is the best Fire-type set-up sweeper at the moment, though I'd rather you keep a consistent Ground resist on your team, as you could instantly lose to say, opposing sand offence.

• Try Skarmory, it's a good physical wall that can help answer threats to your team like Excadrill, Lopunny, Medicham and Zygarde. It lifts the load off Venusaur and Tyranitar.

• Don't use Assault Vest on frail offensive Pokemon; they can't take hits to begin with. Scarf, Focus Sash and Life Orb are common Greninja items.

• I suggest re-thinking Greninja as an offensive support, as this set has more direction than your current one. Ice Beam / Hidden Power Fire / Taunt / U-Turn with Focus Sash might lack coverage, but still pressures the opponent because to them, it may very well. This set is disruptive to the Chansey, Mega Sableye etc. stall archetype you will find often as you climb the ladder. It also gains momentum and a way to get Excadrill in.

• Use Jolly on Excadrill to ensure it is faster. Brick Break is useless as you can already cover Steel, Ice, Dark etc. adequately. Use Swords Dance instead to make this a true late-game threat.

• Tyranitar's is the weakest set on your team. A set that works by intentionally making you slow is poor from the beginning. Tyranitar works best as a wallbreaker; try Smogon's Choice Band set here. Avoid Zoom Lens and Avalanche in general, they're unfortunately not at a competitive standard.

• Venusaur struggles to wall because you're not using HP EVs. Always use HP EVs on defensive Pokemon. It's better to run high HP and a high defensive stat to at least be good at that, than to be really average in both defensive stats. Make Venusaur a special wall; it's basically your answer to Ash Greninja.

• Don't use moves for the purpose of just raising your defensive stats. This makes your Pokemon really passive and a killer to momentum. Your opponent can just phase it out with a Pokemon like Skarmory, use Taunt or go to a set-up sweeper and set up with you. This applies globally as a teambuilding philosophy.

• Mega Venusaur works well when it has lots of coverage. It needs to have Hidden Power Fire, or it gets hard countered by any Steel-type. Sludge Bomb is stronger offensive pressure and helps hit things Giga Drain can't. Synthesis is percieved to be better than Leech Seed, though you're also running sand which weakens that move. I'd say experiment and see what works.

Comments

Avalanche can be standard when used by Avalugg in Monotype.

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Wow, thank you so much. I'm amazed how quickly you answered. you've definitely given me much to think about. I'm certainly going to try many of your suggestions and see how they play out. But yeah, I just have very little experience with the competitive scene. My team was a best guess at covering all bases, not knowing the big threats currently in the meta. Again, thank you.

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Yeah no problem, I enjoy discussing this game. I hope the changes go well — remember you’ll improve the most with practise, so keep working on your decision making and the rest will come with time.
About Avalugg, yeah there’ll always be that one exception right? If we’re picky, we’ll just say avoid it on anything that isn’t going to get STAB and won’t natually move last off its base stats.