Team Making Block

[MegaBuddha]

It happens to me all the time. I find it impossible to make teams at times. I never know what to do to get started on a new team. Most of the time I'm just stuck on my old team because I like it too much. Or I find it impossible to get in the mindstate of creating a different style team.

Earley D/P I was stuck in the 'balanced' state of team building. I had to have 2-3 walls and always have everything covered. I therefor ended up with damn near the same team every time. I wanted to try stall, but I simply didn't know how to let go of all the power and make a team.

I think about this all the time. All day I've been trying to get started on a new team. Lately I've been stuck on my old team. I've been so successful with it, it's hard to even try anything new. I want to try a new offensive team. Or even a balanced team again. I'm just not sure how. I find it impossible to make new things. I a lot of the time end up with a mix of two different play styles that simply don't go well together.

Eh. Maybe this thread is nothing to contribute but I'd like to hear anyones thoughts on this and if they experience it. And what do you do to just get the ball going.

 

[forbidden]

I would be were you are right now but I still have so many pokes I haven't tried yet. I'm loving my current team even when I lose and most of the time its due to bad prediction.

What I don't get is how you always end up with the same walls, maybe try playing resistance and less walls might solve the problem. Though I've always followed the 2-3 walls format when building a team, I feel that its bad to always think defensively so I will eventually try something new. =P

Yea that's all i can think of atm. Hope its a worthy contribution.

 

[Dark Void]

What I do is choose a lead based on what I'm building. Just for an example, if I want to build a stall team, perhaps I would lead with Hippowdown or Abomasnow to create a weather effect. If I were to build an offensive team, I would lead with something fast like Choice Scarf Gengar. If I were to build a mid-tempo team, I either lead with Stealth Rock, Status, or an Anti-lead.

The next 5 Pokemon depend on the tempo of the team and the first Pokemon I chose. If the team is offensive, I try to incorperate alot of resistences and immunities to work with as well as a Intimidate user if possible. If the team is defensive, I choose six walls with synergy that cover alot of common threats while incorperating rolls such as spiking, spinning, and healing (cleric/wish support). If the team is mid tempo, I usually incorperate all of it. Somewhat of an offense or a strategy to exploit, a wall on each side of the spectrum, as well as roles mentioned earlier.

Hopefully this gave you some ideas.

 

[Automatic]

I always think of one poke I really wanna use. My last one was Poliwrath. So I started with him and then b/c of Water absorb threw in a water attack lure and went from there.

My entire team ended up being like an Volt/Water Absorb or Flash Fire, etc. It was fun.

 

[StarmanXL]

One thing I think has helped my team building is simply how many gimmick teams I make. They usually aren't effective, but usually expose me to new pokemon that I become fond of. For example, I really wasn't that big a Celebi fan until I used one on my mono-grass team (before Obi's stall team, even), nor did I even think of Miltank or Zangoose until I made my mono-normal team.

Still most of my teams don't come from planning something out, but just sitting down one day and throwing a random team together just for kicks. I then look over it and make any needed changes. My Sandstorm team, in fact, started out as a sort of joke but became one of the best teams I've ever made.

Personally, I like going for a sort of theme in a team, be it as mundane as Hail or as crazy as no physical moves, and try to make something from that.

For some reason, though, all of my theme-less teams end in disaster. >_>

 

[Colonel M]

Trust me, I've had this huge of a problem for months until just a couple of days ago (with my current team). My advice is to try out some Pokemon that you have little or no experience, and see what you can result in.

I'd start by making a basic OU team, something that just has 6 random Pokemon in it (i.e. Gyarados, Infernape, etc.) and work from there. This actually helps some people, and then they can piece things apart and see how one set from another works.

Another way, how I do it, is look at one Pokemon, exactly ONE Pokemon, and build around it somewhat. Have Blissey, a physical wall for support, a sweeper, revenge killer, etc. It's hard to do this way, but if you're able to, this is one way to make it.

Or you could just try something that interests you most. Say you like Heatran. Ok, so it's major weakness is Fighting moves, so Gliscor might be a staple on your team. Now find Fire-bait, and let's pretend that's Celebi. Work from there, etc. This basically states the above example.

Keep testing things and keep adjusting. The best thing to have is patience: don't bend in to thinking your team sucks just because you lost three times or it's Uber because you've won five. Longer testing will usually yield better results.

 

[IggyBot]

When I find myself in a situation like yours, I'll forget about building teams for a while, and just start trying out pokemon that I've wanted to use, but never found a spot for in my team. This will oftentimes give me ideas that I can use to keep moving forwards.

 

[da gold sun]

I say, ask yourself if there are any pokemon you absolutely are obsessed with. What's awesome looking? What pokemon is just fun to use? What's your favorite? And so on. If you have seen like half of my posts, you'd see how much I love Sceptile. Therefore, (at least recently) all my teams have been testing Sceptile in everyway possible. I have come up with two sets (one's really cool but there are better sets) from this, and I'm loving it.

Currently my brother and I are both raising Lucario (lol Brawl), and I have been using him a lot on Shoddy. But either way, you have many options when stuck on teams. You can move on to another metagame (UU is awesome), or even try stuff like NU in OU (Bologo style ). Kills boredom, and should get your skills up. In the end, it's up to what you like to do. If you're not having fun in pokemon, why bother, right?

 

[seds]

I usually have a team full of immunities and things that attract that kind of attack. I usually end up with drifblim on my teams because it has 3 immunities. Then, I put in one or two things I want to use,Put in a rapid spinner and put in another thing helpful (status absorber/aromatherapist)

 

[pictish]

I like to make teams by picking a pokemon that can do something pretty powerful, like Raikou or DDnite and work on a team that, while solid in its own right, will be particularly fierce against the counters for the pokemon I'm trying to set up and clear the way for a sweep.

Like, setting up DDnite, it's helpful to have stuff like magnezone, a good pursuit user for cress and a couple of other things like that. When you get the right opportunity even mid-game for a set up, you can seize it and hopefully rip a massive hole in the enemy team even if it doesn't finish the match up directly. It can be challenging trying to set up a single pokemon while maintaining a semblance of a good team, but I certainly enjoy it more than trying to cover every counter that'll be thrown at me - just emphasise my threat far more instead.

 

[Syberia]

I only have one team. Sure I've gone over it and made changes from time to time (ex. every time I get beat by something because I simply can't counter it), but it fits my playstyle welll (or my playstyle fits it, I can't really tell), and I probably win 80% of the time with it. I've gotten it to the point where if I lose, it's because I made a bad prediction or some other type of stupid mistake, rather than the fact that my team just couldn't match up.

If you're looking for advice, I'd say 9 times out of 10 use a Sandstorm team. If you don't, you'll be kicking yourself when that random focus sashed whatever gets the best of you. It's happened to me :(.

EDIT: To the poster above - never, ever, EVER make a team that revolves around one pokemon. If that pokemon goes down due to a bad prediction, random surprise moveset of your opponent's, or sheer luck, you don't want to be screwed because the other five have no real synergy together but are just there to ensure a sweep for the one.

Really, the best advice I have to offer is try what you like, and wait 'til you lose. When you do, figure out why, and adjust your team accordingly (if it was due to a problem with the team in the first place). Sadly, you really don't learn much from winning.

Oh, and don't think in terms of standards. There's plenty of alternate EV spreads and movesets out there that, while they may look dumb in a generic sense just looking at them individually, fill a specific role you need something to fill, and are totally unexpected at the same time. A team of six standards just means you're going to get predicted, often correctly, every time.

An example being what I did on my old team. I kept getting screwed over by three pokemon in particular - Heracross, Infernape, and Lucario. So, instead of just using some generic wall to beat all three, I came up with this Salamence instead.

Salamence () @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 212 HP/220 Spd/78 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Brick Break
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Roost

Not your standard by any means, though Intimidate, a large HP stat that is largely ignored on Salamence, and resistances to Fire, Bug, and Fighting allow it to take on all three of those "problem" pokemon with ease. Also bluffs being a Specsmence quite well.

 

[merubin]

EDIT: To the poster above - never, ever, EVER make a team that revolves around one pokemon. If that pokemon goes down due to a bad prediction, random surprise moveset of your opponent's, or sheer luck, you don't want to be screwed because the other five have no real synergy together but are just there to ensure a sweep for the one.

That only happens if you build a set-up team poorly. Set-up teams work just fine in theory and in practice.

 

[SubVersion]

All I do is pick one Pokemon (usually a sweeper) that I want to use. Then I decide what I need to use it with. For example, the team I did best with prior to coming to Smogon was centered around BellyZard. I figured, to safely set him up, I need Rapid Spin for Stealth Rock. I needed my own Stealth Rock to break Focus Sash. I needed paralysis for Choice Scarf'd Pokemon that outrun 'Zard after the Salac Boost. To ensure OHKO's on stuff I normally wouldn't, setting up Sunny Day could be a huge boost (and I also needed to stop Hail/SS damage). My team ended up having all that, and even if Charizard died, it was strong enough to fend for itself without him.

That's what good team building is about, in my eyes: Pick a Pokemon that you like, that you want to use, and build a fully-functioning team that just so happens to set it up perfectly.

 

[animenagai]

my team making process is pretty simple. choose a poke you want to use. not necessarily as the centre of the team or anything, just one you want to use. then pick another which covers its weaknesses. that's usually 2 sweepers. pick another sweeper that don't share any weaknesses with these 2. with 3 sweepers down, you might have 2 physical sweepers and one mixed, so just pick a special sweeper or a mixed sweeper if you don't have one etc. then just pick 2 walls.

 

[Rhykune]

I just throw together a bunch of random sets that I want to try. Then I build a team on the one that turns out the best.

 

[Stall]

Also bluffs being a Specsmence quite well.

Other than the fact it gets Lefties healing. Unless you meant MixMence...

 

[Darth Meanie]

My current team was made up of me just taking 6 pokemon, different strategies, and fine-tuning them until I got a team I liked. I currently use a paraflinching togekiss to lead, with a wish/yawn vaporeon, curse/firepunch/shadowsneak/explosion muk, an encore swords dance infernape, choice band electrivire and choice scarfed lucario. I just play, find weaknesses, and fix them. I'm thinking of maybe putting in Alakazam over infernape, and making lucario physical or mixed, plus some EV movement.

 

[chip_the_fox]

my current team im making involved a mixcario and well a heard great things about a mixape (other mixed ape) and CB snorelax so those are my sweepers and then i needed a defensive wall so i chose gliscor , then it struck me as my ream too slow and im maxed out on sweepers so i decided to add paralysis support so i chose jarahici and clefable so my new team is:

lucario
primeape (lead)
snorelax
jarachi
clefable
gliscor

then i go to marriland to use the team weakness calc ( i cant do it my head) and just fine tune it from there

 

[sanjay120]

I wanted to test Screech Tyranitar, Shuckle, Sand Veil/BP Cacturne, and a Bastiodon set I had. Deoxys-S was also just being unbanned, so I wanted to try him too.

So I put them all on a team together with a Specsluke. The Tyranitar sucks, the Bastiodon gets maybe one kill a match, and the rest of them are awesome. So I changed to Boah and am working on replacing Bastiodon and then I had a pretty good team.

I also make a lot of mono type teams. Grass is a really good one, and Dark works pretty well too.

 

[NoMercy]

I have it too. I only have 2 teams which don't completely suck: my OU team and my Uber team.

 

[trader]

i have no idea what i want to do for my team so were in the same boat

 

[Dark Void]

@Syberia:

EDIT: To the poster above - never, ever, EVER make a team that revolves around one pokemon. If that pokemon goes down due to a bad prediction, random surprise moveset of your opponent's, or sheer luck, you don't want to be screwed because the other five have no real synergy together but are just there to ensure a sweep for the one.

Actually, building a team around one particular Pokemon is generally effective. The trick is to build your team and exploit your strategy correctly, and it's not always a bad idea to have a fall back or simply build the team to the point where it can function well enough without using the main Pokemon that it is built around.

 

[Bourbon]

I usually build a team around one pokemon or idea. I really like Celebi, so I considered it's weaknesses. Then I gathered a few pokemon around it that supported it and resisted weaknesses. The last few guys I put in to counter threats.

 

[DevilinDenial]

I disagree with Syberia in his edited post, and agree with merubin. When you set a goal for this, then the team almost always has both synergy and a back-up-plan. All my teams work like that, and when you almost never fail even when you have Team-builders block.
An example is a team I built, although it has centralization around Zapdos, it has Weavile as a backup and becomes an offensive stall team if that fails.

People have their own opinions on what works and how to make it work, you just have to find what is suitable to you.

 

[Choice Specs Shuckle]

What I usually do is base my team around one Pokemon - my last team was built for DD Dragonite. I had a Rapid Spinner, a Scarfchomp counter, and an Ice Shard absorber (Weezing, who also liked to WoW/Fire Blast Donphan, Weavile and Mamoswine), while making sure that I didn't have any huge type weaknesses/weaknesses to common Pokemon.

If you try constructing a team like this, one thing you need to do is make sure your other 5 Pokemon can still hold their own if your "big guy" happens to die.