Teambuilding Guide

This guide will help you learn about the basics of building an effective team to play with.

The first thing you need to understand is that a “Perfect Team” does not exist and you cannot prepare for everything, it is optimal to prepare for the common threats in the metagame.

Each team is differently effective in its own way and have their own advantages and disadvantages but one thing to note is that, Some teams are better prepared than others so the goal is to create an effective team that will aid in winning games
Lets look at a few basics about building a team…

ROLES

Understanding roles becomes very important enabling the player to know how each Pokemon or set of Pokemon Work, Here are the basic few categories of Pokemon Roles defining their characterstics of usage.

WALLBREAKER

These Pokemon have the ability to deal massive damage to the opponent and weaken the opposing team or by straight up picking KOs.

They can be either :-

Physical (Conkeldurr, Mamoswine)
Special (ThundurusT, Porygon-Z)
Mixed (Keldeo, Salamence)

WALL

Passive Pokemon that can reliably absorb hits from the opponent and preserve health with recovery.

Renowned Special walls like Chansey/Blissey and Physical Walls like Skarmory and Hippowdon fit into this category.

HAZARD SETTER

Hazard Setter – Pokemon that provide utility of setting up entry hazards (Stealth Rocks/Spikes/Toxic Spikes/Sticky Web) that punish the opponent on switching in, this chip damage is very beneficial over time

Many pokemon can perform this role, LandorusT, Ferrothorn, Tentacruel and Skarmory are prominent examples.

Status INDUCER

Status Inducers cripple foes that are difficult to get around with your team viz, poisoning tough walls, burning strong physical attackers, sending threats to sleep and Paralyzing fast and annoying Pokemon.

Amoonguss, Mew and Clefable are solid examples of Status aid against opponents

SPEED CONTROL

Speed Control is a way to drastically change the flow of the battle into your favour and it includes a huge variety of possibilities via Trick room, Copying stats/abilities.

Speed lowering moves like Icywind or Rock Tomb or straight up paralyzing foes it can provide both offensive benefit to sweep opponents and defensive benefits in preventing a sweep.

Ditto and Trace Gardevoir are some pokemon used in the form of speed control as insurance against fast sweepers.

Lead Aerodactyl with rock tomb to mitigate dragon dances and Thundurus with Prankster Thunder wave is also an example of speed control.

SWEEPER

These are pokemon that can threaten to finish the opposing team off after weakening the opponent to favourable situations generally with the ability to boost its stats and clean up.

They can be either:-

Physical (Bisharp, Mimikyu)
Special (Volcarona, Thundurus)
Mixed (Keldeo, Dragonite)

TANK/PIVOT

These are Pokemon that are used to maintain momentum in Balanced and Bulky offense teams, their role is to absorb hits and manuever into favourable matchups against the opponent, they also use handy utility moves like knock off/ status and volturn out to safely bring in the check/counter.

Pokemon like TornadusT, Tangrowth and Rotom-W constitute this category.

DEFOGGER/RAPID SPINNER

Defog and Rapid Spin are beneficial hazard removal tools that aid in preventing your team from being crippled by chip damage that could push to a state of losing the game.

Therefore pokemon that can remove entry hazards like Gliscor, Zapdos, Rotom-W, Excadrill etc; become vital in a team

CLERIC

These Pokemon Support the team via providing healing support and status removal to other pokemon in the party, they can be vital for slow and defensive teams.

Wish and Heal Bell are 2 very common support options in competitive singles. Pokemon like Clefable, Jirachi, Alomomola, Togekiss make excellent use of these tools.

However, it is also important to realize that –

One Single Pokemon can perform multiple roles at the same time.
Pokemon listed above are not the only ones able to perform such roles. (There are many more options that a player could research)
A Good team Need Not Necessarily include all roles at the same time, these are just primary roles used as a base to understand characterstics.

You can check the “PokeOne PvP Compendium” guide for many more options to browse for each role.

Archetypes

There are primarily 5 kinds of archetypes that a team could be based on:-

Hyper Offense
Bulky Offense
Balance
Semi-Stall
Stall

HYPER OFFENSE

Just as the word describes, this is the most aggressive playstyle where the main goal is to maintain momentum with aggressive plays and deal as much damage as possible with your wallbreakers for your sweepers/cleaners to find a win condition later on in the game it involves a lot of revenge killing and sacrificing aspects to find a way to break through defensive cores. Games involving Hyper Offense teams often take less time

Pokemon used in this playstyle generally involve fast Pokemon that can dish out a lot of damage. Suicide Leads are used to setup hazards and gain opening momentum and later the Wallbreakers come in to weaken the opposing team for the sweepers to enter and clean up in the endgame, this sums up Hyper Offense

The basic Framework of a Hyper offense team is as follows:- 2-4 Sweepers; 1-3 Wallbreaker; 0-1 Stallbreaker; 1 Entry Hazard; 0-1 Spinner/Defogger.

Here is an example of a Hyper Offense Team:- https://pokepast.es/054cd9e9ca6832bf

BULKY OFFENSE

Its a playstyle which is a bit slower and less riskier than hyper offense as it indeed involves maintaining offensive momentum unlike Balance teams to strike at the right time but also contains utility and support options that provide room for tactical switches and pivoting to keep the advantage.

Pokemon involved in this playstyle usually have considerable bulk and the ability to switch in on moves as a pivot and also have a decent damage output or utility to maintain pressure and cripple foes.

The basic Framework of a Bulky offense team is as follows:- 1 Sweeper; 2-3 Wallbreakers; 1 Stallbreaker; 1 Entry Hazard; 1 Spinner/Defogger.

Here is an example of a Bulky Offense Team:- https://pokepast.es/dc3e843e968f0017

BALANCE

The Balance Archetype focuses on both offense and defense, a complex style of play where looking for a Win Condition through finding the right opportunity to strike the opponent is the essence.

Finding the right combination and building a good balance team is quite complicated, the complexity extends to playing it as well as the focus must be justified on both offensive and defensive sides of the spectrum, making the best possible plays with your defensive pieces to try and bring in your offensive pieces safely to damage the opponent at the right time is what this playstyle demands

Pokemon involved in this playstyle usually have good synergy amongst each other to check a wide variety of threats in the meta.

The basic Framework of a Balance team is as follows:- 1-3 Walls; 0-1 Stallbreaker; 0-1 Sweeper; 1-2 Wallbreaker; 1 Entry Hazard; 0-1 Spinner/Defogger.

Here is an example of a Balance Team:- https://pokepast.es/aa7e226f5b6553af

SEMI-StALL

This style of play focuses on defensive play and gradually crippling the opponent with residual damage but not completely limited to passive damage as it also contains an offensive piece designed to remove some specific threats that can damage the defensive core.

Basically a strong defensive core is created with 4-5 of pokemon in the team and 1-2 pokemon are designed to check the defensive core’s weaknesses and/or other stall teams while also providing the ability to clean up in certain circumstances.

The basic Framework of a Semi-Stall team is as follows:- 4-5 Walls; 1 Stallbreaker; 0-1 Sweeper; 0-1 Wallbreaker; 1 Entry Hazard; 1-2 Spinner/Defogger.

Here is an example of a Semi-Stall Team:- https://pokepast.es/0d599440dbc603a7

StALL

Stall (or) Full-Stall focuses on absorbing and recovering damage from the opponent and winning through chip damage, over a long number of turns (it takes a long time), longer the game goes on, better the stall team thrives on.

Hyper offense focuses on doing 100 damage in 1 turn while Stall focuses on doing 1 damage over 100 turns through switching in and out absorbing hits, applying toxic and entry hazards, countering setup sweepers via unaware and sheer bulk.

The basic Framework of a Stall team is as follows:- 5-6 Walls; 0-1 Stallbreaker; 1 Entry Hazard; 1-2 Spinner/Spinblocker.

Here is an example of a Stall Team:- https://pokepast.es/c638c6018f8cf1be

Every Archetype has its own advantages and disadvantages, however it is also important to learn which style is more effective in the current metagame and build accordingly to make an effective team.

CORES

A Core is a “set of Pokemon” that complement and support each other well in order to increase the effectiveness of the team. There are endless possibilities of good cores. We will be looking at some common and effective cores

OFFENSIVE CORES

DRAG – MAG

Dragon type pokemon like Garchomp, Latios, Dragonite etc; have a huge damage output but are hindered by defensive steel types preventing a sweep, Magnezone can trap bulky steel types like Skarmory, Ferrothorn and Forretress ,eliminating them and also matches up fairly well against fairy types. The aforementioned dragons also support magnezone while gaining offensive momentum against pokemon like Heatran and Amoonguss.

Bisharp – Keldeo – Zapdos

Its an Offensive core with a Physical, A Special and a Mixed Attacker.

Bisharp and Keldeo synergize well with each other to pressurize each others checks. Keldeo pressurizes common answers to Bisharp in Garchomp, Skarmory, LandorusT and Gliscor availing Bisharp to sweep foes. while Bisharp can check common switch ins to Keldeo viz. Latios, Amoonguss and SlowBro/Slowking and threaten them out all while getting damage on the switch in.

Zapdos completes the core to check TornadusT and pressurize both of Bisharp and Keldeo’s answers while spreading paralysis all while receiving support against common switch ins like Heatran, Clefable and Blissey.

BALANCE CORES

Heatran – RotomW – Amoonguss

This is a classic Fire-Water-Grass core that has great type synergy with each other.

Heatran can setup hazards and induce Poisoning/burn against foes to decrease opponents’ longevity while threatening opposing grass types like Ferrothorn and Amoonguss.

RotomW has a great type combination and a much needed ground immunity checking mamoswine that threaten both Heatran and Amoonguss, it also provides resistance against physical attackers like azumarill and crawdaunt all while spreading status and gaining volt switch momentum.

Amoonguss can check Keldeo, absorb a hit from threatening sweepers like Mimikyu and Thundurus while having the ability to put foes to sleep with spore and reset their stats with clear smog it can also preserve its health with regenerator.

Landorus-T – Ferrothorn – Slowking

Their Type Combinations and abilities complement well to be effective against all types of Weather teams while absorbing supereffective hits each other is weak to.

LandorusT is an excellent pivot that absorbs a plethora of physical hits virtue of its Intimidate ability and Great Defensive typing aiding Ferrothorn against physical fighting type attacks and punishing U-turns against Slowking with Rocky Helmet chip.

Ferrothorn can setup spikes and leech seed for passive recovery of itself and its teammates while synergizing with Slowking vs rain teams and LandoT vs Sand Teams, all while checking RotomW that matches up well against LandoT and Slowking.

Slowking absorbs Water/Ice type attacks that trouble LandoT and Fighting/Fire attacks that trouble Ferrothorn while checking Keldeo and Nidoking that threaten both Ferrothorn and LandoT, with its great coverage options it can also dent opposing offensive and balance teams that lack reliable recovery options and also aids in breaking defensive cores with Future Sight.

DEFENSIVE CORES

Skarm – Bliss

Skarmbliss is a Generational strategy and understanding it is quite simple. Blissey absorbs special hits and Skarmory absorbs physical hits from the opponent, they have great synergy among each other as either can effectively set up hazards and skarmory can remove opposing hazards via defog and also has the ability to phaze out foes with Whirlwind

Regen Core

Alomomola absorbs hits from physical attackers with its high base HP stat and modest Defense stat while wish passing health to allies, spreading toxic, knock off items and threatening burns with scald.

Amoonguss checks Pokemon that threaten Alomomola like Serperior, Breloom and Calm mind Keldeo while also absorbing electric type attacks and threatening spore and toxic.

Both these Pokemon can perform their roles while maintaining their health with “Regenerator” which recovers 1/3rd of health upon switching out.

WEATHER CORES

RAIN

Pelipper is the premier rain setter in PokeOne OU with utility moves like U-turn, Knock Off and Defog, it gets reliable recovery in roost and has a very good stab combination with Scald and Hurricane.

Kingdra benefits greatly from the rain doubling its speed outspeeding every non boosted pokemon in the metagame and with a LifeOrb/Choice Specs, a 50% boost to its Water STAB, STAB Draco Meteor and coverage moves like IceBeam it can threaten to sweep a lot of unprepared teams.

Ferrothorn benefits from the nerf to fire type moves in the rain allowing it to set up hazards and trouble the opposition with status moves and leech seed aiding in the longevity of the team.

SUN

Torkoal can set up the sun via its “Drought” ability and has access to stealth rocks and rapid spin, its natural bulk and fire typing allows it to check foe sweepers like scizor, mimikyu and bisharp provided its healthy and also has access to yawn to force out foes.

Venusaur doubles its speed in the sun and access to moves like sleep powder and growth boosting both its special attack and attack stats by 2 stages each, offensive tools like Giga Drain, Sludge Bomb, Hidden Power Fire and Earthquake enable it to threaten to sweep teams.

Rotom Wash acts as a pivot in sun teams spreading burns with will-o-wisp against physical sweepers and is generally strong against both rain and sand teams that sun teams generally struggle against.

SAND

Tyranitar is a Behemoth in OU since many generations with its well distributed 600 base stat total, ability to set sand, great coverage options and reliability of pursuit trapping fast and offensive Psychic and Ghost types like Latios, Gengar, Chandelure, Alakazam and so on.

Excadrill is strong physical attacker with a high base attack stat that doubles its speed in sandstorm with Sand Rush and access to STAB Earthquake and Rock slide, 2 moves that complement each other alongside STAB Iron Head and the ability to boost its Attack further with Swords dance.

Tangrowth acts as a pivot absorbing water and ground type moves and knocking off held items and preserving itself with giga drain and regenerator.

DEMO FOR BEGINNERS

If you are fairly new and looking to learn about pvp then this section is for you.
The first thing that you need to realize is that you need to enjoy something to learn more and improvise on it.
Teambuilding and playing PvP is very simple and everyone gets better over a period of time as long as they enjoy what they are doing.
So, Ignore all the fundamentals and get your basics right as we will be building a team.

1) To enjoy something you should begin with your favourite (or) something you are very familiar with
Let’s say my favourite is Dragonite, I want to build an offensive team around Dragonite. After checking its best movesets i have decided that I will be using Dragonite with a Choice Band with the moves Outrage, Extremespeed, Earthquake and Fire Punch

2) Now I have to figure out what Dragonite is weak to, it is weak to Ice types, Other Dragon types, Rock Types and Fairy types
Steel types are strong against all these types at the same time, Now lets browse for good steel types
Scizor is another Pokemon I am familiar with, I will be using an offensive Scizor with Metal Coat to increase the power of bullet punch
So The Moves will be Swords Dance, Roost, Bullet Punch, Knock Off

3) Now in the third spot I need something to use Stealth Rock, I figure out that Landorus can use stealth rock but I dont want to use 2 pokemon with the same 4x weakness to ice. So I will go for Mamoswine, I will give it a NeverMeltIce to boost its Ice type moves and I will be using Stealth Rock, Earthquake, Icicle Crash and Ice Shard as the moves.

4) I have something to use stealth rock, Now i need something to use Defog or rapid spin so that my Dragonite doesnt get worn out.
I see Rotom-Wash fits well here and also has only 1 weakness to grass which my Dragonite and Scizor is strong against I will give it Leftovers and use Defog, Volt Switch, Hydro Pump and Pain Split as my last move

5) I need something to attack on the special side, Serperior looks like a good option as I will have something to hit water types
The most popular set is Leaf Storm, Hidden Power fire, Substitute and Leech Seed, I will be using that set.

6) Now that I see it, I realize that I have a Grass Type and a Water Type, I can finish with a Fire type to balance out the team
Chandelure has very good Special attack and very unique typing compared to the rest of my team, Ghost typing can also come in handy
After searching for its movesets I decided to use a Choice scarf set with Overheat, Shadow Ball, Trick and Energy Ball with Infiltrator

This Concludes the team, All you have to think of is the next logical step to follow. You can try your own sequence.
Keep in mind however that it is common to lose a lot at the starting phase, as that is what helps you learn and understand later by making you think what you could have done differently.
Losing makes you understand what you are weak to and what changes you could make to prevent those weaknesses, you start to consult and discuss with others and as time goes by all the theories and tactics start making a lot more sense
As you close down majority of those weaknesses, you will start winning a lot more than losing, its only a matter of some time.