Porygon2 and friends.

[Jayceja]

First off, I'm new to the whole competitive Pokémon thing, I’ve been reading about it and reading war stories and stuff for a while as well as going through battle tower etc. in game, but I'm new to the whole battling other people competitively, I tried to start up a while ago, but couldn’t get the hang of it, and gave up pretty quick due to other interests taking preference. Now I'm finished high school I have more free time and have decided to get into it, especially with the advent of gen5, there just looked like far too much fun stuff to not give it a shot.

So don’t expect the best team, but it’s also not entirely crap I don’t think. I spent a while throwing together a team and trying it out. So far I've had a bit of success, winning about half my matches it seems, but given the starting point for new players probably isn’t that high, that probably is not too good, so I've decided to post it up here, to see whoever my loses are because of the team, or because of me, and to get help on improving it.
The Team:

Porygon2@Evolution Stone
Ability: Trace
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 Health/252 Defense/4 Special Defense
Moves:
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Recover
-Magic Coat

This is my lead, porygon2 with evolution stone is VERY bulky, and recover makes up for leftovers, keeping it alive and helping it survive and kill things. Ice Beam and Thunderbolt are for damage and coverage, as well as the HAX freeze/paralyze(has won me a couple of games).
Magic coat is because it's a lead, and so often leads will just throw out entry hazards letting me bounce them right back at them, as well as for annoyances like erufuun.
As a normal type, it has a tendency to attract fighting type moves, which are generally physical, and on physical Pokémon, which is a great thing with my next Pokémon.

Sableye@Leftovers
Ability: Mischievous Heart
Nature: Careful
EVs: 252 Health/120 Defense/136 Special Defense
Moves:
-Night Shade
-Will-O-Wisp
-Taunt
-Recover

Sableye, the Pokémon only so willing to get fighting attacks thrown at it, swapped into from Porgygon2. Priority Will-O-Wisp then cripples whichever physical Pokémon threw the fighting attack, night shade for some damage(I prefer its constant nature over trickery) and recover keeps it alive.
I also tested out substitute and trick+iron ball in place of taunt, but neither of them helped as much as taunt does.
He has a problem with fire types immune to WoW and special attacks, special attacks are eaten by porygon2 and zuruzukin, while I don’t have a solid counter to physical fire types, I generally beat them with my thick fat mamoswine's earthquake or my nidoking's earth power. Guts Roopushin is a problem since I cannot burn it, taunt stops bulk up and forces him to use payback, which generally gives me a few turns to night shade and finish with icicle shard Mamoswine, however this requires sacrificing Sableye which can be problematic later on.

Zuruzukin@Leftovers
Ability: Shed Skin
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Health/252 Attack/4 Special Defense
Moves:
-Drain Punch
-Crunch
-Amnesia
-Taunt(or bulk up?)

Zuruzukin is rather powerful but also relatively bulky, this is a defensive set that doesn’t use bulk up, but rather amnesia. Amnesia misses out on the attack boost, but physical sweepers are hopefully crippled by Sableye's burn to the point it can tank it with drain punch, while amnesia then allows him to shrug off special attacks as well.
Drain punch for damage and healing, crunch for impressive coverage from a dual stab, and taunt then stops defensive Pokémon, the ones not bothered by either burn or amnesia.
He has a tendency to also draw fighting attacks, again to be drawn to sableye, however both have a problem with guts roopushin.
I'm also considering swapping taunt for bulk up, letting me set up on either end of the spectrum and giving a damage boost, while I can still use Sableye for a priority taunt that’s probably better all round because of it.

Mamoswine@Choice Band
Ability: Thick Fat
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 152 Health/252 Attack/104 Special Defense
Moves:
-Stone Edge
-Earthquake
-Ice Shard
-Stealth Rock

Mamoswine, choiced mamoswine hits hard for revenge with ice shard, helping it also decimate dragons that would want to kill me, stealth rock is there but I don’t use it much due to the choice band and the fact I often get free entry hazards from magic coat, but if I get a chance to set it up it works great, and there is not a lot that I need icicle drop for that either earthquake or ice shard is not sufficient for.
Other than that, not a lot to say about it, I generally use it to take out fire types due to thick fat giving neutral hits and taking them out with a powerful earthquake, which is useful as they are immune to sableye’s burn, but since its only a neutral hit some of the more powerful ones can still pose problems.

Nidoking@Life Orb
Ability: Encourage
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 Health/252 Special Attack/4 Speed
Moves:
-Earth power
-Fire Blast
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt

Nidoking, a very powerful special attacker with great coverage and no life orb recoil, I’ve gone for the pure special attacking version over toxic spikes due to wanting to burn things. I chose him for the power it offers while also being one of my favorites since generation 1, with encourage giving him the boost to convince me to use him. I didn’t run any Speed because most things would out speed him anyway, and the bulk is better for that, however I don’t know all too much about speed tiers or anything, so if speed would be better on him I would be willing to change that.

Breloom@Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Attack/252 Speed/4 Health
Moves:
-Bullet Seed
-Stone Edge
-Mach Punch
-Spore

Techniloom, I chose it for a few of reasons, a second strong priority in addition to ice shard doesn’t go amiss, sleep from spore which scizor or hitmontop lack helps it’s case and I don’t have any other grass moves, it also breaks subs really well.
In all that, she performs well, and also performs excellently against the Natt/Bung duo, which is more than enough to get a spot on my team due to it being one of my favorites since gen 3.






So yea, some of the problems I have encountered have been set up sweepers that I cannot outspeed that come in after sableye has died taking out someone else, that may also just be me though, maybe i should be more careful to keep him around.
Also, strong pokemon outspeeding mine in general can be a problem as nidoking and mamoswine are not incredibly fast, I tried thunder wave support on porygon2 for a while, but it was not worth what i lost by losing thunderbolt.

 

[Jaroda]

Porygon 2 as a lead, is actually a really good idea. I forgot that thing learns Magic Coat. With all the Deoxys S running around you're actually in a good position. Clever.

Don't have anything really bad to say about Sableye. Three immunities, no weaknesses and priority status and Recover is a pretty sweet deal, despite being frail. Provided you don't actually burn Roopushin and Taunt it, you may be able to stall with Night Shade and Recover.

Zuruzukin... Instead of boosting your SpD, why not make yourself a Careful nature, SpD EVs and use Bulk Up instead? Now you're already specially defensive and you can now improve your defensive and offensive power with one move. Put Rest on it too since Shed Shell should only having you sleeping for 1-2 turns or so.

Nidoking sounds good in theory, but you're weak to Water, Ice AND Ground so you're not going to be staying around. You'll be revenged too easily. I'd recommend Scarf but that gets rid of recoiless Life Orb.

Why not try an Agiligatr set instead?

Feraligatr@Life Orb
Encourage
Jolly 252 At / 4 Df / 252 Spd
Agility/Dragon Dance
Waterfall
Ice Punch
Cunch/Earthquake/Rock Slide

Feraligatr has an attack stat of 105 compared to Nidoking's 85 special attack, and Feraligatr has means to boost both it's speed and attack to make it a much more potent sweeper. Not to mention it has a solid typing.

Overall though, with no steel type you are going to get your ass handed by Dragons. They'll run through your team with Draco Meteor and Outrage. Sure, you can burn Garchomp or Salamence, but you can just as easily miss. You need a solid dragon check. Steel also resists Ice

Lucario is relatively frail, but it does resists dragons. Why not try the new Nasty Plot version with priority Vacuum Wave if you're going to be replacing Nidoking? Or, you could use a support Jirachi to use Light Screen and Reflect and Wish.

 

[Jayceja]

Porygon 2 as a lead, is actually a really good idea. I forgot that thing learns Magic Coat. With all the Deoxys S running around you're actually in a good position. Clever.

Don't have anything really bad to say about Sableye. Three immunities, no weaknesses and priority status and Recover is a pretty sweet deal, despite being frail. Provided you don't actually burn Roopushin and Taunt it, you may be able to stall with Night Shade and Recover.

Zuruzukin... Instead of boosting your SpD, why not make yourself a Careful nature, SpD EVs and use Bulk Up instead? Now you're already specially defensive and you can now improve your defensive and offensive power with one move. Put Rest on it too since Shed Shell should only having you sleeping for 1-2 turns or so.

Nidoking sounds good in theory, but you're weak to Water, Ice AND Ground so you're not going to be staying around. You'll be revenged too easily. I'd recommend Scarf but that gets rid of recoiless Life Orb.

Why not try an Agiligatr set instead?

Feraligatr@Life Orb
Encourage
Jolly 252 At / 4 Df / 252 Spd
Agility/Dragon Dance
Waterfall
Ice Punch
Cunch/Earthquake/Rock Slide

Feraligatr has an attack stat of 105 compared to Nidoking's 85 special attack, and Feraligatr has means to boost both it's speed and attack to make it a much more potent sweeper. Not to mention it has a solid typing.

Overall though, with no steel type you are going to get your ass handed by Dragons. They'll run through your team with Draco Meteor and Outrage. Sure, you can burn Garchomp or Salamence, but you can just as easily miss. You need a solid dragon check. Steel also resists Ice

Lucario is relatively frail, but it does resists dragons. Why not try the new Nasty Plot version with priority Vacuum Wave if you're going to be replacing Nidoking? Or, you could use a support Jirachi to use Light Screen and Reflect and Wish.

porygon2 rapes dragons though with ice beam while taking their hits easily due to its incredibly bulk, the only problem comes from if i accidentally let porygon2 die, or if they pack several dragons, but even then i typically can revenge them with mamoswine
the ice dragon for that reason has been the only one that has offered any real problem to my team, but i havent seen it much and it has not done too much back to me in return

as for feraligatr, i forgot it got encourage now, so i may try that, but being physical means i then get low on special attacks, however with sableye to stall the strong physical walls this may not be too much of a problem, especially since it patches my fire problem and my speed problem with dragon dance or agility

as for zuruzukin, i chose amnesia because burn already neuters physical attackers, but in practice it hasnt got as much use, as i usually end up killing the burnt pokemon with my sableye, so swapping in bulk up is probably a good choice, as for rest, i totally went over my head that rest and shed skin would be a good combo

so thanks for all the suggestions, ill swap nidoking for feraligatr, and try a special defensive zuruzukin with bulk up and rest, and see how it goes

 

[Azure Demon]

porygon2 rapes dragons though with ice beam while taking their hits easily due to its incredibly bulk, the only problem comes from if i accidentally let porygon2 die, or if they pack several dragons, but even then i typically can revenge them with mamoswine
the ice dragon for that reason has been the only one that has offered any real problem to my team, but i havent seen it much and it has not done too much back to me in return

as for feraligatr, i forgot it got encourage now, so i may try that, but being physical means i then get low on special attacks, however with sableye to stall the strong physical walls this may not be too much of a problem, especially since it patches my fire problem and my speed problem with dragon dance or agility

as for zuruzukin, i chose amnesia because burn already neuters physical attackers, but in practice it hasnt got as much use, as i usually end up killing the burnt pokemon with my sableye, so swapping in bulk up is probably a good choice, as for rest, i totally went over my head that rest and shed skin would be a good combo

so thanks for all the suggestions, ill swap nidoking for feraligatr, and try a special defensive zuruzukin with bulk up and rest, and see how it goes

Your whole team is destroyed by a trick pokemon mainly rachi or rotom and and trust me they will gladly give p-2 any item to get rid of that evostone.

Another thing for you will be roobushin bulk up guts, terakion SD lum, and zuruzukin with bulk up shed skin combo.

Also dragons like ononokusu with an sd will tear through your team regardless of your switch

Last thing is your zuruzukin shouldn't run amnesia because it's spdef is good enough already worry about boosting defense

 

[Rakan]

Last thing is your zuruzukin shouldn't run amnesia because it's spdef is good enough already worry about boosting defense

Both of Zuruzukin's defensive stats are base 115. People just tend to run the careful nature + Bulk Up because it is more convenient attack boost along with a defense boost. If there was a move that raised Sp Def and Atk, that might be used in lieu of Bulk Up, but not today.

Porygon 2 is a very good idea. I personally have run into Porygon 2 and been annoyed to the ends of hell trying to get rid of it...

Pretty good team.

5th gen ftw!

 

[Jayceja]

Your whole team is destroyed by a trick pokemon mainly rachi or rotom and and trust me they will gladly give p-2 any item to get rid of that evostone.

Another thing for you will be roobushin bulk up guts, terakion SD lum, and zuruzukin with bulk up shed skin combo.

Also dragons like ononokusu with an sd will tear through your team regardless of your switch

Last thing is your zuruzukin shouldn't run amnesia because it's spdef is good enough already worry about boosting defense

ive encounted a trick magic guard clefable before, and it was annoying because it means sableye couldnt touch it at all, so it continued to annoy my team constantly
other than that, trick users have not been too much of a problem as it is not too hard to keep porygon2 away from them

and yea, roobushin has been a big thorn in my side, mainly because i have to always assume it has guts, its just a shame porygon2 is weak to fighting or i could just easily scout his ability to be sure, taking care of non guts versions
but even then the guts version hurts, i can beat it with sableye, but only if i perfectly predict when he goes to bulk up to get the taunts on those turns, rather than taunting and getting hit by extra paybacks, a far from optimal solution

as for ononokusu, if he swaps into an attack then sword dances, i can swap to pory, tank the attack and get the KO in return, or swap to sableye, however if he gets a clean switch im stuck revenging him with mamoswine. However since he cannot switch into 4 of my pokemon(3 ice attacks and sableyes burn), he usually is not a threat much, and he is not really common anyway
other than him, yache dragons are the only ones i dont rip apart instantly, and even them are managable

and yea, like the posted about me pointed out, zuruzukin has balanced defenses, meaning if i choose to build more offensive with amnesia and burn support, he is bulkier but without quite as much damage, but i already changed him into a bulk up set since getting consistent burns on all their physical pokemon is hard with shandera running around so much, being a complete stop on sableye

another problem ive come across though is opposing sableye ever since i swapped nidoking for feraligatr, as it leaves me low on special attacks, he can just stall me to no end unless i can perfectly out predict him with my own sableye
for that reason im considering swapping back for a nidoking, then changing one of my other pokemon, rankurusu is something i considered for paralysis support for non-physical or fire-type sweepers, and being able to take on roobushin, but i dont know who i would want to replace for it

 

[masterful]

First off, I'm new to the whole competitive Pokémon thing, I’ve been reading about it and reading war stories and stuff for a while as well as going through battle tower etc. in game, but I'm new to the whole battling other people competitively, I tried to start up a while ago, but couldn’t get the hang of it, and gave up pretty quick due to other interests taking preference. Now I'm finished high school I have more free time and have decided to get into it, especially with the advent of gen5, there just looked like far too much fun stuff to not give it a shot.

So don’t expect the best team, but it’s also not entirely crap I don’t think. I spent a while throwing together a team and trying it out. So far I've had a bit of success, winning about half my matches it seems, but given the starting point for new players probably isn’t that high, that probably is not too good, so I've decided to post it up here, to see whoever my loses are because of the team, or because of me, and to get help on improving it.
The Team:

Porygon2@Evolution Stone
Ability: Trace
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 Health/252 Defense/4 Special Defense
Moves:
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Recover
-Magic Coat

This is my lead, porygon2 with evolution stone is VERY bulky, and recover makes up for leftovers, keeping it alive and helping it survive and kill things. Ice Beam and Thunderbolt are for damage and coverage, as well as the HAX freeze/paralyze(has won me a couple of games).
Magic coat is because it's a lead, and so often leads will just throw out entry hazards letting me bounce them right back at them, as well as for annoyances like erufuun.
As a normal type, it has a tendency to attract fighting type moves, which are generally physical, and on physical Pokémon, which is a great thing with my next Pokémon.

Sableye@Leftovers
Ability: Mischievous Heart
Nature: Careful
EVs: 252 Health/120 Defense/136 Special Defense
Moves:
-Night Shade
-Will-O-Wisp
-Taunt
-Recover

Sableye, the Pokémon only so willing to get fighting attacks thrown at it, swapped into from Porgygon2. Priority Will-O-Wisp then cripples whichever physical Pokémon threw the fighting attack, night shade for some damage(I prefer its constant nature over trickery) and recover keeps it alive.
I also tested out substitute and trick+iron ball in place of taunt, but neither of them helped as much as taunt does.
He has a problem with fire types immune to WoW and special attacks, special attacks are eaten by porygon2 and zuruzukin, while I don’t have a solid counter to physical fire types, I generally beat them with my thick fat mamoswine's earthquake or my nidoking's earth power. Guts Roopushin is a problem since I cannot burn it, taunt stops bulk up and forces him to use payback, which generally gives me a few turns to night shade and finish with icicle shard Mamoswine, however this requires sacrificing Sableye which can be problematic later on.

Zuruzukin@Leftovers
Ability: Shed Skin
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Health/252 Attack/4 Special Defense
Moves:
-Drain Punch
-Crunch
-Amnesia
-Taunt(or bulk up?)

Zuruzukin is rather powerful but also relatively bulky, this is a defensive set that doesn’t use bulk up, but rather amnesia. Amnesia misses out on the attack boost, but physical sweepers are hopefully crippled by Sableye's burn to the point it can tank it with drain punch, while amnesia then allows him to shrug off special attacks as well.
Drain punch for damage and healing, crunch for impressive coverage from a dual stab, and taunt then stops defensive Pokémon, the ones not bothered by either burn or amnesia.
He has a tendency to also draw fighting attacks, again to be drawn to sableye, however both have a problem with guts roopushin.
I'm also considering swapping taunt for bulk up, letting me set up on either end of the spectrum and giving a damage boost, while I can still use Sableye for a priority taunt that’s probably better all round because of it.

Mamoswine@Choice Band
Ability: Thick Fat
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 152 Health/252 Attack/104 Special Defense
Moves:
-Stone Edge
-Earthquake
-Ice Shard
-Stealth Rock

Mamoswine, choiced mamoswine hits hard for revenge with ice shard, helping it also decimate dragons that would want to kill me, stealth rock is there but I don’t use it much due to the choice band and the fact I often get free entry hazards from magic coat, but if I get a chance to set it up it works great, and there is not a lot that I need icicle drop for that either earthquake or ice shard is not sufficient for.
Other than that, not a lot to say about it, I generally use it to take out fire types due to thick fat giving neutral hits and taking them out with a powerful earthquake, which is useful as they are immune to sableye’s burn, but since its only a neutral hit some of the more powerful ones can still pose problems.

Nidoking@Life Orb
Ability: Encourage
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 Health/252 Special Attack/4 Speed
Moves:
-Earth power
-Fire Blast
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt

Nidoking, a very powerful special attacker with great coverage and no life orb recoil, I’ve gone for the pure special attacking version over toxic spikes due to wanting to burn things. I chose him for the power it offers while also being one of my favorites since generation 1, with encourage giving him the boost to convince me to use him. I didn’t run any Speed because most things would out speed him anyway, and the bulk is better for that, however I don’t know all too much about speed tiers or anything, so if speed would be better on him I would be willing to change that.

Breloom@Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Attack/252 Speed/4 Health
Moves:
-Bullet Seed
-Stone Edge
-Mach Punch
-Spore

Techniloom, I chose it for a few of reasons, a second strong priority in addition to ice shard doesn’t go amiss, sleep from spore which scizor or hitmontop lack helps it’s case and I don’t have any other grass moves, it also breaks subs really well.
In all that, she performs well, and also performs excellently against the Natt/Bung duo, which is more than enough to get a spot on my team due to it being one of my favorites since gen 3.






So yea, some of the problems I have encountered have been set up sweepers that I cannot outspeed that come in after sableye has died taking out someone else, that may also just be me though, maybe i should be more careful to keep him around.
Also, strong pokemon outspeeding mine in general can be a problem as nidoking and mamoswine are not incredibly fast, I tried thunder wave support on porygon2 for a while, but it was not worth what i lost by losing thunderbolt.

2 things I would suggest would be running Jolly nature on Breloom to outspeed max speed Adamant Mamoswine's Ice Shard, and maybe run Rock Tomb over Stone Edge. It gives you a chance to cripple somewhat their Breloom counter and possibly finish it off with Bullet Seed. Also, I would just run like 216 SpD EVs and Bulk Up, as you don't do a tonof damage for a set-up poke as you are now.

 

[Jayceja]

2 things I would suggest would be running Jolly nature on Breloom to outspeed max speed Adamant Mamoswine's Ice Shard, and maybe run Rock Tomb over Stone Edge. It gives you a chance to cripple somewhat their Breloom counter and possibly finish it off with Bullet Seed. Also, I would just run like 216 SpD EVs and Bulk Up, as you don't do a tonof damage for a set-up poke as you are now.

ok, thanks for the suggestions, being new i dont really know anything about speed tiers so i just grabbed some EV spreads and natures from the pokemon's respective threads