When team building for standard 5th gen OU, what do you personally take into account?

[Master Morty]

When using a battle simulator, I've always considered team building to be 75% of the battle, and that act is the major difference between Pokemon and other turn based battle RPGs.

During team building, there are a lot of things to take into account such as major threats, role specialization, and even personal preferences. What are the main specific factors that you personally think about when designing teams?

 

[Bad Ass]

in BW, team matchup is most of the battle. if you have a team that can keep momentum and not let up on the opponent, you're gravy.

however, in DP/ADV, team matchup is very little. obviously if you're very weak to a certain Pokemon, you'll get smashed when it comes out, but there is a lot more strategy at play.

 

[Jimera0]

I disagree with Bad Ass about the comment that "in BW, team matchup is most of the battle" but I discussing it would kind of be missing the point of this topic so I'll let it slide.

Anyway, usually I tend to think in terms of roles when building a team. I'll start out with an idea of what I want my team to accomplish, whether it's to facilitate a certain Pokemon sweep or a more overarching strategy such as countering Volt-Turn. Then I start selecting Pokemon based on what roles they fill that help achieve that goal, such as rapid spinning, hazard laying, sweeping, revenge killing, etc. I first decide on what roles I absolutely need to have filled on my team, as you can never fill EVERY role available in Pokemon on just one team. Then, for each role, I go over each Pokemon that fits the role, and decide which accomplishes it the best for my particular team. Then, I go and fill any holes left, covering any weaknesses I might have missed earlier in the process. Finally, I test it out and make adjustments based on what difficulties I encounter while actually playing it.

It works for me, though it tends to lead to more balanced and semi-stall rather than high offense, but given my playing style it kind of suits me better anyway.

 

[MLaRF]

I've played card games like yu-gi-oh and (guess what!) pokemon, which are really great ways to improve teambuilding in the fact that it's essentially the exact same action and thought process. I don't have an OU team, but that doesn't mean different rules apply.
The biggest things I take into account are:
What my main goal is (i.e. my sceptile sweeper)
How to protect it (get rid o' fire guys)
How to protect my team as a whole (synergy and that kinda stuff)
Weighing and prioritizing the different options for each role (i.e. if I have Hariyama or Machamp, will Hariyama's survival capabilities outweigh the lower power output?)
Popular things I have to watch out for (not only in making sure I can defeat them, but also ensure my hipster side doesn't flip out for me using them).
Then, even after the initial building, test it and test it. Teambuilding is never really over, even after you click the "find battle" button once and for all.

 

[PrimeMinister]

Yeah, Mlarf made some good points, you should also take into account the most common threats and strategies (Tyranitar, etc.)

 

[Godgers]

I start from the bottom up actually. I always have a straight up breloom counter on my team. I know you can't counter everything etc etc but there's seriously nothing I hate more than that smug bastard, so I choose something that can either absorb sleep or immune to status. I tend to have gliscor on my teams often <_< but I could also use a cleric

Next I choose a SR user (if I haven't already), that complements the first pokemon.

Next I decide if there's any broad range "field effects" that would really help my team. Weather. Dual screens. Trick room? Spikes? Or I can skips this part and just choose another useful pokemon that handles some of the threats to the first two.

From there the last 3 or 4 pokemon are just mixed and match and narrowed down. I'm starting with a core of 2 or 3 and have 4 or 3 slots to fill. With time I'll have a core of 5 and the last one tends to be rather experimental

 

[No. 1 Machop Fan]

On the rare occasion where I actually design a team, I usually take into account what Pokemon and what strategies I see most often, and try my best to counter as many as I can.

 

[Lady Alex]

Whenever I intend to build a new team, I first establish the pokemon or concept I want to work with. For example, with the team in my signature, I wanted to build a rain offense team around dugtrio facilitating a CM jirachi sweep. After that, I think of all of the things that would prevent me from sweeping and build my team to effectively shut them down. Feel free to look at the RMT for a more detailed look into how I approached it.

 

[bubbly]

For me it always starts with a core which can carry out a plan of some kind. For instance my favourite one at the moment is Nidoqueen + Hydreigon, they both set up against each others counters, Toxic Spikes let Hydra beat Blissey / Chansey and its other bulky checks, etc. All good.

Then you just build the rest of the team around, not only covering threats sufficiently, but also supporting those goals. For instance, just off the top of my head, Rotom-W / Infernape / Hydreigon / Scizor / Nidoqueen looks pretty good for breaking down similar walls, at least checking most relevant threats and so on (not sure how I'd complete that team, maybe Tyranitar to cover Latios and Electrics better).

 

[Vemane]

Tbh, it usually consists of slapping on 6 random pokes that work well together... testing it. Usually changing like 2 pokes and then that's it. I dunno if it's that great of a strategy but it has gotten me to top 100 with mediocre battling soooo

 

[MashDaButtons]

I usually don't consider Gastrodon being a threat to my rain teams because no one expects the HP Grass from Rotom-W. So I can focus on other things.

 

[Elipticus]

I dont why but I cant build a team without focusing on one pokemon sort've how people build teams around politoad and tyranitar but the pokemon I tend to use are sweepers consider what can stop his sweep, what checks it, throw some pokemon to deal with his counters and some more for coverage and god forbid the sweeper dies i need something to finish off the opponent so maby a choice scarf, always build a team that you personally can battle with, it might be great in theory but if you cant use it properly itll be a waste

 

[Superpowerdude]

personally i sometimes build teams around aiding a specific pokemon to sweep. and when doing this i take into account taking out the certain pokemons threats. keeping good balance of offensive and defensive mons and have pokemon able of attacking both the physicall and special side of things. and lastly i look for team synergy

 

[Bruno Magno]

Hyper Offence, just that, i don't care about anything else. Forretress, 2 special sweepers, 3 phisicals. All of them with boosting moves, and none of them on the top20 usage.

 

[The QWAZ]

Hyper Offence, just that, i don't care about anything else. Forretress, 2 special sweepers, 3 phisicals. All of them with boosting moves, and none of them on the top20 usage.

Like a hipster.

What i normaly do is decide what i want the goal of the team to be, then design a team archetype and proceed to cover any weaknesses and edit and adapt the team from there.

 

[Bruno Magno]

Like a hipster.

These days, anti-metagame teams can have fun by taking down weather abusers

 

[Tumblina]

Goal
How I want to accomplish it
Main pokemon who push the goal forward
Support the main
Review for weaknesses

and final step:

Lose on pokmeon online 100x, scrap team, repeat.

 

[tollybus]

When building a team focussing on one specific goal eases the teambuilding. one thing to focus on could be weather.

so you start of with a weather inducer, see how it takes on other common leads including other weather inducers and build your team around it. I personally tend to build balanced teams and for me personal preferences are quite important. for example i refuse to use tyranitar and always use the hippo instead and i also like to use bronzong.

after you've build the team you test it, test it more, find out what troubles your team and change your team according to these threats.

 

[The QWAZ]

I always try to use unexpected things on my team, like sand force hippo on a sun team to utilse it's monster defence

 

[Black Rain]

I like to make an offensive and a defensive core that can work effectively together, as I'm a balanced player. However, I'm extremely picky about what defensive Pokemon I use, as I generally force a strict standard upon those Pokemon - they must be able to provide Hazards, have recovery, resist this type, beat this playstyle, etc, which is why I often take a very long time to make teams. That and school work.

 

[LighTz911]

For almost any team, I just try my best to cover the top 25 Pokemon while at the same time retaining viability. Sometimes it doesn't work out, but it's not possible to counter everything, anyway. It's pretty much the same with older generations, just that there's no designated leads or some different mechanics and such.

 

[SJCrew]

Sweeper first. I always build my team around sweepers. If they're weak to Stealth Rock, a spinner is top priority. If they can't take a Bullet Punch, we're getting at least three Scizor counters. I like to counter everything too, so it often takes me a very long time to build teams. Because of my unorthodox habits and beliefs on what makes a good Pokemon/set/team, I don't like to do co-op.

 

[bubbly]

Something important for would-be defensive teams. Using a pokemon specifically to counter one thing (like Rain, Sun, Latios etc) just doesn't work. It did in 4th gen, not any more. There's so much diversity that these "coverage" defensive pokemon won't do anything 80% of the time. Instead, pokemon should aim to cover a large number of threats, and have useful roles (e.g. laying Spikes) which they can carry out against most playstyles and teams.

Obviously this leaves you weak to powerhouse mons, such as Terrakion. This is the main reason I don't think full stall can work; it is possible to cover nearly all the meta's threats, but in doing so you don't get the necessary team synergy to beat any one playstyle.

 

[ginganinja]

I really like this thread so ill throw in my 2 cents

To start with, I ALWAYS have to have something to build the team around, I guess a lot of teams follow this to some degree although I usually won't be generic and say "right I gotta build a team around Sand now", it would usually be "Right, time to build a team around SD + Acrobat Gliscor". Lately iv been using a bunch of new and exciting stuff that isn't seen much like Virizion, NP Mew, Empoleon, Heracross Kingdra (for research week) etc etc since a) its fun and there is nothing better than having an underused pokemon do well in a battle and b) your opponent doesn't indirectly prepare for them.

After selecting the thing I want to build around, I look at its typing, and what counters it. Take an old team of mine when I looked at Virizion and reckoned that a Heatran would hammer down some steel types that hindered Virizion, while Virizion handles Rotom W and turns it into set up fodder. I usually go for 2 "teammates" then try and find one more pokemon that works well with my 3 pokemon core. The final 2 slots are usually geared toward threats to my team that I could see, as well as bearing in mind what those final 2 slot do for the team.

Lately, im a big fan of luring or overloading on certain pokemon or hybrid sweepers which just make the game more fun, as well as putting your opponent into an inferior position which just gives me a certain sense of satisfaction, knowing that some part of your team building went off without a hitch

 

[Superpowerdude]

also something i forgot to add probally the most important part of team building for me would be testing out my team. because they always look good in my eyes untill i test them.