Some advice needed... :P

[DarkRaine]

So, last night I had made my reborn team, and I was wondering if you guys could give me some extra pointers on my team and whether I should take out any pokemon or change some moves. Thanks in advance! (I did get a few tips and pointers, so hopefully it's not too terrible, but I did kinda just throw this all together, so XD)

Edited March 16, 2014 by DarkRaine

[Fezzdog]

I think I'm going to sound really horribly mean here and I'm sorry ;A;

Okay, let's start from the top. Ninetales I feel has a decent moveset the way it is. Maybe try Heat Wave > Fire Blast for the spread in Doubles/Triples. Toxic is fine I feel, but there are also other options to consider like Protect, Sunny Day (because other Pokemon like Kyogre/Politoed/Tyranitar might change the weather that Drought brings) or Nasty Plot to boost yourself up and sweep teams.

I don't have much experience with Ampharos (except Mega Ampharos, but that's not allowed in League). With a mediocre 75 Attack stat, I'd say a primarily Physical set isn't a good idea. Normally in competitive, a Mixed set might work just because it's a gimmick, but because Leaders can see your trainer card from the start, the surprise factor won't be there. It has a pretty nice Special Attack stat of 115, so I'd either go Mixed or Special. Maybe try Hidden Power Fire or Ice > Fire Punch, Thunderbolt or Discharge > Shock Wave and Focus Blast > Brick Break. I'd say Focus Blast > Brick Break is up to you though considering that Brick Break's ability to break Light Screen and Reflect is pretty nice. Not sure what I'd pick over Outrage. It does get Dragon Pulse, but it has mediocre Base Power when normal Ampharos isn't half-Dragon.

Even so, I feel like Ampharos is outperformed by other Pokemon because it doesn't really have much of a niche. The only niche I can think of that Ampharos might provide is it has low speed so it works great versus Trick Room which makes slower Pokemon go first and that in itself might make it very useful. Otherwise, I feel like there are other options like any of the Rotom formes (who also get Levitate and so are immune to Ground-type moves which is pretty awesome) or Magnezone/Magneton.

Staraptor has a base 120 Attack stat compared to a base 50 Special Attack stat. Special moves like Twister/Hyper Beam will do nowhere as much damage as their Physical counterparts, especially considering that Twister is a 40 Base Power Special attack. 2-turn charging attacks like Sky Attack and Hyper Beam are generally frowned upon because 2 attacks in 2 turns will normally do more damage than 1, especially when you consider than an opponent can switch into another Pokemon to take the hit better. I'd recommend Brave Bird > Sky Attack and Double-Edge/Return > Hyper Beam. One of Staraptor's niches is that it's the only Flying type to learn Close Combat (an 120 BP Fighting-type move), so I'd recommend that over Twister.

Staraptor's poor 85/70/50 defenses means it likely won't survive 2 hits before it dies, so Rest is completely useless. Instead I'd recommend either U-turn or Quick Attack. U-turn lets you switch to a different Pokemon after it hits, so this means that you can switch to a Pokemon that can better take hits like Tyranitar or Ampharos. Quick Attack has +1 priority, meaning it can take out weakened foes without too much hassle because it normally always goes first.

Tyranitar is strong in any way it wants to go. He has very high stats, which are even boosted further by the sandstorm that it brings in with Sand Stream. I feel like Tyranitar will do very well by itself (as long as you don't let it die to a 4x weak Fighting move of course). I'd recommend Crunch over Blizzard. Crunch because its Base Power gets boosted due to STAB by Tyranitar's Dark-typing and because Blizzard only hits 50% of the time when sandstorm is on the field. Rock Slide might also be a better option > Stone Edge because Rock Slide hits multiple enemies in a Doubles/Triples battle, whilst Stone Edge does not (and because Stone Edge is also less accurate, but meh). Fire Blast > Flamethrower as well just because it does more damage, but that's preference really. Flamethrower is 100% accurate, whilst Fire Blast is at 85 accuracy.

Dewgong in a competitive setting has okayish stats but nothing really that isn't outperformed by other pokemon. Lapras probably does what you're trying to achieve better. If you really want to carry on using Dewgong (I know it's cute :3) then I'd consider Ice Beam/Blizzard > Frost Breath. Blizzard is probably not the best idea though when you have a Tyranitar's sandstorm lowering its accuracy to 50 though. Giga Impact is another 2-turn charge move so I'd get rid of that completely. The only thing that Dewgong gets that sets it apart from other Water/Ice types is Encore so I'd maybe consider that or maybe try Toxic/Protect on it. If you'd rather have a damage source though, Hidden Power Grass/Electric/Ground are all good coverage. Rest is a little less redundant on Dewgong because it has arguably better defensive typing than Staraptor and Dewgong definitely has a better Special Defense, so I'd keep it on there.

If you're willing, I'd suggest changing Dewgong to Lapras or Rotom-W. Lapras has better defensive stats of 130/80/95 (compared to Dewgong's 90/80/95) and does most of Dewgong's jobs admirably (except Encore and the Thick Fat ability which Lapras doesn't get) and even gets Freeze Dry which is an Ice-type move which also super-effective to Water-types too. If you want to try Lapras I'd probably run the exact same set I suggested above except running Thunderbolt > Encore and maybe try running Freeze Dry over Ice Beam, but that's up to people's preference, Freeze Dry is situational and does less damage than Ice Beam against non-Water types. Rotom-W is a pretty different pokemon. Rotom-W doesn't get any Ice-type moves excepting the Hidden Power Ice, but it gets Volt Switch which is basically an Electric-type Special Attacking U-turn, so you can maintain switch advantage. It has defensive stats of 50/107/107 which is arguably worse than Dewgong's and Lapras' stats but it also gets Levitate, giving it an immunity to Ground-type moves and it also doesn't have a weakness to Rock which 3 of your team already have.

Absol gets an immense 130 base Attack stat compared to a 75 base Special Attack stat. A Mixed set is once again possible though just as with Ampharos. I'd consider Sucker Punch and Night Slash > Dark Pulse and Future Sight. Shadow Ball is decent enough but I feel like it's redundant when you already have Dark-type coverage to hit everything Ghost would. I'd maybe consider Fire Blast or Superpower here.

[DarkRaine]

Holy crap O.O that's extremely helpful xD thank you so so so much fezz! I shall rebuild my team after a few anime episodes :3

I updated it, and I also had a ton of help from wendal when I was putting this together, so hopefully this turns out better. Thanks again for all the advice!

Edited March 16, 2014 by DarkRaine