Reborn League newbie makes a team

[blazenx56]

So im going to start of by saying i have no experince besides showdown and destroying my friends with a golduck

(arceus bows down to the almighty golduck)

Im trying to race to see if I can beat my friend who I believe has beat the first gym any advice is helpful

Espeon(Majestic)

Sweep set

Evs: 252 SPA 252 SP 4 DEF

Item:Expert belt

Ability: Magic bounce

Moves: Shadow ball

Dazzling gleam

Psychic

Toxic/ Calm mind

Perfect type coverage and toxic for bulky pokemon or calm mind for boosting

Lanturn(Fishy)

Bulky set

Evs: 252 HP 252 SPD 4 SPA

Item: Air balloon

Ability: Volt absorb

Moves: Ion deluge(changes normal type moves into electric type moves has +1 priority)

Volt switch

Surf

Ice beam

One weakness which it covers very good pokemon and solid 124 Hp stat you have to hit me before you bring out my other weakness giving me a free turn

Absol(Lady Luck)

Sweeper set

Evs: 252 ATT 252 SP 4 DEF

Item: Scope lens

Ability: Super luck

Moves: Perish song

Night slash

Psycho cut

Iron head

Chandelure(Hit meh)

Stall set

Evs: 252 HP 252 SPA 4 SPD

Item: Bright powder/leftovers/focus sash

Ability: Inflitrator

Moves: Minimize

Heat wave

Substitute/pain split

Shadow ball

Kecleon(colorful)

Type switch set

Evs: 252 ATT 252 SPD 4 DEF

Item: Normal gem(yes it is in 6th gen)

Ability: Protean

Moves: sucker punch

Shadow sneak

Fake out

Ancient power

This is sort of a based on a hunch all i need to know is if protean change your pokemon type if the move fails

if not any recommended pokemon

Lickitung(Lick erytin)

Anti weather set

Evs: 252 HP 146 SPD 146 DEF 4 SPA

Item: Evolite

Ability: Cloud nine

Moves: Protect

Toxic

Return

Knock off

[Fezzdog]

Well first off, just going to say hi o/

And second, I love your team lol

Okay, serious time.

Stall teams generally don't work well in League considering most of them are Triples and most of them end in less than 5 turns. Minimize is heavily based on RNG, which, whilst not a bad thing, honestly isn't the greatest when Set-up sweepers are kind of pooped on in Triples already. When you're not getting reliable stats for a sweep, I really think that moveslot could be used for something better like Energy Ball or Hidden Power Fighting (a type which your team doesn't have cover at all).

I don't think Ion Deluge is the greatest idea considering leaders can look at your team and I doubt any of them run many normal moves anyways with the exception of Fake Out and Extremespeed (which has +3 and +2 priority respectively anyways). I'd suggest getting rid of it and just putting Thunderbolt there instead. A potential recommendation is that you could run Blizzard over Ice Beam. It hits multiples in Triples, but is less accurate so there's that to consider.

I can also see Earthquake being a problem for your team. I'd possibly suggest running Dual Screens on Espeon to make all of your pokemon individually a bit bulkier, but to be honest, I think he's the strongest pokemon in this team offensively so I'd just keep Espeon as he is for now. Maybe Protect > Toxic in case of emergencies.

Kecleon is an interesting choice. Sorry, but idk if Protean works if the move fails. If you're dead set on running him, then I'd stick Rock Slide on it over Ancientpower. Ancientpower just adds more RNG on top of your team, Rock Slide is more consistent and even nets you a possible flinch on multiple pokemon in Triples. If you're iffy on running him, I'd potentially run Serperior here as a counter to Earthquake and Rock Slide, which I feel like your team has problems against. Serperior gets Contrary Leaf Storm as a potential sweeper and also gets a relatively fast (at 113 base speed) Dual Screens which I feel like your team could really do well with. That does mean doing away with Fake Out (and any kind of priority on your team as far as I can see, which might be a problem), but I think it's worth it imo. If you'd rather keep Sucker Punch and Fake Out, Hitmontop also gives you those two options as well as Intimidate to also weaken Earthquake and Rock Slide. He would also give you Fighting coverage which your team lacks.

I feel like Superpower > Perish Song on Absol is a better idea considering that Triples matches end very quickly and you have no Fighting type coverage so far. If you're running Hitmontop or running HP Fight on Chandelure like I've already suggested then Perish Song would probably be better in that case. If you're ditching Kecleon, then run Sucker Punch > Night Slash just for the priority it brings imo. I can appreciate that it's a Critsol, but I feel like it's really needed when your team excepting Espeon has some very mediocre speed unless you decide to scarf Chandelure or Absol.

I like Lickitung. He's good. Return and Knock Off are solid and he has pretty sexy bulk until he gets Knocked Off, which I doubt any of the leaders running weather will have.

tl;dr

Energy Ball/HP Fighting on Chandelure > Minimize

Get rid of Ion Deluge and run something else, probably just Thunderbolt

Maybe Blizzard > Ice Beam on Lanturn (that's just down to preference though)

Maybe Protect >Toxic on Espeon(another preference thing though)

idk if Protean changes if move fails

Rock Slide > Ancientpower on Kecleon

Maybe replace Kecleon with Serperior or Hitmontop

Maybe Superpower > Perish Song on Absol if you're not running HP Fight or a Hitmontop

Maybe Sucker Punch > Night Slash on Absol if you're not running Kecleon for priority anymore

[Sheep]

Fezz's suggestions all seem pretty solid to me. In particular serperior or hitmontop seem like they could help. I've just got one thing to add and that is run play rough on your absol. It's literally the best coverage move it can get. Pretty sure (just in terms of monotypes) it's perfect two move coverage. Maybe sucker punch, play rough, psycho cut, and iron head?

[FraRPetO]

Nice Kecleon, I agree with Fezzdog, you should use Rock Slide instead of Ancient Power on it

(I almost used Kecleon for X-League, I should've just used it for regular.. =( )

[blazenx56]

Thanks for the advice but could you help me with making a hitmontop set(don't point me to smogon their outdated)

Some changes I made:

Ion deluge was replaced with dazzling gleam

Kecleon replaced with hitmonttop

I replaced night slash and perish song for knock off and play rough on absol

Thinking of changing chandalure for another pokemon(maybe infernape or delphox)

[Fezzdog]

Fake Out, Sucker Punch, Close Combat/High Jump Kick and Wide Guard/Protect/Toxic/Rock Slide/Earthquake on Hitmontop. Change your EVs and items accordingly to whatever leader you're challenging as always.

Chandelure is good, I don't see why you'd want Infernape when you have Hitmontop now. You already have Espeon for Psychic coverage so idk why you're wanting Delphox either unless you want Magician for some odd reason, which is redundant when both of them get either Switcheroo or Trick. Chandelure also gives you STAB Shadow Ball which is great for neutral type coverage.

EDIT: Also just realised you don't have much for fairies, so Iron Head somewhere would be nice, but not completely necessary.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Fezzdog

[blazenx56]

Its their high stats delphox has very good SP stats and infernape is very diverce

i tested it out delphox ohko'd everyone and has a very unique typing and infernape took down everyone but delphox

Absol has iron head

Edited April 18, 2014 by blazenx56

[Fezzdog]

I don't think Absol having Iron Head is the greatest idea when it has a Fairy weakness. It's not really a big deal, I was just saying was all.

Chandelure has the highest base Special Attack out of the three at 145, but is the slowest at 80 base Speed. His evolution line is also the only one with Fire/Ghost STAB, which is pretty significant when he's also the one with the highest non-Legendary, non-Mega Special Attack.

Infernape can go mixed with 104 in both offensive stats, and is the fastest. He's a lot more versatile for sure when it has access to various forms of priority and the Elemental punches. My qualms with him is that you already have Hitmontop as a fighting-type. If you had run Serperior instead then I'd have less of a problem, but meh.

Delphox isn't as fast as Infernape and has 114 Special Attack, but honestly, I don't feel like he's a good fit in your team. Espeon gives you fast Psychic type coverage already. If anything, I'd replace Espeon with Delphox if you really want to run him, but that'd give you even more of a Ground and Rock weakness which you really don't want.

If you really don't like Chandelure then other Fire-type suggestions I can make are Talonflame and Arcanine. Being part-flying removes his Ground weakness and also gives you priority in Gale Wings Brave Bird. Arcanine has a gigantic movepool, access to Intimidate and Flash Fire and priority in the form of ExtremeSpeed.

Ultimately, it's up to you what you want to run in the team, but Chandelure has a definite immediate power advantage over the rest (145 > 114 > 104), whilst Infernape and Arcanine have a lot more options available to you. Talonflame is just nice to have, he wrecks a lot of the lower-down leaders because of that priority BB.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Fezzdog