Battle Stadium New to Competitive - Tried Building my Own Team

[JtTheLadiesMan]

I have very little competitive battling experience, and I just beat the story mode for SwSh. I am hoping to start competitive 3v3 battles for series 7 on November 1st. I made a team of what I think will be the best pokemon in series 7, or will at least counter the best pokemon. I'm not sure if this team works well together, so I would appreciate feedback mostly on their compatibility and type coverage. I am familiar with these pokemon, and I think they are good, so I hope not to change my team too much. However, if one or two of the pokemon need to go, I understand. I am also open to new held items or movesets. I think my team is a little heavy on physical attackers, but that seems to be the meta.


Landorus-Therian (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Earthquake
- Fly
- Stone Edge
- Rock Polish

I chose Landorus-Therian because of his great attack and typing. I also like his intimidate ability. I hope for Landorus to be one of my main sweepers. I included rockpolish because his speed isn’t great. I’d also have the ability to dynamax and use fly as max airstream to get a speed boost.


Dragapult (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Dragon Darts
- Phantom Force
- Steel Wing
- Sucker Punch

Dragapult is already one of the best in the game, and I think he will get better as more dragon types are introduced. His speed is unmatched, and banded dragon darts has the capability to OHKO many of the other prevelant dragon types being introduced into the game. I use sucker punch to counter other dragapults.


Darmanitan-Galar (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Gorilla Tactics
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Icicle Crash
- Flare Blitz
- Earthquake
- U-turn

Darmantian is so good that he was banned in showdown. For some reason, his usage rate in SwSh isn’t very high. He can OHKO many threats, such as dragon types and Lando. He is not banned in SwSh yet, so for now, I plan to use him as counter to many of the top used pokemon.


Metagross @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch

I wasn’t sure about metagross on this team. I wanted a fairy counter, and he is a great physical attacker. I considered both metagross and scizor, but I figured metagross is a good dynamax option and good user of weakness policy. It also gives me a little more bulk than scizor would with his great defense and good HP.

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Surging Strikes
- Aqua Jet
- Close Combat
- Counter

Urshifu is another pokemon I was unsure about. I kind of just put him here because I know he’s meta. Although it’s gimmicky, I really like counter with focus sash. It’s a great way to put an end to dyanamaxers. Surging strikes is nice for its crits to avoid defensive buffs, and it also breaks sash. Hitting through protect is good too.


Clefable (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled

Clefable is my only true tank. I plan to switch it in to the dragon types that I will inevitably run into. I’m considering putting protect in place of thunderbolt. I hope to stall and get as many calm minds as I can to prepare to hit hard with moonblast. Fairy is pretty good offensive typing so I wouldn’t be worried about having only moonblast. Notice I really accounted for dragon types with this team. I am fairly confident that most team will have a dragon type as one of their attackers. I feel like I check dragon types very well, and even if they don’t use dragon types, my team is still good.

 

[marilli]

Your team has a few glaring problems. First, your Tapu Fini matchup is atrocious. If Fini gets a Calm Mind up on your switch to Clefable, you are barely floundering to stay alive, which in fact does not get access to Softboiled on cartridge rated battles. Moonlight has only 8 PP and you aren't able to punish them switching into a counter because a CM / recovery is necessary for your Clefable to not lose to the Fini that is threatening you immediately.

Secondly, your Celesteela matchup is also really bad. Half of your Pokemon get immediately forced out in a 1v1 because they can't touch it at all, and the other pokemon get hit super effectively by its basic STAB moves. You need a Celesteela answer.

And as i said in a VM previously, you should use SD on landorus-t, not rock polish. You're going to get Airstream boosts anyways for Speed, and SD allows you to actually break through physically defensive Pokemon, which is especially relevant as your team heavily leans physically.

There are other problems like how LO Cinderace matchup leaves much to be desired after SR is set. And the Metagross on the team. Steel resists fairy, yes, but actually look at the Fairy-types being used. Mimikyu hits you super effective, and Tapu Fini is faster and will beat you after you switch into a Calm Mind.

Here are my suggestions

1. Change Landorus-T to SD over Rock Polish

as explained above

2. Change Urshifu to Sash Cinderace with Gunk Shot. It lets you keep a Counter Sash user, but also gives Fire coverage for Celesteela. Also faster than it even at +1 Speed Airstream. Here is the set

Cinderace-Gmax @ Focus Sash
Ability: Libero
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pyro Ball
- Gunk Shot
- Counter
- High Jump Kick / Sucker Punch

Sucker Punch helps with opposing Dragapult, as your matchup goes down the bin after a single Airstream. But High Jump Kick hits P2, which also screws you over without Fighting-type coverage.

3. Clefable to Tapu Fini. CM / Moonblast / Surf / Taunt. It keeps you valuable Fire and Ice resist that comes with being a Water-type now you lost your Urshifu. speed investment and Taunt lets you beat opposing Tapu Fini, a problem for your team. Gunk shot Cinderace still can't switch into Fini so you need as few bad Fini matchups as possible to compensate.

4. Try Thunder Punch on Metagross which hits Celesteela and Fini.

Alternatively, I still think Fini matchup is still so bad so I would personally add a better check like Thundurus (Zapdos works too, but that may leave u a bit too open to Porygon2) somewhere on the team, probably over Darmanitan which is most expendable member of the team, but that may change too much of the team for your liking. Cheers.

 

[RoYce1991]

Heyjo Marilli :) I'm not the guy who did this post but I am also very bad at team-building :D that's why I copied it. I applied most of your changes and it works pretty good. It looks like this:

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Def / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Taunt
- Surf
- Moonblast

Metagross @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Thunder Punch
- Bullet Punch
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Fly

Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Focus Blast
- Sludge Wave

Dragapult @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Steel Wing
- Dragon Darts
- Phantom Force

Cinderace-Gmax @ Focus Sash
Ability: Libero
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sucker Punch
- High Jump Kick
- Counter
- Pyro Ball

Would u still change anything? Ive played 15 matches and I've noticed that I've never brought dragapult cause there was always a better pick in my opinion.
I hope u will answer again cheers

 

[Omastar68]

For the above, Cinderace is supposed to have Gunk Shot like marilli said. I'm not sure over what move though. Sludge Wave is a bit rare on Thund-T, maybe use Dark Pulse or Grass Knot.

One thing I use for Fini, though I checked and it's very uncommon, is Weakness Policy on Lando-T. Then it can Dynamax and 2hko w/ Airstream, also boosting its speed. I agree SD>Rock Polish, hopefully Airstream should give enough Speed. If you do this you can change Metagross to Expert Belt, which also hits Fini harder since Fini won't set off WP for Metagross. THat's then plenty of mons to deal w. Fini which was originally a problem for you.