4th Generation Team - Help Needed

[Velimere]

Hello everyone,

So, this is my first really competitive team, since I first found out about the importance of EV training. I am trying to find a balanced team, a strong one, one that can beat some nice competitive teams my friends own. I'll just post it, and thank you guys in advance for any help. Don't be afraid to suggest changes - I recognize I'm kind of a newbie in what concerns competitive gaming.
Note: I believe I am really bad at choosing hold items.

Swampert @ Leftovers

Ability - Torrent
EVs - 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 SDef
Nature - Bold

Moves:

- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Waterfall
- Roar

Swampert is normally my lead Pokemon. It allows me to use Stealth Rock and it works like a Physical Wall. Waterfall is for STAB, Roar allows me some Stealth Rock abuse and Earthquake is for coverage.

Garchomp @ Life Orb

I know Garchomp is supposed to be Ubber; however, he is allowed and fits the team and the purpose. If he wasn't, I would probably replace it with Dragonite.

Ability - Sand Veil
EVs - 252 Atk, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Nature - Jolly

Moves:

- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Swords Dance
- Fire Fang

I chose Jolly because it allows me to outrun some other potencial Speed threats, and I find that more useful than the Adamant Atk Bonus. Earthquake gives me coverage, Dragon Claw is pretty obvious as the damage dealing move of choice; I chose Swords Dance over Dragon Dance because when I successfully perform it, Garchomp's atk becomes ridiculously high, allowing him to completely sweep enemy teams; Fire Fang gives me coverage and uses the high Atk stat.

Togekiss @ Leftovers (Honestly, no better idea)

Ability - Serene Grace
EVs - 252 SpAtk, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Nature: Modest

Moves:

- Aura Sphere
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Thunder Wave

Thunder Wave allows me to cripple some enemy pokemons, Roost is just annoying to fight against and very useful in certain situations, Aura Sphere is a great damage-dealer and Air Slash gives me type Coverage. I believe the problems with my team to start here, but you'll judge.

Starmie @ Leftovers (again, no better idea)

Ability - Natural Cure
EVs - 252 SpAtk, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Nature - Timid

Moves:

- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic

Starmie is a pretty nice Special Sweeper and has pretty good moves, giving me some coverage and dealing good damage.

Gengar @ Life Orb

Ability - Levitate
EVs - 252 Sp Atk, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Nature - Mild

Moves:

- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Substitute

Gengar is my main Sp. sweeper, it's really fast and deals huge amounts of damage. It can handle Substitute and has nice moves.

Breloom @ Leftovers (ideas=0)

Ability - Effect Spore
EVs - 252 Atk, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Nature - Jolly

Moves:

- Spore
- Substitute
- Seed Bomb
- Focus Punch

Breloom seems pretty nice to me, he is also really fast and cripples some stronger pokemons with Spore, allowing him to perform some huge damage-dealing Focus Punches. He also brings Seed Bomb to the team, giving me Grass

I'm completely aware this isn't a very good team; that's why I'm asking for help. I want to try and understand what is missing, because this team actually feels like a bunch of strong Pokemon that don't really function together. Maybe I'm missing some more Walls, maybe a Cleric? Again, this is my first try at creating a decent team, so go easy on me: I know the team has problems, I'm just not fully aware of what those problems are and what are the alternatives

Best regards,
Velimere

 

[floatzel98]

You could try Expert Belt on Starmie as the item so you don't have so many Leftovers. I think Leftovers would be a better item on gengar so he can recover off Sub damage. For Breloom your better off getting his poison heal ability and using a toxic orb as the item. You have a bit of an ice weakness. everything else looks pretty good.

 

[Velimere]

Thank you for your help, I'll try the changes you suggested.

 

[mr.magiu5]

why not try dragon rush instead of dragon claw? also fitting the above post for not having too many leftovers, just use black sludge on gengar or focus sash him.
if you're interested i'll leave you how mine is

Gengar @focus sash
nature: Modest
EVs: 252 sp.atk/252 spd/4 sp.def

Moves:
-Shadow Ball
-Focus Blast
-Hypnosis
-Thunderbolt

 

[Bigheaded]

just take the exact breloom off of smogon: http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/breloom
so make sure you have poison heal, being immune to status even without substitute rocks. healing 1/8th of hp is also ridiculous, effect spore is pretty average.

any reason you're taking garchomp over salamance? i presume it's something to do with no rapid spin on your team.

I don't really see what the togekiss is doing there other than being annoying, have you had much success with it?
You also have no walls and no way of disrupting weather effects.
Tyranitar is definitely an option with pretty incredible defenses, it's weakness to fighting is covered easily by your team. read up on him on smogon. Also produces sandstorms which garchomp will love, swampert is cool in and the rest will "survive" in, you will probably find it useful versus sunny day should you find it, rain dance is still a bit of a bummer though.
My other thoughts were Scizor/metagross.

My options were presuming you didn't really want a wall or a rapid spinner. I personally have huge trouble getting the chance to rapid spin anyway. I'd probably say forretress if you wished to give a spinner a try, i've always found it pretty crap on starmie.

Starmie defo shouldnt have leftovers imo, choice specs/wise specs/life orb even mystic water are generally more effective, as starmie's "rarely" take small amounts of damage which it can heal up. Can be useful in tandem with recover but that's about it.


lol @ suggestion of dragon rush, why on earth would you want to lower accuracy by 25%? dragon claw boosted by swords dance is way more effective.
There's only 2 choices, outrage or dragon claw, seeing he has fire punch to deal with steel's, he'll be fine as is.

 

[Velimere]

Yeah, Tyranitar makes sense. And i've always wanted a Scizor I'll try some stuff out. The Togekiss is just another Sweeper - it's not a game changer, but it's useful most of the times.
And yup, I don't have Rapid Spin and don't plan to: when I did, I never used it

 

[Bigheaded]

Yeah, Tyranitar makes sense. And i've always wanted a Scizor I'll try some stuff out. The Togekiss is just another Sweeper - it's not a game changer, but it's useful most of the times.
And yup, I don't have Rapid Spin and don't plan to: when I did, I never used it

i agree on the rapid spin, really hard to use unless you really really really know what you're doing.

are you leaving the breloom as is? or just not updating first post?

Also, are you aware of pokemon online? it's a great place to try out your teams. Hugely recommended.

try out the life orb on starmie, as seeing you have no rapid spin it's likely to be knocked around by entry hazards anyway, so losing more health isn't really an issue. only problem with it would be very very fast pokemon and priority moves which may ohko it after collecting some damage.

 

[Velimere]

I'll try it out. Just a bit lazy to update 1st post And yeah, I do know Pokemon Online. I've began training my ingame Tyranitar now, he works pretty well with the team.

 

[Ktulu193]

Why not put some wise glasses on your Starmie and change your Breloom to a Poison Healer @ Toxic Orb? I run my jolly Breloom with Facade, Mach Punch, Seed Bomb and Stone Edge (against Flying and Ice types). Poison Heal also allows you to safely switch into Toxic Spikes, because you're either already poisoned, or because its benificial. As for Gengar, Modest or Timid natures rule with your set. Hope this helps!