Advice for an old, returning player?

[Tryptomine]

With the impending release of DP, and many of my friends looking forward to playing against each other on Wi-Fi, I've begun looking at possible team combinations. First, since its been years since I've really played the Pokemon games, I'd just ask to clarify what constitutes as a "Competitive/Online Team." Is it only a team that doesn't include Legendaries? To that end, I'm having trouble determining whether certain DP Pokemon would be considered Legendary (and therefor unusuable) or not, namely Spiritomb?

Unfortunately, although I've been trying to research the newer Pokemon and moves, I'm rather unfamiliar with any of the newer strategies, so any and all advice is welcome. Also, I've been unable to find any comprehensive information discussing the more advanced variables, such as their temperment and items held, any information or links concerning this would be much appreciated. (I've always been a more direct-damage type of player, so I'm not entirely familiar how valuable non-damaging moves can be.)

With that long-winded bit out of the way, here is a very tenative first team I put together, although there are still many unknown variables with them. (One last note, I have a habit of always making my teams only using the newest generation of Pokemon, though that's not really a hard rule, just something I've always liked to do.)

Vespiquen Bug/Fly
Destiny Bond
Attack Command
Aerial Ace?
Restore Command

Abomasnow Ice/Grass
Blizzard
Energy Ball?/Wood Hammer?
Giga Drain?
Ingrain?/Ice Pebble?/Sheer Cold?

Empoleon Water/Steel
MetalClaw?/SteelWings?
Hydro Pump?
DrillPeck?
Tide?

Gallade Psyc/Fight
Psycho Cutter
Protect
Focus Punch?
In Fight?

Garchomp Dragon/Ground
Sandstorm
Dragon Dive
Earthquake
Flamethrower

Mismagius Ghost
Shadow Ball
Perish Song
Mean Look
Confuse Ray?/Destiny Bond?/Pain Spilt?

Apologies for the rather noob post, but I haven't been able to find much regarding more advanced game concepts, and I figured here would be the best place to start. Many thanks for any and all help, advice and suggestions.

 

[mHMM]

Abomasnow @ Choice Glasses
Mild Nature (+SAtk, -Def)
Trait: Snow Storm
- Blizzard
- Grass Rope
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Focus Punch

give AbomaSpire some love.

also, Sandstorm on Garchomp is a bad idea. It will end up just being annoying for the rest of your team. Get rid of that along with dragon dive and flamethrower, add dragon claw, stone edge, and fire blast, and make him a choice bander.

 

[Inazuma]

Garchomp@Life Orb
Jolly Nature
-Fire Blast
-Dragon Claw
-EQ
-Swords Dance

 

[mHMM]

^ that set works too, but CBchomp can pack a mightier wallop. whatever, though.

 

[Tryptomine]

Abomasnow: Is Grass Rope really that powerful? The descriptions I read on it were very ambiguous and it was very hard to judge. Same with Hidden Power, its been forever and I can't remember or find the formula to determine this property, how will I be sure its Electric?

Garchomp: The Garchomp's trait isn't enough to make Sandstorm worth it? Little surprised. Suggestions look very good though, thank you.

 

[mHMM]

That Abomasnow set is very good. Grass Rope does about 120 damage on heavier foes (Tyranitar, Rhyperior, Snorlax, Gyarados, exc.) but only about 20 on lighter ones (Azelf, Mespirit, Uxie, Manaphy, exc.).

The equation for Hidden Power can be found here:
http://www.serebii.net/games/hidden-power.shtml

As for Chomp, Evasiveness is always good but at the cost of hurting your own team when you switch and taking up a slot, it's not worth it.

 

[ludicolo_kid]

HP Electric would be really hard to get ingame though. .

 

[Gabinho]

Vespiquen is not a good Pokemon. If you want a bug-type try Heracross, or even Scyther. AS Cross seems a good starter for me.

;395;Enpoleon@ Leftovers/Beautiful Skin
Modest Nature
Not sure about EVs

Surf
Grass Rope
Rest
Ice Beam/Sleep Talk

;475;Gallade@ Leftovers/Life Orb
Adamant Nature
Max Atk and a lot of speed

Sword Dance
In Fight
Psycho Cutter/Fire Punch/ Thunder Punch/Stone Edge
Psycho Cutter/Fire Punch/ Thuder Punch/Stone Edge

;429;Mismagius
Timid Nature
334 Speed, Max Sp.Atk, leftovers on Defense.

Calm Mind
Will-o-Wisp/Hypnosis
Shadow Ball/Thuderbolt/ Energy Ball
Shadow Ball/Thuderbolt/ Energy Ball

 

[Tryptomine]

Thanks for the advice, any 'arguements' I make against suggestions are just me trying to understand the reasoning behind it, so I can make better decisions by myself later.

Is Grass Ropes high heavy damage really worth it when it does so little against the lights? And why put it on Empoleon also/. (The same TM move on 2 Pokemon, thats a pain. ><; )

Also, looking at Mismagius' page, it says it can't learn Energy Ball or Hypnosis.

As for replacing Vespiquen, I'm really unsure what to replace it with (I'd really like to use another 4th generation Pokemon, if possible), maybe a Flying, Fire, or Electric type?

 

[Hippo]

Abomasnow: Is Grass Rope really that powerful? The descriptions I read on it were very ambiguous and it was very hard to judge. Same with Hidden Power, its been forever and I can't remember or find the formula to determine this property, how will I be sure its Electric?

Garchomp: The Garchomp's trait isn't enough to make Sandstorm worth it? Little surprised. Suggestions look very good though, thank you.

Don't use HP. Its just too hard to get it, and flat out not worth it in game.

Grass Rope is good, it can really hurt some heavier guys, but its bad against the weak, so its really down to what your team is weak against. If bulky waters or TTar gives you problems, go for rope IMO, if its something lightweight that causes problems, then go for something else.

Sandstorm isn't worth it. You'll be hurting your other pokes aswell, unless you make a team around it, but thats not what we're going for =P

Something is legendary if theres only one, so just remember that. (I don't think there are exceptions?) Including legendaries is up to you. I'm making a team and I don't plan on using legendaries, so I hope to fight battles without legendaries on the other team.

As for a better bug 4th gen poke, you could try Yanmega, the only other option really.
He has speed boost, so he can be fairly decent.
4J has a good one around here somewhere, take a look for that one and it might fit in your team. (its usually called 4Jfly)

 

[Tryptomine]

Hmm...

"Yanmega @ Leftovers ** 4JFly
Trait: Speed Boost
Evs: 140 HP/ 152 Spd/ 216 Satk
Modest (+Satk, -Atk)
- Bug Upheaval
- Hidden Power [Ice/Fire] / Shadow Ball
- Hypnosis
- Protect"

Looks very interesting, I may use it, but once again according to Yanmega's Pokedex page here on serebii, it can't learn Hypnosis. Am I missing something?

 

[spareux]

Hmm...

"Yanmega @ Leftovers ** 4JFly
Trait: Speed Boost
Evs: 140 HP/ 152 Spd/ 216 Satk
Modest (+Satk, -Atk)
- Bug Upheaval
- Hidden Power [Ice/Fire] / Shadow Ball
- Hypnosis
- Protect"

Looks very interesting, I may use it, but once again according to Yanmega's Pokedex page here on serebii, it can't learn Hypnosis. Am I missing something?

Yanma learns Hypnosis.
So Yanmega can get it.

Also if you use 4jfly use Air Slash.

 

[Tryptomine]

I see, thanks. And Air slash in place of what? Bug Upheaval?

So, taking the revisions and suggestions into account...

Yanmega @ Leftovers ** 4JFly
Trait: Speed Boost
Evs: 140 HP/ 152 Spd/ 216 Satk
Modest (+Satk, -Atk)
- Bug Upheaval/Air Slash?
- Shadow Ball/Air Slash?
- Hypnosis
- Protect

Abomasnow @ Choice Glasses
Mild Nature (+SAtk, -Def)
Trait: Snow Storm
- Blizzard
- Grass Rope?
- ?
- Focus Punch

Empoleon@ Beautiful Skin?
Modest Nature
Not sure about EVs
-Surf
-Grass Rope?
-Rest
-Ice Beam/Sleep Talk?

Gallade@ Life Orb?
Adamant Nature
Max Atk and a lot of speed
-Sword Dance
-In Fight
-Psycho Cutter
-Thuder Punch

Mismagius @ ?
Timid Nature
334 Speed, Max Sp.Atk
-Calm Mind
-Will-o-Wisp
-Shadow Ball
-Thuderbolt?

Garchomp @ Choice Band
Jolly Nature
-Fire Blast
-Dragon Claw
-Stone Edge
-Swords Dance?

How is that looking?

 

[.Vaati.]

Don't use Garchomp with Swords Dance @ Choice Band. Life Orb instead of Choice Band and Earthquake over Stone Edge.

If you're going to use Gallade, I'd try something like Hynosis + Focus Punch. Gallade isn't a great attacker and I feel it's better to take advantage of it's move likes Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave.

I don't see the point of using Choice Glasses with Focus Punch on Abomasnow.

Sleep Talk over Ice Beam on Empoleon. Leftovers over Beautiful Skin unless Jibacoil becomes popular.

 

[Tryptomine]

Oops, good point, I put Stone Edge over Earthquake because I was thinking Quake was a SA type attack.

What are Choice Glasses anyways? I tried looking it up on the list of hold items, but didn't see anything named that, only Choice Band.

 

[Atoyont]

Choice Glasses are a new Item in Diamond and Pearl which acts as a Special Choice Band. They are also known as Adherence Glasses (the direct Japanese translation).

Firstly, you might want to learn about natures. As a general rule, natures give a 1.1 boost to one stat and a .9 degrade to another. No nature affects HP.
-Lonely (+Atk, -Def)
-Adamant (+Atk, -SpcAtk)
-Naughty (+Atk, -SpcDef)
-Brave (+Atk, -Spd)
-Bold (+Def, -Atk)
-Impish (+Def, -SpcAtk)
-Lax (+Def,-SpcDef)
-Relaxed (+Def, -Spd)
-Modest (+SpcAtk, -Atk)
-Mild (+SpcAtk, -Def)
-Rash (+SpcAtk, -SpcDef)
-Quiet (+SpcAtk, -Spd)
-Calm (+SpcDef, -Atk)
-Gentle (+SpcDef, -Def)
-Careful (+SpcDef, -SpcAtk)
-Sassy (+SpcDef, -Spd)
-Timid (+Spd, -Atk)
-Hasty (+Spd, -Def)
-Jolly (+Spd, -SpcAtk)
-Naive (+Spd, -SpcDef)

Next, Hold Items. Typically, the Item Clause is not in affect for competitive online battles- the most common Item is Leftovers, which recovers 1/16 of the Holder's total HP per turn.

Following, Effort Values, or EVs. There is a good bit on them in the RSE FAQs section of the forum. Individual Values, or IVs, are also important.

If you want to become competitive, try checking out Smogon.com. They are the masters of competitive battling. Don't post immediately; wait a little bit.

Still, I'm glad that you are trying hard to become part of the group, and you seem intelligent- always a plus on these forums.

And to answer your initial question, legendaries can be used on a competitive team.

 

[Gabinho]

You can use legendary but not ubers, D/P ubers are Dialga, Palkia and Darkria, plus everything that was Uber on Adv Gen. Check a tier before choosing one ok?

Sorry for suggesting Hypnosis to Mismagius, it was my mistake. Go with Will-o-Wisp.

For Abomasnow's last slot, try Leech Seed or Substitute, since the HP is too difficult to get InGame. Leech Seed is always annoying, specially when you have STABed Blizzard to destroy any Grass type, and Substitute is a cool option to let you protect to use Focus Punch, or try to sweep, since Abomasnow is really slow. Grasswhistle is a bald option, tough if you put something to sleep you got an extra FP/Blizzard, which is always handy.

Give Mismagius Leftovers, Empoleon Beautiful Skin and use Grass Rope. Ice Beam over Sleep Talk is just a personal choice, some people say that Ice Beam isn't worthy since most of dragons will KO you with Earthquake, which is true, tough hitting some of these Dragon types with Ice Beam on the switch is priceless for me.

 

[aragornbird]

If you want to become competitive, try checking out Smogon.com. They are the masters of competitive battling. Don't post immediately; wait a little bit.

Going along with that statement, it would really benefit you to read THIS important announcement on what to take into consideration when making a proper team for competitive battles.

Anyways, I'm also working on an "Into to D/P competitive battling" type guide that I may post sometime after the English D/P gets released and get it stickied on this board so that newbies will have something to start from.

On the topic of your team, I would seriously recommend NOT using Abomasnow since it doesn't help your team at all and instead, it actually harms it by bringing in Hail (which none of your other team members resist). Besides that fact, it's slow and has a ton of weaknesses and it's only real standout move is Ice Pebble, which Mamoswine pulls off way better.

Furthermore, your team is extremely frail with nothing that can really switch in on a Heracross or any other heavy-hitting sweeper, so your team would be more solid if you removed some of your less reliable Pokemon (Abomasnow mainly, also Yanmega's Stealth Rock weakness makes it a liability).

 

[Tryptomine]

Hmm... Maybe I should try a complete overhaul of the tam make-up, so if thats any better...

Infernape
Bronzong
Electivire/Luxray?
Gastrodon?/Rypherior?
Weavile
Togekiss?

Just a thought for the moment, but wondering if maybe a make up more like this would be preferable...

 

[Tryptomine]

After reading as much as I could find on the mechanics and some of the Smogon advice, I put this together. Still relatively early, but hows it look?

Empoleon @ Leftovers?
Modest
EV?
-Surf
-Grass Rope
-Rest
-Sleep Talk

Gallade @ Life Orb?
Adamant
EV Atk and Speed
-Psycho Cutter
-Thunder Punch?/Hypnosis?
-In Fight
-Sword Dance

Luxray @ Life Orb?
Adamant?
EV ATK & Speed
-Spark
-Ice Fang
-Roar
-Crunch

Rypherior @ Leftovers?
?
ev ATK & DEF?
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge?/Rock Cannon?/Rock Slide?
-Thunder Fang?/Fire Fang?/Snow Slide?
-Roar?/Protect?/Swords Dance?/Substitue?

Mismagius
Modest
ev SPATK &
-Shadow Ball
-Will-o-Wisp
-Calm Mind?/Confuse Ray?/Destiny Bond?
-Calm Mind?/Confuse Ray?/Destiny Bond?

Togekiss
Modest
ev
-Air Slash
-Fire Blast?/Shadow Ball?/Water Pulse?/Pulse Bomb?
-Fire Blast?/Shadow Ball?/Water Pulse?/Pulse Bomb?
-Scheme