First ever competitive team

[Smokin' weedle]

This is the first time i ever attempt to make a real competitive team. I have yet to decide the ev spread, but aside from that it should be complete.

Skarmory
Item: salac berry
Ability: sturdy
Nature: carefull
- spikes
- roar
- tail wind
- toxic

skarmory always comes in first. Setting up spikes and trhowing toxic around is it's main goal. Depending on how much hp he has left, i can swap trough the enemy team with roar. That's always fun. When really low on hp i can set up a tailwind to help my lower speed sweepers.

Escavalier
Item: occa berry
Ability: overcoat
Nature: brave
- slash
- x-scissor
- poisen jab
- iron head

I like Escavalier becouse he has a decent bulk. But he's not to low on attack either. Having powerfull STAB moves in x-scissor and iron head, and he has poisen jab for a poisen effects. It's a shame he can't stand any hit from a fire types.

Hitmonchan
Item: focus sash
Ability: iron fist
Nature: relaxed
- thunder punch
- fire punch
- ice punch
- close combat

Another great attacker. With a decent speed and good power, boosted by iron fist he can sweep decently. I never expect him to stay long, but he's there to deal some damage.

Meowstic (m)
Item: none
Ability: infiltrator
Nature: modest
- trick
- toxic
- psychic
- thunderbolt

Meowstic takes two roles. Mainly he swaps items between opponents. He can throw in a toxic where necessary. But with the right opponent he can deal a lot of damage with thunderbolt and psychic.

Seadra
Item: razor claw
Ability: sniper
Nature: modest
- focus energy
- hydro pump
- dragon pulse
- ice beam

seadra is my favourite pokemon, and I couldn't leave it out of my team. Thanks to sniper and razor claw he can still deal a lot of damage. If i see an opportunity i will use focus energy to create even higher crit chances. Having a STAB in hydro pump, it can deal serious amounts of damage. Despite having more use for dragon pulse as kingdra, I'm not going to evolve it. Ice beam is just for a little more coverage.

Mawile
Item: mawilite
Ability: hyper cutter/ huge power
Nature: brave
- crunch
- iron head
- play rough
- sucker punch

Mawile needs skarmorys tail wind to really function at full potential, but even without tail wind it's still a good pokemon. Having great STAB moves in iron head and play rough, boosted with huge power it practically wrecks everything. Crunch is just a powerfull move to fill in an empty slot. Sucker punch is usefull when I'm clearly going to be taken down before I can act.

That's about it. Please tell me if there is anything i should change.( I won't evolve seadra) and what the best ev spread is for them.

 

[Lexya428]

First, before anything. What tier do you plan on playing in or is this VGC, if so which VGC year? Do you plan on Singles, Doubles, Triples, or Rotation?
Also, I recommend if you insist using Seadra on any team. Take a look at the Middle Cup Meta Game.

 

[LynxForte]

When I look at your team, I have no idea what it is you're trying to accomplish with this team. I saw Skarmory and I thought "Ok, set up some hazards, give the rest of the team an easy time," but then the item made me think you just put something on it (as well as items on your other pokemon).

I can tell that you made a team of pokemon you like (probably just going to battle with friends), but it really doesn't seem like much thought was given. Also, with some of the natures, it also seems you didn't breed them, you just used what you had.

Now that I have gotten that out of the way, before I can help you, what is it that your team is trying to accomplish?

 

[Blaziken.Babe]

When I look at your team, I have no idea what it is you're trying to accomplish with this team. I saw Skarmory and I thought "Ok, set up some hazards, give the rest of the team an easy time," but then the item made me think you just put something on it (as well as items on your other pokemon).

I can tell that you made a team of pokemon you like (probably just going to battle with friends), but it really doesn't seem like much thought was given. Also, with some of the natures, it also seems you didn't breed them, you just used what you had.

Not that I have gotten that out of the way, before I can help you, what is it that your team is trying to accomplish?

My thoughts are the same. I wanted to give u some advice on how to invest the EV's but it's so hard since the natures are not really coming in handy. You might want to try breeding if you're really going competitive.

 

[Smokin' weedle]

I'm using this team in single battles. I have tested it a few times, and it works quite well. I just have a problem with the ev's. The natures are bad becouse i have yet to find the time to really breed correctly. And find the right pokemon.

 

[Lexya428]

In Singles?
Skarmory is an OU.
Escavalier is RU.
Hitmonchan is NU.
Meowstic M is PU.
Seadra is a Middle Cup Pokémon.
Mega Mawile... is in Uber class....
As you can see, both Skarmory and Mega Mawile, stick out like sore thumbs here. Not just that, but the weaknesses here.

Ground (x2), Fire (x8), Grass (x2), Electric (x4), Bug (x2), Ghost (x2), Dark (x2), Flying (x2), Psychic (x2) , Fairy (x2)
As you can see, Fire is super effective against just half your team with only Seadra to combat that. You should also take a look at your teams resistances and if there are any types that your Pokémon are immune to.

My suggestion (before we even get to EV or IVs or items or moves) is to strip down your whole team. Decide which tier you want to battle in (UU, PU, NU, OU, Uber, VGC14, VGC15, VGC16, Middle Cup, so on and so forth). Since your doing Singles, you don't have to worry about VGC battling. Once you figure out the tier you want to play in. Choose a Pokémon from that tier. So, let's say that you absolutely want to use Seadra, you'd want to choose Middle Cup. Smogon may not be something people like not agree with, but it's entirely relevant for competitve play.
So again, start with choosing a Pokémon or a tier. Then, choose the tier that, that Pokémon is in OR choose 1 Pokémon from that tier you choose.

 

[Smokin' weedle]

I'm using this team in free battles, so not really in a tier

 

[Divine Retribution]

Okaaaaay then where do we begin...

Skarmory's set looks like a bastardization of the standard hazard lead set. I have to ask though, what possible point does the Salac berry serve? A Custap berry would be superior in literally every conceivable situation. Stealth Rock is also superior generally to Spikes. Whirlwind is the same as Roar but isn't blocked by Soundproof, however Soundproof users are few and far between and generally aren't going to set up on Skarmory anyways so it isn't likely to ever make a difference. I'm also a bit iffy about Toxic on a suicide lead, I feel like you could just drop Toxic for Stealth Rock and keep Spikes. With a Custap berry you're guaranteed 2 layers of hazards against non-Taunt/Magic Bounce leads.

Occa Berry isn't gonna help Escavalier much if at all. An Assault Vest would help him take on things like HP Fire Latias and Serperior almost as well, and also help with other random special attackers like Raikou and Gengar. A Choice Band is also an option for more raw wallbreaking power. You also want to stick Drill Run on here, as Heatran and Magnezone literally tear through half your team and the ability to lure them into a Drill Run would be potentially game-changing. Alternatively you could drop this for some check to Fire spam.

Hitmonchan is plain outclassed by a lot of things, but looking at your team I feel like Infernape would help you with a few of the things that plague you right now, specifically a mixed wallbreaker set.

Meowstic is again outclassed by Alakazam, Espeon, and pretty much every other Psychic-type in the game.

Seadra is categorically worse than Kingdra, and the set you chose for it is just bad. I really don't care if it's your favorite Pokemon, if you're not willing to change something just because you like it then I don't see the point in posting a RMT at all. The set you're running is intended to be run on Kindra, who can abuse a 100% critical Draco Meteor, since critical hits ignore the Sp. Atk drops induced by Draco Meteor. Seadra doesn't even learn Draco Meteor and has garbage stats anyways.

Mawile should be running Sword's Dance over Crunch.

Honestly I feel like the best thing to do would just be to scrap this team and start again once you understand the metagame a little better. If you want to use a team full of your favorite Pokemon, that's fine, but if you want to win battles, well, you can't have the best of both worlds.

 

[Smokin' weedle]

I was looking for the custap berry, but couldn't find it, but now i know what I'm looking. I will take your advice on the set for skarmory, i run toxic on a lot of my pokemon, without a good reason. I'm playing on x mainly, and had trouble getting access to drill run, but i think i can do it. But swords dance on mawile? It's really frail, and not all that fast. I use tail wind to cover the low speed, but can't afford to lose any turns

 

[bugfanticman]

My small suggestion would be to give meowstic choice specs
since its modest and already has trick with good special attack moves, choice scarf seems the best way to go with it

 

[kanrasan]

Slash on Escavalier is a waste. Not only does it have no coverage, but it doesn't have STAB either. Poison jab is okay, but it relies too much on you getting a poison effect on the opponent, which might not happen in the most important moments. Poison doesn't offer much coverage, either. Poison is only effective on fairy and grass, but steel already destroys fairy and it already has bug for grass. For movesets, I usually go to smogon to get an idea of what kind of move set would fit the pokemon. Sometimes I use the smogon set, but usually I improvise a bit on them. Maybe you should look at smogon sets just to get an idea of what you want to do with your Pokemon.