Rate My VGC 2018 Team

[NiteMareRose]

This team is what im planning for the international comp in Sydney Feb 9th

revolves mainly around sceptile and koko

support arcanine and a life orb lando for intimidate

metagross for pesky fairies

im not to sure about Araquanid tho but the wide guard makes it tempting


Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Energy Ball
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Tapu Koko @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Thunderbolt

Landorus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Bulk Up

Arcanine @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Helping Hand
- Snarl
- Heat Wave
- Will-O-Wisp

Araquanid-Totem @ Waterium Z
Ability: Water Bubble
Level: 50
EVs: 250 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Careful Nature
- Wide Guard
- Liquidation
- Leech Life
- Poison Jab

Metagross @ Assault Vest
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

I think the speed on your Tapu Koko is a bit overkill. You don't need Timid + Max speed + Scarf. Invest less in speed and more in bulk I'd say. What do you plan to outrun that's so fast and justifies that investment? You're reaching 300 speed with that at level 50.

In your case you could remove all speed EV investment (I'm assuming from the 0 IV you've already soft-resetted for a long time for this one, so I'm not suggesting to change the nature), put all of that in HP for more bulk, and you still reach 165 speed prior to Scarf, which is 247 with a scarf, more than enough to outspeed your Mega Sceptile (has 216 speed after mega evolution) so you can boost it with Discharge before Sceptile attacks (which I think the idea is). Also, even with 0 speed EVs you still outspeed other fast stuff like Choice Scarf Tapu Lele. You could go with 36 speed EVs, which gives you 170 speed, enough to outspeed Jolly Scarf Garchomp, but I don't think Scarf Garchomp usually runs max speed and Jolly either. But you really don't need to go higher than that.

Another thing I can see is that your Landorus seems to be a sweeping variant, but you don't have any Earthquake immune pokémon on your team aside from Landorus itself, which makes it fairly hard to utilise. Three out of five potential partners are actually Earthquake-weak, and none of them run Protect either. How does this work out in practice? Landorus is one of those pokémon that can do a lot of different things, and I'm not sure you're taking the best route suited for your team. One of my favourites is Z-Imprison which raises Landorus's Sp.Def stat by two stages and simultaneously blocks the opponent from using Rock Slide and Earthquake. It combines really well with Intimidate, but it's best for more defensive sets. Z-Imprison would work really well next to Tapu Koko. Landorus is immune to Discharge and Landorus blocks the opponent from using Earthquake to take out Tapu Koko.

 

[EKZ1505]

The original post needs a LOT more detail to even begin to fairly rate the team unfortunately. Your EVs are fairly straight-forward so they don't need much explanation (other than maybe Koko's speed and why Araquanid is Careful and max attack), but your move choices (especially since there's a number of unique choices, some of which I do not think are good, but perhaps there's justification for it), team synergy, and what gives your team trouble (so we can help with it) need detail.

Only thing I can add right away is that you are wasting EVs on Araquanid. Anything divisible by 8 (assuming a perfect IV) at lvl 50 is wasting 4 EVs, so the 248 HP (since the last 2 don't do anything) and 8 SpDef should either be made 252 HP and 4 SpDef, or 244 HP, 4 Def, 4 SpDef, and 4 Spe (this spread actually gives you an extra point overall, but the speed won't do much other than help with a mirror-match).

 

[Ragnarok]

Thread is in violation of rule 3:

3. Your team must be formatted properly. You also need to explain IN DETAIL why you have chosen a certain Pokemon.

The better your post looks, the more likely you are to get a good rate. Also, before you post RMT thread, have some actual words to say instead of one line descriptions that give raters no information. Team Raters are not mind readers, in order for them to give you a proper rate they need to understand your thinking. For each Pokemon on your team, you need to explain why you selected it, its role, and what it helps you achieve. This should be a few sentences, single words are not allowed..

Follow this format when posting your team for ALL POKEMON:

Pokemon 1 @ Item
Ability:
EVs:
Nature:
- move
- move
- move
- move

*Detailed description of the Pokemon's purpose to the team*

An example of a description we look for:

Jirachi @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 80 SpD / 176 Spe
Nature: Jolly (+Spe, -SpA)
-Iron Head
-Thunder Wave
-Fire Punch
-Stealth Rock

Thunder Wave Jirachi, as a lead, has been successful for my team. The purpose of Jirachi is to get Stealth Rocks up, and once that's done, Pokemon such as Gyarados, Dragonite, or DD Babari Berry Tyranitar that switch in to try and set up on my lead are immediately rendered useless thanks to Thunder Wave. My game plan is to set up Stealth Rock first, and then Thunder Wave to scout my opponent's team/cripple any sweeper hoping to use Jirachi as set up bait. With Choice Scarf being popular on lead sets, I decided to take advantage of its popularity, and it has paid off in every game I have been in.

Jirachi has been EVed to top Lucario in speed and use Fire Punch, or at the very least stop him completely with Thunder Wave. Sometimes, getting a burn hax via Fire Punch helps, but as I can't KO Lucario with it, I tend to play it safe with T-Wave in most games. Either method is fine as Lucario remains crippled at the end of the day.

Here is what we don't want, and will likely get your thread locked:

Infernape @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Naive
-Stealth Rock
-Close Combat
-Fake Out
-Fire Blast

Standard lead, sets up rocks and breaks sash for my opponent.

The thread can be reopened by PMing me amendents that comply with the rules quoted.

Be sure to refer to the section rules before posting rate my team threads.