[VGC] Pretty Standard RMT!

[Dragonite]

Right guys, so I took a break for a little while but now I've decided to get back into competitive. Using a lot of pokemon from my old team earlier this season, with a few new additions. Any comments will be helpful.

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll (Thick Fat)
EVs: 240 HP/ 76 Def/ 60 SpAtk/ 132 SpDef
Calm

-Giga Drain
-Sludge Bomb
-Protect
-Leech Seed

Venusaur is one of my key players in this current bulky metagame. It's quite simple really, set up leech seed if best play (say giga won't do much and sludge bomb isn't a good option), chip away at the opponents health while stalling with protect if necessary. Sludge Bomb is great fairy coverage and even Mega Charizard Y finds it hard to scratch this thing with its thick fat. Overall it's a great pokemon to stall and sometimes force switches with leech seed.

Azumarill @ Assault Vest
Huge Power
252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant

-Aqua Jet
-Superpower
-Waterfall
-Play Rough

Azumarill is my bulky attacker, providing me physical water type coverage to take on those pesky Landorus, Superpower works great for those Kanga's while Aqua jet allows me to get those priority hits in... and of course, play rough for all those dragons. Pretty simple physical set. I go with Assault Vest as the added special bulk works quite nicely.

Arcanine @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def / 60 SpA
Bold

- Protect
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
- Snarl

Arcanine is another valuable player, with intimidate shaking down the physical fighters, will-o-wisp rendering them even more useless with another attack drop (also great when chipping away at leech seed health). Snarl helps to deal with most special attackers, once again, rendering them pretty useless or forcing the switch.

While Arcanine doesn't hit hard, it does a good job of controlling the opponent. He also takes quite a few punches.

Rotom W @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 60 SpAtk / 148 SpDef / 4 Spe
Calm

- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hydro Pump

Rotom, my faithful Landorus counter. Pretty basic Rotom-W, I've opted for WoW for those battles I can't take Arcanine but want to keep the attack control. Overall adding bulk to the team while still hitting hard.

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 44 SpAtk / 68 SpDef / 28 Spe
Calm

Thunder Bolt
Thunder Wave
Taunt
Dark Pulse

Speed control, taunt control with T-Bolt for amazing STAB and Dark pulse (I couldn't get HP Ice). Dark Pulse helps out with psychic types who try to take down Mega Venusaur and flying types. It hits hard and fast, while providing basic speed control (and stopping the opponent setting up any kind of controls)

Garchomp @ Focus Sash
Ability: Rough Skin
Evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Protect

Hate to admit, but Garchomp was kind of thrown in to fill the 6th spot. He hits hard and is great for landing clutch flinches with Rock Slide. Dragon Claw and EQ hit hard with STAB (Most of my team either aren't effected by EQ or have protect).

And that's my team. Issue I have is, I seem to be getting 50/50 W/L ratio with this team. It's not dreadful, but it's never pulling me out of the 1500s rank. Any advice and constructive criticism welcome, I'm willing to change anything from EV spreads to an entire Pokemon

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Forgot to mention, I play VGC standard rules.

 

[EKZ1505]

First, just a couple things quick that your post doesn't go into... what do the EVs on each of your Pokemon (other than Garchomp, since I know he's pretty standard and generally shouldn't deviate from that spread) do? Why these specific spreads? Is there something important they survive, or outspeed, or OHKO/2HKO? And I'm sure it was just a typo, but what is Garchomp's nature?

Personally, the only Azumarill set I've both seen used and used myself successfully in VGC is the standard Belly Drum set (I realize this could cause an issue with items though, as it probably would need the Sitrus). I've heard a little bit about Choice Band being decent too, but how do you like the AV set?

I love Arcanine in VGC, and I think he's really underrated. This is the set I used a while back, and it was fantastic:
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Def / 124 SpA / 4 SpD / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
- Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp
- Morning Sun (Protect is ok too, but Morning Sun really helps his longevity)
- Snarl

The speed EVs help him outspeed Adamant Bisharp, and burn it before it does anything. Overheat KOs Bisharp too if you think they'll go for Knock Off, but the Sp Atk EVs are mainly there so you can OHKO M-Mawile 87.5% of the time I think. Now M-Mawile isn't quite as common as it was when I was running this spread, so it you want to stick with Flamethrower and/or keep him bulkier, that's fine, but I definitely think you should invest in speed. I ended up liking Rocky Helmet as well, but I think Safety Goggles are actually a good item now too with all the Amoongus running around.

Rotom-W should have Protect over Volt Switch (which really is only good for facing Perish Trap teams), and you may want to consider giving something HP Ice since you don't have any ice type moves on your team. I think HP Ice would be much better over Dark Pulse on Thundurus, but you could also consider it over Will-o-Wisp on Rotom-W since Arcanine already has it.

You may have heard this before, and it's kinda boring, but Scarf Landorus-T outclasses Garchomp in pretty much every way. Its Rock Slides and EQ are stronger, and it has better coverage moves than Dragon Claw (strong STAB, but really is only super-effective against Salamence and the rare Charizard-X or opposing Garchomp you see). Intimidate is generally a better ability, and it's very fast with the Scarf.

Have there been any specific strategies or Pokemon that give your team trouble?

 

[Dragonite]

To be completely honest, as a competitive battler, I consider myself average. However, when it comes to optimising EV spreads, it's one level I fall short on. For the most part, I use resources like Smogon, Serebii's PoTW and Nugget Bridge's battle calc to show me common usages. Most of these are utilising those resources, so I have no specific reasoning myself behind the EVs. I just know they work kinda well haha.

I used Choice Band Azumarill for a little while, and while it hits hard and does well, it didn't stand in battle quite as long as AV Azumarill does. I feel the added SpDef bulk does it a lot of favours.

I may breed another Arcanine and give your set a whirl. With my style of battling though, I tend to rely on protect quite a bit (well thought out predictions and stalling burn/leech seed to help my team persevere as long as possible). Though I can see where Morning Sun would do it a lot of favours (and annoy the hell out of people haha).

I'll take on board what you said about replacing Volt Switch on Rotom. My issue with Thundurus is that he doesn't have the IVs for HP Ice. Dark Pulse can come in handy, surprisingly haha.

Have considered Landorus-T but it's the time it takes to SR it. I have tried in the past and was getting nowhere, so I called it quits for a bit. May revisit it soon. As you say, it can give a lot to my team.

The only particular startegy that gives me a bit of grief tends to be Mega Kanga. However I've overcome that a bit since writing this post by abusing Arcanine's intimidate/WoW. Landorus is also a pain, but I need to find space for that HP Ice (or just an ice type move).

 

[EKZ1505]

Those are generally decent resources, but it is good to know exactly what the spreads do (because if they are built to survive a certain move, your team may cover that weakness already so that you don't need to worry about that attack), and definitely be open to adjusting as you keep battling. For example, if you feel like one of your Pokemon keeps getting OHKO'd (for example, by Adamant Kangaskhan's Double-Edge, or whatever) when it needs to survive, definitely adjust your spreads.

I highly recommend trading for an HP Ice Thundy. I don't think I've ever seen a Thundurus-I with Dark Pulse, and there's good reasons for that. I really do not see it being worth it, especially on a defensive set. I've seen one or two Thundurus-T with it, but that's because it can afford the coverage moves since it generally doesn't carry T-Wave or Taunt.