Man, what HAPPENED to this thread
General advice for people who play semicompetitively:
Every team should have two walls, two sweepers, and a hazer/pseudohazer. Each team should probably also have a rapid spinner, a Stealth Rock user, and a general status effect abuser, as these make life much easier. Other things which are not necessary for a general team, but which are really quite nice, are Toxic Spikes users, Knock Off users, team healers, revenge killers, Intimidators, weather stirrers, and Baton Passers.
You probably also want at least one ghost and either have a poison-type or have your rapid spinner be a steel-type. Ghosts are awesome, and Rapid Spin against a ghost will not remove the enemy's Spike-type effect. Poison-types, when switched in, remove Toxic Spikes, and it sucks a lot to switch in your Rapid Spinner to get rid of Toxic Spikes, as that will likely poison your Rapid Spinner, and most can't heal from that easily. The exception to this is if you have a team healer.
These pokemon are extremely worthwhile, and you should definitely keep them in mind when making a team.
Special walls | Physical walls | Mixed walls | Special sweepers | Physical sweepers | Mixed/Either sweepers |
Blissey | Forretress | Bronzong | Azelf | Azumarill | Dragonite |
Empoleon | Gliscor | Cresselia | Gengar | Garchomp | Electivire |
Regice | Tangrowth | Dusknoir | Jolteon | Gyarados | Infernape |
Snorlax | Hippowdon | Regice | Magmortar | Heracross | Lucario |
| Skarmory | Spiritomb | Porygon-Z | Machamp | Salamence |
| Swampert | | Roserade | Medicham | |
| Weezing | | | Metagross | |
| | | | Staraptor | |
| | | | Weavile | |
True Hazers | Pseudohazers | Rapid Spinners | Stealth Rock users | Toxic Spikers |
Vaporeon | Aggron | Donphan | Aggron | Drapion |
Weezing | Donphan | Forretress | Blissey | Forretress |
| Hariyama | Starmie | Donphan | Nidoqueen |
| Skarmory | | Forretress | Tentacruel |
| Suicune | | Gliscor | |
| | | Hippowdon | |
| | | Nidoqueen | |
| | | Regirock | |
| | | Rhyperior | |
| | | Skarmory | |
| | | Swampert | |
Stealth Rock users | Status Abusers (sleep) | Status Abusers (other) | Team healers |
Drapion | Blissey | Crobat | Blissey |
Gliscor | Breloom | Dragonite | Celebi |
Hariyama | Gallade | Dusknoir | Miltank |
Lickilicky | Gardevoir | Heatran | |
Tangrowth | Gengar | Jolteon | |
| Jynx | Magmortar | |
| Spiritomb | Magnezone | |
| Tangrowth | Raikou | |
| | Togekiss | |
| | Umbreon | |
| | Weezing | |
| | Zapdos | |
Revenge killers | Intimidators | Weather stirrers | Baton Passers |
Absol | Gyarados | Abomasnow | Espeon |
Crobat | Salamence | Hippowdon | Floatzel |
Dugtrio | Staraptor | Tyranitar | Jolteon |
Garchomp | Tauros | | Ninjask |
Weavile | | | Scizor |
| | | Umbreon |
| | | Vaporeon |
Naturally, there's lots of other pokemon which can also serve these roles... These ones are just generally the best at it.
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