Please Help! First Time VGC Teambuilder

[TurboDoinker]

Hi all, I'm new to VGC and am trying to learn. I've been playing a lot on Showdown and I don't have the best meta knowledge and decision making but I'm getting there. I've been playing entirely with this team I built:

Orbeetle-Gmax @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Telepathy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Bug Buzz
- Hypnosis
- Recover

Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Protect

Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Crunch
- Rock Slide
- Protect
- Superpower

Flapple @ Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Grav Apple
- Dragon Rush
- Protect
- Sucker Punch

Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 28 SpA / 252 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Ice Beam
- Hypnosis
- Recover

Clefable @ Babiri Berry
Ability: Unaware
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Gravity
- Moonblast
- Follow Me
- Sing

Gigantamax Orbeetle is used to set up gravity so Excadrill and Flapple hit harder, as well as Sleep hax on Orbeetle, Milotic & Clefable. Tyranitar is for type coverage and Excadrill support, and Clefable is sort of a backup if I don't want to bring Orbeetle or if I need the additional support/utility. I had tried Whimsicott and Togekiss instead of Clefable, but so far Clefable seems to be the one that fits into the kit best or that I found myself doing the best with out of the 3.

Please give me your feedback on my team and if there's anything w the current meta that I need to be extra cautious of or that counters my team enough to the point that I should change it.

 

[Ace Trainer Slash]

Your team seems fine, although there are some changes that can be made to it. I see that you're attempting to do something with Gravity, but I don't see why you should put Muddy Water on Milotic. Surf almost does the same thing, besides the small window of an accuracy drop, otherwise something like Scald would be useful against physical attackers. Furthermore, it would be useful to know whether you're playing Doubles or Singles. From my observations, you're playing Doubles.

Your team is pretty good, you have a minor weakness to Fairy types, in which your only response to them is Iron Head Excadrill. Something like Sylveon hard counters your Tyranitar, and Hyper Voice can do a lot of damage. Besides the Fairy type, you have pretty decent coverage all round, and the whole Gravity-based team is quite interesting. As long as you can keep Gravity on the field, your team will go really well, especially with Dragon Rush Flapple. Although, with the absence of Gravity, some moves become wildly inaccurate, with moves such as Dragon Rush and Hypnosis. I really like Weakness Policy Orbeetle, it's an interesting niche that's bound to do damage to Pokemon that don't have resistances to it.

I guess the biggest issue in the team is the lack of Gravity on the field. The second thing, if you're using Clefable for Gravity, is Taunt. Although, as you said, it's for backup. If I'm to critique it more, Tyranitar doesn't seem to have very much damage output, if someone ignores it for the whole match, and focuses on Pokemon such as Orbeetle, or Excadrill, Tyranitar won't be able to do enough damage to kill anything if it is the last Pokemon on the field. I suggest putting a few EVs into it's attack or giving it Dragon Dance. Superpower can also invalidate your reason to put Defense EVs, and a defensive nature on your Tyranitar. I understand that it's coverage, but once it does go for Superpower, it definitely won't be doing very much damage, it won't be taking any offensive hits as well, and would require you to switch it out to reset it's stats. I'd say the only typing that hard counters your team is Steel, something like Corviknight counters all team members except Milotic, (which Milotic itself can't do very much against it) and once it starts to Bulk Up, you don't have very many Pokemon to counter it beyond that.

Overall... I'd say that this is pretty well-made. It checks quite a few Pokemon such as Dragapult, Excadrill, Tyranitar, and Rotom with the lack of Levitate from Gravity. Your EV spreads are pretty good, and your items are well chosen. Your team also counters, in some way, many common weaknesses such as Poison, and Fighting. Just make sure you're careful around Corviknight, and make sure that you get Gravity up if you choose to use Flapple. Your best option to setting up Gravity is Orbeetle, due to it's speed. Make sure to plan out your Dynamax too, since Pokemon like Excadrill can Dynamax to counter you.

Hopefully I wasn't too harsh, and my feedback helps! :D

 

[TurboDoinker]

Thank you for your feedback! This is a doubles set. I realized that I didn't really have much to take on relatively bulky Steel and/or Flying type physical attackers like Braviary, Durant, Gyarados, and especially Corviknight like you mentioned. I made a few changes to the team and have been having a bit more success.

First of all, I changed Orbeetle's ability to Frisk (because I got frustrated with trying to find a Telepathy Orbeetle in my Sword/Shield game lol) and have been experimenting with Body Press over Recover. I'm unsure which one I like, but I don't seem to end up using either of them very often at all. I also tried Giga Drain to provide a Grass type move with some sustain and that was just garbage. I'm also considering Ally Switch and Reflect.

I started running Mold Breaker on my Excadrill and switched Earthquake to High Horsepower, and while that is nice for things like Mimikyu and Rotom, I feel like it is kind of wasted potential when I get Gravity up seeing as I would be hitting Rotom with Ground type moves either way. I might switch back to Sand Rush or even try Sand Force and see how it goes.

Tyranitar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 220 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 76 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Rock Slide
– Crunch
– Body Press
– Heavy Slam

I've had much more success with this Ttar set, it tends to do more damage and function as a more general tank rather than just Defensive. Much more useful!

I switched Dragon Rush out for Outrage on Flapple so I could still have that to count on when Gravity wasn't up, plus it does more damage.

I switched out Ice Beam for Icy Wind on Milotic to get a bit of speed control, which I am utterly lacking, especially with Mold Breaker Excadrill. I had Muddy Water over Surf since Surf hits I'm considering changing Muddy Water to Scald

Rotom-H @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 188 SpA / 220 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Overheat
– Thunderbolt
– Ally Switch
– Will-O-Wisp

I added this to the team to replace Clefable to address the Steel/Flying type coverage that I'm missing. It has just enough Speed to out-speed a Gyarados and OHKO it with Thunderbolt, and it has just enough SpA to OHKO a more bulky EV'd Corviknight with Overheat. Will-O-Wisp is to add more utility to deal with physical sweepers, and Ally Switch helps when I lead Orbeetle & Rotom against opponent leads that can OHKO Orbeetle even after Gmax (Charizard, Hawlucha, Max Flare from Coalossal, etc).

 

[gimmepie]

In double you want spread moves, not to remove spread moves. At least, as far as I know.