I may not be the best Pokemon battler in the league or as experienced as some of the others, I figure I can put together a basic guide to help those of you who have limited experience with competitive battling and team building. If you have questions, please ask and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability. That being said, lets hop right in. Cores A major aspect of team building is type coverage, both offensively and defensively. What I mean by that is that is you should be able to deal damage to every type of Pokemon, and survive every type of move. Having a couple of Pokemon that can cover each others weaknesses are known as “cores”. Examples Fire Water Grass - The classic coverage of Fire Water Grass, is a staple in the Pokemon metagame. Fire can deal with Grass for Water types, as well as Bug, Ice and Steel types for Grass Pokemon. Water types threaten Fire types, as well as checking Ice types that don't carry Freeze-Dry for Grass types, and offensively threatening Ground and Rock types for Fire Pokemon. Grass types resist both of Water's weaknesses, as well as threatening Water and Ground types for Fire types. This core usually needs a Fairy or Defensive Steel type to cover Dragons, since Dragons resist all 3 STAB moves of FWG cores, as well as aren't resisted by them. It's also recommended to have some sort of check to Flying types, as Flying can hit Grass hard, and deal neutral damage to the other two types. In our league, this core will likely be the easiest to build, as FWG are all common types, and readily available throughout the tiers. Steel Fairy Dragon - With the introduction of Fairy types in Gen 6, a new strong core was created in SFD. Each of these types are strong individually, add how they cover each others weaknesses and a SFD core will cause mayhem. Steel types immunity to Poison, as well as their ability to stall (and occasionally win) versus other Steel types makes them great partners for Fairy types. Steel also has the ability to resist Dragon, Fairy, and Ice moves for their own Dragon type. However, Fairy types immunity to Dragon moves makes them an even better option vs other Dragons, and Fairy types will resist Fighting for their Steel allies. Dragons can break the Fire walls for Fairy types, and break the Water and Electric threats for Steel types. On top of that, most Dragons can carry some form of coverage move to deal with either Steel types or Fairy types (usually not both at the same time though). Although one member of this core will likely be able to deal with Ground types, it's worth mentioning that no member of this core resists Ground type, with Steel being weak. It's also worth noting that Ghost types deal and receive neutral damage to/from the entire core. Another downside of this core specifically to our league is the limited availability of these types, which makes creating this core fairly difficult. Dark Psychic Fighting - DPF cores aren't as common as FWG, or as individually intimidating as SFD cores, however, they aren't to be taken lightly. Dark types are immune to Psychic moves, and break through Ghosts for both other members of the core. Psychic Pokemon are huge threats to Fighting types, who are the biggest threats to Dark Pokemon. Psychics can also break through Poison walls for their Fighting allies. On top of threatening Dark types, Fighting Pokemon can take hits from most Bug moves for both other members of the core as well as dealing heavy damage to Steel types for Psychics. Although Fighting types can resist Bug moves, they need a coverage move or another ally to kill Bug Pokemon. Another weak spot for this core is Fairy types, as they resist and deal super effective damage to both Dark and Psychic types. A Steel or Poison type is recommended to cover the Fairy weakness. As with a FWG core, it's also a good idea to have a check for Flying types, as Flying can take out a Fighting type, and is neutral to Dark and Psychic types. This core requires a bit more support, but may be easier to assemble in our league compared to SFD cores, while being more offensively oriented than FWG cores. It should also be mentioned that you should build your teams to deal with specific threats in mind. For example if you were to draft Heatran (Fire/Steel), he's weak to Ground, Water and Fighting; if you were to draft him for a FWG core, you would also need to bring a Pokemon that can take Fighting moves for your Heatran, it could be a Pokemon in your core, like a Slowking or Whimsicott, or it could be something outside of your core, such as Cresselia or Spiritomb. Please remember that these are just a few examples of cores, there are other 3 type cores that exist. It's also possible to build teams around weather effects (Sun, Rain, Hail, Sandstorm) or some other specific gimmick.
Team Balance While you don't need to have an even mix of offence and defence when building your team, it's good to keep a sense of balance in mind. If you were to run a team built of mainly special attacking offensive Pokemon, it would be easy to shut down with a specially defensive wall, however, if you bring a physical threat, you can break through those walls for your team. Likewise, if you don't have a specially defensive Pokemon, that team could run over your team with little resistance. With that in mind, I recommend trying to keep a mix of offence and defence as well as physical and specially based Pokemon. Utility Pokemon don't necessarily need to high powered offensively or defensively to bring good value to a team. For these Pokemon, the utility moves they have are their strength. There are multiple ways you can have utility on your team. Status inducing moves are a simple but effective way of providing utility. For example: Toxic is great for forcing switches, Will-O-Wisp is good to cripple physical attackers, Thunder Wave is good at crippling faster Pokemon. Status moves can help deal directly or indirectly with opposing threats. Another form of utility is healing. Some Pokemon can learn status removing moves, such as Heal Bell or Aromatherapy, while others can recover HP with moves like Wish, Leech Seed, or Rest. One of the most straight forward form of utility is stat boosting moves like Nasty Plot or Bulk Up. These moves are often used when your opponent doesn't threaten to knock you out in one move, either due to typing or natural defences. One way to deal with boosters is to bring a Hazer, or Psuedo-Hazer (PHazer). Haze and Clear Smog will eliminate stat changes, while moves like Roar, Dragon Tail and Perish Song, will all force opponents to switch (either directly, or in the case of Perish Song, via the threat of KO) One type of utility commonly seen on "leads" are entry hazards. Stealth Rock, Spikes and Toxic Spikes are commonly used early in battles to chip away at opponents whenever they switch in. Another hazard option is Sticky Web, which reduces the speed of opponents. Most entry hazards don't affect Flying types, or Pokemon with the ability Levitate. (Stealth Rock is the exception) If your team is susceptible to the chip damage from hazards, you should look into having something bring Rapid Spin or Defog. Rapid Spin will just clear your side of hazards, but has to make contact to work (Normal type moves usually can't hit Ghosts). Defog on the other hand clears both sides of hazards, and cannot miss. While most moves that have increased priority (move before other moves) are weaker than their slower counterparts, being able to attack first and knock out a weakened Pokemon with a move like Extreme Speed or Sucker Punch can make the difference between finishing a fight or falling flat at the end of a battle. The last form of general utility I'll talk about is Volt Switch and U-Turn (Volt-Turn). These moves switch out and do damage in the same turn, which allows you to keep favourable match ups in two ways. A quick turn allows you to switch into a tank who can take the damage you'll face in return, while a slow turn will allow you to bring in a frail Pokemon without taking damage. Having the advantage in your favour is usually referred to as having momentum in your favour, and Volt-Turn is a good way to keep momentum or gain momentum.
