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Building a PvP team for each league

In march im getting a new phone, one that will fix my issue of being unable to do PvP. Most of what I know about PvP is largely in stats of moves/CP caps, the theoretical of match ups and some of what ive heard from people in my discord on PvP in what they've seen do well/poorly, I have no experience actually battling in it myself.

So over the next month im going to be putting together, or at least trying to, some PvP teams.

Most legacy holders I do not have aside from community day moves and a few dragon breath dragonite and a single dragon claw one (the dragon claw is I believe bellow the great cap and definite below ultra) 3 SB mewtwo abolve the ultra cap and all the raid day birds and lick gengar atill at their original levels (I have 28 lick gengar all at varying CPs in all leagues, most evolved for trading away) and one maxed out SC gengar at around 2.7k CP

I'm wondering what would any ones suggestions for infividual pokemon on each league be, barring the centipede dragon in the ultra league, Giratina, as we all know what it can do.

Asked by MetagrossMaxis5 years 3 months ago

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So I like having multiple mons so I can make chances and have fun. My Master team is limited as I play alone so I do not have legendaries. These are my choices.
Great League
Azurmurill B/PR/IB
Whiscash MS/B/MB
Munchlax L/BS/B
Flygon MS/DC
Macargo E/SE
Breloom BS/GK
Marshtop WG/S/S
Still need Altaria and possibly Umbreon

Ultra League
Lapras IS/IB
Steelix DT/C/E
Venusaur VW/FP/SLB
Breloom C/SB
Sceptile FC/LB/E
Electrive TS/WC
Charizard FS/BB/DC
Feralgatr B/HC/IB
Aggron DT/HS/SE

These are what I have and use and have pretty decent results. The hardest part is figuring out when to use shields and switch out mons. Others will be better with Master league but for that I almost always use B/C Tyranitar and BP/MM Metagoss. Have fun and enjoy. Hope it helps.

Great:
My 3 favorite teams:
*WG/HC/IB blastoise + VW/FP/EQ Meganium + FS/BB/DC Charizard
Gives good counter coverage and game against pretty much anything. It's got some weaknesses, but the raw power of the CD charge moves grants many free wins. It's also a fairly cheap investment, and easy to "shiny out"
* BB/HS/EQ Forretress + DB/SA/DG Altaria + WG/HC/IB Blastoise
Has a great resistance set and good coverage. loses to kingdra unless you have a significant shield advantage (which your resistance set can hopefully provide).

Ultra:
*Db/Dc/AP Giratina + BP/MM/EQ Metagross + WG/HC/IB Blastoise
Has good coverage and can usually brute force its way through the neutral game with raw power. It's just strong.

Master:
*B/C/SE Ttar + DT/SA/HP Lugia + DB/DC/AP Giratina
I mean... here we just pick the cream of the crop and bash our heads against each other... It's a team that builds itself.

Do you find use for DG on Altaria? Mine has SA/DP, on rare occasions when I face a dragon without shields I would use DP, but if the opponent has shields I would rather spam SA. I guess DG can serve the same purpose with addition to cover dark as well, mainly umbreon.

For me that's exactly it. Spamming dragon breath is what usually wins a dragon fight, and altaria isn't winning a mirror against any dragon with DC or OR. SA is already better for the neutral game, so there's no good reason to run DP. DG sees very little use, but it's a nice little safety net.

I've seen discussion about it and I'm pretty sure DP is better. Remember that DG is a lousy charge move to begin with. The only selling point of DG is hitting non-poison dark types for SE, whereas DP can hit electric and rock types for much better neutral damage. Better coverage of SA's bad matchups seems more relevant to me than making a few select pokemon (mainly Umbreon) into better matchups.

DG and DP have very similar DPE (though DG does have more), and both are "lousy charge moves to begin with".
Arguing that DP is better vs rock is... baseless? Altaria gets pooped on by rock mons and if you can't switch your altaria away from a rock MU, it's dead no matter what.
DP and DG both hit electric for effective damage, and in a neutral matchup with pretty much any electric mon not named melmetal, dragon breath can likely carry altaria to victory.
It really is a stylistic choice, but I was asked about my preferences on Great League mons, and DG altaria is my preference over DP altaria.

Lugia's good in masters? i've heard it gets hard countered by things like metagross and tyranitar.

I've really liked Lugia in the Master league with DT/SA/HP. Tyranitar very much hard counters it (unless you're able to get off a HP when they don't have shields), and Mewtwo will take it down if you don't have the shield advantage. I haven't had any issues with it facing down against Metagross unless they have shield advantages. Melmetal is far more problematic for Lugia compared to Metagross.

Overall, Lugia's massive bulk gives it a lot of staying power and exceptional TDO. DT puts a lot of hurt on any dragons you may be fighting (and you will see them frequently), SA charges up quick for frequent use, and HP lets it hard counter things like Groudon, who is also a beast in the master tier, and will almost one-shot a t-tar.

It has literally the highest neutral TDO of any pokemon, hard counters Groudon and is advantaged against dragons. It even has late-game coverage for Tyranitar. The fact that it has hard counters means nothing, everything in Masters is hard countered by another top tier threat.

That's not even specific to Master League, that's like... all of Pokemon. If something wasn't viable because it had hard counters then damn near everything would be deemed useless. I don't know why "b- but hard counters!" is such a common dismissal of potentially great Pokemon.

I eam waning as every team seems to be running either or both.

Everything has hard counters, but that meaningless if the hard counters arent run. Metagross, and particularly Tyranitar are seemingly on most every team

I'm not saying Tyranitar isn't the likely victor when going toe to toe against Lugia but it isn't something I'd define as a "hard counter" since Lugia can still hit it for SE damage thanks to Hydro Pump. In fact, DT/HP means Lugia will always be hitting for at least neutral damage. A better example would be Melmetal as a hard counter to Skarmory. Skarmory can only retaliate with NVE attacks while Melmetal can score SE damage easily. Even if the Skarmory has shield advantage I don't see it coming out on top.

Metagross is closer to a hard counter, but it can only hit Lugia for neutral damage at best. Again, Melmetal makes a better counter being able to deal SE damage

Well, looks like im maxing that 96% lucky melmetal

That's why I said "hard countered by another top threat" instead of just "hard countered by something". There's an important difference.

I'll post some Pokemon I've had success with:

*Great League*
Lanturn WG/TB
Flygon MS/EQ/DC
Medicham C/DP/IP
Blastoise B/HC/IB
Lanturn was picked mostly to counter one specific person who would lead with a water type, but surprisingly holds its own well. I don't think there's much to say about Flygon, teaching it both moves has been a nice asset. Medicham was a L35 98% Meditite catch and the first sub-par from a raiding standpoint Pokemon I've maxed out. It does well as long as I can clear out Azumarills first. Blastoise was an excuse to use my shiny sunglasses one in something, but it's strong.

*Ultra League*
Venusaur VW/FP/SB
Charizard FS/BB/DC
Deoxys-N CB/PB
Giratina DB/DC/SN
Some usual suspects here, Venusaur and Giratina are absolute units. I know Meganium is all the rage as far as grass types go but in my local scene having Venusaur's Sludge Bomb has been a much bigger asset than Meganium's Earthquake would be. Charizard has honestly worked better as a shield buster with Dragon Claw than as a fire attacker with Blast Burn. Deoxys-N is a fun wild card that nobody expects and only comes out when the opponent's shields are gone. It may not survive long and may cost me a shield more often than not but it's guaranteed to take something down with it thanks to Psycho Boost being ridiculously strong in PvP. I've considered giving it Thunderbolt as well but so far haven't needed it. Giratina is... well, Giratina. I was one of the first adopters of it in my area and enjoyed some near-guaranteed wins with it.

*Master League*
Mewtwo PC/SB/FB
Metagross BP/MM
Tyranitar B/C
I have nothing to really comment here. I threw this together to have *something* to fight in Master's with but don't regularly accrue the dust needed to max out multiple options, and is also why Metagross and Tyranitar lack second moves. I've used Rayquaza here, which has been adequate but not as fulfilling as when used for raids and gyms.

Focus blast mewtwo works well there?
I heard a couple people down here saying mixed things, ranging from its great to is gets completely bodied by tyranitar.

Most of the time, yes, t-tar will result in Mewtwo swapping out or fainting because bite chews through it that quickly. If your opponent doesn't have shields at that point though, FB will one-shot t-tar.

Aside from the t-tar matchup, Mewtwo is a strong contender in the master league. SB counters a lot of frequently used Mons at that tier (Giratina, Lugia, Latios/Latias, other Mewtwo) and puts out very nice neutral damage. Focus Blast has niche coverage uses as well and leaves Mewtwo with a potential answer to t-tar. Access to FT/IB/TB also gives you a lot of other coverage options. Psycho Cut ensures that you charge up quickly, which is good because Mewtwo's top-notch attack stat ensures that you're either dishing out massive damage with your charge moves or forcing your opponent to use shields.

Imo, the biggest downside to Mewtwo that I've seen is the fact that it tends to get used frequently enough that people will usually be packing an answer for it.

I don't think FB is good on M2, it will only get used in the rare case of facing a ttar without shields and you have a shield. Either IB or TB as a second move are great. IB demolish dragons and Groudon, TB has the advantage of charging faster than SB so you win a mirror match by firing first. It is also good against Kyogre and when the other Pokemon has less than half health and SB will overkill it.

I didn't give it Focus Blast specifically for PvP, it was the first move it got when buying a second and I'm too lazy to change it. Against non-AI I don't think I've ever used it, Shadow Ball hits hard enough. I'd consider rolling for something different but its use in gyms has grown on me. Autoselect tends to favor it ever since I added the second move.

I've mostly played Great league and currently the following pokemon are marked good battlers in my storage (no particular order):
Skarmory
Forretress
A-Muk
Azumarill
Vigoroth
Lanturn
Medicham
Hitmonchan
Kingdra
Altaria
Steelix
Whiscash
Marshtomp
Cresselia
Tentacruel
Skuntank
Umbreon
Meganium
Blastoise
Flygon
Munchlax

Will add Melmetal when I decide which one to evolve.

The CD mons, Altaria, Whiscash and Munchlax are particularly good investments because they have the cheap secondary moves. Azumarill as well if you make it from an Azurill, and Skarmory because there's little need to get the second charge move for it. Out of these you can build a very competent team for cheap.

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