Framework for building teams

<Framework for teams>
WIP, meh too lazy
(it is not limited to only the overused tier, rather it can work in every single tier)

Brief overview: Balanced teams are usually teams that have one or two cores fit onto the team. These cores are usually either defensive or offensive cores, although a solid team will usually be able to fit two cores onto the team, one for breaking the opponent's team, the other to take hits for the team. Offensive cores are made up of 2 or 3 pokemon that have excellent offensive synergy with each other, taking out each other's counters/checks. Defensive cores are made up of 2/3 or even 4 pokemon that have excellent defensive synergy with each other, and they are able to take on the majority of the metagame. Defensive cores are usually made up of a pivot (offensive and/or defensive), a phazer, and is usually able to control the hazards placed on your side and the opponent's side.

Team building framework:
Playstyles:
Hyper Offense: Lead/Pokémon to support the lead/Set-up sweeper/Nuke/Revenge-killer/Pivot or Hazard Control
Bulky Offense: Stealth Rock/Pivot/Set-up sweeper/Nuke/Revenge-killer/Hazard control
Balance: Stealth Rock/Hazard Control/Pivot/Nuke/Set-up sweeper/Tank
Semi-Stall: Stealth Rock/Hazard Control/Pivot/Tank/Slow Set-up sweeper/Wall
Stall: Stealth Rock/Hazard Control/Pivot/Physical Wall/Special Wall/Mixed Wall

Roles:
Lead: A lead pokemon is a pokemon that takes the lead spot, and starts the match first by being the first pokemon. Lead pokemon are usually hazard leads, and they attempt to place as many entry hazards on the opponent's team to weaken the opponent's team as entry hazard damage slowly rack up, especially with teams that have a lot of offensive presence and pivots. Anti-leads are also often used so that they can gain immediate momentum by beating the opponent's lead.

Set-up sweeper: As its name suggests, it uses a move that boosts its stats, in a way setting up and preparing for a sweep or breaking a wall down.

Nuke: Usually choiced users fit the bill perfectly, as they are capable of wallbreaking and denting the opponent's pokemon with a single move. Pokémon that are set-up sweeper are usually paired up well with an "Nuke" pokemon as they can potentially form a very dynamic offensive core and beat each other's counters. Some good examples of Nukes are Specs Keldeo and Mega Charizard Y, both being able to hit like a truck without requiring the need to set-up.

Pivot: A pivot is a Pokemon that is generally only used for switching. Due to good defensive stats and a solid defensive typing, they can usually take little damage as they switch in, and the opposing switch they force allows the player to switch again safely to another Pokemon. An offensive pivot will force a switch by threatening KO on the opponent, thus obtaining momentum, whereas a defensive pivot will be difficult to break past, and thus will slow the opponent's momentum. Good pokemon that force switches are Landorus-Therian, Aegislash, Rotom-Wash.

Hazard Control: If your team has a pokemon that is weak to entry hazards especially Stealth Rock, it is wise to pick a pokemon that can take away hazards from your side of the field. There are only 2 ways to take away entry hazards from your side of the field, that is Rapid Spin and Defog(Only in Gen 6). Both can be stopped by the opponent. Rapid Spin is a normal-type move, therefore it can be blocked by ghost-types, thus giving name to them as "spin-blockers". Defog however, is not as easily stopped, as it is not an attacking move, it can be blocked by Taunt. It is important to keep note that both have rather poor distribution, and most defog users are incompatible with newer abilities such as Gliscor unable to get poison heal with Defog. Magic Bounce users also deserve special mention as they do block entry hazards in their own merit, but there are only 3 viable ones in the overused tier, mainly Mega Absol, Espeon and Xatu. They are unreliable when blocking hazards as all 3 are frail and are unable to stand up to super effective hits, and can only take 2 neutral un-boosted hits at best.

Stealth Rock: While you are preventing entry hazards, you should also make an effort to set up some of your own. Stealth Rock is a rock-type move that hits every pokemon without Magic Guard. It deals 12.5% damage upon switch-in. As it is a rock-type move, weaknesses and resistances come into play as well. For example, a fire-type takes 25% damage, while a steel-type takes a mere 6.25%. Stealth Rock is easily the most useful entry hazard as it only requires 1 turn of set-up to be useful, and it hits every pokemon. This breaks pokemon with the ability Sturdy, as well as breaking focus sashes. Other entry hazards are while useful in their own right, often do not have the time to set up multiple layers and/or have very limited and poor distribution or are easily removed.

Other forms of entry hazards: I did not list Spikes/Toxic Spikes/Sticky Web alongside Stealth Rock for some reasons which I will elaborate in detail in their own separate paragraphs. Unlike Stealth Rock it does not care about its type and simply deals 12.5% damage to pokemon that lack the levitate ability or are not of flying-type. A second layer of Spikes increases the damage taken to 3/16 (19.25%) of the foe's max HP, and a third layer will bring it up to 1/4 (25%) However Spikes has a significant decrease in usage because of the popularity of defog, which takes away all of the entry hazards on the field. Furthermore it is difficult to find time to set up multiple layers of entry hazards because of the offensive nature of the overused tier, as well as most spikes users not getting reliable recovery themselves, which means they are easily worn down by passive damage and can be taken down easily if they are hit hard enough by neutral or even super effective attacks.

Toxic Spikes: Toxic Spikes cause all grounded pokemon to be inflicted with regular poison with 1 layer, and toxic poison with 2 layers. However, all pokemon that are immune to poison will not be affected, and opposing poison pokemon will absorb toxic spikes upon switch in. Toxic Poison is a good status in the fact that it wears the opponent down incredibly after some turns, and the passive damage will rack up. Toxic Spikes are good on teams that do not have much offensive presence, mainly stall teams. The main flaw of Toxic Spikes is that few pokemon get Toxic Spikes, and even fewer of these pokemon are viable users of it.

Sticky Web: Sticky web cause all grounded pokemon to have their speed slowed down by 1 stage. The speed drop is incredibly helpful on offensive teams, and gives a significantly larger chance to sweep with slow but powerful pokemon. However, Sticky Web's distribution is so limited, only Smeargle and Galvantula are really the only pokemon that are slightly viable in the overused tier. However, the incredible utility of the move pays off if Sticky Web is on the field.

Revenge-killer: Revenge-killer are pokemon that are extremely fast and can kill the opponent's pokemon faster. These pokemon are usually incredibly frail and can't directly switch in to attacks, therefore a pokemon is needed to faint so that the Revenge-killer can come in safely and kill off the opponent's pokemon. Revenge-killer also have the task of outrunning the entire team so that they can beat weakened threats easily. They usually need set-up sweepers and immediate power pokemon to soften the team before it can cleanly sweep the game. Revenge-killers are pokemon that usually equip a Choice Scarf or having very strong priority attacks, or simply have very high base speed.

Tips:
When starting the game, don't just blindly select pokemon to be your lead. You should consider the pokemon that threatens your opponent most, as they can gain momentum for your team, perhaps even giving you the lead on turn 1. Alternatively, you can also lead with the pokemon that counters the opponent's most threatening pokemon to your team, as it also gives you immediate momentum.

Know the weaknesses of the your team. Your opponent will usually try to sweep with the most dangerous pokemon to your team because that is usually his win condition. If you can prevent his win condition from doing much damage to your team, you will usually find yourself in a much better situation to win as well.

When building teams, try to build one that can check the majority of the meta, especially the top threats as this will give you a solid advantage over your opponent.

Have a gameplan. No don't have a gameplan, have two. This way, if one fails, you still have another to fall back on and you still have a chance of winning the game if you manage to execute your gameplan.

Execute your gameplan. I think this is stupidly obvious, but try to execute your gameplan faster than the opponent, so that you win before your opponent can, that's the point of the entire game.

~draco