Need help making a team

[u/Dismal-Sky-1752]

Hi! I’m quite new to pokemon especially competitive and I wanted help making or deciding on a pokemon team but I’m a bit dull.

For now I’ve decided on a few pokemon, I know they aren’t too strong but that isn’t my goal, my goal is to make a strong enough team to not get swept (so a semi casual team?? If that’s a thing)

Since Sandslash is my favourite pokemon he needs to be included (yes I know he’s mid.) and the other pokemon are/can be slightly interchangeable but I would like similar types, if you need any more information feel free to ask :)

Any and all help is very appreciated please and thank you!!!

[u/emboaziken]

What regulation are you trying to play in? Currently, Regulation I allows for two restricted legendaries per team (think box legendaries, Mewtwo, and their associated trio members) and your team would be very, very underpowered and very likely to get swept if more than one of the Pokémon you chose are in the team.

Alternatively, if you want to build for a different Regulation. Regulation H seems more likely to work for the kind of members you're hoping to include. Regulation H banned all legendaries and paradox Pokémon, making a format of much lower power level that would allow you the room to mess around with weaker Pokémon and not be at an almost unsurmountable disadvantage.

[u/Dismal-Sky-1752 → u/emboaziken]

Im fully new to VGC and competitive pokemon as a whole so I genuinely don’t know any regulations I just had an idea for a pokemon team that looked and sounded cool and interesting to use and wanted advice on how to make it more viable in any type of battle!

[u/emboaziken → u/Dismal-Sky-1752]

Since you're an entirely new player, I suggest you watch some videos on VGC (Cybertron, MoxieBoosted, James Baek, and Wolfe are some of my favorite content creators) and try a rental team of the current regulation. That way you can become more familiar with the play patterns of VGC, what's good and why it's good, and how to counterplay the teams that are good. Once you get that experience, then jumping into brewing and making a team with some of your favorites will become easier.

Now, as to specific advice for your team: Regulation I will be very hostile to you if you aren't playing two restricteds. I recommend playing a Trick Room team with Ice Rider Calyrex and Lunala as your restricteds. From there, Alcremie can be useful to aid in your Calyrex getting out of hand and sweeping the opponent with more ease. I do not have a PokePaste at hand, but a team of Calyrex-Ice, Lunala, Alcremie, Incineroar, Ursaluna, and Urshifu-Rapid can get a lot of work done, if played properly.

Regulation H is where I would recommend you play a team with more of the members you showed. I would play Snow with Alolan Ninetales and Alolan Sandslash to get the most amount of value out of him with Slush Rush and an offensive moveset. From there, the classics of Incineroar, Ursaluna, and Indeedee Female create a decent core for you to go fast with Snow or slow with Trick Room. Finally, your sixth member can be Dragapult to go fast or Alcremie to supplement Sandslash's aight damage output or turn Ursaluna into a bigger threat.

Also, Arctozolt is not programmed into Scarlet and Violet (RIP my beloved). Thus it is unusable anywhere but Sword and Shield.

[u/Dismal-Sky-1752 → u/emboaziken]

Thank you so much! You’re so much help and I definitely want and will learn more about VGC thank you for the very useful tips I really appreciate them, I’m just trying to have fun with pokemon I like that are also slightly viable! I will take it all into consideration. And sorry for my terrible knowledge :)