RE: Need Help new to VG Battles
For starters, it's best to look over and learn the ideas behind tiering. This helps you know where you need to start when building a team and what pokemon are allowed (and more importantly, what pokemon can hold their own in the tire you choose. For example, you probably wouldn't want to use a slow, pokemon with mediocre defenses like Emboar in Ubers, but it would do fine in it's home tier of RU). If you want, you can PM me and I'll guide you through the hardest steps to entering a competitive VG setting.
There are two immensely helpful 'tools' you can use to expedite and improve the quality of teams you build. First is using a simulator to try out a team before you actually train it in-game. It's easy to, once you decide on a strategy, have the first several versions of the team fail miserably due to unanticipated threats. Simulators allow you to fine tune the team without spending hours/days re-training pokemon for each change. Second, is using RMT threads. Reading other people's RMTs can often give you ideas and strategies you otherwise wouldn't think of (Smogon sort of falls under this idea) and posting your own RMTs can help you find holes you missed (most common are threats tha can rip through your team. Almost all of my early teams were weak to Keldeo, for example, and it wasn't until I posted a couple RMTs that this became apparent to me through the comments).
The main thing to remember is there is no such thing as a "perfect team." There will always be some counter you're helpless against or someone who straight up out-plays you (or out-lucks you
). The key is to minimize potential counters while making the most effective team possible, and you don't have to do it alone. There are plenty of players out there willing to help.
