MrTankerson's Team Composition Guide

Welcome to MrTankerson's Team Composition Guide!

One of the most frequent questions I get is "Hey Tank, does my team look good to you?" I love that question. This game has so much awesome variety that there are so many different good team compositions that can be made, so here I will attempt to go over some of them with examples. Before I get started, I would like to remind everyone, as always, that this is opinion based. These are not the only, and may not be the best team compositions out there, these are just ones I have seen and had success with. I will include examples of Pokémon as well.

Things to Know

 * Different kinds of Pokémon will accomplish different things.  I will classify them as "Roles".  This includes, but is not limited to: healer, P damage, S damage, support buffer, debuffer, status caster, etc. (see next section).
 * Note that a Pokémon may fit in more than one role, and that a Pokémon is (almost) never limited to just its role.  For example, your support buffer may attack in-between buff timings.
 * In order to not limit a comp to a specific team, all comps will be filled by 6 roles, and then an example Pokémon will be given for each role. This Pokémon could, however, be substituted for (almost) any other Pokémon of the same role.  In time, I will update my tier list to include the role of each Pokémon.
 * The example Pokémon will be what I consider "obtainable" - base orange or lower (ex. VAR-Magikarp is fine since its base is EX-Magikarp (an orange), but Legend-Mew is not fine since its base is Mew (red)).
 * Some comps will have more than one of the same role, that is okay!
 * Do your best to have different types of Pokémon (fire, water, grass, etc.) so that you aren't destroyed by a bunch of Pokémon that are your counters.
 * I will try my best to classify how good the specific comp is. I will Tier them from S through F.  Let's get started!

Roles
Here are the different roles I will be using, and the explanation of each.
 * P Damage:  Your physical damage dealer.  Preferred AOE unless otherwise specified.  Note that it is okay for a primary P Damage role to also have a S attack (although not preferred).
 * S Damage: Your special damage dealer.  Preferred AOE unless otherwise specified.  Note that it is okay for a primary S Damage role to also have a P attack (although not preferred).
 * Damage Dealer:  A general damage dealer.  Usually in combination with another role, sometimes for the use of both P and S attacks with one Pokémon.
 * Status Caster: Primary job is to inflict some kind of status effect that skips your opponents turn (freeze, paralyze, etc.)  These do not have to be 100% hits, rng is allowed to be your friend.
 * Healer: Pokémon has some kind of way to heal the team.  Depending on the Pokémon's moveset, you either want it to have the most speed on your team (if it also has a buff or debuff), or the least speed on your team (if all it has is healing) so that it is able to go after your Pokémon are injured without wasting SP.  Also, bonus points for being able to dispell.
 * Support Buffer: This Pokémon is made to buff your other Pokémon.  Could be in the form of crit, defenses, attack, speed, or anything.  You want this to be the fastest Pokémon on your team so that you can buff your other Pokémon before they make their turn.
 * Debuffer: Primary job is to lower the stats of other Pokémon.  *Please note that this is one of the most underrated roles for taking down someone who is a higher power level than you.  If you buff your 1,000 attack pokemon by 20% you are gaining 200 attack, but if you lower an enemy's 10,000 attack Pokémon by 20%, they are losing 2,000 attack.  The more stats your opponent has, the more they will lose.*   < This is one of the biggest points that people miss.  It deserves its own page.  You also want this to be a faster Pokémon on your team so you can debuff the enemy team before both they, and your Pokémon, make their moves.
 * Ace:  The team is built around this Pokémon.  Buff it, heal it, protect it.  If this Pokémon is still alive, you have a good chance to win.
 * Crit: The purpose of this Pokémon is to do cool things when you crit, to crit often, or crit very hard.
 * Defensive:  In some way, shape, or form, this pokemon is meant to be a brick wall to your opponent.  Mostly used for immune to crit or dodge.  Almost always has some kind of attack as well.

Balanced Team Comp
This is the team comp you will try to start the game out with. While you will pretty much just stick to the early oranges you receive, you can modify your team a bit to fit the overall scheme of this comp that accomplishes the most out of early game. Will usually have more basic Pokémon, so I will use them as examples. Tier: B
 * P Damage: Charizard
 * S Damage: Venusaur
 * Debuffer/Damage Dealer: Articuno
 * Damage Dealer: Dragonite
 * Healer: Milotic
 * Support Buffer/Damage Dealer: Arcanine

Crit Team Comp
One of my favorites (mostly because I have a Groudon and have always loved Beedrill), this team relies on crits to win the game and takes advantage of some special Pokémon abilities to do tons of damage. Note that you do not need the top-tier crit Pokémon for this to be effective. Some other examples are listed. Tier: C (S when red)
 * Crit: Beedrill
 * Crit: Kingdra
 * Crit: Pidgeot
 * Support Buffer: Suicune
 * Support Buffer: Hitmonlee
 * Healer: Blissey

Defensive Team Comp
This team is only if you are a higher-powered trainer against a lower-powered person abusing crit. Can also sometimes work when even, or slightly below their power if their team comp is poor. Will show one of the more optimal teams (that is still obtainable) as an example since this is meant more for later game countering. Tier: C (A when countering crit)
 * Defensive: MEGA-Abomasnow
 * Defensive: MEGA-Pinsir
 * Support Buffer/Damage Dealer: VAR-Magikarp
 * Status Caster/Damage Dealer: MEGA-Ampharos
 * Healer: MEGA-Blissey (break at least 2 if possible)
 * Debuffer/Damage Dealer: VAR-Arcanine

Dodge Team Comp
This team attempts to abuse the dodge mechanic. Since most people ignore the accuracy boosting held items and buffs, you can catch some opponents off-guard with these types of teams. Main issue is, the pokes you can use are fairly limited. Tier: A
 * Defensive: MEGA-Lucario
 * Defensive: MEGA-Mawile
 * Defensive: MEGA-Gengar
 * Healer: Milotic
 * Support Buffer/Damage Dealer: Lilligant
 * Status Caster/Damage Dealer: MEGA-Articuno

Attack Team Comp
One of the most common team comps that I see. Instead of balancing their team out, they are a team of all attackers, just trying to nuke the other team down as fast as possible, power vs power. No healers, no support, no buffs, just slam their head into their opponent and hope they win. Tier: F
 * Damage Dealer: Charizard
 * Damage Dealer: Dragonite
 * Damage Dealer: Garchomp
 * Damage Dealer: Salamence
 * Damage Dealer: Haxorus
 * Damage Dealer: Gyarados

Important Pokémon
You will notice while looking at the team that there are some Pokémon types that show up in multiple teams. These are mostly the healers and some types of support Pokémon. Here are a few Pokémon that I would suggest that can work very well in just about any team (some ranked):
 * Healers:
 * 1) MEGA-Blissey- The fact that she can go mega here is one of the main reasons why she's the best obtainable healer.  If you can manage to break her twice, she also can't be crit which becomes very helpful as you progress further through the game.  Lastly, her ability to grant every Pokémon on her team SP per turn is invaluable.  Don't underestimate how much her passive is helping.
 * 2) Lilligant- Yes, I do actually value Lilligant over Milotic, but only slightly.  Lilligant's ability to both increase speed and dodge can be invaluable to the overall team.
 * 3) Milotic- Has potential to heal the most because of her passive.  Her main problem is SP costs.


 * Support Buffers:
 * 1) VAR-Magikarp-  This little fishy can do it all.  Speed itself up, slow the whole enemy team down, buff teammates defenses while also healing them, and freeze an enemy for 2 rounds.  One of the best supports in the game.  If you are VIP, get it, and break it 3 times.  If you are not, get friends who are and steal them slowly but surely from their friend wish sales, 10 a day.
 * 2) MEGA-Suicune-  The wannabe Magikarp.  Basically does what Magikarp does, just not as well.  However, if you can't get your hands on an EX-Magikarp, Suicune is still a good replacement.
 * 3) Arcanine- If you're limited to oranges, Arcanine can be a good option to buff speed, but also put out some decent damage.


 * Debuffer:
 * 1) MEGA-Gengar- An odd one of the bunch, no one else is like him, but SP manipulation cannot be ignored.  If someone is relying on constant attacks, reducing their SP by a huge 23 can be insane.  Not to mention making them miss.
 * 2) VAR-Magikarp- VAR -Magikarp is so good that you can use MEGA-Suicune as your buffer, and VAR-Magikarp as your debuffer if you wanted.  Liquidation is so good, and speed is the main stat debuffer.
 * 3) MEGA-Articuno- Another speed debuff, also helping avoid dodge here.  Articuno is also versatile, giving the opportunity to freeze in-between debuff rounds.

That is it for now! I will continue to update and add more as time goes on. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask, thanks!