Can somebody help a new member with a D/P team?

[PointyHairedBoss]

First Post!
I'm not even close to being an expert on D/P so I need some help constructing a new team. I was thinking...

Infernape/Blaziken (Fire/Fighting): whichever of the two is better
Honchcrow (Dark/Flying)
Miltank (Normal)
Espeon (Psychic)
Swampert (Water/Ground)
And I was thinking a ghost or psychic type for my sixth member

[mr_pikachu]

Hey, PHB! Good to see a fellow Dilbert fan on the boards. Welcome to TPM!

The first thing I always do when evaluating a new team is checking the type chart to make sure there aren't any 3x weaknesses. Almost every new-member-team seems to have one or two of those... I'm come across teams with multiple 5x weaknesses. The fact that you've kept everything to 2x or lower means you're definitely on the right track.

I'd definitely advise you to go with Infernape as your first team member. It's incredibly fast, has a surprisingly good movepool (Flare Blitz + Close Combat = amazing), and is obviously just as easy to acquire as Blaziken.

Miltank's an interesting choice. To be honest, I'd almost tend more toward Blissey, as I think its traits as the ultimate Special Sponge are helped by the addition of physical and special moves for pretty much any given type (which means that you can get STAB and emphasize your strongest stats, even if they wouldn't have matched up before). But that's just my personal preference, as I've recently become a bit of a Blissey fanatic. It certainly can't take much in the way of physical attacks, so you have plenty of reasons to use something like Miltank instead.

As for the last member, I'd take a Ghost, if only because it's a little awkward to have two Psychics on the same team. Checking the type chart, it works pretty much the same way for taking hits, but I think it might negatively impact your range of attacks. Still, it could work out, I suppose.

The only real concern I have is in your attack types. Infernape, Miltank, and Swampert all emphasize physical attacks rather than special. Espeon's big on Special moves, but I think Honchkrow's more of an Annoyer than anything else (haven't tried one yet myself to be honest, but that's the impression I get looking at Murkrow).

That leaves you with only one good Special Sweeper, not counting your possible sixth member. Some of the Ghosts are good with Sp. Atttack, especially those that can use the so-called elemental beams (Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, and Flamethrower), so that's an option to get a little bit of a balance. If you're using Miltank primarily as a Tank, you end up with a 2-2 balance with your sweepers. So that could work. If you still find yourself in need of another special battler, you could (as mentioned before) drop Miltank for Blissey and pack it with the elemental beams. (In that case, you might want to substitute Skarmory for Honchkrow to make the deadly BlissSkarm combo.) There are a lot of options, but just pay attention to the types of attacks you're using.

All in all, it seems like there are several ways you can make this team work quite well. I look forward to seeing what movesets you develop!

[PointyHairedBoss]

Thanks for the help! I'll go with Infernape, but I think i'll keep Miltank since Blissey's defense is really low. As for the sixth member, im thinking ghost, ice, or dragon (kingdra, specifically). Can anybody recommend a special sweeper?