Whenever I would use the teambuilder, I would make great usage of the "Guessed Spread" feature because is useful to give Pokemon EV spreads that generally make sense. I think that it's a great feature, but there are a couple of things that I would alter about it:
24 Speed EV Skarmory
Giving 24 Speed EVs to Skarmory does not let it outspeed any meta-relevant Pokemon aside from minimum Speed Rattata and Honchkrow. The only source that gives 24 Speed EV Skarmory is this ancient BW OU speed tiers article; not only does it give a speed tier that is no longer relevant in any tier (the Pokemon in question that that article says it is creeping is maximum Speed Wobbuffet, which is no longer a part of high-level BW OU play), it gives a ton of Speed investments for other Pokemon that go unused (for instance, 88+ Lando-T to outspeed Jolly Breloom). Since the one source for this speed investment no longer really applies, I think that Skarmory doesn't need to be given 24 Speed EVs that don't benefit it. If the intent is for Skarmory to outspeed other Skarmory and use Taunt on them, then that should be left to the discretion of the teambuilder.
Base 100 Pokemon
Many Pokemon that have a base 100 Speed stat are given spreads that outspeed Jolly Tyranitar. This is a good thing (at least in tiers where Tyranitar is permitted) because this lets me not need to worry about having to deal with outspeeding Tyranitar. Here is an example:
Here, 32 Speed EVs get Jirachi up to 244 Speed, which outruns Jolly Tyranitar. Here's another example:
Here, 36 Speed EVs get Celebi up to 245 Speed, which also outruns Jolly Tyranitar. I'm not sure why it gets an extra 4 Speed EVs (as I've said above, speed creep should be up to the discretion of the teambuilder, not the guessed spread), but no worries, here's a final example:
Hang on, Shaymin isn't given any Speed EVs at all! This means that it won't get to outspeed Jolly Tyranitar (which I unfortunately had to find out mid-game). The base 100 Pokemon are inconsistently given Speed based on this code:
Zapdos, Shaymin: 0 Speed EVs
Tentacruel: 16 Speed EVs
Jirachi: 32 Speed EVs
Celebi: 36 Speed EVs
Volcarona: 52 Speed EVs (ends up with 249 Speed, which I'm pretty sure does nothing for Volcarona except tie with Jolly Chesnaught)
While I'm not familiar with the 11-year-old code that underpins the spread guesser, I do notice that there are fields that describe the format of the spread getting guessed. If we can modify this code to be more intelligent (only try and speed creep Tyranitar if the Pokemon is above X speed and if Tyranitar is legal within the format, for instance) or even if we just set all of the aforementioned base 100 Speed Pokemon (and maybe a couple of others) to just sit at 32 Speed EVs at minimum, then the spread guesser can be more helpful and less prone to tiny mistakes that will affect players in-battle.
Why Does This Matter?
As you can see by the symbol to the username, this user is new to competitive Pokemon and they got recommended a 24 Speed EV Skarmory set. If they were to get rated by me (in the context of a BW team), I would tell them to reduce Skarmory's Speed EVs because it will not meaningfully help Skarmory more than 4 or 8 EVs. However, a new player would have no idea why their Jirachi outspeeds Tyranitar but their Zapdos or Tentacruel doesn't. They would just click the big long button, load into a game, and lose their Zapdos in a situation that could have been avoided with a little forethought.
TL;DR:
24 Speed EV Skarmory
Giving 24 Speed EVs to Skarmory does not let it outspeed any meta-relevant Pokemon aside from minimum Speed Rattata and Honchkrow. The only source that gives 24 Speed EV Skarmory is this ancient BW OU speed tiers article; not only does it give a speed tier that is no longer relevant in any tier (the Pokemon in question that that article says it is creeping is maximum Speed Wobbuffet, which is no longer a part of high-level BW OU play), it gives a ton of Speed investments for other Pokemon that go unused (for instance, 88+ Lando-T to outspeed Jolly Breloom). Since the one source for this speed investment no longer really applies, I think that Skarmory doesn't need to be given 24 Speed EVs that don't benefit it. If the intent is for Skarmory to outspeed other Skarmory and use Taunt on them, then that should be left to the discretion of the teambuilder.
Base 100 Pokemon
Many Pokemon that have a base 100 Speed stat are given spreads that outspeed Jolly Tyranitar. This is a good thing (at least in tiers where Tyranitar is permitted) because this lets me not need to worry about having to deal with outspeeding Tyranitar. Here is an example:
Here, 32 Speed EVs get Jirachi up to 244 Speed, which outruns Jolly Tyranitar. Here's another example:
Here, 36 Speed EVs get Celebi up to 245 Speed, which also outruns Jolly Tyranitar. I'm not sure why it gets an extra 4 Speed EVs (as I've said above, speed creep should be up to the discretion of the teambuilder, not the guessed spread), but no worries, here's a final example:
Hang on, Shaymin isn't given any Speed EVs at all! This means that it won't get to outspeed Jolly Tyranitar (which I unfortunately had to find out mid-game). The base 100 Pokemon are inconsistently given Speed based on this code:
Zapdos, Shaymin: 0 Speed EVs
Tentacruel: 16 Speed EVs
Jirachi: 32 Speed EVs
Celebi: 36 Speed EVs
Volcarona: 52 Speed EVs (ends up with 249 Speed, which I'm pretty sure does nothing for Volcarona except tie with Jolly Chesnaught)
While I'm not familiar with the 11-year-old code that underpins the spread guesser, I do notice that there are fields that describe the format of the spread getting guessed. If we can modify this code to be more intelligent (only try and speed creep Tyranitar if the Pokemon is above X speed and if Tyranitar is legal within the format, for instance) or even if we just set all of the aforementioned base 100 Speed Pokemon (and maybe a couple of others) to just sit at 32 Speed EVs at minimum, then the spread guesser can be more helpful and less prone to tiny mistakes that will affect players in-battle.
Why Does This Matter?
As you can see by the symbol to the username, this user is new to competitive Pokemon and they got recommended a 24 Speed EV Skarmory set. If they were to get rated by me (in the context of a BW team), I would tell them to reduce Skarmory's Speed EVs because it will not meaningfully help Skarmory more than 4 or 8 EVs. However, a new player would have no idea why their Jirachi outspeeds Tyranitar but their Zapdos or Tentacruel doesn't. They would just click the big long button, load into a game, and lose their Zapdos in a situation that could have been avoided with a little forethought.
TL;DR:
- Skarmory doesn't need 24 Speed EVs recommended to it because 24 Speed EVs do nothing for it.
- Metagame-relevant base 100 Speed Pokemon are recommended Speed EVs inconsistently; give them all 32 Speed EVs and maybe try and implement a check to see if Tyranitar exists in the metagame in question for which the Pokemon is getting a spread recommended to it.
