Sup /vp/, I recently got Pokemon Y, after not really playing any after R/S and never doing any battling outside of the schoolbus. I'm having a lot of fun, still just doing the main story (I share a 3DS) but I'm interested in the competitive metagame. I was wondering if there are any beginner's guides or anything, because this is a whole different game basically. Watching a few videos left me impressed and confused, it's just constant switching and terrain/stat boosts/baton passes/leftovers, I have no idea what mindset one needs for this and when you even get to attack, but I'm interested.

I'm mainly concerned with what makes a team work or not work, there's so much more than type coverage and good damage output. I see that there are tiers, but that a lot of people seem to put some UU pokemon on teams with OU guys (probably out of personal preference, but I'm just curious as to how strict these tiers are, seeing as how I still love Snorlax and Heracross and don't know if they're still good)

I know there's Smogon but I wanted to ask my trusted 4chan bretheren before stepping into a zone of pure assburger, just any resources would be nice.

As for breeding, aside from making a competitive team, I just want to breed desirable pokemon so that I have a chance at filling my pokedex without having all the DS and GBA games