There are many Pokémon who changed a lot between Advance and DP. Raikou, however, is not one of those Pokémon. This set, for the less observant readers, is pretty much identical to the standard Raikou in RSFRLGE. With the only real changes to his movepool being the addition of Shadow Ball to replace the now-physical Crunch, the addition of Discharge, and the ability to (sort of) use Hyper Beam more effectively, Raikou is more or less the same Pokémon it was in advance. This set works the same way it always did. Get a Substitute up against something that can't do 25% to you or use Calm Mind in order to prevent the opposition from doing that magical 25%, and then get a Substitute up and start Calm Minding. With enough Calm Minds up, Special Attackers will eventually need two or more hits to break your Substitute, allowing you to recover more Hit Points while shielded safely behind your Substitute. Much of the set-up fodder for this set from Advance is much less popular now or went off and evolved (Zapdos, Magneton, Milotic, Suicune), so setting Raikou up will take a bit more prediction than it has in the past. As far as EVs go you really don't need too much in Special Attack here, although investing at least 80-100 or so is beneficial since it's repeatedly getting boosted by Calm Mind. Speed is a huge deal since you want to get your Substitutes off before you get hit and in general with a Pokémon as quick as Raikou going first against other fast, defensively inept Pokémon is a big deal. Remaining EVs can be placed in Special Defense and HP, in order to help you survive powering up.
It might not be GSC anymore, but Raikou is still a capable Sleep Talker, particularly now that Spikes are so rarely used, as Stealth Rock is much less of a problem for Raikou coming in and out than three layers of Spikes tended to be. One of the primary benefits of this moveset is that it dodges the crippling effect that status effects tend to have the Substitute/Calm Mind version of Raikou. With Sleep Attacks on nearly every team, the value of a Sleep Talker is often underrated, and with a fairly solid base 90 HP and base 100 Special Defense, Raikou can live a long time when played conservatively. The EV Spread here is pretty defensive while still maintaining enough Speed to always outrun unboosted Garchomp. Obviously the goal here is primarily to take special hits, which Raikou absorbs much better than their physical counterparts due to a higher base special defense score, as well as the invested EVs.
Fairly standard Choice Specs user. Raikou is fast and hits hard with base 115 in both stats, allowing it to use the Choice Specs fairly well. The main problem with this set of course is the lack of move variety.... given how little Extrasensory and Shadow Ball cover you could throw a lot of potential fillers in since these last two slots aren't going to do very much anyway. If you just want to switch in and out you could use Raikou to set up Light Screen or Reflect, or even comedy Hyper Beam to go out with a bang on Pokémon that you can't Thunderbolt. Other OptionsFor a Legendary Pokémon Raikou is really limited in the movepool department. It can choose to use Discharge over Thunderbolt, trading 22.5 base power for a 20% greater chance to Paralyze on any given set; but, in general, Raikou is the type of Pokémon who benefits a bit more from the power Thunderbolt provides, with the main exception to this being the Sleep Talk set, which is more about longevity. It can do the whole Thunder + Rain Dance deal if that's what does it for you but Raikou is a Pokémon destined for greater things than that ridiculousness. While none of them fit into any of its standard sets very well, he learns Light Screen, Reflect, and Psych Up which are all potentially usable. While it's definitely overkill with Raikou's already incredibly high Speed, you could throw Choice Scarf on it in order to outrun nearly everything else even after one (and in many cases two) speed boosts. The benefit here, of course, is the element of surprise. Move options would be about the same as the Choice Specs set. Life Orb is another item you could fit in here with a similar moveset. EVsEVs are pretty straight forward. Raikou wants max or nearly max Speed on all of nearly all its sets in order to avoid taking hits, particularly deadly Earthquakes that will get thrown at it by pretty much everything under the sun. For the Calm Mind/Substitute set, it doesn't want too much Special Attack. Put EVs in Special Defense and HP—enabling it to stat up. For the Choice Specs (or even Life Orb) version it is best to have its EVs polarized offensively, focusing on Special Attack and Speed to allow it hit as hard and fast as possible. With Sleep Talk it can afford to have a little less Speed in favor of more HP and Special Defense to enable it to absorb special hits a bit better, but it still needs to be extremely careful not to eat random Earthquakes from other quick Pokémon. OpinionWhile it would certainly be unfair to say that the game is passing Raikou by, like a number of other Pokémon Raikou has changed very little since Advance and many other Pokémon have improved, making it worse by comparison. In spite of this, Raikou is fairly sturdy for a Pokémon as quick and powerful as it is, and while its movepool is subpar it does have the key moves with Hidden Power and Calm Mind that it needs to be successful. Raikou was a large part of the reason why teams felt the need to carry Blissey in Advance, and should players forget the fear Raikou once instilled in them, it is more than capable of surging back and sweeping teams. A number of changes to DP have hurt Raikou's effectiveness, however. Magneton, previously one of the Pokémon that Raikou set up the very best on, evolved and can now break Raikou's Substitutes much more easily. Raikou now has to play a much more dangerous prediction game and risk getting Thunder Waved or Exploded on. Many of the other Pokémon that Raikou found it easy to set up on are also seeing reduced usage, such as Vaporeon, and Milotic, further increasing the difficulty for Raikou to set up. Electivire's addition also does not please Raikou, as it defeats Raikou easily with Earthquake, is immune to Thunderbolt, and takes very little damage from Hidden Power. The popularity of teams that involve adverse weather through Tyranitar, Hippowdon, and Abomasnow slams Raikou as well, for Leftovers recovery is integral to its usage. CountersSpecial walls able to break Raikou's Substitute are a huge problem, and Seismic Toss Blissey as usual continues to be the bane of Raikou's existence. Raikou also has a very large problem with teams consisting of two ground Pokémon, one who can take Hidden Power Grass, and one who can take Hidden Power Ice, effectively walling it regardless of which Hidden Power it possesses. Of course even with only one of the two Raikou is walled when it has the appropriate Hidden Power, being walled by Swampert, Whiscash, Mamoswine and Quagsire with Ice and Garchomp, Flygon and Gliscor with Grass. Raikou without Calm Mind or Choice Specs will have trouble with many of the Grass Pokémon who are able to restore their own HP, such as Celebi, Venusaur, and Meganium. Raikou also can't do very much to Electivire, who can come in all day on Thunderbolts and frequently on unboosted Hidden Powers. Finally, many Ground Pokémon who are not weak to Ice or Grass have an easy time with Raikou, such as Steelix and Camerupt. Raikou is also trapped and slain by Dugtrio unless it has a Substitute up or is using Choice Scarf. Tyranitar takes advantage of his Sandstorm Special Defense boost to wall his attacks and OHKOs Raikou with Earthquake or severely damages it on the switch with Pursuit. Sandstorm will also destroy Raikou's survivability, as it needs Leftovers recovery for the Sub/Calm Mind set to work. Hidden Power: Ice, Grass, and in-game feasibilityLike many Electric type Pokémon, Raikou's movepool is a bit lacking in the creativity department, featuring virtually no quality non-STAB Electric attacks. In cases where Hidden Power is not available, Extrasensory or Shadow Ball can be substitute in on the Calm Mind or Sleep Talk sets, but there is a massive effectiveness drop-off. This is simply the nature of the beast with Raikou; Hidden Power is almost essential for it to be a threat. But which Hidden Power to use? In Advance there was a fairly difficult decision to be made, but in DP the benefits are a bit more lopsided. The primary target of Hidden Power Grass, Swampert, is not nearly as used as he was in Advance. The other Pokémon you would really want to use Grass for is Rhyperior, who thanks to Solid Rock is not really going to take acceptable amount of damage from an unboosted Hidden Power Ice. Most other Rock types(Tyranitar, Aerodactyl, etc.) take more damage from Thunderbolt, really limiting the effectiveness of HP Grass. HP Ice, on the other hand, deals with a lot of Pokémon better than any other move in Raikou's arsenal can, namely Garchomp, Flygon, Tangrowth, Salamence, Gliscor, and Celebi. Either element is a viable option, but the benefits of Ice seem to outweigh the benefits of Grass more in this generation than ever before. |
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