This set is insanely scary once it sets up. Dragon Dance + Life Orb + STAB + Outrage + 438 Atk does more than an Adamant Groudon Swords Danced Earthquake. After a Dragon Dance, Rayquaza is faster than pretty much anything, so you can at least get a good hit before the opponent strikes. Don't use Outrage in the early game, because Steel-types will wall you quickly. If you get confused, switch out. By that time you should have at least destroyed 2 guys. Leave it to the late game for sweeps. Try getting this in on a Choice Banded Earthquake and it will sweep. Dragon Danced Outrage does 68% min on a max HP + max Def Bold Lugia. Use it with Stealth Rock and Lugia will get stoned. This set fears decently defensive non-Dragon Arceus that carries Ice Beam, and without Overheat, Skarmory can walk over you by taking 40%-47% from Dragon Danced Outrage and then phazing you off, or possibly Roosting on you in hopes of leeching more Life Orb damage and THEN phazing you out. Overheat also destroys Heracross and can be the choice over Earthquake to hit both Metagross and Skarmory while you still have another option. However, Heatran can be problematic because you'd be forced to switch or use Outrage and suffer a Hidden Power Ice or possibly Choice Specs Dragon Pulse. ExtremeSpeed is for Deoxys-A with a Speed boosting nature. Dragon Claw is there if you believe you can KO something without having to be locked into Outrage (such as Palkia, other Rayquaza, Latias, and Latios). Crunch is for Mewtwo and Mew if, once again, you don't want to lock yourself into Outrage. Dragon Fang/Plate is an alternative hold item to this if you don't like receiving constant recoil. If you use Jolly, you'll lose firepower, but will not be outsped by Speed boosting natured Deoxys-A and Scarfed base 90s. With 32 HP EVs, you have 359 HP to take minimum Life Orb recoil percentage.
This set takes advantage of Rayquaza’s often overlooked base 150 Special Attack in order to cripple the standard Rayquaza switch-ins. Draco Meteor is obviously your main form of attack and is what you should be leading off with most of the time. Your opponent will be shocked when their Rayquaza counter is met with a Draco Meteor off of 518 Special Attack. Rayquaza’s main counters, Groudon, and Lugia, are both maimed by this set. Only the most defensive of Groudon will survive the first hit while standard Lugia will always be 2HKOed with Stealth Rock on the field. Fire Blast takes care of the common Special Defensive Steels such as Metagross and Jirachi that think they can wall Draco Meteor after you reveal it. Fire Blast is listed over Flamethrower since the set relies on sheer power to avoid taking any damage so while missing 15% of the time might be a negative, the extra power is almost a must. Thunderbolt is so you can deliver a 2HKO on Kyogre and possibly Lugia without having to worry about switching out after the Special Attack drops from Draco Meteor, which comes in handy given Rayquaza’s weakness to Stealth Rock. ExtremeSpeed, on the other hand, lets you clean up weakened Pokémon who threaten to ruin your fun. However the main reason for using Extremespeed is for the OHKO on Deoxys-A (though watch out for Focus Sash if it hasn't taken any damage yet). The last slot is mainly for Blissey, who walls the first three attacks. Brick Break will always 2HKO Blissey unless it is Bold with max HP, something rarely, if ever, seen in Ubers. Brick Break also provides the advantage of not locking you in like Outrage would. However, what makes Outrage usable is the sheer amount of power behind it. Even with no attack boost, a STAB Outrage off of 449 Attack is nothing to scoff at. 216 Speed EVs with a positive nature outspeeds all base 90 speed Ubers and Lugia who sit at 307 in order to do the same. However, it’s perfectly fine to move those Attack EVs into Speed in order to attempt a speed tie with other max Speed Rayquaza or if you are simply paranoid that Lugia may be running a few extra Speed EVs. Also if you decide to run both ExtremeSpeed and Outrage, you could move some Special Attack EVs into Attack in order to hit harder from the physical side.
Dragon Dance is often used to compensate for Rayquaza's below average Speed, boosting its Attack along the way. This makes it seem superior to Swords Dancing, which, while boasting an unparalled Attack score, leaves it vulnerable to threats such as the Lati@s, Darkrai, and Choice Scarf Kyogre. However, this set attempts to patch that up with one of Rayquaza's many exclusive moves: Extremespeed. With a bit of help from residual damage such as Stealth Rock, even the great walls such as Lugia and Giratina go down in a hit, leaving those battered Palkias, Mewtwos, and Deoxys(any version) as easy picking. While it may seem harsh to forget STAB on any pokemon, Waterfall is recommended over Dragon Claw to hit Groudon, among others, harder. It also comes with a handy 20% flinch rate, should one find him/her-self in a tight spot. If you don't think you can let go of STAB, or would like to hit Deoxys-D and Giratina harder, Dragon Claw is always a good second choice. For the last spot, Earthquake is best to take steels out of the picture that would ruin your sweep. If Lugia causes a problem for your team, or if you have Magnezone or Dugtrio to take those grounded steels, Stone Edge is the one for you. The EV spread hits a good HP number that rounds down Life Orb and Stealth Rock while also outspeeding minimum Lugia. It's useless to max speed unless one is using a Focus Sash, as Lugia, if it runs speed, always has a minimum of 290, always beating Adamant Rayquaza. Life Orb gives enough power to guarantee certain KOs with a single Swords Dance, and is thus the preferred item. Focus Sash is a good alternative, however, as it guarantees a Swords Dance, and can make Rayquaza more powerful than the Life Orbed version if it gets a free stat up on the switch, since it will be free to do so again. This nets it 3x more power compared to Life Orb's 2.6x. Taking any kind of residual damage ruins the Focus Sash, making Life Orb the more reliable item. Rayquaza should usually be using an Adamant nature, since Extremespeed will be its most commonly used attack. If one is paranoid of an opposing Rayquaza’s Extremespeed, Jolly could be used over Adamant. Jolly should also be used if Rayquaza finds itself with Swords Dance and Outrage on the same set. However, Outrage is not recommended as it makes Rayquaza a very easy pokemon to revenge-kill, especially in ubers. It does have the benefit of OHKOing both Groudon and Lugia after an SD.
This set reminds us very much of the Choice Specs Salamence set in the OU metagame. Rayquaza is basically that on steroids minus the Intimidate. Watch out for Blissey, Lugia and Cresselia. Brick Break stops Blissey cold, though.
Not as scary as the Life Orbed Dragon Dancer set, but this set allows a hard hit without setting up. Choice Scarf is for speed, but you'll lose KOing things and may just get Ice Beamed into oblivion. Crunch hits Mewtwo hard and may even OHKO it (definite OHKO if its a -Def nature). Last move depends. You can OHKO Skarmory with Fire, Deoxys-A/Ninjask with ExtremeSpeed, or have an extra Dragon move to beat things up with, but at the risk of being locked. Earthquake is for Heatran and Dialga, while Dragon Claw hits Dragons which compose quite a bit in the Uber metagame Other OptionsThunder Wave can cripple things like Arceus switching into you, but you shouldn't really be focusing on this and you should focus more on setting this thing up. Ice Beam is pretty useless with Draco Meteor, but you can knock down Groudon without suffering a Special Attack drop. Rayquaza is capable of producing 101 HP Substitutes if you want to block any attempts to Seismic Toss or status you. Beware, however, because Blissey / Deoxys-D may carry Ice Beam just for this, or just for Rayquaza in general. Bulk Up is rather novelty but you can use this move to survive a Choice Banded Stone Edge from Groudon and OHKO back with Outrage if you're holding a Life Orb. Toxic can poison Lugia and Cresselia on the switch, making them useless at tanking, but once again you should be more focused on the sweeping part. Sleep Talking an Outrage doesn't get you locked, so it's worth a shot. Rest can be used for defensive purposes, but it is rather novelty because Rayquaza dies very quickly. Focus Sash lets Rayquaza "survive" a powerful hit, and then pull off a Dragon Dance and Outrage to almost guarantee at least one KO on the opponent. It makes a good lead because it destroys both Mewtwo and Kyogre, and does not fear Sandstorm thanks to Air Lock. However, you should watch out for Metagross switching into you when you try and Outrage these leads. EVAll EVs are included within their sets. Coincidentally, 216 Speed EVs give Rayquaza 280 on the neutral Speed (outspeeds neutral base 90s), and 308 at the +Speed ones (outspeeds Jolly Groudon/Kyogre). For the Dragon Dance set you can run max Speed if you want to hopefully outrun other Rayquaza if you don't think the HP will be helping it much due to Life Orb recoil. I inserted 4 points to anything else besides HP because if they were in HP, that would make Stealth Rock a 4HKO and let Rayquaza take maximum damage from Life Orb. OpinionOne of the most threatening forces in the uber metagame that should always be considered when making a team. With one Dragon Dance, it is capable of sweeping half a team until Outrage confuses it or if Life Orb recoil destroys it. More often than not the disadvantageous Pokémon that faces Rayquaza will have to stay in; otherwise one Dragon Dance on their switch will lead to their demise, and it's better to hit it hard before it does that. However, he comes with a drawback of not switching very easily. With the addition of Stealth Rock and Dragons, Rayquaza's only safe switch ins are Kyogre's Choice Banded Waterfall, Groudon's Choice Banded Earthquake, the occasional Darkrai, Choice Scarf Heracross (Choice Band 2HKOs Rayquaza), and Ho-oh (but not if it's using Sacred Fire or Hidden Power Ice). In general, Rayquaza's main switch ins are by using its resistances and the opponent's Choice items. Rayquaza works extremely well with Stealth Rock because Lugia is weak to it, and it also destroys Focus Sashers trying to ruin this guy's fun. CountersA Steel-type Arceus with a lot of Defense and HP can take a Dragon Danced Earthquake (even with Life Orb), and OHKO back with Ice Beam. It is also a good switch in when Rayquaza is locked into Outrage. Any defensive Arceus not weak to Ground or Dragon (most commonly Fighting and Grass-types) with at least 64 Defense EVs and maximum HP can survive even a Dragon Danced, Life Orb boosted Outrage and OHKO back with Ice Beam. Cresselia can survive Outrage with its high HP / Defense and OHKO with Ice Beam when Life Orb damage is taken into account, but is severely dented by the Choice Specs set. Skarmory can come in on Rayquaza without Overheat / Fire Blast and laugh at it. Lugia can also switch in and OHKO with Ice Beam, but it will need a lot of HP and Defense to survive a hit, and Stone Edge will hurt Lugia. Also, Stealth Rock will severely hinder Lugia's ability to wall you. Metagross can switch in on Outrage / Draco Meteor and KO back with Ice Punch or maybe Meteor Mash. If you're running Adamant, a Hasty Deoxys-A will outspeed you and KO you, even if you Dragon Danced, with Ice Beam or Ice Punch, and often with Choice Banded Rock Slide. Things like Choice Scarf or Focus Sash Palkia / Latios / Latias / Mewtwo or generally any Pokémon with Ice Beam or a powerful SE move can surprise this Pokémon's reign of terror. Extremely defensive Groudon can survive Outrage and KO back with Stone Edge. Rayquaza is also weak to Stealth Rock, which can be bad for it since it turns the opposing Heracross' Close Combat or Megahorn from a 3HKO to a 2HKO. Even if Rayquaza survives, its HP will be less than 10% and will die to Life Orb recoil after executing an Outrage. |
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