Poseidon's Revenge (Peaked at #3)

[-Tsunami-]

Hello all. This is a team that I worked on with my tutor, Huntofthelion. It's a heavy offense rain team, but it just isn't working as well as it was about 2 weeks ago. Before the ladder reset, I got to a rating of 1459 with this team, and was tied for #3 on the ladder. The main problem is that, for some reason, I cannot beat sand (well some sand teams anyway). I do not have an Excadrill counter, so if they win the weather battle, it's basically GG. Also, Rotom-W using Volt Switch and Scizor using U-Turn forms an infinite loop in which I have to sacrifice something in order to have any chance at all. So I'm looking for some advice on this, so without further ado, I present to you: Poseidon's Revenge.

Teambuilding Process

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It all started with this mutated jelly thing. Hunt just used a random number generator and got the #13, which was the number Reuniclus was on the OU usage stats at the time. So we built the team around CM Reuniclus.

The next pokemon was Scizor, as it could beat Tyranitar, and Pursuit Latios for ko. It would also serve as my revenge killer, with a devastating CB Bullet Punch.

Next, Hunt told me I needed something with weather. I decided to use Politoed because I love Scarf Toed, and he could serve the role of the scarfer on my team, while also setting up weather.

The next pokemon I chose was Gastrodon, as it could destroy Thundurus and Rotom-W, which I was weak to, quite easily.

Gyarados was chosen because it could destroy pokemon like Gliscor, and with rain boosted waterfall coupled with Life Orb, Moxie, and Dragon Dance, it could become a real monster quite fast.

The final poke was a flying resist, to stop pokemon like Tornadus from destroying me. Calm Mind Jirachi was something I always wanted to try out, so that's what I used.

After getting completely and utterly destroyed by Nasty Plot Celebi (6-0) and Virizion, I decided to get counters for them. I decided to replace Gastrodon with a Latios, in order to outspeed many threats, kill pokemon like Blissey with Psyshock, and easily kill Virizion as well. Since I then lost my Thundurus check/counter, and I did not have much to take on Rotom-W, I decided to run a special wall Celebi. And with that, the team was complete.

In Depth:

Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Psyshock
- Surf
- Dragon Pulse
- Calm Mind

Calm Mind Latios is such a monster. Dragon Pulse is basic stab, and destroys other Dragon types. Surf is the main move I use, as with rain, it's stronger than Dragon Pulse. Psyshock destroys Blissey, Gastrodon, and Jellicent. Latios can also switch in to Rotom-W if Celebi cannot for some reason. I figured Psyshock would be better than Recover, and I think that was the right decision, as I have killed so many Blisseys with this thing. Even without a Calm Mind boost, this thing hits so hard. And with a Calm Mind Boost...well..good luck, because basically, you're playing against a Choice Specs Latios that has a Life Orb as well, not to mention in rain with Surf. It also destroys CM Virizion, and can switch in on Nasty Plot Celebi and beat it, unless for some reason, it's running Hidden Power Ice.

Xhizor (Scizor) (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Who doesn't love the standard CB Scizor? Adding 8 more speed lets you outrun most variants of Scizor, and hit them hard with Superpower. CB Bullet Punch destroys, making pokemon like Terrakion think twice before setting up. U-Turn is always good for scouting, and Pursuit is just amazing. You can play mind games with pokemon like Latios, one good prediction often being enough to take it out of the game for good. Scizor is a good switch in for T-Tar, being able to ko it with 3/4 moves. I can bring it in safely predicting either Stealth Rock or a Dark type move, which isn't as hard as you think. Once their Gliscor/Skarmory/Jellicent is gone...good luck trying to beat this thing that easily.

Politoed (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Perish Song
- Hypnosis

Scarf Toed <3 . Hydro Pump in the rain hits so hard, making this thing a great revenge killer. Perish Song can destroy Baton Pass, and can also be good when, let's say, the opponent's last pokemon is a Blissey, and all I have to beat it are Politoed and Celebi. Ice Beam destroys dragons, and if Dragonite users get cocky and go for a DD not expecting scarf...well then...bye bye Dragonite. Hypnosis, while really annoying when it misses, can make or break games, being able to put common switch-ins, especially Rotom-W, to sleep. Hydro Pump + Ice Beam can leave opponent's guessing on what to bring in, as their dragon will get wrecked by Ice Beam, and anything that doesnt resist Hydro Pump will wish that it was never born. Overall, Politoed is a solid revenge killer.

Serebii (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 240 SDef / 4 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Recover
- Thunder Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Giga Drain

My original Celebi. This is what I switch in to Thundurus most of the time, unless I'm absolutely positive that the opponent will not Thunderbolt, in which case, I go to Politoed. Thunder Wave is very useful, as with all the Nasty Plot Celebis running around, no one expects it. It can paralyze common switch ins such as Heatran, making them much easier targets. Giga Drain is basic stab, while Recover (obviously) provides the recovery necessary for a wall like Celebi. Hidden Power Ice was chosen in order to hit Thundurus, but it can also be used to hit Dragonite, Latios, etc. With rain, Celebi's fire weakness is nullified, making it a much better special wall.

Triton (Gyarados) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Fang
- Earthquake

Now this thing is just a monster. Do not underestimate the raw power of a Life Orb Gyarados in rain. 176 Speed allows it to hit 363 speed after a Dragon Dance, enough to outspeed all positive base 115s, most notably, Starmie. Waterfall destroys everything that doesn't resist/have an immunity to it in rain, Earthquake being able to wreck pokemon like Gastrodon and Jellicent. Ice Fang is chosen over Stone Edge because most of the time, it deals more damage with better accuracy. Ice Fang hits Celebi harder, a well as Salamence, Lati@s, Dragonite, etc. The best thing about Gyarados is Moxie. Want to send in Death fodder thinking one of your walls can tank my hit? Guess what, I just got another attack boost, so good luck taking me on. Letting Gyarados set up is basically a suicide wish.

WishUponMe (Jirachi) @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Thunder
- Water Pulse
- Calm Mind

Probably the star player of this team, no pun intended. So many people run this set now, it's ridiculous. That must mean it's good, right? Well...it's not...it's amazing. Substitute allows you to set up on Ferrothorn for free, which is especially useful because Ferrothorn is one of the most common switch ins to Jirachi. Water Pulse + Thunder is parafusion in attack form, boasting superb coverage. Scizor can help get rid of the opponent's Gastrodon with Pursuit so this thing can shine even more. It is so easy to set up with this thing, and the best part of all...It can set up on and beat Blissey 1 on 1. Yeah you heard that, it can beat the god of special walls one on one. How you may ask? Well, for starters, Water Pulse + Thunder will make it much harder for Blissey to get off a hit, and with Rain, Water Pulse gets powered up, and Thunder will never miss. The main reason, however, is that Jirachi boasts 101 HP subs, which is why 252 HP is absolutely crucial for this set. This is probably the only pokemon that can run Water Pulse effectively, and for good reason. This set absolutely destroys team, especially when with it's steel typing, it can set up on pokemon like Latios after they use Draco Meteor. Often times, opponents are forced to bullet punch my Latios with their CB Scizor, giving this thing a free chance to set up. Latios and Jirachi take down the opponent's walls together, both of them being able to tear through teams by themselves.

And that, my friends, is Poseidon's Revenge.

EDIT:
Thanks to some suggestions from Iron Bullet and Faladran, I have changed 1 member of my team and changed the movesets of Celebi and Latios.

The set for Latios is now:
Draco Meteor / Surf / HP Fighting / Recover
The evs are the same.


The set for Celebi is now:

Serebii (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 220 HP / 252 SAtk / 36 Speed
Modest nature
- Recover
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stealth Rock

And finally, Gyarados has been replaced with a Gliscor.

Akaba (Gliscor) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Speed
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Facade
- Taunt

Threatlist:

Excadrill: Probably the biggest pain to this team. If I lose Politoed, this thing sweeps me; however, when rain's up, this is a piece of cake to kill.

Tyranitar: Also a pain. Scizor can ohko it, Politoed can sleep it, and Gyarados can kill it, although it severely hinders my strategy with it's pesky Sand Stream.

Thundurus: Politoed can revenge kill it, and Celebi can take it on 1 on 1.
Scizor: CB Scizor is a pain. Jirachi can set up on it when it's locked into Bullet Punch, but the main problem comes when it uses U-Turn. I don't have a spinner, so Gyarados will keep on taking damage, meaning the only thing I really have to take it is my own Scizor.

Rotom-W: Celebi can beat it, and so can Latios. Volt Switch completely destroys me though, as Rotom-W + Scizor completely messes me up. By itself though, it's not a problem.

Celebi: If Latios and my own Celebi die, NP Celebi sweeps me. With them though, it's pretty easy to ko.

Reuniclus: Calm Mind isn't that much of a problem due to the amount of heavy hitters I have. Trick Room is a complete pain, as it will force me to just switch around, sacrifice some stuff, and eventually kill it with Scizor.

Virizion: Latios destroys it, and Scizor can do some major damage to it with Bullet Punch.

 

[Evire]

Ill be the first since you were whining :D your team seems pretty solid in my opinion :D but a grammar point, on jirachi's paragraph you wrote "make" instead of may lol "How you make ask?" :D

 

[dragonuser]

ur team looks solid except i would invet more evs i scizors speed than hp otherwise it looks good

 

[-Tsunami-]

Ill be the first since you were whining :D your team seems pretty solid in my opinion :D but a grammar point, on jirachi's paragraph you wrote "make" instead of may lol "How you make ask?" :D

uhh ok changed that xD

ur team looks solid except i would invet more evs i scizors speed than hp otherwise it looks good

I don't really see the point of that. CB Scizor isn't meant to outspeed much besides walls.

 

[IronBullet]

Hey,

This is an excellent offensive rain team, but you are very weak to common sand sweepers such as Terrakion, Landorus and Excadrill. It doesn't help that the Politoed set that you are running is quite frail and gets worn down easily, so it is more susceptible to losing weather wars. So, I would recommend running a physically defensive Gliscor over Gyarados. This will definitely be a hard decision for you seeing as Gyarados is so destructive under rain, but I feel that this will change this team for the better. Gliscor gives you a valuable counter to most sand sweepers, a stall-breaker, and another status absorber. Life Orb Gyarados has a short life span, and its Stealth Rock weakness coupled with your lack of spin means it isn't going to last very long. Gliscor also forms an effective defensive core with Celebi, not much is going to be able to get past them with their status immunities and respective bulk on the physical and special sides. The standard Gliscor set of Earthquake | Swords Dance | Protect | Ice Fang should work well, with EVs of 252 HP | 172 Def | 84 Speed with an Impish nature. You can fiddle with the moveset as you wish. Facade can be used over Ice Fang for better neutral coverage and power, while Taunt can be used over Protect to fare better against stall and shut down Skarmory and Ferrothorn. Facade is also excellent for luring in and wearing down Rotom-W.

I would also recommend trying out a specially defensive Jirachi over your current set to alleviate your lack of Stealth Rock and provide you with a counter to Reuniclus and a back up check to Thundurus. Jirachi also gains access to Wish, helping you to keep your team healthy and in particular Politoed, which could be pivotal in helping you win weather wars. The new set is Iron Head | Stealth Rock | Wish | Thunder, with EVs of 252 HP | 252 Sp Def | 4 Def with a Careful nature. A Sassy nature can also be used if you don't want to power down Thunder. Since this Jirachi is sort of redundant with your Celebi, you could opt for a different Celebi set. The most effective option would be to go for a Nasty Plot set, which allows Celebi to power through walls while maintaining its excellent bulk. The only downside to this is that HP Fire is powered down due to rain, so you can go for Psychic or stick with HP Ice. An offensive Celebi will greatly enhance your chances against opposing rain, and along with Gliscor and Scizor gives you an excellent core to use against stall. The alternate EVs are 220 HP | 248 Sp Atk | 40 Speed with a Modest nature.

Good luck!

 

[-Tsunami-]

Thanks for the rate Iron Bullet!
I'll try Gliscor over Gyarados, as it does seem to fix my weaknesses pretty well. I'm gonna keep my current Jirachi set for the time being, since it won me most of the games I played on the ladder. If things dont go well, I'll be sure to try out your Jirachi suggestion :)

 

[Faladran]

Cool team overall. I'm not going to suggest anything too major, since I don't want to mess up this team's overall structure. Gliscor is definitely worth trying out, since it happens to be one of the most useful things to run on a Rain team. You're fairly vulnerable to some hazard-based teams, so I'd personally go for Taunt > Protect.

I noticed you mentioned an issue with Sand. When I used Latios on a Rain team, I ran an LO set with Draco Meteor / Surf / HP Fighting / Recover. I like DM for the extra immediate power (which Latios is good at abusing), and HP Fighting hits Tyranitar and Ferrothorn hard, meaning you can use Latios as a lure of sorts. Surf + HP Fighting actually has a chance at KOing max / max Tyranitar after rocks, so just be sure to watch out for Chople variants. Recover is useful for extra longevity - this may be helpful for switching into Fire attacks from the likes of Heatran, particularly if you remove Gyarados.

Since you want to keep Jirachi's set, I would actually think about giving Stealth Rock to Celebi instead. Personally, I would just scrap the specially defensive version and go with a more offensive set to suit the team. The main advantage that set has is handling Thundurus, but you could always switch Politoed into HP Ice after a pivot. Stealth Rock is pretty invaluable for any team, and I think the overall moveset could be something like Stealth Rock / Leaf Storm / Recover / filler with 220 HP / 252 SAtk / 36 Spd Modest. Either an HP of your choice or Thunder Wave might be good choices for the last slot. Good luck!

 

[-Tsunami-]

Thanks for the rate Faladran!
The Latios seems interesting, I think I'll try that out. Tyranitar is always a pain. And yeah I knew I needed to have Stealth Rock somewhere but I had no idea where. I'll try it on Celebi, and change it to the version you suggested, as I noticed that Celebi is basically dead weight other than beating Thundurus/paralyzing some pokemon :)

 

[BKC]

Have you considered running Slowbro in Gyarados/Gliscor's place? Right now, a well-played HP Ice Landorus is going to absolutely slaughter you; Slowbro covers that weakness well, while still countering Excadrill, Conkeldurr and Terrakion. It's a naturally solid fit on this team thanks to rain boosting the power of its Scald.

Slowbro @ Leftovers | Bold | Regenerator | EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Scald | Psychic | Thunder Wave | Slack Off

As for a minor change, I'd run 200 HP / 56 Atk / 252 SpD as the EV spread on Scizor. Right now, Specs Latios 2HKO's everything on your team with a bit of prior damage and/or hazard support; this more defensive spread will allow you to trap it easily. The loss of power isn't a problem thanks to Scizor's high attack stat and the Choice Band. That's all I got, hope this helps. Cool team and good luck.

 

[-Tsunami-]

Slowbro might actually work now that I think about it. It can also T-Wave Rotom-W on the switch...hmm I think I'll try that. I've never used a Slowbro before so might as well see how it does :) With Regenerator, entry hazards shouldn't be too much of a problem I suppose. Thanks BKC :)

I'll also change the Scizor, especially because I just got done with a match where my Scizor got owned by Specs Latios x.x

 

[Aeroblacktyl]

You know, since you have plenty of offense, wouldn't it be more ideal to run a bulky Politoed? Repeated switching in to Tyranitar and gaining your Leftovers is very crucial. Remember that if you fire off any attack, you can get Pursuited, and that won't help one bit.

With that said, I really, really, really, really want you to keep Gyarados. Why? Simply cause it's fucking cooler than other Rain abusers. Although Frustration might work better over Earthquake. I can't imagine much that you'd want to Earthquake when you have STAB Waterfall in Rain to handle most things. Frustration will let you hit those pesky Rotom-W's for a considerable amount. Just Frustration on the obvious initial switch-in, and then DD the next time you can get in Gyarados.

But if you're so adamant on finding a way to handle Excadrill, just run Bronzong over Celebi. It can still Stealth Rock, and it absolutely rapes Landorus/Excadrill on sand teams. Let's face it, Celebi wasn't going to stop Thundurus anyways, not when you have to factor in that you might deal with Lum Berry variants, or Substitute ones that will just as effectively fuck you.

With that said, let's try to help in every little way we can by adding Quick Attack over Pursuit on Scizor. Let's face it, you're probably not ever going to Pursuit anything, and if you do, you're stuck in Pursuit and that's never a good thing. Quick Attack will at least help you manage things like Thundurus and Starmie and Jolteon and Infernape, where that extra damage over BP can be very helpful and crucial.