Rain Rain Rain

[sFire]

Hello Smogon. This is my first RMT. I used to run a weatherless team, but as I saw how overuaed and powerful weather teams were, I decided to make my own. I've been using this team for about two weeks now and it does well against many teams. So here it is.

Politoed @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 226 HP / 252 Def / 32 Spe
Nature: Bold
-Scald
-Protect
-Toxic
-Perish Song

Politoed is key in this team. He sets up Rain and acts as a physical wall Scald is used for STAB and Perish Song helps me get rid of Baton Passers and anything that attempts to set up. Protect hepls me stall out those Dragon Dance setups, as well as get some Leftovers HP and Toxic damage. Toxic is there for those predicted switch-in walls, such as Jellicient. I prefer Defensive Politoed over Offensive because its durability helps me win those annoying weather wars.

Toxicroak @ Black Sludge
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spe
Nature: Adamant
-Drain Punch
-Sucker Punch
-Substitute
-Bulk Up

Toxicroak is one of the MVP's in this team. He usually comes in on a wall and uses Substitute to protect him from Paralysis, Leech Seed, etc. He can then setup with Bulk Up and attempt a sweep. He can also come in on Paralyzed foes and setup. Toxicroak is my main answer to those disgusting Chanseys and Blisseys. He is also my only Physical attacker on this team.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Nature: Relaxed
-Thunder Wave
-Leech Seed
-Power Whip
-Stealth Rock

This guy is here to wall whatever he can. He also sets up Stealth Rocks. Thunder Wave helps me slow down those speedy attackers so I can finish them off with Latios or Tornadus. It also hepls Toxicroak setup. It cripples those predicted offensive switch-ins. Leech Seed helps with extra damage and that recovery that he needs.

Tornadus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 8 Def / 248 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
-Hurricane
-U-turn
-Focus Blast
-Sleep Talk

Tornadus' Hurricane is deadly. It gets a chunk of damage on most Pokemon. It's guaranteed to hit with rain. U-turn helps me switch out, while getting in a bit of damage. It also helps him recover some HP. Focus Blast is there for those Steel types. Sleep Talk helps me deal with those Brelooms.

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
-Surf
-Draco Meteor
-Roost
-Psyshock

Latios is my Special Sweeper. He has a pretty good type coverage. Surf dpes 50% more on rain and scares away those Heatrans, Gliscors, and Terrakions. Psyshock deals with Fighting types and gives Latios some Physical attacking power. Draco Meteor destroys anything that doesn't resist it. Roost lets me recover that Life Orb damage.

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Nature: Timid
-Thunder
-Substutute
-Hidden Power Fire
-Magnet Rise

Magnezone's main purpose is to trap the Steel types like Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and Scizor. Thunder is STAB and does tons of damage. Sunstitute keeps Magnezone from being Tunder Waved or Leech Seeded by Ferrothorn. It also lets me get one more Thunder off on whatever comes in after I kill Ferrothorn. Hidden Power Fire checks those Scizors and Ferrotorns, even in the rain. Magnet Rise is unexpected and leaves anything with Earthquake thinking what to do.




I feel like this team needs a priority move, as I sometimes have troubel with Scarfed users. It also has trouble with Landorous and Mamoswine. Anyways, thanks for taking the time to see my first RMT. Of course, comments and suggestions are appreciated.

 

[BattleStar]

Hey there sFire,

Nice first post on smogon! Rain teams are certainly common but there is a lot of stuff you can do with them.

Now I hope you aren't mad but perhaps you should consider switching your MVP out for a time to give some other Pokemon a test. Who knows they may turn out to be the real MVP. Seeing as you said you have trouble with Mamoswine and Landerous here is a set that I hope can help.

Mamoswine

Mamoswine@ Life Orb
252 Atk/ 252 Spe/ 4 HP
Thick Fat
Jolly
-Ice Shard
- Super power
- Earthquake
- icicle crash

Here is something that you yourself asked for and need for your team. It's all here a priority, Landerous, and Mamoswine counter. Ice Shard is a great priority move you will find yourself using on all sorts of key targets, including Landerous. Super power is used in this case over Stone Edge to let you primarily counter other Mamoswine. You will be able to counter all adamant Mamoswine and come to a speed tie with other Jolly ones. You will also have all most if not more coverage you had for Croak.

Edit: If you aren't sold however you may want to turn to a more standard Pokemon for rain and the king of Priority; Scizor!

Scizor Set

Scizor@Choice Band
252 Atk/ 248 HP/ 8 Spe
Adamant
Best of luck and keep on improving!
-U-turn
- Bullet punch
- SuperPower
- Pursuit

I think you might like this set much better. It provides the same coverage Croak has but more! Steel typing is very appreciated for your team and rain only improves it! This is also a solid counter to basically all Mamoswine sets. You can also be able to check certain variants of Landorous . Overall this is a pretty straight forwards set. I am confident you can find succes with this one!

 

[Electrolyte]

Hi, nice team

As you have stated, your team is quite weak to Landorus / Mamoswine, and just faster ground types in general. Your team could have some trouble getting past special walls- since, you only have one physical attacker, Toxicroak, which is neither fast nor powerful. Sand teams could be a hassle for your to face too, as many carry fast Fighting / Dragon types that can use SE coverage to mow down your team. I think Magnezone is what's holding you back- and a more offensive pokemon over it would help. You're not really that succeptable to being walled by Steel types, for Toxicroak handles Ferro / Forretress and Skarm can be worn down by powerful neutral moves. Jirachi could be a problem for you, but Magnezone isn't the best way to beat it anyway, so you're still going to have trouble there. To help you beat Sand sweepers and to help muscle past some special walls like Jirachi, I think choice Specs Keldeo over Magnezone would be a great help.

Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Timid / 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hydro Pump / Secret Sword / Hidden Power Ghost / Icy Wind

Keldeo patches up your weaknesses pretty well. It's quite fast with its 108 Base speed, letting it out speed all unboosted Dragons bar Lati@s. It's extremely powerful in Rain- Specs Boosted Rain boosted STAB boosted Hydro Pump reaches an explosive 405 Base Power, and when coming off of Keldeo's good base 129 SpA, walls will come crashing down. Keldeo easily mows through all Steel types, including Jirachi, with Hydro Pump / Secret Sword. It beats Sand sweepers such as Terrakion / Landorus easily, HPump OHKO'ing both, while neother can OHKO back without rare SE coverage. Blissey / Chansey fall quickly to Keldeo's Sexret Sword as well, clearing the way for Latiosn/ Tornadus sweep. Dragons will also fall, as Icy Wind hits many of them hard despite being weaker in base power. Jellicent and Lati@s, who can also be a problem defensively, will also go down from repeated HP Ghosts. Hydro Pump is for obvious powerful STAB, and Secret Sword gives you powerful secondary STAB that hits past special walls too. HP Ghost and Icy Wind are coverage moves, hitting Psychic / Ghost types and Dragon types, respectively.

Keldeo helps your team a lot, but it doesn't give an answer to fast setup sweepers or choices pokemon. To help with patch up this problem and give you a great revenge killer, I'd suggest you use Choice Scarf over Life Orb on Latios, and then give it Trick over Roost. These changes turn Latios into a fast cleaner / revenge killer that can also help support your team and cripple defensive teams with Trick. With a Scarf, very few things out-speed Latios in OU, even at +1. This lets you use Latios to switch in to DDancers or QD'ers and knock them out before they setup further and become a problem. Latios's great resistances and special bulk also let it take a hit or two, letting it defeat priority sweepers such as Dragonite or Breloom too. It can easily revenge Fighting types with Psyshock, something none of the rest pf your team can do, and it can also punch holes early game with Draco Meteor.

For one last touch up, I'd use a spread of 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe Naive, as this gives you an optimal HP number for Regenerator and SR switch ins as well as giving your U-Turns the oomph to hit Lati@s fairly hard.

Good luck! I hope I helped!

 

[Mr. Green]

Hi, there

Your team is very weak to Mamoswine and Landorus who moves super effective on 5/6 of your team, to solve these problems enough put Rotom-W instead of Magnezone, this however, because your team does not have so much trouble against steel which the most common are Skarmory, Jirachi, Ferrothorn and Forretress who may be affected also by effectively neutral moves like Drain Punch Toxicroak, or you can use Ferrothorn with Leech Seed and Thunder Wave, Surf Latios also affects them effectively and Tornadus-T also. The only one that might cause problems is Jirachi, but Magnezone is not the best way to hit especially under the Rain. To really do a lot of damage in the Rain especially Jirachi, you should Choice Specs instead of Life Orb Latios on with Trick> Roost. This makes a Latios Revenge-Killer, very powerful offensively, capable of killing Chansey and Blissey in two attacks Psychock, and with a powerful Surf in the Rain.
as last thing put Superpower> Focus Blast of Tornadus-T, this to hit better Heatran and Tyranitar, since both are always marked on special defense would stand a better Focus Blast, instead of a more dangerous Superpower.
Then I would change the nature Naive not to lose power and even Superpower U-Turn, the evs put them 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP, 8 evs in defense at the end of no use, are two single points. That is all.
Good luck, with your team!

Set

Hide

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Pain Split

I think it's better to spring up from Rotom-W and Landorus Mamoswine, that Keldeo might still be ok for Mamoswine, but not for Landorus, because once you use Rock Polish surpasses in speed and damages you much with Earth Power, counting you're no spinner and Keldeo will also take damage from Stealth Rock every time he enters the same Mamoswine with a simple to predict Earthquake might hurt you, while Rotom-W can easily get on every move of both and kill them with Hydro Pump.


Choice Specs > Life Orb (for Latios)
Trick > Roost (for Latios)
Superpower > Focus Blast (for Tornadus-T)
252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP (for Tornadus-T)
Naive > Timid (For Tornadus-T)

 

[Mosquiton]

Hi there, nice rain team!

The first thing I notice is that your team is a bit weak to rainstall, so i want suggest a quick change to fight them better.
I advise you to change the set of Toxicroak making SwordDance @Life Orb with 3 attacks: Drain Punch, Sucker Punch and ice Punch, so you will have more power in only a turn to create holes in defenses.
With Ice Punch your coverage increases and you can hit all the walls much harder: Chansey, Gliscor, Amoonguss, Slowbro, Ferrothorn Forretress & stuff.
With Life orb you have further 30% boost to your attacks but you los 10% of your life every time that you attack but thanks to DrySkin be able to recover life if there is rain in the field.
At this point I would focus on Tornadus.
I've tried all his sets and no one is better than the Naive with Superpower.
With superpower not run the risk of failure, also shoot more effectively Tyranitar in sand because with focus blast would have the special defense boosted of 50%, could you also do more damage to Chansey and Blissey.
Last thing I'll note that HP fire under rain has half-power and that you do more damage on scizor with thunder, so i want I suggest you to change the Magnezone's set in the SubChargeBeam with HP ice, so you can boos in peace if you can lock on Scizor BulltPunch, ferrothorn or Forretress, so you can make another kill after you've killed the steel.
Hp ice need to hit Lati@s, Landorus, landorus-t,-t thundurus and stuff, otherwise it may invalidate your boosts in Special Attack and revengekill you.

Sets:

Hide

Toxicroak (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Drain Punch
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Ice Punch

Tornadus (Tornadus-T) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Sleep Talk

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SAtk / 220 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunder
- Substitute
- Charge Beam
- Hidden Power [Ice]

 

[Reymedy]

Hi, I've been looking this team, and while you don't seem to be active on it, I wanted to give it a rate.

I'm not gonna say every single threat I see because people told about it before pretty well.
However to me, you'd benefit a lot from some advices on your team building.

So here we go :

You start with Politoed, allright. Then obviously Tornadus-T as Rain abuser, allright.
You add Ferrothorn for SR and to fix weaknesses, allright classic stuff here.

Then one thing is annoying for your team and for many Rain offense teams, Keldeo scarf. For this matter, you add Toxicroak. Allright, I like it.

But then, I believe that everything goes wild with Latios and Magnezone which, I assume, is here to trap Steel walling Latios' stabs.

I don't believe this is a good idea because it does not deal so well with the threats of your classic Rain core.
Basically, you should have a better answer to Sub/CM Jirachi because at the moment, he does set-up on anything. Yes, even Magnezone since HP Fire is ruined by Rain (so Thunder does more damages), and after 3 CM I believe that you can't break his subs iirc. In fact, Jirachi can come in on almost anything, Sub or CM, then you have two turns to para him big time or it's lost.

Your only Rock resist is Ferrothorn, weak to fight. So Terrakion can be an issue, especially a Sub/Salac set because it will be really hard for you if not impossible to deal with once he sub up.

As many other Rain teams, you're weak to some Rain sweepers like Thundurus-T and Tornadus-T etc. at the moment.

This is why, I would get a SubCM Jirachi in this team, because it does really well against opposing Rain teams, it can take a hit from Terrak/Keldeo and retaliate if needed.

Now I'd say that you definitely need something for fast threats that have a good coverage against your team.
A scarf Keldeo would be perfect. But it's really classic and all, so you can use it, but if you want something more "funky" you can use that :
Latias Scarf. Yes, why this over your Latios ? basically, because you can take a HP Ice from Modest LO Thundurus (let's say he did use Agility) better.
A Latios gets killed after 2 SR damages.
Moreover you're kinda weak to Venusaur if Sun wins the battle, Latios gets killed by a Timid LO Venusaur (the only version faster than Scarf Ti@s) using +2 Sludge Bomb.
On the other hand 252SpAtk Life Orb +2 Venusaur (Neutral) Sludge Bomb vs 4HP/0SpDef Levitate Latias (Neutral): 83% - 99% (253 - 300 HP). Guaranteed 2HKO.
I found it funny, so it could be a cool last resort solution. Not even saying that noone will predict a Scarf Latias, so they will let their Keldeo/Terrak in to hit it for instance. This twist can be game breaking for you =)

Finally I would change the Toxicroak set like said above.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait : Serene Grace
EVs : 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- Psychock / Psychic
- Substitute
- Calm Mind

Latias @ Choice Scarf
Trait : Levitate
EVs : 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psychock
- Surf
- Trick

Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Ice Punch

 

[sFire]

Hey everyone

Sorry that I haven't replied to this thread in a while, I just didn't have the time.
Anyways, thanks again for all of your responses. I have tried all of your suggestions and have switched Magnezone for Scarf Keldeo. I have also replaced Toxicroak with Choice Band Scizor and have changed Tornadus' EVs, Focus Blast for Superpower, and its nature to Naive. However, against a Sand Stall team I faced, I was having trouble breaking its walls and getting damage. Maybe if I include a setup sweeper in the team that can help? Any suggestions?

 

[sFire]

And now that Tornadus T is moved to Uber, I need something to replace it. Any ideas?

 

[Super Mario Bro]

And now that Tornadus T is moved to Uber, I need something to replace it. Any ideas?

I have this problem on one of my teams, and to tell you the truth, it's almost impossible to find a replacement that isn't strictly inferior to T-T. On your team, your best bet would probably be Scarf Moxie Gyarados. He's able to check many of the same things as Tornadus-T, while also having the jump against +1 Dragonite. This is the set I am talking about:

Gyarados @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake

Good luck!