Ojama
Banned deucer.
approved by kd24
Hey guys, I know we have been talking a lot about weathers impact on the metagame these last few months but we clearly missed an important point : weatherless teams. Deoxys-D recently got banned and it was without any doubt the most important member of weatherless teams. "Deo-D Teams", as people named them, didn't really care about the opposite weather. So the question is, are weatherless teams still viable in the current metagame or is it clearly unviable due to the fact that Drought and Drizzle prevent players from using this kind of teams.
I'm starting this thread now because I have been laddering a lot these last few weeks just to see if I would be able to reach the top ladder with weatherless teams. I did not ladder on PS but on PO, where Tornadus-T and Deoxys-D are still allowed which was even harder for me. I picked #1 with 2 alts and with 2-3 different teams. It was extremely easy with one of them because it was less weak to Tornadus-T. But anyway, we don't care about Tornadus-T since it's banned here, but it's still important to point out that even with one of the strongest rain abusers, I still managed to get first on ladder.
Teams I used were :
- Scizor / Latias / Rotom-W / Jirachi / Landorus / Terrakion
- Breloom / Latias / Keldeo / Jirachi / Landorus / Terrakion
In each of them, I only have 2 Rain switch-ins, which could have been annoying but to be honest it wasn't that hard to beat rains with these teams. Tornadus-T was the only thing that was really annoying, the rest was quite ok to handle. Actually, Rain Stall Teams are the biggest issues for Weatherless Teams because Tentacruel, Ferrothorn and Jirachi are extremely hard to handle but it's quite manageable. That's why I had to use SubPunch Breloom (so with Toxic Orb + Poison Heal) with a Bulky Spread to be able to switch on Tentacruel and Ferrothorn easily. With the other one I was always leading with Rotom-W so I can burn Ferrothorn very early in the game. People always lead with their Weather Inducer against a Weatherless Team and since Ferrothorn and Tentacruel are almost always in Rain Teams, they lead with Politoed so I have a free Will O Wisp. Basically, Rotom-W was my best answer to Rain Stalls because it resists extremely well, gets a spikes + toxic spikes immunity and has a status move + pain split. I couldn't use Keldeo in the first one because the Team would be too Rain Stalls weak so that's why I'm using Rotom-W.
What about Jirachi's case? It was the biggest issues for both Teams since it can paralyze everything and flinch me to death. In addition, since Tornadus-T was allowed, everyone was using it which was extremely annoying for me because CMLatias was the mvp of the team. It was quite manageable with the first one because Scizor and Rotom-W are good switch-ins. In the other one, Landorus was my main shot but I can get paralyzed with Body Slam or get destroyed with an unexpected HP Ice. I was also using Modest Landorus that is slower than SubCMJirachi that is used with a Timid Nature so it was quite hard to handle. Breloom can spore it if it doesn't run Psychic/Psyshock but Iron Head can be stupid sometimes. My main idea was to either hit it with Terrakion / Specs Keldeo or to Trick it with my ScarfJirachi but still...
Rain Offenses and Sand Offenses/Stalls are really not a problem for a good Weatherless Team. I was almost always leading with Terrakion to set up Stealth Rock as quickly as possible which is really important against these Teams especially if they lack of a spinner. Removing the opponent Steel(s) was the most important thing to let Latias sweep the rest. Scizor wasn't hard to deal with thanks to Stealth Rock, ScarfJirachi and Terrakion. If the opponent had a Tyranitar it was a free Spore for Breloom so I actually didn't care weather there was a Tyranitar or not. Against offensive Teams, CBScizor is just amazing, Landorus is the monster we all know and ScarfJirachi is so much usefull. For the other Team, Breloom and Keldeo are probably the MVP whether it's against Stalls or Offenses. But for both Teams, there most important member was Terrakion. While it can be seen only as a Stealth Rocker against Offenses, it is without any doubt the most important member against Stalls. It obviously sets up Stealth Rock but it also can make big holes in the opponent Team with Swords Dance + Focus Sash which makes it really hard to kill for a Stall Team.
What about Sun Teams? I won't lie, they are extremely hard to beat because of Volcarona and Venusaur. While Kingdra cannot be used in Rain, Venusaur is allowed and is a major threat for Weatherless Teams because it's obviously faster than your whole Team, it has Sleep Powder and Growth + Giga Drain to recover. That's why I was using SubCMLatias to be able to handle it and not automatically lose to it. Keldeo and Rotom-W are also less good against Sun Teams since their Stab is weakened and boosted Fire moves are quite hard to handle. There aren't these problems against Rains because there is no "speed boosted pokemon" (I don't know the english word :s) like Venusaur and except Heatran, I can't see any other Pokemons that are affected by the Water moves weakening. In addition, there are some Weatherless Teams members that get their moves boosted by Drizzle like Keldeo, Rotom-W etc.
Why am I talking about Weatherless Teams while Rain, Sun and Sand Teams are better? Because in my opinion it's the most fun playstyle of the metagame and I'm trying to explain you that it is 100% possible to beat great weathers teams with a well-built weatherless team. I always found it boring to use Politoed, Ninetales and Tyranitar in offensive teams just to have a weather inducer and so not lose against other weather teams. To me, using Scarf or Specs Politoed is really boring, same with Tyranitar although it's cooler than the frog. When I was building my Teams, I was always frustrated to break a spot only for a stupid weather inducer and that's why I decided to try this playstyle without Deoxys-D that was even more boring than Toed and Tar. I was really surprised of it's efficiency and really enjoyed playing these Teams.
If you're curious, I'm still neutral about banning Drizzle and Drought although by using weatherless teams I found that they were a bit broken but it's really manageable. I really tried every possible playstyle and to me, Drought is the only broken weather, but that's my opinion. I'd like to know what you guys think about finding ways to mitigate drought and drizzle. I think the discussion about whether weather is broken or not is worth discussing later down the road but it won't get too much value right now, so let's keep it on how we can use our weatherless teams to handle Drizzle and Drought.
Hey guys, I know we have been talking a lot about weathers impact on the metagame these last few months but we clearly missed an important point : weatherless teams. Deoxys-D recently got banned and it was without any doubt the most important member of weatherless teams. "Deo-D Teams", as people named them, didn't really care about the opposite weather. So the question is, are weatherless teams still viable in the current metagame or is it clearly unviable due to the fact that Drought and Drizzle prevent players from using this kind of teams.
I'm starting this thread now because I have been laddering a lot these last few weeks just to see if I would be able to reach the top ladder with weatherless teams. I did not ladder on PS but on PO, where Tornadus-T and Deoxys-D are still allowed which was even harder for me. I picked #1 with 2 alts and with 2-3 different teams. It was extremely easy with one of them because it was less weak to Tornadus-T. But anyway, we don't care about Tornadus-T since it's banned here, but it's still important to point out that even with one of the strongest rain abusers, I still managed to get first on ladder.
Teams I used were :
- Scizor / Latias / Rotom-W / Jirachi / Landorus / Terrakion
- Breloom / Latias / Keldeo / Jirachi / Landorus / Terrakion
In each of them, I only have 2 Rain switch-ins, which could have been annoying but to be honest it wasn't that hard to beat rains with these teams. Tornadus-T was the only thing that was really annoying, the rest was quite ok to handle. Actually, Rain Stall Teams are the biggest issues for Weatherless Teams because Tentacruel, Ferrothorn and Jirachi are extremely hard to handle but it's quite manageable. That's why I had to use SubPunch Breloom (so with Toxic Orb + Poison Heal) with a Bulky Spread to be able to switch on Tentacruel and Ferrothorn easily. With the other one I was always leading with Rotom-W so I can burn Ferrothorn very early in the game. People always lead with their Weather Inducer against a Weatherless Team and since Ferrothorn and Tentacruel are almost always in Rain Teams, they lead with Politoed so I have a free Will O Wisp. Basically, Rotom-W was my best answer to Rain Stalls because it resists extremely well, gets a spikes + toxic spikes immunity and has a status move + pain split. I couldn't use Keldeo in the first one because the Team would be too Rain Stalls weak so that's why I'm using Rotom-W.
What about Jirachi's case? It was the biggest issues for both Teams since it can paralyze everything and flinch me to death. In addition, since Tornadus-T was allowed, everyone was using it which was extremely annoying for me because CMLatias was the mvp of the team. It was quite manageable with the first one because Scizor and Rotom-W are good switch-ins. In the other one, Landorus was my main shot but I can get paralyzed with Body Slam or get destroyed with an unexpected HP Ice. I was also using Modest Landorus that is slower than SubCMJirachi that is used with a Timid Nature so it was quite hard to handle. Breloom can spore it if it doesn't run Psychic/Psyshock but Iron Head can be stupid sometimes. My main idea was to either hit it with Terrakion / Specs Keldeo or to Trick it with my ScarfJirachi but still...
Rain Offenses and Sand Offenses/Stalls are really not a problem for a good Weatherless Team. I was almost always leading with Terrakion to set up Stealth Rock as quickly as possible which is really important against these Teams especially if they lack of a spinner. Removing the opponent Steel(s) was the most important thing to let Latias sweep the rest. Scizor wasn't hard to deal with thanks to Stealth Rock, ScarfJirachi and Terrakion. If the opponent had a Tyranitar it was a free Spore for Breloom so I actually didn't care weather there was a Tyranitar or not. Against offensive Teams, CBScizor is just amazing, Landorus is the monster we all know and ScarfJirachi is so much usefull. For the other Team, Breloom and Keldeo are probably the MVP whether it's against Stalls or Offenses. But for both Teams, there most important member was Terrakion. While it can be seen only as a Stealth Rocker against Offenses, it is without any doubt the most important member against Stalls. It obviously sets up Stealth Rock but it also can make big holes in the opponent Team with Swords Dance + Focus Sash which makes it really hard to kill for a Stall Team.
What about Sun Teams? I won't lie, they are extremely hard to beat because of Volcarona and Venusaur. While Kingdra cannot be used in Rain, Venusaur is allowed and is a major threat for Weatherless Teams because it's obviously faster than your whole Team, it has Sleep Powder and Growth + Giga Drain to recover. That's why I was using SubCMLatias to be able to handle it and not automatically lose to it. Keldeo and Rotom-W are also less good against Sun Teams since their Stab is weakened and boosted Fire moves are quite hard to handle. There aren't these problems against Rains because there is no "speed boosted pokemon" (I don't know the english word :s) like Venusaur and except Heatran, I can't see any other Pokemons that are affected by the Water moves weakening. In addition, there are some Weatherless Teams members that get their moves boosted by Drizzle like Keldeo, Rotom-W etc.
Why am I talking about Weatherless Teams while Rain, Sun and Sand Teams are better? Because in my opinion it's the most fun playstyle of the metagame and I'm trying to explain you that it is 100% possible to beat great weathers teams with a well-built weatherless team. I always found it boring to use Politoed, Ninetales and Tyranitar in offensive teams just to have a weather inducer and so not lose against other weather teams. To me, using Scarf or Specs Politoed is really boring, same with Tyranitar although it's cooler than the frog. When I was building my Teams, I was always frustrated to break a spot only for a stupid weather inducer and that's why I decided to try this playstyle without Deoxys-D that was even more boring than Toed and Tar. I was really surprised of it's efficiency and really enjoyed playing these Teams.
If you're curious, I'm still neutral about banning Drizzle and Drought although by using weatherless teams I found that they were a bit broken but it's really manageable. I really tried every possible playstyle and to me, Drought is the only broken weather, but that's my opinion. I'd like to know what you guys think about finding ways to mitigate drought and drizzle. I think the discussion about whether weather is broken or not is worth discussing later down the road but it won't get too much value right now, so let's keep it on how we can use our weatherless teams to handle Drizzle and Drought.