'Til They Croak (Rain Stall)

[StairFall]

Hey, this is a fairly simple team I worked out while messing around with some custom sets. Fed up with offence, fed up with sand I decided to escape both of them with a rain stall team featuring Toxicroak. This team revolves around using toxic spikes to relieve Toxicroak of the need to carry toxic, allowing him to use both sub and protect together in tandem. Toxicroak is a fairly under rater pokemon in the BW2 OU metagame and I felt like giving him the credit he deserves.
The Team

Phat Phrog

Politoed @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Encore
- Scald
- Perish Song
- Protect

Standard defensive toed. You know what he does so I won't bore you with too much detail. Brings the rain, stalls for damage and lefties with protect, fishes for burns, sometimes uses perish song to beat last pokemon stat uppers. I've always wanted to do something creative with Toed, such as a whirlpool perish trapper (until I found out it didn't receive whirlpool), or something similar. He's just standard defensive Toed right now, and he never fails at what he's supposed to do. I just wish he could be better optimized.

Edward

Scizor @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 112 Atk / 248 HP / 148 SDef
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Roost

Here's specially defensive trapper scizor. Basic utility counter here. Traps gengar, lati@s, espeon, sometimes Xatu when he rears his head in OU. Bullet punch finishes off weakened pokemon, U-turn does chip damage and allows more favourable match ups. Roost heals off any minor damage and life orb recoil.

Scizor is on the team for some much needed priority,to defeat most of Toxicroak's troublesome pokemon, and to generally be the glue that allows me to pivot between other pokemon. Toxicroak cannot beat latios or Latias easily because they float overtop toxic spikes and take a pittance even from ice punch and Scizor preys on the jet engine dragons especially with the spdef EVs and rain. Pursuit adequately removes Magic Bounce pokemon, gengar, and is nice for reuniclus when paired with Politoed's perish song.

It's The Generator

Toxicroak @ Black Sludge
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 16 Atk / 8 Spd / 184 SDef / 252 HP / 48 Def
Careful Nature
- Substitute
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
- Protect

Here is what I consider the best rain abuser in the game and the pokemon who has quickly become my favourite in all of OU. Between dry skin, black sludge, drain punch and on occasion leech seed (though rarely) Toxicroak's passive recovery is nothing short of ridiculous.

The main point of this Toxicroak is that he is the toxic stall Toxicroak, but the use of toxic spikes allows Croak to use both sub and protect at the same time (a net gain when it comes to health gained versus substitute cost) and power through some of its normal counters like Celebi, Starmie, and Jellicent.

The EV spread is a custom one I've tailored for this team. Toxicroak beats every Terrakion variant bar ones carrying EQ when its raining, outspeeds 0 investment Rotom, his substitute is not broken by 4spatk Rotom's volt switch, and he KOs 4hp dragonite after rocks with ice punch.

Drain punch and ice punch synergize with toxic spikes wonderfully. Drain punch hits Steel types who can not be poisoned and ice punch hits most flying types and levitators super effectively. Toxicroak's 4x resistance to bug and special defence means there are few instances where he can get caught out without a sub because of volt turn, as most volt switch users capable of breaking his sub will also outspeed him.

Halcyon

Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
- Roost

latias is my teams most offensive force. Chosen over her brother latios for her natural special bulk letting me take on even hp ice landorus with her. Surf boosted by rain takes care of threats such as unboosted Volc and Terrakion, and is a great high power reliable move in general. Dragon pulse provides the exact same utility for anything that isn't a steel type. latias also fries Skarmory and Douses physically defensive forretress allowing Toxicroak to better stall.

Latias provides several different utilities for my team. She can revenge kill several threats scizor cannot, she is my special Landorus Counter, my check to Tentacruel to stop him from sucking up my T-spikes and also powers through weakened teams. Generally she can stomach anything most special attackers throw at her reducing them to 2HKOs, and the things she can't she can just as easily outspeed and KO after switching into at the cost of 40-60% damage.

Check em'

Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 240 Def / 252 HP / 16 Spd
Bold Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Knock Off
- Scald
- Protect

Tentacruel is absolutely integral to my team. He brings the toxic spikes which are what Toxicroak's entire set revolve around. They're necessary for toxicroak to beat what would be counters such as celebi and Jellicent. Tentacruel is also a powerful mixed wall for my team and is great at taking miscellaneous hits because of his great recovery.

Protect is standard, stalling out toxic damage and residual recovery, as is scald for STAB and burn chance. What you may notice is off though is that I have knock off instead of rapid spin. While rapid spin is a great move my team is fairly ambivalent towards hazards. Knock off is a seldom seen move that provides fantastic utility and can cripple both offensive and defensive pokemon alike.

Together Tentacruel and Ferrothorn define the defensive backbone of my team, while Toxicroak handles several threats they can't in a more offensive manner.

Crunch Time

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 168 Def / 252 HP / 88 SDef
Relaxed Nature
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
- Power Whip
- Protect

Yes. Ferrothorn. Seeds plus protect is all but necessary because Ferrothorn does not possess leftovers. Rocky helmet combined with iron barbs instantly whittles down weaker physical threats like scizor's bullet punch and outrage. Stealth rock is absolutely integral to the team, allowing Toxicroak to OHKO landorus and dragonite after rocks damage. Power whip is to prevent becoming substitute fodder, though its seldom used.

The EVs are untuned though satisfactory. Currently they have not let me down. They're simply a reverse of Ferrothorn's standard EVs, used for insurance against Garchomp's Earthquake, Kyube's Banded Outrage and to simply take physical hits better because of rocky helmet.

Big Threats

Reuniclus

Reuniclus is incredibly bulky and immune to passive damage. The only super effective move I can hit it with are scizor's U-turn and pursuit, and they do not do nearly enough damage. Calm mind + recover variants are the bane of this team. most of the time I defeat it through a combination of scizor's power attacks and Politoed's perish song to force a switch and boost pursuit.

Tornadus

You might have noticed I have no flying resist. I've tried several iterations of this team and all of them have had extreme problems with flying attacks, even ones carrying Jirachi and Rotom. Though I've never outright lost to Tornadus I always end up losing at least a single pokemon to him, save when I started laddering at 1200ish rating. In short Tornadus leaves me with a Torn Anus.

Choice Specs tornadus can 2HKO every single pokemon on my team, outspeeds latias and is immune to toxic spikes. If he gets in I pray that rocks are up, hit Scald him with tentcruel, sack tentacruel and can then KO with Scizor's bullet punch.

Sun

Sun is the complete anti thesis of this team. Ferrothorn and Scizor dread it, and Toxicroak blatantly suffers from it. Latias is not at all a true check to sun because of its reliance on rain for thunder and surf. generally Toxic spikes help me easily win the weather war, but Dugtrio can be a problem.

Vaporeon

Words do not properly describe how much I hate Vaporeon. Not often seen, but the lack of taunt on my team allows hydrarest variants to walk all over me. Generally I've beaten her only through PP stalling and Latias applying powerful pressure with Thunder.
​

That's the team. A few more updates to the RMT will be edited into the OP at a later date such as replays and a general tidying up. All rates and tips are appreciated and if you truly love it leave a Luvdisc.

 

[StairFall]

Bumping.

 

[TGMD]

Hey StairFall, nice team!

First of all, as you mentioned in your threat list, you're incredibly weak to sun. Nothing in your team appreciates sun, in fact most of them absolutely hate it. Latias is usually a great sun check, but you variant only has a single move not hindered by sun, ruining its chances of helping much vs sun. To help remedy this situation, I highly recommend replacing Thunder with Psyshock on Latias. Psyshock not only gives you a secondary STAB, but it gives you another move that's reliable under the sun, and it can OHKO Venusaur, a rather large threat to your team, as well as other big threats such as Conkeldurr, Breloom, Toxicroak etc. I don't really understand why you have Thunder in the first place, it only gives you coverage on Water and Flying types, and there are only 2 flying types that take super effective damage from Thunder in OU, and those are Skarmory and Gyarados. Skarmory is already 2HKOd by Rain boosted Surf, and not only does Gyarados take a large chunk from Dragon Pulse, but you have one of the best answers to Gyarados in the game: Physically defensive Ferrothorn. That just leaves water types; a few of the main ones are weak to Psyshock (Keldeo, Tentacruel etc.) and almost all the rest detest Toxic Spikes and take neutral damage from Psyshock. Psyshock only misses out on Starmie, who gets destroyed by Dragon Pulse.

With another reliable STAB move in place, you may want to consider Draco Meteor over Dragon Pulse. I know it's mostly just personal preference, but Latias' ability to switch in and fire off nukes is too good to turn down. Finally, I recommend Toxic over Encore (or maybe Perish Song) on Politoed. You have nothing to poison the many airborne Pokémon OU has to offer, and having both Encore and Perish Song on the same set can be a little redundant.

Anyway, I hope this rate helped and GL with the team! Luvdisc'd :)

 

[Frochtejohgurt]

sup,

I really like your team and especially your Toxicroak. First of some minor changes I'd like to suggest. I would replace Knock Off with Rapid Spin Tentacruel, because it is always good to have a way to neuter the best move in the game namely Stealth. Despite the fact that your won't be torn apart by hazards, Rapid Spin will help to enhance your switching and make it overall easier to check things. Next up is Toxic on Politoed which I would put over Encore. This way you have a something to poison Flying Types and Levitaters which are immune to Toxic Spikes which is important for Toxicroak.
To help you with your threat list I suggest to change your Latias set to Calm Mind / Roar / Roost / Dragon Pulse with 252 HP / 252 Spe Timid and Leftovers. With this you can force a CM war with Reuniclus. After you both have boosted several times (Reuniclus will probably boost up to +5 or +6) you can Roar it out before will hit you, making not only Reuniclus set up totally useless but also leaves the opponent to deal with a Latias at +3 or +4. As a bonus CM Latias is huge nuisance to sun which often lack a reliable answer to it.
I can't help you with Vaporeon without bigger changes, but it isn't that much of threat anyways. It is just annoying to play against, but you will never outright lose to it as it can't get past your Toxicroak, so you will win in the end. Tornadus is huge threat, but you can deal with it due to Stealth Rock and Bullet Punch. If want to have a safe answer to it, you could give specially defensive Jirachi a shot over Scizor, but honestly Scizor trapping ability is more useful. Thank god Tornadus isn't that often seen.

cool team, I'll give it a Luvdisc

 

[StairFall]

Hey StairFall, nice team!

First of all, as you mentioned in your threat list, you're incredibly weak to sun. Nothing in your team appreciates sun, in fact most of them absolutely hate it. Latias is usually a great sun check, but you variant only has a single move not hindered by sun, ruining its chances of helping much vs sun. To help remedy this situation, I highly recommend replacing Thunder with Psyshock on Latias. Psyshock not only gives you a secondary STAB, but it gives you another move that's reliable under the sun, and it can OHKO Venusaur, a rather large threat to your team, as well as other big threats such as Conkeldurr, Breloom, Toxicroak etc. I don't really understand why you have Thunder in the first place, it only gives you coverage on Water and Flying types, and there are only 2 flying types that take super effective damage from Thunder in OU, and those are Skarmory and Gyarados. Skarmory is already 2HKOd by Rain boosted Surf, and not only does Gyarados take a large chunk from Dragon Pulse, but you have one of the best answers to Gyarados in the game: Physically defensive Ferrothorn. That just leaves water types; a few of the main ones are weak to Psyshock (Keldeo, Tentacruel etc.) and almost all the rest detest Toxic Spikes and take neutral damage from Psyshock. Psyshock only misses out on Starmie, who gets destroyed by Dragon Pulse.

With another reliable STAB move in place, you may want to consider Draco Meteor over Dragon Pulse. I know it's mostly just personal preference, but Latias' ability to switch in and fire off nukes is too good to turn down. Finally, I recommend Toxic over Encore (or maybe Perish Song) on Politoed. You have nothing to poison the many airborne Pokémon OU has to offer, and having both Encore and Perish Song on the same set can be a little redundant.

Anyway, I hope this rate helped and GL with the team! Luvdisc'd :)

Thanks, I'll definitely be changing thunder for psyshock, it was heavily under used anyway. However One thing I have been thinking about is psychic over psyshock. Most people EV their tentacruel to have either equal or better physical defence than special defence and Cruel's removal is integral to laying down toxic spikes. Psychic still secures the OHKO on venusaur the only thing I really miss out against is amoonguss, who Toxicroak can handle as long as its not paired with Slowbro.

I'll experiment with both, after all they both are superior to thunder.

To help you with your threat list I suggest to change your Latias set to Calm Mind / Roar / Roost / Dragon Pulse with 252 HP / 252 Spe Timid and Leftovers. With this you can force a CM war with Reuniclus. After you both have boosted several times (Reuniclus will probably boost up to +5 or +6) you can Roar it out before will hit you, making not only Reuniclus set up totally useless but also leaves the opponent to deal with a Latias at +3 or +4. As a bonus CM Latias is huge nuisance to sun which often lack a reliable answer to it.

Thanks for the advice. Ultimately though I think depriving latias of surf is going to mean I'll have issues with skarmory and forretress, and lack of psyichic stab gives me problems with poison types who suck up me toxic spikes.

I'm always open to experimenting though. I'm not going to rule it out before i try it.