It works and also grass loves rain too. It's fire weakness is covered by rain
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Other Rain In OU
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Assault Vest means you can't use Rain Dance...
Working on a rain team presently. Am hyper-aware of not allowing myself get walled by Ferrothorn, but I keep inadvertently making myself more susceptible to M-Venusaur instead. What are some great 'mons to use to check Ferrothorn & Venusaur, especially for a rain team? I'm trying to find 'mons who benefit from/support the rain team in at least one way, but feel free to suggest other relevant mons even if rain does nothing for them (maybe Conk & Terrak for better dealing w/ Ferro). Made a quick list:
Vs. Ferrothorn:
[weakens it w/ secret sword],
[nail it hard w/ f-blast, can provide SR/rain support respectively],
[sub punch],
[superpower?],
[CLOSE COMBAT],
[trap & kill],
[focus blast],
[hurricane, superpower/focus blast],
[free SD or sub & drain punch],
[LO Close Combat]
-x-
Vs. Mega Venusaur:
[LO psychic],
[frustration],
[teravolt ice beam],
[LO extrasensory],
[CM + extrasensory],
[psyshock, can bring defog support, LO surf does damage in rain?],
[pin missile],
[meh... can tank HP Fires in Rain and SD?],
[bounce],
[hurricane],
[eh... aerial ace / brings a fast rain dance, SR supporter]
idk if it's worth mentioning noivern & dragonite for hurricane spam... i'm already reaching w/ scizor & aerodactyl here.
-x-
It's really hard to find 'mons that can check both of them, especially given the relative diversity in both Ferro & M-Venu's spreads & moves (Specially or Physically Defensive... T-Wave or Knock Off on Ferro... Sleep Powder or EQ on M-Venu, etc); some of the best 'mons to handle one are completely walled by the other. Special mention to all three genies, M-Scizor, and Mega Heracross for potentially handling both in the rain. Please, please let me know if i'm missing some obvious answers to both or either that have good synergy on a rain team.
EDIT: added kyu-b to answers for venusaur, even tho rain does nothing for kyu-b. am thinking about making a list for thundy-i too, as he's just a big a problem for common rain teams as these two.
Vs. Ferrothorn:
-x-
Vs. Mega Venusaur:
idk if it's worth mentioning noivern & dragonite for hurricane spam... i'm already reaching w/ scizor & aerodactyl here.
-x-
It's really hard to find 'mons that can check both of them, especially given the relative diversity in both Ferro & M-Venu's spreads & moves (Specially or Physically Defensive... T-Wave or Knock Off on Ferro... Sleep Powder or EQ on M-Venu, etc); some of the best 'mons to handle one are completely walled by the other. Special mention to all three genies, M-Scizor, and Mega Heracross for potentially handling both in the rain. Please, please let me know if i'm missing some obvious answers to both or either that have good synergy on a rain team.
EDIT: added kyu-b to answers for venusaur, even tho rain does nothing for kyu-b. am thinking about making a list for thundy-i too, as he's just a big a problem for common rain teams as these two.
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Personally, I run Psychic on Tail Glow Manaphy. Not only can it kill Venu but it often lures it in.Working on a rain team presently. Am hyper-aware of not allowing myself get walled by Ferrothorn, but I keep inadvertently making myself more susceptible to M-Venusaur instead. What are some great 'mons to use to check Ferrothorn & Venusaur, especially for a rain team? I'm trying to find 'mons who benefit from/support the rain team in at least one way, but feel free to suggest other relevant mons even if rain does nothing for them (maybe Conk & Terrak for better dealing w/ Ferro). Made a quick list:
Vs. Ferrothorn:[weakens it w/ secret sword],[nail it hard w/ f-blast, can provide SR/rain support respectively],[sub punch],[superpower?],[CLOSE COMBAT],[trap & kill],[focus blast],[hurricane, superpower/focus blast],[free SD or sub & drain punch],[LO Close Combat]
-x-
Vs. Mega Venusaur:[LO psychic],[frustration],[LO extrasensory],[CM + extrasensory],[psyshock, can bring defog support, LO surf does damage in rain?],[pin missile],[meh... can tank HP Fires in Rain and SD?],[bounce],[hurricane],[eh... aerial ace / brings a fast rain dance, SR supporter]
idk if it's worth mentioning noivern & dragonite for hurricane spam... i'm already reaching w/ scizor & aerodactyl here.
-x-
It's really hard to find 'mons that can check both of them, especially given the relative diversity in both Ferro & M-Venu's spreads & moves (Specially or Physically Defensive spreads... T-Wave or Knock Off on Ferro... Sleep Powder or Knock Off on M-Venu, etc); some of the best 'mons to handle one are completely walled by the other. Special mention to all three genies, M-Scizor, and Mega Heracross for potentially handling both in the rain. Please, please let me know if i'm missing some obvious answers to both or either that have good synergy on a rain team.
+3 252+ SpA Manaphy Psychic vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Venusaur: 382-450 (104.9 - 123.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
It might not fit onto your team as well as it does mine though. Lati@s might be your best bet because they have nice synergy with rain anyway and take on Venu nicely.
For Ferro Magnezone or a bulky Grass type with a SE move work well, i.e. Mega Venu, Amoonguss or Chesnaught. I run HP Fire on Mega Venu. It's worth noting that Ferrothorn and most Venusaurs can do nothing to Chesnaught, although Ches can't do anything back to the latter except PP stall.
My glitch w/ those answers to Ferrothorn is that they'll quickly sap away rain turns & lose all momentum for an offensive team. In my lists I'm looking for 'mons that don't necessarily need to switch in to Ferro or Venusaur, but rather smash them in one or two turns when paired up 1v1.
I'm also noticing that a lot of rain teams lately don't carry a second rain setter besides Politoed, which I'm not sure I agree with. I'm trying Damp Rock Tornadus/Tornadus-T as a secondary setter, both of which conveniently pressure M-Venu & Ferro as well.
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For Ferrothorn, Kabutops is arguably the best Swift Swim abuser, and it gets a 100 base power Low Kick or Superpower to hit Ferrothorn with (+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Kabutops Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 338-400 (96 - 113.6%) -- 75% chance to OHKO). In a 1v1 scenario, it'll just die to Power Whip though. Banded Azumarill with Superpower is also a good rain abuser, although it can't quite OHKO physically defensive Ferrothorn.
Mega Mawile on rain could use Iron Head specifically to beat Mega Venusaur, as rain teams won't have any trouble with Skarmory.
I haven't tried (or faced) it on Rain before, but Gothitelle can remove both Ferrothorn and Mega-Venusaur with its standard Specs set (Trick/Psyshock or Psychic/Thunderbolt/H.P. Fire), making it much easier for the team's Swift Swim user to clean up.
Nice post Jin White! Answers to those two pokemon are imo at the heart of every teambuilding process for rain. It depends a lot on what type of team structure you're seeking, but given the 'they don't necessarily need to switch in' part of your post I'm guessing you lean more toward hyper/heavy offense, which imo is the strongest rain style. Definitely consider s_aman's Tornadus-T suggestion. LO + Regenerator + Hurricane + U-turn makes it a nightmare for Ferro and Venusaur, even against teams that pack 'counters' to it since it's so fucking fast it can almost always safely U-turn into Kingdra/Tops/Star and let you start laying waste. It makes a great switch-in to Chansey, Ferro and usually Venu (doesn't like taking sludge bomb, but you get a free Hurricane + U-turn so you gain a lot back regardless), while conveniently also checking Keldeo, Scizor, Tyranitar and (with Taunt+Turn) gives you set-up chances against many defensive mons. I recommend Taunt or 4-Attacks (Focus Blast | Superpower and Knock Off) highly over Rain Dance, since with Deo gone IMHO there really isn't ANY pokemon worth using as a secondary setter. It can definitely prove useful, but Toed has some surprising utility & durability on its own and it's usually better long term for you to just be able to keep it alive and double switching around rather than compromise the item and utility of another mon (whom you may end up saccing in the process) for a more limited rain dance. Torn-T also makes a half-decent lead against Sashloom, since you can U-turn off its sash and choose a sleeper, while Breloom has a field day of making you guess/play safe against Politoed leads.
The core I use (see previous page) of Celebi + Torn-T pressures Venusaur, Ferrothorn (free rocks for Celebi) and Breloom very well, and while a well-played Ferro can be troublesome it can't actually switch into Omastar, so it usually eventually ends up getting broken. UNFORTUNATELY this opens you up somewhat to Thundurus-I (Celebi handles all right, but Knock off, NP HP Ice or LO HP Fly = owned Celebi, and all those probably make up +50% of Thundy in higher play). Haven't found the answer for this yet aside from hoping to net a SD with Tops or trying to push it around with rocks.
Slightly unrelated, but I REALLY wish Mamo was as useful on HO rain as the SMOG article made it sound lol. It's a great SR lead for sure, and smacks around Breloom and the genies just fine, but it gets owned just as hard as other rain members by Ferro/Venu/Rotom, so idgi
As for some of your other considered mons:
-Keldeo is obviously fine and great on Rain (don't use with 2 SSers IMO), especially as it eases its using ebelt/LO or even Scarf if you want. But if you ever manage to hit a Ferrothorn with Secret Sword without successfully bluffing Specs first you're a better player than I am haha.
-I never considered Heracross, it would certainly help the matchup vs stall! Furthermore it baits the hell out of Talonflame, which is great for Kabutops, though be careful of WoW 'Flame and Pinsir, both of whom can own tops on the switch. Heracross doesn't like facing offense much at all, and its frequently being forced out is a problem for teams lacking solid defensive synergy, but when healthy it handily puts Thundurus down too so that's always nice. Seems niche but I'll definitely be testing him.
-Thundy can do so much for rain it's not even funny. Unfortunately (i mean not really but you know) what it wants to do most is check/lure venusaur/ferrothorn/ttar, so you REALLY want both of Fighting/Flying coverage and LO. I suppose NP & Thunder would work great in the last slots (and make you need LO much less), since full coverage NP thundy is a pretty rare sight and can net you some sneaky KOs while your opponent scrambles for a check.
-IMO Scizor and Mawile are about tied in usefulness for Rain. SD Scizor just forces so much shit around and is one of the only usable pivots for HO. Unfortunately its countered really easily, and while it sets up on Ferrothorn and Chansey it always loses to something on a team with those two in it. Mawile has negligible defensive use in comparison (hail almighty M-Zor bulk), but all its switch-ins are begging to be crushed by Swift Swimmers, so there's nice opportunity for double switching. And as Fourth Inversion said, Iron Head lets you smack down unsuspecting Venusaur, which is great. You kind of have to choose between subpunch and SD depending on if you want to beat Ferro/Venu, but still it handles them in a more offensive way than Scizor (altho not countering Aegis/Azumarill is a letdown) so I'll give him another try on my team.
-Greninja imo is bad for rain teams. It's a weird case of a great pokemon who in this case is outclassed by the thing it normally makes obscure: Starmie. For 99% of purposes Starmie and Greninja share a speed tier, and while Greninja can handle Aegislash better Starmie has the ability to dish out stronger (analytic!) Hydro Pumps while boasting a stronger Psychic stab to kill Venusaur and Thunder to get Azumarill out of the way for good. Normally where ninja would shine here is having HP Fire to break Ferrothorn, obviously that's not helpful in rain. Oh, and motherfucking Rapid Spin. If you wanna feel like a real techy Pokemon master you can run Natural Cure and lure the hell out of Thundurus's TW, which works 100% of the time and is awesome but obviously situational. Basically Starmie is awesum
Others were discussing briefly Venusaur and Raikou. Venusaur is good on rain balance and decent on offense, but overall I feel it's outclassed. It's an okay pivot with EQ and Sleep Powder, but being unable to effectively use HP Fire or Synthesis hurts it A LOT. It's best use is coming in on Rotom/Breloom/Azumarill, but it doesn't have SR or much to take advantage of this and as we know a burned offensive venusaur in rain is basically useless. The greatest thing about Venusaur in rain though is the effective resistance to fire lol, there's nothing better than seeing "It's super effective!" when Lave Plume nudges you for 10%.
Raikou on the other hand is very good. Just please, I've tried to make it work, but don't use the Aura Sphere/Weather Ball wallbreaker set. 9 times out of 10 standard Raikou will be better for you. It needs LO not to be pitifully weak, and the hit to speed and SpDef from the Rash nature makes it totally unable to check the things you need Raikou to check in the first place. Let's face it, GFreak teased us with what could have been an awesome rain breaker but ruined it for all of us ;.;
EDIT: Kyu-B is another mon you've probably seen on rain teams. Although its usefulness has diminished ever so slightly with the decline in Rotom-W's omnipresence, I suspect it'll be back with a vengeance now that Conkeldurr is on the way out and CroCune/Phy are making a mess out of the unprepared tier. Sub/Ice Beam/Fusion Bolt/Outrage|Earth Power|Iron Head beats up common defensive cores, especially Mega Venusaur, and weakens Ferrothorn for your sweepers nicely. It's matchup v Thundurus is double-edged for rain, since many thundurus run Focus Blast and that pretty much makes or breaks Kyu-B's value in the match, requiring unfortunate scouting, but against defense and balanced the thing still wreaks havoc. Pairs v nicely with Mawile/Zor to check faster dragons and fighting types.
The core I use (see previous page) of Celebi + Torn-T pressures Venusaur, Ferrothorn (free rocks for Celebi) and Breloom very well, and while a well-played Ferro can be troublesome it can't actually switch into Omastar, so it usually eventually ends up getting broken. UNFORTUNATELY this opens you up somewhat to Thundurus-I (Celebi handles all right, but Knock off, NP HP Ice or LO HP Fly = owned Celebi, and all those probably make up +50% of Thundy in higher play). Haven't found the answer for this yet aside from hoping to net a SD with Tops or trying to push it around with rocks.
Slightly unrelated, but I REALLY wish Mamo was as useful on HO rain as the SMOG article made it sound lol. It's a great SR lead for sure, and smacks around Breloom and the genies just fine, but it gets owned just as hard as other rain members by Ferro/Venu/Rotom, so idgi
As for some of your other considered mons:
-Keldeo is obviously fine and great on Rain (don't use with 2 SSers IMO), especially as it eases its using ebelt/LO or even Scarf if you want. But if you ever manage to hit a Ferrothorn with Secret Sword without successfully bluffing Specs first you're a better player than I am haha.
-I never considered Heracross, it would certainly help the matchup vs stall! Furthermore it baits the hell out of Talonflame, which is great for Kabutops, though be careful of WoW 'Flame and Pinsir, both of whom can own tops on the switch. Heracross doesn't like facing offense much at all, and its frequently being forced out is a problem for teams lacking solid defensive synergy, but when healthy it handily puts Thundurus down too so that's always nice. Seems niche but I'll definitely be testing him.
-Thundy can do so much for rain it's not even funny. Unfortunately (i mean not really but you know) what it wants to do most is check/lure venusaur/ferrothorn/ttar, so you REALLY want both of Fighting/Flying coverage and LO. I suppose NP & Thunder would work great in the last slots (and make you need LO much less), since full coverage NP thundy is a pretty rare sight and can net you some sneaky KOs while your opponent scrambles for a check.
-IMO Scizor and Mawile are about tied in usefulness for Rain. SD Scizor just forces so much shit around and is one of the only usable pivots for HO. Unfortunately its countered really easily, and while it sets up on Ferrothorn and Chansey it always loses to something on a team with those two in it. Mawile has negligible defensive use in comparison (hail almighty M-Zor bulk), but all its switch-ins are begging to be crushed by Swift Swimmers, so there's nice opportunity for double switching. And as Fourth Inversion said, Iron Head lets you smack down unsuspecting Venusaur, which is great. You kind of have to choose between subpunch and SD depending on if you want to beat Ferro/Venu, but still it handles them in a more offensive way than Scizor (altho not countering Aegis/Azumarill is a letdown) so I'll give him another try on my team.
-Greninja imo is bad for rain teams. It's a weird case of a great pokemon who in this case is outclassed by the thing it normally makes obscure: Starmie. For 99% of purposes Starmie and Greninja share a speed tier, and while Greninja can handle Aegislash better Starmie has the ability to dish out stronger (analytic!) Hydro Pumps while boasting a stronger Psychic stab to kill Venusaur and Thunder to get Azumarill out of the way for good. Normally where ninja would shine here is having HP Fire to break Ferrothorn, obviously that's not helpful in rain. Oh, and motherfucking Rapid Spin. If you wanna feel like a real techy Pokemon master you can run Natural Cure and lure the hell out of Thundurus's TW, which works 100% of the time and is awesome but obviously situational. Basically Starmie is awesum
Others were discussing briefly Venusaur and Raikou. Venusaur is good on rain balance and decent on offense, but overall I feel it's outclassed. It's an okay pivot with EQ and Sleep Powder, but being unable to effectively use HP Fire or Synthesis hurts it A LOT. It's best use is coming in on Rotom/Breloom/Azumarill, but it doesn't have SR or much to take advantage of this and as we know a burned offensive venusaur in rain is basically useless. The greatest thing about Venusaur in rain though is the effective resistance to fire lol, there's nothing better than seeing "It's super effective!" when Lave Plume nudges you for 10%.
Raikou on the other hand is very good. Just please, I've tried to make it work, but don't use the Aura Sphere/Weather Ball wallbreaker set. 9 times out of 10 standard Raikou will be better for you. It needs LO not to be pitifully weak, and the hit to speed and SpDef from the Rash nature makes it totally unable to check the things you need Raikou to check in the first place. Let's face it, GFreak teased us with what could have been an awesome rain breaker but ruined it for all of us ;.;
EDIT: Kyu-B is another mon you've probably seen on rain teams. Although its usefulness has diminished ever so slightly with the decline in Rotom-W's omnipresence, I suspect it'll be back with a vengeance now that Conkeldurr is on the way out and CroCune/Phy are making a mess out of the unprepared tier. Sub/Ice Beam/Fusion Bolt/Outrage|Earth Power|Iron Head beats up common defensive cores, especially Mega Venusaur, and weakens Ferrothorn for your sweepers nicely. It's matchup v Thundurus is double-edged for rain, since many thundurus run Focus Blast and that pretty much makes or breaks Kyu-B's value in the match, requiring unfortunate scouting, but against defense and balanced the thing still wreaks havoc. Pairs v nicely with Mawile/Zor to check faster dragons and fighting types.
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Tornadus/T or even Landorus may be your best bets then. Tornadus can hit Ferrothorn hard with Focus Blast or Heat Wave and Mega Venu with Hurricane. Lando can hit Ferro with Focus Blast and Mega Venu with Psychic.
In response to Fourth Inversion's suggestion, Low Kick on Kabutops can help for Ferro, but I don't think it's worth it tbh. it needs to get an SD off to have a chance at OHKOing Ferro and even if it does, between LO, Rocky Helmet and Iron Barbs, Kabutops takes around 38% damage just from hitting it once. Low Kick doesn't have much use outside of beating Ferro anyway and Aqua Jet is much better overall. Handle Ferrothorn with something else and let Kabutops keep its ideal moveset intact imo.
I use Damp Rock Politoed as my only setter and it works well enough. I find it's difficult to find space on a rain team for another setter. I just try to keep Poli relatively healthy if I think I may need him to set up rain again. You can do a lot of damage with 8 turns of rain and a defensive Poli can take a few hits before going down. You can also use Healing Wish from Latias to allow Poli to set up rain one more crucial time when he would otherwise die on entry.
If you really want a 2nd setter though, there are a lot of interesting options. Both Tornadus forms make good manual setters as they benefit from the rain and can pivot out after setting it. Tornadus-I is pretty much guaranteed to get off Rain Dance thanks to Prankster but T has better longevity for setting up and U-Turning out multiple times. Azelf can set up rain and then use Explosion to allow a sweeper to come in safely. It also has access to Stealth Rock, so it's worth considering if your team lacks a hazard setter. Sableye gets Prankster and can Recover off damage, allowing it to reliably set up rain multiple times, but it lacks the pivoting abilities of the others I mentioned. Every potential setter I just mentioned also have access to Taunt + Prankster and/or great Speed, making them great leads.
You could also put Rain Dance onto a Rain sweeper, such as Ludicolo, although it will often mean sacrificing a valuable coverage move
I'd like to highlight Mega Ampharos's niche as a rain team mega. It's 90 / 105 / 110 defense provide it with great bulk. Moldbreaker also comes in handy (e.g. OHKOing Skarmory). Of course, the crux of the set is Ampharos-Mega's incredible base 165 Sp Atk. That combined with 100 acc Thunder makes Ampharos-Mega a deadly sweeper. Its Electric/Dragon typing is also very nice, as it resists many common attacking types.
What I'm about to say is sort of gimmicky and might make me sound like some sort of noob, but regardless i feel like posting it anyways. Ive actually been using golduck to lure in both Mega Venusaur and Ferrothorn. Golduck actually has the same offensive stats as Kingdra (95 sp atk and 85 speed) and gets Swift Swim, Psychic, Ice Beam, and Focus Blast. What this means is that with a modest nature and a life orb it can 2hko both Mega Venusar and Ferrothorn while still pulling its weight outside of that. Ive been pairing it with specs Kingdra to lure in both Ferrothorn and Mega Venusaur so Kingdra can sweep and its worked surprisingly well. I dont mean to imply that Golduck is amazing or even viable, but it isnt complete shit. Why i think ive had so much success with this set is that Ferrothorn and Venusaur actually switch into it, making Golducks job that much easier. Sure Tornadus-T is a great answer to these two pokemon in general for rain teams, but no mega venusaur or ferrothorn in right mind would ever stay in on it let alone switch into it.Working on a rain team presently. Am hyper-aware of not allowing myself get walled by Ferrothorn, but I keep inadvertently making myself more susceptible to M-Venusaur instead. What are some great 'mons to use to check Ferrothorn & Venusaur, especially for a rain team? I'm trying to find 'mons who benefit from/support the rain team in at least one way, but feel free to suggest other relevant mons even if rain does nothing for them (maybe Conk & Terrak for better dealing w/ Ferro). Made a quick list:
Vs. Ferrothorn:[weakens it w/ secret sword],[nail it hard w/ f-blast, can provide SR/rain support respectively],[sub punch],[superpower?],[CLOSE COMBAT],[trap & kill],[focus blast],[hurricane, superpower/focus blast],[free SD or sub & drain punch],[LO Close Combat]
-x-
Vs. Mega Venusaur:[LO psychic],[frustration],[teravolt ice beam],[LO extrasensory],[CM + extrasensory],[psyshock, can bring defog support, LO surf does damage in rain?],[pin missile],[meh... can tank HP Fires in Rain and SD?],[bounce],[hurricane],[eh... aerial ace / brings a fast rain dance, SR supporter]
idk if it's worth mentioning noivern & dragonite for hurricane spam... i'm already reaching w/ scizor & aerodactyl here.
-x-
It's really hard to find 'mons that can check both of them, especially given the relative diversity in both Ferro & M-Venu's spreads & moves (Specially or Physically Defensive... T-Wave or Knock Off on Ferro... Sleep Powder or EQ on M-Venu, etc); some of the best 'mons to handle one are completely walled by the other. Special mention to all three genies, M-Scizor, and Mega Heracross for potentially handling both in the rain. Please, please let me know if i'm missing some obvious answers to both or either that have good synergy on a rain team.
EDIT: added kyu-b to answers for venusaur, even tho rain does nothing for kyu-b. am thinking about making a list for thundy-i too, as he's just a big a problem for common rain teams as these two.
Edit: Jin White
I dont know what took me so long to see this post but here are some replays:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-147662358 <-----------better replay
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-147344189
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That... is pretty cool imo o.o Psychic & Focus Blast are such valuable coverage for rain teams, and then you've got this unexpectedly powerful Swift Swim lure carrying both of them... kudos to you man. Share replays if you have some plz !
I've been using another p unconventional 'mon on my rain team to target Ferro & Mega Venusaur & Thundy... I realized that Limber LO Hawlucha outspeeds Thundurus & OHKOs it with Stone Edge (and of course has the dual STAB for the other two). Here's a low-ladder replay but it's p sexy: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-146559400 / the team is very much a WIP, prolly gonna swap out Kabutops for Kingdra, but dear god Specs Omastar is a champion.
With the recent rise of rain I've noticed that many rain teams arent exactly dedicated rain teams anymore, but they're still extremely successful. These teams have a "core" of rain pokemon such as Politoed and maybe one or two pokemon that benefit from the rain. The rest of the team is, for lack of a better term, a normal team. These teams have become very popular as of lately and it's kinda surprising that it took us so long to try this strategy given rains' new mechanics this gen. These new rain teams remind me of the sand teams that used to be really popular about a month ago. They are "normal teams" with a weather setter and an abuser slapped on. It seems like someone thought that slapping Politoed and an abuser on a team would be a good idea just like it is with Tyranitar and Excadrill.
The reasons why this probably hasn't been very common is that the swift swimmers aren't exactly amazing pokemon outside of rain, unlike excadrill who can always spin or threaten something with its high attack, and neither is Politoed. Another reason would be that using rain teams means you really can't use fire types on your team to great effect, as their STAB is horribly weakened.
However, it sounds like a cool idea, and would help make up for some flaws in rain (Megasaur and ferrothorn weakness). I think LO Kingdra would make a great choice for those teams, with great coverage, speed, and relatively high powered moves that he can switch between.
While not necessarily amazing, Politoed can still be very useful on standard offence teams with Choice Specs even if no other pokemon on the team is specifically a rain pokemon. Choice Specs Politoed in rain is more powerful than Choice Specs Keldeo outside rain, it does a similar job battering away at walls and forcing predictable moves, especially pokemon that lack recovery and will eventually be overwhelmed. For example, Ferrothorn can only switch into Hydro Pump once before it is 2HKOed. Checking opposing weather teams that aren't rain is really good too, sand teams don't like Politoed at all and I really love switching in on Mega Charizard Y and OHKOing it with Hydro Pump in rain as Solar Beam took a turn to charge. Teammates that threaten Chansey, Mega Venusaur, any other pokemon with recovery that isn't 2HKOed by Hydro Pump are recommended. Knock Off Landorus is a good one, so is Staraptor (make sure you use Close Combat on Chansey and not Brave Bird!)
Quite late, but I was wondering if you ever tried Focus Blast and Psychic on Politoed. In BW both were relatively popular for targeting Ferro/Ttar and Toxicroack. Also, that Hawlucha did a great job on that battle!
not like you see many grass types in ou thoe
Breloom, Celebi, Mega Venusaur, Ferrothorn, etc.
I disagree with that.
silver97
GUNDELEROS WE DO THE PATTO DI SANGUE
Jin White if you are still looking for something to beat both ferro and venusaur on rain team i'd suggest a m-pinsir, it is an awesome pokemon in general atm and it pressure those 2 a lot. tornadus-t is also a great option with LO hurrican and superpower. Also, if you want to try something unusual, i think that specially defensive talon can perform a good role on a rain team, it pressures ferro and venu and it can burn many things that usually switch on it and give your rain sweepers some problems like slowbro, azumarill or a weather inducer like ttar
is this confirmed?
its not "confirmed" but there will be a way to transfer pokemon from x and y to oras, i think it will end up being pokebank tbh
silver97
GUNDELEROS WE DO THE PATTO DI SANGUE
kabutops will still have its role on rain teams because of access to swords dance, priority, slightly better power and the fact that it doesn't take the mega slot, on the other hand mega swampert has better typing and very good bulk.
POP isn't very good, i don't know if it is worth using it, waterfall and eq are staples because they are STABs, then it can run ice punch, stone edge for edgequake coverage, superpower or even carry stealth rock. i hope it gets something new in oras with tutor moves, if it had access to swords dance it would be really really threatening, more than it is right now
I meant the stats
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