XY Doubles Doubles Rain Team Help

[bravesatlantabl]

I started playing doubles on Pokemon Showdown and I need help with my team. I wanted to use a rain team mainly because I like Kabutops and weather is good in doubles.

Politoed @ Damp Rock
Drizzle
Bold
252 HP 188 DEF 68 SPD

-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Hypnosis
-Protect

Passive weather makes it a staple for a rain team. The EVs make it decently tanky so it can take attacks that aren't extremely powerful. Scald has the utility of being able to burn offensive threats. Ice Beam is good for dragons. Hypnosis is useful even with the bad accuracy.

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Prankster
Timid
4 HP 252 SPA 252 SPE

-Thunder
-Taunt
-Rain Dance
-Protect

I wanted another option to put out rain. I had been using Electrode with the exact same move set, Thundurus is really just better at doing it. Taunt shuts down things like Smeargle. I have been using Thundurus as one of my leads most of the time.

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Rough Skin
Jolly
4 HP 252 ATK 252 SPE
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Brick Break

Garchomp is very good at killing a lot of different things. I put a Choice Scarf on it because I was having a lot of trouble with Mega Manectric and I needed to out speed its Hidden Power Ice. Garchomp is pretty tanky so I can switch it into moves it resists.

Togekiss @ Sitrus Berry
Serene Grace
Bold
252 HP 160 DEF 96 SPD

-Air Slash
-Roost
-Protect
-Follow Me

My team doesn't like grass types and Togekiss helps remedy that a little bit. Air Slash and Serene Grace flinches are very useful. Togekiss is useful for switching into dragon types that are aiming for Garchomp or for any fighting types going for Kabutops and Lucario. Follow Me makes it work well along side Garchomp, Kabutops, Lucario

Kabutops @ Life Orb
Swift Swim
Adamant
252 ATK 4 DEF 252 SPE

-Rock Slide
-Waterfall
-Aqua Jet
-Protect

Kabutops is extremely fast in rain. I have been using Rock Slide over Stone Edge for the spread, accuracy, and flinch. I already have Lucario and Garchomp that can handle steel types well so I use Aqua Jet over Low Kick.

Mega Lucario @ Lucarionite
Inner Focus/Adaptability
Jolly
252 ATK 4 DEF 252 SPE

-Close Combat
-Earthquake
-Bullet Punch
-Protect

I have struggled with which Mega to use on this team. Lucario is really good at taking out fairies with bullet punch and Kangaskhan with Close Combat. Earthquake is there because I thought it would be helpful against some things like Manectric and any Fire types when I don't have rain up.


Overall I don't feel like my team works extremely well together. I am not that sure about a lot of the EVs and some of the moves. I have trouble with some specific things such as a lot of grass types and Zapdos. I also have trouble with Trick Room but Thundurus helps a little bit against it with Taunt. I would appreciate any input.

 

[Moudou]

You don't consider the right threats you need to deal with. Your worst enemy, which can sweep your entire team single-handily, is Mega Char-Y, and yet you never mention it. This is the reason for which playing Thunder Thundurus is risky, as thunderbolt can still OHKO Char-Y with Thundurus outspeeding it. But in the sun, Thunder has a 50% accuracy, and there's to much at stake to take that chance when you have a better solution at arm's reach. You also have Garchomp to deal with it, I must say it's a very reasonable solution, but switch Thunder to TBolt.

Smeargle is never a threat. On the other hand, Taunt shuts Trick Room down (most of the time anyway) so it's still a good thing to run, but not for the reason you mentioned.

Passive Politoed is not a good idea IMO, it's the most important mon in your team, you should make it something big (Assult vest for instance, choice specs, ...)

Your weakness to grass types can be arranged by switching Mega Lucario to Mega Venusaur. With Sludge Bomb/Wave, you can deal ith annoying grass typed mons, except for Venusaur. Another idea is to switch Lucario to Talonflame or Tornadus (or event Tornadus-T?). The first deal huge Brave Bird priority damage and the latter deals huge damage with Hurricane (again, careful with that move in the sun). I'd go for the latter as you already have a whole bunch of physical sweepers but only one special sweeper for now.


However, a classic Rain Team is usually composed as follows:
-Politoed
-A quick Electric-type mon to deal with Char-Y
-A Grass-type mon to deal with other Rain Teams
-A Swift Swimmer
-A support mon (Fake out, Intimidate, that stuff...)
-A wildcard to patch up the team's weaknesses

You're not following that plan, and there's a reason for which it has been successful ;-)

So try to change your team according to this teambuilding process and you shoul be a lot more performant :)


Also, one last thing, descriptions need to be at least three lines long, which you never did. It's important as it means you didn't put a lot of thought in any pokemon, thus making your team not very performant. There's an explanation for everything :)

 

[dragonexpert]

I'm going to suggest having Rain Dance on Politoed instead of Hypnosis because there may be times you need to switch the weather back and this gives you a better option of doing it without wasting Thundurus' turn.

Speaking of THundurus, I'm also going to agree with Moudou's suggestion of changing Thunder to Thunderbolt.

Togekiss you mention Air Slash flinching, but the thing is you aren't running Thunder Wave or another means of paralyzing Pokemon so you may or may not move before them. I'd really say to try changing Protect to Thunder Wave.

 

[shaian]

Hey there, glad to see another doubles team. Anyway, here are some quick changes.

1. Swap out Garchomp for Landorus-T. It brings higher power, a better defensive typing, Intimidate and the ability to juggle around Intimidates to help your pokemon out.

2. Switch Hypnosis for Helping Hand on Politoed, now you'll have some incredibly devastating attacks with the overall power of the team. This also lets you switch to Thunderbolt on Thundurus, because Helping Hand can mitigate the loss in power.

3. Swap Togekiss for Scizor. Beats Fairies and Grass types (and like Rock, Dark and Psychic but who cares about them?).

 

[bravesatlantabl]

Thanks for the criticisms and advice. I have been playing with the changes you guys suggested. I have switched out Lucario, Kabutops, and Garchomp for Ludicolo, Mega Scizor, and Landorus. I used Kabutops and Venusaur together for a while but I felt like Kabutops wasn't doing enough. I looked for another Swift Swimmer and started using Ludicolo. Ludicolo is really good at handling things like Rotom-W, Landorus, and Garchomp. The Fake Out support is also nice and it is fairly tanky with Assault Vest. I figured I didn't need two grass types on this team so I went with Scizor because of what Shaian said about it beating a lot of different types. I seems to fill any void that was left by taking out Venusaur. Knock Off is really nice to have and Bullet Punch takes care of any Fairies. Scizor is also pretty tanky which is good on this team. I kept Togekiss but switched out Protect for Thunder Wave. I also switched out Thunder on Thundurus and put Helping Hand on Politoed over Hypnosis.

I'm not that sure about what sets and EVs to run, but these are the Landorus, Scizor and Ludicolo sets I'm using right now.

Landorus @ Choice Scarf
Adamant
Intimidate
44 HP 252 ATK 212 SPE
U-Turn
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Superpower

Scizor @ Scizorite
Adamant
Technician
180 HP 252 ATK 60 DEF 16 SPD
Bullet Punch
U-Turn
Protect
Knock Off

Ludicolo @ Assault Vest
Modest
Swift Swim
104 HP 252 SPA 152 SPE
Ice Beam
Fake Out
Scald
Giga Drain

I have been doing pretty well with this team. Thank you for the advice and critiques I've gotten so far and please give me more. Any help with EV spreads or move sets or items would be nice too. Here is a replay. It's not particularly interesting and I know I make mistakes but it might be useful to watch it.

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/smogondoubles-164352759

 

[shaian]

Move the 60 Def EV's on Scizor over to Spe, to outrun Rotom-W. That way you can at least steal it's Sitrus before it burns you, and can get the KO on weakened ones.

 

[SpaceBass]

The thundy spread you have isn't really optimal for setting rain, you need it to be bulier while still maintaining some offensive pressure. I recommend this set, as it has been doing the support job nicely for me

(Thundurus) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 212 HP / 128 Def / 52 SpA / 96 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Taunt
- Rain Dance

Kabutops is far too frail with all the priority running around, I'd recommend swapping it for an Assault Vest Ludicolo spread, its the premier swift swim user with great typing and access to fake out, allowing Thundy to set up more rain

Ludicolo @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 104 HP / 252 SpA / 152 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fake Out
- Hydro Pump
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam

 

[qwerts]

I agree with switching out ludicolo, but also i believe you should use thundurus therian instead of incarnate. Here's a good set that deals with zard y and other common threats:
Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunder
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]

REally nice set that crushes opposition in the rain, other then that the other rates are great and your team should be shaping up pretty well!