XY OU Wetter is Better!

[Expert_Occultist]

Hey, Expert_Occultist again with something you've probably never seen a million times before: a rain team. But not just any rain team. Behind this seemingly standard team lurks a crazy twist ending that must be seen to be believed! (yeah I'm hyping this up a bit, let's just get this started)

Garbageman (Politoed)

Damp Rock, Drizzle, Bold

252 Hp, 252 Def, 4 SpAtk

Scald

Ice Beam

Toxic

Perish Song

Yeah, every rain team starts with this. It has one job; maintain the rain. Everything else comes secondary. To be fair, it's not totally useless at other things as well. Scald hits surprisingly hard and is tough to switch into. Ice Beam nails things like Dragonite and Garchomp. Toxic helps break down walls such as Slowbro which give this team trouble as well as make Politoed harder to switch into. Perish Song puts a clock on how long a threat can stay out and is fantastic at breaking Baton Pass (yes, it's still around).

The Crusher (Kingdra)

Choice Specs, Swift Swim, Modest

4 Hp, 252 SpAtk, 252 Spe

Hydro Pump

Draco Meteor

Ice Beam

Scald

The main cleaner. Not much can switch into Specs Hydro Pump in the rain. Consequently, it's my main attack outright OHKOing many offensive mons and finishing most weakened defensive ones. Even Chansey has to be careful about switching in if it's received some damage. The other attacks are mostly for show and don't get used much due to their power being dwarfed by Hydro Pump although Scald is more reliable against severely weakened teams.

Human Fly (Kabutops)

Life Orb, Swift Swim, Adamant

4 Hp, 252 Atk, 252 Spe

Waterfall

Stone Edge

Aqua Jet

Rapid Spin

So if sand has Excadrill who does rain have? Kabutops! This is a secondary cleaner/hazard remover. It's nice to have both a physical and special sweeper and it's nicer that at least one of them has priority for sweeping outside of rain and beating Thurnderus before it can Thunderwave. Rapid Spin may seem like an unorthodox choice over Swords Dance but every team could use hazard removal, rain being no exception. Besides, we only have a limited time to sweep and due to Kabutops being able to run an attack boosting nature he gets the job done anyway. All of Kabutops' main duties are intact from revenge killing to Talonflame checking. This guy is pretty much mandatory for rain teams by now and it's not hard to see why.

Haulass Hyena (Mamoswine)

Life Orb, Thick Fat, Jolly

252 Atk, 4 Spdef 252 Spe

Earthquake

Icicle Spear

Ice Shard

Stealth Rock

I wanted a Stealth Rock setter that didn't completely kill my offensive momentum. I had Ferrothorn in this slot but it just didn't cut it. While annoying it ended up wasting a lot of rain time. I want to attack not wall. Mamoswine does double duty; setting Stealth Rocks and checking various offensive threats. The biggest advantage it gives me is the mind games factor; people think I'm going to lead with it (and hey, sometimes I do if it's right) and they send in their suicide lead counter only to run into Tornadus or Charizard. Mamoswine doesn't really have that much synergy with rain itself although forcing out Thunderus is certainly helpful. Manectric doesn't like Mamoswine ether.

Surfin' Bird (Tornadus-T)

Damp Rock, Regenerator, Timid

4 Atk, 252 SpAtk, 252 Spe

Hurricane

Heat Wave

U-Turn

Rain Dance

This is my lead %50 of the time. Every rain team should have at least one secondary rain setter (Politoed isn't indestructible) and this is mine. He'll ether set up Rain Dance or U-Turn to a better option. The great thing about Tornadus is that, using Regenerator, it can come in multiple times in the match to ether set up rain or check defensive threats, most notably Venusaur. Heat Wave is great against Ferrothorn outside of rain.

Badass Bug (Heracross)

Heracronite, Guts/Skill Link, Adamant

4 Hp, 252 Atk, 252 Spe

Pin Missile

Close Combat

Bullet Seed

Rock Blast

After some awesome suggestions I have settled on Heracross as my mega. It's the best wallbreaker, takes care of my Slowbro and Ferrothorn weakness, and between Cross and Mamoswine they resist both electric and grass.

So there you have it, a rain team that combines traditional elements with some unorthodox choices. Feedback is always appreciated so feel free to rate away :)

 

[Puzzle King]

Hey, nice team! Here are my suggestions:

First of all, Ice Beam over Dragon Pulse on Kingdra. Dragon Pulse gives you no coverage (and as you said are just for show), but Ice Beam allows you to take on the odd bulkier grass types like Amoonguss and Chesnaught and also give you a more reliable way to hitting mons like Lando-T and Gliscor if for some reason rain is not up.

Focus Blast over Heat Wave on Tornadus. It can hit Steel types more reliably in the rain, as well
as allow you to take on Rock types like T-tar and Terrakion as their coming in.

Lastly, Zard X is redundant in a Rain team. Flare Blitz does less, and water type moves do more. I suggest, to cover your Electric an Slowbro weakness, run Mega-Manectric. Here's the set:

Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Lightningrod
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt/Thunder
- Volt Switch
- Overheat
- Hidden Power Ice

Not only does it allow you to form a Volt-turn core, but also can switch into electric moves and gain a boost. At +1, I think it also OHKOs Slowbro.

Hope it helps!
-PK

 

[rob.]

This is a pretty nice looking Rain team, I just have a few suggestions that should make the team better. The first would be to swap M-Char X for another Pokemon. You want to keep rain up as long as possible and since rain weakens fire attacks, keeping M-Char X would be counterproductive. I suggest using M-Heracross in its place. Heracross can break alot of Pokemon that threaten rain teams like, Chansey, Ferrothorn, M-Venusaur, Tyranitar, Excadrill, and Slowbro. This team doesn't need another speed boosting mon' since you already have Kingdra and Kabutops. M-Heracross can soften up walls in preparation for a Kingdra or Kabutops sweep. Move the 4 HP EVs on Kabutops to Def to minimize Life Orb recoil. You should switch back to using Ferrothorn over Mamoswine. It does halt the offense a bit but it provides a bunch of useful resistances (Rock, Electric, Grass, Fairy), and without it the team is torn apart by Electric types (especially M-Manetric). If you don't want to make that change then I suggest running Freeze Dry on Mamoswine since it 2HKOes Rotom-W. Mamo isn't a counter but having Freeze-Dry on it will make it easier to manage Rotom-W. If you don't choose to use Freeze Dry, run a Focus Sash on it to guarantee that you get Stealth Rocks up. Thick Fat isn't going help it. Oblivious is better because it prevents Mamo from being Taunted. Good luck with the team.

Sets

Ferrothorn (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 8 Def / 248 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Power Whip / Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Protect

OR

Mamoswine @ Focus Sash
Trait: Oblivious
EVs: 240 Atk / 16 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naughty Nature (+Atk, -SDef)
- Earthquake
- Freeze-Dry
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock

Heracross @ Heracronite
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Pin Missile
- Rock Blast

 

[trc]

Hi man, this is a pretty cool rain team. Rain teams are naturally rather standard; there is sometimes variation but they often don't require many synergy changes due to the nature of the team. Typically, with rain, lacking switch-ins to a certain threat is ok, because there will be this consistent offensive pressure being applied. However, there is definitely room for optimization offensively.

First of all, the only Pokemon that seems out of place on this team is Mega Charizard X. It offers little with rain lowering the power of its Flare Blitz and it not providing much defensive synergy; in fact, it actually exacerbates weaknesses to Dragon-types. I'd start with replacing it with another Mega Pokemon more suited for this rain team, but which one? There are a few choices, Agility Mega Ampharos, Mega Heracross, or Mega Scizor. However, this team lacks a Steel-type which means it is prone to losing its momentum and being run over by many threats such as Sucker Punch Bisharp, Belly Drum Azumarill once Kingdra is weakened, and fast Dragon-types once rain is gone, as it forces a sac on Politoed making it easier to stall out the rain. With Mega Charizard X gone, you also have huge trouble breaking past Ferrothorn as it counters your Swift Swim sweepers. For these reasons I'd replace Mega Charizard X with a SD Mega Scizor. It is a brilliant answer to the mentioned threats above. However, in order to retain the ability to beat Ferrothorn, using Superpower on Mega Scizor allows you to lure it in and KO it with +2 Superpower, clearing the way for Kingdra and Kabutops. It is your choice whether you want to use an offensive spread or a bulky spread; offensive spreads allow you to use three attacks granting you better overall coverage and sweeping potential, but a bulky spread allows you to check the mentioned threats better. However, since this variation appreciates Roost, you will have to forgo Knock Off. Here are the both sets:

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Atk / 116 Def / 100 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower

As a third alternative, you could try a bulky three attacks set without Roost, and maybe see how that works out on a quick paced team like yours.

Now for some minor changes. First of all, Talonflame isn't too much of a problem to your team due to the general overall bulk of it, as well as typings. Aqua Jet on Kabutops I'd say isn't necessary and I don't think Rapid Spin is either, I'd replace the two with Swords Dance and Superpower as it allows you to both lure Ferrothorn and also setup and sweep yourself. The reason I think forgoing hazard removal is acceptable is because your only Stealth Rock weak Pokemon has Regenerator, and on a rain team like this you won't be switching a lot. I'd also put Ice Beam on Kingdra over Dragon Pulse as they are both situational options but Ice Beam has the allure of hitting Amoonguss super-effectively. Personally I'd give Politoed a specially defensive spread instead but I'll leave that as an option. However, the moveset could be altered. Perish Song is cool for things like CroCune, so I think keeping it wouldn't be too bad, but if you do, Ice Beam definitely needs to be replaced with Encore as it has many more advantages in stopping setup sweepers that don't mind Scald. Finally, I think the idea of having Rain Dance on Tornadus-T is really cool as a backup rain setter, however I feel like you can take advantage of it more by removing Damp Rock. It's only a backup rain setter, and an offensive item benefits it more. Life Orb Mixed Tornadus-T in rain can be really scary, so I think what you should do is make the moveset Hurricane / Superpower / U-turn / Rain Dance and give it the EV spread of 76 Atk / 216 SpA / 216 Spe with a Naive nature, which allows it to outspeed Choice Scarf Tyranitar and OHKO Mega Tyranitar and Excadrill with Superpower. Since you already have two Ferrothorn lures, you could try Taunt over Superpower to improve the stall matchup, and if you find stall is really bothersome, Choice Specs Omastar over Kingdra is a possible option.

I hope I helped!

 

[Expert_Occultist]

Thanks for all the awesome suggestions! I think I'll implement them a few at a time. Ice Beam on Kingdra seems like a no-brainer. The mega slot is contested but the nod has to go to Heracross. Manectric is yet another fast, semi-frail guy that my team doesn't need more of and Swords Dance Scizor is another late-game sweeper that this team has enough of. Heracross however is a sweet wall breaker and one that I've used to good success on pretty much every team I've used.

 

[trc]

Just remember that this decision isn't entirely justified; another "fast, semi-frail" Pokemon means very little on a rain team, especially with the advantages it offers, while Mega Heracross really doesn't offer anything special other than hard switching into Ferrothorn, which can just switch out. Choosing Heracross means you are unlikely to lure Ferrothorn as Heracross always runs a Fighting-type move, which means it can be problematic once Heracross dies which it will due to its low Speed for a rain team and few defensive benefits. This means Ferrothorn will be able to wall your Swift Swimmers late game. Furthermore, it being a sweet wallbreaker is nice but both of your Swift Swimmers are wallbreakers too, just fast sweepers as well. SD Scizor's aim wasn't to lategame sweep necessarily, but moreso to llure in Ferrothorn, weaken Azumarill with +2 Bullet Punch, and offer defensive insurance against Bisharp and Dragon-types, which is partly the reason why a Steel-type is necessary on any rain team, and the fact that Scizor took the Mega slot was just a fortunate coincidence. If you choose Heracross your team would benefit more by replacing Mamoswine with SR Ferrothorn. Another thing to acknowledge is that the choice of Mega Manectric gives you another Thundurus check, especially helpful if you face Focus Blast Thundurus or Mamoswine dies setting up Stealth Rock.

 

[Wally Smitty]

nice rain team here! However I got some suggestions that may improve it a little bit:

first: try encore instead of toxic with politoed. It's funny to see things locked into a move (stealth rock, a boosting move, a crappy move etc), and it works wonderful along with perish song. You can switch in something that resists the encored move or perish song to force it to switch. Ice beam is good, but you can also try focus blast instead of ice beam is a nice option to nail tyranitar leads or ferrothorn switch ins.
Use surf or hydro pump instead of scald for kingdra. I know the burn chance is tempting, but the damage drop is noticeable sometimes.
Try stone edge (or rock slide) instead of icicle crash in mamoswine (and change the nature to oblivious). You already got a nice priority ice move, and stone edge destroys talonflame and other fire stuff

On a lesser change suggestion, try using swords dance with kabutops. It wrecks shit with one or two boosts