Golden Age of The Horse (Currently 1749 on Suspect Ladder)

Most of you probably won't get the theme with the Pokemon's names, but they are all song titles from one of my favorite albums, Beach Fossils by uh...Beah Fossils.



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Choice Scarf Keldeo, arguably the best Scarfer in the meta right now, especially in the rain. Awesome speed, especially for a scarfer, coupled with TONS of power, even without his Specs. Secret Sword is what makes Keldeo so hard to wall, and deals with blobs, SpDef Ferrothorn and Jirachi, and Tyranitar mainly. HP Electric is for Gyarados. Icy Wind beats most Lati switch ins thanks to that beautiful speed drop. The speed drop, along with my need for HP Electric, are the main reasons I don't use HP Ice, despite the higher BP and Accuracy.

Weavile is just awesome to use. Latis, Jellicent, Celebi, and almost anything that troubles Keldeo ('cept Croaker) can be handled by this evil weasel. It isn't uncommon for Weavile to net me 3 or 4 kills in a single game. Moves are super standard, basically the only way to use Weavile in OU. Ice Punch is a handy main-STAB, and Ice Shard saves me from Scarf-Chomp, DDnite, and RP Lando. Low Kick is great, OHKOing Tyranitar, and Heatran, among others. Along with his blazing speed and powerful Ice Shard, Pursuit is his main niche. Trapping any Latias or -2 Latios is unbelievable handy. Thanks to him having a speed tier all its own in OU, 224+ is all the speed you need to outpace Tornadus-T, Dugtrio, and many +1 Dragonites. Surprisingly, Weavile eats neutral special hits from anything that doesn't hit very hard without much of a problem. I have tried Life Orb, but it misses the OHKO on Multiscale Dnite all the time, while Choice Band takes it out most of the time. Life Orb recoil also annoyed me, because Weavile needs all the bulk it can get for when it can't OHKO something.


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Threats
Major
My own bad play
Minor
Landorus-I if Weavile is gone
Tornadus-T
Bulk-Up Conkeldurr

List likely to be extended!

Thanks for reading, hope I made it look acceptable and provided detailed enough descriptions. This team was a solo-project, so the only shoutout I really have is to ctann (whoever you are) for giving me the idea for the core of this team.
Changes in bold
In case you want to try it out:

Hi there,

Nice rain team you have there, but I'm going to get right into my rate. First off, you should make Politoed into a Choice Specs user and Keldeo into a Choice Scarf user. Scarf Keldeo is an excellent revenge killer in the current metagame. It outspeeds over 95% of the Pokemon in the current metagame, if not speed tie with other Scarf Keldeo and scarf Terrakion. The only things that outspeed it include: Timid Venusaur in sun and Scarf Latios(lol). Also, Specs Politoed, like Keldeo, does massive damage with Hydro Pump, opening up holes in the opponent's defense. Plus, the addition of Perish Song on your Politoed will be helpful as it can stop a sweeper from setting up on you, or just plain forcing them to switch. Next, from what I've noticed, you have no Tornadus-T switch-in. With that said, I recommend using a Sp Def Jirachi > Xatu. Jirachi is excellent at walling all forms of Tornadus-T, taking manageable damage from any move thrown at it. Plus, Jirachi can use Stealth Rock, so you can use Spikes on Ferrothorn, so you put more pressure on your opponent to Rapid Spin. Other than that, good team and good luck!

Hi there,

Cool rain team you got here, interesting use of Weavile which I'm starting to see a little more of. Anyway, as for your team I think your main lack of a good defensive Pokemon is hurting your team. You may argue that Xatu is decent at performing that role, but it really doesn't fare well against DD Nite, SD Scizor or any Terrakion set, as it has to predict around with Stone Edges. I think you'd make much better use of a Physically Defensive Politoed set in that spot over your current Choice Scarf set. Physically Defensive gives you a buffer for all of these, aswell as giving you a pretty nice core alongside Xatu and Ferrothorn. Having the freedom as well to switch up moves means you can Perish Song freely, forcing out some of the bigger threats to your team such as CM Jirachi, DD Gyara, SD Scizor, BU Toxicroak and other boosters that can setup against certain members of your team. Switching over to a Defensive set means you lost that ability to revenge kill with Politoed, but my next change should cover that nicely.

If you go with this change, you'll notice you've just lost your Choice Scarfer. In this fast paced metagame it really is essential you have someway to check the multitude of threats that are everywhere. I'd agree with Funkasaurus's Choice Scarf Keldeo suggestion, as this compensates for losing Choice Scarf Politoed. Under Rain, Keldeo is a much bigger threat than Politoed with it's higher Special Attack and dual STAB. Additionally, I'd suggest switching your moveset to Surf / Hydro Pump / Secret Sword / Hidden Power [Ice] as well as running 30 Atk and Def IVs too. Icy Wind is really weak as a coverage move, and this becomes more notable because it isn't STAB either. Hidden Power [Ice] provides you with that extra bit of power to break through certain Dragons. Icy Wind is nice for slowing down certain Pokemon, but Choice Scarf Keldeo already outspeeds 95% of the metagame, so there's really no need.

Also given the amount of insurance you have against Dragons, (Politoed, Keldeo, Ferrothorn, Weavile), I think you could alter your Toxicroak set slightly to be more effective. I really think you'd make much better use of either Swords Dance or Bulk Up on Toxicroak over Ice Punch. Given that your team already handles Dragons nicely, I don't see the need for Ice Punch really. The only other thing you'd need that for is Gliscor, who is dealt with by Weavile and Keldeo. Given the amount of Water types in the metagame (Politoed, Keldeo, Tentacruel), Toxicroak can switch in and take advantage of these free switches much better. Bulk Up would also help you with your SD Scizor problem to an extent, while Swords Dance would make Toxicroak much more potent as a sweeper and give you a much better answer to Stall when combined with Xatu.

Good luck!

As the raters above have said, this is a solid rain team. I agree with a lot of the above suggestions, most primarily switching keldeo to scarf--regardless of toed's set, scarftoed is just too slow to serve as the sole revenge-killer on the team. You really can choose between which toed set to use, I personally like bulky toed more since it helps to win the weather war but specstoed is pretty awesome too.

I see your reasoning on weavile's item, but I do think LO could be worth consideration since otherwise it will be massive set-up bait for stuff like dragons if you've just pursuited something--and if weavile is in, you can't immediately go to it to revenge. If you like band it's a good option though.

Looking at your list of threats, I have a pokemon to substitute in for toxicroak: celebi. With perish song, it handily beats subDD gyara (psong while it bounces, switch to something when it hits), subCM rachi, and all forms of croak (it lives +2 LO sucker pucnh with a defensive spread). Celebi can also use SR, which frees up a slot for ferro to use spikes. Meanwhile, celebi does a nice job countering keldeo. A good set would be:
EVs here maximize HP to lefties number, guarantee you live two super-effective HPs from LO keldeo after SR, outrun adamant breloom, and then the rest in physical defense. Psong is obvious and checks all those set-up sweepers, SR allows ferrothorn to use spikes, Recover for healing and psychic for a great STAB that allows you to OHKO toxicroak and breloom. If you want to keep SR on ferro, U-turn and Twave are great options in that slot--twave allows you to cripple torny on the predicted switch, among other things, and u-turn allow you to keep momentum (again helpful if torny comes in). Baton Pass is also possible to escape form pursuiters (you mentioned celebi getting beat by stuff that accompanied keldeo) but clashes with psong a bit.
This set should really help those niche problems while fulfilling croak's role as well--if you try it out, i think you'll really be impressed!

I think ferrothorn is good on this team tbh, a steel type is p necessary and if you use celebi sub users become less of a problem. One option that I've tried out is using bulldoze on ferro, which makes it better vs. subCMrachi. Unfortunately, you need substantial attack investment to guarantee breaking its subs, so it's not a great option.

Like funk, i don't really love the use of xatu on this team. If you use SpDrachi though, I'd suggest changing ferro's EV spread to more physically defensive. A spinner would also be possible in that slot, though none of them have great options vs. torny. Lastly, if you do choose to use SpDrachi with SR, ferro should definitely have spikes instead and celebi, if you use it, should have twave or u-turn.

GL with the team!

Hi There, nice rain team!

The first thing that i want advice is to exchange Politoed's and Keldeo's items.
Keldeo with choice scarf under rain still has a 50% strengthening of the water moves but gains a great speed for revengekill the most threats of the metagame.
Its Hydropump under rain has 100% to make a 2HKO to Spdef Jirachi if there are stealthrock in the field, also can stop the sweep of many more threat better than Politoed, in addition to Dragonite can outspeeding Salamence, Garchomp, Thundurus, Volcarona but especially thanks to its Hp Electric can also revengekill Jolly Gyarados as you said that DDGyara can be a problem for you.
At this point in putting Choice specs Toed you still have a member that hits really hard whoever comes into play, however, putting the timid nature so you can outspeed pericolous threat like CBnite, Breloom, Scizor and Ma
moswine: with a single Pokémon can kill these dangerous threat while maintaining the power of the specs.The set is the standard: Hydropump is mainstab that you use to spam major damage, Icebeam is to hit the dragons, Celebi and Breloom, Focus Blast is for Ferrothorn that you do a sure 2HKO, and then you can put perish song to stop the batonpass team or if you prefer can also put HP Grass for hit Gastrodon and Jellicent.

You said that subcalm mind Jirachi can be a problem but if you see his moves ferrothorn can resist very well and with a simple change can counter this problem: insert Bulldoze > Twave with 24 evs in attack you have possibilities to break at once the substitute of timid rachi with 252 evs in hp and win the 1v1.
About Ferrothorn I suggest you also to put Gyroball > Powerwhip to be able to break theKyurem-b's substitute, but also hit SubCalmMind Latias and Tornadus-t that can give you some problems.
At this point you should put Mamoswine > Weavile for greater bulkyness but also more power and coverage. With rain + thick fat can hit Heatran and take a very little damage from his fire stab, doing anyway 2HKO with earthquake if jellicent switch on him and make a safe 2HKO with iceshard on calmcelebi if there are rocks in the field.
The set is standard EQ and Ice Shard are the mainstab that offering some of the best coverage and revengekill power, Suporpower is to hit ferrothorn and rotom, in finally icicle crash is to hit Hippowdon and amoongus.
You can give on him Life Orb for make more damages.

Ps: please, change Xatu's nature from serious to bold xD

Sets:

Thanks for the rates guys, OP is updated with changes. I assure you that even if I didn't use something you suggested, that it is NOT due to a lack of testing. I'm 10-0 with the new team so far, so thank you so much guys!

Hi Pom,

I am currently using "ctann" as my showdown username :)

I'm glad you liked my Keldeo/Weavile core, I peaked in the 1900's with that core using various team combinations (1963 iirc). I rather enjoyed your team and think it's a great combination as I couldn't find too many flaws. It is interesting that you chose scarf Keldeo and I think she fits more on rain teams then my own life orb/taunt wall breaker. Perhaps you could give the wall breaker set a try albeit I can see the merit in using Keldeo as a scarfer, especially when your team would most likely need one.

I have my personal Weavile and Keldeo sets displayed in this thread (page 2): http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3475986&page=2 (note you will have to look at the Keldeo replays with Weavile in them to see it in play, I used expert belt and night slash over ice punch)

I've experimented a lot with Weavile and she has a few viable sets in my opinion but with Keldeo I fell in love with my self-designed LO+Taunt Wallbreaker.

Banded Weavile is great except for all the painful Jirachi and Scizor switch ins, I'd like to hear your opinions on how good the band is in the current metagame.

I would make suggestions but the team looks fine, apart from being very hazard prone (all grounded pokemon, a standard spiker and Jellicent could really give you a headache until she finally falls to weavile) it looks like a fairly durable team.

edit: Things that threaten you would be:

1. Sub-Charge Magnezone + accompanying sweeper - Magnezone with hp ice will go 2 for 1 once it gets a safe switch in on ferrothorn, unfortunately at the moment theres nothing you can do about it except hope for some hax!
2. Volt turn - A forgotten strat that will give this team some serious trouble, once the hazards are up, tentacruel won't be given much chance to spin, racking up hazards.
3. SD Terrakion - Easily comes in after weavile pursuit traps something and then goes to town on your switch in, chance to go 2 for 1 again. A salac set has a chance to sweep whilst a rock gem set is 80% sure to ko at least one pokemon on your team.
4. Lucario with Crunch - Goes through everything on your team, +2 e speed will ko Keldeo after a little prior damage and Tentacruel can't ko with scald whilst is 2hkoed back by crunch, it also takes around 70% from a +2 close combat so is a shaky check as the opponent can predict your protect.
5. Double dance/Dragon dance Haxorus - Often accompanied by Magnezone, often has superpower for Ferrothorn, consider my set posted in the above link a few posts down from Keldeo. At least it is revengeable by weavile! (<edit: Actually it isn't... lol!)
6. Mamoswine - It can spam earthquake all day and if Celebi decides to come in, switch moves to an ice attack..


What I would suggest to handle all of this is a Landorus-T as it can even check Mamoswine earthquakes and then switch! The benefit of using it is that it can also learn stealth rock. It also makes your team more offensive. I would personally replace Celebi with it, seeing as Keldeo has HP electric for Gyarados and tentacruel walls opposing Keldeo anyway. Ofcourse this would mean you have an issue with Landorus-I, who may now do work on your team however I don't see this as a real problem as you can always check a predicted HP ice with Weavile OR Keldeo. If there is any other targets Celebi can wall (physically or specially) that would give your team with Landorus-T trouble, please let me know! As far as sub-charge Magnezone, whilst it will still 2 for 1 your team with HP ice (the set I personally always use when trapping), at least now you have intimidate and a back up method of dealing with the physical sweepers it is often accompanied by!

My landorus-T set:

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 196 Spd / 196 HP / 116 Def
Lax Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]

An alternative to the above is to invest more in defence, however the speed will help you against slower Heatran and Jolly Breloom. It also ensures you HP ice a gliscor before it does anything to you most of the time and you will always earthquake a magnezone before it attacks if it isn't scarfed.

I figured you would find this thread somehow. That makes me glad I have the odd type of memory that would allow me to remember your Showdown name, hah.

On to the actual team, I'm really glad you were able to isolate some threats that I missed. Now that you mention that about SubCharge Zone, I think I might retry Bulldoze on Ferro. Volt-Turn, I don't recall ever having major issues with, but Lando's Electric immunity and Bug resist will certainly help. I really liked Kidogo's Celebi, but Lando also sets up rocks while providing even more offensive pressure, and I can fit Perish Song onto Politoed. Terrakion used to be dealt with by Toxicroak, but Lando can pick these duties up as well. Now, the biggest issue I think you listed was Lucario. Ones that run Crunch sweep my team aside from Landorus, but ones with Ice Punch beat Lando, unless I put more EVs into Speed. Haxorus and other Dragon Dancing Dragons, I need to Perish Song and get locked into Outrage, but worst case scenario, I lose 1 Poke and revenge with Weavile.

Now that I've gone through that, I really like your Lando suggestion. I'll test that now, along with Bulldoze Ferro once more.

The problem with your celebi is really the mono attacking presence it holds. Psychic literally makes it bait for scizor//Ferrothorn/Forretress/Tyranitar/Jirachi/Weavile! Landorus-T would be great for sub charge Magnezone's not packing hp ice or flash cannon as it shouldn't be ohkoed by hp fire, even at +6! Ice punch Lucario is so rare and so limited in use I expect you won't see any at all, ice punch is really a redundant move on Lucario in this meta! Worst case scenario it is merely +1 and Tentacruel will never be 2hkoed whilst Keldeo is much harder to pull down with extremespeed!

The only threat I can think of that will still give you trouble with Landorus-T (apart from non standard threats like hurricane moltres) is bulk up Conkeldurr, but that is seriously so incredibly rare and will at worst take out your Tentacruel/Landorus whilst you spam scalds/Earthquakes and then revenge with a rain boosted hydro pump. If you're paranoid about Conkeldurr, you can run psychic on Landorus-T to 2hko it and also use a stronger move against Breloom (often ohkoing it!)

Hi pom.
It is a very effective and very strong team, and then I see Weavil a Pokémon very interesting and it is a very good sweeper, but your team have weaknesses as Tornadus-T, you have nothing to his Hurricane, Ferrothorn is 2HKO by Hurricane, Politoed also and even if you put Keldeo or Weavil opponent can switch, then I see that you are weak against Landorus-T you have nothing for tank earthquake properly, Ferrothorn is 3HKO by Earthquake (2HKO with spikes) and even if you put Weavil/Keldeo the opponent can also switch and come after to continue, I suggest you to Rotom-W on Keldeo, Rotom-W is a very good pokemon for your team, it can counter Landorus-T with his ability (Levitate) and use the move Will-O-Wisp, and it can also counter Tornadus-T because Rotom-W is an Electric type, it tank properly the Hurricane move and it also has Paint Split to heal.
Then I see you own Protect on Tentacruel, I suggest you to Substitute, with this move you can come on Politoed without problem, and you can also Toxic or try to burn a pokemon easily (Rotom-W/Politoed/Ferrothorn/Jirachi/Forretress).


Tl;dr

Hide

Keldeo--->Rotom-W
Tentacruel--->Substitute

Hope I Helped and Good Luck with your Team.

Once again guys, thanks so much for all of your help.

I am currently using Lando-T over Celebi for the way it works against opposing Terrakions, Scizors, Brelooms, and the like. I really liked Celebi as it gave a status absorber and a better switch in against Tentacruel and Rotom, but overall Landorus-T (and especially Intimidate) has helped me more.

Leftiez, I see what you're saying about Rotom over Keldeo, but Rotom simply doesnt bring the same offensive pressure and sweeping ability as Keldeo. Tornadus-T almost never gets more than 1 KO anyway with Weavile around, as Life Orb and Stealth Rock usually put it within KO range of even an unboosted Pursuit. I am using Substitue over Protect now, and I like that it helps me handle Ferrothorn and other Tentacruels better.