Toxic rain

Hello smogoners,

Since pokémon online server, rain was always my preferred playstyle, specially when sand (suporttar, bandscizor, rotom-w, scarflandorus, celebi/latias, exca/terrakion) was the standard thing. After BW2, the metagame changed. Now sand isn't standard anymore and rain flourishes, so I started messing with some new teams.

Anyway, I got bored with them and wanted to go back to rain.... So, here it is:


Team building:

Sets:

Politoed @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Toxic
- Protect
- Perish Song

I always thought bulky-toed was for pussys. Ok, it is good, usually annoying, but it doesn't get the job done, so I started with specs one (the toed to go). The problem was: it was being koed way too early in the match. This wasn't a problem to my other rain teams, because they weren't really rain dependent, but now, without rain, things get hard. Then I reviewed my prejudices and gave bulky-toed a go.

This is a bulky set Kidogo uses/used (and he is badass). It's simple: toxic and stall or stop setup with perish song. It survives basically everything and scald burns Ferro, the ever annoying wall.



Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 4 HP/ 252 Atk / 252 Spe
AdamantNature (+Atk, SAtk)
- Substitute
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance

And I'm using another pokémon I used to think it was lame... It died early game and didn't have the power to punch holes. That is because I only played against it and I usually have Skarmory under my belt.

Anyway I wanted to give it another go, specially with so much rain nowadays, and boy is it good! It gets a lot of free switches against bulky waters and it proceed to sub or dance and then punch a hole or two before a switch it out and wait for another opportunity to come in.


Skarmory @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind

In a pinch, Skarmory usually saves the game... So your Dnite wants to setup? Go Skarmory and put rocks while the fat Dragon trys to break you. So your Mamos want to screw my dragons and punch holes? Go skarmory and kill the brown pig. The same goes for basically all boosting dragons and locked atackers. Skarmory is too important to let go in a dragon based metagame.



Latios @ Choice Specs
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
- Thunder

What can I do? I love the Lati twins and Latios packs a huge punch with specs. It also helps against other rain teams that fears thunders or agaisnt sand teams that fears surfs. Ok, Bulkytar and Scizor can come in and ruin the party but they must go for the revenge kill, because they don't like being surfed away. Latios was always a staple in my teams and he loved the Genesect ban.


Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Wish
- Body Slam
- Iron head

Paralyze and wish support in a pokémon that almost lives forever? I really want that! Jirachi helps keeping the team healthy and is really annoying against troublesome special sweepers or special based pokemos like Lati@s, Celebi, Gengar, Alakazam, Rotom-W (not much, but sometimes). It also stops the hell out of the pink blobs both whom really stops my special based team.



Tornadus-T@ Life Orb
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- U-turn
- Sleep Talk

I wanted cheap and I wanted fast... What's best than Tornadus-T for this role? It hurts everything and if it can't kill it just U-turn out and restore some lost HP. Sleep talk is good against predicted sleep inducers, like Breloom and Tornadus is a check against Volcarona too, so why not?


So what?

I don't know, that's what I ask you guys.. Does this team works? Well, yes, but I think it has room for a lot of improvement. What do you guys think? Gastro or Celebi agaisnt Rotom-W? Tenta to keep hazards free? You name it, I try it!


That's it!

Hey there, nice team! Always nice to see Toxicroak getting some love :)

I have a couple of suggestions for you.

Patching up the Electric and Jirachi weaknesses

First off, I noticed you have a pretty big weakness to Jirachi, with the exception of Latios none of your pokemon can really damage it. The only ones who can are Latios, Tornadus-T and Toxicroak, and they all hate Thunder/Body Slam paralysis. It slows down your team considerably. Calm Mind Jirachi with a Psychic attack really shuts down your entire team, especially if its sent out when Latios is weakened. I think that Latios should be replaced with Garchomp. This not only helps with your Jirachi weakness, but it also gives you an Electric immunity as well. Garchomp can deal massive damage and outspeeds Rotom-W and Thundurus-T, arguably the two most threatening users of Electric attacks in OU. Here is the set I suggest using:

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance

I think that this set would do great for you. I'm sure you noticed that it contains Stealth Rock. This frees up Skarmory's set to use Spikes for more hazard damage. Toxicroak and Tornadus-T both love to clean up matches with a lot of hazards on the field. Outrage and Earthquake are both pretty standard for Garchomp, and Swords Dance gives it the ability to sweep late game. Rocky Helmet adds even more damage, shaving off 25% each time Garchomp gets hit by a contact move.

Set Changes

You mentioned how you like to send in Tornadus-T against Breloom. I really like Specs over Life Orb specifically because of Breloom and for the lack of recoil damage. The nice part about Specs is that both Hurricane and Focus Blast OHKO, which basically gives you a fool proof way of beating Breloom. U-Turn allows you switch to Skarmory to absorb Breloom's attacks and force it out.

Here are calcs to show the difference of Life Orb and Specs:


As you can see, Specs is considerably more powerful. Most of the time you'll be cleaning up with Hurricane, and the lack of recoil really helps Tornadus-T survive for a much longer amount of time.

Well, that's about all of the changes I can think of making. If you wanted to try a Calm Mind set on Jirachi I think that could do really well on your team. Something like Wish/Calm Mind/Thunder/Flash Cannon would be an absolute beast. With Wish the Pink Blobs wouldn't even be able to stop you (most run Toxic) as you CM up to +6.

Anyway, I hoped I helped a little, best of luck with your team!

Quick idea-since you seem to be running a semi-stally team, why not just give jirachi SR>Substitute, and run spikes on skarmory? I find that substitute is semi-pointless on jirachi in any case-it's used to avoid prediction and get the drop on any enemy, but jirachi can already do that by paralysing the switch-in. It's also hard-walled a good percentage of the time, which means that subbing is just wasted health. Meanwhile, spikes definitely help that jirachi problem, since with max hazards, you can chip away at it pretty nicely.

Also, trick>Dragon pulse. If you can give jirachi specs, you can at least strip it of recovery and force it to be choiced on an attack. Thunder jirachi still messes with you pretty bad, but if you get enough spikes up and keep latios helpfully, that could be pretty helpful. Or just do what ala said, TBH.

Your Team is cool xD, i see well, just be care with Thundurus-T Double Dance ( Nasty plot and Aglity ) x_X is terrible and i suggest Jirachi with U-Turn insted of Substitute your will is more effective because have more opportunity vs Psichic Pokémon as : ( celebi , latias , etc. ), and you can escape of Pokémons as Magnezone , Dugtrio. And i suggest the Tornadus-T whit Super power insted of Focus Blast narute naive, why ? simple , Chansey can wallear you see ( Tornadus -T : Focus Blast: 27.69 - 32.81% , Superpower: 42.47 - 50.28% ), super power is more that Focus Blast and Tyranitar is K.O of one Super Power of Tornadus-T life orb so it is more suggest the Tornadus-T wih Super power that Focus Blast. hope will be helpful bye

This is a pretty solid rain team, and its build is similar to most offensive rain teams, so it obviously performs well against a lot of the metagame. Sand teams look troublesome, especially because your only switch-in for Rotom-W is Latios, who Tyranitar can simply pick off. Additionally, your team has very little physical power, as Toxicroak will only pack a punch once it sets up. I would probably focus on making this all-out offense with a few defensive pivots. You don't necessarily need Skarmory to take hits because you have a Steel-type and you can spend the slot on a more offensive Pokemon to set up. I would give lead Terrakion a shot because it can prevent Spikes-stacking and hazards by using Taunt. The set has a Focus Sash, a spread of 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe with a Jolly nature and a moveset of Stealth Rock / Taunt / Stone Edge / Close Combat.

You can still tank hits with Jirachi without the need to use Skarmory thanks to its resistances. It's good that you're using a few defensive EVs to prevent a 2HKO from boosted Dragon-type Outrages, but I would probably use U-turn over Substitute to give your team a bit of momentum. You can try Thunder over Body Slam to hit Skarmory and Gengar, but ultimately you'd give up a hit on Thundurus-T, so it depends on preference.

There are a lot of other small moveset changes that I would make. For one, I don't think Toxicroak really needs Substitute. The only Pokemon it will help against is Jellicent, and Toxicroak can't do anything to Jellicent, so it doesn't even matter. I'd replace it with Ice Punch because you get a hit on Dragonite and Gliscor, and it helps a lot in prediction games against Recover Latios. On your own Latios, I'd give a few changes a shot. For one, I think Psyshock is necessary to beat down boosted Keldeo. Latios and Latias are the most reliable Pokemon to beat it down, but without Thunder, it can be completely useless. You can also test out Trick over Dragon Pulse to mess around with stall teams, though that's preference.

You should also give ala's Garchomp suggestion a shot, as it does patch up the Jirachi weakness but doesn't do as well against Deoxys-D teams. That's all I have to say. Cool team and good luck. I hope I helped.

Hi there! Nice team!

The first thing that i see is an high weakness to electric, expecially to volturn chain with rotom-w, so you should enter ferrothorn> Skarmory to reduce this problem and Ferro in rain is pretty strong.
At this point you can change the set of Jirachi in sub-calmminder, with this set it become a strong Wallbreaker expecially with the coverage psychic-electric.
Talking about Toxicroak i would suggest you to put ice punch instead of sub because in this way you can catch in predict some landorus as well as KOing Dragonite
I noticed that you haven't a revengekiller and this is bad because in bw2 if you let you opponent boost you will have to sacrifice some pokemon so i will put the scarf > specs to latios.

set: