INTRODUCTION
Hello everybody! My name’s MisterBobobo and I’m from Italy. I’ve been a competitive battler since D/P in 2009 but that’s only now I come to the Smogon forums so that post a team I want you to rate. I like building creative (and viable and good) teams I like playing with on the ladder.This team is mainly centered around the Keldeo + Thundurus-T core, a really offensive duo I feel very comfortable with. It’s a kind of a rain balanced team with some new tools from Black and White 2 and I must say I was very surprised it really worked and maintained a 90% win rate on the ladder. When I first tried to use it on PO, I used to put Calm Mind on Keldeo and opt for a Lum Berry Nasty Plot + Agility Thundurus-T; they were so difficult to stop, but for some reasons it didn’t work. When I decided to put Choice Scarf > Leftovers on Keldeo, I realized it was such a beast. So I tried to add team members that could lure and kill their counters and checks.
Rain is very useful for the main core, ensuring Keldeo some OHKOs and 2HKOs with its STAB moves and raising the accuracy of Thunder. Celebi, Skarmory and Tentacruel make another very good, defensive core, with Rock being the only type they don’t resist together. Perish Song + U-turn, Entry Hazards and Rapid Spin are really useful support moves the team couldn’t work without. Perish Song in particular stops stat-uppers that come in on a locked move of Keldeo; U-turn makes a great combo with Thundurus and helps dealing with threats like Latios; Stealth Rock is necessary to OHKO Dragonite with HP Ice; Spikes are very useful to OHKO Blissey with Secret Sword; Rapid Spin removes Stealth Rock for Thundurus and Toxic Spikes for Politoed and Celebi.
The name of this team came after that I read one of the most famous books from Ernest Hemingway: “The Old Man and the Sea”. The team also peaked #1 on the OU ladder of Pokémon Showdown and reached a good rank on the Pokèmon Online one too.
TEAM BUILDING PROCESS
The old man and the Marlin make a fantastic core, with lots of resistances and great offensive power. However, they share some checks & counters, like Celebi, Latios and Latias. Specially Bulky Pokémon like Jirachi may be useful, but Rain is now necessary in order to make their STAB hit harder.
# Politoed summons Rain, making Keldeo and Thundurus very difficult to check, but Latios, Latias, Jirachi, Sheer Force Landorus, CM Keldeo, Bulky Grass Pokémon and Rotom-W are now very big threats. Jirachi is a good Special Sponge and can deal with Latios and Latias. Blissey can take lots of attacks from the likes of Rotom, Latios and other special sweepers. Mamoswine is a good Latwins check and may be useful against Grass and Steel types. However, Specially Defensive Celebi is probably the best counter of Rotom-W and Breloom and really likes Rain; it can also also stop very threatening stat-uppers like CM Latias, Jirachi and Keldeo thanks to Perish Song.
# With Celebi in my team, Tyranitar and Sand Teams may be a problem. Annoying sweepers like Scizor, Tornadus-T and Dragonite are big threats too. I also need something that can set some Spikes like Ferrothorn. Skarmory is my choice. It’s not very common in BW2, but it can still do its job quite well. It’s also very good with Rain support and some Special Defense EVs investment.
# Looking at the threat list, I realize there are not many Pokémon my team has big problems with. Anyway, Deoxys-D, Ferrothorn and Forretress are annoying as usual. Even if my team is not very weak to EH, Politoed and Thundurus-T really appreciate Rapid Spin support. After considering Starmie as my first option (that makes my team too weak to Tyranitar), I opt for Tentacruel, which can also be a good counter of Icy Wind Keldeo, Standard Volcarona, Ninetales.
TEAM AT A GLANCE
Hydro Pump is the main STAB move, 2HKOing Starmie, Rotom-W and Salamence if SR are on the field, while Scald deals good damage and burns opposing switch-ins with one move. Ice Beam is used to revenge-kill Dragonite, Salamence, Hydreigon, Breloom, Haxorus. Hypnosis is useful in nearly any situation, being a welcome balance for the ability to disable one Pokemon on the opposing team nigh permanently. Max Spd and SAtk EVs allow Politoed to be a decent revenge-killer, outspeeding any Pokemon under 130 base Speed and assail it with the corresponding attack.
Keldeo is the best front-runner of offensive rain teams, unleashing destructive Hydro Pumps without refrain. Thundurus-T is a good offensive teammate too: its Volt Absorb negates Electric attacks used against Politoed and Keldeo while the rain increases its Thunder’s accuracy to the perfection.
Expert Belt Thundurus-T is one of the strongest special attackers and wall-breakers in the game, catching opponents to surprise by luring and OHKOing lots of threats that assume Thundurus-T is equipped with a Choice Scarf. Its stratospheric 427 Special Attack and quite good Speed (enough to outspeed Adamant Salamence) allow Thundurus-T to revenge-kill a really good number of OUs, like Breloom, Cloyster, Conkeldurr, Donphan, Dragonite, Dugtrio, Espeon, Forretress, Garchomp, Gastrodon, Gliscor, Gyarados, Haxorus, Heatran, Infernape, Jellicent, Landorus-T, Lucario, Metagross, Politoed, Rotom-W, Salamence, Scizor, Skarmory, Tentacruel, Tornadus-T, Toxicroak and Vaporeon.
Thunder is the main STAB, the strongest of its STAB moves, Focus Blast and Hidden Power [Ice] are very good coverage moves: Focus Blast hits Ferrothorn, Heatran, Tyranitar, Magnezone and Mamoswine; Hidden Power [Ice] allows Thundurus-T to kill Dragonite, Salamence, Breloom, other Dragon- and Grass-types. Grass Knot lures and revenge-kills Gastrodon, Hippowdon, allowing my team to win the weather war. A Modest Nature may seem quite stupid, but there are lots of threats the Timid one can’t OHKO, like Hippowdon, Ninetales, Terrakion and Toxicroak. 8 HP EVs allow Thundurus-T to be 4HKOed by Seismic Toss and Night Shade, 248 Spd EVs are just enough to outspeed Neutral 100 base speed.
As Thundurus-T can lure and revenge-kill bulky threats like Gastrodon and Celebi, Choice Scarf Politoed and Keldeo are great partners: they can spam their powerful Hydro Pumps with impunity once those ones are out of the equation. The former can also support Thundurus-T with rain, while the latter checks Ice-, Rock-type threats.
― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
With a Choice Scarf equipped and Rain Support, Keldeo becomes almost devastating: 357 Special Attack, 519 Speed, a 270 power move and quite good coverage moves make it a great revenge killer, late game sweeper in the rain. It’s is such a big problem to every offensive team, also revenge-killing lots of threats like Venusaur, Dragonite, Salamence, Ferrothorn, Empoleon thanks to its coverage moves. Anyway, the best way to wreak havoc is to go for Hydro Pump after some layers of Spikes are set up. To illustrate the might of its power, here is a couple of Keldeo checks that should almost never switch into Hydro Pump:
252 SpA Keldeo Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Starmie in rain: 168-198 (51.85 - 61.11%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Keldeo Hydro Pump vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Latios in rain: 135-159 (44.7 - 52.64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Keldeo Hydro Pump vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Latios in rain: 135-159 (44.7 - 52.64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
In regard to the moveset, Surf is the staple move, doing crazy damages even to Water resistants, while Hydro Pump may be useful to kill specific threats; Secret Sword is Keldeo’s second STAB move and helps to deal with Chansey, Blissey, Ferrothorn, Rotom-W; Hidden Power [Ice] allows Keldeo to revenge kill Dragonite, Salamence and Breloom. The EVs maximize Keldeo’s Special Attack and Speed, making it one of the most threatening sweepers in the BW metagame.
Keldeo and Thundurus-T form a great core together: the former kills Ground- and Dragon-types, luring Electric and Water; the latter lures Ground- and Dragon-types and deals with Keldeo’s main counters (like Jellicent, Tentacruel, Toxicroak, Gastrodon). Thundurus-T always manages to lure and revenge-kill some Keldeo counters like Celebi, Jellicent, Toxicroak, Amoonguss and Gastrodon.
Perish Song allows Celebi to counter stat-uppers such as Jirachi, Latias, Landorus, Thundurus-T (but also shuffling for extra EH damage, essentially acting as a pseudo-hazing move); Psychic means Celebi is able to deal with Breloom, Conkeldurr, Toxicroak, Tornadus, Thundurus-T, Keldeo, Terrakion; Recover enables Celebi to last throughout the match; U-turn works very well with Perish Song, also hitting threats like Latios, Latias, Starmie, Celebi, Tyranitar. Max HP and SDef EVs investment masimizes special bulk, allowing to avoid 2HKOs from many notable threats, pertinently HP [Ice] from Sheer Force Landorus and Thundurus-T, Draco Meteor from Choice Specs Latios.
Tentacruel and Politoed are really good teammates, sharing a flawless defensive synergy with Celebi, because it checks Electric- and Grass-type threats, while Politoed and Tentacruel are good switch-ins to Fire- and Bug-type ones, such as Scizor and Heatran.

Rapid Spin is greatly appreciated as Thundurus-T is weak to Stealth Rock; Scald is one of its best STAB moves, offering an excellent 30% burn rate; Substitute blocks harmful status, lets it scout its checks, and most important of all, protects Tentacruel from taking hits; finally, Toxic allows it to get past Jellicent and Gastrodon, also pairing well with Substitute. As for the EVs spread, 252 HP EVs are allotted for maximum recovery, 24 Speed EVs allow Tentacruel to reach 266, outspeeding SubGyara, Dragonite, Tentacruel, while the remaining ones are added to Defense for additional bulk.
Tentacruel really appreciates physical walls which can be good switch-ins to Landorus-T, Garchomp, Dragonite and status absorbers that don't care about Will-o-Wisp or a burn from Scald. Skarmory and Celebi are quite good partners. In fact, the former is an ideal check to physical sweepers, luring in Fire- and Water-type moves, while the latter does well taking out Electric- and Psychic-type Pokèmon.
As far as moveslots are concerned, Roost is a must because Skarmory needs a recovery which can be useful to wear out Life Orb users such as Tornadus and Metagross; Whirlwind stops threatening sweepers like Dragonite and shuffles for extra EH damage; Spikes + Stealth Rock are almost compulsory to Keldeo and Thundurus-T, ensuring some OHKOs and 2HKOs even to Bulky threats, like Latwins, Ferrothorn, Rotom-W, Dragonite, Blissey. The given EVs spread and an Impish Nature make Skarmory a quite good mixed wall and utility counter, checking Tornadus, Latios, Hydreigon, especially if Rain is up.
Even if Politoed and Tentacruel do attract Electric-type moves, are great partners to have thanks to their useful resistances to Water and Fire. Moreover, the former summons rain, while the latter is a really good counter to Infernape and Keldeo. It also works very well with Celebi and Tentacruel because they can actually force the opponent to switch out thanks to Toxic and Perish Song.
CONCLUSION
The team has been really successful at showing the potential of Keldeo + Thundurus-T offensive core. Thank you if you rate; I suggest you trying it on the ladder! It's a lot of fun to play with. Though no team is perfect, and this one certainty isn't. Just be careful when you're playing against the threatening Pokémon I wrote about below.
THREAT LIST
EXPORT TO TEXT
Politoed (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Scald
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Hypnosis
Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 8 HP / 252 SAtk / 248 Spd
Modest Nature
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast
- Grass Knot
Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Secret Sword
Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature
- U-turn
- Psychic
- Recover
- Perish Song
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 24 Spd
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Rapid Spin
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Scald
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Hypnosis
Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 8 HP / 252 SAtk / 248 Spd
Modest Nature
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast
- Grass Knot
Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Secret Sword
Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature
- U-turn
- Psychic
- Recover
- Perish Song
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 24 Spd
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Rapid Spin
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Whirlwind