DrUUzle (UU Rain-Dance Team)

[Lorak]

Clauses used: Species, Sleep, No OHKOs, No Evasion

Team at a Glance:

Movesets used:

Castform @ Damp Rock
Ability: Forecast
EVs: 252 HP, 252 SpA, 6 Spd
Nature: Modest
- Energy Ball
- Weather Ball
- Rain Dance
- Ice Beam
The opening Pokémon and primary weather establisher. It risks no weather damage from Pokémon which establish weather themselves when entering play. It is usually able to set up weather and switch to something to counter the lead, and can occasionally get a good hit in here or there.

Rotom @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spd, 6 HP
Nature: Timid
- Thunder
- Shadow Ball
- HP Water
- Trick
Rotom is quite a nice team player. It complements Drapion nicely: where it is weak to Ground, Rotom switches in effortlessly. The standard Trick Specs, it can also utilize them well. I was tempted to use HP Grass to counter Quagsire, but felt HP Water benefited from the rain enough to be retained.

Drapion @ Razor Fang
Ability: Sniper
EV: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 6 Def
Nature: Jolly
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Cross Poison
- Night Slash
Drapion, in turn, complements Rotom well. It can easily take Dark and Ghost hits, if Rotom were to be targeted. It can also switch in on Psychic attacks, if something to potentially hit Toxicroak were to come out. A simple SD, physical offense set.

Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin
EV: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 6 HP
Nature: Adamant
- Cross Chop
- Sucker Punch
- Earthquake
- Rain Dance
Toxicroak, oh Toxicroak. With Life Orb and Rain, it can heal off the Life Orb damage, and then a little extra. It bears Rain Dance as a precaution, in case Castform finds itself unable to, making it a secondary weather establisher. Sucker Punch can get the drop on low Def. Psychics, Cross Chop for STAB and crits, and Earthquake for coverage.

Octillery @ Scope Lens
Ability: Sniper
EV: 252 HP, 252 SpA, 6 Spd
Nature: Modest
- Focus Energy
- Surf
- Charge Beam
- Ice Beam
Another Crit-ter, if it can get itself set up. I went Charge Beam over Energy Ball from the standard set, simply because of the Sp.Atk. boosts it provides, as well as it felt like a redundant moveset given Castform's presence. Has worked well in the past as a revenge killer against Trick Room teams, which is why I'm tempted to go Quiet on it.

Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EV: 252 HP, 96 Atk, 160 Def
Nature: Impish
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Protect
The closest thing this team has to a wall and status inducer, secondary effects aside from other attacks. I feel I'm not using it as well as I should on this team, as if I should have another Surf in place of Stone Edge, but this set has worked well thus far.

It has had a decent degree of success on Shoddy thus far, against UU and BL teams. Admittedly, I don't think competitively well, and this was the best I could muster at the thought of an UU Rain Dance team that wasn't fully dependent on Rain Dance. Criticism is welcome; I won't try to argue for the side of my team, but instead would prefer to learn what to change and improve.

 

[Bourbon]

Well, looks pretty solid. Not much to say here.

Although, on Drapion, get rid of Cross Poison for Brick Break. Cross Poison's coverage is rather redundant with Night Slash, and Brick Break + Night Slash hits everything in the tier for neutral or better, bar Toxicroak, who Earthquake covers.

On Toxicroak, put Stone Edge over Earthquake. Stone Edge hits many of the things that resist Fighting for super effective damage. With only Sucker Punch to hit flying types, it's not terribly effective. That, and many of the pokemon that Earthquake hits already get butchered by STAB Cross Chop. Earthquake only covers the Nidos.

It almost seems a sin to not have a Swift Swimmer on here, but it's not a huge deal. Cool team, and watch out for powerful Earthquakes! a('A';)

 

[dizzleman22_main!]

Very nice, i have no talent at making RD teams so im jealous. But, putting all that aside, i have one word for you. Kingdra.
Heres a few more words to go along with that

Adamant Kingdra @ Leftovers (BulkyDra)
252 Hp/110 Atk/148 Spe
-Waterfall
-Dragon Dance
-Outrage
-Flail/Return/Rest
Water/Dragon hits everything but empoleon for neutral. Works great. Dd up, and sweep.

Another few words

Modest Kingdra @ Life Orb
252 SpA/252 Spe/6 Hp
-Hydro Pump/Surf
-Dragon Pulse/Draco Metoer
-Ice Beam
-Hp Electric

I think kingdra is what makes a rain dance team, with swift swim and extremely balanced stats. xD

 

[dizzleman22_main!]

With a damage calculator i got, on average, to the complete metagame, the previous set does an average of 73.11% to everything (Average of all pokemon combined in OU, damage all attacks do) . Sound good?

 

[Urza]

its a uu team dizzleman, and kingdra is bl/ou.

i'm curious as to what happens if the rain happens to fail? either another weather team, or a speedy defeat of castform? you might want to stick rain dance on something else, or add another dancer. i know you say you're not fully dependent on rain, and that's true, but one more couldn't hurt, even if it didn't have damn rock. perhaps hydration dewgong? i donno, food for thought.

 

[Lorak]

its a uu team dizzleman, and kingdra is bl/ou.

i'm curious as to what happens if the rain happens to fail? either another weather team, or a speedy defeat of castform? you might want to stick rain dance on something else, or add another dancer. i know you say you're not fully dependent on rain, and that's true, but one more couldn't hurt, even if it didn't have damn rock. perhaps hydration dewgong? i donno, food for thought.

So, you're recommending three Rain Dancers...? There's a significant power and type coverage loss associated with this.

 

[Bourbon]

I don't think that's necessary. The only two pokemon Lorak has that really rely on Rain a lot are Rotom (thunder, HP water) and Castform. Toxicroak works fine without it, so does Octillery.

He'd be sacrificing type coverage or utility on something by shoehorning in another Rain Dance TM.

 

[Urza]

i missed rain dance on toxicroak...whoops

 

[Galliance]

Why not use the Standard Electrode Rain Lead? It's the fastest thing in UU after all. Just give it a Damp Rock, Thunder, Explosion/HP Ice and Protect/Light Screen.