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Introduction:
NOTE: I wrote this RMT when the Therian forms came out, but shelved it until now so it doesn’t take into consideration new pokes like Genesect and the Meloetta forms.
I started building this team when the new forms became available on PO, and finalized the team just before the new version of PO was released. Since then I’ve had a real fun time with this team, and I’ll probably use it for a good while longer. This team features the deadly Therian form Tornadus-T. This team has a nice balance of sweeping offense in the form of Tornadus-T’s Life Orb Hurricane and a rain boosted Choice Band STAB Aqua Jet from Azumarill, while at the same time physically defensive Forretress and specially defensive Ferrothorn keep key threats in check. The main pokemon that shines on this team is Reuniclus, who serves as a sweeper as well as a semi-dedicated Trick Room user that can give other team members (particularly Azumarill) the speed they need down the home stretch.
>> On a more fun note I’ve presented the team with a Left4Dead theme. I had images made up of the special infected that corresponds to each team member to put alongside my MS Paint drawings, but decided at the last second not to put them in because I wasn't sure if it would be allowed…a few pictures had a small amount of blood and I didn’t want to rub some members the wrong way with this being a pokemon site after all and L4D being an M rated game. But if someone says that it’s okay to post them I’ll add them in. <<
Team Building Process:
Right off the bat I decided I wanted to use the new Therian form, Tornadus-T…
… so it was easy to build him into a rain team since his signature move is Hurricane.
I had a powerful special sweeper and rain, so I wanted to choose a physical sweeper that could abuse the rain. I decided to choose Sharpedo.
After picking Sharpedo I knew how important a spinner was. Seeing how I had 3 pokes weak to Electric, I picked Donphan as my spinner/physical wall that could take some Choiced Electric attacks.
I’ll add a specially defensive Ferrothorn which can also absorb the electric attacks as well as grass and can throw down some Spikes in the process.
For the final slot I chose Reuniclus. Reuinclus can be one of the most threatening pokes out there with its Calm Mind/Recover/Psychic/Focus Blast set.
After testing out the team thus far, I noticed a few problems with Donphan. Donphan’s attack was pitiful and couldn’t revenge a lot of things with Ice Shard, as well as not taking Earthquakes and Close Combats as well as I thought he could. Another thing wrong with him was that he was my only real physical attacker if Sharpedo bit the dust, and that wasn’t very comforting. I messed around with other physically based rapid spinners like Hitmontop and Forretress, but they both had the same problems. I also encountered a problem with Reuniclus. The Calm Mind set ended up not having enough initial power and was slow as dirt which made sweeping that much harder. So I replaced Donphan with Landorus-T, who also had an Electric immunity and could resist those Close Combats and dodge the Earthquakes while still boasting an amazing attack stat. I also replaced Reuniclus with Starmie to keep the Rapid Spin support.
Landorus-T was doing fantastic, but I was just about ripping my hair out with Starmie. Although it was pretty fast, it was still frail, lacked sweeping power, made another poke on the team weak to Electric and Grass, and just couldn’t blast through walls like Reuniclus did. I decided to bring back Reuniclus, and to overcome its slow speed I switched to the Trick Room set with Shadow Ball in place of Recover.
This is where I believe the magic came in. I discovered that with Toxic spread around and a few extra turns of Trick Room after Reuniclus was gone I could afford to drop Sharpedo and add the more powerful and bulkier Choice Band Azumarill. Because there was no Rapid Spinner entry hazards + Life Orb were just wearing Sharpedo down.
Jirachi suggested that I drop Landorus-T and replace it with Forretress. I tested out Forretress early in the team building but switched to Landorus-T because it countered Terrakion better. Jirachi pointed out that having a Rapid Spinner was more important because Politoed and Azumarill had to stay healthy.
With all that said, I hope you find this team as interesting as my (pitiful) attempt at using MS Paint :p
At a Glance:
In Depth:
Witch (Politoed) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed
Timid Nature (+Speed, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Perish Song
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Ice Beam
If you’ve ever played the Hard Rain level on Left4Dead2 you’ll know how frustrating witches are. Witches are known for being fast and agile and their constant crying. Politoed fits that description perfectly with a Choice Scarf and Drizzle. I love using Scarf Politoed because it’s not too common. Almost every Politoed set I’ve faced is the Toxic/Protect/Perish Song variant. So this guy can usually get a free kill off of something such as outspeeding an unsuspecting offensive threat (unfortunately it's 1 point slower than Jolteon >_<). I did, however, use a Resto-Chesto set at first. I liked getting Scald burns and beating things with Perish Song, but one day I decided to mess around with a Choice Scarf and absolutely loved it. It kinda made Politoed a dedicated part of the team rather than just being there for rain support. Hydro Pump is the main water STAB that pack one hell of a punch. Perish Song forces threats out and works great in conjunction with a Choice Scarf especially when the opponent only has one poke left. For my choice of Hidden Power, I chose Grass mainly because of Gastrodon and Rotom-W who are both a pain to face. The final slot holds Ice Beam to bring down unsuspecting dragon, flying, and ground types.
Tank! (Reuniclus) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 192 HP / 252 SpAtk / 64 SpDef
Quiet Nature (+SpAtk, -Speed) 0 Speed IVs
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
The Tank is slow at first, but quickly picks up speed. He is powerful and feared by all. And just like Reuniclus, it is often the star of the show. The first thing I do is take a quick glance at the team preview to see how important Reuniclus will be. If there isn’t a dedicated check to Reuniclus, he’ll run rampant. Very rarely do I bring Reuniclus in on an attack, and if I do it’s usually on a special attack from a wall like Tentacruel or Celebi or something. Trick Room is used on the first turn almost 100% of the time to ensure that I outspeed everything (most importantly the threatening scarfers) for the next 5 turns. Then I can kill with the next attack or two and go on a min-sweep. Even though I have fast pokes in the form of Tornadus-T and Choice Scarf Politoed, I never run into a situation where I need to stall out my own Trick Room turns so there’s no concern in that regard. I used to toss between Psychic and Psyshock but I ended up sticking with Psychic. Psychic generally hits harder, but I miss out on striking down pink blobs. But seeing as this isn’t a Calm Mind Reuniclus, Psyshock wouldn’t be doing much to them anyways. Tentacruels don’t like a STAB Psychic regardless, and neither do the Amoongusses I see people running these days. Another thing to note is that after I let Amoonguss put something to sleep, Reuniclus can sit in there all day and either wait for a crit or force it out allowing Psychic to hit something else hard. Focus Blast is one of the many anti-Tyranitar moves on this team. It also destroys Hydreigon and Heatran that think it can resist whatever I have in my arsenal. Shadow Ball rounds out the set against pesky things like Espeon and the Lati’s. I switched from Leftovers to Life Orb from Jirachi's suggestion. Even though the loss in HP is noticeable, Reuniclus definitely 2HKO's a lot more pokes because of the extra power.
Charger (Tornadus-T) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed
Naive Nature (+Speed, -SpDef)
- Hurricane
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Superpower
- U-turn
Fast and heavy hitting is the Charger. When the Charger hits his mark, there’s a good chance they’ll be dead, or at least incapacitated. And here we have the first of the Therian duo, Tornadus-T. Thank baby Jeebus that Tornadus-T got Regenerator. It’s pretty much EXACTLY what it needed (other than Wonder Guard :p). Hurricane is my main abusing move because it gets STAB as well as 100% accuracy in the rain. I’m actually surprised at the amount of OU pokemon in this generation that don’t resist the Flying type, which allows Tornadus-T to rip holes in just about any team. HP Grass is there specifically for Gastrodon and Rotom-W, who are always safe switch into my Politoed (HP Grass from Politoed on the switch in lol?). I need to catch Rotom-W with a double-switch later in the game or predict their switch because it can check Tornadus-T and can threaten back with Volt-Switch. HP Grass is a 2HKO on SpDef Gastrodon and a OHKO on physically defensive variants after a bit of entry hazard damage. HP Grass won’t OHKO Rotom-W, however. It does 62% - 73% to 128/0/0 variants and 68% - 81% on Choice Scarf ones so I have to rack up a little damage by hitting it with SR + resisted hits so that Tornadus-T can clean up later. If Rotom-W isn’t Choice Scarfed though, I can just hit it with a Hurricane as it switches in, and then finish it off with HP Grass. Superpower exists to strike down Tyranitar who hopes to hinder my Hurricanes with sandstorm. U-Turn is soley there for scouting purposes. I like to run Life Orb on Tornadus-T simply because of the awesome ability that is Regenerator. The only thing that ever wears down Tornadus is Stealth Rocks + Life Orb. Even though Regenerator will always allow another Stealth Rock switch-in, Life Orb can slowly take its toll. Luckily this is hardly ever worried about because if all goes well, Tornadus-T won’t be taking any direct hits from enemy attacks.
Jockey (Azumarill) (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Huge Power
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Speed
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpAtk)
- Waterfall
- Superpower
- Ice Punch
- Aqua Jet
The small and squirrely Jockey can cause a lot of trouble for the enemy team. Every time I use Aqua Jet for a revenge kill/priority spam, I imagine this little prankster just giggling his ass off. Azumarill is a very good revenge killer, especially on a rain team. His signature move is Aqua Jet, which is the essential rain boosted priority that takes out weakend enemies and can OHKO huge threats like Jolteon and Volcarona. But what makes him find a very comfortable niche in this team is Trick Room support from. It is important to note, however, that Reuniclus just about never enters battle just to set up Trick Room. No, the Trick Room support happens after Reuniclus is taken out. When Reuniclus goes down, there are usually 1-3 turns of Trick Room still up which allows Azumarill to be an extremely effective revenge killer. If you thought a rain boosted Choice Band (RB/CB) STAB Aqua Jet was scary wait until you face a super speedy RB/CB STAB Waterfall for the next 2 turns! It’s pretty much an RB/CB STAB Aqua Jet on steroids with a flinch rate…so yeah. Ferrothorn also helps bring other pokes into KO range for Aqua Jet by laying down some Spikes and spreading Toxic around. Superpower in conjunction with 44 Speed EVs eliminates the pink blobs as well as predicted Ferrothorn switch-ins. Ice Punch isn’t used too much outside predicted Latias/Latios switches. I’ll throw one out there if I really need to take out a dragon at near full health or I can spam it when I still have some Trick Room turns still up. I don’t need to talk about the item choice as it’s apparent that Choice Band is the only useful item on Azumarill.
OLD TEAM MEMBER: Landorus-T
Hunter (Landorus-T) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SpAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off / Smack Down
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
Fearsome on all fours is the Hunter. This powerful beast can rip massive holes into the enemy team…but this version is a little more passive. Okay, at this point you may be asking yourself “Why in the world is Landorus-T on a rain team?” I’ll tell you why. Landorus-T is very, very good at the role he needs to play. Just like Tornadus-T, he was given an extremely good ability. This time it’s Intimidate. Landorus-T is an incredible defensive pivot that has the monstrous attack stat to back it up. He takes hits from the most used physical sweepers in OU: Scizor, Terrakion, Dragonite, and Salamence. Scizor’s CB Bullet Punch, Jolly Scarf Terrakion’s Stone Edge, DD Dragonite’s Dragon Claw, and Salamence’s Dragon Claw all barely 5HKO after the Intimidate Atk drop and Leftovers gain. An Outrage from Naive Salamence and CB Dragonite will just barely 3HKO after Intimidate + Lefties, and I can OHKO Salamence back with Stone Edge after SR. Stone Edge will do 64%-76% after Mulitscale is broken, so it will KO if Dragonite took any prior damage and has switched in when SR was up. Because he is easy to switch in early in the game and find a free turn, he is my Stealth Rock user. I’ve been flip-flopping with the two moves in the next slot a lot: Knock Off and Smack Down. Knock Off is also a very important move that I think is overlooked. Knocking off Lefovers wears down predicted switch-ins like Jellicent or Gliscor (I love knocking off those Toxic Orbs early game before they active :p) that like to wall Landorus-T. Getting rid of Eviolite is also a tremendous help and makes some walls a lot easier to handle. Offensive items like Life Orb and the Jems are great to get rid of, and knocking off the occasional Lum Berry lets Ferrothorn's Toxic get in on the action. Overall I think Knock Off is a very handy move that helps the rest of the team power through the enemy. On the other hand, I’ve found that using Smack Down instead can also be very beneficial. Most importantly it scares away Skarmories that want to set up Spikes. Because I didn’t have a spinner I figured Smack Down would help out a lot. In short, I love to have it whenever I’m facing a team with a Skarmory, but other than that I prefer Knock Off. Now for the more damaging moves in Earthquake and Stone Edge. Earthquake is the main STAB move that will hit just about anything hard that doesn’t resist it despite only 4 EVs invested into Attack. Stone Edge is mainly for the Dragons that I come in to Intimidate as well as hitting things that levitate. Leftovers is the item of choice as it gives Landorus-T most amount of survivability after taking a -1 physical attack.
NOTE: Landorus-T was swapped with Forretress thanks to Jirachi's suggestion that I really needed a Rapid Spinner, and Forretress fit in the best for that slot. I'll update the full description with an MS Paint picture soon.
THE SET:
Boomer (Forretress) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Volt Switch
Earthquake to counter Scarf Rachi and to troll Magnezone switch-ins. Volt-Switch for scouting or predicted Magnezone switch-ins at full health where I can't kill with Earthquake. Stealth Rock because it's Stealth Rock. Rapid Spin to keep the hazards away which greatly helps Azumarill and Politoed to keep the weather war on my side.
Spitter (Ferrothorn) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpDef
Careful Nature (+SpDef, -SpAtk)
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Power Whip
Bringing up the rear is Ferrothorn, the Spitter. This slow moving monster is a pain for a lot of teams. I named Ferrothorn the Spitter because of the damaging Spikes and Leech Seed. I decided to go with a full out specially defensive build to help keep things like Starmie, Jolteon, and the Lati’s in check. The rain also helps with Ferrothorn’s fire weakness, but only to a certain extent. Spikes are present to help with sweeping from Reuniclus and Tornadus-T and also reach the one hit kill range of Azumarill’s Aqua Jet. Leech Seed allows Ferrothorn to regain health in order to keep taking resisted hits as well as being able to lay down an extra layer or two of Spikes. The only pokes I trust in receiving some Leech Seed health are Landorus-T and Politoed as I don’t like to risk losing one of my sweepers just to try to regain some lost health. Protect helps scout common choiced pokes like Heatran/Infernape/Darmanitan/Scizor/ect... The last slot holds Power Whip as it is Ferrothorn’s most powerful grass STAB move. I prefer Power Whip to Gyro Ball simply because there is more offensive capability with Power Whip against Gastrodons or the rare Swampert, as well as the extra PP. I decided to go with Leftovers to keep Ferrothorn going over the course of the battle. Some Ferrothorns run Rocky Helmet, but since this Ferrothorn set deals with special hits opposed to physical ones, I believe Leftovers is the superior option.
Threats to this team:
Volt-Turn teams in general.
Rotom-W:
• Choice Scarf – The only thing I can really do is get him stuck on a Hydro Pump and bring in a counter. Volt-Switch can really put holes in the team because my only reliable counter is Ferrothorn, who takes a Volt-Switch only to have a counter immediately brought in. What I usually have to do is be aggressive and wear it down by hitting it with anything whenever I think it wants to switch in.
Dragonite:
• Parashuffler – The only real way I deal with this is to get Stealth Rocks up and force it in while Trick Room is active so that Reuniclus can try to pound it with Psychics or Azumarill's Ice Punch.
Jirachi:
• Substitute + Calm Mind – Ferrothorn scares it away with Earthquakes so that it can't set up a sub, but if he’s gone and Jirachi has a sub up then CM boosted Thunders will rip this team apart. Azumarill’s Aqua Jet will do 44%-52%, but I need a free switch and no Substitute up. Assuming the Sub + CM Jirachi is using the standard Timid 252 HP/ 4 SpAtk / 252 Speed variant, Azumarill takes 61%-72% from a non boosted Thunder and 72%-85% from T-Bolt after one Calm Mind allowing him to OHKO back with Waterfall, but it’s very situational.
Venusaur:
• Special Growth – Only if I lose the weather war. It’s also scary to send in Politoed to get rid of the sun as grass attacks will wipe him out, but if he gets in safely a faster Ice Beam will do 53%-63%. Reuniclus can try to live a hit, set up Trick Room, and hit it with Psychic. If sun isn't up Tornadus-T outspeeds.
Closing Thoughts and Concerns:
One on the concerns I need to point out is that this team does not have a spin blocker. Having a spin blocker isn’t too big of a concern as the common Rapid Spinners never tend to live too long and it’s easy for this team to find free turns to throw out entry hazards.
And finally I’d like to thank you if you’ve taken the time out to read and perhaps ponder this team. Show that Luvdisk button some love! ;). I’m going to leave an exportable version at the end of this if any of you would like to try out this team a bit before a rate. I love using theme teams (although this theme kinda fell into my lap when I decided to nickname the pokes for fun) and all I can say is that this one's a blast to use. I don't make RMT's for a lot of my teams, and so I like to have fun with it when I do (:
Exportable:
Politoed (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Perish Song
- Hidden Power [Grass]
Reuniclus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 192 HP / 252 SAtk / 64 SDef
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
Tornadus-T (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Hurricane
Azumarill (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Huge Power
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Superpower
- Ice Punch
- Aqua Jet
Forretress (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Volt Switch
Ferrothorn (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Power Whip
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Perish Song
- Hidden Power [Grass]
Reuniclus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 192 HP / 252 SAtk / 64 SDef
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
Tornadus-T (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Hurricane
Azumarill (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Huge Power
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Superpower
- Ice Punch
- Aqua Jet
Forretress (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Volt Switch
Ferrothorn (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Power Whip
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