Monotype [Monotype] Double-Mega Rain Shenanigans

[Eien]

Hey, it's EienSeiryuu with my Rain Water team. I actually built this when I saw an older Challenge Core that looked interesting to play with (Mega-Sharpedo + Manaphy). I reached 1600 ELO when that was top 30 on the ladder and I also used it to get the Hoopa-U suspect requirements. Not really impressive, but at least it does work on the ladder.

At a glance

Thought Process

Politoed @ Eject Button
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Encore
- Perish Song

As a fighting main, I'm really a HO kind of person and rain really fit my style. Politoed is obligatory here to set rain easily. Eject Button lets me use Politoed as a quick and safe pivot into a rain-enhanced Kingdra. I chose to use a physically bulky Politoed, as it has decent special bulk naturally. My utility moves were Encore and Perish Song, noticeably no Toxic. Toxic felt too slow for my team while Encore allowed me to open up opportunities for the rest of my team. Perish Song is a great last ditch check to any setup sweepers and is an auto win condition when my opponent is down to their last Pokemon. It has actually given me a surprising number of wins!

Manaphy @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Rain Dance
- Psychic
- Scald
- Tail Glow

The first part of the Challenge Core is Manaphy. Manaphy was my answer to a lot of really annoying Pokemon that I would have had a horrible time against otherwise such as Mega-Venusaur and CM Clefable. Psychic and Scald are my two chosen moves because Psychic hits Mega-Venusaur, and Scald is the best Water STAB move around. Tail Glow is obligatory on Manaphy for huge power and beating CM Clefable. With decent 100/100/100 bulk and passable 100 Speed, Manaphy was a great choice for being my second Rain Dance setter.

Kingdra @ Choice Specs
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Draco Meteor
- Ice Beam
- Flash Cannon

While Manaphy technically enjoys the rain, Kingdra is my real rain abuser. With Swift Swim and rain-boosted Surf, Kingdra pretty much just comes in and kills whatever is in its way. Draco Meteor of course is incredibly powerful STAB that hits almost everything else neutrally for OHKOs. Ice Beam was brought on for decent coverage. My last moveslot I chose to run Flash Cannon over Hydro Pump simply to handle annoying fairy teams more easily. Not much to say here as Kingdra just gets the job done as you'd expect.

Sharpedo @ Sharpedonite
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Protect
- Crunch
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Fang

Mega-Sharpedo is the other half of the Challenge Core and by god is it a monster. This Pokemon almost single-handedly defeats entire psychic teams. The first glaring difference from most Sharpedo one will see is the speed-boosting nature. Base 100 Scarf users (e.g. Victini, Jirachi) are outsped with only one speed boost. In the versus psychic matchup, this can be critical where I might need to mega after only one turn. Hydro Pump was chosen over Waterfall in order to chunk specially against walls like Skarmory. When not Mega-Evolved, Sharpedo isn't nearly as powerful, but can still threaten to sweep late-game against a weakened team. With the help of Kingdra and Mega-Swampert opening holes in the enemy team, even a regular Sharpedo can get the job done.

Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 28 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Play Rough
- Knock Off

No doubt I'll get some flak for Azumarill's ability. I needed a reliable grass answer and Sap Sipper Azumarill was what I came up with. I remember walking over water teams with fighting with Breloom, and Azumarill just hard walls Breloom. I choose to run double water STAB over Superpower because really, I need all the power I can get with Sap Sipper. Without Huge Power, Azumarill takes more of a utility seat, so Knock Off is also chosen over Superpower.

Swampert @ Swampertite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch

Mega-Swampert is the anchor of my team. Double-Mega works exceptionally well, but I'll talk more about that later. Swampert gets off Stealth Rock pretty reliably against most teams. Ice Punch rounds off my coverage. I could run some utility over Ice Punch, but having the ability to hit Garchomp, Dragonite, and others like that is huge for my team. Mega-Swampert is notorious for being an amazing physical abuser of rain. With 8 Speed, it outspeeds Thundurus in the rain. When it isn't Mega-Evolved, Swampert still sets rocks and it still hits hard with so much attack investment.

So WHY am I running two Mega?
Both Mega-Evolutions have their own use depending on the matchup. As examples, against psychic or ghost, obviously I want Mega-Sharpedo. Against Fairy or Electric, I definitely want Mega-Swampert. Sharpedo and Swampert are both decent even without mega-evolving. Having that flexibility is worth not having Leftovers on Swampert, although it is a bit less worth not having Life Orb on Sharpedo.

Threat List
I might have Manaphy, but grass teams are still an immense pain to deal with. Manaphy is great to deal with Mega-Venusaur against poison, but grass has the team support of Ferrothorn. Without Ice Beam, Manaphy really can't touch it. Grass also threatens Swampert, making it annoying to find a safe moment to put up the Stealth Rocks before Breloom comes in. Speaking of Breloom, while Breloom on Fighting is easily countered by Azumarill, Breloom on Grass isn't because of Mega-Venusaur support.

Galvantula can be an enormous pain for my team. My electric resist is critically weak to Energy Ball. And of course, my grass immunity is weak to Thunder! Further, it gets up Sticky Web which cripples my team's speed. It also carries a Focus Sash, so one attack is never enough to kill it. It's all around a big mess.

Normal teams are incredibly difficult to break as the Chansey/Porygon2 core is extremely bulky, and can stop Manaphy. Further, if they have a Ditto, I could be in big trouble if they copy my Manaphy in rain.

Importable

Politoed @ Eject Button
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Encore
- Perish Song

Manaphy @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Rain Dance
- Psychic
- Scald
- Tail Glow

Kingdra @ Choice Specs
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Draco Meteor
- Ice Beam
- Flash Cannon

Sharpedo @ Sharpedonite
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Protect
- Crunch
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Fang

Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 28 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Play Rough
- Knock Off

Swampert @ Swampertite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch

Shoutouts to Dece1t for heading the Challenge Core project. Also taking this moment to tag you if you want to add this as a sample team for a Swift Swim/HO Water team.

 

[lax]

Yo eien, sick team! Looks different from standard rain spam, so that's pretty cool. Anyways, here's a rate!:

Regarding your Azumarill set I definitely believe you should change it to the ability Huge Power. I understand that loom is a huge threat to water teams, but that is a given. Running a specific sap sipper set just for looms on fighting teams (which already get pressured by swift swim spam) seems extremely matchup related and renders azumarill extremely weak vs all other teams. However, if you run Huge Power azu can pressure pretty much every single type due to its insanely high stats because of choice band. That being said, there are some answers to band azu with koff, the main being ferro, so I would recommend changing Knock Off -> Superpower. Superpower is extremely helpful because it prevents ferro, a huge threat to water types, from switching in as its a roll to ohko it.
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Superpower vs. 252 HP / 88+ Def Ferrothorn: 320-378 (90.9 - 107.3%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO Superpower is sold enough coverage for band azu because playrough + waterfall in rain have virtually no switch in except for mons like ferrothorn and venu(which walls azu regardless.) You also do not have much of a use for knock off as you have extremely powerful dark coverage on your team already, that being sharpedo. Due to your already solid dark coverage, you can easily address ferrothorn, a huge threat to your team as it walls most your mons, with superpower and safely have enough to help beat psychic teams. Superpower also hits chansey and porygon2, other super annoying mons for swift swim, and ohkos chansey while nearly ohkoing p2. I also suggest changing azu to 164 Speed EVs so it can reliably outspeed skarmory and ohko instead of losing 1v1 due to roost stalling. This comes in handy for wallbreaking allowing your swamp to come in and clean up with the skarm being gone.

Second of all, I would actually change Manaphy to Starmie. Starmie provides a lot of useful qualities for your team. In short, it spins, pressures huge threat venu, is extremely strong, and is extremely fast. Having no hazard control on your team is tough as everything gets worn down by the combination of potential rocks + spikes. It is also a psychic type that is able to check Breloom (which is still a threat) and can pressure just every single fighting types. Now, mega venu being the other huge threat to water teams takes a ton of damage from venusaur as stab Psychic hits it extremely hard. Starmie is really strong with the life orb, has amazing coverage to hit every single type with Hydro Pump, Psychic, and Ice Beam for dragon and grass types. It has an amazing speed tier hitting 361 with base 115 speed and is a huge threat. Manaphy, however, is outsped by lots of threats and requires setting up to put in work. Starmie would definitely help you with less desirable matchups.

Second of all, I noticed something off about your kingdra set. You run the move flash cannon, which doesn't hit anything that beam-waterstab-dragon stab already hits. Therefore, I'd definitely recommend changing Flash Cannon to Hydro Pump. Hydro Pump is kingdra's strongest water stab and hits even stronger under rain, leaving it with little to no switch-ins. It is extremely important to hit hard initially and you can still use surf when you're just going for the revenge kill and can easily finish up the mon they bring in or the mon that you are attempting to revenge. Hitting hard right away is essential for a strong wallbreaker in the rain such as kingdra.

Another problem I noticed was your lack of speed on swampert-mega, another strong swift swim mon. Having only 8 speed evs invested into speed leaves you at 178, or 356 under rain. This is not nearly enough for a mon that was meant to utilize swift swim. Swampert already has incredible bulk so changing to 252 speed evs is definitely a better option. It allows pert to hit 239 speed without rain and 478 speed with rain, allowing it to outspeed up to base 95 scarfers that are super threatening like for example Kyurem-Black which completely shreds water to pieces and to outspeed any other non scarf mon. This comes in handy so swampert can hit as fast and hard as it can or get up rocks quickly and fire off an attack.

Last thing is a rather minor change, but I would definitely change politoed from Ice Beam -> Toxic. Politoed usually is not meant to stay in because it is essential to keep up rain consistently and your item eject button switches it out immediately. However, you can easily cripple annoying walls such as slowbro or mew with toxic if they decide to stay in. Toxic is definitely more helpful than ice beam because poli has really low special attack and won't be able to do much with beam anyways. Beam does less than half to most dragon and flying types which have the potential to eliminate poli or damage it a bunch, limiting the amount of times rain is able to switch in. Crippling walls is definitely more helpful than a move only meant for specific situations that does not do much damage regardless.
​

Everything else looks fine, so here are the sets!

Sets

Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Superpower
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 Spe / 252 SpA / 4 Def
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Psychic
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam

Kingdra @ Choice Specs
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Draco Meteor
- Ice Beam
- Hydro Pump

Swampert @ Swampertite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 Spe / 252 Atk / 8 Def
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch


Politoed @ Eject Button
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Encore
- Perish Song

Good luck!

​

 

[Dece1t]

Hey dude, I really like this team! (Thanks for the shoutout btw, tag some of you "Phoenix Phriends" too ;) Anyways, in terms of suggestions here's what I have:

You could possibly run Destiny Bond>Ice Fang on Mega Sharpedo. You were complaining that it can often be useless without being mega, this can at least make it a decent revenge killer.

For Azumarill, I disagree with Lax's first suggestions to change its ability, but I do agree Superpower>Waterfall. Now granted it's not very strong as it is, but I agree you could use the coverage.

If your having trouble vs Grass, you could try out Mantine. Not only does it have naturally great special bulk, and its neutral to the type, but it can sweep that's to a mix of Air Slash and HP Fire. Its actually very underrated, I think you'd like it though.

Otherwise, again this is a very fun team! I love the dual mega concept, it definitely works to your advantage! I think I may just add this as a sample team ;) GL!