My first Rain team

[Soulfly]

Hi guys, its been a while since i was on smogon.
But here i am again, now using a rain team.
So far i been having 60% wins, with a rating of 1700 currently.


This is the team:

Building of the team:

Standard to a rain team there is politoed. I personally like my weather inducer to be bulky so he is physically defensive.

As my first real wall (since usually the toad needs to be saved) there is ferrothorn. In my eyes a rather logical pick for a rain team as his only 4x weakness is significally less important.

Then i needed a physical sweeper. My favorites are toxicroak and lucario. Since the croak benefits a bit more from the rain i chose him. If i lose weather wars he sadly becomes death fodder.

Jolteon was added next. He benefits from the rain because he can use thunder over tbolt. His godly speed combined with specced thunder is a force to be reckoned with.

Every team needs a dragon right? Latios was my choice because i didnt have any pokemons that had a strong water attack. With surf this is fixed.

For the last spot i wasnt sure what to get. I ended up getting tentacruel but i wasnt entirely sure on it. He can throw toxic spikes and spin away spikes on my field so for that he is usefull.

Changes made:

->

Tentacruel just didnt fit the role i wanted him to fit. As suggested an analytic starmie in his place would work better.

->

I wasnt up to date with black/white 2 , thundurus-T is basically jolteon on steroids with a slightly better movepool.

In depth:

Politoed @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Protect
- Encore

Politoed makes it rain, but he also makes a pretty good lead if the enemy team has no weather.
Protect is usefull for scouting and with scald/toxic he can cripple some pokemons.
Ice beam was replaced for encore in order to create safe switch ins for my sweepers and prevent the enemy from setting up on politoed.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Gyro Ball

Physicall defensive ferrothorn is still a beast. With leech seed he can often tank out any physical sweepers. Stealth rocks for obvious reasons. Gyro ball, this because ferro is often looked at as 'my chance to setup'. If they boost their speed, gyro ball will make them regret it. Because of the rain one of his big weaknesses is made less threatening.
Replaced power whip with protect to make ferro alot more tanky. With tentacruel leaving the team i felt like this was a necessary change.

Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Ice Punch

Swords dance croak is lethal, if he gets the +2 the game is almost won. In some situations he can get more boosts wich means a win usually. Ice punch is there to kill dragons, altho almost all dragons are faster then croak :(
Replaced cross chop with drain punch since its still strong enough when boosted and doesnt miss as easily.

Latios (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Surf
- Sleep Talk

This is a somewhat unorthodox latios because of the sleep talk. This makes latios the perfect sleep fodder with a x1.5 bonus to any attacks. And when he is awake, he can still do the normal stuff he should do. Surf because of the rain. Specs over lifeorb because of sleep talk, altho sometimes i get in a situation where i really wished i had life orb.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Analytic
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
- Hydro Pump

Starmie was added as a replacement for tentacruel, taking a more offensive approach. His analytic hydro pump is devastating while 'bolt'/beam covers almost anything. Rapid spin is still there to get rid of rocks if needed.

Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Grass Knot -> Focus Blast

Thundurus was the replacement for jolteon. His moveset isnt much different however the grass knot as a last move instead of signal beam is in my eyes pretty nice with ground/water types beeing present. HP Ice takes care of dragons and thunder/Vswitch are there for obvious reasons.
Changed Grass Knot to Focus Blast to 'counter' ferrothorn.


Former members of the team:

Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Spd / 240 SDef
Calm Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Giga Drain

Tentacruel was the last pokemon i added to the team and i didnt value him much untill i saw he was able to take a draco meteor like a boss. Also becauseof liquid ooze he can counter a ferrothorn if toxicroak didnt manage to kill him. Giga drain is there in case i come across those persky earth/water types like gastrodon. Black sludge to punish tricksters.

Jolteon @ Choice Specs
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Shadow Ball

Jolteon in the rain is so scary. He is faster then anything that isnt scarfed or buffed up. The STAB specced thunder is almost always a KO if not resisted. HP ice to kill dragons. Volt switch and shadow ball mainly as 'fillers'.

Conclusion:
Since the recent changes i feel like the team is alot more balanced, however i still feel like its 'incomplete'.

 

[Soulfly]

Hello soulfly I have a few things that i think you should change about your team they are pretty little so I hope you will be fine with that lol. First of all I would put Perish Song or Encore > Ice Beam on Politoed to stop things from setting up in your face. Also I would change up ferro's EVs a little because even if it is in rain it cant take fire hits at all and maybe a lot of spdef investment would help I will just give you the standard spread 252hp/88def/168spdef relaxed nature. Also on Tentacruel put Rain Dish> Liquid Ooze. Another thing is just a little personal preference of mine but considering my luck i would pick drain punch over cross chop and the more hp the better i guess xD. Last one of my little nitpicks is that i would put signal beam > shadow ball it hits celebi harder and the 5 more bp from shadow ball does not really matter imo. Also quick thing i should point out you seem to be a bit weak to Latios and Latias with hp fire and psyshock even if you can play around them fine I thought it was worth mentioning. I really hope I helped!

Hi thanks for your advice, a few questions tho:

I went with liquid ooze over rain dish on the tentacruel in case a drain puncher was destroying me, he would knock itself out in that case. If i loose this, will my team still be able to defeat the likes of conkledur ?
Lati@s with hp fire in the rain arent that scary, if they'd show up on ferro i'd stay in feeling rather confident actually, however it didnt happen yet so i might be wrong there :D

I will test out the spdef ferrothorn and post the results later. I will also test out drain punch over cross chop since i wasnt sure on those 2 myself.
Signal beam on jolteon sounds like a good idea, thanks :D

 

[ShootingStarmie]

Hi there, so I'm here to rate your team. So overall this team looks pretty solid, but I think I have a few suggestions that will make your team just a bit better.

Okay so this is clearly a rain balanced team with a Ferrothorn + Tentacruel core providing a defensive back bone for the team, while Toxicroak is trying to sweep late game. I think this is overall a pretty solid idea, but I noticed that Scarf Mence and + 1 Dragonite really do work to this team, and I feel having 2 Choice Specs users is kinda redundant, and I generally feel Jolteon is outclassed by Thundurus-T, so that's my first suggest. Change Jolteon, to Thundurus-T. You didn't really need the wall breaking power of Specs when you already have Latios for that role, and Jolteon just isn't fast enough to revenge kill threats like Scarf Jirachi, and Scarf Mence. Here's the set.

Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Grass Knot

So, Thundurus-T is generally better than Jolteon, as the only reason to use Jolteon over Thundurus-T is when you lack a rapid spinner (which you have). So, I'm suggesting the Choice Scarf set as it allows you to revenge kill a lot of threats like SD Scizor, EBelt Keldeo, and DD Nite. Thunder is your main STAB of choice and hits everything hard. Volt Switch is also STAB, but is generally used to gain momentum and gain you switch advantage. HP Ice offers great coverage with Thunder, offering the infamous Bolt Beam coverage, hitting everything bar Mamoswine and Magnezone in OU for neutral coverage. Grass Knot rounds up the coverage, hitting Gastrodon for great damage, as well as hitting Tyranitar for great damage.

My next suggestion would be to replace Tentacruel for Starmie. I think Toxic Spikes are pretty bad in this metagame, and you have two poison types on your team, so the synergy becomes kinda redundant. Here's the Starmie set.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Analytic
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Thunder / Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin

So Analytic Starmie is really powerful in the rain, allowing it to 2HKO switch in's like Celebi and Ferrothorn with the combination of Hydro Pump + Ice Beam. So EVs are used to max speed and power, and a LO is chosen to put a lot of pressure on your opponent. Hydro Pump is STAB and hits stupidly powerful in rain + Analytic boost. Thunder + Ice Beam together create the infamous "BoltBeam" coverage, which hits everything in the OU tier for neutral damage bar Mamoswine and Magnezeone, which are smashed by Hydro Pump anyway. Rapid Spin clears the field of hazards, allowing your Thundurus-T and other Pokemon to switch in freely.

So this is a much more offensive approach to this team, but I think these few suggestions will make your team that bit better. Good luck in the future with it!

 

[Soulfly]

Hi there, so I'm here to rate your team. So overall this team looks pretty solid, but I think I have a few suggestions that will make your team just a bit better.

Okay so this is clearly a rain balanced team with a Ferrothorn + Tentacruel core providing a defensive back bone for the team, while Toxicroak is trying to sweep late game. I think this is overall a pretty solid idea, but I noticed that Scarf Mence and + 1 Dragonite really do work to this team, and I feel having 2 Choice Specs users is kinda redundant, and I generally feel Jolteon is outclassed by Thundurus-T, so that's my first suggest. Change Jolteon, to Thundurus-T. You didn't really need the wall breaking power of Specs when you already have Latios for that role, and Jolteon just isn't fast enough to revenge kill threats like Scarf Jirachi, and Scarf Mence. Here's the set.

Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Grass Knot

So, Thundurus-T is generally better than Jolteon, as the only reason to use Jolteon over Thundurus-T is when you lack a rapid spinner (which you have). So, I'm suggesting the Choice Scarf set as it allows you to revenge kill a lot of threats like SD Scizor, EBelt Keldeo, and DD Nite. Thunder is your main STAB of choice and hits everything hard. Volt Switch is also STAB, but is generally used to gain momentum and gain you switch advantage. HP Ice offers great coverage with Thunder, offering the infamous Bolt Beam coverage, hitting everything bar Mamoswine and Magnezone in OU for neutral coverage. Grass Knot rounds up the coverage, hitting Gastrodon for great damage, as well as hitting Tyranitar for great damage.

My next suggestion would be to replace Tentacruel for Starmie. I think Toxic Spikes are pretty bad in this metagame, and you have two poison types on your team, so the synergy becomes kinda redundant. Here's the Starmie set.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Analytic
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Thunder / Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin

So Analytic Starmie is really powerful in the rain, allowing it to 2HKO switch in's like Celebi and Ferrothorn with the combination of Hydro Pump + Ice Beam. So EVs are used to max speed and power, and a LO is chosen to put a lot of pressure on your opponent. Hydro Pump is STAB and hits stupidly powerful in rain + Analytic boost. Thunder + Ice Beam together create the infamous "BoltBeam" coverage, which hits everything in the OU tier for neutral damage bar Mamoswine and Magnezeone, which are smashed by Hydro Pump anyway. Rapid Spin clears the field of hazards, allowing your Thundurus-T and other Pokemon to switch in freely.

So this is a much more offensive approach to this team, but I think these few suggestions will make your team that bit better. Good luck in the future with it!

Hi thanks for the rate! After using previous suggestions the team became alot stronger but this will help too. Altho the switch of tentacruel for starmie is making me wonder. I won alot of games trough a liquid ooze drain. He also sponged fire blasts like a champ, so i wonder how starmie will work in his place. I will test it tho! tyvm :)

 

[ogasian]

Just a nitpick, but change Toxicroaks nature to Adamant. Also, definitely run drain punch on Toxicroak. All of the other major stuff has been suggested by the other raters.

 

[Soulfly]

Just a nitpick, but change Toxicroaks nature to Adamant. Also, definitely run drain punch on Toxicroak. All of the other major stuff has been suggested by the other raters.

Thanks for the rate. If i make him adamant wont he be too slow for the usual threats? I basically made him jolly because SD lucario has to be jolly, so i assumed croak would need it too.


I'll edit the changes made somewhere today, thanks to all raters ^^

 

[Soulfly]

Changes to the first post were made. Thanks for all raters so far :)

 

[thekillermushroom333]

this is a very nice team :) i don't really have much to say, except i have just one suggestion. try u-turn over volt switch on thundurus-t, and change it's nature to naive. this is just so you can still gain switch advantage if your opponent brings in a ground type, because if you are locked into volt switch, it gives them a free turn to do whatever they want. it also lets thundurus-t nail some of it's switch-ins, such as celebi, harder.

 

[Soulfly]

this is a very nice team :) i don't really have much to say, except i have just one suggestion. try u-turn over volt switch on thundurus-t, and change it's nature to naive. this is just so you can still gain switch advantage if your opponent brings in a ground type, because if you are locked into volt switch, it gives them a free turn to do whatever they want. it also lets thundurus-t nail some of it's switch-ins, such as celebi, harder.

Thanks i'll try it out :) I like volt switch tho because if i lost the weaher wars, but yeah i shouldnt lose it :p

 

[Soulfly]

Ok so after some extra testing i found i'm rather weak against ferrothorn when toxicroak dies (one gyro ball has a OHKO chance D:) . I changed my thundurus-T's grass knot to Focus Blast but its so inacurate , i cant really count on it.
What can i do against that?

Another notable threat to my team is jirachi, i have no earthquake on the whole team so i cant hit super effective and most other moves i got dont OHKO except boosted drain punch.

Any suggestions for that?

 

[detroitwillfall]

ive been messing with my rain team for quite some time, sun/sand to me are straight forward(granted not baton/trick hybrid)

thun-t's moveset is very standard, i know what u mean about focus blast, 70% is really unreliable, sometimes it works, other times it can mean the momentum/game for u for a threat it doesnt check due to accuracy.

Thun-t like shootnstarmie suggested>jolteon is correct.. even my mentor Plus corrected me when i tried him over thun-t.

keep ur thun-t >jolt for sure if ur gonna use either.

now jirachi is kind of a pain but certainly not impossible.

from my experience using jirachi on some of my rain setups and from facing him. ive used salamence @ dd moxie to hit him with a nice eq but calmmind/sub variants u could always perish song with ur politoed to prevent him setting up, even phazing him with twave from ferrothorn just for giving u time. other then putting in sala/ another eq user magnezone @ magnet pull sub flash cannon thunder(or tbolt) /hp fire might work altho in rain when versing specially defensive might be a pain. ive had my own jirachis to switch in on jirachis just to out stall them with serene grace secondary effects get real annoying after awhile.

my final advice would be overall, maybe get rid of thun-t change starmie to scarf negating a need for a spinner granted latios has recover, and then fit in

either garchomp, gliscor, mamoswine, or landorus-t preferibly to deal with ur eq lack and jirachi weakness

but beware jirachi probably will carry an icepunch so check ur speed and dont switch in one of these unless u know hes not using an ice punch!


hope that helped!