ORAS OU Rain CroCune set-up

[HUARGH]

Replays:
vs. bulky: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-315162214
vs. double weather hyper-offense: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-315174861
video commentary about the replays (if you visit this link shortly after the thread creation, the video will not have properly processed yet and 1080 won't be available - it will later though): ]click
Hello guys,

I've been using and enjoying this team quite a bit, so I'm sharing it with you guys. It has also been quite successful. Aside from just wanting to share it, I'm also looking for some advice and specific replacements as I am currently unhappy with a few specific things on the team which I will get back to later. Enjoy reading!

At a glance:

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Reasons for selecting the pokemon and rough order of addition

Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Sleep Talk
- Rest
- Scald​

Suicune

I've always liked teams with lategame win conditions. I was am also a big fan of CurseLax especially in previous gens. I've also been fond of slower gameplay which throughout the gens, sadly, has declined more and more. I would be that guy running a full wrap team in gen1, snorlax in gen2 just kidding everyone runs snorlax and 5 counters in gen2, spite on dusclops in gen3 to cheese your blissey's aromatherapy on a TSS-like team (i.e. Veteran In Love's infamous 'Superman') and so forth. Although power creep is real, offense is stronger than ever and slower'ish/stall teams nowadays pack all sorts of annoying stuff such as magic bounce, there is still some room for a slower, balanced team - which I found in CroCune. As a bonus it's a pretty good switch-in against most Keldeos, as secret sword doesn't do much due to the massive def stat. Only HP electric hurts (and focus blast but almost nobody carries that alongside secret sword... they probably should though, unless they really fear the SDef Tenta).

Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 136 SpD / 120 Spe
Careful Nature
- Healing Wish
- Iron Head
- Thunder Wave Thunder
- Stealth Rock​

Jirachi

My second pokemon had to carry healing wish, a crucial element of a team like this (or one revolving around a strong sweeper) is that you need healing wish to give your wincon(win condition) a second chance to do its gimmick, as it will usually run into the pokemon on the enemy team that are supposed to deal with it. I've also played with Charizard-Y + Victini teams with 2 healing wishers and it's been difficult to play without one after realizing their potential.

Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 244 HP / 176 Def / 28 SpA / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Encore
- Scald
- Ice Beam Hypnosis
- Rain Dance Rest​

Politoed

At this point I slapped on Politoed, as it deals with Jirachi's fire weakness and allows it to stand up to certain pokemon for an extra turn. Heatran is a big one - we've all been in situations against pokemons where you should swap out, but they could stealth rock on your swap and gain an advantage (Landorus-T and Garchomp are also known for these stand-offs). With Politoed on the team, you can use stealth rock safely (provided rain is up) against opposing Heatrans (and healing wish out of magma storm if it's that kind of 'tran). Politoed also boosts Suicune's power, as it is kind of lackluster without scald burns or CMs under its belt. The SpA EVs seem random but with 24 SpA I have 4.7% chance to 2HKO specially defensive Heatran (going all the way down to ~1% at 0 SpA), with 28 SpA that gets boosted to 19.9%. It also guarantees the 2HKO after stealth rock, which I do not have with 24 SpA or lower. 191 speed to outspeed Heatran. I've been thinking of replacing ice beam with protect, it makes me safer against Mcham and MLop, it also totally destroys Char-Y in rain (although solar beam already does negligible damage).

Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Superpower​

Tornadus-T

After adding Politoed we can establish that we have a rain team, so we use Tornadus-T. Assault Vest is to give me some wiggle room with Regenerator if I miss-predict a special attack. I'm not entirely sold on Assault Vest but right now, I don't see another way. I put 252 in SpA because I've personally found all hybrid spreads to be shit and useless as I'm just spamming hurricane anyway. I've also gone for a timid nature.

Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 30 HP
- Belly Drum
- Drain Punch
- Seed Bomb
- Substitute​

Chesnaught

This is really the only thing I could come up with as an answer to Ferrothorn and Manaphy, it's also good against Breloom and can outspeed various threats at +1 (such as Alakazam). Its ability blocks sludge bomb too (and shadow ball), giving it some cool utility against MVenu. Something often overlooked is that it blocks zap cannon and gyro ball, meaning it can set up on both Forretress and Ferrothorn for free.

Swampert @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Superpower​

Swampert

I didn't have a mega yet nor a swift swimmer, so MSwampert seemed obvious. Nothing too special here, but gives me a pretty good alternate wincon and another target for healing wish. 4 in SDef for Porygon.

THREAT LIST

With the exception of Zapdos (who is a threat because I can't really kill it), all of these pokemon are really hard to switch into, especially with proper prediction. Any help/input would be greatly appreciated.

IMPORT

Hide

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Sleep Talk
- Rest
- Scald

Politoed @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 244 HP / 176 Def / 28 SpA / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Encore
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Rain Dance

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 136 SpD / 120 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock
- Healing Wish

Swampert @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Superpower

Chesnaught @ Salac Berry
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 30 HP
- Belly Drum
- Drain Punch
- Seed Bomb
- Substitute

Tornadus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Superpower

 

[Yeezus.]

ig you can mitigate your threatlist by changing lati > torn. handles all Mons on the threatlist. dicks on all of them. also gives hazard control. not really gonna go in depth because it's an obvious change but yeah. whether you choose the male or female is up to you. sets are also interchangeable so use whatever you think fits best. I'd personally use a standard latios set but that's up to you.

bick still dig. glhf

 

[Wobs]

Hey man. I saw your Suicune ripping up teams earlier :p however as I mentioned it doesn't seem to fit on rain teams despite being water type. The reasons other people were giving seemed pretty decent as well- Suicune rarely gets the opportunities you got before to set up, it kills momentum and the rain doesn't last long enough for Suicune to make use of it.

Instead I'd suggest using Specs/Life Orb Kingdra with Draco Meteor, Hydro Pump, Scald and Ice Beam. Alternatively SD Kabutops if you find a lack of wincon is losing you games. These are both pretty generic and boring but they're proven on rain teams. Honestly I'm pretty terrible at Pokemon though so you probably shouldn't listen to this.

 

[HUARGH]

At the Lati > Torn suggestion, I've had Lati on my team in different versions (healing wish, dual screens with light clay and the standard set) and it never seemed to work out, Torn just seems too good to pass up. It also removes my ground immunity against Exca.

Hey man. I saw your Suicune ripping up teams earlier :p however as I mentioned it doesn't seem to fit on rain teams despite being water type. The reasons other people were giving seemed pretty decent as well- Suicune rarely gets the opportunities you got before to set up, it kills momentum and the rain doesn't last long enough for Suicune to make use of it.

Instead I'd suggest using Specs/Life Orb Kingdra with Draco Meteor, Hydro Pump, Scald and Ice Beam. Alternatively SD Kabutops if you find a lack of wincon is losing you games. These are both pretty generic and boring but they're proven on rain teams. Honestly I'm pretty terrible at Pokemon though so you probably shouldn't listen to this.

Without rain I'm missing a lot of kill pressure on some mons that can threaten Suicune before a proper set-up (i.e. MManec). I've actually had Kingdra on my team but it didn't perform well. Haven't tried Kabutops yet, but I don't think it's too different from Swampert, the need to mega-evolve is actually painful sometimes as you don't instantly get the speed so that's actually a pretty decent perk from Kabutops. It would also free up a mega slot, perhaps I could get rid of Chesnaught then and get in something like MVenu (although probably not because we don't want synthesis in rain mhm?).

 

[Mistaken]

Hi,

Life Orb and Spread

Since tornadus is great at taking advantage of the rain I recommend you give it an item that will enable it to hit harder. When you add life orb to torndadus you are able to 2hko mons like clefable and spd talonflame which you couldnt before. Life orb also lets you hit all around harder and deal massive damage to its few checks. If tornadus is life orb it can force rotom-w in and u turn into chesnaught on the rotom switch allowing ches to get a free substitute and bd sweep. With more attack invested you will be able to do more damage to chansey and heatran with superpower which I strongle advise 76 Atk 180 Spa 252 Spe hasty.

Get rid of HW<Wish, Twave<Thunder

in the rain thunder will not miss and has a 60% chance to para which i thought was pretty cool since people like switching talonflames in on jirachi and might also allow you to do damage while also having a good chance of getting a paralysis. Healingwish does not help a single member of your team, however if you run wish you can help multiple members by passing them some hp.

RD<Rest Ice beam< hypnosis


Fist off politoed has the ability drizzle so it is a complete waste to run rain dance on a mon that sets up the rain every time it switches in. Ice beam does not really help politoed so I suggest replacing it with hypnosis which can allow you to put threats to sleep like rotom-w, lati, and keldeo. With rest you are able to keep politoed healthy and you are able to have a decent and winnable match up vs charizard y which is cool.

--->

suicune < cm bro

suicune leaves you pretty weak to mons like azumarill, charizard x, garchomp, and medicham. By adding slowbro you now have a counter for all of those mons. Calm mind slobro works simililarily to suicune and has psyshock which allows it to win cm wars vs clefable and also gives you a nice switch in to keldeo, and an ok way to beat manaphy if it is not packing eball.


hope i was helpful n_n

sets

Tornadus (Tornadus-Therian) @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 76 Atk / 180 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hurricane
- Superpower
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 248 HP / 228 SpD / 32 Spe
Careful Nature
- Thunder
- Iron Head
- Wish
- Stealth Rock

Politoed @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Def / 12 SpD / 112 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Hypnosis
- Encore
- Rest

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 236 Def / 24 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off

 

[HUARGH]

Hey,

Unfortunately I cannot change Suicune no matter what as that is the theme of this team. I've actually used that Tornadus-T before with that exact spread (which I got straight off smogon) but it didn't do it for me, hence the swap to AV. I could probably test it out a bit more to see the exact changes, especially as I've had quite some games under my belt now with AV.

I do think thunder is an improvement over T-wave and have edited the OP as such. I'm not entirely sold on hw<wish so I'm gonna hold off on that.

I don't really like my current Politoed set so I've changed it to your set, hopefully it will feel a bit less awkward to use (although I do have personal beef with hypnosis and its accuracy). I have edited the OP with the new moves.