Rain Redemption

[Racko27]

Rain Redemption

Rain Redemption, as the name may suggest, is a rain team. I have played against many rain teams and seen many on the Smogon forums and so decided that I would join them.
The team at a Glance:

As you can teel, this is not a completly generic rain team. Some of these pokes may seem odd but there is a reason for each and every one of them, I assure you.

Now the team in depth: Changes are in red

Politoad
The Weather War General

Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 Def / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Trait: Drizzle
Nature: Timid
Moves:
Toxic
Ice Beam
Scald
Earthquake

This move set was built to wear the enemy down with status effects for cleaning up later. Earthquake was added because I had a lack of coverage against Heatran and and Terrikon. It has proved a good choice because there either KO'd by it or forced out. It also is not a suspected move for him. Scald is not obsolete though as it does a fair bit of damage and has a chance to burn. It is also my counter against TTar. Ice beam is there for Dragons and Grass's although I don't generally chose Politoad to outspeed a Latios/Latias (I have a another move for that later). Toxic I need to give some residual damage to make sweeping easier later on.

Toxicroak
The Samauri

Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Trait: Dry Skin
Nature: Jolly
Moves:
Swords Dance
Taunt
Sucker Punch
Drain Punch

Leftovers with Dry skin on the rain AND drain punch? This frog will not go down quickly. Swords dance is to boost its attack against opponents it can wall, making a sweep much easier. Taunt is there to stall-break and prevent a change in weather. Sucker-punch is a revenge kill move and a good way to kill a Genger or Alakazam. It is also a amazing move when boosted up as it can outspeed everything with its Prioty 1 status. Drain punch is there to heal up and to hit Walls like Blissey to oblivion and back. Its is also a good STAB move to have.

Dragonite
The Sky-Master

Item: Choice Scarf
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spe / 4 Atk
Trait: Inner Focus
Nature: Jolly
Moves:
Hurricane
Thunder
Waterfall
Dragon Claw
Scarfed and Jolly, this Dragon can reach huge speeds, able to sweep a team under the rain with is 100% accuracy, STAB Hurricane. Thunder is there for the same reason and it can also get rid of Tentacruel and Jellicent quite quickly, leaving the the field clear for Charizard. Waterfall is there for a 2nd check against Ground, Rock and Fire types that can hurt thsi team if not dealt with. Dragon Claw is the second STAB move here to hit hard against other Dragons. I picked Inner Focus over Multiscale because I HATE being flinched. It leaves me too exposed for a counter.

Volcarona
The Heat

Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Trait: Flame Body
Nature: Modest
Moves:
Fiery Dance
Hurricane
Quiver Dance
Hidden Power (Water)
As suggested I have switched Zard to a Volcana with Hurricane which most defiantlly was a good choice. It may not be as fast but against a Ferrthorn lead it can set up one or two Quiver Dances and start sweeping with its beastly SpA and 100% Hurricane. When it can set up it becomes awsome. HP water allows extra coverage against Rock and Ground types.

Alakazam
The Spell-Caster

Item: Life Orb
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Trait: Magic Guard
Nature: Timid
Moves:
Focus Blast
Psychic
Energy Ball
Shadow Ball
Fast normally, this thing almost always goes first. Magic Guard allows me to ignore Hazards, which is good due to Alakazam's fragility. The moveset is built for coverage, to allow me to switch him in on the fly and get of a super effective hit on most pokes. It is a Sweeper but is dead if they survive his hits unfortunatlly and this is why I have to be careful who I switch him into. He great for clean up though. Life orb with no recoil means he can hit far harder than before and survive whilst still staying speedy.

Tentacruel
The Outsider

Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 Hp / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Trait: Rain Dish
Nature: Bold
Moves:
Rapid Spin
Ice beam
Protect
Substitute
Rapid Spin makes it easy for switch in's, espically for Dragonite who is SR weak. Ice beam to attack with and to keep a bit of coverage that Dewgong offered. Protect and Sub to stall Poisened opponents, usually straight after Politoad.


Exportable:

Hide

Politoed (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Toxic
- Ice Beam
- Scald
- Earthquake
Toxicroak (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Sucker Punch
- Drain Punch
- Swords Dance
- Taunt
Tentacruel (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
- Protect
- Substitute
Dragonite (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Hurricane
- Thunder
- Dragon Claw
- Waterfall
Volcarona (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Swarm
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Fiery Dance
- Hurricane
- Quiver Dance
- Hidden Power [Water]
Alakazam (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Focus Blast
- Psychic
- Energy Ball
- Shadow Ball

Thanks for reading and I hope you will enjoy rating it.
Critism is very much welcome and I will try out any suggestions you guys can give.
​

 

[tikidude]

This team is very creative. I love it! I would however, replace Dewgong with Azumarill. Azumarill still has the stab priority that you want, but over 9000 times more powerful. It also does not have a rock weakness like Dewgong.

 

[Racko27]

Thanks! I'll try Azurimal over Dewgong this afternoon.

 

[GKhan]

I'm not the best battler, so you ought to take what I say with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, I use rain on PO so I'm not spewing completely unfounded non-sense.

1) Change Toxicroak's nature, timid is not beneficial. Just for shits, you might want to try substitute instead of taunt. It lets you dispose of focus sashed Alakazams with your sucker punch, and generally lets you fire off another boosted drain punch in situations where you would otherwise get out.

2) What grass threats are you so worried about that you decided to use Charizard? In my experience, Toxicroak handles every grass pokemon that isn't packing earthquake or psychic. Some Toxicroak sets (the substitute one I use) can handle some of those pokemon anyways with proper prediction.

3) Edit: BTW, how do you plan on dealing with Terrakion?

I say all that to say that you might be better off with something else in Charizard's place, I'd have to do some more thinking to offer a recommendation though.

 

[Racko27]

I didn't notice that muck-up on Toxicroak and have changed it now.
Charizard is there as more precuationary aswell to deal some damage. He is a brilliant Spec atkker regardless of the weather and defiantlly helps kill off Bulky steels and grass. But if you have any suggestions on what to replace him with I will gladly try it.
Terrikon is not a huge threat to this team because, although its fast, it can't hurt too many of my pokes. its typing also make its weak to my Alakazam and my water types (Aqua Jet is a good way to hit it). Politoad can be a nightmare for it if he can get off a move and I usually do because they try boosting stats on me only to get hit my and EQ or a scald.

 

[SuperCharizardMaster]

Dude, I love this team just because of charizard. However give it air slash instead of quick attack for STAB.

 

[GKhan]

I didn't notice that muck-up on Toxicroak and have changed it now.
Charizard is there as more precuationary aswell to deal some damage. He is a brilliant Spec atkker regardless of the weather and defiantlly helps kill off Bulky steels and grass. But if you have any suggestions on what to replace him with I will gladly try it.
Terrikon is not a huge threat to this team because, although its fast, it can't hurt too many of my pokes. its typing also make its weak to my Alakazam and my water types (Aqua Jet is a good way to hit it). Politoad can be a nightmare for it if he can get off a move and I usually do because they try boosting stats on me only to get hit my and EQ or a scald.

I like the pictures!

I see what you mean with Terrakion, that bastard is the first thing my mind goes to because my team is more defensively oriented and has real trouble if I let it setup, but I can see how you can make sure that shouldn't happen.

As for Charizard, I hesitate to criticize too much because I haven't used it competitively. However, I think between your Hurricaning Dragonite and Toxicroak, grasses really shouldn't be a problem. I'm then curious as to what steels you're concerned about? From there I might have some suggestions.

 

[Racko27]

I'll try out air slash, thanks.

Bronzong, Metagross and Skarmory. They all avoid being easilly pummelled by by Toxicroaks Drain Punch and Fire is the best way to hit all of them. Dragonite can damage a Skarmory with a Thunder but Charozard can do more to Metagross and Bronzong with a Fire move. Fire is a great cover type for Waters and Dragons aswell by hitting hard against Ice and Grass.

 

[Racko27]

Ok Air cutter is a brilliant swap, thanks for that.
Just a quick question to all you guys who may be reading this:
If I was to keep te core of Charizard, Dragonite and Toxicroak, what would you all suggest for the rest of the team?

 

[GKhan]

I'll try out air slash, thanks.

Bronzong, Metagross and Skarmory. They all avoid being easilly pummelled by by Toxicroaks Drain Punch and Fire is the best way to hit all of them. Dragonite can damage a Skarmory with a Thunder but Charozard can do more to Metagross and Bronzong with a Fire move. Fire is a great cover type for Waters and Dragons aswell by hitting hard against Ice and Grass.

A random thing I noted: your Politoed's earthquake is going to be doing much less damage to Terakion than your scald will, except during the sun. Heatran is also fond of air balloon, so you might be hitting it with scald first anyways. I haven't done the calcs, but will your timid toed even 1HKO Terakion with earthquake? I think you'd get a lot more utility out of something like encore personally.

As for dealing with steels, I don't think skarmory is a threat for your team, except when it's on other weather teams, most notably sandstorm. By taking earthquake off of Politoed, you can give it to a much better user, Landorus. If you make it a Smack Down Landorus, it can also easily remove Skarmory or Bronzong if you smack them on the switch. This will also give you added utility against sandstorm teams, and Landorus is also effective against many of sun's sweepers.

 

[The QWAZ]

look, i hate to brake it to you nut charizard will not work on a rain team, it has it's main STAB weaken so it has to rely on coverage moves, dragonite also covers grasses very well 4x resisting their STAB and striking back hard with hurricane. For d-nite give it an ev spread of 252atk/252spa/4spe this maximizes offensive potential and is generally better, change it's moves to
-hurricane
-aqua tail
-extreme speed
-roost
this set has a lot of power while still having durability thanks to roost
on a final note, if you want to do well with this team replace charizard it is turing an otherwise good team to nothing special
hope i helped

 

[I Am]

I'd put solar power on your Charizard, if nothing else. If you run into a sun team, it'll completely demolish them, while still maintaining the same utility as it does here. The loss of blaze in't significant.

Though to be honest, I wouldn't use Charizard at all in the rain. A weakened STAB + 4x SR Weakness mean it's not really packing that hard of a punch, and that it dies so easily without a spinner.

 

[SharpEyes]

Charizard really apprechiates rapid spin support. i totally agree with the above post on solar power. blaze isnt doing much anyway also air slash over quick attack makes sense as its stab and hits grass types like breloom and virizion for 4x dmg.
dewgong is cool but id replace it with tentacruel for rapid spin and tspike support... Because dragonitrles multiscale is useless without it, also helps with terrakion. and finally i would run the more standard rain dragonite over scarf...scarf is a bit redundant when you have access to espeed.

 

[Professor Birch]

If you are using Charizard for grass I think it would make more sense to use a standard Scizor. It has a stab priorty move instead of quick attack on Charizard and it takes care of grass types. Hope it helps!

 

[Spiri]

I agree with Pokemasta, a Scizor set would be nice. Maybe this one I use on my rain team
Scizor (M) @ Life Orb Trait: Technician
EVs: 100 Atk / 140 Def / 136 SDef / 132 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Roost

 

[XcRunner]

Although I think that Charizard definitely needs spin support, I think you could have a pretty good idea going here. I'd recommend keeping Charizard as a scarfer and going with Air Slash on it, but then changing Dragonite's moveset around.
Make him a bulky dragon dancer capable of sweeping and use Zard as a way to take out steels that would stop him.
Dragonite@leftovers
Adamant
-Dragon Dance
-Dragon Claw
-Substitute
-Roost
252 hp/44 att/212 spe
Rain helps keep sandstorm away to prevent it from ridding Nite of multiscale, and this set is capable of actually sweeping teams on its own.
If Charizard really isn't working though, you could change it to a scarfed MoxieMence and potentially change Alakazam for Magnezone going with a 2drag1mag strategy in the rain making Zone's Thunder 100% accurate and extremely powerful.

 

[That Noob]

Hey creative team.
Anyways there are some changes that need to be made. First on SD Toxicroak, either change it to SubBU with a spread of 252 Atk, 244 HP, 12 Spe or change Taunt to Ice Punch and Lefties to Life Orb. SubBU has better survival, SD croak 2hkos/ohkos everything in the metagame. Second, 3 scarfers? Change Zam to Life Orb and magic guard will prevent LO recoil. Also, consider replacing Charizard with Virizion for a Rotom-W check, something your team really needs.

 

[Racko27]

Thanks for all the support and advice guys. I'm currentlly Overhaulling the team and will update here with it when its done again.

 

[Black Rain]

Hi. I understand your reasons for using Charizard, however, a fire type in rain seems a bit counter-productive. If you are set on using a fire type, though, I suggest Volcarona, who can also abuse Hurricane's perfect accuracy under rain.

In addition, I also suggest running Ice Punch on Toxicroak over Taunt. Swords Dance Toxicroak is incredibly powerful under rain, and can also break walls. Ice Punch offers excellent coverage against Pokemon that would otherwise be safe from a say, Sub+Bulk Up set, such as Gliscor. In addition, Life Orb with +2 Ice Punch will OHKO Offensive Dragon Dance Dragonite.

Volcarona

Volcarona (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252Spd
Timid Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Hurricane
- Quiver Dance
- Hidden Power [Water]

 

[Racko27]

Ice punch isn't allowed on a drain punch Toxicroak apprentlly.
Volcana is beastly and I might change my Poiltoad for a Swampert as it can take more punishment and can still start the rain. I see how that goes
I need a Tentacruel as rapid spin support so I will have to swap Dewgong and I didn't know magic guard protects against the recoil of a Life orb

 

[The QWAZ]

Keep politoad, swampert has to use rain dance and is forced out by ferrorthorn who is one of the most common pokemon in the metagame essentially giving the oppent a free layer of hazards.
Also remove choice scarf of alakazam and dragonite remove charizard al together and read dragonites analysis it has a really powerful rain set.
Hope i helped

 

[Steel.Storm]

If you change out Poli, there would quite literally be no point in this being a Rain Team anymore lol. he's the only thing that really makes it playable in this Auto-Weather Inducer Metagame...

 

[Racko27]

True. I actually just discovered that the hard way. Volcana cleans it up niclly though and gets a free quiver dance.
I'll keep politoad and update the post with changes later today (collage)

 

[Professor Birch]

On Volcarona instead of fire blast I would probably do fiery dance because you deal out some damage and you get a sp att boost

 

[Racko27]

The following changes have been made:
Tentacruel for Dewgong
Volcarona for Charizard
Life Orb Alakazam instead of Scarf

Thank you for all the advice guys. I am keeping the Dragonite the same at the moment as the one suggested didn't work that well, sorry. Toxicroak can't have Ice punch with Drain punch apprentlly (Odd I know) so I can't change that but Taunt is a great Stall- Breaker move so all is not lost.