Semi-Rain mixed

[jcompy122]

Hello everyone. This is my first RMT. I've really liked rain since the intro of Kyogre in gen III, and have been playing it off and on since. I generally build competitive teams, and participate in online competitions sometimes, but I am looking to, "Up my game," as it were. My predicttion is not perfect, and i think thats where I need to improve the most.

This team is based around politoed setting up rain, ferrothorn dropping spikes, and going to town with powerhouses while spongeing big hits with the defensive core of ferro and jellicent. I say "mixed" because i run the offensive threats necessary to break through, but also have the ability to toxistall my sweeper's counters. more in the descriptions.

Politoed @ Damp Rock
Nature: Calm
Ability: Drizzle
IV's: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EV's: 236 HP/156 DEF/36 SpA/76 SpDEF/4 Spe
Moves:
Scald
Ice Beam
Toxic
Protect/Hydro Pump/X

The key player, Politoed is here for obvious reasons. Drizzle is amazing, blah blah. This Toed is geared to be defensive, and these investments let me tank Thunderbolt from Modest mega-manectric, Thunder from Timid Mega-Manectric, and solarbeam from Mega-Zard Y. With proper prediction, he should never have to tank the Solarbeam, but it is good to know that I have that option. I vary the last move; while his SpA is not too impressive, it can deal solid damage with rain up, so Pump is good to have; with the current setup, I'm running protect to aid in toxistalling, but I am open to suggestions for the final slot.

Dragonite Choice Band
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Multiscale
IV's: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EV's: 4 HP/ 252 ATK/ 252 Spe
Moves:
Outrage
Extremespeed
Waterfall
Superpower/Earthquake

Pretty standard physical Multiscale D-nite, except that I have switched Fire Punch for Waterfall. Boosted by rain, plus the flinch chance is fantastic on those that I outspeed. This is actually where the team started; I had trained up a 'Nite for the Battle Maison, and I wanted to use her competitively. Right now she has Earthquake, but I think my team could use the Superpower coverage; I hate the stat drop, but it has better coverage than EQ.

Starmie Life Orb
Nature: Timid
Ability: Analytic
IV's: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EV's: 252 SpA/4 SpDEF/ 252 Spe
Moves:
Surf
Thunder
Rapid Spin
Ice Beam

I love Analytic Starmie. With the switches it forces, you always hit the switch-in hard. Rain + STAB + LO+ Analytic means that surf is hitting HARD. Thunder over thunderbolt because of rain. Other than that, standard spinner starmie; D-nite needs spin support, and Starmie brings that and more. I've loved starmie since I discovered it's power in Gen IV, and i'm really liking using an offensive spinner. I've been considering Psychic instead of one of my moves, to hit spinblockers HARD on the switch, but I think Surf does a good enough job unless it's an Aegislash. Speaking of which, i think slash is the biggest problem this team has, and is one reason to keep Quake on 'Nite.

Scizor @ Scizorite
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Technician
IV's: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EV's: 252 HP/ 40 ATK/ 216 SpDEF
Moves:
Swords Dance
Roost
Bullet Punch
Bug Bite

I was using a 252 HP/ 252 ATK/ 4 SpDEF spread, but I wanted to try to help out my teams defensive capabilities. I'm still not sold on bug bite, but after switching his style up, U-turn doesn't make sense anymore. Anti-synergy with Swords Dance made me switch to Bug Bite. Punch is standard. Interested on feedback for this guy.

Ferrothorn Leftovers
Nature: Relaxed
Ability: Iron Barbs
IV's: 31/31/31/x/31/x
EV's: 252 HP/ 184 DEF/ 168 SpDEF
Moves:
Stealth Rock
Thunder Wave
Leech Seed
Power Whip

Ferrothorn make up part of the defensive core of the team. He lost two of his resistances, but that only dropped his power by a little; this guy is still a beast. no longer having the resist to dark is annoying, but the ghost is tolerable; again, Aegislash is a problem. He sets my rocks and forces switches, then catched the switch in with a t-wave so D-nite can come in and outspeed, or Scizor can come in to set up.

Jellicent Leftovers
Nature: Calm
Ability: Water Absorb
IV's: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EV's:156 HP/ 96 DEF/ 252 SpDEF
Moves:
Scald
Taunt
Recover
Toxic

My other toxistaller comes equipped with upgraded Taunt technology, courtesy or Mustache Industries. Recover helps Jelly's staying power, to aid Politoed in Toxistalling threats like tyranitar, etc. a lucky switch could let me land a waterfall from D-nite, but more than likely i'll be playing reserved and going for the stall. I love water absorb for the rain mirrors.

Overall, the team plans to lead ferrothorn if it can, to set up rocks and start spreading some status. jelly can tank the fire hits, or poli can come in to nerf the power, and once scizor's/'Nite's checks have been statused, out come the big guns. I like being able to switch up my tactics mid battle, as it is difficult for my opponent to predict farther than a turn or two ahead.

Overall, I think this team will have problems with steel types, particularly Jirachi and Aegislash. Any and all suggestions are welcome and appreciated. This team has had light testing as is, and will see some more this evening. Hopefully we will see some of those steel types, maybe I can figure out a way around them.

 

[Timpsu]

Hey! First, as a technicality, please put down some more bulk in your descriptions, as 3 lines is what is required from an RMT. Moderators are quite picky about that, so you may want to do it quick before the RMT gets locked. Second of all, I think your RMT is kinda gen V overall. Your moveset and Pokemon choices really reflect last generation, as M-Scizor is really your only component of Gen VI. Mainly this reflects the fact that some of your choices for moves or Pokemon have been suboptimal, even though rain teams themselves are niche and require unorthodox choices. I'll try and help you to gear this team more to reflect the current needs and roles required in the metagame.

Politoed is your go-to man when you need reliable rain, and he definitely delivers. I do like your Politoed's set, but one thing I must stress is that you absolutely can not afford to run Protect. 8 turns of rain is ultimately not that much, and if you decide to run Protect, you are more or less doing a favor for your opponent, as he has one turn of rain less to worry about. If you use Politoed as a special wall, you need to make sure Politoed can come in multiple times in a game and set up rain for your offenive pokemon to abuse. That's why I will suggest putting RestTalk set on your Politoed. RestTalk strategy makes sure your Politoed stays healthy and can annoy your opponent with status and moderately powerful Scalds. RestTalk strategy also lets you do as much Toxic stalling as you could ever require.

Hide

move 1: Rest
move 2: Sleep Talk
move 3: Scald
move 4: Toxic
ability: Drizzle
item: Damp Rock
evs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
nature: Calm

I think your Dragonite is solid overall, but I think the moveset should be Outrage / ExtremeSpeed / EQ / Superpower, without exceptions. Waterfall is a neat option on Dragonite in rain, but I don't see how he can afford to run it on your team. Outrage is your strongest STAB, ExtremeSpeed offers good and strong priority, EQ is needed to hit Aegislash reliably and without Superpower, Ferrothorn outright walls your entire team. Ice Beam is mandatory on Starmie, but if you want to use a Psychic STAB, I suggest running Psyshock in place of Thunder. Psyshock hits M-Venusaur, Conkeldurr and Chansey hardest, whereas Thunder gives your Starmie overall better coverage. For your Scizor, I suggest a spread of 248 HP / 136 Def / 104 SpD / 20 Spe. Bulk ensures that you won't be 2HKOed by Excadrill's EQ nor Aegislash's Shadow Ball, and the Speed lets you outspeed min. speed Heatran. I also suggest switching Bug Bite to Knock Off, as it offers better coverage, and extra utility by removing your opponent's item. I think your Ferrothorn is solid, and I have nothing to say about that set really, good job.

The biggest problem I have with your roster is Jellicent. To put it bluntly, Jellicent just isn't an OU 'mon anymore. With its poor physical bulk, it's hard pressed to check things, and it doesn't have many unique qualities to separate itself from other bulky pivots. Furthermore, Jellicent doesn't even check opposing rain teams well, since Kabutops can just walk all over him, and Ludicolo has a good STAB to hit him with. More to the point, Jellicent doesn't really benefit your rain team all that much, since it fails to be an offensive threat, and rather just sits there and drains your precious rain turns. However, I can see how Jellicent functions well with Ferrothorn, and as I really don't have any other Pokemon to suggest in its place right now, I'm just gonna try to optimize him for now. First of all, Jellicent needs 88 Speed EVs to check dangerous Pokemon, such as CB Tyranitar, Scizor and Azumarill. I also think the mandatory moves on Jellicent are Scald, Recover and Will-O-Wisp, with Shadow Ball or Ice Beam being a good fourth move. W-o-W does the same stalling as Toxic does, but has the benefit of also making physical attackers useless. That is why I recommend running W-o-W in place of Toxic. I hope my thoughts have been of help, good luck in your future battles!