Weather and its effects on the metagame

[Dark Pulse]

Creative moveset? Try Sawsbuck. Now, you think Sawsbuck in ou, you think sun, right? While I do use him on my sun team to much success, what I wanted to bring to attention today is how viable he is in rain

now, take a Venasaur, he just killed something, and now you send in Politoed, like any sane person would. The opponent now has two options. Switch to tales, or OHKO poli with a grass attack. Now, say he goes for a seed bomb
BAM! In comes Sawsbuck, now with a +1 - Earthquake OHKO

now, lets say he switches, this Sawsbuck came prepared - call me crazy again, but my Sawsbuck is scarfed - what does this mean? Earthquake OHKO, even on max timid tales. A gimmick, I admit, but it does it's job...

Now I know, this isn't just my sun counter, it's my general Grass absorber, and works well against sand too - beating lo or Yache Landorus and killing it with return. Also beats scarf or +dd t-tar, and even killing sand's saving grace, Gastrodon. Thanks to Jump Kick and EQ, it can also kill Steel Types like (BAN ME PLEASE)... Ferro, Scizor and Forry, however, can't be killed :(

regardless, it's creative, and does it's job... Scarf Sawsbuck

 

[Smith]

The above is kind of a cool idea, but I'd still run CB to really pack a punch - Return / Nature Power / Hi Jump Kick / Horn Leech gets some really good coverage and with some prediction can definitely lay down a hurt.

I would post this in creative movesets but it isn't terribly creative and it pertains more to weather wars than anything else. I invented the set a bit ago, and in reality it's very simple-

Chadelure @ Leftovers
252 SpAtk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Timid
-Substitute
-Pain Split
-Shadow Ball
-Fire Blast

Chandelure is FANTASTIC on hail teams or sun teams in conjunction with toxic spikes. It acts first and foremost as a spin blocker, which I hopefully shouldn't have to explain. It's usefulness is comparable to that of Gen 4 SubCharge Rotom with Toxic Spikes. It completely manhandles Blissey or Chansey and thanks to ridiculously high special attack and good coverage, none save Heatran is a reliable counter to its STABs. It does a fantastic job of luring in Tyranitar and Politoed and simply stalling them out- thanks to Substitute, you can actually escape Pursuit and exploit the weak attack to set up more hazards. This works really well on hail and sun teams, as it allows you to win the weather war with ease. It also breaks down opposing stall teams famously, as they can't spin against it nor damage it in any capacity, really. Probably it's biggest selling point for me is that on all my stall teams I feel obligated to run both Tentacruel and Jellicent which is of course rather stupid, so you don't have to do that!

 

[Skore]

The above is kind of a cool idea, but I'd still run CB to really pack a punch - Return / Nature Power / Hi Jump Kick / Horn Leech gets some really good coverage and with some prediction can definitely lay down a hurt.

I would post this in creative movesets but it isn't terribly creative and it pertains more to weather wars than anything else. I invented the set a bit ago, and in reality it's very simple-

Chadelure @ Leftovers
252 SpAtk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Timid
-Substitute
-Pain Split
-Shadow Ball
-Fire Blast

Chandelure is FANTASTIC on hail teams or sun teams in conjunction with toxic spikes. It acts first and foremost as a spin blocker, which I hopefully shouldn't have to explain. It's usefulness is comparable to that of Gen 4 SubCharge Rotom with Toxic Spikes. It completely manhandles Blissey or Chansey and thanks to ridiculously high special attack and good coverage, none save Heatran is a reliable counter to its STABs. It does a fantastic job of luring in Tyranitar and Politoed and simply stalling them out- thanks to Substitute, you can actually escape Pursuit and exploit the weak attack to set up more hazards. This works really well on hail and sun teams, as it allows you to win the weather war with ease. It also breaks down opposing stall teams famously, as they can't spin against it nor damage it in any capacity, really. Probably it's biggest selling point for me is that on all my stall teams I feel obligated to run both Tentacruel and Jellicent which is of course rather stupid, so you don't have to do that!

I find Choice Scarf Chandelure much better for beating weather starters and their common partners.

Chandelure@Choice Scarf
Modest 4HP /252Sp Att /252 Spe
Shadow Ball
Fire Blast/Flamethrower
Energy Ball
Hidden Power GROUND

It just wrecks shit up. People never expect that it's scarfed.

Running HP Ground makes it a great lure for Heatran and the occasional Arcanine and can handle all but CM Ninetails with ease. It really catches people on the hop when they expect a Shadow Ball and switch in their Infernape only to eat a 60% HP HP Ground and faint before they get a U-Turn off.

It OHKO's most Politoeds unless they're EV'd for Sp Def and Tyranitar is a 2HKO if they think to come in and pursuit trap you.

Fast weather team staples like Scizor, Starmie and Latios tend to just stand there and eat SE stab attacks because they never expect a scarf.

Jellicent is cannon fodder, Gastrodon and the rare Quagsire get caught by Energy Ball and is a OHKO and many other mons just melt before it's pure destructive power.

Imo Scarf Chandy is a great Ace up your sleeve when you need it and it's what I've built my current team around to maximise it's awesomeness.

 

[Smith]

Scarf Chandelure is cool, but it's also basically the standard so I don't think it has much in way of surprise value. Also nobody should switch an Infernape into a Chandelure, especially if they think its going to use Shadow Ball 9.9

 

[Gneiss is nice]

I got a Hail team that I rather enjoy. I know that Hail is the unloved red-headed stepchild of the weather family, but I do enjoy it nonetheless.

The only actual creative thing I have on it, though, would probably be sticking Worry Seed on Abomasnow. It's situational, but it's definitely worth it when I can pull off a totally unexpected win because of it. Best win was when I got the opponent down to his Reuniclus while I had 2 guys left, and he had managed to get off a few Calm Minds, making it practically impossible for me to kill him. Right before he killed me, I threw off a Worry Seed and got rid of his Magic Guard, and then managed to stall him to death with Substitute/Protect on my Walrein.

It's been months since I last played though, but I was gonna start again and see how things have changed.

 

[True]

If your running a scarf on shandeera wouldnt overheat be more viable , as you need to switch around a lot after you killed something , the loss in spa doesnt matter much. Also shandeera NEEDS rapid spin support when carrying a scarf.

 

[Krasnopesky]

I used to have a team built around setting up a sweep for this guy:

Whiscash
@ Life Orb
Ability: Hydration
EVs:148 HP - 252 Atk - 108 Spe
Nature: Adamant
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Rest

He demolishes stall teams once the grass type is gone and can outspeed and defeat the weather staters and many abusers after a 2 dragon dances. He isn't as good in the current metagame with all the hidden power grass movesets to defeat the other more popular Ground/Water types, but with support you can end up sweeping OU teams with a whiscash =)