BW Playstyle Analysis: Rain

By Ununhexium. Released: 2022/11/07.

Introduction

BW OU is particularly well known for the "weather wars", where abilities granting permanent rain and sun were given to non-Uber Pokémon for the first and only time. One of the playstyles people most looked forward to was rain offense, as the combination of Swift Swim and rain-boosted attacks made for an obviously broken combination. Though the combination of Drizzle and Swift Swim has not been legal for many years now, rain still remains a powerful force in the BW OU metagame and is one of the three main playstyles alongside sand and weatherless hyper offense.

Rain has many strengths that make it a viable playstyle. One of the main advantages is that it's an absolute blast to play. Few things are more satisfying than watching a Keldeo blow back a Water-resistant Pokémon with a rain-boosted Hydro Pump. It is also relatively simple in theory; set up rain, spam entry hazards, and use powerful attackers to blow holes in the opposition. It also allows the use of what is arguably the most reliable entry hazard removal in BW OU in Tentacruel, enabling you to more easily run Pokémon like Dragonite, Thundurus-T, and Tornadus. Some of the best revenge killers in the tier such as Choice Scarf Latios and Keldeo are natural fits on rain as well, which can result in a good matchup against hyper offense teams.

However, rain is far from a flawless playstyle. One of the biggest drawbacks is that many of the Pokémon on rain teams really need rain to be active to be as effective as possible, such as Thundurus-T, Keldeo, Tornadus, and particularly Tentacruel. Another big issue is Politoed. Though it provides significant value in setting up rain, it only really acts as a buffer against opposing attackers otherwise and is not really a good Pokémon on its own. It also possesses a poor matchup against popular sand Spikes teams; these often feature Pokémon such as Gastrodon, Jellicent, and Reuniclus that can sit on the more passive Pokémon on rain teams by removing the threat of Scald burns, and in Reuniclus's case, Toxic, and the removal of rain by Tyranitar goes a long way for neutralizing rain's threats. In addition, the threats on these teams such as Alakazam, Latios, and Reuniclus are rather difficult for rain teams to handle defensively, rain teams have few Pokémon that can switch in and few Pursuit users to trap them.

Structure of Rain Teams

The fundamental goal of a rain team is to take advantage of powerful attackers whose abilities are fully unlocked under rain. The rest of the team is dedicated to supporting these Pokémon and accounting for weaknesses that they promote and trying to improve matchups against other playstyles. The most standard rain structure contains Politoed, Ferrothorn, Tentacruel, Latios, a primary rain attacker, and a second rain attacker or a filler that complements the team. Though other structures have existed in the past, this is the most common currently, and some are replaceable if you make the proper adjustments in the teambuilder. Politoed is the obvious requirement to set up rain, and it often serves the role of taking occasional stray attacks and supporting the team using moves like Toxic or Encore to annoy passive Pokémon on the opposing team. Ferrothorn's role is primarily to set up entry hazards, use Knock Off to remove Leftovers from opposing Ferrothorn—I know, it seems a bit ridiculous, but it can be critically important to force chip damage on opposing Ferrothorn, as it can be tough to handle for rain teams—and check opposing Dragon-types, particularly Latios. Tentacruel's primary goal is to remove entry hazards , enabling Pokémon such as Thundurus-T, Tornadus, and Dragonite while also taking a load off of Politoed and Ferrothorn. It takes great advantage of Rain Dish and Protect to become extremely difficult to KO under rain. The goal of the other three Pokémon, generally, is to wreak havoc.

Rain Threats

Keldeo is the classic rain attacker of BW OU. Thanks to its high Speed and Special Attack, there are a wide variety of applications for Keldeo. When it's equipped with Choice Specs, its Hydro Pump becomes devastatingly powerful under rain, taking big chunks out of Pokémon that resist it such as Ferrothorn, Tentacruel, and Latios. Keldeo can also equip a Choice Scarf to become arguably the best anti-hyper offense Pokémon in the metagame or run all-out-attacking sets with Leftovers or Expert Belt. It can also run a Substitute + Calm Mind set to ruin opposing rain teams, especially if paired with Toxic Spikes from Tentacruel. For these reasons, it is a fixture on many rain teams.

Thundurus-T is arguably the most potent threat on rain teams in the current metagame. Blessed with a massive Special Attack stat and great coverage, there is not much that Thundurus-T can't do. Its most common set features Substitute, allowing it to punish switches from Pokémon such as Excadrill, Ferrothorn, and Jirachi and fire off a powerful Thunder with perfect accuracy and apply coverage to hit whatever the team requires. It can even employ boosting moves such as Agility to serve as a cleaner against offense teams and Nasty Plot to absolutely ruin slower teams. One of the reasons that Thundurus-T is so strong is because Thunder has a 30% chance to paralyze the target when it lands, which means that Pokémon that should switch in reasonably safely, such as Latios, have a decent chance of being rendered useless for the rest of the game, making Thundurus-T very difficult to handle safely. Thundurus-T also greatly benefits from rain removing sand from the field, allowing it to set up Substitute more times, as well as from Tentacruel's ability to remove Stealth Rock.

Tornadus gains perfect accuracy on Hurricane under rain, which can put a very large dent in many common Pokémon in BW. Traditionally, offensive sets have been Tornadus's bread and butter, as it can run Focus Blast to chunk Flying switch-ins, U-turn to gain momentum, and a variety of utility moves in the fourth slot. It can also take advantage of its priority Substitute thanks to Prankster to run a devastatingly annoying SubTect set, which pairs particularly well with Toxic Spikes from Tentacruel. Though relatively lacking in defensive utility, Tornadus can be otherwise effective enough to really take over games on its own.

Gyarados is an often underutilized yet extremely potent option. The classic Gyarados is a Dragon Dance sweeper that can set up and maul opponents with rain-boosted +1 Waterfalls. Other than Dragon Dance and Waterfall, its moveset is pretty adaptable, with it being able to run Bounce for a powerful STAB move with excellent neutral coverage, Substitute or Taunt to set up in front of passive Pokémon, Earthquake and Ice Fang for reliable coverage, or even some Natural Gift shenanigans to catch Pokémon such as Rotom-W and Gastrodon off guard. A lesser seen but still viable option is to run Choice Scarf + Moxie on Gyarados to snowball out of control late-game. It also has a convenient defensive typing, allowing it to take on Ground-types such as Mamoswine, Landorus-T, and Excadrill as well as other metagame staples such as Keldeo and Volcarona.

Dragonite is a threatening Pokémon on rain teams, but probably not for the reason you might expect. Yes, it can learn moves like Hurricane and Thunder that gain perfect accuracy in rain as well as Water-type moves that are boosted by it, but the main reason is because the most reliable method for removing the sand that neutralizes its Leftovers is by inducing rain. This really unlocks the potential of its Substitute + Dragon Dance set, which can win games on its own once Steel-types have been removed and it manages to get a Substitute up against a passive Pokémon. It also greatly appreciates the reliable Rapid Spin support from Tentacruel.

Starmie has access to Rapid Spin, but that is pretty far from its main focus on a team. Starmie is blessed with an excellent offensive movepool featuring moves such as Hydro Pump, Thunder, Ice Beam, and Grass Knot, allowing you to tailor it to your team's needs. It outspeeds the entire unboosted metagame except for Alakazam, making it a huge threat to hyper offense teams and even opposing rain teams when running the right coverage. Though Starmie possesses powerful moves, its Special Attack of base 100 leaves a bit to be desired, as neutral non-Water-type attacks lack the ability to power through bulkier Pokémon. That said, an Analytic- and rain-boosted Hydro Pump can do a lot of damage against a lot of Pokémon.

Other Common Pokémon

Latios is probably the fourth most common Pokémon on rain teams because of the unique offensive and defensive utility it provides. Offensively, not much can stand up to its Draco Meteor over the course of a game, and its high Speed makes it capable of revenge killing other Pokémon, especially when equipped with a Choice Scarf. It is also able to run Trick to ruin passive Pokémon on the other team. Arguably more important on a rain team is its defensive utility, as its solid bulk and resistances (along with its Speed) make it more capable than other teammates at dealing with Pokémon such as Keldeo, Breloom, Thundurus-T, Terrakion, and Garchomp.

Dragonite can run other sets on rain too! Though Substitute + Dragon Dance is a more direct beneficiary of rain teams, an offensive Dragon Dance set or even Choice Band can be run, which benefit from reliable entry hazard removal and provide defensive utility that is beneficial for rain teams. These sets can also sometimes employ Waterfall, which gains a rain boost.

Mamoswine is one of the most unique filler Pokémon on rain teams, as it fits some interesting offensive and defensive niches. Its STAB coverage is excellent with powerful moves such as Earthquake and Icicle Crash. Arguably the most important move in its moveset is Ice Shard, which allows it to pick off tons of common Pokémon in BW such as Latios, Dragonite, Garchomp, Thundurus-T, Tornadus, Landorus-T, and Breloom. It also has access to moves such as Superpower for coverage against Pokémon like Rotom-W and Ferrothorn. Offensive moves aside, it can run a bunch of items and support moves to tailor itself to its team's needs. Substitute is a popular move to ease prediction, protect itself from status, and force Rotom-W to hit repeated Hydro Pumps. Both Never-Melt Ice and Leftovers are viable on this set. It can also run Stealth Rock if you really can't fit it elsewhere, but generally you want it to go on the offensive. An interesting combo that some teams can use is Chople Berry + Icicle Spear, which improves Mamoswine's matchup against Alakazam and Substitute Thundurus-T by tanking Focus Blast and then using the multi hit to its advantage.

Landorus-T is an excellent option, as it can check some heavy-hitting physical attackers such as Excadrill and threaten important defensive Pokémon like Tyranitar and Gliscor. It also can carry Stealth Rock, meaning that you can opt to run another move on Ferrothorn or simply have a bit more reliability in keeping Stealth Rock up. It also takes a ton of pressure off the team by not allowing Volcarona a free switch and Quiver Dance like Ferrothorn does, allowing for some easier teambuilding elsewhere. That said, Landorus-T's biggest advantage is simply that it has really good synergy with other common rain Pokémon. For example, Latios can help handle Pokémon such as Keldeo, and Landorus-T in turn sets up Stealth Rock and can use U-turn to bring in the huge offensive threats on rain, such as Keldeo, Latios, and Thundurus-T.

Garchomp is a solid fit on rain teams as the sixth Pokémon. Many of these sixth-slot Pokémon are either Dragon- or Ground-types, so why not go with both? Pretty much any offensive set can work here from fully physical sets to mixed Life Orb sets, especially those with Stealth Rock that can take advantage of Garchomp's ability to scare off the metagame's two most common spinners in Tentacruel and Excadrill. Garchomp can also take advantage of rain-boosted moves such as Aqua Tail on Swords Dance sets and Surf on mixed sets to get some extra oomph and really put the hurt on some of its checks, such as Landorus-T, Skarmory, and Gliscor. Equipping a Yache Berry in conjunction with Dual Chop is also an interesting option to prevent Alakazam from coming in and KOing Garchomp with Hidden Power Ice, and it also makes Garchomp an excellent check to Thundurus-T, which is ironically one of the biggest threats to rain teams. As these Pokémon are so threatening against rain, this change can make a big difference.

Excadrill is an interesting Pokémon on rain, as it has a relatively unique fit on these teams. It takes little advantage of rain offensively and only defensively benefits from the weakened Fire-type attacks, but it can be hugely threatening offensively if running a Swords Dance set, as well as function as the team's spinner in place of Tentacruel while providing an Electric immunity and another threat to Tyranitar.

Kyurem is one of the funniest and most infuriating Pokémon to face on rain teams. Because rain removes sand from the field, Kyurem can use a Substitute set to wear down opposing Pokémon and PP stall them using Pressure. Most of the Pokémon that threaten Kyurem offensively, such as Keldeo, Latios, Garchomp, and others can be handled relatively well by other common rain Pokémon. In addition, rain comes with the metagame's most reliable spinner in Tentacruel, which makes it far easier for Kyurem to enter the field, set up a Substitute, and start raising hell.

Kyurem-B in some ways is similar to Kyurem in terms of support, but it plays more aggressively and has Fusion Bolt. Kyurem-B uses its bulk and threatening stats to set up a Substitute and can use coverage consisting of Ice Beam, Fusion Bolt, Earth Power, and Dragon Claw to be an extremely potent breaker against all kinds of teams. Teravolt makes Kyurem-B far more threatening, as Levitate users are less safe switching into Earth Power, especially Rotom-W, and it makes clicking Fusion Bolt more free because it doesn't fear Thundurus-T's Volt Absorb, and Thick Fat Mamoswine will take far more from Ice Beam.

Jirachi can take advantage of its wide movepool and its ability Serene Grace to become a terror on some rain builds. It can run a Substitute + Calm Mind set to set up on passive Pokémon and some Psychic- and Dragon-types that are all over BW OU. On these sets, Jirachi can employ moves such as Water Pulse, which provides useful coverage against Excadrill, Heatran, Gliscor, and Volcarona, and Thunder, which are both improved by rain on their own, have good coverage together, and have high-probability side effects that can help you luck your way through opponents. The problem with a Substitute + Calm Mind set, however, is that no matter what two moves you run, you will end up walled by something important, be it Excadrill, Gastrodon, or something else. If you want to lean into the luck angle, you can run Substitute + 3 Attacks, often with moves such as Thunder, Iron Head, Water Pulse, and Hidden Power Ice to generally wreak havoc and annoy your opponent to death.

Toxicroak honestly isn't really good on modern rain teams, but it deserves a mention due to the sheer amount of HP it recovers with Dry Skin. While this allows it to run sets like Substitute + Focus Punch or Swords Dance sets, its Speed and Attack are uninspiring, and thus Toxicroak is more of a matchup fish against opposing rain teams, where it can actually be rather effective thanks to its typing and Water immunity.

Final Thoughts

Though flawed, rain is a potent style of team that can be an absolute blast to play with. Thanks for reading and have a nice day.

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