A Stormy Forecast: The Rise and Fall of Rain in SV DOU

Rain heavily struggled during the early ages of Scarlet and Violet, competing against the dominant sun teams and the threatening snow teams that littered the Doubles scene at the time. That, however, didn't deter some players from finding success with it. During the finals of the first Doubles World Cup of Pokemon in Generation 9, Team Europe brought almost exclusively rain teams into each matchup and won almost every single set with them, using powerful Wave Crash from Palafin, Liquidation from Barraskewda, and support from Pokemon like Tsareena and Pelipper. The latter was the only rain-setting Pokemon via ability at the time, making it an invaluable piece for each rain team. Rain teams also often ran Chien-Pao, which boosted the power of Palafin even further and making it virtually impossible to switch in on. Kingambit was also commonly run as an alternative Steel-type to Gholdengo, being harder to KO, considering the only way to remove it normally outside of Iron Hands is with Fire-type Pokemon.

One of the aforementioned matches from the first Scarlet and Violet DWCoP can be found below:

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All good things must come to an end, however, as toward the end of the pre-Home era, Palafin began to fall out of favor, and Pelipper followed suit. There were many conflicting reasons for this such as metagame developments including the introduction of Walking Wake. With its Water / Dragon typing, it was easily able to resist the onslaught of rain teams while also being a popular choice on sun teams due to Protosynthesis. Iron Hands also was a struggle for rain, KOing lots of the popular choices with Wild Charge and hindering their momentum with Fake Out. Iron Hands was able to be easily overwhelmed, however, especially against rain teams that packed Amoonguss. This marked the end of rain, for now.

After the new wave of Pokemon were released into Doubles, rain went through a resurgence. Threats like Urshifu-R and Basculegion-M were able to easily take advantage of rain and blast through any foes in their way with powerful Surging Strikes and Wave Crash, respectively. Basculegion-M was notably strong on these teams, using Swift Swim boosts to launch powerful Last Respects late-game. Unfortunately, both Urshifu-R and Basculegion-M proved to be too strong and were banned to Doubles Ubers. Urshifu-R was banned swiftly, preventing it from having a huge impact on rain teams. Basculegion-M, however, stayed for longer. It too was banned due to the combination of Last Respects and Swift Swim in the late-game, easily OHKOing a lot of Pokemon that didn't resist it when at higher Base Powers. After these bans, some old faces were left behind, notably Palafin. Basculegion-F was also still legal, using its rather low physical Attack over its higher Special Attack to still hit hard with Last Respects.

These new advancements, alongside minor beneficiaries such as Landorus, set up Post-Home rain for success as seen in the OSDT replay linked below:

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Rain stayed as a mediocre pick throughout most of this era, breaking down teams with the help of Palafin and new offensive pieces like Landorus. But, as players learned how to position around and play around Palafin and thus rain as a whole, the archetype became far less popular. By the end of this era of Generation 9, rain was teetering on the line of viability.

Coming into the first DLC of Scarlet and Violet, rain was already on a downwards trend; unfortunately, it didn't stop there. New faces like Ursaluna came by, sure, but this wasn't the true issue for rain. The true issue was of the top Pokemon in Doubles OU at the time and still is currently; Ogerpon-W. Now, as a Grass-type, one may be led to believe that Pelipper can easily clean up Ogerpon-W. Well, thanks to Tera and Ogerpon-W's post-Tera ability, it gains a boost to its Special Defense whilst dropping its Grass typing for Tera Water. On top of this, in its non-Terastallized state, Ogerpon-W has Water Absorb, making it a very good switch-in to powerful Wave Crash and Flip Turn from Palafin and Basculegion-F. Ogerpon-W could also threaten most rain Pokemon with strong Grass-type attacks and completely invalidate Water-type attacks by using Follow Me to force them into Water Absorb. While rain teams did become far more optimized thanks to innovations in SCL, it wasn't enough to keep up.

The replay below showcases how much rain struggled during this phase, even when Ogerpon-W isn't present:

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This was the lowest point for rain teams thus far, hardly making any dents on the ladder and in tournaments. Rain was viewed as nothing more than a joke; an archetype for someone to have fun and nothing more. But, as they say, good things come to those who wait.

The second DLC for the 9th Generation introduced many now-staples into the Doubles OU format. Raging Bolt, Gouging Fire, and Iron Crown were all newly introduced, just to name a few. Among them, one bridge was able to stand above the rest. Archaludon was the saving grace for rain teams; it had everything they wanted. Electro Shot was the clear highlight, acting like an Electric-type Meteor Beam with 100% accuracy as well as activating in one turn when rain is set up. Essentially, Archaludon possessed a Solar Beam for rain that also granted it a boost to its Special Attack stat, letting it snowball very easily. That's not all, however, as Archaludon also had the ability Stamina, boosting its Defense stat to allow for moves like Body Press to deal huge damage, notably hitting Pokemon immune to Electro Shot like Ursaluna and Ting-Lu. Players used this immediately, with top competitors such as bagel using teams that turned Archaludon into a demon, using a combination of Stamina, Leftovers, and Grassy Terrain to ensure Archaludon stayed on the field for a long time, where it could spam Electro Shot for free. This wasn't the most optimized Archaludon build, however, as one strong enough special attack could send Archaludon to the grave due to its naturally low Special Defense stat. It was not until later, notably during SCL which optimized rain, that these builds were paired with Assault Vest, which made it even more unkillable.

Archaludon's partners practically invented the terrors we now know today. During the optimization of Archaludon rain teams, Sinistcha was thrown into the mix next to Assault Vest Archaludon. Sinistcha was able to switch in and heal up Archaludon thanks to Hospitality while also healing it with Life Dew and protecting it with Rage Powder, most importantly redirecting Fighting-type attacks like Drain Punch and Close Combat from Iron Hands. Of course, Archaludon wouldn't be where it is without Pelipper, which also conveniently hits Grass- and Ground-types, two typings that can easily take Electro Shot. Archaludon was further backed up by powerful attackers like Landorus, Iron Hands, and Ogerpon-W, forming one of the most infamous rain teams to date in Doubles.

Rain teams got some indirect buffs coming into this as well; the fall off of sun. With Flutter Mane recently being banned, sun lost a lot of the appeal it had once held. Losing such an important part of its archetype really let rain stride in and take over the format, which is perfectly showcased below in this replay from the Doubles Invitational:

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Even before the optimization of Archaludon, the playerbase, evidently enraged by it, started a suspect test to ban it to Ubers. Somehow, it had avoided the ban, by an overwhelming majority at that. People, top players, and lower-level players alike had decided that Archaludon really isn't that hard to get around, considering its need to Terastallize, low Special Defense, weakness to Landorus, and no real recovery options outside of a fringe Leftovers set. But this was a huge mistake.

Archaludon continued to reign over Doubles OU for the next nine or so months until it was finally banned, striking terror and virtually removing teams that weren't prepared while the bridge still stood. During that time, Archaludon teams sporting Sinistcha littered the Doubles OU scene, forming an immovable wall that needed to go.

All of the dust has finally settled, so how is rain doing now? To put it bluntly, rain teams aren't popular in the tournament scene anymore; it's just a gimmick now. Unless Archaludon, Basculegion-M, or Urshifu-R are unbanned, rain teams are unlikely to see any major success through the rest of Generation 9.

This isn't to say that rain teams don't exist, however. Although a gimmick, rain teams consisting of niche Swift Swim users like Kingdra and the unbanned Basculegion-F remain. These teams end up being very similar to those from the DLC 1 era of DOU, falling flat against Ogerpon-W when without the support of Archaludon. Additionally, without Archaludon, rain falls back into the slump of being the suboptimal weather, with sun and snow having far better abusers, namely Pokemon like Chi-Yu and Kyurem, respectively. Rain still has its place, even if it isn't good, as seen in this DWCoP replay below:

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Although they certainly exist, rain teams are currently shells of their former selves, nowhere near as viable as they used to be, and it seems that it will stay that way for the remainder of the reign of Paldea.