SV OU Don't Rain on My Parade - Rain Team

mariner

mariner

Don't Rain on My Parade - a typical(?) Rain team

:sv/pelipper: :sv/barraskewda: :sv/zapdos: :sv/iron-treads: :sv/ogerpon-wellspring: :sv/kingdra:

Hi everyone, just got back into OU after a years-long hiatus. I mostly played weather teams in Gen 8, but really liked rain teams for both their relative simplicity in terms of learning and also because water is my favorite type. I figured I'd try to build one for Gen 9 OU and looked at teams other better players made, but I'm not that great of a battler, let alone teambuilder, and after playing about 10-20 matches, it's become evident that I may need modifications, which is why I've brought the team here. So without further ado, I'll get into it.

:sv/pelipper:
Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Roost

This one is obvious, he sets rain and slow pivots off. I took a pretty standard full Def EV spread for threats like Dragonite and Zamazenta, as I've seen a lot of those in my last few games. Samurott-Hisui has been a slight problem in that I just have to accept they'll get at least one layer of spikes up. I lead with Pelipper and U-turn out to break any Focus Sashes and then bring in a Swift Swim mon (usually Barraskewda) to hammer away. Tera Steel just because it's a good defensive typing especially in rain, but no particular reason otherwise.

:sv/barraskewda:
Barraskewda @ Mystic Water
Ability: Swift Swim
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Poison Jab
- Close Combat
- Flip Turn

We get to the second mon of the typical rain team core. Barraskewday is a great late game sweeper and also outspeeds most, if not all mons that I play against. I've even gotten OHKOs off of a single Flip Turn in rain, but usually the gameplan is to Liquidate while I know I can get KO’s and if there's an obvious threat, just Flip Turn out. I think the typical item choice would be Choice Band for the Atk, but in the last few games, I’ve found that a lot of players anticipate this and play around it and I can take advantage of this, hence the Mystic Water. This has worked great in games where I play against Ogerpon-Wellspring, where they assume I switch out and Swords Dance, only to eat a Poison Jab.

:sv/zapdos:
Zapdos @ Assault Vest
Ability: Static
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 40 SpD / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hurricane
- Thunder
- Weather Ball

Here's the third member of the rain team core to round things out, who also happens to be 1 of 2 Sp Attackers on the team. Almost every game, the opponent teras their defensive mon into water, usually Slowking-Galar, Garganacl, Ting-Lu or Landorus. Zapdos is meant to handle these mons and I've made it Tera Electric for some added power on the 100% accuracy Thunders on tankier mons. I've used AV for the added SpD bulk to act as a switch-in on Sp Attackers. I was debating between Zapdos and Raging Bolt but opted for Zap for a few reasons: it outspeeds Landorus, Gliscor, and Great Tusk and thus can Weather Ball them. I think this team relies on pressure and having better tempo so it's important to be able to outspeed and KO potential hazard setters. Additionally, it's immune to Ground, so no EQ threats. Finally, we can use Zap to spam Hurricane for annoying Grass or Tera mons (which I acc ran into more than I thought I would).

:sv/iron-treads:
Iron Treads @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Volt Switch
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock

I don't really have much to say for this one, other than the fact that he's my only hazard remover, and this team really doesn't like them, so I need to keep him alive. Ghost Tera to remove CC or Superpower threats like Iron Valiant, and Volt Switch for pivoting. I also included Stealth Rock for hazard setting of my own. If I'm really being honest, though, I'm not really sure how he fits in here and what use he has beyond hazard removal - I just added him because I felt he addressed missing areas in my team and I saw other teams using him as well.

:sv/ogerpon-wellspring:
Ogerpon-Wellspring (F) @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ivy Cudgel
- Horn Leech
- Play Rough
- Encore

Oooh boy, I don't even know where to start with this mon. I included her originally ONLY because I heard she was OP, but I quickly saw why. Ogerpon can switch in forever on Alomomola, which would usually counter the entire team and attack with a STAB Horn Leech. Cudgel provides insane power, especially in rain and with the increased crit ratio. Play Rough is there to cover Dragon mons. Encore for Kingambit or other set-up mons. I originally thought about Power Whip, as it's vastly more powerful and could probably do better against mons like Alomomola, but I thought the added sustain might be better since I only have one mon currently with recovery (Pelipper Roost) and the others are prone to being chipped down. Also, if it's not 100% accuracy, it's 50%.

:sv/kingdra:
Kingdra @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flip Turn
- Draco Meteor
- Weather Ball
- Hurricane

This last slot was really a bit of a toss-up for me, but I ended up going with Kingdra because it's one of my favorite mons. There are probably better choices out there, but I thought the team needed another Sp Attacker, and Kingdra does relatively well as a Swift Swim user and can hit Dragons as well. Life Orb-boosted Draco Meteor is nothing to scoff at.

To be honest, I really want to play a "gimmick" rain team or a rain team built around an unusual/niche, but with the potential to be really great (ex. I saw a Beartic Rain team earlier this week that was really cool and helped me with making this team myself, as well as a Bellibolt Rain team that peaked really high!). Including Kingdra was my sad attempt to do something along those lines, but unfortunately, I don't really have the expertise to do so, which is why I'm here today. Would really appreciate any guidance from all of you more seasoned players!
 
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Cool team! Happy to see another rain enjoyer.

I created the Beartic Rain team you mentioned so I think I have a good idea of some of the problems you may be running into.

So my team and your team have a few key differences.
  1. You have Iron Treads and Kingdra instead of Hatterene and Beartic
  2. You use Roost on Pelipper over Ice Beam
  3. You use Horn Leech instead of power whip
I’ll address the differences, how I think they may be giving you problems and what I might suggest to make it work a little better.
  1. I’m going to assume hazards are a problem even with treads removal. Once they go up you’re going to need to deal with getting the spin off in the first place, which can be difficult with Pecharunt, Balloon Gholdengo and all the other ghosts running around. Most likely, even if you get that first spin off, treads has taken damage and booster has already been used up, so if hazards go up again, bad news for the squad. This is why I go Hatterene as my method of hazard prevention for this team. If you’re spending turns worrying about getting hazards removed, you’re not spending turns attacking, which is what I’ve found you really want to be doing with a team like this. Additionally the eject button on Hat helps you get in one of your four attackers right away and allows Hat to get multiple opportunities to switch and and block a potential hazard. Hat is pretty standard on weather teams this gen for the reasons I stated above, so my recommend would be to replace treads with Hat. There are reasons to keep treads though, mainly being how well it deals with Raging Bolt. Personally, I think if you sub in Hat for treads though, Kingdra should do a good enough job of dealing with Bolt after you switch it in off a Hat eject pack. Speaking of which, if you’re going to switch to Hat, I still think Kingdra is all good, however I’d do one small change, and that’s the removal of flip turn to add on substitute. This will help you deal with Thunderclaps and Sucker Punches.
  2. Roost over Ice Beam is totally fine, however with the pace of this team I personally don’t think you need roost. I found I was never clicking it when I was molding my team together which is why I switched it out for something else. I chose ice beam because Dragonite was becoming a problem and ice beam either killed after breaking multiscale or forced a Tera from Dnite. This is along the similar lines from above, this team really wants to attack, attack, attack. So roost for longevity may not be want you want to do because what you want is unrelenting pressure on your opponent. Don’t give them any off turns or it’ll bite you.
  3. Horn leech over Power Whip I think is okay. Totally understand wanting accuracy, PW can be frustrating. In line with above, I generally lean towards the pressure being exerted by the team instead of giving them any time off, but 100% hit rate might be more pressure than giving them a turn off 20% of the time. Totally up to you.


Hope what I said helps some. Enjoy getting back into Gen 9!
 
Protalithic said:
Cool team! Happy to see another rain enjoyer.

I created the Beartic Rain team you mentioned so I think I have a good idea of some of the problems you may be running into.

So my team and your team have a few key differences.
  1. You have Iron Treads and Kingdra instead of Hatterene and Beartic
  2. You use Roost on Pelipper over Ice Beam
  3. You use Horn Leech instead of power whip
I’ll address the differences, how I think they may be giving you problems and what I might suggest to make it work a little better.
  1. I’m going to assume hazards are a problem even with treads removal. Once they go up you’re going to need to deal with getting the spin off in the first place, which can be difficult with Pecharunt, Balloon Gholdengo and all the other ghosts running around. Most likely, even if you get that first spin off, treads has taken damage and booster has already been used up, so if hazards go up again, bad news for the squad. This is why I go Hatterene as my method of hazard prevention for this team. If you’re spending turns worrying about getting hazards removed, you’re not spending turns attacking, which is what I’ve found you really want to be doing with a team like this. Additionally the eject button on Hat helps you get in one of your four attackers right away and allows Hat to get multiple opportunities to switch and and block a potential hazard. Hat is pretty standard on weather teams this gen for the reasons I stated above, so my recommend would be to replace treads with Hat. There are reasons to keep treads though, mainly being how well it deals with Raging Bolt. Personally, I think if you sub in Hat for treads though, Kingdra should do a good enough job of dealing with Bolt after you switch it in off a Hat eject pack. Speaking of which, if you’re going to switch to Hat, I still think Kingdra is all good, however I’d do one small change, and that’s the removal of flip turn to add on substitute. This will help you deal with Thunderclaps and Sucker Punches.
  2. Roost over Ice Beam is totally fine, however with the pace of this team I personally don’t think you need roost. I found I was never clicking it when I was molding my team together which is why I switched it out for something else. I chose ice beam because Dragonite was becoming a problem and ice beam either killed after breaking multiscale or forced a Tera from Dnite. This is along the similar lines from above, this team really wants to attack, attack, attack. So roost for longevity may not be want you want to do because what you want is unrelenting pressure on your opponent. Don’t give them any off turns or it’ll bite you.
  3. Horn leech over Power Whip I think is okay. Totally understand wanting accuracy, PW can be frustrating. In line with above, I generally lean towards the pressure being exerted by the team instead of giving them any time off, but 100% hit rate might be more pressure than giving them a turn off 20% of the time. Totally up to you.


Hope what I said helps some. Enjoy getting back into Gen 9!
Click to expand...
Thank you so much! Yeah, I thought the Beartic team was awesome and it really helped me with getting a general idea of what I wanted in this team. I'm going to make the changes in the comp you suggested and see how well Hatterene and the move swaps work out.
 
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