Rain Team

Covlish

Okay, I've been playing with this team for a bit now and it's been very succesful. However, there are a couple pokemon that i feel could be replaced with better things. See below for more detail:


Electrode @ Damp Rock
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 Atk/208 Spd/48 SAtk
Hasty nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Rain Dance
- Explosion
- Taunt
- Thunder

No problems here. Electrode can always get off RD, and usually take out something before it goes down too. the only thing i'm wondering is if I should invest more SpA EVs since Electrode has a decent stat there. It could turn some 3HKOs into 2HKOs.

Kingdra (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Outrage
- Draco Meteor

Kingdra is awesome in rain, but I'm not that impressed with Draco Meteor. It is good for taking dragons without getting stuck on Outrage, but that's about it. Depending on how I replace some other pokemon, I might want to put Rain Dance in the last slot.

Rotom-w @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Thunder
- Rain Dance
- Shadow Ball

Rotom-w is good, but I'm thinking the new event Raikou with Weather Ball and Aura Sphere will be better. Thunder does good damage to most, and Hydro Pump gets Grounds and givers him a chance against Ttar.

Omastar (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Electric]

Absolute monster. Takes out an average of three pokemon per game so far. It's crazy how many OHKO's he can get in rain. The only pokemon that can take him down (at least from my experience) are Blissey, Suicune, Vaporeon, Celebi, and some scarfers. Omastar is definitely the best pokemon on the team.

Ludicolo (M) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 232 HP/60 Spd/216 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Surf
- Rain Dance

This is one of the pokemon I'm most concerned with. Because Electrode is my lead, I want a designated bulky RDancer, and Ludicolo fulfill this role somewhat well. He can usually get up Rain Dance late in the game without much trouble. However, he often dies fairly quickly, and doesn't pack much of a punch. I just feel like there's something better out there. I was thinking of maybe using Zapdos or Bronzong, but I just don't know.

Gyarados (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 64 HP/252 Atk/192 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Payback
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake

Meh. I originally had CB Swampert as a second physical hard-hitter (Mostly for Blissey and late-game), but I didn't like the idea of having two pokemon with x4 Grass weaknesses. So I switched him with this, but it's failed to impress me so far. Too many faster pokemon with TBolt running around. I really want this position to be able to take advantage of the rain, but it's not a necessity.

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All in all, I've been very impressed with this team's performance, but I think it could be improved. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.
 
Have you considered Kabutops? I know that SD Kabutops is an absolute beast in rain. Apart from that, I don't have much experience with Rain teams myself to say, really. :0 I do know Kingdra fairly well, and I would say that outside of DM or Rain Dance, Substitute would be your best bet in that last slot for blocking burns and paralysis.
 
Well, I don't know what to say about Omastar except that the only pokemon that can take him down (at least from my experience) are Blissey, Suicune, Vaporeon, Celebi, and some scarfers. Omastar is definitely the best pokemon on the team.

As for Raikou, you may have heard of the event at the new movie being released in Japan. One of the featured pokemon for download is a Raikou with Zap Cannon, Aura Sphere, ExtremeSpeed, and Weather Ball. I think a Life Orb set with Thunder, Weather Ball, Aura Sphere and Shadow Ball would be pretty good. The only problem is that he would go in place of Rotom-w (my third RDancer), so I would have to give someone else Rain Dance.

Oh and if you did mean rotom, Thunder does good damage to most, and Hydro Pump gets Grounds and givers him a chance against Ttar.

And yeah, Kabutops is good, but he's quite frail and he has a x4 Grass weakness. Also, with Omastar and Kingdra on the same team, I feel like he's a little redundant, but that may be irrational.
 
yeah, that's true... not sure there'd be much need of him with Kingdra there, hmm.

Well, definitely consider running Sub on Kingdra, and I don't really have any other helpful information I can offer. Dx Good luck with that.
 
This is a fairly decent rain dance team, and i lack the time to do a full indepth rmt, however by quickly reading your team member descriptions, i find something that may help you. You say you are kind of iffy on Ludicolo and would like something that can pack a punch/survive some hits. I suggest Bronzong:

Bronzong @ damp rock
Impish, 252HP/128att/128def
-rain dance
-explosion
-stealth rock
-reflect/light screen/hypnosis

This Bronzong patches up some holes in your team, such as lack of SR, and can explode after it sets up whatever the situation calles for providing that "punch". The last move is your preference and whatever you think will help your team more. It is also quite bulky, and one of the best transition pokemon, meaning you can switch it in as soon as rain runs out, the rain also nullifies its only weakness if you use the ability levitate. The explosion can also 1hitk0 snorlax before a curse, which helps. Good Luck!
 
Covlish said:
And yeah, Kabutops is good, but he's quite frail and he has a x4 Grass weakness. Also, with Omastar and Kingdra on the same team, I feel like he's a little redundant, but that may be irrational.
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Kabutops is needed for this team. You can either try SD Kabutops or instead of SD use X-Scissor for Celebi. The 4x weakness to grass and the fact that Kabutops is frail isn't important when he is out speeding everything and OHKOing all of them.


Kingdra doesn't want Draco Meteor give him Rain Dance.


Bronzong lead like suggested above is possible but Azelf lead is harder to get taunted and can taunt.


Azelf @ Damp Rock
Jolly
HP 252/Attack 4/Speed 252
Taunt
U-Turn
Explosion
Rain Dance


Ludicolo go with the Swift Swim Sweeper set. Ludicolo is a lot better sweeping with the rain than stalling.


As for Gyarados he just hurts your weakness to Electric. Plus he doesn't really work in Rain Dance as well as people want him to.


Go with either Parafusion Lanturn (gives bulk) or an Electivire (adds a sweeper with a speed boost when you predict and electric attack) to help and give you an electric immunity.



Things to scratch: Electrode, Rotom, Gyarados

Things to add: Kabutops, Lanturn or Electivire, Azelf or Bronzong
 
Well in my experience Quilfish works nicely in OU and argubly better than Kabutops due to its Poison Typing. Kabutops give you nice priority can ca nsmash through teams but it needs to run SD to do greater damage to some walls. If it runs SD however, it runs into trouble with Celebi who is a large problem for your team. Quilfish helps this problem by also utalising SD but having a STAB Poison Jab at its disposial means that it handles Celebi much better than Kabutops. It also resists Mach and Bullet Punch which are nice resistances to have. Absorbing Toxic Spikes ,a common issue on many rain teams is a nice bonus.

Therefore I think that Quilfish should be run over Gyarados.

I like the Azelf lead suggestion so I would use that over Electrode.

I actually think that Rotom is O.K on this team and gets STAB on its Thunders while being a good rain supporter.

I would take out something like Omastar since a rain supporter works better over it and your team is pretty special focused anyway. Bronzong or Lanturn make good Rain Supporters. Having a rain supporter over Omastar frees up your Ludicolo to run a special sweeping set which gives it excellant coverage with its 2 STAB's, along with Ice Beam.

Have a Nice Day!
 
ginganinja said:
Well in my experience Quilfish works nicely in OU and argubly better than Kabutops due to its Grass Typing. Kabutops give you nice priority can ca nsmash through teams but it needs to run SD to do greater damage to some walls. If it runs SD however, it runs into trouble with Celebi who is a large problem for your team. Quilfish helps this problem by also utalising SD but having a STAB Poison Jab at its disposial means that it handles Celebi much better than Kabutops. It also resists Mach and Bullet Punch which are nice resistances to have. Absorbing Toxic Spikes ,a common issue on many rain teams is a nice bonus.
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*sigh* sooooo many things wrong with this post.

1) Qwilfish is POISON-type, not Grass-type. Dx
2) Kabutops doesn't need priority in the rain 'cause it's already faster than everything, and
3) Poison Jab is neutral on Celebi. X-Scissor is 4x supereffective. Even an unboosted X-Scissor is gonna hit Celebi harder than a +2 Poison Jab, I'm pretty sure. x___x

....actually I think the rest of the stuff is pretty good. They're right, Azelf is a good lead and his Explosion hurts more than Electrode's does, and he can still Taunt while Bronzong can't.

Red Rum makes some good points about Kabutops (maybe I was right after all...?! :D ) being faster than everything in the rain, and X-Scissor for beating Celebi seems like a good idea.... maybe you have Band Kabutops over Band Gyarados, that seems like a much better idea.

Rain Dance is fine on Kingdra, but I still like Sub better to block status.
 
For my rain dance team, I've always wondered about the best way to set up Kabutops for a SD. The safest way I came up with was using memento with dusknoir.. because U-turn or explosion would result in Kabutops taking a hard hit.. I know there is uxie and azelf, but I caught them a long time ago with the wrong natures. I am aware of the option of baton pass, but I don't like it. So basically I want to know the least damaging if not undamaged strategy I could use to safely set up an SD for Kabutops so he can sweep. What are your strategies?
 
Yeah im an idiot, i meant Poison, just was in a rush before my lecture.
And im pretty sure Poison is supereffective against Celebi, its definatly not neutral damage lol.
Yes Kabutops does hit harder than Quilfish but Quilfish is slightly faster and has explosion. Like I stated earlier it also socks up Toxic SPikes and is not weak to Scizors Bullet Punch.

Aqua jet on Kabutops is very useful in OU as it allows you to beat pokemon who outspeed you (mostly scarfers) and opponients who have priority. Its ultimatly Covlish's decision, but I just wanted to note that Quilfish is very useful on an OU rain team.

Also a boosted Poison Jab does do more than an unboosted X Scizor... but not by much lol
 
OK, thanks all. I think I'll go zong instead of Ludicolo. Again, I feel like Kabutops and Kingdra are doing the same thing, but I guess that's alright. I'm stiil torn on whether I should run CB or SD Kabu.

Also for Bronzong, is it a good idea to run Gball in the last slot? And should I put in SpD investment to survive a Fire Blast from Heatran? And Stealth Rock seems a little useless so late in the game...
 
Umm... Ludicolo/Bronzong... err... *confused* >.< Maybe you should make some changes in the OP to reflect any advice you've decided to take, because I don't really know what you've got now to work with for Ludicolo or Bronzong. x___x I'd need to check synergy to say whether that's a bad idea or not.... although I don't really see why it would be, because you've got everyone else you can switch in to take Heatran's Fire Blasts and stuff....

@ gn: Don't sweat it, you forget things when you rush, I can appreciate that. -.- sorry I drilled you for that. Also, it's worth mentioning that nothing is going to be outspeeding Rain-boosted SS Kabutops without a serious boost of some sort, so Aqua Jet is pretty redundant. Aqua Jet is really best used on SD sets that don't rely on Rain, and in this case, you can probably afford to skip it.

If I were you, I'd go Band Kabu and DD Kingdra, that way they don't overlap too much in terms of roles. Although really, there's no reason why you can't have 2 setup sweepers. :0
 
@ Banryu: It all cool man and you were absolutly right to drill me over it \, don't worry about it!

Well i don't like Kabutops with a CB for the same reason a Specs Heatran on a Sunny Day teams is bad (Though the sight of a Flash FIre Boosted Specs Boosted Overheat in the Sun is just too cool). The main reason is that say you stone edge a Salamece. Your opponient then switch's in a rock resist and and you are forced to switch out losig a rain turn and, more importantly, you give your opponient momentum back since they can not hit your incoming rain sweeper hard. Its a nice idea in theroy but you end out losing rain turns plus your opponient can then predict around Kabutops much more easily if it runs Band.
In regards to the whole (but both Kingdra and Kabutops set up, is that bad), no its not bad authough if it bothers you so much then just run mixKingdra instead.
 
ginganinja;2630843Well i don't like Kabutops [B said:
with a CB[/B] for the same reason a Specs Heatran on a Sunny Day teams is bad (Though the sight of a Flash FIre Boosted Specs Boosted Overheat in the Sun is just too cool). The main reason is that say you stone edge a Salamece. Your opponient then switch's in a rock resist and and you are forced to switch out losig a rain turn and, more importantly, you give your opponient momentum back since they can not hit your incoming rain sweeper hard. Its a nice idea in theroy but you end out losing rain turns plus your opponient can then predict around Kabutops much more easily if it runs Band.
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Err, it's not quite the same thing as Specs Heatran becaust Kabutops' speed is boosted, but I see your point. :0 He's right, running SD or even just Life Orb / Expert Belt with 4 attacks or something is probably a better idea than having a Bander.

What I might suggest is maybe having a Scarfer or someone who can function outside of the rain... it's something that tends to work with TR teams, but this is sort of a different scenario in terms of field effects... nah, but I wouldn't worry about it.

So you prolly wanna forgo Band Kabutops and just have it be a sweeper of some sort, SD or otherwise.
 
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