Hellooooooooo Smogon! After finally growing a bit tired of making 4th Gen teams, I decided to try out something that appealed to me in 5th. Due to sandstorm and Excadrill being everywhere I decided to try a weather team primarily just to stop the weather due to the Cloud Nine users being waaaaaaay too weak. Rain appealed to me since I never used it in 4th, and I personally have great memories of me and Sapphire having some awesome times in the rain. Anyways, the main reason of this team is because I had already posted on ages ago here: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103173
Thanks to this team's success, I was able to peak this team (and still currently am) #1 on my own home server - GTS. This isn't the best accomplishment for me, but hey, #1 is okay in my book, even if its not Smogon.
However, due to the little responses, I decided to tweak it a bit and post it again. Please note that since Drizzle + Swift Swim is banned, I can't use it. Regardless, here is my team: Revamp and Surprise
Revamp and Surprise
Alright, so I wanted something underrated to be on my team. After being tired of seeing Landorus and Thundurus EVERYWHERE I decided to check out the 3rd genie: Tornadus. Luckily, I love his design, and he has the best niche ever in rain teams - access to the most powerful STAB Hurricane in the game. He isn't my most powerful sweeper, but he's done the most sweeping out of my entire team. As an added bonus, nobody really has seen him before so they assume he's like the other genies. Boy, I love it when they're wrong.
Well, I forgot about rain. Obligatory rain is obligatory. I understand that is does suck mega donkey balls that you have to give up a team spot to Politoed, but I've actually enjoyed this former NU player. I don't know how, but he's always been a 2-3HKO many unboosted attacks and served as a great scout for me.
Rain fears 3 things - opposing powerful water attacks (CB Azumaril anyone?), powerful electric attacks (not to mention random noobs running Thunder), and Ferrothorn who's only weakness major weakness (in rain teams) - fire is nerfed so bad, you have to tank your way through him. Luckily, I was able to pull a 2nd underrated Poke with me - Toxicroak. He does double duty acts as a water abosorber AND sets up on that gay Ferrothorn.
So now I need an electric absorber. I originally wanted to try LightiningRod Zapdos, but my server kicked me once, which resulted in an embarrasing lose, since he wasn't legal yet. Luckily, a perfect replacement came into play - Scarf Chomp. I joined competitive Pokes 2 weeks before mence's ban, and well, now I know why this guy was banned.
I still didn't have a true rain abuser. However, I finally found one that could fill Zapdos' shoes easily. Rotom does Zapdos' job pretty well, cept for the grass weakenss, but he still walls Scizor and friends, while firing off STAB Hydro Pump and Thunder. I originally hated this guy since you had to hack to use him, and because of his gay spinblocking, but I feel his type change has been a blessing to me and rain teams.
Now I forgot what EVERY rain team needs. A steel wall. Ferrothorn comes in. Its true he's gay as hell, but he's #1 in usage for a reason. Now with him, I can take any with easily, set up them rocks, and leech seed to help any of my guys. I originally wanted to try Dry Skin Parasect (he gets Spore ^.^) but didn't want to change chomp to a defensive chomp.
More in Depth
Changes in GREEN
Politoed (Instantly OU)
Drizzle
Calm
Leftovers
252 HP / 88 SpA / 168 SpD
- Surf
- Hypnosis
- Toxic
- Perish Song
MY ONLY DW POKE and my lead, though he doesn't always do that. I am gutsy however. Whenever I see a Ttar, I'll always lead with this guy. Why? Most TTars I see run speed to outspeed something, so there's free rain for me. 2nd, I don't want to lead with Ferrothorn due to a good majority of them running Fire Blast. 3rd, I need my rain. Its crucial to my team. I still lose to Hippo, but always win to mixtar and Ninetails. Lead mechanics have changed quite a bit, but here's how he does against leads. I generally try to sleep something, but never toxic much. If Politoed is healthy late game, I'll surf for damage, and Perish Song anything I find dangerous. Perish Song is also a great move in cause a bulky Poke is around as a great finisher.
Ferrothorn (Skarmory)
Iron Barbs
Leftovers
Sassy
252 HP / 160 Def / 96 SpD
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
-Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
I hate this guy... Well... let's say I did. I love Skarm a lot more, but this guy functions much better due to his superior SpD and access to annoying the fuck out of any Poke. Leech Seed allows me to beat any set up dragons (Gyro Ball lets me take off 38% or so with Leech Seed). However, at that time, Ferrothorn has about 30% or so left, but that's plenty for him to continue to wall, something Skarm can't do. I accidently EV'd him to be a 3-4HKO on Magnezone (depends on the variant) and Leech Seed + Power Whip cripple the steel trapper to about 40% which lets me own him with any other switch-in.
Toxicroak (Unremembered)
Dry Skin
Black Sludge
Adamant
244 HP / 252 Att / 12 Def
- Substitute
-Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
Probably the most underrated threat I've ever seen. I chose him since I've never used him before, and because of his amazing ability - SETTING UP ON FERROTHORN. That's right, you heard me, he SETS UP ON FERROTHORN. Not only that, but against a Conkeldurr, 1v1, I win (if they don't carry Stone Edge) because I still resist the fighting/dark combo as well. Guts Flame Orb variants still beat me, but I can set up on every other variant and come out on top. Thanks to his unknown and surprise factor, I can easily get to +4 if my opponent thinks they can break my sub (as an added bonus, I resist both STABs). This guy serves as an amazing scout due to Gen 5's fast paced metagame. Since I'm slower 90% of the time, I can sub to scout what they do. Also, at +1, I OHKO Latios with Sucker Punch, beat chomp (with a sub) with a combination of Drain Punch + Sucker Punch, and deal a minimum of 50% to Jellicent and Renuculus with Sucker Punch. If that's only +1, just imagine what +4 does! I still am walled by Gyara, but hey, that's what Rotom is for.
Rotom-W (Love It)
Levitate
Choice Specs
Modest
188HP / 28 Def / 252 SpA / 28 SpD / 8 Spe
- Thunder
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split
-Trick
Well, I was looking at Rotom-W's analysis, and it read 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 Spe. Since I was a Rotom hater, I immediately figured out that the spread did not include the magic lefties number. Since Rotom attracts Bliss and Ferrothorn, I decided to use a magic Lefties number if I got lucky. I wasn't sure about the defenses, so I just split them evenly and put 8 Spe to outspeed standard tank Rotoms. Anyway, this thing is a monster under rain. Dual STABs, under the rain are nothing to shrug off. Both moves provide unresisted coverage with the exception of Ferrothorn. Everything else gets extremely dented, or dies from this thing. Generally, I try to keep my specs as long as possible until, I know that a tank is coming in. This is my 2nd solution to Ferrothorn, but Toxicroak hasn't failed me yet.
Garchomp (Incoming)
Sand Veil
Choice Scarf
Jolly
8 HP / 252 Att / 248 Spe
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Stone Edge
Well, well, well. The new standard of chomp has come to town. He was originally banned for his broken YacheSD combo, but now I think this is his new standard. With a choice scarf, he outspeeds and kill all the new poweful threats - Volcorona, Terrakion, the genies, etc. The only thing he's stopped by is a Ferrothorn and that weird Cobaloin, but I've never seen him since Terrakion thrashes him. Pretty straightforward, Chomp is a 2 move man. I'm thinking of Brick Break over Stone Edge to fuck over balloon tran switch-ins when they expect EQ, but that's another story. Toxic is there early game. I don't run max speed because chomp's max speed is 333, so its rounded down. Dragon Claw is another reliable STAB there for me early game for me to kill those damn Thundurus running around without having to resort to Outrage. Stone Edge hits Thundurus, since I was wrong about it OHKOing and its my way of dealing with other flying guys without locking myself.
Tornadus (Vanquisher)
Prankster
Life Orb
Timid
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- Grass Knot
- Taunt
Probably my new favorite sweeper ever. STAB Hurricane is unresisted by many Pokes, and is guarrantees massive damage. Like Toxicroak, this guy offers many surprise kills since nobody's seen him before. He's so unknown, that I've gotten maybe 4-5 kills with him and the other guy confused. I was originally going to run a Modest Specs Tornadus (which 2HKOs the entire metagame save Bliss), but then Jolly Chomp, dual set-up Terrakion, and overused Blue Thundy outspeed me. I run Grass Knot for pert, the only guy who lives a Hurricane at max (does about 88-92%). Focus Blast is for Ferrothorn. However, if Ferrothorn is at a low enough HP, he's easily 2HKOd.
Threats
NP Thunderous - I need scarf chomp to take this guy out. He sets up easily on my team and is usually guarranteed a kill.
Scrafy - The only hope I have is to beat this thing is Croak, who resists his dual STABs and Bulk Up/Dragon Dance/stat boost with him. Since I have SE moves, and he doesn't I can potentially win with a +6 croak.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed my first Gen 5 team. Its been a great success to me. Here's one last look:
Thanks to this team's success, I was able to peak this team (and still currently am) #1 on my own home server - GTS. This isn't the best accomplishment for me, but hey, #1 is okay in my book, even if its not Smogon.
However, due to the little responses, I decided to tweak it a bit and post it again. Please note that since Drizzle + Swift Swim is banned, I can't use it. Regardless, here is my team: Revamp and Surprise
Revamp and Surprise
Alright, so I wanted something underrated to be on my team. After being tired of seeing Landorus and Thundurus EVERYWHERE I decided to check out the 3rd genie: Tornadus. Luckily, I love his design, and he has the best niche ever in rain teams - access to the most powerful STAB Hurricane in the game. He isn't my most powerful sweeper, but he's done the most sweeping out of my entire team. As an added bonus, nobody really has seen him before so they assume he's like the other genies. Boy, I love it when they're wrong.
Well, I forgot about rain. Obligatory rain is obligatory. I understand that is does suck mega donkey balls that you have to give up a team spot to Politoed, but I've actually enjoyed this former NU player. I don't know how, but he's always been a 2-3HKO many unboosted attacks and served as a great scout for me.
Rain fears 3 things - opposing powerful water attacks (CB Azumaril anyone?), powerful electric attacks (not to mention random noobs running Thunder), and Ferrothorn who's only weakness major weakness (in rain teams) - fire is nerfed so bad, you have to tank your way through him. Luckily, I was able to pull a 2nd underrated Poke with me - Toxicroak. He does double duty acts as a water abosorber AND sets up on that gay Ferrothorn.
So now I need an electric absorber. I originally wanted to try LightiningRod Zapdos, but my server kicked me once, which resulted in an embarrasing lose, since he wasn't legal yet. Luckily, a perfect replacement came into play - Scarf Chomp. I joined competitive Pokes 2 weeks before mence's ban, and well, now I know why this guy was banned.
I still didn't have a true rain abuser. However, I finally found one that could fill Zapdos' shoes easily. Rotom does Zapdos' job pretty well, cept for the grass weakenss, but he still walls Scizor and friends, while firing off STAB Hydro Pump and Thunder. I originally hated this guy since you had to hack to use him, and because of his gay spinblocking, but I feel his type change has been a blessing to me and rain teams.
Now I forgot what EVERY rain team needs. A steel wall. Ferrothorn comes in. Its true he's gay as hell, but he's #1 in usage for a reason. Now with him, I can take any with easily, set up them rocks, and leech seed to help any of my guys. I originally wanted to try Dry Skin Parasect (he gets Spore ^.^) but didn't want to change chomp to a defensive chomp.
More in Depth
Changes in GREEN
Politoed (Instantly OU)
Drizzle
Calm
Leftovers
252 HP / 88 SpA / 168 SpD
- Surf
- Hypnosis
- Toxic
- Perish Song
MY ONLY DW POKE and my lead, though he doesn't always do that. I am gutsy however. Whenever I see a Ttar, I'll always lead with this guy. Why? Most TTars I see run speed to outspeed something, so there's free rain for me. 2nd, I don't want to lead with Ferrothorn due to a good majority of them running Fire Blast. 3rd, I need my rain. Its crucial to my team. I still lose to Hippo, but always win to mixtar and Ninetails. Lead mechanics have changed quite a bit, but here's how he does against leads. I generally try to sleep something, but never toxic much. If Politoed is healthy late game, I'll surf for damage, and Perish Song anything I find dangerous. Perish Song is also a great move in cause a bulky Poke is around as a great finisher.
Tyranitar - Lead first to see if he's running speed. If he is, I get free rain and hopefully one guy asleep
Ninetails - It doesn't matter what variant it is, I always get rain. However, I do fear the Energy Ball and Hypnosis, but stay in regardless. Politoed's godly bulk allows me to be a 3-4KO from offensive variants, and a 6-7HKO on defensive variants. Either way, if they attack, I kill them regardless of whether they have a sash or not. If I get slept, I'll go to Rotom and Thunder all day long.
Hippo - The only weather lead I lose too. I lead with Ferrothorn.
Skarmory - Most I see are specially defensive and run taunt. I lead with Tornadus
Deoxys-S - This bastard is real fast. Lead with Tornadus to scout his lead moveset.
Erufuun - This bastard is a pain in the ass. I lead with Ferrothorn and Gyro Ball until he gets out. If I get parahax, my Gyro Ball gets beefed up in power.
Bronzong - Hypnosis to make him useless.
Nattorei - Any one of these guys gutsy enough to go against Politoed get put to sleep.
Baton Passers - Lead with Tornadus
Thundurus- MAJOR threat. It depends on how greedy the other guy is. Either he'll kill me with a +2 Tbolt (I might get him to sleep). This is bad because I'm FORCED to Outrage with chomp. The other scenario is that he'll kill me with a Tbolt to start, and then proceed to dent Rotom, as I Thunder him for a kill.
Ninetails - It doesn't matter what variant it is, I always get rain. However, I do fear the Energy Ball and Hypnosis, but stay in regardless. Politoed's godly bulk allows me to be a 3-4KO from offensive variants, and a 6-7HKO on defensive variants. Either way, if they attack, I kill them regardless of whether they have a sash or not. If I get slept, I'll go to Rotom and Thunder all day long.
Hippo - The only weather lead I lose too. I lead with Ferrothorn.
Skarmory - Most I see are specially defensive and run taunt. I lead with Tornadus
Deoxys-S - This bastard is real fast. Lead with Tornadus to scout his lead moveset.
Erufuun - This bastard is a pain in the ass. I lead with Ferrothorn and Gyro Ball until he gets out. If I get parahax, my Gyro Ball gets beefed up in power.
Bronzong - Hypnosis to make him useless.
Nattorei - Any one of these guys gutsy enough to go against Politoed get put to sleep.
Baton Passers - Lead with Tornadus
Thundurus- MAJOR threat. It depends on how greedy the other guy is. Either he'll kill me with a +2 Tbolt (I might get him to sleep). This is bad because I'm FORCED to Outrage with chomp. The other scenario is that he'll kill me with a Tbolt to start, and then proceed to dent Rotom, as I Thunder him for a kill.
Ferrothorn (Skarmory)
Iron Barbs
Leftovers
Sassy
252 HP / 160 Def / 96 SpD
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
-Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
I hate this guy... Well... let's say I did. I love Skarm a lot more, but this guy functions much better due to his superior SpD and access to annoying the fuck out of any Poke. Leech Seed allows me to beat any set up dragons (Gyro Ball lets me take off 38% or so with Leech Seed). However, at that time, Ferrothorn has about 30% or so left, but that's plenty for him to continue to wall, something Skarm can't do. I accidently EV'd him to be a 3-4HKO on Magnezone (depends on the variant) and Leech Seed + Power Whip cripple the steel trapper to about 40% which lets me own him with any other switch-in.
Toxicroak (Unremembered)
Dry Skin
Black Sludge
Adamant
244 HP / 252 Att / 12 Def
- Substitute
-Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
Probably the most underrated threat I've ever seen. I chose him since I've never used him before, and because of his amazing ability - SETTING UP ON FERROTHORN. That's right, you heard me, he SETS UP ON FERROTHORN. Not only that, but against a Conkeldurr, 1v1, I win (if they don't carry Stone Edge) because I still resist the fighting/dark combo as well. Guts Flame Orb variants still beat me, but I can set up on every other variant and come out on top. Thanks to his unknown and surprise factor, I can easily get to +4 if my opponent thinks they can break my sub (as an added bonus, I resist both STABs). This guy serves as an amazing scout due to Gen 5's fast paced metagame. Since I'm slower 90% of the time, I can sub to scout what they do. Also, at +1, I OHKO Latios with Sucker Punch, beat chomp (with a sub) with a combination of Drain Punch + Sucker Punch, and deal a minimum of 50% to Jellicent and Renuculus with Sucker Punch. If that's only +1, just imagine what +4 does! I still am walled by Gyara, but hey, that's what Rotom is for.
Rotom-W (Love It)
Levitate
Choice Specs
Modest
188HP / 28 Def / 252 SpA / 28 SpD / 8 Spe
- Thunder
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split
-Trick
Well, I was looking at Rotom-W's analysis, and it read 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 Spe. Since I was a Rotom hater, I immediately figured out that the spread did not include the magic lefties number. Since Rotom attracts Bliss and Ferrothorn, I decided to use a magic Lefties number if I got lucky. I wasn't sure about the defenses, so I just split them evenly and put 8 Spe to outspeed standard tank Rotoms. Anyway, this thing is a monster under rain. Dual STABs, under the rain are nothing to shrug off. Both moves provide unresisted coverage with the exception of Ferrothorn. Everything else gets extremely dented, or dies from this thing. Generally, I try to keep my specs as long as possible until, I know that a tank is coming in. This is my 2nd solution to Ferrothorn, but Toxicroak hasn't failed me yet.
Garchomp (Incoming)
Sand Veil
Choice Scarf
Jolly
8 HP / 252 Att / 248 Spe
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Stone Edge
Well, well, well. The new standard of chomp has come to town. He was originally banned for his broken YacheSD combo, but now I think this is his new standard. With a choice scarf, he outspeeds and kill all the new poweful threats - Volcorona, Terrakion, the genies, etc. The only thing he's stopped by is a Ferrothorn and that weird Cobaloin, but I've never seen him since Terrakion thrashes him. Pretty straightforward, Chomp is a 2 move man. I'm thinking of Brick Break over Stone Edge to fuck over balloon tran switch-ins when they expect EQ, but that's another story. Toxic is there early game. I don't run max speed because chomp's max speed is 333, so its rounded down. Dragon Claw is another reliable STAB there for me early game for me to kill those damn Thundurus running around without having to resort to Outrage. Stone Edge hits Thundurus, since I was wrong about it OHKOing and its my way of dealing with other flying guys without locking myself.
Tornadus (Vanquisher)
Prankster
Life Orb
Timid
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- Grass Knot
- Taunt
Probably my new favorite sweeper ever. STAB Hurricane is unresisted by many Pokes, and is guarrantees massive damage. Like Toxicroak, this guy offers many surprise kills since nobody's seen him before. He's so unknown, that I've gotten maybe 4-5 kills with him and the other guy confused. I was originally going to run a Modest Specs Tornadus (which 2HKOs the entire metagame save Bliss), but then Jolly Chomp, dual set-up Terrakion, and overused Blue Thundy outspeed me. I run Grass Knot for pert, the only guy who lives a Hurricane at max (does about 88-92%). Focus Blast is for Ferrothorn. However, if Ferrothorn is at a low enough HP, he's easily 2HKOd.
NP Thunderous - I need scarf chomp to take this guy out. He sets up easily on my team and is usually guarranteed a kill.
Scrafy - The only hope I have is to beat this thing is Croak, who resists his dual STABs and Bulk Up/Dragon Dance/stat boost with him. Since I have SE moves, and he doesn't I can potentially win with a +6 croak.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed my first Gen 5 team. Its been a great success to me. Here's one last look:
