I Can't Stand the Rain (Balanced team that has trouble with weather)

[Buonomo]

In this team I have a team that was doing awesome by my low standards but ran into massive trouble recently with rain teams, plummeting me down below 1000 ladder points.

Making the Team

Initial Concept

Pretty simple concept, Skarmory sets up hazards, walls stuff and baits for Vire and Chandy to get their boosts, while Vire's and Chandy's presence protects Skarm for SE attacks.

Fleshing the Team Out

I added Kingdra and Torterra to the team, because I like them, to fill the role of mixed sweeper and phazer respectively. I just sort of threw Dugtrio in there as a revenge killer without thinking about it that much.

Fixing some problems

Torterra worked but Dugtrio failed, unsurprisingly, because of the lack of thought I put into putting him there, Kingdra as it turns out is just bad. Replaced them with Landorus and Hitmontop.

Trying to Fix Moar Problems but Just Causing Confusion

or

or

Landorus and Hitmontop worked but having two x4 weaknesses to Ice didn't go over well so I need a replacement for Torterra. Right now I have Hippowdon because his Sand Stream ability meshes well with Landorus' Sand Force and Skarm has turned into a suicide lead meaning I needed an actual physical wall. Could be replaced with a bulky water (such as Vaporeon) or with Ttar

Changes from You Guys

On the Bubble

EVire is out for Virizion who resists water and has a nice SpD. Currently running tests to see if Chandy, Jellicent or Rotom-W is the best fit for my last spot.

The Team ATM

The Lead

Max Hazard (Skarmory) (M) @ Mental Herb
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Def / 180 SDef / 4 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Whirlwind
- Taunt
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock

Gimmicky, I know. But it still tends to get SR and one layer of Spikes up before dying or switching to give one of my guys a boost. Made to be both physically and specially defensive with the spread as well as being able to to outspeed other Skarms who keep their speed at 0 EVs so it can Taunt them. Can Taunt Taunt leads with its Mental Herb, allowing me to break out the good old troll face. Whirlwind is for anything I can't deal with and to abuse the hazards I set up.

The Special Sweeper

Max's Bro (Chandelure) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Energy Ball
- Shadow Ball
- Substitute

Basically what I want to happen when I sent this thing out is for the enemy to switch letting me get a Sub up and then for everything to die to Fire Blast. Surprisingly that actually happens alot. Shadow is STAB and Energy Ball is for coverage. I haven't found Chandy's speed to be that much of a detriment actually, the times when I'm outsped often I'm behind a Sub and when I'm not outsped they just die. That said when there's no sub and they win the battle of speed often I'm forced to switch or just die myself. Can also act as an emergency spinblocker unless the spinner is Tentacruel. I'm considering running Balloon over Life Orb. I'm currently running tests to see if Jellicent or Rotom-W would work better here.

The Physical Sweeper

Swagga (Virizion) @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Leaf Blade
- Stone Edge

Virizion is one of my favorite mons and on a suggestion I've slotted him in for Evire as my physical sweeper. He has great special defense and a water resist, which will help me with rain teams a lot. He uses SD to beef up his attack to immense levels then dishes out the pain with good dual STAB in CC and Leaf Blade. Stone Edge is filler.

The Mixed Sweeper

Y U NO Guy (Landorus) (M) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 100 SAtk / 156 Spd
Naughty Nature (+Atk, -SDef)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Rock Polish
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Rock Polish to outspeed the unboosted metagame, EdgeQuake for great coverage and HP [Ice] because Gliscor. Lum Berry is there because I I prefer it to Expert Belt on this set and I don't want to take damage from my item, it lets me avoid burns and because Gliscor. That's mostly why, because Gliscor.

The Utility

Problem? (Hitmontop) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Atk / 100 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Rapid Spin
- Mach Punch
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch

Hitmontop has been just awesome, its my go to guy for special defense, it can revenge kill everything expect defensive Ghosts, it can spin and in a pinch, sweep. The spread is built so that it has good physical bulk along with its inherent special bulk as well as being able to deal some damage. A Rapid Spin because its Rapid Spin and is just useful on every team, Mach Punch because revenge killing, Sucker Punch because revenge killing Ghosts and Stone Edge because Hitmontop CAN sweep and has on numerous occasions for me. Often he wins battles for me and is the one poke I'd be really reluctant to take off.

The Phazer

Hippo Kitty (Hippowdon) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge

He has awesome compatibility with Landorus due to Sand Stream and due to his huge HP stat stands up to both physical and special abuse. The weather he adds isn't absolutely necessary for my team to work, if Landorus get out after he does its just an added bonus. I don't need SR because of Skarm so I put in Slack Off for extra longevity, EdgeQuake because coverage and Whirlwind because he is a phazer after all. Still I feel that I really need a water resist so I'm thinking about dropping him for a bulky water. I think having a Ttar would be awesome as well if someone could figure out a way to make that work.

Former Memebers

Max's Bro #2 (Electivire) (M) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Motor Drive
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Cross Chop
- Earthquake
- Wild Charge
- Ice Punch


Any advice is appreciated, especially advice pertaining to improving this team against rain teams. Thanks!

 

[orbpom123]

This team needs a scarfed rotom to wall/take down waters

Rotom-W@ choice scarf
Levitate Timid+SpE -AtK
252 SpA 252 SpE 4 SpD
Volt Switch
Hydro Pump
HP Ice
Trick/ painsplit

I like this set, ouspeeds alot with nice damage. Hp ice takes down the king of OU, Dnite. Also you have no special walls to soak attacks. Try an eviolite chansey or blissey over hippo. If not, run SR over SE because having 2 hazards on skarm is not good.

 

[Buonomo]

This team needs a scarfed rotom to wall/take down waters

Rotom-W@ choice scarf
Levitate Timid+SpE -AtK
252 SpA 252 SpE 4 SpD
Volt Switch
Hydro Pump
HP Ice
Trick/ painsplit

I like this set, ouspeeds alot with nice damage. Hp ice takes down the king of OU, Dnite. Also you have no special walls to soak attacks.

Thanks, but what should I take out for Rotom, Chandelure, Hitmontop, Hippodown? Also, while Hitmontop isn't a dedicated wall he does decent against SpAs and you can only have so many spots on a team, soooo...

 

[kd24]

i had typed out a post but i dced while submitting lol, ill just run through my thoughts again real quick

- jellicent > chandelure. you have a whopping 0 water resists so you will get 6-0ed by things like scarf politoed ... dont let this happen. jellicent provides some decent defense (or you could even go specs to give you some power). as an added bonus, hes an extra electric lure for elc-type attacks

- i really dont like evire or hitmontop on this team that much, so over one of them i would add a boosting grass-type such as np celebi or sd virzion - this gives a second water resist and deals with a few other issues i notice (breloom for example). maybe test it out and give me your thoughts?

the one definitive suggestion is definitely jelli > chand for me though

edit: oddly enough loom wasnt that much of an issue with subchand but yeah i still say go jelli and then add a celebi to stop him.

 

[Buonomo]

Thanks for the advice, I've included Virizion and may put in Jellicent if he outclasses Chandy and Rotom-W in my tests

 

[asterat]

this team is stupidly weak to gyarados. He nails 5 for super effective damage on 5 guys and your skarm is ... you know. He has lots of ways tto come in and intimidate such as on htimontop. He can sub until a stone edge misses or just DD being able to live one (maybe two) and proceed to bounce and waterfall everything, assuming your skarm is dead or stealth rocks are up. Honestly I suggest moving to UU, skarm can be replaced with froslass, hippo can get rocks, stoutland can replace virizion and rhyperior or a filler can replace landorus

 

[Buonomo]

this team is stupidly weak to gyarados. He nails 5 for super effective damage on 5 guys and your skarm is ... you know. He has lots of ways tto come in and intimidate such as on htimontop. He can sub until a stone edge misses or just DD being able to live one (maybe two) and proceed to bounce and waterfall everything, assuming your skarm is dead or stealth rocks are up. Honestly I suggest moving to UU, skarm can be replaced with froslass, hippo can get rocks, stoutland can replace virizion and rhyperior or a filler can replace landorus

I've honestly never had trouble had trouble with Gyarados in the past (though I had Vire before). I've not seen one during my test at all though. Still I don't think Gyarados could stand up to a plus one Stone Edge from Verizion, who through its typing really is a hard counter to it, only Bounce can do anything to it and very few people run Bounce, plus you can just switch out on it, if it comes in on that and if on anything else it tries to Sub until Stone Edge misses it will likely just end up killing itself. The only thing it can beat without some form of hax on my team is really Chandy or Jellicent, also consider that there's a good chance I'll add Rotom-W which ruins Gyarados.

EDIT: Also, there's no way I'm moving to UU over 1 infrequently used mon who I've never had trouble against before.