I guess I didn't consider Terrak, it's basically lost all relevance in OU, so I just forgot about it. And just because 2 mons share a common weakness, doesn't mean they don't work well together. Most cores still have a weakness.
And I never honestly thought stall would be ridiculous or pathetic. It seemed to me that it would be totally viable from the beginning, and my oppinion hasn't really changed.
Not to start an argument, I just hate defensive psychic types. If steel is an option instead, I'd tend to go with that.
I was talking as a broad trend. Up to about page 15 or thereabouts the general conviction was that stall was underpowered and would be unviable, and then suddenly the overall attitude flipped to "omg look at these insane stall threats". It's
weird.
So, I've been working on a rain team core because I believe people said something about weather being bad in this meta, so I'm out to prove them wrong.
Kyogre @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
- Origin Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
- Scald
A standard rain setter for the team. Keep it healthy and it should perform well. Spam scald if you predict a switch into a defensive mon' otherwise use your coverage options.
Thundurus (M) @ Manectite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch/nasty plot
- Hidden Power [Ice]/taunt/thunder wave
- Focus Blast
- Thunderbolt
Meet mega manectric 2.0 with a better typing, stats, and a pretty nice movepool. Thundy here was chosen for its good typing and awesome movepool, allowing it to perform multiple roles. The real reason I chose it however is its ability to beat blue orb ferrothorn. Chgose what moves you use wisely.
Gyarados @ Swampertite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Crunch
Meet one of the most terrifying rain sweepers you will ever have the displeasure of meeting. With solid 95/94/115 bulk this thing can easily set up a quick DD after an intimidate drop and be completely ubcatchable in the rain. There is probably a better EV spread, but I'm not great at finding those. Anyways, it easily sets up, sweeps easily and hits VERY hard.
Latias (F) @ Alakazite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Healing Wish
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
Latias patches this core up very nicely, providing helpful resists to grass and electric while providing defog utility. Its bulk is quite good at 80/110/130 and its offenses are not bad at all with 80/150/140 being very solid. Trace shenanagans can also come into play.
Potential teammates:
A hazard setter is always appreciated. Blue orb Ferro comes to mind as it can also reset your weather for you and provide excellent resists.
Backup rain setters are also appreciated.
Rain abusers can fit in, especially ones that can abuse the powerful STABS granted by rain, or the perfect accuracy for hurricane/thunder.(dragonite anyone?)
Wish passers to keep ogre healthy are also well loved by this core.
Well, that's it please rate it and use it!
Unless you
specifically want Trace, I'd generally avoid Alakazite. It's only +90 BST, compared to the usual +100, and comparable stat boosts include Absolite (Boosts Attack instead of Defense, but has the same Special Attack boost and a bigger Speed boost, not to mention the amazing Magic Bounce), Manectite (10 less Special Attack, but otherwise equals Alakazite in every stat boost, provides 20 Special Defense, and has the excellent Intimidate), Pidgeotite (Less Defense and Speed, but monstrous Special Attack and provides No Guard), or maybe Sceptilite. (5 less Speed, same Special Attack, 10 less Defense, wastes the other points on Attack, and Dragon typing+Lightning Rod is somewhat silly, but could be situationally preferable anyway) Manectite in particular is almost a flat improvement with a
much more useful Ability, particularly for a Pokemon who is liable to either switch in and out a lot for Defog purposes or suicide with Healing Wish -having Intimidated the enemy in the process is further help to the Healing Wish recipient.
As far as Gyarados goes, I'd completely skip Speed EVs for maximum bulk/offense. Just being in Rain alone is enough to outspeed Speed-natured base 150 Pokemon, and after a Dragon Dance they can't even be Scarfed to pull ahead -a base
200 wouldn't outspeed without a Scarf! What exactly is going to outspeed Swampertite Gyarados in the Rain without using priority outright?
I'm not clear why a Rain Thundurus is carrying around Thunderbolt. Why not Thunder? Other than that I don't have much to say about it, in part because I'm not clear its exact role in the team beyond beating Blue Orb Ferrothorn.
I honestly don't think there's actually a good Mega Stone for turning Dragonite into the Special Rain abuser it wants to be. The best Stone for the job is Pidgeotite, and it invalidates the need for Rain to support Thunder and Hurricane! Mind, Pidgeotite Dragonite could be interesting regardless just because it also gets Blizzard, giving it ridiculous Special Flying STAB (Unseen outside of Yveltal in Standard) and hilariously powerful, reliable boltbeam.
An obvious Rain Wish passer is Alomomola. It can be left un-Mega-ed for Regenerator Wish passing, and carry a good defensive Mega Stone for later in the match/when you need Magic Bounce or whatever you've given it (I'm thinking Sablenite here, but a case could be made for Audinite for the nifty Water/Fairy typing. Note that its Special Defense is much worse than its Defense, so Slowbronite would be sub-optimal unless you wanted it to be Physically Defensive or something), and in any event it can spam Rain-boosted Scalds.
Or I can use this to get Pokemon with types and abilities that I want instead of making practical things.
Luxray @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
- Wild Charge
- Crunch
- Thunder Wave
- Volt Switch
Electric Dark with 80/150/109/105/109/70 With Mold Breaker afterwards. It gets pretty dang good bulk and 150 attack is plenty to not invest entirely. It also has more move options(Stab Snarl comes to mind) but I think that I would want the slow switch.
>3> <3<
Typhlosion @ Lopunnite
Fire Fighting 78/144/88/109/85/130 with Scrappy focus punches/power-up punch... I am just playing around with this one, but I think it is hilarious and has plenty of physical coverage to attempt.
Also anything with Alakazamite with trace, trace is superb in a format when most things have good abilities.
As I said above, I'd tend to avoid Alakazite. The stat boosts are almost directly inferior to Manectite due to providing 10 less BST, and there's not actually that many Abilities on Megas that you'd want to Trace, or at least Trace in a
reliable way. (It'd be neat to have Alakazite Mantine Trace Lightning Rod from a Sceptilite Pokemon, but that's
very specific) Houndoomite and to a lesser extent Swampertite are the main exceptions I can think of -Intimidate is generally going to be found on
Special attackers in Mix and Mega- since if the enemy is using them they presumably have the weather up and ready for you to abuse, and both fit snugly with typical Alakazite abusers.
Interesting gimmick ideas though. I find Luxray somewhat questionable for Gyaradosite -Thundurus basically blows it out of the water, especially if it manages to snag a Defiant boost before Mega Evolving- but it
is the single hardest hitting Electric type with Crunch (Well, barring Zekrom, but it's an Uber), albeit only barely, so maybe it'll have a niche. Typhlosion mostly seems silly, but its Physical movepool is impressive, it appreciates the Speed, and resistance to Stealth Rock is not bad.