Opinions about Weather based Teams

WeavileTamer

I was just wondering what people think about teams based on weather.
I know that Rain can be used to great effect but do hail teams really work In the standard enviroment. If so what is the correct application of these teams.
Post your opinoins here.
 
Sandstorm teams are very good. Hail is popular on Shoddy now, too.

Rain Dance is less common, and I don't think I've really seen any Sunny Day teams at all.
 
Hail and Sandstorm can be set up automatically by pokemon which makes a world of distance. I find that well-constructed weather teams of those sorts can be brutal. I've never seen a rain dance or sunny day team really do that well, though.
 
sandstorm teams IMO beat hail teams because of the fact there's 2 users, and 3 types resistant. However, without TTar and hippodon, their weather trigger is killed by Dugtrio, which leaves the weather to be changed, and bye bye team.

Weather teams usually have a huge weakness though. I remember forcing a sandstorm team around with a mach punch hitmonlee, until only gengar was left, which died to the weather.

Hail teams will always have an abomasnow, leaving that 4x to fire, and the others usually weak to fire/electric and fighting, bar the odd walling cresselia etc.
 
Both Hail and Sandstorm teams tend to work best with stalling, honestly. I love Rain Dance and Sunny Day, but they just will never see that much use unless non-uber pokemon with Drought/Drizzle are introduced. It's a shame too, because I'd rather deal with weird speeds than annoying as hell evasion, pre-leftovers end of turn damage, and stuff like Walrein.

To answer your question a little better: yes Hail teams work in the standard metagame. As long as you realize that not everything has to be immune to the hail damage to be effective, and you cover your weaknesses as such, hail teams work fine. Hail teams with any of Toxic Spikes/Spikes/SR and Walrein stalling seem to work too well when played right, actually.
 
I run both Sunny day and Rain dance teams. Rain dance surprises people quite often and kicks ass, I just wish they lasted a little longer without having to use damp/heat rock :(

Sashed Jolteon or Ambipom are my usual weather starters. I prefer Jolteon because I can thunder after rain dance in case the person starts to SD or something. If they switch, I agility up a couple times until I need to BP out.

Ambipom hasn't done as well as Jolteon has in this area, but NP helps.

I tried Ninjask a couple times, but Ninjask was too obvious and it never really helped me out.

My sunny day team didn't perform as well the dozen or so times I tested it, but I think it's my team.

Ludicolo with swift swim during rain dance is one of my best sweepers, Kingdra is good too, but my Ludi gets more knockouts.
 
As said before, Hail and Sandstorm work very well, and Sandstorm in particular. Tyranitar is without a doubt one of the most ferocious and versatile Pokemon in the game, while Hippowdon is a good supporter/Rock resistance. The pervasiveness of Tyranitar and Hippowdon in turn makes Sun and Rain based teams much harder to use in Standards, because it's very likely that Tyranitar or Hippowdon will interrupt the sunny or rainy weather. 5 (8 with the weather rocks) turns are also quite easy to stall out with the defensive powerhouses of Blissey, Cresselia, and the like.
 
i had a rance dance team with a kabutops@ life orb with swords dance, brick break, stone edge, and waterfall and it demolished everything that tried to wall it except skarmory, which kingdra would demolish as well. only problem with rain dance teams is they get destroyed by sandstorm and hail teams
 
Rain Dance seems like the best anti-Sandstorm anti-Hail sort of weather. The pokemon only receive boosts in the rain, but no penalties in the hail/sandstorm. There are also a few pokemon who do exceptionally well in hail that also do exceptionally well against hail/sandstorm users. IE: Kabutops. Rock breaks hail teams, Water breaks sandstorm teams.

Furthermore, if they switch in a weather starter (say Swampert vs T-Tar), then you have to switch out and back in for it to work. They only have to use an attack.

Toxicroak also absorbs toxic spikes, scares off T-Tar, swords dances on the switch and can sucker-punch opponent sweepers while healing 12% from the rain. Pretty scary if you ask me.

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Sunny Day gets the short end of the stick. The standard switchin to anything sunny day related is T-Tar, and there is more or less nothing you can do about it. Use Solarbeam, and T-Tar turns your one-turn attack into a two-turn attack, raises his defenses by 50% and then cuts solarbeam's attack by 50%. He also resists fire. Then of course, moonlight and other weather-based healing moves are literally half as effective in the sandstorm / hail. 66% healing in the sun, drops to 33% healing in hail/sandstorms.
 
Every time I play a non-Sandstorm Weather team, I feel like I have to pack a good three fighting moves to waylay T-tar with.

As for setting up the 'storm', one of these days we'll get Drizzle/Drought on pokemon other than ubers, maybe.
 
Sunny Day team works, but it's really really hard because well...Fire is a piece of shit, but it can work. In NU, it works wonder because Tyranitar and Blissey aren't there. Sunflora really shines in a Sunny Day team, Solar Power is just too good.

But for OU, there's Heatran, who is fucking insane in the sun by the way. Fire Blast can 2HKO Blissey with Choice Specs in the sun, same with Salamence and Suicune, and that should say something. Something with Eruption is always fun, things like Exeggutor works too, but Exeggutor looks a lot better on paper on than it does on the battle field unfortunately.

And then there's Cresselia, who is an amazing wall in Sunny Day team. Why? Moonlight makes Cresselia extremely bitchy. Do watch out for Tyranitar though.
 
I don't like the whole idea of basing a team around weather, it restricts you in too many different ways. Although oddly, I don't make any competitive teams without sandstorm, but this doesn't mean I base the team around it. Only 2 of my pokemon on my current team (ttar and scizor) are immune to sandstorm. I did use a "sandstorm team" as my first d/p team and couldn't stand it. The only reason I like to have sandstream going is for leftovers nullification, something I don't like going without.
 
I don't like the whole idea of basing a team around weather, it restricts you in too many different ways.
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Thats a problem with the team builder really than the theme itself. A good weather team should be able to operate fine without their respective weather but just happen to operate even better in it.
 
A well-played Sandstorm team can be extremely effective. Losing 6% of max health is devastating after awhile for opponents. Since you have 3 types to work with, it's definitely possible to cover up the most common weaknesses that you'd normally have (Empoleon resists both Ice and Water, Gliscor resists Fighting), and it's also possible to use non-SS pokemon on a team if you have to (Blissey is the best example of this. Cradily can't hold a candle to Blissey even in SS). Sandstorm also screws up Focus Sashes on the opponent's side, always a plus.
 
I like the idea of a Rainy Day team I heard somewhere before (Rain Dance and Sunny Day, 2 Water/Thunder Abusers, 2 FireBeam abusers, 2 dual). I'll probably test the concept in a few weeks.

Hail if done right can do well, as long as you realize that not everything has to be Ice-type to pull it off.
 
Weather based teams work very well, like my Hail team does; I'm simply surprised how well it does vs. others as I did originally plan it to be a gag team *I have a feeling that it is better than my original team.* I find it as another way to have fun battling.

WeavileTamer said:
I was just wondering what people think about teams based on weather.
I know that Rain can be used to great effect but do hail teams really work In the standard enviroment. If so what is the correct application of these teams.
Post your opinoins here.
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More than ever, I've beaten regular metagame teams with mine and each member of my team has an ice type. I wish I had better videos on my Youtube account to show you, but yeah, Hail teams really can work.

It would be nice if a non-uber Drizzle/Drought pokemon did appear soon, we'll just have to find out. The day that GF releases non-uber Drizzle/Drought will be the new era where Kingdra/Ludicolo and Shiftry/Exeggutor get used more often for sure.
 
Weather teams rock. I have this from experience, my HAIL team is awesome. Abomasnow, surprisingly, is more useful than you think.

I think weather teams like hail are seen as gimmicky and just a joke, so people don't fear the teams as much, but when you put them to action, they actually do work. I'm doing quite well on the Shoddy ladderboard as well. :]

And I agree, we need a non-uber Drizzle/Drought Pokemon. I'd love to see a new weather style: Dark Sky (for dark/ghost Pokemon -- it fits Moonlight much better).
 
TaiwaneseDude said:
Weather teams rock. I have this from experience, my HAIL team is awesome. Abomasnow, surprisingly, is more useful than you think.

I think weather teams like hail are seen as gimmicky and just a joke, so people don't fear the teams as much, but when you put them to action, they actually do work. I'm doing quite well on the Shoddy ladderboard as well. :]

And I agree, we need a non-uber Drizzle/Drought Pokemon. I'd love to see a new weather style: Dark Sky (for dark/ghost Pokemon -- it fits Moonlight much better).
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Did I hear someone mention the Shoddybattle Ladder? :-) *cough*

Yeah, my hail team is rocking the ladder right now. And yes, sub-seed Abomasnow can outstall just about every wall, from suicune to blissey to cresselia, while Walrein outstalls the vast majority of sweepers. I'm surprised at how well Abomasnow does actually. Everyone seems to consider him dead weight, but as one of the few pokemon who can sub-seed-punch (the other is the popular breloom) I say he actually serves more than just "Start the weather and switch out".
 
Abomasnow is frikkin amazing, especially in the fact that he can OHKO T-Tar and 2HKO Hippowdon - if you go for 2 physical attacking moves to go with your subseeding. It isn't amazing but eh.
One pokemon I found working in both Sand and Hail is Clefable. It. Just. Won't. Die.
 
Lou Cypher said:
Abomasnow is frikkin amazing, especially in the fact that he can OHKO T-Tar and 2HKO Hippowdon - if you go for 2 physical attacking moves to go with your subseeding. It isn't amazing but eh.
One pokemon I found working in both Sand and Hail is Clefable. It. Just. Won't. Die.
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Woah, that didn't contradict itself.

I have used all of these types of teams and I think all of them are pretty gimmick and hard to set up and will be beaten by an experienced player. But they are fun and some of the ones I've had better experiences with were sandstorm and hail, mainly because you don't have to use a move to set it up. Rain Dance was also fun but a bit harder to pull off. Sunny Day was the hardest but also had some fun aspects like 100% Cress Moonlight healing.
 
My main team is a SandStorm team so I like weather based teams and yes weather teams do work well when constructed with careful thought. Look at users like Dragon Tamer (hail team), Deck Knight(sandstorm team), etc. raindance teams actually work well to so do sunny day teams I fought against a random in Shoddy with his RD team and he swept me with Kabutops(SD+Focus Sash version)
 
Alot of people think "fire" when they make sunny day teams and forget about all the nasty Chlorophyll pokemon out there. Even something like Shiftry can be a threat in the sun. Grass/Fire is a nice offensive combo, as well.

I think they should give Zapdos drizzle, Moltres drought and Articuno snow warning in some future gen.
 
Hrothgar said:
I think they should give Zapdos drizzle, Moltres drought and Articuno snow warning in some future gen.
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I like this idea the only thing preventing me from making a Rain Dance team is that no non-uber pokemon have Drizzle hopefully they(nintendo)will attend to this in the next gen
 
Sandstorm teams work really well this generation. Stuff like Gliscor and Garchomp are great additions to stop Heracross and sweep respectively. Sand Veil also means that you'll hit them less often. A CM Jirachi with Wish would also work really well, giving you some Special offense as well as healing the team. TTar got physical STAB with stronger attacks, which makes it even worse to deal with. Sand teams are a real menace this gen.
 
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