Chuck a 5th vote in there for us pal, minimum 5 as per the voting rules. (Just edit your post)A X Z W The rest
pointing out theres two “Team K”s
Firstly, thanks for making this competition! I had a ton of fun making this team, and I'm quite happy with what I came up with.
Now, without further ado, I present to you, Rain's Rain Team:
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PokePaste: https://pokepast.es/192050dfc0f6c39b
Team Breakdown:
Politoed:
Politoed is here to set up rain with its Drizzle ability and then assist its allies by using Helping Hand to boost the power of allies' attacks or Icy Wind to reduce the enemies' speed. The team has both+ fast and slow attackers, so the speed control may or may not be necessary depending on which mons were brought and what the opponent is doing. In the event where it is not needed, Scald is an option to provide some decent damage and possibly a burn. The last move is Protect because Protect is good. Politoed's item is a Damp Rock to extend the duration of rain, and its EVs are specially defensive, which might help it to survive a Thunderbolt here and there. Politoed cannot do much on its own, but it plays a pivotal role on the team by setting up rain, which the rest of the team is poised to abuse.
Celesteela & Rhyperior:
I found this to be a very powerful pairing, but Celesteela is the real star of the show on this team. It has very good bulk and only two weaknesses, both of which can be completely covered up by its allies. It's Fire weakness is effectively eliminated due to the fact that rain halves the power or Fire moves, and it doesn't need to worry about Electric attacks at all due to Rhyperior redirecting them with its Lightning Rod ability. Its considerable offensive strength and proper support can turn it into an unstoppable juggernaut while Dynamaxed. Rhyperior can make quick work of mons such as Torkoal and Regieleki with its STAB Earthquake, and in turn, Celesteela takes out many of Rhyperior's potential threats, such as Rillaboom, with its STAB Max Airstream. The rest of the moves are fairly standard; I chose a physical set for Celesteela, but a special set would probably work almost as well. Celesteela's EVs are focused on Attack and HP to improve its damage and bulk respectively; Rhyperior has done the same, except it invested in its somewhat poor Special Defense instead of HP. Celesteela holds a Weakness Policy (more on that later) and Rhyperior holds a Focus Sash, which allows it to survive a 4x effective hit and fire off one last attack that the opponent was likely not expecting. The only things this duo of colossi fear are strong water attacks, which is somewhat ironic due to their presence on a rain team. However, this is not a problem at all, thanks to the next member of our team.
Regieleki:
Regieleki's role on this team is very simple - to nuke everything with 100% accurate STAB Thunder. It does this job very well thanks to its blistering speed and Transistor ability. It has a Timid nature and EVs fully invested into Special Attack and Speed, and it holds a Magnet to further boost the power of its Electric moves, making them powerful enough that they can even take out foes that resist them! In addition to Thunder, Regieleki has Electroweb for more speed control and Volt Switch to pivot out while doing damage. The final move is, of course, Protect. It's important to note that while Regieleki does an excellent job of covering up Rhyperior's 4x water weakness, it should not be on the field at the same time as Rhyperior. Although it may seem to be a glaring counter-synergy, it is actually surprisingly easy to work around while playing, and will virtually never be a problem as long as you are careful.
Incineroar:
Of course I had to include Incineroar; it's not without reason that he is present on nearly every VGC team. My Incineroar set had one slot taken up by a more unusual move choice, however - Ember. This is here to activate Celesteela's Weakness Policy while dealing minimal damage to it. The other moves are standard support: Fake Out, Snarl, Parting Shot. It doesn't have Flare Blitz because its effectiveness would be reduced by rain, and it doesn't have Darkest Lariat just because that slot was taken up by Ember, which is vital because the Celesteela/Rhyperior duo is so good at covering its own weaknesses that the WP doesn't usually get activated by enemies. EVs and Nature are configured to give it good physical and special bulk, and it holds a Sitrus Berry to stay alive longer. Similar to Politoed, it's role on the team is vital, subtle though it may be.
Kingdra:
I wasn't originally planning to bring Kingdra, but as we all know, it synergizes incredibly well with Politoed and rain, so I decided to run it after all as a secondary Dynamax option. Kingdra has the standard Life Orb set with Hurricane (100% accurate in rain), Scald, and Draco Meteor. It has all its EVs invested into Special Attack and Speed to make it hit as hard as possible, and a Modest nature because I'd rather have more damage over more speed. Ability is of course Swift Swim, which will make it fast enough that a Timid Nature isn't necessary. Last move slot is Protect to help it stay alive longer. It's a very good option for an attacker in the event that the Celesteela/Rhyperior core isn't suitable, and although I call it a fallback option, it isn't by any means a downgrade. Kingdra is also very good against Sun teams, which the rest of the team tends to struggle against. In the event that the enemy sets up sun, you can easily turn the tables with a Max Geyser from Kingdra, hopefully killing the sun setter in the process.
Playstyle:
As a whole, the team is pretty balanced, with a mixture of glass cannons and bulky attackers. It can hold its own inside of TR, and even against enemy Tailwind. Like most rain teams, it struggles a bit against sun teams, but the disadvantage is not so large that it can't be surmounted. The general strategy is to lead with Politoed and Kingdra, Eleki, or Incineroar. The former two provide a good offensive pressure, and the latter can take the edge away from aggressive enemy teams. Often, the opponent will predictably target Politoed with a Grass attack, which makes for the perfect opportunity to safely switch into Celesteela. When you switch into Steela, you will generally want to have either Incineroar (for WP activation) or Rhyperior (for attack redirection) as a partner. If you didn't Max Kingdra, then you will usually want to Dynamax Celesteela as soon as possible to start stacking up boosts with Airstream, Knuckle, and of course its ability Beast Boost (its EVs are such that it will receive an Attack boost after KOing a foe). If you have Rhyperior as a partner, then you can take advantage of Celesteela's Max Knuckle to fire off some powerful Earthquakes and pick up any KOs that Celesteela missed. The more defensive alternative is to keep Incineroar in, using Snarl and Parting shot to neutralize potential threats to Celesteela. Once Celesteela goes down, it is probably time to switch into your secondar attacker (Eleki or Kingdra) and sweep through the remains of your enemy's team.
Replays:
Against another rain team. Rhyperior's Sash was essential to winning here. (I accidentally used an older version of my team which had Kartana instead of Incineroar, but that doesn't matter because I didn't bring it and all of the movesets are the same.)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1326914948
In this match, a WP-boosted Celesteela singlehandedly smashed through the entire enemy team with its powerful Max Moves.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1326997426
In this match, the Celesteela and Rhyperior duo worked exactly as intended Rhyperior redirected super-effective moves and finished off weakened foes, while Celesteela dealt out provided boosts with its Max Moves.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1327182085
Against a sun team. No time to write anymore description because the submission deadline is in 2 minutes!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1327183013
Thanks for reading!
^ This one is a good example of backing up creativity with these questionsAfter spending a few days thinking and rebuilding, I created this wonder of a team:
https://pokepast.es/9d330887eb54a8bf
Lets run through the team:
After looking through to see what Politoed had in it's moveset, I saw Endeavor and realized I needed to make it work. Then I saw Endure and it all came together. No bulk besides the four spare Ev's because you want to get to 1 HP asap. Click Endure to live the hit, eat Salac to boost your speed, and then click Endeavor to take things to 1 HP. Even when you are not taking things down to 1 HP, it still chunks opposing pokemon like nothing else, allowing you to break holes in a team that you might not have been able to do. My main idea was to try and break out of the traditional supporting Politoed, so why do what I have always done and make Politoed bulky, when I can make it frail and fast? Drizzle is important to unleash the next team member, and as long as it gets the rain up I see Politoed as doing half of it's job. Endeavor let's it do a ton of damage, and Muddy Water for the last slot to take advantage of rain the rain with a boosted spread move. Protect is there to help Politoed take Dynamax hits and live, further enabling the Salac + Endeavor combo to flourish.Politoed @ Salac Berry
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Endeavor
- Endure
- Muddy Water
Boring and standard with Politoed, but it is because Kingdra is probably the best Swift Swimmer in the game. It has good enough bulk, decent attacking stats, and can be faster than Regieleki in rain. There's not much else really worth using off of that point alone, Regieleki is everywhere. Muddy Water again because its a spread water move that lowers accuracy. 85 Accuracy sucks, but paired with Politoed's Muddy Water gives you a decent chance of lowering something's accuracy. Draco Meteor is the standard Dragon move to go for here. Using Hurricane gives a nice speed boost while maxed, a 100 percent accurate move in rain, and hits Rillaboom. When selecting what to Dynamax, Kingdra's always a solid choice to go for, and is the initial Dynamax target for this team. Ev's were taken from my PC4 qualifier team. you can optimize the Ev's a bit more to reduce Life Orb recoil, but I prefer the added damage and little extra bulk to make some rolls a little more favorable.Kingdra @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 20 HP / 252 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Draco Meteor
- Hurricane
- Protect
I selected Zapdos-G next because: (a) I like it, and (b) needed something to hit Ferrothorn. With Intimidate everywhere Defiant give Zapdos-G so many opportunities to boost itself, not counting all the other Max moves and the miscellaneous stat lowering moves. Zapdos-G is the secondary Dynamax option, giving the team a hard hitting physical Pokemon that can also boost it's speed nicely. I was afraid of ferrothorn walling the team, so Zapdos-G fills that weakness nicely. I preferred Thunderous Kick over Close Combat because when Dynamxed Close Combat is only 5 BP stronger and Thunderous Kick avoids the drops from Close Combat. Brave Bird as the main Flying attack, but if you want longevity outside of Dynamax substitute it with Drill Peck. Stomping Tantrum is mainly there to hit Electric-Types and to clean up things like Metagross. Detect because you want to protect yourself sometimes. I used Black Belt because Life Orb was taken by Kingdra, and Zapdos-G appreciates the slight power boost to Thunderous Kick, bringing it closer to Close Combat. Safety Goggles are another good alternative, letting Zapdos ignore Spore, Rage Powder, Sand, and Hail, but I like damage.Zapdos-Galar @ Black Belt
Ability: Defiant
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thunderous Kick
- Brave Bird
- Stomping Tantrum
- Detect
This was where I made my biggest breakthrough. I spent a lot of time worrying about how Regieleki would just shut this team down, but then I realized all I needed to do was to shut Regieleki down instead. In came Raichu, with Lightning Rod it harmlessly absorbs pesky electric moves, boosting it's own Special Attack in the process. From here, Nuzzle and Electroweb slows down teams further, and Fake Out gives a free hit along with serving as a priority move to take advantage of Politoed's Endeavor plummeting the opponent's HP. Charm is the preferred last move here, as it offers a way to weaken physical attackers cleanly. Max Speed and 252 HP for speed and overall bulk, with the Focus Sash there to ensure Raichu takes two hits. While Lightning Rod can't absorb Electroweb entirely, it serves as a deterrence against clicking Thunderbolt and tearing through the Water-types on the team.Raichu @ Focus Sash
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Electroweb
- Nuzzle
- Fake Out
- Charm
Teambuilding Note: From here, I realized I did not necessarily need to fit an Incineroar on this team anymore, I had something that could handle Ferrothorn in Zapdos-G and I had Fake Out utility from Raichu. I just needed a option to handle Trick Room and an Intimidator.
I've really grown to love Porygon2, and I found it fit on this team really well. The set is pretty basic, Trick Room to reverse opponent's Trick Room, Eerie Impulse to lower Special Attack, Recover to heal, and Ice Beam for damage against everything, especially Dragon and Flying Types. EV's let Porygon2 have a 75% chance to live a Jolly 252 Attack Close Combat from Urshifu, with the rest dumped into Special Defense. A solid, consistent Pokemon to help out against Trick Room and offer some utility against Special Attackers.Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 240 HP / 196 Def / 72 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick Room
- Eerie Impulse
- Recover
- Ice Beam
Now it was time to round out the team with a Intimidator. Landorus-T immediately came to mind, offering the team a third Dynamax option, a solid all around attacker, and a Intimidate user with the ability to pivot. I Selected the finest 252/4/252 EVs to maximize speed and power, with the four spare Ev's placed carefully into Special Defense to tie into Landorus's item, Assault Vest. Assault Vest lets Landrous-T take the special hits that the rest of the team does not want to take, and pairs nicely with Intimidate to improve Landorus's overall bulk. Moveset is nothing special, Ground and Flying STAB for when Dynamaxed, Rock Slide for the main non-Dynamax attacking move, and U-turn to pivot.Landorus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Fly
- U-turn
Teambuilding Thoughts:
In my opinion, I like the team, but its probably just alright all things considered. I think I should have spend more time finding something with priority to complement Politoed better, I thought of something with Urshifu-RS, but my team began to feel a little too gimmicky and reliant on Raichu to not get overwhelmed. I went through a lot of other variations and options, notably one with Metagross + Stakataka as a option to deter / abuse Trick Room and take advantage of Rain halving Fire moves. Like I mentioned, Urshifu-RS was an option with Assault Vest, turning it into an better all around pokemon, but it never felt like it was working right on the team. Tornadus was on a few teams as a Tailwind user mainly to help Politoed get of Endeavor's more consistently, but again it dived into the gimmick territory too much rather than being a solid team. Gyarados was heavy considered as an option, giving Intimidate and when paired with Tornadus it was fast enough, but again discarded it earlier on before I settled on Raichu because of the insane Electric and Grass weakness my team was then exposed to. I almost selected Salamence instead of Landorus because I have wanted to build with it for some time, but it does not have the utility that Landorus brings to the table (if only Salamence got Tailwind...).
In terms of the final team, it does not take as much advantage of the rain as some of my other ideas did, but it allows Kingdra to get into positions to take KO's every turn. Raichu protects the water types, letting Kingdra do it's thing without being hit by Electroweb. Zapdos-G serves as the other offensive option, being able to unleash a surprising amount of damage to either cleaning up at the end or Dynamaxing and dealing damage itself. Porygon2's necessity against Trick Room teams / cores can not be understated, having something solid that can disrupt Trick Room can save matches. Landous-T serves as the Intimidator when needed but does not always need to come to the match. Offensively, it is no slouch, giving the team a better option against Steel types allowing you to overwhelm them with neutral Water + super effective Ground attacks. Raichu was the star of the team building process, partially reliving my weakness to Electric moves. Electroweb is still an issue, but with Raichu and Landorus-T both being immune to Electroweb it becomes less of a concern.
Early on, I realized I wanted a different supporting Politoed to build around, and Salac + Endeavor is so fun to pull off and use. It really can open up teams that are harder to chip down, bringing key opponents down to ranges where anything on the team can KO them. For me, Kingdra was a give in, and while Helping Hand / Icy Wind are great supporting options, I've found that taking things HP down is just as good. Who needs Kingdra to do extra damage from Helping Hand when your opponent was brought to 15% last turn by Endeavor? That's the main benefit of Endeavor in my eyes, even if you are not taking your foe down to 1 HP, you still can take a huge chunk of HP away, commonly enough to KO something else the next turn. The team is weaker to Rillaboom than I would like, but there is enough there to handle Rillaboom between Zapdos-G, Raichu, and Porygon2. I mainly wanted to use a more interesting Politoed set and fit in Zapdos-G, and overall I'm happy with the result, and feel free to let me know what you all think about this team.
That's it for now, enjoy your building and maybe consider these questions. See you later!When building offense in VGC, my favorite kind is one that builds to cover all of the things typically considered roadblocks to offense. In this case, I wanted to build a team capable of disrupting all of Fake Out, Intimidate, Screens, Trick Room, Redirection, and Max Airstream; I genuinely believe this is something the team does quite well.
This team also brings me back to some of my ultra series days, and I really appreciate it for doing so.
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As a shock to literally no one, I started at Spectrier. I actually built my NPA week 8 team around (but later dropped) Nasty Plot Spectrier with Clefairy support, but I figured there would be multiple versions of this so I decided to brainstorm for something different. I settled on a 3 Attacks + Protect set because I feel like that's the one that will allow Spectrier to find effective Dynamaxes on a team without redirection. I think having Protect is super important because there are definitely times where it can get pinned by speed control and a max move and you really just need to get a partner in to nab a fake out or answer back with some speed control of your own.
Mienshao has excellent synergy with Spectrier. Fighting and Ghost is unresisted coverage, neither one of the two can be affected by Fake Out, and Mienshao can capitalize off of the Defense drops from Max Phantasm. Taunt and Helping Hand ensure it has adequate utility for slowing down the likes of Porygon2 and Helping Hand for securing KOs that Spectrier would otherwise fall just short of. Not being afflicted by Intimidate is excellent for bopping Incineroar
Entei rounds out my core of Pokemon that really get the offense train going. I liked the idea of having a WP abuser on offense and it's also a great alternative Dynamax option, really my best when it comes to physical attackers. Fire coverage is useful for stuff like Amoonguss and Glastrier that threaten HO a bit. The other moves are really nice with the EdgeQuake + speed control option, never felt like I needed Protect when I'm not disrupted by Fake Out anyway.
At this point I've set my mind on ridiculous HO and as such need to use the Pokemon that enables ridiculous HO. I elected for Coba Berry because I knew I'd need the sash for Urshifu. Helping Hand lets Whimsicott get some mileage before getting hit with Fake Out and supports my physical attackers which is groovy. Not really a ton else to say about it. This is offense and I have a Whimsicott, who saw that coming.
I think every team needs an Electric these days or they'll just get ruined by Tapu Fini. I decided to go with Regieleki because it's a great balance of not too reliant on Dynamax and being quite aggressive still. Fast Electroweb is cool for shutting down things that are attempting to Max Airstream through you. 3 Electric moves just makes the most sense, don't really need Hyper Beam on something I'm not intending on maxing often and I think special sets are still the most bang for your buck currently.
Pretty much the glue mon on this team. Surging Strikes lets it warp through Reflect and chunk Incin/Heatran/Lando, Aqua Jet is good but also activates my Entei's Weakness Policy which is even more good. Two fighting types just seemed like an excellent idea for rounding out a team like this as well, I think it keeps the team really flexible and ultimately rounds out an already multi-layered offense.
If someone steals my thunder as the lastpost I will be upset.