Hello everyone! I'm Bit, resident Natdex ladder meme and washed Monotype player presenting this fun team I made on a whim after seeing Ske's team on the RMT forums, go check that one out since I stole a lot of things from it! I saw that team with 5 water types and my Monotype-trained brain instantly went 'I bet I can replace Archaludon with another one and make something still decent' and that's how this team was born!
So starting off from where Ske had left off, I knew I wasn't going to touch a majority of the sets since they clearly worked well together. The question then became who could replace Archaludon? On Ske's team, it performed the role of Eject-Button switch in, typically after a Pelipper lead. Additionally it's the Rocker of the team, so I needed to figure out a water type that could accomplish both things. Ultimately I chose the somewhat boring solution of Empoleon since it happens to also be a Steel type that gets Stealth Rocks and has excellent Special Defense to compliment Pelipper's investment in Physical Defense.
After this change I took the team to the ladder and quickly rose past the 1500s, but I started noticing some weaknesses. (besides the Obvious from packing 6 Water types) In particular, while Quaquaval was powerful, it often got chipped really easily before it could snowball into a sweep. I also found myself struggling with late-game Kingambit as it was my only Knock Off switchin that could hurt it and it's bulk didn't satisfy me. So I went with the much sturdier Urshifu-Rapid, who also gave the team an even stronger wallbreaker and insurance against defensive setup sweepers like Iron Defense Zamazenta or Cosmic Power users.
Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog
Pelipper serves as the team's obligatory Rain setter and default lead. Running 6 Water Types comes with a inherent weakness to many common Moves, so the team cannot afford to be passive and must go on the offensive. Rain provides this benefit to all members of the team, increasing the damage of their STAB moves by 50% and doubling the Speed of the Swift Swim users. I doubt a team sharing a type on all 6 members can have much success in standard National Dex without the sort of absurd boost Rain provides. (Maybe a full Stall team??)
It's a fairly standard Pelipper set, but we crucially invest in Physical Defense to take hits such as unboosted Scarf Kartana Leaf Blade or Ogerpon-Wellspring Horn Leech and either threaten a KO or extreme damage with Hurricane. Additionally Pelipper serves as an excellent check to the otherwise threatening Zamazenta being able to switch in to any hit and 2HKO back. U-turn is there for when you're sure the opponent is clicking Rocks or U-turn themselves turn 1 and you want to get momentum while preserving Empoleon's Eject Button, Roost provides longevity over longer games and allows Pelipper to switch into Rocks more often (this team often has Rocks up against it) and Defog is mostly there for emergencies due to the team's crippling weakness to Toxic Spikes.
Swampert-Mega @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Flip Turn
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
Mega Swampert is a staple of Rain teams and it's easy to see why. The combination of Liquidation and Flip Turn means it deals enormous amounts of damage under Rain while also providing easy momentum for all it's teammates. An Adamant Nature was chosen in order to have Earthquake do as much damage as possible to Alomomola who is a thorn on this team's side in most scenarios and to try our damndest to weak down Toxapex. Poison Jab is there to nab the surprise 2HKO on Ogerpon-Wellspring after it switches into Earthquake and is absolutely mandatory for this team (unless it gets banned, then you could start considering Ice Punch for the Latis or even Toxic for Alo).
Kingdra @ Choice Specs
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Weather Ball
- Draco Meteor
- Flip Turn
- Hurricane
Every generation they count Kingdra out. "85 Special Attack isn't enough anymore, powercreep has beaten Kingdra"
And every generation Kingdra returns and reminds everyone exactly why it's been a menace since Black and White.
This is a fairly standard Kingdra set. Weather Ball for inmense damage under Rain, dealing upwards of 50% to threats such as Slowbro and even doing around 40% to Physically Defensive Alomomola, OHKOing offensive theats such as Tapu Koko and Iron Valiant (who we crucially outspeed with Timid Nature). Draco Meteor is there to delete Mega Latis and most Dragons while dealing big damage to Water-resists, Flip Turn provides excellent momentum for the many Special walls Kingdra forces in (looking at you Chansey and Tyranitar) and Hurricane provides great coverage and is the only Move on the team that can force out a 100% HP Ogerpon-Wellspring. Kingdra will always be a monster, no matter how many people forget it.
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Aqua Jet
This thing is absurd. Under the Rain, Choice Band boosted Surging Strikes melts absolutely everything, even resists. Physically Defensive Skarmory can only switch in once and is left at 20%. If your name isn't Slowbro or Physicall Defensive Toxapex, you're getting 2HKO'd. Close Combat is there to do upwards of 40% to Alomomola, abusing Unseen Fist to go straight through it's Wish + Protect shenanigans and force it out. It also has the added bonus of OHKOing Ferrothorn, who is an annoyance to deal with. U-turn is there for momentum on the very few things Surging Strikes doesn't just delete and Aqua Jet provides extra insurance against chipped setup Sweepers and weakened Kingambit in the late-game.
Rotom-Wash @ Waterium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunder
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot
Full credit to Ske for this one, this set is genius. The team can sometimes struggle to deal with the combined bulk of Alomomola + Ferrothorn cores. Rocks come up, Urshifu gets slowly chipped, it's not a good time. Sub-Waterium Z Rotom-Wash provides a surprisingly good option to handle this. Click sub on Alo as it tries to either flip turn or toxic, click NP on ferrothorn as it breaks the sub, unleash +2 Rain Boosted Hydro Vortex to get rid of the annoyance... Or Sub again as your opponent predicts the Z move and get a very free hit off next turn. The choice of Thunder is really interesting as most people expect Thunderbolt and do things like let their 80% Alomomola just die to Thunder's raw power. The paralysis chance for things this set cannot touch such as the Mega Latis is also a nice touch and allows for fishing in bad positions. We run max speed and Timid nature to outspeed Terapagos which can hard-switch into Rotom using it's Ability and force it out otherwise.
I will note however that this set can sometimes be tough to play. No recovery at all means you have to be extremely precise on what turns it's best to Sub and what turns it's best to simply Hydro Pump to preserve Rotom-Wash's HP. The Z-move timing can also make the difference between breaking through a Core and just thudding into an Assault Vest Amoonguss.
Empoleon @ Eject Button
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Flip Turn
- Toxic
- Roost
My replacement for Archaludon and the key to alot of games. The standard game plan with Empoleon is for it to switch in after a Pelipper lead on Turn 1. Because of it's stellar Special bulk it can tank almost any hit aimed at Pelipper (Very commonly this is a Raging Bolt Draco Meteor as they predict Swampert), even strong Volt Switches typically only does around 40% meaning you then get a free switch into Swampert with the rain already up. There are matches where Empoleon will be busy walling a threat (such as non-Aura Sphere Mega Lati@s or Volcarona with Rain up), so it's best to get rid of the Eject Button early, and there are other matches where you can freely sack it for the momentum.
Rocks are self-explanatory although the team rarely needs to get them up to break things, Flip Turn provides excellent momentum and surprisingly good damage with Rain + Torrent boosts, Toxic is there to stop setup threats such as Calm Mind Mega Lati@s or Quiver Dance Volcarona and Roost is there for the longevity to actually stall out those threats.
Fun battle vs Ogerpon-W. Managed to catch it with Poison Jab Pert even after Lando's intim
Another Poison Jab Pert moment
One of many encounters with this particular Rain team. Thanks to Kingdra we do fine in the Rain Mirror if we kill Ferro
Aqua Jet Shifu saves me from a Zard-X sweep
Seemingly hopeless encounter vs Articuno is saved by Pert
Urshifu saves the game by triple Static Dodging in a hopeless position
Rotom-W pulls off the win vs Scary Pecharunt team
Interesting battle vs Meowscarada Sun
Rotom-W deletes Alo + Chansey team
Close win vs Ogerpon-W HO
Mega Venusaur + Zapdos is hard to deal with
Even Rillaboom can be played around
Playing an entire game with Rocks and Spikes up on my side
Peak Replay against Ogerpon-W offense
Another Poison Jab Pert moment
One of many encounters with this particular Rain team. Thanks to Kingdra we do fine in the Rain Mirror if we kill Ferro
Aqua Jet Shifu saves me from a Zard-X sweep
Seemingly hopeless encounter vs Articuno is saved by Pert
Urshifu saves the game by triple Static Dodging in a hopeless position
Rotom-W pulls off the win vs Scary Pecharunt team
Interesting battle vs Meowscarada Sun
Rotom-W deletes Alo + Chansey team
Close win vs Ogerpon-W HO
Mega Venusaur + Zapdos is hard to deal with
Even Rillaboom can be played around
Playing an entire game with Rocks and Spikes up on my side
Peak Replay against Ogerpon-W offense
Probably too many to count but I'll give the most glaring ones.
This thing is a pain. Able to 2HKO or OHKO the entire team with Rocks up, inmune to Water, has Horn Leech to heal off chip damage... The best approach is usually to bait it in with Mega Swampert and surprise it with Poison Jab, but if that's not working you can also scare it out with Kingdra's Hurricane. Make sure to play around Trailblaze sets as if they get to +2 and your checks are too low the game's over.
As you might expect from a dedicated Rain team, opposing Weather can be hard to handle. These teams are often packing many things to handle Rain such as Raging Bolt, Ferrothorn or Alomomola, which only ups the difficulty. Special Mention to Zard-y for how hard it is to switch into. Empoleon can take a Weather Ball once, but it'll be left too low to take further hits without a sack to Roost off of. Kingdra is a surprisingly good pivot as long as you play around Air Slash.
Due to my silly decision to slap 6 Water types together, the team is inherently weak to powerful Electric and specially Grass type attackers. At least with most Electric Types you can play around their moves using Mega Swampert and Empoleon for their coverage, but the only way to truly handle Grass Types is with strong offensive pressure and scaring them out with either Pelipper or Kingdra in the right position.
This team is reliant on Rain boosted Water Moves to break down the opposition, so strong Regenerator Water resists like these are really annoying as they can switch in to our moves and stall our Rain turns. Rotom-Wash takes advantage of alot of these but you will have to be extremely careful with managing it's HP in order to not be too worn down to beat them in a long game.
Same deal as the above, except now you have to rely on your Hurricane Pokemon or a +2 Rain-boosted Waterium-Z to break through. Very tough to deal with, but technically still possible as Empoleon can at least sponge their hits and get Rocks up.
Forfeit immediately. There is no hope of ever beating Shedinja Stall without either Toxic on Swampert or the opponent being really silly while using it. I mostly didn't bother even playing games when I ran into this during my climb.
This thing is a pain. Able to 2HKO or OHKO the entire team with Rocks up, inmune to Water, has Horn Leech to heal off chip damage... The best approach is usually to bait it in with Mega Swampert and surprise it with Poison Jab, but if that's not working you can also scare it out with Kingdra's Hurricane. Make sure to play around Trailblaze sets as if they get to +2 and your checks are too low the game's over.
As you might expect from a dedicated Rain team, opposing Weather can be hard to handle. These teams are often packing many things to handle Rain such as Raging Bolt, Ferrothorn or Alomomola, which only ups the difficulty. Special Mention to Zard-y for how hard it is to switch into. Empoleon can take a Weather Ball once, but it'll be left too low to take further hits without a sack to Roost off of. Kingdra is a surprisingly good pivot as long as you play around Air Slash.
Due to my silly decision to slap 6 Water types together, the team is inherently weak to powerful Electric and specially Grass type attackers. At least with most Electric Types you can play around their moves using Mega Swampert and Empoleon for their coverage, but the only way to truly handle Grass Types is with strong offensive pressure and scaring them out with either Pelipper or Kingdra in the right position.
This team is reliant on Rain boosted Water Moves to break down the opposition, so strong Regenerator Water resists like these are really annoying as they can switch in to our moves and stall our Rain turns. Rotom-Wash takes advantage of alot of these but you will have to be extremely careful with managing it's HP in order to not be too worn down to beat them in a long game.
Same deal as the above, except now you have to rely on your Hurricane Pokemon or a +2 Rain-boosted Waterium-Z to break through. Very tough to deal with, but technically still possible as Empoleon can at least sponge their hits and get Rocks up.
Forfeit immediately. There is no hope of ever beating Shedinja Stall without either Toxic on Swampert or the opponent being really silly while using it. I mostly didn't bother even playing games when I ran into this during my climb.
Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog
Swampert-Mega @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Flip Turn
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
Kingdra @ Choice Specs
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Weather Ball
- Draco Meteor
- Flip Turn
- Hurricane
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Aqua Jet
Rotom-Wash @ Waterium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunder
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot
Empoleon @ Eject Button
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Flip Turn
- Toxic
- Roost
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog
Swampert-Mega @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Flip Turn
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
Kingdra @ Choice Specs
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Weather Ball
- Draco Meteor
- Flip Turn
- Hurricane
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Aqua Jet
Rotom-Wash @ Waterium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunder
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot
Empoleon @ Eject Button
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Flip Turn
- Toxic
- Roost
This was a really fun challenge! Really felt like it brought me back to my Monotype roots. (Although I hardly played Rain back then lol)
Once again huge shoutout to Ske for the original team I stole 85% of the sets from. This RMT wouldn't even exist without that one!
As a final note I'll add that the peak was performed during cycle 4 of the National Dex Ladder Tournament, so there's a good chance all the good Ladder players had already qualified and I dodged all of them. Take this team to the ladder at your own risk! (It's really fun though!)
Additionally shoutouts to all my Discord peeps and old Monotype frens, you know who you are.
Once again huge shoutout to Ske for the original team I stole 85% of the sets from. This RMT wouldn't even exist without that one!
As a final note I'll add that the peak was performed during cycle 4 of the National Dex Ladder Tournament, so there's a good chance all the good Ladder players had already qualified and I dodged all of them. Take this team to the ladder at your own risk! (It's really fun though!)
Additionally shoutouts to all my Discord peeps and old Monotype frens, you know who you are.
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