Much discussion has been made about Walrein in ADV OU. Indeed if posted tomorrow it could easily become Walrein Wednesday, folks... However this is not about Walrein, and is instead about Raikou, and as such I am deciding to post this on a Tuesday.
I started to ideate this team right after I lost to Kaboom in ADVR3 top cut. This was the first time I had ever really struggled into Slop in a tournament setting, which had me thinking of new ways to counter some of the core mons that makes Slop so potent, while still maintaining reasonable viability into other, non-Slop structures. At first I thought abusing Registeel was the correct route to go down, and looked around at mons that could create 101 subs. While sorting Pokemon by base HP I discovered how outstanding Walrein is into the Slop archetype (more on him later), and from this point on the rest of the team building process revolved around supporting Walrein. While testing various builds I found fairly consistent success with Raikou as a part of this core - both offensively and defensively.
Swampert: I struggled for some time on the specific set, but Swampert was always desired as the lead in one way or another. As far as opposing Tyranitar leads go, it's role on slop is largely defined as a suicide lead meant to compromise rock resists for it's team members, and the best way Swampert can avoid this is simply through acting as the lead. While this team has offensive checks to Salamence, nothing especially likes to switch in on it turn 1, and on top of that, Sloppy Toppy is composed of several "half" special walls that cannot afford repeated entries on Mix Mence, so forcing Salamence out turn 1 is very helpful in preserving HP across these checks. As far as other leads are concerned, Zapdos is easily the most difficult for this team. Originally Wish Blissey was run, but that was eventually swapped out for Machamp, which did help this team in many ways, but came at the cost of a very mid matchup into electrics (especially Zapdos). In an attempt to compensate for this I added Counter as Swampert's last move in order to punish HP Grass clicks, which obviously has its own drawbacks, but it does work better than I expected, and if nothing else will discourage clicking HP Grass into Swampert at full HP in later turns as well. If desired though, Refresh helps with the Milotic matchup, and Roar helps with several matchups (sub rachi, sub heracross, Offcune, Boahtar, etc). The EV spread chosen is largely standard, with the goal of chunking incoming Skarmory and outspeeding standard Blissey sets, which can otherwise be a bit obnoxious for this team if the physical pieces are played incorrectly before it is taken out. I will add that I created a
variation of this team for HClat's 4BL ladder challenge that swapped Swampert out for CB Regirock lead, which in many ways actually feels superior at setting tempo, but results in an absolutely abysmal matchup into Sub CM Jirachi.
Salamence: Salamence serves roles both offensively and defensively as the sole ground immune team member. For some time I was operating with Penguin Mence (Brick Break over HP Flying), but eventually Brick Break felt less and less necessary, especially when Machamp was added. Salamence is best used as a late game cleaner once Walrein and Co. have worn down the opposing team, but also serves as a much needed Celebi check, as Walrein shuts down slower paced Celebi sets, but struggles against offensive sets. In the end of the day 99% of games will be ending with Salamence or Raikou on the win screen.
Walrein: Alright so this is the part you've been waiting for. While I was looking at statlines as mentioned in the overview above, I was reminded of how unusually amazing Walrein's statline is. 110/90/90 bulk with Thick Fat is quite frankly outstanding, and helps to diminish many of the shortcomings of the Water/Ice type combination. The stat that stood out to me the most however were not these defenses, and not even its usable mixed offensive stats (80/95), it was it's base 65 speed. Anyone familiar with Walrein's best move will understand why this is so important. Walrein is
THE ONLY Pokemon in the game with all of the following traits: access to Encore, able to outspeed EndPert, resists both Hydro Pump and Ice Beam, and has high enough natural bulk and offenses to be usable in other matchups (Dewgong comes close to this, but is just a worse mon all around). Yes, Timid Walrein is one of the absolute best Endpert counters in the game. At 246 speed and the bulk provided Walrein is able to click Encore into many other notable targets as well however, including most Suicune sets, bulky bi sets, def rachi, virtually all curse users, Blissey, Milotic, Skarmory, and many more. The spread attached allows for Walrein to live quite a few hits from full, including 252+ Tar Rock Slide (with two layers of spikes), +1 Rock Slide from DD Mence (with a 50% chance to live +2), Tbolt from Timid Zapdos and Kou, two giga drains from CM3A Bi, and two meteor mashes from non CB Metagross, while also completely shrugging off almost every Water, Ice, and Fire attack thrown its way. This ensures that offensively, Walrein is at worst trading down in most games. The real value it gains however is in its ability to force switches when Spikes are on the field. Encore accomplishes this of course, but Yawn is a fantastic tool to compound the pressure exerted by Encore, and helps ensure Blissey can't switch in for free. Many other moves were attempted before settling on Yawn, including Substitute (with a higher HP stat to get 101 subs), Earthquake (which primarily punishes Raikou switches from behind a substitute), Toxic, and Roar (which ultimately felt too antithetical to Encore's game flow), but Surf, Ice, Beam, Encore, and Yawn is the most versatile set I have used. Using Encore at the correct moment is important for setup denial, forcing spikes chip, and also for enabling Salamence and Raikou in the late game. I often will use Walrein as an offensive tempo machine, intentionally sacking it to lock a Pokemon to coverage that allows Salamence or Raikou to set up for the win. This works far better than I ever would have expected, and is easily my favorite aspect of this team.
Machamp: Machamp was the last addition to this comp, and is uniquely qualified in the support it offers. The most impactful aspect of Machamp on this team is that it single handedly solves the matchup into Snorlax, Blissey, and Taunt Gar, while also assisting in the Registeel, Tyranitar, Skarmory, and (to an extent) Salamence matchups. As mentioned earlier, this slot was originally held by Wish Blissey, which did help extend Walrein and Swampert's lifespans in most games, but left glaring weaknesses to every mon mentioned above, especially Taunt Gar, which would force wisp onto Raikou and damage its ability to clean. Machamp is here to switch in aggressively on normals and Tyranitar, and punish incoming switches. In theory I could see a more gimmicky set like Cross Chop, Rock Slide, Rest, and Sleep Talk finding some value, as Machamp is typically going down before the rest of the team, but Machamp's purpose still gets accomplished with a more rounded Bulk up set.
Raikou: Raikou acts as one of two win conditions on this comp, while also acting as a valuable special switch. Even with the addition of Machamp, and adding HP Flying to Salamence, this team's matchups into Celebi and Gengar are still uneasy enough to warrant the inclusion of Crunch over Sub, which also has the added benefit of ensuring you aren't wasting valuable HP on Substitutes now that Wish Blissey is gone. Raikou serving a more defensive role and entering the field more often than it might on other teams makes this HP preservation incredibly important. Early game you are typically going to be playing hit and run more than anything else - pivoting on electric coverage and chunking whatever comes next before switching to Machamp on the opponent's blob of choice. While additional bulk over speed can certainly be considered, I have found that it is nice to be able to hit 361 in order to create a much better matchup into OffMie while acting as a secondary EndPert check.
Forretress: Forretress was the weirdest fit on this team. Sloppy Toppy needs one of either Spikes or Sand to create any progress at all, and after a lot of testing it became clear that this team needs Spikes way more than it needs Sand. Most of the early to midgame consists of aggressive switches/encores in order to force your opponent to switch, and spikes just enable this play style too much to give up. In addition this team is obviously very grounded, so having spin support is massive. Not having a way to trap Gengar is a downside of course, but every Pokemon on this team has a way to pressure Skarmory, and if Forretress is able to predict Skarmory entries, then spikes can still be denied. I had attempted a set utilizing Zap Cannon in order to hit Gengar and Skarmory, but in the end of the day Earthquake to hit Raikou, Jolteon, and Magneton felt more impactful in an average game, and Explosion helps remove Zapdos and some of the bulky threats that are tough to pin down in a way that is appreciated by everyone else on this team. I will say that this is the set that is most open to interpretation, and is one that I have changed multiple times.
--------------------------------------------------
I have had a ton of success with this team, reaching a peak of around 1730 on ladder, and winning roughly 80% (if my math is correct) of the more "real" games I have brought it to (mostly King of the Hill on the ADV Discord, with a few tour sets in Mugulis Cup and SSNL). This team highlights a lot of Pokemon in some very fun ways, while showcasing the most unique Walrein set seen in years. I don't think it's perfect, and I am still actively adjusting things, but I am at a point where I am happy enough to share it with the world.
was #1. I clicked on 
, 
, which admittedly are pretty horrible things to worry about, but 
