SM OU A beginner's rain team.

[Bopimus_Prime]

Please be aware that I don't know how to speak the pokemon competitive language, please try to not include too much of it in your suggestions, it's difficult to understand for me. Anyway, here's my rain team!

Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 36 Def / 224 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- U-turn
- Roost
- Hurricane

This is Pelipper, the pokemon that sets up the rain, which is vital for this team to function with high performance. He is not supposed to deal much damage, hence why his EVs are defensively focused. I chose scald because of it's accuracy and the chance to burn, which is very useful and has saved me a couple of times. U-Turn is to switch into other pokemon, while dealing a tiny bit of damage (is that what you guys call "pivoting"?) Roost helps a ton to keep pelipper alive, which in turn helps my whole team. Hurricane is a powerful flying-type move, which also never misses in rain.

Dwayne (Swampert-Mega) @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Power-Up Punch

Swampert *cough* Dwayne is my mega on this team, and he is supposed to play the role of a... sweeper? is that it? anyways, the guy who kills their whole team after they have been weakened enough. Waterfall is a high-damage move, and because Mega-Dwayne is really quick in rain, it kills a lot of weakened pokemon. Earthquake is a powerful move, too, and it also has... coverage? It hits a bunch of types for super effective, basically.

Greninja @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- Ice Beam

Greninja is my secondary killer, in case I am stupid again and Dwayne dies. Although Greninja is the one who dies first usually..
Greninja has Choice specs to boost his special attack even further. Hydro Pump and Dark Pulse are good STAB for him. (heh, I know what STAB means) Water Shuriken becomes a very good move if I manage to get into Ash-Greninja forme, and under rain it hits for quite hefty damage. Ice Beam is meant to be there for being able to hit different opposing types for good damage.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 232 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Knock Off
- Power Whip

Ferrothorn is my hazard setter. He can put leech seed, and stealth rock on enemies, which sometimes gets the enemy to switch. Iron Barbs Does some additional damage. I was very temped to put a rocky helmet on him, would that be a good idea? Anyway, Knock Off is a great Dark move, which gets super effective on some types that my team doesn't. Power Whip is a Grass move with hefty power, allows me to kill enemy water pokemon.

Tapu Koko @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Electric Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 32 HP / 88 Def / 172 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost

Tapu Koko's thunderbolt is STAB and never misses in rain, which is great. Volt Switch allows me to change to other pokemon effectively. Hidden Power Ice is another Ice move, for hitting enemies for SE. Roost allows me to regenerate Tapu Koko back to full health, which is great because Thunderbolt is a useful move. I chose him because Electricity is a very powerful type against a multitude of enemies, so I decided to use it.

Gliscore (Gliscor) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spe
Impish Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Taunt

Gliscor is here to deal with Stall teams. Stall hurts my brain, soul, team and ladder ranking, so I thought to put Gliscor on my team, as I see that he can learn Taunt, and benefits from being intoxicated. Gliscor can Taunt enemy stallers that don't have much of powerful moves besides ones like toxic. Ice fang is a powerful move against enemy Gliscors, which seem to be a common pokemon on teams. Swords dance allows me to deal a lot of damage when I have a bit of time to set it up.

This is like the 15th iteration of the team I have, and it does lose sometimes, but it is still the most successful version of the team so far. Please help a new trainer out, what can I do to fix this team and upgrade it?

And can anyone explain what the heck is a "check" from a pokemon to another one?

 

[Shōnen dokusha]

Hello Bopimus_Prime !

Your team is good, however, some modifications can be made to improve it. But, before everything, the definition of ''check'' is a Pokémon that can win another one everytime (not factoring hax) in a free switch, but isn't always a safe counter.

First of all, your Gliscor. Ice Fang can be useful sometimes, but very rarely. For example stall Gliscor does not have Ice Fang normally, so why would one switch into you if is the only way to deal with it? Ice Fang could be easily switched to Stealth Rock, that is much more useful and is not too circumstantial.

Well, after that, i don't see other necessary modifications. Power Up Punch isn't a bad option to your Swampert. Is only a little situational, and provides a good Attack boost. If you think is too specific though, you can swap it to Superpower for a bigger damage output.

That is it! Sorry for bad english, and please contact me if there is any doubt. Bye!

 

[Slave Of Passion]

Hi, I'm not good at writing but I'll try to give you some insight.

Gliscor doesn't really fit on rain teams and aside from Pelipper and Ferrothorn rain needs a third defensive mon that can help vs Kartana, because Ferro can't really touch it and it can just kill everything normally seen on those teams with Leaf Blade and Sacred Sword.

--->

Tornadus T helps vs Kartana because it can switch into its attacks, threaten it with a Hurricane that always kills and never misses on rain and regenerate part of the damage with its ability. It is also a much needed backup answer to grass types in general, because they are the biggest problem for these teams and almost always pack coverage to hit Ferro.

With Torn you form the canonical backbone of rain teams. These 4 are so tried and true together that basically every serious rain team uses them. Ferrothorn covers the elemental weaknesses of Peli, who already has good defensive prowess. Torn gives you extra safety vs grass types and offensive presence with its speed and powerful Hurricanes and Swampert aside from being the most consistent rain abuser is also a very bulky Ground that can wall Electric Types that are a big problem otherwise.

The last to slots are free for two offensive mons of your preference. The best idea, I think, is to have one powerful wallbreaker (that are generally slow) and a faster mon to control speed and likely sweep teams.

These are the possible sweepers that I've seen, in the order I see them more viable. They all abuse rain in some sense, be it speed boost, Water power or accurate thunders. The sets are no mistery so here they are: https://pokepast.es/a7c537b24e68333f. You can try them all, but I see Greninja more threatening.

These are the most powerful mons you can use on rain, and they all do well vs stall. https://pokepast.es/93f9b76831ad14a6 you can go with set-up or immediate power. If you feel like faster teams are giving you trouble, try the ones that have Aqua Jet. If you want to absolutely demolish any stall go with Choice Band Crawdaunt.

--->

In your team's case I think u could switch Koko for SD Crawdaunt, since you don't have a Z-crystal. It will do the trick vs stall and will keep the ability to switch moves and have a single hit that is stronger that any banded move, it can also sweep with the combination of SD and Jet.

https://pokepast.es/3ec3e8810663988b
I also made some little changes that I'll explain: Knock Off on Pelipper can help Greninja break Chansey and Tapu Fini, mons that don't tend to stay on Ferrothorn or Tornadus. Unlike Ferro, Swampert can get Stealth Rocks up vs stall, because it scares out Mega Sableye. Power-up Punch can be annoying, but makes no difference vs Tangrowth, that is the best answer to Pert. Now Ferro can have Spikes; what they do is make your priority moves insanely deadly and help a lot vs bulky teams. Gyro Ball is for Tapu Lele and Opposing Tornadus. It doesn't need more moves so I put Thunder Wave in case u lose Pelipper and your opponent has something like a Charizard X or a Volcarona, that way they can set-up in front of it. Iapapa Berry equals 8 turns of Leftovers; rain games tend to be quick, so it is better to have the immediate recovery.

https://www.smogon.com/smog/issue32/checks-and-counters

Thats it, I hope this is helpful.

 

[Ronneberg]

Manaphy rain by Ske is just objectively better than this. Pelipper, Mega Pert, Ash-Gren, Tornadus and Ferrothorn are the go to spine almost all good rain teams go by, with only slight variations. And these five with Waterium Z Manaphy build the go to rain team imo, doing well against practically anything except designated rain counters.

 

[Bopimus_Prime]

Hi, I'm not good at writing but I'll try to give you some insight.

Gliscor doesn't really fit on rain teams and aside from Pelipper and Ferrothorn rain needs a third defensive mon that can help vs Kartana, because Ferro can't really touch it and it can just kill everything normally seen on those teams with Leaf Blade and Sacred Sword.

--->

Tornadus T helps vs Kartana because it can switch into its attacks, threaten it with a Hurricane that always kills and never misses on rain and regenerate part of the damage with its ability. It is also a much needed backup answer to grass types in general, because they are the biggest problem for these teams and almost always pack coverage to hit Ferro.

With Torn you form the canonical backbone of rain teams. These 4 are so tried and true together that basically every serious rain team uses them. Ferrothorn covers the elemental weaknesses of Peli, who already has good defensive prowess. Torn gives you extra safety vs grass types and offensive presence with its speed and powerful Hurricanes and Swampert aside from being the most consistent rain abuser is also a very bulky Ground that can wall Electric Types that are a big problem otherwise.

The last to slots are free for two offensive mons of your preference. The best idea, I think, is to have one powerful wallbreaker (that are generally slow) and a faster mon to control speed and likely sweep teams.

These are the possible sweepers that I've seen, in the order I see them more viable. They all abuse rain in some sense, be it speed boost, Water power or accurate thunders. The sets are no mistery so here they are: https://pokepast.es/a7c537b24e68333f. You can try them all, but I see Greninja more threatening.

These are the most powerful mons you can use on rain, and they all do well vs stall. https://pokepast.es/93f9b76831ad14a6 you can go with set-up or immediate power. If you feel like faster teams are giving you trouble, try the ones that have Aqua Jet. If you want to absolutely demolish any stall go with Choice Band Crawdaunt.

--->

In your team's case I think u could switch Koko for SD Crawdaunt, since you don't have a Z-crystal. It will do the trick vs stall and will keep the ability to switch moves and have a single hit that is stronger that any banded move, it can also sweep with the combination of SD and Jet.

https://pokepast.es/3ec3e8810663988b
I also made some little changes that I'll explain: Knock Off on Pelipper can help Greninja break Chansey and Tapu Fini, mons that don't tend to stay on Ferrothorn or Tornadus. Unlike Ferro, Swampert can get Stealth Rocks up vs stall, because it scares out Mega Sableye. Power-up Punch can be annoying, but makes no difference vs Tangrowth, that is the best answer to Pert. Now Ferro can have Spikes; what they do is make your priority moves insanely deadly and help a lot vs bulky teams. Gyro Ball is for Tapu Lele and Opposing Tornadus. It doesn't need more moves so I put Thunder Wave in case u lose Pelipper and your opponent has something like a Charizard X or a Volcarona, that way they can set-up in front of it. Iapapa Berry equals 8 turns of Leftovers; rain games tend to be quick, so it is better to have the immediate recovery.

https://www.smogon.com/smog/issue32/checks-and-counters

Thats it, I hope this is helpful.

Thank you for this well-expanded reply! It really helped. Now I understand what checks are, and just need to study the typing table more. Anyway, thank you again for this, and I'll also try switching some of it up with the pokemon you suggested. And of course, I'll try using the full team you suggested at the bottom. Have a nice day!

 

[Bopimus_Prime]

Hello Bopimus_Prime !

Your team is good, however, some modifications can be made to improve it. But, before everything, the definition of ''check'' is a Pokémon that can win another one everytime (not factoring hax) in a free switch, but isn't always a safe counter.

First of all, your Gliscor. Ice Fang can be useful sometimes, but very rarely. For example stall Gliscor does not have Ice Fang normally, so why would one switch into you if is the only way to deal with it? Ice Fang could be easily switched to Stealth Rock, that is much more useful and is not too circumstantial.

Well, after that, i don't see other necessary modifications. Power Up Punch isn't a bad option to your Swampert. Is only a little situational, and provides a good Attack boost. If you think is too specific though, you can swap it to Swords Dance for a greater boost, or to Superpower for a bigger damage output.

That is it! Sorry for bad english, and please contact me if there is any doubt. Bye!

Oh, so a check is like a pokemon that checks an opponent's pokemon off of an imaginary list of threats, and goes "Yep, he's dead."

Thanks for suggesting the switch-up on the Swampert's moves, makes a lot of sense.

Thanks for the suggestion! Have a great day!

 

[RaikouLover]

Manaphy rain by Ske is just objectively better than this. Pelipper, Mega Pert, Ash-Gren, Tornadus and Ferrothorn are the go to spine almost all good rain teams go by, with only slight variations. And these five with Waterium Z Manaphy build the go to rain team imo, doing well against practically anything except designated rain counters.

So rather than help the OP's team, we just direct him to another team?

OP, here are my two cents:
Before I can offer a full rate I have to ask... what is the focal point of this team? Is there a mon or idea you wish to try?

As for suggestions on building rain, I have dozens of builds and they always start with Pelipper and Manaphy, specifically this Manaphy set. Those are the two most important mons on any rain team. Pelipper is obvious but Manaphy is the best rain abuser in OU because it provides a powerful way to break fatter teams, a status absorber, a bulky wincon, and an emergency check for various set up mons. Manaphy takes rain to new heights instead of being pure ladder matchup fishing.

From there, choose a defensive steel. This is either Ferrothorn or Assault Vest Magearna. Ferrothorn offers unmatched utility, Magearna offers momentum, a dark resist, and offensive presence if that's your preference.

After those three, the next three slots are up for grabs depending on where you wish to go with the team. Some things to consider - Kartana / Serperior / Grass check, Electric immunity, Swift Swim, Water Shuriken Wall (Water Absorb, Dry Skin or 4Xs resist), etc, and late game sweepers. I can tell you right away Gliscor most likely won't fit on a rain build because he makes the Grass & Water problem worse.