A Simple Rain Team

imcooked

imcooked

I have decided to try to play off of some of the most powerful and prominent Pokemon/strategies the current metagame has to offer by using a Rain team. The team has really been clicking lately, but I still feel like I can make it better. So where else would I go but to the RMT board?

The Team Thus Far

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Politoed@Leftovers
Drizzle/Calm
252 HP / 252 SpDef /6 Def
- Scald
- Hypnosis
- Toxic
- Encore

Politoed is obviously necessary for a rain team, but he can serve a greater purpose too. This would be status conditions, most notably sleep through Hypnosis. Otherwise, Toxic and Scald can spread more status with Scald being used much more often because it does damage too. Encore helps Toxic damage and can be really annoying when I lock my opponent into a fire attack. I'll be honest, other than Hypnosis, I'm not very sure about the set...still, it serves its purpose pretty well. Any help would be appreciated.


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Ferrothorn@Leftovers
Iron Barbs/Sassy
252 HP / 252 SpDef / 6 Atk
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Thunder Wave

Ferrothorn and the next team member are absolutely necessary on rain teams. His 4x weakness to Fire goes by the wayside and Power Whip can take advantage of opposing Water types taking advantage of the Rain. Thunder Wave, surprisingly, has been by far the most useful move on the set. It is so satisfying to nail the opponent's fast Fighting type with paralysis. Sometimes this gives me a chance to set up Leech Seed and Spikes. Other than paralysis, I've noticed Ferrothorn doesn't get a chance to do very much. Perhaps fixing the rest of the team will help...


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Thundurus@Life Orb
Prankster/Naive
252 SpAtk / 252 Speed / 6 Atk
- Thunder
- Hidden Power Ice
- Hammer Arm
- Taunt

Oh, Thundurus, you are most definitely the MVP on the team. I absolutely love this set, which takes advantage of every aspect that makes him so awesome. Thunder is powerful STAB that gets 100% accuracy in the rain, and HP Ice compliments its coverage very well. Hammer Arm nails unassuming Tyranitar and Blissey and takes advantage of his Atk stat which many forget is perfectly fine. Taunt gets priority with Prankster and helps shut down Blissey, Skarmory, Forretress, Ferrothorn, etc. Overall amazing and provides excellent team synergy and power.


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Reuniclus@Life Orb
Magic Guard/Modest
252 HP / 252 SpAtk / 6 Spe
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball/Calm Mind
- Recover

Reuniclus fills an important role on the team as an extremely powerful special attacker that compliments Thundurus. With Magic Guard and Life Orb, Reuniclus hits HARD and uses Psychic, Focus Blast, and Shadow Ball for excellent coverage. It's shocking how often he can beat Gliscor, Tyranitar, and the Latis with these 3 moves. Recover is just too good, restoring the health that I don't lose to hazards and I can sometimes fit in some Calm Minds when I have it. Not really sure: Shadow Ball or Calm Mind? I'm sure I'm not the only to have debated it, but I'm not sure how well Calm Mind fits in to the team...


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Garchomp@Leftovers
Sand Veil/Jolly
252 HP / 120 SpDef / 60 Speed / 78 Def
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Substitute

I am quite surprised, but Garchomp has been doing an excellent job with this somewhat defensive set. Aside from setting up rocks and hitting hard with Earthquake, he also Phazes with Dragon Tail and abuses the ever-present Sandstorm with Sand Veil. Substitute eases prediction and can frustrate the opponent like none other. Truly an outstanding team player that mostly shuffles the team at the beginning of the match. Due to the ridiculous amount of weather teams (kinda why I'm using rain in the first place...) I'm usually forced to save Politoed for a later time; thus, I usually pick Garchomp as my lead, and he has done a tremendous job for the team.


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Scizor@Leftovers
Technician/Adamant
252 Atk / 248 HP / 8 Spe
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Bug Bite

I am very pleased with Scizor who really brings the whole team together. Originally a Toxicroak, I decided I needed someone stronger and bulkier that still does what Toxicroak does...and Scizor fit in perfectly, really jumpstarting the team and lifting my rating higher than it's ever been this generation. Scizor is a great switch-in to many situations and a great answer to Reuniclus, Tyranitar, Terrakion, and many other top threats.


Well, there lays the team. I've climbed to a rating of about 1325 with the team, and I know I can make it even higher with a bit of help. I feel very confident about the team and I've been beating weather teams fairly easily. The biggest problem has been amazing stall teams and specific sandstorm teams. So please rate and review. Thanks for reading!
 
You run all your pokemon with either leftovers or life orb.
Politoed is good. Ferrothorn you could either run a rocky helmet or get rid or leech for Gyro Ball. Make Thundurus with Volt Switch. Reuniclus screams leftovers and recover. Scafted Garchomp as a sweeper: Outrage, Earthquake, Fire Blast, and Stone Edge. Finally Scizor, get rid of Brick Break with something boosted by technician and replace leftovers with life orb.
 
I'm sorry to say this review didn't help at all. You give absolutely no reason why:
1. Your complaints are legitimate.
2. Your solutions are legitimate.

You didn't provide any support at all. Sorry, but I'm going to need some reasoning here.
 
I think Fire Blast does more damage than Fire Fang even though Fire Fang is physical on Garchomp. Dragon Tail should be taken out for Outrage since Outrage kills Pokemon and Dragon Tail really doesn't do that. Leftovers should be taken off Garchomp and you should add:
1. Choice Band/Choice Scarf
To help revenge kill and be more faster/stronger than other Pokemon
or
2. Yache Berry
To help survive Ice Beams

I think Toxic isn't needed on Poli since Poli has Hypnosis, but it's a w/e. Scizor should be choice-banded to get the most out of your Bullet Punches and Swords Dance should be cut for something else.

Thundurus should have Volt Switch to scout and be a lead, but if you don't add it, it's fine. Ferrothorn should have Rocky Helmet and Stealth Rock since Stealth Rock kills Flying-types and Rocky Helmet and Barbs does a lot.
 
Yes, I agree with Kamitsure, as most steels you are hitting a Physically-based, so Fire Blast is definitely a better choice on Chomp. However, it might be good to have Dual Chop instead of Outrage, since Outrage confuses him in the end, and Dual Chop is good to get through Subs and Dragonite's DW ability. Either way though, it's your choice depending on whether you want power or better coverage to hit the odd Subs/Sashes/MultiScaleDragonite.
 
i second rocky helmet on ferrothorn. leftovers is good for revocery but everything seems to have leftovers. in the rain, ferrothorn is hit just as hard with fighting type attacks as fire types, so the extra damage from rocky helmet can be annoying as hell.
other than fire fang, garchomp is fine as it is. remember people: this one is supposed to be bulky and rack up damage with SR/ dragon tail, not an all-out offensive. dragon tail phazes and can just as easily get rid of a sub as dual chop, not to mention if dragonite is switching into SR it loses multiscale anyways.
scizor should run life orb for extra damage. if you keep SD, use superpower over brick break for extra damage. u-turn is fine for scouting, but if you want it to stay in and do damage, use bug bite instead because with technichian, it has 90 BP.
lastly, politoed is fine as is. it cripples physical sweepers, beats stallers without rest, and helps set up with hypnosis. I'm a little skeptical with ferrothorn though. if you want to use gyro ball, take out thunder wave to boost its damage.
NOTE: i rarely go on pokemon online and i havent tested anything. everything i said is theorymon.
 
There's a few recommendations I'd like to make, having mained a rain team for some weeks now (ranked #5 on Smogon DW now...)

@Politoed: I recommend that you try Encore instead of Focus Blast. With Politoed's poor SpAtk stat and no SpA investment, I doubt it will do much to the likes of Ferrothorn, and other Steels (Scizor, Skarmory, Forretress) will be hit much harder with STAB+Rain Scald anyway. Encore used in conjunction with Toxic is excellent, as some setup sweepers like DD Gyarados will switch in expecting an easy setup, and you can lock them into DD and proceed to poison them, slowly wearing them down.

@Ferrothorn: Nothing to say, looks solid. I'm glad you don't use Thunder Wave + Gyro Ball. I recommend that you keep Leftovers, because often Ferrothorn will be switching in on something that can't threaten it, and T-Wave/Spikes/Leech Seed on the switch, which adds up to a lot of free recovery.

@Thundurus: I've only seen that mixed set used once before against me, and it was devastating. I like the creativity, and Thundurus is great for rain abuse.

@Reuniclus: I'd recommend Psychic/FB/Calm Mind/Recover. Its HP stat is excellent, so it can set up in late-game, heal away damage, and sweep. I don't think Sub is particularly useful, as all it will do is ease prediction - Reuniclus isn't bothered by status/Leech Seed/etc. anyway. It won't block Taunt, either. Grass Knot won't hit common Reuniclus switch-ins (Scizor, other Steels) and a lot of the common Waters are too light to be hit hard.

@Garchomp: I dislike Fire Fang, especially without Attack investment. For example, even outside of Rain, you're dealing 20.4% - 24% to physically defensive Skarm. Protect can be used to scout, while Sub can be a good choice to block Chomp from being statused.

@Scizor: I would recommend also:

EVs: 252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 SpD

which I used for the longest time in my rain team - the extra SpDef investment allows Scizor to survive weaker HP Fires/Flamethrowers in the rain. You may want to consider Superpower for significantly greater damage output, but if you feel it clashes with SD too much, Brick Break works fine. I would, however, recommend Bug Bite over U-Turn, because it allows Scizor to keep sweeping as opposed to being forced out when it needs to use its Bug STAB. If you feel that things like Blissey and Heatran aren't a large threat, you might consider dropping your Fighting move for Roost, giving Scizor extra survivability during its sweep - during late game, a lot of things will want to just dent Scizor, and won't be able to strip away half of its health, making Roost useful.
 
Asbestos, Lostaurora, thank you for your comments (the only ones I really found useful...). Superpower and Bug Bite on Scizor are working out very well, and I'm also glad I've kept Recover on Reuniclus - Man, what a boss!

The problems I see right now are -
- Moves on Pokemon that aren't being used (Politoed's Encore in particular).
- Shadow Ball or Calm Mind on Reuniclus...not really sure, as Shadow Ball lets him beat Psychic types easily one-on-one.
- Garchomp: I've been using Substitute in the last slot lately, and also fell in love with a SubSword set...however, I would have to move Stealth Rock elsewhere...and would this new, offensive Garchomp even fit in with the team?

Thanks for the comments so far!
 
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