And your mother always told you not to play in the rain... (OU Rain Dance RMT)

[howlingwolf]

This, my friends, is my Rain Dance team.

The team at the glance:

To be very honest, this is one of the teams that has very little thought put into it's actual creation. However, I will try my best to put my thoughts into a logical format for you... don't expect anything too insightful though, 'cos let's face it. I'm MAD.

Kingdra

I love Kingdra. I remember thinking at some point: "I remember playing my old Gold version, and getting utterly destroyed by Clair's bloomin' Kingdra." So, be being the curious creature I am, I looked it up on Smogon. That's where the team began...
Kingdra works best in rain, as I'm sure all of you know. So what did I need next? Something to set rain up!

Jirachi

I've always been a fan of Jirachi. It grants wishes, and it certainly granted my wish for a durable Rain Dance lead, and has the best ability in the game to boot.
That and it's purty.

Ludicolo

Here's where I actually start thinking (well, by my standards it's thinking). I ask myself, what does Kingdra do best; what spectrum is he seen attacking on? Physical! And what's always a good counter for physical walls? Special attacks. Looking through Smogon, I see that no Swift Swimmer does special based attacks better then Ludicolo, so in it goes.

Bronzong

Again, I ask myself, "What if rain runs out? My poor sweepers will be useless!" Now, seeing as both my Kingdra and my Ludicolo are fairly frail (when factoring entry hazards and Life Orb), of course I'm going to need a durable wall who can set up Rain Dance. Bronzong seems to be the best option, as although it shares weaknesses with Jirachi, it's ability and Rain Dance make that... well, unimportant.

Here's where the team went a little hazy.
I used to have my team fitted with a Dugtrio and Starmie. Dugtrio to obviously take out Tyrannitar the other weather inducers, and Starmie to spin out entry hazards and aid the Kingdra and Ludicolo in sweeping.
However.
As you will see below, my team is based around very fast, very strong sweeps. Poor Duggy never got to see much action, as all of his other teammates carry Rain Dance, meaning he's pretty much useless. He was really too fragile to switch into anything save an electric attack, and generally I knock Electric types flat before they have a chance to take me out.
Starmie was useful for a while, but when I realised that my team really didn't need Rapid Spin support. It's focused around doing as much damage as possible quicker then Severus Snape confronted with shampoo (Harry Potter reference; now I can die happy 8D).

Jolteon

First to go was Starmie, 'cos as fond as I was of it, it wasn't adding as much to the team as Dugtrio was.
I added Jolteon to the team 'cos with this team, paralysis destroys it. Enter the lightning Eeveelution to soak up the annoying electrical attack heading my way, and adding some much needed support to the team.

Flotzel

I started thinking again. I really didn't need anymore support, so... why not go overkill and make another sweeper?
I experimented with Relicanth instead of Dugtrio, seeing as Rock is a fantastic attacking type, but I found it really couldn't switch into anything... at all.
After searching around Shoddy, I realised that I was looking at all of these inferior options, when easily the fastest and arguably the best physical Rain Dance sweeper was staring me in the face.
In Flotzel goes.
And of course, knowing me, the inner tube had to appeal to me. It's just to awesome.

Now, for the actual meat of the RMT.


Lead:

ShiningStar @ Damp Rock
Serene Grace
252 HP/176 Speed/80 Special Attack
Timid
-Rain Dance
-Thunder
-Water Pulse
-U-turn

I chose Jirachi as my lead 'cos the idea of having a frail lead really doesn't appeal to me. My Jirachi can take a lot of hits, and still function as a Dancer and a psudo-sweeper.
I'll list most of the common leads and what I do to deal with them.

Aerodactyl - Seeing as my team doesn't mind Stealth Rock overmuch, I Rain Dance, then Thunder. Most people expect me to attack straight away, so Taunt generally isn't an issue. However if my Jirachi is Taunted, I U-turn out to break the Sash, then go to Jolteon. Most of the time Aero will switch out, expecting a Specced Thunderbolt, so I use the chance to set up Rain Dance and switch to a sweeper.
Azelf - Rain Dance and U-turn out to a sweeper. Simple! The only thing I need to watch out for is Explosion, but generally my sweepers are fast and strong enough to take it out before it suicides.
Swampert - He does give me a little trouble, thanks to STAB Earthquake and immunity to Thunder. But because I'm faster then it and generally always survive at least one Earthquake, I set up Rain Dance and switch to Ludicolo.
Gliscor - Rain Dance and Water Pulse, hoping for confusion. If confusion happens, U-turn out to a sweeper. If not, do it again or switch out, depending on how much health I have left.
Tyrannitar - My Jirachi eats Tyrannitar leads for breakfast. Rain Dance to get rid of the Sandstorm, Thunder for paralysis and Water Pulse for confusion, then a super effective U-turn out to a sweeper. When paralysis and confusion fail, I simply U-turn for the kill anyway. He does give some troubles if he keeps switching in and out, however.
Mamoswine - Rain Dance, weather the Earthquake and U-turn to Flotzel or Ludicolo.

If I've forgotten a common lead (which will happen), tell me and I'll tell you what I would do to counter it.


Support:

BigBellThing @ Damp Rock
Levitate
252 HP/128 Attack/128 Defence
Impish
-Rain Dance
-Stealth Rock
-Reflect
-Explosion

Bronzong is mainly used as my mid-game Dancer, then Explodes in the face of something that came out to counter my sweepers.
However, I really get the feeling that this set isn't really very useful at all; does anyone have any suggestions?
His main issues are sweepers that come in the set up on him, and then takes him out before he can Explode. I'm not a huge fan of low accuracy moves like Hypnosis, so although it's useful, I won't use it.

ChargedKitty @ Damp Rock
Volt Absorb
252 HP/232 Speed/24 Special Defence
Timid
-Rain Dance
-Discharge
-Heal Bell
-Wish

Another Damp Rock may seem like overkill, but I find that rain ends all to quickly for my liking.
Jolteon is meant to support the team through Heal Bell and Wish, although the latter isn't used overly often. Status ruins this team, which is why I ran Heal Bell instead of the recommended Baton Pass or Hidden Power Ice.
Discharge was run over Thunderbolt for the paralysis chance, and over Thunder Wave because of Taunt (despite Jolteon's speed).
Obviously Jolt's main role is to absorb Thunder Wave and scare out certain Pokemon by bluffing Specs. I do however have an issue if Jolteon falls; then my team is defeated by status again. How might I overcome this?
Random bit of trivia: This beauty defeated a Cresselia one on one. *snuggles his spiky kitty*

Sweepers:

Tsunami @ Life Orb
Swift Swim
252 Attack/240 Special Attack/16 Speed
Lonely
-Rain Dance
-Waterfall
-Surf
-Draco Meteor

I love my Kingdra. He's a standard mixed sweeper, who more then often takes out at least 2 Pokemon; the one who was taken down by Waterfall and the physical wall that switches into an unexpected Surf. My Kingdra has often swept entire teams, all on the one Rain Dance.
I've considered switching Life Orb with a Splash Plate to bluff a Choice Band, and make Kingdra a little more durable. Thoughts?

InnerTube @ Life Orb
Swift Swim
232 HP/252 Attack/16 Speed
Adamant
-Rain Dance
-Waterfall
-Ice Punch
-Return

I refer to my Flotzel as the 'afterthought'. Although he has wonderful attack and just beautiful speed, he rarely sees any play 'cos Kingdra does his job for him. He has been known to have his uses though.
I ran Life Orb over Choice Band 'cos I really despise the lack of freedom it gives you, and Rain Dance over Crunch because Rain Dance on a sweeper has more then once saved my game.

PINEAPPLE 8D @ Life Orb
Swift Swim
252 Special Attack/252 Speed/4 HP
Modest
-Rain Dance
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Grass Knot

Good old pineapple, where would I be without you?
My special attacker, obviously. Although he also doesn't get to see much action, he sees more then Flotzel 'cos the grass types and heavy water types that switch to counter Kingdra are easily taken down by Ice Beam and Grass Knot. He does have a lot of trouble against Vaporeon; in fact, the whole team does. How would we counteract it?

Well... that's my team. Hopefully it's better done the the last one I posted, and please, don't hold back on criticism and advice; I'm not a brilliant battler and every little bit helps! ^^

 

[EspyJoel]

Hi. This team looks good, but I have some moveslot suggestions mostly to hopefully help it perform even better.

The first thing I notice is a Celebi problem, you may be lucky and overpower it through pure strength, ie not letting it Recover, but an easy solution is putting Signal Beam over Rain Dance since this with will do a lot to Celebi, taking it out after it switches into Waterfall / Surf (although I suggest Hydro Pump over Surf since the extra power helps against Metagross, Swampert, Machamp, Rotom-A, the list goes on). Also, use Naughty nature as Lonely nature is -Def which isn't helpful since this makes taking priority such as Bullet Punch and ExtremeSpeed harder.

Next, I' not a massive fan of Water Pulse on Jirachi, especially as a lead, I think Iron Head with a more physically offensive approach would be much better and will especially help you against Roserade since at the moment you have to sacrifice, I recommend using a Naive nature and 252 Atk / 80 SpA / 176 Spe. Assuming you get the flinch on Roseradem you will 2HKO it before it launches a Sleep Powder, and also stop it getting up Toxic Spikes which badly hurt your team.

On Jolteon, run Thunder over Disharge since paralysis support isn't very helpful for a rd team since as long as you keep the rain p almost nothing outspeeds your team anyway, and the extra power of Thunder will be useful. Also, Wish and Heal Bell with Rain Dance seems like asking for too much. Heal Bell is certaintly the most useful since paralysis is among Rain Dance sweepers greatest fear so I would put Shadow Ball over Wish and possibly run a bit more power.

I would run Energy Ball instead of Grass Knot on Ludicolo since Vaporeon seems like it can give you some problems and unlike Grass Knot, it can't stall out Energy Ball. Maybe also Hidden Power Electric over Rain Dance for an easier time against Gyarados, I don't see the need for so many of your swift swim sweepers to have rd.

I'm not a massive fan of Floatzel. I think Swords Dance Kabutops or Qwilfish would be much better since the extra power helps considerably especially against stall since Floatzel can't do much, but if you want to keep Floatzel then the moves are fine.

Hope this helps and good luck with your team.

 

[DragonPawnch]

Congrats. This is an amazingly standard RD team. I've seen three or four that look just like this (mine included xD). I am in no way saying that being standard is a bad thing, I'm simply saying that this is standard lol. Anyways, on to the rate:

Honestly, I'd ditch either Jolteon for Rotom, who can still take electric attacks well enough, or Kingdra with Gyarados. The reason why? Lucario is a ridiculous threat to the team. The Rain doesn't even help out Ludicolo/Kingdra as Extremespeed bypasses that CC will take care of basically everything else.

If you want try something like;

Jolteon @ Petaya / Leichi Berry
Trait: Volt Absorb
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Charge Beam
- Substitute
- Rain Dance
- Baton Pass
The only reason this works with Petaya / Leichi berry is because of the time constraint Jolteon is under, and sub is often all it passes and leftovers isn't exactly giving jolt any bulk so there's essentially nothing at loss with this set change. Leichi or Petaya will come down to whether or not you find out you need initial Atk boosts outisde of DD or SpA boosts outside of boosts from Charge Beam, granted you wont always have this opportunity in particular...

I also would rather use Kaboutops over Floatzel as aftr a Swords Dance it REALLY hard to stop;
Kaboutops
Ability: Swift Swim
EV's: 72 HP/ 252 Atk/ 184
Adamant nature (+Atk, -Sp.Atk)
- Swords Dance
- Waterfall
- Rock Slide
- Aqua Jet

The parts in red could be changed to Aqua Tail and X-scisor, for things like Celebi.

Good luck, hope this helped!!! :3

 

[Cherub Agent]

Toxic spikes will really hurt here. For this reason, i recommend changing floatzel to a qwilfish. The little spiny thing absorbs the spikes, and can even set them up himself to deal with vaoreon easier. However, i think you should go with a sd set, with sd, waterfall, poison jab and explosion. Water/poison has excellent coverage, and both have stab. Explosion will take out ANYTHING except a ghost after a sd

 

[howlingwolf]

The first thing I notice is a Celebi problem, you may be lucky and overpower it through pure strength, ie not letting it Recover, but an easy solution is putting Signal Beam over Rain Dance since this with will do a lot to Celebi, taking it out after it switches into Waterfall / Surf (although I suggest Hydro Pump over Surf since the extra power helps against Metagross, Swampert, Machamp, Rotom-A, the list goes on). Also, use Naughty nature as Lonely nature is -Def which isn't helpful since this makes taking priority such as Bullet Punch and ExtremeSpeed harder.

Thank you, I will change RD for Signal Beam, because I've had troubles facing Celebi in the past, although more for it's Thunder Wave then for it's durability.
I'm not a huge fan of moves that don't have perfect accuracy; even Draco Meteor was a bit of a stretch for me.
I didn't consider a Naughty nature, I'll change it right away. ^^

Next, I' not a massive fan of Water Pulse on Jirachi, especially as a lead, I think Iron Head with a more physically offensive approach would be much better and will especially help you against Roserade since at the moment you have to sacrifice, I recommend using a Naive nature and 252 Atk / 80 SpA / 176 Spe. Assuming you get the flinch on Roseradem you will 2HKO it before it launches a Sleep Powder, and also stop it getting up Toxic Spikes which badly hurt your team.

True, but I'm actually rather fond of it the way it is. I'll give your way a go, and see how it turns out.

On Jolteon, run Thunder over Disharge since paralysis support isn't very helpful for a rd team since as long as you keep the rain p almost nothing outspeeds your team anyway, and the extra power of Thunder will be useful. Also, Wish and Heal Bell with Rain Dance seems like asking for too much. Heal Bell is certaintly the most useful since paralysis is among Rain Dance sweepers greatest fear so I would put Shadow Ball over Wish and possibly run a bit more power.

I did realise that a few seconds after posting Jolt's moveset; Thunder gives the same paralysis chance as Discharge anyways. I'll make the switch.
Would switching to Hidden Power Ice instead of Shadow Ball be a viable option, do you think?
And what EVs do you recommend?

I would run Energy Ball instead of Grass Knot on Ludicolo since Vaporeon seems like it can give you some problems and unlike Grass Knot, it can't stall out Energy Ball. Maybe also Hidden Power Electric over Rain Dance for an easier time against Gyarados, I don't see the need for so many of your swift swim sweepers to have rd.

I'm not a massive fan of Floatzel. I think Swords Dance Kabutops or Qwilfish would be much better since the extra power helps considerably especially against stall since Floatzel can't do much, but if you want to keep Floatzel then the moves are fine.

Thank you, I will run the switch.

Aw... but it has an inner tube!
Also, I'm really not a huge fan of setting up, either. I know that SD Kabutops has insane power, but I didn't run DD on Kingdra for the same reason; I simply don't like setting up so that I can sweep. I refer to have something else set up, and start sweeping right off the bat.

Great team all in all. I just want to know what you would do if a metagross lead comes around seeing that you have no ground moves (fire would not even help you) it wont do anything to your lead unless it has earthquake (i have not done any calculations so i dont know what would happen to your lead) but it could pose a problem.

Essentially I'd try to paralyze it with Thunder and U-turn, and take it out with STAB Surf/Waterfall from one of my sweepers. Water resists Bullet Punch and Meteor Mash, so they wouldn't bother me unduly.

Honestly, I'd ditch either Jolteon for Rotom, who can still take electric attacks well enough, or Kingdra with Gyarados. The reason why? Lucario is a ridiculous threat to the team. The Rain doesn't even help out Ludicolo/Kingdra as Extremespeed bypasses that CC will take care of basically everything else.

If you want try something like;

Jolteon @ Petaya / Leichi Berry
Trait: Volt Absorb
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Charge Beam
- Substitute
- Rain Dance
- Baton Pass
The only reason this works with Petaya / Leichi berry is because of the time constraint Jolteon is under, and sub is often all it passes and leftovers isn't exactly giving jolt any bulk so there's essentially nothing at loss with this set change. Leichi or Petaya will come down to whether or not you find out you need initial Atk boosts outisde of DD or SpA boosts outside of boosts from Charge Beam, granted you wont always have this opportunity in particular...

Lucario has never really troubled me; maybe 'cos I've never actually battled a team with one that was able to threaten me with Extremespeed. And come to think of it, I'm not sure how I would counter it.
If I lost Jolteon (of switched to the listed Jolteon) I'd lose Heal Bell, which is pretty much the only reason I'm running it, aside from Volt Absorb and as another RD user.
And Gyrados, while an awesome sweeper, isn't a Swift Swimmer, and really (to me) has no place on the team.

Like I said before, I'm not a huge fan of setting up, and I'm also not a huge fan of the Choice Items either. So although I know Kabutops can sweep entire teams, the SD variety doesn't really appeal to me.
Also, Aqua Jet on a RD team...?

Toxic spikes will really hurt here. For this reason, i recommend changing floatzel to a qwilfish. The little spiny thing absorbs the spikes, and can even set them up himself to deal with vaoreon easier. However, i think you should go with a sd set, with sd, waterfall, poison jab and explosion. Water/poison has excellent coverage, and both have stab. Explosion will take out ANYTHING except a ghost after a sd

To be honest, I was under the impression that Poison was a rather poor attacking type. The Explosion does appeal, however...
I'll give it a go and see how it runs. Thanks!