SS OU Choice Specs Landorus-T in Rain 1695+

[LudwigFrog]

Hello and welcome to my team, I decided to put together a different type of rain team than you would normally see. I put Landorus as the main idea. What are Landorus most common switch ins? Tangrowth, Opposing Landorus, Hippowdon, Slowbro etc, you get the deal. But what if you could smack these counters while least expected (I put lando towards the end of the team so people would least expect it lol). Specs Weather Ball can melt opposing Landorus. Need to take care of that annoying defensive Hippo? Smack it with modest Earth Power, same deal for Slowbro and so on.
But here is the teambuilding process.

TEAM BUILDING PROCESS:

Obviously, I need a rain setter, and it's a no brainer. Pelipper sets rain pivots out etc, very self explanatory.


I was originally gonna run over Barraskweda. However, the team seemed to lack speed, and I didn't want to get swept by Kartana when Pelipper is dead. Barraskewda is a basic set, with Flip Turn for Momentum, Liquidation for strong STAB, and I ran Close Combat to hit Ferrothorn. Psychic Fangs is the 4th move, as I really need to hit Toxapex, and I can also hit things like the Occasional Weasing-Galar.


Ferrothorn is pretty standard and great in rain as fire gets sevearly weakened in the rain. It is one of the main defensive walls of the team, and can take hits specially, and physical hits.


Also a very common rain abuser. Offensive Zapdos can deal real damage with the rain, as it has a solid base 125 special attack, and has strong STAB moves that have their chance of missing nullified cause of the rain. I put it in over Torn, or other flying type sweepers, as I needed to deal with opposing bulky Waters like Toxapex and so on.


This is an obscure pick. I looked at the team and questioned what it was weak to. Rillaboom, Kartana, Volcarona, and Bisharp were the main ones. Defensive Kommo-o does a great job dealing with all of these, with having high base defense and special defense. It also is the rock setter for the team, and has Toxic to status.


Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Defog
- Roost
- U-turn
Pelipper dosen't really need an explanation, as it is very self explanatory. Set rain, pivot out, yeah yeah, you know the drill.


Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flip Turn
- Liquidation
- Close Combat
- Psychic Fangs
Barraskewda is a standard sweeper for rain teams due, to its amazing speed, and power, allowing it to outspeed Scarf Kartana, set up Hawlucha, etc.
Barraskewda will do its thing. It pressures the opponent's Stealth Rock user so Pelipper dosen't have to come in and take 24%.


Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Leech Seed
- Iron Head
- Spikes
- Knock Off
I used a pretty standard Ferrothorn set, but I put Iron Head over Power Whip on it, as I needed a more reliable way to deal with Tapus, Clefable, Weavile, etc. You need to make sure to Leech Seed often, as keeping Ferrothorn alive is very important. It also must have Knock off since no other mons in the team have it.


Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Defog
- Roost
- Hurricane
Offensive Zapdos, a standard in rain teams. Thunder and Hurricane is a solid offensive typing, and 2 strong STAB moves that the chance of missing being removed. I gave it Weather Ball to increase its utility in the rain, and can smack Lando, Heatran, etc. Having these attributes makes Zapdos a no brainer for rain teams.


Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 12 Def / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Weather Ball
- U-turn
- Sludge Wave
Now Specs Landorus. It smacks all the obvious physical walls that get in its way, so having Specs + modest make it destroy the normal checks. I stated earlier on why I used Weather Ball, and Earth Power is it's stab. U turn is to help keep momentum, and pivot into your other pokemon. I added Sludge Wave as its 4th and final move, as I wanted to be able to hit Rillaboom, Tapu Fini, Clefable and such. I gave it the speed evs to outspeed Timid Heatran. And I put the last 3 evs into Def as it stacks higher with Landos ability, Intimidate.


Kommo-o @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Body Press
- Rock Slide
- Toxic
Defensive Kommo-o is the last mon in the team. It's pretty self explanitory besides Rock Slide. I gave it rock slide, as it helped me hit Volcarona, and other flying types. It sets Rocks for the Team and has status. I gave it the 56 speed evs so it can outspeed Modest/Adamant base 60s (Specs Magnezone, Specs Aegislash, etc).

Here is a pokepaste for easier conversion: https://pokepast.es/53ed6bd7b681bbe0

Bigger Threats:

Specs is the only set to be worried about. Ferrothorn hard deals with sub roost, so that's not to much of an issue. Ferrothorn can switch into Freeze Dry safely, and recover with Leech Seed after, but you just have to be careful about Focus Blast.

This is probably the hardest Matchup to be up against. You have no switch ins. Zapdos is probably your best bet, but a lot of Hawluchas Run Stone Edge, and since its offensive, +2 Stone Edge OHKOS.

Thank you for reading, hope you enjoy, here are some other teams I made.

Replays (Gonna add more in the future):

Vs Bulky Offense: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1403245798-94sa2kb0t3dkc0s3klio3qqh50lifaypw

Vs Standard Team: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1403248684-k7vv4cpvs9skbarau4fvc655788ykkhpw

Vs Hyper Offense: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1403593139-3r38r9t374l6d9dmcrjxyq879f8urw0pw
: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zeraora-endgame-sweep-1700-made-top-500.3687971/
: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/gengar-sub-nasty-plot.3685581/

 

[DudeManGuyLad]

Landorus-Therian has a base 105 SpA. Even with modest nature and 252 SpA evs, it can't do much damage. Crawdaunt is slow and quite frail so if your going with a physical rain sweeper, its gotta be Barraskewda. There is also no pokepaste for this so there isn't really a team to rate here...

 

[LudwigFrog]

Landorus-Therian has a base 105 SpA. Even with modest nature and 252 SpA evs, it can't do much damage. Crawdaunt is slow and quite frail so if your going with a physical rain sweeper, its gotta be Barraskewda. There is also no pokepaste for this so there isn't really a team to rate here...

Im not done, im still typing the rest rn, I just wanted to make sure the gifs worked.

 

[agentkeval]

Hey, so a couple small suggestions. On this team, you're running a weird double defog sort of thing. On rain, you keep pressure on the opponent, and try to not let them get rocks up as much as possible, and since the most common rocker is lando, and ur running rain... you get it. You should only keep one fogger on rain, and I suggest pelipper. Zapdos is really good as an offensive mon on rain, for thunder/tbolt and hurricane have really good coverage, and with weather ball it has better coverage against grounds (lando really). Also, on rain you want to have a swift swim abuser, and here you don't really have that. Like said above, I think barraskewda would be much better than crawdaunt here, for it also provides speed control. This makes your team much more offensive. Kommo-o seems iffy here, but I don't really know what to change about it lol. That's it, hope this helps :)

 

[LudwigFrog]

Hey, so a couple small suggestions. On this team, you're running a weird double defog sort of thing. On rain, you keep pressure on the opponent, and try to not let them get rocks up as much as possible, and since the most common rocker is lando, and ur running rain... you get it. You should only keep one fogger on rain, and I suggest pelipper. Zapdos is really good as an offensive mon on rain, for thunder/tbolt and hurricane have really good coverage, and with weather ball it has better coverage against grounds (lando really). Also, on rain you want to have a swift swim abuser, and here you don't really have that. Like said above, I think barraskewda would be much better than crawdaunt here, for it also provides speed control. This makes your team much more offensive. Kommo-o seems iffy here, but I don't really know what to change about it lol. That's it, hope this helps :)

Thank you for the feedback, gonna try it out. Also the Kommo O has been doing really well on the team so I think thats fine.

 

[ironwater]

Hey LudwigFrog, I’m here to give you my thoughts on the team and suggest some changes.

This team seems really interesting, I like the idea of Specs Landorus-T here, as, even if it’s not an optimal choice in a rain team, it can catch people off guard and thus put some work. Pelipper and Ferrothorn are must have in terms of defensive and support options for rain teams and defensive Kommo-o complete this duo pretty well, even if it’s a less common choice. Zapdos is an offensive demon in this kind of teams and Crawdaunt is extremely hard to switch into. Now, this team has a major flaw and Agentkeval pointed it. It lacks Speed. Rain teams are supposed to be rather offensive to be efficient as you need to take advantage of the few turns of rain you will get each time Pelipper comes in. You really want to have a Swift Swim user here, because otherwise you won’t be able to revenge kill a lot of offensive threats and may get outpressured pretty easily.


Major changes

-> : Banded Crawdaunt under rain is a big threat, but it’s really slow and you can’t easily click Aqua Jet. I think you can replace it by a breaker who may be a little weaker, but who will bring way more Speed Control as this team desperately needs some. There are several Swift Swim abusers that could fit here, but I think that Barraskewda would be the more efficient. It still hits decently hard and can outspeed all unboosted Pokemon and most boosted ones. You probably know the set, but I drop it below just in case:

Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Close Combat
- Flip Turn
- Psychic Fangs


Minor changes

: Offensive Zapdos is really hard to switch-in, and it is even harder when you can’t miss your stronger moves. It also likes a lot the decrease in usage of Blissey and can really tear apart teams where the special wall is something like Heatran or SpD Landorus-T . I think you should replace Defog by Weather Ball here, mainly because Weather ball helps a lot against the two aforementioned Pokemon and because you don’t need two Defoggers in a team able to setup both Spikes and Stealth Rock. Most of the time you rather stack hazards and you won’t Defog in the entire game.


: Ferrothorn is a staple of rain teams, and Spikes are a great support tool. Now, I disagree with something you said about Kyurem . Gyro Ball Ferrothorn actually struggles a lot against the SubRoost set mainly because you only have 4 Gyro Ball to fire against it, and if you come in on Kyurem clicking Substitute it can very easily pp stall you. I would change Gyro Ball for Iron Head here. Kyurem is the main reason as it still takes around 50% of its health on Iron Head and will be forced to Roost as it can’t pp stall you easily. You will thus be able to Leech Seed or make an aggressive switch on an obvious Roost. The second reason is Clefable . This Pokemon can be rather annoying for rain teams, especially the Calm Mind Thunder set. Gyro Ball can pe easily pp stalled while Iron Head has enough pp to keep it under pressure. You could also consider using Knock Off over Power Whip as without Crawdaunt you don’t have a Koff user anymore. Keeping Power Whip should be fine however, as it’s still a pretty solid STAB.


: I think you rather have Scald over Hurricane, just because with Scald you can fish for Burns while having more base power than Hurricane thank to the rain boost. Hurricane could be good to catch some Grass types, but most of the time they don’t want to switch into a potential Scald burn and you can always U-turn on them anyway.


: Kommo-o is a nice addition in this team. It’s a great rocks setter and can switch into some annoying breakers like Kartana while being a decent Heatran check. You could consider using Body Press over Drain Punch as it has way more power thanks to your higher Defense stat. However, you’ll lose your only way to recover health, so this may be an useful change only if you feel that you need more offensive power on this thing an can afford the chip damages.


Another suggestion could be to use a Specs Seismitoad over Landorus-T. It would give you another fast Pokemon alongside Barraskewda, but I think Landorus-T could work here, even if it feels less optimal than Seismitoad just because of the surprise effect.


Here is the past of the team with these changes, feel free to try it out:

The past

Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Defog
- Roost
- U-turn

Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Close Combat
- Flip Turn
- Psychic Fangs

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Leech Seed
- Iron Head
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip

Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Weather Ball
- Roost
- Hurricane

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 12 Def / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Weather Ball
- U-turn
- Sludge Wave

Kommo-o @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Drain Punch
- Rock Slide
- Toxic

Hope this was interesting, have a nice day!

 

[LudwigFrog]

Hey LudwigFrog, I’m here to give you my thoughts on the team and suggest some changes.

This team seems really interesting, I like the idea of Specs Landorus-T here, as, even if it’s not an optimal choice in a rain team, it can catch people off guard and thus put some work. Pelipper and Ferrothorn are must have in terms of defensive and support options for rain teams and defensive Kommo-o complete this duo pretty well, even if it’s a less common choice. Zapdos is an offensive demon in this kind of teams and Crawdaunt is extremely hard to switch into. Now, this team has a major flaw and Agentkeval pointed it. It lacks Speed. Rain teams are supposed to be rather offensive to be efficient as you need to take advantage of the few turns of rain you will get each time Pelipper comes in. You really want to have a Swift Swim user here, because otherwise you won’t be able to revenge kill a lot of offensive threats and may get outpressured pretty easily.


Major changes

-> : Banded Crawdaunt under rain is a big threat, but it’s really slow and you can’t easily click Aqua Jet. I think you can replace it by a breaker who may be a little weaker, but who will bring way more Speed Control as this team desperately needs some. There are several Swift Swim abusers that could fit here, but I think that Barraskewda would be the more efficient. It still hits decently hard and can outspeed all unboosted Pokemon and most boosted ones. You probably know the set, but I drop it below just in case:

View attachment 367338
Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Close Combat
- Flip Turn
- Psychic Fangs


Minor changes

: Offensive Zapdos is really hard to switch-in, and it is even harder when you can’t miss your stronger moves. It also likes a lot the decrease in usage of Blissey and can really tear apart teams where the special wall is something like Heatran or SpD Landorus-T . I think you should replace Defog by Weather Ball here, mainly because Weather ball helps a lot against the two aforementioned Pokemon and because you don’t need two Defoggers in a team able to setup both Spikes and Stealth Rock. Most of the time you rather stack hazards and you won’t Defog in the entire game.


: Ferrothorn is a staple of rain teams, and Spikes are a great support tool. Now, I disagree with something you said about Kyurem . Gyro Ball Ferrothorn actually struggles a lot against the SubRoost set mainly because you only have 4 Gyro Ball to fire against it, and if you come in on Kyurem clicking Substitute it can very easily pp stall you. I would change Gyro Ball for Iron Head here. Kyurem is the main reason as it still takes around 50% of its health on Iron Head and will be forced to Roost as it can’t pp stall you easily. You will thus be able to Leech Seed or make an aggressive switch on an obvious Roost. The second reason is Clefable . This Pokemon can be rather annoying for rain teams, especially the Calm Mind Thunder set. Gyro Ball can pe easily pp stalled while Iron Head has enough pp to keep it under pressure. You could also consider using Knock Off over Power Whip as without Crawdaunt you don’t have a Koff user anymore. Keeping Power Whip should be fine however, as it’s still a pretty solid STAB.


: I think you rather have Scald over Hurricane, just because with Scald you can fish for Burns while having more base power than Hurricane thank to the rain boost. Hurricane could be good to catch some Grass types, but most of the time they don’t want to switch into a potential Scald burn and you can always U-turn on them anyway.


: Kommo-o is a nice addition in this team. It’s a great rocks setter and can switch into some annoying breakers like Kartana while being a decent Heatran check. You could consider using Body Press over Drain Punch as it has way more power thanks to your higher Defense stat. However, you’ll lose your only way to recover health, so this may be an useful change only if you feel that you need more offensive power on this thing an can afford the chip damages.


Another suggestion could be to use a Specs Seismitoad over Landorus-T. It would give you another fast Pokemon alongside Barraskewda, but I think Landorus-T could work here, even if it feels less optimal than Seismitoad just because of the surprise effect.


Here is the past of the team with these changes, feel free to try it out:

The past

Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Defog
- Roost
- U-turn

Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Close Combat
- Flip Turn
- Psychic Fangs

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Leech Seed
- Iron Head
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip

Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Weather Ball
- Roost
- Hurricane

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 12 Def / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Weather Ball
- U-turn
- Sludge Wave

Kommo-o @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Drain Punch
- Rock Slide
- Toxic

Hope this was interesting, have a nice day!

Thanks a lot for the feedback, also I felt the same way about gyro ball, and im probably gonna switch that.