Dancing in the Rain (OU Rain Dance RMT)

[pikachu25]

I’m fairly new to competitive battling (this is my first RMT), and I’ve been using this team to some success. Any comments, even telling me it flat out stinks, are welcome. Moves in italics are options I have been debating.

Crobat @ Damp Rock
Jolly (-SpA +Spe)
Inner Focus
168 HP/88 Defense/ 252 Speed
Rain Dance
Taunt
U-Turn
Roost

Throughout my experience, Crobat has proven to be a very reliable lead. He taunts slower leads, and then proceeds to set up an eight turn rain on the switch, or takes a hit that does not OHKO. He U-Turns out for whichever Pokémon on my team is best suited for the opponent’s Pokémon. Inner focus prevents him from being flinched by Scarf Jirachi and Infernape leads, so he is generally able to get up an eight-turn rain or U-Turn for a counter at the very worst. By U-Turning out and Roosting off lighter hits, he can often set up several rains during a battle. He provides my best answer to grass types, as U-Turn is SE and Bronzong has often exploded on something already. U-Turn is also nasty for Azelf and Celebi, especially the latter.

Bronzong @ Damp Rock
Sassy (-Spe/+SpD)
Levitate
252 HP/ 128 Attack/ 128 Defense
Rain Dance
Stealth Rock
Reflect/Gyro Ball
Explosion

If Crobat finds himself in an unfavorable matchup at the start of the game (which happens enough), I generally start by U-Turning to Bronzong. After setting up rocks, reflect, and an eight-turn rain, he explodes on whatever he is facing, assuming no rock, steel, or ghost type. Because the set pretty much allows so much to set up, I have debated running Gyro Ball over Reflect so that I can damage stuff without exploding on it. Sadly, Bronzong is my best answer to Latias, generally. Explosion is a OHKO on standard CM variants, and it resists her stabs (though a Surf in the rain can hurt). After he explodes, I am wide open to a Latias sweep.

Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Modest (-Atk/+SpA)
Swift Swim
4 Defense/252 Special Attack/252 Speed
Surf
Grass Knot
Ice Beam
Rain Dance

After Bronzong explodes, or when Crobat U-Turns out, I bring Ludicolo as an early game sweeper to attempt to soften up their team and lure out their water resist. After hitting one Pokémon with a STAB Surf in the rain, they tend to either bring out their water resist (not many like Grass Knot) or a Blissey. Once Blissey comes out, I can be fairly sure that have no water resist. I switch him out (generally for Swampert) if he can’t handle the threat, to save him to help later on in the game. He has Ice Beam, which deals with most dragons, but is rather ineffective against CM Latias. He can outrun +1 of just about anything in the rain, which helps with DD Salamence and Dragonite. He is also my best switch in to other water types trying to use my rain against me with his 4X resist.

Floatzel @ Choice Band
Adamant (-SpA/+Atk)
Swift Swim
232 HP/252 Atk/4 Def/16 Spe
Waterfall
Ice Punch/Facade
Return
Brick Break

Floatzel is my premier sweeper. In the rain, this thing’s STAB, CB Waterfall is truly feared, even pulling off 2HKO’s on some things that resist it! Ice Punch is for dragons, but Ludicolo and Swampert can handle dragons without locking into an attack with Ice Beam just as well, so I’ve debated Facade to help with status absorption. I’ve also debated moving some HP EV’s into Speed so I can outrun stuff out of rain, as he dies quickly regardless of EV’s. He tends to function late game after Ludicolo or Rotom-W has handled their water resist/physical walls. However, in a pinch he can attempt to handle these with Return/Brick Break, but with mixed results.

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Modest (-Atk/+SpA)
Levitate
252 HP/4 Defense/ 252 Special Attack
Thunder
Hydro Pump
Will-o-Wisp/Shadow Ball
Rain Dance

Rotom-W is my Gyrados and Lucario (without Crunch) check. Gyrados is OHKOed by Thunder, and Lucario can’t do much to me as it gets Thundered and crippled with a burned. Rotom-W also hits all my opponent’s physical Pokémon with a burn, ruining their day and allowing my sweepers to switch into weakened attacks. In a tight spot, it can Rain Dance for support. In the past, I have run Shadow Ball over Will-o-Wisp for other ghosts and Rotom-A, but I have found Floatzel in the rain is a better check with Waterfall. Hydro Pump damages the random stuff that switches into Thunder (other than grass types, that is).

Swampert @ Leftovers
Relaxed (-Spe/+Def)
Torrent
240 HP/216 Defense/52 Special Attack
Surf
Ice Beam
Earthquake
Rain Dance

Swampert is a reliable rain set up and physical wall. It provides my sole electric immunity and STAB earthquake to handle electric types who might otherwise sweep my team. Surf with STAB, Torrent, and rain can also dish out some damage. I also find this a somewhat successful Blissey lure, as if I show surf in the middle of a rain and they have no other water resists, they will switch her in and pray I am all special. He is taken down by toxic spikes or toxic very quickly, as is my whole team in the case of the former, so I have tried running Empoleon over him, but that left me open to electric type sweeps. Jirachi leads are ineffective against Swampert, so I sometimes U-Turn with Crobat to this guy. I’ve tried throwing Stealth Rock in his move set to be a back up to Bronzong, but that hasn’t worked too well.


That’s my team. My team has a common weakness to status. I don’t have a status absorber or a cleric, so thunder wave and WoW can give me nightmares.


Threat list with counters/revenge killers(yellow means a little trouble, red means major danger):

When I say water moves, that means Ludicolo’s Surf, Floatzel’s Waterfall, and Swampert’s Surf. For defensive threats, Crobat’s Taunt is assumed.

Azelf: U-Turn from Crobat, then an explosion from Bronzong after set up or any hit from the rest of my team if Bronzong was taunted.

Breloom: Taunt from Crobat, followed by Ice Punch/Beam

Celebi: U-Turn from Crobat, followed by Ice Punch/Beam

Dugtrio: Any water move, really

Electivire: Earthquake from Swampert

Empoleon: Earthquake from Swampert, Thunder from Rotom-W, or Brick Break from Floatzel

Flygon: Ice Punch/Beam

Gengar: CB Waterfall from Floatzel in rain. Yellow because of Hypnosis, Thunderbolt, and good speed

Gliscor: Ice Punch/Beam

Gyarados: Thunder from Rotom-W. Red because if Rotom is gone, he can sweep my whole team.

Heatran: Water moves/Swampert Earthquake

Heracross: Constant bombardment. Rotom can resist and Thunder.

Infernape: Water moves/Swampert Earthquake

Jirachi: Swampert Earthquake/Floatzel in the rain

Kingdra: Almost nothing except Exploding or getting lucky. A threat I need help with.

Latias: Worse than Kingdra. Floatzel’s Ice Punch has a slight chance to OHKO with Stealth Rock and no leftovers, but other than that, nothing outside of an explosion. Probably my biggest weakness.

Lucario: Without Crunch, stopped cold by Rotom. Water is neutral and Swampert’s Earthquake is SE. Yellow because with Crunch, it kills me.

Machamp: Rotom is immune to Dynamic Punch and can burn it

Magnezone: Swampert Earthquake/Floatzel Brick Break. Not yellow because I can generally outrun and almost or actually OHKO.

Mamoswine: Any strong water move

Metagross: Swampert Earthquake/Water moves

Ninjask: Crobat Taunts, then I can hit it with just about anything

Porygon-Z: Floatzel Brick Break

Rhyperior: It’s a water team. These guys don’t give me any trouble.

Roserade: Crobat can taunt to prevent sleep/toxic spikes. Ice Punch/Beam for a finish.

Rotom-A: Constant Bombardment. Yellow because they often carry status to hurt my team.

Salamence: Ice Punch/Beam

Scizor: In the rain, Floatzel’s Waterfall stops this guy cold

Snorlax: Floatzel Brick Break/pray. Red because CurseLax is mean.

Starmie: Rotom-W can use Thunder, and Swampert can earthquake

Suicune: Ludicolo’s Grass Knot

Togekiss: Rotom-W Thunder/Ice Punch/Beam

Tyranitar: Water moves/Swampert Earthquake/Ludicolo Grass Knot

Weavile: Crobat U-turn/Floatzel Brick Break

Yanmega: Constant Bombardment

Zapdos: Ice Punch/Beam, especial from Swampert

Blissey: Floatzel Brick Break, Waterfall

Bronzong: Water moves

Cradily: Ice Punch/Beam

Cresselia: Hit it and pray. Red because CM versions kill me.

Crobat: Ice Punch/Beam

Donphan: Water moves

Drapion: Swampert Earthquake

Dusknoir: Floatzel Waterfall in rain takes out very quickly

Forretress: Water moves

Hariyama: Rotom-W is immune to its STAB

Hippowdon: Water moves/Ludicolo Grass Knot

Ludicolo: Hit it hard. Yellow because it can use my rain against me.

Mesprit: Crobat U-Turn/Bombardment

Milotic: Ludicolo Grass Knot

Miltank: Floatzel Brick Break

Porygon2: Floatzel Brick Break

Regirock: Water Moves

Registeel: Floatzel Brick Break/Swampert Earthquake

Shaymin: Crobat U-Turn/Ice Punch/Beam

Shuckle: SE Water moves

Skarmory: Rotom-W Thunder

Slaking: Floatzel Brick Break/Rotom WoW

Slowbro: Ludicolo Grass Knot

Spiritomb: Bombardment

Swampert: Ludicolo Grass Knot

Tentacruel: Swampert Earthquake. Red because it lays down toxic spikes that ruin my team.

Umbreon: Floatzel Brick Break

Vaporeon: Ludicolo Grass Knot. Yellow because that is all I can do.

Walrein: Floatzel Brick Break/Rotom Thunder

Weezing: Hit it hard.

 

[Sneaky Hippo]

Ok, to start ditch swampert or Rotom-W, the main point of rain dancing is so you can use amazingly fast sweepers to terrorize your oponents team, I see that with your 2 sweepers. I recomend 3, atleast. Im glad to see Ludicolo, because you cant stand up to ludicolo in the rain. For a new main electric immunity, I recomend electivire. You can switch him in to an electric attack aimed at another water type, get a speed boost and sweep. I HIGHLY recomend kingdra. With a life orb that thing can do serious damage no matter what switches in. I use a mixed set on my rain dance team, Draco Meteor - Water fall - Hydro Pump- And dragon dance or rain dance to your preference. Jolteon is always good with a 100% accuracy choice spec'd Thunder, it tips teams apart. Thats My advice, when dancing in the rain, you cant afford to wait, so go with sweepers over walls.

 

[Mood4food77]

no

you cannot have a team to be entirely focused on rain dance
having offensive bulky guys to a team is always a plus

you could use kingdra over ludicolo, but really, this team seem alright

 

[frogoholic101]

no

you cannot have a team to be entirely focused on rain dance
having offensive bulky guys to a team is always a plus

you could use kingdra over ludicolo, but really, this team seem alright

What? Where have you been for the past few years? Rain Dance is a very good type of team.

Insert a standard RD Kingdra over, say, Swampert. He is doing nothing, and an LO RD Kingdra with STAB Waterfall in the rain does a lot of damage.

 

[pikachu25]

Thanks a lot.
I think I'll go with an electivire and kingdra over rotom-w and swampert. Kingdra sounds really good as a sweeper/wall breaker, and electivire could finally give me a sweeper that can switch into thunder wave.

 

[xWOLFYx]

Lose the Choice Band on Floatzel. Life Orb and Rain boost should give you plenty of power. Locking yourself into Waterfall is just begging your opponent to bring in their Gyarados, Kingdra, Latias, etc. and sweep your team. I would personally swap Floatzel for Kabutops. Kabutops has alot of different options and gets STAB Stone Edge / Rock Slide to threaten Gyarados more. He can also use X-Scissor to hit things like Latias, Celebi, and Starmie who can be annoying to Rain teams. If you can squeeze a Swords Dance in, Kabutops is pretty broken, lol.

 

[Revolution.Z]

You need Kingdra in there. An Offensive RD team should always have a Kingdra because of it's Swift Swim ability and fantastic Typing being only weak to Dragon. I would actually take out your Floatzel, Rotom or Pert. I would suggest the Double Dance set due to the fact it carries RD and we are taking out your pert another RD carrier.


Item: Lum Berry
Ability: Swift Swim

EV's: 180HP / 252 Atk / 76 Spe

~Rain Dance
~Dragon Dance
~Outrage
~Waterfall

Remember also after 1 DD Waterfall in the rain is more powerful than Outrage.

Overall your team looks textbook solid apart from the lack of Kingdra whether you are trying to be original I would still consider this over Floatzel.

 

[haunter]

Hi and welcome to Smogon,

looking at your team I see two evident problems:

1) Blissey: the only thing which can beat her reliably is Floatzel, and if you lose it prematurely for any reason, you'll be completely walled by her. As others have said, Kingdra is a very good choice for a rain dance team, with its awesome typing and decent defences. I'd advise to run:

Kingdra@leftovers
nature: lonely
trait: swift swim
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 88 SpA / 76 Spe
-dragon dance
-outrage
-waterfall
-hydro pump

with the little SpA investment you'll score an almost sure ohko on Skarmory in the rain, while being able to beat Blissey comfortably and continue your sweep even without the rain thanks to DD. I'd probably replace Rotom with it, Rotom doesn't look really helpful to the team, and by the way, you won't counter neither Lucario - which is faster and usually has crunch - nor Gyarados - as a +1 waterfall will ohko in the rain;

2) Gyarados: it can really eat your team alive, benefiting from rain dance and being able to set up on almost every of your pokemons. I believe that you may move Bronzong as your lead, replacing Crobat with a dedicated Gyarados counter, in this case I'd suggest the standard Vaporeon with: wish, protect, surf, hidden power [electric]. If you opt for this change then feel free to give Swampert a damp rock.

Other than that, I advise against using a choice band on Floatzel, you want to maximize the turns of rain dance, and a choiced pokemon means that you're giving yuor opponent the chance to stall out the rain quite easily, not to mention that you'll give some pokemons the chance to set up - read: Lucario when locked into ice punch or return and so on. Also, I believe that in a rain based team, Kabutops is largely superior to Floatzel with higher attack and 2 useful stabs, and the ability to ohko Celebi and Gyarados. I'd definitely give Kabutops a try over Floatzel.

Good luck with your team!

 

[panamaxis]

Okay first off, Welcome to smogon!

Now on to the team...

I believe Azelf would be a better lead for your team. The benefits of azelf over crobat are that you obtain Stealth Rocks and a quick explode, which is arguably the best way to get your rain sweepers in and let the damage commence.

I suggest running the following Azelf as your lead:

Azelf @ Damp Rock
Jolly Nature, 252 HP / 252 Spe / 4 Atk
Stealth Rock
Rain Dance
Explosion
Zen Heabutt / Taunt

With these EVs you have a chance (though the odds are not in your favour), to live a meteor mash and follow up Bullet Punch from Metagross. The HP EVs, will allow you to get off Stealth Rocks Rain Dance (and if you are fortunate and explosion) especially against those weaker leads such as Metagross that lack meteor mash and swampert as examples. Azelf also signifies a rain team much less then a crobat, which can often be beneficial to you.

I would recommend running gyro ball on bronzong and replacing SR (which is covered by Azelf) with either Earthquake or Reflect, the former will help you against grounded steel types mainly while the latter may help kingdra or kabutops set up easier. I have to disagree with haunter, I believe bronzong works better as a midgame pokemon, as it is one of the easiest pokemon to switch in.

I suggest testing damp rock on swampert and see how that goes.

Now Floatzel..definitely outclassed by both qwilfish and Kabutops, I suggest running the latter, to help your team have an easier time vs stall as it can (nearly) OHKO every member in the standard stall team after a Swords Dance. I suggest running X-Scissor, SD, Water Fall and Stone Edge. At the current point in time, you team is really dismantled by a simple bulky gyarados + blissey combo and I think this would help.

Now as for Ludicolo, I agree with haunter, and suggest you take his advice and use a kingdra (though maybe a lum berry may be better as an item so toxic vaporeon doesnt pose such a threat)? Kingdra also has the 4x water resist that ludicolo has, so resistance wise, you aren't losing much. If you are concerned about bulky gyaradoses (such as those found on stall teams) you could switch to the wallbreaking set that can be found on the smogon strategydex and utilise draco meteor to your advantage. It is mainly personal preference.

Rotom seems a bit out of place to me, I think you would be better off running a Scizor, either a choice banded or Swords Dance varient should work fine, as this will help you clean up late game and provide a counter to latias that seems to plague your team.

By removing rotom, I have opened up a slight gyarados weakness, therefore I suggest dropping Ice Beam (surf if you are really worried about salamence, though with scizor and bronzong, I don't think you should be) for Roar. Alternatively, you could use Stone Edge over Ice Beam which will hit both Gyarados and Salamence, but both are likely to survive unless you add a significant investment into attack.

Anyways, I wish you luck and success with this team.

 

[pikachu25]

Thanks again for all of the help.

I replaced rotom and swampert with an eletivire and kingdra combination like this:

Electivire @ expert belt
Mild
Motor Drive
36 Atk/252 Sp Atk/220 Spe
Rain Dance
Thunder
Ice Punch
Cross Chop

Kindgra @ Life Orb
Lonely
Swift Swim
252 Atk/120 Sp Atk/136 Spe
Rain Dance
Surf
Waterfall
Draco Meteor

and it has been working really well. Thunder and Ice Punch on Electivire have helped handle Gyarados and the Ev's on Kingdra allow it to outrun any +1 Dragon in the game (except Timid Choice Scarf Latias) and OHKO with Draco Meteor, helping me with the Latias problem as most scarfed varieties use Modest.

I'm going to start testing a LO SD Kabutops over Floatzel and an Azelf lead over Crobat. I'll also experiment with a Double Dance Kingdra. I've tried Scizor in the past with mixed results, but anything that beats Latias deserves a re-test in my opinion.

Thanks once agian, you've been really helpful.