Various things have defined the B/W meta. Baton Pass, Bulky Offense, and now, the infamous "Weather Wars," with drizzle recently taking to the forefront as of B/W2 due to the new toys it has gotten to play with. Today, I am here to break down the exact benefits Drizzle offers compared to other lead options, and thus answer the infamous question - is permanent, automatic rain overpowered?
For the sake of argument, I will be assuming that outside of leads, each team has five pokemon that are of a neutral typing. In addition, I will not be discussing the other automatic weather abilities.
First of all, let us look at Drizzle, which summons a permanent rain the moment the pokemon is sent out, overriding any other weather condition that may be in play. Drizzle does, on turn 0 -
Very impressive, especially for something that comes into play turn 0, and...wait, something's already banned from it? A complex ban, at that? Red flag tripped!
But wait, we can't just call drizzle overpowered yet. I mean, it is the fault of the swift swim abusers that swift swim is overpowered, and not a problem with drizzle. So, let us put aside swift swim for now.
So, looking at that list of effects, let use see what else can possibly happen on turn 0 that will remain for the duration of the battle unless removed:
It centralizes the meta
There is literally nothing you can do to stop Drizzle from happening aside from using one of a staggering four pokemon, all of which need to be specifically tailored to be slower then the Drizzle summoner. Which leads to point two against Drizzle
Without one of four pokemon, you literally cannot stop Drizzle
That is pretty damn good, I say. People used Aerodactyl for the longest time in OU because he, 9 times out of 10, would get you out the precious stealth rock move. Very few things could stop him. But he could still be stopped by a handful of things, and you even had a free turn to abuse because he was not a particularly impressive pokemon offensively, which leads to the next point against drought:
It happens on turn 0
Turn 0, as I call it, is the turn that happens before anything else happens. Now, not only is the user of Drizzle getting all of these benefits, he is getting them while being able to do something else on the first turn as well! To put how much of a boon this is into comparison, let us use the most powerful one turn permanent field effect as a comparison - Stealth Rock
Stealth Rock will deal at least, assuming a neutral team, 62.5% of max HP damage to the enemy team. Not bad! But let us take for a minute the various attacks boosted by Drizzle. Technically, Thunder and Hurricane are 87.5 effective base power moves outside of rain as they only have a 70% accuracy. However, they receive a 30% accuracy boost inside of rain...and thus, a 30% effective power boost. It would take only, on average statistically, three thunder/hurricane attacks to obtain one more thunder/hurricane then you normally what had received, which on most pokemon will outdamage Stealth Rock by a significant margin. This isn't even going into water attacks, which receive a 50% boost to BP, thus making it require only two water type attacks for it to have given you one more water type attack, statistically, then you normally would have recieved.
Stealth Rock isn't looking so hot anymore, now is it?
Drizzle clearly overshadows any other permanent field effect
Once again, so what? You're using a relatively awful pokemon in order to obtain the drizzle effect...but Politoed is still usable. Keyword usable.
Drizzle happens in conjunction to whatever else the player wants
So not only does Drizzle give a free nigh-guaranteed rain dance on top of whatever else you were going to do turn 1, it gives you a permanent one at that. So you get to eat your cake and have it too! Want to swap? Drizzle still happened. Want to use toxic? Drizzle still happened? Want to use Hyro Pump? Drizzle still happened. Which leads me to my final point...
Drizzle does not require a significant sacrifice
Politoed is a bad pokemon. Yes, we can all agree. But the problem is it is still decent enough to be at least OK. For all the benifits that Drizzle gives, all it requires you to do is to use a pokemon who is honestly not terrible. He's not good by any stretch of the imagination, but he is still very, very usable, with workable stats, good typing, and a above average movepool. And now, a bonus point...
Drizzle is powerful enough that it mandated a complex ban
More then anything else, this is the key point that stabs a stake in the heart of Drizzle. It is so powerful a complex ban had to be introduced to keep it in play - but I have to ask, is it really worth keeping if it is so overpowered that we have to actually introduce the one thing Smogon never, ever wants to do - complex banning? Level balancing, as a example, hasn't been born yet, but it really has a legitimate argument in the face of the DrizzleSwim ban, which raises a few questions -
How far are we willing to go to permit things to be used? And why is Drizzle so special that we are willing to perform complex bans simply to keep it? Does the fact that it requires a complex ban to stay in OU not suggest that it is too powerful?
Well, that's the facts, ladies and gentlemen. While at the end of the day, Rain is only as powerful as its abusers (cough tornadus-t cough), on paper, these are the raw facts Drizzle brings to the table. I hope my argument has been convincing, and has convinced you to at least take a second look at Drizzle.
For the sake of argument, I will be assuming that outside of leads, each team has five pokemon that are of a neutral typing. In addition, I will not be discussing the other automatic weather abilities.
First of all, let us look at Drizzle, which summons a permanent rain the moment the pokemon is sent out, overriding any other weather condition that may be in play. Drizzle does, on turn 0 -
Raises the accuracy of thunder to 100%
Raises the accuracy of hurricane to 100%
Raises the base power of water type attacks by 50%
Lowers the power of fire type moves by 50%
Lowers the power of SolarBeam by 50%
Lowers the recovery of Synthesis, Moonlight, and Morning Sun to 25%
Enables the abilities Swift Swim (banned in combination with drizzle), Rain Dish, Hydration, the recovery component of Dry Skin, and turns pokemon with the Forecast ability into water types
Changes Weather Ball into 100bp water move
Raises the accuracy of hurricane to 100%
Raises the base power of water type attacks by 50%
Lowers the power of fire type moves by 50%
Lowers the power of SolarBeam by 50%
Lowers the recovery of Synthesis, Moonlight, and Morning Sun to 25%
Enables the abilities Swift Swim (banned in combination with drizzle), Rain Dish, Hydration, the recovery component of Dry Skin, and turns pokemon with the Forecast ability into water types
Changes Weather Ball into 100bp water move
But wait, we can't just call drizzle overpowered yet. I mean, it is the fault of the swift swim abusers that swift swim is overpowered, and not a problem with drizzle. So, let us put aside swift swim for now.
So, looking at that list of effects, let use see what else can possibly happen on turn 0 that will remain for the duration of the battle unless removed:
- Snow Warning
Sand Stream
Drought
It centralizes the meta
There is literally nothing you can do to stop Drizzle from happening aside from using one of a staggering four pokemon, all of which need to be specifically tailored to be slower then the Drizzle summoner. Which leads to point two against Drizzle
Without one of four pokemon, you literally cannot stop Drizzle
That is pretty damn good, I say. People used Aerodactyl for the longest time in OU because he, 9 times out of 10, would get you out the precious stealth rock move. Very few things could stop him. But he could still be stopped by a handful of things, and you even had a free turn to abuse because he was not a particularly impressive pokemon offensively, which leads to the next point against drought:
It happens on turn 0
Turn 0, as I call it, is the turn that happens before anything else happens. Now, not only is the user of Drizzle getting all of these benefits, he is getting them while being able to do something else on the first turn as well! To put how much of a boon this is into comparison, let us use the most powerful one turn permanent field effect as a comparison - Stealth Rock
Stealth Rock will deal at least, assuming a neutral team, 62.5% of max HP damage to the enemy team. Not bad! But let us take for a minute the various attacks boosted by Drizzle. Technically, Thunder and Hurricane are 87.5 effective base power moves outside of rain as they only have a 70% accuracy. However, they receive a 30% accuracy boost inside of rain...and thus, a 30% effective power boost. It would take only, on average statistically, three thunder/hurricane attacks to obtain one more thunder/hurricane then you normally what had received, which on most pokemon will outdamage Stealth Rock by a significant margin. This isn't even going into water attacks, which receive a 50% boost to BP, thus making it require only two water type attacks for it to have given you one more water type attack, statistically, then you normally would have recieved.
Stealth Rock isn't looking so hot anymore, now is it?
Drizzle clearly overshadows any other permanent field effect
Once again, so what? You're using a relatively awful pokemon in order to obtain the drizzle effect...but Politoed is still usable. Keyword usable.
Drizzle happens in conjunction to whatever else the player wants
So not only does Drizzle give a free nigh-guaranteed rain dance on top of whatever else you were going to do turn 1, it gives you a permanent one at that. So you get to eat your cake and have it too! Want to swap? Drizzle still happened. Want to use toxic? Drizzle still happened? Want to use Hyro Pump? Drizzle still happened. Which leads me to my final point...
Drizzle does not require a significant sacrifice
Politoed is a bad pokemon. Yes, we can all agree. But the problem is it is still decent enough to be at least OK. For all the benifits that Drizzle gives, all it requires you to do is to use a pokemon who is honestly not terrible. He's not good by any stretch of the imagination, but he is still very, very usable, with workable stats, good typing, and a above average movepool. And now, a bonus point...
Drizzle is powerful enough that it mandated a complex ban
More then anything else, this is the key point that stabs a stake in the heart of Drizzle. It is so powerful a complex ban had to be introduced to keep it in play - but I have to ask, is it really worth keeping if it is so overpowered that we have to actually introduce the one thing Smogon never, ever wants to do - complex banning? Level balancing, as a example, hasn't been born yet, but it really has a legitimate argument in the face of the DrizzleSwim ban, which raises a few questions -
How far are we willing to go to permit things to be used? And why is Drizzle so special that we are willing to perform complex bans simply to keep it? Does the fact that it requires a complex ban to stay in OU not suggest that it is too powerful?
Well, that's the facts, ladies and gentlemen. While at the end of the day, Rain is only as powerful as its abusers (cough tornadus-t cough), on paper, these are the raw facts Drizzle brings to the table. I hope my argument has been convincing, and has convinced you to at least take a second look at Drizzle.
