Feel my ThUnDeR(OU Raikou Team)

[Trufflehunter25]

Feel my ThUnDeR (OU Raikou Team)

Intro​

Hello, I'm Trufflehunter25 and I have been having success with this team built around a sub CM Raikou sweep to prove Raikou belonged in OU. The purpose is to set up so Raikou can clean up or sweep late-game. This team uses lures to help Raikou set up with much more ease.

Team Building Process

I wanted to build a team around sub CM Raikou

I needed Toxic Spikes to wear down the fat pink ho preferrably a lead

I was going to need a revenge killer, I went with Scizor

I wanted wish support so I went with Vaporeon

I felt I needed more offense so I went with SpecsMence and Grarados

In Depth

Roserade@Focus Sash**Pandora
252 Speed, 252 Sp.Atk, 4 Hp
Natural Cure​

Timid
~Toxic Spikes
~Leaf Storm
~Hidden Power (Fire)
~Sleep Powder

Roserade is what holds this team togther. Without toxic spikes Raikou would be unable to beat Blissey and other Special walls. Roserade's purpose is simple. Sleep the opposing lead, proceed to set up 2 layers of toxic spikes. This is essential to wear down blissey, one of Raikou's biggest counters. Roserade is the keystone of this team. Toxic spikes are AMAZING when facing stall and they help wear down offensive teams. I went with Roserade because I wanted a pokemon that could reliably set up toxic spikes early in the game and had halfway decent speed. Drapion and Tentacruel do not funcion well as leads and there were no other fast toxic spikers so I went with Roserade. Max speed is a given so I can tie with other Rosarades, max Sp.Atk is so I can hit as hard as possible and the 4 Hp is just leftover. Roserade is also useful sometimes late game if I need to get rid of the opponents toxic spikes. Roserade helps a Raikou sweep by setting up toxic spikes to wear down special walls.

What I Do

Aerodactyl:sleep+set up toxic spikes if I don't get taunted
Azelf:sleep+set up toxic spikes if I don't get taunted
Metagross:sleep+set up toxic spikes
Heatran:sleep+set up toxic spikes
Gliscor:Try to sleep
Roserade:try to win the speed tie, sleep it if I do+kill it with HP fire
Mamoswine:sleep+kill+set up toxic spikes
Swampert:sleep+set up toxic spikes
Infernape: switch to Gyarados
Jirachi: switch to Gyarados
Hippowdon: Sleep+set up toxic spikes

Salamence@Life Orb**BrlnkOutrg
252 Speed, 240 Sp.Atk, 16 Atk
Intimidate​

Naieve
~Draco Meteor
~Roost
~Brick Break
~Flamethrower

This thing is a fucking Beast. I chose specsmence for a reason. The surprise factor and Salamence actually has nice Sp.Atk. This is not like trying something stupid like CB Shuckle. Salamence serves as this teams special force, Roserade is a suicide lead and Raikou is a late-game pokemon. Hydro Pump can OHKO Hippowdon and Heatran, Draco Meteor OHKN physically bulky Zapdos and Flamethrower can OHKO Fortress and Skarmory. Also, Draco Meteor can do about 50% to 252/252 Bold Blissey. Overall I like the surprise factor and power Salamence has. EV’s are pretty self explanatory, max speed and timid nature so I can tie with other Salamences . Max Sp.Atk so I can hit as hard as I can. Salamence helps a Raikou sweep by luring out bulky waters for Raikou to set up on.​

Scizor@Choice Band**Apollo​

252 Stk, 248 Hp, 8 Speed​

Adamant​

Technician​

~U-Turn​

~Pursuit​

~Bullet Punch​

~Superpower​

Ahh yes, the mindless U-Turn spammer finds it’s way onto yet another team. I chose Scizor because I wanted a revenge killer with priority. Mamoswine came to mind but was inferior due to it’s lack of a move to scout and technician. Scizor serves as my revenge killer picking off weakened dragons and anything that is not resistant to bullet punch. Scizor also serves as my scout. Due to Scizor’s ability to force switches I can U-Turn on the switch in and switch to an appropriate counter. EV’s are pretty standard, max attack and CB so I can hit as hard as possible. 248 Hp is so I can switch into stealth rock 8 times I think. The 8 speed is really just leftover. Scizor also serves as my Latias counter, a pokemon that could otherwise give me a lot of problems. Scizor helps a Raikou sweep by killing special walls.​

Gliscor@Leftovers**BigBadBram​

Hyper Cutter
252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 Spe​

- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
​

Gyarados is on this team for 2 reasons. It serves as my Scizor check, another incredibly annoying pokemon and it can break stall through the use of taunt and dragon dance. Taunt allows me to stop stall teams from setting entry hazards and due to most pokemon that are on stall teams lack of offensive power Gyarados can set up and maybe pull off a sweep. Due to Gyarados’s unique typing shared with only with Mantine the bulky set seemed just right for this particular team. The EVs may seem a little spearotic but they balance Gyarados's defensive and offensive capabilities. 156 HP ensures that Gyarados is never 2HKOed by Timid Life Orb Heatran Fire Blast, after SR and Leftovers. 96 EVs are placed in Defense to ensure that Scizor will never 2HKO Gyarados with a Choice Band Quick Attack after Sandstorm, SR, and Leftovers, helping ensure that Scizor cannot score a revenge kill. 184 Speed outruns Jolly Tyranitar before a Dragon Dance and +Speed Starmie and Azelf after a Dragon Dance. The leftover EVs are placed in Attack to hit as hard as possible. Gyarados helps set up a Raikou sweep by breaking down stall
for Raikou.​

​

Jirachi@Leftovers**Mad Hatter
​

240 HP/160 Def/32 Spd/76 SDef ​

Impish​

- Wish
- Stealth Rock / U-turn
- Body Slam / Thunder Wave
- Iron Head / Ice Punch

Vaporeon is a vital member of this team providing wish support to the other 5 pokemon who lack instant recovery moves, 2 if which are weak to stealth rock. Due to the bulky nature of this team I find passing wishes is not really that hard. Toxic may seem a bit strange compared to hidden power electric nut it helps wear down other bulky waters. I chose Vaporeon because I needed wish support to keep other members of the team. EV’s are pretty generic, max def to help take physical hits and hp to increase Vaporeon’s already massive Hp and the rest are dumped into special defense. Vaporeon helps set up a Raikou sweep by luring out electric pokemon such as Zapdos and Magnezone who Raikou has an easy time setting up on.​

Raikou@Leftovers**LionHeart​

252 Sp.Atk, 252 Speed, 4 Hp​

Timid​

~Thunderbolt​

~Calm Mind​

~Substitute​

~Hidden Power(Ice)​

I chose Raikou over Empoleon for 1 reason. To prove Raikou belonged in OU. Raikou is the star of the show, using the support of it’s teammates Raikou’s purpose is to sweep and clean up. Due to Raikou’s superior speed and nice bulk it is easy to set up and sweep. The moveset is pretty self explanatory, thunderbolt+Hp Ice= coverage resisted only by Lanturn, Shedinga and Magnezone. Lanturn and Shedinga are worn down by tocix spikes and Raikou can use Magnezone as set up fodder. I usually bring Raikou in on bulky waters and electrics due to most o their movepool being special so Raikou is guaranteed at least a free sub. However Raikou heavily relies on wish surport and leftovers for recovery.​

Conclusion​

I have had a lot of fun and success using this team and am looking for ways to improve it.

Credit goes to Arragornbird for the Raikou pic at the beginning

Changes will be in red


One Last Glance:

 

[Trufflehunter25]

Code:

Blue:Not a problem

Yellow:annoying but not major

Red: a bastard with no counter


Defensive Threats

Blissey -Scizor, Gyarados can set up

Bronzong - annoying as hell, have to bring mence in and spam flamethrower

Celebi - Scizor can take non Hp Fire ones, Raikou can set up on, Mence can cripple with flamethrower or draco meteor

Cresselia -Raikou can set up on, Scizor, Gyarados can taunt then set up on

Donphan - Vaporeon, Gyarados

Dusknoir -worn down by toxic spikes, Gyarados can taunt and set up on

Forretress -Gyarados can taunt and set up, Mence can spam flamethrower

Gliscor -Vaporeon can surf, mence can hydro pump, Gyarados can set up and KO, Raikou can kill with Hp Ice

Gyarados -Bring my own Gyara in and scout if SE or EQ, then bring Raikou in if SE of bring Mence in if EQ

Hippowdon -Usually slept by Roserade, Mence can KO, Grara can taunt and set up

Jirachi -Annoying but Gyara can take ones without electric moves, mence can take ones without ice pinch, Raikou can set up on special ones

Rotom-A -Raikou can set up on non CubCharge ones, Mence can spam to kill, Vappy can wear down non Rest-Talk variants with toxic, minor problem

Skarmory -Mence can KO, Gyara can set up, Raikou can KO

Snorlax -Scizor, Gyara can taunt and set up

Suicune -Set up fodder for Raikou, Gyara can take non Hp Electric variants

Swampert -worn down by toxic spikes, usually slept by roserade at the beginning, Gyara can taunt and set up, Mence can KO weakened perts with draco meteor

Tentacruel -set up fodder for Raikou

Tyranitar - Scizor can revenge, Vappy can take a hit, Gyara can outspeed ones without a DD

Vaporeon -Set up fodder fo Raikou, Gyara can take non Hp Elec ones

Zapdos -Set up fodder for Raikou, Mence can kill with Draco Meteor I think

Offensive Threats

Azelf -Scizor can revenge, mence, scizor and gyara can take an explosion

Breloom -Mence, Gyara can intimidate. Ususlly need something to take the sleep though

Dragonite -Mence can outspeed, Gyara can take non T-Bolt variants, scizor can revenge, Raikou can OHKO non yache

Dugtrio -Scizor, vappy, Gyara can take a SE and set up

Electivire -

Gallade -

Gengar -

Gyarados -

Heatran -

Heracross -

Infernape -Gyara, Raikou can outspeed non scarf variants, vappy

Jolteon -scary nothing I can do, with rotom I can bait it and trap with scizor for the kill

Kingdra -

Lucario -

Machamp -

Magnezone-

Mamoswine -

Metagross -

Porygon-Z -

Salamence -

Scizor -

Starmie -

Togekiss -

Tyranitar -

Weavile -Scizor, Gyara, vappy to a degree

Yanmega-Gyara, Mence, Raikou can set up on non Hp Ground ones

Zapdos -Raikou can set up on,Mence can cripple, if both are gone can be problematic, my best bet is to try to para with Jirachi and hax to death

 

[Kevin Garrett]

Hey, I have some suggestions to make this team better. This first thing that stands out to me is Specs Mence. It is certainly powerful, but being locked into a move can make Salamence become potential set up bait. Especially when you go to use something like Hydro Pump. Something like Gyarados could come and get a DD in. You don't current have Stealth Rock, your only priority move is Scizor's Bullet Punch, and your Vaporeon has Toxic in place of anything that could do immediate damage to something like Gyarados. For that reason I recommend Mix Mence. One of the reasons you love Specs Mence so much is because you can do almost 50% to Blissey on the switch. With Life Orb, you aren't sacrificing much power and gain versatility. Furthermore, you wouldn't have to be put into poor situations if a player brought in a Bronzong after you used Draco Meteor / Dragon Pulse / Hydro Pump.

Salamence @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 16 Atk/252 Spd/240 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Brick Break
- Roost

With a potential weakness to DD Salamence and Gyarados, I see Stealth Rock as being a necessity for your team. Another thing your team is missing is a Rock resist. While you are not very weak to anything like Tyranitar, it would still be nice to have something to switch into Stone Edge should it get caught up with your Raikou earlier than you were planning. The cool thing about Jirachi is that It gets both Wish and Stealth Rock so it could possibly fit both roles for your team. If you should have a problem with Magnezone, which I don't think you would between between paralysis, Wish, and whatever attack you choose to use, U-turn may be more worthwhile. I would give Stealth Rock a try first, though. Jirachi doesn't make you any more weak to CM Latias either as it can inclict status just as Vaporeon could to beat it.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 240 HP/160 Def/32 Spd/76 SDef
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Wish
- Stealth Rock / U-turn
- Body Slam / Thunder Wave
- Iron Head / Ice Punch

I could have made more suggestions for your team, but I understand the purpose of this team is to have Raikou be successful, as opposed to something else. It looks like it's a pretty cool Pokemon to play around with. Hopefully you'll get something out of this rate. Good luck with the team.

 

[DarkSlay]

Hey there. I'm not going to fully rate this, but after going over the team, I noticed that you have a problem with countering one specific Pokemon, so I ran some damage calculations to show you.

Problems:

Jolteon (Specs)

Looking at the team from a basic type perspective, you have two Pokemon that resist Electric, two that are neutral, and two that are Super Effective. One of the resisters is your Lead, and in my opinion, Roserade has an equal chance of failing as succeeding, so I'm assuming she won't be lasting long enough to come out. Generally, four Pokes that can't take Electric hits is never a good thing. So, here's some damage calculations for you that show how Jolteon might ravage through this team (We're assuming that Jolteon's team has Stealth Rock support):

Vs. Scizor:
478 Atk vs 196 Def & 343 HP (95 Base Power): 249 - 294 (72.59% - 85.71%)

A clear 2HKO, and since Jolteon resists Bullet Punch and is faster than the other three attacks of Scizor, this guy's dead if switched into it. With Stealth Rock out, a switch is essentially a OHKO, leaving Scizor with 0% damage left after switching into SR, out, and back into SR again.

Vs. Salamence:
478 Atk vs 196 Def & 331 HP (95 Base Power): 249 - 294 (75.23% - 88.82%)

A guaranteed OHKO with Stealth Rock up. Jolteon can easily come in after a Draco Meteor and wreck havoc as well.

Vs. Gyarados:
478 Atk vs 236 Def & 370 HP (95 Base Power): 828 - 976 (223.78% - 263.78%)

Just a fun stat, even though it's obvious. :) It's important to note, however, that Jolteon can outrun a +1 Speed Gyarados and OHKO, which makes it, by far, the best time for Jolteon to come into play.

Vs. Vaporeon:
478 Atk vs 243 Def & 448 HP (95 Base Power): 402 - 474 (89.73% - 105.80%)

A 33% chance at a OHKO without SR, and a guaranteed OHKO with SR. Vaporeon also can't touch Jolteon in the process (if it somehow survives an attack), as Wish + Protect won't save it.

Vs. Raikou:
478 Atk vs 236 Def & 322 HP (80 Base Power): 117 - 138 (36.34% - 42.86%)

This is Shadow Ball, in case you're wondering. However, while it might seem that Raikou has an edge here, you actually lose this match-up. Why? Here's why:

- Jolteon is faster. If you set up a Sub, it will be busted, and you will be down about 19% HP already.
- A +5 Hidden Power Ice fails to OHKO Jolteon.
- Two +2 Hidden Power Ice fail to 2HKO Jolteon.
- Jolteon has at least between a 3HKO or 4HKO with all of your Calm Minding, and due to its speed, even the Calm Mind boosts won't save you.
- Believe it or not, Thunderbolt does the same damage to Raikou relatively (off five or so percentages between the maxes). Shadow Ball just does a little bit more. So, switching in on a Thunderbolt still won't save you as much as you would think.
- Shadow Ball has a chance to lower the Special Defense stat by one, which does not help Raikou.
- Calm Minding is risky due to crits, which with four or five opportunities to attack, Jolteon could get lucky.

An attack with no calm minds deals around half of your health with Stealth Rocks, so that's even less ideal. This is risky playing, with the favor going with the Jolteon user. So, your best Electric counter falls to Specs Jolteon most of the time.

Overall, this team is extremely weak to Specs Jolteon. Your best, and only, bets are to either get lucky and land some Toxic Spikes down with Roserade (and pray that they don't have a spinner or a Poison type) and try to stall the rampage with Raikou (which might be sacrificed), or sacrifice Raikou alltogether and try to revenge kill the weakened Jolteon with Bullet Punch, which may be tough to do and eventually becomes set-up bait for BulkyGyarados, which is a frequent partner of Jolteon. Let's not also forget other Specs user who know TBolt, like other Raikou and Starmie, or physical Electric users like Electivire (who, with good prediction, can outspeed and OHKO all of your Pokemon with the proper moveset).

I would give a reccomendation, but I'm not sure what exactly you're willing to part with here in order to get rid of the Electric weakness. BulkyGyara seems to be the weak link on the team when it comes to Electric moves, and doesn't really come in handy with the team's resistances. Salamence could also be taken out, although you're losing your Special Attacker in the process. Your best bet would be to bring in something like this for Gyarados or Salamence:

Gliscor @ Leftovers/Yache Berry
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EV's: 252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Moveset:
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

The Dancing Tank version of Gliscor is a fairly good replacement for BulkyGyarados on this team, taking care of the Electric weakness while surviving Shadow Ball and HP Grass (or HP Ice with Yache) and OHKO'ing back with Earthquake. You still have that bulky booster you had with Gyarados, just with more Attacking boost potential and less Speed boosting. Stone Edge takes care of opposing Gyarados, Salamence, and Dragonite with OHKO's after Swords Dance. As always, Gliscor is a nice check to late-game Lucario, which can pretty much devastate any team it wants to. The only drawback is that this team becomes more vulnerable to Ice Beam Swampert, but with Toxic Spikes, that becomes less of an actual threat.

Hope this helped a little, and good luck with the team!

 

[Trufflehunter25]

@Kevin Garrett thanks for the rate, I'll test out the Jirachi and fix my mence
@DrkSly thanks for the rate, will test Gliscor over Gyarados

 

[les gets]

I would take toxic off of vaporeon and use heal bell since you don't have anything to take status except for roserade, which often goes down in the first few turns of the game. Toxic Spikes will take care of bulky waters.

 

[Trufflehunter25]

@Cost thanks for the rate, changed
@Sprinkles thanks for the rate ,will test but the purpose of this team was to set up a sweep for Raikou

 

[Itsuki]

Hey Trufflehunter25, cool team you got here and love how your using Raikou as I feel it certainly is a very underrated threat. Now onto the rate. I think having a Rotom will certainly help against Rapid Spinners as you want to keep your Toxic Spikes and Stealth Rock up as long as possible correct? I would like to suggest Rotom:

Rotom-h @ Leftovers | Levitate
Timid | 248 HP / 72 Def / 188 Spe
Thunderbolt / Shadow Ball / Will-O-Wisp / Rest or Light Screen

188 Speed allows Rotom to outspeed Adamant Lucario and Will-O-Wisp it before it hits. It also provides a good counter to Gyarados, Jirachi (non CM versions), Bronzong, and Rest Talk Rotom which can only hit you with either Will-O-Wisp or Thunderbolt so Shadow Ball helps you 2HKO most Rotom. The reason why I suggest 248 HP is to reduct residual damage by 1 point which can come in handy.

I'm not as sure who to replace. You need Jirachi to deal with things like Latias and Tyranitar while setting up Stealth Rock to help take down Gyarados and Salamence much faster. However I think using it over Gliscor would be the best option but then it will leave you open to Jolteon. However Thunderbolt seems like set up bait for Raikou and Shadow Ball directed at Rotom can let Scizor trap it.

Hope I helped!

 

[Trufflehunter25]

@Itsuki thanks for the rate, I will certainly test rotom over Gliscor and that will definitely help against my jolteon weakness