General Weather

[133k]

Well, since this is essentially an entirely "new metagame", Weather plays almost completely differently from in 6 v.6, as there are no bans on SW+Drizzle; You can only bring 3 Pokemon to each match, so it's fairly pointless to stock your team with more than 3 of one type (such as 2 Grass Types and 4 Water Types on a single Drizzle team). This also makes threats such as Excadrill far more potent, as you must sacrifice 1/3 of your team if you wish to sacrifice something to bring something else in safely. I could go on and on about how SB Blaziken, "Dropped Clauses", ect. ect. effect weather usage, but I'll leave that for later.

I myself personally find sun to be very effective; I've tried rain, but it seemed like most of the (good) people I faced had a good Rain counter (such as Abomasnow or Zapdos), while less people seem to be prepared to face a Drought team.

Anyways, feel free to talk about what weather you believe is weakest, strongest, what works and what doesn't in any type of weather.

 

[TheMantyke]

I've achieved a bit of success using a simple sandstorm team composed of Landorus, Air Balloon Tyranitar, Excadrill, and a final slot that switches between Thunderus and Rotom - W. The team is heavily reliant on Rock Slide and Earthquake with Thunderus to cover a few remaining bad match-ups. There have been a few times where other weather teams (specifically rain) have caused me a bit of trouble, but most of the time, not leading with and switching into Tyranitar resolves a good bit of them.

 

[Jibaku]

This also makes threats such as Excadrill far more potent

I would like to disagree with this. As a matter of fact, I think the 3v3 format makes Excadrill less potent than it is in 6v6.

Being almost entirely reliant on weather is a big downfall imo, due to the limited team space. Furthermore, Excadrill shares a few weaknesses with Tyranitar (Fighting, Ground, Water), and Hippowdon (Water). Excadrill also finds itself difficult to be used as a lead, and if you do use it as a lead chances are it telegraphs the sandstreamer's usage in the team. I find that Excadrill is somewhat difficult to mold into the miniteam as a result.

As far as weather goes, I have used Sandstorm, although I don't really use it much outside of breaking potential Focus Sashes (Zoroark and Gengar I'm staring at you), and cancelling out Hail (if because the rest of my team handles the other two weathers better than TTar could). The 3v3 setting seems to make weather less prominent than in OU (even though it's still undoubtedly strong), as you can choose to scrap your weather-vulnerable Pokemon. Take care that your opponent doesn't catch you hard on this, however.

 

[Virizion]

I would like to disagree with this. As a matter of fact, I think the 3v3 format makes Excadrill less potent than it is in 6v6.

Being almost entirely reliant on weather is a big downfall imo, due to the limited team space. Furthermore, Excadrill shares a few weaknesses with Tyranitar (Fighting, Ground, Water), and Hippowdon (Water). Excadrill also finds itself difficult to be used as a lead, and if you do use it as a lead chances are it telegraphs the sandstreamer's usage in the team. I find that Excadrill is somewhat difficult to mold into the miniteam as a result.

As far as weather goes, I have used Sandstorm, although I don't really use it much outside of breaking potential Focus Sashes (Zoroark and Gengar I'm staring at you), and cancelling out Hail (if because the rest of my team handles the other two weathers better than TTar could). The 3v3 setting seems to make weather less prominent than in OU (even though it's still undoubtedly strong), as you can choose to scrap your weather-vulnerable Pokemon. Take care that your opponent doesn't catch you hard on this, however.

But.. it makes it easier for him to sweep, since it's usually not too good of an idea to use more than one wall/tank (like Gliscor) in 3v3, meaning that Exca should have an easier time by going against lower-Def Pokés. The problem I had when I used him was that a lot of people carried Gliscor/Azumarill/Hitmontop in their full team, so it discouraged me from using Exca in Random Matchup. Now though, I run Hail pretty efficiently, with Stallrein making an appearance in most battles. He's very effective even in 3v3, I think the only reason why people don't use him more is because you need a full Hail team, which usually has a disadvantage to other weathers.

 

[133k]

I would like to disagree with this. As a matter of fact, I think the 3v3 format makes Excadrill less potent than it is in 6v6.

Being almost entirely reliant on weather is a big downfall imo, due to the limited team space. Furthermore, Excadrill shares a few weaknesses with Tyranitar (Fighting, Ground, Water), and Hippowdon (Water). Excadrill also finds itself difficult to be used as a lead, and if you do use it as a lead chances are it telegraphs the sandstreamer's usage in the team. I find that Excadrill is somewhat difficult to mold into the miniteam as a result.

My ideology was that because there's a smaller team, it has the potential to do more damage to it; since you only have 3 pokes as opposed to 6, it's more risky to sacrifice something for two reasons:

1. As I said, that's 1/3 of your team gone.

2. Unless you know all three things that the opponent brought, it's hard to tell what to sacrifice; an example:

Lets say that you have an Emboar, Azumarill, and (X), vs an opponent who brought a Hippowdon, Excadrill, and (Y) (in which you've only seen Hippowdon and Excadrill). However, they also had a Ferrothorn, but you don't know if they brought it or not; you could sacrifice Emboar to bring in Azumarill, but Ferrothorn would then stop you cold if they use it; to put it simply, you could sacrifice (X) Pokemon, but it would leave you walled by (Y).

Now, if you happen to predict a switch to Excadrill, then my point is moot.

EDIT: Completely disregard this post, as I realize this is a terrible answer. Basically, I see it this way: I believe it's stronger because it has the potential to do much more damage in a smaller amount of time. You believe it's weaker because of typing and common weaknesses (among the SS starters), it makes the team (3 Pokes) worse as a whole.

I truly hope this makes sense.

 

[Dystopia]

well since everyone i've gone against is using drizzle politoad as a lead :| I made a cloud nine lolexplosion lickilicky. HP and defensive EVs. umm...curse, wrap, explosion, filler. I find wrap very effective because its prevents a switch-out and causes rage >:D. I usually follow that up with tyranitar/hippo and then and excadrill or tank cradily(depending on their team composition). I almost always win.

also: sandstorm>everything :3

Not sure how effective it's supposed to be but it works quite well for me.

 

[Baz Anderson]

I don't think so many people use rain teams as much recently, as most people bring some kind of counter with them now. Sandstorm teams are still pretty common and tiresome to come across though. Substitute/Sand Veiling Garchomp is probably the most annoying thing to come across... I think a higher Conkeldurr usage is causing Excadrills to be used less though.

 

[Virizion]

I don't think so many people use rain teams as much recently, as most people bring some kind of counter with them now. Sandstorm teams are still pretty common and tiresome to come across though. Substitute/Sand Veiling Garchomp is probably the most annoying thing to come across... I think a higher Conkeldurr usage is causing Excadrills to be used less though.

I lol'd cuz I just fought a Sub/Double Team Chomp in Sand, and didn't miss once (even after a Double Team). What happened was:

Latios vs TTar
Latios Earthquakes, TTar T-waves
TTar T-waves (I almost switched out into something but feared Pursuit instead, so stayed in), Latios EQ, TTar KO'ed
Sends out Chomp
Chomp Sub, Latios D-Claw
Chomp Sub, Latios D-Claw
Switch to Scizor, Chomp Sub (about at 50% HP)
Scizor BP, Sub breaks, Chomp Double Team
Scizor BP, Chomp Sub, not enough HP
Scizor BP, Chomp KO'ed
Sent out Thundurus and forfeited (I had my entire team left, didn't show Rotom-W yet).

 

[Baz Anderson]

Ha, lucky for you. I don't think I have ever not missed a Garchomp in the sand at least once, which is pretty annoying because obviously it lets them get a Swords Dance in and sweep.

 

[Megamence123]

I had the most success with a Drought team. It had Ninetales, Heatran, Lilligant, Dragonite, Nidoking, and Starmie. My combos were rather unexpected, and I only lost to a few Drizzle teams.

 

[deadguydrew]

In my (very limited) experience I've found that Vaporeon + Acid Armor can generally lock out Excadrill and still live through with enough life to damage a following Pokemon. You could probably do the same with a bulky Drizzletoed.

 

[forthwright]

I myself personally find sun to be very effective; I've tried rain, but it seemed like most of the (good) people I faced had a good Rain counter (such as Abomasnow or Zapdos), while less people seem to be prepared to face a Drought team.

As far as Wi-Fi weather goes, I agree with what you're saying about Sun being effective due to the amount of team slots being reserved for Sand/Rain counters. The Sun team that I've used the most with some success is Ninetales/Jumpluff/Heatran.

Now if only every player wouldn't ragequit every time I've almost defeated them, then I could use this team more...

 

[soul_survivor]

I agree that sun teams are very effective because i play doubles and i face SS and drizzle teams so much that i put a pokemon like ferrathorn to counter, but when i battle a sun team i draw a blank seeing lilligant and shiftry, and getting will-o-wisped the crap out of.

 

[Imaginary Numbers]

A Cloud Nine Golduck, while not the best stats, can make a great counter since it'll pop in and remove the sandstorm special defense buff. Still leaves a mess with Politoed, which is why i prefer Lickilicky and his Power Whip.