MAKE IT RAIN! -#ranked top 100

[Skill Swap]

MAKE IT RAIN!


hi there, what i want to present u is a pretty much standard rain team. first of all, english is not my first language, so im sorry if i make mistakes. the building phase is pretty much simple, i started with Politoed, obviously, trying a lot of sets. at first i tried Scarftoed, but then i realized that being locked in a move (such as surf or ibeam) was not good at all, because it could became setup fodder easily. then i tried an offensive set with max hp and max special atk, with surf, ibeam, hp grass and psong, but then i found hp grass almost useless, so i tried encore+psong. the thing is, politoed sucks, its ou just because of drizzle. for this reason i didnt want to have a pokemon that can be setup fodder of everything. the same thing is for tentacruel, the second mon i chose. i have always used it with toxic spikes, but in this team i didnt want to stall at all, so i tried ice beam instead of toxic spikes, avoiding being setup fodder of dragons, and grass types. at this point i had some eletric problems, so i put ferrothorn in it. ferrothorn is perfect here, also because it can setup both stealth rock and spikes, and its a nice switch-in on dragons moves. now, i needed something against subbeam magnezone, which otherwise would have destroyed my team. i tried lanturn first, but it wasnt very good because i also needed something "fast" and it clearly isnt. then i tried thundurus-t, and i have to admit it works. i tried nasty plot+3 atk first, and it sucked; 101 base speed its outspeeded by too much things. then i used it with substitute instead of focus blast, but then ferrothorn or tyranitar gave some problems. so i tried sub+3 atk, and it worked enough. at this point i needed something against sunny teams, and also something that could setup on ferrothron, on all the bulky waters with scald, toxic and staff like that, so i mindless added subddnite and, ahahah i got so many 6-0 just with this thing that i can say its the star of the team. for the last slot, i needed a generic scarf mon to revenge kill things, and after trying landorus, tornadus, i founded scarfrachi to be the best in this team.

Team at a glance:

In depth look:

Politoed (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Encore
- Perish Song

My weather setter, politoed. as i mentioned before, i didnt want to be setup fodder of everything. scald is the standard stab for defensive toed, which helps me dealing with tentacruel, ferrothorn, or others politoed (thanks to the burn) I have ice beam here, to hit dragon types and grass types switching in or trying to setup on me. where this two moves are not enough, i just mindless press encore (obviously, only if my opponent doesnt have others summoner) and laugh to their dragon dance/sword dance or something like that, then i perish song it be sure it will not sweep me. encore its also useful to stop some "slow" sweeper such as conkeldurr or reuniclus. The evs maximizes the defense to take less damages.
Changes: i have some problem with wow/toxic ninetales, so im thinking about refresh, but i dont know which move i should remove.

Tentacruel (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Protect

This is my spinner. it can look as a standard tentacruel but its a slightly different. first of all, it has timid nature and some evs in speed, enough to outspeed jolly breloom, adamant mamoswine and dragonite. in this way, i can revenge kill breloom, or just hit it before it can spore me, i can scald mamoswine and ice beam dragonite getting a surprise kill. protect is here for longevity, and scouting, rapid spin is for obvious reasons. I dont have toxic spikes because i found them useless, in fact almost an half of the metagame has flying types, levitate, poison type, steel type, or it can spin. also this is not a stall team, so i dont care about stalling thing with toxic.
Changes: i found very difficult to spin against Jellicent, in fact some skilled stall players can destroy this team with he support and Jellicent, this is why i sometimes use toxic>protect.

Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 132 Def / 128 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip

ferrothorn is my answer to a lot of things, (maybe too much) and because of that, it always has a lot of switch-in, which is perfect because i can take advantage of this thanks to Stealth rock and Spikes. Power whip is the main stab that can hit water types, and leech seed is for recovery and avoiding being sitting duck. its my main switchin against latios, rotom, jolteon, jirachi, kindgra, dragonite, gastrodon, landorus and so on. the spread is pretty much random, because i dont know how to evs it... it does have to counter both phisical and special pokemon.
Changes: thunder wave should be a better move instead of leech seed, because it does the job to stop sweepers better, but then i would be a little chansey weak and my ferrothorn would have shorter life.

Dragonite (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 248 HP / 72 Def / 4 SDef / 184 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Roost

ahahah, this set is amazing. the speed evs can outspeed a lot of slow things, particularly special defense jirachi (which can not break the sub) meaning that i can setup on him. its my main answer to sunny teams (even tough i dont want to be statused) and also, its my main answer against stall teams. if i see i dont have any chance to win because they can phaze my dragonite out i let all my mon die, so that they cant do anything to beat me. even tough dragon claw fails at 2kos skarmory even at+6, it cant touch me and roost does actually have less pp, so its not a real problem. ice beam and stone edges can easily be stalled out by sub+roost, and the same goes for things like ferrothorn and forretress gyro ball. if you let this thing setup, you have lost the game.

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Trick
- U-turn
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch

Jirachi its a very important member in this team. his job is to counter tornadus-t, in primis, and then revenge kill all the staff that give me problems, such as gound types like landorus or mamoswine, terrakion, celebi, latios. Trick is a very very good move, it can make a wall useless, it can trick some dangerous pokemon to avoid being 6-0'ed, i think that a trick user its always welcomed in any type of team, because the support it can give is really important. U-turn can help me scouting and its my main answer to celebi, ice punch is for thundurus, tornadus, landorus, dragonite, salamence, and so on. iron head helps me dealing with gengar, terrakion, mamoswine, and with some hax support it can flinch things to death. i have used zen headbutt instead for a while, because u know zen headbutt does hit fire, water, and eletric types for neutral damage, which is good, but then i couldnt hit tyranitar and zen headbutt does have less chances to flinch and it misses too much.

Thundurus-T (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Thunder
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]

well, not that much to say about this thing, but if you let it sub against something, then ill have at least one kill, no matter what happens. only special defense gastrodon and blissey can switch in safely, and only ferrothorn and tyranitar can beat me if i miss fail blast twice in a row. man i hate this move, really. just saying, ive NEVER used gengar just because of this move. speaking seriously, i tought about using superpower, but its too much weak, so i cant use it.

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Dragonite (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 248 HP / 72 Def / 4 SDef / 184 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Roost

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Trick
- U-turn
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch

Politoed (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Encore
- Perish Song

Tentacruel (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Protect

Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 132 Def / 128 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip

Thundurus-T (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Thunder
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]

theathlist coming soon :3
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Politoed: i have ferrothorn, tentacruel, my own politoed and thundurus to stop it.
scizor: its stopped by tentacruel, even sd version will fail to do serious damage to it. cb versions also are thundurus weak
ferrothorn: dragonite setup on it, thundurus has focus blast, toed and tentacruel can burn it.
dragonite: it cant setup on anything, i can revenge kill it with jirachi or seed it with ferrothorn.
heatran: i can stop it with politoed and tentacruel.
jirachi: special defense jirachi cant do anything to ferrothorn, it risks the burn against tentacruel and politoed, dragonite can setup on it because iron head doesnt break substitute. sub cm variant are a pain tough, i can only trick it with my own jirachi and then seed it with ferrothorn.
breloom: sd variants are stopped by dragonite and thundurus, same for subpunch and bulk up variants.
gliscor: sub protect gliscor cant touch thundurus and dragonite which can both setup on him, also toed and tentacruel can scald him to death. taunt+sd variants are revengekilled by thundurus.
tyranitar: i have jirachi, ferrothorn, politoed, focus blast thundurus so its not a problem.
tornadus-t: i have scarfrachi and thundurus, also it fails to ko any of my pokemon with hurricane.
starmie: ferrothorn does stop it
rotom-w: it its a choice variant, i can deal with it with thundurus and ferrothorn, if its a defensive one it can wow my ferrothorn but then i can use it as a setup fodder for dragonite.
thundurus-t: it doesnt have real counter, so i cant do that much against it. generally i revenge kill it with jirachi.
salamence: it cant setup on anything, as for dragonite, also i can just force him to outrage so that ferrothorn can seed it.
forretress: nothing much that this guy can do.
latios: i have both ferrothorn and scarfrachi to deal with any version of latios.
mamoswine: a little painfull, but it cant win the 1 vs 1 against toeed and ferrothorn, also tentacruel outspeed it and jirachi can flinch it.
terrakion: i can revenge kill it with jirachi, also i can check it with tentacruel.
gengar: generally tentacruel can beat it, anyway i can flinch it to death with jirachi.
tentacruel: setup fodder of dragonite, thundurus does destroy it.
ninetales: one of the biggest treath, because this team hates will-o-wisp.
volcarona: i have both dragonite and tentacruel to stop it
gyarados: i can psong it with toed, ferrothorn can take some hits, thundurus can shot him before it can do anything.
haxorus: i can force it to outrage me, then i send out ferrothorn. i can rkill it with rachi.
landorus: one of the biggest threat. with sand force it can really do some serious damge to all my team. i have to play right and rkill it with rachi. sub orb variants with sheer force are also a pain in the ass.
keldeo: i can stop it with tentacruel and dragonite.
jellicent: it cant do a lot, i also have toxic on tentacruel, so its not a problem.
lucario: i can deal with it with tentacruel but its a serious threat.

 

[afterburn]

Quiver Dance Volcarona and Calm Mind Keldeo with HP Ice look like the biggest threats to the team. Both get a set-up opportunity on Jirachi locked into a resisted move, and can then threaten a sweep. Everything is at the very least 2HKOed (Dragonite goes down to boosted HP Rock if Stealth Rock is up from Volcarona). Your best option is tricking a scarf onto them with Jirachi, and going down to their boosted attack (and risking a speed tie from the former). Tentacruel walls both, but lacks any move to actually hit them with after a boost, as they can accumulate more boosts to threaten it with. Substitute + Bulk Up Toxicroak also looks like a potential threat, setting-up

A quick and simple fix would be to try Toxic over Ice Beam. With Toxic, Volcarona and Keldeo, as well as Pokemon who you wanted to prevented from setting-up on you with Ice Beam will be crippled by Toxic. Not only this, but I think a SubToxic set on Tentacruel will also help you, as you say you are currently troubled by Jellicent. Since you aren't using Toxic Spikes anyway, you don't lose anything, except being able to Toxic Stall threats such as the aforementioned Jellicent. You will also force plenty of switches this way, racking up more residual damage with Spikes + Stealth Rock. The only difference in this set and your current one is Toxic over Protect.

Lastly, for Bulk Up Toxicroak, you may want to change Politoed's spread to 252 HP / 200 Def / 52 Spe with a Timid Nature, allowing you to outspeed Toxicroak and pull of Encore to lock it into an attack or Perish Song to put it on a timer. You already have plenty of physical defense on Ferrothorn, and plenty of physical bulk on Tentacruel. Thus, nothing of too much importance is lost with this change on Politoed. You may find Substitute on three Pokemon a little too much, so Agility over Substitute on Thundurus and Life Orb is a good choice, giving you a threatening weapon against Offense, as well as something to abuse the Spikes with its common checks softened (like specially defensive Jirachi).

Nice team, and GL

 

[Skill Swap]

hi, thanks for the rate. i've never had a lot of problems against keldeo and volcarona, because as u said they can only setup on jirachi. if volcarona has hp rock then it doesnt have roost, meaning that tentacruel can stop it. ive seen only one or two hp ice keldeo, because hp ghost give it more coverage, so its the most used, but anyway i agree with you to put toxic instead of protect. im not sure about substite, because ice beam is needed for breloom and dragons, but ill try it. im sorry i cant understand what u said about the tentacruel spread, it already has 236 evs in defense o.O
as for thundurus, ill try it even tough i dont know if it works better then the sub variant, but ill give it a chance.
ive never met bu toxicroak, but ill try your spread :3

 

[afterburn]

Yeah I misread the Evs for 'cruel... lol

Ice Beam is fine over Substitute, it was optional, just something to try, you're right about the Breloom part. You said something about Jellicent being annoying to Tentacruel, Sub+Toxic solves that, but you're right Ice Beam is important to prevent Breloom from setting-up too comfortably.

 

[peng]

So I can see any variant of Keldeo with Hidden Power [Ice] or Icy Wind is problematic to face, especially Choice Specs variants. Genesect can also be problematic, as it nabs a Special Attack boost from Ferrothorn and Politoed, as well as your Jirachi, and with an Expert Belt (or Focus Sash or something) runs through your team. Your only checks to Genesect are Thundurus-T, who definitely cannot switch-in safely, and Choice Scarf Jirachi, who has to rely on a bunch of Iron Head flinches to get around it.

I think having both Encore and Perish Song on Politoed is unnecessary, since they fill largely the same role. I think you could replace either of them with Protect, which allows you to scout the Choiced attack of Pokemon such as Genesect, Rotom-W and opposing Thundurus-T, as well as giving you a small form of recovery to help Politoed stick around for longer.

Tentacruel is one of your best Keldeo switch-ins, but its set doesn't really give it any options to take it out. Protect is necessary to avoid a 2HKO from Specs Hydro Pump (iirc), and Scald and Rapid Spin are staples here, which means that Ice Beam is probably the least useful move on the set. I would recommend replacing Ice Beam with Toxic, which allows you to poison non-Substitute variants of Keldeo and Volcarona, as well as luring in Tentacruel to cripple it. If the Keldeo or Volcarona does end up having Substitute, you can easily switch into Dragonite knowing that they are likely running dual STAB coverage and can't really touch you. Ice Beam does mean that your lose out on one of your ways of getting rid of Breloom, but Rain-boosted Scald already does a decent amount of damage along with having the chance to burn, which is often enough to discourage Breloom from setting up on you anyway. With Dragonite, you shouldn't really have too many issues with Breloom anyway.

I'd also like to suggest you use the standard EV spread on Ferrothorn: 252 HP / 68 Def / 188 SDef with a Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd). The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, your team doesn't really have many switch-ins to Choice Specs and Life Orb Starmie, as it can OHKO every member of your team outside of Ferrothorn with the appropriate attack. Going with a more Special Defense-heavy Ferrothorn means you have a more reliable Starmie switch-in, and also gives you an overall better answer to Rotom-W. Secondly, this EV spread guarantees Genesect will get an Attack boost from Download, whereas your spread currently gives it a Special Attack boost. Small changes like this are what can save your team from being run through by Genesect late-game.

On the subject of Download, your Jirachi is currently missing 4 EVs, meaning it has equal defenses. When the defenses are the same, Genesect gets a Special Attack boost from Download. I'd recommend putting the remaining 4 EVs into SDef, again just to minimise the places where Genesect gets opportunities to cause big damage.

Good luck.

EDIT: ninja'd by afterburn by like 1.5 hours 9.9

 

[Skill Swap]

thanks for the rate, ill try your fixes

 

[TGMD]

Hey Skill Swap, nice team!

One huge threat I noticed when looking through your team is Tobes Tran, Tobes Tran is a Heatran set that consists of: Magma Storm / Sunny Day / Solarbeam / Hidden Power [Ice]. This set was designed to kill Politoed, making it alot easier to win the weather war, as well as other bulky waters such as Tentacruel. In your threatlist you mentioned Politoed and Tentacruel are your main switch ins to Heatran, this can be problematic if you switch in on Magma Storm because they can then get up a Sunny Day and kill you off with Solarbeam. This Heatran can potentially beat your entire team other than Thundurus-t, and with your Politoed gone it'll be easy for a well built sun team to finish you off. A spread of: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 Spe on Tentacruel will allow you to outspeed Tobes Tran even if they run max speed, I also added some extra speed to outspeed most Ninetales (alot of them run just enough speed EVs to outspeed positive nature base 80s, this serves a dual purpose as it decreases the threat level of Mamoswine), you mentioned Ninetales is a problem and if you're under rain it'll allow you to get off some heavy damage before it can Sunny Day.

You may also want to try a Relaxed nature as well as 0 Speed IVs on Ferrothorn so that your hazards go after Foretress' Rapid Spin, and this makes you faster than Reuniclus under Trick Room.

Anyways, I hope this rate helped and GL with the team :)

P.S: I noticed all the sprites in this RMT are animated other than Thundurus-t, so here's an animated Thundurus-t sprite if you want to use it: