Make it Rain!

[AJ29FF12]

I've been doing some Rain Team testing, trying to get back into Pokémon again after about a 3 year break. I've come up with some teams but they've been rather imperfect and I could do with some help to fix that.

Any changes will be in red and bold

Team Building Process.

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Well with it being a rain team I need Drizzle so that's obvious what came first

Then came Salamence. with using a rain team, I wanted to try out Hydro Pump Salamence to see how it faired

Then I decided I wanted to try Keldeo out so I placed it in there

I then knew I needed something to resist Electric, so I decided to use Thundurus-T

After that I needed an Ice resistance and Jirachi slotted in there nicely.

Then I needed something that could give me a Fire type move with particular efficiency as it was a rather lacking area so I chose Volcarona

Then after some testing I realised that my Rock weakness was particularly severe therefore Volcarona had to go as I didn't have a spinner and 50% damage from Rocks isn't pretty. I replaced it with Landurus-T to see how that would pan out.

Thundurus-T was only useful for Volt Absorb therefore I needed to change it too, I picked Magnezone as I needed an Electric Type and it comes with some useful resistances.

Politoed @ Choice Specs
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Grass]

I decided to go for SpecsToed because it isn't very Powerful and to put the extra bit of power on there is useful. Unforunately, it's not all that great due to its slow speed. It seems to get OHKOd a lot by physical threats but it does receive a lot of Crits so that could be a contributing Factor. HP Grass 3HKOs the most Bulky of Politoed not factoring in Leftovers. With that I believe it's a 4HKO which isn't too great. Surf is used as a more reliable option to Hydro Pump as I have too much of that move on here. Ice Beam covers the Dragons although in all honesty they usually go to destroy him with Outrage or something before I can do anything so in most cases, he gets switched out. Focus blast is useful except for the shoddy accuracy it does a nice chunk to Scizor and is a nice 3HKO on the most Specially Defensive. Not much more to say really.I was also told I could use a ScarfToed, however I'm not so sure as to whether that'd work.

Salamence (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 64 Atk / 192 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Draco Meteor
- Hydro Pump

I wanted to try Hydro Pump seeing as my friend was always going on about it when he first found out it could learn it. It gets a pretty awesome boost in the rain. Although being slightly weaker than Fire Blast would be, it still gets a nice 2HKO in the Specially Defensive Scizor. It has the standard Outrage/Draco Meteor combo to shred through walls and well.. Anything. Earthquake is there to cover Steel Types such as Jirachi even though it's a 2HKO on every set disregarding entry hazards. This Mence still rips lots of things apart so it's always a nice addition to my team.

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Surf
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Ice]

I wanted to try Monsieur Pony out and I can safely say I'm glad I did. Even though its movepool leave A LOT to be desired LO Hydro Pump is a very nice STAB move and in the rain is guaranteed at least a 2HKO on Jirachi, Scizor, and Forretress (Factoring in Sturdy) and a 3HKO on a Specially Defensive Ferrothorn which resists it. Hidden Power Grass hits those pesky Jellicent for a 2HKO after Stealth Rock damage and other Bulky Waters for example Gastrodon. Secret Sword makes Chansey and Blissey run crying with a 50% chance to OHKO the latter and netting a decent 2HKO on Evolite Chansey. Ice Beam would be nice, however Icy Wind will have to do, although the Speed drop could be nice as well, the power boost from HP Ice is much more appealing.

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 220 Spd / 252 SAtk / 36 HP
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Charge Beam
- Flash Cannon
- Thunder

Magnezone is here now. Useful resistances mean he can switch in on something such as Scizor and trap and kill it with Thunder. Thunder is used over Thunderbolt because of my Rain and Flash Cannon is a useful STAB move even though it has poor offensive coverage.
Sub is there to set up on a Steel type or something as they do pittance to Zone if locked into a Steel move and he can take advantage of that and be protected from their onslaught and Charge Beam is also useful in this scenario as well to accumulate SpAtk boosts

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 64 Atk / 200 HP / 244 Def
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn

I'm pretty skeptical about this guy right now, he's just.. out of place. Not that he's not any good but I'm not so sure I have the right set. He's only managed to net me a single KO since swapping him in. He seems to get destroyed by everything. Lati@s especially as their boosted Surf never ends up pretty. I think he should go, but I don't know what to replace him for.
Sets up my Rocks as they are imperative in this Metagame and he's bulky enough to be able to pull it off most of the time. Especially with Intimidate support.
U-Turn is the only option against the Latis but he's only ever pulled one off which was a crit against a Latios. Any suggestions would be nice.

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Trick
- Ice Punch / Thunder Punch
- U-Turn

or

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spd
Careful Nature (+SpD, -SAtk)
- Iron Head
- Body Slam
- Wish
- Protect

Bread and Butter set. This Jirachi is good as an alternate lead over Toed as Scarf often outruns things and causes the flinch with Iron Head. Or he can Trick to Cripple a sweeper.
Ice Punch is good for Dragons seeing as you can guarantee you'll run into one.
The other set to be considered is the Specially defensive one. As my team doesn't have a lot of bulk it is always nice to get something bulky with lots of resistances. The Para on Body Slam is nice to follow up with Iron Head is your good old ParaFlinch. Wish and Protect are a pretty standard pairing and I could pass a Wish out to a team mate with good prediction.

Overall, I've noticed some weaknesses on the team however I'd like some advice to put it right really so any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance :)

 

[Neliel]

Hi there, nice team :x
The first thing i have to say is that running fire types move on a rain team is dumb. Fire punch of jirachi is not that powerfull, if you use it under rain you will not do nothing, probably it wont even 2ko scizor, and the same is for your magnezone, hp fire here have no purpose since your can trap ferrothorn and setup on it with substitute. For this reason i would recommend you to use U-turn instead of fire punch on jirachi. Also, i dont see why you are runnin stealth rock while Landorus-t thanks to intimidate can easily setup it, choice scarf pokemon should never have stealth rock, unless is you only pokemon that can learn it. Try trick instead of stealth rock on jirachi and Stealth rock instead of Gravity on landorus. Gravity just doesnt work here, you dont have the spikes support and you are anyway using a defensive set, meaning that your earthquake will not do that much damages, also you really lacks of speed so you will never sweep, because everything can outspeed you. Talking about your magnezone, i think that leftovers is superior since it can give you a sort of recovery to trap things like Ferrothorn easier. Since hp fire under rain will not doing much, you can try the standard magnezone with Substitute, Thunder, charge beam and Flash cannon.
At this point, i think that you really need another way to revenge kill things. I know that you have jirachi but i think that only one scarfed pokemon is never enough, this metagame is so fast placed and u need the more speed as possible. (talking about that, i will consider Jolly nature on jirachi to win Speed ties against Salamence)
I think that the best thing to do here is to use Scarf keldeo instead of your current version. Scarfkeldeo can revenge kill a lot of stuff, you cant rely on jirachi only to outspeed any 110 base speed (like gengar, latios, tornadus, alazakam) and you can not risk to lose a speed tie against a Dragon dance salamence or a volcarona. Try Hidden power Ice instead of calm mind.

 

[Bluwing]

Nice team you've got here !
First off your team is really weak to Tornadus-T as it can easely wear down Jirachi and your other team member really cant take a Hurricane. To fix this I would change Jiachi to a standard specially defensive set. Also HP Fire is kinda redundant on Magnezone Neliel's suggestion is good, next up is Keldeo I would change him to scarf set so you can revenge kill Genesect easier and beat the dragon dancers easier, also with specially defensive Jirachi you dont need to worry about RP Genesect as you can beat it with Iron Head + Body Slam. Other than that your team has pretty good synergy and there isnt really all to much to change as everything is quite well covered.
PS: This is optional, but you could change your Salamence to a DD set with Moxie as you already have Landorus for strong attackers.

Sets:

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Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk | 252 Spd | 4 HP
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
Hydro Pump | Icy Wind | Secret Sword | Hidden Power [Electric/Grass]

Salamence @ Lum Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk | 4 SAtk | 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
Outrage | Earthquake | Dragon Dance | Dragon Dance

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP | 224 SpD | 32 Spd
Careful Nature (+SpD, -SAtk)
Iron Head | Body Slam | Wish | Protect

 

[AJ29FF12]

Hi there, nice team :x
The first thing i have to say is that running fire types move on a rain team is dumb. Fire punch of jirachi is not that powerfull, if you use it under rain you will not do nothing, probably it wont even 2ko scizor, and the same is for your magnezone, hp fire here have no purpose since your can trap ferrothorn and setup on it with substitute. For this reason i would recommend you to use U-turn instead of fire punch on jirachi. Also, i dont see why you are runnin stealth rock while Landorus-t thanks to intimidate can easily setup it, choice scarf pokemon should never have stealth rock, unless is you only pokemon that can learn it. Try trick instead of stealth rock on jirachi and Stealth rock instead of Gravity on landorus. Gravity just doesnt work here, you dont have the spikes support and you are anyway using a defensive set, meaning that your earthquake will not do that much damages, also you really lacks of speed so you will never sweep, because everything can outspeed you. Talking about your magnezone, i think that leftovers is superior since it can give you a sort of recovery to trap things like Ferrothorn easier. Since hp fire under rain will not doing much, you can try the standard magnezone with Substitute, Thunder, charge beam and Flash cannon.
At this point, i think that you really need another way to revenge kill things. I know that you have jirachi but i think that only one scarfed pokemon is never enough, this metagame is so fast placed and u need the more speed as possible. (talking about that, i will consider Jolly nature on jirachi to win Speed ties against Salamence)
I think that the best thing to do here is to use Scarf keldeo instead of your current version. Scarfkeldeo can revenge kill a lot of stuff, you cant rely on jirachi only to outspeed any 110 base speed (like gengar, latios, tornadus, alazakam) and you can not risk to lose a speed tie against a Dragon dance salamence or a volcarona. Try Hidden power Ice instead of calm mind.

Thanks. I shall change the Magnezone set and run Landorus-T with Stealth Rock.
I did consider running Keldeo with a Scarf, however I like the freedom of switching moves so that's why I was drawn against it. I'll switch that one up and all the other minor changes.

Nice team you've got here !
First off your team is really weak to Tornadus-T as it can easely wear down Jirachi and your other team member really cant take a Hurricane. To fix this I would change Jiachi to a standard specially defensive set. Also HP Fire is kinda redundant on Magnezone Neliel's suggestion is good, next up is Keldeo I would change him to scarf set so you can revenge kill Genesect easier and beat the dragon dancers easier, also with specially defensive Jirachi you dont need to worry about RP Genesect as you can beat it with Iron Head + Body Slam. Other than that your team has pretty good synergy and there isnt really all to much to change as everything is quite well covered.
PS: This is optional, but you could change your Salamence to a DD set with Moxie as you already have Landorus for strong attackers.

Sets:

Hide

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk | 252 Spd | 4 HP
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
Hydro Pump | Icy Wind | Secret Sword | Hidden Power [Electric/Grass]

Salamence @ Lum Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk | 4 SAtk | 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
Outrage | Earthquake | Dragon Dance | Dragon Dance

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP | 224 SpD | 32 Spd
Careful Nature (+SpD, -SAtk)
Iron Head | Body Slam | Wish | Protect

Ok thanks, I'll take the second opinion and change the Magnezone set and I'll have a go with the Jirachi you suggested.
Maybe a defensive one would work better seeing as I seem to have the slight weakness to Rock. Meaning I can take it better. I'll have a play anyway and see what happens.

 

[Eranu]

Hey,

Cool team. First of all, Icy Wind on a choice scarf Keldeo is a waste. It doesn't need the speed drop since it's one of the fastest scarfers in the metagame. Only scarf Lati@s can succesfully outspeed and revenge scarf Keldeo, but they're easily dealt with by Jirachi. Also, I don't think you need to have two pokemon with Hidden Power [Grass] just to deal with Gastrodon. Secret Sword on Keldeo can two hit KOing Gastrodon just like Hidden Power [Grass] so it seems a bit redundant. Therefore i'd suggest changing Hidden Power [Grass] to Surf as well as changing Icy Wind to Hidden Power [Ice]. Hidden Power [Ice] helps you in revenging +1 dragons like Dragonite or Salamence, which are a big threat to your team after Landorus-T is a bit weakened. Surf gives you accuracy. Surf can come in really handy having 100% accuracy while it still has a lot of power in rain. I really don't agree your team is Tornadus-T weak while you have Magnezone and Jirachi. I really think you should keep the Choice Scarf on Jirachi but change Ice Punch > Thunder Punch. Your team is really weak to DD Gyarados seeing how it ohkos your Magnezone (your only poke that can ohko back) with +1 Waterfall in rain. If you run Thunder Punch on Jirachi, you have the ability to outspeed and ohko +1 Gyarados, which I think is a bigger threat than Tornadus-T. Ice Punch's role can be taken over by Keldeo's scarf Hidden Power [Ice] so that you can still revenge kill fast dragons. Thunder Punch can hit Tornadus-T for super effective damage too, just like Ice Punch. Lastly I want to agree on the comment above on running Leftovers on Magnezone, as well as Stealth Rocks on Landorus-T. An optional change could be running 88 Speed evs on Landorus-T so it can outspeed uninvested Jirachi as well as max speed Adamant Breloom, but that's up to you. Hope I helped. Good luck.

 

[TooMuchSugar]

If you go with the haxrachi set recommended by BROStime, you could try Thunder over Body Slam. The main advantages of thunder are that you can paralyze Gengar and KO bulky waters that resist iron head. On the other hand, if you have more trouble with Thundurus-T and ground types, definitely keep body slam (my haxrachi set has both, because my team hates gengar AND thundurus-T).

 

[AJ29FF12]

Hey,

Cool team. First of all, Icy Wind on a choice scarf Keldeo is a waste. It doesn't need the speed drop since it's one of the fastest scarfers in the metagame. Only scarf Lati@s can succesfully outspeed and revenge scarf Keldeo, but they're easily dealt with by Jirachi. Also, I don't think you need to have two pokemon with Hidden Power [Grass] just to deal with Gastrodon. Secret Sword on Keldeo can two hit KOing Gastrodon just like Hidden Power [Grass] so it seems a bit redundant. Therefore i'd suggest changing Hidden Power [Grass] to Surf as well as changing Icy Wind to Hidden Power [Ice]. Hidden Power [Ice] helps you in revenging +1 dragons like Dragonite or Salamence, which are a big threat to your team after Landorus-T is a bit weakened. Surf gives you accuracy. Surf can come in really handy having 100% accuracy while it still has a lot of power in rain. I really don't agree your team is Tornadus-T weak while you have Magnezone and Jirachi. I really think you should keep the Choice Scarf on Jirachi but change Ice Punch > Thunder Punch. Your team is really weak to DD Gyarados seeing how it ohkos your Magnezone (your only poke that can ohko back) with +1 Waterfall in rain. If you run Thunder Punch on Jirachi, you have the ability to outspeed and ohko +1 Gyarados, which I think is a bigger threat than Tornadus-T. Ice Punch's role can be taken over by Keldeo's scarf Hidden Power [Ice] so that you can still revenge kill fast dragons. Thunder Punch can hit Tornadus-T for super effective damage too, just like Ice Punch. Lastly I want to agree on the comment above on running Leftovers on Magnezone, as well as Stealth Rocks on Landorus-T. An optional change could be running 88 Speed evs on Landorus-T so it can outspeed uninvested Jirachi as well as max speed Adamant Breloom, but that's up to you. Hope I helped. Good luck.

I wasn't aware that Mr Pony could outspeed like.. Almost everything. Just my lack of paying attention that really.
I hate Breloom with a passion so I may just take your advice on that and run some Speed EVs.
I will keep the idea of having both Jirachi sets there seeing as I can see where they will both be useful. I'll have to give them both a test with some of the moves you suggested on there too.
Thanks a lot!

If you go with the haxrachi set recommended by BROStime, you could try Thunder over Body Slam. The main advantages of thunder are that you can paralyze Gengar and KO bulky waters that resist iron head. On the other hand, if you have more trouble with Thundurus-T and ground types, definitely keep body slam (my haxrachi set has both, because my team hates gengar AND thundurus-T).

I think I may stick with Body Slam. There are far more Pokémon that resist Thunder than resist Body slam that cause me problems as most Ground Types can learn Rock moves such as Stone Edge which seems to be a real weak point as I think I mentioned. But thanks for the input nonetheless.

 

[AJ29FF12]

Bump.
After a bit more testing tonight I've realised that Salamence is a beast as no one seems to expect Hydro Pump and it catches them off guard.
On PS as you can see the full team most people expect me to lead with Politoed so I often can counter that prediction by using my Scarf Jirachi so I think I'm going to stick with that set as it is also good late game for cleaning up shop too.
Also people enjoy leaving when I'm doing well, but then I guess that's just PS..