More Rain on the Way

[Phozon]

Alright, so I'm fairly new to singles I've only been playing for a few months but I've been in the VGC metagame for about 4 years. So here is my first singles team and I would really like so help so here it is:

Politoed (Y U NO?!)- calm
252HP/ 120Def/ 16Sp.Atk/ 120Sp.Def @Lefties
Ability: Drizzle
Protect
Toxic
Scald
Ice Beam

Your "standard" Politoed moveset. Scald for Burn, Ice Beam for dragons and other flying types. Toxic is there to poision other water types like Gastrodon and Politoed. Protect is for scouting as well as toxic stalling when needed.

Gliscore ( StallBat )-Impish
194HP/ 236Def/ 80 Speed @Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Substitute
Baton Pass
Ice Fang
Earthquake

This Gliscore is not a normal stall set. Its accually ment to pass subs off to other team mates. This works really well with my DD Gyrados. Baton Pass can also work like a "soft switch" allowing me to sometimes get the switch advantage into what ever my opponet "hard switches" into. EQ for STAB as well as hitting like Ferrothorn and Terrakions. I use to have Stealth Rocks on this thing, but I took them off for Ice Fang because I would get into situations where this would be my last poke and the other guys would be immune to EQ. Its aso helpfull for hitting other dragons and Flying Types.

Gyarados ( RAGE QUIT )-Jolly
6HP/ 252Attack/ 252Speed @Lum Berry
Ability- Moxie
Dragon Dance
Waterfall
Earthquake
Stone Edge

When this thing starts. It dose NOT stop. The reason I chose Jolly over Adamant is because after +1 on Speed this thing is set to out pace everything in the meta game baring scarfed pokes. Also, if Moxie is going to continuously rack up theres no point in adamant because the moxie will compensate. This is normally a late game sweeper to bring it all home. The idea is set up a sub with Gliscore and Baton Pass it to this monster and set up a free DD and then just proceed to sweep teams. The Lum Berry is there incase Gliscore isnt there to set up a Sub, this way incase anything trys to status Gyrados it will be all set to sweep regardless. Waterfall for STAB and a rain boost will hit very hard to anything that doesn't resist it, EQ is for Ferrothorns and anything that resists Waterfall, and Stone Edge is there for Flying types ( mainly the dragons that resist both EQ and Waterfall ).

Tentacruel ( Harpoon )- Bold
252HP/ 240Def/ 16Speed @Black Sludge
Ability- Rain Dish
Protect
Toxic Spikes
Rapid Spin
Scald

The teams Rapid Spinner and Toxic supporter. I use to use Vaporeon, but then when I saw a Stealth Rocks problem I knew Tentacruel was soon going to replace Vaporeon. I decided that its good Sp.Def stats wouldn't need much of an invesment so I ran it bold to bulk it up a bit, Anyways the set is pretty stright forward: Set up T-Spikes, Rapid Spin Rocks away. Protect is for scouting/ recovering a bit. I chose Black Sludge because I wanted to punish Trickers a bit. So if they tick my Tentacruel, they will lose HP everyturn which can really rack up after Toxic dammage and Black Sludge.

Jolteon ( Drive By )- Modest
6HP/ 252 Sp.Attack/ 252 Speed @ Choice Specs
Ability: Volt Absorb
Volt Switch
Thunder
HP-Ice
Shadow Ball

I must say, the moment I found out this thing has base 525 Sp.Attack w/ Specs, I just wanted to abuse this thing so much. Jolt normally leads unless there are ground types then its normally Gliscore. The plan is to Volt Switch the first turn then wait till rain is set up and proceed to abosolutly run wild with Thunder. This thing also make a very solid Check to Thunderous- T. HP-Ice is able to OHKO after rocks dammage. With this things base speed of 130, Jolt is able to out pace every poke in the meta game baring Timid Tornadus-T, and its also able to out pace so scarfers as well. Shadow Ball is kinda a filler move and it works well w/ Deoxys-D leads able to 2HKO it. It also works as a "safe move" for when there is a ground type still lingering on the opponets team. This thing can also absorb some of the Electical attacks aimed at my Poiltoed, Tentacrule, or even Gyarados.

Celebi (Trollerbi)- Modest
108HP/ 200Sp.Atk/ 200Speed @Lefties
Ability: Natural Cure
Thunder Wave
Stealth Rocks
Giga Drain
HP-Fighting

I had alot of things in this last slot: Breloom, Alakazam, but none of them worked out very well. I also saw over time that rock support was really needed for my Jolteon and Gyarados to get the KOs they needed. What made me choose Celebi is the fact that I saw that when my Jolteon whent down I really struggled with other rain teams and it would turn into a stall fest and blah blah blah. STALL. So! I brought in Celebi. It gives both rock support and T-Wave, which is really useful for catching things on the switch like Tornadus-T, Terrakion, to name a few. Giga Drain is for STAB as well as helping Celebi live a little bit longer. Hp-Fighting is used mostly for Ferrothorns which can really check this team unless my Gyarados has like +3 or something. But HP-Fighting is about a 3HKO and Celebi almost always forces Ferrothorns to switch after they set up hazzards.

So that's the team. If you have any futher questions about them please feel free to ask. Again, I've only been playing singles for a few months so any kind of help would be great. Thanks!

 

[Jirachee]

Hi

Dragon types will be an enourmous problem for this team. Dragonite, Latios, Hydreigon, Salamence, Latias, name the dragon, and it's probably a threat. There a two big reasons for this, the first being, you have no Dragon resist. That means that Choiced Dragon types will be able to spam their powerful STAB attacks, such as Outrage and Draco Meteor, extremely easily as they will be able to OHKO/2HKO something every time they use it. A lot of Dragon types are choiced these days due to their sheer power so it's very bad news for your team. The second adds to the first, as you have a lot of Pokemon, such as Celebi, which are just complete set up fodder for Dragon set uppers, especially DD Dragonite and CM Latias, and you can't do much to stop them due to your lack of Dragon resist. These threats will usually end up sweeping you if they have one free turn to set up and you give a ton of them to these threats. I think that you could use Ferrothorn instead of Celebi. Ferrothorn still carries the advantages of being a Grass type by giving you a Water and an Electric resist, as well as giving you the excellent resistances provided by the Steel typing, most notably Rock and Dragon. It will still be able to lay down Stealth Rock, so you don't lose out on a lot here. Ferrothorn works especially well in rain since random HP Fire will not damage it as much as without weather letting you recover using Leech Seed and lay down more hazards.

I think that you have to run a Timid nature on Jolteon. While the extra power provided by Modest is nice, Jolteon is currently your best check to Tornadus-T, and you'll have to outspeed it in order to KO it with Thunder or Volt Switch, otherwise its Hurricane will still hurt Jolteon a lot. You don't only miss out on Tornadus-T though, as without a Timid nature, Jolteon will also fail to outspeed significant threats such as offensive Starmie, who can really threaten Jolteon with a KO with Hydro Pump. Choice Scarf Politoed will also outspeed Jolteon when you carry a Modest nature, while if you have a Timid nature, you can outspeed it by one point, which is definetly worth it. Staying on the topic of Jolteon, you should really run Signal Beam instead of Shadow Ball, as Shadow Ball doesn't hit a lot of stuff very hard that Thunder doesn't already hit hard, except for Celebi, which is hit harder by Signal Beam. It also hits Tyranitar harder which means Jolteon won't be Pursuit bait, while it would certainly be if it's locked into Shadow Ball.

I think that Gyarados would benefit a lot more from carrying Bounce over Earthquake. Bounce provides a great secondary STAB which hits Grass types for a lot of damage, while also hitting Ferrothorn harder than an unSTABed, neutral Earthquake. While Bounce may look like a weird choice since it's a two turns attack, nothing really enjoys switching into it since it has 30% chance of paralyzing the opponent, which will screw up checks that rely on their Speed to beat Gyarados. Earthquake doesn't have very good coverage with Waterfall anyway as most Steel types already hate a boosted Waterfall.

That's pretty much it, nice Gliscor n_n. Here's the set you should use:

Ferrothorn

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Iron Barbs
Sassy
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
~Power Whip
~Stealth Rock
~Leech Seed
~Gyro Ball

Good luck!

 

[CedOmega]

Phozon, you have a pretty decent team here. First off, I agree that you should do something w/ Jolteon, but if you want to keep the extra boost you get from a Modest Jolteon, try giving it ChoiceScarf. It outpaces almost every single OU scarf user possible, giving it the upper hand on a first attack. It also makes Jolteon faster than opposing Jolteon that are more than likely gonna be Timid w/ ChoiceSpecs; allowing you to attack first, barr an absorbed electric attack.

I also agree w/ the change of Celebi>Ferrothorn, as suggested by Jirachi. Although, the switch from EQ>Bounce on Gyarados all come down to reliability as well. Its accuracy is somewhat shakey, where as EQ has perfect accuracy and provides Gyarados Electric type coverage, allowing Gyarados to stand up to the likes of opposing Jolteon without having to switch out and lose its DD boosts. In all honesty, it comes down to your choice in coverage.

At any rate, I hope this helped and good luck with the team. :)

 

[Phozon]

I accually thought about the Ferrothorn thing and I soon relised today it would be a better pick and I will use the set you gave me. As for a scarfed Jolt, I think I'll keep with specs just because it already out paces so much, but I will switch from Modest to timid. And I too also like my Gliscore ^_^!
Thank you for your help and thoughts.