My VGC rain team

[coolcool9990]

TheTeam

Introduction
Well I'm going to the Fort Wayne Tournament in Indianapolis this year and I want to go with a good team. In the past I've made mostly bad teams, but this one feels different for some reason. I've done a bunch of test battles and won a good chunk of them. So I figured why not post it for some advice.

@ Wacan Berry
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpDef
Modest Nature (+SPAtk/-Atk)
-Surf
-Ice beam
-Hidden Power grass/ Psychic
-Protect

The main player of the team (for obvious reasons.) Surf to heal its buddy toxicroak and do spread damage, Ice Beam to take out the dragons and grass types, and Hidden Power to take out Gastrodons. He has a quiet nature so that he is slower than other weather setups (most notably Tyranitar).

@ Focus Sash
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Speed
Adamant Nature (+Atk/-SpAtk)
-Fake Out
-Drain Punch
-Sucker Punch
-protect
My second favorite pokemon on the team. with his ability he gets healed at the end of every turn by the rain, and he also gets healed every time surf is used. fake out is to make the most threatening of my opponent's leads incapable of action. Drain Punch is for stab and another source of healing. Sucker Punch is to take out a faster foe before they attack, or to get one last hit in before croaking. Substitute is to hide from opponents whilst healing

@ Haban Berry
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed
Modest Nature (+SpAtk/-Atk)
-Dragon Pulse
-Surf
-Draco Meter
-Protect

The only Pokemon on my team that has Swift Swim. This is my answer to dragons as he out speeds and KO's other dragons bar resist berries and Dragonite with Dragon Pulse. Surf over Hydro Pump for stab spread damage and healing for Toxicroak. Hidden Power Electric because my friend told me to use it.

@ Flight gem
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 6 SpDef / 252 Speed
Adamant Nature (+Atk/-SpAtk)
-Bullet Punch
-Bug Bite
-Acrobatics
-Protect
My counter to psychics and those darn grass Pokemon that like to mess with rain teams. Bullet Punch for stab priority. Bug Bite to take out Psychics. Acrobatics to take out Grass types and Virizion/Breloom. In the rain his only weakness in fire is reduced from X4 to X2 allowing for him to stay in a lot longer. I'm unsure if he needs the berry, but it has come in handy before when the weather was changed from rain for a few turns.

@ Yache Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 6 Hp / 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed
Timid Nature (+Speed/-Atk)
-Tail Wind
-Hurricane
-Grass Knot
-Protect
I put this guy in if i see that my opponent is using a different weather than me. Rain Dance is to take back the weather in a surprising way. With Damp Rock it lasts 8 turns instead of 5 (I'm unsure of whether or not the extra turns are necessary.) Hurricane to wreak havoc with its 100% accuracy and confuse opponents. Dark pulse to take out Psychics (mostly Cresselia) and ghost types.

@ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 140 Hp / 252 SpAtk / 116 Speed
Timid Nature (+Speed/-Atk)
-Thunder
-Hidden Power (Grass)
-Heat Wave
-Detect
I usually use this guy when my opponent is running trick room, or another rain team. Thunder over Thunderbolt because of better accuracy. Hidden Power (Grass) is mostly for Gastrodon. Roar is there to switch a Trick Room user out after Toxicroak uses Fake Out on their Rage Powder user or Fake Out user so that Trick Room's setup is delayed. Sitrus Berry is to get healed when his Hp gets low.

 

[Wildfire]

Pretty good team. There are just a few things that can be fixed.

1) Politoed

Are the ivs at 0? Regardless if they are or not, 6 evs is not going to raise the speed of politoed. It needs at least 12 for 31 ivs and 8 for 0 ivs. If you have 0 ivs in speed, the easier thing to do is raise the ivs so that it is 68. (One point above the lowest speed.) You also might want to check the other ivs so that any one iv that does nothing is put to use. It doesn't need to be done, but one hp can sometimes make the difference. I know I've had several battles where I've lived with only one.

2) Kingdra

I think draco meteor might be more useful than hp electric. The extra power is a lot more helpful in my opinion than a simple coverage move.

3) Scizor

Aerial ace is better than acrobatics. It has more power because acrobatics is 55 while aerial ace is 60. Also aerial ace hits those werid double team/minimize or moody pokemon.

4) Zapdos

I've never tried roar, but I know I've almost never seen it in vgc. Heatwave on the other hand is extremly useful for zapdos. Rain is not always going to be the weather or heatwave might get rid of pesky abomasnow and metagross. Metagross counters most of your team so heatwave would be useful there. I'd also go with detect over volt switch.

 

[JRank]

This team has a lot of potential, but I think it does need a few changes:

Politoed: I think you should consider using Psychic instead of HP Grass, and while Gastrodon may be a problem, you already have that covered (to an extent) with HP Grass on Zapdos. Otherwise, your only solution to Toxicroak (a check/counter to rain teams) is Scizor's Acrobatics (an imperfect solution at best), and Tornadus, and you may not always bring those Pokemon. Also, as Wildfire said, a Quiet nature is not beneficial unless Politeod has a 0 Speed IV, otherwise run Modest.

Toxicroak: This set is standard for the most part, and that's good; it's an effective set. However, I would suggest Protect or Taunt instead of Substitute. VGC is a fast-paced metagame, and the time for Toxicroak to get up a Sub is rare (I can testify to this), and Protect allows Croak to stay alive for another turn, while Taunt stops those pesky Cresselia that like to set up Trick Room on rain teams such as this.

Kingdra: Two things here: a Haban Berry, because you will doubtless run into opposing Latios/Garchomp/Kingdra that carry it, and it doesn't matter if you outspeed because they will take the hit and OHKO you back with their own Dragon move. Also, there is absolutely no need for HP Electric, the extra coverage it grants you is not extra at all, there are very few situations where you would find yourself using it, Dragon Pulse and Surf (especially in rain) are more powerful in almost all cases. In place of this, I suggest Rain Dance or Draco Meteor; the former allows you to put rain back up in the event of another weather being started, and the latter gives you a very powerful attack should you need the extra "oomph" to get an OHKO.

Scizor: Even with an Occa Berry, many Fire moves still OHKO (or nearly OHKO, and that's only if you're running max HP) Scizor and make it useless. If you're going to run Acrobatics, I suggest a Flying Gem, to boost its power and let you hit for more than 55 BP after its used, as you would in the case of an Occa Berry.

Tornadus: With VGC battles often lasting less than 6 or 7 turns, a Damp Rock is usually unnecessary, as you will often find yourself using it late in the game, when those extra 3 turns are completely useless. Therefore, I suggest a Yache Berry. There are plenty of Ice moves in VGC, whether it be opposing Ludicolo (a threat to this team), or an Abomasnow threatening your entire team. In either situation a Yache Berry allows you to stay alive and KO with Hurricane. Dark Pulse is also unnecessary, a super effective Dark Pulse is weaker than a neutral Hurricane (160 for Dark Pulse to 180 for Hurricane), but rain teams often have trouble with Gastrodon, making Grass Knot the perfect coverage move for Tornadus.

Zapdos: I do not think Roar is really that beneficial, many Trick Room teams run either a Fake Out user or a Rage Powder/Follow Me user, both of which allow Trick Room to go off without a problem, I think this should be replaced with Tailwind, giving you an assured Speed advantage over the opponent, and can be especially effective to keep the pace with other Tailwind or rain teams. Also, Volt Switch is not very useful at all; you already have a STAB move in Thunder and you may be forced to switch a Pokemon into a less-than-desirable situation. Detect is such a fantastic move in VGC that you should definitely use it over Volt Switch.

Hope I helped!

 

[coolcool9990]

Thanks for the advice I'm going to apply the changes.

I changed Politoad's nature to Modest and fixed the typo saying the evs were in Speed they were in SpDef. Also I'm unsure of putting Psychic on Politoad as I see the Gastrodons every where and they are usually always sent out while my Politoad is in play. The ones I've faced have been easily handled by Scizor and Tornadus, but Psychic is probably better.

as for Aerial Ace on Scizor I'm unsure of as I switched him off of the Ocaa berry after almost geting 1 hited by an arcanine in the rain, so i switched it to flight gem and gave acrobatics over super power specifically to OHKO Amoongus and Abomasnow. I don't know if Aerial Ace can perform the same, but I'll test it out.

Also I'm unsure of putting Psychic on Politoad as I see the Gastrodons every where and they are usually always sent out while my Politoad is in play. The ones I've faced have been easily handled by Scizor and Tornadus, but Psychic is probly better.

I left out my justification for Volt Switch on Zapdos out by mistake. He leads with Poli against other weather teams. If the opponent manages to get their weather up I can switch politoad out and use Volt Switch to get him right back in. Also I'm getting rid of roar for Heat Wave.