New Age Drizzle

DrSalsafish

Hey all, I've been going around testing a lot of different combinations of teams, and so far my favorite kind has been a Drizzle team with Politoed. To top it all of, one of my favorite Pokemon of all time is Kabutops so that helped my decision along as well. I've been testing for about a week now and I enjoy the way it plays. A couple issues I've been having (aside from the fact I'm still learning competitive play) has been Ferrothorn and Status. I've read that Ferrothorn is always and issue and I was hoping Superpower on Azumarill would be able to help mitigate it as an issue but it hasn't worked as well as I hoped, and Status in general is tough for me to play around. Wil-o-wisp is the big one and I've ran into some trouble with T-Wave. Sorry for the large blurb, but without further delay, my team! Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks!

Dende (Politoed) (M) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Perish Song
- Toxic
- Protect

So to start is the man behind the engine driving my team. Politoed is mostly here to provide Rain support for my sweepers and to help keep others alive who are weak to fire (i.e. Scizor). I decided to go a more defensive route with him because I felt the team support and utility that he provides in the way of Perish Song to cull set-up sweepers and Toxic to break walls was almost a no brainer. The biggest issue I am having with him is keeping him up for more than the middle of the match, or I tend to be too conservative and he's my last pokemon with little offensive presence that he just get's KO'ed.

Troy (Scizor) (F) @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Defog
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost

Now onto Scizor. I think the first reason I wanted him was because I thought he was one of the coolest pokemon ever. A combination of Technician with Priority and STAB was too good to pass up. Come to find out the synergy with Rotom-W and momentum from a VoltTurn combo was the main reason I kept him on the team. Now I forwent an offensive set for a more defensive role with Defog to remove hazards and sticky web, screens, or whatever else I might want gone (that defog actually removes of course). U-turn as I stated to form the VoltTurn combo with Rotom, and I use him as more of a defensive tank and hazard remover than a wall or anything like that. I suppose a defensive pivot would be more accurate. The rest of the set is self-explanatory I believe. Also, I chose Mega over AV Scizor entirely for the utility moves which was the point of why I wanted Scizor in the first place.

Bruce (Kabutops) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge

Ah Kabutops. Probably my favorite pokemon from Kanto region and the original games. He is being used here as the traditional Swift Swim sweeper. Swords Dance to guarantee a sweep with the right checks/counters removed (i.e. Ferrothorn, Super Effective Priority, etc...). Water/Rock being an awesome offensive STAB and Aqua Jet for Priority to help against Talonflame and Mamoswine. There isn't much else to say other than it's tough to get off the SD, and it wastes a turn so I may remove it in favor of a coverage move like low kick to try and handle Ferrothorn as Rapid Spin is almost redundant with Defog and Kabutops shouldn't be switching into hazards anyway unless desperate.

Hank (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

The other half of my VoltTurn combo. Somewhat less defensive than before with the loss of the Dark and Ghost resists from Scizor, but still very effective in handling each other's checks and providing momentum for the rest of the team as well as a way to bring in Politoed to set up rain or a rain sweeper to dish out the damage. I went with an average tried-and-true set with Rotom. Volt-Switch is staple, and Hydro Pump is required, Wil-o-Wisp is great to cripple physical attackers and further bolster the physical defense on Rotom as well as M-Scizor.

Leonardo (Kingdra) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 64 Atk / 252 SAtk / 192 Spd
Mild Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Draco Meteor
- Waterfall
- Ice Beam

Kingdra is probably the most potent pokemon on this team. He knows his role and does it splendidly. Coming in with 6 turns of Rain left and ending the game in the same amount of time. I enjoy it. I have no qualms with him. I chose a second SS Sweeper for the versatility that it provides. With having both I have the option of reading the opponent early game and determining if they're more weak to Set up or if it would be easier to use my other mons to clear the way for a late-game cleaning. Either way the match goes Kingdra is my wild card and provides win conditions.

Lloyd (Azumarill) (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Superpower
- Play Rough

For me personally, the biggest question mark on the team. Not in the set or why he's here. The set is the set up to be a wall breaker and that's exactly what he does. The issue is that he's slow, is just as susceptible to burn as 1/3 of my team and is easy to play around due to being locked into a certain move. Priority to patch up the sad speed stat, but easily beaten by faster priority. Although, he's on my team to be wallbreaker and that's exactly what he does. Azumarill in tandem with a smartly played Politoed dedicated walls don't cause a game rendering issue.

Well that's my team. Like I said above if there's any suggestions I'd like to hear them. I haven't tested this as long as I'm sure I could have and I haven't gone and made any huge changes from the original structure I started testing. I changed Azumarill's set and it ended up benefiting me, but other than that I've been working the same set the whole time. The only thing I ask is that if there were to be huge changes (i.e. taking out Kabutops or Azumarill for another pokemon) I'd like to keep some remnant of the old team. Thanks in advance!
 
Hello there!

The first thing that pops into mind after I've glanced over this team is CM Suicune. This thing...I hate it. The norm is to give full investment into HP and Defense, and then once you have 1 or 2 Calm Mind's up, you're an unstoppable tank. The only thing(s) that could check this set is your Kabutops, only after it's at least at +2 Attack, and Rotom-W. Kabutops is a relatively frail Pokemon, so setting up might be at the cost of health. Therefore, once Suicune actually switches in, it wouldn't be too hard to kill Kabutops off. (I hope you understand what I'm trying to say @_@). Rotom-W does have Volt Switch, but it's a meek 70 power, along with the fact that it won't even do that much once Suicune has set up. Furthermore, once you use Volt Switch you have to switch out, meaning that you'll only get to use it every second turn. This leaves Suicune to freely Sub or Rest.

Other then that, this team looks pretty nice! I might edit some things as I think, but this is my rating so far~
 
Kangaaroo said:
Hello there!

The first thing that pops into mind after I've glanced over this team is CM Suicune. This thing...I hate it. The norm is to give full investment into HP and Defense, and then once you have 1 or 2 Calm Mind's up, you're an unstoppable tank. The only thing(s) that could check this set is your Kabutops, only after it's at least at +2 Attack, and Rotom-W. Kabutops is a relatively frail Pokemon, so setting up might be at the cost of health. Therefore, once Suicune actually switches in, it wouldn't be too hard to kill Kabutops off. (I hope you understand what I'm trying to say @_@). Rotom-W does have Volt Switch, but it's a meek 70 power, along with the fact that it won't even do that much once Suicune has set up. Furthermore, once you use Volt Switch you have to switch out, meaning that you'll only get to use it every second turn. This leaves Suicune to freely Sub or Rest.

Other then that, this team looks pretty nice! I might edit some things as I think, but this is my rating so far~
Click to expand...
About CM Suicune not having any other counters, yeah...How about Thundurus-T with Nasty Plot :I
 
Kangaaroo said:
Hello there!

The first thing that pops into mind after I've glanced over this team is CM Suicune. This thing...I hate it. The norm is to give full investment into HP and Defense, and then once you have 1 or 2 Calm Mind's up, you're an unstoppable tank. The only thing(s) that could check this set is your Kabutops, only after it's at least at +2 Attack, and Rotom-W. Kabutops is a relatively frail Pokemon, so setting up might be at the cost of health. Therefore, once Suicune actually switches in, it wouldn't be too hard to kill Kabutops off. (I hope you understand what I'm trying to say @_@). Rotom-W does have Volt Switch, but it's a meek 70 power, along with the fact that it won't even do that much once Suicune has set up. Furthermore, once you use Volt Switch you have to switch out, meaning that you'll only get to use it every second turn. This leaves Suicune to freely Sub or Rest.

Other then that, this team looks pretty nice! I might edit some things as I think, but this is my rating so far~
Click to expand...
I see what you're saying about Suicune. Frankly I haven't seen too much of him to maybe warrant a change. But if I do then probably I'll have to work around it (potentially trading Pain Split on Rotom for Thunderbolt or something like that) the biggest issue I have with the team, and you kind of touched on it when you talked about CM Suicune, was that Kabutops takes too long to set up and that can cost me anywhere from 40-80% and when that happens he's dead in the water (pun intended). I'm not too sure if this is me attempting to set up at a bad time (like I said, I'm relatively new to the competitive scene [I started with White Version]) or if this is an actual issue. More testing will probably have to happen as I'm pretty sure I haven't seen as many varieties of situations that I would like.
 
Hiya,

The first thing I notice about your team is that it gets completely walled by Mega-Venusaur. Although you need water types for a rain team, you have too many. Scizor alone can't wall all the grass type attacks. Once either Politoed or Scizor is KO'd, your team is left quite vunerable. I suggest replacing Azumarill with something like Kyurem-B, who can get past most walls that trouble your team.

Furthermore, I might be wrong, but I'm not sure that a VoltTurn core really fits on this team. With only eight turns of rain, you really don't have much time to dance around your opponent with VoltTurn. I think that a bulky swords dance set might be the better option for Scizor.

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal (Technician)
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Def / 100 SpD / 24 Spe
-Swords Dance
-Roost
-Bullet Punch
-Superpower/Knock Off

This allows him to use the rain the set up, then hit the rest of your team's counters hard with Bullet Punch, refresh the rain, and sweep with something else once opposition is weakened. Or, it could come after its fire type checks are defeated and clean up. However, this does take up time from other sweepers, so you could use either a Choice Scarf or Choice Band set. You will lose Defog, but your team really does not desperately need hazard removal, since it won't be switching around a lot.

This is just my suggestion, and I understand that I'm changing quite a bit of the playstyle of your team, so feel free to leave it as it is. However, I think in order to take advantage of the rain the best, the changes should be considered.
 
Kevun said:
Hiya,

The first thing I notice about your team is that it gets completely walled by Mega-Venusaur. Although you need water types for a rain team, you have too many. Scizor alone can't wall all the grass type attacks. Once either Politoed or Scizor is KO'd, your team is left quite vunerable. I suggest replacing Azumarill with something like Kyurem-B, who can get past most walls that trouble your team.

Furthermore, I might be wrong, but I'm not sure that a VoltTurn core really fits on this team. With only eight turns of rain, you really don't have much time to dance around your opponent with VoltTurn. I think that a bulky swords dance set might be the better option for Scizor.

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal (Technician)
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Def / 100 SpD / 24 Spe
-Swords Dance
-Roost
-Bullet Punch
-Superpower/Knock Off

This allows him to use the rain the set up, then hit the rest of your team's counters hard with Bullet Punch, refresh the rain, and sweep with something else once opposition is weakened. Or, it could come after its fire type checks are defeated and clean up. However, this does take up time from other sweepers, so you could use either a Choice Scarf or Choice Band set. You will lose Defog, but your team really does not desperately need hazard removal, since it won't be switching around a lot.

This is just my suggestion, and I understand that I'm changing quite a bit of the playstyle of your team, so feel free to leave it as it is. However, I think in order to take advantage of the rain the best, the changes should be considered.
Click to expand...

The way I've been playing with using the rain I never really set up rain right away. The VoltTurn core aspect of it is more for when the rain isn't up or using it to get Politoed in safely to set up rain. Rarely am I using either Scizor or Rotom to bring in a rain sweeper unless it fits the situation. At which point I have roughly 5 or 6 turns of rain and with Kingdra and his counters removed is generally all I need.
 
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