Introduction~
Hello fellow Smogoners. I have always been a fan of rain even in 4th Gen. With the introduction of Drizzle Politoed in 5th Gen, i of course had to try it out. When the ban of Drizzle + Swift Swim came many people bailed on rain and left it for dead. I of course wanted to make a successful rain team so i continued on. After many trial and errors, and i mean many, i have finally stumbled on my greatest work so far. I have been using this team for a couple weeks now and still tweak it from time to time. While i have had great success i feel it is far from perfect and there is always room for improvement. I ask you guys to not click away seeing that it is a rain team, instead i ask that if you feel that i am doing anything wrong, please come forth and let me know. I am open to any suggestions and all will be taken into consideration. First i will present the order in which i constructed the team, as well as my thought process behind everything. Then i will get down to the nitty-griddy stuff with movesets, EV's, and all that fun stuff. I will try my best to not bore you guys. :) Now without further ado i present my rain team, ( drum roll anyone?)
Team Building Process~
I don't think you should have expected anything else besides Politoed to be the first Pokemon. Besides bringing out rain though Poli does have other uses such as being a revenge killer. Revenge killer you say? I will elaborate more later on.
Next i knew i wanted someone that had a pure electric resistance, and Stealth Rocks are always on the back of my mind. I wanted someone to do both of these as well as benefit in the rain. Mamoswine came to mind. After trying this beast out i fell in love.
Next up on my agenda was thinking of other Pokemon that could abuse rain. I had no grass resistance at this point so something like Breloom would be no run to play, that is is Mamoswine could ice shard it but i did not want to rely on that. After some looking around Zapdos appeared. With getting lightningrod it was a great fit.
Reuniclus and Virizion are major threats to any rain team and at this point i had not checks to them. Scizor returns in this Gen and is just as fierce. He benefits in the rain by getting his only weakness further reduced. Dragons are also flying around everywhere and Scizor acts as a check to the majority of them.
If scizor could not check Virizons and other threats i wanted a back up plan. Fighting types got a big boost this gen and Conkeldurr is nothing to play around with. With Dragons being such an offensive presence i wanted to try one out. With a choice specs in the rain Latios is nothing to laugh at getting the surf boosted and Thunder if chosen to use it.
With my team coming to a close i looked at any holes i might have. At this point if SS was up and Excadrill was set up i would be screwed. Also i had no one on my team that liked status. In stepped Conkeldurr. While he may not benefit from the rain he sure does support the team.
So with all that being said the final roster is:
Team Details:
Ability: Drizzle
Nature: Timid
Ev's: 4 HP / 252 Sp. Atk / 252 Speed
Moveset:
~ Surf
~ Ice Beam
~ HP Grass
~ Fous Blast
Sometimes Politoed leads, other times Mamoswine leads. If i see a non stealth rock lead most of the time i lead with Poli just to get the rain up. But if i see a lead that wants to SR i will lead with Mamoswine to not waste the sash. Generally most people only use Politoed for the rain and thats it. I was having the same problem as no Politoed set worked for me, that is till i discovered a ScarfToed. With a Scarf it is not longer just a Weather-Inducer but instead actually helps the team in other ways. It is a great check to an Excadrill that has set up which not a lot of Pokemon can brag about. With a Scarf and a Timid nature this thing hits 393 speed which lets me out-speed base 127 Pokemon bar they are not packing a Scarf of their own. The decision between Surf and Scald was a bit tough. After some testing i found Scalds BP to be a bit lower than i wanted and i rarely got the burn. Surf was added and i am well pleased with it. You may be asking why i am using HP grass. Well Storm Drain users / Water Absorbers, that resisted electric moves, were a bit of a pain to the team. HP grass allows me to hit both and thus the problem was solved. I have been pleased with this Poli set and am kind of adamant on changing this. But if you see any room on improvement for it let me know.
@ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Cloak
Nature: Adamant
Ev's: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Speed
Moveset:
~ Stealth Rocks
~ Endeavor
~ Ice Shard
~ Earthquake
Ability: Snow Cloak
Nature: Adamant
Ev's: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Speed
Moveset:
~ Stealth Rocks
~ Endeavor
~ Ice Shard
~ Earthquake
As i mentioned sometimes i lead off with him other times i don't. He resists any Lead Weather-Inducer which is a plus for him. I really like to save him for Midgame since Ice Shard really does come in handy a lot of times. Unfortunately i have been told that Thick Fat + Endeavor is illegal thus i have to go with Snow Cloak. If anyone knows if it is possible to be legal let me know and i would appreciate it. How does he benefit in the rain? Well he gets one of his weakness reduced and gives me a nice resistance to Electric moves. The number of Pokemon that Ice Shard helps against is crazy. Pokemon such as Zapdos, Thundurus, Virizion, Latios and Latias, Garchomp, Salamence. All of these are big threats to any rain team which is one main reason why i love Mamoswine thus i like to keep him around. Endeavor is really just there to use if i ever happen to get down on low health and potentially ruin another opponents Pokemon.
Ability: Lightningrod
Nature: Timid
Ev's: 192 HP / 64 Def / 252 Speed
Moveset:
~ Thunder
~ HP Ice
~ Roost
~ Substitute
Probably one of the more useful sets for Zapdos in todays Metagame. It was a close tie between choosing Thundurus or Zapdos. Thundurus has the same typing, higher base offensive stats, and prankster, Zapdos is outclassed in that regards. But there are a couple things that sets Zapdos apart from Thundurus and those are access to roost, bulkier, and immunity to electric attacks with Lightningrod. Comparing the two Roost and Zapdos being bulkier really made it stand out to me. With it being fairly easy to get a lightningrod boost i felt it not necessary to invest much into special attack and just make him bulkier. With this spread it is able to help beat out walls while at the same time being offensive enough to keep up with todays metagame. While 327 speed is nothing to write hope about, it is definitely no slouch. Great check to some common grass types as well since most can't scratch Zapdos unless they are packing HP Ice which is very rare. Substitute acts as added protection to block status and if anyone decides to leech seed or what not.
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
Ev's: 248 HP / 40 Atk / 220 Sp. Def
Moveset:
~ Swords Dance
~ Bug Bite
~ Bullet Punch
~ Roost
Scizor returns once again but the role and Ev's are very different this Generation for Scizor. Can abuse the rain nicely with getting his only 1 weakness reduced in the rain and is a great team player. As i have said Virzion and Reuniclus are some pretty big threats to rain teams especially Calm Minding ones. This Scizor in design is meant to help against these two threats as well as the all common dragon types floating around that like to Draco Meteor. With 248 HP Scizor can switch into Stealth Rocks more often as it takes less damage from it. 40 Attack is to still ensure an OHKO on a Gengar with no boosts. The rest of the Ev's are placed into Sp. Defense giving him the needed bulk to set up on the special sweepers mentioned above. Also another major issue for rain teams in general are Ferrothorns and Scizor just uses that as set up bait. Bug Bite is chosen over Super Power to help abuse Technician some and the drop in defense from Super Power was a little off putting. Overall Scizor has been working well for me, in fact is has been the only steel type that i like using in rain.
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
Ev's: 4 HP / 252 Sp. Atk / 252 Speed
Moveset:
~ Trick
~ Draco Meteor
~ Psyshock
~ Surf
Latios is like one big... Nuke. It is really fun to Spam Draco Meteors and boosted Surfs in the rain. Before i had tried out Latias in this spot but i found the lack of power to be off putting. Latias was not doing much for me and i needed a change. I saw Latio's power and was asking myself why was i not using it. Trick is to help so i can freely switch between moves if i ever want to later on in the game. With any team Conkeldurr is in the back of mosts peoples minds and i wanted a nice check to it. That is why i have Psyshock on here instead of something like Thunder. Although i am willing to replace Psyshock and have him learn Thunder if anyone suggests i should try it out. The only thing Latios really can't hurt is Ferrothorn and even then i have other Pokemon for that. Overall i have been please with Latios as it generally takes out at least 2 Pokemon if not more a game. I hope he does not get banned but for now i will continue to use him.
Ability: Guts
Nature: Adamant
Ev's: 64 HP / 224 Atk / 216 Sp. Def
Moveset:
~ Mach Punch
~ Drain Punch
~ Bulk Up
~ Stone Edge
And last but certainly not lease, Conkeldurr. He does not abuse the rain but he helps the team out in other regards which makes him a nice addition to the team. He likes to eat status moves aimed at my team, helps beat the likes or Excadrill, Ferrothorn, Cloyster, and the likes, and is generally just a pain to deal with. The Ev's are pretty much straight forward for him. Putting a large amout in Sp. Defense to help boost that rather low stat, Ev's in attack to maximize hitting hard, and the rest in HP just to give some nice extra bulk. Since Payback got nerfed this Gen i chose to opt for Stone Edge. Stone Edge has better coverage as well and lets you hit the ghost types you want to hit anyway very hard. I really did not think i would have as much success as i have with him so far. You all know the power that it can bring and is not something to be taken lightly.
Closing Words~
Well that is it guys. I may or may not do a threat list depending on how many people comment on this team. For now i won't but i will if needed. One thing i think that could be used to be changed on the team is.. I feel as if i am not abusing STAB surfs/hydro pumps/Waterfalls boosted in the rain. I have considered maybe using Rotom-W over Zapdos but i am not entirely sure. If you have any suggestions in that regards feel free to let me know as i would like abuse that further. Other than that i really can not see anything that i have disliked about this team. Now that is not saying it is perfect, it is far from it. But yeah just let me know your guys's opinions! With all this said i am out, ( for now till someone comments.)
