Heal Bell Uxie is CB Aggron's best friend, with the obvious defensive synergy and the fact that Aggron can now absorb status, get the kill, and then get healed for later use. This is especially useful as a surprise after your opponent has written off Aggron. Enemies like Rotom, bulky Mismagius, Weezing, and Arcanine will try to force Aggron out with the treat of Will-o-Wisp, but will be crippled or KOed by Head Smash should Aggron opt to take the burn and stay in. Being able to stay in somewhat reliably in those situations is an awesome advantage. It's also great when they decide to paralyze you with Uxie to allow Milotic to counter you, as they'll lose Uxie if they try to do it again, or they'll fail to counter you with whatever needed the paralysis.
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NP: UU - Silent Night
- Thread starter reachzero
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Heal Bell Uxie is CB Aggron's best friend, with the obvious defensive synergy and the fact that Aggron can now absorb status, get the kill, and then get healed for later use. This is especially useful as a surprise after your opponent has written off Aggron. Enemies like Rotom, bulky Mismagius, Weezing, and Arcanine will try to force Aggron out with the treat of Will-o-Wisp, but will be crippled or KOed by Head Smash should Aggron opt to take the burn and stay in. Being able to stay in somewhat reliably in those situations is an awesome advantage. It's also great when they decide to paralyze you with Uxie to allow Milotic to counter you, as they'll lose Uxie if they try to do it again, or they'll fail to counter you with whatever needed the paralysis.
Pretty much the only way to beat rain outside of NUs and Toxicroak is pretty much pick your poison and decide who is dying and to make the best of your situation when the rain is down. I'm starting to hate Uxie even more that the rain users though.
Rain is most problematic for very fast paced offensive teams I've found. Usually your standard balanced team has enough leverage between Milotic, Registeel, Venusaur etc to switch around and stall things like Ludicolo out. Rain battles basically boil down to a one on one prediction war between the rain user and the rain 'survivor'. It's very helpful if you count down the rain turns and play it so that one of your Pokemon are KOed just as rain is ending, so you can something like Taunt Mismagius in for free and counter attack.
SD Ludicolo, arguably the most dangerous rain sweeper hits 252/252 bold milotic for 105.3% - 124.2%, Venusaur for 120.3% - 141.5% and Registeel for 47.8% - 56.3%. One misprediction is going to pretty much spell game, especially considering you have shit like Kabutops and Qwilfish waiting in the wings. A good rain player also wont KO your defensive poke on the last turn of rain, rather going straight to their set up mon.
I'm just putting one Pokemon on my teams to check Rain at the moment, and probably >90% of the Rain teams I face nowadays are completely destroyed, sometimes on the verge of 6-0's. The 10% that is remaining are probably more closer, and only about 2% of Rain teams actually scrape off a win. While I don't want to put down people that ARE having trouble with Rain, playing smart and leaving a check in your team pretty much lets you get by most of the time. I think it's just some people who are having trouble playing against Rain, like Smurf said, feel the pressure of being "on the backfoot" and freak out, possibly making crappy mistakes at the worst times. If you actually calm down, Rain is not so scary. I've made a team that's been on the leaderboard that hasn't lost once to rain. It's very possible.
On the subject of rain, I love recover stalling 3 energy balls from ludicolo then going to scyther as the rain runs out ^_^
The important thing to remember about rain is that none of their sweepers are that impressive when it isn't up. It isn't that hard to keep them from setting up and the stuff without setup (all of the special sets) is fairly easy to recover stall or switch stall on. You just need to be good at turning the tables on them when the rain expires.
The important thing to remember about rain is that none of their sweepers are that impressive when it isn't up. It isn't that hard to keep them from setting up and the stuff without setup (all of the special sets) is fairly easy to recover stall or switch stall on. You just need to be good at turning the tables on them when the rain expires.
cool tips to beat rain:
-punch their set up mon (one with damp rock). attack it with all you have.
-preserve one pokemon that can sweep every rain sweeper. (usually mix venusaur can sweep everything bar qwilfish who outpaces it). preserve something faster than 85+ base spe like np mismagius or something.
-count your rain turns and make smart switches. better than letting something die.
-punch their set up mon (one with damp rock). attack it with all you have.
-preserve one pokemon that can sweep every rain sweeper. (usually mix venusaur can sweep everything bar qwilfish who outpaces it). preserve something faster than 85+ base spe like np mismagius or something.
-count your rain turns and make smart switches. better than letting something die.
Encore also seriously messes with rain teams. Encoring Qwilfish as it sword dances for example.
Not to mention Substitute users can eliminate a Pokemon if they're strong enough and stall out 3-4 turns of rain (Hitmonlee, Zam, Missy, Rhyperior etc...). Uxie's support is kinda messed up by the fact he can't really hit anything to prevent a Sub, which is why I would go for Mesprit instead (yeah yeah Thund loves Mesprit and thinks Uxie sucks blah blah but it's the truth).
You really need to be prepared for rain at all times. A good scarfer, maybe some priority, a bulky Twaver, or a catch-all counter that most Rain teams struggle to beat (as mentioned before, Poliwrath, Golduck, Toxicroak give rain teams a really hard time).
Tbh, the problems with Rain teams are almost always Ludicolo, since it's faster than most viable scarfers, has great typing, can force a lot of switches, and get an easy SD for the sweep. If you're not at all prepared for it, there's really no way to beat it. Matter of fact, I really don't even know how you'd go about preparing for that fat duck. :/
Tbh, the problems with Rain teams are almost always Ludicolo, since it's faster than most viable scarfers, has great typing, can force a lot of switches, and get an easy SD for the sweep. If you're not at all prepared for it, there's really no way to beat it. Matter of fact, I really don't even know how you'd go about preparing for that fat duck. :/
Mostly double switching, predicting the special set first and if it's SD set your probably gonna have to sac it...it for sure is one of the hardest to take down...but I feel like once it's set is known it becomes one of the easiest....lol kinda like the Lucario of Rain Dance Teams
Meaning versatality and being unpredictable and can either be special or physical and do damage with both sets....not Rain in particular
Ludicolo is versatile, but none of his sets are overly overpowering (Bad wording, but eh). The special set is quite powerful, but nothing a special sponge can't take care of, and the SD set just isn't strong enough without a boost, and even with the boost, it still has pretty solid checks in Tangrowth, Leafeon and the really bulky Grass Pokemon.
It's also quite interesting on how easy it can be to take care of a Rain team when the Rain has stopped. Stuff like Specs Manectric and NP Raichu completely decimates a Rain team with its shitty synergy.
The problem is withstanding the Rain turns. If your team's not prepared or doesn't have a single poke capable of taking those hits, you'll just be swept, and really fast.
Offensive teams are just like that: it barely has chances against Rain teams.
Good times i used to carry Thunderbolt Gardevoir to take care of those...
Offensive teams are just like that: it barely has chances against Rain teams.
Good times i used to carry Thunderbolt Gardevoir to take care of those...
Countering rain is similiar to the idea of countering Salamence. Cress can counter Salamence, but it can feel like dead weight against most other teams.
Most of the glorified rain counters for offense also feel like dead weight against teams that aren't rain.
(And please don't respond to this post nitpicking at Salamence crap. It was just an example.)
Most of the glorified rain counters for offense also feel like dead weight against teams that aren't rain.
(And please don't respond to this post nitpicking at Salamence crap. It was just an example.)
Poliwrath and Toxicroak are good on most teams, but if you counter rain with Golduck or even Gardevoir you are kind of going out of your way.
I won't make a case for Gardevoir since it gets Spiritomb'd, but Golduck is another one of those NUs that really aren't bad, but rather overshadowed, like Magmortar, Meganium, Primeape, and Venomoth. All of them have a slightly better or rather all-purpose UU counterpart.
Actually, it could be a lot of fun to plow through ladder with those Pokemon right now...
EDIT: I think it's worth pointing out that Golduck rips Hail a new one too. Blizzard will go back to having shitty accuracy, which he already resists, Walrein won't get its Ice Body recovery and Golduck can Encore his attempts to do anything at all, and Protect stalling in general won't work because he doesn't take damage from hail.
I guess all I'm really saying is that Golduck is quite capable of sweeping a team full of shitty Ice Pokemon, which is all Hail really is at the end of the day. :P
Actually, it could be a lot of fun to plow through ladder with those Pokemon right now...
EDIT: I think it's worth pointing out that Golduck rips Hail a new one too. Blizzard will go back to having shitty accuracy, which he already resists, Walrein won't get its Ice Body recovery and Golduck can Encore his attempts to do anything at all, and Protect stalling in general won't work because he doesn't take damage from hail.
I guess all I'm really saying is that Golduck is quite capable of sweeping a team full of shitty Ice Pokemon, which is all Hail really is at the end of the day. :P
You don't have to use obscure shit to counter Rain. Poliwrath, Toxicroak, Milotic, Tangrowth, Chansey, Kabutops, Qwilfish are all perfectly good Pokemon to run on any team.
How is Kabutops or Qwilfish dead weight against non-Rain?? They can sweep teams just fine when it isn't Raining. You don't have to "counter" Rain, you know, all you have to do is check it so you destroy it when Rain stops.
On the topic of offense vs Rain, it definitely is not an auto-win for Rain. The person who wins is the one who gets momentum first. I remember my HO team used when Raikou was still UU, and I lost against Rain, like, once?? For the record, it was SR Dugtrio/LO Moltres/Shuca CM Raikou/SD Kabutops/Yache RP Torterra/LO Electrode. None of them stand out to be a REALLY good Rain check, Kabutops being a shaky one. Of course, I just ended up boning the rest of the Rain team with Raikou when the Rain stopped, but you get the idea.
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