Yes they do involve rain because we were on the subject of empoleon being a counter to one of the best rain sweeper kingdraYes but most of those calcs involve rain and / or +1 from Dragon Dance. Empoleon survives all of them and can at worst phaze Kingdra out, at best burn Kingdra with Scald. Factoring in Leftovers recovery + the fact that Empoleon is burning rain turns, I don't see why Empoleon is not a Kingdra counter. It can be worn down, sure, but it's still a Kingdra counter
That's a pretty bad counter to consider, that it ONLY has leftovers recovery and has to rely on a 30% chance to burn to avoid a 2HKO by physical set and can only phaze out. Not only that, but it can only do this one time and needs to be in good health. If empoleon had a reliable recovery move then we might need even be seeing it in UU lol
at worst is not a good scenario for a "counter" to say. A counter should be able to consistently switch in and/or threaten immediately. Something like slowbro being a counter a hitmonlee is a perfect idea of a counter because it can consistently switch in and has reliable recovery. Forretress to weavile is a good counter because Forretress can OHKO with gyro ball even though it has no recovery outside of leftovers. Empoleon can do neither of these things to kingdra besides threatening to scald burn which is unrelaible and can be a temporary solution if kingdra holds a lum berry or is a choice specs set..I would call empoleon a "check" at best, I would even call it a good scout because it can switch into any kingdra set, but a very small amount of times, sometimes only once