So, after a long run with 4th gen in shoddy, I thought I'd put down pokemon for a while. I didn't realize a 5th gen simulator even existed until about a month ago. Even then though, I really didn't want to put the same amount of effort in to learning another new metagame. Here I am though, and my competetive nature has taken hold of me. I want to get better, but there's just something I'm missing that I cannot for the life of me figure out. This team has been my go to for a while now, and even though its win rate has been great, it's far from perfect and need some help.
After countless failed teams and a lot of reluctance to use anything other than past gen pokemon to which I was already used to, I finally ended up saying "fuck it, I'm going with rain". I've been getting my ass kicked by weather and if there's one thing I've learned about this gen, it's that weather and hazards are basically essential.
I used to run stall/sand on shoddy and tried so hard to make it work on showdown, but I think hyper offense is the way to go. There are so many pokemon out there now that everything has a counter, which brings up the question as to why I would want to keep switching to counter that counter... which leads to my opponent countering my counter's counter and so on... but anyway, here's my hyper offensive rain team that peaked just shy of 1900 at one point:
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@ Focus Sash
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Endeavor
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock
My lead ~80% of the time. I haven't experimented a whole lot with leads this gen to be honest. I've really only tried Deoxys-D and Rotom-W now that I think about it, but Mamoswine has been very, very consistent against all types of opposing teams. He's always able to get off rocks, earthquake deals a surprising amount of damage to stuff and the classic endeaver/sash/ice shard combo is vital in getting rid of Rotom-W or the occasional Ferrothorn lead. Skarmory and Forretress are huge headaches though, not only to Mamo but to the team in general and I'm still looking for a more consistent way to deal with them.
@ Life Orb
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Def
Modest Nature
- Focus Blast
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
You can't have rain without Politoed, and I really couldn't have been happier with what this little guy's been blessed with. He is always going to be kept at full health if I'm facing an opposing weather team, but even when he's essentially just a perma rain set up, he still manages to score huge hits. He rarely gets OHKO'd at full health which lets him psuedo-revenge kill, force a switch, sponge fire or at least deal enough damage to set up for my sweepers. I opted to stay away from choice specs since that's not the role I want Politoed to take on. I'm already running two specs users anyway, and have tried choicing all three before with less than stellar results. It's expected that if Politoed isn't purely defensive, then it has to be running specs, which takes advantage of careless switching.
@ Choice Scarf
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SAtk
Naughty Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Fire Blast
My favorite pokemon from gen 4 returns to OU. He plays exactly the same, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I'm convinced that he's the best revenge killer in OU since no one else has been able to hold a team together as well as Garchomp does. For some reason I don't see anyone ever using Scarfchomp... his typing and coverage is so good and even though he lacks raw power, he still manages to clean up games or punch enough holes for someone else.
@ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 88 Def / 252 HP / 168 SDef
Relaxed Nature
- Power Whip
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Thunder Wave
I've fallen in love with whatever this thing is supposed to be. He's just like gen 4 Bronzong, only with much more helpful team support and typing. He's my go to dragon switch in, and takes fire damage a lot better than expected... in the rain at least. Hopefully rocks are set up by the time I bring in Fero, which in that case I would go straight for a layer of spikes. Both hazards being up are so deadly when it comes to breaking down counters, especially since Fero naturally forces all sorts of switching. He's a monster most of the time, but every once in a while an opponent will bring something in, set up right in his face and proceed to sweep my ass. Anything with a grass resistance and substitute pretty much does the job, but I have no idea what I can do to stop that regardless. I've toyed around with other steel tanks, but it's so hard to give up spikes, leech seed and grass' resistances.
@ Choice Specs
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
- Shadow Ball
- Water Spout
It's probably painstaking to see this many choice users on the same team, but I needed a spin blocker that could also sponge fire and specials after Politoed goes down. I've tried both the defensive tank and straight up special wall sets, but neither even come close to helping this team in the way the specs set does. Water spout at 85-90% HP in the rain does insane damage to everything. The first time I bring this thing out, it's apparently only natural to assume it's going to be defensive which leads to me OHKOing whatever they bring in. Even without rain support, water spout will still do some massive damage with enough HP.
@ Choice Specs
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Focus Blast
- Heat Wave
- Hurricane
- U-turn
Again, it's probably pretty easy to criticize a team with three choice users, but the amount of shit hurricane OHKO's is just as absurd as Jelly's water spout. I've tried out the life orb set, but the lack of raw power is really noticeable when I really need to score that seemingly unrealistic OHKO. Even with a modest nature, it's speed is high enough to outpace almost all of its common switch ins. With rock support and just one layer or spikes, hurricane sweeps everything late game powering through its weakened counters. It's basically spam hurricane when as soon as I know I have the speed to pull it off.
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Team Problems
- So obviously, I'm doing a lot of switching. Jellicent is usually the only choice user I'm worried about when it comes to taking too much residual damage because that really hurts water spout. Tornadus isn't bad at all thanks to regenerator, and Garchomp has both the bulk and speed to make the damage obsolete. I can't see myself using a spin blocker though since it would really slow down my pace, and to be honest I haven't had much trouble with hazards outside toxic spikes every once in a while ruining Garchomp.
- Priority moves really hurt. Mainly opposing Mamoswines with Ice Shard. Bolt/Beam in general are difficult to deal with since my team is so weak to it; the prediction game becomes much more frustrating for me.
- Breloom is a pain in the ass because of spore mainly. I usually resort to just putting Politoed asleep then hoping for a 3 hit bullet seed when I bring in Tornadus. Mach punch is annoying too if my opponent decides to keep Breloom alive
- Thundurus-T is a bitch also. The nasty plot set isn't nearly as bad since I have Garchomp, but I'm pretty sure the agility set both outspeeds and sweeps my entire team. Substitute is the worst though and pretty much spells GG if it comes in on Ferro. I'm forced to keep Mamo alive to make use of ice shard, but if my opponent has Scizor or any other way of clearing him out I'm screwed.
- Basically anything that can set up on Ferro ruins me, which is why I'm asking for help as to what I can do to stop that.
- I'd go into more detail regarding individual synergy and countering but I've already invested a lot of time in writing this so I'm just going to let it out there and see what people think.
After countless failed teams and a lot of reluctance to use anything other than past gen pokemon to which I was already used to, I finally ended up saying "fuck it, I'm going with rain". I've been getting my ass kicked by weather and if there's one thing I've learned about this gen, it's that weather and hazards are basically essential.
I used to run stall/sand on shoddy and tried so hard to make it work on showdown, but I think hyper offense is the way to go. There are so many pokemon out there now that everything has a counter, which brings up the question as to why I would want to keep switching to counter that counter... which leads to my opponent countering my counter's counter and so on... but anyway, here's my hyper offensive rain team that peaked just shy of 1900 at one point:
________________________________________________________
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Endeavor
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock
My lead ~80% of the time. I haven't experimented a whole lot with leads this gen to be honest. I've really only tried Deoxys-D and Rotom-W now that I think about it, but Mamoswine has been very, very consistent against all types of opposing teams. He's always able to get off rocks, earthquake deals a surprising amount of damage to stuff and the classic endeaver/sash/ice shard combo is vital in getting rid of Rotom-W or the occasional Ferrothorn lead. Skarmory and Forretress are huge headaches though, not only to Mamo but to the team in general and I'm still looking for a more consistent way to deal with them.
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Def
Modest Nature
- Focus Blast
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
You can't have rain without Politoed, and I really couldn't have been happier with what this little guy's been blessed with. He is always going to be kept at full health if I'm facing an opposing weather team, but even when he's essentially just a perma rain set up, he still manages to score huge hits. He rarely gets OHKO'd at full health which lets him psuedo-revenge kill, force a switch, sponge fire or at least deal enough damage to set up for my sweepers. I opted to stay away from choice specs since that's not the role I want Politoed to take on. I'm already running two specs users anyway, and have tried choicing all three before with less than stellar results. It's expected that if Politoed isn't purely defensive, then it has to be running specs, which takes advantage of careless switching.
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SAtk
Naughty Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Fire Blast
My favorite pokemon from gen 4 returns to OU. He plays exactly the same, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I'm convinced that he's the best revenge killer in OU since no one else has been able to hold a team together as well as Garchomp does. For some reason I don't see anyone ever using Scarfchomp... his typing and coverage is so good and even though he lacks raw power, he still manages to clean up games or punch enough holes for someone else.
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 88 Def / 252 HP / 168 SDef
Relaxed Nature
- Power Whip
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Thunder Wave
I've fallen in love with whatever this thing is supposed to be. He's just like gen 4 Bronzong, only with much more helpful team support and typing. He's my go to dragon switch in, and takes fire damage a lot better than expected... in the rain at least. Hopefully rocks are set up by the time I bring in Fero, which in that case I would go straight for a layer of spikes. Both hazards being up are so deadly when it comes to breaking down counters, especially since Fero naturally forces all sorts of switching. He's a monster most of the time, but every once in a while an opponent will bring something in, set up right in his face and proceed to sweep my ass. Anything with a grass resistance and substitute pretty much does the job, but I have no idea what I can do to stop that regardless. I've toyed around with other steel tanks, but it's so hard to give up spikes, leech seed and grass' resistances.
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
- Shadow Ball
- Water Spout
It's probably painstaking to see this many choice users on the same team, but I needed a spin blocker that could also sponge fire and specials after Politoed goes down. I've tried both the defensive tank and straight up special wall sets, but neither even come close to helping this team in the way the specs set does. Water spout at 85-90% HP in the rain does insane damage to everything. The first time I bring this thing out, it's apparently only natural to assume it's going to be defensive which leads to me OHKOing whatever they bring in. Even without rain support, water spout will still do some massive damage with enough HP.
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Focus Blast
- Heat Wave
- Hurricane
- U-turn
Again, it's probably pretty easy to criticize a team with three choice users, but the amount of shit hurricane OHKO's is just as absurd as Jelly's water spout. I've tried out the life orb set, but the lack of raw power is really noticeable when I really need to score that seemingly unrealistic OHKO. Even with a modest nature, it's speed is high enough to outpace almost all of its common switch ins. With rock support and just one layer or spikes, hurricane sweeps everything late game powering through its weakened counters. It's basically spam hurricane when as soon as I know I have the speed to pull it off.
________________________________________________________
Team Problems
- So obviously, I'm doing a lot of switching. Jellicent is usually the only choice user I'm worried about when it comes to taking too much residual damage because that really hurts water spout. Tornadus isn't bad at all thanks to regenerator, and Garchomp has both the bulk and speed to make the damage obsolete. I can't see myself using a spin blocker though since it would really slow down my pace, and to be honest I haven't had much trouble with hazards outside toxic spikes every once in a while ruining Garchomp.
- Priority moves really hurt. Mainly opposing Mamoswines with Ice Shard. Bolt/Beam in general are difficult to deal with since my team is so weak to it; the prediction game becomes much more frustrating for me.
- Breloom is a pain in the ass because of spore mainly. I usually resort to just putting Politoed asleep then hoping for a 3 hit bullet seed when I bring in Tornadus. Mach punch is annoying too if my opponent decides to keep Breloom alive
- Thundurus-T is a bitch also. The nasty plot set isn't nearly as bad since I have Garchomp, but I'm pretty sure the agility set both outspeeds and sweeps my entire team. Substitute is the worst though and pretty much spells GG if it comes in on Ferro. I'm forced to keep Mamo alive to make use of ice shard, but if my opponent has Scizor or any other way of clearing him out I'm screwed.
- Basically anything that can set up on Ferro ruins me, which is why I'm asking for help as to what I can do to stop that.
- I'd go into more detail regarding individual synergy and countering but I've already invested a lot of time in writing this so I'm just going to let it out there and see what people think.