Pokémon Pelipper

[MANNAT]

Approved by Bludz

Name: Pelipper
Type: Water / Flying
Abilities: Keen Eye/Drizzle/Rain Dish
Base Stats: 60 HP / 50 Atk / 100 Def / 95 SpA / 70 SpD / 65 Spe

Level-Up Movepool (ORAS since no S/M info avaliable)
Lv1 - Water Sport
Lv1 - Growl
Lv1 - Soak
Lv1 - Tailwind
Lv1 - Water Gun
Lv1 - Hydro Pump
Lv1 - Wing Attack
Lv1 - Hurricane
Lv5 - Supersonic
Lv12 - Mist
Lv15 - Water Pulse
Lv19 - Payback
Lv22 - Roost
Lv25 - Protect
Lv28 - Brine
Lv33 - Spit Up
Lv33 - Stockpile
Lv33 - Swallow
Lv39 - Fling

TM & HM CompatibilityTM06 - Toxic
TM07 - Hail
TM10 - Hidden Power
TM13 - Ice Beam
TM14 - Blizzard
TM15 - Hyper Beam
TM17 - Protect
TM18 - Rain Dance
TM21 - Frustration
TM27 - Return
TM32 - Double Team
TM40 - Aerial Ace
TM42 - Facade
TM44 - Rest
TM45 - Attract
TM46 - Thief
TM48 - Round
TM49 - Echoed Voice
TM51 - Steel Wing
TM55 - Scald
TM58 - Sky Drop
TM66 - Payback
TM68 - Giga Impact
TM87 - Swagger
TM88 - Sleep Talk
TM89 - U-turn
TM90 - Substitute
TM94 - Secret Power
TM100 - Confide

Egg Moves
Agility
Aqua Ring
Gust
Knock Off
Twister
Wide Guard

Analysis of Pelipper
With the introduction of Drizzle into its usable pool of abilities coupled with a small boost to special attack, Pelipper becomes significantly more viable in OU, becoming the premier drizzle user for rain teams. Politoed is the current Drizzle user, but Pelipper becomes way better than it due to its access to U-turn to pivot into your rain wallbreakers/sweepers as well as Roost to provide a source of reliable recovery, both of which are exclusive to Pelipper as a weather setter.

Potential Set(s)

Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
- Hurricane
- Scald
- U-turn
- Roost

I believe that this will probably be the best Pelipper set to use for a rain setter, but obviously it can be adapted later. Maximum HP coupled with max Special Defense and a bold nature allows Pelipper to function as a solid pivot into special water attacks from Pokemon such as Keldeo that might threaten your rain sweepers with their rain-boosted STAB water moves as well as making it a more solid check to ZardY, who often gets rid of rain and can be annoying for rain teams. Scald is a solid STAB move that gets boosted by the rain and can deal out consistent damage to a lot of targets while also wearing away at things with burn, just take into account that burn only does 6% per turn this generation. Hurricane is your secondary STAB move and it can do a ton of damage to Grass-types that want to switch into STAB water moves from your rain sweepers. The last 2 moves are mainly utility for Pelipper, with U-turn letting you pivot out into your sweepers and breakers without having to predict, and Roost lets you stay healthy throughout the game to set up rain. There's frankly not any other viable sets bar maybe a physdef set instead of a spdef one since anything that doesn't let you run damp rock defeats the purpose of using Pelipper.

 

[Stallmory]

Pelipper's new Ability and its access to Roost for recovery, U-turn for momentum, Knock off for support and very spammable STAB in the form of Hurricane will make it a room in OU's rain teams in place of Politoed, even if our green frog has better stats overall. Bug, Fighting and Ground resistances/immunity are also appreciated, and it also gets Defog via tutor in ORAS.

 

[Helldoom]

Smogon deleted half my post for whatever reason, just added in my personal analysis and recommended set. I think that rain will be a lot better not only because of Pelipper, but also because of Swampert getting SS the turn it mega evolves, it getting new abusers like Tapu Koko and friends, and the fact that the initial metagame will probably be offenseive. What do you guys think about Pelipper and rain as a whole in OU this gen?

Pelipper alone makes rain a lot better, because it's a much better pokemon then politoed and has that slow u-turn, which makes it so much easier to get your swift swim sweeper in. I don't think Swampert will be used much. The mega buff makes it a bit better but it still has the same problems it had during ORAS. Honestly Kingdra or even Kabu are just a lot better and don't take up a mega slot. Tapu Koko is definitely great for rain because it checks thundy and destroys bulky waters. Tapu Lele is also nice for rain because psychic terrain stops priority. This makes rain even harder to deal with for offense because you can't t-wave the swift swimmer anymore or pick it off with sucker punch etc.

 

[Force Majeure]

Hey y'all. I'm back for some more fun in the rain; I think weather got quite a nice buff this generation as the addition of terrains can make your mons priority immune, status immune, or make Ludicolo scary. I've also noticed that powerful water-types without access to Swift Swim can still get 1/2 of its effect by getting +1 speed from z-rain dance; this seems particularly useful for Manaphy, Keldeo, Volcanion, and Starmie. I still think pelipper is more useful than this cool trick, although the thought of somehow lining up Rain-and-Analytic-boosted Hydro Pumps followed by Psychic-terrain boosted Psyshocks from a +1 Speed Starmie (that's also immune to priority) is great (if impossible to set up).

I should probably talk about pelipper a bit because I think it's more relevant to rain than z-rain dance. I love a slow U-turn; a Mon providing this niche is usually a great pick for rain teams because you need to manipulate the flow of battle to keep rain up at the right times. In gen6, I used M-Scizor for this. Pelipper can provide a slow U-turn for Kingdra et al while keeping rain up. It gets recovery, scald, defog, 100% acc hurricane, and knock off. I think pelipper outclasses Politoed for the most part bar that Sr weakness because of this role compression/utility.

Pelipper has fantastic synergy with the other rain usuals (particularly pert, Kingdra, and Seismitoad). Freeze dry is there but I still don't see hail as a credible threat (although I could be very wrong here). I usually used a physically defensive Politoed in later ORAS so I guess that's what I'll be doing with this guy.

 

[Morsel]

Really hyped for this. Reliable recovery plus a slow u-turn is huge.

 

[Darvin]

Played around with Pelipper this morning, and he's doing quite well in this meta. He's a Pheromosa switch-in which on its own is huge, and he's strong enough that he's a threat in his own right under rain with both Hurricane and Scald benefiting from his own weather (not that Knock Off is a bad option). I've had more than a few people stay in expecting me to U-Turn out then get hit by a STAB move. I haven't even scratched the surface of the pokemon you can pair with this guy, but at this stage he looks to be everything he seemed on paper. Say hello to the new face of Rain.

 

[Ema Skye]

Pelipper + Dugtrio core is legit. It's actually terrifying and excellent at revenge killing with U-turn.

The toughest part about Drizzle right now is the influx of Freeze-Dry Ninetales on the ladder, who outright destroys any Swift Swim sweeper, as well as Pelipper and Dugtrio.

 

[nameless90]

Pelipper really scares me because not only it has a good role compression (including Drizzle support + U-Turn support + powerful STAB in Rain + Roost for longevity), but also allows us to play high risk/high reward moves in the form of Thunder (i.e. Magnezone and M-Manectric) and Hurricane (LO/AV Regenerator Tornadus-T?).

Tornadus-T's main problem was the middling accuracy of its STAB Hurricane coming from a good SpA. I want just to underline the fact that this Flying type has also a fast U-Turn at its disposal for further team support.

 

[Martin]

I personally think that physically defensive makes better use of Pelipper's dual typing than specially defensive does while also taking better advantage of its stat spread. Something that's also worth considering is that you can run Toxic or Defog over either of your attacking moves if you think that it is more useful for your team given that it allows it to have other utility on it's team. One of the things that gave rain a bit of a headache last gen aside from the whole deal of matchup was that it either had to sacrifice a team slot to something like Latias or run a suboptimal set on Kabutops in order to have hazard removal on your team, granted it didn't give many opportunities for lots to be laid. This allows it to have a bit of utility beyond just setting rain which is kind of nice for more balanced/defensive rain builds. Toxic on the other hand is Toxic and should be pretty self-explanatory.

On a separate note, this is something I've toyed around with a little that is super fun to use:

Pelipper @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 212 HP / 252 SpA / 44 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Scald

We all know how hard Tapu Koko and Alolan Raichu hit in electric terrain, and this has the same SpA stat and just substitutes terrain for rain. Hydro Pump hits like an absolute truck in the rain, and Hurricane has 100% accuracy alongside a nasty 30% confusion rate which has come into play a few times. U-turn just allows you to catch switch-ins and to get other 'mons in on a slow U-turn when it doesn't. Scald is 100% accurate and spreads burns which is nice. HP Electric or Grass could be used to hit Mantine and Gastrodon respectively, but they're abusable to be locked into and it's probably better to just U-turn to an actual answer most of the time anyway.

 

[Ema Skye]

Physically Defensive Pelipper is really good right now as a Pheromosa check. HP Electric is rare and Ice Beam can't 2HKO with Roost (does 46% max).

The 4 MSS is real here though. Hurricane, Hydro Pump, Scald, U-Turn, Roost and Toxic are all common moves I've seen, and I've also seen a Tailwind set which really surprised me.

Is it possible to get Defog + Drizzle?

 

[PShine]

Speaking of the Tapus, Pelipper has nice sinergy with Koko and A-Raichu. Eletric Terrain means Pelipper can't be put to sleep (Electric attacks would kill him anyway so that doesn't matter), Thunder becomes 100% accurate, and all three have switch-out moves, making a nice core.

 

[Soanevalcke6]

Eletric Terrain means Pelipper can't be put to sleep

Doesn't Electric Terrain not affect Pelipper?

 

[Mikael]

Speaking of the Tapus, Pelipper has nice sinergy with Koko and A-Raichu. Eletric Terrain means Pelipper can't be put to sleep (Electric attacks would kill him anyway so that doesn't matter), Thunder becomes 100% accurate, and all three have switch-out moves, making a nice core.

terrain moves only work with grounded pokemons

 

[Martin]

Either way though Alolan Raichu is at its best on rain teams, which is where the synergy comes from. The sleep thing is wrong though; Pelliper isn't sleep immune (not that it matters 'cause the whole grounded team absorbs sleep anyway). Honestly Pelipper+Tapu Koko+Alolan Raichu is a very scary core and it is where Alolan Raichu shines brightest (it's like a better Kingdra if it can get both up, which isn't hard at all).

 

[PShine]

Either way though Alolan Raichu is at its best on rain teams, which is where the synergy comes from. The sleep thing is wrong though; Pelliper isn't sleep immune (not that it matters 'cause the whole grounded team absorbs sleep anyway). Honestly Pelipper+Tapu Koko+Alolan Raichu is a very scary core and it is where Alolan Raichu shines brightest (it's like a better Kingdra if it can get both up, which isn't hard at all).

Sorry for the E-Terrain thing, but yeah, pretty much this. A-Raichu enjoys 100% Thunder and boosted Surfs, it and Koko can use their (surprisingly good) movepools as needed, and Pelipper kills the otherwise annoying Ground-types much more reliably.

 

[HotFuzzBall]

Yeah I agree that Pelipper suffers from 4mss quite a bit since it has so many utility options as well as dual stab. It either has to sacrifice stab (it wants both 100% hurricanes and boosted Scalds) or sacrifice utility (U-Turn, Defog, Roost, Knock Off, etc.).

 

[Chaoswalker]

I'm not really sure if hurricane is doing much on pelliper. It's a high base power move, yes, but most of the time the attack stat will be uninvested and so often times the only real damage it will do is from scald or hydro pump. I think knock off serves you much better against common switch ins like ferrothorn who would be quite upset to lose their leftovers instead of making a piddly contribution of 25% of its hp.

 

[Ema Skye]

Trying Pelipper + Tapu Koko + Alolan Raichu right now. It's scary good.

Pelipper @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Roost

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- U-turn
- Grass Knot
- Dazzling Gleam

Raichu-Alola @ Aloraichium Z
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Focus Blast
- Surf
- Psychic

Pelipper beats Pheromosa so hard it's not even funny, unless they run HP Electric. It also wrecks Buzzwole. Not sure on Raichu's item; I've tried LO, Specs and Z-move and I like all of them, though I'd caution against Specs because of Dugtrio. LO Koko Thunder hits stupid kinda of hard; OHKOs Genesect. I could see HP Ice finding a place in Koko's set though. U-Turn is better than Volt Switch because it trolls Dugtrio; it's honestly hilarious. Speaking of Dugtrio, it's really good on this team.

 

[PShine]

A-Raichu Z-move uses Thunderbolt, not Thunder. You should switch Aloraichum for the generic Electric Z-Crystal. It is a good idea to put a second Water-Type in there, like Greninja or Kingdra.

 

[NVT_Sart]

So is the consensus right now that we ditch Defog on Pelipper in favor of Scald as a 2nd stab?

 

[Martin]

Trying Pelipper + Tapu Koko + Alolan Raichu right now. It's scary good.

Pelipper @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Roost

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- U-turn
- Grass Knot
- Dazzling Gleam

Raichu-Alola @ Aloraichium Z
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Focus Blast
- Surf
- Psychic

Pelipper beats Pheromosa so hard it's not even funny, unless they run HP Electric. It also wrecks Buzzwole. Not sure on Raichu's item; I've tried LO, Specs and Z-move and I like all of them, though I'd caution against Specs because of Dugtrio. LO Koko Thunder hits stupid kinda of hard; OHKOs Genesect. I could see HP Ice finding a place in Koko's set though. U-Turn is better than Volt Switch because it trolls Dugtrio; it's honestly hilarious. Speaking of Dugtrio, it's really good on this team.

Please run Life Orb+modest on Raichu. You can thank me later.

Anyway yeah I can back up this being a really scary core. I personally run Terrain Extender>LO on Tapu Koko to take better advantage of Raichu and physdef>SpD on Pelipper 'cause that typing and stat spread utterly screams PhysDef. Hell, even running more bulk on Raichu is an option because it makes switching into stuff a tad easier, which is nice. What makes this core so threatening is the fact that Raichu is so fucking strong. Like, modest Thunder actually runs through stuff like a knife through butter, and when you're literally the fastest viable thing in the game it is very difficult to take on consistently if you are under-prepared. Something else cool about Raichu is that Alolan Marowak doesn't check it due to Surf.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

Somebody must really love Pelipper since it got a stat boost and drizzle!

Pelipper is the new face of rain and has arguably more utility than Politoed ever had even though I prefer it. I see it on the ladder all the time and even though its slow its support to rain teams is unparalleled.

 

[LucarioOfLegends]

Is Pelipper+ A-Marowak in terms of partners viable? I understand that its main STAB is weakened in the rain, but Marowak with Lighting Rod can switch into Electric type attacks, which Pelipper, put lightly, does not enjoy. It could then check said electric types with its ground coverage. In return, Pelipper could switch into Ground types (and Rock types to degree) and damage them back with Scald.

 

[Zerohour17]

Is Pelipper+ A-Marowak in terms of partners viable? I understand that its main STAB is weakened in the rain, but Marowak with Lighting Rod can switch into Electric type attacks, which Pelipper, put lightly, does not enjoy. It could then check said electric types with its ground coverage. In return, Pelipper could switch into Ground types (and Rock types to degree) and damage them back with Scald.

I've found some success with it. I run it on the version of my rain team that runs Dragonite(mostly because I like it) but on my non Dragonite version I find Garchomp(and Lando-T in pokebank meta) just do the job it has in rain better.

The set I'm using is

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club/leftovers
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Shadow Bone

Shadow Bone for stab + chance of dropping def and Earthquake mostly because nothing else on my rain team is running earth coverage.

 

[Six Trails]

I've been running this set to a pretty decent effect:

Pelipper @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Scald
- Roost
- U-turn

It actually has decent damage output and still has passable physical bulk even uninvested, especially due to its good defensive typing. Hydro Pump is an option over Scald for more power.