Raikou Team ^_^

[random_]

Raikou is one of my favorite pokes and can destroy teams that aren't ready for him. Even teams who are ready for him can have the counters taken out and then ripped apart by Raikou.

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/60 Def/36 Spd/160 SpDef
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderwave
- Recover
- Leech Seed
- Psychic/ Grass Knot

Just a really reliable Celebi to take out swamperts and fighting pokes. Thinking about Stealth Rock kind of... over Psychic probably. Just seeing how things go. On Psychic Vs Grass Knot I'm using Psychic and it beats Infernapes random Heracross and such it is working to be Psychic at the time.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 172 HP/216 Spd/120 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
- Surf

For Raikou. I need to keep toxic spikes off the field; added bonus that it keeps other spikes away. Also functions as a good ice beamer and Infernape counter.

Garchomp(M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Veil
Evs: 28 HP/252 Atk/228 Spd
Adamant nauture (+Atk, - SAtk)
- Outrage
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast

Just too good. He never really fails me and gets great switch-ins. Revenge killing, and after everything is weakened and if there is no steel he just sweeps.

Skarmory (M) @ Shed Shell
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP/96 Atk/160 Def
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Whirlwind
- Spikes

Great defensive wall. Spikes up, I love it. Note: That Shed Shell makes it incredible easy to deal with Magnezone as they will switch in, assume they will kill with Thunderbolt only to hit Dugtrio and be revenge killed. Can take Heracross's Megahorns while Celebi and Starmie can take Close Combats. Need to predict to beat Heracross.

Snorlax (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 244 HP/28 Def/236 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Crunch
- Body Slam
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Instead of SkarmBliss I pretty much have SkarmLax it is working very well for me, I also have a Celebi to take hits. When I see Gengars I switch to this guy and timid scarfgars are getting popular so even if they predict to use Focus Blast I should be okay, and I welcome hypnosis.

Raikou @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 60 HP/252 Spd/96 SAtk/100 SDef
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
- Substitute

Core of the team. It's great. Outspeeds a lot overall just a powerhouse. With layers of spikes and a CM or two it should be sweeping. I do not like Sandstorm. This is very unfortunate as SS is pretty common.





Summary: Play around, try to set up some spikes, do as much damage wearing things down as I can. When Raikou comes out hopefully sweep, but sometimes he just comes out. The team functions well on its own without Raikou and that is definitely a plus.

Weakness: I've been playing on shoddy while writing this up and I have doing well. Though not yet I think a well built SandStorm team is going to wreck me.

Any suggestions welcome. Right now I am really liking this team. Pretty much I want to keep Raikou and Celebi all other switches and ideas are welcome and thanked.
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[gorm]

you will probably need a more reliable way to take out blissey than scarfchomp/lax. since raikou can handle waters you could replace celebi, but since you want to keep cele, replaceing garchomp with something like heracross is another idea (heras fly/fire/psychic weaks are well covered by skarm/mie)

since sand really ruins raikou's strat, rain dance starmie/celebi is an idea

 

[Mystica]

You have a pretty bad Tyrantar Weakness. Nothing can take a CB'd Stone edge, which 2hko's skarm. And alot of the mixed varients have Fireblast or Thunderbolt. Maybe something like Hippo, Swampert, or uh... lol whatever else counters Tar > Celebi.

 

[Yagami Light]

You have a pretty bad Tyrantar Weakness. Nothing can take a CB'd Stone edge, which 2hko's skarm. And alot of the mixed varients have Fireblast or Thunderbolt. Maybe something like Hippo, Swampert, or uh... lol whatever else counters Tar > Celebi.

He could combine both his TTar weak and weather needs with Rain Dance Hariyama or something.

 

[IggyBot]

Rain Dance Hariyama is probably the best bet. Rain Dance Gliscor could also work, but a lot of Tyranitar's use Ice Beam these days.

You really need a better way of taking out Blissey than Snorlax + Garchomp. I would try and get Toxic Spikes in here somewhere. Not only do they help everything on your team, but they also ensure Blissey can only stay in for a few turns, so once you start Calm Minding, blasting a few TBolts at Blissey will inevitably weaken her and force her to switch. The problem now, is fitting in Hariyama and Toxic Spikes.

You could replace Skarmory or Starmie with Forretress, and then try to fit Hariyama in there. I would go over Celebi. Adding Forretress also means you could ditch Rapid Spin on Starmie, and go with Surf / TBolt / Ice Beam / Recover, which is a great set of attacks to work with.

 

[random_]

Stupid Sandstorm teams

Responding to all the posters at once: Yes I need to deal with Blissey better, and yes I kinda hate sandstorm.

I will strongly be considering Hariyama. He is very cool, counters TTar and maybe Rain Dances. That part I'm weary of because other than helping Raikou for the final sweep is near useless. Hariyama also provides a very good way to kill Blissey.

I'm not too sure after that. I tried replacing Celebi in a few shoddy battles because I figured waters were covered well by Raikou's TB, but I just wanted him back.

I dropped a little in rating on shoddy while playing with other teams and then went back to this team and picked up a good number of wins. (Didn't see too much Blissey)

 

[junior]

You probably want at least one reliable STAB Fighting attack on this team seeing how you'll have a hard time taking down Tyranitar (Tyranitar will KO you before you can to it). Lucario/Hariyama/Machamp can all work nice since they are bulky, or in Lucario's case, resists Rock by 4 and Dark by 2, thus pitching in to its survivability and threaten to OHKO. Machamp, in my opinion, is probably the best as it poses as a bigger threat than Hariyama does, as well as being bulky. In this case, I would go with a restalking set with Dynamic Punch and Stone Edge.

Ontop of that, I would suggest putting a wishpasser. Vaporeon would work nicely, with the ability to Wishpass, pass Aqua Ring (though I wouldn't recommend it, just another option) as well as using Rain Dance to get rid of Sandstorm to support Raikou a little more.

Another thing is that a Celebi lead isn't going to help much. BandTar and Weavile can threaten it with Night Slash/Crunch or Pursuit, meaning you have to predict right or be at a disadvantage but you should fear TTar more. I recommend U-turn to get away from Pursuit and Tyranitar's
Crunch.