SS OU Rain BO ft Wish Pass Clefable

[Initiatedog]

Hey everyone! I am back with my 3rd RMT and this time I tried to build rain. This team seems to be doing the worst out of the 3 RMTs I’ve done, but with some changes I think it could have the most potential. Without further ado let’s get into the team.

Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/8aaa19a1a85c690a
New Pokepaste after rates: https://pokepast.es/5d49002e268dee57

THE TEAM:


PELIPPER

Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Def / 216 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Weather Ball
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Roost

I needed a rain setter to give barraskewda the speed and damage boost it really likes to have. Pelipper is the best rain setter by far as it has access to roost and u-turn plus only has two weaknesses to electric and rock. Damp Rock is chosen to add more rain turns but I can see HDB as an option as our only rain abuser is barraskewda. I wanted to go more on the offensive with the moves as this team can do with some extra firepower on the special side, weather ball and hurricane are chosen over the more standard defog and scald. This does worsen pelipper’s MU vs but you can just u-turn when it comes in so no biggie. The EVs are going for more bulk than offense as weather ball and hurricane are already quite powerful with their high base power and a solid spatk stat of 95. We do not want our rain setter risking its life to deal damage, the offensive moves are more for catching things off guard on the swap.

Pelipper Calcs

Always survives Knock off from LO Adamant Crawdaunt. (84.5 - 99.6%)
Always survives CB Brave Bird from Jolly Galarian-Zapdos. (84.5 - 99.6%)
Always survives CB Leaf Blade from Jolly Kartana (ignore crits) (83.9 - 98.7%)
Always survives CB Triple Axel from Jolly Weavile. (83.5 - 98.4%)
Always survives Specs Timid Dragapult U-Turn (7.7 - 9.2%) + Draco Meteor (76.4 - 90.4%)
Always survives Specs Psychic from Timid Tapu Lele. (82.6 - 97.5%)
Always survives Specs Psyshock from Modest Lele (82.9 - 97.8%), Psychic is still a favorable roll. (91 - 107.1%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO. .
Always survives Specs Shadow Ball from Timid Blacephalon with enough HP to re-enter after Stealth Rock. (63.1 - 74.6%)

BARRASKEWDA

Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flip Turn
- Liquidation
- Close Combat
- Psychic Fangs

Barraskewda is the rain abuser of the team and is the main firepower. Under rain it forces in many physically bulky steels and bulky waters which can be flip turned on to gain momentum. Once it’s checks are removed, this thing can take 4 OHKO kills with liquidation to wrap up a game. Choice Band and Swift Swim are used to be the best breaker possible. The water moves are for stab, CC is for steels and psychic fangs is for

MAGNEZONE

Magnezone @ Expert Belt
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 Def / 172 SpA / 84 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Body Press
- Iron Defense

Without a to flip turn into after bulky phys def steels coming in for free on , I needed another way to get rid of them. Enter magnezone, magnezone can come in after a flip turn to trap and remove an opposing , , or which struggles to break. Magnezone is also the main physical tank of the team and fairy resist. These statements make magnezone an amazing partner for and deserving of a slot on this team.

Magnezone calcs

Expert Belt Thunderbolt always OHKOS PhysDef Corviknight after sr/flip turn (96 - 113.5%)
Expert Belt +4 Body Press always OHKOS PhysDef Ferrothorn after sr/flip turn (97.4 - 115.3%)
Expert Belt +2 Body Press always OHKOS CB Melmetal after flip turn (68.8 - 81.2%) + (41.6 - 49.1%)
Expert Belt Thunderbolt always 2HKOS SpDef Toxapex (51.4 - 61.3%)

CLEFABLE

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Teleport
- Moonblast
- Protect

Clefable is the cleric of the team, it can wish pass to literally anyone as nobody besides and have recovery (but doesn’t always want to swap in) however I usually find myself wishpassing into and , and the odd . Wishpassing gets rid of the problem of rocky helmet on and helps the rest of the team get back into the game. Clefable is also great as the fairy stab is much appreciated by the team and clefable can chunk shadow balls and psychics from , , , etc decently well. It is also useful as a check, you don’t like eating an eq but they usually click sr anyway.

ZAPDOS

Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 220 Def / 40 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hurricane
- Roost
- Defog

Zapdos is the defogger of the team, I have no Defog on so zapdos was a great choice as it fits well on rain. I went for a defensive support set to make our MU vs , and a whole lot better as these kinda sweep me otherwise. Zapdos also acts as something that can hit quite hard. Zapdos helps pivot in and hurricanes even on a defensive set does around 35% to SpDef and it’s 100% accurate in rain which is great. The spread allows Zapdos to be as bulky as possible whilst 40 Speed EVs plus timid outspeeds .

LANDORUS-T

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 23 Spe
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock

Lando-T is the rocker, ground type and knock off user. It can help pivot in or and is useful defensively with its spread plus intimidate. I don’t need to explain much here, I might want to try toxic over knock, but then I have no knock user and likes rocky helms and leftovers gone. Lando-T is often a lead to get rocks up, knock and then u-turn out. Earthquake is quite strong aswell.

THREATS:

No explanation needed.


Our water resists are either a or a SpDef that also sets rain for the urshifu. Under rain everything gets 2HKOD and it’s a problem.


Its not that I can’t kill it, the problem is nothing likes future sight and EVERYTHING gets hit by either ice beam, tbolt, flamethrower or sludge bomb.


If I have rain up, it’s ok. However if I don’t or can’t safely go to then I have to sack something. can try stall with wish + protect, but can get crit and if it’s modest with psychic terrain then psychic/psyshock outdamages wish healing by about 5-10%

REPLAYS
This shows how I use the team, these replays show me testing assurance skewda, but I found psychic fangs is superior.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1677990429 - Vs GZap + Volc Offense

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1677995767 - Vs Ttar Nidoking HO

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1678004359 - Vs Specs Latios BO


and that’s the team! I am open to change anything and thanks for any help, it’s much appreciated. Over and out.

 

[Initiatedog]

Also forgot to mention volcanion in the threats oops

 

[ElStefano]

Hi,
Nice idea to add Zone to rain! Spdef Gastrodon is very hard to beat with this team, as well as strong special attackers. Just a few ideas:

- What justifies Lando over Seismitoad? He also gives you an electric resist + rocks while providing another swift swim sweeper, Isn't that a lot better than defensive lando on this team? You could run a physical version with powerwhip to have something vs gastrodon, which walls your whole team otherwise (EQ, Liqu, PowerW, Rocks).
- Make Clef full Spdef to help with the ghosts u mentioned.
- Run Crunch over CC on Barrascewda. This helps with the Dragapult matchup, which is always hard for rain. Also Lets you beat slowtwins easier. Ferrothorn is trapped by Zone anyway.
- Zapdos likes acces to Hurricane, Weatherball and Thunder, which makes it a pain to switch into. Do you need Defog here? I think the only mon that really dislikes rocks is Pelipper, and Wishpass somehow makes up for that.
- To get rid of spikes in a pinch, you could run emergency defog on Pelliper. I like more def on Pelli for stuff like weavile, but thats Personal preference I guess. You could forgo Weatherball/Hurricane, since pelli wants to switch out as fast as possible anyway.

Hope this helps!

 

[Initiatedog]

Thanks for the rate! I‘ve been looking into seismitoad and I think I am going to make the swap you mentioned. I really wanted to run a special set as physical walls are what holds me back even with the zapdos change you mentioned. So I decided to run this special set with power whip just for gastro and swampert

Seismitoad @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Weather Ball
- Power Whip
- Stealth Rock


0- Atk Life Orb Seismitoad Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Gastrodon: 530-624 (124.4 - 146.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
0- Atk Life Orb Seismitoad Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Swampert: 421-499 (104.2 - 123.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Stills ohkos both even with modest and no atk investment.

Clef is now full SpDef as I do agree those ghosts were trouble. I will also run crunch as CC is only really clicked vs like urshifu-r as I was testing assurance and nothing could hit urshi for neutral besides CC, it wasn’t used for steels as zone exists. I was having trouble dealing damage so yes I’ll get rid of defog on zap and make it the have the breaker moveset instead of pelipper, I still want my defensive EVs though. As zap no longer has Defog pelli now needs it so I will make that change and now as zap has the breaker moveset I will say goodbye to weatherball + hurricane for scald and Defog, it’s also nice to have a scald user for the burns. Personally, I like SpDef pelli but may switch to physdef if I see trouble.

the team now looks like this: https://pokepast.es/5d49002e268dee57

Thanks for the help!

 

[Novax]

i would advice to have defog on zap instead of peli because you wont get much defog opportunities with peli as you would most likely want it to be healthy for a second round of rain turns

 

[Initiatedog]

i would advice to have defog on zap instead of peli because you wont get much defog opportunities with peli as you would most likely want it to be healthy for a second round of rain turns

I was thinking of this as with the changes earlier I didn't have as many opportunities to defog. However giving up the stab combo + weather ball leaves my team with just two water types for offense. Zapdos is also kinda the defensive backbone and if it dies it is trouble, and when it needs to come in and defog all the time that chance increases. I decided to play more aggressively with the team and try to prevent them from getting rocks up by leading skewda and trying to match into a Lando, Ttar etc. On top of that I only go into Pelli to defog when they have more hazards up than me e.g spikes + Sr vs only sr because the only member on my team who takes 25% is Pelli, who already isn't coming in often, the only one who is neutral is Barraskewda but skewda doesn't come in enough for it to matter, and usually swaps out the turn after it comes in so it avoids taking hits. Everything else resists Sr but zap and clef are immune, zap's hdb can be knocked off but that just means clef has to wishpass to both zap and Pelli. I think it works out as defog is kind of an emergency only when they have more hazards as I said because rain loves rocks up. However I have been seeing this issue so I may consider it.

 

[RaikouLover]

This team is too defensive for rain. You don’t have time for Wish passing. Rain needs to overwhelm its opponents. Whether you choose bulkier breakers or glass cannons to do that is up to you.

Id redo the team, starting with Pelipper + Ferrothorn + Zapdos. That’s a balanced and stable rain core. From there, add some water types for breaking and sweeping.