Rain Destruction!

[Typhlito]

Well here's another team I made but this time I made a rain team. This is also my first real competitive rain team since I tend to avoid using rain but it does very well. So far I made it into the 1900s in showdown on my practice account. (I could imagine I would be higher on a real account where I dont have loses from prototype teams.)Well without further ado, heres my team!

Rain Destruction

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Politoed @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Ice Beam
- Protect

Its doing alright even though its speed doesnt let me do all that much like I could with a scarf. Lefties recovery is kinda nice tho. But at least it can help scout moves with protect and spread status. Kinda thinking its kinda redundent with gastro tho tbh.

Bigger Jaws (Garchomp) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Aqua Tail
- Earthquake
- Dual Chop

You heard of Jaws right? Well meet Bigger Jaws (family guy reference :P) the Garchomp. Its not holding a choice scarf so it can outspeed most pokemon in the metagame while not being effected by electric moves. Think it does a bit better than scarf lati since its moves have more coverage. Liking its dual chop since it breaks right through a sub. Theres hope for chomp after all!

Doom Shroom (Breloom) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Technician
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch
- Swords Dance

Next up is doom shroom the breloom. It has a sash so that it almost garrentees spore putting something to sleep. Then it can go on with swords dance and bullet seed or mach punch everything that stands in its way. Simple as that lol. Need I say more? :P

Shy Ronnie (Skarmory) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spd
Impish Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind

Heres my newest addition to the team, Shy Ronnie the skarmory. Its job is simple but important. It has to set rocks and tank physical hits. Sash Garchomp used to do this role since it had much more speed and reasonable natural bulk but skarmory does it better. It keeps scarf lando from tearing my team apart once gyrados is gone but at the cost of being open to rotom-W. Even though using skarm brings my electric weakness to 3 pokemon, it still does better at its job than chompers.

Charmz (Jirachi) @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 236 SDef / 252 HP / 20 Spd
Calm Nature
- Thunder
- Iron Head
- Wish
- Protect

Finally, theres Charmz the Jirachi. For such a standard rain set, it exceeded my expectations on how well it actually works. Its incredible sp bulk covers the rest of the teams electric problem easily (unless its something like a specs jolteon thunder) Anyway, it pretty much walls almost all sp attackers and hit them with a 100% acc thunder that para haxes 60% of the time. (feels like 90% tho :P) It can then iron head its victims to submission. It also has a combo of wish and protect as a form of recovery. Its also a way to help pass a wish to politoad to keep the weather war going or breloom to make his sash viable again if rocks are out on my side.

(Snookie) Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Recover
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Its actually a fairly nice fit for the team even tho I have to be careful of them hp grasses lurking around. With luck, it can take 2 dracos and it stops thunderus from being as big of a threat as it used to be. However, its not doing as well as I hoped against keldeo. Toxicroak did a much better stopping them but at least it saves me from having to worry about electric pokes as much.​

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Well theres my team. There are a few kinks that still need working out to make this team truely shine. If you guys notice any weak spots or have ideas that can make the team better let me know k? You can tear the team apart. I can take it :P

-----past used pokemon----

Magikarp (Gyarados) @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Waterfall

Next is Magikarp the Gyarados. This beastly pokemon is both my rain sweeper and my buffer to weaken opposing sweepers with intimidate. Its also helps keep landorus at bay since landos stone edge wojuld only 2hko it if it doesnt crit. I am kind of considering on adjusting his evs to make it alittle bulkier so it can take hits alittle better when it switches in to use its intimidate. Not sure tho. Since sweepers are weakened, it gives it the chance to set up with dragon dance and dominate with a rain boosted waterfall. I also gave it earthquake so it can do damage to steel types better. Ice fang is to hit those dragons. Dont like the idea of giving it bounce, especially in a rain team since thunder can hit it while in the air which would suck lol.
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Carlito (Toxicroak) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Ice Punch/Substitute
- Drain Punch

Next up is Carlito the Toxicroak. Croak fits in rain like butter goes on bread. Its a must have in the team to keep the likes of keldeo from wreaking the team. It has both dry skin and leftovers to give it recovery every turn plus max hp evs to give it some bulk. Since its not nesesarily strong on its own, swords dance is needed to give it the power it needs to sweep like a pro. Sucker punch is its move of choice since with right prediction it will knock out or at least put a dent on most pokemon after a swords dance. Ice punch is to knock dragons out which is always good, however I am kinda considering using sub since I didnt make it fast. Finally theres drain punch. It hits things like terra that lack earthquake, ferro, and jirachi while recovering its own hp.

Latios (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Surf
- Trick

It does alright cuz of trick. It lets me trick my scarf to a ferro or jirachi however even tho they are scarfed now, it still cant really touch them... Its revenge killing is great tho.

Bigger Jaws (Garchomp) (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Stone edge
- Earthquake
- Stealth rocks

You heard of Jaws right? Well meet Bigger Jaws (family guy reference :P) the Garchomp. Its holding a sash just like breloom so that it can set rocks and still be able to attack with its impressive atk power and speed.

Fro-Yo (Politoed) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Focus Blast
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]

First up is Fro-Yo the politoad. As you all know, it wouldnt be a rain team without a poli so he automaticly gets a spot lol. Decided to go scarf instead of going bulky since it is now able to hit things with a rain boosted hydro pump that it couldnt before such as non scarf genies and chomp which can be helpful. Focus blast is there mostly for ferros since it wont be able to touch it otherwise. Ice beam takes care of dragons and bulky variants of lando. And hp grass hits things like gastro and opposing polis harder than its other moves.
​

 

[Soulfly]

Hey there, nice team. Have to compliment you for not using a dragon, alltho you did in the past ^^

I noticed one thing that might cause you some headaches and that is : Your walls both have a fire weakness.
This is a bit of a problem when going up against sun teams. If you lead with scarfed toad you'll see sunshine so you'd need to switch around, most likely to a wall.

You could solve this by changing jirachi to Jellicent or Gastrodon. Both of these will also counter alot of scary rain sweepers wich you didn't really have an anwer to at the moment.

Sets:
Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SDef
Calm Nature
- Recover
- Earth Power/Toxic
- Ice Beam/Toxic
- Scald

The def EVs make it able to survive banded outrage at full health if skarmory is dead.

Jellicent @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 4 Def / 252 HP / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Recover
- Toxic/Will-o-wisp
- Scald
- Shadow Ball/Ice beam

Pretty standard set, you could try Cursed body over Water Absorb but i'm a fan of water absorb :)

 

[ShootingStarmie]

Hi there, so I'm here to rate your team!

So by the looks of it, this is generally a pretty balanced rain team, as you have a pretty nice offensive core with Toxicroak and Gyarados, while you also have solid switch in's to most attackers (Skarmory for physical attackers, and Jirachi for special attackers). Politoed is your revenge killer, while Breloom helps you were down Gyarados' counters and helps with opposing weather teams.

However, there are a few Pokemon that I think your team really has trouble facing. Thundurus-T is super scary for your team to face, as at +2 it out right sweeps your team. Jolteon also really gives your team a headache for similar reasons, but Jolteon sets are generally choiced, so it isn't as big of a problem (but still a problem regardless). Having Jirachi and Skarmory as your general defensive Pokemon leaves you very prone to Magnezone trapping you, opening up a sweep for another Pokemon. I also feel there might be slight redundancy with Breloom an Toxicroak, as they are both fighting type physical attackers, so I feel the team slot could be used to support your team more. I kinda feel like for a balanced team, you really lack speed, as your only fast Pokemon is Politoed, who really isn't that fast to begin with.

So, here are my suggestions to help you fix these weaknesses.

1) Replace Jirachi with Gastrodon. Gastrodon really fixes most of your teams weaknesses, as it counters Thundurus-T, Jolteon, and leaves you much less weaker to Magnezone. Gastrodon has excellent synergy with Skarmory, while it still sponges special attacks relatively easy with it's great HP stat and typing.

2) Replace Toxicroak with Choice Scarf Latios. Like I said earlier, I really think having both Breloom and Toxicroak is kinda redundant, so I'm suggesting you replace it with Choice Scarf Latios. Toxicroak is mainly here to check Keldeo, but you already have Gastrodon and Gyarados, so you should be fine. This kills two birds with one stone, as it also fixes your speed issue, and also checks Thundurus-T and Jolteon nicely. Latios has incredible synergy with Breloom, so it fits the team really nicely.

3) Replace Politoed's set with the defensive set. Since now you have Choice Scarf Latios, Choice Scarf Politoed seems kinda redundant. Using a bulkier spread of Politoed allows you to win the weather war much more easily, while also making your team slightly more balanced. I was thinking about suggesting you the Specs set, but I really don't think you need the wall breaking power when you already have Breloom and Gyarados.

Here are the sets.

Hide

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SDef
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Recover
- Earthquake
- Toxic

So Gastrodon allows you to easily counter Thundurus-T, Jolteon, and Magnezone. The EVs are more towards special defense, allowing you to easily shrug off +2 HP Ice from Thundurus-T, and other special attackers. A Sassy nature is used because we're using both special and physical attacks, and we don't care much for speed. Scald is STAB and has a cool 30% burn rate, allowing you to beat some of Gastrodon's best switch in's (Breloom, Ferrothorn, etc). Recover is used to keep Gastrodon around for the majortiy of the match, allowing you to wall Thundurus-T easily through out the game. Earthquake is used for Toxicroak and Jirachi, as with Earth Power Sub CM Jirachi has a chance of beating you one on one. Finally, Toxic is used to stall out your opponent.

Latios (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Surf
- Trick

So Scarf Latios is one of the fastest Pokemon in the whole game. EVs are used to maximize speed and special attack, allowing you to out speed Modest Venusaur in the sun, Scarf Terrakion, and Scarf Keldeo. Draco Meteor is STAB and hits neutral threats for very good damage. Psyshock is also STAB and keeps Breloom, Terrakion, and Keldeo at bay. Surf is mainly for coverage to hit Steel types and Tyranitar for solid damage, and is also boosted by the rain. Finally, Trick is listed to cripple common switch in's like Blissey, Jirachi, and Heatran.

Politoed @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Perish Song / Ice Beam
- Protect

Defensive Politoed I think suits your team much better than Scarf Politoed. This is mainly because the majority of your team functions much better in rain, so you'll want to be able to win the weather war. So, EVs are used to max physical bulk, allowing you to come in on Tyranitar and Hippowdon pretty easily. Scald is STAB and as mentioned before has a cool 30% chance of a burn, which is really nice in wearing down opposing weather inducers. Toxic is used to cripple common switch in's like Jellicent and Ninetales. Perish Song is used mainly to force your opponent to switch, but Ice Beam has been listed if you'd rather hit Dragonite and Salamence as they try to set up. Finally, Protect is used for scouting purposes, while also Toxic stalling and gaining Leftovers recovery.

Well, there's my rate. Hopefully my suggestions have helped you, and good luck in the future with your team.

 

[Typhlito]

oh thanks for the advice guys! I'll def try it all out but the only thing that kinda concerns me with replacing jirachi is that I no longer have a draco sponge so other scarf latis have a chance at beating my scarf lati at the speed tie and the draco spam from there. Would gastro/jellicent be able to handle that?

 

[Soulfly]

oh thanks for the advice guys! I'll def try it all out but the only thing that kinda concerns me with replacing jirachi is that I no longer have a draco sponge so other scarf latis have a chance at beating my scarf lati at the speed tie and the draco spam from there. Would gastro/jellicent be able to handle that?

Lets test that :
Scarf
252 SpA Latios Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Gastrodon: 204-240 (47.88 - 56.33%) -- 28.91% chance to 2HKO
Specs
252 SpA Choice Specs Latios Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Gastrodon: 303-357 (71.12 - 83.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

So scarf is no problem, spec can 2HKO but you can outspeed with your own latios then. If it still bothers you then try ferrothorn over skarmory.

 

[Grey Knight]

hi ito, nice rain offense team.
here are 3 suggestions that think that will help

Replace skarmory for ferrothorn, it will cover your small electric vulnerability to pokemon like scarf thundurus and jolteon.
Leftovers stealth rocks/power whip/leech seed/gyro ball

Replace gyrados for feraligatr, the nature of their sweeps are pretty much the same,considering that they have the same counters and checks, so just because you have no entry hazards spinning support feraligatr is slighly better option,
Mystic Water aqua jet/water fall/Sword dance/Crunch

remove the sash from your breloom, mostly because you have no spin support, but even if you had ,focus sash is pretty much always an inferior choice over LO.

hope it helps, good luck

 

[Typhlito]

i gave it a try for a few battles and gastro wasnt able to cover keldeo as well as toxicroak. That secret sword keeps breaking through it. It did help cover thunderus tho but still. Not sure if a thunderus check outweighs what toxicroak could do. Ill give it a few more tries tho.

I thought about using feraligatr but gyrados's intimidate was what made me lean towards it. I'll how ferraligatr fairs on the team tho. And brelooms sashed because I tend to use it as a lead.

Ill give ferro a try over skarm but I hope it doesnt make lando a threat to the team again cuz skarm (,gyrados at full hp and now latios) are the only ones that took it.

 

[Kawaii Kyouko]

hi ito, nice rain offense team.
here are 3 suggestions that think that will help

Replace skarmory for ferrothorn, it will cover your small electric vulnerability to pokemon like scarf thundurus and jolteon.
Leftovers stealth rocks/power whip/leech seed/gyro ball

Replace gyrados for feraligatr, the nature of their sweeps are pretty much the same,considering that they have the same counters and checks, so just because you have no entry hazards spinning support feraligatr is slighly better option,
Mystic Water aqua jet/water fall/Sword dance/Crunch

remove the sash from your breloom, mostly because you have no spin support, but even if you had ,focus sash is pretty much always an inferior choice over LO.

hope it helps, good luck

I don't agree with this.

First off:
-Ferro will not help with Magnezone. I agree with everybody else that Gastrodon should be added in, though Skarm can stay.
-Feraligatr, while a surprisingly good sweeper, isn't anywhere as good as Gyara is at sweeping. With Gastro, the Lightning weakness will be removed or diminished.
-Sash Breloom is a lead set. It doesn't need spin support.

 

[Halcyon.]

Hi!

I agree that without Jirachi you become very weak to Specs Latios as well as Psychic types and Special Attacking Dragons in general. However, I'm going to rate the team as it stands, not based on others changes. First of all, you are indeed very weak to Thundurus-T and Keldeo, which can be huge problems for your team if given even one turn to set up (Politoed locked into HP Grass or Ice Beam or whatever). Additionally, ShootinStarmie is right that Toxicroak + Breloom is a bit redundant, and the team slot could be used more efficiently. Speaking of which, I think Gyarados as a whole isn't doing much for the team. It seems like it was just a sweeper thrown on simply to sweep instead of having actual utility that it brings to the team. Because of that, I think you should replace Gyarados with Scarf Garchomp. I see that you already used Garchomp, and I think it could be beneficial to your team providing it uses the correct set and has the right support. Your team does have a serious lack of speed, but Scarf Garchomp can fix that. Stone Edge lets t revenge kill Dragonite, Salamence, Volcarona, and Gyardos, while also giving you a hard hitting physical attacker to replace Gyarados. Additionally, Garchomp's Dual Chop can KO Alakazam (though Jirachi can also handle it). I also agree that gastrodon can be useful for your team, so I suggest you use Def Gastrodon over Toxicroak. Mark ShootinStarmie is an idiot and doesn't know that Def Gastrodon is the best set it can run, as that is the only one that beats Keldeo.

Hide

ily SS <3

Gastrodon also helps against powerful electric type attackers like Thundurus-T that give your team trouble, so defensively, it makes a great addition to the team. It also makes better use of the Toxicroak team slot.

Finally, a minor change would be to use SR over protect on Jirachi and then use Spikes on Skarmory, since Breloom loves that Spikes support.

Anyway, I hope I was able to help! Good luck with the team?

sets

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Aqua Tail
- Dual Chop

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Relaxed Nature
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover

 

[Tesung]

Hello. if you get rid of rachi, I would recommend putting encore on politoed assuming that it says scarfed. I think it should replace fblast or hpgrass as fblast doesn't hit ferro(it's only target) hard enough. It patches up your huge weakness to sub cm Latias, rachi, basically all calm minders. Also, your gyardos seems to be in between the bulky set with intimidate and the offensive set with three attacks instead of substitute. I mean its your choice and I personally like the bulky substitute set with substitut, dragon dance, waterfall, bounce and some defensive investment (will edit in evs). However , you seem to be using the offensive set, which prefers moxie. Also, unless you intent too lead with it, fighting gem or life orb is better for breloom. Hope I helped

 

[Typhlito]

Ok after some more testing, scarf chomp did alittle better than scarf latios and gastro is actually doing fairly decent since it helps jirachi and skarmory out. Still not conivinced about the bulky poli tho. I dont really find it as useful as it used to but dunno if having 2 scarfers is a good idea either.

and tesung, focus blast on poli was to hit ttars much harder.

 

[Honus]

Hi this team is pretty weak to SubCM Jirachi with Thunderbolt/Psychic, it can set up on Skarmory pretty easily and potentially the other members of the team. You could possibly play around it with your own Jirachi and paralysis but in reality there's really no safe switchin to a boosted attack from it. I think your best bet is probably to try an SD Garchomp over Gyarados. Garchomp is really a great asset to rain teams; as it benefits from the boosted Aqua Tail, and helps Toxicroak break through bulky physical walls like Hippowdon, Skarmory and Jellicent, so that you can achieve a sweep. In addition to that it's really one of the most solid ways to beat Jirachi for a rain team to have, and I think it's a better choice than Gyarados in general, not having the SR weak but providing similar offensive and to an extent, defensive help. Also it should be noted that you HAVE to have ice punch on Toxicroak if you use Garchomp just so Landorus-T doesn't get overly annoying.As another change I'd say to try a Scarfed Jirachi over your current one. Latios and especially CM Latias being annoying for this team to handle without any offensive pressure, additionally you don't want Dragmag teams to just run through Skarmory and sweep; Politoed's got a bad speed tier so it really isn't great insurance. I think it'd be better to probably Scarf the Jirachi and either change the Politoed to a specs for more offensive power or just a defnesive one.

Garchomp @ Yache Berry
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Aqua Tail
- Earthquake

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Ice Punch
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Trick

 

[Typhlito]

Thanks again for the rates guys! I updated my team on the first post so people can rate the updated team instead of the older team. Sorry for not doing it earlier. :s Anyway, tangrworth is a interesting poke to try since its bulk rivals skarm and it has sleep powder so it can kinda do brelooms job however, without breloom, I lose a very powerful set up sweeper. The only one I have left in the team right now. And as for tuant on skarm, if there was room I would definatly fit that in somewhere but have skarm without some way to attack back doesnt suit me well. Rocky helmet in the other hand might be useful. Ill try that out.

Noticed my team turning from a rain offensive turn into more of a rain stall which isnt a bad thing. What ever works im fine with lol

 

[Typhlito]

Um hey. Just wondering if I can get another rate since I updated the team. Like is there thing else thats wrong with it or its good the way it is?

 

[Soulfly]

Um hey. Just wondering if I can get another rate since I updated the team. Like is there thing else thats wrong with it or its good the way it is?

You should know by testing it :D
On paper the team looks ballanced with good synergy :)

 

[Typhlito]

yup it works nicely :D Just one pokemon gives me some trouble tho and thats celebi (especially baton pass varients) since breloom has to be +2 to put a decent dent with bullet seed if its asleep (2hkos with 2 5 hit bullet seeds which happened a couple times out of luck :3 ) , Rachi cant really wall it since it has recover, and skarm which can wall its hits but its brave bird falls short from a 2hko. So anything that can stop celebi?

 

[Soulfly]

yup it works nicely :D Just one pokemon gives me some trouble tho and thats celebi (especially baton pass varients) since breloom has to be +2 to put a decent dent with bullet seed if its asleep (2hkos with 2 5 hit bullet seeds which happened a couple times out of luck :3 ) , Rachi cant really wall it since it has recover, and skarm which can wall its hits but its brave bird falls short from a 2hko. So anything that can stop celebi?

I would say put fire fang on garchomp but with the rain that wont work so maybe try crunch ? Of get Kyurem-B instead with a scarf.
Jirachi could use U-turn aswell, celebi doesn't like those either .

So i would change garchomps outrage to crunch (i don't like beeing stuck with a scarfer) or get Kyurem-B biased scarf with ice beam outrage/dragon claw/wild charge/filler
And on jirachi u turn over protect (you need a bit more predicting then)

 

[Typhlito]

tried it out but crunch does less damage to celebi than outrage and rachi needs its protect to recover. especially if its locked in by a specs magnezone. with protect and wish it can wear magnezone down slowly of it lacks sub.

 

[Typhlito]

sorry for double posting (if its against the rules) but another problem i found with the team is that outside of rachi's thunder, i cant touch skarm much. So if skarms under sand, thunder is unreliable even tho thunders great if rains up. So any ideas to help with that?

 

[Soulfly]

sorry for double posting (if its against the rules) but another problem i found with the team is that outside of rachi's thunder, i cant touch skarm much. So if skarms under sand, thunder is unreliable even tho thunders great if rains up. So any ideas to help with that?

I'd put latios over garchomp again to deal with skarmory trough surf and maybe try croak over breloom (sucker punch deals with celebi at +2).