Rain Over Me

[Mr Bear]

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Rain Over Me

The team:

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Playing Style: This team is built around paralysis support, turning bulky, somewhat slow pokemon into potential sweepers. 4 out of the 6 pokemon have a paralysis move to achieve this. This is not the best team, I know, but it suits my playing style. So far, the highest the team has reached is a rating of 1289 (rank 21) on the Smogon DW OU server, and continues to gradually grow. EDIT: 1306 CRE, rank 13 as of 17th Sept after Dragonite change. ^^

There is room for improvement, I know, and that is why I am posting this team.

Team Building Process

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Obviously, this is a rain weather team, so a Politoed is neccessary. After experimenting with different sets, I found the Choice Specs set to be most useful.

I wanted a Thunder abuser with good synergy with Politoed, so I opted to use Zapdos. In the past, Zapdos was not as useful for me but with the addition of Drizzle I decided to try it out again.

Similar to Zapdos, Jirachi was not as useful in the past as it is now for me. It has its advantages in a rain team with fire weakened, and it provides my team with Wish and Stealth rock support.

However, Rotom-W has always been a big team player. It was originally a Scarf set, but a more defensive set provides my team with more valuable status support.

Without Celebi, my team would be rather slow and it would probably be 6-0ed by pretty much any Breloom. So, I decided to include a Celebi, which checks other threats apart from Breloom including Gastrodon and Quagsire (mostly Water/Ground types)

I needed a proper sweeper that could (preferably) abuse rain. Keldeo seemed like a good choice, given that it has priority, a fighting type STAB, and immunity to Dark.

Keldeo had less immediate impact, and after seeing the destructive power of Dragonite, I decided to try it out. It works wonders.

In Detail

Politoed (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP/40 DEF/216 SpA
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power (Grass)
- Ice Beam

It is not as common as other Politoed variants (from my experience), but it should be. Choice Specs + STAB Hydro Pump + Rain = Win, it has surprised many opponents by OHKOing a LOT of leads without focus sash of course. It brings great joy to see a Machamp/Metagross/some other "supposedly bulky" pokemon go down in one Hydro Pump, and it has 6-0ed and 5-0ed many teams before.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Lightingrod
EVs: 252 HP/144 SDEF/112 SPE
Calm Nature (+ SDEF, - ATK)
- Thunder
- Thunder Wave
- Hidden Power (Ice)
- Roost

This serves as my Electric absorber, because even though there aren't any glaring Electric weaknesses, people like to use rain to use Thunder anyway. Thunder Wave is important as it provides my team with paralysis support, which is the main priority.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP/36 DEF/220 SDEF
Careful Nature (+ SDEF, - SATK)
- Iron Head
- Body Slam
- Stealth Rock
- Wish

A vital team member, Jirachi sponges Draco Meteors from the likes of Latios and proceeds to Body Slam them (which usually causes paralysis, crippling them), then abusing the flinch hax from Iron Head. Stealth Rock is a filler and seems to be the most useful option, and Wish is so important as it heals many who don't have a recovery move. Protect is not neccessary as the flinch hax from Iron Head is usually enough to buy me a free turn.

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/ 80 DEF/96 SATK/80 SDEF
Modest Nature (+ SATK, - ATK)
- Thunder
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunder Wave

It may have an awkward ev spread, but my aim is to make it a sort of "mixed wall" without compensating too much on attacking power. It has dual STABs, which is useful once the other team is mostly paralysed, and double status to provide both paralysis support and burns physical sweepers. Its main use though is to burn Ferrothorn, who is the most used pokemon and a pain in the rain.

Celebi @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 232 HP/240 SATK/36 SPE
Modest Nature (+ SATK, - ATK)
- Leaf Storm
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
- Recover

This is basically the "Tinkerbell" set except it has Psychic instead of Earth Power, to kill Brelooms. The loss of Earth Power is not that important; Heatran is useless in the rain anyway. Again, Celebi is used to kill the "anti-rain" pokemon known as Gastrodon, who otherwise walls practically everything on my team. Natural Cure is always useful for taking statuses, and yeah..

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP/44 ATK/ 212 SPE
Adamant Nature (+ ATK, - SATK)
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw / Outrage
- Aqua Tail
- Roost

Bulky DD set, abuses Multiscale with Roost and Aqua Tail abuses rain as well with good coverage.


Feedback and suggestions much appreciated ^_^
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[coughing]

Since you're using rain, i would abuse it a little more with Jirachi by using a calm mind set:

Jirachi@Leftovers
Serene Grace
252spe/252spa/4spd
Timid nature
-Thunder
-Water Pulse
-Calm mind
-Wish

If you don't like the look of it i think you should absolutely just give it a try, try to get a calm mind up and see the damage it can do

 

[Mr Bear]

@ coughing

Looks good, I'll give it a try. But my main aim is to paralyse then sweep; what are the chances of paralysis from Thunder? Will this spread take a Draco Meteor well?

 

[Braseg257]

Forretress can be an excellent counter for your team under the rain because it can take the Hydro pump of Rotom and a Close Combat and the only one that can hurt very much it is Politoed. Except for Lightingrod Zapdos can be replaced by Thundurus, expecially if you use thunder wave. Thundurus with a priority taunt can stop Blissey that can wall very well your pkmns if Keldeo is KO:
Thundurus @leftovers
252Spa-252Spe-4HP
Timid nature
-Thunder
-Thunder wave/substitute
-Taunt
-Focus blast/HP ice
This Thundurus can take the role of Zapdos with taunt and TW that get priority with Prankster, Focus blast is for a decent damage on Blissey and HP can hit dragons. FB is better if you use a Nasty plot set but in this way you don't have thunder wave. Nasty plot+Substitute is a great combo if you are against a wall like Blissey or Forretress: you can put the substitute and boost your SPA with nasty plot: Blissey can't do nothing to you after substitute and with a +2/+4 Focus Blast you can hit it as well.
For the rest this is a pretty solid rain team. Good Luck!

 

[kmuffinman]

@ coughing

Looks good, I'll give it a try. But my main aim is to paralyse then sweep; what are the chances of paralysis from Thunder? Will this spread take a Draco Meteor well?

No it won't take it as well. Stick with your old EV spread, and personally I advise you to stick with your old set as well. While that Jirachi may be better in the rain, Body Slam gives you a chance to paralyse pokes immunes to electric type moves
Anyway, Thunder's paralysis rate is the same as Body Slam's; 30%x2 due to Serene Grace
Also, Jellicent would be a better choice over Rotom-W. While it may lack the attacking power, it makes up for that with Recover and better bulk sp.def wise. Plus, it gets Hex to abuse the paralysis

 

[Mr Bear]

@ kmufinman

Yes I tried out the set but it wasn't as good as my original one, though it had its own merits. I'll take your advice and try out Jellicent, but is is good to also use Ferrothorn as a partner (for synergy)?

@ Braseg257

What you said is true, but Celebi can beat Ferro to an extent, as Ferro can do nothing to me (leech seed, twave, power whip/gyro ball, etc) and I'll just wear it out. Thundurus is good but it isnt as bulky, so....uhh?

 

[Braseg257]

Thundurus isn't a bulky, i know but is an excellent sp. sweeper and in your team it can be good, give it a try. Ferro can do nothing to celebi, this is true, but in the attacks you have written you have missed just one: explosion. A Ferro that explodes in dangerous also for Celebi so I suggest you to put some evs in Def.

 

[Mr Bear]

@ Braseg257

Which Thundurus set would you recommend? And also, I have not seen any Ferrothorn with Explosion (why would you want Ferrothorn to die, anyway?) so it is not really a big problem.

 

[Box]

Rotom-W is an iffy team member. Definitely replace him with Mixed Attacker Thundurus.

 

[Braseg257]

@ mr bear

I don't kows any set for a mixed Thundurus but if you want a special sweeper a goog set could be this:

Thundurus@ leftovers/life orb
Timid nature
252 spa 252 spe 4 ps
Thunder
Nasty plot
Thunder wave/substitute
Focus blast/ hp ice

With substitute leftovers are better, with TW life orb is the best item. Charti berry isn't a bad idea to resist a rock attack. Hp ice is for Dragons that resist thunder like Salamance or Garchomp but is good also for Gliscor. Focus blast is for a decent damage to Blissey after NP but i think HP is better.
You're right, explosion isnt common on Ferrothorn but i've try it and is a good attack but if isn't common is not a problem for Celebi.