Rain Rain Rain

[D4RR3N]

Hey people. This is my second RMT on smogon. It's an BW rain team made around gastrodon. Anyway, on to the team :P

Team Building Process:
One Day i was chillin on purplesurge irc with friends and a friend of mine which is TheMasterOfOz on smogon, decided to make a rain team with me around stockpile gastrodon.

Gastrodon is one heck of a good poke,and i'm starting with this shit so yeah :]

So yeah.I added a toxicroak to take on ferrothorns that makes a great check for gastrodon.

So yeah at this point i was like wait......how the fuck is this a rain team without a toed, so i added it.

So yeah at this point i need a sweeper and thundurus seems to be one of the best sweepers in rain to me.

So yeah i added both gliscor and ferrothorn at the same time cause my team is lacking of stealth rocker and a wall.

In Depth:

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

Yeah. My usual lead. This thing is capable of setting up rain and revenge killing notable threats like terakion, excadrill and etc. Hydro Pump is chosen over Surf for the raw power. Hp Grass fucks up Gastrodons that tries to wall the shit out of Politoed. Focus Blast is used for coverage and it can also deal decent damage to Ferrothorns. Ice Beam could be used to revenge kill flying types when i don't feel like risking hydro pump's 80% accuracy.

Lights (Thundurus) (M) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast
- Thunder
- Nasty Plot

So yeah.Dat Thundurus. Thundurus is my main sweeper in this team. Lum Berry is chosen over Life Orb to stop rachis from trying to cripple me with t-wave so i could get a free nasty plot up. After +2 this thing is capable to 2HKO standard Bold Blisseys with Focus Blast as long as it hits. +2 Thunder fucks up Sp def Jirachi and stuff that doesnt resist it. Hp Ice is used for gliscors and grass types that annoys my me all the time.

Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Def / 128 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Power Whip
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Leech Seed

OMG another ferrothorn! Not much to say really, Power Whip deals a massive amount to damage to grass, ground and rock types, Leech Seed gives me the opportunity to recover my health back and protect is useful for scouting moves and stuff.

Drake (Gliscor) (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Toxic
- Protect

So this is a set my friend(Ravenn a.k.a. TheMasterOfOz) came up with when we were building this team. Toxic Over Swords Dance is pretty unpredictable and it turns out to work very well in this team. I've tried out Swords Dancing Gliscor over this set but it doesnt work as well as this set does.

Kid Cudi (Toxicroak) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Focus Punch
- Substitute
- Ice Punch
- Sucker Punch

Uh yeah. Toxicroak. Credits to my friend Shotta for this set, Shotta if you're reading this ilu <3. I usually switch this into ferrothorn and sub up predict the switch. The set pretty much covers everything in OU. Focus Punch is the best move in the game, Ice punch says hi to gliscor all day and sucker punch is good for killing faster pokemon especially when you don't have a sub up.

UMAD BRO? (Gastrodon-East) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Scald
- Stockpile
- Toxic
- Recover

Yeah. A muthafuckin Gastrodon. You mad? Boy this thing is such a Be4st in rain. It trolls the fuck out of things like Starmie and Rotom-W. I decided to try out a stockpile set over the usual set that everyone uses cuz stockpile is pro. Scald over surf cuz 30% burn chance is sexy. Toxic is great for stalling and Recover gives me the opportunity to get all my health back so yeah.

Thats pretty much it. Hope you guys don't mind my fail grammar :]

 

[Moo]

Hey Darren, nice team. I've got a few suggestions to improve it though:

First off, swap your Scarf Politoed for this sexy Specs variant:

Politoed (M) @ Choice Specs Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SAtk / 216 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Grass]


Specs Politoed hits like a truck, making it the best Politoed in my opinion. I've tried scarf, and even though it can outspeed things, it fails to get important KOs like against Latios with Ice Beam, or against Gastrodon with Hidden Power Grass. Politoed can put holes in opposing teams if you predict right. Even SpDef Jirachi takes 80% from a rain Hydro Pump. Give it a try.


Give Gliscor Taunt over Toxic. It helps you against Skarmory, Ferrothorn, Forretress etc, and honestly, what can Gliscor Toxic that Gastrodon can't?


Just a nitpick: Ferrothorn can break Toxicroak's Substitute with Gyro Ball, so you can't set up on it. Maybe consider running Cross Chop over Focus Punch if Ferrothorn is a little too annoying.


Good luck with the team, I hope I helped

 

[Chileno4Live]

Hey Darren.

Nice team you got there. I've battled this team quite a few times now thanks to everyone running it in our chat, and as such, I think I can rate it quite well. This team is very solid, as it gave me some troubles, but I have a few nitpicks on this team, as well as some threats that run all over you.

Overview

This team is weak to CM Latias. Calm Mind Latias can set up on Politoed, Ferrothorn. Also, if it has Substitute. It can set up on Gastrodon as well. Especiallly Substitute + Calm Mind is a big problem for you. Leech Seed will not hit if it sets up on Ferrothorn, Sucker Punch is pretty much predictable so Subbing up is easy. Not only SubCM Latias is a problem, SubCM Jirachi is even more of a problem. Even though it lacks a recovery move, it sets up on Gastrodon, Politoed and Ferrothorn. Thunderbolt + Flash Cannon runs through your whole team. Not even Thundurus can take it down thanks to Calm Mind. Now these threats I just mentioned are not seen commonly, but they're not rare either, so I suggest a few fixes in your team that won't change your team too much.

Fixes

First off, I suggest you run Perish Song on Politoed. Perish Song forces your opponent to switch after 3 turns, so you just have to survive three turns and with Gastrodon, you can easily survive that if Jirachi is setting up. Ferrothorn will wall Latias with it's Dragon Pulses, so I definitely see Perish Song fitting into this team. I suggest running Perish Song over Hidden Power Grass, as Hidden Power Grass isn't going to kill much besides Gastrodon and Rotom-W. You wall both with your own Gastrodon.

Secondly, I suggest you run Skarmory over Gliscor or over Ferrothorn, preferably Ferrothorn. Thanks to Skarmory, you have access to Whirlwind, screwing over CM Latias pretty badly. CM Latias can't do a lot to you as well, as Hidden Power Fire is weakened because of the Rain, if it runs it anyway, and Dragon Pulse is not very effective. As such, I suggest a Special Defensive set.

Skarmory @ Leftovers / Shed Shell
Ability: Sturdy
Nature: Careful
EVs: 252 HP / 232 SpD / 24 Spe
~ Spikes
~ Roost
~ Whirlwind
~ Brave Bird

~~~ This is pretty straightforward. Anything that Ferrothorn walls, Skarmory walls it just as well. You now got 2 Excadrill counters, you still have Spikes, and Whirlwind for Phazing. This thing is sure going to help you against CM Latias. This is also a good switch-in for Latios, watch out for Thunderbolt though. Speaking about Latios, Gastrodon walls it very well. Taking 2 Draco Meteors from Specs variants and roosting off the damage.

I hope I helped your team, tell me how the fixes are. :)

EDIT: With Skarmory, you do not have Stealth Rocks. Now you have 2 options to run Stealth Rocks:

1. Give Skarmory Stealth Rocks > Brave Bird.
2. Give Gliscor Stealth Rocks > Toxic.

 

[D4RR3N]

Okay i'll try them out. Any other suggestions guys?

 

[ITSU]

Wow, everyone from PS is posting, so why not me???

Ok. First off, i agree with Moo that you should have Specs Toed, although, unless you run max speed and timid to outspeed base 100s like Gliscor.

Also, even thoigh shotta is awesome, and that set looks awesome, i think you should try a basic Sub-Up set, with LO and Drain Punch, so that you restore even more HP after you sub up and get a DP off.

Everything else looks fine atm, so i hope this works out for you!

 

[D4RR3N]

:]

 

[Howard]

I agree with the addition of Drain Punch over Focus Punch and as someone who only uses Rain teams in competitive battling (for almost 4 years now), I gotta say you did a pretty good job. Specs Politoed is better than scarf, as Moo said. And I would definitely be very cautious about using Skarm on a rain team. You never know when some asshole is going to carry Thunder on something he shouldn't. Good luck battling. Also, you took my post virginity.

 

[D4RR3N]

aight howard

 

[Delko]

Hi

This is a solid rain team with some underrated sets.

First of all let me say that Drain Punch isn't obligatory on Toxicroak. SubPunch is a viable strategy and the extra power from Focus Punch is appreciated on occasions. Not to mention that it's impossible to use Drain Punch together with Ice Punch. I do suggest an Adamant nature on him though, as you don't outspeed anything notable with Jolly and Adamant gives Toxicroak a little offensive boost.

There is no need to run max speed on Politoed, a Timid nature with 184 EV's will give you enough speed to be faster then the things you need to be faster as (Scarftar, base 115's like Starmie, etc...). You can put the remainders in HP for a little extra bulk. I suggest keeping the Scarf as Politoed is your main check for fast hitters. I do agree with Perish Song though, preferably over Focus Blast or Hidden Power [Grass]. You have Ferrothorn covered well enough so Focus Blast is Politoed's least useful move. Perish Song will greatly help you against Baton Pass teams and last poke stat uppers like CM Reuniclus or Latias.

Since you are using Thunderus, your team won't mind having a spinner. With entry hazards removed you don't have to worry about Politoed dying to them so you can switch him in as many times as you need. Starmie makes a good candidate as a spinner on this team. I suggest using it over Gastrodon who I feel is a bit redundant on the team. You have Starmie and Rotom-W covered well enough by Ferrothorn anyway. On Starmie I suggest a moveset of Thunder / Hydro Pump / Ice Beam / Rapid Spin but you could throw Recover in there if you think that works better. If you decide to use Starmie then putting a Choice Specs on Politoed is a good idea as well, as Starmie outspeed the genies as well, so Scarftoed isn't needed that much.

Lastly I suggest a slightly different EV spread on Ferrothorn as yours is a bit inefficient. A spread of 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SDef with a Impish nature will fit better. No need to use a -Spe nature if you're not mixed nor using Gyro Ball.

Hope these suggestions helped and good luck with the team.

 

[D4RR3N]

okay :)

 

[VERAKS]

id recommend life orb on thundurus so it doesnt neccesarily need a np to set up

 

[AB2]

Hey, this is a cool team that you have here. Calm mind Reuniclus might be quite troublesome though. At the moment, it gets free set up on a few different members such as Gliscor and even and Ferrothorn and can easily sweep you after a calm mind or two. At the moment, I am not entirely sure whether you want to take a more stallish perspective on this team or a more offensive one. At the moment, your team is a bit more defensive, so I think that running calm mind Jirachi over Thundurus will really help you here. Not only can Jirachi provide you with a way to win against Reuniclus, but it will also be able to beat Toxicroak provided that you run psyshock. I suggest running a set of calm mind / wish / psyshock / thunder on Jirachi so that you will be able to win against swords dance Toxicroak while also beating Reuniclus. A spread of 252 HP / 216 SpDef / 40 Spe, leftovers, and calm nature would do really well on this team.

Swords dance Scizor is a pretty big threat to this team too. It can set up on Gliscor or Ferrothorn relatively easily and muscle its way through this team very easily. Since this team is leaning towards being a more stall version of a drizzle team, I would recommend that you run Tentacreul over Toxicroak. Toxicroak seems to be the odd man out on this team anyways as it won't really do much for you whereas Tentacreul will really help you in not only supporting your entire team with toxic spikes and rapid spin, but also winning against Scizor as well. I would definitely recommend a spread of 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 Spe so that you will be able to outrun Gliscor and hit it with scald. Leftovers, a set with scald / rapid spin / protect / toxic spikes, bold nature, and rain dish would work well. I'd also try running a set with scald / ice beam / toxic / recover on Gastrodon as well. This will allow you to do much better against Thundurus as scald in the rain will not ko. gl.