Rain Team! My first team!

[RetroGameGuy]

Hi! I am very new to playing pokemon competitively so I definitely need help improving! Based off the little amount of knowledge I know, I decided to make a team! It is a Rain Team and I know that I need to improve so hopefully you guys can help me out! Thanks!



Team Building Process!

I really wanted to have a team with Breloom! So I first got Breloom!

Then I thought what are Brelooms weaknesses? Mainly Ice and Fire type moves are used to deal with Breloom, so I decided to add in Politoed, because he resists them both! He can also bring in rain so thats when I thought I could make it into a rain team.

I really like Tornadus-T, and with 100% accuracy on Hurricane in rain, I definitely wanted to add him!

Then I had Breloom, Politoed, and Tornadus-T. None of them are very bulky, so I decided to add in Ferrothorn, because he is my favorite wall!

Ferrothorn is weak to Fighting and Fire type moves. I decided to add in specially bulky Jellicent to cover Ferrothorns weaknesses. It is not affected by Fighting type moves and will easily deal with Fire type moves and can fight back with a STAB scald, which is also boosted in rain.

I had one more slot, so I decided to go with Volcarona! There was not much reason for Volcarona, so maybe you guys can help me think of someone else to put in.

UPDATE: VOLCARONA HAS NOW BEEN REPLACED FOR JIRACHI!



In detail!



Politoed


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


This Politoed is used to bring in the rain and it is quite offensive. It has Hidden Power Grass and Choice Scarf to outspeed and KO other Politoeds. Hydro Pump does alot in rain, but you just have to hope that it hits lol. Ice Beam will take out dragons and I will outspeed them because of Choice Scarf. Focus Blast is there because im not sure what else to put there. This Politoed is very offensive but im not sure if I should change it to a defensive set to make it easier to win weather wars. Let me know what you think!

UPDATE: Politoed now has a Timid Nature because otherwise it could not outspeed +1 Dragonite and other threats like that even with Choice Scarf.


Breloom


Breloom (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 12 HP / 244 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Seed Bomb

I love Breloom! This is my favorite Breloom set because I can just put them to sleep, go behind a sub and hit them with a really powerful STAB Focus Punch! Seed Bomb is there for anyone that resists Focus Punch and it is also STAB. I was going to use Facade instead of Seed Bomb but then a ghost could come in and I would be forced to switch. Toxic Orb and Poison Heal to heal up after using Substitute.


Tornadus-T


Tornadus (Tornadus-T) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- U-turn
- Taunt


I love using Tornadus-T in rain because of that 100% accuracy Hurricane! Hurricane is STAB, has a 50% chance to confuse the opponent and has 100% accuracy in Rain! U-turn so I can go in, U-turn out and then see what move he was going to use to scout the enemy. I can also use it if someone comes in that I dont like if I know I am faster. Taunt can be used to stop walls which is the main reason as to why I have it. Focus Blast for coverage but I dont use it much because this is a Special Attacker and it can easily miss.


Ferrothorn


Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Power Whip


I wanted a wall, so I had to go with Ferrothorn, because he is my favorite wall! Nothing that my team is weak to cannot be walled by Ferrothorn, except for Fire Moves, which is dealt with by my next pokemon, but Fire Moves aren't too big of a problem anyway because of rain. I love Leech Seed + Protect and Power Whip can do a lot of damage if I ever need to use it. I also have spikes because there are many opportunities to set them up.

UPDATE: Ferrothorn now has Stealth Rock instead of Spikes because he is the only one with a free slot to have it and Stealth Rock is better than spikes because it hits every pokemon for at least a bit of damage.


Jellicent


Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Scald
- Recover
- Toxic
- Shadow Ball


Walls anything that Ferrothorn doesn't! Ferrothorn is hit by super effective damage from Fire and Fighting type moves, but Jellicent is not affected by Fighting type moves and it easily walls any Fire type move, especially in rain! It can also fight back at fire types with a STAB rain boosted Scald. It has toxic to help wall things, and I can get burns with Scald. Recover is essential to stay alive after being whittled down. Its funny when an opponent struggles to take down the Jellicent, and as soon as he does take it down to low health, Jellicent just heals back up with recover!


Jirachi


Jirachi @ Leftovers
Serene Grace
Timid
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
~Thunder
~Water Pulse
~Calm Mind
~Substitute


This used to be Volcarona but it has now been switched for Jirachi. Tornadus-T was a huge problem for this team, because could 2HKO everyone! I added Jirachi because Tornadus cannot do anything to it! My team was also weak to dragons. The only think that I could use to stop dragons was Ferrothorn, but I would be dead if my Ferrothorn went down and a dragon like dragonite came in! Jirachi counters the dragons nicely! Jirachi can also be a devastating late game sweeper!
Thanks to Jirachi (yes that is his name on Smogon so dont get confused) on Smogon for suggesting Jirachi and also for suggesting the set that I am using!



Conclusion


Thank you for reading this! Thank you again if you do reply and tell me what I can do to improve! Remember, I have only just started playing Pokemon Competitive so I expect that there is going to be major improvement needed. Thanks!

 

[Jirachee]

Hey

First of all I'd like to say that, Volcarona isn't really helping your team at all. While it's true that it's a powerful sweeper that's pretty difficult to stop after a Quiver Dance, having no Rapid Spinner will make it dead weight against teams that carry Stealth Rock (read: all the teams.) This will result in Volcarona coming in at only 50% HP which isn't enough to attempt a sweep at all, especially since you have no recovery. I think that getting rid of Volcarona for something more useful would greatly improve your team. Honestly, I think that your team could use help against Tornadus-T. You have no flying resist, meaning that Hurricane does a fuckton to everything it hits, and cleanly 2HKOes everything on your team. Since your own weather is Rain you can't do much about it. Scarf Modest Politoed doesn't even outspeed Tornadus-T making it pointless when it comes to fighting against Tornadus-T. Secondly, your kind of team can really use a second Steel type to resist Dragon attacks. While Ferrothorn does a great job at blocking the powerful hits from Dragon types, it isn't invincible and it certainly can't handle all of the Dragon types. Furthermore, since it has to do 150 different things, odds are it isn't going to be at perfect health all the time, so you might end up losing your only Steel type early in the battle, leading to a quick defeat. I think that Calm Mind Jirachi would be a perfect replacement for Volcarona. First of all, it wrecks Tornadus-T which is always a good thing. Secondly, it provides you a second Dragon resist which is very important. Lastly, it's a frustrating Pokemon to play against and it can replace Volcarona as a game ender as it sweeps pretty well.

You should use Stealth Rock. While Spikes are cool hazards, Stealth Rock is simply superior as it hits every Pokemon for at least some damage, while also limiting the use of some of the most dangerous sweepers in the metagame, such as Volcarona, Dragonite and Salamence. It's quickly set up for maximum payoff so you shouldn't go without it. Use it over Spikes on Ferrothorn, as it is your only Pokemon with space on its moveset for it.

I would suggest using Superpower instead of Focus Blast on Tornadus-T. Superpower is a great alternative as it still gets some important KOes that you want (such as the OHKO on Tyranitar), but it has perfect accuracy unlike Focus Blast which will betray you often. There's very little drawback in using Superpower instead of Focus Blast so I really think it would help make Tornadus-T a more reliable Pokemon.

Your Breloom lacks 100 EVs, which is huge. I will assume that it's just a typo as you have 144 Attack EVs instead of 244.

Lastly, I think that a Timid nature is more useful on Politoed than a Modest nature. While Politoed hits harder with Modest, Timid allows it to outspeed a lot of very dangerous sweepers making it an overall more effective revenge killer, such as +1 Dragonite and Tornadus-T. Otherwise Choice Scarf is rather pointless if you can't even revenge kill the most common threats.

Here's the set you should use:

CM Jirachi

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Serene Grace
Timid
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
~Thunder
~Water Pulse
~Calm Mind
~Substitute

Good luck!

 

[RetroGameGuy]

thanks a lot for the reply! i knew that volcarona should of been replaced but i didnt know what to change it to so thanks a lot! oh and yeah thanks for telling me i was missing 100 EVs i typed it wrong when i was making the team but i didnt realize!