Rain Team RMT

[bbabbb]

Hello Smogon,
This is my second RMT on the RMT forums and I got surprised by the great amount of feedback I got on my first RMT so I decided too make another one.
This team i've been using for around 2-3 weeks now and I ran out of inspiration on improving it.
This team got me to ±1250 points which I find great since i'm not that good of a battler.
I love to use rain, it has some great effects and gives moves like Thunder and Hurricane a 100% accuracy.
Well here's my RMT:

TEAM AT GLANCE:

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]

Politoed is obviously a must on any OU rain team since it provides permanent rain.
I chose the Choice Specs set since I know from experience it has one heck of a strong Hydro Pump.
I gave it some HP EVs for better bulk the rest of its EVs are divided over Special Attack and Speed so it can deal some good damage and isn't outspend by everything.
Ice Beam works great against the likes of Dragonite and Salamence.
Dragonite sets up 2DD's while I break its Multiscale and thanks to the HP EVs I live a Dragon Claw and am able to finish it off with Ice Beam.
Focus Blast to finish off Ferrothorns or incoming ones.
Hidden Power works great against all the water-ground / Rotom-w's in the metagame.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 6 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Wish
- Protect
- Thunder
- Iron Head

Jirachi, the most annoying of them all.
Thunder/Iron Head work great in rain.
Thunder has the same chance of parallax (60%) as Body Slam but it works better since they most of the times bring something in like Skarmory.
With max HP EVs it's also a great Wish passer or it can heal itself with Wish+Protect.
Jirachi is here to tank all the dragon hits and most of the time paralyze anything that comes in or just for passing a Wish to a low HP pokemon.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
- Rapid Spin

Starmie is pretty good in rain.
STAB + rain boosted Hydro Pump speaks for itself.
Ice Beam and Thunder provide nearly perfect coverage.
Ice Beam for the grass and dragon and Thunder for the likes of Jellicent and vaporeon coming in on a Hydro Pump.
Rapid Spin is pretty important.
If the opponent has rocks/spikes up I have to remove them for Dugtrio and Tornadus.

Dugtrio (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Substitute
- Earthquake
- Reversal

I love Dugtrio.
I was searching for a good Dugtrio set and I came across Stone_Cold his team.
His Dugtrio set is amazing and works really well so credit to him.
Dugtrio has the obvious purpose of trapping other weather endusers and fainting them.
Stealth Rocks work well if you trap a ttar.
While it attacks to get you to 1HP you can set up rocks and finish it with Reversal.
Earthquake is and easy way to faint Ninetails.

Tornadus (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Tailwind
- Rain Dance
- Focus Blast
- Hurricane

Tornadus is so powerful in rain.
A choice specs Hurricane hurts anything, even those who resist it.
If the opponent has set up too much DD's or when the situation asks for it, I use Tailwind to outspend nearly anything with Starmie.
Rain Dance is when I fail to win the weather war.
Focus Blast against Ferrothorns or other annoying steel-types.

Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 248 HP / 178 Def / 84 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Swords Dance
- Taunt

Gliscor, my favorite pokemon!
It looks so cool and is a great defensive wall.
Gliscor is mainly here to counter Terrakion/Conkeldurr and sometimes Landorus.
If I see a Landorus I switch in to Gliscor on the earthquake/stone edge then I switch to Politoed to check if it has Hidden Power [Ice] and incase it uses U-turn (so my Starmie won't die).
If it uses HP Ice I can outspeed and kill with Starmie next time if it uses U-turn I can wall it with Gliscor.
I gave it 84 Speed EVs so it can outspeed the annoying mews and Taunt them.
Swords Dance gives it the ability too sweep.
Ice Fang is for when I think they'll switch into Dnite or Latios then I can deal a little damage or break multiscale.

That concludes my Rate My Team!
I hope you can give me some good feedback!
Thanks in advance!

Importable:

Hide

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]

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 6 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Wish
- Protect
- Thunder
- Iron Head

Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
- Rapid Spin

Dugtrio (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Substitute
- Earthquake
- Reversal

Tornadus (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Tailwind
- Rain Dance
- Focus Blast
- Hurricane

Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 248 HP / 178 Def / 84 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Swords Dance
- Taunt

 

[skyhigh256]

I'm not sure about jirachi's nature...you're using thunder(special) and iron head(physical) together. I know it's nice to abuse thunder in the rain so if you want a 'mixed' jirachi so called, try running sassy nature instead. If not, it may actually be wiser to stick to body slam or thunderwave. In addition, you want would some speed so that jirachi isn't THAT slow.

Jirachi @ Lefties
Careful; 252hp/220sp def/36 speed
- Wish
- T-wave/body slam
- Iron Head
- Filler move of your choice

 

[-Tsunami-]

Hey there. Got the message so yeah.

SD Toxicroak is a very major problem to this team; it can OHKO every member of your team after a Swords Dance with it's great coverage. Rotom-W and other powerful rain sweepers are also major problems seeing as how you have nothing that can switch in to them consistently. SD Lucario, Sub + 3 Attack Landorus, and DD Gyarados can also defeat you quite easily.

In order to defeat all of these threats bar powerful water pokemon, I suggest that you replace Gliscor with a Slowbro. Slowbro can take on and defeat Conkeldurr and Terrakion easily as well.

Defensive Slowbro

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Slowbro (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
- Psychic
- Scald

Thunder Wave lets Slowbro cripple common switch-ins such as Latios, Scizor, and Rotom-W. Psychic lets it devastate the likes of Toxicroak, whereas Scald allows it to have a strong STAB move in the rain that can easily defeat pokemon such as Landorus. A Relaxed Nature allows Slowbro to be slower than Brave Conkeldurr, who can otherwise deal major damage to Slowbro with Payback. Regenerator will keep Slowbro healthy quite easily, especially in tandem with Slack Off and Rapid Spin support.

Finally, seeing as how this is not really a heavy offense team, Dugtrio isn't as beneficial as it could be. In order to defeat the likes of Rotom-W and other devastating water sweepers such as Starmie, I suggest that you replace it with a Ferrothorn.

Defensive Ferrothorn

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Ferrothorn (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 Spd
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed

Ferrothorn can provide Stealth Rock support to your team just as easily as Dugtrio can. It's lack of a reliable recovery move can be easily made up for by Leech Seed and Jirachi's Wish. Gyro Ball allows Ferrothorn to decimate pokemon such as Latios that could otherwise have a much easier time against it.

Nice team. Hope I helped, and good luck!

 

[Jirachee]

Hey there,

This is a nice team you've got there, and I've been using a similar team on the ladder lately. First of all, Swords Dance Lucario, Swords Dance Toxicroak and Quiver Dance Volcarona are big issues. If you lose the weather war for whatever reason, or if Politoed is slightly weakened, it's gonna be wrecking your team while you can't really take it down easily. As of Swords Dance Lucario, with ExtremeSpeed it can take down nearly all your team members, while Gliscor is KO'ed by Ice Punch, and politoed by Close Combat. If your team is slightly weakened, it's gonna be a sweep. I think that Quagsire would be a great addition to your team instead of Gliscor. It can't really take LO Close Combat well, but if you manage to get in while it Swords Dances, you'll be able to defeat it with Earthquake quite easily, while the Air Balloon version can live 2 Close Combat. Volcarona can't 2HKO Quagsire with Bug Buzz, so you can stall it out if you status it. Toxicroak can't really harm Quagsire with Cross Chop, so you can OHKO it with Earthquake. It will also provide you further insurance against bulky Dragon Dance Dragonite who can't touch it. Anyway, here's the set.

Quagsire

Quagsire @ Leftovers
Relaxed
Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
-Earthquake
-Scald
-Toxic
-Recover

Also, I really think that you should use ShakeItUp's suggestion of using Ferrothorn instead of Dugtrio, because it will be a dead weigth for a lot of battles, since your team's style is bulkier.

Good luck!

 

[Jmaculas]

Because iron head is the move you will use dominantly you should change your EV to SpA minusing instead on Jirachi.

Also your EV spread is inconsist on starmie you got 252/252 then on another your got 252/252/6 then 252/252/4

 

[Eranu]

I would try a different nature on Jirachi.
Sassy perhaps?

 

[dwarfstar]

I would recommend using a specially defensive Forretress - rain decreases the Fire weakness, and it can set up all of the entry hazards. One with SR, Toxic Spikes, Rapid Spin, and a filler move is ideal, considering that Dugtrio's usefulness is highly situational, and rival rain teams can proceed to beat the shit out of the little guy. Poisoning incoming opponents helps immeasurably against stall teams, especially any rain team not running Tentacruel, because most of the common stallers can't afford to be poisoned. Gastrodon in particular would be a problem for this team if not for TS, so run a Careful (or Sassy, depending on whether you use Gyro Ball as your filler - Calm if you use Volt Change) Forretress with HP and SpDef maxed. I use it on my secondary team, which is a rain team, with great success.

 

[Smith]

Hey I got the message! Something you'll want to look out for is SpDef Ferrothorn- as with many rain teams, you're going to struggle trying to defeat him. Your best solutions are to use Focus Blast with Tornadus (not a OHKO) or to try to Reversal him with Dugtrio by using sub repeatedly (but then Iron Barbs kill you and you don't have duggy anymore!). Basically he can really cause you a headache, especially if he has Leech Seed + Protect since he can stall out Duggy with Iron Barbs even without Leech Seed. ON Another note, how do you handle Rotom-W? You're giving him powerful rain boosted Hydro Pumps when no member of your team resists Water + Electric. He can really lay some heavy dents in this team.

As such I think a Virizion would work really well for this team! CM Virizion can set up pretty easily on Ferrothorn (though you must beware Gyro Ball) and on Rotom. You could probably use this over Gliscor, since Virizion counters most Landorus rather well thanks to advantageous typing and Dugtrio and Tornadus stop Terrakion anyway. Virizion is a really potent sweeper and is basically only countered by a full health Jirachi, easy pickings for a team such as this (especially with a Dugtrio!) I hope this helps, good luck!