Rain Team

[MilkyWay]

What would you guys rate this drizzle team? Also which pokemon would you add to it if you don't find this one sufficient? Here is the team:

Politoed
@Leftovers
-Drizzle
252hp 252def 4spa (Bold)
Surf
Perish Song
Protect
Toxic

Politoed is surprising a very effective wall and has use going beyond setting up permanent rain. Because of its STAB and 1.5x multiplier for water in the rain surf actually has decent power. I know many people prefer scald but the difference of a 15base power becomes bigger after 1.5 stab and 1.5 weather effects. This turns 3hko's into 2hko's. Perish Song stops pokemon from setting up on politoed while protect allows for extra leftovers recovery, scouting, and either stalling out perish song or toxic.


Tentacruel
@Black Sludge
-Rain Dish
252hp 236def 20speed (bold)
Toxic Spikes
Rapid Spin
Scald
Protect

This is a standard smogon set and is usually my lead. I put toxic spikes down first, protect for extra recovery, and either rapid spin or switch out depending on the situation. Switching out leaves me the opportunity to bring in tentacruel later to rapid spin if they didn't set up traps at the start. On this set I chose scald because since tentacruel is my lead there will be no rain bonus so scald is close enough in power in surf to be useful because of the burn.


Swampert
@Leftovers
-Torrent
252atk,252hp, 4def
Waterfall
Earthquake
Ice Punch
Stealth Rock

I found that swampert is useful for free switch ins when electric attacks are aimed at my other water types. I usually set up stealth rock and swampert has enough health left to get a few more turns. I like the moveset because of the 2 stabs and a check for dragons and grass, which swampert doesn't like.


Toxicroak
@Black Sludge
-Dry Skin
252atk 242hp 14speed (adamant)
Drain Punch
Ice Punch
Sucker Punch
Bulk Up

On rain teams toxicroak works well as an offensive tank. Between its black sludge, dry skin, drain punch, and possibly bulk up it can be very hard to take down while dishing out lots of damage. The only thing I'm wondering about it is if I should put protect in that set somehow to get another turn of recovery.


Tornadus
@Life Orb
-Prankster
252spatk 252speed 4hp (Naive)
Hurricane
Grass Knot
U-Turn
Superpower

Tornadus is perfect for rain teams because of its signature move, hurricanes 100% accuracy, not to mention a handy dandy 30% confusion, U-Turn is good for scouting while grass knot deals with opposing water types that take advantage of the rain, especially gastrodon. Superpower provides excellent coverage and mixed attacking.


I am having a bit of trouble deciding between my last pokemon, either latios, salamence or dragonite. Dragonite seems like tornadus in a way with the mixed attacking and hurricane (smogon rain set) so I guess I'll take him out for now. It's close between Latios and Salamence and for the purpose of finsihing up this post and going to sleep ill choose salamence, but please help me decide between these 3 great dragons.

Salamence
@Choice Scarf
-Moxie
252atk 252speed 4hp (Jolly)

Outrage
Earthquake
Aqua Tail
Dragon Claw (Stone edge? Focus Blast? Fire blast?)

Salamence is just a great game late game sweeper. I send him in for revenge kills and he usually out speeds the opponents pokemon because of choice scarf and gets his moxie boost. Late in the game I use outrage 99% of the time to try and finish but early I usually stick towards aqua tail and dragon claw. I sometimes use earthquake but I often have to switch out because then they send in a pokemon immune to it. All in all Salamence is a great sweeper and Im suprised he isn't an uber because of moxie but I'm happy using him.

Thanks in advance for rating my team

 

[Asek]

Hi

Cool team. First off, definitely use Scald > Surf on politoed. The burn chance is too good to pass up on a move, and the small power drop wont be too noticable or bad on a defensive inclined set such as the one that you are using. Scald stops numerous switch ins from coming in without braving the burn chance it is almost completely necessary on the set. On tentacruel try out Toxic > Toxic Spikes. Toxic Spikes are really average atm, so many pokemon are immune to them or can just get rid of them , they very rarely can do much in a match. Toxic will hit levitating targets, and doesn't require 2 turns of set up to be used efficiently. On tornadus give tailwind > Grass Knot a whirl. Tailwind can give you the speed nessecary to beat a boosted threat, by giving the team a massive movement speed boost you can switch the game back into your favour. Grass knot doesnt hit anything notable, you arent missing out on much without it.

On toxicroak I have 2 suggestions I strongly suggest taking up. The first one would be to try Substitute > Ice Punch. Substitue is nessecary to force pokemon into attacking you so you can use sucker punch, while keeping you safe while setting up by letting you stall out some dangerous pokemon. Toxicroak can churn out a massive amount of substitutes, these can be used to stall out toxic damage, protect from revenge killers or just scout out the opposing set. The other choice would be to change your current set to a Swords Dance set. Simply using Swords Dance > Bulk Up and using an EV spread of 252Atk / 4Def / 252Spe with a Life Orb would be optimum if you chose this. I think this is toxicroaks most viable and powerful set in the current metagame, offering immediate power and sweeping power. This is toxicroaks most potent set and I think you will personally get more milage out of the Swords Dance set but feel free to try substitute on your current set

GL with the team

 

[MilkyWay]

I took your advice and took scald over surf, you're right, since I didn't invest into politoed a sp atk the power won't make too much of a difference. Would it be worth it to take out 50 defense Evs on Politoed and put them into sp atk and then use surf over scald?

As for toxicroak I see your point. My set was in between 2 smogon sets and you pointed that out. I know you said that the swords dance life orb set is better but are you sure? In the rain I feel toxicroak can be a great tank so I'm thinking about using this set over the life orb one although they are similar

Toxicroak
@Black Sludge
-Dry Skin
252atk 200 hp 56speed (adamant)
Drain Punch
Sucker Punch
Ice Punch
Swords Dance

The Evs are a little different than my first set and the smogon one, I replaced bulk up with swords dance, and I'm still using black sludge.


What about this set?
252 atk 244hp 12def (adamant)
Toxicroak
@Black Sludge
Drain Punch
Sucker Punch
Substitute
Bulk Up

Same as smogon set but with a few tweaks to the Evs.