Rain teams.. Rain teams everywhere..

[MewFive]

Hi guys.. this is my third RMT on smogon and I hope you enjoy reading this.

As you can probably tell, this is a rain team. Rain teams are very popular in OU and so are other weathers but I have never made a rain team so this will be a first for me. I can see straight away that I have 4 weaknesses to electric and only one resist which can be a pretty big problem. Grass types are not much of a problem since i've got Jirachi. Anyways, on to the actual team -

Team at a glance -

Thought Process -

I obviously had to start off with Politoed. This one is obviously obvious. Instead of a more defensive set, I decided to go with a bulky specs set. Modest, Max sp atk, Specs, stab and rain boosted hydro pump is nothing to be messed about with.

Next came azumarill. Whenever I battle a rain team, I hardly see azumarill being used. Azumarill is a great pokemon. It has great bulk and with huge power, a surprisingly decent attack stat. With a band, this thing can hit real hard. It can take hits, and hit back harder, what's not to like? :D

With tornadus-t in ubers, players have no choice but to use either tornadus or thundurus-t. Tornadus is still a great pokemon, with amazing speed + sp atk, it can hit really hard. I really wanted to use this, because it's just as good, if not better than Tornadus-t.

I couldn't just have all offense. I needed something can take a few hits and that can set up some entry hazards. What better pokemon than tentacruel? In rain, it is healed by both black sludge and rain dish. I can easily set up toxic spikes and rapid spin the opponents entry hazards too. This is a great member of my team.

Jirachi came to mind soon. My team consists of some slow bulky attackers (except from tornadus) and jirachi is no excuse. The reason I put this in is because of that 100% accurate thunder and being able to calm mind my way up there. Calm mind substitute jirachi is a really good set and I thought it would be a good member to my team.

Earlier, as my last pokemon, I had breloom. Breloom is my favourite pokemon and that is the main reason it was there. But as suggested, I changed it to ferrothorn as I lacked stealth rocks and I needed something to resist those electric moves my team hates.

The Team in Detail-

Politoed @ Choice Specs
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Focus Blast
- Ice Beam
- Psychic

A rather standard set. Specs politoed is amazing. That hydro pump destroys stuff. Even with not the best sp atk, it can still hurt everything in the rain. I decided not to invest EV's in speed and make it more of a bulky attacker. As said earlier, max sp atk + modest nature + specs + hydro pump = destruction. May not look like a powerful pokemon but can be really devastating in rain.

Azumarill @ Choice Band
Trait: Huge Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Ice Punch
- Superpower

This thing really is a monster. In rain, this can destroy EVERYTHING. Azumarill is the new arceus. It's definitely the best pokemon ever. EVER. jk. Seriously, this has got base 100 for both defensive stats and with huge power, its attack stat is decent. Just like politoed, this is a bulky attacker, aqua jet has priority so this could also be a decent revenge killer.

Tornadus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Atk
Hasty Nature
- Substitute
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- U-turn

Now that tornadus-t is ubers, I have been using this instead. And its just as good. I get priority with substitute because of prankster, so this can be a good pokemon to scout out what they're gonna do. With that 125 base sp atk, and with hurricane with full accuracy, this thing is also a MONSTER.

Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 240 Def / 252 HP / 16 Spd
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Substitute
- Toxic
- Protect

I couldn't have all offense, so this is my main wall. It is both physically and specially bulky and can set up and rapid spin entry hazards with ease. It gets healed from both black sludge and rain dish every turn so this is a must have for any rain team. I do lack stealth rocks but I can easily set up toxic spikes. Knock off is also very useful and scald has that neat 30% chance to burn.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Thunder
- Psyshock

This can also be used as a bit of a wall but I like to thing of it as a bulky attacker. Thunder has 100% accuracy in rain and psychic does some hefty damage since it is a stab move. I do have some trouble taking out ferrothorn with jirachi but other wise, this is a solid member of my team. I can substitute + calm mind to set up and then pretty much sweep since this thing walls any special moves after a calm mind.

Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Stealth Rock

As suggested, I replaced breloom and added ferrothorn to get those stealth rocks up as they are an essential to any team in OU. Ferrothorn can also wall electric moves that this team really hates, gyro ball is a very good stab move too.. Ferrothorn is a great defensive wall and leech seed + protect is a great way to restore health.

Well there you go. That pretty much ends my RMT. Hope you enjoyed reading this and any improvements to the team would be welcome. I kinda rushed this RMT but its okay;D​

Past Members -

Breloom @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch

EDIT : Changes have been made in bold

 

[Mosquiton]

Hi there, really nice team here! I love Azumarill :D

The first thing I notice is that you have a huge weakness to the electric moves and the only resistor that you have is Breloom, but he has a low defenses and can not count on his help throughout the game, also do not have anyone that puts stealth rock on the fiels, are an essential element in the various team because every switch that make opponent causing damage to his Pokémon.
To solve these problems I want to advise you to enter Ferrothorn with stealth rock instead of Breloom, getting a great defensive wall.
The set is the standard: leech seed + protect to recover life and scout the opposing move in order to act accordingly, Gyroball is mainstab that manage to hit the various dragons but especially kyurem-B would do serious damage to your whole team.
At this point you should use Politoed timid with 252 evs in speed, in this way be able to outspeed adamant Dragonite and adamant Breloom.
Now I want to advise you to change the evs spread of Jirachi.
The set sub calm minder is always to be used with 252 evs in hp, in this way you will avoid that Blissey with seismic toss break the substitute with one shot so that it uses several times to calm mind and boost yourself and win the '1v1.
Another important thing that I have noticed over the years is to use timid, so you can play in speed tie against a standard 100base speed, because otherwise you would go always to strike the second view your reduced speed.
Give to Jirachi Psyshock > Psychic to hit Chansey and Blissey to the Physical side.
As a final step you should take to protect Tentacruel, so you can scout the move of 'opponent in combo with ferrothorn, you can also have a big recovery from the rain with rain dish.

Sets:

Hide

>Ferro over Loom
>Timid Toed
>Timid and 252 HP Rachi
>Protect Cruel

Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Stealth Rock

 

[Prinz]

Hello there,

I like the use of Azumarill on your team, I think it's a very strong pokèmon if played well.

Speaking about your team, I see that it has a big weakness to Electric moves such as Thundurus-T's Thunder, which can smash your team easily, because your only resistor for them is Breloom but it has a very low Special Defensive. Also, you don't have anyone with Stealth Rock, which is really important in the current BW OU metagame since it allows to deal threats such as Dragonite, Salamence, Volcarona, Thundurus-T, opposing Tornadus and so on so I'd go with Mosquiton's suggestion to use Ferrothorn replacing Breloom, I'd use it with the same EV spread and with the same moveset that Mosquiton has already suggested you because it's very good in my opinion; I'd try only Power Whip replacing Protect because bulky Water-types such as Gastrodon and Jellicent can be troublesome for this team, if they are used with a Poison type or a Rapid Spin user or a Magic Bounce user to remove the Toxic Spikes.

Then, always speaking about Toxic Spikes, they are sometimes really useless because Poison-types, Flying-types such as Tornadus, Thundurus-T and Salamence and Levitate users such as Latios and Latias are all very common nowadays and Toxic Spikes can't do anything to them. Therefore, I'd change Tentacruel in a SubstituteToxic one because SubstituteToxic Tentacruel is definitely more reliable than Toxic Spikes Tentacruel if you want poison opponent's team to support your opponent; for example if Tentacruel Toxics Jellicent, Azumarill can sweep more easily later. An EV spread of 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe with a moveset of Substitute, Toxic, Scald and Rapid Spin, with Timid nature and with Black Sludge should work fine on your team.

Third, I'd change Tornadus' set in a Choice Specs because Tornadus hasn't Regenerator and with Life Orb and Substitute, it'll die soon during the battles. Otherwise Choice Specs Tornadus is a very hard htter and it's simple a better pokèmon than Life Orb Substitute Tornadus because it hits harder and because it can stay alive longer. I'd use a moveset of Hurricane, Focus Blast, U-Turn and Tailwind, with Timid nature, since U-Turn doesn't need more fire power and Defense is useful to resist to Scizor's Bullet Punch for example, and with Choice Specs of course, I'd use Tailwind because it supports a lot Azumarill, which is the star of your team.

As last thing, I suggest you to follow all Mosquiton's suggestions about Jirachi and Politoed because they are all very very good.

Good luck!

 

[MewFive]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have edited my post and all the changes are in bold. I decided not to change Tornadus to a choice specs set because I already have a specs politoed and band azumarill. I don't like to have too much choice pokemon as I am forced to switch out quite often because i'm stuck into one move. Otherwise, thanks for actually rating my team xD