RainPedo (Peaked 102... hehe)

[Soulfly]

Changes are in bold!

The title of this thread might give some wrong ideas ...
Sorry in advance for that , i was lacking inspiration (stared 10 mins at the screen not finding a name)

Either way , i saw alot of teams featuring Sharpedo as a late game sweeper. I play tested those and i must say i like it ALOT .
Yet most of those werent with rain added to it for MORE power.
This is why i wanted to make a rain team with sharpedo.

Team Building​

Hide

So ofcourse the first two pokemon were chosen from the start beeing :

Beeing not entirely sure what kind of politoed i wanted to use i made 2 of them. One beeing offensive , one beeing defensive. For the further building i didnt count it in as wall nor special attacker tho.​

So i had my late game sweeper and a weather starter. Now i needed somekind of core. I never worked in the rain much before yet so i had no clue what a good core in the rain would be. What i did know was that latias with calm mind and reflect forms an amazing wall. So i had to add one. Yet one pokemon as a core would do the trick , so then i thought : maybe one of those pokemons who are weak to fire as fire damage is halfed. Scizor , forretress , ferothorn came to mind. As i needed a spiker anyways i went with ferrothorn.

Now i had my core altho it might have some gaps but i think it will manage.
Next up i wanted a special sweeper who could abuse the rain too.
First thought went to latios , but then i have both lati@s in this team.
Dont know if that is allowed but i chose to not go with that.
Then i thought : salamance , as he is one of my favorite pokemons. But that might not cut it either.
Then i remembered : Normally thundurus takes that spot , maybe his brother does it ok too?
So that added a Tornadus to my team.

And now there is the core and the sweepers. One thing alot of rainteams encounter are ofcourse electric type attacks. So i had to find a way to put this to my advantage. Three pokemons came to mind for that cause :
Jolteon , Electivire , Raichu.
Where raichu gets a special attack boost , he cant survive much , even less then a jolteon would so he was eliminated at start.
Electivire can be very nice add to the team , then again so can jolteon. Both would easely die to a misprediction anyways so i decided to go with a jolteon as he is a pain in the ass outspeeding alot of todays metagames pokemon.

So that is the team . Now for a more detailed view.
--------------------------------------------------------------

After playtesting a while i found that latias and tornadus werent really working out. This made me change them to a latios and a toxicroak.

Team in detail​

UglyToed

Politoed @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
Evs: 248 Hp , 220 Def , 40 Spd​

Bold Nature ( Defense + , Attack - )

• Scald​
• Protect​
• Ice Beam​
• Toxic​

Having scald for a chance to burn and a stab move and ice beam mainly as a filler.
Protect will be to scout and gain leftover recovery.​

Last move i took toxic over hypnosis because i dont like working with shaky accuracy and toxic is pretty relieable.
Beeing able to take a draco meteor and most physical attacks a +1 dragonite can throw makes this bulkytoed a reliable 'counter' to some of the dragons , and he also is , together with ferrothorn , the 'core' of the team.
Also i like the bulky toed over the specs/scarf versions because he needs to stay alive and this set doesnt have too much problems in finishing off opponents weather starters.

Gave him a different EV spread as suggested by San_Peligreno , this to outspeed jellicent and get a toxic off before the taunt.​

Weaknesses:​

Grass: Lati0s, Ferrothorn, Toxicroak
Electric: Jolteon, Latios, Ferrothorn​

-----------------------------------------------------------​

Boeiing
​

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Evs: 252 Speed , 252 Sp.Att , 6 Hp​

Timid Nature ( atk - , Sp.Att +)​

• Recover
• Draco Meteor
• Psycho Shock
• Surf

Changed the previous latias with this latios.
I was lacking offensive power and latias wasnt working out at all.
Its hp fire did a laughable 25% to ferrothorns...
This pokemon on the other hand does 35% with surf rather easely to ferro. With Psycho shock it can catch conkeldurrs off guard and isnt walled by the fairly common blissey.
Draco meteor is an obvious stab move and recover is in the set to heal off life orb dammage as well as having a way of stalling.

Weaknesses:​

Ice: Politoed,Ferrothorn,Toxicroak

Bug: Politoed,Ferrothorn,Toxicroak

Ghost: Ferrothorn,Sharpedo
Dark: Ferrothorn,Toxicroak​

-----------------------------------------------------------​

Japanese (wink wink)​

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron barbs

Evs: 252 Hp , 88 Def, 168 Sp.Def

Relaxed Nature (Def+ , Spd -)​

• Stealth Rock
• Leech Seed
• Gyro Ball
• Protect

Ferrothorn is a pokemon with really so many possibilitys ...

I wasnt sure wich moves i would take , i somehow wanted protect , i somehow wanted power whip for a second attack ...
Either way this is the set now:
Stealth rock because i wanted some entry hazards but not gonna waste my time too much on them there for this is enough.
Leech seed to have some recovery and force switched eventually.
Gyro ball is a very nice attack from this very slow pokemon​

Protect over power whip. This because power whip misses ALOT and doesnt really do too much dammage.

Weaknesses:​

Fighting:Latias,Tordnadus

Fire (halfed): Latias,Politoed (if it isnt stab he stays in and leech seed+protect stall)​

-----------------------------------------------------------​

Poisonous

Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin
Evs: 252 Att , 252 Speed , 6 Hp
Adamant Nature(Atk+, Sp.att-)​

• Swords Dance
• Cross Chop
• Sucker Punch
• Ice Punch

Where a tornadus used to be as a mixed sweeper now is an all out attacking toxicroak. With adamant nature and swords dance...
This thing can destroy teams on its own when it manages to set up... and with all the ferrothorns around it almost always has a chance to.
Cross chop is a reliable way to kill ferrothorns where sucker punch and ice punch will kill psychic/ghost/etc and dragons respectivly.
The bulky DDnite cant outspeed this poke and is OHKO'd by its icepunch (even with multiscale in tact but usually with SR its never in tact).

Weaknesses:​

Psychic: Ferrothorn,Politoed,Sharpedo
Ground: Latios,Ferrothorn​

Flying: Ferrothorn,Politoed

-----------------------------------------------------------​

Voltage​

Jolteon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Volt Absorb
Evs: 252 Sp.Att, 252 Speed , 6 Hp

Timid Nature ( Spd + , Att - )​

• Thunder
• Volt Switch
• Signal Beam
• HP Ice

Jolteon will work as a 'punisher'. Switch in on obvious thunder attack , get healed by it (to probably heal off stealth rocks dammage) and proceed to sweep as not much will outspeed this little thing and a CB Scizors bullet punch wont hurt too much.

Thunder over thunderbolt because of the rain, and with specs boost this set OHKOs scizor with thunder , it OHKOs alot actually. Rotom-W is often one shot after SR dammage too.
Signal beam as filler but also to hurt some grass type pokemon and also dark type well you know wich types.
I used to have HP grass but this prooved to be rather useless.
It didnt OHKO gastrodons , didnt even 2HKO ...
Same for rotom-w. So now this set is a thunder abuser but also has a way with dragons. It is walled by gastrodon but toxicroak can handle that.​

Weaknesses:​

Ground: Latios, Ferrothorn
-----------------------------------------------------------​

Ginjou (Bleach fans will recognize)​

(resized the image:))​

Sharpedo @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Evs: 252 Attack , 252 Speed, 6 Hp

Adamant nature ( attack + , sp.attack -)​

• Waterfall
• Crunch
• Protect
• Aqua Jet

Here is the MVP of the team , the pokemon where the team is built for.

Having 2 amazing stab attacks in waterfall and crunch makes him a very nice lategame sweeper, the addition of speed boost makes him even more of a threat because after 2 turns you cant hope to outspeed anymore.

Then i have protect to have a guaranteed turn of speed boosting.​

And as a last move aqua jet.

Why ? Why not ice fang ? Why not earthquake ?

Because if i somehow dont mannage to kill of the oponents pokemon who have priority then i still have a 'counter' to that in this aqua jet
Boosted by STAB and rain it becomes a 90 BP move wich is quite strong for a priority if u ask me.​

Weaknesses (altho sharpedo comes in last i'll still put it in):
Grass: Ferrothorn,Latios,Toxicroak
Electricity: Jolteon,Ferrothorn,Latios
Fighting: Latios,Politoed

Bug: Ferrothorn,Toxicroak,Politoed​

-----------------------------------------------------------​

So that is the team at the moment

Hope you all like the presentation , sorry again for the huge immage, wasnt quite sure how to resize it as it didnt work in the edit screen.
Havent thought about too many changes yet.
The team works fine untill an opponent comes in with too many entry hazards as i have no spinner.
Any advice is apreceated :)​

 

[The Silent Storm]

Hi there.
Damn, Ginjou got down too early :/
Nice team here, as you said you have some problem against Entry Hazards, having 4 grounded pokemons, and one weak to sr.
To remedy this, how about Starmie>Latias?
Starmie it's perhaps the best rapid spinner atm, and fits the team quite well, you can also abuse the Boost from Hydro Pump or the perfect accuracy Thunder, another minus boost is that Starmie it's pursuit bait, but unlike Latias he/she spam mostly water type attack, weakening ''enemy water counters'' to make Sharphedo sweep more easy.
Set:

Hide

Starmie (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Rapid Spin
- Thunder
- Recover

Hope it helped, good luck.

 

[Soulfly]

Hi there.
Damn, Ginjou got down too early :/
Nice team here, as you said you have some problem against Entry Hazards, having 4 grounded pokemons, and one weak to sr.
To remedy this, how about Starmie>Latias?
Starmie it's perhaps the best rapid spinner atm, and fits the team quite well, you can also abuse the Boost from Hydro Pump or the perfect accuracy Thunder, another minus boost is that Starmie it's pursuit bait, but unlike Latias he/she spam mostly water type attack, weakening ''enemy water counters'' to make Sharphedo sweep more easy.
Set:

Hide

Starmie (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Rapid Spin
- Thunder
- Recover

Hope it helped, good luck.

Hi , thanks for the rate.

Starmie sounds quite allright but latios is a counter to alot of my weaknesses and also is my only real wall as ferrothorn doesnt get the best recoverys.
Does starmie have enough bulk to do the same?

 

[San_Pellegrino]

Hey,
I love that you are trying to use Sharpedo, it is really one of the more underrated sweepers imo. However, your team’s relative inability to deal with the Rotom-w Scizor u-turn core (a lot of teams have this problem, don’t stress about it), really hampers the potential for Sharpedo to sweep since it drains so much HP from your team. Something that I like to use to break these cores is RaikouLover’s Latias, who can rip it apart with Draco Meteor and Surf/HP Fire respectively. Although it sacrifices some bulk from what your Latias originally had, it arguably lets you check non-speed boosting Terrakion better (who is a pretty big problem, OHKO’ing most members of your team without a problem) because you can now outspeed them and can KO with Surf. It is also a great surprise to help you gain momentum in matches since it deviates so much from standard sets.

LO Latias

Latias @ Life Orb | Levitate
Timid | 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
Draco Meteor | Surf | HP Fire | Recover

You still counter all the necessary mons for rain, albeit with more power and more bulk than Latios. An optional EV spread is 152 HP / 716 SpAtk / 180 Spe and a Modest nature, which lets you reach 300 speed with HP Fire, outspeeding neutral base 100s – and taking a BP From Scizor easier. The main problem I have with this bulkier spread is that it sacrifices a lot of speed that is necessary for you to check what you need to check, but if you want to test it, by all means, do so.

Using Hammer Arm on your Tornadus over HP Ice with a Naïve nature and 4 Atk Evs from HP, while it sounds weird, will let you destroy an obvious Tyranitar switch in, effectively letting you have Rain up perpetually and giving Sharpedo freedom to wreck a SS team without much resistance. Beyond Tyranitar, Hammer Arm also has uses for hitting Blissey/Chansey and other strong Special walls that Tornadus might otherwise struggle with – definitely something to consider.

Some minor EV and set changes could also be made. Politoed can use 248 HP | 220 Def | 40 Spd, outspeeding Jellicent and still have all the physical bulk necessary for Toed to stay alive. Refresh is an option over Toxic if you want to ensure that Toed doesn’t get screwed by Toxic Spikes. Overall, really well presented team, hopefully I shed some light on your team, good luck!

 

[Soulfly]

Hey,
I love that you are trying to use Sharpedo, it is really one of the more underrated sweepers imo. However, your team’s relative inability to deal with the Rotom-w Scizor u-turn core (a lot of teams have this problem, don’t stress about it), really hampers the potential for Sharpedo to sweep since it drains so much HP from your team. Something that I like to use to break these cores is RaikouLover’s Latias, who can rip it apart with Draco Meteor and Surf/HP Fire respectively. Although it sacrifices some bulk from what your Latias originally had, it arguably lets you check non-speed boosting Terrakion better (who is a pretty big problem, OHKO’ing most members of your team without a problem) because you can now outspeed them and can KO with Surf. It is also a great surprise to help you gain momentum in matches since it deviates so much from standard sets.

LO Latias

Latias @ Life Orb | Levitate
Timid | 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
Draco Meteor | Surf | HP Fire | Recover

You still counter all the necessary mons for rain, albeit with more power and more bulk than Latios. An optional EV spread is 152 HP / 716 SpAtk / 180 Spe and a Modest nature, which lets you reach 300 speed with HP Fire, outspeeding neutral base 100s – and taking a BP From Scizor easier. The main problem I have with this bulkier spread is that it sacrifices a lot of speed that is necessary for you to check what you need to check, but if you want to test it, by all means, do so.

Using Hammer Arm on your Tornadus over HP Ice with a Naïve nature and 4 Atk Evs from HP, while it sounds weird, will let you destroy an obvious Tyranitar switch in, effectively letting you have Rain up perpetually and giving Sharpedo freedom to wreck a SS team without much resistance. Beyond Tyranitar, Hammer Arm also has uses for hitting Blissey/Chansey and other strong Special walls that Tornadus might otherwise struggle with – definitely something to consider.

Some minor EV and set changes could also be made. Politoed can use 248 HP | 220 Def | 40 Spd, outspeeding Jellicent and still have all the physical bulk necessary for Toed to stay alive. Refresh is an option over Toxic if you want to ensure that Toed doesn’t get screwed by Toxic Spikes. Overall, really well presented team, hopefully I shed some light on your team, good luck!

Thanks for the rate.
The changes you suggested sound good , but wont they still leave me with the entry hazard weakness ? Or should i just try to predict those better?

As for toed , speed to outspeed jellicent is ok but it cant KO jellicent if i'm not mistaken. What it could do is get toxic on it , then again you also suggested refresh over toxic. So what is the exact deal in that?

 

[Soulfly]

Made some changes they are in this color and are bold :)

Didnt add the LO latias nor the starmie nor changed the EV spread of politoed yet.
This because i'm still waiting for some answers and am not quite decided yet.

Also , is the offensive or the defensive politoed better?

I resized the immage too but while editing it automaticly added a ton of spaces between the lines ... sorry about that :S
Also the listing disappeared etc ...
I tried to get rid of the random spacings but that didnt work ...
if anyone knows anything i can do to that that be nice because its VERY annoying ><

 

[Soulfly]

Um... Your team is not really going to handle ferrothorn very well, and he is one the most used pokemon so you need something to hit him hard, although hurricane will probabyl do alot of damage, you could use Hp fight on jolteon to hit ferrothorn super effectively, because he will normally be switching into the jolteon. You may even find place for a magnezone but I dont know what you would replace :/
Also noteworthy is that sharpedo is easily going to be walled by ferro and even toxicroak, if you slapped on EQ he could at least have something to hit ferrothorn and something to hit toxicroak super effecitively. Overall your team really lacks physical offensive presence and although sharpedo does have a nice base ATK his paperfin defenses means he will get destroyed by a powerful Extremespeed, there is a reason why he is RU. But if you really want to be using a sharpedo then I respect that, so GL and I hope I helped :D

Hammer arm can now take care of the ferrothorn (maybe you were reading before i edited , in that case sorry :))
Also i need hp grass on jolteon kinda else i wont have anything to handle bulky water pokemons.
Also i dont see how toxicroak with his frail defenses would wall a 180BP waterfall coming from 372 base attack.
You are right by saying sharpedo will be destroyed by an extremespeed BUT the entire team should handle the oponents priority users.
In case this doesnt hapen sharpedo will protect and then aqua jet (or is extreme speed always faster? never had such a matchup to be honest).

Thanks for the rate tho.

 

[San_Pellegrino]

Thanks for the rate.
The changes you suggested sound good , but wont they still leave me with the entry hazard weakness ? Or should i just try to predict those better?

As for toed , speed to outspeed jellicent is ok but it cant KO jellicent if i'm not mistaken. What it could do is get toxic on it , then again you also suggested refresh over toxic. So what is the exact deal in that?

In my op I said Refresh is a minor option if you want to deal with status on Politoed better since you rely on weather so much, I probably shouldn't have bolded it, but in general, outspeeding Jellicent means you can avoid taunt to hit a Toxic off. As for the Entry Hazards, the big advantage of using that LO Latias (or even a simple 252 hp 252 spd standard latias with HP Fire > Roar) is that you lure the common Spikes of Forry, Ferro and Skarm, and can KO them with ease after a CM Boost. It is a huge surprise for the opponent, and more often than not prevents hazards from coming down on your side. As to your final points, the Specs Politoed with bulk, the one you're considering, is viable to counter TR Reuniclus (you'll need 220 HP Evs if I'm not mistaken), who your team otherwise has some trouble facing.


At above - Toxicroak absorbs Water attacks and resists Crunch, so it, theoretically, is a threat (albeit uncommon in this metagame). Something like ES Lucario or Dragonite are actually huge threats because they come in as +2 as opposed to aqua jet's +1 and can OHKO your whole team without much trouble. Skarmory > Ferrothorn might be your best bet under Rain, but you have to consider that you lose key resistances to Rain teams that Latias might not be able to handle by itself.

 

[Soulfly]

In my op I said Refresh is a minor option if you want to deal with status on Politoed better since you rely on weather so much, I probably shouldn't have bolded it, but in general, outspeeding Jellicent means you can avoid taunt to hit a Toxic off. As for the Entry Hazards, the big advantage of using that LO Latias (or even a simple 252 hp 252 spd standard latias with HP Fire > Roar) is that you lure the common Spikes of Forry, Ferro and Skarm, and can KO them with ease after a CM Boost. It is a huge surprise for the opponent, and more often than not prevents hazards from coming down on your side. As to your final points, the Specs Politoed with bulk, the one you're considering, is viable to counter TR Reuniclus (you'll need 220 HP Evs if I'm not mistaken), who your team otherwise has some trouble facing.

Would HP Fighting be a good choice over HP fire for the latias?
Because i'll be playing in the rain usually fire dammage is lowered so maybe fighting to take out a ferrothorn ?
Ty for the second rate!

 

[San_Pellegrino]

The two attacks have the same damage output v. Ferrothorn

Fire Calc - 70 base x 4 super effective x 0.5 reduction = 140
Fighting calc - 70 base x 2 super effective = 140

Fire is superior since you do more damage and you can be assured at some point in the battle the weather will be something other than rain - giving you more points of advantage.

 

[Soulfly]

Changes are made and are in this color :)

So *bump* ^^

 

[The Silent Storm]

Oops, didn't noticed the reply.
For me you don't actually need Latias as a defensive backbone when you have Politoed and Ferrothorn, and also Sharphedo as a great revengekiller, should things go out of your reach, but of course, that is under personal preference.

 

[Soulfly]

Anybody has some more suggestions ?
I somehow feel like the team is missing something.
Having quite ... average outcome . (20 w , 13l)

 

[Tepig]

May i recommend changing jolteons nature to modest instead of timid because your team has some good speed as it is and it could afford the speed drop on jolteon because it will only bring it down to 359 speed on jolteon. Or if you like the speed you could probably change jolteons item to specs instead of orb so you can keep timid and give jolteon more sp attk.

 

[Bartman101]

Yeah, I recommend you replace T wave on Ferro with Power Whip. T wave and Gyro ball do not mesh well. Also, Power Whip prevents certain things from making Ferro set up fodder, and will not conflict with Politoed's Toxic. Alternatively you could go for Spikes or Protect. You should try all 3 moves and see which one works out best.

 

[Soulfly]

I tried some of the suggestions.
They are working but somehow i feel like i'm missing a setup sweeper as walls are giving me a rather hard time without it (always have to stall them...)

 

[xNoQa]

That Sharpedo of yours works very well as a late game sweeper i was going to suggest you need a Fire move or poke just to scare away scizors from setting up on you :P but i see you have the latias with the HP Fire so this team is pretty well balanced :3

 

[nyczxjay]

Hi, I'm just going to give you a quick overview on the changes I would recommend.

1. Change Latias' nature to Timid and give her Surf/Roar over HP Fire. Since you're using Politoed, HP Fire will be a wasted move slot more times than not.

2. Replace Ferrothorn's T-wave or Leech Seed with Power Whip. This will allow you to have something on your team that can do decent damage to Gastrodon aside from Jolteon. Whether you want to get rid of Leech Seed or T-wave is up to you.

3. I would strongly recommend fitting in either a Toxicroak or a Breloom onto this team because currently it looks like Ferrothorn causes you some serious problems. Your team is also largely focused on special attacks and that makes me nervous, so IMO your team would appreciate some heavy-hitting physical attacker that can get by special walls and Ferrothorn.

This was just a quick overview of your team. I might take a second look later if I have time.

 

[Soulfly]

Changed the Twave to powerwhip (i actually did that ingame allready but forgot to edit :X)

I'm considering getting rid of tornadus all together , he isnt quite working out.
What would be best to add ?

PS: any forum mod or something know why it adds ugly spaces to my original post when i edit it ? ><

 

[Soulfly]

Latias and Tornadus are somehow not working out at all.
I'm considering to replace them completely but with what ?

 

[Soulfly]

I changes latias and tornadus.
This team has been doing rather well on PO smogon server and is still going.
Any suggestions are still appreceated.
When toxicroak dies due to a misprediction i have no answer to ferrothorn anymore :(

 

[Razza]

Ferrothorn still walls 5/6 of your team, and has its way with it aside from maybe getting a scald burn with politoed. It is relatively easy for a ferrothorn user to thunderwave your toxicroak on the switch and then switch out to something that can now outspeed and ko it. I would suggest a magnezone somewhere. It lets you take out ferrothorn, and skarmoury who wall toxicroak and sharpedo and spdecially defensive jirachi who walls your latios.

 

[Soulfly]

Ferrothorn still walls 5/6 of your team, and has its way with it aside from maybe getting a scald burn with politoed. It is relatively easy for a ferrothorn user to thunderwave your toxicroak on the switch and then switch out to something that can now outspeed and ko it. I would suggest a magnezone somewhere. It lets you take out ferrothorn, and skarmoury who wall toxicroak and sharpedo and spdecially defensive jirachi who walls your latios.

I tried a magnezone a few times but he is kinda worthless in the rain :(
Its hidden power doesnt nearly KO a ferrothorn , and then i could do sub charge beam but the HP remains useless ...

 

[Soulous]

One of the previous versions of my rain team actually was nearly exactly the same with this with the exception of gliscor over latios and BU toxicroak rather than SD. In order to to deal with ferrothorn, I switched out jolteon for specs magnezone (2HKOs ferro in rain with hp fire).

 

[Soulfly]

One of the previous versions of my rain team actually was nearly exactly the same with this with the exception of gliscor over latios and BU toxicroak rather than SD. In order to to deal with ferrothorn, I switched out jolteon for specs magnezone (2HKOs ferro in rain with hp fire).

Well normally toxicroak sets up SD on ferrothorn and then OHKO it , and most other pokemons that would come in to 'wall' it get OHKO'd often too (like skarmory cant take a +2 cross chop either, gliscor cant take +2 ice punch )

I tried a bulk up set once but i'm not liking it as much as toxicroak has in my opinion too small base stats to be doing that.

And a specs magnezone idk , jolteon with specs is awesome , his thunder is just pure destruction. I'm sure magnezone would be too but magnezone doenst even have half the speed of jolteon and doesnt have volt absorb either. Was thinking of maybe a conkeldurr over Toxicroak but then i would loose a water absorber :P