Rainy Days (5th Gen OU Rain Team)

[Frostie]

Rainy Days

Introduction

Rightio, well my attempt of a 5th gen hail team failed epicly. So I decided to use a powerful weather to help me with laddering, and so I can also stop other annoying weathers like Sand. I wanted a weather that doesn't damage pokémon that aren't resisted to it, like Sand or Hail, So I was left with Politoed for Rain and Ninetails for Sun. Politoed was bulkier and could last longer then Ninetails, so I decided to go for a rain team. In version 1 of this team, I had a Volbeat instead of Scizor. Volbeat would Baton Pass some Tail Glows to my Latios and then my Latios could sweep. But then I saw that my team lacked Physical moves, so I decided to get rid of Volbeat and to add Scizor instead so far it has work brilliantly. This team only got me to +1300 points, so it isn't the best, so help is appreciated. <3


In-Depth Look

Scizor @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 58 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Superpower

My lead and replacement for Volbeat. Scizor is the physical attacker of the team. It also benefits from Rain, cause the only weakness it has is Fire which weakened by Rain. Handles Reuniclus, which would have been a major threat to my team, with a choice-banded U-turn. Superpower for Blisseys, Pursuit replaced Iron Head so I can trap and KO pokémon like Latios and Latias. Bullet Punch for priority, STAB and that Technicion boost. Also has good senergy with Latios.


-------

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Stealth Rock

Ferrothorn sets up Stealth Rocks first turn and I go from there. Leech Seed helps all my Pokémon, especially Tentacruel. Gyro ball > Powerwhip because I think Gyro Ball is more useful. Power-whip misses a lot anyway so yeah. Ferrothorn can handle most leads pretty well. Only things that give me a lot of trouble are Ninetails and Genesect. If I run into either of them, I switch to Politoed to weaken the in coming Fire-move. I set up rocks 9/10 times. Stealth Rock helps my sweepers, well sweep.

-------

Virizion @ Lum Berry
Trait: Justified
EVs: 68 Atk / 188 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Work Up
- Close Combat
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Every time I make a rain team, this thing is on it. I don't know why it is, tbh but Rain weakens Fire, which is super effective against Virizion. I went for a Work Up set because I saw that Blissey was walling me, even with like 2 CMs. Plus Focus Blast is always being a bitch to me, and it misses all the time. Close Combat suited me better, so I went for a mixed Sweeper. Giga Drain for a small bit of recovery, and to demolish Rotom-W's and Gastrodons. HP ice because I didn't want flying types to wreck my fun! Lum berry because when ever my Virizion gets statused it's useless.

-------

Politoed @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Protect
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Scald

Rightio, Politoed is like my weather producer. Can't have a good Rain team without him. I decided to go for a bulky set so I can last forever. Protect for scouting which is awesome. Toxic for annoying other walls. Sub for blocking other statuses and leech seeds. And finally I needed a STAB water attack, so Scald worked well, plus it could burn physical attackers. It can handle all the other weather producers with Scald, besides Abomnasnow. I went for a physically defensive set because, well it already has pretty good special defensive and Hp. Leftovers is obvious.

-------

Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 100 HP / 252 SDef / 128 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Protect
- Scald

My Special Wall thing. Toxic Spikes for obvious reasons, so I can poison the opponents team, which helps with my sweeping! Rapid Spin to get hazards of my side of the battle field. Protect for scouting the opponents pokémon and also to get recovery from Black Sludge and Rain Dish. Scald to cripple physical attackers and STAB. Overall, this thing does it's job very well. It's fast, great special defense and HP.
I used Black Sludge over Leftovers because of all those annoying trick pokémon other there, so instead of getting recovery from Lefties, they get their health reduced by Black Sludge, HeHe!

-------

Latios @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
- Thunder
- Psyshock​

MVP of the team right here! I love, love, love, love, love Latios! it's fast, and has incredible Special Attack. Dragon Pulse for a really strong STAB move. Surf for coverage and it gets the boost from Rain. Thunder also for coverage, and since my team is a Rain one, Thunder will always hit. Also a high chance of Para, which is helpful. Psyshock > Psychic for one reason, Blissey. I think Psyshock is like a 3HKO? idk but still. Latios is awesome <3​

 

[Pippy]

Nice team, but I can easily see one major threat: Choice Scarf Rotom-W. You say you have Virizion to deal with Rotom, but with a choice scarf, Rotom can out-speed kill her with HP Ice. I can see 2 solutions to this:
1. Replace Protect with Power Whip on Ferrothorn. This would be the best option, as Protect is pretty useless on him. Just make sure to look out for HP Fire. (but that's not a big issue since Virizion can probably take an unboosted HP Fire in the rain)
2. If you still don't like PW, then you could switch to CM Virizion. Yea, I know Focus Blast misses a lot, but at least you can probably take the HP Ice after a CM or two.

Hope that helps. Good luck with your team!

 

[NatGeo]

Hey there, this is a really good team! You have most threats covered but i do think you have a bit of a weakness to Sun in the form o Sleep Powder Venusaur. It absorbs Toxic Spikes and has a resistance to Stealth Rock, which all help its fellow teammates, especially the likes of Volcorona. Sub Volcorona is a massive pain for this team to deal with, since nothing is breaking its Subs anytime soon and what can break it will be eating more often than not a +1 Bug Buzz, and it's worse if Politoed goes down early. On that note, other rain teams can give you a bit of a problem - Hurricane abusers and Toxicroak especially. Hurricane does a number (Tornadus outspeeds Virizion and Latios while Dragonite lives an unboosted HP Ice via Multiscale as well as a Draco Meteor), while Bulk Up Toxicroak eats everything on your team up except for Latios, though it's not living a +1 Sucker Punch anytime soon, making it a really big threat.

There's some quick fixes that can fix this though. I think you might want to try Scarf Terrakion somewhere on your team. It outspeeds every unboosted Pokemon in the game while also taking care of all of your aforementioned weaknesses with the right coverage move. Toxicroak is taken out by an Earthquake (Justified + resist means Sucker Punch is useless), while you'll be outspeeding any nonboosted Tornadus and if you can keep SR on the field it takes care of Dragonite too. It lives any of Volcorona's unboosted attacks, so if you come in as it Subs up you can use Stone Edge twice to take it out. Even if you lose Terrakion you'll have broken its Sub more often than not so Politoed can come in and do its work. Speaking of which, I also think you should try out Perish Song on Politoed to give you a surefire check to Volcorona and other setup sweepers. It also forces a switch meaning the next Pokemon coming in will have to take whatever hazards you have down. Btw, Scarf Terrakion is Jolly, max attack / speed, with EQ | Close Combat | Stone Edge | X-Scissor.

Hope this rate helped and good luck!

 

[Penance]

I haven't played rain (I'd probably use Volcarona and Onix with Eviolite) but I'd change Virizion to Cobalion or something else that doesn't have 6 weaknesses.

 

[Howard]

As was mentioned before, you have a glaring weakness to the ever prevelent Mynisicroak. It can safely come in on half your team and proceed to set up with a swords dance and wreak havoc. I recommend either running Terrakion over your current Virizion set, or switching out your Latios for a CB Dragonite and switching your Virizion to fully specially offensive. GLB.

 

[ginganinja]

hey man solid team, going to agree with NatGeo on this one as Scarf Terrakion would really help against most of those threats. Going to suggest it over Virizion here mainly to help reduce the Tornados weakness if Terrakion goes elsewhere.

A few other points.

On Politoed Subsitute is useless. Your reasoning for runnning Substitute is for avoinding status or Power whips but in all honesty, your Politoed should not be staying in on Power Whips anyway. Run Perish Song to help deal with nasty boosters such as Sub CM Latias or Volcarona, otherwise, if you really hate status you could run refresh.

EV spreads

I really want you do run the standard Evs listed on site on your pokemon. For exmaple on Scizor just max HP and Atk, Ferrothorn should be running 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD relaxed and (most importantly) Tentacruel should be running 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe Bold. In particular, the Tentacruel Evs are really needed. Currently, its your best switch in to SD Scizor (I guess you can go to Politoed but thats risky if your opponent aslo has a Tyranitar on there team) so running Defence is recomended. Tentacruel has great special defence anyway so running defensive investment will really pay off

 

[-Tsunami-]

Hey there.

First off, I don't really see the need for all of that speed investment on Tentacruel; it isn't really accomplishing much besides taking away from your bulk. Tentacruel can already take special hits like a monster, so I would suggest changing the EV Spread to 252 HP / 212 def / 44 Speed with a Bold Nature This will let you outrun standard Gliscor, and bulk up Tentacruel's defense.

I also agree with ginganinja about running Perish Song over Substitute on Politoed.

Now, as NatGeo mentioned, pokemon like Volcarona, Tornadus and SD Toxicroak can cause you major problems. Another viable option over running a Scarf Terrakion, seeing as how Terrakion can't really take Hurricanes all too well from the likes of Tornadus and such (thus forcing you to basically sacrifice a pokemon), would be a Jirachi. Jirachi can take on Volcarona in rain, and wall Tornadus for eternity, and also provide your team with much needed Wish Support. It would replace Ferrothorn, seeing as how Ferrothorn's primary role is to provide Stealth Rock.

Specially Defensive Jirachi

Hide

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature
- Iron Head
- Thunder
- Wish
- Stealth Rock

Thunder is chosen over Body Slam seeing as how it can destroy spinners such as Forretress, and entry hazard pokemon such as Skarmory. Wish can greatly support your team, and help keep your team, Politoed especially, alive longer. It can also keep Latios and Virizion alive much longer, which would help you beat Rotom-W easily even with the loss of Ferrothorn.

Now, a very easy fix in order to kill Toxicroak would be to run Hidden Power Psychic over Hidden Power Ice on Virizion. Toxicroak will always stay in on Virizion, and this will allow you to get an easy OHKO. Giga Drain can take care of Gliscor easily, and HP Psychic can still do some damage to Dragonite and Salamence. Celebi can still be damaged by Close Combat so it is not really an issue, as Celebi will have a hard time beating Virizion in rain (unless it runs Psychic in which case you would lose with HP Ice anyway).

Overall, solid team. Hope I helped, and good luck!