Gen 5 Returning to Pokemon - old Gen 5 OU rain team

[jessifer]

So I haven't played Pokemon (competitvely or the games) since Gen 5, but I've decided to get back into it recently. I decided to get back into the groove with Gen 5 OU before learning about what I missed in the meantime, so I dusted off my old rain team I had before I left.

After playing a bit I realize that the main issue is probably having 3 water types on the team, and a lack of good ways to deal with opposing Electric-types. So I'm looking to make some changes to the roster.


Politoed @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Protect
- Perish Song
- Toxic
This is the standard defensive Politoed set, aimed at keeping itself alive and annoying opponents. Scald is a good attacking option in the rain with a chance to burn. Protect is useful for scouting as well as stalling with Toxic. Perish Song has been useful for dealing with set-up sweepers and other troublesome opponents.


Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 72 Def / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic
- Protect
Another defensively orientated water type Pokemon. Tentacruel has been useful for Rapid Spin support and stalls excellently using Toxic and Protect. However, with the number of Water-types on the team, I'm thinking of replacing it with another Pokemon. I also used Hydration Vaporeon in this slot before, but that doesn't fix the issue with Water-types on the team.


Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Secret Sword
My third Water-type Pokemon. An excellent revenge-killer, and can also sweep late-game with it's STAB moves. Hidden Power Ice is used for dealing with Dragon-types, while Secret Sword hits Steel-types. Again, although it does it's job well, I've been thinking of swapping out for a different revenge-killer in order to make the team more balanced.


Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
Ferrothorn is my hazard setter and physical wall. I run both Spikes and Stealth Rock, as I don't have room for Stealth Rock on my team elsewhere. Power Whip can be good against opposing Water-types. Gyro Ball does pretty good damage against frailer, faster Pokemon.


Dragonite @ Life Orb
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Agility
- Hurricane
- Thunder
- Aqua Tail
This is an offensively orientated set meant to take advantage of the rain with Hurricane, Thunder, and Aqua Tail. Agility lets Dragonite deal with some of the faster Pokemon in OU. While this set can be useful, I'm considering switching to another set or another Pokemon as I feel I could have a more useful move than Agility on Dragonite.


Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 Spe
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
- Thunder
- Psyshock
A SubCM set that takes advantage of the rain with Thunder. I have Psyshock as the second attacking move to deal with Specially Defensive Pokemon. It is also good against opposing fighting types. Jirachi's Steel typing also useful for switching into certain attacking moves.

As mentioned before, this team really needs a way to deal with opposing Electric types. Magnezone especially gives me trouble, since I have two Steel-types as well. I'm thinking of swapping out either Tentacruel or Keldeo to have less water-types on the team. Another issue is Dragon-types, as Keldeo's HP Ice is pretty much the only consistent option for dealing with them. There are probably other issues, but I'd like to get some feedback before continuing on the ladder.

Thanks for reading, and I really appreciate any advice people have to give.

 

[BulletPunch]

Returning Player too. Playing Rain in Gen 7, but i've played a little Gen 5 too. I like this team, I don't think 3 water types is necessarily an issue but if you say you have an electric type problem than I can help. I think Gliscor would fit your team well. There are many options for what set you can run varying from bulkier to sweepier. I also like Gliscor's immunity to status if you've already switched him in. Moreover, Gliscor has defog so you can run him over Tentacruel as hazard removal. I haven't thought too deeply about the best course of action but i have a sense gliscor would improve an already solid team :)

 

[jessifer]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll look into Gliscor, though I don't think Defog removes hazard in Gen 5.
I'm also looking into using Blissey or Chansey in place of Tentacruel, and Thundurus-T in place of Dragonite.

 

[Samu77]

Using Lando could be a pretty good idea, but it actually wouldn't solve what I think would be the biggest threat to this team, Rotom-Wash. Chansey/Blissey COULD work against Rotom but generally speaking they aren't very good Pokemon overall. I can see Rotom completely walking over your entire team as it stands so I would encourage you first to start with that. While Ferro might seem like it would be good against Rotom, Rotom can usually cripple it too much with Trick or Will-O-Wisp, so having another answer would be good. Here are some lose ideas that could still fit your team

Latios: Would almost completely replace your D-Nite, Specs Meteor puts a big hurt on Rotom and most other moves do as well, could also let you beat slower Dragons, and pretty much every Dragon if you use Scarf with it

Celebi: Takes advantage of the rain to weaken Fire Moves, has good longevity hits hard with Leaf Storm

Garchomp: It's out there but it would kill/tie with other dragons you might need gone, could use Stealth Rocks to help free up a move for Ferro (I use one on my main Rain Team and it works pretty well), doesn't handle Rotom as well because it's easily crippled and takes a lot from Hydro Pump but it can help a team member finish it off

I wouldn't use Gliscor or Lando to handle electric types overall though, almost every Electric Type has HP Ice anyways, and the only Dragons that reliably takes that well are Kyurem-B and Latias (though even she has her limits).


As for your other thoughts, Thundurus-T is pretty good on Rain, it will check any Electric type you are up against and can put your opponent in a very awkward situation depending on the MU. Like I said before, Chansey/Blissey is a risky play, neither are very good and get worn down rather easily in this Meta. I wouldn't really say having three water types is a terrible thing but it would probably be harder to play with then most styles, I can't really think of suggesting anything that wouldn't radically change your team though. The last thing I will say is your team at a glance looks to be a little too special based, but I'm not sure how much of an issue that really would be until you played a little more.


You've got some rather strong picks, honestly picking Scarf-Keldeo with rain gets you pretty far, but I'd explore ways to deal with some annoying special tanks

Lastly as a weird little fact, Defog actually DOES clear hazards in Gen5, but perplexingly enough only on the opponents side, Gen 6 is where they made it effect both players

 

[jessifer]

Wow, thanks for the detailed response! I've been playing around with changing up my team a lot now, haven't decided on what line-up to use yet though so I'll keep the team in the OP as is for now.
I'm testing out Choice Specs Latios as you've suggested. I'm also experimenting with different sets for Thundurus-T, as well as a Choice Specs set for Politoed in place of the defensive one. As a result my team is more offensively orientated now.

 

[Icemann]

Hi really cool team! (On phone, so sorry if this is just a big wall of text ) Honestly I don’t think having 3 water types on a rain team is a problem at all. Your always going to have toed, and often times going to run cruel as well, imo just having tentacruel isn’t enough to justify having a bad mon setting up rain for it. So often times rain teams will have 3 water types, you just have to adjust for it in the other 3. I totally agree with samu that rotom runs over this team. Actually rotom plus latios just straight up beats this team, rotom can easily burn ferrothorn, and volt out on the others. That dragonite set is a blast from the past but its mostly outclassed by thundurus at this point.

I’d try changing keld to specs, and changing your dragonite to a scarf latios with draco,surf,dragon pulse,trick. Dragon pulse over trick because this latios is trying to clean up after you’ve burned things and broken through their core with specs keldeo.

A good majority of dual hazard ferros (and ferros in general) run knock off these days, and I feel this one should be no different. Swap out gyro ball for knock off.

Jirachi is honestly not a super good mon rn, when paired on rain its usually setting up rocks because you dont want to use ferro on a team. Thing is, rachi is usually paired with tenta, and having both just makes you lando and exca weak (it can work just not that great rn) plus this rachi only has hp investment and is lowkey outclassed by other mons. Thundurus gives you a ground immunity, a volt absorb mon, and a better set up sweeper. You can try a couple sets like dual dance (nasty plot and agility), sub 3 attacks (thunder, focus blast, hp ice) or sub nasty plot etc etc etc. their is a ton of sets lol. I think sub 3 attack might work best here but I’ll let you experiment.

Lastly, ferrothorn does a shit ton of things on rain including switching into latios. Having other means of annoying lati/ other special attackers can help take the heat off of ferrothorn. Both politoed or tentacruel can run spdef investment for this reason, but I think tentacruel with spdef would fit best here. If I remember correctly 240 hp with 0spdef investment and a calm nature can switch into latios draco with rocks up.

I’ll probably edit this to make it look nice when i get back to my computer. If you have any questions let me know, and hopefully my changes can help a bit