Rise of Glauert's Seadragon

RISE OF GLAUERT’S SEADRAGON


Yo folks! I will present you with a team that is easy to use but still pack a punch. I used it in the last Wi-Fi Nintendo Tournament “2013 International Challenge –January-“. The team is based around Swift Swim Kingdra with a lot of team support to set a successful sweep. So without further ado, let’s see the team!

BUILDING PROCESS

As I said I wanted to build around Swift Swin Kingdra. Of course I need Politoed to provide me the necessary Eternal Rain on the field, since Kingdra live and die in the rain.


There are a lot of ways to stop a Kingdra sweep, you could change the weather or you can paralyze him, so I needed a fast Taunter to stop any status heading in Kingdra way but since Thundurus-I is one of the most prominent users of Thunder Wave because of Prankster, I needed a Prankster Taunter myself, so les’t battle fire with fire.


Now I needed a secondary sweeper that can handle some treats, Scizor was the obvious choice since him only fire weakness became mitigated by the rain and he is a potent sweeper thanks to Technician.


Onward to the fillers, I have some obvious holes there, one is that I rely on a fast pokemon to win, so my opponent just need to put Trick Room on the field and I’m doomed, better fix this! I looked for the common abusers of trick room and outside of Escavalier the main abusers was Fighting Types and Amoonguss for the “Fastest” Spore on the field, so to prevent being sweep I decided to add Reuniclus to my line-up.


The next gap to fill is the weather war, since I need rain on the field to get the work done I must have a “panic button” in case the weather is changed, I need a pokemon that work nice in Sandstorm and Sunny Day. Here I think a little out of the box and added a Sand Force Hippondow as a nice trick under the sleeves and second anti-Trick Room pokemon.




IN DEPTH:


Politoed (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Drizzle
EV’s: 252 HP / 28 Def / 36 SAtk. / 180 SDef / 12 Spd
IV’s: 30 Atk / 30 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, - Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- HP Grass
- Psychic
Most people tend to use a bulky Politoed to keep it alive as long as possible while tanking some hits, I used a different approach but with the same result in mind. With a Choice Item I need to keep switching Politoed in case is needed, to chance the move or to reset my weather, while dishing out huge damage. With that EV’s spread and the choice specs I have a 57% chance to OHKO 252/0 SDef Metagross in rain and 252/0 SDef Hitmontop, same chance, same rain with Hydro Pump.

But not only was my politoed a little offensive, on the defensive department he can take a Fighting Gem Close Combat from an Adamant Hitmontop and survive (98% max damage), and can retaliate back, those speed Ev’s make him a single point faster than the standard 4 spd Hitmontop, So Politoed can beat ‘Top 1vs1. On the special side he could take an Electric Gem Thunderbolt from and un-invested Thundurus-I (again 98% max damage) and 2HKO it with Ice Beam. He also can tank a Dragon Gem Draco Meteor from Timid Latios surviving the hit and 2HKOing the offender.

In the weathers war he can handle it nice, with Tyranitar (in Sandstorm) and Ninetales (in Sun) being sure 2HKOs, HP grass because I hate to get walled by Gastrodon (OHKO the non-rindo variant and taking out 90% from the rindo one) and Psychic exclusively for Toxicroack who otherwise would become impossible to take down.


Kingdra (M) @ Haban Berry
Trait: Swift Swim
EV’s: 20 HP / 252 SAtk / 236 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Protect
- Substitute
- Muddy Water
- Draco Meteor
Kingdra have just one job: to hit hard and fast. Standard Haban Kingdra with Substitute to prevent non-prankster T-wave (and others status), Muddy Water to hit enemy pokemon without caring about my partner and Draco Meteor to kill things ASAP.

The 20 HP Ev’s let me use Sub at least 4 times and every Sub just cost me 38 HP, is good to know how much HP a sub take away so you can know when to use it without relaying to luck. Against most players I just Muddy Water my way to victory, but with seasoned fighters I need to use a few tricks like protecting Kingdra while Thundurus Taunt others Thundurus or Sub against Cresselia Icy Wind/Thunder Wave.

Outside of rain kingdra is almost useless, aside from Draco Meteor, so I need to keep rain up at all cost, or while Kingdra is still alive. But since Politoed is choiced I switch it often resetting the rain every now and then.


Thundurus (M) @Sitrus Berry
Trait: Prankster
EV’s: 196 HP / 206 SDef / 108 Spd
IV’s: 30 Atk / 30 Def
Calm Nature (+SDef, - Atk)
- Taunt
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- HP Ice
Bulky Thundurus became the standard one since it can provide speed control (and some hax) with priority T-Wave, deep in my heart I don’t like Thundurus, but he is the most reliable weapon against himself. This Thundurus hit an amazing speed of 145 with the listed EV’s, more than enough to outspeed others Thundurus who invents little in speed so I can taunt then before they set up a substitute or proceed to paralyze my whole team. The moveset is fairly self-explanatory, thunderbolt for STAB, Hidden power ice for those pesky dragon and grass type that resist my STAB and thunder wave for speed control.

Since my Kingdra does not have a max speed spread, to beat others kingdras I need to paralyze then beforehand (if this is not possible there is always that Haban berry to survive a first hit)


Scizor (M) @ Steel Gem
Trait: Technician
EV’s: 252 HP / 28 Atk / 4 Def / 180 SDef / 44 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Bug Bite
- Bullet Punch
- Sword Dance
Moveset designed by Cybertron and popularized by many others players, Steel Gem + SD Scizor can open huge holes on opposing teams. With Bug Bite to provide STAB and get rid of all those resistant berries and sitrus berry that might get in my way, after a single boost Scizor became a huge treat that the enemy try to eliminate as soon as possible, there come protect while scizor partner finish the job.

The EV’s was designed to survive those random HP Fire from Cresselia, Fire Blast on neutral weather from Tyranitar, and some weak Heat Wave in the rain from the likes of Zapdos. I didn’t invest heavily on Attack because of Sword Dance and with those resistance is fairly easy to get a change to boots. I’m personally proud of those 44 Spd Ev’s, with then Scizor hit 91 Spd stat, which is faster than most commom Tyranitar spread, except of course the Scarfed one, but hey, Bullet Punch can do the job too!


Reuniclus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EV’s: 124 HP / 86 Def / 204 SAtk / 96 SDef
IV’s: 0 Spd
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Psychic
- Trick Room
- Recover
- Energy Ball
Potent sweeper under Trick Room, incredible useful ability and nice overall stats make reuniclus a good pokemon, the move choice was very simple between STAB, coverage and recover he can hit a lot of teams, since this is a rain team I’m really scared of Gastrodon, that’s why I decide to put Energy ball on this movesest being almost exclusive for gastrodon, but it can work for the Scafed T-tar’s who don’t invest in Special Defence.

The EV’s make Crunch a 2HKO from Adamant Tyranitar giving reuniclus partner enough time to get rid of it while reuniclus recover the damage, the SDef EV's let him survive a Dark Pulse from a non-Life Orb timid Hydreigon and Shadow Ball from Modest Chandelure. From the offensive side reuniclus OHKO most of common Trick Room abusers (excluding Escavalier).

On a side note, never use reuniclus outside of trick room, he will just became a punching bag and can be killed in two turns without dishing out enough damage.


Hippowdon (F) @ Passho Berry
Trait: Sand Force
EV’s: 140 HP / 12 Atk / 104 Def / 252 SDef
IV’s: 2 Spd
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Curse
- Slack Off
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
Good old Curse Hippowdon, becoming “faster” under Trick Room while getting bulkier, with a few boots it became hard to KO it and can dish out huge damage on the physical side. I have Rock Slide because I have a fixation for Volcarona, earthquake for a reliable spread damage STAB and Slack Off to heal the damage I took while cursing.
Those 12 Atk EV’s let me broke Kingdra sub’s even with rock slide while I can survive a hit from it even under rain thanks to the passho berry. Needless to say he is my only answer for electric heavy teams so always play it in the back and switch in when the opportunity calls.

So that's was the team, I must say I did really well on the Tournament having peaked at 1753 points, I know this is not much, but for me is a LOT!, anyway rate, hate, steal, whatever you want. Thanks for reading :3
 
I do like these kind of teams, using Rain but not being solely reliant on it. I do have a few suggestions though:

-Trick Room over Thunder or Energy Ball on Reuniclus. You mention on how Reuniclus is useless outside of Trick Room, so why not set it up yourself? The EVs will definitely make it reliably set up Trick Room, then start sweeping the next. Trick Room also helps Hippowdon a lot.
-On Hippowdon, I would suggest maybe going with Leftovers over Pashho Berry. In rain, I've found that even when investing a lot of Sp. Defense EVs, it still is 2HKO'd by a lot of Water moves, even with a Passho Berry. Leftovers is a less situational item and lets you tank a lot more hits.
-I know this sounds odd for a Rain team, but your team has absolutely no Fire or Fighting coverage, so Ferrothorn will wall a large majority of your team. Maybe try looking into putting Focus Blast or HP Fire on Reuniclus?
 
Looks like a great team! I really like your custom EV spreads. They add originality to the team. On Politoed, I might add to the description that it can survive a Timid Latios DGem Meteor. (252SpAtk Dragon Gem lvl 50 Latios (Neutral) Draco Meteor vs 252HP/180SpDef Water Absorb lvl 50 Politoed (Neutral): 76% - 90% (151 - 178 HP). Guaranteed 2HKO.) On Reuniclus, what to the SpDef EVs help with? I might calc they to survive Hydreigon's Dark Pulse or Chandelure's Shadow Ball for instance. I second adding TR to Reuniclus. It could even help Politoed in some cases!
 
-I know this sounds odd for a Rain team, but your team has absolutely no Fire or Fighting coverage, so Ferrothorn will wall a large majority of your team. Maybe try looking into putting Focus Blast or HP Fire on Reuniclus?
Ferro IS indeed a huge treat to my team, my best answer is to Taunt it so he can no longer use leech seed, or sub with kingdra and punish him with STABed Muddy Water, and lastly under rain Politoed score a 3HKO against him. I know any of those are not a realiable answer to a pokemon like Ferrothorn, so I will amend the team.

On the Reuniclus note I will change it moveset, as you said with that bulk he definitely get a change to set Trick Room.

About Hippondow item, I will try it and lets see.
 
Okay, ferrothorn hugely benefits from the rain further boosted by lack of super effective coverage. I know that has already been stated.

Politoed can only 2hko gastrodon even it doesn't carry rindo berry and it carries enough special defence investment, which most if not all do. Why not replace it for focus blast so ferrothorn isn't as much of a problem, whilst you still have energy ball on reuniclus to deal with gastrodon. Other than that, and what has already been said I do like your team, most double weather teams use sun and rain not rain and sand with a trick room element to it. Hope I helped and good luck.

Chenkovsky.
 
Even if you have a sub up, Haban berry will still be used if you are attacked by a Dragon attack and you'll still probably lose the sub. Knowing that your better of using an attack boosting item on Kingdra. Options are White Herb to cure stat drops from Draco, Lefties to try and get more subs up or Dragon Gem just so first draco hits harder than usual.

Also I feel that Scizor needs the Occa berry. Politoed is the weakest link on the team therefore most likely to fall first. You don't want to be in the situation where your relying too much on rain for victory.
 
Hi! Nothing really pops up as bad to me at first but I find more subtle changes are more effective in most cases, because changing something as major as a Pokemon, may alter a strategy, so anyway:

Just a cosmetic issue. RMT's with big pictures can make an RMT unappealing to look at. This is a good source for consistent small animated sprites.

In response to iRenzo, he can add Rain Dance to Thundurus in place of HP Ice. HP Ice will do little to ground types anyway due to no STAB, & no Ev's. Or you can place Protect in that slot.

Scizor doesn't have to have occa either, mine works fine with Steel Gem. Which is the same moveset you said, only mine has Cyba-Tron's Ev spread. I would actually suggest that spread because you do not have any fully dedicated attackers other than Kingdra, and Scizor will add some good physical offense. I have rarely seen Fire Blast on T-Tar, and it will most likely be neutral weather because I've rarely come across Unnerve tar's.

I'm really torn with this team. If this goal is rain room, it's seems likes it's fitting the role quite well.

Your fire coverage is poor, in Trick Room Reuniclus out speeds the ever so common scizor, so I'd suggest HP fire, let's just hope rain isn't active, because Reuniclus can't hit steel types.

That's my two cents, a hard team for me to comment on, but it appears to be well constructed especially with the custom ev spreads, which is never anything but positive.

Good luck with VGC, it appears your already having some! ^^
 

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