Hi! Long time lurker here, not much of a poster. I was a heavy battler on smogon's servers back in ADV and DPP, but I have taken a break from pokemon battling around when BW first came out (cause I had gotten a little tired of it) But now I am back in full force and ready to make my first RMT. Back in my ADV and DPP days my favorite pokemon was Crocune. I used to set up my team around eliminating threats to his sweep and then bring him in and let him tear up everything. But after my hiatus, I was surprised to learn that he has fallen to the UU tier. Now my goal with this team is to make everyone respect Crocune for the beast that he is. I have done 25 battles with this team so far and have posted a record of 13 wins, 11 losses, and 1 draw. I am over .500, but it's still fairly mediocre and so that is where I turn to you, reader of this thread to give me insight on how we can make everyone respect Crocune like they should.
@ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP 252 Defense 4 Sp. Atk
Nature: Bold
Scald
Calm Mind
Rest
Sleep Talk
The beast! Crocune doesn't come in until I'm ready to finish their team off, or I'm ready to make my last stand. Once it is here I usually set up a few calm minds, rest off whatever damage or status they put on me and sleep talk my way to a sweep. Scald is chosen over surf for the burn chance. On physical attackers, I will usually go for the burn first, for the attack drop and chip damage that lets me set up. Calm Mind makes Scald more powerful and makes up for his weaker Special Defense. After a calm mind, he usually has little trouble taking super effective hits, and as long as whatever my opponent is doing is a 4HKO or less, I'm good. Rest is for healing, and sleep talk is for attacking while I'm sleeping (even though Suicune comes up with rest half the time). His main weakness is critical hits. I try to finish off my opponents team as fast as possible with this guy cause the longer he is out on the battlefield, the better the chance that a crit will come and screw me over. The rest of my team is built around making Crocune as effective as he could possibly be.
@ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 Defense 252 HP 4 Sp. Def
Nature: Bold
Scald
Toxic
Protect
Perish Song
It was fairly obvious to me that in this weather infused metagame I needed to control the weather. 50% stronger Crocune scalds let me spend less time setting up (less chance for a crit) and more time sweeping. Besides I don't want to have his leftovers negated by Hail or Sandstorm. And worst case scenario is Sun is up, therefore Scald does half as much damage and Grass types get a free pass to Solarbeam me. Politoed prevents that nightmare. If my opponent has a rapid spinner, then he is usually my lead. I decided to go for a bulky Toxic stalling variant, to give me more switch ins and to let me cripple his team. Scald does some decent damage, but more importantly lets me burns Steels. Perish Song is my way of phazing, should he be setting up Dragon Dances or some other nasty stuff. Protect lets me scout what moves he has and stall out Toxic/Perish song turns. Toxic is toxic. He's the second most important pokemon on my team if they have a weather inducer, but I find myself forgetting about him if I'm facing a rain or a weatherless team. Oh well. He gives rain and rain is good.
@ Black Sludge
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP 252 Defense 4 Sp. Def
Nature: Bold
Toxic Spikes
Rapid Spin
Scald
Ice Beam
Crocune can't do much to bulky waters like Vaporeon, Jellicent, and Gastrodon, though if they were to be poisoned, especially if they were toxic posioned they wouldn't be much of a threat. Enter Tentacruel. If my opponent doesn't have any grounded poison types or a rapid spinner, the I lead with Tentacruel to set up the Toxic Spikes asap. Rapid spin helps me out a lot, as my entire team is weak to spikes and a certain someone really hates Stealth Rock. Scald is my attacking move, for rain boosted STAB and the burn chance. Knock off is usually what I do on the switch, figuring most pokemon are less effective without their items. Tentacruel was chosen over other Toxic spikers due to his synergy with Politoed and because he can used Rapid Spin as well.
@ Black Sludge
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Attack 244 HP 12 Defense
Nature: Adamant
Substitute
Bulk Up
Drain Punch
Sucker Punch
This guy and the next one are dedicated to thinning out my opponents ranks. The less pokemon Crocune has to take on, the better off he is. And if they end up sweeping my opponents team outright, well I'm certainly not complaining! Toxicroak was chosen over other physical sweepers for his synergy with Politoed. Substitute is done on the switch, or when I've bulked up enough that their attacks are doing less than 25% damage. I chose Bulk Up over Swords Dance because I want him to be more of a bulky guy, and this is the same reason I invested in HP over speed. Drain Punch is my STAB attack and Sucker Punch is my priority move.
@ Lum Berry
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 Sp Atk 252 Speed 4 HP
Nature: Modest
Quiver Dance
Bug Buzz
Hurricane
Fiery Dance
When I heard that people were using a Fire type on a rain team I thought they were crazy. Then when I got swept by one, I just had to try it out. Volcarona is more of an early game sweeper, because with him its about beating the stealth rocks. If I can't beat the stealth rocks, then I have to send in Tentacruel to take them away, or take 50% damage upon the switch, and neither situation is good. Volcarona is still a beast though. Lum Berry was chosen over other items, cause if he tries to paralyze me or sleep me, I get a free turn to set up. Quiver Dance is what I do on turn one, and with it Volcarona is ready to sweep. Bug Buzz is a hard hitting stab move. Hurricane gets perfect accuracy in the rain. Fiery Dance is only used outside of the rain or when it is 4x effective, but the special attack boost it may provide helps a lot. Overall I can take on anyone who isn't heatran or a fat pink blob.
Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 136 HP 128 Defense 60 Sp Atk 184 Sp Def
Nature: Calm
Recover
Giga Drain
HP Ice
Stealth Rock
So that is my team. Thank you for taking the time to read this RMT. I am open to any suggestions you have to help this team improve on it's 13-11-1 record.
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP 252 Defense 4 Sp. Atk
Nature: Bold
Scald
Calm Mind
Rest
Sleep Talk
The beast! Crocune doesn't come in until I'm ready to finish their team off, or I'm ready to make my last stand. Once it is here I usually set up a few calm minds, rest off whatever damage or status they put on me and sleep talk my way to a sweep. Scald is chosen over surf for the burn chance. On physical attackers, I will usually go for the burn first, for the attack drop and chip damage that lets me set up. Calm Mind makes Scald more powerful and makes up for his weaker Special Defense. After a calm mind, he usually has little trouble taking super effective hits, and as long as whatever my opponent is doing is a 4HKO or less, I'm good. Rest is for healing, and sleep talk is for attacking while I'm sleeping (even though Suicune comes up with rest half the time). His main weakness is critical hits. I try to finish off my opponents team as fast as possible with this guy cause the longer he is out on the battlefield, the better the chance that a crit will come and screw me over. The rest of my team is built around making Crocune as effective as he could possibly be.
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 Defense 252 HP 4 Sp. Def
Nature: Bold
Scald
Toxic
Protect
Perish Song
It was fairly obvious to me that in this weather infused metagame I needed to control the weather. 50% stronger Crocune scalds let me spend less time setting up (less chance for a crit) and more time sweeping. Besides I don't want to have his leftovers negated by Hail or Sandstorm. And worst case scenario is Sun is up, therefore Scald does half as much damage and Grass types get a free pass to Solarbeam me. Politoed prevents that nightmare. If my opponent has a rapid spinner, then he is usually my lead. I decided to go for a bulky Toxic stalling variant, to give me more switch ins and to let me cripple his team. Scald does some decent damage, but more importantly lets me burns Steels. Perish Song is my way of phazing, should he be setting up Dragon Dances or some other nasty stuff. Protect lets me scout what moves he has and stall out Toxic/Perish song turns. Toxic is toxic. He's the second most important pokemon on my team if they have a weather inducer, but I find myself forgetting about him if I'm facing a rain or a weatherless team. Oh well. He gives rain and rain is good.
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP 252 Defense 4 Sp. Def
Nature: Bold
Toxic Spikes
Rapid Spin
Scald
Ice Beam
Crocune can't do much to bulky waters like Vaporeon, Jellicent, and Gastrodon, though if they were to be poisoned, especially if they were toxic posioned they wouldn't be much of a threat. Enter Tentacruel. If my opponent doesn't have any grounded poison types or a rapid spinner, the I lead with Tentacruel to set up the Toxic Spikes asap. Rapid spin helps me out a lot, as my entire team is weak to spikes and a certain someone really hates Stealth Rock. Scald is my attacking move, for rain boosted STAB and the burn chance. Knock off is usually what I do on the switch, figuring most pokemon are less effective without their items. Tentacruel was chosen over other Toxic spikers due to his synergy with Politoed and because he can used Rapid Spin as well.
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Attack 244 HP 12 Defense
Nature: Adamant
Substitute
Bulk Up
Drain Punch
Sucker Punch
This guy and the next one are dedicated to thinning out my opponents ranks. The less pokemon Crocune has to take on, the better off he is. And if they end up sweeping my opponents team outright, well I'm certainly not complaining! Toxicroak was chosen over other physical sweepers for his synergy with Politoed. Substitute is done on the switch, or when I've bulked up enough that their attacks are doing less than 25% damage. I chose Bulk Up over Swords Dance because I want him to be more of a bulky guy, and this is the same reason I invested in HP over speed. Drain Punch is my STAB attack and Sucker Punch is my priority move.
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 Sp Atk 252 Speed 4 HP
Nature: Modest
Quiver Dance
Bug Buzz
Hurricane
Fiery Dance
When I heard that people were using a Fire type on a rain team I thought they were crazy. Then when I got swept by one, I just had to try it out. Volcarona is more of an early game sweeper, because with him its about beating the stealth rocks. If I can't beat the stealth rocks, then I have to send in Tentacruel to take them away, or take 50% damage upon the switch, and neither situation is good. Volcarona is still a beast though. Lum Berry was chosen over other items, cause if he tries to paralyze me or sleep me, I get a free turn to set up. Quiver Dance is what I do on turn one, and with it Volcarona is ready to sweep. Bug Buzz is a hard hitting stab move. Hurricane gets perfect accuracy in the rain. Fiery Dance is only used outside of the rain or when it is 4x effective, but the special attack boost it may provide helps a lot. Overall I can take on anyone who isn't heatran or a fat pink blob.
Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 136 HP 128 Defense 60 Sp Atk 184 Sp Def
Nature: Calm
Recover
Giga Drain
HP Ice
Stealth Rock
So that is my team. Thank you for taking the time to read this RMT. I am open to any suggestions you have to help this team improve on it's 13-11-1 record.
