RMT (OU Rain Dance)

[Volren]

I'm fairly new to competitive battling (this is just my second team) so any suggestions/critiques will be very welcome.

All changes in this color

Without further ado, the members:

@ Damp Rock
Bold Nature
Ability: Serene Grace
240 HP/132 Def/136 Spe
-Wish
-U-Turn
-Rain Dance
-Thunder

I've taken quite a liking to this tiny metal pixie. This is basically the standard WishTurn set with Rain Dance taking the place of Reflect and Thunder instead of Zen Headbutt to take maximum advantage of Rain and Serene Grace. Giving it a Bold nature and no Atk EVs pretty much removes U-Turn's usefulness as a weapon, so I essentially consider it to be Baton Pass with a different name. Jirachi sets up rain on the first turn and then U-Turns out to the appropriate pokemon. Rain's effects also help mitigate its Fire weakness. Damp Rock is really helpful, but I am thinking about switching it out for a Lum Berry to make sure Jirachi stays awake and can get in a Rain Dance against Gengar leads.

@ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
Ability: Huge Power
212 HP/252 Atk/44 Spe
-Waterfall
-Aqua Jet
-Brick Break
-Body Slam

The choice was between this and Gyarados, and in the end I chose Azumarill mainly because it was an off-the-beaten path sort of pokemon, and also because I didn't want to fit in a spinner to ease Gyara's entry into a battle. I changed Azumarill from a SubPuncher to a Choice Bander because my prediction skills quite frankly suck ass and I can't figure out when to sub and when to punch. I must have successfully used a SubPunch strategy exactly once in all the test battles I played, which is why I'm also using Brick Break over Focus Punch. Azumarill comes in on Water/Ice/Fire attacks and tries its best to take down a poke or two with its STABed attacks under the rain. Unfortunately I find that most of what I would want to switch Azumarill in against I'd be just as happy using Kingdra or Swampert against. It's fairly sturdy and can do some damage, but overall I've found it has problems finding a niche on the team.

@ Life Orb
Rash Nature
Ability: Swift Swim
168 Atk/252 SpA/88 Spe
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Draco Meteor
-Waterfall

I played around with its set after I ended up never using Kingdra to Rain Dance with Gliscor and Jirachi around. Now it's a nutty version of the Mixed Rain Dance set, with enough EVs in Atk to 2HKO Blissey with Life Orb and Rash to give his special attacks more oomph. Ice Beam is to keep his SpA from falling in the crapper against most Dragons/Grass types, with Draco Meteor there to put down other Waters and as a general last-ditch attack.

@ Leftovers
Sassy Nature
Ability: Torrent
240 HP/216 Def/52 SpA
-Earthquake
-Hydro Pump
-Ice Beam
-Stealth Rock

MixPert, with the nature changed to Sassy to keep his defenses more in line. Hydro Pump was used over Surf for greater power as it lacks Kingdra's +SpA nature and EVs. It covers well for Azumarill's Electric weakness, but the 4x Grass weak is a bit of a pain. Stealth Rock is there for useful residual damage, weakening opponents for Kingdra. Overall I found him to be the most solid member of the team, tanking hits quite effectively while being able to inflict quite a bit of punishment of his own with rain boosted Hydro Pump. It's a shame that I can't get more solid recovery on him, but I don't want to mess with the moveset for SleepTalk.

@ Choice Band
Jolly Nature
Ability: Pressure
4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
-Pursuit
-Ice Shard
-Brick Break
-Aerial Ace

Revenge killer and an answer to pesky Psychics like Celebi and Cresselia who don't mind being parahaxed by Jirachi, as well as Ghost-types like Gengar. The moveset is fairly typical, with Ice Shard for revenge killing dragons and Pursuit for catching runners. It doesn't benefit from the rain but doesn't particularly mind it, either.

@ Damp Rock
Impish Nature
Ability: Sand Veil
252 HP/4 Atk/252 Def
-Earthquake
-Aerial Ace
-Rain Dance
-Roost

Chosen to counter Heracross and physical Tyranitar, who would otherwise be a bit hard to stop with this team. Sand Veil is there mainly to help it against T-tar, as it doesn't have any particular need for Hyper Cutter. The water-types cover nicely for its Water weakness, and Azumarill and Jirachi also resist Ice, Gliscor's biggest weakness. It carries Rain Dance (thanks for suggesting it, Venom!), which seems a bit gimmicky but actually worked well during playtesting, especially since Gliscor doesn't mind coming in on a lot that threatens Jirachi and vice versa, so I don't find it too hard to get rain up, giving me room to bring in Kingdra.

Issues:
-With Fire generally a no-no on this team, floating Steel types like Bronzong have a bit less to worry about. Magnezone with Magnet Rise and HP Ice/Grass is a bit of an issue.
-Weather changers. I'm not worried about Hippowdon with all the STAB Water moves and Ice Beams floating about, but I do worry about Tyranitar. Azumarill can KO but it's an iffy switchin, so there's a lot of reliance on Gliscor and Swampert, who are both hurt badly by Tyraniboah.
-Other Water/Ground types like Swampert. I have no Grass moves, so they get a rain boost while I'm stuck hitting them for neutral damage. I was considering using something like Energy Ball Gengar in place of Weavile for it. Opposing bulky waters in general will be a pain to deal with due to the boost they get to their attacks and the fact that many of them have great special defense.

I was originally planning on using the Gyara/Electivire combo, but I didn't want to squeeze in a Rapid Spinner, and with Swampert and Gliscor being part ground, the only remaining Electric weakness was Azumarill, reducing the usefulness of Motor Drive. I do see some problems with other bulky waters though, as only repeatedly spamming Thunder with Jirachi or a desperation Draco Meteor from Kingdra seem to be decent tactics against them.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[Venom]

With only one inducer of of Rain Dance, your whole Rain Dance stradegy will be fucked up if Jirachi dies. I would rather go 2 RD inducers in the team, just to be safe nothing.

It seems very very gimmicky, but Rain Dance on Gliscor could work. Rain Dance > Knock Off, you could use it when you wall something like a Tyranitar, it gives you a free turn to Rain Dance. You do lack Fire moves, the bad thing is that they get boosted down becuase of the rain iirc. You can always run a Garchomp or a Salamence with Fire Blast, to hurt Bronzong and hit Magnezone with EQ. In that case, Weavile would have to be replaced.

If you are running Kingdra in the rain, why not run mixed? 168 Atk / 252 SpA / 88 Spe @ Naughty ensures you outspeed ScarfChomp in the rain, OHKO'ing back, and Waterfall would 2HKO Blissey, it's a pretty devastating pokemon under the rain. Mamoswine might be problems, but since you carry Bulky Water Swampert, I would suggest running the standard set, since you have Kingdra doing all the sweeping, and so you handle Mamoswine better. This team has pretty good synregy, good job for your second team.

 

[Volren]

Well, Kingdra does also carry Rain Dance, but putting it on Gliscor is an interesting idea. Knock Off was basically filler anyway, though I don't know if having three Rain Dancers is a bit overkill. It would open up another slot for Kingdra to use if I put it on Gliscor though, and it can even carry a Damp Rock as well thanks to Roost recovery. If I did do that, then I could probably even swap Kingdra to a Specs version that still benefits from the rain. I don't know...

I really don't want to trade Weavile out because without him my team will have trouble breaking stuff like Cresselia. I did think about using Metagross in its place, but that would result in a pretty hefty Ground weakness.

I decided on pure Special Kingdra to be able to make it a bit bulkier, and to let it deal effectively with Gyara with HP Electric. With Azumarill and Weavile being purely physical based I figured I had the muscle behind Kingdra to get away with it.

Mamoswine I honestly didn't worry about all that much when planning, I didn't think it could take repeated Water attacks in the rain. I'll reconsider about it, and Swampert.

I may have to just use STAB rain-boosted Water attacks to wear down floating Steels though, thankfully except for Empoleon I don't believe any of them resist Water.

 

[Volren]

Bump, to see if anyone else has anything else to add. I played with it several times on Shoddy yesterday. I think it held its own for the most part, with the biggest problem being my inexperience. I made a few changes to the team, but I'm not sure how effective my tweaking will be yet.

I also found I have a HUGE weakness to SDLukes who happen to carry HP Ice, but I'm not sure what to do to fix that >.>

 

[Sqwert]

Bump, to see if anyone else has anything else to add. I played with it several times on Shoddy yesterday. I think it held its own for the most part, with the biggest problem being my inexperience. I made a few changes to the team, but I'm not sure how effective my tweaking will be yet.

I also found I have a HUGE weakness to SDLukes who happen to carry HP Ice, but I'm not sure what to do to fix that >.>

If SD Luke is an issue, you could run the Gyara you mentioned instead of Azumarill, that with Intimidate and a bulky EV spread shoul take care of it with Earthquake or a DDance boosted Waterfall.

Also, for the bulky waters, yo could try replacing Draco Meteor with HP[electric] on Kingdra or even run a Ludicolo instead of Weavile (the most unnecesary poke in the team IMO) to get rid of opposing Swamperts in the way.

Although, if you make all the changes, your team will ressemble my own RDance team incredibly much ._.U (except for my beloved electrode lead and bronzong), so if you want to check out the topic for other point of view, here's the link: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43142 .

Great job for your second competitive team (I can't believe I have over a year on this and you can assemble something similar to me O___o)

 

[Venom]

Pretty much what could counter is one of 2 things, either get a Bulky Gyarados, to handle it, even with Stone Edge it takes shit from it thanks to Intimidate, or change your Gliscor's put 216 EV's in speed with Jolly nature, outspeeding Hasty Lucario, which is what most HP Ice Lucario carry, I can't seem to remember the whole EV Spread though.

 

[Volren]

I did think about Gyarados, as it's an obvious choice to replace Azumarill. What I was worried about was SR; with no spinner I don't think Gyara will be able to switch in repeatedly to face down Lucario.

What's funny is that Kingdra did formerly have HP Electric (it was a pure special set before I switched to mixed sweeper), but I decided in favor of Draco Meteor for some reason...I think mostly so I could deal with opposing Swamperts more efficiently.

I actually never considered Ludicolo for one simple reason...I didn't know jack about it! My inexperience shows XD

It does look like it would happily solve the Swampert problem, but I do worry about losing Weavile, who was more than solid in a revenge killing role and in screwing over a few Starmies. Another crazy idea I was considering was Roserade; a Specsrade or Scarfrade with Leaf Storm, Weather Ball, Sludge Bomb and maybe something like Sleep Powder/Stun Spore instead of Azumarill.

I hate the idea of losing bulk on my Gliscor, but it might be a good idea unless I use something like Resttalking Gyara. I'll have to think on it.