I was extremely hyped for RU, and when it was added to Showdown last Friday I went straight to work in figuring out what worked and what didn't. After quite a bit of trial and error, I found something potentially more broken than Kyurem and Escavalier: Rain. After a bit of testing, I came up with what I believe is a solid start to a potentially amazing team. I present to you my first attempt at weather abuse in the lower tiers.
THE TEAM:
The Rain Setters:
Uxie @ Damp Rock
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Spd / 44 Def
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rain Dance
- Yawn
- U-turn
When I first started building my team, I spent some time picking out the better users of rain dance in the tier. While there were many potential candidates, Uxie was one of the two I picked. Uxie is generally my lead, as it can set up rain as well as stealth rocks which are very crucial to the success of this team. I have 212+ speed evs to outspeed base 90's, while the rest is dumped into HP and defense to improve Uxie's survivability and ensure both my rocks and rain are set. Once that is done, a safe switch into a sweeper is needed, so I decided to use yawn to force my opponent out. U-turn is there so initiative can be preserved, so no guesswork is involved when deciding which sweeper to bring in.
Tornadus (M) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Atk
Timid Nature
- Rain Dance
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Taunt
I could not help but want to build a rain team after seeing Tornadus in the RU tier. He is one of the best rain setters in the game, having priority rain dance that can only be stopped by max speed whimsicott's taunt (which is not commonly seen). He basically ensures I will be able to do work with my sweepers for eight turns. Not only does Tornadus have the ability to set up priority rain for my sweepers, he can also abuse the rain himself with 100% accurate STAB Hurricanes. In the last two moveslots I included taunt and U-turn. Taunt is useful against Sableye, something I noticed gave this team a bit of a hard time with priority will-o-wisp. U-turn is there, once again, for initiative and momentum, ensuring a sweeper gets in safely. Though some might say a bulky ev spread would work better, I haven't found HP investment to be too useful in practice, as Tornadus doesn't live more than two strong neutral hits anyways.
The Sweepers:
Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Rain Dance
A commonly seen rain sweeper last gen, Ludicolo makes a return in RU as an extremely dangerous threat. The evs are pretty self explanatory; speed and special attack are maxed to provide Ludicolo with the offensive presence he needs to blow holes in the opponent's team. Ludicolo isn't extremely powerful on his own, so I added a life orb to give his attacks an increased punch. Giga Drain provides STAB and a form of recovery for Ludicolo, as he has no other way of compensating for the life orb recoil he takes. STAB Hydro Pump under rain is the main nuke of the set, easily 2HKO'ing all that don't resist it. Ice Beam is for opposing grass types that would otherwise wall this set. Since the three attacking moves given to Ludicolo provide all the coverage he needs, I decided to add rain dance in the final slot incase both my rain setters go down before the match is over.
Kabutops @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Aqua Jet
I needed a physical rain sweeper, and while I was tempted to use qwilfish (because, lets be honest, qwilfish is awesome), I found Kabutops to fit on my team the best. Kabutops has incredible attack to begin with, and with the life orb added to that, he can start breaking walls even without a boost. Once again, self explanatory evs to maximize the destruction caused by Kabutops. Swords Dance raises his attack to ridiculous levels, hitting 722 after just one boost. Add the life orb and rain boost, and you have a terrifying wall breaker. Waterfall is the hardest hitting move on the set, reaching a monstrous 180 bp under rain. Stone edge provides good neutral coverage alongside waterfall and a hard-hitting STAB. Aqua jet may seem useless due to the swift swim boost, but Kabutops is not very fast outside of rain, so a way to KO weakened foes outside of rain is quite useful.
The Sweeper Supporters:
Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 136 Spd / 120 HP
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch
- Gunk Shot
- Sucker Punch
My two sweepers, mainly Kabutops, struggled with bulky grass and water pokemon. One that neither of my sweepers could touch significantly was Ferroseed. It takes little damage from either of my two sweepers and can cripple them with t-wave or toxic. I looked around to see what pokemon could easily counter and KO Ferroseed and other grass pokemon, and I was excited to see Toxicroak made his way down to RU. He worked extremely well under rain during gen5 (in fact, he was my method of dealing with Ferrothorn back in BW OU), so I decided to give him a shot on my team. I run enough speed to outpace base 100's who invest 8 or less evs in speed like bulky shaymin, and max attack adamant to deal the most damage possible, while the rest is dumped into HP. In order to effectively deal with Ferroseed, I decided to bypass bulk up + black sludge in exchange for a more offensive swords dance + life orb. After one SD, Toxicroak has a guaranteed OHKO with drain punch on Ferroseed. Gunk Shot got a decent buff this gen, giving it a usable 80 accuracy, making it more attractive than poison jab in my opinion. It is my main method of taking out bulky grass pokemon such as Amoonguss and Shaymin. Sucker Punch is there to take out faster psychic and ghost pokemon that cause trouble for my team when the rain is down, including Azelf and Mismagius.
Electivire @ Expert Belt
Ability: Motor Drive
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Wild Charge
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake
- Cross Chop
Something I noticed about my team at this point was a rather bad electric weakness. All forms of Rotom, especially Rotom-C, proved to be large threats to my team. They could switch in on Tornadus or one of my sweepers outside of rain, force them out, and gain momentum with volt switch. Another large threat to my team was Escavalier. A top tier threat at the moment, Escavalier can easily take anything my two sweepers have to offer and strike back with Megahorn, OHKO'ing Ludicolo and doing at least 80% to Kabutops. After much deliberation, I decided to add Electivire as a check to both volt switch users and Escavalier. With Motor Drive, Electivire benefits directly from the opponent's attempt to KO a team member by gaining a speed boost. I maxed out speed and attack, giving Electivire an adamant nature to ensure he takes out the threats he needs to. Since he gets such great coverage but no recovery, I decided to give him an expert belt to increase the damage done by his super effective hits without taking excess recoil. Wild Charge is his main STAB and deals with bulky water types such as Milotic and Jellicent, while Earthquake and Cross Chop provide decent neutral coverage. Fire punch is there exclusively for Escavalier, OHKO'ing outside of rain and 2HKO'ing under rain 100% of the time.
Last Look:
That concludes my RU Offensive Rain team. It has served me well in practice, but I am aware that it could use some work, so please leave any suggestions or changes below. Thanks for reading!
THE TEAM:
The Rain Setters:
Uxie @ Damp Rock
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Spd / 44 Def
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rain Dance
- Yawn
- U-turn
When I first started building my team, I spent some time picking out the better users of rain dance in the tier. While there were many potential candidates, Uxie was one of the two I picked. Uxie is generally my lead, as it can set up rain as well as stealth rocks which are very crucial to the success of this team. I have 212+ speed evs to outspeed base 90's, while the rest is dumped into HP and defense to improve Uxie's survivability and ensure both my rocks and rain are set. Once that is done, a safe switch into a sweeper is needed, so I decided to use yawn to force my opponent out. U-turn is there so initiative can be preserved, so no guesswork is involved when deciding which sweeper to bring in.
Tornadus (M) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Atk
Timid Nature
- Rain Dance
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Taunt
I could not help but want to build a rain team after seeing Tornadus in the RU tier. He is one of the best rain setters in the game, having priority rain dance that can only be stopped by max speed whimsicott's taunt (which is not commonly seen). He basically ensures I will be able to do work with my sweepers for eight turns. Not only does Tornadus have the ability to set up priority rain for my sweepers, he can also abuse the rain himself with 100% accurate STAB Hurricanes. In the last two moveslots I included taunt and U-turn. Taunt is useful against Sableye, something I noticed gave this team a bit of a hard time with priority will-o-wisp. U-turn is there, once again, for initiative and momentum, ensuring a sweeper gets in safely. Though some might say a bulky ev spread would work better, I haven't found HP investment to be too useful in practice, as Tornadus doesn't live more than two strong neutral hits anyways.
The Sweepers:
Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Rain Dance
A commonly seen rain sweeper last gen, Ludicolo makes a return in RU as an extremely dangerous threat. The evs are pretty self explanatory; speed and special attack are maxed to provide Ludicolo with the offensive presence he needs to blow holes in the opponent's team. Ludicolo isn't extremely powerful on his own, so I added a life orb to give his attacks an increased punch. Giga Drain provides STAB and a form of recovery for Ludicolo, as he has no other way of compensating for the life orb recoil he takes. STAB Hydro Pump under rain is the main nuke of the set, easily 2HKO'ing all that don't resist it. Ice Beam is for opposing grass types that would otherwise wall this set. Since the three attacking moves given to Ludicolo provide all the coverage he needs, I decided to add rain dance in the final slot incase both my rain setters go down before the match is over.
Kabutops @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Aqua Jet
I needed a physical rain sweeper, and while I was tempted to use qwilfish (because, lets be honest, qwilfish is awesome), I found Kabutops to fit on my team the best. Kabutops has incredible attack to begin with, and with the life orb added to that, he can start breaking walls even without a boost. Once again, self explanatory evs to maximize the destruction caused by Kabutops. Swords Dance raises his attack to ridiculous levels, hitting 722 after just one boost. Add the life orb and rain boost, and you have a terrifying wall breaker. Waterfall is the hardest hitting move on the set, reaching a monstrous 180 bp under rain. Stone edge provides good neutral coverage alongside waterfall and a hard-hitting STAB. Aqua jet may seem useless due to the swift swim boost, but Kabutops is not very fast outside of rain, so a way to KO weakened foes outside of rain is quite useful.
The Sweeper Supporters:
Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 136 Spd / 120 HP
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch
- Gunk Shot
- Sucker Punch
My two sweepers, mainly Kabutops, struggled with bulky grass and water pokemon. One that neither of my sweepers could touch significantly was Ferroseed. It takes little damage from either of my two sweepers and can cripple them with t-wave or toxic. I looked around to see what pokemon could easily counter and KO Ferroseed and other grass pokemon, and I was excited to see Toxicroak made his way down to RU. He worked extremely well under rain during gen5 (in fact, he was my method of dealing with Ferrothorn back in BW OU), so I decided to give him a shot on my team. I run enough speed to outpace base 100's who invest 8 or less evs in speed like bulky shaymin, and max attack adamant to deal the most damage possible, while the rest is dumped into HP. In order to effectively deal with Ferroseed, I decided to bypass bulk up + black sludge in exchange for a more offensive swords dance + life orb. After one SD, Toxicroak has a guaranteed OHKO with drain punch on Ferroseed. Gunk Shot got a decent buff this gen, giving it a usable 80 accuracy, making it more attractive than poison jab in my opinion. It is my main method of taking out bulky grass pokemon such as Amoonguss and Shaymin. Sucker Punch is there to take out faster psychic and ghost pokemon that cause trouble for my team when the rain is down, including Azelf and Mismagius.
Electivire @ Expert Belt
Ability: Motor Drive
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Wild Charge
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake
- Cross Chop
Something I noticed about my team at this point was a rather bad electric weakness. All forms of Rotom, especially Rotom-C, proved to be large threats to my team. They could switch in on Tornadus or one of my sweepers outside of rain, force them out, and gain momentum with volt switch. Another large threat to my team was Escavalier. A top tier threat at the moment, Escavalier can easily take anything my two sweepers have to offer and strike back with Megahorn, OHKO'ing Ludicolo and doing at least 80% to Kabutops. After much deliberation, I decided to add Electivire as a check to both volt switch users and Escavalier. With Motor Drive, Electivire benefits directly from the opponent's attempt to KO a team member by gaining a speed boost. I maxed out speed and attack, giving Electivire an adamant nature to ensure he takes out the threats he needs to. Since he gets such great coverage but no recovery, I decided to give him an expert belt to increase the damage done by his super effective hits without taking excess recoil. Wild Charge is his main STAB and deals with bulky water types such as Milotic and Jellicent, while Earthquake and Cross Chop provide decent neutral coverage. Fire punch is there exclusively for Escavalier, OHKO'ing outside of rain and 2HKO'ing under rain 100% of the time.
Last Look:
That concludes my RU Offensive Rain team. It has served me well in practice, but I am aware that it could use some work, so please leave any suggestions or changes below. Thanks for reading!
