Shows Potential, but needs some help to become amazing (OU Rain team)

[McPimpin]

Hey folks, I've been battling for 4 months now on PO (using the Smogon server of course ;P) and I think I have managed to make my most successful team yet. I peaked at about 1210, but that's when things went downhill; lately, my team has been very inconsistent, and as such, I AM WILLING TO CHANGE EVERYTHING, I'm basically here to become better at this, and I'm hoping the all ya'll can help me out... Without further ado, the team.

Frogger (Politoed) (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Perish Song


Politoed = Rain team... Pretty basic, I chose the bulky set because I want tons of survivability and ultimately, want to win the weather war. Scald and Ice Beam are pretty standard, I chose toxic to wear down any opposing weather setters or even an annoying Jellicent trying to wreck my day. Perish song is for phazing, and has saved my ass MULTIPLE times... All in all, this little guy has done his job admirably for me, tanking Outrages and KOing back with Ice beam on occasion. Again, I am open to changing any/all sets...

Dudley (Dragonite) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- ExtremeSpeed
- Hurricane
- Aqua Tail
- Roost


Okay, so I'm torn with this set, sometimes, Dudley straight up thugs whole teams remorselessly, other times, he dies after his multiscale is broken and doesn't contribute anything. I chose the Quiet nature because I don't want to waste those excellent defenses, but I'm starting to think that this set isn't the best, the moveset makes sense on paper, but ultimately, it has been ineffective more often than it has been effective. Hurricane hits fighters/Ferrothorn really hard, Extremespeed is for a priority attack, and Aqua Tail gets STAB thanks to the rain. Roost is to heal off LO damage, but again, this is the moveset/pokemon I am most willing to change.

SteelyDan (Forretress) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
IVs: 0 Spe

Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Gyro Ball
- Rapid Spin


Entry Hazards + Rapid Spin + Immune to Toxic Spikes + Sturdy = Awesomeness. The rain dampens the fire weakness, and the entry hazards just make my job easier. Not much to say here, standard Forretress. No complaints.

TimmyBug (Volcarona) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Bug Buzz
- Hurricane


This freaking guy, oh boy, he's gotten me out of some serious jams before... He kills so many pokemon that are a problem for my team, Celebi, Breloom etc. Two Quiver Dances, and bam, you're dead. Hurricane is 100% accurate in Rain, and Bug Buzz is an excellent STAB. Fire Blast may seem strange in the Rain, but it's for utility and makes a great weapon against sun teams, it KO's Scizor and Ferrothorn after Rocks in the rain, and it puts a massive dent in Jirachi and Skarmory in the same rainy conditions. Rapid Spin support is crucial, but my Forretress does that extremely well.

TumorFace (Toxicroak) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Ice Punch
- Payback


IMO, the most deadly set for this beast. In the rain, the health regeneration offsets the LO damage completely, and this guy forces out so many threats to my rain team with his odd typing (Grass and Fighting resists are key) and immunity to toxic. He comes in, subs on the switch, and proceeds to kill at least 1 pokemon, Focus Punch 2HKOs almost everything, Ice Punch murders Gligar, Landorus, and Dragons, and Payback is for Celebi and the Lati@s twins. Obviously, getting up the Sub is crucial, but once it's up, watch out, someone is going to get killed.

Washer&Dryer (Rotom-W) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunder
- Hydro Pump
- Trick
- Hidden Power [Ice]


My revenge killer, that Thunder is a killer, and Rain Boosted Hydro Pump is even worse. HP Ice is for dragons and Trick is for any walls I encounter (Sup Ferrothorn). His immunity to Earthquake is excellent, and his dual STABs are just amazing. My only complaint is how badly he needs rain to be effective, but I would say Rotom-W is my MVP.





So there you have it folks, my best team yet. Obviously it can use some work, but that's where you guys come in; I would like to get better at this and this RMT is definitely the first step. Thanks for reading!

 

[FateFellShort]

Hi!
Just a few changes i would personally make:

If you're having problems using Dragonite's Multiscale, perhaps invest some EV's in speed and SpA and scarf it, you'll get the switch in due to Multiscale dampening those attacks, and then using Hurricane, Thunder and perhaps Surf (if you need a water attack). However a downside to this is that you won't be able to keep abusing Multiscale which could halter Dragonite's survivability. Even a Dragon Dance set is viable with Roost. In my opinion though, Dragonite should be Physical, as having only Toxicroak as your Physical attacker may be problematic.

I'm really not sure with Volcarona here, you say it helps you out a lot, but the idea of it on a rain team just seems odd to me. In my opinion, I would switch Volcarona for a reliable wall, I use CroCune a lot and once set up, can be incredibly hard to take down.

If Celebi is causing you problems, then Skarmory may be a better option over Forretress, however you would lose your Rapid Spinner. However you can use Tentacruel as a wall if you feel Rapid spin is a necessity (switching for Volcarona), this will go well with Toxicroak as you can lure in those EQ's and switch in Dragonite or Rotom-W and hit hard with those STAB moves, or Skarmory if you fear an opponent is going to predict the D'nite/Rotom-W switch.

All in all with this team though, the main problem seems to be a lack of reliable switch-ins, which is why I suggested you bring in wall or two.
I hope I helped! :)

 

[tcr]

just so you know, drizzle politoed is banned, like evasion and accuracy changing items. also you are not really abusing the rain as much as you could. include some swift swimmers in there. ludicolo is perfect as he has some synergy with toxicroak. he can switch in on eq and hit back with a 2x STAB hydro pump or surf. plus, he has a neutrality to electricity, and a 4x resistance to water, hitting back with energy ball.

like above, volcarona doesn't seem fit on his team. crocune IS a good fit, but scizor takes care of tyranitar or abomasnow, who would otherwise ruin your dance.

scizor @choice band/expert belt
adamant
248 hp, 252 attack, 8 speed
u-turn
bullet punch
superpower
pursuit

for forretress, change gyro ball to eq, for electric types

on rotom-w, change hp ice to rain dance, as dragons are checked by your new ludicolo ice beam, and toxicroak.

i didn't hav much time to look at, so i might hav missed something, but your team looks good. a few minor errors, like no swift swimmers.

 

[Nauris]

just so you know, drizzle politoed is banned, like evasion and accuracy changing items. also you are not really abusing the rain as much as you could. include some swift swimmers in there. ludicolo is perfect as he has some synergy with toxicroak. he can switch in on eq and hit back with a 2x STAB hydro pump or surf. plus, he has a neutrality to electricity, and a 4x resistance to water, hitting back with energy ball.

like above, volcarona doesn't seem fit on his team. crocune IS a good fit, but scizor takes care of tyranitar or abomasnow, who would otherwise ruin your dance.

scizor @choice band/expert belt
adamant
248 hp, 252 attack, 8 speed
u-turn
bullet punch
superpower
pursuit

for forretress, change gyro ball to eq, for electric types

on rotom-w, change hp ice to rain dance, as dragons are checked by your new ludicolo ice beam, and toxicroak.

i didn't hav much time to look at, so i might hav missed something, but your team looks good. a few minor errors, like no swift swimmers.

I assume your new to smogon?

If I remember drizzle politoed is not banned in smogon server, but swift swim + drizzle is...

Now to team:

So you are willing to change dnite? Try CM latios instead here's the set:

Life Orb / Leftovers
Timid
EVs 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
~ Calm Mind
~ Dragon Pulse
~ Surf
~ Hidden Power Fire / Psyshock / Recover

There is some problems with this set as particularly invites tyranitar to switch in.

Also I recommend using bulk up set as it allows to setup even outside of rain as left overs negates sandstorm/hail damage and drain punch heals a lot if it hit something super effective. Here's set:

Leftovers
Dry Skin
Adamant
EVs244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def
~ Bulk Up
~ Substitute
~ Drain Punch
~ Sucker Punch


Hope I helped.

 

[tcr]

^^^ yeah sry, i mistakenly thought all permawezther was banned. i had forgotten that it is only banned with swift swim, chlorophyll, etc. anyway, he still doesn't seem to be abusing the rain as much as he could, so my suggestion of replacing politoed still stands.

but yes, im new to smogon.
also, was the drizzle the only thing bad i posted? was everything else good suggestions? i need to know because i want to be a better rater.

 

[FateFellShort]

I assume your new to smogon?


So you are willing to change dnite? Try CM latios instead here's the set:

Life Orb / Leftovers
Timid
EVs 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
~ Calm Mind
~ Dragon Pulse
~ Surf
~ Hidden Power Fire / Psyshock / Recover

Maybe SubCM Latias could be a better fit due to the better defences? Because like I said before the team lacked any major defence:

Latias
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Speed, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Recover
- Substitute/Roar

This will add some defence to your team, Substitute defends against status, however Roar can be used as a more reliable phazing method that Politoed's Perish Song, as switching Politoed in to phaze can be risky and cause you to lose the weather war... Only problem is, having Dragon Pulse as your only attack can be abused by your opponent's Skarmory while it sets up those Spikes, but using Roar over Sub will also help against this.

 

[doughboy]

As of now, your team is pretty weak to SR. With the ease of setting up SR, Forretress will be under a lot of pressure to spin. To make your team more resilient, Volcarona is going to have to go.

Most of your offensive threats are pretty slow (i.e. Dragonite and Toxicroack) and could really benefit from some paralysis support. Well SubCM Jirachi does just that. Serene Grace Thunder allows Jirachi to wreck havoc with paralysis. It also gives an anti-stall option and secondary Dragon switchin. If you feel the need for your team to have recovery (especially Forretress), WishCM is an option too.

To help aid in Jirachi sweeping ability go with Toxic Spikes>Spikes on Forretress. Rarely will Forry be able to get all of his hazards up so the least amount of turns it takes the better. With Toxic Spikes, Gastrodon and Blissey will be hard pressed to counter Jirachi.

A spinner in tow and a wish passer, Dragonite is able to switch in more freely, but I would give him a Choice Band if you want him to still retain his ability to be a wallbreaker. Very few Pokemon will be able to switch into this set with impunity, and it just wrecks stuff, even faster pokes with his Extremespeed.

Sets

Dragonite (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Waterfall
- Brick Break
- ExtremeSpeed

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
- Thunder
- Water Pulse

 

[tcr]

finally, someone uses rain dance jirachi. but you can use him also as an antilead/ rain dance setter upper. it may be less defensive, but it can set up rain and screw up other leads.

jirachi @choice scarf
modest
252 s. attack, 4 hp, 252 speed
moves:
trick( to screw up leads, forcing a switch)
thunder
water pulse
rain dance

or if you are comfortable with a different rain dancer, change rain dance to calm mind, making the opponent switch and getting a free calm mind. the only threat i've found is a taunt lead, and then just attack. it may not be standard, but it is unexpected.

 

[McPimpin]

Hi!
Just a few changes i would personally make:

If you're having problems using Dragonite's Multiscale, perhaps invest some EV's in speed and SpA and scarf it, you'll get the switch in due to Multiscale dampening those attacks, and then using Hurricane, Thunder and perhaps Surf (if you need a water attack). However a downside to this is that you won't be able to keep abusing Multiscale which could halter Dragonite's survivability. Even a Dragon Dance set is viable with Roost. In my opinion though, Dragonite should be Physical, as having only Toxicroak as your Physical attacker may be problematic.

I'm really not sure with Volcarona here, you say it helps you out a lot, but the idea of it on a rain team just seems odd to me. In my opinion, I would switch Volcarona for a reliable wall, I use CroCune a lot and once set up, can be incredibly hard to take down.

If Celebi is causing you problems, then Skarmory may be a better option over Forretress, however you would lose your Rapid Spinner. However you can use Tentacruel as a wall if you feel Rapid spin is a necessity (switching for Volcarona), this will go well with Toxicroak as you can lure in those EQ's and switch in Dragonite or Rotom-W and hit hard with those STAB moves, or Skarmory if you fear an opponent is going to predict the D'nite/Rotom-W switch.

All in all with this team though, the main problem seems to be a lack of reliable switch-ins, which is why I suggested you bring in wall or two.
I hope I helped! :)

That's awesome advice, I'll try it out tonight =)

Keep the hints coming folks, thanks for posting.