Welcome to the RMT.
Recently got back into battling, and got myself familiar with XY.
Felt like I know enough about the meta game to actually build a team from scratch. Probably not... you be the judge.
The idea is to abuse steels in the rain by essentially removing one of their 3 weaknesses. That's where the (fucking genius) team name comes from.
Anyway... Here's the team;
Politoed is essential. Free rain is awesome, only variants of Politoed i've seen used are scarf, specs or bulky leftovers. After some testing I stuck with damp rock bulky. 3 extra turns of rain is too good to pass up. As good as specs is, you're still doing next to nothing to the common switch-ins (Venusaur-Mega, Chansey, Latias etc).
Politoed @ Damp Rock
Bold (+Def -Att)
EVs: 252 HP 252 DEF 4 Spe
Ability: Drizzle
- Scald
- Toxic
- Encore
- Ice beam
All I'm doing with this is spamming scald. Toxic hits plenty of common switch ins - (Rotom-W is a good example of something I'd toxic on the switch). Encore prevents him being set up on.
Steel #1
So rain makes ferro a beast. Yes you only turn the 4x rain weakness into a 2x... doesn't matter. A lot of things that usually check you are now set up bait.
Moveset is pretty standard as far as I know. Can't remember why it has max spD, but helps with stalling against Venusaur HP fire as well as occasional focus blasts.
Ferrothorn Leftovers
Relaxed (+Def -Spe)
EVs: 252 HP 252 SpD 4 Def
Ability - Iron Barbs
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Spikes
- Toxic
Reasoning behind no rocky helmet or Def EVs is because I have skarmory and Politoed. Toxic is to hit common defoggers like Mandibuzz, Zapdos or Lati twins.
This is my best answer to Thundurus and Rotom-W, however they do still give me problems. Mostly mixed thundurus with superpower and Will-O-Wisp rotom supported by heal bell.
Steel #2
Skarm creates a decent core with ferro, by themselves they cause insane amounts of passive damage through hazards and recoil.
It's a complete wall to SD scizor who would otherwise give me problems and is one of the few defoggers who can deal well with defiant Bisharp.
Not much to say about this guy, considering changing counter to whirlwind, the fact that most Skarms run whirlwind is usually enough to prevent people setting up on me anyway.
Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Impish (+Def -SpA)
EVs: 252 HP 232 Def 24 Spe
Ability: Sturdy
- Stealth Rocks
- Roost
- Defog
- Counter
Steel #3
Can't say enough about how good Scizor is at cleaning up. Scizors one weakness is halved in the rain, plus my team basically shits on bulky waters who would otherwise wall it to death.
Generally only bring it out late game or if I need to revenge kill something. Can still take a hit, esp when mega.
Scizor @ Scizorite
Adamant (+Att -SpA)
EVs: 252 HP 40 Att 216 SpD
Technician
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Roost
- Bug Bite
Happy with moveset overall, knock off is tempting though as I'm having some issues against Aegislash.
Heliolisk. Gen VI dry skin replacement of Toxicroak. You can now actually do something to the water types you switch into! Yea... overall awesome surprise factor. Still not really common enough that people are predicting me switching it into a scald. It even gets surf which makes no fucking sense but seriously... people should start using this. It's good.
Having 1 base speed more than Keldeo is pretty nice too ;)
Heliolisk @ Life Orb
Timid (+Spe -Att)
EVs: 252 SpA 252 Spe 4 Hp
Ability: Dry Skin
- Thunder
- Surf
- Grass Knot
- Volt Switch
Stab Thunder is obvious. Surf in the rain is hitting most ground types. Grass knot for Gastrodon/Swampert I guess. Still yet to use that move. Volt switch for scouting plus an 100% accurate stab lightning move out of rain.
Recently removed Choice specs and put in Life orb. Dry skin restores damage taken when in Rain plus eases prediction vs Ground Types.
Finally...
100% accurate Hurricane plus regenerator made this thing ubers last gen. Nothing is happy switching into it, plus 121 speed helps me out a ton just for revenge killing.
Went for wall breaker set over choice specs, you don't really miss the damage and sets up for some surprise kills on chansey/tyranitar.
Tornadus-T Life Orb
Naive (+Spe -SpD)
EVs: 252 SpA 252 Spe 4 Att
Ability: Regenerator
- Hurricane
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Superpower
Hurricane spam is still good, but a lot of the time I'm just using knock off for their special wall. Superpower is there to deal with Ttar, bisharp and finish off Chansey after some residual damage.
Threat List:
Stall: Heavy stall as a team style is a problem. Specifically the teams running a core of Skarmory, Chansey, Quagsire + Bulky Grass. Against a good player I get whittled down until toed is dead.
Solution is to get an early kill and keep momentum with tornadus/heliolisk.
Charizard X: Big issue for me - after a single DD, it can 6-0 my team. Currently I just work my way round it and try and keep hazard control. Considering fitting Azumarril in somewhere for it, although even that will get fucked over by the Will-O-Wisp variants.
Aegislash: Another problem, The sets that use sub are the most annoying as I can't even stall out with Ferro leech seed.
Thundurus: The mixed thundurus causes the most problems for me as mentioned before. Luckily it's rare enough to not really care about.
Rotom-W: Bit of an issue but usually not a problem. I will try and stall out with toxic. Bigger problems come out when they have heal bell.
So that's the team, rose pretty quickly to the 1600/1700s. Looking to keep pushing it further up. Facing an opposing rain team is almost a guaranteed win at preview screen which helps.
Thanks for Reading
Recently got back into battling, and got myself familiar with XY.
Felt like I know enough about the meta game to actually build a team from scratch. Probably not... you be the judge.
The idea is to abuse steels in the rain by essentially removing one of their 3 weaknesses. That's where the (fucking genius) team name comes from.
Anyway... Here's the team;
Politoed is essential. Free rain is awesome, only variants of Politoed i've seen used are scarf, specs or bulky leftovers. After some testing I stuck with damp rock bulky. 3 extra turns of rain is too good to pass up. As good as specs is, you're still doing next to nothing to the common switch-ins (Venusaur-Mega, Chansey, Latias etc).
Politoed @ Damp Rock
Bold (+Def -Att)
EVs: 252 HP 252 DEF 4 Spe
Ability: Drizzle
- Scald
- Toxic
- Encore
- Ice beam
All I'm doing with this is spamming scald. Toxic hits plenty of common switch ins - (Rotom-W is a good example of something I'd toxic on the switch). Encore prevents him being set up on.
Steel #1
So rain makes ferro a beast. Yes you only turn the 4x rain weakness into a 2x... doesn't matter. A lot of things that usually check you are now set up bait.
Moveset is pretty standard as far as I know. Can't remember why it has max spD, but helps with stalling against Venusaur HP fire as well as occasional focus blasts.
Ferrothorn Leftovers
Relaxed (+Def -Spe)
EVs: 252 HP 252 SpD 4 Def
Ability - Iron Barbs
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Spikes
- Toxic
Reasoning behind no rocky helmet or Def EVs is because I have skarmory and Politoed. Toxic is to hit common defoggers like Mandibuzz, Zapdos or Lati twins.
This is my best answer to Thundurus and Rotom-W, however they do still give me problems. Mostly mixed thundurus with superpower and Will-O-Wisp rotom supported by heal bell.
Steel #2
Skarm creates a decent core with ferro, by themselves they cause insane amounts of passive damage through hazards and recoil.
It's a complete wall to SD scizor who would otherwise give me problems and is one of the few defoggers who can deal well with defiant Bisharp.
Not much to say about this guy, considering changing counter to whirlwind, the fact that most Skarms run whirlwind is usually enough to prevent people setting up on me anyway.
Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Impish (+Def -SpA)
EVs: 252 HP 232 Def 24 Spe
Ability: Sturdy
- Stealth Rocks
- Roost
- Defog
- Counter
Steel #3
Can't say enough about how good Scizor is at cleaning up. Scizors one weakness is halved in the rain, plus my team basically shits on bulky waters who would otherwise wall it to death.
Generally only bring it out late game or if I need to revenge kill something. Can still take a hit, esp when mega.
Scizor @ Scizorite
Adamant (+Att -SpA)
EVs: 252 HP 40 Att 216 SpD
Technician
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Roost
- Bug Bite
Happy with moveset overall, knock off is tempting though as I'm having some issues against Aegislash.
Heliolisk. Gen VI dry skin replacement of Toxicroak. You can now actually do something to the water types you switch into! Yea... overall awesome surprise factor. Still not really common enough that people are predicting me switching it into a scald. It even gets surf which makes no fucking sense but seriously... people should start using this. It's good.
Having 1 base speed more than Keldeo is pretty nice too ;)
Heliolisk @ Life Orb
Timid (+Spe -Att)
EVs: 252 SpA 252 Spe 4 Hp
Ability: Dry Skin
- Thunder
- Surf
- Grass Knot
- Volt Switch
Stab Thunder is obvious. Surf in the rain is hitting most ground types. Grass knot for Gastrodon/Swampert I guess. Still yet to use that move. Volt switch for scouting plus an 100% accurate stab lightning move out of rain.
Recently removed Choice specs and put in Life orb. Dry skin restores damage taken when in Rain plus eases prediction vs Ground Types.
Finally...
100% accurate Hurricane plus regenerator made this thing ubers last gen. Nothing is happy switching into it, plus 121 speed helps me out a ton just for revenge killing.
Went for wall breaker set over choice specs, you don't really miss the damage and sets up for some surprise kills on chansey/tyranitar.
Tornadus-T Life Orb
Naive (+Spe -SpD)
EVs: 252 SpA 252 Spe 4 Att
Ability: Regenerator
- Hurricane
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Superpower
Hurricane spam is still good, but a lot of the time I'm just using knock off for their special wall. Superpower is there to deal with Ttar, bisharp and finish off Chansey after some residual damage.
Threat List:
Stall: Heavy stall as a team style is a problem. Specifically the teams running a core of Skarmory, Chansey, Quagsire + Bulky Grass. Against a good player I get whittled down until toed is dead.
Solution is to get an early kill and keep momentum with tornadus/heliolisk.
Charizard X: Big issue for me - after a single DD, it can 6-0 my team. Currently I just work my way round it and try and keep hazard control. Considering fitting Azumarril in somewhere for it, although even that will get fucked over by the Will-O-Wisp variants.
Aegislash: Another problem, The sets that use sub are the most annoying as I can't even stall out with Ferro leech seed.
Thundurus: The mixed thundurus causes the most problems for me as mentioned before. Luckily it's rare enough to not really care about.
Rotom-W: Bit of an issue but usually not a problem. I will try and stall out with toxic. Bigger problems come out when they have heal bell.
So that's the team, rose pretty quickly to the 1600/1700s. Looking to keep pushing it further up. Facing an opposing rain team is almost a guaranteed win at preview screen which helps.
Thanks for Reading