Team Downpour [OU RMT]

[IceTime]

Hello guys, IceTime here, some of you may know me, some may not. I'm here to post an RMT for a tourney that I've been entered in. Originally I decided I'll just get help from here and there, not post an actual RMT and such, but in the end I just decided to post it here, since the finals of the tourney (yes i made it yes yes yes) were pushed back. I have no idea why, they've stretched it long enough... I'm going to use the same format a lot of people use, OP for the team, another for the threat list, and a last one for team building process and other stuff. wow i'm going to stay away from rain teams for a while. maybe try hail stall soon. i mean, IceTime not making an ice themed team is blasphemy.

Also, I'd like to dedicate this team to one of my friends who recently passed away. Rest In Peace.

Now I present, Team

DOWNPOUR

​

Azelf @ Damp Rock
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 HP/252 Spd/4 Atk
Moves:
- Rain Dance
- Stealth Rock
- U-Turn
- Explosion

For many rain teams, Azelf seems like the perfect lead. Decent bulk, amazing speed, access to a variety of support and sweeping moves, Stealth Rock, and the ever gamebreaking explosion. It has just the right stats to use the moves too, which is cool. U-Turn hits 2 of the auto weather inducers for SE, granted one of them will probably switch out anyway predicting Fire Blast. Azelf can also lead off the battle with a quick Explosion to get the offensive tempo in my favour.

Team Support:
- Rain
- Stealth Rock
- Bomb #1

Bronzong @ Damp Rock
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP/128 Atk/128 SpDef
Moves:
- Rain Dance
- Reflect
- Earthquake
- Explosion

Bronzong acts as my second support, with it’s typing, bulk and lack of weaknesses, it works fantastic as a transition pokemon, coming in easily when rain isn’t up, setting up Rain, Reflect, or just finishing up with EQ. 128 SpDef with Impish ensures that I’m sturdy on both sides of the spectrum, and the extra defense doesn’t help him survive anything decently threatening anyway, so I stuck them onto Special Defense. Earthquake over Light Screen to dent stuff, and for magnezone, so I don’t always have to resort to switching or exploding just to finish off something with 1%, let’s say, out there on the field.

Team Support:
- Rain
- Reflect
- Bomb #2

Zapdos @ Damp Rock
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP/220 SpDef/36 Spd
Moves:
- Rain Dance
- Thunder
- Signal Beam
- Roost

Cool suggestion by Legacy Raider, Zapdos completes my Rain Dance support trio, and is a very important member at that. Thunder does hell to any bulky water who thinks he wants to screw around with Zapdos, Signal Beam for Celebi, Abomasnow, and for finishing off TTar, etc. Roost can recycle Zapdos for another use later, and Rain Dance is standard supporter fare. It’s mainly here to stop Yanmega from being a bitch to this team, as well as provide another alternative that I can beat bulky waters by. I refrained from Rotom-W, since I’ve playtested him and whenever I’m up against Tyranitar, or any relatively sturdy pursuiter, I always lose him early in the match. Zapdos helps better in that sense.

Team Support:
- Rain
- Celebi Counter
- Bulky Water Counter
- Yanmega Counter

Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Nature: Modest
EVs: 60 HP/252 SpAtk/196 Spd
Moves:
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Energy Ball
- Rain Dance

I love Ludicolo. That extra grass typing alone makes him a worthy pokemon to consider while making a rain team. Part 1 of my offense, Surf/Ice Beam/Energy Ball makes for powerful type coverage, and since Ludicolo is rather bulky anyway, I stuck Rain Dance on it, for lack of a better option really, Focus Punch I’m iffy on, since my prediction isn’t always right on, HP Electric just for Gyara is rather overkill, Leech Seed will slow down the sweep significantly, etc.

Team Support:
- Rain
- Vaporeon Counter
- Special Sweeper #1

Qwilfish @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
Moves:
- Swords Dance
- Poison Jab
- Waterfall
- Explosion

Qwilfish is sick. Seriously. Firstly, Base 95 Attack is nothing to scoff at, especially when it stands to be boosted by Swords Dance and gets to be boosted in Rain, if we’re talking about Waterfall. The main thing that makes Qwilfish stand out from other physical sweepers like Kabutops, Floatzel, is that it gets Swords Dance, a decent move with STAB to take out Grass types, and Explosion. Waterfall/Poison Jab actually hits a lot of things for decent damage, despite Poison’s horrible type coverage. Swords Dance serves to boost Qwilfish’s attack to who knows what, and Explosion is a trump card, especially SD Explosion, since I can take out anything that tries to slow down my sweep, fucking up everything, even Steelix and Regirock. Simply put, I get a guaranteed kill, so I always play carefully right before LO recoil claims Qwilfish’s life, just in case my opponent switches in a ghost. Plus, he's cute. =D

Team Support:
- Grass Counter
- Bomb #3
- Physical Sweeper #1

Kingdra @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Nature: Naughty
EVs: 252 Atk/240 SpAtk/16 Spd
Moves:
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Hydro Pump
- Draco Meteor

This set truly shines in the rain, where Kingdra uses his awesome mixed sweeping capabilities plus STABS on both Water and Dragon, something that only him and his uber brother, Palkia can boast about. Hydro Pump+Draco Meteor destroys most silly bulky waters that switch into Kingdra, bar maybe Special Defensive Empoleon and Vaporeon. Waterfall makes for Kingdra’s secondary cleanup weapon, plus Blissey killer, 2HKOing Bliss in the rain. Dragon Dance can work if Kingdra finds enough time to dance up, making Waterfall then the deadliest move in Kingdra’s arsenal. Overall a very solid pokemon, and my main sweeper in the Rain Team.

Team Support:
- Mixed Sweeper #1
- Main Sweeper
​

 

[IceTime]

Threat List: (Top 50 threats of the metagame in December stats)

Scizor: Doesn’t really hurt my team much, Zapdos can take hits and initiate rain, so can Bronzong, and after that all of my pokes survive +2 BPs, so yeah.

Heatran: Zapdos can effectively roost it out, and also initiate rain, after that he’s quite easy to handle. SubToxic Trans are harder to beat assuming they turn count and come in the moment the rain ends. Kingdra is also an effective switch in.

Salamence: Not that much of a problem, Kingdra/Ludi beat it in rain, Bronzong can take a hit and initiate rain, so can Zapdos.

Tyranitar: Stupid SandStream. Bronzong is always my first switch since he likes throwing around boosted SEs. If my rain sweepers are out, I slam him with STAB water attacks to the point where he isn’t much of a threat anymore.

Gyarados: Bronzong booms in his face, Qwilfish can boom too, Kingdra should be able to take a hit and fuck it over with Draco Meteor. Other than that, without rain, Gyarados is pretty scary.

Zapdos: My own Zapdos can take it on, setup Rain, then start Thunder War, or just go for the sweep.
Bronzong should be able to take a hit too.

Blissey: Bronzong/Qwilfish can take Bliss down with booms or physical attacks, MixDra 2HKOs in Rain (but I’d rather not risk it, TWave is a scary prospect) Zong is first switch though, predicting TWave.

Infernape: is nothing, seriously, Leadapes generally don’t make that much of an impact, considering Zapdos can effectively roost its CC and OHKO with Thunder after drops, and he won’t use Fire Blast since I’ve got rain. Mixape is dealt with the same way, but SD Ape might be a little scary without Rain.

Lucario: Zapdos>Bronzong switching helps to wear down LO while it alternates between Ice Punch/SE and CC. Non Rain Boosted Surfs also claim a large large large chunk of Luke’s health.

Gengar: Zapdos can take it’s attacks, setup rain, and Thunder it down. If I get paralysis on it, that’s even better. =D

Metagross: It’s rather slow and dies to rain boosted surf/Hydro Pump unless investing in a lot of SpDef EVs, Bronzong walls it all day and can setup Reflect on it.

Swampert: Ludicolo.

Bronzong: I treat it as setup material, normally I can switch in my own Zong on it, get up Reflect, rain, and get out. Zapdos also can get in on it, forcing it to explode or get walled.

Celebi: Zapdos takes it perfectly, Signal beam is a 2HKO on most varients, there’s more than 90% chance that it won’t OHKO even if I go Modest 252 anyway so I’m satisfied with the 2HKO. Draco Meteor from Kingdra does hell to many varients too.

Jirachi: Bronzong can wall it if need be, MixDra hits hard with Waterfall/Hydro Pump, basically when I see one I try to wear it down as fast as possible with everything I’ve got.

Azelf: I normally don’t consider this a threat since it usually is gone early game. Hardly anyone uses Azelf as something other than a lead, dammit!

Starmie: Ludicolo can take its attacks and fire back, Zap can initiate rain in its face and wear it down.

Vaporeon: DOUCHEBAG. Ludi can take it on with Energy Ball, bar extremely special defensive versions, Bronzong and Qwilfish can boom and setup on it respectively.

Machamp: Eww, another one. It’s quite bulky, so it normally screws me up with DynamicPunch, not much I can do here since it’s confusion, normally I just take the chance and try to fuck it over with my attacks despite being confused.

Suicune: Bronzong and Qwilfish can bomb if need be. Zapdos can contribute Thunder, while taking attacks. Kingdra slays it with Draco Meteor if its offensive, and only requires a bit more damage if its 252/0. Ludicolo survives all of its attacks and contributes STAB Energy Ball.

Kingdra: Fucking deadly. It doesn’t help that 2/3 of the competitive battlers here use Swift Swim too. Rain Versions usually end up in clever switching and attacking to win, Sub DD versions make me use Qwilfish to break the sub with Poison jab, then SDing, forcing it to Outrage or die, if it outrages, Bronzong comes in and handles it, if it doesn’t, I Jab again for a likely death. Sometimes I just boom too, that’s safer. Pure DD versions are less common, but is the scariest one for my team, I usually try to lure it into Outrage.

Gliscor: Not that big a deal, STAB water moves are everywhere.

Breloom: Another douche, Azelf takes sleep if he’s still around, if not Zong, then I go to Zapdos and start Rain, while Roosting and wearing it down with Signal Beam. Or I could go to Qwilfish, who resists GrassFighting too.

Togekiss: Bronzong can take an Aura Sphere and setup Rain, Zapdos can take his hits even better and setup Rain, also threatening paralysis via Thunder. In Rain Togekiss is manhandled by my sweepers.

Skarmory: Nuff said.

Weavile: It’s real fragile, non rain attacks usually are able to take it out, if not, Bronzong can initiate rain to ensure that its taken out.

Rotom-H: This one is also not terribly bulky, walled by Zapdos, but sadly it can’t do anything back. I’ll have to initiate Rain if its not out and hope he doesn’t spam T-Wave. In Rain he’s quite easy to handle.

Magnezone: Not much of a threat, walled by Zapdos, who can initiate rain and threaten para, unless it comes in on Zong, who has EQ to whack him with.

Electivire: It won’t be receiving that speed boost unless it comes in on Zapdos, but by then rain should be up, and Kingdra/Ludi can take the incoming T-Bolt and begin sweep.

Flygon: ‘the only scarfer capable of revenging a Kingdra in good health’, normally I go to Bronzong to setup Reflect, then play accordingly.

Mamoswine: Bronzong takes it on fine, and it’s a wuss in the rain.

Snorlax: I’ve got the two exploders, Kingdra and Ludi wear it down rather easily despite its good special defense.

HIppowdon: He has no business with Rain Teams, considering his weak special defense, Ludicolo is a good switch to threaten KO and initiate rain.

Aerodactyl: screw this thing. I once had a battle where Aero FLINCHED MY TEAM UNTIL ROCK SLIDE’s PP WENT OUT. But other than that, not many people use non leading aero. Leading aeros are dealt with by first turn U-Turn, bringing in Ludicolo who sets up and begins whacking.

Heracross: Not horribly fast, outside of rain, predicting what move is coming can lead me to bring out either Zong or Zapdos, unless its non choiced, and SDs. Then fuck. In the rain, hes easy.

Forretress: just provides me with an opportunity to refresh rain and set Reflect.

Cresselia: This one is a bit tough to break. Stupid Lunar Duck. Rain Boosted attacks should 2HKO, or OHKO, hopefully. It can TWave, plus it can survive an attack, which is the freaking problem, I normally have to resort to going to Bronzong for Explosion.

Jolteon: IS IRRITATING. Even with such a healthy dose of SpDef EVs, Zapdos is 2HKOed by SpecsJolteon’s Thunderbolt. Once rain is out, I usually sacrifice something to bring in Zapdos free of any damage to take Thunderbolt and setup rain, then I’m safe for a while more.

Dusknoir: I hardly see this thing. What the heck? Rain Boosted hits take it down quickly.

Tentacruel: Qwilfish setup bait, more often than not. Sometimes I bring in Zong first too setup rain, if possible, and to try to boom on it, instead of sending in qwilfish immediately, since it’ll just setup more toxic spikes anyway after I send fishy in.

Rhyperior: is 4x weak to water, and has retarded special defense. Plus its rain. What do you expect?

Dragonite: similar to salamence, except much sturdier, still, unless its under light screen, Ludi and Kingdra will make quick work of him.

Porygon-Z: is rather fragile, and not that fast to boot, my rain starters easily take his attacks and initiate rain, eliminating him as a threat.

Empoleon: It can’t do much to Ludicolo except SD Drill Peck, so that’s usually my first switch, if not, Zapdos can take it on rather handily.

Dugtrio: It won’t come in during rain, or if my sweepers are in good health, so it’ll probably come out late game. Only precaution is to try to keep rain up at all times.

Alakazam: Fragile, outsped in rain. Can’t do shit to Bronzong.

Yanmega: YES! The threat that has plagued Rain Teams for so long is now countered! Zapdos takes it on and Roosts off damage while setting up Rain and threatening para.

Donphan: should go fight Sandstorm teams, he might have better luck there.

 

[IceTime]

Team Building Process:

I intended to go with half of the team support, and half of the team sweep.

Well it was a rain team, obviously I needed a fast and effective lead. Azelf fit the bill here, and provides me with a first Explosion. I thought for a while which Azelf set to run, then decided on Jolly since I didn’t want to compromise my defences. I’m running 252 HP anyway, so I need to be able to survive stuff.

I needed two other supporters. Bronzong immediately came to mind, since he was one of the best transition pokemon EVAR. He also gave me a second Explosion, so he immediately went in. Choosing the second one was tough, I originally intended to go with Scizor, but seeing my team get whored by Yanmegas all over the place, I wanted to go with something that could stop it.

Legacy Raider made me a great suggestion. Zapdos! I didn’t realise its potential until now, it had good defences, Roost, Signal Beam for Celebi, STAB Thunder for bulky waters, and Rain Dance. It was a perfect fit, and it stopped Yanmega to boot, so I went with him.

Then I needed the sweeper part of my team, deciding on this was much easier than the supporters, because I already had them in mind when making the team.

Kingdra was obviously going in, MixDra rapes teams, breaking holes wide open in offensive teams, stall teams, etc, if you used him correctly. Ludicolo was also another obvious entry, it’s ability to counter vaporeon, contributing a powerful special attacking force as well as grass STAB.

The last spot went to Qwilfish in the end. I’ve always thought of him as a premier physical attacker, and his poison typing as more of a blessing than a curse, I mean, he can freaking absorb Toxic Spikes. Plus he has Explosion. Nuff Said.

Keep in mind the next few questions I have before rating my team, if you could answer them, that'd be cool.

Types of teams I have trouble with:

1. Baton Pass
Baton Passing just wrecks my team, especially retarded Ninjask, overwriting the rain speed boost that is what I rely on as my main offense. Is it worth giving Zapdos Roar just for this?

Things I’m considering:

1. Can I afford to make Bronzong sturdier? Or is it fine as it is?

2. Should Azelf run Psychic? If anything to hurt something without dying or switching out.

3. Should Kingdra go special?

Okay, that's it, give me your best rates, I want to make this team as perfect a rain team as possible, partly for my friend, partly to win the tourney, either way, hope this RMT gets somewhere.

 

[diamondfan1910]

Baton Pass: Well, it looks like your choices would be to either add a p/hazer or just Explode on something in the chain. For example, let's say your opponent leads with Ninjask; you could throw up a Rain Dance with Azelf and switch straight to Qwilfish. Break the Sub and explode on whatever switches in. Of course, this is easier said than done; the opponent may well switch in Smeargle to outspeed and Sleep you. At this point, you could go back to Azelf and blow up on that Smeargle! What might be easier though is to put Roar on your Zapdos over Signal Beam. Celebi ain't getting past Ludicolo any time soon and it won't be too fond of Poison Jab from Qwilfish either.

Can you afford to make Bronzong sturdier? It's up to you. However, he currently remains your only counter (pretty much) to DD Kingdra and he's not doing much with Earthquake, dealing a 4HKO at best. If I were you I'd consider a few more EVs in Attack rather than less, but it's still up to you. Funny how the rain can be used against you :p

Psychic can't really go over anything on Azelf except U-turn. U-turn is much better for scouting switches and you'll probably be blowing up ASAP anyway, so I'd leave it off. You might consider Taunt, but I still think U-turn is better.

Should Kingdra go Special? In my opinion, no. You have a powerful Special attacker in Ludicolo and it's good to have something mixed.

Also, be careful using "retard" and the like, it'll offend people.

 

[IceTime]

@diamondfan: thanks for your comments, i'm not sure of roar over signal beam, since signal beam helps to finish off weakened tyranitars, abomasnows, etc, but i'll put it over signal beam if i start to see BP teams popping out all over the place. (thankfully they're not that common). Kingdra is really hard to play around in a rain team. If the attack EVs are for EQ, i'd rather not, since i'll just boom on Dra anyway, it'll kill me first if i start EQing. i'll watch what i say next time, sorry if it really offended someone.

lol i know i shouldn't be begging people to rate my team, but please do, 1 rate only isn't a lot.

 

[Erazor]

Why are you using Dragon Dance in the rain? Maybe you could use Outrage or something to go truly mixed.
Just a suggestion though.

 

[IceTime]

I don't particularly like Outrage in the rain, confusion messes me up and forces me to switch, and being locked in one move can easily lead to a steel type destroying my main sweeper. If the reason for using Outrage is for lategame cleanup, I don't see how my other moves can't do the job just as well. Dragon Dance, though not used much, offers me the oppurtunity to offset the rain with DD speed boosts, so that I can sweep without Rain, and in it. If I were to replace it with anything, I'd probably go with Rain Dance, for more RD support, but thanks for your comments.

 

[blasphemy1]

I really don't understand how these rain teams are remotely successful without CB Dugtrio, and honestly I would replace something on your team for it immediately. You have 4 Rain Dancers, that isn't even necessary. I suggest replacing one of them, preferrably Azelf or Bronzong, with CB Duggie. He traps and kills Tyranitar along with Blissey, who nowadays doesn't even use Ice Beam and opts for Flamethrower, which with or without the rain isn't going to do enough. Calm Blissey is 2HKOed by EQ, so it can't stall with Wish+Protect.

 

[maddog]

Actually, Baton Pass teams should be an auto win for Rain Dance. Going boom, setting up DD Kingdra. All you have to do is limit the number of Speed Boosts they can get it or break their chain once, and they can't win at all. Hypno/ Vaporeon can't take hits from Rain Dance well at all. It isn't as hard of a match as you think it is.

 

[IceTime]

@blasphemy1: the thing about it is, even with 4 rain dancers, one is a lead, and will probably die early in the match, one is a sweeper, so i'll refrain from using it to start rain unless the other rain starters are dead or its absolutely necessary, and the last two are definitely required, considering auto weather inducers are rather common. Assuming Tyranitar, Hippowdon or Abomasnow switch in after a kill and switch out again, i'll have to keep going to my weather inducers, which, if i follow your advice, would be Zapdos only, not taking sweeper/suicide lead into account, and taking out Zong for CB Duggy. This way, my weather inducers will be worn out pretty fast, which might result in an advantage on other weather teams.

I'm not saying CB Duggy is bad though, i've tried it before and it was cool to have all the auto weathers die so early in the match, but it didn't contribute much to the team otherwise, so i decided to scrap it. Though I will take your comment into consideration. thanks.

@maddog: the way you describe it, it does sound like an easy win. I find it hard though since Ninjask gets Speed Boosts too fast early in the match, perhaps its just the way i play against BP Teams that is the problem. thenks for your advice.

 

[IceTime]

bump.

 

[kingdra-13]

Team rating isn't my stuff, but since I love Rain Dance teams, I'll throw in a suggestion or two.

Ludicolo does not need Rain Dance, so ideally Focus Punch, Hidden Power[Electric], etc will become of that slot. But if you do enjoy the extra support, maybe turn your Bronzong into a rain setter-upper and Screener.That way, after you set up all 3, explode and you give Kingdra a chance to DD once or twice and end the game.

Have you ever considered Scizor? He's reasonably bulky, counters both Tyranitar and Abomasnow and can hold it's own in late-game. Rain turns it's dreaded double fire weakness into a mere 2x weakness. You could even throw him Pursuit for Celebi, since he'll probably be replacing Zapdos.

If you decide you have too less support when replacing Ludicolo's Rain Dance, you could give that to Kingdra and make him more of a late-game finisher.

These are just my suggestions and since I'm still pretty nooby, don't puts these too high on your priority list. Hope I helped!

 

[IceTime]

@kingdra-13: haha it's okay, i appreciate any and all team rates. Focus Punch is a really cool idea, i've always meddled around with it starting when peachfuzz brought it to my attention, sadly my prediction is rather iffy, so i'd rather not. HP Electric is rather situational, i dunno. My Bronzong IS a dancer/screener, EQ is needed for maggys runing amok all over the place, if im not wrong it OHKOs while maggy fails to OHKO with scarf T-Bolt.

The reason i stopped using Scizor was i lacked a reliable switch to special attacks when rain was done, plus I didn't have a counter to spdefensive suicune that has a few CMs bar explosion, Zapdos helps slow down Bulky Waters and still finishes off the two mentioned. It however cannot take either of them on directly.

last about kingdra having rain dance, i tend to go sometimes DD sometimes RD, both work so yeah nice suggestion.

thanks!