The cheese is strong with this one

[Nicolaibalu]

Hey Smogon, im Nicolaibalu or CheesyMcCheese on the ladder and today i wanna present to you the team that ive been building, testing out, adjusting in the last month. It happens to be a rain team because why the f not right? :D

Team Building

This little happy dude is the key to succes and glorious victory. He has so much TM87 he doesnt even use the move "swagger". So obviously i took him since i wanted to make a rain team. I always liked the physicaly def Politoed and i usually dont let him die just for the reason that the rain is up and will stay. This guy is made for more than just drizzle, hes made to lead the team to victory.

Then i added Thundurus-T because i wanted to have a heavy hitter on the special side. Thundurus-T was capable of absorbing electric type attacks and 1-2HKO pretty much everything that isnt big, round and pink.

Now i wanted to add a heavy hitter on the physical side. I wanted to use an old set that i used before. Setting up Dragon Dance(s) while Multiscale is active and then start OHKing things. I equipped him with a lum berry to either absorb statusmoves from my opponant or confusion from Outrage. I also gave him ExtremeSpeed so i had a priority user in my team.

So now both my heavy hitters had a weakness to StealthRocks. I needed a spinner, and since i wanted to make an offensive rain team Starmie was the perfect choice. RapidSpin+3Attacks with amazing coverage and huge power in the rain made this thing a threat and a supporter in one Pokemon.

To help my offensive core sweep i needed StealthRock support. I added Ferrothorn. And i also wanted something to slow my opponants team down so i chose maxSpDef Jirachi with thunderwave and Iron Head. I also gave him wish to support Ferrothorn and Politoed who both didnt have any form of recovery besides leftovers and sometimes leech seed. These two pokes formed an interesting defensive core with politoed. They both have a weakness to fire that is tuned down with rain activ.


Now i tried the team out. Politoed usualy survived long enough to win weather wars and stopped many setup sweepers with encore. Ferrothorn and Jirachi also did their job well. The problem was my offensive core. I had a hard time switching starmie in to rapidspin before i could bring in my dragonite, since i didnt want his multiscale to be broken. Also Thundurus-T was really squishy and most of the time a 1HKO after StealthRocks, but i still wanted to use him since he was an awesome lategame sweeper, usually ending the game by spamming Thunder and cleaning up. Not so much of a revenge killer like i wanted him to be.

I switched Dragonite out for CB scizor. He provided a more reliable priority move and kinda worked as a revenge killer. He also helped with bulky grass types who kept ruining my day.
With Dragonite gone everything seemed to work much better. I had a good run and got my rating to personal record level. It was all fine until i faced this one guy... He had a mono-FightingType-team. I got destroyed lol.
So obviously changes had to be made. Starmie wasnt really necessary anymore, with Dragonite gone. So i wanted to switch her out for something that could take fighting type attacks for days.

Slowbro joined the party. Not much to say about this guy. Switching in on fighting types. Recover/Calm Mind or just try to scald burn something, this is Slowbro for you Ladys and Gentleman.
If you take a closer look at my team now one could say that this doesnt look like an offensive rain team at all! And they are right, because it plays much more like a stall team. Weakening everything with Toxic/Scald/Thunder-Wave/Leech Seed/Stealth-Rock untill Thundurus-T or Scizor can come in and just clean the mess up.
Oh yeah and all my pokes resist steel, so gtfo with your bullet punching :D



The Team

Cheddar (Politoed) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Protect
- Encore
- Toxic

This set really made me realise how awesome "Encore" is. Stopping everything that wants to setup on politoed. Scald still does a surprising amount of damage (rain so powerful) considering i have no SpAtt investment. I dont let Politoed die just because the rain is up and there to stay, but i have to admit, if i really really have to fodder off something politoed has to take the bullet.
I find myself not using toxic that much since i prefer encoring and then act accordingly on the move he is locked into.

Parmesan (Scizor) (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- U-turn

Not much to say about him. He punches holes in to teams... a lot. He is an amazing powerhouse. He is the revenge killer of the team, at least kind of. In some battles he just enters the field after i stalled enough and punches everything to death, but that might just be me not using him until i know he will not be stopped^^ He is also able to Pursuit trap which is kinda handy sometimes.

Brie (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Protect

My StealthRock supporter. Sometimes he is my lead if i dont want to lead with politoed for some reason. With leech seed, Leftovers and Protect he has a good amount of recovery. The problem is, with Power Whip as his only attacking move he cant do anything to grass types. The EV spread allows him to tank hits from both physical and special moves. Fire moves in the rain only really threaten him if its stab or otherwise boosted.

Gruyere (Slowbro) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 Def / 248 HP / 12 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Slack Off
- Scald
- Psyshock

Slowbro, my solution to fighting types. He is able to switch into a fighting move and switch out again without taking any damage because of Regenerator. After a Calm Mind he is also able to take a lot of special hits and retaliating hard! Scald is my STAB move off choice because id rather have more utility than just raw damage. Im not sure with psyshock tough. It is kinda useful against Chansys and Blisseys or other special walls but sometimes id just rather have a little bit more power, but oh well^^

Camembert (Jirachi) @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SDef / 32 Spd
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Thunder Wave
- Wish
- Protect

Jirachi is the backbone of my team! He keeps stuff healthy with wish (even heals himself with wish+protect) and he slows the opposition down. Sometimes just Thunder Wave on the switch in and then Iron Head flinching them to death. With this amount of annoyance he represents my team perfectly! He is so damn bulky and Jirachi as a versatile poke isnt really predictable unless you have finally figured out what set your opponant is using. I use Thunder Wave over thunder because i rather have the 100% para then just a little damage. He lets other to the damage while he is there to support the team and be annoying as f... :D

Gorgonzola (Thundurus-Therian) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Grass Knot
- Thunder
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Well to be completly honest all i ever do with this thing is swiching it in when all Ground types are dead and start Thundering the shit out of everything. With Max Speed/Timid/Choice Scarf it is able to outspeed a lot of common pokes like Scarfed Salamence. With his amazing Base SpAtt all he is lacking is speed, so choice scarf was the obvious choice for me. Since im using 2 Water types, something to resist, yeah even profit from electric type attacks is completly awesome. He has some amazing synergie going on with Politoed. Resisting grass type attacks and healing off electric type attacks makes him able to stop the "volt" part of "voltturning" and make the opponant pay for using such a strat.


Thanks for reading my RMT, advice and constructive critisism is highly appreciated!

 

[High Impulse]

Hey there, nice team. I really like the use of Slowbro.

Anyway, looking at your team, your team seems very weak to Sun teams, also Special Landorus-I looks like it could be very annoying, so to help with this may I suggest a Latias > Slowbro. Latias can still swtich into Fighting types while also providing you a solution to Landorus and Latias.

Also, Jirachi seems to bother you a bit as well as hazards which could be quite annoying, so may I suggest a Donphan > Jirachi just to help with hazards and Jirachi. Also, Donphan can help beat Physical dragons such as Dragonite and Salamence which could be annoying if you do lose the weather war.

One more thing; if you do decide to try these changes may I suggest using a Specially Defensive Ferrothorn just so you can switch into the Lati twins and Rotom-W better.

Sets

Hide

Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Surf
- Recover

Donphan (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Atk / 224 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard

Anyway, nice team. Hope I helped!

 

[Nicolaibalu]

Hay thanks for your suggestions.

@Tyfusion; The reason im using Protect is for additional Leech seed/Lefty recovery and its also useful to scout for certain moves/sets. Im not using Thunder-Wave because it seems kinda redundant because Jirachi can spread paralysis pretty well already.

@High Impulse; You are right, against sun teams, if i lose the weather war i pretty much lost the game. I usually beat them by getting up stealth rocks (slowly kills Ninetales) and punishing any try to remove them. Or if they are using SolarBeam instead of Energyball on Ninetales then its no problem anyways^^

When i painfully discovered that i have a weakness to fighting types i took Latias into consideration, but i chose to not use it because it has a lack of physDef. It gets 2HKOed by choice banded terrakions close combat and even 1HKOed by Stone Edge. It also struggles facing Keldeo that packs Icy Wind. But it would certainly bring some more offensive "punch" into my team and a Ground type resistance that i dont really have (Thundurus-T has it but hes so squishy he would die to a rattatas tackle...)

Now Donphan would definately be a interesting choice. His natural Bulk and Rapid Spin makes him interesting for me. The thing is, nothing on my team is really weak to stealth rocks, and toxic spikes arent really a problem either since i have 3steel types and 1 flying, Slowbro has regenerator (when poisoned i just hit and run tactic) and Politoed gets poisoned in every match anyways because he rather encores someone into toxic then switch out x) Against Spikes i just have to wish support (needs heavy predictions) really hard.
I didnt have any troubles with Dragon types to be honest. My steel types and slowbro generaly tank them pretty well and Thundurus-T outspeeds any form of +1speed/choice scarfed dragons ive ever faced but Latios/-as, but these two are more or less walled by Jirachi.

EDIT: Physical Jirachis are usually no problem because they take more iron barbs damage then they are able to deal damage to ferrothorn. Also, as long as they arent running sub, i can seed/protect stall them out forever. They only set i ever had a problem with is subCM Jirachi. Because the only wall i have against that is my Jirachi which cannot really do anything back. I also have nothing to roar/whirlwind it out.

 

[Nicolaibalu]

Update: I tried Latias out and replaced Jirachi, and woooow is this thing strong! It is an awesome answer to many of my problems. It can deal with Breloom which was really hard for me to beat. And sometimes just sweeps the opponant if he has nothing left which is faster or tanky enough.
The downside is that i dont have wish and paralyz support anymore and Latias can be pursuit trapped by scizor and ttar if not carful.

Im currently testing Latias out further and I may update my RMT.