The Tales of the Drumming Frog and the

[Mari]

Once upon a time there was a plumpy green frog. He was a great drummer and was able to summon rain. He had a lot of friends on its side and they lived happily until their deaths.

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Politoed @ Expert Belt
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Earthquake
- Waterfall
- Ice Punch

The core of my team. After a Speed'n'Sub-Pass from Ninjask one of the biggest threads in the metagame. I really do love this set. Earthquake, Waterfall and Ice Punch have a great type coverage and match well together. Expert Belt is IMO better than Life Orb because it doesn't cost any HP.

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Volcarona @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Hurricane
- Bug Buzz
- Fire Blast - Giga Drain Hidden Power [Water]

Volcarona works very good in Rain, because of the move Hurricane. Bug Buzz is a safe STAB and very useful against Dark and Psychic types. Overmore this beast has a psychological effect. Most Ferrothorn will switch out, giving me a free turn to boost.

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Ninjask @ Starf Berry
Trait: Speed Boost
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Protect
- Baton Pass
- Roost - X-scissor

Ninjask is very important. It's Speed Pass allows Politoed to reach its full potential. It gets only 248 HP IVs to enable Starf Berry. But also Thundurus-T and even Tentacruel can be good Baton Pass Targets, depending on the stat which is increased by this random berry.

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Tentacruel @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Toxic Spikes Magic Coat
- Rapid Spin
- Surf
- Sludge Wave

Spinner because of Volcarona and Ninjask, Rain Dish because it is a rain team and Surf + Sludge Wave as Special attacking moves. The first one is even boosted by the rain... Sludge Wave is great against Breloom and always a OHKO.

Thundurus-Therian @ Lum Berry
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Thunder
- Grass Knot
- Superpower
- Nasty Plot

Thunder is STAB, Grass Knot against Ground types and Superpower is against pink blobs ... Volt Absorb is also a great ability in Rain teams which are dominated by Water types

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Jirachi @ Shed Shell Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Water Pulse
- Calm Mind
- Psychic

Water Pulse + Thunder are really, really annoying, Psychic as STAB move. A Steel Pokémon is very important, because this team has a big Rock weakness. Dual status Jirachi profits most from Rain. First it loses its Fire weakness and second it boosts 2 of its moves.

 

[PokèManiac Livio]

Mmm.. nice team bro, but u mtst write other.
I' m going to do a quick rate.Focus blast>Superpower, cause u have nastly plot anyway, Sub to rachi, cause a status can break the Boost and so ferrothorn can t touch u with a seed. Giga drain> fblast, u r in a rain and is a nice move tutor BW2. Ah, Black sludge>Lefties for a casual trick to Tentacruel

 

[Mari]

Why Focus Blast? It has a bad hit rate. Nasty Plot doesn't change this.

Which of Rachi's moves should I replace for Sub? I think about giving it a Lum Berry instead of Shed Shell, is this a good idea?

Giga Drain sounds great. I'll try it. However I worry a little about Ferrothorn. Its Power Whip is really dangerous ...

Why Black Sludge, when the Trick user can trick it again to another Pokémon of mine?

 

[Shayupi]

Nice

Nice team but sludge wave on tentacruel won't really help you, replace surf with scald and sludge wave with toxic spikes (so you have Magic coat, tspides, scald and rapidspin)

 

[Episode36]

Well, cool idea, but you don't even have any insurance against priority or phasers. No Smeargle with Ingrain, no Magic Bounce Pokemon. Most teams see Ninjask and are automatically prepared for it, especially with more and more people running priority and especially Ice Shard priority. Phasers are big too, along with a select few running unaware or ditto type Pokemon. You also have nothing to stop taunt or encore or perish song type stuff. Basically, you are trying to use Baton Pass as a focal part of your team, yet you have nothing to prevent the many many things that shut Baton Pass down. I mean, it's a cool gimmick, but I wouldn't expect to get any sort of good rating with your team. You would simply have to change it to more of a baton pass team, with appropriate counters for taunts/encores/priority/phasers etc, or get rid of the Baton Pass strategy and focus on making it an overall better team.

 

[Mari]

Well, but the team also works w/o Baton Pass, however this would weaken Politoad a lot. Against Ice Shard I already have Jirachi. Ninjask plays the role of a sacrifice. Either it increases the speed of the glass cannons Politoad and Thor-T and gives a safe switch in at a later point (if there are no rocks) or it tries to stall some pp and gets killed in the end ...

 

[Episode36]

The team works like 2/3 of a normal rain team without the baton pass, which will lose to many actual full teams. Ice shard doesn't matter if you switch in Jirachi. Mamo will OHKO you with Earthquake. Not many Mamoswine use choiced items, they use Life Orb or Focus Sash.

As you kind of just said, Ninjask is the weak link to this team. I would replace him with something better, something to take advantage of rain, or dispatch those who would oppose rain. Then make Politoed an actual, viable set, and you have a decent team on your hands.

 

[Mari]

Do you think, giving Politoed with a supporting moveset (e. g. Hypnosis, Perish Song, Ice Beam, Surf) and replacing Ninjask with a trapper (e. g. Wobbuffet with Mirror Coat, Counter, Encore, Charm/Safeguard) ?