Super Mario Bro
All we ever look for
So beautiful, yet so deadly
Super Mario Bro's comments are in green
and
Raikoulover's comments are in blue
Introduction
Hi! I know I’m posting this a bit late, but that’s mainly because I’ve been really busy IRL. This is the most successful team that I’ve played with this gen, as it doesn’t follow the traditional stall strategy of “run a bunch of walls and hope your opponent can’t break the core”. Instead of walling opposing Pokemon with defensive stats alone, this team walls them based on resistances and immunities. Another thing that differentiates this team from a traditional full stall team is that we run a wall-breaker (Tornadus-T) to clean things up after we get our hazards down. We gradually became very comfortable with the team structure, and could play around almost every team out there.
The idea for this came actually came the same way I build most of my teams: browsing the RMT forum for interesting ideas. I came across a cool team that utilized Rain Stall + Tornadus-T. I had only modest experience using the (now Uber) bird, so I decided that would be an awesome idea to start with. I pitched the team concept to Mario and we began to brainstorm.
Success:
We both did very well with this team on the ladder. I was able to consistently hover in the top 5 with a win rate of 90% or greater, and Raikoulover achieved a win rate of 30-4 with his main alt, and similarly good win rates with his many other alts.
Team Development:
We feel that weather is almost a necessity in BW. Therefore, we obviously need our Rain Starter.
Now, the team focus was utilizing Rain Stall + Tornadus-T, so he was a no brainer.
The most important aspect of stall is to find your residual damage. This is usually done by having all 3 hazards available to you. Now, there are several different pokemon combinations to accommodate this. I actually got the team idea from seeing a Skarm-Chansey core with SR / Spikes combined with Tentacruel. However, type analysis made this quite unfavorable. Many Rain teams have several electric weaknesses and we wanted to avoid that. Another major consideration is spin-blocking. Most Rain Stall teams either have to choose between ignoring a spin blocker altogether, or adding another electric weakness by choosing Jellicent. Gengar is omitted for obvious reasons.
We decided to start our hazard setting core with Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn is greatly aided by rain and can lay Spikes and Stealth Rock. We also liked the fact that Ferrothorn beats Starmie and Donphan.
Next is the obvious Tentacruel. Tentacruel lays Toxic Spikes which can really help outlast certain threats. Tentacruel is also the most reliabile spinner, so that was a no brainer.
Now that our hazards were taken care of we needed some Wish Support because we always use Wish support on any kind of defensive team. Jirachi in the Rain is the most reliable Wish support available and we knew it would be a great fit because we use it extensively in Ubers.
Finally, we needed a Pokemon to patch up some type weaknesses and help with special threats. We dislike using the Blobs because they don’t usually advance our strategy and are set up fodder for so many threats. Furthermore, stall is incredibly difficult to run these days by pure walls, so we focused more on typing to choose our last member. After thinking long and hard, we needed something to consistently handle powerful water attacks from the likes of Keldeo, and something to handle Rotom-Wash because Ferrothorn is a bad match up. Therefore, we decided Celebi would be an ideal fit.
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Meet the Pokemon
Politoed (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spd
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Refresh
- Encore
- Protect
Politoed is the Pokemon that gets everything started. Drizzle is an absolutely amazing ability that gives Tentacruel another layer of Leftovers recovery, and buffs the already great defensive typings of Jirachi, Celebi and Ferrothorn by reducing their weakness to Fire. Toed generally doesn’t do much on its own, but it punishes things trying to set up on it with Encore, and is a great Ninetales switch.
I have a hate-hate relationship with Politoed. Mario seems to like him.. I think of him more as a necessary evil because he doesn’t do much. He is usually the most expendable member if the other team is weatherless, but we found way for him to be quite effective. Politoed does have his perks though; he can really screw with the opponent with Encore and pass burns around with Scald. We usually like to stay in on Ferrothorn and try to Burn him because a burned Ferrothorn is easier for the rest of the team to handle. We Encore him if he tries to get cute. I found Encore to be invaluable to the team as it helps ease prediction and get through certain threats.
Moveset:
Scald – Great STAB with decent power in the rain and a chance to burn. When in doubt? Scald!
Refresh – This move has its pros and cons. On one hand, it improves Politoed’s survivability against Will-O-Wisp Ninetales and other status inducers. On the other, it leaves Politoed completely helpless against Jellicent switching into it. This is why we occasionally rotate it for Toxic, since that move lets it do something to Latios, Gastrodon, Vaporeon and Jellicent.
Encore – My favorite move on Politoed. Certain things like Haxorus and Dragonite are often tempted to set up Dragon Dances on Toed, and this move punishes them for trying to do so.
Protect – This move is great for scouting Choice, Toxic stalling, and netting extra Leftovers recovery.
EV Spread:
248 HP
252 Def – Maximizes Politoed’s ability to switch into Tyranitar’s Crunch and eat burned Ferrothorn’s Power Whip
8 Spd – Some speed creep is always nice, no?
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Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Air Slash
- Focus Blast
- Sleep Talk
Tornadus-T was the offensive mon of this team and many other rain teams out there, and for good reason. It has a trolly speed tier, good Special Attack, and its STAB Specs Hurricane is just a pain to switch into if you don’t have Specially Defensive Jirachi. On this team, Tornadus-T carries the important role of checking Breloom, Volcarona, and pretty much anything else that doesn’t resist its Hurricane. It’s also a very good late-game cleaner, as it can even sweep through its checks and counters if we racked up enough damage throughout the game.
It is no secret how I feel about this guy’s “Uber” status. Tornadus-T was good and the perfect member on our team for this slot. We didn’t build the team around him sweeping. We use him as a powerful revenge killer that can put the other team in a defensive position as we continue our strategy. I found Tornadus-T had to be played with a lot of care due to his relative frailty and the prevalence of Choice Scarf being used on multiple pokemon at times. With all that being said, this thing flat out rapes face with its mighty Hurricane.
Moveset:
Hurricane – Broken STAB move: 120 Base Power, nothing’s immune to it, 100% accurate in Rain, 30% chance for confusion; what’s not to love?
Air Slash – Because spamming Hurricane against sun teams is impossible as long as Ninetales is alive, we rely on this move to brutalize sun teams. It’s quite powerful, even with a mere 75 base power, and the 30% flinch rate comes in handy at times as well. It allows us to use Tornadus-T against greedy players that think he can’t do much outside of rain.
Focus Blast – It hits things that would otherwise take zilch from Hurricane, like bulky Rotom-W, Magnezone, and Tyranitar.
Sleep Talk – This is just here for Breloom, the troll. Yes, we hate him that much. Ideally, we want Tornadus-T awake because shooting off random attacks is bad. However, if things get desperate and Breloom can cripple a vital link in our core, we can use this as a last resort.
EV spread:
Simple; hit things as hard as possible and tie with other T-T.
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Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Def / 176 SDef / 20 Spd
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Body Slam
- Wish
- Protect
With Tornadus-T running around everywhere, how could any team NOT use this little pixie? Even though Jirachi’s stats don’t scream “wall”, its resistances to things like Hurricane, Specs Draco Meteor, and Choice Band Outrage along with investment in its defenses allow it to form a strong anti-Dragon core with Ferrothorn. Its typing also allows it to counter threats like Alakazam and Gengar, who would otherwise be problematic, as they bypass our hazards with their abilities.
Easily the most useful defensive Pokemon ever. Jirachi is what the pink blobs wish they could be. Jirachi is the closest thing we have to a special wall and does it largely because of its typing and rain. Jirachi’s typing is so useful in rain that we don’t even use Max Special Defense because it does so many things well. Serence Grace doesn’t hurt either, as I’ve seen Mario dig himself out of 1-3 holes with Jirachi’s hax, haha. Oh yeah, Mag is still a dick. We have to be really really cautious when Mag is around for Jirachi to outlast it otherwise it leaves our entire core open to Dragons!
Moveset:
Wish – allows Jirachi to heal itself and its teammates. Its importance on this team can’t be underemphasized, as it heals Politoed, who does not have access to reliable recovery.
Body Slam – We decided to use this over Thunder for a couple of reasons. First of all, it helps in the sun match up, as Jirachi cannot rely on a 50% accurate Thunder to paralyze Chlorophyll sweepers. Next, it prevents Jirachi from being set-up bait against offensive Ground-types and Thundurus-T.
Iron Head – It’s a STAB and it flinches. What’s not to like?
Protect – I haven’t seen many others use this move on Jirachi, and it’s hard to understand why. Without Protect, Jirachi would be hard pressed to consistently counter threats like Tornadus-T, as it would need two turns to heal, which it does not always have.
EV spread:
252 HP
60 Def – This lets Jirachi eat Choice Band Outrages better.
20 Spd – Enough for Timid Magnezone and by extension, Adamant Breloom
176 SDef – the rest goes in special defense to take on Gengar and Tornadus-T as well as possible.
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Ferrothorn (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Def / 128 SDef
Impish Nature
IVs: 30 Spd
- Power Whip
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Protect
Ferrothorn is the mon whom we just throw in front of stuff. Its Grass/Steel typing and great defensive stats allow it to take quite a bit of abuse from various attackers before dying bravely. You might think that the choice of item is strange on such a defensive team, but it has actually worked really well for us. Rocky Helmet + Iron Barbs kills rampaging Dragons and Rapid Spinners shockingly quickly. Leftovers is a decent item choice as well, as it lets Ferrothorn net extra recovery outside of Wish and Leech Seed, but makes physical attackers like DD Nite a bit harder to keep under control. We also like to use Rocky Helmet since residual damage to the other team helps us win.
Ferrothorn in the rain should be Uber. It is just that damn annoying. We don’t mind the lack of Leftovers recovery because of how useful Rocky Helmet is (Leech Seed alleviates that when played smartly). I play him like a suicide Spiker in bad team match ups. Although he is hardly a physical wall due to Fighting type weakness, nothing pisses off physical Dragons more in this game than Ferrothorn. Magnezone is a dick but if you are proactive with Leech Seed and Spikes, we can normally play through him or keep Ferro alive long enough to lay some spikes to help out Jirachi with the double-Mag switches.
Moveset:
Power Whip – Great STAB move that hits some important Pokemon for a good amount of damage. Namely, it breaks Gyarados’s Sub and lays a lot of hurt on opposing Tentacruel, especially if it spins into Rocky Helmet on the same turn.
Leech Seed – Extra residual damage on the opponent’s side of the field, and gives Ferrothorn a decent source of recovery.
Protect – Scouting + extra Leech Seed recovery.
Spikes – An important hazard for the team. SR by itself doesn’t hurt grounded Pokes and Steels nearly hard enough, so we wanted another way to punish the opponent from switching too much. If we have a couple layers of Spikes along with SR up, the opposing team is usually hard-pressed to prevent a Tornadus-T sweep.
EV Spread:
252 HP
128 Def -- Helps Ferrothorn tank Outrages and neutral Earthquakes from Landorus-T. Ferrothorn has a physically defensive bias in his spread because Celebi and Jirachi already cover special Waters and Dragons, respectively.
128 SpDef – Some special defense is still useful, as Ferrothorn is still the team’s best Starmie switch-in. They also let Ferrothorn eat weaker Fire Blasts and strong Hydro Pumps in the rain.
30 Speed IVs: Outslows min speed Forretress by one point so that we can Leech Seed it after it spins into Barbs + Helmet.
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Tentacruel (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 208 HP / 204 Def / 96 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Protect
Tentacruel is the team’s Toxic Spikes absorber, Fighting-type pivot, and perhaps most importantly, Rapid Spinner. Rapid Spin is absolutely crucial in allowing each tank on this team to live as long as possible, and it also prevents Deoxys-D teams from walking all over us. We decided to use Toxic Spikes on our Tentacruel instead of Toxic because it puts a strict time limit on the lives of Substitute sweepers like Terrakion, who can otherwise rip holes in our team’s defensive core. We sometimes ponder using Toxic instead, but ultimately decided that Toxic Spikes is more useful to the structure of the team as a whole. A lot of people bash it for not being effective against enough Pokemon...but if you strategically lay Toxic Spikes they can be very useful. Tentacruel can leave his mark on pokemon like Garchomp without ever having to face him one on one!
Tentacruel is a pimp. Tentacruel is just the quintessential rain abuser. Once he gets going, he just lingers all fucking day man. All he has to do is Protect to scout Choice users and spam Scald. When we see a Garchomp / Terrakion / Keldeo that could be problematic and the enemy has no Poison types (or we eliminated them), Toxic Spikes cements our stall victory. Fuck Toxic. Credits go 100% to Mario for convincing me to use our current EV spread. Beating Gliscor and Mamoswine with speed is awesome.
Moveset:
Scald – Staple for bulky waters. Burning Ferrothorn with this thing is amazing, as it pretty much guarantees we can spin against him all day long.
Toxic Spikes – Toxic status puts pressure on so many offensive and defensive threats, like Hippowdon, Keldeo, Tyranitar, and Celebi, as it forces them to switch out after a few turns. Tentacruel is probably the most resilient Toxic Spikes setter in the whole game, as it is notoriously hard to kill, with Rain Dish pumping an extra layer of Leftovers recovery every turn. Toxic Spikes also lets Tentacruel defeat Jellicent, as we can predict his switch in and lay two layers. From there we can use Rapid Spin 64 times until Jellicent either switches out or dies.
Rapid Spin – This is Tentacruel’s niche, and its importance can’t be understated. Having Rocks off the field is crucial for allowing Tornadus-T and Celebi to check some of the more brutal attackers in the tier. While Jirachi and Ferrothorn resist Stealth Rock, they appreciate having Spikes off the field when countering Dragon-types, as too many layers can ensure that both of them are 2HKO’d by a strong banded Outrage.
Protect – Helps Tentacruel stall with Toxic, and nets him two free layers of Leftovers recovery every other turn.
EV Spread:
208 HP – Leftovers number
204 Def – Slight physical bias helps Tentacruel tank choiced Fighting-type attacks
96 Spd – Coupled with a Timid nature, this lets Tentacruel outpace Jolly Mamoswine, who would otherwise be a bit of a nuisance to deal with
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Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Def / 176 SDef / 20 Spd
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Perish Song
- Recover
Celebi is most certainly our MVP because it is the “glue” that keeps the stall core working. It sets up rocks, provides an important resistance to special water attacks, and most importantly, is our counter to all kinds of set-up sweepers. Things like Sub CM Jirachi and Sigilyph would potentially ruin the team if it weren’t for Celebi. However, that’s not the only place where Perishturn comes in handy; it’s also a reliable pHazing strategy that racks up hazards damage while keeping momentum on our side.
Celebi is the MVP for this team by far. Seriously, I guard Celebi with my life and play it more cautiously than Mario does. Nothing is more satisfying than using Perish Song on the opponent’s last pokemon and seeing that rage quite right after! Again, Celebi advances our strategy better than either blob could ever dream of and works just as well as a special sponge due to typing relative to other members of the team.
Moveset:
Stealth Rock – We put this on Celebi because nothing else has room for it. I generally lead with Celebi because people usually expect me to lead with Politoed; Celebi can set up rocks on most things that would force Politoed out.
Perish Song – The first part of the Perishturn strategy. This move is great because it lets Celebi counter Calm Mind Jirachi, Calm Mind Reuniclus, and many other boosters.
U-Turn – It has great synergy with Perish Song, and lets us get things in for free. Plus, it can actually dent things like Tyranitar and opposing Celebi on the switch.
Recover – Not much to say here. Reliable recovery is great.
EV Spread:
252 HP
176 SpDef – Optimizes Celebi’s ability to counter Keldeo, Specs Politoed, and other special Water-types. Max Special Defense seems a little overzealous, so we tinkered with slightly lower amounts so we can give Celebi some physical defense.
60 Def – Helps it survive Pursuit, boosted Dragonite’s Outrage, and other powerful physical attacks. Most importantly, it helps celebi counter Bulk Up / Substitute versions of Toxicroak and Substitute / Dragon Dance Gyarados.
20 Spd – Enough speed for max speed Timid Magnezone.
Threat List:
SubCharge Magnezone – We have to be very cautious with our steels if we suspect this thing is lingering around because it is easily able to set up on both Ferrothorn and Jirachi, and proceed to take out at least 2 Pokemon. It also clears the way for Dragons to demolish the team with Outrage.
Xatu – He is a problem because he is able to switch into Celebi and Ferrothorn with ease, and proceed to block their hazards. We rely on killing this thing by burning it with Scald or OHKOing it with Tornadus-T, but if he is on a solid defensive core, he can really annoy this team.
Sun + Xatu – This combination is a problem because it’s not easy for us to wear sun teams down if they manage to keep Stealth Rock off the field. Tornadus’ Air Slash puts in work against these teams.
Swords Dance Life Orb Toxicroak – He can really only set up on Tentacruel and Ferrothorn, but if he does, he is a headache to say the least. We have to be careful with our switches if we see this thing in Team Preview.
Nasty Plot Thundurus-T – This guy is definitely a threat if he safely comes in on Ferrothorn or Tentacruel while SR isn’t down on his side of the field. Essentially, we just focus on wearing him down and eventually killing him with Specs Hurricane. Only this variant of Thundurus-T is a problem; Expert Belt and Scarf variants are fairly nonthreatening.
In conclusion:
We hope you enjoyed this RMT! This team was dear to us and we are both saddened by the ban of Tornadus-T. This Wall of Water will need to take a different form if it wants to return to the competitive scene.
