Tornadus was here, Politoed is a loser (a Drizzle-less rain team)

[voodoo pimp]

I'm sure the first question most of you will ask here is, "Why no Politoed?" Well, this team initially started off as a plan for the hypothetical BW2-dex metagame, where Politoed would have been banned, and when the rules were announced to be the same as last year I decided to keep the core strategy because it seemed surprisingly viable and I've always found standard teams to be boring. So without further ado, here they are!

THE TEAM

THE TEAMBUILDING PROCESS

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The first three Pokémon were left over from my BW2 team concept. Both Tornadus and Espeon are very good at getting Rain Dance going on demand every game, and Vaporeon is a solid bulky abuser.

At this point, I had a pretty obvious Electric weakness, and I figured a Lightningrod user would be the easiest way to patch it. I wanted a bulky user so it could stick around for a few rounds, and Rhydon seemed to best fit the bill.

Now I had a bit of a Grass weakness, and lacked a Steel-type to sponge Dragon attacks. Since Scizor loves the rain and solves both of those problems, it was the obvious next choice.

At this point, all that remained was the obligatory Swift Swimmer. Since I had limited coverage against other bulky waters, Ludicolo seemed to be the best option.

Now the initial lineup was complete. After some testing, I noticed two things - Lightningrod rarely saw use, and Gyarados absolutely destroyed my team. Since I've had good experiences with it in the past, I replaced Rhydon with Porygon2, and also switched Ludicolo for Kabutops since I now needed another physical attacker to maintain decent balance.

After a lot more testing, I decided that Espeon just wasn't pulling its weight, and the Electric weakness was an enormous pain. Since I also lacked strong Grass/Electric coverage for dealing with opposing bulky waters as well, I decided to go with Rotom-M.

THE POKÉMON

Tornadus@Damp Rock
Prankster
Timid, 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
- Rain Dance
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- Tailwind

With Prankster, Rain Dance almost always goes up before the opponent can move, and with Damp Rock, it almost always lasts the whole battle unless the opponent has weather of their own. Hurricane is a powerful STAB, 2HKOing at worst almost everything that doesn't resist it, and Focus Blast gives near perfect coverage while also being one of my team's best options against Ferrothorn. Tailwind is a little situational, but can give me a bit of an extra edge if I have a spare turn where the other moves aren't useful, or if the opponent is about to take me down with priority/a faster threat.

Rotom-M@Sitrus Berry
Levitate
Modest, 252 HP/252 SpA/4 Spe
- Thunder
- Leaf Storm
- Rain Dance
- Protect

Rotom's dual STABs make short work of opposing bulky waters that would benefit from my rain or put a serious dent in any neutral target, and its solid defensive typing (with four useful resistances and only two common weaknesses in the rain) means it can set up Rain Dance pretty reliably as well. The 4x Electric resistance in particular helps it sponge a weakness that plague half my team.

Vaporeon@Mystic Water
Hydration
Modest, 52 HP/208 Def/248 SpA
- Muddy Water
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power Grass
- Protect

Vaporeon is often overlooked as an offensive option, and I really have no idea why. If rain is up, Muddy Water absolutely destroys any team that doesn't pack a bulky Water resist or immunity, and has led to more double KOs than I can count. Ice Beam and HP Grass provide coverage but honestly don't see all that much use, and Protect is Protect. EVs are what they are because fuck if I know I'm terrible at making fancy defensive spreads.

Porygon2@Eviolite
Trace
Modest, 252 HP/212 SpA/44 Spe
- Rain Dance
- Thunder
- Ice Beam
- Recover

Another shamefully overlooked offensive option. While it lacks the speed of Tornadus or Espeon, it more than makes up for it with bulk, even shrugging off most Fighting moves not named Close Combat. Recover means it can stall out anything that can't reliably 2HKO it, letting it set up the rain over and over or deal out the pain with that wonderful BoltBeam coverage. The Speed EVs make it faster than Vaporeon, letting it set up Rain Dance before the attack.

Scizor@Flying Gem
Technician
Adamant, 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Acrobatics
- Protect

It's everyone's favorite metal bug (at least since Genesect is banned)! Since the rest of the team is all special attackers, a physical one was pretty much mandatory at this point. You all know the set, there really isn't much I can say about it except I chose Acrobatics because Tornadus isn't always an option with Rock Slide all over the place, so a backup Flying move is nice to have.

Kabutops@Life Orb
Swift Swim
Adamant, 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Waterfall
- X-Scissor
- Protect

Things with blades for arms are cool, right? I needed another physical attacker, and hadn't taken advantage of Swift Swim yet, so it pretty much came down to either this or the substantially less badass Armaldo. Kabutops's main role on the team is to be faster than everything and KO potential threats before they can move. Thanks to Swift Swim, it only needs minor speed investment to outspeed the entire unboosted metagame, so it has the bulk to take most neutral hits as well.

RESULTS AND PROBLEMS

So far, this team has proven very effective, winning almost all of the battles I've done since the last major change. And the majority of my losses can be attributed to me doing something stupid, usually mispredicting in Team Preview, or severe hax. Ferrothorn seems like a bit of a problem on paper, but the ones I've encountered so far tend to go down to repeated neutral hits while not doing much in response. Electric attackers, especially Rotom-W, are a major pain, so I'm gonna have to do something about that, though adding Rotom-M has definitely helped.

 

[Shuckler]

Your team looks pretty solid. The main thing I noticed was your vaporeon set. First off, surf is infinitely more reliable, and muddy water is only a little bit more powerful, and it shouldn't make much difference to change it. Also, mystic water. Mystic water isn't really a very good item, as it only gives a small boost, and just to water moves. Since you're running an offensive rest/hydration set, why not add a life orb? Rest can easily heal off the damage. Everything else looks pretty solid, although you are right that thundurus-t can run through your team if it's running nasty plot and you can't hit it on the switch with ice beam.

 

[avalanche3387]

I like your team a lot, definitely different so it's nice. If I had to make any change I would suggest putting either a Zapdos or a Scrafty over Porygon 2. My concern with Pory2 is that he might have a lack of power and seeing this, your opponent may decide to double target your team mate instead.

Zapdos would give you the fire attack in Heat Wave to hit Ferrothorn (harder than anything else in rain) and would maintain your "BOLTBEAM" with Thunder(bolt) and Hidden Power Ice. He then could run any of Tailwind, Protect, or another Rain Dance. You would lose out on a little bulk but you gain a bit of power and coverage.

Scrafty is one I like. He gives you a Fake Out user which is amazing in VGC giving a partner a more free turn to attack or whatever you need. It doesn't seem you need it to help set rain dance up but it can help a lot in a pinch, especially if you don't lead with Scrafty. Drain punch and Crunch give nearly perfect coverage and Detect is a given. Moxie boosting your attack after KOs is just a bonus. Even better, Scrafty fits your team trait of only BW2 Pokemon!

Here's sets:
Zapdos @ Electric Gem/Sitrus Berry/Lum Berry/Resist Berries
Modest Nature, Pressure (If only Lightning Rod had been released already)
140 HP, 252 Sp Att, 116 Speed
Thunderbolt/Thunder
Hidden Power Ice
Heat Wave
Detect/Tailwind/Rain Dance

EVs are the standard on the Smogon analysis and open to configuration

Scrafty @ Fight Gem/whatever you want
Adamant Nature, Moxie
EVs can be whatever you want, 252 HP, 252 Att for ease or my spread of 152 HP, 252 Att, 4 Def, 4 Sp Def, 100 Speed to hit 159 HP and outspeed no-speed base 70 pokemon.

Drain Punch
Crunch
Fake Out
Detect

I like Scrafty, he's on my team. He may not have many resistances and a fighting weakness or the bulk of Porygon 2, he does have a bit of bulk, the coveted fighting type, and more power. Let me know what you think.

 

[TheMantyke]

Your team looks pretty solid. The main thing I noticed was your vaporeon set. First off, surf is infinitely more reliable, and muddy water is only a little bit more powerful, and it shouldn't make much difference to change it. Also, mystic water. Mystic water isn't really a very good item, as it only gives a small boost, and just to water moves. Since you're running an offensive rest/hydration set, why not add a life orb? Rest can easily heal off the damage. Everything else looks pretty solid, although you are right that thundurus-t can run through your team if it's running nasty plot and you can't hit it on the switch with ice beam.

Muddy Water has the benefit of not striking your partner. Considering at the moment he has no partners that are immune to Surf, Muddy Water is the better choice. A Life Orb would be nice, but Kabutops values the item even more and Mystic Water is one of the few offensive options left. Additionally, this team is designed for the VGC 2013 Fall Regionals so BW2 additions like Thundurus-T are not allowed.

This is a really interesting team and I commend you for centering a team around such a neat concept. However, you have a few obvious problems. For one, you have a huge vulmerability to Electric-type attacks. Though it's become increasingly rare, any Zapdos or Rotom-W that run Discharge can devistate most of your team. Even outside of Discharge, normal Thunderbolts are going to hurt quite a bit! My best solution would be to run a simple Gastrodon over Espeon.

Gastrodon @ Rindo Berry
Storm Drain
Bold
252 HP / 252 Def / 6 SpAtk
-Muddy Water
-Earth Power
-Recover / Ice Beam
-Protect

To be honest, I haven't used Espeon in VGC so I may just be talking out of my ass, but it seems really unnecessary for your team. Not only do you already have two very reliable Trick Room users in the form of Porygon2 and Tornadus, but Espeon doesn't lend much defensive synergy to the team and its offensive coverage isn't missed at all. On the other hand, Gastrodon lends your team a much needed Electric immunity, has pretty solid coverage, gives you at least a neutral attack against Ferrothorn, doesn't mind Trick Room, and adores the rain. It can strike Zapdos for a hard neutral hit, and while it can't do much in return, it walls non-HP Grass Rotom all day. The only real problem I can see adding him onto the team would be drawing in Kabutop's Waterfalls. Should you choose to add Gastrodon, I would also recommend making a slight change to Vaporeon. You mentioned that you hadn't had much use for Shadow Ball in the final slot, so why not try sticking Surf in its place to power up Gastrodon while they're both on the field?

I don't have many alternate teammate suggestions for you beyond that; all I have left is a bit of moveset tinkering. You mentioned that you're a bit concerned about Ferrothorn since you lack a super-effective move to hit him with. I can see a few solutions you could try to ease your woes. You've said you rarely ever use Grass Knot or Taunt on Tornadus, so you could try out Focus Blast in place of either moveslot. Yes, it's a 70% accurate move in VGC, but it gives you some excellent, albeit risky coverage against a host of targets. I'd imagine you'd love using X-Scissor for mowing down Latios and Cresslia a bit quicker, but Superpower could be something to test if Water resistant Steel-types keep ruining your day.

Finally, try Download over Trace on Porygon2. You might miss out on stealing a neat Levitate, Intimidate, or Flash Fire, but you could end up with a tank killing machine if you snag a boost. It's a matter of personal preference, so just give it a try and see if you like it.

Hope my advice helped!

 

[voodoo pimp]

Your team looks pretty solid. The main thing I noticed was your vaporeon set. First off, surf is infinitely more reliable, and muddy water is only a little bit more powerful, and it shouldn't make much difference to change it. Also, mystic water. Mystic water isn't really a very good item, as it only gives a small boost, and just to water moves. Since you're running an offensive rest/hydration set, why not add a life orb? Rest can easily heal off the damage. Everything else looks pretty solid, although you are right that thundurus-t can run through your team if it's running nasty plot and you can't hit it on the switch with ice beam.

TheMantyke covered this pretty well, so I'll just add that Mystic Water gives 20% extra damage compared to Life Orb's 30%. Since I mostly just spam Muddy Water, the power difference is minor.

I like your team a lot, definitely different so it's nice. If I had to make any change I would suggest putting either a Zapdos or a Scrafty over Porygon 2. My concern with Pory2 is that he might have a lack of power and seeing this, your opponent may decide to double target your team mate instead.

The main thing I use Porygon2 for, other than another Rain Dance user, is Thunder (while it's not quite as powerful as Zapdos and lacks STAB, base 105 SpA isn't something you can just ignore), so if I do replace it it'll probably be Zapdos or another Electric attacker.

This is a really interesting team and I commend you for centering a team around such a neat concept. However, you have a few obvious problems. For one, you have a huge vulmerability to Electric-type attacks. Though it's become increasingly rare, any Zapdos or Rotom-W that run Discharge can devistate most of your team. Even outside of Discharge, normal Thunderbolts are going to hurt quite a bit! My best solution would be to run a simple Gastrodon over Espeon.

Gastrodon @ Rindo Berry
Storm Drain
Bold
252 HP / 252 Def / 6 SpAtk
-Muddy Water
-Earth Power
-Recover / Ice Beam
-Protect

To be honest, I haven't used Espeon in VGC so I may just be talking out of my ass, but it seems really unnecessary for your team. Not only do you already have two very reliable Trick Room users in the form of Porygon2 and Tornadus, but Espeon doesn't lend much defensive synergy to the team and its offensive coverage isn't missed at all. On the other hand, Gastrodon lends your team a much needed Electric immunity, has pretty solid coverage, gives you at least a neutral attack against Ferrothorn, doesn't mind Trick Room, and adores the rain. It can strike Zapdos for a hard neutral hit, and while it can't do much in return, it walls non-HP Grass Rotom all day. The only real problem I can see adding him onto the team would be drawing in Kabutop's Waterfalls. Should you choose to add Gastrodon, I would also recommend making a slight change to Vaporeon. You mentioned that you hadn't had much use for Shadow Ball in the final slot, so why not try sticking Surf in its place to power up Gastrodon while they're both on the field?

The main problem I see with Gastrodon is that would give me two double Grass weaknesses plus a single. I actually do use Espeon's coverage a lot - Psyshock for Terrakion and Amoonguss in particular, and Grass Knot for Gastrodon and friends.

I don't have many alternate teammate suggestions for you beyond that; all I have left is a bit of moveset tinkering. You mentioned that you're a bit concerned about Ferrothorn since you lack a super-effective move to hit him with. I can see a few solutions you could try to ease your woes. You've said you rarely ever use Grass Knot or Taunt on Tornadus, so you could try out Focus Blast in place of either moveslot. Yes, it's a 70% accurate move in VGC, but it gives you some excellent, albeit risky coverage against a host of targets. I'd imagine you'd love using X-Scissor for mowing down Latios and Cresslia a bit quicker, but Superpower could be something to test if Water resistant Steel-types keep ruining your day.

I'll definitely try Focus Blast, even though the accuracy is a bit of a turn-off. I've never been a fan of Superpower, especially since it's only a 3HKO against most Ferrothorn due to the Attack drop, but I just noticed that Kabutops learns Low Kick so I'll give that a try instead.

Finally, try Download over Trace on Porygon2. You might miss out on stealing a neat Levitate, Intimidate, or Flash Fire, but you could end up with a tank killing machine if you snag a boost. It's a matter of personal preference, so just give it a try and see if you like it.

Hope my advice helped!

I'll try it, see if the boost helps often enough to be worth it.

 

[TheMantyke]

The main problem I see with Gastrodon is that would give me two double Grass weaknesses plus a single. I actually do use Espeon's coverage a lot - Psyshock for Terrakion and Amoonguss in particular, and Grass Knot for Gastrodon and friends.

Fair enough, although you have the tools at hand to deal with Grass-type assaults already. Since there aren't any Grass spread moves outside of the dismal Razor Leaf, Grass moves will be single targeted, pretty easy to predict, and provide a switch in opportunity for Scizor or Tornadus (or even Porygon2 if it's just a weak HP Grass). I think you have what Espeon's attacking reasonably well covered already, but I suppose if you find it that useful, you could keep the slot and work around troublesome electric-types.

 

[The Knights of Wario Land]

I agree with Mantyke in that I don't really see the point of Espeon on the team, considering that the rest of your team seems to have Tyranitar and Terrakion on the bag. I'd personally prefer Cresselia instead of Espeon, as it has a more guaranteed Rain Dance and still hits Top and Terrakion hard with Psychic, while also supporting its allies with Helping Hand/disabling other Pokemon with Thunder Wave. That's just what I think works better with your team, however.

I also don't understand Mystic Water on Vaporeon, a Water Gem would probably be the more effective option to use instead. I also think that Jellicent would be of better usage, considering its better bulk, immunity of Fake Out, and having Water Spout plus the same moves as the Vaporeon except with Recover over Rest. If Vaporeon has been highly successful for you that's fine, but again, that's what I think works better.

Other than that, I quite like this team. You've got an interesting way of setting up Rain outside of Politoed, and it looks like it could catch a ton of people off-guard.

 

[Szymoninho]

hi,
i'd like to start off with thanking you for giving me the pleasure to see a team without the Pokemon i hate for their presence almost everywhere - Tyranitar, Thundurus, Metagross, Politoed etc.
like others said, the team at first looks weak to electricity. due to 3 weaknesses and no resistance to it, some specially offensive electric-types may be a bit difficult to get rid of. Gastrodon at first look would be a perfect teammate but it, like u said, has a 4x weakness to grass. i'd suggest you to replace either Espeon or Pory2 with a Jolteon. Its volt absorb lets you comfortably switch in and a coverage of HPice may be useful against Zapdos or Thundurus, not to mention the huge power of STAB Thunder that hits with a 100% accuracy.

 

[voodoo pimp]

Update: changed a few moves and descriptions to bring it up to date with my current team and experiences.

After some more testing, I've come to see that y'all were right, Espeon isn't nearly as useful as it seemed at first, and the Electric weakness is tough to work around. At the moment I'm considering these three for replacements:

Rotom-M@Sitrus Berry/Grass Gem
Levitate
Modest, 252 HP/252 SpA/4 SpD
- Thunder
- Leaf Storm
- Rain Dance/HP Ice
- Protect

The strongest option, and has a useful Ground immunity to take on the many Garchomp in the metagame.

Lanturn@Sitrus Berry
Volt Absorb
Modest, 252 SpA/whatever defensive EVs I'll figure that out later
- Thunder
- Hydro Pump
- Rain Dance/Icy Wind
- Protect

Because an immunity is better than a resistance. Shuts down Rotom-W and all the other Electric attackers, doesn't care about Grass Knot, and both STABS can abuse the rain. Only problems are the lack of Grass coverage and mediocre SpA.

Jolteon@Focus Sash
Volt Absorb
Timid, 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
- Thunder
- HP Grass
- Rain Dance
- Protect

Being faster than the entire unboosted metagame is never a bad thing. That's about all it has going for it, but it's a pretty big advantage.

Any thoughts on which of those three is best, changes to their sets, other options, etc. would be appreciated!

 

[TheMantyke]

Glad to hear the team's working for you. If you're limiting yourself to those three options, I'd have to pick Lanturn out of all of them. It pains me to not recommend certified badass Rotom-C, but if you decide on using him, you're majorly Zapdos weak. Jolteon's cool too, but I think your team could use a bit of extra bulk when you have Kabutop's frail little keester on the team. For Lanturn, try running EVs along the lines of this:

Lanturn @ Sitrus Berry
Volt Absorb
Calm
84 HP / 76 Def / 236 SpAtk / 108 SpDef / 4 Speed
- Thunderbolt / Thunder
- Hydro Pump
- Icy Wind / Rain Dance
- Protect

Weird EV spread, right? Yeah, but it does serve quite an important purpose. Don't quote me on this, but I toyed with a damage calculator for about 30 minutes trying to find the most efficient spread for Lanturn and this is what I got. The Defensive investments ensure that you are never OHKO'd by Jolly Garchomp's Earthquake or Timid Latios's Dragon Gem Draco Meteors. The rest is dumped into your Special Attack with 4 in speed since adding it to Special attacks makes no difference in the stat. I think that for the move set, either use Thunderbolt and Icy Wind or Thunder and Rain Dance. You don't want to be caught firing off Thunders in the sand without a way to set rain back up :x

I know you were concerned about adding some sort of Grass-type coverage move (for Gastrodon, I assume) and Lanturn won't really be providing that. Shadow Ball is fairly useless on Vaporeon when STAB rain boosted Muddy Waters are doing nearly the same amount of damage, so why not try running Hidden Power Grass in its place?

Hope my advice helped!

 

[Alfalfa]

If you are going to use Kabutops, go Rapid Spin > Protect, as Rapid Spin clears hazards from your side of the field.

 

[Szymoninho]

If you are going to use Kabutops, go Rapid Spin > Protect, as Rapid Spin clears hazards from your side of the field.

It's VGC, man. Almost nobody uses entry hazards here since switches aren't as popular as in singles...

 

[voodoo pimp]

Glad to hear the team's working for you. If you're limiting yourself to those three options, I'd have to pick Lanturn out of all of them. It pains me to not recommend certified badass Rotom-C, but if you decide on using him, you're majorly Zapdos weak. Jolteon's cool too, but I think your team could use a bit of extra bulk when you have Kabutop's frail little keester on the team. For Lanturn, try running EVs along the lines of this:

Lanturn @ Sitrus Berry
Volt Absorb
Calm
84 HP / 76 Def / 236 SpAtk / 108 SpDef / 4 Speed
- Thunderbolt / Thunder
- Hydro Pump
- Icy Wind / Rain Dance
- Protect

Weird EV spread, right? Yeah, but it does serve quite an important purpose. Don't quote me on this, but I toyed with a damage calculator for about 30 minutes trying to find the most efficient spread for Lanturn and this is what I got. The Defensive investments ensure that you are never OHKO'd by Jolly Garchomp's Earthquake or Timid Latios's Dragon Gem Draco Meteors. The rest is dumped into your Special Attack with 4 in speed since adding it to Special attacks makes no difference in the stat. I think that for the move set, either use Thunderbolt and Icy Wind or Thunder and Rain Dance. You don't want to be caught firing off Thunders in the sand without a way to set rain back up :x

I know you were concerned about adding some sort of Grass-type coverage move (for Gastrodon, I assume) and Lanturn won't really be providing that. Shadow Ball is fairly useless on Vaporeon when STAB rain boosted Muddy Waters are doing nearly the same amount of damage, so why not try running Hidden Power Grass in its place?

Hope my advice helped!

I'm not strictly limiting it to those three, that's what I'm looking at right now but I'm always open to other options. I don't see much of a Zapdos weakness there, HP Ice is only a 3HKO while Thunder 2HKOs back. But I like that EV spread, I'll definitely give it a try once the Autumn Disconnection is over. I don't know why I didn't try HP Grass on Vaporeon before, I'll have to get around to RNGing another one to try that.

If you are going to use Kabutops, go Rapid Spin > Protect, as Rapid Spin clears hazards from your side of the field.

VGC is a doubles metagame, nobody uses hazards. I've seen exactly one hazard user out of the hundred or so battles I've done with this team.

 

[voodoo pimp]

A few more last-minute changes:

Decided on Rotom-M instead of Lanturn. Much as I like Lanturn, the Grass weakness was more of a problem than the Electric immunity was a benefit.

Replaced Rest with Protect on Vaporeon. The number of times I used Rest was far smaller than the number of times I wished I had Protect.

Gave Porygon2 some Speed EVs to be faster than Vaporeon.


Any other thoughts before the tournament Sunday?

 

[Phozon]

Hey man cool team you got here,
I've been in the VGC meta game for 4 years, in fact thats the style of competative battling I learned first. Anyways, you've got a few "classic" weaknesses here.
Unlesss you bring Scizor, Cresselia could become a major problem. Most cresses carry T-Wave/ Icey Wind which could really slow your team down. I know you have rain and tail wind to help, but if something gets Para'd you could have a problem on your hands. Cresselias are also very hard to break just because of how bulkie they are.

Another poke I could really see becomeing a problem is Zapdos. Most Zapdos' carry T-bolt/ Discharge and Heat Wave they are on a weatherless team. Zapdos could easily wear this team down, especally if it's paired with Garchomp. I know on my VGC team I run those two togeather and they could definatly cause you alot of problems. With the DisQuake combo.

I would highly recomend Ludicolo in place of Vaporeon.
Ludicolo is a very hard poke to take out in Doubles due to many teams lacking its supereffective weakness. Not only that, but alot of people run rain in VGC there for Ludi here can really become a hurdel for other rain teams. You could try something like is if you are looking for an deffencive set:

Ludicolo- @ Leftover/ Lum Berry/ Sitrus Berry
Calm: 252 Hp/ 80Def/ 172 Sp.Def
Ablility: Rain Dish
Leech Seed
Giga Drain
Scald/ Toxic
Protect/ Sub/ Toxic
Lefies would be the prefured item, but those other 2 will work just as well.

I would even say that you might have a problem with sun team too, and that might is only if you don't have your rain up. Venasaur can come in go to town, or for that matter any grass type w/ chlorophll. Just be warry of that, if you lose Tornadus it might be all over if they can bring in sun and a grass type. Other then that this looks pretty solid.

 

[voodoo pimp]

You missed out on the regional by less than a day, but thanks for the rate anyway :P

Cresselia was definitely a major threat, which is why I would always bring Scizor for it like you said. Though if I end up replacing Kabutops with Armaldo as I explain below, that second STAB Bug attacker should make it a lot less threatening.

Zapdos actually didn't give me too much trouble - Rotom, Porygon2, and Kabutops (if rain is up) could all easily beat it thanks to its Flying typing. I also didn't see a single ZapChomp team, oddly. It was some of the other Electric-types that would give me the most trouble. I think, if I use this team again in the next regional, I may end up replacing Kabutops with Armaldo after all, since it does basically the same job aside from Waterfall but hits even harder and lacks the Electric and Grass weaknesses.

As for Ludicolo...well, even offensive sets don't hit as hard as Vaporeon does, and it was that offensive presence in addition to the bulk that won me a lot of my games. Plus, Muddy Water is just too good to not have on something.

I only played a handful of sun teams, so it's hard to say what my matchup is like there, but every single one of them played their Ninetales too aggressively and lost it on turn 1, had no backup plan, and then either disconnected or lost badly. Losing Tornadus isn't the end of the world either, that's why I have two other Rain Dancers :P