I have to kick off this RMT by thanking my tutor for Round 56 of B101, Lamppost. We worked together to create this team and without his help I definitely couldn’t have been as successful with it as I was. I’d been wanting to create a Rain team for a while but just couldn’t decide on what to base it around. After seeing the destructive power of Gyarados, however, everything became clear. I feel the team is pretty solid as it brought me up to #20 on the ladderboard at one point with a CRE of 1455. Of course, this isn’t anything spectacular for many of you but to a mediocre player it feels like an accomplishment. Any and all rates will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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Politoed @ Choice Scarf l Drizzle
Timid l 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Hydro Pump l Ice Beam l Focus Blast l Hidden Power [Electric]
Politoed is, of course, the indispensible weather starter. It’s also the Pokémon that I’m most insecure about. Honestly, I don’t know what to do for a set so any suggestions regarding that would be much appreciated. Both the defensive and Choice Specs variants were used prior to this before I switched over to this set in order to help patch up a couple of weaknesses. I’m willing to test out either of them again though if you guys think it would be beneficial. Anyways, I can’t think of too much to say regarding this fellow. If you’ve played any BW then you’ve seen him and know exactly what he does and how he does it. The choice between Modest and Timid for a nature was a difficult one, but the later was finally chosen to give me another check against weakened Starmie who was and still is a huge threat to my team. The significant loss of power is disappointing but a Rain-boosted Hydro Pump is still nothing to laugh at. Finally, I’m torn between the choice of Focus Blast and Psychic. The prior helps pave way for a Gyarados sweep by nailing Ferrothorn while the later allows me to check Toxicroak who would otherwise walk through a majority of my team. Because of that I’m leaning towards using Psychic, but I want your opinions as well.
Gyarados @ Leftovers l Moxie
Adamant l 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Waterfall l Bounce l Substitute l Dragon Dance
Gyarados is a beast; simple as that. He’s also my team’s MVP and one of the best Rain sweepers out there. I’m really not sure why I don’t see more of them. In the rain, almost nothing outside of Ferrothorn and Rotom-W can hope to stop it thanks to the combination of Substitute and an extremely overpowered Waterfall. Even then both of them can potentially be defeated through correct predictions and depending on how many boosts I have under my belt. And trust me, once those two are weakened or down its pretty much GG from there.
Substitute is obviously the bread and butter of the set. I can’t even begin to describe how much I love it. It lets me get behind a shield and set-up against Pokémon who think they can prevent me from sweeping with a status ailment and then fail miserably as they seal their own miserable fate. Waterfall is a STAB move which does absolutely ridiculous amounts of damage after a boost from the Rain and a DD while Bounce rounds out the set to hit Water/Grass-types.
Donphan @ Leftovers l Sturdy
Impish l 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Earthquake l Ice Shard l Stealth Rock l Rapid Spin
I believe that Donphan was the last member to be chosen. Despite that he’s definitely one of the most important Pokémon on my team. Simply put, without him my team couldn’t succeed. After choosing to use both Gyarados and Dragonite it was obvious that a spinner was going to be necessary. Lamppost was the one who suggested Donphan since it could do three very important things that my team needed at that point. Those are to handle physical threats, keep entry hazards off my side of the field, and get Stealth Rock on my opponent’s. Earthquake is about as obvious a move as they come. It gives me a powerful STAB attack and lets me nail Terrakion whom I wall pretty nicely. Not much to it really. Ice Shard, however, is much more useful since it lets me nail Dragon-types with +1 Speed to bring them down low enough to where I can revenge kill them with either Scizor or Dragonite without having to worry nearly as much about them surviving the hit.
Scizor @ Choice Band l Technician
Adamant l 208 HP / 176 Atk / 124 SDef
Bullet Punch l U-Turn l Superpower l Pursuit
Scizor has once again reclaimed his title as the king of OU. No surprise there. In a metagame filled with Psychic-type powerhouses like Latios and Reuniclus every team obviously needs a way to deal with them, and Scizor is how I do it. Without him I’d stand no chance of beating either of those threats along with some less common ones like Virizion. Besides keeping them in their place Scizor also helps against speed-boosting and naturally fast sweepers by demolishing them with alongside Dragonite using those stupidly powerful, dual priority attacks. I'm now using an EV spread suggested by BKC to help take hits better from all the aforementioned threats.
Virizion @ Leftovers l Justified
Timid l 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Giga Drain l Focus Blast l Hidden Power [Ice] l Calm Mind
I’ve always been a fan of Virizion despite how absolutely retarded it looks and so I was happy to find a spot for it on this team. It was chosen for two reasons. The first being that it’s an excellent partner to Gyarados. As it can defeat both Ferrothorn and Rotom-W, who can hinder Gyarados from obtaining a clean sweep. It also lures in stuff like Scizor who can be used to set-up. The second reason was that I needed a way of handling opposing Rain teams and Virizion defeats nearly everything outside of Toxicroak and Tornadus who make its life a living hell. Seeing as both of them are usually absent on Rain stall teams Virizion does an even better job at handling those. Though certainly not as well as its SD counterpart. Overall, it still works since a majority of the members will fall after a CM or two and those she can’t beat are often set-up fodder for Gyarados. So yeah, it’s really just a win-win situation.
Dragonite @ Choice Band l Multiscale
Adamant l 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Outrage l Earthquake l Fire Punch l ExtremeSpeed
I desperately needed a way of beating Sun teams and their two deadliest sweepers, Venusaur and Volcarona. On many of my previous teams I simple chose to use specially defensive Heatran or ScarfTar to remedy that problem but obviously those solution wouldn’t work this time around. Then I remembered reading an RMT created by Lamppost in the Smog which used a CB Dragonite to beat those two menaces. It was perfect! D-Nite could annihilate a good portion of the commonly seen Pokémon on Sun teams, synergized well with the rest of my team, and hit like a truck. I decided to give it a try and never looked back. Not once.
That’s the main reason D-Nite was chosen, but he can do so much more than that. Its powerful ExtremeSpeed helps to beat speed-boosting sweepers as mentioned before and lets me check weakened sweepers like Latios and Starmie. Dragonite’s brute force is also a great way of punching holes in my opponent’s team which Gyarados can then exploit. All of that being said, my team could simply not succeed without the help of the first generation Dragon-type.
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We're finally at the end. Again, all rates will be appreciated. The biggest threats to this team are the Lati twins along with Starmie. I'm not sure how to really patch these up though. Thank for reading.
We're finally at the end. Again, all rates will be appreciated. The biggest threats to this team are the Lati twins along with Starmie. I'm not sure how to really patch these up though. Thank for reading.
