Monotype [Water] Mantine Surf! (Mantine Rain)

[IDW]

The Team


(Click Sprites for Team)​

So a few Weeks ago I decided I wanted to make an Offensive Rain mono-water team and after a few iterations I discovered mantine. Martine has some Really Nice Attributes for Rain that this team puts to use; most notably it has access to tailwind and is a great backup water/flying type. This is probably the best monotype team I've made this gen but I'm not a great teambuilder so I wanted to run it past people who are better than me. I guess the thing I don't like about this team is that It's sort of Hax Dependent. If you Miss A Focus Blast or Hydro Pump it can easily cost you the game (or a hurricane outside of rain). I also just wanted to share this team because I really like Pelipper as a Tech.

Pelipper

Pelipper @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Hydro Pump
- U-turn
- Ice Beam

Pelipper is Mandatory on Rain Teams which is why it's here. I'm surprised by how few people seem to know about specs Pelipper, Most Pelipper I run into are Defensive (I've seen some that don't even have U-turn!). A side effect of this it that People casually leave their Torkoal and Hippo in on Specs Hydro Pump ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Specs Hurricane and Hydro pump really transform Pelipper from a token pokemon you use to set up rain to one of your most valuable pokemon. Hurricane for Example 2HKOs ferrothorn and then Barraskewda or Dracovish Sweeps the rest of Steel Teams.

Seismitoad

Seismitoad @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Focus Blast

Another Set I'm Shocked catches so many people by surprise. Toad is useful as an Electric Immunity, Swift Swim abuser and Ferrothorn Breaker. Focus Blast Hits (well, Misses actually) Ferrothorn and Problematic Dark types like Hydreigon and Tyranitar. Missing a Hydreigon or Ferrothorn is One of the main ways that this team is susceptible to hax. For a while I was running Timid instead of modest but recently someone pointed out to me that Modest gives me a 70% chance of 2HKOing ferrothorn (Focus Blast + Earth power) instead of a 49% chance (2 focus blasts) and also OHKOs Hydreigon.

Mantine

50 Beach Points (Mantine) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Tailwind
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam

Ok time for the real Sauce, Mantine. Pelipper is Really Vital on this team not just because of rain but also because it deals so much damage with choice Specs. Water flying is pretty good defensive typing and not being able to switch Pelipper into attacks was unpleasant when I was testing. At first I tried Gyarados and while it could switch into things I wanted it to switch into plus Dracovish, I found that it never really did anything and that I already had plenty of Physical attackers in Barraskewda and Dracovish. Mantine's bulk and typing allow it to switch directly into lots of pokemon which is useful when rain is up and you only have so many turns left of it. Bulk is also why I have heavy-duty-boots on Mantine. Since I don't have Removal Rocks take a really good chunk out of Mantine's Bulk even though Mantine really wants the power that would come with life orb. Flying Coverage is really good for the grass matchup and Mantine is the only swift swim user that gets hurricane. Unfortunately Mantine is another pokemon that suffers from Hydro Pump Miss Syndrome. At least unlike Toad a Quarter of Its moves can miss rather than half of them (in rain). The last thing I want to mention is Tailwind. Even though this team already has swift swim, additional speed control is surprisingly useful for matchups like Psychic, Fairy, Dragon, Bug and Normal. More on this later but Tailwind lets Mantine and Barraskewda outspeed pokemon that copy swift swim like Gardevoir and Ditto.

PS: the Nickname is a Reference to Mantine Surfing Which I am on the Orange Islands Leaderboard for

Barraskewda

Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Close Combat
- Psychic Fangs
- Crunch

Enough with Creativity! Let's Get back to some Standard Monotype Cheese! Barraskewda is nothing more than a wincon that is used to finish games. I think Choice Band is really good in monotype because your opponent's pokemon usually have a common weakness that you can just click over and over again once their one or two resists have been spent. Barraskewda is the main pokemon that takes advantage of Tailwind, which like I said allows it to outspeed stuff like Trace Gardevoir. Tailwind also allows Barraskewda to Deal with Sticky webs pretty effectively. You hit 494 speed after either Swift Swim or Tailwind which is usually enough to sweep with.

Toxapex

Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Recover
- Haze

Ugg you really do have to run Toxapex on rain offense to prevent you from losing to stuff like Mimikyu and Bisharp. While I dislike using Pex, It is nice to have another bulky pokemon besides Mantine. I'm really torn between Toxic and Toxic Spikes because this team has a poor matchup against dragon and Toxic Spikes are really good against Dragon. However Toxic is also really good for wearing down a bunch of pokemon. I find myself preferring Toxic Spikes personally.

Fishous Rend

Fishous Rend (Dracovish) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Psychic Fangs
- Crunch
- Outrage

Fishous Rend is easily one of my favorite new pokemon. Jokes Aside Dracovish is one of the Best Breakers in the current meta. Its one of the only pokemon that can deal with Corviknight and many monotype teams simply don't have access to a water immunity. I actually use moves that aren't fishous rend a decent amount. For example against Dragon, Scarf + Tailwind hits 747 speed allowing me to sweep with Outrage (assuming I have dealt with their Duraludon). I'm not running a speed boosting nature because I'm running Dracovish as a Breaker. I've run into speed problems for not running Jolly though so It's something I've considered Changing.

So that's the team, Now to list some Threats

[Pokemon] Used [Hydro Pump/Focus Blast/Hurricane out of rain]! But it Missed!

Duraludon is a Threat to this team because it has Electric coverage and can switch into most of my team. It's manageable on Steel teams where the rest of my team has a good matchup but It makes the dragon matchup really Difficult. Having both Duraludon and Dragapult on a team is tricky for Barraskewda. I can OHKO the duraludon using CC but then Dragapult gets a free switch in. Not to mention Focus sash can let my opponent Revenge kill Barraskewda. Toad is decent but its slower than duraludon and if I lose my toad then Dracozolt gets Really hard to deal with.

Rotom-Mow is extremly difficult for Rain teams to deal with with in general and this one is no exception. Mantine Can't switch into Volt Switch and Toad can't switch into leaf storm and neither outspends it without rain from Pelipper. I've Experimented with Leading with Dracovish but I'm always scared of scarf wisp. Maybe I should try playing Grass to get a better idea of how Rain deals with this pokemon.

I don't think there is any way that this team can beat sub seed whimsicott. It outlasts mantine if I Ice beam it repeatedly and then it can restore HP. I can't set up toxic spikes because grass teams run Roserade which removes them. My best response to this pokemon is to call my opponent obnoxious (which, Hypocritically is Obnoxious) and pray that my opponent forfeits on an easy win.

So that's My team, Please let me know what you think

 

[Conflux]

Solid team overall, I just got a few suggestions.

Barraskewda

You mention that Duraludon + Dragapult is problematic to deal with because you have to use Close Combat to hit Duraludon and Dragapult is immune to it. I suggest using Life Orb over Choice Band which will not only solve this issue but it's also nice when facing Ferrothorn + Aegislash on Steel, which as you probably know already is very annoying to play. You won't miss the power of Choice Band too much as you have plenty of wallbreakers already including Fishious Rend with rain support, and Life Orb hits pretty hard anyway with the only drawback being the recoil.

Dracovish

Since you have three Swift Swim abusers as well as Tailwind, and the fact that you're running Adamant nature, you don't really struggle with Speed control here provided you preserve your Pelipper to set up rain multiple times. That's why I suggest putting Choice Band over Choice Scarf on it to turn Dracovish into a deadly wallbreaker. With Tailwind support you still have enough Speed against Dragon unless they have Choice Scarf Dragapult which isn't really a thing, or Choice Scarf Noivern which is not only rare but inferior to its Heavy Duty Boots set with Taunt and Defog. Not to mention you have Ice Beam on Specs Pelipper and Mantine so you're well equipped for Dragon.


[click on the sprites above for importable]

Hopefully these changes help out, good luck with the team!

 

[Splash]

IDW cool rain team you have here, I do have a couple changes to suggest here. You have both Pelipper and Mantine accomplishing certain roles on the team, however since you are actually using both of them, their roles can be reversed to further optimize the team.


Pelipper

You give reasons as to why you have Choice Specs Pelipper on the team, however without recovery, your rain will be limited throughout the match. I would definitely consider a defensive Pelipper set with Roost to increase longevity and keep your rain around longer. Knock Off is also a move worth running for items such as Eviolite on Galarian Corsola and Black Sludge on Toxapex etc. You currently have Heavy-Duty Boots on Mantine which is your rain sweeper, (due to lack of hazard control), however it could be better suited on Pelipper with its role so that you perhaps wont die to Stealth Rocks coming in are able to reset rain.



Mantine

Since Pelipper is now defensive, Mantine should now be used as one of your primary rain sweepers with Choice Specs. As a Special Attacker, Specs Hurricane and Hydro Pump hit very hard in the rain. Specs Ice Beam decimates Dragon teams, as you outspeed everything in the rain and OHKO it (Dragapult and others live non-specs beam). Grass matchup becomes far easier as Specs Mantine outspeeds everything and OHKO's and 2HKO's everything with Hurricane. You mention Hydro Pump lacks accuracy, well thats where Surf can come in and still manage to have great damage output and well as perfect accuracy.

Thats all i've got, hopefully you find great success with these changes!

Sets

Pelipper @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- U-turn
- Roost
- Hurricane / Knock Off
- Scald / Knock Off


Mantine @ Choice Specs
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Hurricane
- Ice Beam
- Surf