Weathering the Storm

[Pippy]

Weathering the Storm

Weather. A dominant force in the OU metagame. Many teams today are based around this field condition, as the effects are weather are very powerful, and can turn several mediocre Pokemon into offensive or defensive behemoths. For those of you who don't remember, let's review the effects of weather: (curtesy of each weather's article)

Rain

•Water moves' base power is increased by 50%
•Fire moves' base power is decreased by 50%
•Solarbeam is forced into its charge turn
•Hurricane and Thunder have 100% accuracy
•Weather Ball becomes a Water type move with double its default base power
•Synthesis, Moonlight and Morning Sun recover 25% of the user's HP
•Pokemon with the ability Swift Swim have there speed doubled
•Pokemon with the ability Hydration have all status healed during the rain
•Pokemon with Dry Skin gain 12.5% HP per turn
•Pokemon with Rain Dish gain 6.25% HP per turn
•Castform changes forme[/list]

Sun

•The base power of Fire-type moves is increased by 50%.
•The base power of Water-type moves is decreased by 50%.
•Solarbeam can be used without requiring a turn to charge.
•Thunder and Hurricane have their accuracy reduced to 50%.
•Weather Ball becomes a Fire-type move and its base power is doubled.
•Synthesis, Moonlight, and Morning Sun recover 66% of the user's HP.
•Chlorophyll is activated, and Pokemon with this ability gain doubled Speed.
•Solar Power is activated, and Pokemon with this ability receive a 50% increase in Special Attack while losing 12.5% of their HP each turn.
•Leaf Guard is activated, and Pokemon with this ability become immune to status.
•Pokemon with the Dry Skin ability lose 12.5% of their HP every turn.
•Cherrim's ability, Flower Gift, is activated and it changes form.
•Castform becomes a Fire-type.[/list]

Sandstorm

•The Special Defense of Rock-type Pokemon is increased by 50%
All non-Rock-, Steel-, and Ground-type •Pokemon and Pokemon without the ability Magic Guard, Sand Veil, or Overcoat take 1/16 damage at the end of every turn.
•The evasion of a Pokemon with the Sand Veil ability is increased by 20%.
•Solarbeam's Base Power is reduced from 120 to 60.
•Synthesis, Moonlight, and Morning Sun only recover 25% of the user's HP, as opposed to the standard 50%.
•Weather Ball's base power is doubled to 100, and becomes a Rock-type move.
•All Pokemon with Sand Rush have their speed doubled in sandstorm. In addition, non-Rock-, Steel-, and Ground-type Pokemon do not take residual damage from sandstorm.
•All Pokemon with the ability Sand Force have their Ground-type, Rock-type, and Steel-type moves boosted by 30%.[/list]

Hail

•All non-Ice Pokemon and Pokemon without the ability Magic Guard, Snow Cloak, Ice Body, or Overcoat take 1/16 damage at the end of every turn.
•The evasion of a Pokemon with the Snow Cloak ability is increased by •Blizzard has 100% accuracy.[/list]

Now that you know what the effects are, let's talk about weather, shall we? Like I said, aside from hail, weather is very common in OU, with Politoed and Tyranitar in the top 10 most used Pokemon and Ninetales in the top 30. Not only that, but many powerful weather abusing threats, like Dragonite, Rotom-W, Terrakion, Gliscor, Landorus, and Starmie, all in the top 15. So, with all these dangerous threats running around, how do you stop them? Well, that's what this discussion is for. Here are some things to consider for the 2 scenarios you'll face when up against a weather team:

Fighting Weather with Weather: So you're battling with your brand new weather team, when suddenly you encounter another weather team that runs a different weather than you. Now you've gotten engaged in a common weather war. Winning this "weather war" is crucial, as having your weather is important, not just to power you Pokes, but to weaken there's. So, how do you win this weather war? There are many ways to do it, but I'll just give one to get things started. One thing I know that's been popular for sun teams is Sunny Day Ninetales. This is a great strategy to use, as it's very common for Politoed or Tyranitar to switch in on your Ninetales, as they know they'll have the upper hand. So, what do you do? As they switch in, you use Sunny Day! This not only keeps the weather in your favor, but also suddenly puts them at an unexpected disadvantage. So, you've seen my example, now how do you win the weather war? What strategies have you found effective?

Non-weather vs Weather: So you're now trying out your new non-weather team, and you've come across another weather team. This can be tricky, as without a weather inducer, your opponents weather will probably be up for most of the game, therefor putting them at an advantage. So, how do you overcome this challenge? One way to do it is to use Pokes that that general weather is weak to. For instance, for rain teams, rain teams often run several water types, most of whom have trouble with grass types. Therefor, running a good grass type like Ferrothorn can help beat rain. Another way to win in this scenario is to use a weather inducing move. Almost all Pokemon can learn Rain Dance and Sunny Day, so fitting this on your team isn't too difficult. One popular Poke for this role is Sunny Day Heatran. Heatran is a great way to deal with all types of weather, as Heatran himself can deal with sun, whereas Sunny Day shuts down other weather, especially rain. So, I've given you some examples, now how do you deal with weather on a non-weather team?

To recap: here's what this thread will discuss:
•What methods have you found effective for winning the weather war?
•What methods have you found effective for beating weather with a non-weather team?

 

[Byrne]

There have been SO MANY THREADS about the exact same thing. I'm not sure if another is necessary.

Anyway, generic answer: Virizion, Heatran alone can beat all four possible weathers.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Maybe it's because I run a stall team but I rarely seen the benifit of using sunny day on ninetails. What happens when people try it against me:

1. Send in weather pokemon
2. Uses sunny day
3. Sends in counter to Ninetails (which also counters 90% of whatever sun abusers)

Anyway recently I have been testing out a daul caster standstorm team, needless to say I never lose the weather war, that doesn't mean I don't lose though. I am surprised on how effective Hippowdon is though, more people should use it over Tyranitar.

 

[Arcticblast]

I personally think non-weather beats weather nine times out of ten. It's almost like playing another non-weather team.

Rain - Since Aldaron's Proposal, teams with Drizzle Politoed aren't that hard to beat - use a nice Water resist (Gyarados is nice here, as it benefits too) and something that can outspeed Starmie and you're pretty much good to go.

Sun - The same logic that works for Rain works here, except for Venusaur abusing Chlorophyll. Heatran resists its STAB and is immune to HP Fire, and again, a well-built team can beat it.

Sandstorm - It's hard not to be prepared for Sandstorm in OU, although sometimes you'll have to sacrifice a Pokemon.

Hail - Annoying but beatable.

There have been SO MANY THREADS about the exact same thing. I'm not sure if another is necessary.

Anyway, generic answer: Virizion, Heatran alone can beat all four possible weathers.

Virizion can't take repeated Blizzards from Hail teams, and Heatran can't take Water attacks at all.

 

[Pippy]

There have been SO MANY THREADS about the exact same thing. I'm not sure if another is necessary.

Anyway, generic answer: Virizion, Heatran alone can beat all four possible weathers.

1. I actually searched to check and I couldn't find any.
2. Heatran can change the weather against rain, but rain teams can tear him apart.

Maybe it's because I run a stall team but I rarely seen the benifit of using sunny day on ninetails. What happens when people try it against me:

1. Send in weather pokemon
2. Uses sunny day
3. Sends in counter to Ninetails (which also counters 90% of whatever sun abusers)

Anyway recently I have been testing out a daul caster standstorm team, needless to say I never lose the weather war, that doesn't mean I don't lose tho ugh. I am surprised on how effective Hippowdon is though, more people should use it over Tyranitar.

1. That's the point: a free switch. With all the frail attackers on sun teams, a free switch is huge. Plus, don't forget that many sun teams run Dugtrio, so that allows them to trap and kill your sun counter.
2. Ik. Hippo is actually really good on stall/balance, as SR and Roar are always nice to have.

 

[doughboy]

In my experience, entry hazards are the easiest way to win weather wars. For the weather to be induced a switch-in is required, hazards heavily penalize these switchins. If you have 2 layers of spikes+stealth rock, you are pretty golden. Hazards take place before the inducing of weather, thus if the opposinh wether starter is at 30% when you have 3 layers of spikes+stealth rock up you can switchin your wether inducer immediatly and win the weather war, since forcing the next Polited/Ninetales/whatever means they die before weather is induced on the switchin.

In regards to Hippowdon, he has the distiction of being the only weather inducer with reliable recovery. Its funny to bring yourself (and weather) back to life while the opponent struggles to determine when to switchin to a bunch of hazards next.

 

[skymastergamerpt]

Rain - Usually a good electiric type can beat Politoed which is the case of Magnezone who can usually at least 2HKO I belive with Thunderbolt. Other good counters for Politoed are the Latis which can kill it with a Calm Mind Boost and Draco Meteor respectively. If you are using hail team usually Abomasnow can deal with Politoeds using wood Hammer. Just be careful of Ferrothorn(though most Magnezones can deal with Ferrothorn).

Sun - Again taking out Ninetales is important. If you have a sand team like I do then Landorus is key for taking out Ninetales though I also have a scarf Dragonite with waterfall. Dugtrio is also useful since it can trap Ninetales and kill it with EQ. For Venusaur and similar grass types, Heatran really is the main counter you wanna use though be careful of a ninetales switch. My Dragonite though also deals with Venusaur since it has Fire Punch it can 2HKO Venusaur.

Sandstorm - Personally I belive the above weathers are the best counters for Sandstorming teams, however they still need some preparation. For starters Tyranitar and in a lesser scope Hipowdon are the main sand inducers in OU. Vaporean is for me the best counter for both since it can Scald them and of course this will screw Hippowdon certainly (OHKO is certain on Hippowdon). To counter Ttar Scizor is of course number one choice though Terrakion and Conkeldurr aren't behind. (Just be careful not to get fire blasted with Scizor).

Hail - For me any good fire type will do especially Heatran to negate Abomasnow. Kyreum on the other hand it can probably be dealt most of the
times by Scizor.

Just these are my two cents on the matter in terms of OU playing.

 

[Challenger]

For scarf D-Nite, which is pretty unconventional on its own, wouldn't earthquake be better? Waterfall against ninetales is at half power, and even at full power wouldn't do as much damage.

For that matter, Choice Band Extremespeed is a better choice, as both are likely not OHKOs.

 

[Max212]

I like to run weatherless teams, but I usually have a pokemon that uses a move like sunny day or hail. When people see that you don't have weather, they almost always stop caring for their weather inducer. So you kill their inducer, then proceed with sunny day, rain dance, etc.

 

[skymastergamerpt]

For scarf D-Nite, which is pretty unconventional on its own, wouldn't earthquake be better? Waterfall against ninetales is at half power, and even at full power wouldn't do as much damage.

For that matter, Choice Band Extremespeed is a better choice, as both are likely not OHKOs.

Ups meant to say Band instead of Scarf lol my bad but probably it his better need to check a damage calc. Do you know a good one?

 

[what123]

Maybe it's because I run a stall team but I rarely seen the benifit of using sunny day on ninetails. What happens when people try it against me:

1. Send in weather pokemon
2. Uses sunny day
3. Sends in counter to Ninetails (which also counters 90% of whatever sun abusers)

Anyway recently I have been testing out a daul caster standstorm team, needless to say I never lose the weather war, that doesn't mean I don't lose though. I am surprised on how effective Hippowdon is though, more people should use it over Tyranitar.

I remember New World Order made an awesome RMT with Sunny day ninetails. I have no idea where the team is now, only because I heard of it through a really bad chapter in smogon's history. You will see what i mean if you type in the wilmer chronicles on google.