UU Rain dance team. "Wet Dreams".
Co-Produced by Iluvtogekiss (me) and Gengarx777 and now looking for YOUR input!
Okay so I have to admit that I have always had a love hate relationship with uu as a tier.
It went from a passionate flare of interst in the late Official days, to a deep and immovable romance at the beginning of the Smogon server, and the addition of the UU ladder.
Afterwards, things came up and my love fro UU was replaced by a barely disguised scorn and hatred, you see it had wounded me deeply and I bear a grudge well. (I kept losing).
As the months went by, I grew more and more interested in UU once more, especially with the addition of beasts such as Venusaur and Articuno to the tier. Then finally with the beginnning of the New UU tier, whcih I think is an absolutely excellant idea, I could resist no more.
I ran off and made about seven teams, out of which one worked well. However it just wasn't good enough, so I strted on one that would be fun to use, have cool mons and suit my play style (Aggresive and fast paced but always with the saftey of a two man defensive core behind me).
What better team to try out in UU of all places than a Rain dance team!
I read Legacy Raider's guide to Rain dance use befor coming up with 4 guys. I was flummoxed as to whom my last two should be though.
Desperately searching around, I sought assistance. This came in the form of great battler and friend, Gengarx777.
This is what was produced:
N.B- If a word is in Green then it was an edit by Gengarx777.
A lead.
As with almost any weather themed team, the lead is of extreme importance, especially for an offensive weather, such as Rain.
Factors such as speed, access to Rain dance and some decent support moves are all almost obligatory.
After a few suggestions made by Objection and Maplesandwich I decided to change my Roserade lead.
Their points were A, It gets fucked over completely by common Crobats and things due to relatively low speed and taunt.
B.It can't do shit to crobat, while he sets up sun for example, or OHKOs with brave bird.
Not very fun.
A suggestion to put in the lead spot was Electrode. He has higher speed than Crobat, taunt of his own, rain dance and STAB thunder to go with it. He also fucks over Mantine who is a trouble for Ludicolo.
However electrode does contribute to my ground weak, giving me three pokemon weak to ground. I thought over it long and hard and decided, that because the other two ground weak pokes are so valueble, I couldent do it.
I couldn't think what I could replace him with though. Somthing that can handle crobat with electric attacks, sets up rain and is pretty fast.
Then it came to me:
Rotom (N) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd/252 Satk/6 HP
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rain Dance
- Thunder
- Shadow Ball
- HP [Water]
Rotom seems too good to be true in this spot. Not only is he fairly cute, he completely destroy Said Crobat with his Ghost Electric typing.He also maintains offense with good speed, completely adequate Special Attack and with his special movepool which provides great coverage. This is accentuated upon by the fact that under rain he can use the powerful STABed move Thunder with perfect accuracy.
Of course his speed isnt as high as Electrode's and his special attack falls short of Roserade's but he definitely has enough of both to be a threat in uu. It is his typing and sexy ability that made him attractive to me though.
Damp rock and Rain dance are obvious really,
Thunder gives me a powerful and accurate STAB move that really hurts even with Rotom's rather ordinary special attack and takes advantage of the rain.
Shadow ball is secondary STAB and is for hitting Grassers and ground switch ins that want to absorb my Thunder.
HP water must sound lame, but it is rain boosted and would hit Ground types like Steelix and Nidos ect that would normally laugh at Rotom. It also slaughters Houndoom and Arcy (sort of). Think of it as a much less powerful Hydro pump on the washing machine Rotom in OU.
Rotom gives the team some really useful immunities to fighting and ground, two types which I have trouble with on my team as well as resisting thunderbolts aimed at Qwilfish and Floatzel. He can even absorb Bug and Poison attacks meant for Ludicolo, although Qwilfish can do this too.
I reckon he'd be an excellant addition to the team.
Your opinions would be highly valued on the addition of Rotom to the team.
For a weather team, especially one that can't rely on automatic and permanent weather, having several weather inducers is Vital.
Looking at the team so far, I only have one, Rotom who is bulkyish but still isn't really that durable.
For this reason I decided to give the team a sturdy, durable second Damp rock setter upper of Rain.
But what to choose? Possibly a bulky water such as Milotic or Blastoise?
Maybe a cookie cutter special wall, Hypno for example?
For me, none of these options were on the mind. Two options had presented themselves. My favourite of the two, Registeel and Lanturn, a pokemon I also like.
Both are great candidates for the job of setting up the downpour, but in the end I decided on Registeel.
Registeel (N) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/56 Def/202 Sdef
Relaxed nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Rain Dance
- Stealth Rock
- Iron Head
- Explosion
As anyone with a little bit of common sense about them could tell, Registeel has great potential as a Rain dancer.
In fact I think of him as the sort of UU counterpart to the torrential Bronzong set in OU.
Under Rain his Fire weak is cancelled out letting you set up your rocks on cocky incoming Fire types.
Stealth Rock is a simply vital part of any offensive team, breaking annoying sashes, nabbing KOes on some sturdier enemies and generaly making the sweeper's lives easier.
Iron head lets me hit Froslass and jynx for Super effective, two bitches that I use Registeel to counter. It also can break non bulky Mismag's subs.
Explosion lets me maintain the team's momentum even on a defensive pokemon like Registeel. I blow a massive breach in my enemies team and let my sweepers pour in and wreak havoc.
I love the way he can usually set up rain for me about 2-3 times a match and still get stealth rock and maybe an explosion in. He's that durable and awesome.
Right, so two guys down. Here I realised somthing. This team, as every non perma weather team will, has troubles with Hail. Hail stall to be precise.
Now I happen to be a great hater of stall, especially when I'm facing it and especially when it's Walrein.
Gengarx777 also noticed a potential problem with super bulky CM Mismagius.
The result of these two problems combined into one conclusion:
Clefable (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP/152 Def/100 Sdef
Calm nature (+Sdef, -Atk)
- Rain Dance
- Encore
- Wish
- Seisemic toss
Encore Clefable, AKA the 100% best stall counter in UU, also fucks up bulky stat uppers with encore.
Provides the second part of my two man defensive core with Registeel and provides my third Rain Dancer.
I usually bring this in on Stallrein and other stall Nazis, encore up and either Rain or Wish.
Rain Dance is here for obvious reasons,
Encore allows for the screwing of stall and gives me time for a Wish, Rain dance or an attack.
Wish keeps Clef healthy and also my LO sweepers going,
finally S-toss stops me from being so tauntable and allows me to hurt things.
Finally the main part of my defensive and/or utility section is done! On to my more offensive guys.
Now I knew what I wanted as my main offensive combo. Two guys that support each other by breaking down walls that hold each other back.
I needed a special and a physical sweeper. A few options came to mind, things like the rather obvious Kabutops, Omastar and Gorebyss.
Well as much as these guys are cool, I guess they just seemed rather stale and boring to me.
Then I realised two people who could not fail to light up the eyes of any trainer sick of seeing the same old on every rain dance team.
First up for presentation and also usually the first out in battle is:
Ludicolo (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Satk/252 Spd/6 HP
Modest nature (+Satk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Energy Ball
- Ice Beam
- Rain Dance
Wow, just wow.
I have to say that only in the use of it in UU have I realised how utterly, ruthlessly, unstoppably destructive the Mexican Lilypad/Pineapple is when it's raining.
I often bring Ludicolo in on Earthquakes aimed at Registeel and then spam massively powerful Hydro Pumps at incoming foes.
Milotic comes in? No problems, Hydro hits the bulkiest of versions for around 35%, I then finish it off with a STAB Energy Ball.
Shaymin comes in? Still, not a problem, the commonly seen offensive LO versions take 50%+ from Hydro, putting it easily in the KO range of Ice Beam.
In addition to this, Hydro pump 2HKOes all Registeel, basically all Regice (max max Calm takes 38.74%-45.60% from Hydro)
It 2HKOes all Clefable, all Spiritomb, all Hypno, All Articuno (OHKO with Rocks factored in), all Muk. It even knocks Max max Careful Umbreon for a 2HKO with S.R.
A lot of the reason this was chosen over Omastar, whom I had originally suggested, was because it helps out team avoid the common electric and grass weaknesses that most Rain Dance teams have.
Basically, it's a total wrecking ball.
Ludicolo really helps out as a wall breaker for my next sweeper, almost nothing in UU does not lose over half of its health to this mosnter.
I let LO run me down as I smash and cripple their walls, or just sweep through their team if I can.
After that I usually set my rain up again with Rotom or somthing and bring in my last sweeper.
Here he is:
Floatzel (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk/216 Spd/34 HP/8 Def
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bulk Up
- Waterfall
- Ice Punch
- Return
This little otter may look cute, but give him a free turn to Bulk up and you'l have to expect to basically lose unless you can stall my Rain out.
I am also in love with Floatzel. His ability to come in after Ludicolo has weakened or massacred his counters, Bulk up once, and then OHKO almost everything in the entirety of UU is just incredible.
Adamant is for maximum destructive potential, as is the max attack.
The HP and Defence evs mean he can use the BU for some sort of defensive potential. He certainly doesn't need all that speed to be threatening.
Bulk up is what makes the set scary, allowing Floatzel to 1-2HKO the entire metagame.
Waterfall is boosted by Rain, STAB and is great on Floatzel seeing as he can make great use of the Flinch rate.
Ice punch deals with Grass types and Return offers great coverage with Waterfall.
So here we are:
Five Pokemon and so far a great team with a lot of potential, but what about number six?
I must admit, I was rather stumped here. I wasn't even sure of what I wanted.
Yet again Gengarx777 came to the rescue and provided the answer.
We could really benefit from some more residual damage for my sweepers to smash some of the bulkier walls of UU.
Some more offense was also welcome and a decent fighting resist might be useful too.
Toxic spikes are deadly for Offensive teams without a spinner and I needed somthing to get rid of them.
All of this needed fixing, and there was only one Pokemon for the job.
Enter:
Qwilfish (M) @ Toxic Plate
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk/162 HP/96 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Waterfall
- Explosion
- Poison Jab
Yes! Qwilfish is definitely a favourite Mon of mine now. He has helped me out in so many situations and never fails to amuse me with cute and unassuming exterior looks while I chuckle to myself as I press Explosion.
Like I said we wanted more offence, so Adamant and max Evs are obvious, with them Qwilfish hits 317 attack, not shabby at all.
The speed allows me to outpace Timid scarf Roserade if Rain is falling. This is nice as the whore often switches in to suck up Toxic Spikes and then Leaf Storm.
Instead I use Spikes and Poison Jab for the KO. The rest went into HP to bulk him up.
Spikes is a great move, IMO it is better than Toxic Spikes for this team, it being UU and all.
UU contains masses of Poisons and these "spin" away your T.S. This got really annoying for me after a few matches as because of this, T.S never benefitted me once.
For this reason I switched to Spikes. Thy provide more instant HP loss for my opponents Pokemon and combined with Registeel's Stealth Rocks, can really help to rake in KOs for my sweepers.
Waterfall gets STAB and is Rain boosted, like I said offense is key and this lets Qwilfish become quite the threat.
Poison Jab is great coverage with Waterfall, especially when you get STAB on it too.
Explosion maintains team momentum and gets rid of troublesome foes such as Porygon-2.
Toxic Plate must seem like an odd option, but it is here for a few reasons.
That is, Roserade and Abomasnow.
Without Toxic Plate, Poison Jab will always fail to KO that incoming Roserade. The same can be said for Abomasnow. Both of these are huge threats to a Rain Dance team.
With Toxic Plate, I have a 79.49% chance of knocking Roserade out with one switch in to S.R. Abomasnow can be KOed without S.R now, but with it, it's a sure thing.
If anyone can think of a better item that will acheive the same thing without endangering Qwilfish's survivability, please tell me.
Well guys, that's the team.
Mine and Gengarx777's.
Looking at it now I have to say that I feel proud, I know that it's a great team. Somthing that I rarely produce.
There are no 3x compounded type weaknesses, no inherent over offence (for rain) and no over defense either.
I love the way that even primarily utility Pokemon on the team like Rotom and Qwilfish can get up and sweep your team if they feel like it.
As much as I love it, and so does Gengar, we have put it on the RMT forum. This is for a reason.
Can you see some errors that we have overlooked?
Some blatently obvious faults that you cannot believe we didn't see?
I'm sure there are some, all teams have them, but so far I have no losses using the team. Except against Gengar himself, lol.
Wow I actually did beat this monster. Part of it was that I knew it well, but part of it was Togekiss himself at one point, He used and unnecessary BU on my sleeping Mismagius, who woke up and took down Floatzel.
If he had used Waterfall, (or Crunch) I would have lost, even with my ample knowledge of the team. But that's to be expected of someone who knows it so intimately. (One would think so ;))
We want to make this team the greatest Rain Dance that UU had ever seen.
Can you help us?
