Wounded Deluge (OU Rain)

[Archerdon]

Introduction:​

I wanted to try something different after I got bored with my last team. ( http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103870 ) That meant no Nidoking and no Ferrothorn/Gliscor/Jellicent defensive core. I gave many things a try and settled on trying to build a rain team from the ground up, since until now I've avoided weather-based teams. My plan was to wound my opponent using bulky pokemon and entry hazards so that my rain-boosted sweepers can clean up lategame.

Changes in red


Team at a Glance:

Team Building:

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I started, obviously enough, with Politoed. The bulky set to keep rain up and tank opponents.

I added bulky Dragonite to take advantage of the weather straight away and force switched with Dragon tail.

I added Ferrothorn to take advantage of the rain for fire defence, set up hazards and deal with opposing water types and take water and grass attacks.

Chansey for taking any and all special attacks, inflicting status and passing wishes to politoed, ferrothorn and dragonite to keep them alive as long as possible.

Gengar added as a spinblocker and to force switches with sub/disable.

Haxorus as my lategame sweeper. The plan was, one dragon dance and nothing would be able to live through entry damage and Haxorus' attacks. It didn't quite work in practice, so that's where the changes come in.

I decided that the team needed to hit harder, faster, so I made some changes. I introduced Scizor and Volcarona as my cleaner-uppers, and switched Dragonite from bulky to mixed rain wallbreaker.

I then changed Ferrothorn to Forretress with Rapid spin in order to accommodate Volcarona's weakness to SR. Chansey was cripplingly weak to Close Combat, which had been causing major problems, so I switched it to Tentacruel for toxic spikes and an extra rapid spin, but soon dropped rapid spin for ice beam since it was redundant if i play Forretress correctly.

Politoed (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe ( from 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef )
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Toxic
- Perish Song
- Protect

Standard bulky Politoed. I either lead with this or Forretress, depending on the opponent's team. There isn't really much to say, everyone has seen drizzle politoed before.

Forretress (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Def ( from 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SDef )
Sassy Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Gyro Ball

Gets the hazards up and blows the opponent's hazards away. With rain up I can leave it in against HP fire opponents and set up easily. Gyro ball for espeon/latios/tyranitar but not a lot else.

Vaporeon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Hydration
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Rest
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Toxic

Switched Tentacruel for this. Rest is amazing for walling and it can absorb status all day long.

Dragonite (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Hurricane
- ExtremeSpeed
- Aqua Tail
- Roost

I abandoned a bulkier set for this wallbreaker. Doesn't mind tyranitar/Hippowdon switching in because of aqua tail, then leaves politoed to reinstate rain. Hurricane is standard abuse, there's not a lot that can withstand it. Extremespeed is a lifesaver also. I try not to waste Dragonite unless I have to as strong priority is immensely useful endgame.

Volcarona (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Hurricane
- Bug Buzz

I was browsing the strategy dex and saw this set and thought "who in their right mind would use this!?" The next day I was using it and loving it. Not walled by heatran nearly as much in rain. A few quiver dances and heatran can't dent it more than leftovers can heal it, then Hurricane hits hard and can confuse. I love it. If it gets going not a lot can stop it at all.

Scizor (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Roost

Currently testing Jirachi and Breloom as replacements

Threatens opponents like mad, forcing switches through hazards and hits hard with priority. Everyone has seen scizor before, I'd only be repeating the strategy dex if I elaborated.


I have to go now, which is why the descriptions are so brief, but if you need me to elaborate just say so in the comments and I'll justify decisions I've made etc.

Any suggestions to improve would be very appreciated. One thing I will say is that I'm having particular problems against Rotom-W, so anything that will help against it would be lovely.

Thanks!

 

[limititations]

A change i would like to suggest is hypnosis instead of toxic on your politoed. You already have toxic spikes on with tentacruel and the sleep could give your sweepers an easier time to set up, combined with perish song it would ensure that your opponent is forced to make a switch.

 

[Lord Wallace]

Have you ever considered Ludicolo instead of Tentacruel to really go crazy with the rain? Also,contradicting your description,Heatran still walls the crap out of Volcarona though a +3 Hurricane might hurt a little bit. Maybe replace Fiery Dance with HP Fighting since Fire moves is nerfed by rain? Other than that and the awkward type repitition (3 bugs,Toxicroak over Scizor?) This team looks solid. Make longer descriptions though

 

[Bugdomking]

You have two bug/steels. I recommend switching Scizor for Breloom. I recommend this set, but you can run whatever.

Breloom @ Life Orb/Leftovers
Technician
Adamant: 248 Hp 252 Atk 10 Spe
-Mach Punch
-Swords Dance
-Bullet Seed
-Spore

 

[limititations]

I was actually going to suggest vaporeon over tentacruel. It does the same job of wall as well as adds a valuable wisher that your team is lacking. Your team is similar in a lot of ways to my, i actually used the volcarona you have and yes it is still horribly walled by specially defensive heatran, in particular who can come in on any of your attacks and roar you and any buffs you might have accumulated.

Vaporeon @ leftovers
Water absorb
bold: 252 hp 220 def 32 SpD (evs could be played with)
Wish
Toxic
Ice Beam/Scald
Protect

 

[Penance]

I would keep Toxic because it can really hamper Dragonite and Hypnosis is garbage. I would use the Choice Band Scizor over your current set because you have no real revenge killer or anything that can use priority on this team. Then I would change Forretress for a specially defensive one and use Choice Scarf Rotom-W over Tentacruel.

It allows you to use Volt Turn and break up stalls and maintain momentum which you were lacking. I don't find Toxic Spikes really worth using because you have no spin blocker so if they have a spinner most of your work went to waste.

Last change would be to use Leftovers on Dragonite. Life Orb with Multiscale is kind of redundant.

 

[Drifblim]

Life Orb on Dragonite could easily just deactivate your Multiscale. Leftovers could be used to try to help get to full at the end of a turn if Roost could not quite do it.

 

[Honus]

Hey there, this is a really nice team.

So after an initial glance, I can see a pretty big weakness to Specs Tornadus, and that's only aided by the fact that this is a rain team, meaning its mighty STAB Hurricane will be hitting 100% of the time. Hurricane also holds the benefit of 2HKOing your entire team [although Dragonite can survive a hit through multiscale, but that gets broken via LO or SR residual] thanks to its STAB/Specs Boosts and high base power. You might be able to take down Tornadus under the right circumstances, but you lack a decent switchin, so a well played Specs Tornadus will ultimately wreak havoc on this team, and the fact that it only has to use one move to do so takes out any prediction factors. Anyways, I think you can alleviate this major weakness to Tornadus by replacing your Scizor with a Specially Defensive Jirachi, which functions as a hard counter to Tornadus and checks many of the same threats that Scizor did, such as Latios and Reuniclus. You do lose a bit of offensive presence, but your team still definitely has offensive power and Dragonite or Volcarona can easily pull off a sweep. Additionally, Wish Support can prove very useful to your team as well, as it can be used to easily heal Tentacruel, Forretress or Politoed so that they can last longer in a match.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 216 SDef / 40 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Iron Head
- Wish
- Body Slam
- Protect


Additionally, I can see this team as being a bit weak to DD Dragonite and Salamence, you can probably pressure Dragonite with Politoed, but multiple Dragon Dancers or just a well played one in general could cause you some issues. Since you already have a Rapid Spinner I think you could potentially replace Tentacool with a Defensive Quagsire. Quagsire is able to benefit from its excellent ability Unaware to wall the majority of the metagame's threats, Dragonite and Salamence being no exceptions. Given their types and general similarities, Quagsire also acts as a nice check to many of the Pokemon that Tentacruel checked, such as Infernape and Scizor. Finally, I think you should change Politoed's EV Spread to 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe, so that you can outspeed Skarmory and Jellicent and Toxic/Scald them before they can do anything to you.

Quagsire (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Recover
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Change Summary:

Politoed:

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef-> 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe

 

[Archerdon]

@ limititations - Hypnosis' awful accuracy is enough for me to never use it, but Toxic is still the better choice I think because I don't always get toxic spikes up and it helps me win one-on-one fights with politoed a lot of the time.

@ Darkerones - I'll consider Ludicolo, but I stand by my claim that Volcarona doesn't have to worry about Heatran. Roar is the only thing Heatran can do, and most of the ones I've run into run Stealth Rock instead. 90% of the time I can just quiver dance with impunity and Hurricane the (usually already weakened) Heatran to death.

@ Bugdomking - I have two bug/steels, but I don't see that as a problem. Bug/Steel has only one weakness which becomes 2x rather than 4x in the rain. I might try the Breloom set anyway though, it would give me something to threaten Rotom-W with without sacrificing priority attacks, though I lose valuable bulk.

@ limititations again - I might give that vaporeon a try.

@ Penance - I used CB scizor on a different team and although it's amazing, I think SD works better on this team. It's not as immediately threatening but it's almost unstoppable if it gets set up. I'll give Forretress' defences a jiggle like you suggested, and I'll test Rotom-W.

@ Drifblim - I agree about life orb, I'll change it.

@ Karpman - Thanks for the extensive input. I'll give both of your suggestions a try and change Politoed's EVs; I don't expect losing 3 Def points will make much of a difference.

 

[LUST]

Hey

Nice team. It seems that you're heading in the right direction if you want to set up for a Quiver Dance Volcarona sweep. Although Gyarados presumes a big threat like user Karpman mentioned earlier. It easily sets up on Forretress, Vaporeon, Scizor and Volcarona as they fail to hit Gyarados back hard; your best option in this situation would be Politoed and potentially use Perish Song to stop this beast but it can effortlessly PP stall it with well-timed switch-ins and give you trouble later on; Dragonite goes down by rare Ice Fang variants after its multiscale is broken. Other than Gyarados, many Dragon Dance Dragons users like Dragonite, Salamence are problematic. To fix this situation, I would highly recommend replacing Vaporeon for Physically Defensive Porygon2. This suggestion may seem weird but if you look at it closely Porygon is an ultimate answer to all of your problems. This duck is an all-purpose defensive pivot that discriminates almost purely by numerical power. With its fantastic ability Trace, it walls the living shit off Heatran, Jolteon, Gliscor and among many others. Evolite is the selling point of this set making Porygon2 bulkier. Ice Beam and Thunderbolt are the crux of this set essential to maximize its offensive presence. Recover is a necessity on any defensive mon, which enhances its survivability. Thunder Wave perfectly increases your offensive momentum which comes in handy for late-game sweeping. These EVs allow Porygon2 to avoid a 2HKO from Salamence’s Draco Meteor and even survive a Life Orb boosted +1 Outrage from Haxorus. A spread with 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD is also viable as it maximizes the probability of surviving harder hits in desperate occasions. After this change these Dragons are considered as minor threats as Porygon2 utilizes its natural bulk + ability + evolite to be beneficial to this team.

Physically Defensive Porygon2

Porygon2 @ Evolite | Trace
Bold | 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 SpD or 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
~ Thunderbolt
~ Ice Beam
~ Thunder Wave
~ Recover

For some minor changes, on Scizor try a different spread with 248 HP / 96 Atk / 164 SpD with Iron Plate and an Adamant Nature. These EVs are farther superior and well-adjusted according to the current metagame. 96 Atk EVs allow you reach skyrocketing attack stat after a Swords Dance which becomes very essential for revenge killing / sweeping. Bullet Punch also gets a clean OHKO with Iron Plate on Standard Terrakion which is very threatening to face and previous EVs fail to accomplish that. Bug Bite’s power is also increased significantly to destroy the likes of Rotom-W and Slowbro. Try Life Orb on Volcarona to maximize its offensive potential since you only will be using it for late-game sweeping. With a Modest Nature and Life Orb its presence becomes even more deadly. After these changes your team looks solid. Overall brilliant team, Good Luck!

Bulky Swords Dance Scizor

Scizor @ Iron Plate | Technician
Adamant | 248 HP / 96 Atk / 164 SpD
~ Bullet Punch
~ Bug Bite
~ Swords Dance
~ Roost