Zephyr - Balanced Rain - Peaked # 1997

[Jazz]

Hello Smogon, I've been playing competitive pokemon on and off for a few years now and rain has been my favorite playstyle as I believe it to be the best. Originally I made top 30 at 1870 with a rain stall team utilizing tornadus t and sub roost dragonite until the advent of genesect. With the purple bug raiding my team I had to put it down, but now with it banned i decided to get back on the rain wagon. So I tuned my stall team and easily made top 10 in 1 day. Idk how to do screen shots but I go under the user "Rain Dancer" so anyone can see me on the highscores if they wish for proof (i'm somewhere near 20 atm).

anyway, on to the team!

The team utilizes hazards to benefit off of my defensive pivots while Tornadus-T KOs a pokemon each time it comes out. Most of my wins come from either Tornadus T or dnite setting up. Due to the green birds rediculous speed, only choice scarf/prio pokemon can truly take care of him, in which case my defensive pivots sponge attacks for my bird to hurricane another day.

Fresh Prince @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
Nature : Timid
252 SpA/252 Speed/4 Def
Hydro Pump
Ice Beam
Hidden Power Grass
Perish Song

There isn't much need for explaination here, the rest of my team can handle revenge killing so I needed power on this guy and specs is where it's at. I just send this guy in on something slower and start spamming pump until something falls victim. gastro can be annoying so I chose hp grass over focus miss.

Tusky @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
Nature : Impish
252 HP/ 252 Def/ 4 Atk
Earthquake
Ice Shard
Stealth Rock
Rapid Spin

Due to weather teams being so tight for room, I opted Donphan for the ultimate support. Being able to set and spin hazards in addition to checking specially defensive jirachi is invaluable. This guy helps me a lot against sand and he's not too bad against HO either.

Olive @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Nature: Sassy (0 Spd IVs)
252 HP/ 128 Def/ 128 SpD
Power Whip
Gyro
Leech Seed
Spikes

Ah Ferrothorn, originally I was running curse over spikes and winning so many games but i feel spikes helps me against bulky waters like hydration vaporeon that plague my team. ferrothorn is an amazing partner with dragonite and this 'mon helps check so many weakness' to rain teams (here's looking at you, kingdra). My only steel on the team, the defensive typing is incredible and really helps me to sponge water and electric attacks better.

Azure @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Who gives a fuck?
Nature : Timid
252 SpA/ 252 Speed/4 Def
Surf
Secret Sword
Hidden Power Ice
Hydro Pump

I didn't realize how good this guy was until i started using him. my revenge killer of choice, keldeo gets rid of cs salamence among many over CS pokemon. In addition, keldeo loves hazards set up by donphan and ferro and really helps him shine mid-late game. surf and pump together are great, allowing me to weigh the risks for power when needed.

Zephyr @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
Nature: Naive
252 SpA/252 Speed/ 4 Atk
Hurricane
Superpower
U-Turn
Taunt

Tornadus T makes this team, plain and simple. Usually killing atleast 3 pokes a game, this guy is brutal. IMO, balanced rain would be nothing with this guy, regenerator is too good when you have a defensive core. Taunt is here for HO and because donphan isnt the best spinner, so keeping rocks off as much as possible is really important. superpower is nuts, killing ttar and pink blobs and uturn is obv.

Dragoon @ Leftovers
Ability: Multi-Scale
Nature: Jolly
248 HP/ 44 Def/ 40 SpD/176 Speed
Dragon Claw
Roost
Substitute
Dragon Dance

My obsession, I use this set on all of my teams and this one is no different. EVs allow me to keep subs up more consistently against spec def jirachi while speed lets me beat loom without a dd, outspeed CS toed/jolt after 1 dd and outspeed CS Terrakion after 2 DDs. This guy is the bane to sun teams, and my true counter to ninetails and friends. dnite pretty much does it all, pivoting and setting up. Idk how many times i've won with this guy but he's a truly important piece to the team.

~Subsiding~

Weaknesses - Phazers! Hydration Vaporeon, Skarmory, and Suicune especially.

Latias, and Calm Minding in general as I have no immediate physical power.

Thanks for checking my team out guys, I'd love some help from Smogon!

Threat list coming soon

 

[Neliel]

Hi, i see a general weaknesses to fighting types like Terrakion or Keldeo calm minder. Cb Terrakion can freely spam close combat or Stone edge to the right pokemon, but also other sets are problematic in the right situation, although once you realised which set it has its easier to handle. Calm mind Keldeo especially with hidden power ice can ko your dragonite, and even with hp ghost it can spam strong hpump without being koed by Dragon claw. It obviously cant 6-0 you since you have 2 revenge killers, Tornadus and keldeo but you cant exactly switch-in on Tornadus so it can be problematic. I also see that jellicent is a bitch here, it can stop completely Keldeo, Dragonite can be burned by Wow on the switch-in and it can use it as a setup fodder since it has taunt, it antispin Donphan and it can cripple it with a burn, and the same is for for Ferrothorn. Tornadus-t fails to ko, as well as politoed, so they are not exactly a check to it. Mamoswine and tornadus are as well threatening, Mamoswine can spam strong stab into all your pokemon and your best way to kill it is to take a superpower with ferrothorn and strike a ko back, but its not the best way to handle it. Since you have no flying resistor its quite obvious why you cant switch into tornadus-t.

the first thing i would change is your Donphan's spread. A spread like this EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 180 Spd with an Adamant Nature helps you for a lot of reason. First, with the max atk investiment you can effectively revenge kill Salamence and Dragonite as well as LAndorus sheer force, it also does more damages to Thundurus and Tornadus. With the speed investiment also, you can outspeed and 2ko an incoming Jellicent that thinks it can antispin you.

The other thing i would do is to put a Choice scarf into Politoed. A set of Hydropump / Ice Beam / Encore / Perish song should help. I dont think you need so much power here, indeed with a scarf nature it can solve somewhat your problem to Tornadus-t, having an another pokemon that can revenge kill it, as well as Mamoswine, with encore it also comes in handy to stop Calm mind Keldeo locking it to Calm mind, and with perish song it can stop other dangerous things that are trying to sweep you. It can also outspeed any non scarf variants of Terrakion, which is fine i think. I know they are not the best solutions to threath like Jellicent but i didnt feel like changing anypokemon so thats the ebst i can do ^^

Set:

Hide

Politoed (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Perish Song
- Encore

Donphan (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 180 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin

 

[Jazz]

Hi, i see a general weaknesses to fighting types like Terrakion or Keldeo calm minder. Cb Terrakion can freely spam close combat or Stone edge to the right pokemon, but also other sets are problematic in the right situation, although once you realised which set it has its easier to handle. Calm mind Keldeo especially with hidden power ice can ko your dragonite, and even with hp ghost it can spam strong hpump without being koed by Dragon claw. It obviously cant 6-0 you since you have 2 revenge killers, Tornadus and keldeo but you cant exactly switch-in on Tornadus so it can be problematic. I also see that jellicent is a bitch here, it can stop completely Keldeo, Dragonite can be burned by Wow on the switch-in and it can use it as a setup fodder since it has taunt, it antispin Donphan and it can cripple it with a burn, and the same is for for Ferrothorn. Tornadus-t fails to ko, as well as politoed, so they are not exactly a check to it. Mamoswine and tornadus are as well threatening, Mamoswine can spam strong stab into all your pokemon and your best way to kill it is to take a superpower with ferrothorn and strike a ko back, but its not the best way to handle it. Since you have no flying resistor its quite obvious why you cant switch into tornadus-t.

the first thing i would change is your Donphan's spread. A spread like this EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 180 Spd with an Adamant Nature helps you for a lot of reason. First, with the max atk investiment you can effectively revenge kill Salamence and Dragonite as well as LAndorus sheer force, it also does more damages to Thundurus and Tornadus. With the speed investiment also, you can outspeed and 2ko an incoming Jellicent that thinks it can antispin you.

The other thing i would do is to put a Choice scarf into Politoed. A set of Hydropump / Ice Beam / Encore / Perish song should help. I dont think you need so much power here, indeed with a scarf nature it can solve somewhat your problem to Tornadus-t, having an another pokemon that can revenge kill it, as well as Mamoswine, with encore it also comes in handy to stop Calm mind Keldeo locking it to Calm mind, and with perish song it can stop other dangerous things that are trying to sweep you. It can also outspeed any non scarf variants of Terrakion, which is fine i think. I know they are not the best solutions to threath like Jellicent but i didnt feel like changing anypokemon so thats the ebst i can do ^^

Set:

Hide

Politoed (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Perish Song
- Encore

Donphan (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 180 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin

Yeah originally I was using CS toed, I'll definitely give the 2 sets a shot. I like the idea of the offensive donphan spread, thanks man. :]

 

[Ocimum basilicum]

Helou Jazz, I see a problem, you have dificults to take down rotom-w with will o wisp. I like the Rest-Thorn because he resisits too much with rest and I believe you need other ev's spread for your thorn. You have much problems with other tornadus-t but your dragonite can resists it by this set:

Dragonite (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 228 HP / 24 Atk / 80 SDef / 176 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Dragon Claw
- Roost
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance

And the set of ferrothorn:

Ferrothorn (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Atk / 88 Def / 152 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Spikes
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Rest

 

[Jazz]

Helou Jazz, I see a problem, you have dificults to take down rotom-w with will o wisp. I like the Rest-Thorn because he resisits too much with rest and I believe you need other ev's spread for your thorn. You have much problems with other tornadus-t but your dragonite can resists it by this set:

Dragonite (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 228 HP / 24 Atk / 80 SDef / 176 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Dragon Claw
- Roost
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance

And the set of ferrothorn:

Ferrothorn (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Atk / 88 Def / 152 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Spikes
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Rest

Rest was actually on Ferro for that reason until I made it to around 1900 on my voyage, and by then I realized it was far too slow without sleep talk (which I can't play because I NEED power whip).

Sorry man but I'm sticking with my dnites evs already.

 

[ganj4lF]

The team is quite nice, although it looks you have some problems with Electric attacks. In particular, Agility Thundurus-T sweeps you clean with SR on the field and some minimal prior damage on Ferro. Once it achieves a boost, Thunder destroys all your Electric-weak pokes (half of your team), and HP Ice and Focus Miss take care of the remaining members. Rotom-W also looks an annoyance, although less serious than that Thundurus problem. It's quite hard to solve this since half of your team looks "set in stone" (would you really consider removing Keldeo, Toed or Tornadus? I guess you got the point), and that's exactly the half which is destroyed by Thunders and similar attacks.

Now, to solve this (well you could also ignore this, since Thundurus is quite rare, I must go out on the ladder with one of them to show its awesomeness) you have two choices. The first one (my initial thought) involves losing Rapid Spin, so it may be a bit controversial, while the second one is more conservative, but not entirely satisfying.

The first involves switching from Donphan to Mamoswine, and to use a Defensive Politoed. You gain more durability on your weather starter, and very strong priority to solve all those Thundurus-T problems, with the added boon to take down Dragons with ease (especially CM Latias). Politoed is bulky enough to handle those nasty Fighting types, in my experience, especially when you have a SubDD Nite to aid, which is quite bulky in my experience. Tornadus can take a hit too, although I won't rely on it. This substitution, however, removes Rapid Spin and, while Nite is not that much concerned (it can Roost back its health easily), Tornadus is a little less happy since Regenerator will barely keep its health to the same levels instead of freely healing it on the switch.However, since you expressed the concerns for lack of physical presence, and weakness to most phazers, Mamo looks like a viable idea (it can actually seriously dent most of them, Vaporeon is 2HKO'd by EQ, and Skarmory will be eventually worn down by Ice attacks).

Sets

Mamoswine @ Life Orb | Thick Fat
Jolly / Adamant | 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Icicle Crash / Icicle Spear / Superpower / Stone Edge

Politoed @ Leftovers | Drizzle
Bold | 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
- Scald
- Protect / Refresh
- Toxic
- Perish Song

Another, different idea could be to use Latias instead of Dragonite. CM Latias can cover the role of sweeper just as well, retaining most of the bulk (a little elss physically, but it's an absolute behemoth specially), being resistant to Fighting, Ground, Fire, Water, and importantly, Electric, while only being x2 weak to Ice, which basically enables it to stall Thundurus' Life Orb, barring crits (and if you manage to get a CM, you can even set up on it, although it's quite risky). Latias can partially solve your problem with phazers if you choose a CM + Roar set; other options are Substitute, to fully emulate Nite, or Psyshock, to better kill Keldeos, Tentacruels, and such annoyances in the Rain. It's less satisfying than the previous option, IMHO, but you retain Rapid Spin, so it can have its merit.

Latias

Latias @ Leftovers | Levitate
Timid | 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Roost
- Psyshock / Substitute / Roar

Hope I helped somewhat, good luck.

 

[Shurtugal]

I would try Scarf Rak over Scarf Keldeo since it fights sun and sand better (sun arguably dismantles you; HP Ice Venu beats everything, and +2 Sludge Bomb LO does as well). If you use Scarf Rak, you can replace Phan for Standard Tenta since Tenta is way better on this team (assuming Scarf Rak) since you can wall opposing Terrak now (which otherwise dents this team up (band ensures a kill everytime it comes in and subsalac can speed tie everything and +2 dismantles) and allow teammates to lolsweep you). Just add SR on Ferro since you're using Tenta now (probably best over Spikes) and I personally enjoy RestFerro better than using LeechSeed variant.

On Politoed, you don't need speed on the Specs set lol. Try 252 Hp / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef. Way bulkier so it can hit more. I would use Specs Torn-T since most of you're Pokemon can't set up or are defensive (Tenta + Ferro defensive and Scarf Rak / Scarf Keldeo lacks oomph + Poli sometimes needs to preserve haelth for weather war + DNite has trouble finding oppurtunities to set up). I would use Specs merly for that extra oomph, and replace Taunt for Sleep Talk and Superpower for Focus Blast (or you can leave the slot blank if you want a better chance of hitting Turn or Hurricane on Sleep Talk) and this team is set.

tl;tr:

->

-> EV Change: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef

->

(Sleep Talk > Taunt and Focus Blast / No Move > Superpower)

->

->

Sets:

Ferrothorn:

Hide

@

Trait: Iron Barbs
Nature: keep the same
EVs: keep the same
- Rest
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip

Terrakion:

Hide

@

Trait: Justified
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor / Earthquake

Tornadus-T:

Hide

@

Trait: Regenerator
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Sleep Talk
- Focus Blast / No Move

Tentacruel:

Hide

@

Trait: Rain Dish
Nature: Timid
EVs: 244 Hp / 252 Def / 16 Spe
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Protect / Substitute
- Toxic Spikes / Toxic

Conclusion:

Pretty standard team, but I wish you luck nonetheless! GL!