Team: Rain Man - undisputed     
IntroductionOne day, I decided I needed a new team. I didn't know what to use, but I knew that I didn't want to use anything popular (like those dumb Garchomp spam sand teams), and every rain offense team basically looked the same, so I didn't want to use that either. With that in mind, I set out to make a team that was both original and successful (I didn't come up with "rain stall"; however, since the time Manaphy got banned, it was not popular at all). Anyway, I'm going to give a little background to how the team and idea came to be and give credit where credit is due. My first encounter with Rain Stall was when I played Philip7086 in SPL, and his team was very strong. Suffice to say, I got destroyed, but I tucked the strategy away in the back of my mind in case it might come in handy later on. Eternal created the Rain Stall team Phil used, and thus he deserves a large amount of credit too. A lot of the general Pokemon and ideas from this team can be attributed to him although there are quite a few different moves and playstyle changes. Thanks dude! After that, I was experimenting with sets when I first made Thunder / Water Pulse / Substitute / Calm Mind Jirachi. It immediately became apparent to me that the set was both incredibly good and no one expected it. Essentially, after a CM or two, Jirachi was capable of taking out entire teams. I made some decent Rain Offense teams with it, and that's when I played Heist in WishMKR's Smogon rules tournament. Heist brought no other strategy than Rain Stall which was a blast from the past, but this time, I was prepared with my Jirachi set. I came within a move or two of 6-0ing Heist, but to my dismay, he narrowly edged his way past Jirachi and then proceeded to 6-0 me. Following this battle, I decided I needed some way to make Jirachi just that much better where it could take out entire teams. Suddenly, it dawned on me that the Rain Stall + Jirachi combo could be incredibly potent. Jirachi fit like a glove covering basically every single weakness that Rain Stall had. And with this, here is the team: The Team
Politoed @ Leftovers Politoed is usually my lead. It's first and foremost job is to maintain the weather advantage for me. I almost always just switch Politoed into Tyranitar / Hippowdon / Ninetales whenever they come out to quickly shut down any opportunities for my opponent to set up weather based sweepers as well as weakening Fire moves aimed at Ferrothorn and Jirachi. Politoed is also often relegated to covering odd weaknesses that come up. For example, I use protect a lot to scout moves and possible tricks. Almost 100% of the time I'll have Politoed take the trick. In other cases I'll use Politoed as a pivot so I don't have to guess what wall I want to send in. The moves are fairly obvious and have become pretty standard by now. Scald is obviously the STAB move of choice scoring me some convenient burns from time to time. Protect is used for scouting and recovering health so Politoed can stay healthy and come in on other weather starters all day. Toxic is another obvious one dispatching of common switch ins such as Rotom-w, Celebi, and Tyranitars. Perish Song is used if I accidentally let some last ditch Pokemon set-up or if I need to force something like CM Reuniclus. Relaxed nature and a 10 Spe IV means that I under cut all Tyranitar and start the match with Rain every time. This is hugely important and often gives me the upper hand starting every match. The defensive EVs allow me to switch into Tyranitar without fearing much. The Sp Def EVs are pretty random and looked good at the time I made the team, and they often let me live some attack I didn't think I could so I've never felt inclined to change those. Credits to Bloo though, since he was the first one I talked with about dropping Politoed's Speed!
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb This Gliscor is a boss. It's really my only Physical wall, but it does a very good job. I never risk Gliscor since it's very important to walling Physical Attackers. Rain also allows Gliscor to be a make-shift mix Fire-attacking Pokemon wall. Sub and Protect are invaluable allowing me to outstall a lot of threats in a pinch. Substitute and Protect are insanely useful on this team. It can easily out-stall large portions of teams in Conjunction with Toxic. It also allows me to just straight up out PP stall some Pokemon when I'm in a pinch. Earthquake and Ice Fang are pretty standard. EQ hits all the steels and is just a good STAB move in general. IF hits things EQ doesn't but most importantly other Gliscor and Dragons / Landorus. EVs are nothing special. I think I just stole them from Iconic's RMT back a while ago. Just looking to maximize defensive capabilities.
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge Tentacruel is often the first wall I bring out, and it's insanely efficient at doing what it does. It kind of manages to wall everything without a strong STAB Electric or Ground type attack. Usually, Tentacruel is foremost a Spinner and then a Toxic Spiker. By this, I mean my first priority is to keep my side of the field clear of entry hazards as often as possible, and then later use Toxic Spikes if necessary. Reasons Toxic Spikes might be my #1 priority would be: Tyranitar and Celebi. The former is an annoyance, and the latter can sweep me if I don't limit its ability to set up whenever I can. Moves are farily obvious. Scald is for burning random stuff, especially Ferrothorn. Scald is also very useful as a secondary check to Physical Attacking threats. Unfortunately, Pokemon like Conkeldurr and Scizor can become annoying, and Scald helps me counter / limit their effectiveness during a match. Protect is like the MVP move, allowing me to regain a ton of health. It isn't uncommon for me to spin and take a lot damage from something like Rotom-w Volt Switching and then easily recover it using Protect and smart double switching. Protect is also useful for scouting Trick users and eases my need to guess right on Pokemon like Rotom-W and Latios. EVs just aim to maximize defense since Tentacruel is already very bulky on the Special Defensive side. Props to Steven Snype though who suggested that I run 44 Spe EVs to outpace Gliscor, which has come in handy more times than I can count.
Blissey @ Leftovers Blissey is the Special Wall. Basically owns everything and is very difficult to kill. The main thing to say about Blissey is that it's my main Thundurus answer. Whenever I see an opposing Thundurus, I know I need to keep Blissey at good health to make sure it can't Nasty Plot and sweep me away. Otherwise, I think its obvious that very few Special Attackers can make any sort of dent in Blissey. If there's anything else to say about Blissey, it's that it's my "second lead" meaning that I sometimes lead with it vs. other rain teams to neutralize potentially problematic Pokemon like Thundurus. The moves are fairly self explanatory. I absolutely love using Stealth Rock on Blissey because it gets a lot of free turns to make it useful. Softboiled is obviously for recovery. No brainer really since Stealth Rock means I don't have the extra moveslot for Wish. Seismic Toss is my attack of choice and does consistent, reliable damage. Toxic is my most useful move, dispatching of Thundurus and just wearing down other threats like Rotom-W. The EVs are obvious. I'm just aiming to maximize overall walling capability.
Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet Ferrothorn is my backup wall to numerous threats. This means that I usually use Tenta / Bliss / Glis for the majority of metagame walling. It's obviously hard to kill anyway, but I like to save it for very specific jobs. For example, Ferrothorn is almost always around to deal with Latios that I don't want Blissey risking Psyshocks from. Nevertheless, Ferrothorn finds many opportunties to come in and get some free Spikes or be a nuisance with Leech Seed and tons of residual damage. In addition, one major job for Ferrothorn is psuedo-blocking Rapid Spinners with Rocky Helmet. For those of you that don't know what the Rocky Helmet strategy does, it basically means that the opponent is guaranteed to take 25% any time they want to use Rapid Spin. Props go to Phil who I basically stole the idea from. Moves are standard. Spikes for Stall's residual damage, Leech Seed to maintain health and more residual damage, Power Whip is just so I have an attacking option. PWhip doesn't see a ton of use though as Ferrothorn often has more important things it can do with the other 3 moves. Toxic is the only out-of-the-ordinary move. It basically just aims to limit set-up chances for opposing Pokemon like Thundurus and Celebi. Often useful for catching stuff like Ninetales, Virizion, and Conkeldurr. EVs are just the standard Ferrothorn. I just use 8 Def EVs because then Ferrothorn has a perfect 300 Def stat and that makes me happy. Jirachi @ Leftovers OH SHIT ITS THE BOSS. And even that is a huge understatement. Originally when I made the set, it could take out entire teams with no support, and with a 5 Pokemon stall core, Jirachi preys on weakened teams with ease. Once I eliminate weather changers and I forsee nothing that poses a legitimate threat to stopping Jirachi, I unleash the boss. Most people don't see Substitute coming, so I almost always lead with that to scout Status and other dumb shit. Jirachi is amazingly bulky and can sub on a plethora of weak threats then proceed to grab some CMs and sweep weakened teams. Some basic things to know with Jirachi on this team is that it's my primary Reuniclus counter. If I get into a CM war with that thing, I almost always come out on top (except for this one time I played Locopoke and his reuniclus hit 6 Focus Blasts while paralyzed in a row; it was classic). It's also useful for picking off weakened Gliscors and forcing my opponents to overextend themselves trying to counter it to the point where my defensive Pokemon have easy pickings. Ferrothorn can also be turned into an almost sure-fire win condition. Thunder is very strong in Rain and is very useful with its 60% paralysis rate. Water Pulse offers quality coverage in tandem with Thunder and has a pretty cool 40% confusion rate which makes me close to untouchable when my opponent is paralyzed. Also hits enemy Excadrill and Gliscor that try to counter me. Sub and CM are obvious, former for blocking status and the latter for becoming unstoppable. EVs maximize Speed because I'm a Speed freak and max almost all my offensive Pokemon. HP is for maximum bulk throughout the offensive Spectrum. Importable |