Have you ever seen the rain?

[Pokeplayer44]

This is an idea I had for a rain team about a year ago, but just recently put into use. It has worked OK in the Battle Subway, getting my longest ever Super Double winning streak. Since this team was made without RNG'ing, some of the natures/IVs are not what they are listed here as, but are close enough that it shouldn't matter.

MakeItRain (Politoed) (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 200 HP / 252 SAtk / 56 SDef
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Protect

A somewhat standard Politoed set with Toxic to melt HP and Sitrus to live some extra hits. I have the EVs the way they are to make it actually capable of doing damage. Other than that, Protect to stall/scout, Ice Beam for coverage, Hydro Pump for STAB. It makes it rain, by the way.

Livolt (Manectric) (F) @ Electric Gem
Trait: Lightningrod
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Thunder
- Light Screen
- Hidden Power [Water]

That's right. Manectric. It really screws with people who try to nail Politoed or Tornadus with an Electric move, while getting a boost itself thanks to Lightningrod. Its the best thing that can have it, IMO. That Electric Gem Thunder packs a major punch, while Thunder Wave is a good thing to hit Pokemon that resist Thunder with. Light Screen is just good support, mainly for blocking Grass attacks on Politoed. I haven't tested HP Water yet, but if someone could RNG one with it for me, I'd be grateful (off-topic, but hey. I need one).

Punisher (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 126 Def / 126 SDef
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Protect
- Leech Seed

When I first heard people talk about Ferrothorn on Rain teams, I was like WHAT? I still don't get how it works, but it does. I guess it's because its main weakness of Fire gets doused. Pretty straightforward here, Leftovers and Leech Seed for contiuous recovery, Power Whip and Gyro Ball for powerful STAB moves, and Protect to stall while I regain HP.

Aeolus (Tornadus) (M) @ Charti Berry
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hurricane
- Taunt
- Grass Knot
- Swagger

There's a reason this Tornadus doesn't have Tailwind, and that's called Ferrothorn. It can still function pretty well without it though. Hurricane is massively powerful and it hits reliably in the rain. Taunt is just to make the shenanigans stop before they start, Swagger is to hopefully keep everything I have alive while they slowly kill themselves, and Focus Blast should be interesting against its Rock weakness.

Kingdra (M) @ (No Item)
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect

Obviously, Kingdra needs an item. I don't know what to give it since Dragonite is holding Life Orb. Hydro Pump and Dragon Pulse are for massive STAB damage, Ice Beam is for the general coverage it gives, and Protect is Protect. EVs allow for outspeeding and for the most damage possible.

Big Kahuna (Dragonite) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Dragon Pulse
- Thunder
- Hurricane
- Superpower

It's Quiet because it's Mixed and I don't want to lower any Defenses with a nature. And yes, it can learn Superpower through tutors. Dragon Pulse is for STAB, Thunder and Hurricane (STAB also) are for dealing massive damage while taking advantage of the weather. Life Orb is to help out its somewhat low Sp.Atk stat. Superpower is there to kill Ice types, which it would be dealing with only when it had to (Ferrothorn would be the one that would do this normally). Thinking about taking this out for a Toxicroak with Dry Skin.

As far as threats go to the whole team, I'm not sure yet because only the 1st 4 have been used in testing and not with those exact movesets. I'm posting this here to see if it's viable enough to spend time making the team. Thanks!

CHANGES:
7/31/12-Changed Dragonite's Ability to Inner Focus from Multiscale
8/1/12-Chaged Swagger to Toxic on Politoed, Changed Politoed's EVs to make it more Specially Defensive
8/2/12-Changed Politoed, Tornadus, and Ferrothorns' movesets, Dropped Floatzel and added Kingdra

Removed Pokemon:

Spoiler

Ninjoe (Floatzel) (M) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Ice Punch
- Brick Break

The interesting thing here is even with an Adamant Nature and zero Speed EVs its Speed is 135 and with Swift Swim it hits 270. That's way more than enough if you ask me. Expert Belt seemed like a fun item here and can boost Waterfall even higher than it already is by STAB, then Crunch and Brick Break are just good moves for covering common Pokemon, and Ice Punch is for Grass Types.

 

[Alan]

Not a bad team! Looks pretty solid.

My thoughts:

Have you considered switcheroo on Manectric? I'm not sure how'd you would use it (I'd go with Specs.) but it might be good. You could also switch with your own Pokémon (example: Politoed needs to KO with scald and Manectric needs to heal, Switcheroo and you get to heal and he gets a boosted Scald!) It might be a little predictable, though.

Also, Grass Knot seems sorta pointless on Tornadus when you have Power Whip on Ferrothorn.

Have you considered Trick Room as an option? Not many of your Pokémon are invested in speed so it could help to have it as a back up.

 

[Pokeplayer44]

Not a bad team! Looks pretty solid.

My thoughts:

Have you considered switcheroo on Manectric? I'm not sure how'd you would use it (I'd go with Specs.) but it might be good. You could also switch with your own Pokémon (example: Politoed needs to KO with scald and Manectric needs to heal, Switcheroo and you get to heal and he gets a boosted Scald!) It might be a little predictable, though.

Also, Grass Knot seems sorta pointless on Tornadus when you have Power Whip on Ferrothorn.

Have you considered Trick Room as an option? Not many of your Pokémon are invested in speed so it could help to have it as a back up.

The 1st one seems like an OK option, but I'd rather not do Choice Specs since Manectric only has 2 attacking moves and can't really get any more that are worth using as far as I know. Grass Knot could be a waste for sure, what would be a good replacement as Tailwind hurts Ferrothorn more than it helps. Trick Room would be a viable option in here, but I'd have to change something since none of these can learn it. If I do that I could swap Floatzel for Slowking/Slowbro/something else I guess. Thanks.

 

[Emvee]

With higher Special Attack as well as Speed, Jolteon delivers much better results than Manectric does. Tornadus needs Focus Blast or you get walled by Steel types, so I suggest replacing Swagger.

 

[Professor Palutena]

Swagger on Politoed is pretty pointless. I would put Toxic on it instead.

 

[Emvee]

The interesting thing here is even with an Adamant Nature and zero Speed EVs its Speed is 135 and with Swift Swim it hits 270. That's way more than enough if you ask me. Expert Belt seemed like a fun item here and can boost Waterfall even higher than it already is by STAB, then Crunch and Brick Break are just good moves for covering common Pokemon, and Ice Punch is for Grass Types.

The EV spread on your Floatzel is pretty bad. You need 252 speed EV's to outspeed the common metagame threats (or at the very least enough speed to Outspeed max speed Starmie). 0 Speed EV's is a pretty ridiculous idea.

 

[Pokeplayer44]

With higher Special Attack as well as Speed, Jolteon delivers much better results than Manectric does. Tornadus needs Focus Blast or you get walled by Steel types, so I suggest replacing Swagger.

I may do Focus Blast, but that's a move people rarely use at VGC due to its horrible missing hax.

Swagger on Politoed is pretty pointless. I would put Toxic on it instead.

Good idea. I'll change that.

The EV spread on your Floatzel is pretty bad. You need 252 speed EV's to outspeed the common metagame threats (or at the very least enough speed to Outspeed max speed Starmie). 0 Speed EV's is a pretty ridiculous idea.

Hey, it has Swift Swim. Didn't you see that part? With Swift Swim, it outspeeds all the current metagame threats unless they're Scarfed (very few reach that even then) or they have Swift Swim and a ton of Speed EVs.

 

[One Approved]

nevermind floatzel's speed evs. Floatzel itself is just terrible in general. There are so many better Swift Swim abusers you could be using instead, including (but not limited to): Ludicolo, Omastar, Kabutops, and Kingdra. All of these Pokémon hit way harder than Floatzel could ever dream to.

Also Curse Ferrothorn is just not a good idea. In singles, it's barely viable. In doubles, the game is too offensive to allow you to set up multiple curses. if any at all. The same goes for the ChestoRest strategy. You'll get full health, but most of the time Ferrothorn is going to be hit twice anyways. Leech Seed and Protect will help Ferrothorn survive, and scout the opposing team. Thunder Wave even would be more useful as you could potentially cripple something on the opponent's team, making it easier for your team to sweep.

252 Special Attack EVs on Politoed is an offensive strategy. Use Hydro Pump if you're going to max out special attack. Otherwise you could use those EVs to make it uch more defensive, and tank multiple hits, possibly winning you the weather war.

 

[Pokeplayer44]

nevermind floatzel's speed evs. Floatzel itself is just terrible in general. There are so many better Swift Swim abusers you could be using instead, including (but not limited to): Ludicolo, Omastar, Kabutops, and Kingdra. All of these Pokémon hit way harder than Floatzel could ever dream to.

Also Curse Ferrothorn is just not a good idea. In singles, it's barely viable. In doubles, the game is too offensive to allow you to set up multiple curses. if any at all. The same goes for the ChestoRest strategy. You'll get full health, but most of the time Ferrothorn is going to be hit twice anyways. Leech Seed and Protect will help Ferrothorn survive, and scout the opposing team. Thunder Wave even would be more useful as you could potentially cripple something on the opponent's team, making it easier for your team to sweep.

252 Special Attack EVs on Politoed is an offensive strategy. Use Hydro Pump if you're going to max out special attack. Otherwise you could use those EVs to make it uch more defensive, and tank multiple hits, possibly winning you the weather war.

OK. I see the general hate on Floatzel from everyone everywhere. Forget using something original. I'm not using Kabutops either though, the 4x Grass weakness and other weaknesses just get it killed. Kingdra is a good idea though. Is Hydro Pump really accurate enough to be used at VGC though? I'm always afraid of moves like that missing. So Ferrothorn should basically be like this:

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 126 Def / 126 SDef
Brave
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Thunder Wave
- IDK. You can't run Gyro Ball with T-Wave, so I guess Power Whip?

Here's a possible Kingdra:

Kingdra @ Life Orb
Swift Swim
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Modest
- Dragon Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Muddy Water
- Protect

Then there's the problem of having 2 physical moves on the entire team.

 

[One Approved]

I was thinking this for Ferrothorn:

Gyro Ball
Power Whip
Leech Seed
Protect or Thunder Wave

And Hydro Pump has the same accuracy as Muddy Water. I would use Hydro Pump over Muddy Water because it's more powerful, and Hydro Pump over Scald on Politoed. The extreme rise in power outweighs the drop in power.

I know Focus Blast has low accuracy, but it really is Tornadus's best option. It's the only move it has to hit things like Ferrothorn.

There isn't a HUGE problem with only having 2 physical moves. It presents an unbalance, but it's not like you have to worry about Blissey. The most specially defensive things you'll have to deal with are Gastrodon and Amoonguss. Ferrothorn will easily beat Gastrodon, and if it doesn't, you can simply use Toxic. Amoonguss while being specially defensive, gets beaten down by Hurricane.

 

[Emvee]

Hey, it has Swift Swim. Didn't you see that part? With Swift Swim, it outspeeds all the current metagame threats unless they're Scarfed (very few reach that even then) or they have Swift Swim and a ton of Speed EVs.

I really hope you're not trying to troll me. Incase you didn't know, Swift Swim doubles your current speed. If your speed is low, when it's doubled it won't be that high. It doesn't "outspeed all the current metagame threats unless they're Scarfed" because your speed sucks.

Just listen to One Approved and scrap the Floatzel idea.

As for your Kingdra set, it needs speed EV's, otherwise have fun getting outsped by Pokemon that Kingdra should normally outspeed.

 

[Pokeplayer44]

I was thinking this for Ferrothorn:

Gyro Ball
Power Whip
Leech Seed
Protect or Thunder Wave

And Hydro Pump has the same accuracy as Muddy Water. I would use Hydro Pump over Muddy Water because it's more powerful, and Hydro Pump over Scald on Politoed. The extreme rise in power outweighs the drop in power.

I know Focus Blast has low accuracy, but it really is Tornadus's best option. It's the only move it has to hit things like Ferrothorn.

There isn't a HUGE problem with only having 2 physical moves. It presents an unbalance, but it's not like you have to worry about Blissey. The most specially defensive things you'll have to deal with are Gastrodon and Amoonguss. Ferrothorn will easily beat Gastrodon, and if it doesn't, you can simply use Toxic. Amoonguss while being specially defensive, gets beaten down by Hurricane.

You make good points. There are no Blissey in VGC which I know, and I should be able to handle Amoonguss with a Taunt and Hurricanes. I'll try Focus Blast just to see if it'll work as good as everyone said. Ferrothorn will know Power Whip, Leech Seed, Protect, and Gyro Ball. The reason being Gyro Ball is one of its best moves, and with Thunder Wave it loses its power. So on Kingdra it should have Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, Dragon Pulse, Protect. I'll put Hydro Pump on the two.

I really hope you're not trying to troll me. Incase you didn't know, Swift Swim doubles your current speed. If your speed is low, when it's doubled it won't be that high. It doesn't "outspeed all the current metagame threats unless they're Scarfed" because your speed sucks.

Just listen to One Approved and scrap the Floatzel idea.

As for your Kingdra set, it needs speed EV's, otherwise have fun getting outsped by Pokemon that Kingdra should normally outspeed.

OK. I knew Swift Swim doubles your current Speed. All I was saying is that with doubled Speed they shouldn't need to rely on having that much more. But I'll put on some Speed EVs, just not a Speed raising nature. Floatzel is going.

Also: How do you make Spoiler tags because I know that's how you're supposed to do the cycled-out members.