Mono Water

Sleeping Snorlax

Sleeping Snorlax

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Okay, so for my local Pokemon league, I've been given the role as the water gym leader. So, all Pokemon must be at least part water. I decided my gym will be doubles and the following is my team. Strategy kinda is based off what they have. My team has two megas to have the option of switching. Let me know what you think.

Politoad: 252-HP 252-Def 4-SpDef
Item: Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
Nature: Calm
Move set: Scald, Encore, Ice Beam, Protect
Purpose: obviously send out first to set up rain. Have him kinda tank to be able to soak a hit or two. With moves to cover a few weaknesses and Encore to force a switch if needed.
Options: I may switch Ice Beam with Icy wind. Not sure yet.

Swampert: 252-Atk 176-HP 80-Spe
Item: Swampertite
Ability: Damp
Nature: Adamant
Move set: Waterfall, Earthquake, Ice Punch, Superpower
Purpose: first out to start off strong. Having his speed set to out speed most threats with swift swim. Only threat to him is a grass knot. His moves are the best coverage I could figure.
Options: he seems to die easily to grass knot.. Should I just accept that fact?

Kingdra: 80-HP 252-SpAtk 176-Spe
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Swiftswim
Nature: Modest
Move set: Hydro Pump, Signal Beam, Ice Beam, Draco Meteor
Purpose: main special attacker. Moves set to cover weaknesses. Obviously set up with EVs so he out speeds all threats in rain.
Options: I may switch signal beam with flash cannon for better coverage.

Blastoise: 240-HP 152-Def 116-SpDef
Item: Assault Vest
Ability: Rain Dish
Nature: Calm
Move set: Scald, Ice Beam, HP Ground, Aura Sphere
Purpose: Tank. He's built like one so might at well use him as one. He can take 2 grass knots from almost any threat. His moves take care of any electric threat.
Options: Haven't play tested him much. So i'm not sure how he works lol

Sharpedo: 252-Atk 4-Def 252-Spe
Item: Sharpedoite
Ability: Speed Boost
Nature: Adamant
Move set: Protect, Crunch, Waterfall, Ice Fang
Purpose: protect to gain a speed boost and then mega evolve. At that point he out speeds most pokes and the mega gives him the strong jaw Ability to boost Crunch and ice Fang.
Options: Gets OHKO'd all the time... and can't OHKO most of the time. Will probably switch for M. Gyarados

Wash Rotom: 248-HP 252-Def 8-SpDef
Item: Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Bold
Move set: Protect, Will-O-Wisp, Volt Switch, Hydro Pump
Purpose: physical wall/stall. With protect and Volt switch, he can burn a target and be able to stall after doing so. And with that I can Volt switch back into toad to re-set up rain.
Options: Haven't tested him much either. May switch item to Leftovers.

All opinions are welcomed. Just explain your reasoning please. Keep in mind, all Pokemon have to be of the water type.
 
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Replacing Sharpedo with Gyarados is probably a good idea because of how frail Sharpedo is. You have a bunch of other fast attackers anyway and Gyarados can support you with Intimidate.

You might want to replace Blastoise with Ludicolo. Ludicolo gets Swift Swim, cool typing and Fake Out. Milotic is cool with Competitive to deal heavy damage after Intimidate or Icy Wind, but I'm a little wary to recommend Milotic over Ludicolo because it would give you another plain Water type instead of a tasty Water/Grass. Azumarill is another cool mon to consider, I suppose.

You might want to put Protect over Ice Punch on Swampert so that you can Protect and Mega turn 1 and attack the next turn because Swift Swim doesn't activate the turn you mega in addition to getting all the other benefits Protect usually provides. Ice Punch seems like the most replaceable move to me because everything else you have lots of other mons to use Ice coverage.

You might want to consider adding Scald/Surf and Dragon Pulse as the other two moves on Kingdra so that you have a more accurate Water move and a Dragon move that doesn't lower your SpA.
 
Your Swampert you definitely need to have Protect. This lets you scout for any grass moves or moves such as Will-O-Wisp that would be bad for Swampert. I believe swapping out Superpower would be better than than Ice Punch because Superpower will lower your attack and defense.

Politoed: I'd suggest either Helping Hand or Rain Dance instead of Encore. Encore is better used on fast Pokemon or those with Prankster to get the lock. Politoed is slow so it doesn't do the job as well. Helping Hand would boost your damage output while Rain Dance could help you if the weather gets changed via Charizard-Y or some other Pokemon.

Kingdra: I'm going to suggest Surf over Hydro Pump because missing attacks at the worst possible time happens frequently. It also lets you hit both opposing Pokemon. I'd also suggest switching Signal Beam to Protect because there may be times you need to use it such as switching the weather back to rain.

Blastoise: I have to side with Cinesra on switching Blastoise to Ludicolo. Ludicolo is a great support Pokemon for rain teams and would make an excellent Rain Dance user.

Sharpedo: Yes, I agree to changing it to Gyarados.

Rotom-W: Change the EVs in Def to SDef instead. You'll be burning physical attackers anyway so you have better defenses overall. Sitrus Berry is generally better for Rotom than Leftovers because it will restore more hp per match on average than leftovers.
 
Yea Swampert having ice Punch was to combat any grass that threats the team. I was gonna use ludicolo but my friend said blastoise is a good option since he's tankier. I'm for sure replacing sharpedo just need to decide on what build for gyarados. I'd probably do Scald over surf for kingdra and for sure drop Draco for pulse. But should I maybe just drop the dragon Move all together for flash cannon? Since ice Beam can handle any dragon threat?
 
@King Arceus -I wouldn't mind dropping superpower for protect. I was thinking swampert needed protect for survivability.
-Ludicolo was my first option for the team, but with rain dish and make him tanky, but like I said in my previous Blastoise was pointed out to me as a good option with assault vest. But if the greater population believes Ludi will support that role better than I shall try him instead.
-On kingdra, I can try surf since it'll hit multiple targets. That does sound nice. And if you feel signal beam isn't useful I can try protect over that. I just feel my team lacks coverage and signal beam does only help against grass, which ice covers that now that I think about it. I would really like him to have flash cannon though. Because my team doesn't have anything to deal with fairy or ice easily.
-On rotom, are you meaning put the 252 in Spdef and 8 in Def? And i'll stick with the berry as his item.
-Politoad will probably gain rain dance instead of encore. I didn't know it worked better on faster pokemon. That makes sense.
-Sharpedo is going to be replaced. I just need to figure a good build for gyarados that fits the team.
 
Sleeping Snorlax said:
On rotom, are you meaning put the 252 in Spdef and 8 in Def? And i'll stick with the berry as his item.
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Yes.

Sleeping Snorlax said:
I just feel my team lacks coverage and signal beam does only help against grass, which ice covers that now that I think about it. I would really like him to have flash cannon though. Because my team doesn't have anything to deal with fairy or ice easily.
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Flash Cannon is going to be less power when super effective than rain + STAB on Surf for neutral damage. The only fairy you really have to worry about is Sylveon which isn't very fast and its physical defense is only mediocre.

Sleeping Snorlax said:
But should I maybe just drop the dragon Move all together for flash cannon? Since ice Beam can handle any dragon threat?
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No because Ice Beam does not have STAB. There will be times when you need to use Dragon Pulse to do more damage.
 
Sleeping Snorlax said:
Do you highly suggest ludicolo over blastoise?
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Yes I do. Ludicolo is not weak to electric or grass like most water types are. You could have Fake Out be one of its moves to give you a free turn the first turn you bring in Ludicolo. It makes an excellent user of Rain Dance to keep that in play for your team. You also get a grass attack so you can hit other water Pokemon for their weakness.
 
@King Arceus if I did ludicolo it would probably be like this:
Moves: fake out, Giga drain, Hydro pump, Protect
Item: leftovers/Lum Berry
Ability: Rain dish
Evs: 104-HP 252-SpA 152-Spdef

Do you have any input for gyarados?
 
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