Sand v. Rain

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Elk-Dimension

u elkcom hangl man
Member
So, last night on PO, me and TPO3 were having an argument on PO. The argument revolved around which form of weather is the most broken, so we really just discussed Sand and Rain. I've put together this thread to put the two weathers into simple, easy to look at lists. I have the advantage of the weather and the names of the common abusers of that trait next to it in paratheses. I'll eventually put in things like counters to the weather, explanations of the Pokemon, etc, etc. Now, Pokebeach, tell us: which is more broken?

Sand
Advantages
Sand Power (Landorus)
Sand Rush (Excadrill)
Special Defense Boost for Rock Types (Tyranitar, Terrakion)
Passive damage (Reuniclus, Rock/Ground/Steel types)
Sand Veil

Rain
Advantages
Swift Swim (banned with Drizzle)
Boosted Power of Water Type Attacks (basically anything with a Water type attack)
Perfect Accuracy Thunder (Thundurus, Starmie, Magnezone, Rotom-W, some Jirachi)
Perfect Accuracy Hurricane (Tornadus, some Dragonite)
Weakened Fire Attacks (Ferrothorn, Scizor)
Hydration (Vaporeon)
Rain Dish (Tentacruel)
Dry Skin (Toxicroak)

Lemme know if I missed anything so far.
 
I feel that rain is more broken. Tornadus can just crush anything with Choice Specs Hurricane in the rain. Even nonchoice versions inflict heavy damage with the move. There really isn't anything great to defeat Tornadus that isn't scarfed. Blissey still takes quite a load of damage from the specs set. Thundurus becomes even more threatening as if Thunderbolt didn't hit hard enough. Jirachi having a 60% chance to paralyze with Thunder is also quite damaging since it could also abuse flinch hax with Iron Head. Ferrathorn becomes very hard to KO as fire is its primary weakness. One would have to rely on fighting type moves to effectively deal with it, however, Jellicent can just put a stop to those as well.

While Excadrill may be a high level threat, it is a lot easier to stop than dealing with the numerous Pokemon that rain boosts. A priority attack will get rid of Excadrill's Balloon then it is KO'd by Earthquake. Bulky waters also can deal with Excadrill alright. Suicune in particular is great due to its base 100 HP and quite high base Defense. It is also vulnerable to Mach Punch which is commonly carried by Conkeldurr. Gliscor is another Pokemon that gives Excadrill trouble. Gliscor survives any attack that doesn't crit it used by a +2 Excadrill. It is necessary for the Balloon to be gone for Gliscor to defeat it if the Excadrill is at +2. I don't really find any other Pokemon that threatening in the sand so rain wins the more brokenness award in my book.
 
Playing with a sand team myself, I would note that the most threatening pokemon in my team due to sandstorm is Doryuuzu, as nothing else comes close to getting as many wins as him.

However, as was mentioned earlier, Dory is walled by plenty, including but not limited to: Skarmory, Conkeldurr, Balloon Terrakion, Gliscor, and some Ferrothorn.

Rain counters the other weathers well, as the type that benefits from it (water) is super-effective against the other types that benefit from the other weathers. Namely, Rock, Ground, and Fire.

Hell, a Spec'd Politoed can tear plenty of teams to pieces from what I've seen, especially weather ones. Seeing as Politoed can almost always beat Hippowdon, Ninetales, and Tyranitar 1v1, it is the most secure weather option in the metagame.

It even gets it's own version of Doryuuzu in Kingdra. Plus, things like Ferrothorn and Scizor become much harder to kill.

In most weather vs. weather matches, it becomes a competition of who can kill the other's weather inducer first, thus gaining a full advantage.

Sand is good, but rain is broken.
 
Sand teams aren't as cookie cutter as rain teams, which truly do make them more threatening. Most sand teams consist of your average sand pokes and a decent, common core. Youll see Rotoms and Gliscors, the usual stuff. However, sand teams can function great as heavy offense, stall, and other variations. There are really only two "sand" pokemon, so if built correctly sand beats rain and much more.


However, rain is more solid. It's consistent, and very hard to beat. Running things like specially defensive heatran with lava plume often throws people off, but in general you see 9 to 10 pokes in the rain crowd.

Rain is the more solid, consistent weather (That is also very very good)

Sand has plenty of potential and flexibility, but is often more difficult to perfect. (Especially with chomp gone)
 
It even gets it's own version of Doryuuzu in Kingdra
Click to expand...
This point is invalid because it is illegal to have Drizzle and Swift Swim on the same team if you are not in the Ubers tier.
 
I am speaking for my friend LRM here when he explained this to me.

Sandstorm Teams are harder to use since there are only a few pokemon immune to them. Pokemon with Magic Guard along with Rock, Ground, Steel, Sand Veil and Forecast are immune to this type of weather. The only other pokemon that work with Sandstorm require high Bulk. Vaporeon, Suicune and Blissey are fine examples of Bulk, even Jellicent to a lesser extent.

Pokemon with Cloud Nine can negate weather effects as does Rayquaza with Air Lock. These two abilities negate all weather effects and can cripple any weather team. From experince it is noted that Tyranitar and Hippowdon are seen in Sandstorm Teams as is Gliscor, Garchomp (Ubers) and Excadril. Other pokemon like Suicune and Blissey are seen as bulk and Wish Support to assist those that use Stall with Sandstorm.

Another seen fact is all Sandstorm Teams use offesive power. However Lucario and Magnezone change that and add a mixture of great Sp. Atk.

When it comes to Sandstrom it takes alot of experince it team construction to perfect the best Sandstorm team. LRM has done this by running only 3 types.
 
Read the rules. Stop posting all willy-nilly in whatever you want.
 
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