Sweeping in the Rain (5th Generation OU rain team)

[sazando101]

Here is my first weather-based team ever, and I am finally posting it as an RMT, due to Pokemon Online's neat little 'Export' button. So I am just writing in comments and showing my weaknesses and stuff like that. Please improve on my movesets, especially the Politoed and Armaldo sets, seeing that Armaldo doesn't have an item. Enjoy

Politoed (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252Sp.Att./188Spe./68Sp.Def.
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- HP Electric
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast
- Hydro Pump

So obviously, as a 5th generation weather team I have to have Politoed, Ninetails, Tyranitar, Hippowdon, Kygore, or Groundon as my lead, ( man, that list is getting big.) As this is OU Rain, I chose Politoed. Against other weather teams, Politoed is okay because he is one of the bulkiest, and has a least one move against everybody else. I altered this set from the original, and it works like a charm. SpecsToed hits like a wet truck. To give you an idea of what it can do, Hydro Pump can 3HKO Blissey and Natteori, both who usually switch in and try to ruin my strategy. HP Electric hits Gyrados with a usual OHKO, but with that and Focus Blast I try to use as little as often, for the infamous Shanderra is running around peoples' teams, and the occasional Dugtrio. Both of them are easily killed by Hydro Pump, so I usually try to stick to that. Ice Beam is there to deal with the likes of Dragonite, Salamence, Tangrowth, and the Lati@s duo.

Toxicroak (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 100 Def / 136 SDef / 20 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Sucker Punch
- Drain Punch
- Poison Jab
- Taunt

Weirdly, I got this idea from someone at my school who thinks that Tropious, not the Harvest kind, can sweep an entire team with Leaf Storm. He used it as a Rain Dance set-up, and then killed me with Sucker Punch, well... not really. So I took his set, made it competitive, and have done some good damage. Taunt helps me keep Spikers from setting up, and also keeps sweepers, walls, and a whole ton of stuff from setting up. Then Drain Punch with Dry Skin recovers tons of HP every turn. Then Poison Jab is a nice STAB to have to hit many things hard when I don't need recovery. Sucker Punch pairs perfectly with Taunt, allowing a hit every time. Surprisingly, Toxicroak can survive an unboosted Physco Shock from Espeon, which, by the way, is a 80 BP move with STAB, hitting a sweeper with a 4x weakness to it. My last comment is, Life Orb + Dry Skin + Rain = AWESOME!

Kingdra (M) @ Haban Berry
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252Att./188Spe./68HP
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Outrage
- Dragon Dance
- Yawn

I knew when I first started this team that I would need a sweeper, and I found one in Swift Swim Kingdra. This thing without any DD's is so fast, I can switch into a Speed Boost Blaziken after its been going a few turns and KO it with Waterfall. With max speed, that's a whole different story, hitting Deoxys-S when it switches in, (yeah, it gets just that fast). Okay, so Waterfall has 120 BP after STAB, and I have enough EVs to kill a lot of stuff just off that, especially when I had a Splash Plate, then Outrage completes a coverage line hitting almost everything except, can you guess it, Magnezone, the annoyer of my team. Dragon Dance is kind of granted, seeing that I am running a physical sweeper. Yawn is my last move, I'll be glad to change it, but sadly, a lot of people haven't heard of switching out, so I get a lot of sleeping dragons that are eventually killed by Outrage.

Parasect (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- X-Scissor
- Spore
- Leech Seed
- Substitute

Parasect is probably what you could call the staller/annoyer of my team, seeing that my Vaporeon isn't completely done yet. I got this set from some 5th Gen. Competitive Battling thread, and it works exactly like I would hope. Parasect is a beast at surviving hits and shutting pokes down. Taking an unboosted Fire Blast from Azlef, in the rain of course, it can proceed to Spore it a 2HKO it. So, here is my strategy, first I Spore. Then I set up a Sub, then, granted it's not a grass or Espeon, I set up Leech Seed, and I am in business with X-Scissor, killing things that don't resist after only a few hits. You can still give me some credit for the set you know, because I made these EVs, at least, I didn't copy them.

Vaporeon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Hydration
EVs: 188 Def / 132 SAtk / 188 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Yawn
- Protect
- Boil Over
- Rest

If you were wondering about what I meant about a bad Vaporeon in the last comments, this what I meant. Kind of scary right? I have had the complete worst strokes of set making while trying to make this, so I would greatly appreciate a creative idea for it, because I refuse to do completely standard sets. So first, I usually Yawn, get a few switches, or make them sleep. Then, depending on what I am against, I Protect or Boil. When I'm low on HP, I just Rest and poof, I'm all better and Hydration restores Vaporeon to what it was before. Boil Over is my only offensive move, so when I come down to a Water Absorb Burungeru, I'm dead, so I occasionally replace Yawn for Toxic, but stopped when I ran into a Taunt one, it was a true nightmare. *Shivers at thought* So this set is defiantly one I need some help with or unless... *cackles happily* I get a Taunt Burungeru, which I might end up doing in the end. So save Vaporeon, and get me a set!
EDIT: Yes! I figured out a strategy. First, I Yawn, hopefully surviving the first hit. Then I Protect, and they fall asleep. If I have a bad matchup, then I switch out and kill.

Nidoking@ Life Orb
Ability: Encourage
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252Sp.Att./200Spe./56Sp.Def
Moves:
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Thunder
- Ice Beam

This is the only pokemon on my team that is not dependent on the rain, which is good, so I can switch out of Politoed, sweep any Ninetails, Hippowdon, or Tyranitar with Nidoking's awesome movepool, and switch back to Politoed to keep the rain going. Earth Power and Sludge Wave, my two STAB moves, have 90 and 95 BP, boosting them to 270 and 285 BP with all of the factors. Combined with Nidoking's good special attack, it wipes almost anything out. Then I have a pysndo bolt-beam combo, with Thunder having 270 BP, and 100% accurate, killing all bulky waters instantly, then Ice Beam has 195 BP, which gets rid of the Hippo so I can get on with sweeping in the rain.

So there is my team. I hope you enjoyed it. Please rate and comment, bye!

 

[King Arceus]

RE: 5th Generation Rainy Team

For Politoed you could try running 252 SAtk, 68 SDef, 188 Spd with a modest nature. I use this and it seems to work pretty well. The held item I use is Water Jewel, though you are free to experiment with other items. With it, Boil Over actually gets a decent amount of OHKOs I've found and many Pokemon that don't resist it are 2HKO'd. The moveset I've used is Boil Over, Ice Beam, Toxic, and Sub. Tentacruel is the main problem for this set besides Pokemon that are supereffective against it. 188 Speed EVs lets you hit 245 Speed, outpacing Tyranitar by 2. The reason for 188 instead of 184 is because a fair amount of people would just use 244 Speed since TTar hits 243. You are free to experiment with this number.

I'm not much of a Toxicroak or Vaporeon user so someone else will have to help you there. Kingdra the EVs seem a little weird. If you could explain them further as to why you chose them it would be helpful. I'm more used to DD Kingdra running more Attack EVs.

Armaldo it really depends on what you want to outpace with Swift Swim. Outpacing Latias seems important because your team seems weak to it, but I could be wrong. For outpacing Latias you will need 200 Speed EVs if you want Adamant nature which is what I would recommend for getting the power you need. I'd recommend Stone Edge, Earthquake, X-Scizor, Stealth Rock for your moveset. It is possible to trade one of the moves for Swords Dance if you feel it is neeed. You would then do 252 Atk EVs and 58 HP EVs. I'd recommend trying out Life Orb as that can really dent the enemy coming off 383 Attack. Leftovers could be something to try or even Liechi Berry. 228 Speed EVs would be needed if you want to outpace Scarf TTar or a TTar that has pulled off 1 DD.

 

[HeroOfSinnoh]

RE: 5th Generation Rainy Team

First of all ... what's with Politoed's ev spread? First case, it's not physically bulky. So, my suggestion is either use a Sp.Atk dedicated toed or Sp.Def wall toed. Your set gives it 211 Def with 261 Sp.Def which doesn't take it anywhere with the sweepers released in Gen 5. Also, Rindo Berry? What cause does that serve? Weakening a grass move won't do much mate, obviously with Ice Beam at your disposal people aren't gonna sic a grass Pokemon at you. Except for maybe Nattorei. Also, if they are using a grass Pokemon they'll be sure to ensure that the Pokemon can survive at least 2 Ice Beams. So, obviously even if your Rindo Berry does what it does the grass Pokemon have a chance of putting you in hell with another grass attack. My suggestion is, either use Leftover or Water Jewel OR use scarftoed (which works miracles at instances)

Toxicroak has an unusual set which I have never seen before. I mean, the croak needs Speed and I don't think 20 evs on speed is going to help him much. Also, mostly Toxicroak is a set up sweeper in rain. With Dry Skin at it's disposal and having access to Sword Dance and Sucker Punch makes it formidable. Try the standard all out attack set for Croak. True, it won't survive Psycho Shock by an Espeon. However using Sucker Punch at Espeon will take care of that before even it uses Psycho Shock.

Kingdra is used as a revenge killer you say? Obviously it needs more power. Try 252 Atk 160 Spd 98 HP. Kingdra could use a little extra HP seeing it only has 291 without adding any.