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Thread: Rain Team

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    Rain Team

    Introduction
    This is a generation five standard tier team, to be played in Smogon tiers. It is rain based with the strategy consistently being the same in nearly every battle; that strategy being to achieve a Gyarados sweep. Its by no means an exceptional team, or even good, but it does what it tries to do for the most part. The idea is to lay down Stealth Rock to limit my opponents Rock-weak Pokemon, most of which are strong against my team, and then lay down Toxic Spikes which cripples many Gyardos counters. This is taken advantage of because there are several Pokemon on my team that can use their defenses to make the most out of slowly rising Toxic damage. Meanwhile Politoed lures and badly hurts many Gyarados counters, OHKOing Breloom for instance with Hydro Pump. Deoxys-S acts as a revenge killer and suprises Gastrodon and Quagsire very well, both of whom trouble Gyarados.

    The Team

    Choice Specs: (Drizzle) Modest 252 SpA, 240 HP, 16 Spe
    ~Hydro Pump
    ~Ice Beam
    ~Hidden Power Grass
    ~Focus Blast

    Politoed serves as a wall breaker and a tank, and is my best weapon against teams that use other weather. The EVs give me amazing power while retaining good bulk, it can for instance survive a Dragonite's boosted Dragon Claw in an emergency and OHKO back with Ice Beam. Hydro Pump is extremely powerful, more so than even Latio's Specs Draco Meteor. Not only does my opponent have to sport excellent bulk, but they must also have a resist if they hope not to crumple to Hydro Pump. Reuniclus, a bulky sweeper, is cleanly OHKOd by a Hydro Pump. On the other side, Breloom, frail but resisting Water, is OHKOd by Hydro Pump as well. The only things that can hope to stand up to Politoed are bulky waters and grasses, and Chansey. Politoed badly hurts many Gyarados counters, it can do upwards of 40% to Ferrothorn that do not absolutely max out Special Defense and HP. If Ferrothorn tried to switch in a Hydro Pump before it will likely be eliminated after the third Hydro Pump. Politoed is extremely slow however and is weak to common types such as Electric and Grass. Also, while bulky, Politoed cannot stand up to repeated abuse with no recovery. As it must outlast the opponent's weather changer to have the best chance of winning, Politoed is played conservatively.


    Leftovers: Bold 252 HP, 220 Def, 36 Spe
    ~Giga Drain
    ~Perish Song
    ~Recover
    ~Toxic/Thunder Wave

    This position was originally filled by a bulky rain abuser Dragonite but someone pointed out my huge Electric weakness. It is difficult to counter Electric Pokemon with a single type, since so many run coverage moves such as Hidden Power Ice to deal with Electric resists. Celebi though can easily take most of these moves, especially Zapdos' Heat Wave in the rain. 252 HP adds to this while enough Speed is used to outrun Tyranitar. The rest is in Defense to tank Physical moves better. Celebi also serves as my sole Calm Mind Jirachi counter with Perish Song. Recover is needed to keep me healthy while Giga Drain is my required STAB move. Psychic would be a worse choice because one type is completely immune to it and it does not hit bulky waters bar Tentacruel nearly as hard as I need it to. The status move comes into play quite often, Toxic I find is the more useful choice to badly poison things like Zapdos. Celebi is extremely useful to my team but it gives me several weaknesses. The worst thing that can be said about Celebi is how passive it is. If I run Toxic many Pokemon can simply set up on me, I deal with this with Gyardos and Deoxys-S for the most part.


    Life Orb: Hasty 252 Spe, 196 SpA, 60 Att
    ~Thunderbolt
    ~Ice Punch
    ~Energy Ball
    ~Superpower

    This is probably the least useful member of the team but it still has a vital function of a revenge killer. Maximum Speed guarantees I will outspeed things like a once boosted Salamence, a twice boosted bulky Gyardos and at least Speed tie with opposing Deoxys-S. The offensive EVs are completely arbitrary, so I could use some help with that. Thunderbolt destroys Gyardos and badly hurts anything else weak to it. Ice Punch is used over Ice Beam since its main goal is to hit Latias, Celebi, Virizion, and 4x Ice weak Pokemon. Since the first three mentioned usually run Calm Mind, Ice Beam will do small damage to them after a few boosts, which my passive team easily lets them achieve. Energy Ball is a good move, badly hurting Gastrodon and OHKOing Quagsire. It also lets me hurt Rotom-W for reasonable damage. Superpower is good to hit Tyranitar with but Chansey can shrug it off with Softboiled until Superpower is weak. Generally if something is weak to one of my moves, I use that move. Deoxys-S is a great revenge killer and can sweep up teams if they are weakened enough. Its very useful to have such a fast-paced member on the team since nothing is going to set up on it.


    Leftovers: (Water Absorb) Bold 252 HP, 80 Spe, 176 Def
    ~Surf
    ~Will-o-Wisp
    ~Taunt
    ~Recover
    My spin blocker and general mixed tank; it can hit pretty hard with Surf if rain is up. The Speed EVs let me outspeed nearly all other Jellicent and defensive Politoed so I get the Taunt. It also allows me to take physical hits well. The moveset is pretty self-explanatory but I use Will-o-Wisp over Toxic because my team already employs Toxic a lot. Will-o-Wisp mainly targets floating Pokemon, such as Dragonite, so I rarely worry with it conflicting with Toxic Spikes. Taunt is useful and one of my only ways to beat opposing Taunt Jellicent. I play Jellicent very recklessly, if I don't know what to switch in Jellicent usually comes in because its defenses means it can take most hits while Taunt and Will-o-Wisp lets me defeat offensive and defensive Pokemon alike. Recover means Jellicent can be played a bit recklessly and still live.


    Leftovers: (Sturdy) Relaxed 252 HP, 252 SpD, 4 Def
    ~Stealth Rock
    ~Gyro Ball
    ~Toxic Spikes
    ~Rapid Spin

    My only dragon resist and where I get my entry hazards from; Forretress is undoubtly useful. The EVs and nature give me the best of both worlds defensively, allowing me to take two consecutive Specs Latios Draco Meteors or letting me take two consecutive Band Haxorus Outrages. Meanwhile I can do decent damage back with Gyro Ball and then revenge kill. Stealth Rock is an amazing move and strips Pokemon I am very weak to, such as Dragonite, of a quarter of their health. Gyro Ball is needed since this is my only Dragon resist, I need to be able to actually hurt Dragons. Toxic Spikes cripples Gyardos counters such as Vaporeon and Celebi. Rapid Spin allows my team to freely pivot, which is extremely helpful. For instance I might go to Celebi to take a Thunderuss' Thunderbolt and then go to Gyardos to take the Hidden Power Ice. From there I get the suprise KO with Waterfall since Gyardos out speeds Thunderuss. This would not be possible without Rapid Spin which gets rid of nasty hazards that makes pivoting fruitless. Forretress is just a great Pokemon.


    Choice Scarf: (Earthquake Spiral) Jolly 252 Att, 252 Spe, 4 Def
    ~Waterfall
    ~Earthquake
    ~Stone Edge
    ~Ice Fang

    The whole entire team points to one thing, Gyarados. Earthquake Spiral is an amazing ability allowing me to cascade through teams once their Water resists are gone. Gyardos can also revenge kill which is useful. The EVs allow me to surprise and outrun Jolteon while giving me as much power as possible. The rain boost makes Waterfall as strong as if it had a Dragon Dance boost already, completely dismantling frail sweepers such as Gengar. After a Earthquake Spiral boost and Rain, things like Latios crumple under me if sufficiently weakened taking over 60%. The flinch and critical hit rate can help in a pinch. The other moves are for coverage, I hardly ever sweep with them but they are useful when revenge killing certain threats such as Dragonite. With
    my team either softening up or flat out countering Gyarados counters, Gyarados has a decent chance of sweeping unprepared teams by the storm.

    Conclusion
    Its not a great team but its not too shabby either. I enjoy using this team since it has so many surprises such as Energy Ball and Scarf Gyarados as well as a coherent strategy. Surprises alone will not win anyone a match. The best thing that can be said about is how it tries to achieve one thing nearly every battle, but that can also be the worst thing. It cannot change in the middle of the game to pursue some new strategy, its extremely rigid in that way. At least it can win. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment about anything.

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    I hate uber pokemon such as deoxis

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