2013 International Challenge January Master Division Team Advice?

I have entered the January Wi-fi battle Tournament and I have two teams that I use and both seem to do fairly well in online wi-fi battles, I use a Volt-Turn team and a Drizzle team but I am wondering given the current Meta what team should I use?
Here are my Teams;

Volt Turn:

Forretress (m) @ shed skin
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 177 Def / 80 Spd
Relaxed Nature ( +D, -S)
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Volt Switch

Rotom @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 185 Hp / 4 Def / 144 SDef / 176 Spd
Modest Nature (-A, +SA)
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power (Ice)

Landorus @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+ Spd, - SDef)
- U-Turn
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power (Ice)
- Stone Edge

Jolteon (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+ S, - A)
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power (Ice)

Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 ATk / 8 Spd
Adamant Nature (+ A, - SAtk)
- U-Turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Infernape (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 184 HP / 70 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+ Spd, - SDef)
- U-Turn
- Overheat
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge

Drizzle Team:

Politoed (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Modest Nature (+SA, -A)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power (Grass)
- Encore

Kingdra (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Rash Nature ( + SA, - SD)
- Outrage
- Waterfall
- Draco Meteor
- Hydro Pump

Dragonite (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 76 Atk / 252 SAtk / 180 Spd
Mild Nature ( +SA, - D)
- Hurricane
- Thunder
- Aqua Tail
- Roost

Vaporeon (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Hydration
EVs: 212 D / 252 SAtk / 44 Spd
Modest Nature ( +SA, -A)
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power (Grass)
- Rest

Raikou @ Air Ballon
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Rash Nature (+SA, -SD)
- Weather Ball
- Aura Sphere
- Calm Mind
- Thunder

Quagsire (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish ( +D, -SA)
- Scald
- Substitute
- Recover
- Earthquake

I am thinking about switching something out for this as well in the Drizzle team:
Forretress (m) @ (don't know what item yet)
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 177 Def / 80 Spd
Relaxed Nature ( +D, -S)
- Toxic Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Gyro Ball

Volt-turn:
Shed Shell, not Shed Skin (latter is an ability). Forretress has a bad case of 4-moveslot syndrome, which makes it setup bait if it opts for 2 hazards:
-Spikes/Stealth Rock/Toxic Spikes
-Rapid Spin
-Volt Switch
-Gyro Ball/Hidden Power (Ice)
Nature: Relaxed/Bold
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
Item: Leftovers/Shed Shell
Ability: Sturdy

None of Landorus' current moves benefit from Sheer Force. Sheer Force only benefits the moves that have secondary effects with a chance of occurring (like Earth Power, which has a 10% chance of lowering Special Defense):
-Earth Power
-Focus Blast
-Hidden Power (Ice)
-Rock Polish/Substitute/Psychic
Nature: Timid/Modest
EVs: 252 SAtk/4 SDef/252 Spe
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force

Choice Scarf Landorus should use Sand Force as the ability to benefit off of opposing sand teams.

Or you can go for Landorus-Therian, as it has higher Attack (at the cost of Speed) and can make itself physically bulky with Intimidiate:
-Stealth Rock/Gravity
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-U-turn
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 200 HP/64 Atk/244 Def
Item: Leftovers

or
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-U-turn
-Hidden Power (Ice)/Superpower
Nature: Naive/Jolly
EVs: 32 HP/252 Atk/224 Spe
Item: Choice Scarf

or
-Gravity
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-U-turn/Hidden Power (Ice)
Nature: Jolly/Naive
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Item: Life Orb

or
-Rock Polish
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Hidden Power (Ice)/Explosion
Nature: Naughty/Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk/4 SAtk/252 Spe
Item: Life Orb

or
-Substitute
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Hidden Power (Ice)/Swords Dance
Nature: Naive/Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk/4 SAtk/252 Spe
Item: Leftovers/Expert Belt

Since you're mostly using physical moves on Infernape, how about a 252 Atk/4 SAtk/252 Spe spread?

Drizzle:
I do recall that Swift Swim + Drizzle is banned on simulators, but I see nothing with it on wi-fi.

Choice Scarf makes Kingdra's Speed under Swift Swim totally overkill. What it really needs here is power:
-Rain Dance (in the event Politoed goes down and weather is changed)
-Hydro Pump/Surf
-Draco Meteor
-Ice Beam/Surf/Dragon Pulse
Nature: Modest
EVs: 40 HP/252 SAtk/216 Spe
Item: Life Orb/Damp Rock
Ability: Swift Swim

or
-Draco Meteor
-Hydro Pump
-Dragon Pulse/Ice Beam
-Surf/Ice Beam
Nature: Modest/Timid
EVs: 28 HP/252 SAtk/228 Spe
Item: Choice Specs
Ability: Swift Swim

or
-Substitute
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Outrage
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 40 HP/228 Atk/12 Def/228 Spe
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Swift Swim

or
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Outrage
-Rest
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 152 HP/96 Atk/32 SDef/228 Spe
Item: Chesto Berry
Ability: Swift Swim

or
-Dragon Dance
-Outrage
-Waterfall/Hydro Pump
-Draco Meteor/Hidden Power (Fire)
Nature: Lonely/Naughty
EVs: 136 Atk/136 Spe/236 Spe
Item: Life Orb/Lum Berry
Ability: Swift Swim

Vaporeon is too bulky for Focus Sash. Change the item to Life Orb.

Really, I don't see the point of Sub on Quagsire. Just saying, not everyone on the team has to be a Water Pokémon. You have a pretty big weakness to Ferrothorn there. Outside of Raikou's Aura Sphere, none of your 'mons are safe from it. How about Dragonite? It can take advantage of the rain while it has a chance of bringing down Ferrothorn too:
-Outrage
-ExtremeSpeed
-Waterfall
-Superpower/Earthquake
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk/4 SDef/252 Spe
Item: Choice Band
Ability: Multiscale

or
-Hurricane
-Thunder
-Aqua Tail/Superpower
-ExtremeSpeed/Earthquake/Roost
Nature: Mild
EVs: 76 Atk/252 SAtk/180 Spe
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Multiscale

or
-Hurricane
-Thunder
-Dragon Tail
-Roost
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP/4 SAtk/252 SDef
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Multiscale

Or you can opt for Toxicroak, who also hits Ferrothorn hard while checking Terrakion at the same time:
-Swords Dance
-Drain Punch
-Sucker Punch
-Ice Punch
Nature: Adamant/Jolly
EVs: 24 HP/252 Atk/232 Spe
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin

or
-Bulk Up
-Drain Punch
-Sucker Punch/Ice Punch
-Substitute
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 244 HP/132 Atk/120 Def/12 Spe
Item: Black Sludge
Ability: Dry Skin

or
-Substitute
-Focus Punch
-Sucker Punch/Payback
-Ice Punch
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 244 HP/252 Atk/12 Spe
Item: Life Orb/Black Sludge
Ability: Dry Skin

Okay thank you very much! :) Looks like my teams need a bit of a rebuild :L

I think I will go for the Therian Landorus with this to get a bit more atack power in, also I will try that Infernape set up out :) I will try out all the others as well, Thank you for this it has really helped! :)

I also possibly need a SDef wall for my volt switch, what should I go for? :)

@PlatinumDude - Anything goes in doubles VGC. Restrictions are item clause and species clause, and that banned pokemon list. And that you can only send in 4 pokemon.

Back to op.
Have you battled over wifi rated? That will give you a much better idea of what you'll be facing in the tournament. Keep in mind that the tournament is in doubles, not singles. Your two teams look as if it's built more for singles than for doubles.

The Volt-turn team looks like a disaster waiting to happen to me. ATM I can't explain why. I'll need to study that team a bit more before I can decide what can be improved or whether it should be scrapped completely. The rain team, I may be able to help since I run primarily rain.
Edit: Scrap that Volt-turn team completely. It's a glass cannon team (powerful, but easy to kill). You don't want glass cannons in the team unless you have something bulky that can take hits in return and dish them back out.

Ditch the Forretress. You can try using set-up moves but most of the time, all you will manage to send out is a Stealth Rock or a single layer of Spikes. The other problem is that Forretress will only be able to stall, and won't dish nearly enough damage to do well, anything. It's setup bait and near worthless in doubles. Use Ferrothorn instead. It's far superior than Forretress, it's got the ever-useful water resist AND sandstorm boost (weather teams run amuck in doubles), its defenses on both ends are useful (Forretress can't defend against special attacks and there's far more special attackers than physical in doubles) and its standard set is extremely annoying.

Ferrothorn w/ Leftovers
Nature: Relaxed
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 108 SpD
~ Leech Seed
~ Protect
~ Power Whip
~ Gyro Ball
Note: The speed IV must be at 0 in order to use Gyro Ball at full power.

Your team is terribly weak against teams that are anti-rain. I'm talking about pokemon like Ferrothorn, electric types (rare), Jynx, Gastrodon, anything that has Dry Skin, Water Absorb, Storm Drain, Hydration or grass moves. If you dislike the accuracy of Hydro Pump but want something strong and useful, you can swap it for Scald (burn chance) or Surf (hits everything on the field).

Politoed and Kingdra looks good. You can turn Dnite into a revenge killer by changing Aqua Tail or Roost to Extremespeed. You might want to switch out Roost. My experience is that when the opponent starts to target Dnite, they won't leave it surviving long enough to get a Roost in. Multiscale works only if your HP is at maximum so Roost becomes ineffective if it doesn't heal the HP fully. Not everything on your team needs water moves. You will need a great deal of flexibility in doubles. I'm hesitant about Vaporeon, Quagsire and Raikou.

Quagsire is doing absolutely zilch for your team. It's too weak, not bulky enough, the ability is useless since almost no one uses status up moves. Use Gastrodon. Same weaknesses but Storm Drain is infinitely more useful, especially if opponent is using an opposing rain team.

Gastrodon w/ Rindo Berry, Sitrus Berry, Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
Nature: Bold
252 HP|252 Def|4 SpD
~ Surf / Muddy Water
~ Icy Wind / Ice Beam
~ Toxic / Earth Power
~ Recover / Protect

Raikou has only one purpose in Doubles and that's to do as much damage as possible before it dies. It's a glass cannon, Calm Mind will not help whatsoever. Use the standard Special Attacker set.

Raikou @ Air Balloon / Life Orb / Choice Scarf / Choice Specs
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Rash / Timid
~ Thunderbolt / Thunder
~ Hidden Power Ice / Hidden Power Grass
~ Aura Sphere / Rain Dance
~ Protect / ExtremeSpeed

Alright, I'll admit I took a few liberties with this set. The reason I added Choice Scarf/Specs is to let you decide what you want to do. Scarf will let you attack before just about anything not using priority or Prankster or holding Scarf. Specs let you get far more power off than Life Orb. With both, you sacrifice adaptability. Consider it carefully. No matter which item you select for Raikou, it will be crippled by paralysis. ExtremeSpeed to pick off anything nearly dead.

Vaporeon's item needs to be changed to Leftovers. Sash is useless on it.

Make your changes and test it on wifi. Then come back if anything else needs to be ironed out.

One more thing. Your team is also terribly weak against Trick Room, because it's so reliant on speed. Unfortunately that's the curse of rain teams, they're all speed-based. There's no easy answer for this particular problem.

@Griffinbane Thank you that has helped a lot! I will go and test these changes to my team, I will let you know how it goes :) Also instead of Raikou is Zapdos a viable option instead or is it a good idea just to stick to Raikou? Also you said you were hesitand about Vaporeon, Quagsire and Raikou what should replace them?Thank you :)

Zapdos would work super well, actually. I'd forgotten about it because my team actually had a 4-'mon weakness to ice back when I was still using it. Well, you have two choices when it comes to Zapdos: a bulky attacker or a fast and bulky attacker.



Both are meant to absorb hits and dish them out in return. Both will still fall to 2 Blizzards or 2 Rock Slides but it'll absorb just about everything else. First set is meant to outspeed some threats and attack before they can. The second is meant to absorb more damage than the first and frustrate your opponent as Zapdos recovers.

Okay I will probably switch Raikou for the first Zapdos set up, also you said you were hesitant about Vaporeon what should replace it with? Thank you!

Not a clue. I could be wrong about Vaporeon, since everytime I've use it, it's been a disaster. You'll have to figure out if it's a dead weight or not first.