First try at a Rain Dance team

[Shi No Tenshi]

I've been wanting to build one of these for a while, so here's my first shot a one. This team is meant specifically for double battles. I'm pretty set on the attacks, except for a few, so any input is much appreciated!

Update 5/20/08: Everything in bold is new/updated!

Toxicroak@ Focus Sash
Trait: Dry Skin
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 attack/speed, 6 HP

Brick Break
Sucker Punch
Stone Edge
Rain Dance

Toxicroak is meant to be the lead Rain Dancer for the team. With a Focus Sash for security, it gets some HP regen from Dry Skin and water attacks. Brick Break for STAB, Sucker Punch for a priority attack, and to hopefully take out annoying psychic/ghost types. Decided to go with Stone Edge for better coverage and to kill of birds/bugs.

Kingdra@ Leftovers
Trait: Swift Swim
Nature: Timid
EVs: Sp. Atk 252 / Speed 160 / rest in HP

Surf
Ice Beam
Dragon Pulse
Rain Dance

Kindgra is the other planned lead for the team. With Swift Swim going, Timid Nature, and Speed EVs, this thing is incredibly fast! Surf for helps to heal Toxicroak and dish out damage. Ice Beam is pretty self explanatory, and Dragon Pulse for a STAB and dragon killer. I decided on Rain Dance for the 4th slot so it can set up the combo for the team. It's pretty tough, and with HP EVs and 1 weakness, it should survive long enough to get it's speed boost from Swift Swim.

Roserade@ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 Sp. Attack / 216 Speed / 40 HP

Leaf Storm
Aromatherapy
Weather Ball
Shadow Ball/Sludge Bomb/Toxic Spikes

Roserade is essentially the cleric of the party, and can do dish some damage as well. Being a little slow, I decided on Timid over Modest. Leaf Storm for massive damage, Aromatherapy for it's cleric-y duties. Weather Ball will be water type since it'll be raining, and powered up as well. This way it should throw off opponents trying to take it out with a fire type, and hopefully KO them in the process. The last slot is still a toss up between Shadow Ball for psychic/ghost, Sludge Bomb for a good STAB, and Toxic Spikes for instant poison on pokemon coming in.

Electivire@ Expert Belt
Trait: Motor Drive
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 208 Sp.Atk / 50 Attack / 252 SPD

Thunder
Ice Punch
Cross Chop
EQ

Now, I know what people are going to say: "OMG why Adamant on a MixVire? It lowers it's Special Attack!". Well, when I traded for this Electivire, it was Adamant, but has perfect IVs in Sp.Atk, and 20+ Attack and Speed. Plus if has all the moves I want on it, save for Thunder which I plan to just teach it. Thunder for added Rain Dance bonus, Ice Punch to rock the dragon/bird pokemon, and the ground types people may switch in to take 'Vire out. Cross Chop is just excellent damage, and EQ so people don't try to steal my Thunder (I'm sorry, that was terrible...).

Swampert@ Leftovers
Trait: Torrent
Nature: Careful
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 58 Attack

Waterfall
EQ
Stealth Rock/Stone Edge
Roar/Protect

Swampert is going for the full tank role, specializing on Defense. Waterfall for a STAB. EQ for the same reason. Stealth Rock with Poison Spikes from Roserade can really hurt incoming Pokemon, but if I decide to go another direction with Roserade's attacks, Stone Edge will be taking it's place. I'm considering Roar to help the Stealth Rock/Poison Spikes combo, or Protect to scout for Grass attack, particularly a Swampert's natural enemy: Grass Knot.

Gyarados@ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 214 HP / 16 Attack / 180 Defense / 100 Speed

Waterfall
Ice Fang
Taunt
Dragon Dance

A pretty typical Gyarados set up. It seemed like it would fit into the team, so I added it. Waterfall for a STAB. Ice Fang to take out dragons/flyers/etc. Taunt to stop set ups and walls, and get a free DD.

Pokemon I'm still considering for the team:

Mismagius@ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 Speed/ 200 Sp.Atk. / 58 HP

Thunder
Shadow Ball
Rain Dance
Psychic

Mismagius could make another excellent Rain Dance set-up. Turn 1 drop Rain Dance, then proceed to smash face with full Acc Thunder, STAB Shadow Ball, and Psychic for coverage while slowly killing itself with the Life Orb. If it turns out that Toxicroak doesn't work out on the team, I'll probably switch it for Mismagius.

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
Nature: Sassy
Ev: 252 def, 252hp, 4 (you chose)

Rain Dance
EQ
Stealth Rock
Psychic

If the team needs a little more defense, or an opener that's nearly impossible to kill without a decked out fire type, Bronzong will probably see some action in this team. Thanks to shadowman080 for the moveset for this one.

I'm still hard at work on this team, and it's really starting to look good. I'm getting pretty excited! I'm still up for suggestions though, so anything people would like to add is more than welcome.

 

[Kayke™]

I like what you've going on here.

Gyarados has some nice partners to help him avoid being T-bolted. Free recovery for Jolteon, and no damage to Swampert once Jolt gets taken out. Consider Electivire in place of Jolteon. Better type coverage, and motor drive combined with all these water types is going to increase his sweeping abilities, and he's can be a pretty nice dual sweeper.

Toxicroak is a pretty iffy choice... but he seems to be a pretty nice lead. (Atleast on paper.) Consider throwing in Ludicolo, he's a staple in many rain dance teams.

I doubt you'll need timid nature on Kingdra when swift swim is in effect. Not many Pokemon will be outrunning you.

Movesets look pretty good. I've never made a rain/sand/hail/sun team before personally, but to my knowledge this may work out. =P Good luck.

 

[Willock]

Hmm... A good set overall.
I suggest Substituting Roseraid for Ludicolo, personally.
Rain dish recovers a lot of HP and Mega drain can get rid of any
other water pokemon your opponent might use to take advantage of rain dance.

Try this Moveset:

LUDICOLO
Trait: Rain Dish
Base Stats
HP: 80
Attack: 70
Defense: 70
Speed: 70
Sp. Atk: 90
Sp. Def: 100
----------
Total: 480
Moveset: Rain Dance/Toxic/Leech Seed/Mega(giga)Drain

 

[Archer]

Hmm... A good set overall.
I suggest Substituting Roseraid for Ludicolo, personally.
Rain dish recovers a lot of HP and Mega drain can get rid of any
other water pokemon your opponent might use to take advantage of rain dance.

Try this Moveset:

LUDICOLO
Trait: Rain Dish
Base Stats
HP: 80
Attack: 70
Defense: 70
Speed: 70
Sp. Atk: 90
Sp. Def: 100
----------
Total: 480
Moveset: Rain Dance/Toxic/Leech Seed/Mega(giga)Drain

He needs a Cleric, that's half the reason Roserade is there. We all know the base stats of Ludicolo and I don't see any EVs on that set.

Can I suggest something with Lightning Rod? It's awesome for 2v2 battles.
Candidates would be Marowak, Rhyperior or Manectric. Manectric is sort of outdone by Jolteon. Rhyperior would be good, but without Solid Rock, it's even weaker to Water attacks with the removal of Solid Rock and Rain Dance's boost, so it would even be threatened by Luvdisc. (If that makes it out of Ubers...)
Marowak would be the most able addition.
Lastly, Weather Ball on Roserade would be at 100 power and would have a boost from Rain Dance. Oh, and something about Toxicroak is concerning me. It has problems with almost all leads. Especially Hippowdon and TTar.

 

[Shi No Tenshi]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I've taken a lot of your ideas into consideration with this teams to make it better.

I'm probably going to switch Jolteon out of the team in trade for Electivire. I love Jolteon and all, but for this team, it's just not providing what I need as a far as coverage, so I think I'm going to use it for a singles team instead. As far as Kingdra goes, I decided to keep it Timid so if there's a turn or 2 where I don't have Rain Dance for some reason, then I don't get stuck with it being too slow. It also helps me out-speed Scarfchomps and get then with Ice Beam. I probably will change where some of the EVs go, and add more to HP.

As far as Ludicolo is concerned, it was a huge debate between it and Roserade, but Roserade ended up winning in the end purely because I needed a cleric in the party, and Roserade can supply that. Otherwise, it would have been Ludicolo all the way.

Something with Lightning Rod is a definite consideration for the party, I just need to figure out if there's one that will help out the team. There are a few other Pokemon that I'm thinking of changing, so I have to see what I decide to put in/take out.

Also, I understand that Toxicroak may be a risky choice for the team, but I've seen Toxicroaks in Rain Dance teams that were amazing, and really beneficial to the team. So I'm going to keep it in the team at least long enough to test it in game.

There are a few issues that I've had pointed out to me about the team so far. One is that I have nothing super effective against fighting types in the party, which could be an issue if I run into bulky fighting types. For that, I've considered putting in Mismagius into the team. Psychic would take care of the fighting issue, and I have another potential Ran Dancer, as well as something else to take advantage of Thunder while it's raining.

I'm going to do some revisions to the team, and edit my original post by the end of today, and add a few possibilities to it as well. I look forward to any more help that anyone else can provide! ^^

 

[Valarauca]

a good openier is bronzong

Bronzong @ (have fun here)
forgot (levate)
Ev: 252 def, 252hp, 4 (you chose)
-rain dance
-earthquake
-stealth rock
-psychic