Gen V OU Rain Team (My First Comp. Team)

[Fairy]

I don't know if your still looking for a Physical Sweeper, but here is one option. Just as something to consider, Toxicroak may be a good choice. I'm not recommending Toxicroak as a replacement for anything, but while you're testing out effective Rain Sweepers, Toxicroak may do a lot for your team.

Toxicroak @ Life Orb / Expert Belt / Black Sludge
Dry Skin
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Adamant [+Attack; -Sp.Attack]
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Cross Chop / Poison Jab
- Stone Edge / Earthquake

Toxicroak has great typing, the Fighting/Poison combination give it a bunch of useful resistances including Rock, Fighting, Dark, Bug, Poison, Grass, and in tandem with Dry Skin, a Water immunity. Better yet, with Dry Skin, Toxicroak isn't half as Defensively inept as it's base stats would imply. Now, allow me to talk about Dry Skin for a bit... It's basically Water Absorb but with a few perks. Yes, Toxicroak has Water immunity and recovers 25% of it's HP when hit with a Water type attack. However, with Rain support, Toxicroak will also heal 12.5% of its HP every turn (couple that with Black Sludge? Yes please). That being said, Toxicroak will take an extra 25% damage from Fire type attacks and lose 12.5% of its HP if the weather is Sun. But hey, Fire looses its power in the Rain anyway, so it's safe to say that Dry Skin's benefits outweigh its shortcomings, at least in most cases. On to the Attacks. Toxicroak has access to a pretty substantial move pool and with Swords Dance, which commands most of Toxicroak's popularity, you're set up for some threatening sweeping. As if Toxicroak needed a more respectable move pool, it has in it's arsenal, Sucker Punch. The strongest priority move, especially if you've gotten a boost from Swords Dance. It's sure to take out any fragile sweepers Toxicroak may face and make those Psychic and Ghost types think twice about taking him on. As I'm sure you know, Sucker Punch comes with its own set of disadvantages, so prediction is going to come into play when using it. In addition to Swords Dance and Sucker Punch, Toxicroak has a few more interesting niches that make it such a powerful opponent. You could go with Cross Chop and Stone Edge, a nice Fighting/Rock combination that will give you wide coverage, a STAB attack (granted you have a lower accuracy and less PP), and the chance of a serious critical hit. Theoretically, you could go with the Wide Lens to up Stone Edge's accuracy from 80% to 88%, but it comes at the cost of an offensive item slot. Second, you could go with Poison Jab and Earthquake. While Poison Jab is there for the STAB (a less powerful STAB but with reliability and plenty of PP), Earthquake provides a powerful move that will hit pretty much anything. Now on to items. Personally, I like the Life Orb. It will give you the biggest boost to Attack, 30% exactly, and you can heal off the recoil in the Rain. The Expert Best provides a lesser boost of 20% to super effective Attacks, but at no cost to HP. Black Sludge is only listed because you're already healing a whole bunch, why not more?

So anyway, again, I thought I would just throw Toxicroak out there for you to test while you're looking for Physical Sweepers. The biggest downfall to this whole thing is that Toxicroak doesn't have Swift Swim, which is probably the most essential Ability to have in tandem with Rain. But hey, people have been living without it during its ban and doing well for themselves. Maybe you can too.

Good luck! :3

 

[tente2]

Okay, something about the team needs to change. I was playtesting again, I was going for 15 matches but I stopped at 6 because I lost every single match. Something needs to change.

Libra does it's job splendidly, Aries sets up Rain reliably, and that's as far as I go. Gemini doesn't wall in competetive battles as effeciently as I expected, especially compared to Libra. Virgo doesn't sweep too well, Yawn is useless, will change it for the moveset somebody recommended, but all in all Virgo doesn't do much. Capricorn... has her moments of usefulness, but he doesn't sweep too well either. I might switch him for Dragonite. Cancer...he does his job about as well as Armaldo did, so Toxicroak is up for testing. We'll see if he does better.

I don't know if your still looking for a Physical Sweeper, but here is one option. Just as something to consider, Toxicroak may be a good choice. I'm not recommending Toxicroak as a replacement for anything, but while you're testing out effective Rain Sweepers, Toxicroak may do a lot for your team.

Toxicroak @ Life Orb / Expert Belt / Black Sludge
Dry Skin
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Adamant [+Attack; -Sp.Attack]
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Cross Chop / Poison Jab
- Stone Edge / Earthquake

Toxicroak has great typing, the Fighting/Poison combination give it a bunch of useful resistances including Rock, Fighting, Dark, Bug, Poison, Grass, and in tandem with Dry Skin, a Water immunity. Better yet, with Dry Skin, Toxicroak isn't half as Defensively inept as it's base stats would imply. Now, allow me to talk about Dry Skin for a bit... It's basically Water Absorb but with a few perks. Yes, Toxicroak has Water immunity and recovers 25% of it's HP when hit with a Water type attack. However, with Rain support, Toxicroak will also heal 12.5% of its HP every turn (couple that with Black Sludge? Yes please). That being said, Toxicroak will take an extra 25% damage from Fire type attacks and lose 12.5% of its HP if the weather is Sun. But hey, Fire looses its power in the Rain anyway, so it's safe to say that Dry Skin's benefits outweigh its shortcomings, at least in most cases. On to the Attacks. Toxicroak has access to a pretty substantial move pool and with Swords Dance, which commands most of Toxicroak's popularity, you're set up for some threatening sweeping. As if Toxicroak needed a more respectable move pool, it has in it's arsenal, Sucker Punch. The strongest priority move, especially if you've gotten a boost from Swords Dance. It's sure to take out any fragile sweepers Toxicroak may face and make those Psychic and Ghost types think twice about taking him on. As I'm sure you know, Sucker Punch comes with its own set of disadvantages, so prediction is going to come into play when using it. In addition to Swords Dance and Sucker Punch, Toxicroak has a few more interesting niches that make it such a powerful opponent. You could go with Cross Chop and Stone Edge, a nice Fighting/Rock combination that will give you wide coverage, a STAB attack (granted you have a lower accuracy and less PP), and the chance of a serious critical hit. Theoretically, you could go with the Wide Lens to up Stone Edge's accuracy from 80% to 88%, but it comes at the cost of an offensive item slot. Second, you could go with Poison Jab and Earthquake. While Poison Jab is there for the STAB (a less powerful STAB but with reliability and plenty of PP), Earthquake provides a powerful move that will hit pretty much anything. Now on to items. Personally, I like the Life Orb. It will give you the biggest boost to Attack, 30% exactly, and you can heal off the recoil in the Rain. The Expert Best provides a lesser boost of 20% to super effective Attacks, but at no cost to HP. Black Sludge is only listed because you're already healing a whole bunch, why not more?

So anyway, again, I thought I would just throw Toxicroak out there for you to test while you're looking for Physical Sweepers. The biggest downfall to this whole thing is that Toxicroak doesn't have Swift Swim, which is probably the most essential Ability to have in tandem with Rain. But hey, people have been living without it during its ban and doing well for themselves. Maybe you can too.

Good luck! :3

Thanks!

 

[2Cool4Mewtwo]

Replace Ferrothorn's Iron Head with Gyro Ball. that way you also don't have to rely on Quick Claw and have space for Leftovers.

And you definitely need another rain dancer. With Thundurus as the only rain dance set-upper, hail teams would probably laugh at this (100% accurate Blizzard would discourage Thundurus from switching in). It also limits your team because you would have to rely only on Thundurus to set up a rain dance. Kingdra could possibly have Draco Meteor replaced with Rain Dance, but if it works for you well as an "emergency move," you could keep it in there and look for other rain dancers.

I'll come up with possible pokemon to consider, but above are what I got for improving this team atm.

 

[tente2]

Well, sorry for not updating in a while but I´m on vacation and this place has nightmarishly slow internet. I replaced Jelly with Blissey, Kabutops with Toxicroak, Latios with Dragonite.

I don´t have time to go in-depth with the updates for now, but the main post is updated so look at that.

2cool4mewtwo: Yeah, Gyro Ball sounds nice. Thanks.

 

[Dark Azelf]

One Rain setter will NOT work, you need 3 or even 4 on teams without Drizzle. Preferably Dugtrio to remove Tyranitar and Ninetales too.

Bliss needs max Defense ALWAYS, it takes hits as good as Max HP Scizor and Spiritimb with it, plus you have Calm Mind.

Toxicroak wants Drain Punch over Earthquake for STAB, that and it lets you heal.

Kingdra wants Modest and Choice Specs. HP Fighting over Flash Cannon for Ferrothorn. Dragon Pulse over Ice Beam for late game sweeps and Ice Beam offers redundant coverage with Dragon.

Ill come back for a more in depth rate later.

 

[tente2]

One Rain setter will NOT work, you need 3 or even 4 on teams without Drizzle. Preferably Dugtrio to remove Tyranitar and Ninetales too.

Bliss needs max Defense ALWAYS, it takes hits as good as Max HP Scizor and Spiritimb with it, plus you have Calm Mind.

Toxicroak wants Drain Punch over Earthquake for STAB, that and it lets you heal.

Kingdra wants Modest and Choice Specs. HP Fighting over Flash Cannon for Ferrothorn. Dragon Pulse over Ice Beam for late game sweeps and Ice Beam offers redundant coverage with Dragon.

Ill come back for a more in depth rate later.

I had TWO rain setters before you posted, (Dragonite and Thundurus) but added RD to Kingdra´s moveset anyway, removing the mentioned Ice Beam. I did switch Meteor for Pulse though, since the -2 Spatk wasn´t worth it.

Blissey is the Spdef wall...that´s what Ferro is for...

I´ll playtest Drain Punch.

Kingdra already had Modest and Choice Specs...

HP Fighting on Ferro sounds better in a way, but I might need reliable STAB, or I might not. I´ll playtest.

 

[Dark Azelf]

I had TWO rain setters before you posted, (Dragonite and Thundurus) but added RD to Kingdra´s moveset anyway, removing the mentioned Ice Beam. I did switch Meteor for Pulse though, since the -2 Spatk wasn´t worth it.

Blissey is the Spdef wall...that´s what Ferro is for...

I´ll playtest Drain Punch.

Kingdra already had Modest and Choice Specs...

HP Fighting on Ferro sounds better in a way, but I might need reliable STAB, or I might not. I´ll playtest.

My bad i didnt see rain dance on nite, but you still need more setters.

I meant, you need HP Fighting on your Kingdra for FOE Ferrothorn who otherwise walls it not on your Ferrothorn lol. DMeteor/DPulse/HP Fight/Surf or Hydro Pump @ Modest @ Specs is what i meant on your Kingdra.

As for Blissey, it needs maximum defense always. It already has high enough special defense and will lose to weak physical moves such as Pursuit which Blissey CAN otherwise take with ease with max def evs. (Also Wurmple 2hko's Blissey with CB Bug Bite with no defense evs, im being serious a Pokemon with base 45 Attack lol ~_~). Plus you have Calm Mind so this even further supports my point.


EDIT: And Drain Punch should go over EQ on Toxicroak, EQ doesn't hit anything Drain Punch wont.

EDIT 2: If you're concerned about hitting ground types with Thundurus, use HP Ice over Focus Blast on it. Also hits dragons and grass types.

 

[tente2]

My bad i didnt see rain dance on nite, but you still need more setters.

I meant, you need HP Fighting on your Kingdra for FOE Ferrothorn who otherwise walls it not on your Ferrothorn lol. DMeteor/DPulse/HP Fight/Surf or Hydro Pump @ Modest @ Specs is what i meant on your Kingdra.

As for Blissey, it needs maximum defense always. It already has high enough special defense and will lose to weak physical moves such as Pursuit which Blissey CAN otherwise take with ease with max def evs. (Also Wurmple 2hko's Blissey with CB Bug Bite with no defense evs, im being serious a Pokemon with base 45 Attack lol ~_~). Plus you have Calm Mind so this even further supports my point.


EDIT: And Drain Punch should go over EQ on Toxicroak, EQ doesn't hit anything Drain Punch wont.

EDIT 2: If you're concerned about hitting ground types with Thundurus, use HP Ice over Focus Blast on it. Also hits dragons and grass types.

Thanks for DP and HP Ice. I´m still kind of apprehensive about max Blissey def evs, but I´ll see tommorow, I´m kind of tired now.

 

[Fairy]

Alternate Cleaning Wipes Sweeper

Capricorn (Dragonite) @ Expert Belt
Multiscale
252 Atk/ 200 Spd/ 58 Spatk
Lonely
- Rain Dance
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Hurricane

Alternate Sweeper. Again. Mentioned many times.

Rain Dance can be used to bring Rain back in case it runs out and I desperately need it but Thundurus is fainted, Dragon Dance and Dragon Claw allow Dragonite to sweep beautifully, and Hurricane gets 100% in rain so why not.

I'm just nit-picking.

For Dragonite, since you're running a Mixed set, I think you should try a Quiet Nature [+Sp.Attack; -Speed] over Lonely. DD will make up for the loss in Speed if you can get a few off. Also, Dragonite has a lot of excellent Physical attacks that are more effective than Dragon Claw. I know that Dragon Claw will cover a lot of your threats and gets STAB, but it's nothing that Kingdra or Thundurus won't cover. Maybe give some thought to Superpower and Extreme Speed? Those are some of my personal favorites. Plus, Extreme Speed comes with its own set of advantages, like covering the loss of Speed from the Quiet Nature, so it might be worthwhile. Certainly test it out and see how you like it.

That being said, if you do choose to change all this stuff, you'd have to reorganize the EVs. If you do, than just put 252 Attack / 252 Sp.Attack / 4 HP.

Oh, and regardless, now that you only have two attacks, it might be worth dropping the Expert Belt in favor of the Damp Rock because you're not getting that much coverage to warrant a 20% boost to only super effective attacks. At least the Damp Rock will prolong the turns that Rain is in effect.

Team looks good. I hope all this hard work pays off.