Rain Dance [Gen VI]

Kazuhiro

Extra GOOD
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    15
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    Trying out Rain Dance in Gen 6 with the new pokemons they gave us. Tell me what you guys think and if the team has any flaws. I'm obviously only using the Pokemons available in the game for now.


    Crobat w/ Damp Rock
    Nature: Jolly
    Ability: Infiltrator
    Evs: 252 HP | 252 Spd | 4 Atk
    - Rain Dance
    - Brave Bird
    - Taunt
    - U-Turn

    Using Crobat as the main weather inducer instead of the standard Drizzletoed just because I like the fact that he can U-Turn to a sweeper after setting up rain. He can also act as a fast anti-lead with Taunt and Brave Bird and his flying typing covers the fighting weakness the team has (Barbaracle & Ferrothorn).

    Barbaracle w/ White Herb
    Nature: Jolly
    Ability: Tough Claws
    Evs: 252 Atk | 252 Spd | 4 HP
    - Razor Shell
    - Stone Edge
    - Cross Chop
    - Shell Smash

    Trying Barbaracle out as a rain physical sweeper. Shell Smash under rain can be pretty devastating as STAB Razor Shell + Rain Boost + Tough Claws hits anything that comes by really hard. It also has overall good coverage with Cross Chop and is something he has over the usual Swift Swim Kabutops.

    Blastoise w/ Blastoisinite
    Nature: Modest
    Ability: Rain Dish -- Mega Launcher
    Evs: 252 HP | 252 Satk | 4 Def
    - Water Pulse
    - Dark Pulse
    - Dragon Pulse
    - Rapid Spin

    Spinner, Sweeper and Tank, Blastoise kinda does it all. Water Pulse is the obligatory STAB move that gets boosted by Rain and Mega Launcher. Dark Pulse to counter pesky ghosts that tries to switch in on him to stop your Rapin Spin. And I chose Dragon Pulse over Aura Sphere because I don't have much dragon coverage and Garchomp can be a problem for my team. I also think I have enough fighting coverage with Toxicroak and Barbaracle (Cross Chop).

    Toxicroak w/ Black Sludge
    Nature: Jolly
    Ability: Dry Skin
    Evs: 252 Atk | 252 Spd | 4 HP
    - Drain Punch
    - Sucker Punch
    - Sword Dance
    - Stone Edge / Substitute

    Toxicroak is my other physical sweeper. With the rain nerf, I think Sword Dance is more important than Bulk Up now since we now have a time limit under the rain. Drain Punch + Dry Skin + Black Sludge makes him kind of hard to take down while Sucker Punch offers priority it needs. Still can't decide between Substitute and Stone Edge for the last slot. Stone Edge offers coverage for flying types that tries to switch in (i.e Talonflame) while Substitute makes it even harder to take down under rain and make him able to set up safely.

    Ferrothorn w/ Rocky Helmet
    Nature: Relaxed
    Ability: Iron Barbs
    Evs: 252 HP |
    - Power Whip
    - Gyro Ball
    - Stealth Rock
    - Thunder Wave

    Not a surprise there, Ferrothorn is already good and under rain, he's better. His role is to set up Stealth Rock and Power Whip can take down opposing bulky water that tries to take advantage of my rain. I also chose him because 1/2 of my team is weak against electric (Blastoise, Barbaracle, Crobat) and he is a great answer to that since he resists it. Thunder Wave is to cripple opposing sweepers to help Blastoise and Goodra in certain matchups.

    Goodra w/ Damp Rock
    Nature: Calm
    Ability: Hydration
    Evs: 252 HP | 152 Sdef | 100 Sdef
    - Rain Dance
    - Thunder
    - Dragon Pulse
    - Rest

    My back up Rain inducer. Another pokemon that can sponge electric attacks and take advantage advantage of the rain. Rest + Hydration makes him really hard to take down so that makes him a reliable weather inducer. Thunder is for opposing Bulky waters and is 100% under rain while Dragon Pulse is for other dragons.
     
    While Dragon Pulse is powered up by Mega Launcher, Ice Beam is still the superior option to let Mega Blastoise hit Grass Pokemon as well.

    Thunder Wave doesn't mesh with Ferrothorn's Gyro Ball, since Gyro Ball is stronger the slower the user is than the opponent. Use Leech Seed over Thunder Wave or Gyro Ball.

    This is an interesting take on Goodra, tbh. What purpose does your EV spread serve? What OHKOs/2HKOs does it avoid? Just use 252 HP/4 Def/252 SDef if the spread doesn't do anything in particular. I'd also consider Kingdra on the team because it's one of the best Swift Swim sweepers:
    -Hydro Pump
    -Draco Meteor
    -Surf/Waterfall
    -Dragon Pulse/Rain Dance
    Nature: Modest
    EVs: 4 HP/252 SAtk/252 Spe
    Item: Life Orb/Damp Rock
    Ability: Swift Swim
     
    Yeah, ended up using that EV spread for Goodra as the 100 EVs in Satk doesn't do much. I thought it would help taking down threats like Azumarill and Talonflame in one shot, but it doesn't so I just went with 252 HP/ 252 Sdef / 4 Satk.

    As for Leech Seed on Ferrothorn, I'm still not sure. Back in B/W it was fine since drizzle lasted forever, but now that it's 5/8 turns, I feel like sitting there with Ferrothorn + Leech Seed can take precious time off the rain.

    D-Pulse will be replaced by Ice Beam, then. Thanks.
     
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