Weather Fronts (Peaked 34th)

[Xephyr]

Introduction​

So, I really have a knack for making teams that peak around like 30th and then can never get any higher. This time we have a defensive rain team. I've spent a lot of time trying to make this as good as possible, but I really need help because I want to try and break into the top 10 with this one.

Team Building Process
When I began building this team, I knew I wanted it to be a rain team, and I knew I wanted it to be defensive. Thus, I had to start out with Politoed, obviously.

I decided I wanted every member of my team to abuse the rain in some way, and I wanted most of my members to be very bulky and capable of taking hits. My first choice was a staple of defensive rain teams, Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn is common on teams of this nature because of his ability to lay down hazards, counter some of the main threats to rain teams, and because his crippling fire weakness is lowered significantly when the rain is up.

I wanted someone that's a pretty good partner to Ferrothorn; someone that could absorb the fire and fighting attacks being thrown at him all the time. This team member also needed to abuse the rain as well. What better way to abuse rain then with STAB Hurricane? Dragonite took this team slot.

I noticed a fairly dangerous weakness at this point to Mixed Nasty Plot Thundurus. I wanted a rain abuser that could take on Thundurus as well as all of the other insane set-up sweepers that plague this metagame. I thought Swampert was bulky enough and strong enough to fulfill this desire, and his boosted Waterfalls in the rain allowed him to abuse the rain.

At this point, I went and looked at Dezza Laa's rain team, and stole his Toxicroak set :3

I now noticed a pretty strong bad weakness to Reuniclus (but isn't every team weak to Reuniclus in some way?) The best counters to Reuniclus are Scizor and Tyranitar. I obviously can't use Tyranitar, but I can certainly use Scizor, and he even abuses the rain by lessening his fire weakness! Scizor got slapped on.

I started to notice that, well, Scizor never really did much. Sure, he gave Reuniclus's trouble when they came in, but other than that, Scizor is so common that everyone just knows how to deal with it already. He didn't seem strong enough to me. So in a search for someone that could do his job of stopping Reuniclus and other things, I found Escavalier. The surprise factor of his absolutely ridiculous STAB Megahorns catch a lot of people off guard and get tons of OHKOs, so Escavalier took Scizor's spot.

Finally, I didn't think Swampert was doing well. His lack of recovery and lack of ability to still beat some of the stronger set up sweepers of this generation was disappointing. So, once again, I turned to another Pokemon of the same typing that could do his job better: Quagsire. His new ability Unaware leaves him completely untroubled by set-up sweepers, and he learns Recovery, which makes him infinitely more useful than Swampert. And now we are at the final version of the team:

The Team

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Politoed (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 88 SAtk / 168 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Rest
- Protect
- Toxic
- Scald

This is the best lead Politoed set in my opinion for rain teams. This Politoed is surprisingly bulky on the special end. I never expected him to be able to take Draco Meteors and even STAB Thunderbolts! And his ability to strike back is rather shocking as well, as Scald does some serious damage under rain when taking STAB and the boost from rain into account. The rest of the set gives Politoed some support option. Rest is to keep Toed's health up, which is very important against enemy Sandstorm or (rarely) a Hail or Sun team. Protect lets me scout, which is rather important with Politoed, because I don't want to eat something like a STAB Stone Edge from Tyranitar. Toxic on here is important, because while Scald can cripple physical attackers, I still need a way to try and stop the occasional Special attacker, and Toxic is the best way to do that. The EVs give Politoed quite a bit of bulk and staying power, which is essential.

Dragonite (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Hurricane
- Thunder
- Dragon Tail
- Roost

Whoa, buddy. This guy is a creature of nature. Under the rain, those STAB Hurricanes and Thunders absolutely tear some teams apart. This Dragonite has insane bulk, and even without Special Attack investment, can do crazy damage to teams. I went with the special defensive bulk here simply because I found that Dragonite died too quickly for my liking when I had his set as all-out offensive. This set has crazy staying power and maintains the ability to hurt people pretty badly. Dragon Tail works as an excellent phazing method for me, and can get rid of most annoying set up sweepers that are trying to kill me. Roost is the key to this set, really, as it keeps Dragonite alive for pretty much ever. Honestly, this Dragonite pretty much never dies, and it has a serious tendency to tear teams apart, which is why this is probably the star of my team.

Toxicroak (F) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Sucker Punch
- Drain Punch
- Substitute
- Bulk Up

This set is incredible. Not only do MANY people seem to forget what Dry Skin does as they try and throw a Scald at me, but they seem to forget that Toxicroak often runs Sucker Punch, and to great effect. Under a Sub and with a Bulk Up or two, its usually gg, unless my opponent has a Skarmory or something. (Even then, Drain Punch does a number on it, and if it tries to Roost Drain Punch is going to knock it into next week). I'm running Black Sludge here over Leftovers simply because of the occasional Trick user, and I'm sure they wouldn't like having a Black Sludge in the face. Back to the set; Sucker Punch is the main selling point of the set, because Toxicroak isn't the fastest guy out there, and enjoys the painful priority. Under rain with Dry Skin and Black Sludge, Toxicroak is gaining a ton of HP a turn, almost as much as the Substitute takes away, so unless you hit this guy hard and fast, he's going to be staying on the field giving you a lot of problems for quite a long time.

Escavalier (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Shell Armor
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Megahorn
- Pursuit
- Iron Head
- Return

I guarantee almost every comment I get on this threat is going to be suggesting that I take Escavalier out for something. I just have to suggest that people try this set out before they say anything. With max attack and a boosting nature and a Choice Band and a STAB attack with 120 base power....ouch. Even things that resist Bug usually take quite a bit of damage. Things that don't resist it are often even OHKO'd. And let's not even talk about things that are weak to it. The only moves that are ever really used on this set are Megahorn and Pursuit. Pursuit gets a lot of use because people are afraid of this thing when it comes out and don't know when to expect. People are smart enough to realize that this thing is really strong, but most people have never seen one and don't have a clue what I'm going to do with it. Blissey? Yeah, forget you, you're gonna die to this incoming Pursuit. Honestly, I don't even use Pursuit that often anyway. People bring in their Bug resist and are still hit for like 50% from Megahorn. This set is absurd! It's not any better for the opponent that I always have rain up which lessens Escavalier's fire weakness intensely. This guy never seems to die much, either. Escavalier is much bulkier than Scizor, and can take something like a STAB Thunderbolt from Zapdos that Scizor wouldn't be able to handle. And let's not even get into comparing Escavalier's Megahorn against that Zapdos and Scizor's Bullet Punch. The difference in damage is astounding. Scizor functions as a decently strong revenge killer, Escavalier functions as an absolute monster that rips basically anything to shreds. This guy also absolutely MANHANDLES Trick Room teams. With a 0 speed IV, this guy has I think 40 speed, which is lower than most Trick Room sweepers. Going first with these Megahorns is absolutely ridiculous.

Quagsire (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Curse
- Recover
- Waterfall
- Earthquake

I love this guy to death, and he's one of the most important members of my team, and that is all because of one ability: Unaware. Set-up sweepers been giving you problems? If so, I encourage you to try Quagsire. It doesn't even have to be this set, but I happen to prefer this set. This Quagsire can actually sweep pretty handily if my opponent isn't ready for it, but usually I use Curse without the intention of sweeping, but for the intention of tanking for a little bit to mess with my opponent and give me a bit of an upper hand. Recover is the main reason that this Quagsire is so much more effective than Swampert, even though Swampert might be a bit stronger and bulkier overall. Waterfall and Earthquake provide decent STAB coverage, except for Grass types, but I'm not staying in against them anyway. Under rain and with a Curse (which brings my attack up to 308 iirc), Waterfall does some very nice damage to a lot of things. This set still all bottles down to Unaware. I can't tell you how many times I've come in on a Conkeldurr that's trying to Bulk Up. I just start Cursing as he keeps trying to kill me with Drain Punch and failing. Curse, Recover, repeat until I have +6, and then slaughter him with that STAB, rain boosted Waterfall. It's a great time.

Ferrothorn (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip

I have to say...Ferrothorn is probably the best Pokemon Game Freak designed out of the 5th generation. This guy is an absolute God. I usually bring him in on something that can't do anything to it (which is most things), and I set up Rocks and a Leech Seed and just sit back as my opponent struggles to kill it. With Ferrothorn's fire weakness lessened because of the rain, it's extremely difficult to take this thing down. HP Fires from Latios do rather pitiful damage now, and I can just Gyro Ball back for serious damage or switch to Quagsire or Dragonite or something. The moral of this story is that Ferrothorn is practically broken under rain and damn near unkillable. Heaven forbid Game Freak ever gives it a recovery move, because that would make it even more insanely impossible to kill than Skarmory or Blissey.

Well, that's my team. Help me get to the top 10! Thanks!