Featured Playstyle #4: Rain

[skylight]

Introduction
In NU there are a variety of different playstyles you can use, however are all playstyles actually effective in this metagame? This project aims to explore the different playstyles you can use in NU, and discover how to make them most effective. Much like Research Group, you'll be discovering whether this playstyle is really cut out for the tier and what you actually need to succeed at it.

What do we discuss here?
The kind of stuff you can discuss here includes:

• why this playstyle in particular is or isn't effective in this metagame
• what Pokemon are most successful at this playstyle (is there a pokemon you haven't considered before such as braviary for example viable in stall? why? how?)
• teams you've been using that fit into this playstyle category
• speak about your ladder or general experiences with this playstyle
• if this playstyle was simply better in a past metagame
• or post about mons you intend to try out with this playstyle
• be creative!

What is Rain? (10 September - 17 September)
Rain is when Pokemon with Swift Swim, Hydration, and Dry Skin all benefit from Rain Dance. The effects of Rain Dance can be extended with Damp Rock. Some say rain is overpowered in NU, what's your thoughts?

Hall of Fame?
There will be one on NU's hub in the future along with Research Group, same applies as there:

• Users will attempt to reach as high as possible on the ladder with the Pokemon. Breaking past the 2000 mark on the ladder with your registered alt will earn you a spot on the Hall of Fame: Gold Class. Crossing the 1850 mark will secure you a Silver Class spot while a 1700 rating will earn you a Bronze Class spot. Post a screen-shot of your peak in order to achieve this, and a pastebin of your team. Note: this is for Glicko2. You must also have a deviation of 85.
• Users will be expected to post their experiences with the Pokemon they use, the teams they used, the problems they encountered while trying to make the said Pokemon work.
• If a user does not participate in the discussion, he will be passed over.
• In order to participate in the challenge, simply post here with a brand new alt. Post battle logs, experiences with your team on the ladder, and generally how a Pokemon has worked out for you: past or present.

Also feel free to use anything from Research Group for this particular week if it fits into this playstyle! You can discuss the individual Pokemon's performance there, but here you discuss the team as a whole, and the playstyle, too. Have fun!

 

[Yeah Galo Sengan]

Rain is pretty similar to sun in NU, ie. inconsistent :(

At least NU has some great abusers; Swanna is manly, Seismitoad is extremely versatile with its well balanced stats, Ludicolo is as threatening as ever, and a well played subsmash Gorebyss can be terrifying to face.

The main roadblock to dedicated rain teams is definitely that witch, Jynx. Dry skin means a rain team has to be very careful about spamming their water attacks unless they want to invite her in for free to start setting up/sleeping/killing them.

I'd say the best setters for rain are Volbeat and Liepard, both can spread status with Twave, encore setup, reliably use rain dance and U-turn out to an abuser. Honorable mention goes to Electrode since it has blazing speed, can Taunt setup, explode to not waste a turn of rain, volt switch or even benefit from the rain itself with a swift accurate Thunder (80 special attack sux though).

 

[Cherub Agent]

I absolutely adore using Rain, and when I ladder with it it proves more consistent to me than any other team. A well executed Rain team forces the opponent to play by your rules, and by limiting them thus, they cannot exert their own strategy, leaving you with the advantage. I find that the most crucial thing to consider is that when using Rain, one has to deviate from this pre-defined notion that Rain teams consist of setters and sweepers. There is simply no need for more than two of each of these in a Rain team, and the remaining two slots can be used to support your team in achieving its goal: finishing off with the Swift Swimmers. I'll post the importable of my latest Rain team, and give an explanation as to how I play.

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Jynx (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 248 SAtk / 8 HP / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: null Atk
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Lovely Kiss
- Trick

Seismitoad @ Life Orb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 Atk / 252 Spd
Rash Nature
- Surf
- Stealth Rock
- Sludge Wave
- Earthquake

Volbeat (M) @ Damp Rock
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Atk
Impish Nature
- Rain Dance
- Encore
- U-turn
- Thunder Wave

Rotom-Fan @ Damp Rock
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 128 SAtk / 248 HP / 132 Def
Bold Nature
- Thunder
- Air Slash
- Volt Switch
- Rain Dance

Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP
- Giga Drain
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Rain Dance

Scolipede @ Life Orb
Trait: Swarm
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Pursuit
- Megahorn
- Aqua Tail

Eh, it's pretty simple. Rotom and Volbeat are obviously the setters, both with additional utility (Rotom crushes bulky Waters, can sponge strong Fighting- and Ground-type moves, can paraflinch stuff, while Volbeat obviously gives guaranteed Rain, stops set up sweepers or Substitute users, or simply cripples them with Paralysis. Both also have slow VoltTurn to get my boys in safely to begin the carnage.

Ludicolo and Seismitoad ned little explanation: Ludi is as threatening as ever and a staple on every single Rain team. Although I don't have an Electric weakness, the added immunity is useful to have, as well as a Pokemon that can set up Stealth Rock safely. Rash and Life Orb guarantee the OHKO on Jynx with no previous damage with Earthquake. I prefer using Hydro Pump on Ludicolo as it can afford a miss, due to good defensive typing and recovery with Giga Drain.

Jynx and Scolipede are the two Pokemon that support my team. Scolipede traps and eliminates Jynx, absorb Toxic Spikes and sets its own which are really useful in NU in general, although Spikes can also work. Aqua Tail gets pseudo STAB in the Rain, and the OHKO on Golurk. Its Fire weakness is also mitigated. Jynx can clean up and generally does work against every type of team, and definetly also appreciates the removal of its Fire weakness and the passive recovery that comes with Dry Skin. It can be exchanged for something sturdier that can beat Kangaskhan though, such as Swift Swim Shell smash Carracosta (absolutely godlike under Rain, especially with Mystic Water).

Just get a bit more creative with your Rain teams, and don't just pack up on Swift Swimmer after Swift Swimmer. Two or three are definetly enough, and have a way around the most common threats to Rain (Jynx), as in my case a lure and a trapper. There's a reason I pushed for a Damp Rock suspect test, and it's because I think that the extra turns the pebble gives you to maul your opponent is just a bit too much to be considered healthy for the metagame, but... /me shrug

 

[The Quasar]

I'm agree with Cherub. Swift Swim it's so strong an so common in NU for forgetting you. I always thought the rain teams are are too often neglected while IMHO can be used easily, even by those unfamiliar with the game too.

Completing the pokemon described by Cherub, there was also Armaldo and Gorebyss. First can be useful like spinner (faster on rain, he can beat Ghost-type), so like SR setter. Second, using Shell Smash, can be quick and enough catastrophic to sweep entire opponent teams.

 

[zwab]

Is rain effective in the current meta, why is/isn't it effective?

Rain can be a very effective playstyle within the current metagame, allowing you to plow through multiple pokémon on the enemies team after one turn of setup due to there being several good choices of pokémon for taking advantage of the benefits of rain, and there being a few really good choices for rain setters in the tier.
First I'm gonna reel off the important benefits of rain:

1. Water moves get a 1.5 times power boost (the same amount as STAB).
2. Pokémon with the ability swift swim double their speed stat in rain.
3. Hurricane and Thunder gain 100% accuracy in rain.
4. Pokémon with dry-skin gain 12.5% of their maximum HP each turn (well, this isn't so important)

Most pokémon with swift swim are also water types, this means their STAB water moves are getting multiplied by 1.5 twice, leading to an over increase of 2.25 times. This is huge as even a resisted hit will still be doing more then an unstabbed, non-rain-boosted hit, as if this wasn't bad enough, the speed boost from swift swim allows some of the faster swift swim users (looking at you ludicolo, seismitoad, golduck) to out-speed common scarf users in the tier such as Primeape and Sawk.
The real reason I feel this play style can be so effective is that not only does it provide a power boost (either to water type moves, or the ability to rely on Hurricane and Thunder over weaker options) and a crazy 2 times speed boost, is that it can be set up in just 1 turn, and to make things even better for rain teams, prankster gives priority to the move rain dance, meaning Volbeat, or Liepard with a damp rock can ALMOST guarantee your team the full 7 turns (assuming the setter is taken out on the same turn it sets the weather) to play with your opponent, and if you keep that setter alive, they can easily come back in later after something dies off to an attack and set it again.

Now whilst rain CAN be effective, making a rain team is not quite as simple as an ignorant person may think which I learned the hard way the first time I decided to make a rain team after seeing the crazy power rain has. The #1 mistake people make, which leads to their rain teams being almost totally ineffective, is to slap volbeat or liepard on a rain team with a bunch of swift swim users/swanna on a team and call it a rain team, this is a sure fire way (unless you have some sort of amazing fluke I couldn't possibly think of) to make a team which is terrible.


Successful Rain Pokémon

I'm not gonna bother mentioning these, I can't really think of any super successful ones off the top of my head that aren't obvious (I guess Swanna is less obvious than ludicolo, and swords dance swift swim armaldo, although I've never tried that out personally), I'm sure if you've played NU for any length of time you've come across the swift swim abusers anyways.
Call me lazy if you like, but seriously, play the NU tier for any length of time and you will meet the rain abusers.

Recently Used Teams (That fit the Rain play-style)

So since seeing this thread, I opted to make a rain team, I decided to balanced rain team based around a Ludicolo sweep. (stall seems a little pointless with the limitation on rain turns, and I tried a rain hyper-offense team once and fell into the noob mistake I mentioned above of stacking volbeat with swift swim users).

The team at a glance (also it's importable, though I haven't given the team a super thorough test yet, I'm having some nice success with it).

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Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Giga Drain
- Rain Dance

Articuno @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Modest Nature
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- Hurricane
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Mawile @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 220 Spd / 252 HP / 36 Def
Impish Nature
- Taunt
- Baton Pass
- Foul Play
- Iron Head

Armaldo @ Leftovers
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 64 HP / 192 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast

Eelektross @ Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spd
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- ThunderPunch
- Drain Punch
- Aqua Tail

Volbeat (M) @ Damp Rock
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SDef
Impish Nature
- Rain Dance
- U-turn
- Thunder Wave
- Encore

Basically the team is centred around getting up some rain and sweeping with ludicolo when possible, the other members of the team help this happen by either weakening/getting rid of pokémon that stop ludicolo's sweep (Mantine, Bulky Ludicolos, Lickilicky, kangaskahn's priority, specially defensive braviaries and jynx), assisting eachother through utility (taunt on mawile prevents golurk and seismitoad getting up their rocks which brutalize articuno, rapid spin armaldo is the second line of defense against rocks), and just generally punching down the the opposing team and making favourable switches through baton pass/u-turn to set up or attack a crucial threat.

To help you understand the team better, I'll describe my process of building it...

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First, I started with the standard rain dance ludicolo, obviously a team centred around rain dance ludicolo can't be a team centred around rain dance ludicolo if there is no ludicolo.

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Next I got a quick list together of stuff that gives ludicolo problems, I wanted my teams choice scarf user to have the same weaknesses so that I can force my opponents to switch to those pokémon more often whilst I U-turn out into something to deal with the thing that troubles ludicolo, Articuno was chosen after a lot of deliberation (I REALLY didn't like the idea of my scarfer being 4x weak to rocks) for a few reasons;

1. I knew I needed a special attacker to have the same common problems as ludicolo, as ludicolo is a special attacker and mainly struggles against special walls.
2. Articuno has a move that allows me switch advantage, in this case, it's u-turn, I like u-turn over something like volt switch (which ampharos the other potential candidate for this spot has) as nothing is immune to u-turn.
3. Articuno has no electric type moves, other scarf users like gardevoir, haunter and ampharos have electric moves, this is a problem as mantine is not going to come in for me due to it's 4x weakness to electric moves, and articuno's job is to lure in things that trouble ludicolo.
4. Articuno has good speed, base 85 is a nice speed which just helps ensure I can outspeed things while scarfed, though primeape and sawk are still going to get the better of me.
5. Articuno can benefit from rain, this IS a rain team remember, articuno benefits from this as it's fire weakness is nullified, and it has access to 100% accurate hurricanes in rain.

My 3rd pokémon was really difficult to pick, and I was really uncertain it would be any good until I tested it, but I have to say, I'm REALLY impressed with mawile, and it's become my go-to lead when I see the common rockers in the team-preview.
Basically, for my 3rd pokémon, I was looking for a pivot, a proper pivot that has access to a move like u-turn/volt switch/baton pass for switch initiative, HOWEVER, due to my scarfer being 4x weak to stealth rock, I needed a member of my team to be able to taunt common rocks users to prevent them being setup, after looking up the speeds golurk and seismitoad reach (both reach 190), I gave myself enough EVs to out-speed both so I could taunt them, and gave myself baton pass for switch initiative, I gave myself iron head to be able to hit the opponent, and while scrolling through mawile's move options I saw foul play, and even though I have intimidate, I decided to pack it because after taunting a golurk, if it didn't attack, it's probably going to attack now, and foul play will do a lot of damage to golurk, meaning it has a much harder time later on coming in and setting up rocks, as long as the rocks stay away, mawile is doing it's job, and any extra switch initiative it can generate with baton pass later on is most welcome (which it often does, particularly against kangaskhan who love to fake out after I intimdate them).

For my 4th pokémon I wanted an offensive rapid spinner with some bulk, so I picked armaldo, he also benefits from the rain if he happens to be in for any reason during that time, this allows him to rapid spin before the opponent can attack, or to just take out/get damage on guys he wouldn't normally be able to before he goes down. (Ohhhh myyy...)

My 5th pokémon I decided to pick would be my utility, the main utility on a manual rain team is the weather setter, and so I picked volbeat, nothing to really say really, he gets prankster rain, and can get switch initiative with u-turn and other general utility with encore and Twave

Finally, I wanted something to break the walls that give ludicolo problems, eelektross can punch through mantine's weaker defensive side with 4x super effective thunder punches, same for specially defensive braviary, only it's 2x weak instead of 4, bulky ludicolo's are generally specially defensive, so their weaker defensive side does not appreciate super effective expert belted u-turns.
Admittedly at the end of the day eelektross and jynx could still cause me a few problems, however the Jynx's I've seen I've been able to play around.
Sadly I've not actually seen lickilicky yet, but I'm sure when the time comes I can play around with it using taunt and if need be, I could replace eelektross's aqua tail with super power, anyways that ends this team run-down, if you have any questions, ask!