Preparing For The Storm(4th Gen Rain)

[PIABox]

I've been mainly focused on the 4th Gen metagame but with my recent aquisition of White i've started to delve into the world of Isshu. It seems like weather teams are prevailing and I've never even thought of using one, so I thought I'd try my hand at a 4th Gen weather team first. I tried to make it with four water types and only two wildcards. So this is my rain team.(First RMT and first Post :D)
Edits in Red.

Jirachi @ Damp Rock
Ability: Serene Grace
Jolly(+Spe, -SpA)
HP: 252/Atk: 4/Spe:252
-Rain dance
-Stealth Rock
-U-turn
-Iron Head
See Poppycock's post.

Dancechu(Pikachu) @ Light Ball
Ability: Static
Timid(+Spd, -Atk)
HP: 4/SpAtk: 252/Spd: 252
-Surf
-Thunder
-Grass Knot
-Signal Beam
I know, you hate pikachu. He sucks, there are better options. Wrong, there may be better options but he doesn't suck. Rain surfchu with thunder was my first thought when I thought rain dance. I have swept entire teams(OU teams) with this little guy. He's here to stay, sorry :S but I like him, he's got gumption. Though he isn't the fastest, his 398 SpAtk STAB 100% accuracy thunder takes a chunk out of most things. And with this set's great coverage, he can take care of nearly anything, I often get OHKOs simply because my opponent doesn't expect Dancechu to be carrying what he is. And when he does get knocked-out it seems to usually be by a physical sweeper and with my hax luck static has helped many times.

ToxicRain(Qwilfish) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Adamant(+Atk, -SpAtk)
Atk: 252/Def: 4/Spd: 252
-Waterfall
-Swords Dance
-Poison Jab
-Explosion
Standard swift swim sweeper. I SD if I can, usually can't, and explode on anything particularly nasty. The way I play I like to make my opponent think SwampWater is my main source of rain and ToxicRain is my main sweeper, that way when ToxicRain is KO'd I get to laugh at their short-lived enthusiasm. Though on a few occasions, this guy was all it took to sweep.

Asbestos(Scizor) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant(+Atk, -SpAtk)
HP: 200/Atk: 56/SpDef: 252
-Rain Dance
-Bullet Punch
-Roost
-U-Turn
My main source of rain. His resistances, combined with his bulky EVs allow him to set-up rain and u-turn out pretty much whenever I want. Not to mention fire's reduced damage in rain, the only fire-type attack i've seen OHKO it was an overheat from an orbed/specd Heatran. And bullet punch because every team needs at least one priority attack.

DanceW/Me(Ludicolo) @ Life Orn
Ability: Rain Dish
Modest(+SpA, -Atk)
HP:32 /SpA:252 /Spe: 224
-Energy Ball
-Surf
-Substitute
-Leech Seed
See Poppycock's post.

RainHammer(Kingdra) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Rash(+SpAtk, -SpDef)
Atk: 208/SpAtk: 136/Spd: 164
-Waterfall
-Draco Meteor
-Hydro Pump
-Substitute
All-around beast, a basic standard for all rain teams. Once he's out in rain they're begging for Qwilfish back. Though the SpAtk drop from Draco Meteor is annoying, he gets the job done. Though I am debating Dragon Pulse.







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[zapdos=god]

First I would change Milotic with starmie as I think you need spin support. The set should be:

Starmie@ Leftovers/Damp rock
Timid(+speed,-atk)
252 Hp/ 4spatk/ 252speed
Rapid spin
Surf
Recover
Rain dance/ Thunderbolt

And I would probably replace Pikachu with something like ludicolo but if you do keep it, then replace signal beam with substitue because the many priority moves will OHKO it.

 

[PIABox]

Of course as soon as I complain about Milotic she wins me the next 5 battles o.O I'll try out substitute, but I'm worried about losing the coverage. I'll replace Milotic if she starts slacking-off again, my team doesn't fear SR but Toxic Spikes are always a scary thing.

150 views, and 1 comment. Come on people. Give me anything, a "You Suck!" is even appreciated. "You and Pikachu should go die in a sandstorm!" Anything! Note: Compliments are accepted as well as insults :)

 

[LeviLamprey]

Toxic Spikes can be nixed with ToxicRain the Qwilfish, provided it survives any hits towards it. If you don't care about Spikes, just leave your team without Rapid Spin. Rocks do no more than 12.5% to your team, and all your Pokemon seem to have the ability to Recover/Rock resist/Substitute. Qwilfish and Pikachu are the main victims, but since you rely on their sweep Milotic would want to be replaced if it provides a very secondary role to your team. Blastoise is a lesser-used Pokemon with Spin that can be very useful in Rain and also has CounterCoat if you want to take out a tricky threat, as well as all the classic Bulky Water things, if you don't want to use Starmie. Cloyster is yet another option and can set up entry hazards, though this team doesn't appear to be designed for that. Anyway, I really like the creativity you've put into your team (plus Qwilfish is in my Top 10 Favourite Pokemon so you get points there!)

 

[His Eminence Lord Poppington II]

^ pretty sure this is intended to be a full on offensive team, which makes me question the presence of milotic. Furthermore, your swampert is still completely taunt bait; if you attempt to use rain dance and are taunted you're pretty much revealed from the get-go. What's pikachu going to do to a scarftar that switches in (and trust me, tyranitar's usage is so high, it will probably happen one in three games, here's a calc - 77.3% - 91.5%, pursuit does that to a NON-SWITCHING pikachu, and it outspeeds with scarf, so with a bit of residual damage from SR and sandstorm a pikachu can easily get trapped, and bar some parahax from thunder (which requires 2 max damage rolls to 2hko btw, without SR admittedly), you are going to be trapped and killed). It is extremely difficult to run rain in OU, with reason, there are three weather changers - hippowdon, tyranitar and the lesser seen abomasnow. Despite this, it is still possible, first thing I would recommend changing is the lead, swampert as a lead is simply too one dimensional, and is complete taunt bait. Perhaps consider more unorthodox leads or at the very least unpredictable ones, something along the lines of Jirachi @
252 hp, 252 spe, jolly, - Rain dance, Stealth Rock, U-turn, Iron Head. Can u-turn to break sashes and with scizor support can prevent hazards going down if you are taunted (unlikely, taunting a jirachi is generally not done). Offensive rain teams always have to run at least 2 sturdy rain dancers, steels are usually the best option, due to their loss of fire weakness in the rain, consider bronzong (although your scizor is also a fine choice), bronzong has 0 weaknesses in rain, and can explode to pave the way for your sweepers. The whole intention of rain is to keep up offensive momentum through the use of u-turn and explosion; switching simply wastes turns of rain and should be kept to a minimum unless a matchup absolutely cannot be won. Furthermore rain teams have a LOT of trouble with vaporeon (I know this from personal experience) Mixdra cannot 2hko with draco meteor and it stalls turns of rain with water absorb, etc. The only reliable rain sweeper than can hope to deal with it is kabutops, and that's only if vaporeon switches in on its swords dance and stone edge doesn't miss (rain boosted 0 sp.a vaporeon's surf almost OHKOs kabutops). Furthermore, on a rain team it is important to pack at least a neutrality on grass and electric attacks, Kingdra, although fitting these criteria, is not usually a defensive/offensive pivot into these attacks, due to its defense hindering nature. The only available option that leaves one with, in terms of swift swimmers at least, is ludicolo, which, sadly, is walled by Blissey, you may want to consider this set -
Ludicolo - 32 hp, 252 sp.a, 224 spe @ Modest, life orb.
Energy Ball
Surf/Hydro Pump
Substitute
Leech Seed
Allows it to get past its usual counters in the form of vaporeon and blissey with subseed (vaporeon isn't 2hkoed by stab energy ball iirc, and can toxic stall you to death). Although this set sacrifices some offensive utility by dropping ice beam, short of using focus punch other sets will not be able to get past blissey, and have no hope of beating vaporeon, who will simply stall rain turns with wish + protect.
To sum up,
Rain teams can only be offensive in fourth gen OU, so milotic has no place there.
Replace your lead with something that isn't taunt bait and can keep up offensive momentum, even electrode, who, despite being highly predictable, cannot be stopped due to his immense speed.
Replace milotic with perhaps a Ludicolo, or a lanturn (a highly effective defensive pivot that absorbs electric attacks, and beats other rain dance teams handily).
Replace pikachu with perhaps a Kabutops, or another rain dancer, such as bronzong or zapdos (if you want to maintain offensive electric users) A Rotom-w may also be considered, for its immunity to fighting and ground (covers kabutops) and ability to abuse its new pseudo-stab hydropump, with stab thunder!
For kingdra, the use of substitute is indeed handy, don't bother with dragon pulse, draco meteor does more over two turns than dragon pulse does.

Problem with rain in 4th gen ou is that it's fairly one dimensional and the prevalence of sand streamers, and to an extent snow warners (lol), utterly destroy it unless you get rid of them early in the match. Stall also wrecks most rain teams, your best chance of winning is against hyper offense teams.

Good luck with the team.

 

[PIABox]

Thanks for the feedback :)

I like the sound of that Jirachi, I have been taunt-bait lately. feelsbadman.jpg
Ludicolo also fits a lot better. I only play wi-fi so I can't use rotom forms D:, either way I don't want to replace Dancechu. Thanks for the suggestions :)

 

[purple crobatchop]

Don't all Surfchu come in hardy natured?

 

[PIABox]

Puberty is hitting somebody, mentioning no names, like a sack of bricks.

@purple crobatchop

only the ones from PBR. The ones from the Yellow Forest Pokewalker path can be any nature :)

 

[Kid Kadabra]

A true smogonfag is a fat guy that lives in his parent’s basement, and is also over the age of 25. Not only do they follow the smogon rules, but they also will bitch and complain when people such as I don’t. Since they are dwellers of the basement, they have no money and would never even think of buying a real DS game. They would just download their fuckin ROM and play away, they would never, ever think to put in half an effort to actually raise their pokémon. They just generate them with a pokesav and make them have the hidden power they want, and the pokémon’s moves, and all of that other shit.

I'm sorry that's extremely offensive. Can a mod please do something about this guy?

 

[PIABox]

I'm sorry that's extremely offensive. Can a mod please do something about this guy?

Don't feed the trolls, I'm about to PM one :)

 

[oOsymphonyxOo]

Have you considered Kabutops? 115 base attack, swift swim, and access to Swords Dance and Rapid Spin make him a reliable Rain Sweeper.
Here's a good set:

Kabutops @ Life Orb
Adamant (+Atk, -SpA) or Jolly (+Spe, -SpA)
4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
~Swords Dance
~Waterfall
~Stone Edge
~Aqua Jet/Rapid Spin

If you want, you can run Aqua Tail over Waterfall for +10 power and -10 accuracy. Regardless, STAB Stone Edge and double STAB Waterfall is nothing to laugh at against a Pokemon topping off at 500+ speed.