SS UU - BW Rain Flashback

[Ryan5374]

Introduction!

I must preface this by saying I'm not super familiar with the UU metagame, I last played when Galarian Moltres and Aegislash were still around, but I looked through the UU compendium and tried to account for everything there, as well as other common things I saw on ladder.
I tried to make a rain offense team for UU, somewhat based on BW rain teams of the good old days, since many of the mons used on those teams are now UU and under. Without much else to say, let's get on with the team!

I frogor (Politoed) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Encore
- Earth Power

Best nickname ever, and shiny because it's just better. Anyways, pretty standard rain setter, encore is used to cripple setup sweepers/rockers. Ice beam and earth power are coverage.

Cthulu (Tentacruel) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Rain Dish
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Sludge Bomb
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin

Defensive spinner Tentacruel, rapid spin because it's a spinner, scald for burn chance, sludge bomb to take care of things like bulu, and knock off for utility. This thing gets a whopping 12% back every turn if the rain is up.

BALL REMOVER (Scizor) @ Leftovers
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Roost

Bulky offensive Scizor, helps to deal with Bulu, technician Bullet Punch is good for finishing things off, bug bite is one of Scizor's strongest stabs after technician, and hits Slowking hard, as well as removing its Colbur berry if it's holding one.

Pony (Kingdra) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Draco Meteor
- Ice Beam
- Hurricane

Swift Swim Kingdra, pretty standard offensive varient, chunks a lot of things that don't resist its moves, and is nearly impossible to outspeed in rain.

Sky Daddy (Thundurus-Therian) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Volt Absorb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- Focus Blast

Pretty standard Thundurus? Thunderbolt was chosen over Thunder, because sometimes it's difficult to get it in with rain up, and after the plot boost the power difference doesn't seem to matter much. The goggles are used over boots because I have spin support, and this allows it to switch into Amoongus and scare it out with Psychic.

Mowgli (Zarude) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Leaf Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Power Whip
- Darkest Lariat
- U-turn
- Jungle Healing

Pretty standard Zarude, jungle healing is for recovery and status removal, Power Whip chunks a lot of things off of Zarude's high attack stat, especially things like Chansey and Slowking that have been softened up by Tentacruel's knock off. Darkest lariat takes care of a lot of dark weak threats of the tier, such as Azelf.

Exportable: https://pokepast.es/1289584582018049
Conclusion:
I'm still relatively new to the SS UU metagame, but tried my best to answer all the threats I've seen on ladder as well as in the compendium. I had a lot of fun building this team, as it's fun to imagine BW OU without Aldaron's proposal. Please feel free to give any criticism you have, just be kind about it. Thank you!

 

[justdrew]

Hey there Ryan5374 and welcome to UU! I am not much of a rain fan but it definitely is cool and gets wins. I like your team but it has a few issues that I fixed and I'll share those with you. I'll divide them into major and minor changes. I only made one major change so the team is essentially the same. Let's get into it!

Major changes:

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Tentacruel is cool here because with Rain Dish it is able to make use of the Rain. However, you have no Stealth Rock setter on this team which is a big issue. Every team in Pokemon needs something to set Stealth Rocks. And almost every team needs something to remove them. So naturally Excadrill was the perfect pick here because it offers you both Stealth Rock and Rapid Spin as well as some bulk being both a Ground- and Steel-type. It works very well here.

Minor changes:


I changed Ice Beam to Hydro Pump because it really needs that hard hitting Water move, and I also changed Life Orb to Choice Specs because it does more work in my opinion. Kingdra isn't very bulky and I personally am not a fan of it losing 10% health every time it clicks just so it can switch moves. Specs does so much damage and costs you nothing but a little momentum which I've made up for.


All I did was give Thundurus Thunder instead of Thunderbolt and Heavy Duty Boots as opposed to Safety Goggles. It gives you more damage and in Rain it's 100% accuracy and you may as well use Rain as much as you possibly can.


This was probably my most major of the minor changes because I changes Scizors ev spread and moveset. First of all, if Scizor doesn't have Swords Dance, it's pretty much impossible for your team to break Chansey. It needs Swords Dance to win that match up. I also don't like max attack Scizor on anything that isn't hyper offense. Scizor should be a defensive glue on this team in my opinion and won't fair well dying to Foul Play from walls like Amoonguss and Mandibuzz. I kept U-Turn on Scizor because it gives your team additional momentum to get in Politoed to set Rain or get in Kingdra or Thundurus which are your teams main breakers and threats. The ev spread on Scizor allows it to live Zygarde-10%'s Thousand Arrows from full, it can take Power Gem's from Nihilego all because it has Heavy Duty Boots as opposed to Leftovers.


My final change was switching the Politoed set to something more optimal. Politoed should be bulky so it can set Rain as much as possible throughout a longer game. I gave it Rest so that when it gets low on health it can get back to full and be able to set Rain more. I also gave it Toxic and Perish Song which are just very useful moves if you end up facing something like Demon Registeel or Suicune. Politoed provides a check to UU's less common but very scary threats.



Here's the team paste! After testing this out on ladder and winning a lot, I did notice one flaw was to SD 3 Attacks Cobalion (with Stone Edge). The only way to RKO Cobalion is with Kingdra which is pretty easy with long Rain but in the specific matchup I played it was hard due to a Umbreon (that did dodge so many Hydro Pumps I might add). Anyway team seems pretty solid. I hope you like it and reply with any questions you might have!

 

[Ryan5374]

These changes worked great! We even kept the bw theme with Excadrill. Perish song is great, and has even become my win condition in a couple games, and it also allows toed to force out things it usually never dreams of doing. Thank you!