shrang
General Kenobi
Okay, here's a rain team RMT. In 4th gen, I hated rain teams. They were boring to say the least. However, since Manaphy looks like one of the most screwed Suspects this round, I really wanted to use the time to abuse my favourite version, Calm Mind Manaphy with eternal rain in OU with the newly released Dream World Politoed. With that in mind, I decided to create the following team:
Team at a glance:
Team in Detail:
Nattorei (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Def / 196 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
At first I really didn't want to use Nattorei because everyone else was using it, but it won me over in the end. It was possibly the only thing that could set up Stealth Rock on my team and not get murdered by Kingdra. Everyone should know how this thing works now. I used the Ubers spread written by mtr, so Nattorei can take a lot of abuse from both sides of the spectrum. Gyro Ball is Nattorei's most powerful move against lots of Pokemon, while Power Whip nails Pokemon on opposing Rain teams. I needed Stealth Rock in the team somewhere, and since Nattorei is the only one that can learn it, I gave him the pleasure. Since Nattorei hasn't got any really good recovery options (he'd be too damn good if he did), I gave it Leech Seed instead of Spikes to let him heal himself easier. I would really have like to stick Spikes in somewhere, as it would make Kingdra and my other sweepers' lives a lot easier, but such is life.
Just one thing, just because I'm putting Nattorei first doesn't mean he's my lead. I often do not lead with Nattorei (actually I seldom lead with Nattorei), but it really doesn't matter since you get to change your around anyway. My lead is usually Politoed, since I want to get my rain up as soon as possible, but I also lead with Birjion a lot if I look at your team and go "lol you get 6-0ed by Birijion" (more on this in Birijion's description).
Birijion @ Life Orb
Trait: Justice Heart
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Giga Drain
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Although I based this team around Calm Mind Manaphy and rain, Birijion, in my opinion, is my MVP. If you call the sorry mess of our current metagame a metagame, Birijion is very anti-metagame, in my opinion. Right now, we basically have Rain and Sand, along with broken-ass Suspects like Deoxys-A and Shaymin-S. Against the first two, Birijion more often than not wipes the floor with them, and for stuff like Deoxys, Skymin and Darkrai, a bit of prediction (aided by Team Preview) can help you get past them. Even if you can't beat them with Birijion (actually Darkrai loses if Sleep Clause is activated), you've got about 2/3 of the metagame checked, hehe. I've seen so many rain teams in Team Preview, choose Birijion to be my lead, Calm Mind up as they Ice Beam me with Politoed for moot damage and then 6-0 their team since so many rain teams are weak to it. So yeah, back to Calm Mind Birijion, it is one of my favourite Pokemon to use in this metagame. It is virtually my one stop switch-in to any kind of defensive core that hopes to stop my Rain team. Nattorei is cleanly eaten up unless Focus Blast misses too much, Burungeru is chomped up by Giga Drain while Gliscor eats Hidden Power Ice. Blissey is setup fodder for Manaphy in any case, whether it is raining or not. Originally I had Swords Dance Birijion, but after everyone started spamming Gliscor next to Nattorei, so I had enough and decided to stick Calm Mind and Hidden Power Ice on Birijion. So yeah, Birijion cleanly handles everything that gives my team troubles. Even with a rather average Base 90 Special Attack, Birijion is actually still quite powerful after a Calm Mind boost. At +1, it's still OHKOing Scizor with Focus Blast, OHKOing stuff like Manaphy with Giga Drain and chucking a huge 60-70% dent into Latios with Hidden Power Ice. In short, it is strong enough to do what it needs to do. As for the moveset, Calm Mind is for boosting and being pretty resilient on the special side. Giga Drain is used since with its power boost, it is almost as powerful as Energy Ball (I'm not using Grass Knot with all the Manaphy running around) but is able to let Birijion heal its health from Life Orb and other insults. I remember when once Birijion was down at 5%, killed an opposing Politoed and got back to about 50%, and proceeded to sweep the opposing team. Focus Blast is Birijion's powerful yet horrifically inaccurate STAB (Give the thing Aura Sphere, damnit) while Hidden Power Ice lets Birijion take out those annoying Gliscors and Dragon-types (It's a great check to any non-Yache Garchomps).
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Psycho Shock
- Thunder
- Hidden Power Ice / Grass Knot
Jirachi is pretty much my idea of trying to patch the team up of as many problems as possible, in particular the one of Swords Dance Toxicroak. It also helps against Birijion, since Jirachi isn't particularly weak to any of its attacks (Focus Blast doesn't kill, IIRC) while Psycho Shock hits on its weaker physical defense. The moveset is rather simple. Calm Mind allows Jirachi to be rather threatening, while Psycho Shock hits stuff like Blissey while allowing him to play around stuff like Rankurusu. Thunder in the rain while having a 60% paralysis chance is just plain annoying for virtually everything and hits Steel types rather hard. I used Hidden Power Ice in the last spot so Jirachi can catch Outraging Dragons like Garchomp with it, but Grass Knot is also an option to hit Hippowdon and Tyranitar really hard. I got the idea from Theorymon, who was QCing a 4th gen Ubers Jirachi analysis (here), and then played around it and made Jirachi pretty awesome after that.
Kingdra (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Hydro Pump
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
I'm proud of this thing. It went from a no-name to a superstar on rain teams. Before I thought about using this, every Kingdra I saw had Substitute and Dragon Dance. Then I decided to post in the Suspect testing thread and gradually people started to use this (Or LO Special, although there isn't much difference). In short, this thing is ridiculous. It is virtually Specs Latias but with more power (when using a Water-attack) and a truck-load more Speed. I have swept so many teams with Kingdra just spamming Surf alone (which in the rain is basically like spamming Draco Meteor every turn but with no drawbacks). I've actually very rarely use Draco Meteor on Kingdra, seeing as the other three moves do what they need to do anyway. I've seen people try and use Specs Kingdra and stick stuff like Hidden Power Fighting and Ice Beam on it, but seriously, don't bother with that. When you have a Pokemon running around with 538 Speed, near perfect coverage and 475 Special Attack, the simplest set will always be the best. Here's a little stat for everyone. Against Nattorei (One of Kingdra's biggest enemies), whom Hidden Power Fire/Fighting is 2x effective against (since Rain neuters Fire), you get a 140 BP move (70 x 2). However, Hydro Pump is a 135 BP move (120 x 1.5 x 1.5 / 2), almost the same power as Hidden Power Fire/Fighting. I think I'd much rather be locked into a 120 BP double STAB move rather than a 70 BP non-STAB move for a slight drop in power anyday. It's also interesting to note that a NVE double STAB Hydro Pump in the rain does the same amount of damage as a neutral STAB Dragon Pulse, so the only times I would use Dragon Pulse is if I'm revenge-killing a Dragon-type and don't want to risk missing Hydro Pump. So basically, the moveset allows Kingdra to do two things with his two great STABs. Draco Meteor/Hydro Pump allows Kingdra to punch big holes in the opponent's team early- and mid- game while Surf and Dragon Pulse are used clean up late-game. There is no need for anything else. Draco Meteor is Kingdra's "IMMA KILL SOMETHING NOW" move, even if Hydro Pump is stronger, it is still being resisted by less types. It is capable of OHKOing your typical max SpA/max Speed Tail Glow Manaphy, which is quite impressive. Hydro Pump does 35-42% to max HP/max SpD Nattorei, which is quite good because Nattorei can only reliably check you once. Dragon Pulse can 2HKO your Tail Glow Manaphy while sometimes surviving +3 Ice Beam, while Surf is just brainless spam. Only Blissey/Chansey are your surefire counters to Specs Kingdra, really.
Politoed (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 232 HP / 252 SAtk / 24 Spe
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast
- Psychic
Well, Politeod is probably the weakest link on the team, but it's essential since it has Drizzle. That said, Politoed is far from utter crap. I've actually had games where I've swept half a team with Politoed because the opponent was to put it frankly, retarded. When I was thinking of the moveset, I wanted Politoed to last a while, so it needed to be bulky. However, I also wanted to hit reasonably hard, as I didn't want Politoed to be utter setup fodder. So, I have Politoed the best of both worlds, max HP and max Special Attack. With a Modest nature and max Special Attack, Politoed actually hits surprisingly hard, capable of 2HKOing some not-so-Specially-Defensive Wobbuffets, which is quite impressive in my eyes (Wobb can survive a Specs rain-boosted Hydro Pump from Timid Palkia, so it is rather bulky). I really wanted to run an all out attacking set like I did with my Abomasnow team earlier, but then I played against Inconsistent and thought it was bullshit so Haze had to be in here to temporarily wipe out Inconsistent boosts. I have played with Perish Song and I like it more, but Haze does have the cool thing of annoying DD Kingdra and things like that while having a lot higher PP. The other three attacks are simple. Surf does quite a decent chunk to anything that doesn't resist it, Ice Beam nails Skymin on the switch-in (especially if I see it on Team Preview) and Focus Blast at least gives Politoed an answer to Nattorei and can do a truck-ton to Tyranitar. I changed Haze and Perish Song to Psychic after Moody was banned so Politoed wasn't Toxicroak setup fodder. 24 Speed EVs outspeed max Speed Wobbuffet.
Manaphy @ Leftovers
Trait: Hydration
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Boil Over
- Ice Beam
- Rest
This was supposed to be the star of the team, but like a lot of my teams, Pokemon that I want to be the MVP don't always become the MVP (the honour goes to Birijion, heh). Calm Mind Manaphy is possibly one of the hardest things to take down in the rain. With a Calm Mind boost, Manaphy can take a Seed Flare from LO Skymin and kill it with Ice Beam in return. There is virtually nothing that can OHKO Manaphy after a Calm Mind. Manaphy can take stuff like Thunderbolt from Latios after a Calm Mind and set up in its face while the opponent watches helplessly. The most common way I have seen people try and stop Manaphy is by tricking it a Choice item with their Latios or something, which is hardly reliable (I usually go to Politoed to take Specs, Kingdra is a bit risky). At first when I found out Manaphy got +3 Tail Glow, I thought CM would be redundant because TG just made Manaphy into a whole new level of awesome. However, after playing around with it a bit more, I returned to using the slower but more steady Calm Mind version (which in my opinion is better than the Tail Glow version). The real catch of Calm Mind Manaphy is that unlike Tail Glow Manaphy, CM Manaphy can destroy stall but simultaneously hold its own against Offense. Tail Glow Manaphy gets eaten up by stuff like Specs Draco Meteor from Latios, Specs Thunderbolt from Jolteon (if you're not running Wacan Berry) or Seed Flare from Shaymin-S, all of which are extremely common in the current metagame. Another catch of Calm Mind Manaphy is that should the opponent not get any lucky crits, Calm Mind Manaphy can PP stall out those annoying Inconsistent Octillerys that use Toxic instead of Energy Ball (a rather painful and annoying way of winning, but who doesn't hate Inconsistent). To the moveset now, Calm Mind and Rest is what makes Manaphy deadly, since with it, he can slowly boost up a wreck face. I chose Boil Over over Surf because the burn rate makes Manaphy an even bigger asshole to try and take down, especially if you're relying on Nattorei (if I get the burn, then Manaphy is setting up on and defeating Nattorei, not the other way around). Ice Beam gets those annoying Dragon-types and Grass-types, particularly Shaymin-S. Speaking about Shaymin-S, you wouldn't believe the number of times I've Ice Beamed on the switch and catching them switching in because I saw them on Team Preview. Learn to use it, peoples.
Team Building Process:
[Manaphy]
Well I actually wanted to start with CM Manaphy. It was something I've always loved using back in 4th gen Ubers.
[Politoed][Manaphy]
To abuse Manaphy, especially CM Manaphy to its full potential, Drizzle support is crucial.
[Kingdra][Kabutops][Politoed][Manaphy]
Since this is going to be a rain team, I might as well abuse it by adding a couple of Swift Swimmers in. Kingdra and Kabutops are two of the most dangerous ones.
[Kirikizan][Birijion][Kingdra][Politoed][Manaphy]
I then realised the team had too many Grass and Electric weaknesses, something like Scarf Skymin would sweep me flat. At thtat time, I also realised that opposing Rain teams and Nattorei would cause a lot problems. So, Kirikizan was added for Skymin protection and Birijion was there to take Electric attacks all the while dealing with opposing Rain and Sand.
[Bronzong][Kirikizan][Birijion][Kingdra][Politoed][Manaphy]
I wanted SR support and a better Skymin and Doryuuzu protection, so I added Bronzong. This is the team that got me to #4.
[Bronzong][Gliscor][Birijion][Kingdra][Politoed][Manaphy]
So after playing around for a bit more on another alt, I decided to fix the weaknesses of the team. I realised there was a pretty major Fighting weakness on this team, so I replaced Kirikizan with SD Acrobat Gliscor.
[Bronzong][Latias][Birijion][Kingdra][Politoed][Manaphy]
After getting reverse swept by my own CM Birijion (well, someone else used it against me), I decided to add Latias to safeguard against Birijion, since she's probably the best counter to the deer ever =D.
[Nattorei][Latias][Birijion][Kingdra][Politoed][Manaphy]
Since Bronzong is weak shit and can't do much to Kingdra, those things started gave me a bit of trouble, so I finally decided to add the ever-valuable Nattorei onto the team.
[Nattorei][Jirachi][Birijion][Kingdra][Politoed][Manaphy]
After seeing how weak I was to Toxicroak, whose usage skyrocketed, I replaced Latias with Jirachi.
Team at a glance:
Team in Detail:
Nattorei (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Def / 196 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
At first I really didn't want to use Nattorei because everyone else was using it, but it won me over in the end. It was possibly the only thing that could set up Stealth Rock on my team and not get murdered by Kingdra. Everyone should know how this thing works now. I used the Ubers spread written by mtr, so Nattorei can take a lot of abuse from both sides of the spectrum. Gyro Ball is Nattorei's most powerful move against lots of Pokemon, while Power Whip nails Pokemon on opposing Rain teams. I needed Stealth Rock in the team somewhere, and since Nattorei is the only one that can learn it, I gave him the pleasure. Since Nattorei hasn't got any really good recovery options (he'd be too damn good if he did), I gave it Leech Seed instead of Spikes to let him heal himself easier. I would really have like to stick Spikes in somewhere, as it would make Kingdra and my other sweepers' lives a lot easier, but such is life.
Just one thing, just because I'm putting Nattorei first doesn't mean he's my lead. I often do not lead with Nattorei (actually I seldom lead with Nattorei), but it really doesn't matter since you get to change your around anyway. My lead is usually Politoed, since I want to get my rain up as soon as possible, but I also lead with Birjion a lot if I look at your team and go "lol you get 6-0ed by Birijion" (more on this in Birijion's description).
Birijion @ Life Orb
Trait: Justice Heart
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Giga Drain
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Although I based this team around Calm Mind Manaphy and rain, Birijion, in my opinion, is my MVP. If you call the sorry mess of our current metagame a metagame, Birijion is very anti-metagame, in my opinion. Right now, we basically have Rain and Sand, along with broken-ass Suspects like Deoxys-A and Shaymin-S. Against the first two, Birijion more often than not wipes the floor with them, and for stuff like Deoxys, Skymin and Darkrai, a bit of prediction (aided by Team Preview) can help you get past them. Even if you can't beat them with Birijion (actually Darkrai loses if Sleep Clause is activated), you've got about 2/3 of the metagame checked, hehe. I've seen so many rain teams in Team Preview, choose Birijion to be my lead, Calm Mind up as they Ice Beam me with Politoed for moot damage and then 6-0 their team since so many rain teams are weak to it. So yeah, back to Calm Mind Birijion, it is one of my favourite Pokemon to use in this metagame. It is virtually my one stop switch-in to any kind of defensive core that hopes to stop my Rain team. Nattorei is cleanly eaten up unless Focus Blast misses too much, Burungeru is chomped up by Giga Drain while Gliscor eats Hidden Power Ice. Blissey is setup fodder for Manaphy in any case, whether it is raining or not. Originally I had Swords Dance Birijion, but after everyone started spamming Gliscor next to Nattorei, so I had enough and decided to stick Calm Mind and Hidden Power Ice on Birijion. So yeah, Birijion cleanly handles everything that gives my team troubles. Even with a rather average Base 90 Special Attack, Birijion is actually still quite powerful after a Calm Mind boost. At +1, it's still OHKOing Scizor with Focus Blast, OHKOing stuff like Manaphy with Giga Drain and chucking a huge 60-70% dent into Latios with Hidden Power Ice. In short, it is strong enough to do what it needs to do. As for the moveset, Calm Mind is for boosting and being pretty resilient on the special side. Giga Drain is used since with its power boost, it is almost as powerful as Energy Ball (I'm not using Grass Knot with all the Manaphy running around) but is able to let Birijion heal its health from Life Orb and other insults. I remember when once Birijion was down at 5%, killed an opposing Politoed and got back to about 50%, and proceeded to sweep the opposing team. Focus Blast is Birijion's powerful yet horrifically inaccurate STAB (Give the thing Aura Sphere, damnit) while Hidden Power Ice lets Birijion take out those annoying Gliscors and Dragon-types (It's a great check to any non-Yache Garchomps).
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Psycho Shock
- Thunder
- Hidden Power Ice / Grass Knot
Jirachi is pretty much my idea of trying to patch the team up of as many problems as possible, in particular the one of Swords Dance Toxicroak. It also helps against Birijion, since Jirachi isn't particularly weak to any of its attacks (Focus Blast doesn't kill, IIRC) while Psycho Shock hits on its weaker physical defense. The moveset is rather simple. Calm Mind allows Jirachi to be rather threatening, while Psycho Shock hits stuff like Blissey while allowing him to play around stuff like Rankurusu. Thunder in the rain while having a 60% paralysis chance is just plain annoying for virtually everything and hits Steel types rather hard. I used Hidden Power Ice in the last spot so Jirachi can catch Outraging Dragons like Garchomp with it, but Grass Knot is also an option to hit Hippowdon and Tyranitar really hard. I got the idea from Theorymon, who was QCing a 4th gen Ubers Jirachi analysis (here), and then played around it and made Jirachi pretty awesome after that.
Kingdra (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Hydro Pump
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
I'm proud of this thing. It went from a no-name to a superstar on rain teams. Before I thought about using this, every Kingdra I saw had Substitute and Dragon Dance. Then I decided to post in the Suspect testing thread and gradually people started to use this (Or LO Special, although there isn't much difference). In short, this thing is ridiculous. It is virtually Specs Latias but with more power (when using a Water-attack) and a truck-load more Speed. I have swept so many teams with Kingdra just spamming Surf alone (which in the rain is basically like spamming Draco Meteor every turn but with no drawbacks). I've actually very rarely use Draco Meteor on Kingdra, seeing as the other three moves do what they need to do anyway. I've seen people try and use Specs Kingdra and stick stuff like Hidden Power Fighting and Ice Beam on it, but seriously, don't bother with that. When you have a Pokemon running around with 538 Speed, near perfect coverage and 475 Special Attack, the simplest set will always be the best. Here's a little stat for everyone. Against Nattorei (One of Kingdra's biggest enemies), whom Hidden Power Fire/Fighting is 2x effective against (since Rain neuters Fire), you get a 140 BP move (70 x 2). However, Hydro Pump is a 135 BP move (120 x 1.5 x 1.5 / 2), almost the same power as Hidden Power Fire/Fighting. I think I'd much rather be locked into a 120 BP double STAB move rather than a 70 BP non-STAB move for a slight drop in power anyday. It's also interesting to note that a NVE double STAB Hydro Pump in the rain does the same amount of damage as a neutral STAB Dragon Pulse, so the only times I would use Dragon Pulse is if I'm revenge-killing a Dragon-type and don't want to risk missing Hydro Pump. So basically, the moveset allows Kingdra to do two things with his two great STABs. Draco Meteor/Hydro Pump allows Kingdra to punch big holes in the opponent's team early- and mid- game while Surf and Dragon Pulse are used clean up late-game. There is no need for anything else. Draco Meteor is Kingdra's "IMMA KILL SOMETHING NOW" move, even if Hydro Pump is stronger, it is still being resisted by less types. It is capable of OHKOing your typical max SpA/max Speed Tail Glow Manaphy, which is quite impressive. Hydro Pump does 35-42% to max HP/max SpD Nattorei, which is quite good because Nattorei can only reliably check you once. Dragon Pulse can 2HKO your Tail Glow Manaphy while sometimes surviving +3 Ice Beam, while Surf is just brainless spam. Only Blissey/Chansey are your surefire counters to Specs Kingdra, really.
Politoed (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 232 HP / 252 SAtk / 24 Spe
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast
- Psychic
Well, Politeod is probably the weakest link on the team, but it's essential since it has Drizzle. That said, Politoed is far from utter crap. I've actually had games where I've swept half a team with Politoed because the opponent was to put it frankly, retarded. When I was thinking of the moveset, I wanted Politoed to last a while, so it needed to be bulky. However, I also wanted to hit reasonably hard, as I didn't want Politoed to be utter setup fodder. So, I have Politoed the best of both worlds, max HP and max Special Attack. With a Modest nature and max Special Attack, Politoed actually hits surprisingly hard, capable of 2HKOing some not-so-Specially-Defensive Wobbuffets, which is quite impressive in my eyes (Wobb can survive a Specs rain-boosted Hydro Pump from Timid Palkia, so it is rather bulky). I really wanted to run an all out attacking set like I did with my Abomasnow team earlier, but then I played against Inconsistent and thought it was bullshit so Haze had to be in here to temporarily wipe out Inconsistent boosts. I have played with Perish Song and I like it more, but Haze does have the cool thing of annoying DD Kingdra and things like that while having a lot higher PP. The other three attacks are simple. Surf does quite a decent chunk to anything that doesn't resist it, Ice Beam nails Skymin on the switch-in (especially if I see it on Team Preview) and Focus Blast at least gives Politoed an answer to Nattorei and can do a truck-ton to Tyranitar. I changed Haze and Perish Song to Psychic after Moody was banned so Politoed wasn't Toxicroak setup fodder. 24 Speed EVs outspeed max Speed Wobbuffet.
Manaphy @ Leftovers
Trait: Hydration
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Boil Over
- Ice Beam
- Rest
This was supposed to be the star of the team, but like a lot of my teams, Pokemon that I want to be the MVP don't always become the MVP (the honour goes to Birijion, heh). Calm Mind Manaphy is possibly one of the hardest things to take down in the rain. With a Calm Mind boost, Manaphy can take a Seed Flare from LO Skymin and kill it with Ice Beam in return. There is virtually nothing that can OHKO Manaphy after a Calm Mind. Manaphy can take stuff like Thunderbolt from Latios after a Calm Mind and set up in its face while the opponent watches helplessly. The most common way I have seen people try and stop Manaphy is by tricking it a Choice item with their Latios or something, which is hardly reliable (I usually go to Politoed to take Specs, Kingdra is a bit risky). At first when I found out Manaphy got +3 Tail Glow, I thought CM would be redundant because TG just made Manaphy into a whole new level of awesome. However, after playing around with it a bit more, I returned to using the slower but more steady Calm Mind version (which in my opinion is better than the Tail Glow version). The real catch of Calm Mind Manaphy is that unlike Tail Glow Manaphy, CM Manaphy can destroy stall but simultaneously hold its own against Offense. Tail Glow Manaphy gets eaten up by stuff like Specs Draco Meteor from Latios, Specs Thunderbolt from Jolteon (if you're not running Wacan Berry) or Seed Flare from Shaymin-S, all of which are extremely common in the current metagame. Another catch of Calm Mind Manaphy is that should the opponent not get any lucky crits, Calm Mind Manaphy can PP stall out those annoying Inconsistent Octillerys that use Toxic instead of Energy Ball (a rather painful and annoying way of winning, but who doesn't hate Inconsistent). To the moveset now, Calm Mind and Rest is what makes Manaphy deadly, since with it, he can slowly boost up a wreck face. I chose Boil Over over Surf because the burn rate makes Manaphy an even bigger asshole to try and take down, especially if you're relying on Nattorei (if I get the burn, then Manaphy is setting up on and defeating Nattorei, not the other way around). Ice Beam gets those annoying Dragon-types and Grass-types, particularly Shaymin-S. Speaking about Shaymin-S, you wouldn't believe the number of times I've Ice Beamed on the switch and catching them switching in because I saw them on Team Preview. Learn to use it, peoples.
Team Building Process:
[Manaphy]
Well I actually wanted to start with CM Manaphy. It was something I've always loved using back in 4th gen Ubers.
[Politoed][Manaphy]
To abuse Manaphy, especially CM Manaphy to its full potential, Drizzle support is crucial.
[Kingdra][Kabutops][Politoed][Manaphy]
Since this is going to be a rain team, I might as well abuse it by adding a couple of Swift Swimmers in. Kingdra and Kabutops are two of the most dangerous ones.
[Kirikizan][Birijion][Kingdra][Politoed][Manaphy]
I then realised the team had too many Grass and Electric weaknesses, something like Scarf Skymin would sweep me flat. At thtat time, I also realised that opposing Rain teams and Nattorei would cause a lot problems. So, Kirikizan was added for Skymin protection and Birijion was there to take Electric attacks all the while dealing with opposing Rain and Sand.
[Bronzong][Kirikizan][Birijion][Kingdra][Politoed][Manaphy]
I wanted SR support and a better Skymin and Doryuuzu protection, so I added Bronzong. This is the team that got me to #4.
[Bronzong][Gliscor][Birijion][Kingdra][Politoed][Manaphy]
So after playing around for a bit more on another alt, I decided to fix the weaknesses of the team. I realised there was a pretty major Fighting weakness on this team, so I replaced Kirikizan with SD Acrobat Gliscor.
[Bronzong][Latias][Birijion][Kingdra][Politoed][Manaphy]
After getting reverse swept by my own CM Birijion (well, someone else used it against me), I decided to add Latias to safeguard against Birijion, since she's probably the best counter to the deer ever =D.
[Nattorei][Latias][Birijion][Kingdra][Politoed][Manaphy]
Since Bronzong is weak shit and can't do much to Kingdra, those things started gave me a bit of trouble, so I finally decided to add the ever-valuable Nattorei onto the team.
[Nattorei][Jirachi][Birijion][Kingdra][Politoed][Manaphy]
After seeing how weak I was to Toxicroak, whose usage skyrocketed, I replaced Latias with Jirachi.