Make it rain

[Katzali]

Hello. I'm kind of new to competitive battling, but I've been lurking here in smogon for a while and I decided to make a rain team. I chose rain because I love rain in real life, and it's great for use in battle.

Team-building Process:

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Politoed is obvious first choice cause drizzle.

Toxicroak was next because I always liked it and it functions amazing in rain.

I chose Dragonite because I wanted a strong mixed sweeper and Dragonite works great as a mixed sweeper under the rain.

Next is Scizor. I needed something that could revenge kill, and also make sure I had a reliable physical attacker. Scizor is an amazing pokemon and the fact that rain helps lower it's single weakness makes it perfect for rain.

Jolteon was next as another revenge killer and a great late-game sweeper. It's huge speed makes it perfect for this job.

Finally, Azumarill. At this point I wanted another choice user, and a physical one. Also, I noticed my lack of water types on a rain team, which seemed kind of stupid. Azumarill fit the bill perfectly.

Detailed team explanation:

Politoed:

Politoed (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Ice Beam
- Encore

I went with pretty much the standard smogon defensive set, only changing the nature to calm. I chose defensive to keep Politoed around as long as possible, to help win weather wars. Scald is mandatory STAB plus a chance to burn is really helpful. Toxic is for status (obviously), Encore works great to help bother hazard setters, and Ice Beam helps hits dragons hard.


Toxicroak:

Toxicroak (M) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 244 HP / 132 Atk / 120 SDef / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
- Bulk Up
- Substitute

This is another standard Smogon set, this time the Bulk Up set. Toxicroak works great under rain. Bulk Up is obvious since it's a bulk up set. Substitute has helped me a lot and is very useful. Drain Punch is great STAB and great for healing. Between Drain Punch, Black Sludge, and Dry Skin, Toxicroak heals loads of HP. Finally, Ice Punch is a great coverage move.


Dragonite:

Dragonite (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 76 Atk / 252 SAtk / 180 Spd
Mild Nature
- Hurricane
- Thunder
- Aqua Tail
- ExtremeSpeed

Dragonite is great and lands me loads of KO's. This is the standard Rain Mixed Sweeper set from Smogon (Gee, aren't I original), and is really good. I chose Aqua Tail over Superpower because I wanted to abuse the rain, and Extreme Speed as my last move because it makes a great finishing move.


Scizor:

Scizor (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bug Bite
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower

Surprise Surprise, another Smogon set. This is the offensive Scizor set, just with Leftovers instead of Life Orb for longevity. Swords Dance is obvious, Bug Bite is a really strong Bug STAB with Technician, Bullet Punch is also a great Steel STAB that is great for revenge killing, and Superpower is a really strong and helpful move.


Jolteon:

Jolteon (F) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- Signal Beam
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]

This is another self explanatory Smogon Set. Choice Specs Jolteon is seriously powerful, with amazing speed and special attack plus great coverage. Thunder is for obligatory rain abusal, Volt Switch for keeping momentum, Hidden Power Ice and Signal Beam for Coverage.


Azumarill:

Azumarill (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Huge Power
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Superpower
- Ice Punch

The sixth, and final, standard Smogon set. Azumarill makes a great late game sweeper and a good rain abuser. With Huge Power and a Choice Band its attack reaches a huge 654, making it incredibly powerful. Aqua Jet is a good revenge killing tool, Waterfall makes a great STAB move. Superepower and Ice Punch finish off the set perfectly, giving it great coverage.


Thanks for reading, please give me feedback because I feel like I need it.

Threats: So far I've had a lot of threats with getting walled by Gastrodon. I haven't had a lot of battles, but I'm sure you guys will be able to identify potential threats.

 

[Neliel]

Hi,

I think your team relies too much on Politoed to beat sunny teams. In fact, ninetales itself is difficult to play around, since now the most of the set runs will o wisp or/and sunny day to deal with Politoed switch ins. Once there is sun up and you have politoed in, you cant do much, since your dragon cant really touch it, and jolteon wont like taking flametrower (and it cant do much in return either, thunder only has 50% accuracy).
The other problem i see is jellicent: it walls basically half of your team, toxicroak, azumarill, politoed, scizor. Dragonite can thunder it but it has to be noticed that being stealth rock weak its not difficult to were it down, also jellicent is choiced and its setup fodder for ground types, which are commonly payred with jellicent.

What you can do to fix these problems is to try out a different spread and moves on Politoed.
First of all i think you can try out refresh over ice beam, the reason why i chosed ice beam is that encore already make you less setup fodder for dragons. Refresh here not only helps to deal with wow tales, but also with Jellicent and other scald war with tentacruel. In order to beat jellicent, you only need some more speed point to be sure to outspeed and toxic it, so that you can atleast stall it out with toxicroak. The set you should use is this:

Hide

Politoed @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 Spd
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Encore
- Scald
- Refresh
- Toxic

I dont have the usage of jellicent to see how much evs speed it uses but for me it never failed.

Now, i would like to do some little changes. I would strongly advice you to put life orb instead of leftovers into scizor; this will make your bullet punch much stronger, revenge killing better dragons as well as being able to ko everything that doesnt resist it after a sword dance. Life orb also comes in handy to lure Skarmory, that your toxicroak would love to have dead. In my experience bug bite also did nothing, it doesnt add anything to your coverage, and everything that bug bite kills superpower can do it as well, so i think you can try different things here. If you are still worried about jellicent, Pursuit is your best choice. It lets you kill jellicent after a sword dance and life orb, as well as being able to trap some lati@s or gengar.

As for your dragonite, i would suggest you earthquake instead of aqua tail. This team really has problems against specially defensive jirachi, being able to paralize and hax your whole team, so since you have hurricane on dragonite they will probably stay in, and thats the moment to hit it with earthquake. It doesnt ko probably, but you will weaken it enough to revenge kill it with something else.

As last thing, i have a suggestion which is somehow gimmick, but it will probably help you to beat those sun teams i previously mentioned. You can try Rain dance Life orb Jolteon over your specs set. It doesnt lose too much power, but it has the ability to bring rain back helping your weather war. The most replaceable move here is signal beam, so i think you can put rain dance over it.
Thats it, gl with your team

 

[BKC]

your descriptions are currently in violation of rmt rules. if you expand them, pm me and i'll unlock this thread!