Rain on Parades (OU Rain Dance Team)

[SlyShady]

Key: Changes / Removals

Azelf @ Damp Rock
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP, 4 Attack, 252 Speed
Nature: Jolly (+ Speed, - Special Attack)
- Stealth Rock
- Rain Dance
- Taunt
- Explosion

Not much to explain with this one. Azelf is great at setting up Stealth Rock. Taunt combined with Azelf’s speed prevents slower lead Pokémon from setting up for their team. Rain Dance is also easily set up, and after that, it’s free to Explode to allow a Swift Swimming sweeper to come in while probably taking out an enemy Pokémon.

Kingdra @ Leftovers
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Nature: Adamant (+ Attack, - Special Attack)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Outrage
- Rain Dance

This is the core Pokémon of the team. It’s insane in the rain. With doubled speed BEFORE Dragon Dance, Kingdra is a very effective sweeper. With its good defenses and many resistances, it can set up a number of Dragon Dances and just go to town on the enemy team. Against some particularly ill-equipped teams, this one Pokémon can sweep the entire team.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP, 252 Attack, 8 Speed
Nature: Adamant (+ Attack, - Special Attack)
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- U-Turn
- Rain Dance

Scizor is mainly a Revenge Killer and for Rain Dance set up. Bullet Punch and U-Turn are in for obvious reasons. X-Scissor (changed to Bug Bite) is for situations where switching out isn’t necessary/advisable. Rain Dance is for continuing the essential rain should the need arise. And as what may be the best bonus ever, Rain Dance weakens the only type Scizor really fears.

Rotom-W @ Damp Rock
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed, 4 Defense
Nature: Modest (+ Special Attack, - Attack)
- Rain Dance
- Hydro Pump
- Thunder
- Shadow Ball

Rotom-W can be a MONSTER in the rain. In the rain, Thunder gets perfect accuracy and Hydro Pump gets boosted power. Shadow Ball is a STAB coverage move. Rain Dance is included, again, for obvious reasons. This is mostly included to deal with Pokemon that the others can’t deal with.

Kabutops @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant (+ Attack, - Special Attack)
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Waterfall
- Low Kick

This is my Physical Swift Swimming sweeper (try saying that five times fast). I figured that since I have 4 other Pokémon on the team that have Rain Dance, it would be safe to put in a move like Low Kick.

Toxicroak @ Black Sludge
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Nature: Adamant (+ Attack, - Special Attack)
- Cross Chop
- Sucker Punch
- Poison Jab
- Stone Edge

With Dry Skin and Black Sludge, Toxicroak gains a TON of HP per turn and can dish out some nice physical damage against the Pokémon Kabutops can’t handle on its own.

Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 60 HP, 252 Attack, 196 Speed
Nature: Modest (+Special Attack, - Attack)
- Surf
- Grass Knot
- Ice Beam
- Rain Dance

My Special Swift Swim Sweeper (alliteration is AWESOME). Replacing Toxicroak. It gets pretty nice coverage in OU. Not much else to say besides that.

 

[azntrumpet]

I really don't think you should be so reliant on Rain as without it, you have no Pokemon outside of the choiced Scizor that function properly. ScarfTar switches into your two main Rain Dancers (Azelf and Rotom) with no threat to itself, negates your Rain and Pursuits you to hell.

You don't need Rain Dance on every single Pokemon, especially not Scizor, who would rather have Superpower. In addition, Scizor would want Bug Bite over X-Scissor if you must use a second Bug attack as Technician boosts its power to 90.

Toxicroak seems pretty replaceable as the least effective Rain abuser, and should probably be replaced with a reliable Rain Dancer (Zapdos, Bronzong) or another Swift Swimmer (Ludlicolo). If you decide to go with another Rain Dancer, you might want to include Ludlicolo over Rotom. Another option for your horrible ScarfTar weakness is a CB Dugtrio to trap and kill it with EQ. This will also help with the Thunder Waves and Bolts that are so often thrown at a Rain Dance team.

 

[SlyShady]

Thanks for your comment! You're right, there is a major vulnerability to Tyranitar. I'm not too afraid of it though. Azelf has Explosion to take care of it if the opportunity arises (or at least weaken it severely for an easy kill by my Swift Swimmers which can easily outspeed any Tyranitar), and Rotom-W can switch to Scizor which can hit it with a priority Technician Bullet Punch (Rotom might get killed on the switch with Pursuit but it's better than my entire team getting absolutely destroyed because of no RD support).

I definitely will go with Bug Bite on Scizor instead of X-Scissor. Thanks a lot for that suggestion.

The thing about having Rain Dance on nearly all my pokemon is that since the team completely relies on RD, it's pretty important to have multiple Pokemon to use it. Smogon's guide on Rain Dance says there's no such thing as having too many Pokemon with Rain Dance on a Rain Dance centered team, and I would definitely agree with that.

And lastly, Toxicroak has served this team well on Shoddy, so I probably won't drop it any time soon (and it still functions decently outside of rain, just not as well). I considered Ludicolo, but it seemed like it would basically be like an underpowered special Kingdra with the ability to take down Water types relatively easily, something which Rotom-W can also do, but with the chance of 30% paralysis on a 100% accurate Thunder. I suppose this opens up a weakness to Swampert, but I still haven't encountered a single one on Shoddy, so it's not a very important threat in my opinion.

 

[jc104]

Right. This looks like a fairly good rain dance team, although a few simple changes could improve it considerably. I am going to go through each team member seperately:

Azelf - perfect - don't change it.

Kingdra - Kingdra will rarely be able to set up both Rain Dance and Dragon Dance, and you should not waste precious turns setting up anyway. I think that Kingdra benefits most from a mixed set on a rain dance team, as it can tear through walls, opening up a sweep for another swift swimmer. Go for something like Rain Dance/Waterfall/Draco Meteor/Hydro Pump. I would highly consider more speed than it has in the smogon analysis, since Kingdra is the fastest Swift Swimmer you have, and can use it to take out threats like Scarf Latias. It should also use a Life Orb, to make the most of the rain turns.

Scizor - should use this spread - 248 hp 252 atk 8spe , or even a more specially bulky spread. Speed is not really necessary given that Scizor can bypass it with Bullet punch, and a slow U-turn is often more useful than a fast one, getting a frail sweeper like Kabutops in for free. You should also use Superpower over Bug Bite, since you already have a powerful Bug move that is superiort in most situations in that it does not leave you as setup bait. Superpower hits Blissey and steels really hard.
You should also consider another rain support set, given that you should never be letting sweepers set up anyway.

Kabutops - Run Aqua Jet over Low Kick. This is vital for taking out faster opponents and other priority move users. Low Kick hits its targets similarly hard as Waterfall in the rain.

Toxicroak - remove. Despite increased recovery in rain, its defenses are still poor and it will be easily KOed by the opponent. Without any sort of boost neither is it remotely powerful. Black Sludge is discouraged by the way, since a trick user can give it to one of your other pokemon. I would suggest a Ludicolo instead, since Ludicolo is one of the most threatening Swift Swim sweepers, tearing through opposing water-types with STAB Grass Knot/Energy Ball (energy ball recommended at current on Shoddy due a to a glitch that makes grass knot ignore LO boosts.) The argument regarding it being a worse Special Kingdra is irrelevant - if anything, the Kingdra should be opening up the walls for you to sweep with Ludicolo. Having similar attackers works entirely to your advantage.

Good luck

 

[SlyShady]

I guess I should have mentioned that this isn't for Shoddy. It's for battling one of my friends who's just as into competitive Pokemon battling as I am. I just use Shoddy to play test my teams heavily before actually raising them since it takes forever, and I want to be sure of it before doing anything. That's why the RD team is so appealing. He'll NEVER see it coming.

I definitely will switch Low Kick for Aqua Jet, and the Scizor EV change sounds good too.

I'll test out Ludicolo. I guess Toxicroak is unnecessary since Kingdra and Kabutops have the physical side covered, but Rotom-W is my only special attacker. I'll edit in my changes. Thanks!