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Competitive Doubles/VGC Rain Team

ZACH ATTACK

ZACH ATTACK

Metagame Hater.
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This is an idea I had for a rain team about a year ago, but just recently put into use. It has worked OK in the Battle Subway, getting my longest ever Super Double winning streak. Since this team was made without RNG'ing, some of the natures/IVs are not what they are listed here as, but are close enough that it shouldn't matter.


MakeItRain (Politoed) (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 200 HP / 252 SAtk / 56 SDef
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Protect

A somewhat standard Politoed set with Toxic to melt HP and Sitrus to live some extra hits. I have the EVs the way they are to make it actually capable of doing damage. Other than that, Protect to stall/scout, Ice Beam for coverage, Hydro Pump for STAB. It makes it rain, by the way.


Livolt (Manectric) (F) @ Electric Gem
Trait: Lightningrod
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Thunder
- Light Screen
- Hidden Power [Water]

That's right. Manectric. It really screws with people who try to nail Politoed or Tornadus with an Electric move, while getting a boost itself thanks to Lightningrod. Its the best thing that can have it, IMO. That Electric Gem Thunder packs a major punch, while Thunder Wave is a good thing to hit Pokemon that resist Thunder with. Light Screen is just good support, mainly for blocking Grass attacks on Politoed. I haven't tested HP Water yet, but if someone could RNG one with it for me, I'd be grateful (off-topic, but hey. I need one).


Punisher (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 126 Def / 126 SDef
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Protect
- Leech Seed

When I first heard people talk about Ferrothorn on Rain teams, I was like WHAT? I still don't get how it works, but it does. I guess it's because its main weakness of Fire gets doused. Pretty straightforward here, Leftovers and Leech Seed for contiuous recovery, Power Whip and Gyro Ball for powerful STAB moves, and Protect to stall while I regain HP.


Aeolus (Tornadus) (M) @ Charti Berry
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hurricane
- Taunt
- Grass Knot
- Swagger

There's a reason this Tornadus doesn't have Tailwind, and that's called Ferrothorn. It can still function pretty well without it though. Hurricane is massively powerful and it hits reliably in the rain. Taunt is just to make the shenanigans stop before they start, Swagger is to hopefully keep everything I have alive while they slowly kill themselves, and Focus Blast should be interesting against its Rock weakness.


Kingdra (M) @ (No Item)
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect

Obviously, Kingdra needs an item. I don't know what to give it since Dragonite is holding Life Orb. Hydro Pump and Dragon Pulse are for massive STAB damage, Ice Beam is for the general coverage it gives, and Protect is Protect. EVs allow for outspeeding and for the most damage possible.


Big Kahuna (Dragonite) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Dragon Pulse
- Thunder
- Hurricane
- Superpower

It's Quiet because it's Mixed and I don't want to lower any Defenses with a nature. And yes, it can learn Superpower through tutors. Dragon Pulse is for STAB, Thunder and Hurricane (STAB also) are for dealing massive damage while taking advantage of the weather. Life Orb is to help out its somewhat low Sp.Atk stat. Superpower is there to kill Ice types, which it would be dealing with only when it had to (Ferrothorn would be the one that would do this normally). Thinking about taking this out for a Toxicroak with Dry Skin.

As far as threats go to the whole team, I'm not sure yet because only the 1st 4 have been used in testing and not with those exact movesets. I'm posting this here to see if it's viable enough to spend time making the team. Thanks!

CHANGES:
7/31/12-Changed Dragonite's Ability to Inner Focus from Multiscale
8/1/12-Chaged Swagger to Toxic on Politoed, Changed Politoed's EVs to make it more Specially Defensive
8/2/12-Changed Politoed, Tornadus, and Ferrothorns' movesets, Dropped Floatzel and added Kingdra

Removed Pokemon:

Code: 
Ninjoe (Floatzel) (M) @ Expert Belt
 Trait: Swift Swim
 EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
 Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
 - Waterfall
 - Crunch
 - Ice Punch
 - Brick Break
 
The interesting thing here is even with an Adamant Nature and zero Speed EVs its Speed is 135 and with Swift Swim it hits 270.

I need to know how to make Spoiler tags so I can put the removed members in them.
 
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It seems like it would overwhelmed by Trick Room +Weather Teams.
 
Not to ruin all your plans, but methinks that it may be better to run Inner Focus on Dragonite, since Multiscale won't be of much use to it with Life Orb and no healing move. Also, since it's doubles, the opponent could focus D-Nite and get an Ice move through Multiscale anyways.
 
Rockman.EXE said:
Not to ruin all your plans, but methinks that it may be better to run Inner Focus on Dragonite, since Multiscale won't be of much use to it with Life Orb and no healing move. Also, since it's doubles, the opponent could focus D-Nite and get an Ice move through Multiscale anyways.
Click to expand...

You're right. That was a derp on my part you could say and that's definitely not going to ruin all my plans. Thanks for the input.
 
I enjoy looking at other Rain Teams since I also have one as well :D

My first thing is the Politeod. You have given him 252 HP but no Defense EV's along with it. I always see pokemon in general that when they Go HP EV's they tend to have some Defense or Spec D EV's in Place in somehow. You could always take out some of the HP and put it toward Defense since Politoed in General has Decent Spec D. That way you could take hits from Physical moves better. Leftovers is always a good thing on Politeod as well.

I tend to use Jolteon but Manetric is still pretty good. A Gastrodon in place of him though could do wonders thanks to its Immunity To Electric Type attacks and Storm Drain will boost your Special Attack if you ever get hit by water.

Thats about all I have to say. Looks like a pretty good Doubles Team!
 
Professor Jacel said:
I enjoy looking at other Rain Teams since I also have one as well :D

My first thing is the Politeod. You have given him 252 HP but no Defense EV's along with it. I always see pokemon in general that when they Go HP EV's they tend to have some Defense or Spec D EV's in Place in somehow. You could always take out some of the HP and put it toward Defense since Politoed in General has Decent Spec D. That way you could take hits from Physical moves better. Leftovers is always a good thing on Politeod as well.

I tend to use Jolteon but Manetric is still pretty good. A Gastrodon in place of him though could do wonders thanks to its Immunity To Electric Type attacks and Storm Drain will boost your Special Attack if you ever get hit by water.

Thats about all I have to say. Looks like a pretty good Doubles Team!
Click to expand...

The Politoed has no Def./Sp.Def. EVs since its Sp.Atk. is pretty bad and I wanted it to do some decent damage in case it has to. I understand why Jolteon would be good here (it's faster than Manectric by a good deal, and has 6 more max Sp.Atk.) but the whole point of Manectric is to make Politoed essentially have only one weakness. Gastrodon would be useful I were to add a Trick Room strategy in this, but it would also force me to change Politoed's STAB move to Surf or no STAB move at all. That would be a great addition if this was for Singles I think. I think I will look into switching some EVs on Politoed for the sake of at least trying it.
 
This looks a LOT like my VGC rain team and I have used ALL of these pokemon at some point in my team`s revision

politoed needs sp.Def Evs.

only you have no rain stalls (after a lot of revision I have 3 now XD)

ferrothorn`s moveset is terrible. a proper ferro-thorn-in-the-side goes more like this:

Leech seed
ingrain
protect-curse
power whip-gyro ball

next get rid of dragonite. I don`t care what you think about pseudo legendaries the double ice weakness makes it impossible to work with in doubles.

I recommend either toxicroak, accelgor, ludicolo, or kingdra

the first 3 make great stalls (accelgor is mainly for singles but it`s okay in doubles too) and kingdra makes a nice sweeper (plus rain boosted 130 power brine whan opponent is less than half hp)

as I mentioned before You need a rainstall and a sweeper if you want too stand a chance at VGC. I have used manectric before (and I know how effective he can be) but it`s defenses lack. once koed your team won`t be able to take an electric type.

floatzel isn`t really my choice of swift swimmer if you want to do damage I`d go with kabutops or kngdra.
 
ShadowBlaziken said:
This looks a LOT like my VGC rain team and I have used ALL of these pokemon at some point in my team`s revision

politoed needs sp.Def Evs.

only you have no rain stalls (after a lot of revision I have 3 now XD)

ferrothorn`s moveset is terrible. a proper ferro-thorn-in-the-side goes more like this:

Leech seed
ingrain
protect-curse
power whip-gyro ball

next get rid of dragonite. I don`t care what you think about pseudo legendaries the double ice weakness makes it impossible to work with in doubles.

I recommend either toxicroak, accelgor, ludicolo, or kingdra

the first 3 make great stalls (accelgor is mainly for singles but it`s okay in doubles too) and kingdra makes a nice sweeper (plus rain boosted 130 power brine whan opponent is less than half hp)

as I mentioned before You need a rainstall and a sweeper if you want too stand a chance at VGC. I have used manectric before (and I know how effective he can be) but it`s defenses lack. once koed your team won`t be able to take an electric type.

floatzel isn`t really my choice of swift swimmer if you want to do damage I`d go with kabutops or kngdra.
Click to expand...

First: I will test out some sp.def EVs on Politoed, I just don't have time yet.
Second: What is a rain stall?
Third: That Ferrothorn set actually works pretty well from my testing, but I also know the set you recommended works too, as I have used it before.
Fourth: I could very well drop Dragonite for one of those, preferrably Kingdra.
Fifth: I know what I'm doing at VGC. Ferrothorn should be able to take electric moves well enough.

The main problem is Floatzel is one of the few good physical Swift Swimmers. Kabutops is ok, but if you ask me it has far too many weaknesses. I could add a Kingdra in place of Floatzel and a Toxicroak in place of Dragonite.
 
a rainstall is anything that heals to an irritating extent using rain

Eg:
toxicroak w. dry skin
drain punch

ludicolo w. rain dish
giga drain
leech seed

accelgor w hydration
rest

these pokemon usually hold HP restoring items like black sludge or leftovers
 
@ShadowBlaziken; Ok. I like Toxicroak there, I think I'll give one a try sometime soon.

Possible Changes:

Toxicroak @ Black Sludge
Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / IDK yet
Nature: Adamant/Jolly
Dry Skin
- Sucker Punch
- Drain Punch
- Poison Jab
- Protect

I noticed one thing: Even with Jolly and 252 Spd, it only gets 150 which isn't going to outspeed much that threatens it, so I thought Sucker Punch would help there.

Kingra @ Life Orb
Swift Swim
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Nature: Modest
- Ice Beam
- Muddy Water
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect

Here's another Speed dilemma. It could have 212 Spd w/ Modest nature and only 4 EVs, but It could have over 270 with Modest and 252 EVs and it's upwards to 300 from there with Timid as long as Swift Swim is up.
 
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yes sucker punch is important it can ohko a weak psychic / ghost type if you have high attack but you might want substitute instead of protect.
 
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