Hurricane Razza

[Razza]

At the end of round 4 there was a lot of clamour for the banning of drizzle and other weather abilities. Seeing as rain is one of my favourite playstyles I decided to make a new rain team for round 5, as drizzles time in ou could be drawing to a close.
The team is probably the best team I have ever made and in the early stages of round 5 took me to 10th on the smogon leaderboard, Now i hang around the top 100 or so at around 1350 points and im happy with that although i would love to be able to make the leap to voting reqs which is why i have brought this team here to get some help with it.​

The Team:​

Politoed (F) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 255 HP / 255 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Focus Blast
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Perish Song/Toxic​

This guy is my toed, and he is essential to the team as he brings rain! I have decided to go specs for the max power. A lot of people tend to play their weather lead very conservatively lest they lose the weather war, they tend to run bulky sets with protect to max the lifespan of their politoed. I find this stupid because it means you are really playing the battle with 5 and a half mons, and politoed isn’t the best poke, so i have decided to make the most of him as some teams simply get overwhelmed by the awesome power of specs hydro pump allowing me to take an early lead and gain some momentum. The moveset is quite simple, hydro pump is for destroying stuff, and it ohko’s annoyances such as conkeldurr, machamp and sometimes even bronzing. Focus blast if for ferrothorn who is a real pain to kill in the rain and for tyranitar although it tends to miss a lot. Some players may leave their tyranitar in against politoed as they are slower and get sand up and assume i am a bulky set only to be ohkoed by focus blast and have lost their weather inducer and tend to ragequit. Ice beam is a nice choice as politoed can take a specs draco meteor from latios or a thunderbolt from non life orb thundurus and ohko back.​

Changes? I don’t really want to get rid of specs, but i could really use some help with ev’s in particular how much speed i should run whilst retaining bulk.​

Scizor (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Technician
EVs: 232 HP / 255 Atk / 20 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Bug Bite​

I tend to run this guy on most of my teams just because he is amazing. I am running a swords dance set, and with rain dulling my fire weakness to make scizor quite difficult to kill, although boosted water moves in the rain can hurt a lot. I have superpower over roost for a number of reasons.​

1. this guy is my answer to skarmbliss who can give this team hell, as a +2 superpower does around 60 percent to skarmoury who wont be roosting off the damage for fear of being koed by a supereffective follow up, and shreds blissey up
2. +2 superpower ohko’s ferrothorn who can be annoyingly hard to kill in the rain.
3. Most people tend to bring in heatran to force out scizor as fire blast will ohko even in the rain, but most good players tend to overpredict and sr on what they think will be a switch only to be ohkoed
4. It allows me to beat magnezone who aren’t running sub​

Scizor is a key member of the team being my only dragon resist, he can beat a lot of top threats like latias, reuniclus, tyranitar and terrakion and can revenge well with priority​

Changes? Possibly shed shell as i tend to not pay much attention to team preview and may forget the opponent has a magnezone​

Tornadus (F) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rain Dance/ u-turn
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- Grass Knot​

I have run a few pokes in this slot, originally this was a toxicroak, then it was a thundurus and i finally settled on specs tornadus. All I can say is wow, hurricane is extremely powerful ohkoing scizor, salamence and basically anything that doesn’t resist or have a bit of bulk. This guy easily takes care of virizion who can do a lot of damage to rain teams and celebi as well. Base 111 speed means i outrun gengar and the lati twins which is quite important. Tornadus also serves another role in that he is a backup weather inducer with priority rain dance, as after politoed has died most opponents will sack their weather inducer thinking they have won the weather war. Focus blast is here to hit the tyranitar switchin although it always misses, and things like magnezone. I am also running grass know which will do 50 percent or more to tyranitar, and it does a lot of damage to gastrodon and quagsire. With specs this guy is a killing machine and is can simply spam hurricane and just fuck everything up, the only thing that can spoil this guys party is spdef jirachi who is really very annoying to face in general.​

Changes? dunno​

Mr Sparkle (Rotom-W) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 124 HP / 252 SAtk / 132 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderwave
- Thunder
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split​

This guy is my main sweeper and he doesn’t disappoint. He has 2 powerful 120bp stabs to work with, hydro pump rips up a lot of stuff ohkoing scizor who can be hard to kill in the rain, and thunder for its perfect accuracy. Rotom with scizor is another one of the teams key players, beating things like gliscor, tyranitar, gyarados and many more. I have replaced will o wisp with thunderwave which is great for crippling the latios switch in which always happens. I rarely use pain split and I am thinking of possibly hidden power ice for dragons, or signal beam for celebi and latios. Theres not much I can say about this guy, he just powers through stuff in the rain​

Changes? Maybe hidden power ice or signal beam? I have also considered reflect/light screen over pain split

Donphan (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Atk / 28 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin​

This guy may be UU but he fills a lot of important roles on this team. He acts as a spinner (great for tornadus and dragonite) and a stealth rocker, he provides a nice electric immunity and can ruin the opponents momentum by switching in on a choiced rotom-w volt switch, he also kills dragons with ice shard and can do some damage to thundurus, finally he has a strong earthquake to hit ninetales and tyranitar hard, and for spdef jirachi.Sturdy is a nice ability allowing me to take a hit and fight back.
I am running adamant and a lot of attack evs so he can have more of an offensive presence with a strong stab eq off 120 base attack which surprises some people.Most games this guy will only get rocks up and then i will sack him, but even if all he does is spin and get rocks up I am happy as he provides invaluable team support and patches up a few of my weaknesses.​

Changes? ​

Dragonite (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 64 HP / 252 Atk / 192 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- ExtremeSpeed
- Brick Break
The big daddy is in the house. I put this guy on the team just for his sheer power. Cb outrage it very powerful even 2hkoing gliscor. A lot of the time i will lead with this guy especially if i see a rotom-w on team preview as they tend to lead against rain teams, yet i am running enough speed to outrun the average rotom-w and ohko with outrage removing an otherwise dangerous threat to the team. Earthquake is mostly for steel types like jirachi, and fire punch will ohko ferrothorn in clear skies and ohko most scizor in rain. A lot of people think that i wont be running fire punch because this is a rain team and send out their ferrothorn, which i can 2hko. Extremespeed is a great move with +2 priority it can clean up weakened mons and also rapes sun teams as they tend not to run very many steels and so this guy 2hko’s most of their team with extremespeed. Multiscale is also a great ability meaning i am rarely ohkoed except by powerful stab se moves. This guy is a great way to handle sun teams, do a lot of damage , provide some nice resistances and has powerful priority.​

Changes? Im pretty happy with this guy​

Threats

this guy is big trouble and always puts dents in this team, scizor takes over 60% from draco meteor and everyone else takes even more damage, seriously why isnt it even suspect its ridiculously overpowered :S

Conclusion, I love rain teams and I love this team, I would really appreciate a rate and i will try out all of your suggestions
Thanks, have a nice day :)​

 

[~helios~]

Why would you use rain dance on tornadus? It has choice specs and will be locked in it. I know it´s in case politoed dies... but when you switch out and send another pokemon, you will only have 3 turns of rain left. In my opinion, I would use Rain Dance > WoW in Rotom.
Nice team btw, good luck

 

[Darkaxis]

if u are running tornaudus with specs and rain dance switch specs for damp rock to make rain durable cuz´u do not wnat to get locked into rain dance

 

[Razza]

Hey guys thanks for the rates.
About tornadus, I'm rarely ever using rain dance, I don't mind having to switch out due to being locked into raindance as when im using it my politoed is dead as is the opponents ninetales but sun is up, by using rain dance I can swing the game right round in my favour by taking away his sweepers advantages and giving mine a turn or two. I'm willing to sacrifice a turn or even tornadus just to switch the weather back around once both inducers are dead.

 

[Boondocker]

I can tell alot of thought was put into this team. Its good the way it is but i have a couple of suggestions to make it better. First of all you only have 1 poke to take specs meteors and outrages and he has no recovery. I know you like rapid spin but i feel that bronzong is an overall better poke then donphan is. He becomes extremely hard to ko in rain while providing insurence vs troublesome pokes (latios, landorous, exadrill, gliscor are the main ones). Or if you really like rapid spin you could try a forteress but he checks less things and is still 2x weak to fire in the rain. Ferrothorn is another thing you can try. Finally i dont think you are using dragonite to its fullest potential. Try a set of aqua tail, extreme speed, hurricane, and roost/thunder and see if 2 hurricane spammers can break your opponent easier. You could also try life orb on tornados with hammer arm>focus blast.

Bronzong/forteress/ferothorn>Donphan

Rain walbreaker nite>cb nite

LO tornados/thunderous

 

[Razza]

Hey boondocker thanks for the rate :)

I will definitely try out Bronzong over dolphin as I am intrigued to see how he will do, and ferrothorn as well,

Also I have used the dragonite set you recommended and found that he wasn't powerful enough plus aqua tail wasnt dealing with blissey any time soon and so he didn't function well as a wallbreaker

Finally on the lo tornadus I already had used it on a previous team (check my sig) and he Didnt perform as well as tornadus does now

Thanks :)

 

[Pippy]

For your toed, I would run 24 Spd so you can outspeed stuff in the 176 area. Anymore speed would be unneccesary and compromise your bulk. Also, I would put HP Ice on Rotom over Thunder Wave to help deal with Lati@s, especially if you using Ferrothorn (which I recommend), in which case you could just give T-Wave to him. Other than that, looks like a good team to me!

 

[MetaGross66]

hmm, nice team you have here. Have you ever thought of using sharp beak or flying plate on tornadus (whichever gives the bigger boost idk). they seem like an excellent way to give mobility and even lure in things like tyranitar and Jirachi. For this reason, on a rain team I'm currently testing out, I've paired it up with CB dugtrio and it's actually really cool coming in on a volt switch or U-turn and killing their only source of weather. You could also use specially defensive jirachi to solve your problems with Latios. You also have a small weakness to thundurus (donphan helps a little, but tbh it's a one time check :/). if you're having issues with skarm-bliss thundurus is the way to go over tornadus. you still get priority rain dance and taunt, but you can now hit both skarmory and blissey super effectively with hammer arm and thunder. Tornadus's Hurricane does ~40% to Skarmory with a sharp beak so you might still want to keep it if you think you can shave off some health from skarmory to 2KO it.

The sets I've described are

Dugtrio (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch
- Earthquake
- Aerial Ace
Lets you trap and KO stuff like virizion, breloom, tyranitar, non-balloon ninetales, jirachi, etc.

and this

Tornadus (M) @ Sharp Beak
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 32 Atk / 224 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Hurricane
- Hammer Arm
- Rain Dance
- U-turn
feigns a choice item and can easily lure in jirachi and tyranitar. After that, nothing but bronzong and priority should be able to stop it if you really want to sweep. the 32 attack EVs let you OHKO standard Tyranitar and 2KO Blissey.

 

[IronBullet]

Hey,

Well this is a pretty solid team, but you are going to have plenty of trouble handling opposing powerful special attackers as not much on your team can outspeed speedy threats such as Tornadus or Thundurus. You will also have trouble handling Latios, who can take out Scizor with Surf and proceed to spam Draco Meteors. Rotom-W is also very annoying for your team to face. So, what I'd suggest is replacing Donphan with a Ferrothorn. The rain halves its Fire weakness, and it can set up both Spikes and SR to put more pressure on your opponent. It gives you an additional Electric resistance, and most importantly an answer to Gastrodon a huge threat to this team. A moveset of Spikes | Stealth Rock | Power Whip | Thunder Wave should work well, with an EV spread of 252 HP | 48 Def | 208 Sp Def and an Impish nature to allow it to take hits from both sides of the spectrum. Now, this does mean you lose spin, so it'll be important to play more conservatively with your two choice users.

U-turn is infinitely more useful than a last ditch Rain Dance on Tornadus, this allows it to scout out its counters such as Jirachi, and bring in the appropriate Pokemon to force them out until they are weakened enough to be taken out the next time they switch in.

What you need is a solid revenge killer, one you can fall back on to take out threats such as Excadrill or NP Thundurus if your checks are weakened. So I'd suggest trying out a Scarf Politoed over your current one. Scarf Politoed still hits very hard under rain, and is invaluable in revenging key threats. It is excellent for cleaning up late-game, as not mant Pokemon at 50~ health can survive a rain boosted Hydro Pump. Max Sp Atk, Speed and a Timid nature is essential for this set so that Politoed can revenge Adamant DD Nite, with a moveset of Hydro Pump | HP Grass | Ice Beam | Perish Song.

Solid team, and good luck!

 

[Razza]

@ metagross66 thanks for the rate, I tried out the tornadus set and u-turn was a really nice touch but i missed out on the raw power of specs as i failed to 2hko a politoed switch-in or ohko a salamence that went on to sweep me, so im going to keep running specs and test out u-turn over grass knot and see how it goes

@ironbullet, thanks for the rate also

i have previously used ferrothorn but he never seemed to last long with loads of things carrying fire or fighting moves these days even under the rain they are going to hurt, also i missed the ability to spin away rocks, and dragonites ability to survive a hit with multi scale and ko a faster threat back has saved my ass so many times.
Scarf toed also seemed to be lacking a bit in power and bulk for me, and so i will keep specs, hoever i really like the idea of u-turn and so i will be putting it on tornadus over rain dance or grass knot as being able to switch out of specially defensive jirachi while also maintaining offensive pressure and momentum is really nice.

 

[IronBullet]

Yeah, I see what you mean. You could also try out a Starmie over Rotom-W alongside Ferrothorn. Starmie gives you a Fighting resistance, and can also revenge Thundurus pretty easily. So now you get to keep spin, and having Ferrothorn obviously helps. This does increase your Electric weakness though, so it's up to you if you want to try this out. The moveset for Starmie is Hydro Pump | Thunder | Rapid Spin | Recover. You can adjust the EVs depending on whether you want offense or defense.

You say Scarftoad does not pack enough power, but the thing is it isn't meant to be powerful. It's meant to pack enough speed to revenge key threats to your team like Excadrill and Latios, and be able to clean up teams late-game whoch Specs cannot achieve. You already have two power houses in Tornadus and Dragonite. If you feel that Specs suits your team better then it's up to you.

 

[xL Trey9421]

On Dragonite, I think you should change fire punch to brick break. It does the same damage to ferrothorn and also gets rid of screens. I like using DDnite cuz it can get plus 2-3 attack.

 

[Razza]

Hey thanks for the rate I will try out brick break as it also means tyranitar can't switch in on a choice locked fire punch.

Also mini bump

I would really appreciate more rates please suggest new sets and pokes for me to try out because I want this team to reach it's full potential.