Whether you like it or not: Weather in NU

Weather is a revolutionary game mechanic that first arose in GSC, along with the introduction of the abilities Sand Stream, Drizzle, and Drought in ADV. Not only did these abilities activate the effects of the respective moves Sandstorm, Rain Dance, and Sunny Day when the user switched in, but the weather effect would remain on the field until a different weather effect came in to replace it. However, Drizzle and Drought were both locked away in Ubers; the only Pokémon with access to the aforementioned abilities were Kyogre and Groudon, respectively. With the coming of DPP, Hail finally had a representative auto-inducing ability, Snow Warning. Not until BW2 did full-on weather teams rear their ugly heads with the introduction of the Dream World, allowing Politoed access to Drizzle and Ninetales access to Drought. In XY, however, the weather-inducing abilities were nerfed to last no longer than 5-8 turns, functioning identically to the moves that activated weather. Furthermore, with the absence of a permanent weather effect, the reliable use of weather teams has been restricted to offensive archetypes because weather-dependent stallers cannot function properly if the weather effect will eventually run out.

Introduction

Ever since the insane usage of weather teams in BW2, the lower tiers have always wanted a slice of the cake. NU is no exception when it comes to this. NU, lacking any auto-inducing weather setters outside of unreliable LC Pokémon, relies on manual weather setters for weather teams to function. The full-on weather offense team archetype usually consists of one priority setter, one bulky setter, and four offensive threats, two or three of them being weather-dependent.

Priority Weather Setters

The handsome reader may be asking themselves, "What is a priority setter?" A priority setter is a weather setter that utilizes the ability Prankster, which adds +1 priority to all non-attacking moves, to ensure Rain Dance or Sunny Day is used first. Liepard is a great example of a good priority setter. Liepard can activate weather and proceed to assist the team by inflicting the foe with paralysis by means of Thunder Wave, which will also go first because of Prankster, and then U-turn out to one of the team's weather-dependent Pokémon. There are other Pokémon that can perform this task, too, like Volbeat and Meowstic. However, Liepard is usually preferred for this role because of its high natural Speed.

Bulky Weather Setters

Now, do you remember before when I mentioned bulky weather setters? Of course you do. A reader as handsome as you couldn't possibly suffer from such critical short-term memory loss. A bulky setter is just that; a weather-activating Pokémon that can take some hits. One of the staple bulky setters is Uxie. Not only is Uxie able to take a hit and set up weather at the same time, but it can also aid the team with various utility moves such as Stealth Rock and Memento. Xatu is another great option for weather setting thanks to its Magic Bounce ability, which bounces any entry hazards used on Xatu back to the opponent's side, along with most status moves.

Automatic Weather Inducers

Like I mentioned before, there are only two usable automatic weather inducers in the NU tier, bar Aurorus, which has Snow Warning as an unreleased ability. Unfortunately for us, the only two automatic weather inducers usable at the moment are LC Pokémon, which are honestly just dead weight for the most part. Outside of Hippopotas inducing Sandstorm and Snover inducing Hail, they can't really do much (except get KOed), in contrast to setters such as Xatu, which also gives the team an answer to entry hazards.

Rain

Rain is activated by the move Rain Dance and extended from 5 turns to 8 turns if the user holds a Damp Rock. Rain's effects include increasing the power of Water-type attacks by 1.5x, reducing the power of Fire-type moves to 0.5x, and allowing the moves Hurricane and Thunder to always hit. Rain is probably the most widely-used weather effect because of its vast offensive capabilities.

Rain Sweepers

These Pokémon have been used throughout the BW and XY lower tiers because of their surprising sweeping capabilities when facilitated by rain with the ability Swift Swim. Ludicolo, for instance, uses its unique Grass / Water typing to take advantage of its powerful coverage STAB moves, usually Hydro Pump and Giga Drain. It also gets to use Ice Beam to eliminate the Grass-types that would otherwise stand in its way of decimating other teams. Kabutops is one of the most recent drops from RU to NU. So far, it has been a godsend to NU rain teams everywhere, usually forming an impressive core in tandem with Ludicolo. It's also a great option for hazard removal. Seismitoad, though normally seen as a Stealth Rock lead, can make for a formidable specially offensive rain sweeper when used in rain and with Swift Swim. Poliwrath, while not as common in rain as the aforementioned Pokémon, can still be a great addition to any rain team because it provides the team an edge against Ferroseed.

Sun

Sun is activated by the move Sunny Day and is prolonged from 5 turns to 8 turns if the user is holding a Heat Rock. Sun is usually considered the inverse to rain because it powers up Fire-type moves to 1.5x and cuts the power of Water-type moves in half. Additionally, it doubles the Speed of all Pokémon with the ability Chlorophyll and allows Solar Beam to be used without needing an extra turn to charge.

Sun Sweepers

The strikingly handsome reader may be thinking to themselves, "Exeggutor? Isn't that supposed to be some kind of Harvest staller or something?" Well, yes, but in this case, we're going to use it as a sun sweeper thanks to its Chlorophyll ability and astounding base 125 Special Attack. If paired with a Life Orb, Exeggutor can do up to 72% damage with a Solar Beam on Uxie, one of the tier's most formidable walls. Victreebel has a different trick up its sleeve, the move Weather Ball. When used in sun, Weather Ball becomes a Fire-type move with 100 Base Power. Sawsbuck is good as a physical sun sweeper, getting dual STAB moves in Double-Edge and Horn Leech, while also getting important coverage against Steel-types with Jump Kick. As you may or may not have noticed, Typhlosion is the only Pokémon on this block without Chlorophyll to double its Speed in sun. However, Typhlosion still makes for a powerful sun sweeper when paired with Choice Scarf or Choice Specs and getting a boost to its already STAB- boosted Fire-type moves.

Sand

Sand is activated either by the move Sandstorm or the ability Sand Stream and is prolonged from 5 turns to 8 turns if the user holds a Smooth Rock. Unfortunately for sand, it doesn't have much advantages offensively, as it only boosts the Special Defense of Rock-types by 1.5x rather than boosting the power of moves like rain and sun do. On top of that, it doubles the Speed of all Pokémon with the ability Sand Rush.

Sand Sweepers

There are only two Pokémon present in NU at the moment that have the ability Sand Rush: Stoutland and Sandslash. Stoutland can make good use of its wide-ranging physical coverage with moves such as Superpower and Crunch and its impressive base 110 Attack as a powerful physical sweeper under sand. Sandslash, while normally used as a Stealth Rock lead or Rapid Spin support, makes it way on to sand teams because of its access to both Swords Dance and STAB Earthquake. When its Speed is doubled by sand, +2 Sandslash is nothing short of a force to be reckoned with.

Hail

Hail is activated by either the move Hail or the ability Snow Warning and is prolonged from 5 turns to 8 turns if the user holds an Icy Rock. Hail is the least used weather effect, and for a good reason, too. It doesn't boost any stat of any Pokémon. Furthermore, there is no ability that doubles a Pokémon's Speed in Hail. Its only offensive advantage is that it makes Blizzard hit 100% of the time rather than 70%. This might be taken advantage of by a Choice Scarf Rotom-F, but that's about it.

Conclusion

Weather has been a revolutionary and controversial mechanic since its inception in ADV. Even though it was nerfed by Game Freak in XY, it is still a viable playstyle that should not be doubted. Although Hail is not such a viable playstyle at the moment, it may become more common once Aurorus's unreleased ability, Snow Warning, is released. Although, using Snow Warning on Aurorus would cost you the only reason to use Aurorus: Refridgerate Hyper Voice.

« Previous Article

Home