I'm a beginner in competitive so I would like to make this team to get some experience in teambuilding and to try to make something different. The objective of the post is to perfect the team as much as possible
- The team uses 3 of the 4 possible weathers in the game: Sun, Rain and Hail. That's because Castform's ability.
- The offensive power of the team doesn't focus on high attack statics, it focus in favorable type situations.
- I only played 8 games with the team, but I have won in 5 of them
- The team lacks of type variety, both in moves and in Pokémon in general.
- And last but not least, the team is played in Doubles OU in Pokémon Showdown
The Team
Weather Setters
Ninetales @ Absorb Bulb
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 Def / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Solar Beam
- Heat Wave
- Will-O-Wisp
Ninetales is my sun setter in this team. It wears a deffensive set as you can see with the EVs and the Nature of the Pokémon. The reason I run this set is because I wanted to test Nintetales' defensive power, but I will surely change the set to an offensive one.
Meanwhile, the objective is to bait any water move, if it's possible from a water pokemon, to counterattack with a boosted Solar Beam.
The moveset is relativelly simple:
Heat Wave: The STAB move that targets both foes.
Solar Beam: As a covering move for Water, Rock, Ground and other types of danger.
Calm Mind: As a SpA and SpD boost to help hitting harder and tanking better.
Will-O-Wisp: Is here for burning physical threats.
Vanilluxe @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 68 SpA / 188 SpD / 252 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Weather Ball
- Hidden Power [Psychic]
- Toxic
- Protect
Here is Vanilluxe, the ice summoner of the team. I can imagine some of you asking why I prefer Vaniluxe instead of Alolan-Ninetales. I prefer Vanilluxe because:
- I think having 2 Ninetales in a same team, is weird.
- Vanilluxe has access to Weather Ball, that is not only a very powerful Ice move in Hail, but it can also surprise the enemy trainer in other weathers such as Sun and Rain.
The EVS let Vanilluxe to hit exactly 300 points in SpD, something to consider, and to be as fast as posible with that condition.
With that in mind, now I can explain the moveset:
Weather Ball: As I said, this move is very powerfull in the right hands and is very usefull in this kind of teams.
Hidden Power [Psychic]: Type variation move that helps with Fight type Pokémon
Toxic: Usefull stall move that pairs very well with the recoil damage from hail.
Protect: Basic move, helpfull if you want to gain momentum with Toxic and Hail damage.
Thundurus @ Damp Rock
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rain Dance
- Thunder
- Defog
- Toxic
Did you expected a Politoed or a Pelipper? Surprise! A Prankster has pranked you! Maybe that surprises you but I have some reasons why I use a Prankster summoner instead of an ability one.
- Having 3 ability summoners can set a undesirable weather for me in some situations, like changing Castform's type.
- I can use other status moves first due to Prankster (Toxic, Defog…)
- I can cancel an enemy weather (Usually sandstorm)
But Thundurus has other things to do more than just set Rain, for example, he can easily check water moves due to his electric type and his high SpD and also can work as a support with Toxic and Defog.
Now, I'm gonna explain the object, weather rocks are always a good choice if they are held by weather summoners but knowing that I will be constantly changing it, maybe it becomes useless. The problem is that I don't know any object that could work well with him, maybe the standard Sitrus Berry.
The EVs are focused on taking well water moves, that are usually special. Knowing that, I maximized SpD and HP but I'm not sure if I should give him more offensive power.
The moveset explanation:
Rain Dance: Thundurus is the Rain summoner and without Drizzle, Rain Dance is the only alternative to do that.
Thunder: Strong STAB move that can't miss in rain. Simple but effective.
Defog: Uses the priority of Prankster to clean hazards.
Toxic: Also uses Prankster, helpful if there is an annoying wall.
Weather abusers
Cherrim @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Gift
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Weather Ball
Let's start with the weather abusers with Cherrim. Thanks to Flower Gift, helps allies SpD (Anyone uses Atk), and knowing that many of my Pokémon are Defensive, that boost helps a lot. His work is to be a Wall, thanks to his ability, the EVs, the Leftovers, ally Toxics in foes and drain moves, she can easily stall enemies and be annoying to the enemy team.
Knowing that, will be easy explain the moveset:
Giga Drain: A drain move that benefits from STAB.
Leech Leed: Another drain move (Although is passive), stacks with Toxic and Leftovers to drain even more.
Protect: Simple, helps at surviving another turn with Leech Leed
Weather Ball: Will surely be replaced by another move but can be interesting.
Ludicolo @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Solar Beam
- Blizzard
- Scald
- Hidden Power [Fire]
There is no much about to say about Ludicolo. Thanks to Swift Swim, Ludicolo is one of the main threats of my team. He is considerably fast and bulky and thanks to Assault Vest, he can have a lot of different attacks.
The moveset:
Solar Beam: I prefer Solar Beam over Energy Ball because I found a way to trigger Swift Swim and then proc Solar Beam in one turn: while you are in rain you lock Solar Beam in Ludicolo and then change the other Pokémon to the Sun setter (Ninetales in this case), that way you can trigger both things.
Blizzard: Usefull strong move if you are in hail, but maybe I should change it to another one less situational.
Scald: STAB move with chance to burn, a must have.
Hidden Power: I just put it there because I didn't know move could be better.
Castform @ Expert Belt
Ability: Forecast
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Weather Ball
- Solar Beam
- Hurricane
- Protect
And finally Castform, the main reason why I made this team. Castform's job is to be constantly changing with his teammates to find the best situation for hit hard with a type superiority thanks to his moves.
Why Expert Belt instead of Specs or Scarf? Because Castform has 5 different type moves (Fire Weather Ball, Ice Weather Ball, Water Weather Ball, Solar Beam and Hurricane) and he can use very well the type advantage to hit very hard. I also think Protect is necessary because it helps a lot in rotations and constant moves.
EVs are simple: be fast and try to hit hard.
Now, the moveset:
Weather Ball: As I explained before, this is a key move in Castform. Simply by being in a weather, the move power raises up to 150 (100 because of beeing in a weather + 50 because of STAB) and with type superiority + Expert Belt you can easily one shot a lot of Pokemon.
Solar Beam: Helpful cover type move, nothing to say.
Hurricane: Same as before.
Protect: Super important move because of the constant rotations.
Thanks for reading all that. I hope you liked the idea of the team and you can help me to improve a lot more.
PS: I'm not a native english speaker. Sorry for the mistakes.
