Pokémon Rate My Team
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Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Hydro Pump
- Defog
- Roost

Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 224 HP / 252 Atk / 32 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Liquidation
- Poison Jab
- Drill Run

Heliolisk @ Choice Specs
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Hyper Voice
- Weather Ball
- Dragon Pulse

Swampert @ Damp Rock
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 172 Def / 80 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Brick Break
- Rain Dance
- Toxic

Goodra @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rest
- Rain Dance
- Fire Blast
- Dragon Pulse

Nidoking (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Poison Jab
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
- Megahorn

Pelipper is the early rain setter. Defog helps with the entry hazard setters such as Ferrothorn and the like and if it's the most common dual screens setter as of now, Regieleki, I switch out to Damp Swampert who has Brick Break that destroys the screens and prevents Regieleki from using its most common moves when used as a dual screens setter, Explosion and an Electric-type move. I am thinking, however, to replace Roost with U-Turn to pivot out and swap in Swampert.
Barraskewda is my Swift Swim abuser. With its high speed tier, high attack, and a wide variety of coverage moves, it excels in being a banded sweeper. I am considering swapping out some of its moves but currently, I have Close Combat for the 5 things that it's supereffective against, Liquidation as my STAB, Poison Jab against the Faries that Goodra is weak to as well as the Grass-types, and Drill Run against Electric-types.
Heliolisk is against other Water-types that I don't really have anything for, as well as the Flying-types that have Electric- or Grass-type moves such as Dragonite and Hawlucha with Thunder Punch and the Forces of Nature with Grass Knot. Additionally, it has Dry Skin which is nice. Thinking of replacing it with Toxicroak though, which offers coverage against Grass-types and also has Dry Skin.
Swampert helps against the Electric weakness and also does well as a bulky lead. Its EV spread makes its two defenses have an equal stat so it excels at being a lead that breaks through screens, stops Regieleki in its tracks, and tanks most non-Grass-type hits while setting up rocks all while being able to switch in mid-game and set up Rain Dance. I am considering switching Damp Rock with Lefties as well as replacing Toxic for Yawn, although Yawn is very vulnerable to the foe switching out before falling asleep.
Goodra is my wall that gets free unlimited healing with Rest and Hydration under the rain. Its EVs allow it to actually take some physical hits and its moveset puts the rain to use and can be used as a mid-game replenisher. I'm thinking of replacing Dragon Pulse or Thunder with Surf and maybe swapping out Lefties for Damp Rock, or maybe even replacing the entire set besides Rest.
Nidoking is honestly something random I put in because Sheer Force is a pretty pog ability. Poison Jab helps against Faries and Grass, Earthquake hits 5 types including Electric supereffectively, and Brick Break also breaks screens if Swampert goes down and hits 5 types supereffectively. Megahorn is for coverage against Psychic and Grass.
Currently, I'm thinking of replacing Nidoking or Heliolisk or Goodra with Volcarona. (the Hurricane set that appears at the top in the best moveset for Volcarona question)
I would really appreciate any tips :)
Pokepaste link: https://pokepast.es/f5dfe96393ea6bc0

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1 Answer

4 votes

I'm gonna say this, rain isn't a great play style in OU since everyone and their mothers love their bulky waters and grasses and thus, have a rather tough match-up. However, that doesn't mean that it isn't viable, it's just it's not the easiest play style to get that consistent of results so I'll give some tips to get some consistent results on it.

First off, the name of the game with rain is to be as offensive as possible. You cannot be defensive with a rain team, or any weather team for that matter. Yes, weather teams love their defensive backbones but they should still play very aggressively. To that, you need to drop Goodra, Nidoking and Heliolisk.

So first, use a defensive Pelipper. You need this to be bulky to setup rain multiple times. As your weather setter, you shouldn't use this as an offensive mon but rather, use its second greatest advantage over Politoed as a rain summoner, a pivot move (U-Turn).

On Barraskewda, just use max attack and max speed. This thing is never gonna survive any hit at all so you don't need the bulk. Barraskewda has a lot of move-slot issues as it wants to get rid of all the bulky waters. Fortunately, it has both crunch, Drill run and Psychic Fangs for Toxapex and Slowbro. Just whatever you do, never have this take on Ferrothorn on its own. Taking on opposing Ferrothorn should be a teammate's job and not Barraskewda.

With Heliolisk gone, you need Ferrothorn. This is non-negotiable. You need Ferrothorn for a couple of reasons, one its hated fire weakness gets cut in half, meaning it can feasibly stay in against a fire type and annoy them with whatever annoying moves it has. The second reason is Rillaboom. Rain teams are bananas. Gorillas eat bananas so we use the durian to ward off the gorilla. It's not gonna 100% take on Rilla on its own but I'll expand on that later.

On Swampert, just drop Brick break and Rain dance. The idea with rain is that you wanna abuse the rain without relying too much on it. The same also goes for every other weather but whatever. Replace those two moves with Flip Turn and Earthquake or Protect, depending on what you prefer. Just keep Flip turn. It's a great move. I would also suggest going for a specially defensive spread as Swampert is one of the ground types that doesn't fear one of rain's greatest enemies, Rotom-Wash. Not only that, it can actually threaten it with Toxic, making it easier to deal with.

Now, I did say that Ferrothorn should not handle RIllaboom all on its own. Yes, it stuffs banded ones but can lose to Swords Dance Superpower, as such, you will need an offensive answer to Rillaboom. Fortunately, its offensive answers just love the rain. There are a ton of options for this slot. You have Nasty Plot Tornadus Therian, Zapdos and even Moltres. Basically, any bird that has hurricane should be on this slot to offensively check Rillaboom. The key word here is Hurricane as you need to kill Rillaboom at all costs otherwise it's just gonna glide like crazy. Aside from Rillaboom, the birds should also deal with opposing Ferrothorns. Yes, it is neutral to hurricane but it is not gonna want to eat that many repeated hurricanes especially ones that never miss.

For this last slot, you have a lot of options and probably the only slot that has a lot of flexibility. You can choose here from Thunder users to fighting types or mons with strong water type moves so you can use the rain to power them up.

https://pokepast.es/6bbce270551cc7b6

In that paste, these are the mons that should be on the team regardless of what happens for the reasons mentioned earlier.

https://pokepast.es/08db74efe367f995

For the fifth slot, choose one among all these bird options and I also mentioned earlier why you absolutely need a bird.

https://pokepast.es/3576f5835cb2e511

For the last slot, choose one among all of these options. This last slot serves to be a rain abuser that doesn't exactly need rain to be a threat.

Note, that all of those are just sample sets and you can tweak them however you like. So you're final team should consist of rain core, one of the birds and one of the rain options.

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Thank you for all of your suggestions! I tried them out and they were very successful.
Regarding Barraskewda, I don't have max speed on it because in rain, it can outspeed scarfed Dragapult and 252+ speed Regieleki with just 32 speed EVs so I decided to invest some EVs in HP, which allows it to survive a Scale Shot from Life Orb Jolly Garchomp, Close Combat and Acrobatics (itemless) from 252+ Hawlucha, and an Earthquake from Excadrill but I see your point about how it should have maxed speed or it wouldn't outspeed some threats out of rain.