A Rainy Little Day - Gen 9 National Dex

Question

Yippe, a new Nat Dex team. This time, with extra wetness. Now that Tera is banned, stuff will change.

RainBeak (Pelipper) (F) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Roost
- Surf

Obviously a weather team needs a instant weather setter, and Pelipper is that and more. Hurricane and Surf are STAB that can do decent chip to the opponent. Roost is to keep the bird alive and U-Turn to safely pivot into my sweepers. Relaxed Nature and 0 Speed IVs to try and go for U-Turn after opposing Pelipper.

RainBirdman (Tornadus-Therian) (M) @ Life Orb / Heavy-Duty Boots / Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Weather Ball
- Focus Blast
- Nasty Plot / U-turn

Tornadus-Therian is a very solid Pokémon in rain due to access to a powerful STAB Hurricane and good coverage, along with decent natural bulk. Weather Ball can cover for certain Ground and Fire types like Heatran and Landorus-T, while Focus Blast can hit (probably not) Tyranitar and other Steels. I'm not sure on what item to use though, there are many good options, feel free to suggest any.

(why are you so big)
RainBridger (Archaludon) (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Stamina
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Electro Shot
- Flash Cannon
- Body Press
- Draco Meteor

Archaludon is one of the most reliable Rain Pokémon, packing a powerful Electro Shot to hit Water types and boost its already good SpA. Flash Cannon and DraMet are STAB, while Body Press can abuse its great defense and Stamina to hit Specially Defensive walls like Blissey.

(I wish they had mini sprites too)
RainGiraffe (Raging Bolt) @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Protosynthesis
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dragon Pulse
- Calm Mind
- Thunderclap
- Thunder

Ah, Raging Bolt, the big past giraffe, really enjoys playing in the rain. When he gets calm enough with Calm Mind, raising its SpA, he can generate powerful Thunders and Dragon Pulses to damage his enemies, and when they think about escaping, he [Thunder] Claps them into oblivion. But seriously, Raging Bolt is very good on Rain, Thunder hits very hard and Thunderclap is great priority.

RainSpikes (Ferrothorn) (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Knock Off
- Protect

Since Pelipper is a physical tank, Ferrothorn can be the special one. Rain helps this little guy by weakening the Fire-type moves coming his way while he sets up Stealth Rock and Knocks Off the opponent's items. Leech Seed + Protect is self-explanatory when I have RockHelm instead of Leftovers. I definitely feel this set can be improved upon, though.

RainAxolotl (Swampert-Mega) (M) @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Ice Punch
- Liquidation
- Power-Up Punch / Bulk Up
- Earthquake

A very iconic Rain Sweeper that has given me many troubles in the past. Liquidation and Earthquake are STAB, Ice Punch is great coverage for Dragons and Grasses (there aren't many Grasses but whatever), and Power-Up Punch is for empowering while dealing damage, but I'm not sure if Bulk Up is better, so feel free to change my mind.

Anyways, that is the team. Here are my main questions:

• Which item for Tornadus? (reasoning above)

• Should I remove Ferrothorn and focus solely on offense? Barraskewda and Floatzel are great rain sweepers that I sometimes miss with this team. If yes, should I Specs Tornadus too or something?

• Should I add hazard removal? I feel like this team gets somewhat crippled by hazards, but it would mean either giving up a move slot for Defog on Pelipper (which isn't the most reliable hazard removal anyway) or removing another Pokémon for it.

• Is the Raging Bolt set alright? I wanted to use Weather Ball, but the other moves just felt better. Not sure about Shuca Berry either, but it has been proving its value to me.

• Any other general improvements I missed.

Pokepaste

Answer 1

Alright, this team ain't bad, but I have a few changes I would make.

Pelipper: Honestly as long as your Pelipper fits the standard defensive trope it's fine

Tornadus-T: To answer your question, the item fully depends on what you want it to do. If you want an offensive Hurricane spammer, you're actually better off with Zapdos, who boasts a great secondary STAB and 15 more Special Attack to boot. However, not many teams have both Zapdos and Raging Bolt, as both are Electric types with strong secondary STABs that spam Thunder, so keeping Torn here is actually fine. Generally, offensive Nasty Plot Tornadus run Flyinium Z to have a strong STAB option outside of Rain or being able to blow past a wall. Weather Ball usually isn't used due to the combined power of MSwamp and Barraskewda (yes someone is getting axed for Barra), so I would recommend Taunt. There are many counterplay options around a Tornadus threatening to do big damage, such as various Thunder Wave users and Leech Seed from Ferrothorn. For this reason, Taunt acts as a great option to shut them down, while also preventing opposing Pokemon from setting up alongside you.

Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Tera Type: Flying
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- Taunt

Archaludon: "How can you possibly go wrong with an Archaludon in Rain?"

Raging Bolt: Shuca Berry is very interesting. At the current moment, Booster Energy and Leftovers are common on Rain builds, especially Booster Energy providing the extra Special Attack boost. I reason Shuca Berry's success is from people not suspecting the Berry and using a Ground move into it, which is probably why you chose it over Air Balloon. Generally, I would recommend either Booster Energy or maybe Air Balloon (or at least give these a try) due to them having more utility, with Air Balloon giving you a temporary immunity instead of just neutralizing a move. The EV spread can also be optimized to speed creep defensive Lando-T, although that's not really necessary since your entire team can probably handle it.

Ferrothorn: Now this is where things get tricky. Ferro is definitely a great, consistent wall and hazard setter on rain teams, but simoultaneously, Barraskewda is probably the most dangerous Rain Pokemon, even when considering MSwamp. The only reason I am still considering Ferrothorn is due to the removal of Tera denting CB Barra's damage output, although the same removal of Tera removes Ferro's potential soft checking of Pokemon like Zard Y. Due to the offensive nature of this team, I do recommend Barraskewda. Currently, the two best Water resists, Ogerpon-Wellspring and ScarfShifu, are nowhere to be found courtesy of the insane metagame shifts. Thus, Choice Band Barraskewda has a good chance to deal massive damage against quite literally everything, including the frail but very threatening returning Pokemon Dragapult.

Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Flip Turn
- Aqua Jet
- Close Combat

I do speak from experience when I say you do not want to mess with this Pokemon.

Swampert-Mega: Two suggestions, one large and one small. Power-Up Punch or Bulk Up is nice for a sweeping option, but generally Mega Swampert leverages its massive bulk and Electric immunity to switch in, dole out big damage, and switch out or faint. MSwamp rarely is the sweeper of the team; instead, it is either the faster Barraskewda or the Calm Mind Raging Bolt. Instead, Flip Turn gives your team another option to pivot around threats; for example, you can safely Flip Turn if you predict a Zard Y switchin, so even if another Pokemon switches in, you still get to switch out to an appropriate Pokemon. The smaller suggestion is to use Waterfall over Liquidation (yes this may look crazy but hear me out). Often times, MSwamp cannot OHKO many Pokemon, such as Corviknight or returning Pokemon Melmetal. Waterfall's flinch chance gives MSwamp a possibility to actually break through them. This is a very minute difference, and I don't blame you if you choose Liquidation for the extra power, but Waterfall is a viable option.

Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/52879c347157f381

Hope I helped!

Comments

Thanks! You didn't say anything about the hazard removal question, but I'm not really having many problems with it so whatever (also I like how in the Pokepaste you continued the nickname trend for Barraskewda).

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oh shoot my bad
for hazard removal, rain teams can do without due to their more offensive playstyle, but the generic hazard remover is Iron Treads, which can compress both Rocks and Spin if needed. Torn-T (and Zapdos by extension) are used more for Hurricane spam than Defog purposes.