Help me improve my Rain team (National dex)

Question

Hi I dont have much experience with making a team but this is my first team where I was able to win consecutively and climb up 1320(my personal best). The team is very fun to play with but the problem is that when I go against pokemon like Toxapex, Alomomola, or pokemon with Regenerator I always lose whenever its a Stall team or just a pivot. So I am writting this to seek help and How I can make it better. Any advice is helpful. THANKS!

1. Pelipper

Pelipper (F) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 234 HP / 238 Def / 36 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Weather Ball
- Hurricane
- Roost
- U-turn

Nothing special about Pelliper its just a normal Rain setter

2. Barraskewda

Barraskewda (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Aqua Jet
- Close Combat
- Psychic Fangs

Barraskewda is my Rain sweeper with its very high attack and speed stat it is able to outspeed most of pokemons and puts in a lot of damage.

3. Ferrothorn

Ferrothorn (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 126 Def / 130 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock

I read from multiple place that in a Rain team Ferrothorn is a good choice to put in since its a very good pokemon and with the Rain up fire type moves are weakened allowing it to survive a hit

4.Greninja

Greninja (M) @ Expert Belt / Loaded dice
Ability: Battle Bond
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- Ice Beam
- Sludge Wave

Now you might think why is Greninja in a Rain team. Simply just because its my favorite pokemon. When I was first building this team people told me it would be easier to build a team if you choose a pokemon I wanted to use first and start from there and my choice was Greninja. Greninja's role is to pick up kills and get the Battle Bond boost and try to sweep or put in damage much as possible. The reason I use Water Shuriken instead of Hydro pump is that First, it has low accuracy(80%). Second, Water Shuriken is a priority move making it go first and sometimes when Raging bolt comes in I just use Water Shuriken to chip much I can and also Water Shuriken goes first so thunder clap fails.

5. Zapdos

Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 240 HP / 8 Def / 16 SpA / 228 SpD / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hurricane
- Thunder
- Heat Wave

My Zapdos is different then the most Zapdos. Most Zapdos runs the Defensive build. Which is good but I lack Special Defensive pokemon in this team so I decide to rock with Special Defensive Zapdos which helped me a lot to take hits from Special move using Pokemons. I also have the move Heat wave so I at least a move to take down foe's Ferrothorn

6. Garchmp

Garchomp (M) @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Rough Skin
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Scale Shot
- Earthquake
- Iron Head

My last pokemon is Garchomp. He's here to nullify electric type moves and also when I dont have weather control or Rain is down I use him to sweep the opponent's Pokemons using Swords dance to boost Garchomp's attack and Scale shot to raise is speed.

Comments

Not a full answer, but there's some things I'm noticing.
Zapdos usually likes to punish physical attackers with Static, using it as a specially defensive mon loses some of its potential. I would recommend AV Torn-t over Zapdos (personal bias, I like using torn) as a specially defensive flying type, but if you do want to keep Zapdos for a way of dealing with Alomo reliably I suggest Defog and Roost over Volt Switch/Thunder and Heat Wave. Heat Wave doesn't work well with rain: you even mentioned it yourself on Ferrothorn being able to maybe survive a fire move in the rain. This is also another reason why I recommended Torn-t as it gets Focus Blast (it also does have Heat Wave in case you for whatever reason really want to use the move) to hit Ferrothorn, granted that it's called Focus Miss for a reason. Alternatively, you could replace Heat Wave with Roost and keep the other three moves, and give Pelipper Defog. I emphasize Defog because Pelipper gets heavily chipped by it and most of your team don't appreciate the chip either.
Instead of Garchomp, Mega Swampert synergizes better with your team, as it provides an electric immunity and also benefits greatly from rain with Swift Swim. If you're looking for a dragon type, Walking Wake also works on the team, as it can take advantage of the rain but more importantly helps the team deal with sun teams if Pelipper is taken down. (EDIT: NVM, Wake is banned)
I like Flip Turn on Barraskewda more than Aqua Jet, as that thing goes at mach speeds under rain, so revenge killing isn't usually it's best role. It's definitely an option, but I prefer Flip Turn to get out of a bad matchup. (EDIT: Replace Psychic Fangs, it's unnecessary coverage)
Pelipper's role is to set up rain and be a tanky mon, so to annoy physical attackers I'd say to replace Weather Ball with Scald, but that's up to you to decide if you value the damage or the 30% burn chance.
What is the purpose of Sludge Wave on Gren? I guess it covers for fairies but under the rain a STAB Surf actually hits harder than supereffective Sludge Wave, which is what I suggest replacing it with.
I believe that the reason for your losses against defensive Pokemon is that you only have one setup sweeper currently in Garchomp. You need more stallbreakers to break through Pokemon like Alomo, Slowbro, and Water Absorb Clodsire. A reliable Freeze Dry user also decimates most of your things, so that's something to keep in mind as well.

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couple things:
1. tornt can work, but that basically requires raging bolt to deal with bulky waters
2. walking wake is banned.
3. barraskewda usually runs all of aqua jet, flip turn, liquidation, and close combat. psychic fangs doesnt hit much that mega swampert or just pure liqui spam can't deal with
4. gren is a really unconventional pick on rain to begin with, but poison coverage hits nearly nothing in this meta; the only fairies are all tapus except bulu, iron valiant, hatterene, and maybe clefable; all get cooked by water and ice moves. typically, you would want the power of hydro pump.

more in depth analysis later (give me like a week i have things to deal with)

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yeah what he said

Answer 1

Looks decent, here's what I would say. If you lose to bulky waters, or other stallers, you need more setup, and you only have Garchomp now, and he doesn't really fit on a rain team anyway. Here is what I would reccomend:

Pelipper: Looks fine. You could consider using Scald over Weather Ball, as Pelipper is more of a support than an attacker.

Barraskewda: Have you considered running Choice Band instead of Life Orb? Barraskewda is a good choiced option, just replace Aqua Jet with Flip Turn, you're fast enough to not need priority.

Ferrothorn: Ferrothorn is good in rain. I would use Leftovers instead of Rocky Helmet, as reliable recovery is better then more chip damage in this case. Also, use Power Whip over Gyro Ball, it's better. Consider using Protect over one of your moves, for Leftovers and Leech Seed. Maybe Toxic as well.

Greninja: If you want to use a Greninja, don't use Sludge Wave, Ice Beam already covers Grass, and using a Move just to fight Fairies is a waste of a moveslot on him. Use Surf instead of Sludge Wave, because Water Shuriken is low power, even with Loaded Dice. I noticed you don't have a Z-Move user, or a Mega, even though this is Natdex. Ash-Greninja is a great Z-Move user, because he can use Hydro Vortex or Black Hole Eclipse to get a KO and activate Battle Bond. Use Waterium Z or Darkium Z for your item.

Replace Zapdos and Garchomp, There are better Electric wallbreakers than offensive Zapdos, and better Grounds than Garchomp.

I would replace Zapdos with this:

Xurkitree @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Energy Ball/Signal Beam

Or this:

Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Nasty Plot
- Focus Blast/Psychic/Dark Pulse/Flash Cannon/Volt Switch/Literally Anything Special
- Weather Ball

Either one would be fine.

And last, but not least, a Mega. Specifically, a Ground type Mega. The staple of Natdex Rain teams everywhere...

Mega Swampert!

This guy is literally what you need for this team. He's does what your Garchomp is supposed to do, but better.

Here's a standard set:

Swampert-Mega @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch/Knock Off/Rock Slide/Superpower

This guy will rip through anything and everything.

+1 252+ Atk Swampert-Mega Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 136+ Def Toxapex: 344-408 (113.5 - 134.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Hope I helped!

Comments

Zapdos is easily one of the best Electric types in the tier and nine times out of ten is better than Xurkitree and Thundurus-Therian. It has a better matchup than either against Ogerpon-W and is just generally a more consistent option.

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Yes, in most cases Zapdos is better, but JaeSU specifically said that they needed an Electric type to beat Toxapex and Alomomola, and while Zapdos is great, it's not the best at that job. 125 spA is good, but it's not enough to break past a  bulky regenerator. Xurkitree and Thundurus-T do a much better job of beating bulky Pokémon, Xurk, because of it's insane power, and Thundurus-T because of Nasty Plot. Zapdos has nothing to boost it's power except for Charge, and nobody uses Charge in a competitive battle.

Calcs to prove I'm right:

16 SpA Zapdos Thunder vs. 248 HP / 124 SpD Toxapex: 198-234 (65.3 - 77.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
16 SpA Zapdos Thunder vs. 8 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Alomomola: 222-264 (46.9 - 55.8%) -- 73.4% chance to 2HKO

+2 252 SpA Thundurus-Therian Thunder vs. 8 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Alomomola: 594-698 (125.5 - 147.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Thundurus-Therian Thunder vs. 248 HP / 124 SpD Toxapex: 288-342 (95 - 112.8%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

252+ SpA Xurkitree Thunder vs. 248 HP / 124 SpD Toxapex: 330-390 (108.9 - 128.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Xurkitree Thunder vs. 8 HP / 248 SpD Alomomola: 614-726 (129.8 - 153.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Sorry for the super long comment, I just wanted to make my reasons clear. Yes, Zapdos is a better Pokémon in general, but this specific role is best done by another Electric type.

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Fair enough reasoning. What do you think about Raging Bolt, which gets Weather Ball for rain synergy (and Thunderclap, which is probably one of the best moves in the game)?

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Raging Bolt could also work as well. I don't think it'd be as good though, but you could make something like this work:

Raging Bolt @ Assault Vest  
Ability: Protosynthesis  
Tera Type: Electric  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA  
Modest Nature  
IVs: 20 Atk  
- Thunder  
- Thunderclap  
- Draco Meteor  
- Weather Ball

Or maybe Calm Mind:

Raging Bolt @ Leftovers  
Ability: Protosynthesis  
Tera Type: Electric  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA  
Modest Nature  
IVs: 20 Atk  
- Thunder  
- Thunderclap  
- Calm Mind  
- Weather Ball

Calcs:

252+ SpA Raging Bolt Thunder vs. 248 HP / 124 SpD Toxapex: 276-326 (91 - 107.5%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Raging Bolt Thunder vs. 8 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Alomomola: 314-372 (66.3 - 78.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Does OK. Raging Bolt is another one you could use as well.