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Battle Subway Singles Rain Team

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Macroboom

Beyond Infinity
Hi everyone! This is my very first weather team ever so, bare with me.

The Team:

Politoed@Wide Lens
Modest
Drizzle
252 HP|252 Sp.Atk|4Def(?)
Moves:
•Hydro Pump
•Focus Blast
•Blizzard
•Hypnosis

A given. Wide Lens to up that Accuracy. Focus Blast for Ferrothorn. Not much else to say.

Kingdra@Muscle Band
Adamant/Jolly
Swift Swim
252 Atk|252 Spd|4 HP
Moves:
•Outrage
•Waterfall
•Dragon Dance
•Blizzard/???

This is not competitive so Drizzle/Swift Swim is legal. I have no idea what to use as her final move. Swift Swim+Dragon Dance lets me Sweep, Sweep, Sweep away!

Ampharos@Wise Glasses
Modest
Static
252 HP|252 Sp.Atk|4 Def
Moves:
•Thunder
•Focus Blast
•Cotton Guard
•HP Ice/???

Thunder = Duhh. Focus Blast for Ferrothorn. Cotton Guard to protect against Ferrothorn's attacks. Me and those Ice Moves, Man. Need fourth move.

Was thinking of replacing Ampharos with this Pokemon or adding her to make a Doubles Team:

Gardevoir@Wise Glasses
Modest
Trace
252 Sp.Atk|252 Sp.Def|4 Spd
Moves:
•Psychic/Stored Power
•Calm Mind
•Focus Blast
•Thunderbolt/???

I like the idea of Stored Power. If only she could learn Quiver Dance, I would cry tears of joy. Trace to, well, trace Ferrothorn's Iron Barbs so when he hits me, I hit back. Focus Blast for Darks and, Duhh, Ferrothorn. Again, fourth move.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Okay, as you can see I need alot of moves. I hate Choice Items, so, none allowed. No Legendaries either. I know, you're like: " What about Thunderus?!?" I use very generic EV spreads as you can tell. I think that's about it. Thank You! :)
 
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KillerDraco

Well-Known Member
I see a couple obvious problems.

The first is your reliance on Focus Blast to deal with certain threats, namely Ferrothorn. Having multiple Pokemon rely on it as your primary means of ridding you of said threats sets you up for disaster, since as everyone knows, it has a tendency to miss at the worst possible moment.

The second is Kingdra's set. Without Substitute it's easily crippled by Paralysis and Burn, which makes it fall prey to the numerous Prankster users such as Thundurus, Sableye, and Whimsicott, to name a few. It also helps protect it from Mach Punches and ExtremeSpeeds, which can pick off a weakened Kingdra. Yes, with just Waterfall/Outrage it can be walled, but unlike Salamence or Dragonite, Kingdra's coverage is far more limited, and it's always going to have holes in its coverage. There can be no avoiding this. So I'd stick Sub on it so the number of counters to Kingdra shrinks. I'd also replace Muscle Band with Leftovers, which'll heal up the damage you take from making a Sub, and generally increase Kingdra's longevity.

Third... I'm not really seeing much point to Ampharos. Yeah, Thunder + Rain is always nice, but Ampharos is pretty slow and can actually be picked off by water types since it won't particularly enjoy eating rain boosted attacks. I'd honestly replace Cotton Guard with Agility, since it can patch up Ampharos's speed and actually let it fire off Thunders more reliably... Cotton Guard can be kind of gimmicky, imo. Especially since many physical attacks have no problem outspeeding Ampharos and dealing heavy damage before the Cotton Guard, aside from maybe Ferrothorn and a few others.

In all honesty I'd suggest replacing Ampharos with something like Breloom or Scizor, who can act as a "cleaner" of sorts in case Kingdra's sweep gets cut short. Their fear of fire attacks is also lessened due to Politoed's rain. Plus, having a physical fighting move can lessen your reliance on the ever unreliable Focus Blast. Or if you really wanted an electric type... Event Raikou with Aura Sphere is the obvious best choice, but since you said no legendaries, that pretty much leaves Jolteon as the next best bet. Unfortunately its coverage is not great, either.

Also, I would not suggest Gardevoir, as she neither benefits from the rain, nor specifically counters any of rain's enemies. She's not really contributing much to a rain team.
 

foxyman1167

From Zero To Hero
Let me start this off by saying I've spent plenty of time in the Battle Subway experimenting with various Rain based sweepers and stallers, so I like to think I have a good idea of what works and what doesn't.

Politoed @ Leftovers
Bold @ Drizzle
252 HP / 252 Defense / 6 Sp. Attack
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Hypnosis
- Encore

This is a set I used to great avail in both singles and doubles, and for good reason. Now Politoed as a good Sp. Def stat to begin with, so I pumped everything into Defense, and threw in Scald because the burn rate is fantastic, and its power isn't much to scoff at thanks to STAB and Rain, though Surf is an acceptable option instead, I just wouldn't recommend Hydro Pump in the Battle Haxway.
Ice Beam is important not just for Grass types, but also clearing out Dragon types that stand in the way of a Kingdra sweep. In my experience, outside of critical hits, there isn't a Dragon type in the subway that can one shot this spread, and can either be smacked by Ice Beam or shut down with Hypnosis or Encore.
Hypnosis is obvious to shut down a pokemon, but its accuracy is unreliable, so I tended to learn more on Encore, which came especially handy in certain situations. It works incredibly well on slower Pokemon, as you can scout what attack they throw at you, and if its something Kingdra can set up on like Swords Dance or Rest, then Encore and it'll be locked into that move for 3 turns, 2 if you switch to Kingdra.
This Politoed set can also handle Ferrothorn one on one, as long as you can Encore something useless like Curse or Ingrain, and burn it with Scald.

Kingdra @ Chesto Berry
Adamant @ Swift Swim
174 HP/252 Attack/84 Speed
- Waterfall
- Outrage
- Rest
- Dragon Dance

You may wonder about such a specific EV spread, but let me explain. According to a list compiled by someone on Smogon concerning the speed list of all Pokemon seen in the Battle Subway, the fastest threat to Kingdra's health is ScarfChomp, which sits at 231 after the boost. Therefore, with a perfect 31 Speed IV, and 84 Speed EVs, Kingdra hits 116 out of rain, and 232 in it. For those curious, the fastest pokemon in the Battle Subway is Scarf Manectric at 258. If the Speed IV is not perfect, you're gonna have to adjust the EVs to match, just deduct from HP and put it in Attack. If you want to outspeed everything possible in the rain (except other Swift Swimmers like Floatzel of course), then you'll need 200 Speed EVs, again assuming the perfect Speed IV, but I wouldn't recommend it, the only other Choice Scarf users that sit ahead of 232 Speed are off the top of my head Manectric, Entei, and some others that don't present a serious threat. I never saw those anyway, and after 1 Dragon Dance, you'll outspeed everything, including other Swift Swimmers

As for the moveset, ChestoRest Kingdra is lethal in the Subway. After switching in, usually 1-2 Dragon Dance's do the trick, and then either begin the sweep or Rest and wake up the same turn to protect from priority attacks. Now Outrage should only be used when there are 2 pokemon left, so that unless 1 of them is a steel type, you're likely going to OHKO both of them, and then avoid the instant confusion. Waterfall after STAB, rain, and +1/+2 Attack is an absolute sledge hammer in my opinion, beating the hell out of anything that doesn't resist, and doing heavy damage to what does.

In the last slot, you could use a fast special sweeper that can clean up without having to set up, and can also take care of Ferrothorn, this one worked for me.

Thundurus @ Life Orb / Focus Sash
Timid @ Prankster
6 HP / 252 Sp. Attack / 252 Speed
- Thunder
- HP [Ice]
- Focus Blast
- Thunder Wave / Taunt / Grass Knot / Nasty Plot

Thundurus serves mostly to clean up after Kingdra, and also takes care of bulky Water types, Water Absorb / Dry Skin abusers, and Ferrothorn.
Thunder gets a nice accuracy boost in the rain, not to mention it is coming off a very nice Special Attack stat. HP [Ice] helps take care of Dragons and Grass types again, but also Ground types. Focus Blast smashes Ferrothorn harder, usually for a 2HKO, but the 30% paralysis from Thunder can really help. In the last slot, Prankster will make Thunder Wave and Taunt priority moves, shutting down most things before they can attack, though I don't always recommend leading with them, unless the opponent can't do a lot of damage, this thing doesn't have the greatest bulk. Grass Knot could be used to hammer Water / Ground types like Quagsire and Swampert than can cause trouble, or you could try and pull off a Nasty Plot to do massive damage.

/thread
 

AegisCave

Member
If you are looking for bulk in an Electric, go for Magnezone (or Magneton with an Eviolite). If not, Jolteon is a better offensive option. Your options for a non-legend Electric are pretty limited, as all the good ones (Rotom-W, Zapdos, Thundurus) are legends. Choice items aren't as bad in the Subway you know, 3v3 is a lot different than 6v6.
 

[GS]

Staring at my phone
Stop bumping old threads please. Just post in threads from the first page, or within the last week at least.

*Closed
 
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