Help me fix my Rain Team!

[Imrhien]

Hi all! This is my first RMT, and indeed, my first competitive team. This team is primarily geared towards Triple Battles, so please bear that in mind.

Known issues:
•Stallers (particularly Calm Mind + Rest)
•Coverage against opposing Water types
•Ideally I need a Defog user

Here's the team currently:

Politoed - Damp Rock
Drizzle
Modest
252 HP / 4 DEF / 252 SPATK
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast
- Surf
- Hydro Pump

Politoed is one of my leads, used to start the rain. Her reasonable bulk and simple Water typing gives her surprisingly decent defences. She has Ice Beam and Focus Blast for coverage, STAB Rain Boosted Surf to hit multiple targets, and Hydro Pump for big STAB Rain Boosted damage. Depending on circumstances I will often withdraw her so that I can exploit Drizzle again later in the battle. Currently this is my only way to start the rain, but I've found that Triple Battles are fast enough that 8-turn rain is sufficient.

"Porkchop"
Qwilfish - Black Sludge
Swift Swim
Adamant
252 HP / 240 ATK / 16 SPD
- Poison Jab
- Protect / Explosion
- Toxic Spikes
- Waterfall

Physical Sweeper. Qwilfish gets his speed boosted by Swift Swim in Rain and will pretty much always hit before the opponents do. Waterfall is the attack of choice, with Rain Boosted STAB and a flinch chance. I often place him in the centre and use protect, allowing Kingdra and Politoed to use Surf freely whilst also drawing out opponent's attacks. He's extremely quick and can easily OHKO in the rain, but has very poor defences.

"Skylar"
Kingdra - Life Orb
Swift Swim
Modest
252 SPATK / 252 SPD / 4 HP
- Dragon Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Hydro Pump
- Surf

Special Sweeper. My third lead, and -in the rain- has the highest speed. Hydro Pump is for OHKOing targets with average special defence or a water type weakness. Surf can OHKO two targets if they both have water weaknesses. Dragon Pulse is long range so can hit any target in a triple battle, which makes it excellent for sniping Pokemon on the opposite site and offers excellent coverage against other dragons. Draco Meteor is a last-resort attack for when he is on low HP and will die anyway. I'm not 100% happy with this move choice, however. Kingdra has surprisingly good defensive typing; with Dragon covering Electric weakness and Water covering Ice weakness.

"Jose"
Ludicolo - Leftovers
Leftovers
Rain Dish
248 HP / 204 DEF / 56 SPD
- Ice Beam
- Scald
- Energy Ball
- Leech Seed
Tank. Ludicolo serves as a tank and special attacker. He regenerates in the rain with Rain Dish, gets Leftovers recovery and can Leech seed to regain health. His special attack is quite high despite lack of investment and his moves give him good coverage. Scald in particular does great damage in the rain and the burn chance is respectable.

"Griever"
Dragonite - Sky Plate
Multiscale
Mild
76 ATK / 252 SPATK / 180 SPD
- Hurricane
- Thunder
- Waterfall
- Extreme Speed
Mixed Attacker. Hurricane and Thunder have 100% accuracy in the rain and have useful secondary effects. Both can hit targets in the air and interrupt Sky Drop. Hurricane is long range as well. On the physical side, Waterfall hits for reliable damage and gets a boost in rain, and Extreme Speed is used for picking off weakened opponents with priority.

"Furion"
Gyarados - Gyaradosite
Intimidate / Mold Breaker
Impish
252 HP / 252 DEF / 4 SPDEF
- Dragon Dance
- Aqua Tail
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Tank; Setup. I often use Gyarados in the centre position after Qwilfish is KOed, as Gyarados can actually effectively tank Surfs from Kingdra and Politoed (which Qwilfish can't). It becomes very powerful after a Dragon Dance. I'm not completely sold on the rest/talk strategy - most of the time it simply uses Rest again when I use Sleep Talk However, the HP regeneration is valuable. I really like dropping opponent's attack with Intimidate and then switching to Mold Breaker. Because Gyarados only has one attacking move with this set, Mold Breaker is great for ensuring it doesn't get absorbed or blocked by opponent's abilities.



I've experimented with a Dry Skin Toxicroak instead of Qwilfish. I liked it for the regeneration from the rain and Surfs, but it almost always faints after one hit. Might revisit this idea with Substitute.

 

[Imrhien]

No comments yet?

 

[Imrhien]

Bump bump bump

 

[JohnBurgundy]

I'd recommend putting in some Water Absorb pokemon. That's what I did when I designed my Rain triple battles team. Have Politoed in the center, to start the rain, and have a water absorb pokemon on each side. Then everytime Politoed surfs, each of those gets 1/4 HP recovery. An alternative would be Storm Drain, same concept but with special attack boosts instead of recovery, which would help against stallers. Another interesting ability to have is Hydration. Vaporeon, with it's nice bulkiness, is great for this. In the rain, status changes are eliminated after the end of each turn. So basically, you can use Rest, and wake up at the end of the turn, allowing you 100% HP recovery at the end of each turn.

 

[Skullkraken]

Toxicroak might do well since it gets healed by water attacks and rain with Dry Skin. Volt Absorb Lanturn might do well too for doubles/triples. For stallers, you could stick taunt on Qwilfish since it has crazy speed in the rain.

 

[Xenomata]

I don't know much about rain teams yet (actually still trying to figure out how to make one myself), however you could consider replacing Qwilfish with Azumarril as a Physical Sweeper.

Huge Power Ability
Adamant Nature
Effort Values: 252 HP, 252 Attack, 6 Sp. Def
Item: Leftovers/power boosting item
~Aqua Jet
~Belly Drum
~Play Rough
~Aqua Ring

(I came up with this on the fly)
With Huge Power Azu will have slightly more power than Quilfish, but after one belly drum Azu will be beyond the level of Quilfish. However, Azumarril has an easily outran 50 base speed, which is why you have Aqua Jet. Seeing as it is already +6 boosted, plus it gets stab and rain boosted, it will tear a lot of things up, bar anything that can quad-resist water or has a large defense stat. Aqua Ring I put there to aid in Leftovers recovery, but it can do an ok job on its own if you use something else. Life orb is out of the question however since it will eat away more HP than Azu will have, and it will eventually faint on its own if the battle drags on too long. Play Rough is just sort of there because stab. It doesn't really have much it can otherwise take advantage of... Amnesia maybe to better tank surfs? But Azu already does a much better job than Qwilfish when it comes to surf tanking... never anything wrong with Helping Hand though...

 

[SapphireL]

I've personally used Politoed as a defensive Pokemon rather than offensive and it works well. Especially since you have Kingdra and Ludicolo doing the same thing as Politoed. I would run Toxic, Protect, or Encore on Politoed. Even Hypnosis works. Just something to set it apart from your other Pokemon.

Your Kingdra also doesn't need Surf and Hydro Pump. Pick one over the other. The last slot could be Signal Beam for coverage.