How to win the weather war

[Soperman]

can you imagine how good a stealth rock/rapid spin/weather ability pokemon would be? D:

and i hate having to use up a spot in my party just to protect my team from weather.

You don't really have to keep a spot on your team for it. Either build around a weather-starter or just make sure you can counter weather (plus the stuff mentioned above)
And a the pokemon you mentioned would depend on weather, because otherwise it's basically outclassed (unless it has phenomenal stats, in which case who knows what it would do)

Run Sunny Day on Ninetales and/or on something else.

Doesn't change the fact that you lose when Ninetails dies.

 

[thatjeremykid]

on my sun team i run sunny day on ninetails, and three other pokemon in the team too. one of them being rotom-w (go figure) with heat rock. it carries sunny day, tbolt to fend of politoeds, willowisp to nerf tyranitar. pretty decent team

 

[ParaChomp]

Shadow Tag and Arena Trap users may come to mind but they need a lot of support. Though Wobbufett is a great Pokémon, it's not a good choice with all of the weather starters commonly running moves which prevent it from doing what it does best. Dugtrio with Reversal works great against Tyranitar, Ninetales, and Abomasnow. It's problem is the fact that it lacks enough power to get a one-hit knockout against defensive Ninetales while Hippowdon and Politoed can easily suck up those blows. Gothoritelle can deal with Politoed easily due to its access to Thunderbolt though it can leave dents in the others with Psychic and Grass Knot however it lacks the oomph even with Choice Specs.

Spoiler: Though if there is one Pokémon I can easily count on to win the weather war, it's...

Poliwrath

Leftovers
Water Absorb ability
Relaxed nature
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
- Circle Throw
- Ice Beam
- Protect
- Toxic

Though it barely sees the light in competition, for a weather counter; Poliwrath is an excellent choice. Doesn't matter what weather you want to keep up, this guy has you covered. Circle Throw is the main star, giving you a solid attack that can damage Tyranitar and Abomasnow greatly. With the effect of forcing the foe out (or in your case, wanting the foe back in), entry hazards are much appreciated due to Ninetales and Abomasnow's Rock weaknesses. Ice Beam is a handy move in general and can hit Hippowdon for super effective damage (though you do have to watch out for specially defensive variants). Toxic helps in wearing down tanks which are commonly used by weather starters while Protect aids in scouting, gaining an extra turn of Leftovers recovery, and rack up poison damage. Politoed is put into a rough spot lacking the ability to use Water moves due to Water Absorb which you have to time well in order to regain lost health. It does have problems against Ninetales due to it using special attacks and its access to Energy Ball and Abomasnow with powerful Grass moves. With all that taken into account, such explains the investment in physical defence. Though this has to be said, outside of gaining control of the sky, it can't do much else in a tier full of offensive powerhouses. That said, is that spot for Poliwrath really worth it?

 

[Agonist]

The best way to win the weather war in my experience is to play conservatively with your own weather starter until you've eliminated your opponents. If you're planning on using Politoed, that means don't just recklessly switch in as soon the weather changes. Instead, whittle down their weather starter, or trap it, or whatever you need to do. Sand teams in particular tend to only rely on Tyranitar or Hippowdon to keep their desired weather up, and once that's gone, then their team will quickly be overwhelmed by yours. Additionally, it's never a bad idea to throw Rain Dance onto one or two of your Pokemon just in case something does go awry, and Politoed faints before their weather starter, and even if it's not fainted, you can use the rain to your advantage to force switchs, and rack up residual damage from entry hazards.

 

[Dragonicwari]

@Parachomp: I really like that Politoed set, have you actually tried it? If so what is it's biggest flaws in your opinion?

 

[Zachmac]

Now that I think of it, I use a slightly different Ninetails set then most people. I want it to survive, but I don't want it to be a sitting duck...and that is what defensive Ninetails seems to be for me. It just can't handle enough pokemon, so I run an offensive set meant to survive.

Yeah, the idea sounds silly, but it works surprisingly well. I use a combination of protect and leftovers. Each time it comes in, if it has taken any damage at all, it uses protect on the next turn. The recovery is not much, but it definitely helps. If my opponent swaps out, it's even better, since protect will fail and I can use it again for two rounds of free leftovers recovery. If a Politoed, Tyranitar, or Hippowdown figures this out and tries to swap in as it uses protect, I try this one or two more times, then use Will-o-Wisp as they swap it(though Toxic would work to). As soon as the weather war is one, I have the Ninetales EVed for offense, so I start throwing around STAB, sun boosted Fire Blast, hopefully putting a dent in even pokemon that resist it. That attack has 135 power when resisted, so it hits relatively hard, considering that Ninetails only has 81 base special attack.

The only problem is that it struggles to really swap into anything...but can't that be said about all Ninetales sets?

 

[Icarus©]

So I like OU and have built a team that's fairly succesful (38-19... not great but not all that bad.) I want to try out a weather team, specifically rain. I just want to know what I should do if someone else is using a rain team and gets their weather off instead of mine.
There must be a way to do this. How?

Hazards and there are sometimes when its obvious the other person is going to switch them in.
Eliminate it right then and there.
Or put them in a situation where they have to sacrifice their weather inducer

 

[McDanger]

hazards, status, burn is the best as it does more then toxic unless it stays in for 3 turns, and forcing it out/pursuit trapping