Rain Team Guide! VGC

Hi guys i am back with another post this time i will be posting out aboutkind of an analyses on rain teams, even though it would be highly inaccurate (maybe) because this post is written only by me, though for the last part help from fellow members and friends was taken so hoping that makes it a little better, i'll directly will be posting their suggestions alongside mine to keep it a fair trade of their direct speech. Let's get started with it:

                                              

An Overview to rain:

Rain is destruction of many, rain is dominant, rain is brutal, rain is real, rain brings terror, rain is great and tons of blah blah and so on, OK VGC WE GET THAT RAIN IS A THREAT BECAUSE WE LOST TO IT MANY TIMES.

If someone is a VGC player he/she surely is familiar with rain right? Rain has an overrated reputation because of the many joys it brings for the one who uses it, that it brings against the meta. Rain is the most popular archetype ran over the years and still proves itself to be strong and second-to-non the effects that this weather condition brings over the other three, are the following:

. Boosts all the water type moves’ power by 50%.

. Decreases all fire type moves’ power by 50%

. The accuracy of the moves both hurricane and thunder is now 100% under rain.

. All abilities related to the weather are activated.

. Accuracy of the move solar beam is decreased even further than normal

What makes rain so good?:

Now you guys may be wondering what makes rain so good and probably the bigger question is that how can rain shine in the presense of other three weather conditions? This question arises in many’s brain. The simple fact that makes rain so good, that naturally it brings counters to powerful/offensive, most used types. It can easily knock out many offensive pokemons which are usually frailer than others while your team picks up the rest. Rain brings power in the form of extremely strong attacks of water types to their full potential. Rain can wipe out a big chunk of the metagame really easily. Rain by nature brings many solid counters to things like dragons, fire types including other water types too that are able enough to stall out rain modes really well. Rain makes and negates the likeliness of the weathers like sand and sun with their offense and turns them at a disadvantage naturally.

How are rain teams built:

This is not a complete criteria to build a rain team in general, but looking at most teams from nowadays can answer this well, that how to build a successful rain team, by which I don’t insult Alex Ogloza’s nats championship winning rain team that wasn’t around the following bases but is something that you should be taking advantage of when building these type of teams and may get a simple, easy guideline on how will you build your next rain teams. I picked up a common pattern for good/most rain teams and following are some points I thought would be effective in though while building one and effective:

. Lead combination:

Many, should I say every rain team has one and everyone along with their mothers know so the fact. When we talk rain teams we take in account a lead combination or a set of pokemon taking offensive/ defensive advantage, in this case most teams pair up a politoed with a swift swim user, e.g the most common ones are kingdra and ludicolo both of which prove to be extremely effective in the cases this combination of lead can be both offensive, bulky or a mixed one.

. Steel, Grass Types:

Many rain teams pack this in their arsenal. The fact that both steel and grass types are commonly weak to the offensive fire typing, they can hide behind rain and take advantage of the effects it would bring. Grass types aren’t seen that much however steel types are known to be very common on rain teams most recent/used are mega –metagross and escavalier even ferrothron wh all have a big weakness of fire types can now last longer, a popular old pick would be m-mawile that was amazing all the last season.

. Amoongus:

Amoongus can especially be an amazingly big threat to these types of teams. Amoongus can even take advantage of these teams, as most/ agin I’d say every rain team doesn’t opts for a fire type move cuz that already is a big advantage. Every rain team almost always carries ice beams which can hit amoongus for super-effective damage, however amoongus that are specially defensive and especially the one’s with a sitrus berry would tank manyice beams and will be able to stall out rain as well, hence most keep a check/counter to this mon.

. Avoiding usage of Disadvantageous types:

Rain, where brings defense to many becomes better for offense and failure for many too. Most rain teams that are effectively built avoid the usage of such types that mirror-matches or rain can beat well. By these things I mean fire types who won’t ever be able to function in the presense of rain on the field as well as those popular picks of ground, rock types e.g lando-t, terrakion, tyranitar which mirror-matches or other water types can beat really well too.

. Dependency on rain:

This becomes a big issue for beginners and also by experience as I though why not use a team with all six pokemons who take advantage and depend completely onrain? Well the thing is you can fail n the process terribly. The fact that there’ are many other weathers on the sceneif they ever would get set-up you are considered defeated easily by these. As rain (your win condition is now absence) good rain teams have two pokemons affiliated with rain or three at max while others fall perfectly by not taking any disadvantage, so that’s just the key.

Rain hybrid teams:

As rain works as an effective archetype as itself it can also migle and merge in with other archetypes to produce hybrid archetypes which can provide different ways in taking down their opponents. Rain works effectively with it’s own distinct components, usual things included in the movepool of politoed and ludicolo commence two of the known archetypes and combines with them perfectly:

Rain trap:

Rain trap teams can be offensive as well as annoying, as the name suggests these types would be the combinations of perish trap teams and the rain teams we are used to seeing, the fact that how ell they work with rain and why are: ludicolo provides fake out’s support to stall out the timer of perish song from 3-turns, whereas politoed effectively runs the move perish song which utilizes the strategy and works in it’s favor, these teams are well known for including bulky pokemons alongside bulky ludi and poli, these in common are gothitelle and gengar which both provide shadow tag and one does perish song for their team members to take advanatge of. Amoongus fits well in the hybrid archetype and takes defensive cover from fire type attacks and stays out longer than usual.

Rain Room:

This would be the second hybrid archetype we are probably more likely to see alongside rain teams, as agin the name suggesting these are combinations of rain and trick room teams. These teams were far more popular in the 2014 season than in this year but still are seen throughout. They function well like the following: ludicolo can land faster fake out’s than others in the presense of rain and guarantees a trick room-setup. These teams used to have m-mawile which also takes defensive coverage from fire types and especially due to the lack of special defense it works out well. The rain duo can work effectively outside of the TR part of the team, which most TR teams keep with them.

How are rain teams played?:

Rain teams, more importantly I should say leads, have a specific pattern through which they are played and ran effectively against the meta. Rain is only a good archetype when it has backups to threats to them, since rain is a wide variety usage archetype I will put forward some forms of it’s usage down here:

1)      Speed control politoed + offensive ludicolo

2)      Helping hand utility politoed + bulky/tanky ludicolo.

3)      All out offense; scarfed politoed + offensive ludicolo.

4)      Surf politoed + Absorb bulb ludicolo.

5)      All out support poli +standard ludicolo.

6)      Helping hand poli + Muddy water kingdra.

Apart from this rain teams also come with a variety of switch in’s to catch you off guard; most well known carry rain dance as for surprise disruption and destruction which can always be scary as it sounds so.

Rain team components:

So now the part comes where I guess most wanted to come, that what actually individual rain team members bring for you and then you can plot to counter them right? So the wait is over I guess let’s just jump right into this thing before someone get’s late for anything.

Politoed:

Moves scald, ice beam, icy wind, helping hand, hydro pump, encore, perish song, protect, rain dance.

Items: eject button, choice scarf, sitrus berry, leftovers, wacan berry.

Politoed had to be discussed here as a first, sorry other rain mons. Politoed is the word that lies within the definition of rain teams, politoed is the only trusty option which is used on about 99.9 percent of the rain teams except the 0.01 percent that would include thundurus that sets up rain, but well’ also get to that later on. Politoed has such a versatile usage whies till not being the rotom, which spread many forms of it. Politoed has a very flexible stat distribution and can’t be considered as bad. Politoed is one of those pokemons that don’t force a sash, can be better on the speed scale than others and can deal some, if not a lot of damage to others. Rain teams surely start with a politoed. Politoeds used can range from a bulky sitrus berry set for support or tankiness and leftovers, mostly well known on perish trap teams, to the offensive variant of choice scarf. Some people can neutralize the ties by using eject button who don’t wanna acquire politoed much on the field and get in other sweepers. Politoed can make possible so many successful variants on itself possible due to a great supportive movepool. The teams who a tough to beat and are more reliant on rain, also carry a chunk of rain dance for surprise disruption with it. It’s only a brief on politoed, getting on everything would make this post a detailed analyses.

Ludicolo:

Moves: scald, hydro pump, ice beam, fake out, giga drain, (rare :) energy ball, teeter dance.

Items: Assault Vest, (rare:) Life orb, sitrus berry

Ludicolo is almost always nowadays placed together with a good looking politoed. It generally does soo much for the overall teams that is what makes a worthwhile choice. It is quite successful in taking rotom-w with it’s strong speedy grass stab moves, ice beams can outspeed and OHKO anything that makes it’s way on the field especially those landorus-t and any dragons in general. On top of all that it will be able to get the fastest fake out’s on the field and block any potential attackers/defenders for atleast a turn, all thanks to it’s ability swift swim which doubles it’s speed in rainy weathers. Though most of ludicolo’s will expected to be assault vest variants, others rarely are sitrus berry one’s who are well known and trained to survive attacks from kangaskhan and life orb one’s who aim to do more damage than the usual AV variants, ludicolo has a very short useful movepool though some and only some people have ran teeter dance and energy ball effectively.

Kingdra:

Moves: Draco meteor, Muddy water, ice beam, dragon pulse, focus energy, protect.

Items: Life orb, Wide lens (IT’S JUST ME), Razor fang.

Kingdra is counted out from the most popular picks list for rain teams, because of the fact that it can’t handle rotom-w which handle politoed greatly, though recently there has been a certain push I it’s usage among players. Kingdra is almost known and used for the same reasons as ludicolo, as for swift swim to be clear. The difference b/w it and ludicolo is tht it can afflict more damage, being a regular life orb variants but are usually are frail than ludicolo, even with like ludicolo it won’t share a electric mutual weakness with politoed. Kingdra’s usage is also dropped down due to the lacking accuracy moves it usually effectively runs which include draco meteor and muddy water with the usuals of ice beam which btw goes with 10% accuracy, though as you may know that I did used a wide lens kingdra which was the reason, kingdra also proves to be a constant good/ better match-up against mega-venusaurs than the likes of how most ludicolo handle it.

Mega Metagross:

There will be many rain teams out there in which you will see a mega metagross at it’s mostly because of the steel type support reasons. Mega metagross is on the field mostly threatened by the sunny charizard the most, however it’s usage is much declined nowadays. Metagross forms an amazing core around the usual rain duo of kindra/ludicolo and politoed by covering up their respective dragon, flying and electric weaknesses while taking most defensive coverage from these, these teams as I mentioned before were threatened by amoongus, however now the trusty mega metagross will take care of that threat to our teams, by firing off high power psychic stab attacks boosted even further by tough claws ability it has, there’s just too much to be said in how it complements rain teams.

Thundurus:

Thundurus is also a pokemon found on many rain teams mainly for one big reason that comes to my mind. Thundurus is a pokemon that can both support and counter rain teams well, we know that it get’s specially bulky sets and electric coverage but something counts better than both of these traits it keeps. Thundurus were I said was a big counter/threat to rain teams, it can quite cleverly beat itself through the reason it counters the teams. Thundurus mirror-matches are common, a faster thudurus can launch a faster taunt to the others and prevent the thunder wave that can destroy the swift swim on and the nature of these teams, which is meant to be usually faster, some rare thundurus’ also pack up the move rain dance as secondary means of setting up rain, or in the distant past to use it to set up for m-swampert, similarly some keep the move thunder with usually offensive builds to del damage and counter others under rain, especially bulky water types in the case.

Escavalier:

Escavalier is not that popular of a pick as there lies a census b/w this mon and amoongus’ usage linings. These teams as I said before were natured to be usually fast and amoongus makes a nice threat to them. escavalier can easily handle both of these weaknesses. Escavalier by it’s extremely low speed stat can handle the threat of trick room against these teams and even OHKO cresselia back with a mega horn. Where as amoongus comes, it can handle it greatly with it’s amazing overcoat ability that makes it immune to residual weather damage and powder moves, basically counts in as a safety goggles for a pokemon to hold as for an ability. Escavalier takes great defensive coverage from rain from it’s biggest weakness fire types that hit 4x effectively.

Amoongus:

In the teams where there isn’t a nice little escavalier, grows a mushroom for the help, however not being on all rain teams it is quite a well known pick for these teams, does the job better than escavalier for some teams, other than like it counters TR offensively, amoongus does the contrary, which is do deal with these team by putting them to sleep andother than that provides nice coverage from the redirection side. both these mons are usually dependant on playstyles and comfortably with the teams. Amoongus as well takes advantage behind rin from fire type attacks. These are usually physically defensive to prevent the rain duo (prone to physical hits) from going down early and potentially end the match for them.

Aegislash:

It is funnily found on almost every successful rain team I saw, it can atleast attack once against slower TR teams for heavy damage, plus that it can form stable cores around rain too, it’s basically a substitution for mega metagross, on the teams who don’t opt for it. This mon was simply on Paul Chua’s 2015 Nationals team, Toler Webb’s 2015 Nationals team, and even Alex Ogloza’s 2014 Nationals and Worlds team, don’t count out our favorite, Ray Rizzo from the list who also had it on his 2014 Nationals team. All this ghostly evidence says something about aegislash’s significance on these teams I guess. As being a steel type it also takes some advantage from rain for hydreigon (ice attacks) and charizard y’s fire attacks or any other fire type attacks in general.

Ferrothorn:

Ferrothorn is also an amazing pick for these type of teams. ferrothorn is a pokemon that can fit in well and counter rain mirror matches. how? it's there to thunder wave opposing ludicolos and kingdras, while it power whips any politoeds and swamperts out of site. it can hide well behind it by it's 4x fire type weakness and proves to be a constant great option to play by in rain teams.

Counters/Threats to rain:

so guys here comes the part i asked helped from friends on a post i made on the site. i got some really good suggestion (all will be included here though) so first off i'll disscuss my personal points and then include their direct speeches, let's jump into this:

Mega venusaur:

mega Venusaur is non-the less a perfect counter to the most popular/famous rain duo of politoed and ludicolo. it negates their ice offense coverage like a boss with the awesome thick at ability it has and tanks hits from them pretty easily. in additon it tops off with it's awesome typing for the job, it gets powerful stab moves with giga drain and sludge bomb it can super-effectively hit both politoed and ludicolo and positively knock them both out in 2 hits for sure.

Bulky water types

Ok i'm done at this point *that info on counters from me though* :P

Esckly says:
"Ferrothorn seems like it has a good match-up against rain teams. It resists the water stabs, and it's fire weakness is reduced because of rain so unless they're carrying a strong fighting type attack it can be a pain to deal with, especially if it sets up a leech seed. It also has access to thunder wave to provide some speed control for your team. 
Obviously with its low speed, it's susceptible to being burn by scald"

Rouge says:
"What makes rain teams work so well are the rain buddies; Politoed and Ludicolo. A lot of people try to counter rain with something like storm drain gastrodon. This doesn't work since ludicolo can OHKO it. 
Dry Skin pokemon are good for beating rain. Pokemon like Toxicroak and Heliolisk for example. 
Dry skin is an ability that basically grants the pokemon water immunity, while getting healed by any water attacks that target them.
Toxicroak can deal decent damage to politoed, while dealing huge damage to ludicolo since it's weak to poison.
Heliolisk is basically the opposite. Decent damage on ludicolo, huge damage on politoed. 
A good storm drain user to beat these 2 (while it isn't the best however, it still does decent) is cradily. Storm drain makes all water moves hit and heal cradily. This helps you with leading off with something thats normally outsped or beat by water. 
and thirdly, prankster weather users are great. Tornadus does this especially well. Prankster sunny day or something of the sort. However, the flaw in this is that tornadus is weak to ice. & ludicolo/politoed basically always carry an ice beam. so, there's that. You could always double into a t-tar but you come into the same problem with dual water users.
oh, and of course steel types work very well here too, Aegislash & Ferrothorn especially. These 2 cant really be touched (unless they for some reason run focus blast for ferro)"

Black117 says:
"The best way to beat Rain team, IMO is to use "something" that ruins their momentum completely. 
What I mean by this is if the opponent has a Scarf Politoed paired with a Swift Swimmer, use something to either win back speed control (Tailwind/Thunder Wave/Trick Room) or is a hard stop like Storm Drain users, Ferrothorn, Rotom-W, Gyarados, Ludicolo or Ferrothorn. The thing with most rain team is they need the momentum from their swift swim Pokemon to do enough damage so that their teammates can clean or do so itself with water attacks up. Rain doesn't like facing off against duel weather such as Charizard Y/Tyranitar considering either or can change the weather especially when they switch in. Last but not least, you can run manual weather like our newest Masters World Champion Shoma Honami's Sunny Day Amoonguss. Sunny Day was used consistently at high play to disrupt Rain team's momentum by reducing the power of water moves. Best part is you can switch back the weather especially if the opposing team tries to switch in their Politoed in."

w2gMk says:
"One thing I enjoy is abomasnow. It stops rain by switching in, and by mega evolving as well. It destroys politoad, has a huge hitting neutral stab on ludicolo, and it is the president of the us! He also is a great mega for trick room, not much would outslow it. Just one turn and obama is giga draining or woodhammering politoads.
Heliolisk is also a great option, it is pretty much made for weather,and hyper voice is pretty neat. It gets surf and grass knot too, so it can double as a sand storm check. I think it is also faster than talonflame, so it can drop some dundabolts on tflames. 
Also remember the main goal of rain. All rain is hyper offense. If they set up, they roll things. If they don't, they struggle trying to get set up. As mentioned, toxicroak and heliolisk can put a stop to quite a bit of rain's shenanigans."

Marsucube says:
Rain is easily stopped by Grass, Water, Flying(Talonflame) and Electric type Pokemon. Outside of typing, the Storm Drain ability really helps in stopping Water attacks. You can also cancel out the speed advantage with Thunder Wave or Trick Room. The best solution, of course, is to counter it with an opposing weather condition"

MegaGallade475 says:
"use a sun team with venusaur. make it bulky, with giga drain and/or solar beam as well as sludge bomb. will KO swampert, gastrodon, and non-invested ludicolo with enough EV's"

*I know i am lazy to not make a summary on these suggestions but this is how i'll be fair with everyone's shared thoughts so that i don't get complained :) *

Conclusion:
So guys this post comes to an end here it was not a very in-depth and in detail analyses however i think this was my best, hope you guys enjoyed reading through and maybe learned somethings. Bye for now!