Other OU Playstyle of the Week - Rain

[Subject 18]

OU Playstyles
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Shamelessly stolen OP from LilOuOn

Welcome to the OU discussion of the different playstyles! The main purpose of this thread is to choose a playstyle every week (I'll choose it) and you, (yes, you), are going to be able to comment, give your opinion and suggest pokemons that should be considered when making a team around the style [posting teams is also allowed, just keep in mind that this is not the RMT forums, so if you want to post a team try to make it short and use sprites of pokes, explain how does the team work and post replays if possible]. Obviously, your comments must have connection with the chosen style, as well as solid arguments of why your comment(s) are valid. With this, newer players can decide what playstyle they like most and, of course, more experienced players can also expand their knowledge. Remember to be friendly with other people; if you disagree with someone's opinion don't slam with an aggressive response, just let everyone know what you think in a kind way. The links to discussions of each playstyle will be posted in the OP so everyone can read it at anytime!

Don't be afraid of posting! If you have a great offense, stall, etc team, just think about what to say and go for it! Don't forget that participating in this kind of threads gives you opportunity to earn that awesome Community Contributor badge! Be careful of what do you post! Quality posts will be rewarded, but mediocre comments will be deleted. Do your best and I hope that you like to contribute this thread!


Summary of the rules (Must read):

• Make quality posts. No one-lined posts.
• Your comments must be about the weekly playstyle chosen.
• No gimmicks. If you decided to post a team (or pokemon) don't suggest using pursuit Tauros to trap Latias and Latios while there is an overall better option named Tyranitar or Bisharp.
• Comment how the chosen style affects the current metagame and how it fairs in it.
• Support your team's posts with replays if possible. Explanation of them are a must.
• If you are comfortable, feel free to post one of your own teams and explain the process of making the team.
• Having a wide point of view is needed. Don't post that stall sucks because you always lose to it.
• Your new ideas must have strong arguments of why them should be considered.
• This one is important: We don't want this to become a debate of: "this metagame is stale and has no diversity due to X Pokemon/Playstyle". I will delete and those posts. This thread is here to make a discussion about the different playstyles, not to discharge all your hate against weather. Please, incoherent posts will be deleted and possibly penalized, so think about what are you going to write.
• For reference see the past OU Playstyles projects to guide you on what to discuss.

Past discussions:

• Week #1: Hyper Offense
• Week #2: Balance
• Week #3: Stall

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After being the one of, if not the most dominant playstyle in BW2, rain has taken a huge hit in viability due the weather nerf that XY introduced. While Politoed still continues to lead its charge, it's not nearly as flexible as it once was. Most rain team you will see are Offensive as this is the most effective way to play them. However some people have made good Balance teams that utility rain such as Dragonuser in SPL outside of his team, Rain Balance is pretty rare. How does Rain fare in the current meta? How can you make a good Rain team without being really cookie cutter? Good Frameworks? Underrated Mons?

 

[s_aman]

Rain offense is pretty straightforward. You have Poli DeoS Kabutops Kingdra fillers.
This whole playstyle is based around momentum. You keep momentum on your side, you win and if you lose momentum, you are probably gonna lose. It gives offense and balance problems, but stall teams can face them quite well and stall out the sand turns although sd kabutops threatens them too. Thinking of threats, aside from the obvious opposing weather inducers, Thundurus and Keldeo seem to be the biggest offensive threats to rain HO.

 

[Nog]

aww, what a cute pic n_n

Most rain teams are HO based this gen simply because you have rain for a lot shorter of a time. You have to make your moves quickly and generally can't afford to set up. Rain stall is dead, rip m Dragon, and balance is pretty terrible right now. Team building for rain is ridiculously easy as there are only like 10 pokemon that fit well, i.e. politoed, kabutops, Deoxys, electric type, steel type, Kingdra / Tornadus and call it a day. Rain offense smashes HO teams because they can put speed threats like Thundurus, Greninja, or Lati@s. Stall tends to lose a couple of Pokemon to rain offense but grows stronger the longer the game goes on.

Underrated pokes:

- Azumarill is a monster under rain and allows you to not be completely cookie cutter.
- Gliscor is actually pretty solid on rain as it allows you to beat other weather setters (literally just hippo / ttar) and popular weather sweepers (Excadrill). It can also be a nuisance to stall teams with taunt / Knock Off.
- Mega Alakazam is amazing against rain offense but shows little use outside of it.
- Gothitelle is a great trapper for underrated rain sweepers like Mega Gyarados and eliminates threats to other sweepers on your team like Kabutops.
- Mega Gyarados is a monster in and out of rain. It can boost, has solid bulk, and a great ability. Plus it gets a lot of free turns due to the amount of switches it forces.

 

[DuskSoul]

I'm personally rather fond of Damp Rock Hydratation Goodra, with some SDef investement is is quite bulky on the special side, works as a status absorber, has reliable recovery (rest) and isn't taunt bait thanks to Draco Meteor and Muddy water.

 

[Scotti]

Like most people said rain is mostly HO or something there could be a good rain balanced team liked dragonuser. However, there are a lot of options that I could see working on rain, and one of them is Belly Drum Azumarill.

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
- Belly Drum

You all have probably used or encountered this set at least once. However, have you used this set in rain? This set goes from being really good, to ridiculously overpowered. You can do up to 94% in Rain at +6 against max def and max hp ferrothorn. You have a 87.5% chance of taking out latias in one hit. Also, did you know that Mega Venusaur with max defense and HP has a 50% chance of getting OHKO by Waterfall. This thing right here is pretty much impossible to wall. You can only really check this mon in rain, because nothing can 2 hits. Before I forget, against offensive teams this thing decimates everything with aqua jet, and can take out opposing azumarills with waterfall. If you need a pokemon to destroy pretty much everything, then azumarill is your mon.

 

[Logic]

Ah, finally, a place where I can boast about the awesome underrated Calm Mind Manaphy. While I often see many people telling me and everyone, "Calm mind manaphy is outclassed by calm mind suicune" I completely disagree. Manaphy can wake up right away while rain is up and doesnt have to waste a moveslot on sleep talk which is very risky. The optimum set to run on calm mind manaphy is as followed:

Manaphy @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk / 16 Spd
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Rain Dance
- Rest
- Scald

This set utilizes manaphy's great 100 base stats. 252 Defense and 236 HP + Bold Nature allows Manaphy to tank many physical attacks and allow a setup of rain or calm mind. The 16 Speed EVs are to outspeed base speed 70 mons with 252 EVs but no nature boosting speed(namely Bisharp). I first used this set on my mono water team which peaked me at 6th on the ladder and I am currently using it on my OU team which peaked at 22 on the ladder. This manaphy can take many surprising hits while being able to set up and rest in between them. Some calcs to show the amazing defense Manaphy has:

Physical Defensive Calcs

252+ Atk Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 236 HP / 252+ Def Manaphy: 169-201 (42.2 - 50.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 236 HP / 252+ Def Manaphy: 133-156 (33.2 - 39%) -- 5.9% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Play Rough vs. 236 HP / 252+ Def Manaphy: 201-237 (50.2 - 59.2%) -- 76.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery(Make sure rain is already up so you can rest)
+1 252+ Atk Tough Claws Mega Charizard X Dragon Claw vs. 236 HP / 252+ Def Manaphy: 205-243 (51.2 - 60.7%) -- 91.8% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery(Make sure rain is already up so you can rest)
252+ Atk Aegislash-Blade Sacred Sword vs. 236 HP / 252+ Def Manaphy: 86-102 (21.5 - 25.5%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery

See the amazing bulk of manaphy? It's amazing and does the same thing as suicune except just more longevity imo.

After a couple set-ups, Manaphy is free to sweep(Bar any crits happening) Manaph can even stay in when leech seeded sometimes depending on the situation and still continue to sweep. Just be wary of the amount of special attack damage you are taking while setting up calm mind and dont misplay by accident. Manaphy is a great bulky sweep and should be on any rain team.

 

[X5Dragon]

A framework for a Rain team should focus on 3 things, how to start and keep the rain going on reliably, how to abuse it and how deal with those who threaten your playstyle by either taking advantage of your Rain, changing the weather or walling your abusers.

It is preferable to have 2 rain inducers, for example a Drizzle Toed and a Rain Dancer. A Damp Rock would also be the item of choice for either one of them to have the maximum 8 turns of Rain. As there is only one OU Drizzler, I will you give two Rain Dancers to consider:Deoxys-S and Prankster Thundrus-I.

Deoxys-S is a great lead with phenomenal speed, he can Rain Dance and then proceed to do alot of things, attack, lay down hazards and prevent your enemy from doing the same and lure other Weather Inducers (he has Super Power and Rock Tomb for instance). Thundrus-I has Prankster which means he will be able to get a Rain Dance off even against most other priorities, cannot be paralyzed, has a STAB Thunder and can also lure with Super Power as well.

Rain Abusers are well known and plenty, but seeing how the weather mechanics have changed so that Rain is not permenant, it is better to look for offensive abusers who can hit right off the bat. To start with you got Azumarill who has Bulk, Water Priority being boosted further and solid movepool and good STAB Combo. The Swift Swimmer, Fossil Bros are also a worthwhile addition to any Drizzle Team, with a Specs Hydro Pump Omastar blowing holes into most things and Kaputops providing both utility and set up sweeping cabilities with Sword Dance and Aqua Jet as well. And then there is the Kingdra himself, Water/Dragon, Special and Physical and having access to at least three 100+ BP moves. The Genies also fair well under the drizzle, Thundrus in both forms launching massive Thunders and Tornadus-I having immense speed and hard hitting Hurricances as well. From the justice league (I forget what they're called gimme a break) we got Keldeo, whose Water/Fight combo can help deal with other weather inducers and his access to Secret Sword which will encourage Chansey to make his own rain. Steel Types also can take advantage of the Rain by having one of their main arch enemies, Fire, being doused out. Scizor would love a pool party as his only weakness is reduced, Aegislash would also be able to handle threats like Talonflame more confidently and Bisharp just continuing to grin defiantly with his black glasses..

Unfortunately, like every fairy tail there are villains who would like nothing more to steal your rain, frustrate your abusers or even hijack the party altoghether. Azumarill is one of the biggest things to consider handling, as he already has Huge Power and Aqua Jet and he can also go further with Belly Drum or a CB set. Azumarill can be handled by a couple of things, for example a Ferrothorn who resists his STABs well and will discourage him from attacking him because of Iron Barbs and possibly a Rocky Helmet as well.

Tyrantiar can come in any time to change the weather, and what is more terrifying is that even after you send in a Rain inducer again he can just pull off a Mega Evolution and bring back the sand. Charizard Y is also a pain to deal with as it can hit very hard and can linger late game to ruin your rain inducing efforts. Ferrothorn also merits a mention because he has the ability to wall 4 Rain Abusers (Azumarill, Omastar, Kingdra and Kaputops) and threaten with paralysis, rocks or by just being annoying. Special walls and Physical Walls should also be considered and dealt with in team building and during the match lest you send your abuser prematurely and find yourself mid game with all rain and no pokemon left to do anything with it

 

[dkkc19]

I think any set of Crawdaunt would be deadly in rain. Adability Aqua Jet in Rain boosted by a Life Orb or an Expert Belt is deadly. Not to mention Crabhammer. in the rain is beyond lethal and takes 50% of any specially defensive Mega Venusaur switching in.

Tyrantiar can come in any time to change the weather, and what is more terrifying is that even after you send in a Rain inducer again he can just pull off a Mega Evolution and bring back the sand. Charizard Y is also a pain to deal with as it can hit very hard and can linger late game to ruin your rain inducing efforts. Ferrothorn also merits a mention because he has the ability to wall 4 Rain Abusers (Azumarill, Omastar, Kingdra and Kaputops) and threaten with paralysis, rocks or by just being annoying. Special walls and Physical Walls should also be considered and dealt with in team building and during the match lest you send your abuser prematurely and find yourself mid game with all rain and no pokemon left to do anything with it

Azumaril vs Ferrothorn can be solved easily with Superpower. But Belly Drum sets usually don't run Superpower, but a CB or AV Azumaril can take care of Ferrothorn.

 

[Jojobobo]

This is a set I loved in the rain:

Gyarados @ Lum Berry
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Taunt
- Waterfall
- Bounce

Whilst you may wonder what advantages this set has in the rain, the whole reason is to get the Moxie boost. As soon you have that and +1 speed, you're on easy street - outspeeding and KOing all electric switch-ins I can think of in the rain. The lum berry provide you with set-up opportunities in the face of burn users, taunt stops phazing or King's Shield, and Water/Flying has practically perfect coverage. All in all this set was great fun and I found it extremely useful as a late game cleaner or just to take out a few mons early and gain momentum.

 

[alexwolf]

Here are two Pokemon i like to use on rain offense and i don't see other rain teams using often:

Seismitoad @ Life Orb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast / Sludge Wave
- Knock Off

There is one pro of Seismitoad over other Swift Swimmers that makes it worth using: immunity to Thundurus's Thunder Wave, and the ability to check it well in general. This is huge for rain teams without Mega Manectric, Mega Ampharos, and Ferrothorn (and i don't really like Ferro in rain HO, big momentum killer). It also has really solid coverage, with Sludge Wave covering Azumarill (huge threat to rain teams), Breloom, and Chesnaught, Focus Blast to revenge kill Mega Gyarados, and 2HKO Ferrothorn (two more huge threats to rain teams), and Knock Off taking care of Latios, Chansey, and Latias while also making rain checks such as Ferrothorn and Rotom-W much easier to wear down. Its power is also really good, easily OHKOing most offensive Pokemon under rain. All in all, a very viable choice on any Thundurus weak team.

Tornadus @ Life Orb
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hurricane
- Superpower
- Knock Off
- Tailwind

Why use Tornadus over Tornadus-T? For two reasons. The first is sheer power. 125 SpA is way more than 110 and the same goes for 115 Atk in comparison to 100. Tornadus can OHKO-2HKO many Pokemon that Tornadus-T can't, such as Latios with Knock Off (81.7 -- 96.3% - 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock), physically defensive Tyranitar (84.9 - 100.4% -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock), Landorus (85.6 - 101.2% -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock), Belly Drum Azumarill (79.8 - 93.8% -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock), Chansey (Knock Off + Superpower always 2HKO after SR), and SpD Hippowdon (47.6 - 56.6% -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery), though you need to hit two 70% accurate Hurricanes.

The second is Prankster Tailwind, an immensely useful tool for rain HO. Guys such as Mega Ampharos, LO Crawdaunt, and Keldeo are downright scary under rain with a Tailwind boost, especially the first two, as they don't give a fuck about priority (because they either resist it or have priority of their own) and hit hard as fuck. After those Pokemon do some messing up on the opponent's team, cleaning up with a Swift Swimmer will be a breeze. Not to mention that it can get you out of messy situations, such as letting a Mega Gyarados get too many boosts for your Mega Manectric to outspeed.

 

[Sergeant Spooky]

I'm not going to go with Kabutops/Kingdra/Tornadus etc. etc. because you all already know they're frakkin good in rain.

One thing rain teams have an issue with is that if you're forced to play defensively, this can be hard cause majority of your team is going to be Swift Swimmers and rain setters so you've really only got two slots for defensive/support mons, but there is some neat stuff you can use.

THIS IS MY SWAMP (Chesnaught) @ Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def / 60 Spd
Impish Nature
- Spiky Shield
- Leech Seed
- Substitute / Spikes
- Hammer Arm / Brick Break / Drain Punch
Other good moves: Rock Slide (catch Mega Pinsir or Talonflame on the switch, you don't need Stone Edge's additional power,) Wood Hammer (STAB, hits Keldeo,) Pain Split (it's not that good but pretty much guarantees you can beat Venu)

Chesnaught is a pretty neat defensive mon for rain teams, as it can check/counter a few things that give them trouble. While it's partially eclipsed by Ferrothorn, it has a few advantages:
-It's faster than Tyranitar and doesn't get entirely fucked by sets that run Fire Blast. It pretty much counters every set Tyranitar can feasibly run, while Ferrothorn loses to Fire Blast sets (if Rain isn't up)
-It can switch into Specs Keldeo's Secret Sword
-It wins against most Breloom sets; Breloom can't do anything to Chesnaught unless it has Swords Dance+Life Orb
-Spiky Shield is a really annoying move

Chesnaught counters Mega Gyarados (can set up on +0 Kabutops,) Mega Tyranitar (changes the weather, sweeps your team,) most Aegislash (can do King's Shield dickery against Kabtuops,) can switch into Keldeo's Secret Sword (Kingdra does not give a fuck about SPECS HYDRO PUMP IN RAIN LOL, but Secret Sword hurts a little so the Keldeo user has to make a 50/50 prediction cause Chesnaught is 2HKOed by any of its other moves,) most DNite (checks both of Kingdra and Kabutops if Multiscale is intact,) most Breloom (immune to Spore, wins against most but SD sets can be a problem, Sub Toxic Heal sets are annoying,) can "wall" most Mega Venu (but not do anything back really, except PP stall,) scares away Ferrothorn, scares away Bisharp (whose STAB Sucker Punch really hurts your swimmers,) scares away Chansey (Toxic sucks though,) and a bunch of other stuff that's really annoying for rain teams.

On the other hand, you can't use Synthesis because it's gimped in Rain, so it can be easy to wear down (which isn't much of an issue cause most teams only have one thing that's a problem for your sweepers.) Sub lets you troll switch ins (especially Talonflame) by racking up chip damage with Spiky Shield (alternate between Sub and Shield,) and allows it to really dick with Azumarills and Mega Mawiles that don't have more speed than you. This can also stall out rain, so like if you only have three turns left, you can stall those out and then send in Politoed. Spikes are Spikes but Chesnaught loses to pretty much every common defogger.

Rain also gets rid of its Fire weakness so it can stand up to some stuff it otherwise couldn't, like X-zard and Heatran.

Captain Crunch (Mawile) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off / Iron Head / Brick Break / Focus Punch
- Swords Dance / Substitute

Mega Mawile is already pretty hard to handle, but on a rain team it's EVEN HARDER because now it's netural to fire and is solely weak to Earthquake (and you can use Chesnaught, who Lando-T can't really do anything to, plus it does pretty well against Garchomp, Excadrill, and other things with erfquake.) Mega Mawile is a really good partner for Kingdra, cause if Kingdra is choice locked into Hydro Pump/Surf and Latios tries to check, it risks letting Mawile switch in to either of its STABs but also risks doing nothing to Kingdra with any of its other moves, and getting 2HKOed by Kingdra's Water STAB. Azumarill also checks Kingdra, and if your opponent sees Mawile on your team they risk letting Mawile switch into Play Rough (Banded Play Rough hurts but not too much,) or doing absolutely nothing to Kingdra with Waterfall (and getting blasted with Specs Hydro Pump.) Safest play is usually to keep Kingdra in (unless you're locked into Draco/Pulse which is pretty fkin dumb cause they had a fairy,) since Kingdra getting KOed means a free turn for Mawile (at least if you're not MEvolved, so you can Intimidate Azumarill, but it's okay if Azu is banded and KOed Kingdra with Play Rough) which is really bad news for your opponent. Plus it's pretty good against Stall teams, which rain can struggle with. Iron Head is good for Mega Venusaur, you can even run Jolly with some more speed investment to outspeed zero-investment Venu but you lose some bulk and power.

REMOVE KEBAB (Gothitelle) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 124 HP / 252 SAtk / 132 Spd
Modest Nature
- Trick
- Psyshock
- Heal Bell / Substitute
- Rest

Rain teams can struggle with stall, so Gothitelle is pretty cool to use because it can trap and beat pretty much everything that stall uses and gives rain trouble, like Ferrothorn, Mega Venusaur, Chansey, etc. Psyshock is the only attack move cause it doesn't really need to do anything other than get rid of walls, which it can do with just Trick Specs and then PP stall. Heal Bell is used cause it really sucks when Kabutops/Mawile gets burned, Chesnaught gets Toxiced/Burned, Kingdra/Kabutops gets T-waved, etc. so it can just use Heal Bell if it gets a chance, but Sub is also good if your opponent has a Pursuit user. It has a pretty wide movepool so you can tailor it to do what you want it to. It's kind of a douchey mon to use though cause you usually only need to trap and kill one or two things to open up a sweep for your swift swimmers, and there's not a lot your opponent can do about it cause lolshadowtag (even attempting to double switch, since a lot of counters to Swift Swimmers take tons of damage from rain boosted water attacks anyway so if they don't get a chance to recover they may be out of luck, plus if you use with something with Volt Switch they don't get a chance.)

All in all I'd say rain is pretty effective in XY, cause it just stomps opposing HO teams and it has a few ways to get around stall. It's pretty strongth.

 

[Toljik]

I can vouch for Seismitoad, but I use a different set.

Seismitoad @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SAtk
Lonely Nature
- Earthquake
- Hydro Pump
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch

The weak Water STAB is unfortunate, but it hits nearly as hard as Waterfall would given the EVs. I only use a physical set because it's a lot harder to find a physical Swift Swimmer than a special one.

 

[rachet67]

I've had reasonable success with rain dance Latios:

Latios @ Damp Rock
Ability: Levitate
Evs: 252 HP/ 4 Def/ 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
-Draco Meteor
-Rain Dance
-Memento
-Psyshock/Defog

It's pretty self explanatory, you set up rain dance, and proceed to use Memento on the switch in to allow a sweeper such as Kabutops to safely set up. It preserves momentum very well, which is valuable for HO rain. Defog gives it a little more utility outside of rain dancing.

 

[Nova]

Crawdaunt @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Crabhammer
- Knock Off
- Superpower
- Aqua Jet

Crawdaunt is an underrated Pokemon for rain teams that I had a lot of success with in BW and is still a threat on XY. Equipped with a Choice Band and receiving boosts from Adaptability and Rain, it can smash through even the toughest physical walls. Under rain, it's Crabhammer outdamges Kyurem-B's Outrage. Crabhammer and Knock Off are mandatory STABs that heavily dent almost anything, Superpower is used for coverage mainly against Ferrothorn, and Aqua Jet is a nice form of priority that can help bypass Crawdaunt's middling speed. Crawdaunt's low base 55 Speed is his main issue and so it would be helpful to pair it with a Tailwind user, namely Tornadus who also fits well on Rain teams. Other good partners for Crawdaunt include Pokemon who appreciate having walls weakened such as SD Scizor or DD Dragonite. Crawdaunt also has some issues getting in safely so having Pokemon with U-turn and Volt Switch serve well to get Crawdaunt a way to get in.

 

[skies]

No one has posted a Kabutops set? For shame!

Kabutops​

Kabutops is an absolute monster under rain, it strikes fear into the opposition just by the Team Preview. Kabutops in Rain reaches 518 Speed with an Adamant nature, outspeeding Deoxys-S along with any Pokemon with Choice Scarf under 107 Speed. It has access to Swords Dance, and under Rain, it's basically at +2 Speed +2 Attack and can be extremely hard to handle. It has a good 115 Attack and a respectable 105 Defense, allowing it to take one or two neutral physical hits. Kabutops is very scary to face and forces a lot of switches, it's very common on Rain teams and for a great reason: It's absolutely a monster. After a Swords Dance it 2HKOes the games titans of Defense, Skarmory and Mega Venusaur, and also doesn't mind Quagsire, as it is 2HKOed by Waterfall under Rain. Kabutops is also essential because it stops Talonflame, which can be a massive pain for Rain Hyperoffense. Kabutops Waterfall in Rain is just so strong and it is a massive threat to watch out for, if it is allowed the opportunity, it will most likely sweep your team.

Kabutops is not without its flaws, however. It has really bad Special bulk and a lacking HP, meaning it doesn't take hits very well on the Special side. Its typing also leaves it prone to Electric-, Grass-, and Ground-type moves, which are common. Kabutops is also kind of deadweight outside of Rain, and sometimes it won't always be up. Kabutops struggles to fit all the moves it needs as well, which can be difficult. Kabutops is severely crippled by any status, Paralysis, Burn, Poison, you name it, Kabutops doesn't like it. Lum Berry is an option to mitigate this, however, a lot of power is lost from Life Orb and it is not the greatest option. Kabutops is still a large threat, but it does have a lot of flaws holding it back from being a top tier threat, but still watch out for this menace!

Set:
Kabutops @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Aqua Jet / Low Kick

 

[Sweep]

Some thoughts on rain offense this generation:

1. Greninja is absolutely amazing at the moment. A set consisting of Hydro Pump, Extrasensory and Ice Beam can break many of rain's biggest enemies, such as Mega Venusaur, Keldeo, and Amoonguss. Assault Vest Slowbro and Chansey wall you, but a well-timed U-Turn into Gothitelle will ruin both of them. Greninja's 105 Special Attack stat can be pretty underwhelming at times, even with Protean, but rain fixes up any power issues it might have vs balance very nicely. I'm shocked this isn't used on more rain teams considering its coverage and speed.

2. I despise Aqua Jet on Swords Dance Kabutops. You need Low Kick/Superpower to deal with Ferrothorn and Kabutops is fast enough in the rain as it is. I understand Aqua Jet stops Talonflame from picking off weakened Kabutops but losing out on the ability to nail Ferrothorn and wound obvious Chesnaught switchins (potentially putting it in KO range later in the match) really sucks. Aqua Jet is good on Band Kabutops though!

3. Don't forget that shit like Thundurus and Mega Ampharos can run Thunder over Thunderbolt! Needless to say it's a ridiculously good move under rain thanks to its power and good chance to cripple the opponent with paralysis.

4. I don't like Swift Swim spam, it isn't easy to keep rain up throughout the match and obviously they struggle to do much outside of rain. I usually only run one Swift Swimmer myself because of the lack of permanent rain. On paper, swimmers do a terrific job of wearing down each other's checks, but in practice the rain timer puts a cap on the effectiveness of this strategy.

5. I know the OU analysis for Omastar has some suboptimal White Herb Shell Smash set, but that set is terrible because Omastar rarely finds opportunities to set up and often doesn't need to anyway. Specs Omastar breaks physically defensive Venusaur and Ferrothorn in two hits and forces Chansey to recover or suffer the 3HKO (potentially giving Gothitelle an easy switch). It's sickeningly strong. Life Orb sets with a hazard can work too. TL;DR Omastar doesn't need the power from a Shell Smash...I would consider running another Swimmer with this since it is outsped by scarfers, yet can handle Talonflame for Ludicolo/Kingdra.

6. Has anyone else found Kingdra a little disappointing, at least compared to Kabutops? It isn't powerful enough to break walls on its own (Specsdra does NOT usually 2HKO Mega Venusaur, even after SR), gets hit hard by most forms of priority barring Bullet Punch, and lacks coverage. I've tried Dragon Dance and Specs and neither set is consistent. Admittedly, it's probably the best Swimmer outside of rain thanks to its solid Speed stat and defensive typing, but that isn't saying much.

7. The biggest issue I can see with rain offense is at the beginning of matches. You can use a suicide lead like Damp Rock Deoxys-S, but you typically get no more than one hazard if you choose to set up rain with it while doing nothing to your opponent's lead. If you choose to damage your opponent's lead instead, you have to go to Politoed once Deoxys-S dies. Then there's the issue of breaking down walls like Venusaur: it usually takes a sacrifice to wear it down enough to kill. Rain can excel in the late game once walls have been broken down, but you need to make sure you don't fall too far behind. Rain also has little chance of beating certain specialized mons: unless you carry a Ludicolo or Grass Knot Tornadus, Gastrodon and Jellicent will annoy the hell out of rain teams.

 

[Consignia]

How has everyone running rain been dealing with enemy Azumarill? I've tried a lot of stuff but it always seems like Azumarill makes a mess of my teams: It just hits far, far too hard considering how bulky it is. It has so many viable sets between BellyJet/CB/AV, and you need to handle them all differently. Depending on the set and my team composition I'll sometimes have difficulty even finding a clean revenge killer. Azu seems to mess me up far, far more consistently than any other 'anti-rain' pokemon.

 

[skies]

How has everyone running rain been dealing with enemy Azumarill? I've tried a lot of stuff but it always seems like Azumarill makes a mess of my teams: It just hits far, far too hard considering how bulky it is. It has so many viable sets between BellyJet/CB/AV, and you need to handle them all differently. Depending on the set and my team composition I'll sometimes have difficulty even finding a clean revenge killer. Azu seems to mess me up far, far more consistently than any other 'anti-rain' pokemon.

Mega Venusaur, as usual, walls it to hell and back, even under Rain:
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Venusaur in Rain: 111-131 (30.4 - 35.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
But, Belly Drum sets are kill:
+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Venusaur in Rain: 297-349 (81.5 - 95.8%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Venusaur in Rain: 148-175 (40.6 - 48%) -- 64.5% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Hell, Aqua Jet 2HKOes at that point! Sludge Bomb does do a lot and will OHKO after Belly Drum, so there's that.

 

[BenTheDemon]

As far as Swift Swimmers go, I find Kingdra to be amazing in that role.​

Here's a set that takes full advantage of Drizzle-Swift Swim:

Kingdra @ Life Orb / Leftovers / Damp Rock (Life Orb to max out damage, Lefties to live longer, Damp Rock to have longer Rain)
Ability: Swift Swim
Shiny: Yes
Modest Nature (Kingdra isn't common enough to worry about outspeeding other Kindra)
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spd / 4 HP
-Rain Dance
-Draco Meteor / Dragon Pulse
-Hydro Pump / Surf
-Ice Beam / Clear Smog

I used to run this set in BW UU, but it is now far more useful with the ban on Drizzle + Swift Swim lifted. It makes an excellent wallbreaker with its High BP moves. I added Rain Dance to keep Kingdra going after the rain inevitably stops. Life Orb is the recommended item because it lets Kingdra hit that much harder, which can be important. But if longevity is your goal, then I recommend LEftovers or Damp Rock. Dragon Pulse and Surf are more reliable options, but the decrease in power is noticeable. Ice Beam and Clear Smog are there because Kindgra doesn't have much of a movepool outside of STAB. Clear Smog can be used to throw off boosting sweepers. Shiny is recommended because purple is my favorite color.

Though Kingdra may not be the go-to Water type in OU, it is definitely worth consideration as a Swift Swimmer.

 

[BenTheDemon]

Has NOBODY made a good post about Hydration Goodra yet? Really? ._. (I've seen like one post but with no explanation. I'm going to take over that role.)

(Gooey Rain) Goodra @ Leftovers/Damp Rock
EV: 252 HP, 252 SpA, 4 SpD (Modest)
Ability: Hydration
-Dragon Pulse/Draco Meteor
-Thunder/Rain Dance
-Rest
-Muddy Water/Focus Miss

Overview:
Don't eat me. I get it that Muddy Water is a weird move on Goodra. But, considering the Rain boost, it gets a huge jump in power as well as the possibility to lower accuracy. I agree with X5Dragon in that Deoxys-S is a fantastic Rain Setter. You don't really need to run Rain Dance on Goodra if you have him on your team. Now I've heard from many people that Goodra's biggest weakness is its lack of recovery (for me it's its low Defense stat). Rest/Hydration fixes this problem completely. I've never actually used this particular set (I've never been the biggest fan of Rain teams, sadly), but I'm sure it runs quite nicely.

Other Options:
-The common Assault Vest is an option, but you lose Rest recovery.
-Acid Armor (Which nobody seems to mention) makes Goodra a formidable tank under Rain.
-Infestation/Toxic is another thing. Kinda trolly.

Set Issues:
-The biggest problem is the Rain nerf in this gen. If you want to run Gooey Rain efficiently, it's best to run Rain Dance on all sets. This therefore wastes a moveslot and lowers Goodra's potentials.
-Fairies take practically no damage from any of Goodra's sets. Sylveon and Florges wall this thing to the moon and back.

Yea. Assault Vest on Hydration Goodra is ass. Hydration was made for Rest. My buddy wingg uses this variant of Goodra, and it's arguably better than the standard AV Goodra.

 

[effyouzion]

Not a huge fan of rain. It's good against HO but is too inconsistent against other types of teams for my taste.

I don't think I'm alone here. I have yet to see a rain team near the top of the ladder.

 

[alexwolf]

How has everyone running rain been dealing with enemy Azumarill? I've tried a lot of stuff but it always seems like Azumarill makes a mess of my teams: It just hits far, far too hard considering how bulky it is. It has so many viable sets between BellyJet/CB/AV, and you need to handle them all differently. Depending on the set and my team composition I'll sometimes have difficulty even finding a clean revenge killer. Azu seems to mess me up far, far more consistently than any other 'anti-rain' pokemon.

Heliolisk is a good way to check Azumarill on offensive teams, which is surprisingly hard to deal with btw. Other than that, just make sure that most of your Pokemon can do more than half to it, take one rain-boosted Aqua Jet, and have a priority user that can pick off any Belly Drum Azumarill that might have managed to set up with little health to spare. Of course there is also Ludicolo, which can check Azumarill and Mega Gyarados, and other more niche rain counters such as Gastrodon, or some mildly troubling Pokemon such as Rotom-W.

 

[dwarfstar]

Nova I'd suggest replacing Crunch with Knock Off on that Crawdaunt. Between the fact that two Knock Off hits (the first boosted, the second unboosted) will actually outdamage Crunch and the utility of removing the enemy's item, Knock Off is probably the superior choice.

 

[Andrew]

hey guys, im really digging the rain..I've got a replay here of a team i made just minutes after checking out this thread with some cool ideas, and of course, as usual, the first team I face is Baton Pass -_- however, it actually resulted in a pretty fun match! (aside from some obvious misplays ie me forgetting his zappy was sleeping, scolipede shenanigans)
here is the replay : http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-124644888
i love the offensive style, the pressure it puts on teams, and i actually like having the "rain timer" as it makes the game much more urgent and exciting. n_n
I'd like to somehow continue to work with rain, as most of my weather experience has been w/ sand before although i have tried out some rain teams in the past. I think one thing is that, like a sand team, it may not be totally necessary to have multiple rain setters, and like u said Sweep , u might not have to stack swift swimmers either, as u can have a sweeper, and other mons that may benefit from the rain is well. Gotta get my head in the game, this is gonna be good maybe

 

[Nova]

Nova I'd suggest replacing Crunch with Knock Off on that Crawdaunt. Between the fact that two Knock Off hits (the first boosted, the second unboosted) will actually outdamage Crunch and the utility of removing the enemy's item, Knock Off is probably the superior choice.

Ya you're right, totally forgot about the XY change to Knock Off and just took the BW standard. Thanks for the catch