Introduction:
My first experience with competitive battling was actually in the Ubers tier. I don’t know why, because all the pokemon there were cooler or something? Anyway, team-building skills back then weren’t exactly brilliant. I started with a team of pokemon I liked. After that, each time I got sweept or stalled to death by a pokemon I would use that poke. Thanks to that, I’ve used everything from Shaymin to Lugia and ran balanced, rain, sun, and hyper offensive teams.
After that, I settled down and did some more research on battling. I went to the OU tier and played around a bit. Soon I decided to go back to the Ubers tier. I took my team as I left it, tweaked it a bit, and got this rain team. I’ve won a few and lost a few matches, and I’d really like some more suggestions.
Team at a Glance:
Team Building
Kyogre was first, since you can't have a rain team without it. Palkia works well with it so I added that too.
Manaphy sounded like an interesting rain sweeper so I decided to test it out.
Darkrai was a lead I used used in many of my old Uber teams so I added that too.
When I played in OU, it seemed that every rain team had Ferrothorn on it. I decided that it would work will in Ubers too.
I wasn't quite sure on the last slot so I picked Arcues-Ghost as a spinblocker/sweeper.
Arceus wasn't quite working for me and I was getting swept by Extremekiller Arceus. I added Giratina to replace Arceus-Ghost. It was a bulkier spinblocker and could also phaze.
Kyogre was first, since you can't have a rain team without it. Palkia works well with it so I added that too.
Manaphy sounded like an interesting rain sweeper so I decided to test it out.
Darkrai was a lead I used used in many of my old Uber teams so I added that too.
When I played in OU, it seemed that every rain team had Ferrothorn on it. I decided that it would work will in Ubers too.
I wasn't quite sure on the last slot so I picked Arcues-Ghost as a spinblocker/sweeper.
Arceus wasn't quite working for me and I was getting swept by Extremekiller Arceus. I added Giratina to replace Arceus-Ghost. It was a bulkier spinblocker and could also phaze.
Team at a Glance:
Team Members:
Darkrai @ Focus Sash
Trait: Bad Dreams
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
- Focus Blast
- Dark Void
Darkrai is my lead. It’s pretty frail (by Uber standards, that is) so it runs Focus Sash to almost guarantee a Nasty Plot. On the first turn is Dark Void (if the opponent is faster, Focus Sash lets me hit it anyway but Dark Void’s accuracy gets annoying) followed by a Nasty Plot. From then it can perform an early-game sweep and leave the rest to my other teammates.
Kyogre @ Choice Specs
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Water Spout
- Thunder
- Ice Beam
- Surf
Weather inducer for my team. Choice Specs Kyogre is absurdly powerful and 2HKOs almost anything in the metagame that doesn’t resist it and isn’t extremely bulky. Surf is used when Kyogre is at a lower health or if I predict Kyogre’s health will decrease in the next few turns. Ice Beam hits dragons that resist Kyogre’s rain-boosted STAB water attacks and Thunder does the same for waters while taking advantage of it’s boosted accuracy. Being Choice-locked is unfortunate though. I’m considering a change to a different set, mostly because I’m not sure if Specs Kyogre is right for my team. But so far it’s been working well.
Palkia @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Aura Sphere
- Spacial Rend
- Thunder
- Surf
Revenge-Killer. Scarf boosts its speed to absurd levels. Spacial Rend and Surf are powerful STAB attacks and Surf’s strength is boosted by the rain. Thunder lets me take down pokes like opposing Kyogre. Aura Sphere is coverage for things like Ferrothorn.
Giratina @ Leftovers Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Dragon Tail
Replaced Arceus-Ghost as my spinblocker, since it is bulkier and helps to check those annoying Extremekiller Arceus. This a specially defensive Giratina. Rest+Sleep Talk can be unreliable but Giratina is usually bulky enough to take the hits. Will-O-Wisp helps shut down physical sweepers *cough*Extremekiller*cough*. Dragon Tail is for phazing.
Manaphy @ Leftovers
Trait: Hydration
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Tail Glow
- Rest
- Surf
- Ice Beam
The main sweeper. Tail Glow’s new +3 boost has really helped Manaphy. Rain-boosted STAB Surf and coverage move Ice Beam help Manaphy to successfully sweep the opponents team. (Though Darkrai and Arceus sometimes pull the sweeps instead.) Hydration+Rest+Leftovers makes it bulky as well, being immune to status and having a full recovering move with no drawbacks. (Of course that all depends on the weather being rain.)
Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Spikes
Sets up Stealth Rock and Spikes. I’ve run into about a billion rain teams with Ferrrothorn. I’ve also run into Ferrothorn in the Ubers tier about a billion times as well so I figured I’d add it to my team. Ferrothorn’s Attack actually isn’t bad. Power Whip is STAB and Gyro Ball hits almost all pokemon in the Uber tier hard since they’re all pretty fast.
So that’s my team. I’d like comments and suggestions for how to improve. Thanks!