Hi guys! I’m new here to Smogon, and here’s a team that I’ve played with for quite awhile. It’s a rain team with a mix of offense and defense, leaning more towards the former. My main goal is to (mostly) help set up for a Jolteon sweep, coz’ specs boosted Thunder + Rain = sexy! I use this team to rain down deadly weather storms on my opponent with specs boosted Thunders and Hurricanes, hence my topic title =). I’ve done pretty well with this team on PO wifi-OU, reaching a peak of around 500, and rarely dropping below 4000. Of course, every team is not without its flaws, and I intend to address that later.
Team history:
1/ Jolteon is my favorite Eeveelution, so I decided I’ve got to make a team based around her. Since I intend to spam powerful Thunders with her, naturally I chose to go with a rain team.
2/ I decided to bring in a partner for Jolteon as a secondary sweeper to weaken most of Jolteon’s counters, and realized that my second choice can also sweep well in his own right. That partner is Tornadus. Incidentally, Jolteon & Tornadus happen to form a Volt-turn combo, which is nice.
3/ Next, I decided on someone who can set up entry hazards. I chose Forretress, since he’s a rather reliable at it, with neat little package of Stealth Rock, Spikes, & Rapid Spin in the same set. I thought Rapid Spin would definitely benefit my special sweepers, who’d be doing lots of Volt-turns. Rain also helps neuter Forry’s weakness, especially those random HP fire attacks from Lati@s and Rotom-W, for example.
4/ After that, I realized that my team is very special based, walled by fat pink eggs. I chose Gliscor at first because he can easily find ways to Swords Dance, and with Roost, can even pull of a second dance. Therefore, in came acrobat Gliscor.
5/ For my final team member, I also chose a physical attacker, and I decided on 1 who isn’t as afraid of burns, because a combo of Blissey + ghost can wall my whole team if Gliscor got burned. I chose Breloom for the job.
6/ After some playing for awhile, I realized that I have nobody who can reliably take strong water attacks. Breloom still gets 2HKO’ed in the rain, and Politoed alone can’t be expected to eat strong Hydro Pumps, especially when I didn’t use leftovers on him. I decided to replace Forry with Ferro because I often find opponents using Forry as set-up bait. At least with Ferro, not only I get a nice water and electric resist, I can cripple would be set-up sweepers with Thunder Wave. I also found that I didn’t use Volt-turn as often as I expected to, so loss of Rapid Spin wasn’t a big deal.
7/ I found Gliscor to be rather underwhelming, dying to lots of random Hidden Powers or Ice Beams (from Blissey). I decided to replace Gliscor with another old-favorite: Toxicroak, which is excellent in the rain.
So here is my current finalized team.
Politoed @ Choice Specs
Modest
252 HP/252 Sp Att/4 Speed
Hydro Pump
Ice Beam
Focus Blast
Perish Song
Politoed sets up the rain for Jolteon & Tornadus, while also hitting hard himself. Modest-specs boosted Hydro Pump destroys lots of things, like OHKO on Scizor, and 2HKO resistors such as Starmie and Salamence. Choice Perish Song, as silly as it seems, has gotten me out of many tight situations, end ending sweeps for many opponents. Example would be against Reuniclus and Latias. Most people would expect you to switch out after Perish Song anyway, and they certainly won’t expect specs with Perish Song.
I used max HP instead of speed because firstly, I want to make sure I always get rain up if I lead against Ninetales. Secondly, since I’m using Perish Song, I’d like Politoed to be able to take a hit before singing. And finally, due to decent bulk, Politoed can be an emergency check to some things, such as Terrakion and Gyarados.
Jolteon @ Choice Specs
Timid
252 Sp Att/252 Speed/4 HP
Volt Switch
Thunder
Hidden Power Ice
Signal Beam
My main star, she has pulled off many sweeps once I’ve removed the opponent’s ground type. Usually, Volt Switch and Thunder are the only attacks that I only use. I use Hidden Power on predicted switches, although I try not to rely on that if possible. I choose Ice over Grass because checking the threat of Gliscor, Landorus, and the occasional Flygon is more valuable than checking Gastrodon and Swampert. Sngnal Beam is filler, mainly for Lati@s, Abomasnow, and Celebi, but again, I hardly ever use it.
OK, need your opinion on this. I have considered Modest over Timid to score even more OHKO’s without relying on Stealth Rock. Only Pokemon that now outrun me are Starmie, which can’t do much to Ferrothorn; Alakazam, and Azelf. I must admit, those two are quite dangerous to my team, so if I run Modest, I may need to use Politoed as emergency check to them. Toxicroak also checks them well, but if Alakazam has sash, then I’m in trouble. What do you all think? Would it be OK to switch to Modest?
Tornadus @ Choice Specs
Timid
252 Sp Att/252 Speed/4 HP
Hurricane
U-turn
Focus Blast
Taunt
Tornadus is Jolteon’s Volt-turn partner. Hurricane ravages throughtowns teams, scoring 2HKO on everything whose name is not Blissey, Tyranitar, Magnezone, or Heatran. Focus Blast deals with the latter 3; choice Taunt, again might seems silly, but shutting Skarmory, Mew, BP, and Ferrothorn is too good to pass up. Orignially, back when I first made Tornadus I had Life Orb instead of Choice Specs, but recoil + Stealth Rock means Tornadus dies very fast, so I changed to Specs. Perhaps I could use Sharp Beak, but 20% boost isn’t high enough. For now, I’ll leave Taunt in since I’m not really sure what else to put as filler anyway. Your thoughts?
Timid is a must here since many more dangerous Pokemon can outrun me if I switch to Modest.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Impish
252 HP/88 Def/168 Sp Def
Stealth Rock
Thunder Wave
Power Whip
Bulldoze
Ferro is used to set up Stealth Rock, making Dragonite and Volcarona a lot easier to deal with. Thunder Wave cripples most would be switch ins. I tend to use Thunder Wave as my first move since most grounds won’t want to eat a STAB Power Whip. I used to have Spikes, but I realized (even back then when using Forry), that I don’t have time to lay them. Also, I have no ghosts, so I decided not to waste time with them. I replaced Spikes with Bulldoze; it allows me to beat Magnezones who try to trap me and pull off a Sub-Charge Beam sweep.
Toxicroak @ Leftovers
Adamant
Dry Skin
244 HP/252 Att/12 Def
Drain Punch
Bulk Up
Substitute
Sucker Punch
Toxicroak surprisingly is one of the most resilient Pokemon in my team. His multitude of resistances patches a number of defensive holes in my team.
Substitute + Bulk Up means that most physical moves will soon struggle to break him, even non-STAB EQ won’t hurt if I manage to BU twice. I then get back my HP through Drain Punch, Dry Skin regen, and leftovers. Sucker Punch provides a priority attack, and serves as excellent check against most psychics. Toxicroak has pulled off many sweeps on his own due to sheer resilience.
Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Adamant
Poison Heal
12 HP/244 Att/252 Speed
Spore
Substitute
Focus Punch
Seed Bomb
Breloom disables someone with Spore, and then she gets up a sub. STAB Focus Punch hits things real hard, and Seed Bomb is for secondary STAB. Nothing much to say, Breloom causes many people to ragequit for beingly annoying.
Breloom however, adds an unwanted Psychic weakness, and this team is already quite vulnerable to Alakazam as it is (assuming I switch Jolteon to Modest). So if I were to replace anyone, it would be Breloom. I’m just not sure who to replace with. Her speed is also underwhelming. I’m not even sure if I should run max speed (needed to at worst tie with offensive Politoed), or focus on her bulk instead. Your thoughts?
Leading
As with most rain teams I lead with Politoed. If I face another rain team, I lead with Jolteon instead. If I meet Rotom leads on Rain teams with Jolteon lead, I hard switch to Ferro in case of scarf. If I see Smeargle or Ninjask in team preview, I lead with Tornadus. I also lead with Tornadus against sand teams to hopefully score a hit on lead T-tar with U-turn.
Weather war
If Politoed start against Ninetales, I always will have rain up, so I soak her with Hydro Pump, even if she stays in to Sunny Day, she’ll still take a heavy hit. One thing to note here is that I don’t really have anyone that takes fire attacks well here besides Politoed, so I usually bring in Tornadus into Solar Beam, and bring Politoed back to cancel sun. Therefore, my biggest concern here is if I lose weather war against Sun teams. If I do, it usually is game over for me, and I have to rely on 50% accurate Thunder and Hurricane to bring me through the match.
Rarely do I ever lose weather war against sand. T-tar is no problem at all; Toxicroak and Breloom can handle him quite well. Same goes for Hippowdon, who’s easily dealt with by Politoed and Breloom.
Abomasnow is actually quite dangerous to my team as well. In the rare instances where I face a hail team, I try to Drain Punch Abomasnow with Toxicroak, hopefully recovering from Aboma’s painful STAB Blizzard. Jolteon Signal Beam serves as emergency check.
Other issues
Conbination of Gliscor + Blissey/Chansey is quite annoying to this team. Gliscor walls my two physical attackers, while Blissey easily laughs at the rest. Usually, I try to wear Blissey down with powerful hits from Politoed, forcing her to Wish. At least if she’s already taken prior damage I can finish her off. May other way is to hope to catch Jolteon with HP Ice on Gliscor switch-ins. It actually happens quite often since many people don’t want to let me Volt Switch. Otherwise, Gliscor + Blissey/Chansey on the same team is of my biggest defensive concern.
There you have it. Any advice and comments are greatly appreciated.
Importable:
Team history:
1/ Jolteon is my favorite Eeveelution, so I decided I’ve got to make a team based around her. Since I intend to spam powerful Thunders with her, naturally I chose to go with a rain team.
2/ I decided to bring in a partner for Jolteon as a secondary sweeper to weaken most of Jolteon’s counters, and realized that my second choice can also sweep well in his own right. That partner is Tornadus. Incidentally, Jolteon & Tornadus happen to form a Volt-turn combo, which is nice.
3/ Next, I decided on someone who can set up entry hazards. I chose Forretress, since he’s a rather reliable at it, with neat little package of Stealth Rock, Spikes, & Rapid Spin in the same set. I thought Rapid Spin would definitely benefit my special sweepers, who’d be doing lots of Volt-turns. Rain also helps neuter Forry’s weakness, especially those random HP fire attacks from Lati@s and Rotom-W, for example.
4/ After that, I realized that my team is very special based, walled by fat pink eggs. I chose Gliscor at first because he can easily find ways to Swords Dance, and with Roost, can even pull of a second dance. Therefore, in came acrobat Gliscor.
5/ For my final team member, I also chose a physical attacker, and I decided on 1 who isn’t as afraid of burns, because a combo of Blissey + ghost can wall my whole team if Gliscor got burned. I chose Breloom for the job.
6/ After some playing for awhile, I realized that I have nobody who can reliably take strong water attacks. Breloom still gets 2HKO’ed in the rain, and Politoed alone can’t be expected to eat strong Hydro Pumps, especially when I didn’t use leftovers on him. I decided to replace Forry with Ferro because I often find opponents using Forry as set-up bait. At least with Ferro, not only I get a nice water and electric resist, I can cripple would be set-up sweepers with Thunder Wave. I also found that I didn’t use Volt-turn as often as I expected to, so loss of Rapid Spin wasn’t a big deal.
7/ I found Gliscor to be rather underwhelming, dying to lots of random Hidden Powers or Ice Beams (from Blissey). I decided to replace Gliscor with another old-favorite: Toxicroak, which is excellent in the rain.
So here is my current finalized team.
Politoed @ Choice Specs
Modest
252 HP/252 Sp Att/4 Speed
Hydro Pump
Ice Beam
Focus Blast
Perish Song
Politoed sets up the rain for Jolteon & Tornadus, while also hitting hard himself. Modest-specs boosted Hydro Pump destroys lots of things, like OHKO on Scizor, and 2HKO resistors such as Starmie and Salamence. Choice Perish Song, as silly as it seems, has gotten me out of many tight situations, end ending sweeps for many opponents. Example would be against Reuniclus and Latias. Most people would expect you to switch out after Perish Song anyway, and they certainly won’t expect specs with Perish Song.
I used max HP instead of speed because firstly, I want to make sure I always get rain up if I lead against Ninetales. Secondly, since I’m using Perish Song, I’d like Politoed to be able to take a hit before singing. And finally, due to decent bulk, Politoed can be an emergency check to some things, such as Terrakion and Gyarados.
Jolteon @ Choice Specs
Timid
252 Sp Att/252 Speed/4 HP
Volt Switch
Thunder
Hidden Power Ice
Signal Beam
My main star, she has pulled off many sweeps once I’ve removed the opponent’s ground type. Usually, Volt Switch and Thunder are the only attacks that I only use. I use Hidden Power on predicted switches, although I try not to rely on that if possible. I choose Ice over Grass because checking the threat of Gliscor, Landorus, and the occasional Flygon is more valuable than checking Gastrodon and Swampert. Sngnal Beam is filler, mainly for Lati@s, Abomasnow, and Celebi, but again, I hardly ever use it.
OK, need your opinion on this. I have considered Modest over Timid to score even more OHKO’s without relying on Stealth Rock. Only Pokemon that now outrun me are Starmie, which can’t do much to Ferrothorn; Alakazam, and Azelf. I must admit, those two are quite dangerous to my team, so if I run Modest, I may need to use Politoed as emergency check to them. Toxicroak also checks them well, but if Alakazam has sash, then I’m in trouble. What do you all think? Would it be OK to switch to Modest?
Tornadus @ Choice Specs
Timid
252 Sp Att/252 Speed/4 HP
Hurricane
U-turn
Focus Blast
Taunt
Tornadus is Jolteon’s Volt-turn partner. Hurricane ravages through
Timid is a must here since many more dangerous Pokemon can outrun me if I switch to Modest.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Impish
252 HP/88 Def/168 Sp Def
Stealth Rock
Thunder Wave
Power Whip
Bulldoze
Ferro is used to set up Stealth Rock, making Dragonite and Volcarona a lot easier to deal with. Thunder Wave cripples most would be switch ins. I tend to use Thunder Wave as my first move since most grounds won’t want to eat a STAB Power Whip. I used to have Spikes, but I realized (even back then when using Forry), that I don’t have time to lay them. Also, I have no ghosts, so I decided not to waste time with them. I replaced Spikes with Bulldoze; it allows me to beat Magnezones who try to trap me and pull off a Sub-Charge Beam sweep.
Toxicroak @ Leftovers
Adamant
Dry Skin
244 HP/252 Att/12 Def
Drain Punch
Bulk Up
Substitute
Sucker Punch
Toxicroak surprisingly is one of the most resilient Pokemon in my team. His multitude of resistances patches a number of defensive holes in my team.
Substitute + Bulk Up means that most physical moves will soon struggle to break him, even non-STAB EQ won’t hurt if I manage to BU twice. I then get back my HP through Drain Punch, Dry Skin regen, and leftovers. Sucker Punch provides a priority attack, and serves as excellent check against most psychics. Toxicroak has pulled off many sweeps on his own due to sheer resilience.
Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Adamant
Poison Heal
12 HP/244 Att/252 Speed
Spore
Substitute
Focus Punch
Seed Bomb
Breloom disables someone with Spore, and then she gets up a sub. STAB Focus Punch hits things real hard, and Seed Bomb is for secondary STAB. Nothing much to say, Breloom causes many people to ragequit for beingly annoying.
Breloom however, adds an unwanted Psychic weakness, and this team is already quite vulnerable to Alakazam as it is (assuming I switch Jolteon to Modest). So if I were to replace anyone, it would be Breloom. I’m just not sure who to replace with. Her speed is also underwhelming. I’m not even sure if I should run max speed (needed to at worst tie with offensive Politoed), or focus on her bulk instead. Your thoughts?
Leading
As with most rain teams I lead with Politoed. If I face another rain team, I lead with Jolteon instead. If I meet Rotom leads on Rain teams with Jolteon lead, I hard switch to Ferro in case of scarf. If I see Smeargle or Ninjask in team preview, I lead with Tornadus. I also lead with Tornadus against sand teams to hopefully score a hit on lead T-tar with U-turn.
Weather war
If Politoed start against Ninetales, I always will have rain up, so I soak her with Hydro Pump, even if she stays in to Sunny Day, she’ll still take a heavy hit. One thing to note here is that I don’t really have anyone that takes fire attacks well here besides Politoed, so I usually bring in Tornadus into Solar Beam, and bring Politoed back to cancel sun. Therefore, my biggest concern here is if I lose weather war against Sun teams. If I do, it usually is game over for me, and I have to rely on 50% accurate Thunder and Hurricane to bring me through the match.
Rarely do I ever lose weather war against sand. T-tar is no problem at all; Toxicroak and Breloom can handle him quite well. Same goes for Hippowdon, who’s easily dealt with by Politoed and Breloom.
Abomasnow is actually quite dangerous to my team as well. In the rare instances where I face a hail team, I try to Drain Punch Abomasnow with Toxicroak, hopefully recovering from Aboma’s painful STAB Blizzard. Jolteon Signal Beam serves as emergency check.
Other issues
Conbination of Gliscor + Blissey/Chansey is quite annoying to this team. Gliscor walls my two physical attackers, while Blissey easily laughs at the rest. Usually, I try to wear Blissey down with powerful hits from Politoed, forcing her to Wish. At least if she’s already taken prior damage I can finish her off. May other way is to hope to catch Jolteon with HP Ice on Gliscor switch-ins. It actually happens quite often since many people don’t want to let me Volt Switch. Otherwise, Gliscor + Blissey/Chansey on the same team is of my biggest defensive concern.
There you have it. Any advice and comments are greatly appreciated.
Importable:
Politoed (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Perish Song
- Focus Blast
Breloom (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 12 HP / 244 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Focus Punch
- Spore
- Substitute
- Seed Bomb
Toxicroak (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bulk Up
- Substitute
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
Tornadus (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- Taunt
- U-turn
Ferrothorn (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Bulldoze
- Stealth Rock
- Power Whip
- Thunder Wave
Jolteon (F) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 SAtk / 6 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunder
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Signal Beam
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Perish Song
- Focus Blast
Breloom (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 12 HP / 244 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Focus Punch
- Spore
- Substitute
- Seed Bomb
Toxicroak (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bulk Up
- Substitute
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
Tornadus (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- Taunt
- U-turn
Ferrothorn (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Bulldoze
- Stealth Rock
- Power Whip
- Thunder Wave
Jolteon (F) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 SAtk / 6 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunder
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Signal Beam
