Rain HO Ft. Crawdaunt
Introduction:
Hey there! This is my first RMT but I've been playing OU on ladder for a few years now and I've finally made my first team worthy of note. The team originally started with me thinking of ways to counter a common sweeper in my current place ranking on the ladder: Hawlucha. I had wanted to use a physically defensive Unaware Clefable to counter it paired with the standard Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid Strike to cover Clefable's weaknesses. Then, that got me to remember that rain boosted water type moves by 50% and I thought, "Wow! 25 power rain boosted, Choice Band boosted, STAB boosted, and high attack Surging Strikes? That must be really strong!" So I went home and built a temporary basic rain team with the core included just to see the power of it and move on. However, as you can predict, that's not how it turned out.
Full Team:
Main Lead:
Pelipper @ Damp Rock/Heavy Duty Boots
Ability: Drizzle
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Defog
- U-turn
- Weather Ball
- Roost
As in most rain teams, you got to have a Pelipper. It sets up the rain which is the whole point of the team, it has decent bulk, access to defog; u-turn; and roost, plus it has flying type to allow a great switch-in to users of ground moves and resist fighting moves. Its easy capability of setting up rain allows it to be switched in and out at will to continually block out other weather setters or reset the rain counter, try to keep Pelipper alive as long as possible through the match, only saccing it as a last-ditch resort or you need it to close out the game. I mainly invested its stats into general bulk and a little into SpA to give Weather Ball a little more kick: this is to allow it to survive hits from Pokemon such as Weavile, other Urshifu, or any other pokemon that uses non-super effective physically-based moves. You can alternatively run Heavy Duty Boots to give Pelipper a little more survivability, but be aware, this does limit turns that your offensive pokemon can be in play.
Physical Wallbreaker:
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn
- Close Combat
Here it is, one of the greatest threats to most teams, with its versatility and its ability to absolutely demolish most specially defensive pokemon or strong walls, it's hard not to include it in this team. The power of this pokemon boosted by rain has the capacity to heavily injure or even kill some of the bulkiest pokemon out there. Its stats are pretty generic only really having the most leeway in terms of whether you invest in SpD or Def but it likely makes very little difference seeming as though its squishiness doesn't really give it the ability to survive any major hits.
Physical Wallbreaker:
Barraskewda @ Life Orb/Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Flip Turn
- Crunch
- Close Combat
A staple of rain teams and an extremely hard-hitting versatile wall breaker, it's used as a mid to late-game sweeper after all of its faster checks are taken care of. This pokemon is extremely squishy and can take absolutely no hits but it makes up for this by simply KO'ing pokemon before it gets touched while rain is up. In addition, even if rain isn't up it still out speeds most other pokemon and can get pretty solid hits on even more bulkier pokemon if it is being walled off. Its stat line is similar to Urshifu's as in there's very little that can be changed due to its role being so limiting however, it can possibly run choice band to guarantee kills on Dragapult when rain boosted and generally deal more damage to bulkier pokemon.
Special Wallbreaker:
Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- Dazzling Gleam
- U-turn
- Grass Knot
I decided to add in Tapu Koko to take advantage of 100% percent accurate, electric terrain boosted, and choice specs boosted Thunder in order to deal with pokemons such as Toxapex, Corvinight, Slowking/Slowbro, and Mandibuzz. Koko can also act as a general wallbreaker if the opposing team has no ground types since it can tear through most pokemon if they're not extremely specially defensive as long as it's outsped. Grass knot was included to take care of the likes of Swampert and Seismitoad if you predict they are being switched in.
Mixed Pivot:
Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off/Defog
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
Of course, what's a team without Lando, one of the most effective pokemon in today's metagame. In this team, Landorus acts as an offensive pivot, stealth rock setter, and an electric immunity and it does all of these jobs quite effectively. There's not much to be said since it is Lando, however I would like to discuss my choice for its stats invested into SpD. Originally when I used Def Landorus they were actually being quite ineffective at doing their job since they would always get killed by any pokemon using special moves and I already had a physically defensive pokemon that almost did Lando's exact job since it wouldn't live long enough to set up rocks so I decided to experiment with SpD after already using SpD Lando in another team. Fortunately, I saw much improvement in the team's ability to effectively pivot and chip at more important targets. Knock Off instead of Defog allows the team to better deal with opposing Tornaduses and other flying types. However, Defog is still viable since it reduces the amount of chip the team regularly takes but I prefer Knock Off in my personal opinion.
Chip/Wallbreaker:
Crawdaunt @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Crabhammer
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
By far the oddest addition to this team, I had been struggling with finding the right pokemon for the last spot in my team, switching from different pivots to other water types and I stumbled across Crawdaunt. Honestly, I never realized the punch this pokemon packed with rain boosted, STAB boosted, and Choice Band boosted Crabhammer and Aqua Jet. This will OKHO pokemon from 100% when the opposing team is switching with no questions asked. This pokemon is an absolute monster, trust me. Aqua Jet can act as really good chip towards pokemon that even resist it and solidifies kills for Koko and Urshifu by bringing them down to the right percentages. Knock Off can act as a decent KO option for opposing Toxapex and heavily cripple most pokemon by dealing massive amounts of damage. However, the one downside of switching in to Crawdaunt is that it can slow down your team's momentum and cause you to have to catch up.
Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1470479156
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1470627861
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1470633748-kvgxjliefytzn70ilgqcfe64ms1w6bjpw
Pokepaste:
https://pokepast.es/b4564ea1a3dd1ae1
Conclusion:
I really enjoyed messing around with this team and making this RMT let me know if you have any thoughts on how you could help improve this team since there are likely flaws that I am unaware of. In other words, have a nice day!
Introduction:
Hey there! This is my first RMT but I've been playing OU on ladder for a few years now and I've finally made my first team worthy of note. The team originally started with me thinking of ways to counter a common sweeper in my current place ranking on the ladder: Hawlucha. I had wanted to use a physically defensive Unaware Clefable to counter it paired with the standard Choice Band Urshifu-Rapid Strike to cover Clefable's weaknesses. Then, that got me to remember that rain boosted water type moves by 50% and I thought, "Wow! 25 power rain boosted, Choice Band boosted, STAB boosted, and high attack Surging Strikes? That must be really strong!" So I went home and built a temporary basic rain team with the core included just to see the power of it and move on. However, as you can predict, that's not how it turned out.
Full Team:
Main Lead:
Pelipper @ Damp Rock/Heavy Duty Boots
Ability: Drizzle
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Defog
- U-turn
- Weather Ball
- Roost
As in most rain teams, you got to have a Pelipper. It sets up the rain which is the whole point of the team, it has decent bulk, access to defog; u-turn; and roost, plus it has flying type to allow a great switch-in to users of ground moves and resist fighting moves. Its easy capability of setting up rain allows it to be switched in and out at will to continually block out other weather setters or reset the rain counter, try to keep Pelipper alive as long as possible through the match, only saccing it as a last-ditch resort or you need it to close out the game. I mainly invested its stats into general bulk and a little into SpA to give Weather Ball a little more kick: this is to allow it to survive hits from Pokemon such as Weavile, other Urshifu, or any other pokemon that uses non-super effective physically-based moves. You can alternatively run Heavy Duty Boots to give Pelipper a little more survivability, but be aware, this does limit turns that your offensive pokemon can be in play.
Physical Wallbreaker:
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn
- Close Combat
Here it is, one of the greatest threats to most teams, with its versatility and its ability to absolutely demolish most specially defensive pokemon or strong walls, it's hard not to include it in this team. The power of this pokemon boosted by rain has the capacity to heavily injure or even kill some of the bulkiest pokemon out there. Its stats are pretty generic only really having the most leeway in terms of whether you invest in SpD or Def but it likely makes very little difference seeming as though its squishiness doesn't really give it the ability to survive any major hits.
Physical Wallbreaker:
Barraskewda @ Life Orb/Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Flip Turn
- Crunch
- Close Combat
A staple of rain teams and an extremely hard-hitting versatile wall breaker, it's used as a mid to late-game sweeper after all of its faster checks are taken care of. This pokemon is extremely squishy and can take absolutely no hits but it makes up for this by simply KO'ing pokemon before it gets touched while rain is up. In addition, even if rain isn't up it still out speeds most other pokemon and can get pretty solid hits on even more bulkier pokemon if it is being walled off. Its stat line is similar to Urshifu's as in there's very little that can be changed due to its role being so limiting however, it can possibly run choice band to guarantee kills on Dragapult when rain boosted and generally deal more damage to bulkier pokemon.
Special Wallbreaker:
Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- Dazzling Gleam
- U-turn
- Grass Knot
I decided to add in Tapu Koko to take advantage of 100% percent accurate, electric terrain boosted, and choice specs boosted Thunder in order to deal with pokemons such as Toxapex, Corvinight, Slowking/Slowbro, and Mandibuzz. Koko can also act as a general wallbreaker if the opposing team has no ground types since it can tear through most pokemon if they're not extremely specially defensive as long as it's outsped. Grass knot was included to take care of the likes of Swampert and Seismitoad if you predict they are being switched in.
Mixed Pivot:
Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off/Defog
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
Of course, what's a team without Lando, one of the most effective pokemon in today's metagame. In this team, Landorus acts as an offensive pivot, stealth rock setter, and an electric immunity and it does all of these jobs quite effectively. There's not much to be said since it is Lando, however I would like to discuss my choice for its stats invested into SpD. Originally when I used Def Landorus they were actually being quite ineffective at doing their job since they would always get killed by any pokemon using special moves and I already had a physically defensive pokemon that almost did Lando's exact job since it wouldn't live long enough to set up rocks so I decided to experiment with SpD after already using SpD Lando in another team. Fortunately, I saw much improvement in the team's ability to effectively pivot and chip at more important targets. Knock Off instead of Defog allows the team to better deal with opposing Tornaduses and other flying types. However, Defog is still viable since it reduces the amount of chip the team regularly takes but I prefer Knock Off in my personal opinion.
Chip/Wallbreaker:
Crawdaunt @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Crabhammer
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
By far the oddest addition to this team, I had been struggling with finding the right pokemon for the last spot in my team, switching from different pivots to other water types and I stumbled across Crawdaunt. Honestly, I never realized the punch this pokemon packed with rain boosted, STAB boosted, and Choice Band boosted Crabhammer and Aqua Jet. This will OKHO pokemon from 100% when the opposing team is switching with no questions asked. This pokemon is an absolute monster, trust me. Aqua Jet can act as really good chip towards pokemon that even resist it and solidifies kills for Koko and Urshifu by bringing them down to the right percentages. Knock Off can act as a decent KO option for opposing Toxapex and heavily cripple most pokemon by dealing massive amounts of damage. However, the one downside of switching in to Crawdaunt is that it can slow down your team's momentum and cause you to have to catch up.
Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1470479156
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1470627861
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1470633748-kvgxjliefytzn70ilgqcfe64ms1w6bjpw
Pokepaste:
https://pokepast.es/b4564ea1a3dd1ae1
Conclusion:
I really enjoyed messing around with this team and making this RMT let me know if you have any thoughts on how you could help improve this team since there are likely flaws that I am unaware of. In other words, have a nice day!
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