Reports

Published on April 24th, 2014 | by Drizzleboy

5

Who Says Rain isn’t Good? Pokémon Regionals Report

Hello this is Drizzleboy. My brothers and I had recently placed well at Regionals in the Senior Division so I wanted to show you guys the team. Since 5th generation I have been having trouble adjusting to the metagame, until I began testing Rain. I originally started testing with Manectric and Politoed, then built a Trick Room team around that. I ran into many problems doing so. The team lacked the ability to deal large amounts of damage, and also couldn’t beat Charizard even with Manectric, who doesn’t KO with Thunderbolt or Volt Switch, or Amoonguss, which Overheat doesn’t KO. So I started the team building process over again. This time, I started out with Talonflame and Politoed. Talonflame had no problem dealing with Charizard and Amoonguss (knocking out 4 HP Charizard and bulky Amoonguss with Brave Bird). U-Turn also allowed me to switch out and set up Rain again against Sun. Now that I had dealt with some major issues, I was able to build the rest of the team.

The Team:

Politoed @ Life Orb
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 180 SpA
Quiet Nature (+SpA,-Spe)
IVs: 0 Speed
-Hydro Pump
-Ice Beam
-Scald
-Protect

Politoed one of my favorite Pokémon. With his ability, Drizzle, he can instantly set up Rain when being sent in. With Rain, Water-type attacks are boosted and Fire-type attacks weakened, which came in handy some times, yet at times it hurt me instead. In VGC 2013 I used a bulky Helping Hand Politoed. At first I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to use him in XY, since he doesn’t get Helping Hand. When I was doing damage calculations, I found out with Life Orb he can KO non-bulky Mawile with Hydro Pump. As a result of that knowledge, I put on Life Orb and went with an offensive Politoed instead of a bulky one. Then I added Ice Beam to hit Grass-types with a super effective move. For the next move slot I had originally tested Rain Dance to counter Charizard-Y, but it left me without an accurate STAB attack. So I used Scald to protect myself from important misses. The EVs that I ran on Politoed are to survive Play Rough from Adamant Mawile. The leftover EVs were put into Special Attack.

Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk,-SpA)
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
-U Turn
-Quick Guard

Talonflame is one of the best new Pokémon of this generation. He gets Gale Wings, which lets him get +1 priority with Flying-Type attacks, he can 2HKO almost everything with Brave Bird, and he counters Mawile. I used Choice Band instead of Life Orb so I would have an 87.5% chance of knocking out Charizard-Y and to knock out bulky Amoongus with Brave Bird. I used Flare Blitz so I wouldn’t be walled by Quick Guard and to knock out Mawile. U-Turn was used to get damage out on Tyranitar while also helping Rain set up. For the last slot I chose Quick Guard to punish Prankster users and Fake Out users, which surprisingly came in handy quite often.

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Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy>>>Parental Bond
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe,-SpA)
-Fake Out
-Return
-Sucker Punch
-Power-Up Punch

Kangaskhan one of the powerhouses of my team. I chose her because I needed Fake Out support and she could hit harder than anyone. With Parental Bond, single target attacks hit twice, with the second one doing half damage. I sometimes didn’t mega evolve her so I could hit Ghost-Types (because of Scrappy) with Fake Out, which helped against Trick Room teams. The set I used for her was basic. Fake Out was used for support. I chose Return because it was a strong move and I got bonus STAB with it. Facade was another option, but without a status condition its damage output was quite small. Another option was Double-Edge, as it was stronger, but it had the downside of doing major recoil damage, which I thought wouldn’t work on such a bulky Pokémon. Power-Up Punch was used for getting to +2 Attack, which could cancel out burn and allowed her to hit Rock- and Steel-types hard. Sucker Punch was used to hit Ghost-types and for knocking out faster Pokémon with its +1 priority. Sucker Punch also has great synergy with Power-Up Punch, allowing you to knock out faster Pokémon before they attack with +2 Attack.

Kingdra @ Choice Specs
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
-Draco Meteor
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Hydro Pump

Kingdra, my favorite Swift Swimmer. He was an easy pick for the team because of his ability, which doubles his Speed in Rain. I chose him over Ludicolo because he hits harder and is faster. The reason I used Choice Specs was because Life Orb didn’t hit hard enough, and I wanted it to do more damage. Hydro Pump knocks out 4 HP Kangaskhan 100% of the time in Rain with Choice Specs! I added Draco Meteor to hit Rotom-W and because it was got STAB. Sadly, Draco Meteor has a down side of lowering Kingdra’s Special Attack to -2. Dragon-types could switch out to a Pokémon who could tank the attack, and then later come back in to survive the -2 Draco Meteor. So I used Ice Beam to hit Grass- and Dragon-types without falling to-2 Special Attack afterward. Now that I had my last spot left I was going to choose Muddy Water, but then he would have fallen under the same boat as Politoed could have, having no accurate STAB, so instead I added Surf. Surf definitely hurt me at times but over all it was worth it because I wasn’t afraid of missing.

Reuniclus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 140 SpD
Sassy Nature (+SpD,-Spe)
IVs: 0 Speed
-Psyshock
-Helping Hand
-Trick Room
-Protect

Reuniclus I didn’t use often because his lack of power but he still was somewhat useful. I used Overcoat to counter Amoongus and to stop Spore and Rage Powder. I ran Psyshock to hit Pokémon with weaker Defense harder and because it gets STAB. Helping Hand came in handy often, boosting the teammates of Reuniclus. With Helping Hand, Kingdra can knock out Rotom-W which came in handy. Helping Hand also let Talonflame get a guaranteed knock out on Charizard-Y and Kangaskhan, and Helping Hand let Kangaskhan knock out almost everything that didn’t run a bulky spread. Lastly, I used Trick Room for speed control. I rarely used it, but it definitely came in handy when I did use it.

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Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate>>>Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature (+Atk,-Spe)
IVs: 0 Speed
-Play Rough
-Iron Head
-Sucker Punch
-Protect

Mawile was added to my team for Intimidate support and to add someone who could switch into strong Dragon-type attacks. With Huge Power my Attack was doubled which made Mawile one of the strongest Pokémon. Mawile’s somewhat low Speed came in handy both inside and outside of Trick Room. Mawile hits hard with Play Rough, 2HKOing almost every Pokémon, and letting me hit Dragon-types super effectively. Iron Head was used because a 100% accurate STAB was needed and to hit other Mawiles. Sucker Punch was used for finishing off already weakened foes that were faster. Overall, I used Kangaskhan far more often than Mawile. However, Mawile let me counter opposing Kangaskhan instead of hoping my Kangaskhan is faster than theirs.

Threats

Bulky Sitrus Berry Rotom-W has given me a lot of trouble with this team. With Will-O-Wisp, he is able to burn my Kangaskan and Mawile. Thunderbolt is super effective against Politoed and Talonflame. He is also boosted by Rain, making him able to do heavy damage with Hydro Pump. I can KO it in one hit with Helping Hand Draco Meteor or Return(only after Fake Out), but Intimidate and enemy Dragon-types can ruin that plan.

Ferrothorn is another Pokémon that gives me issues. He walls Politoed, Kingdra, Reuniclus, and Mawile. With Iron Barbs. I can be knocked out by Gyro Ball after Power-Up Punch with Kangaskhan. He is slow as well, so he can abuse my Trick Room. My only counter is Talonflame, who is very frail and has many weaknesses.

My team didn’t like Thunder Wave. Most of the team is fast, so they became useless after Thunder Wave. I have Trick Room to deal with the Speed part, but the other effect of Thunder Wave I could do nothing about.

Overall:

At Virginia I had went 5-2, going into Top Cut as the 8th seed. I was glad I had made top cut, but I felt like I could have done better in swiss. There was a little luck in swiss rounds, but overall it was my fault for getting into that situation and I should have avoided it. However, in the end I felt like I made up for how I did in swiss by winning the next matches in top cut. After all, I went 5-2 getting first! My brothers went 4-1 getting 1st, 4-1 getting Top 4, and 6-1 getting Top 8.

I used the team during the Nugget Bridge Major. I went 5-3, which is what my expectations were, so I wasn’t too sad that I didn’t make top cut. The matches I played were great and gave me some practice that was needed. By the end, I realized I needed a new team.

The next regional was Massachusetts. I had planned on using another team, but things didn’t work out. So I used the same team and went 6-1! I was proud of myself because I felt like I had redeemed myself after the Nugget Bridge Major. I went into Top Cut and lost due to some careless choices and a little luck. I ended up going 6-1, getting Top 8. My brothers went 4-1 getting 2nd, 3-2 Top 4, and 5-2 Top 32.

Overall this team has had a great run, but now it is time to retire it. I learned a lot about the metagame during the past few months, and I hope I can make another team that does as well as this one.

About the Author

Drizzleboy Drizzleboy has been playing VGC since 2011. His first success was at 2013 Massachusetts regionals placing 2nd. since then he has made top 4 in both nationals and worlds.

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