VGC is double battles and single battles are usually (AND I SAY USUALLY I KNOW PEOPLE DONT) played under smogon rules. VGC is the official battle style of pokemon worlds. Rules can be found here: http://thejustinflynn.tv/forum/Thread-OR...cial-Rules
Smogon is a community made battle style of which not only their own council, but PEOPLE WHO ALSO PLAY SMOGON AND ARE INVOLVED IN THE COMMUNITY vote on which pokemon they see as over powered. They try to balance the meta game as well as they possibly can while finding hate from many players including a man who dresses like a dog and is pretty bad at pokemon.
Oh, thanks, that explanation helped a lot! Well, in that case - I built this team around a single battle strategy, though I feel like it could work in doubles with lots of practise and a few tweaks to the moves and abilities (more protect, perhaps give lapras water absorb). Tell me what you guys think either way, I'd greatly appreciate it!
Not too sure about that Politoed, I'm shaky about the Endure+Endeavor strategy. Focus Blast or Psychic might be moves to consider
I feel like your Kingdra's moveset doesn't maximize its potential. Using Hydro Pump, Draco Meteor, Scald, etc. might be a better idea, as Kingdra can be an excellent special sweeper in the rain.
Using Kabutops is risky. Special Grass type attacks can do some serious damage. Haven't seen a lot of Kabutops in action, but from what I do know, I'm willing to bet that most STAB Giga Drains will OHKO it.
I'm question the Volcarona. Like, really question it. Yes, a 100% accurate Hurricane on a rain team is pretty good, but Volcarona suffers in the rain because it is a Fire type, and it can't use any of its powerful Fire type attacks. And besides, its Hurricane doesn't get the benefit of STAB.
Lapras, huh? Yeah, pretty solid. I think that Lapras is a bit underrated, it can be an excellent Pokemon in rain.
Bronzong, in my opinion, is not as good of a rain screen setter as it used to be in Gen 5. Back then, it was great in rain, with its Ground type weakness eliminated by Levitate, and its Fire type weakness eliminated by the rain. However, not it's weak to Ghost and Psychic type attacks.
There are some Pokemon that work great on most rain teams that I think you should consider:
Dragonite: Powerful Dragon type, and it gets 100% accurate Thunder and 100% accurate STAB Hurricane
Tornadus-T: Another powerful 100% accurate STAB Hurricane user
Latias: A great screen setter, if you decide to replace Bronzong
Mega-Manectric and Mega-Ampharos: Great Megas with access to Thunders that will do lots of damage, considering their special attack stats
Keldeo: Keldeo's just a great Pokemon, and with rain, Hydro Pump will do some serious damage
Ferrothorn: Rain will weaken Fire type moves used against it.
First off, the endure/endeavor strategy on works if the Pokemon is naturally fast which Politoed is not. Since this is a rain team, you will almost always lead with Politoed so I recommend either using Eject Button or Red Card to set up and leave so you can get the Rain back up late game. I changed to moveset to make Politoed more offensive:
You can keep your old EV spreads. I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve with it so I won't argue with that.
This isn't an efficient way to run Kingdra. First of all, Whirlpool only works if you stay in. If you switch in Kingdra, the opponent may switch out into something that handles it easily so the Whirlpool/Yawn strategy would fail. Here is an idea of a good set. The 100% crit Kingdra:
X-Scissors isn't a very good way to deal with Grass types and furthermore, most grass types used are combined with Poison so Rock Slide would be doing more damage. Relying on confusion to happen may be risky with how frail Kabutops is. A set like this would work more efficiently
Kabutops @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Waterfall
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
Wise Glasses isn't a good item to use. The extra 10% almost never makes a difference. If you are going to set up Quiver Dance then Focus Sash is the way to go.
No point in running Hydration on Lapras without considering the Rest/Hydration combo which works wonders since Lapras can recover fully in one turn without any recoil
Your team is very weak to Fighting, Electric and Grass not to mention Ghost, Rock and Dark. You are going to have to change out some team members to make your Rain team work.
Kabutops @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide/Stone Edge
- Waterfall
- Low Kick
- Knock Off
After running a Kabutops on my rain team I personally prefer Low Kick over Rapid Spin. I also run Stone Edge over Rock Slide by then again, my rain team is strictly a singles team.
That's all I have to give opinion on in this team since I've never used many of these pokemon in the rain or at all.
(Mar 1, 2015, 04:06 AM)Maddie Wrote: After running a Kabutops on my rain team I personally prefer Low Kick over Rapid Spin.
Rapid Spin is necessary in case someone sets up Stealth Rocks/Spikes/Toxic Spikes/Sticky Web on her side of the field. Any of these hazards will be game changing since Volcarona takes 50% damage from rocks and Sticky Web drops the Swift Swim boost.
