[RATE MY TEAM] VGC Rain/ Trick Room

[ChoccyVGC]

Hey guys, I am new to VGC this year and I have been trying to learn all that I can this past month or so. Things I am really struggling with are EV spreads and calcs so If i could get some help that would be great.

 Magnezone @ Air Balloon
Ability: Magnet Pull
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 SpA
Lax Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Protect
- Thunder
- Flash Cannon
 
Magnezone is very useful on this team. Able to kill pretty much all the Tapus and take care of celesteela. Works well under rain. Hidden power Ground is basically to take care of opposing magnezones or electric types. Thunderbolt is to combat celesteela and destroy water types. And Flash Cannon is to absolutely wreck fairy types. Especially the Tapus. I gave it 252 HP so it is bulkier. 188 def for the same reason. 68 SpA for a boost to do more damage on celesteela and Tapus.

 Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Atk / 128 SpD
Lonely Nature
- Protect
- Shadow Bone
- Bonemerang
- Flare Blitz

 Marowak is my Tapu Koko/ Electric counter. Lightning Rod enables Marowak to be immune to electric types which is nice, especially paired with pelipper, so he does not get destroyed by thunderbolt. Shadowbone is for opposing ghost types, Boomerang can OHKO Tapu Koko and Flareblitz can do damage on celesteela and take on grass types like Tapu Bulu. 252 HP for bulk. 128 attack to OHKO Tapu Koko and do more damage overall. 128 SpD to survive more often.

 Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 68 SpA / 188 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Recover
- Trick Room
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt

 Porygon2 is my trickroom setter. Download ability is really helpful. 252 HP and 188 SpD for bulk, and 68 SpA for a little stronger attack. I chose Calm nature because it raises SpD. I think recover is more helpful than protect for P3. Trick room to set up trick room of course. Ice beam is great against dragons and can OHKO Garchomp. Thunderbolt is also good for damaging Celesteela

 Tapu Bulu @ Grassium Z
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 220 Def / 32 Spe
Impish Nature
- Horn Leech
- Nature's Madness
- Protect
- Substitute

 Tapu Bulu is next. 252 Hp for bulk, 220 Def for the same reason. 32 speed because i wanted it to be fast enough when it needs to be but can still under speed somethings in TR.Horn Leech destroys gastrodon which is immune to two of my Pokemon main moves. Dazzling Gleam is good against dragons. Leech seed is good to get some health back and chip away at the enemies health.
 Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Def / 188 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Hurricane
- Tailwind
- Protect

 Pelipper is my rain setter. Focus slash helps it not get OHKO'd by Koko. 252 Hp for bulk, 68 defense for a little more bulk. 188 SpA for stronger scald and Hurricane. Tailwind is great for speed control, so If Trick Room runs out I can just tailwind my team.






Tapu Lele @ Psychium Z  
Ability: Psychic Surge  
Level: 50  
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe  
Timid Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Psychic  
- Moonblast  
- Protect  
- Shadow Ball



Tapu lele is helpful to get trick room up, so that P2 doesn't get faked out. Really strong fairy and pyschic STAB moves. Fast to operate out of trick room. Late game sweeper.

[Marcusube]

Anything specific that the 252/188 investment on Magnezone helps to survive? What does 252/128 on Marowak help it survive? What does 252/188 on Porygon2 help it survive?

To EV your Pokemon, just take, from your experience, the most common Pokemon you see running around that threaten the Pokemon on your team and then EV your Pokemon to take hits better from them. So for instance, since Marowak is OHKOd by Tapu Lele's Psychic under Psychic Terrain, you'd invest enough in HP and SpDef to survive the attack. Also rule of thumb, you generally want your nature to increase the highest stat the Pokemon has or the higher of the two defensive stats for defensively oriented Pokemon. Always go for speed boosting natures if its a 252/252 Attack(Sp.Atk)/Speed Pokemon unless you want to drop a few EVs on Speed to speed creep Pokemon or drop some from the Attack or Special Attack stat to pick up specific KOs while using the remainding EVs for bulk

For your sake, fix the EV spreads so that at the end of the day you can get more in depth ratings which will help you with your team

[Black117]

The natures on these Pokemon don't make total sense especially if you claim say Lax Magnezone can OHKO certain mons with said natures shown. Like the idea of running Magnezone with the Air Balloon, though without the Modest nature and some "significant" investment in Special Attack, you are going to miss out in OHKOs. Again, to what Marc mention, what does the defensive investment do since I do think its better to invest into the Special Attack Evs and have Modest Nature for Magnezone in the long run. The moveset is rather solid, so no comment here.

Same with the Alolan Marowak. While Alolan Marowak's Thick Club doubles the Attack stat, its better to to have either Adamant or Brave Nature for this guy to make use of hits full defensive potential, even if its still frail. For any other options for Alolan Marowak, try out Substitute or Perish Song as both are great tech options to either punish passive play or setup.

For Porygon2, the Ev Spread is fine if you want to live a combination of a Hydro Vortex + Rain-boosted Scald from Double Duck ( Golduck + Pelipper ), though you can try to give it more Special Attack investment if possible. Modest Nature can be considered that double target benchmark isnt a worry for the team. Thunderbolt is somewhat questionable on this team given you have a Lightning Rod user in Alolan Marowak so replace it with either Discharge or Shadow Ball.

Ok, don't get where this Tapu Bulu set is as if it seems like you listed multiple movesets that aren't there and the lack of clarity. Since it does carry the Grassium Z, this Bulu should be as offensive as possible in order to take advantage of its power. Here's a moveset I'll recommend.

Tapu Bulu @ Grassium Z
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 236 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 60 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Horn Leech
- Wood Hammer
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Though the speed investment isn't much, its meant to speed creep opposing base 80s without too much investment like Milotic. This set attempt to take advantage of Pelipper's Tailwind so it can outspeed Timid Max Speed Tapu Koko. Regarding Pelipper, the moveset is fine though I'd recommend changing the EVs to make Pelipper as fast as possible with 252 in Special Attack, 252 in Speed and with either Timid or Modest Nature.

Finally for Tapu Lele, just add 4 into HP EVs to make it a fast special sweeper, though with the Tailwind - Trick Room modes, you can afford to run a bulkier Lele set. I

Tapu Lele @ Psychium Z
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 116 SpA / 4 SpD / 100 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Protect

The Speed Investment allows Tapu Lele to outspeed Adamant max speed Tapu Bulu while is slow enough to underspeed anything above 129 in Trick Room. Added Taunt as a means to prevent any form of setup as the team lacked a mon to do so. Well this Tapu Lele EV Spread can be moved around, though I recommend testing it on Showdown to see if you prefer the fast one with Tailwind support, or a bulky TR one.