Alright so this isn't on optimization at all but really an archtype that just wasn't ever touched in ORAS. I want to talk about Bulky Offense in a rain variant, something I touched on when
I was dealing with the last research topic for tentacruel.
So basically, the rain offense that we see resurface every few meta shifts or so is nearly EXACTLY the same. Toed, Kabutops, Kingdra, torn-t (mamo in super early variants) and then pick from: ferro/scizor/steel and pick one electric/dragon. The ONLY changes is Aegi and MMaw aren't available to be on rain anymore. But rain actually gained Swampert-M in ORAS, who has been underutilized to completely ignored in context of rain.
So instead of ignoring him, this style basically HINGES on Swampert-M (and Toed, obviously). The style is roughly what I described in the research thread: You have huge ebbs and flow in power, same as a hyper offense rain. However, you have bulk and can sustain this constant ebbing and flowing for much longer while maintaining roughly the same power. So
Chillarmy and I have used this a bit (he's gonna say something on this later) and while we certainly haven't optimized this (or even really scratched into it), we wanted to talk about the insane strengths we've found here.
For reference, we have three teams thus far. I use the one mentioned in the link above. Chill uses these:
http://hastebin.com/ibopilifex.md This is a fairly standard version and the one I'll use more for reference.
http://hastebin.com/rujogurige.md This is actually a balance team with a sweeper Seismitoad. Ask him how it works, I've not seen him use this version.
As far as we can tell, the archtype is something along the lines of Politoed + Ground/Water Swift Swimmer (Pert/Toad) + Bulky Spdef Dragon (Draglae, Goodra, M-Latias) + Ground Resist/Immune Physical wall + Water w/elec or grass neutral typing + Dragon Catch Pivot.
Bulky Spdef Dragons we've used/built in with: Goodra (like S rank for this style), M-Latias, M-Ampharos, Draglae (Chill mentioned it since it takes Keldeo without losing a mega slot for it).
Ground Resist/Immune Physical walls: Skarmory, Tangrowth, Celebi (less good, but a hazard catch-all).
Water+Subtype Grass|Elec resist: Rotom-W, Tentacruel. Ludiocolo, Lanturn (volt absorb) also probably work here. We're not really sure why we've navigated to a third water every time yet, so we're cautiously guessing this might be a "Keldeo/talonflame block" for whatever you've missed earlier. Realistically, it MIGHT be a BD/CB azumarill check (depending on preceding mons), which does change what this slot means.
Dragon Catch Pivot: Clefable, Doublade are the two we've used. Jirachi was used earlier and works well on rain, but you need to make sure you have Medi/Hera covered first. Basically, this slot is to make sure your dragon does the job walling special stuff, so primary focus here is to absolutely blow up latios and then hopefully take gard after.
Outside the obvious (Pert/Toad +Poli) part, we're absolutely certain about Spdef Dragons and Dragon special catches. Spdef dragons seem to work really well with this team simply because they catch electric and grass both in stride and most have some answer to the genies. They're also naturally very good vs volcanion, who is annoying due to his burn and water absorb vs swampert. Yeah you kill easily but he's still more pain than it's worth and otherwise you'd lack the defensive switches for a rain boosted specs steam eruption. The dragons are also important in that their diverse movepool forces your opponent into a lot of switches.
Under rain, very little outspeeds Swampert-M, so getting in free means you strike first almost always. (Choice scarf 95 positive speed and up, or something with >150 Speed max positive nature). Basically, scarf keldeo, Jirachi are about the only common speed demons outspeeding an adamant max speed swampert. Chill also runs a bulkier, slower spread, but this is the upper limit of speed. Defensively, Swampert has been bothered by ferrothorn, rotom-w and bro. He can't beat Tangrowth, but Tangrowth doesn't appreciate ice punch too terribly much. So normally, the dragons will be able to hit these for neutral or SE damage (rotom is generally the one we hit for neutral ,since rain boosted waterfall still chunks a fair bit).
The power of Pert (ignoring PuP sets since we've been more focused at spamming waterfall and boosts = unfair amirite):
252+ Atk Mega Swampert Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory in Rain: 136-162 (40.7 - 48.5%) -- 9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Mega Swampert Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 112 Def Mega Sableye in Rain: 180-213 (59.2 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Mega Swampert Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 96+ Def Mega Venusaur: 141-166 (38.8 - 45.7%) -- 16% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Mega Swampert Ice Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Latios: 240-284 (80.2 - 94.9%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
And he's a bit bulky (this is minimum, since you're so fast you can scale back speed for HP bulk):
252 SpA Life Orb Latios Draco Meteor vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Mega Swampert: 255-302 (74.7 - 88.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mega Swampert: 153-181 (44.8 - 53%) -- 28.9% chance to 2HKO
+1 252 Atk Tough Claws Mega Charizard X Dragon Claw vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mega Swampert: 235-277 (68.9 - 81.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Sharp Beak Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mega Swampert: 159-187 (46.6 - 54.8%) -- 64.5% chance to 2HKO
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-385780832
In closing, Rain in particular gets strong when EQ meta is around, but normally the rain meta is a bit hyper offense focused and ignoring one of the most dangerous rain mons available to OU. In fact, most of the mons we use here would probably be banned if rain was permanent, so the basis is to be absolutely unstoppable while the rain persists. It's bulky offense with rain, neither Chill nor I are experts in this style. Since we've been working on it for at most a week, we're not sure how particularly strong the style is. However when we've been using it, it has felt absolutely ridiculous (you literally have a wallbreaker that outspeeds most sweepers). What we're hoping is to find some people who actually know what the fuck they're doing when they build offensive oriented teams and help confirm/deny/research this.
Chill didn't believe me when I said this style felt absolutely broken until we played a few matches so I understand why people would question this. I'd expect similar skepticism, given we've been in ORAS for over a year and this hasn't been used much (if at all). Until I started working with it last week, I was pretty sure it'd be garbage. It might be the meta, but we'd still like a few other testers and opinions.