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Rain stall, an underrated but very effective play style. As you know, I am a defensive player, and I enjoy playing balanced teams. This rain stall features Bulkynite in the rain, a monster that can easily wall and destroy teams, with hazards support and strong Hurricane, with Dragon Tail to weaken enemy Blissey, Jirachi and common rain Dragonite counters.
This team has been very successful on the ladder (it peaked #1, and before ladder reset it had a ranking of 1600+), it was undefeated on World Cup and it has a 34-4 record in official tournament games. In general, it was quite funny to play with, especially because of Dragonite, a Pokémon that surprised everybody at first.
This section includes the most important changes of my team, since the release of Drizzle Politoed until now, and it also includes some of my greatest rain based teams.
When the Dream World abilities were revealed, I saw 2 abilities that I knew had a lot of potential: Drought Ninetales and Drizzle Politoed. The first thing that came to mind was: Swift Swimmers. I personally thought that RD with damp rock made RD broken in DP UU, and now we had the chance to have permanent rain in OU, something swift swimmers like Kabutops or Kingdra would love. Politoed was NU in DP, but thanks to my experience in DP NU, I knew it was a decent wall that could take some hits making it a good choice for Drizzle. The second thing that popped in my head was the following Pokémon: Manaphy. In the suspect testing of DP I used a set that could destroy a stall team with ease: it consisted of Rain Dance, Calm Mind, Surf and Rest. Now the same set wouldn't need Rain Dance, as I could have permanent rain thanks do Drizzle Politoed. Plus, the set itself would even be better thanks to Tail Glow being now +3 instead of +2, making it very dangerous. All in all, I knew I had in Manaphy a sweeper immune to status, with an instant 100% recovery move, and a move to raise its Special Attack by 3 levels. And that's how the first rain team I ever made was born:
A very successful team. It did quite well on the ladder, and K-12 won some important tourney battles with this team.
After this, I decided to make a more defensive team. Short time after I made this one, some Dream World abilities such as Poison Heal Gliscor and Rain Dish Tentacruel, which were perfect for a more defensive version of a rain based team, were released. Early in DP, I had a hail stall featuring a Pokémon that was really annoying for the opponent with the support of Toxic Spikes: Ice Body Walrein. Gliscor with Poison Heal could do something similar with Substitute + Protect. With the help of IPL I made a non-weather based stall featuring this Gliscor, and it was nearly always the MVP of the team. After this success, I decided to add it to my rain stall team project. Obviously, this time the focus of the team would be Manaphy, and I decided to use a bulky spread with Calm Mind + Boil Over. The fourth attack at first was Ice Beam, but bulky waters made it cry. After that, I used Energy Ball, but things like Latias always beat me. After some testing, I decided to try Toxic, and it worked really well, beating CM Latias and bulky waters at the same time:
This is probably my best BW team ever, together with the F**K MOLES team. Sadly for the team, Manaphy and SS + Drizzle were banned on Smogon, and Manaphy got banned on the PO ladder. I decided to make a team for that server, very similar to that stall. I just used Choice Specs Kingdra instead of Manaphy. Sometimes I used Ferrothorn instead of Skarmory. This team got a rating of nearly 1800 in that server, and Celebi42 with a very similar team got 1830 points:
After the Drizzle + SS ban, rain stall pretty much died, and I didn't use rain teams again in a long time. After the Blaziken ban, I needed a new team for the last weeks of SPL, so I decided to use a rain team again. This time, the team was going to use the genies, especially Tornadus, a Pokémon I had never tried before. I tried a mixed version, with Taunt, LO and Hurricane + Hammer Arm (2HKOing bliss). NP Thundurus was as dangerous as always. I also used for the first time, bulky Dragonite on the rain (it had Sub + T-wave + DTail), because I had a non-weather stalled it with it and it really surprised me to see how it was capable of walling so many things, and it was an excellent Pokémon with Spikes support as well. Chansey was a great wall and Wish was a godsend for this team. Finally, I needed a spiker and a spinner: Forretress was the obvious answer. This was the team I used the last week vs. Pttp in a sadly famous game, winning the game:
But Forretress wasn't doing well enough, since it wasn't a very reliable spinner, so I decided to use Ferrothorn + Tentacruel again. I also changed the Dragonite set, since now I was using Toxic Spikes, and I decided to try a more offensive set with Hurricane, which worked extremely well. Tentacruel was as good as always, and Thundurus swept so many teams with a bulkier spread, Substitute, Leftovers and Spikes support. It was awesome how easily it could sweep teams. Dragons and Thunders, a scary combination. This team did pretty well on the ladder, peaking #1, and it did pretty well on the last Smogon tour season:
After the tour, and with the WC in mind, I talked with AM, and I decided to make a couple of rain stalls. The first one was going to feature the SubProtect Gliscor set, with Wish Jirachi as the special wall, and Bronzong setting up rocks. I wanted to try Gastrodon, since it was beginning to win popularity, and it worked really well with Jirachi, walling lots of special sweepers. I used this team twice on WC, with a record of 1-1. The main problem of this team was the lack of Spikes, and Haxorus:
The other team was going to feature that bulky rain Dnite that worked really well on the dragons and thunders team. I also wanted to make a team with bulky Toxicroak, an awesome Pokémon with permanent rain which recovers lots of HP each turn thanks to its ability. As I needed a spinner, I decided to use Starmie again. I stopped using this team when LO offensive Ice Punch Toxicroak (since my Toxicroak check Dragonite) was KOed by a +2 LO IP:
Finally, I decided to make a couple of changes: I decided to use Tentacruel (again). Instead of Starmie, at first I used Gliscor, but I noticed how HP Ice Landorus weak I was (as well as some stat uppers like DDnite), so I decided to use Quagsire on that spot, since I had already used it with great success in other stall team. And that's the current line up of my team:
Rain! Politoed @ Leftovers
Sushi Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Rain Dogs Quagsire @ Leftovers
Old Times Dragonite @ Leftovers
JoyToy Chansey @ Eviolite
BS Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
It's been over a year since Pokemon Black and White came out on Japan and OU has evolved a lot since then. But, what does this have to do with the featured team? Well, just like the OU metagame, this team was originally created months ago and has been edited multiple times to be what it is now—one of the most successful OU teams ever. It started as an offensive team to abuse Drizzle + Swift Swim, but it turned out to be an amazing rain stall team that everyone recognizes and should be prepared for nowadays.
When reading an RMT, one is often tempted to "break" the team in pieces and classify it as lead, core, and sweepers. Well, this method usually works, but M Dragon's team is different. Each member has great synergy with the others, and the absence of one single Pokemon hurts the balance of the whole team.
Politoed, thanks to its Drizzle ability, is one of the most important Pokemon for the team. It's a great way to not only activate Tentacruel's Rain Dish ability and reduce Ferrothorn's weakness to Fire-type attacks, but also to minimize opposing weather teams's potential. Sand teams usually include some of the biggest threats to the team so Politoed is crucial against them. Tentacruel may look like the least important member of this team at first, but it provides two of the most important tools for a stall team: Toxic Spikes and Rapid Spin support. Although they are both very useful against offensive and balanced teams, it's against opposing stall teams they truly prove their value.
The last Water-type of the team is Quagsire. Everyone knows its base stats aren't the best but its typing and ability is just what this team needs. Unaware and Ground-typing means Quagsire is an important check to the very dangerous set-up sweepers, as well as to sand sweepers, which would otherwise cause many troubles to this team. Following it, is a Pokemon not commonly seen on this type of team: Dragonite. The truth is the dragon is one of the best checks to Grass-types there is, and with three Water-types on the team, this is a very important thing. Virizion and Celebi, two other threats to this team are destroyed by STAB Hurricane, and Jellicent, one of the bulkiest Taunt users in OU, is 2HKOed by Thunder after Stealth Rock. Dragonite also acts as a check to the numerous Fighting-types in OU.
Have you ever seen a stall team without a pink blob? Well, yes, but I needed something to put in here! Now seriously, Chansey is always a great Pokemon for any stall team thanks to its amazing special bulk, as well as the ability to completely heal its teammates with Wish. Rounding everything off, we have what is probably the best defensive Pokemon Black and White brought us: Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn's job here is pretty clear; to set up entry hazards, and it does its job better than everyone else thanks to its great mixed bulk. This coupled with the always important Steel typing allows this team to deal with the many physical Dragon-types.
There is no such thing as a perfect team, and even though this one is very close to being that, there are still Pokemon that give it troubles. The first ones are the sand sweepers, Landorus and Terrakion, because if they can grab a Swords Dance boost, and Quagsire is below 50% of health, it's usually game over. They both benefit from sandstorm so M Dragon has to make sure it's raining, and Quagsire is always healthy when he sees these two on the opposing team.
Swords Dance Virizion is also a great threat as its Fighting / Grass typing allows it to hit most of the team for super effective damage, and Dragonite, the only member to resist this combination can be OHKOed after Stealth Rock by the coverage moves the musketeer usually carries. The best way to deal with it is to make sure Dragonite is always in good shape to tank either a +2 Stone Edge or a Hidden Power Ice and OHKO back with Hurricane.
Finally, Swords Dance or Dragon Dance Haxorus can be a big threat if it manages to grab a boost and Ferrothorn is weakened, as Mold Breaker nullifies Quagsire's ability.
M Dragon's team has been one of the best teams in the last few months and is proof that rain stall is a very underrated playstyle, having punished many players who weren't aware of this. This team is also another example that Pokemon from lower tiers can be used alongside top tier Pokemon to achieve great success. Even though it may not be as effective as it once was, M Dragon's team has and will always have a spot in the history of the BW OU metagame.
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