For one, I've always been a fan of weather in LC. Whether it's sun, rain, hail, sand, I just loved it.
Now, with the GameFreak nerfs to weather, as well as the dissapearance of tangela, we could very well see the rise of other weathers again.
RAIN
Rain is probably my favorite weather, period. It has a variety of benefits that it can give other pokemon with abilities such as Swift swim, dry skin, hydration, and rain dish, not to mention boosting the BAP of water-typed moves.
RAIN SETTERS
VOLTORB
Voltorb is currently one of the best rain setters in the game right now. Its speed allows it to set up rain that lasts for more than one turn, due to damp rock. It also functions well as a counter to the setters for other weathers (namely vulpix, snover, hippopotas) that have the weather auto activate. If you want, you can also run moves on it like taunt and volt switch to make it a good stallbreaker, as well as supporting other members of your team.
MURKOW
Prankster is one of the most useful abilities in little cup. Prankster also ensures that rain is garenteed to come out, provided you dont get one-shot by a fake out (which you shouldn't anyways). Although Murkrow can have many more useful sets, the rain dance set is worth a mention.
BRONZOR
This strategy was pretty popular back in the D/P/Pt days. Throw rain dance on Bronzor, and allow it to sit there and tank hits from fire types for days. Bronzor also synergizes well with other rain sweepers like Croagunk, as it is immune to Earthquakes and resists the Psychics that come its way.
RAIN ABUSERS
CROAGUNK
Croagunk is probably one of my favorite rain sweepers. If you played D/P/Pt, you may remember old Priogunk with life orb, fake out, vacuum wave, and two other moves. I'm here to say that Priogunk is actually really good in this new meta. Fake out can distupt basically any non ghost-typed pokemon, and it can also do tons of damage with its STAB priority vacuum wave. On top of that, life orb damage can be reduced heavily with dry skin, making it a great rain abuser.
OMANYTE and TIRTOUGA
Shell Smash and Swift Swim make a great team together. Both these mons are notorious for using Shell smash then proceeding to sweep the opposing team. But we can make that even better in rain. Boost their main STAB, double their speed with the ability Swift swim. These two also have good supporting options in Stealth rock and in omanyte's case, toxic spikes, knock-of, and spikes.
TENTACOOL
Tentacool is a solid pokemon, with knock-off and also toxic spikes / rapid spin support. To make it even better, we can give it a reliable source of recovery through rain dish. Now, you have a support beast that can keep on healing off any damage it takes through rain dish.
MAGNEMITE
Remember how I said rain helps patch up Bronzor's fire weakness? well, the same exact thing happens here. Magnemite hates fire moves, and due to the number of pokemon beginning to run HP fire to stop threats like Pawniard and formerly Tangela / Yanma, Magnemite took some of the heat form that too. Any way that it could take away some of those annoying fire weaknesses would help it. Not to mention it also gains a perfect accuracy thunder in rain too.
MANTYKE
(credit to MyloXyloto)
Mantyke is probably one of the best mons to use on a rain team. It has great bulk and can reliably set up Rain Dance. It also hits like a truck with rain boosted hydro pumps. Mantyke also hits Snover, which threaten most rain teams, for super effective damage with Air Slash which is pretty cool. Another cool perk of Mantyke is that it can take on Sun, another threat to rain teams. Hitting common sun abusers like oddish for super effective damage with Air Slash.
Thanks for reading, hope the weather favors you in the future!
Now, with the GameFreak nerfs to weather, as well as the dissapearance of tangela, we could very well see the rise of other weathers again.
Rain is probably my favorite weather, period. It has a variety of benefits that it can give other pokemon with abilities such as Swift swim, dry skin, hydration, and rain dish, not to mention boosting the BAP of water-typed moves.
Voltorb is currently one of the best rain setters in the game right now. Its speed allows it to set up rain that lasts for more than one turn, due to damp rock. It also functions well as a counter to the setters for other weathers (namely vulpix, snover, hippopotas) that have the weather auto activate. If you want, you can also run moves on it like taunt and volt switch to make it a good stallbreaker, as well as supporting other members of your team.
Prankster is one of the most useful abilities in little cup. Prankster also ensures that rain is garenteed to come out, provided you dont get one-shot by a fake out (which you shouldn't anyways). Although Murkrow can have many more useful sets, the rain dance set is worth a mention.
This strategy was pretty popular back in the D/P/Pt days. Throw rain dance on Bronzor, and allow it to sit there and tank hits from fire types for days. Bronzor also synergizes well with other rain sweepers like Croagunk, as it is immune to Earthquakes and resists the Psychics that come its way.
Croagunk is probably one of my favorite rain sweepers. If you played D/P/Pt, you may remember old Priogunk with life orb, fake out, vacuum wave, and two other moves. I'm here to say that Priogunk is actually really good in this new meta. Fake out can distupt basically any non ghost-typed pokemon, and it can also do tons of damage with its STAB priority vacuum wave. On top of that, life orb damage can be reduced heavily with dry skin, making it a great rain abuser.
Shell Smash and Swift Swim make a great team together. Both these mons are notorious for using Shell smash then proceeding to sweep the opposing team. But we can make that even better in rain. Boost their main STAB, double their speed with the ability Swift swim. These two also have good supporting options in Stealth rock and in omanyte's case, toxic spikes, knock-of, and spikes.
Tentacool is a solid pokemon, with knock-off and also toxic spikes / rapid spin support. To make it even better, we can give it a reliable source of recovery through rain dish. Now, you have a support beast that can keep on healing off any damage it takes through rain dish.
Remember how I said rain helps patch up Bronzor's fire weakness? well, the same exact thing happens here. Magnemite hates fire moves, and due to the number of pokemon beginning to run HP fire to stop threats like Pawniard and formerly Tangela / Yanma, Magnemite took some of the heat form that too. Any way that it could take away some of those annoying fire weaknesses would help it. Not to mention it also gains a perfect accuracy thunder in rain too.
(credit to MyloXyloto)
Mantyke is probably one of the best mons to use on a rain team. It has great bulk and can reliably set up Rain Dance. It also hits like a truck with rain boosted hydro pumps. Mantyke also hits Snover, which threaten most rain teams, for super effective damage with Air Slash which is pretty cool. Another cool perk of Mantyke is that it can take on Sun, another threat to rain teams. Hitting common sun abusers like oddish for super effective damage with Air Slash.
Thanks for reading, hope the weather favors you in the future!
~ Gem
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