Using Rain Dance as anti-metagame

[kalandra]

Have anyone tried using Rain Dance as a sort off counter Hail & Sand? I don't mean running a full rain dance team, just one or two pokemon that do rain dance to stop hail/sand.

I think the two good candidates for the job are Kingdra (with Swift Swim of course), and Kabutops.

Kingdra is great in a teir where there isn't much dragons, where it can come in on something it resist and setup Rain Dance. Its probably better against sand teams since Hippopotas is fragile on its special defense side even with Eviolite.

Kabutop on the other hand, resist ice, and Stone Edge scare off most ice types from coming in. It does fear Abomasnow though. It also be support can also run Rapid Spin and Stealth Rock (great against hail teams), in which it can help you remove unwanted weather, spin away hazards and lay hazards on it own (though using it as support seems abit of a waste considering its potential to sweep with two awesome stabs).


TL;DR - Pokes that help remove Hail/Sand, while still remain useful with Swift Swim boosts if your opponent doesn't carry weather.

 

[D4RR3N]

It's a pretty idea actually, as weather kinda controls the metagame right now. Rain Dance would be forcing the weather inducers to switch, therefore adding some entry hazards might be useful to cripple the weather inducers and prevent them from switching in continuously. However, Kabutops needs to be extra careful against the weather inducers as Hippopotas carries EQ, where else some variants of Abomasnows outspeeds Kabutops and can OHKO it with Giga Drain / Wood hammer.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

I used to do that with RD Sableye. Pissed off a shitload of people by shitting the weather all over them after killing Hippowdon/Abomasnow.

In fact Rain is imo quite anti-metagame and worth a look into. :)

 

[GTS]

I started using Rain as soon as I saw Hippo drop.
But, I have a thread for Rain already.

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3456488


I use Tornadus and Kingdra to drop rain, and usually one more.

 

[Antar]

Back at the start of Gen V, I tried using Sunny Day on a support Gardevoir to counter auto-weather, the idea being that Sun was the least threatening weather to my team. Didn't really work out too well, but if this strategy actually works in the current metagame, I think it's kinda awesome.

 

[Woodchuck]

OP, I think you should try and turn this into a full-blown Rain Dance thread with setters and abusers, seems like an interesting point of discussion. The only times I run Rain Dance is on Mixed RD Kingdra -- it's a great antimeta mon as it basically benefits from Drizzle on other teams and shits over all the other weathers.

 

[honchkro13]

I've been using Rain Dance Swift Swim Ludicolo since 4th gen and still use it all through 5th gen so far to great effect. It's so underrated yet so powerful it's not even funny. I don't use a weather team, so I run Rain Dance Ludicolo in OU to counter all forms of weather since weather is so dominant in the OU metagame. Yes, that even includes countering rain teams too! Giga Drain is what really sets Ludicolo apart from other Swift Swimmers, since all other Swift Swimmers get blocked by bulky waters, while Ludicolo relishes feeding off their life force to continue its sweep.

With Swift Swim + Rain Dance, Hydro Pump (which, when factoring in STAB, rain and Life Orb, nets a whopping BP of 351!), Giga Drain, and Ice Beam, the only Pokemon that can stand up to Ludicolo in the rain is Toxicroak, and even that can be brushed aside with HP Psychic.

Rain Dance Ludicolo, as an anti-metagame Pokemon, has helped me stop a lot of weather-based teams in their tracks by either KOing or scaring enemy auto-weather inducers away, using enemy Drizzle (Drizzletoad+Swift Swim is banned, yes, but not when your opponent's the one gracious enough to set up eternal rain for you), or by outright ruining a lot of weather based Pokemon. Before Excadrill got banned, I had a lot of fun taking away it's precious sandstorm and blasting it with Surf. I'm honestly surprised more people aren't running Rain Dance Ludicolo. it seems that in all the hype surrounding auto-weather inducers, the classic Rain Dance has been forgotten. Which is what I naturally take advantage of haha.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

I've been using Rain Dance Swift Swim Ludicolo since 4th gen and still use it all through 5th gen so far to great effect. It's so underrated yet so powerful it's not even funny. I don't use a weather team, so I run Rain Dance Ludicolo in OU to counter all forms of weather since weather is so dominant in the OU metagame. Yes, that even includes countering rain teams too! Giga Drain is what really sets Ludicolo apart from other Swift Swimmers, since all other Swift Swimmers get blocked by bulky waters, while Ludicolo relishes feeding off their life force to continue its sweep.

With Swift Swim + Rain Dance, Hydro Pump (which, when factoring in STAB, rain and Life Orb, nets a whopping BP of 351!), Giga Drain, and Ice Beam, the only Pokemon that can stand up to Ludicolo in the rain is Toxicroak, and even that can be brushed aside with HP Psychic.

Rain Dance Ludicolo, as an anti-metagame Pokemon, has helped me stop a lot of weather-based teams in their tracks by either KOing or scaring enemy auto-weather inducers away, using enemy Drizzle (Drizzletoad+Swift Swim is banned, yes, but not when your opponent's the one gracious enough to set up eternal rain for you), or by outright ruining a lot of weather based Pokemon. Before Excadrill got banned, I had a lot of fun taking away it's precious sandstorm and blasting it with Surf. I'm honestly surprised more people aren't running Rain Dance Ludicolo. it seems that in all the hype surrounding auto-weather inducers, the classic Rain Dance has been forgotten. Which is what I naturally take advantage of haha.

This, this, so much this.

There's also good ol' RD Kingdra that can blast a Draco Meteor in your face in a pinch.

 

[GTS]

OP, I think you should try and turn this into a full-blown Rain Dance thread with setters and abusers, seems like an interesting point of discussion. The only times I run Rain Dance is on Mixed RD Kingdra -- it's a great antimeta mon as it basically benefits from Drizzle on other teams and shits over all the other weathers.

I just linked to my thread about this topic...

 

[kalandra]

OP, I think you should try and turn this into a full-blown Rain Dance thread with setters and abusers, seems like an interesting point of discussion. The only times I run Rain Dance is on Mixed RD Kingdra -- it's a great antimeta mon as it basically benefits from Drizzle on other teams and shits over all the other weathers.

I was thinking of a bulky Fire type that can use Sunny Day as a pseudo boost + anti snowstorm, since Fire resist both Abomasnow stabs, but I yet to find a good one.

Plus having an all out Rain team remove the element of surprise, which hail players normally try to keep their Abomasnow safe. People are more willing to risk their Abomasnow if they don't see any particular weather team.

 

[HiImGrey]

I was thinking of a bulky Fire type that can use Sunny Day as a pseudo boost + anti snowstorm, since Fire resist both Abomasnow stabs, but I yet to find a good one.

Plus having an all out Rain team remove the element of surprise, which hail players normally try to keep their Abomasnow safe. People are more willing to risk their Abomasnow if they don't see any particular weather team.

Arcanine imo is the best one. Other remotely bulky fire types such as Torkoal and Camerupt are just too bad. Moltres is unfortunately killed by SR and neutral to Blizzard.

 

[aVocado]

I always used Tyranitar + Celebi combination (with pokemon that synergy well with them, of course) to stop sun and rain (even hail), having a Pokemon just to rain dance seems like a waste of a pokemon and a moveslot to me..

 

[CrazyBacon]

I always used Tyranitar + Celebi combination (with pokemon that synergy well with them, of course) to stop sun and rain (even hail), having a Pokemon just to rain dance seems like a waste of a pokemon and a moveslot to me..

This is UU lol not OU, tyranitar and celebi dont exist in this teir.

Qwilfish makes a decent spiker for rain teams with swift swim (or intimidate) which helps mons like kabutops net kills, also it absorbs toxic spikes and can explode on a bothersome mon and get a rain sweeper in for free. A truly great mon

 

[aVocado]

This is UU lol not OU, tyranitar and celebi dont exist in this teir.

Fail.. I didn't even notice. <.<

 

[Alan]

ugh, can we not have RD in UU? Like fuck. It's already in OU and Ubers... do we really need to have 3 rain-based metagames?

 

[TM13IceBeam]

ugh, can we not have RD in UU? Like fuck. It's already in OU and Ubers... do we really need to have 3 rain-based metagames?

and the difference is that we don't have access to Politoed/Kyogre which makes rain much more challenging overall?

 

[pokemanic117]

The only thing about rain dance is if ur opponent has something like sableye tornadus or whisicott they can just taunt you or you can just stall it out so its not that bad its a good anti weather but not something to really build a team a round

 

[Sayonara]

I tried Rain Dance on Drizzle Politoed. Each time Ninetales / Tyranitar / Abomasnow would come in, they'd have to get outta there since I would have my own weather up again!

 

[X5Dragon]

Have anyone tried using Rain Dance as a sort off counter Hail & Sand? I don't mean running a full rain dance team, just one or two pokemon that do rain dance to stop hail/sand.

*raises hand*

I used it a lot and it has often led me to many victories, thanks to the fact most Weather are built on weather abusing abilities/resistances so take that away and they are left with a bunch of pokemons that either have low acc moves, OKish base attacks, laughable base speeds and normal weaknesses in case of Drought/Drizzle. Even if you manage to dance infront of a weather inducer and they kill you, it often means a free set-up turn because they have to switch twice to activate weather.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

You two do realise the section in which this thread is posted right...? Drought and Drizzle don't exist in UU.