I cannot wait to sing It's Raining Men at karaoke. Another important part of this subject's history: in Brazil rain. This video will save the world, one hydrated person at a time... Sadly's ADV rain thread: www.smogon.com/forums/threads/a-deep-look-at-rain-offense.3649565/
It’s funny to me how straightforward rain strategy has been compared to sun. Sun boosts Fire type moves, most Pokémon with sun abilities are Grass type, and its legendary setter was a Ground type. Rain boosts Water type moves, most Pokémon with rain abilities are Water, and its legendary setter was a Water type.
Furthermore, because of their specific traits, Volcanion (Fire/Water with Water Absorb) and Walking Wake (Water/Dragon with a move that works in Sun) are great on Sun teams, and a possible setter is Koraidon (Fighting/Dragon).
I guess electric and/or flying also like rain for accurate thunder/hurricane Ground, rock and steel like sand bc they're immune and/or sand abilities But hail/snow is really just for ice types
It’s non existent in Gen 2 and in Gen 3 it is bad. There’s too much to overcome for purely rain teams. You have to find a way to kill Ttar, you have to overcome the countless walls that all carry protect aka Skarm, Swampert, Forretress, Jirachi, Metagross even at times. They can all come in and protect and then retaliate with a phase or status or just a ton of damage. Then there’s the issue of bulky waters plus Zapdos plus Celebi. Good luck breaking those mons if Ludicolo had a better grass move it would make a lot of difference but unfortunately it doesn’t abd that means those mons are very tough for rain dance teams to break. Most importantly this strategy is shut down by Billsey which forces you to use Dugtrio in a slot this often time leaves you very vulnerable to rock spam in my experience. So like this strategy has problems with Ttar, Zapdos, Skarm, Cune, Pert, Milo, Celebi, Jirachi, some Metagrosses, defensive Starmie, and very importantly Blissey So like most of the top pokemon in the OU metagame…
My favourite part of the video was the rain team just not getting up rain and sweeping with Torn-T and Magearna while BKC argues with himself about the intricacies of Ferro vs. Kartana in use cases lmao
As a Gen 8 player, I can give a bit of insight on what Rain is like in the tier. The most popular Swift Swimmers are Barrasweda and Seismatoad and a couple other Rain abusers include Zapdos for its perfect accurate Thunders and Hurricanes and Crawdaunt for its nuclear Water STAB. As for how it's doing right now, it's kinda struggling as a playstyle, since Rillaboom Grassy Terrain teams have been on the rise and do really well into Rain. Not to mention that popular mons like Rotom-Wash, Slowbro, and Garchomp also give Rain trouble.
I've got an idea for a rain setter: Dinosoak. For an appearance, it resembles a brontosaur mixed with a watering can, with moss growing on its back, and its body this stone blue-gray. Type: Water/Grass Ability: Rain Spit (if damaged by an attack, sets up rain for 5 turns, 8 turns if holding a Damp Rock. Will even do so if it takes fatal damage)/Storm Drain Hidden Ability: Hydration Base Stats (total: 480) HP: 96 Attack: 58 Defense: 86 Sp. Atk: 101 Sp. Def: 91 Speed: 48 Moves: Water Gun, Water Pulse, Surf, Hydro Pump, Muddy Water, Rain Dance, Aqua Ring, Flip Turn, Life Dew, Water Spout, Soak, Water Sport, Chilling Water, Absorb, Mega Drain, Giga Drain, Leech Seed, Grassy Terrain, Energy Ball, Ingrain, Wood Hammer, Bullet Seed, Seed Bomb, Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, Rage Powder, Leaf Storm, Icy Wind, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Ancient Power, Earth Power, Mud-Slap, Mud Shot, Mud Bomb, Calm Mind, Rest, Sleep Talk, Hyper Voice, Protect, Weather Ball, Terrain Pulse, Tera Blast The idea is that it would be a suicide rain setter, where you get it low, and sacrifice it to an opponent's attack to set up rain for its teammates, but I can also see it as a delayed weather setter that won't get beat by Torkoal. However, I can see the Hydration set being used on rain teams itself, with another weather setter, where it uses RestTalk to keep itself active. And the Storm Drain set being used to support Pokémon that are weak to Water, and threaten Water-types with super effective Grass STAB. I don't know if it's gonna be OU, but I feel like Dinosoak could make a name for itself in the lower tiers as a Pelipper substitute. Even though it might have a niche in OU.
RE: 57:56 Rain’s very niche in Gen 9 OU right now, but in the early DLC2 metagame it was a very oppressive playstyle thanks to Archaludon’s insane defensive profile and access to Electro Shot (basically an Electric-type Meteor Beam but if Rain is active it doesn’t need to charge up). The thing always got the boost before attacking so even a Ground-type switching in to block Electro Shot wasn’t safe. Basically, Archaludon had insane bulk while hitting like a truck and it would keep on boosting up while attacking so it would quickly snowball out of control. By the time teams could take it down it usually took down 2-3 mons on its own and left the team worn down enough for Swift Swim Barraskewda or Swords Dance Kingambit to clean up. The playstyle was insanely oppressive thanks to Archaludon and it got banned a while back. Archaludon made Rain the best a weather playstyle has been since Gen 5.
It can be very good but it's overall inconsistent, personally I don't think nium is worth the mega slot People only realised this late into the generation so sadly it didn't manage to drop to uuu before the generation ended
He’s right though. Rain is non existent in Gen 2. It’s not good in Gen 3 at all but it is a niche strategy that destroys counter meta strategies. Also Kingdra as a special cleaner with rain dance on it is good.
BKC not only has throat AIDS, but is relentlessly contributing competitive pokemon content during this time. He is truly my role model, I hope he can lead us into battle when the second pokemon war comes around
