Surging Pika-Power!
[Sorry if this post is a bit barebones, life has been busy!]
Celebrating Pokémon's 27th anniversary! A team that features our favourite, electrifying, ever-present mouse, Pikachu! With it's special item, Light Ball, it can turn itself into a very respectable offensive presence on a particularly already-strong team archetype: Rain.
Teambuilding Process
With multiple archetypes finding success, particularly different weather archetypes (even Snow won the Utrecht Special Event), I too felt the need to play another weather team. I have a previously featured Rain team as well for Regulation D, and it's definitely the archetype I have been favouring weather-wise.
Rain however has suffered a little bit, particularly Urshifu-Rapid-Strike. The main reason being Raging Bolt, that can pretty much check/threaten most of the team by existing.
I had a few jokes about how Lightning Rod + Tera-Fairy would be able to wall Raging Bolt, referencing Raichu at the time. Realistically, I don't think Raichu ever provided enough offensively for me to want to field it, cause it will suffer from "all my friends are dead" syndrome.
Thinking about it a bit more, I decided to slap Pikachu onto the team as a half joke cause it had access to Light Ball, and is offensively stronger than Raichu with it. To put things into perspective, a Modest Flutter Mane with 252 EVs will hit 205 SpA, and Adamant Baxcalibur with 252 EVs will hit 216 Atk. Pikachu can hit 217 Atk WITHOUT a boosting nature.
The team in-itself is pretty self explanatory but there are just a couple of things I want to point out in creating potential variants of the team, hence the making of this post.
I did manage to get to Top 500 on the ladder with 70% GXE with this team, which to me is standard enough justification of an option to be viable for fun teams! (As a disclaimer, no, I do not think Pikachu is meta-breaking, just fun!)
Sets
Pikachu @ Light Ball
Pikachu @ Light Ball Ability: Lightning Rod Tera Type: Fairy EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe Jolly Nature - Fake Out - Volt Tackle - Play Rough - Protect
Calcs:
- 252 Atk Light Ball Pikachu Volt Tackle vs. 212 HP / 132 Def Flutter Mane: 157-186 (100 - 118.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- 252+ SpA Raging Bolt Snarl vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tera-Fairy Pikachu: 23-27 (20.7 - 24.3%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
- 252+ Atk Sword of Ruin Chien-Pao Sucker Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tera-Fairy Pikachu: 83-98 (74.7 - 88.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- Outspeeds Booster Spe Timid Flutter Mane in Tailwind and Adamant Urshifu
The sparky star of the team, Pikachu boasts strong coverage in Electric/Fairy. As previously mentioned, this allows you to both wall AND threaten Raging Bolt's very comfortably, with the only potential move Raging Bolt's tend to run that can hit you is Snarl or Weather Ball, both of which are fairly rare.
If you think about it, having a Pokémon that can fully wall a key piece of a team (as Raging Bolt tends to be) means you have less to worry about during positioning a board and can also influence your opponent's decisions.
Asides from that, Pikachu provides fast Fake Out pressure that pairs well with Urshifu!
Alternative versions of this set exists where you can instead run the following variants:
- Tera Blast Water + Surf offers great Spread damage options in Rain and helps hit Incineroar and Landorus-Incarnate, with Lightning Rod removing a weakness in Water (although, with Pikachu's bulk, or lack thereof, it doesn't really matter)
- SpA version running Thunder and Tera-Blast Fairy to avoid having to play around Intimidates. This variant benefits off the SpA boosts you recieve from Lightning Rod.
I prefer the Physical variant since it can threaten Flutter Mane more comfortably but the other sets are also just as valid!
Tornadus @ Covert Cloak
@ Covert Cloak Ability: Prankster Tera Type: Steel EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def / 60 Spe Timid Nature Bleakwind Storm - Icy Wind Tailwind - Rain Dance
Calcs:
- Outspeeds Timid Glimmora
- Physical Bulk Dump
- 252+ Atk Choice Band Sword of Ruin Tera-Normal Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 252 HP / 196 Def Tornadus: 160-190 (86 - 102.1%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
Tornadus is a premier Tailwind setter with Bleakwind Storm ignoring accuracy checks in Rain. Icy Wind gives you an alternative/additional method of speed control. Prankster Rain Dance is also helpful to reset Rain and win weather wars when necessary, and enable the other team members like Urshifu and Archaludon.
Covert Cloak allows you to ensure pressure in front of Fake Out, and avoid the stat drops by opposing Icy Wind/Snarls. Another bonus of Icy Wind is that it can really deal out some great chip into Landorus.
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Scarf
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Scarf Ability: Unseen Fist Tera Type: Water EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe Adamant Nature - Surging Strikes - U-turn - Close Combat - Aqua Jet
What Rain team doesn't have Urshifu-Rapid-Strike?
Urshifu-RS is your perfect checkmate piece whenever you need to close out a game, or start out with overwhelming pressure. In Rain, even resists get taken down as 2HKO/3HKOs, with very little deterrents.
U-Turn allows you to take advantage of your initial offensive pressure and prevent your opponent from building momentum in their favour by pivoting into a board state that is consistently favourable.
Just to keep in mind, Chien-Pao can live an unboosted Surging Strikes if their final 4 EVs are correctly placed in Def.
I've tested some other variable spreads but most of the time the calcs just felt irrelevant or you can just play around any percieved issues.
Archaludon @ Assault Vest
Archaludon @ Assault Vest Ability: Stamina Tera Type: Grass EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 4 SpA / 236 SpD / 4 Spe Modest / Calm Nature - Electro Shot - Body Press - Dragon Pulse / Draco Meteor - Flash Cannon
Calcs:
- 252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 236 SpD Assault Vest Archaludon: 166-198 (84.2 - 100.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
- 252 Atk Urshifu-Rapid Strike Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 12 Def Archaludon: 164-194 (83.2 - 98.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
A difficult opponent to remove, you can ramp up damage quickly with Archaludon's signature move on top of having great bulk.
Body Press + Stamina helps you punish Physically-skewed teams, and the option of whether you want Dragon Pulse/Draco Meteor depends on the matchup. Draco Meteor also helps you nuke opposing Landorus-I, and gives you greater impact in a single turn after Electro Shot boosts.
Tera-Grass lets you ignore Rage Powder/Spore to increase longevity on the board and retain the Urshifu-Rapid-Strike resist you desire from the Dragon typing.
Tera-Fairy is also appropriate, being able to resist Sacred Sword and all of Urshifu-Single-Strike's usual coverage.
An extremely funny alternative set for Archaludon is as follows:
Archaludon @ Life Orb Ability: Stalwart Tera Type: Stellar EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Draco Meteor - Electro Shot - Flash Cannon - Protect
This set allows you to outspeed Adamant Urshifu, and basically nuke almost any neutral. Just a big gun in the rain.
Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Pelipper @ Focus Sash Ability: Drizzle Tera Type: Ghost EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe Modest Nature IVs: 0 Atk Hurricane Tailwind - Weather Ball - Wide Guard
Pelipper is actually a really good Pokémon. Tailwind + Wide Guard provides strong utility options for certain matchups such as Psyspam, Tornadus Tailwind, Blizzard Spam. Weather Ball also meanas you have strong, consistent damage even if the Weather changes. Hurricane provides Flying-coverage which Rain teams also appreciate into opposing Grass-types.
The Ghost-Tera lets you lead aggressively into Fake Out and preserve Focus Sash in those scenarios.
Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet Ability: Regenerator Tera Type: Water EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 SpD Bold Nature IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe - Spore - Rage Powder - Pollen Puff - Clear Smog
Calcs:
- 252+ Atk Sword of Ruin Chien-Pao Icicle Crash vs. 252 HP / 220+ Def Amoonguss: 186-222 (84.1 - 100.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
Pretty simple set, Amoonguss mainly allows you to deal with Dondozo more comfortably using Clear Smog. Augmenting it's bulk against Fire moves using Rain, also provides extra "bulk" to Amoonguss.
Pollen Puff lets you heal up your important Pokémon such as Archaludon, and Spore is just all around desirable as a move to have on a team.
The reason we go for 0 Spe IV is to really underspeed BM Ursaluna in TR, which is key to stop them from running off freely with games.
Leads
[Honestly, I'm not going to try to fluff some of these up as they are pretty self-explanatory, so I will keep it short and simple :)]
Urshifu/Pikachu
An aggressive lead into teams slower than Pikachu, providing Fake Out pressure + denying a lot of Raging Bolt leads that try to be anti-Urshifu can build really great momentum from the get-go.
Archaludon/Pelipper
A basic lead. Immediate Rain allows you to start the offense with Electro-Shot, and have Pelipper set Tailwind for you. Any Grass-types and Urshifu can be comfortably threatened by Pelipper as well.
Tornadus/Urshifu/Archaludon
TornShifu (Or Archaludon) is an alternative lead gives you a variety of options with immediate boosts in Spe for mirrors (Tailwind). You can:
- Set Rain to augment Urshifu's damage, since Choice Scarf removes the need for immediate Speed Control
- Double up on damage with Bleakwind + Surging Strikes
- or Tailwind in the mirrors to guarantee your Urshifu almost always moving first (unless they have a faster Scarfer)
With Archaludon, taking advantage of the immediately better defensive typing, it's far more beneficial in the Tornadus mirrors to immediately remove them with Electro Shot + Rain. Since you're bulky, you have the time to tempo Tailwind after Rain.
Archaludon/Amoonguss
A fairly safe lead. Good into Balance modes where you wanna just start chipping away at everything while pressuring sleep turns. I've even had moments where I just clicked Electro Shot without Rain if they had a low-pressure lead.
Rental
Enjoy the team! I had a lot of fun just nuking things with Pikachu. If you appreciate my content, please shoot me a follow on Twitter to get regular blog-post updates and if you REALLY appreciate my content, you can buy me a coffee from the sidebar too!
Don't forget to check out my other content, especially my recent Tofu Table posts to help you get your bearings on parts of the Regulation F metagame!
Acknowledgements
- Pikachu Sprite by JoshR691 on DeviantArt
- Urshifu-RS Sprite by hellfire0raptor on DeviantArt
