Weather strategies

Weather
Weather teams are teams that centralize in a weather for offensing and defensing purpose. There are four weathers, rain, sun, sand and hail.
General tips: don't completely rely on the weather too much, as the opponent can weather your weather. Or when your weather setter is gone, you don't want to be completely screwed.

Rain
Rain Effects

Here is a list of the basic effects rain brings to the table:

The Base Power of Water-type moves is increased by 50%
The Base Power of Fire-type moves is decreased by 50%
SolarBeam is forced into its charge turn
Hurricane and Thunder have 100% accuracy
Weather Ball becomes a Water-type move with double its default Base Power
Synthesis, Moonlight, and Morning Sun recover 25% of the user's HP
Pokemon with the ability Swift Swim have their Speed doubled
Pokemon with the ability Hydration have all status healed during the rain
Pokemon with Dry Skin gain 12.5% HP per turn
Pokemon with Rain Dish gain 6.25% HP per turn
Castform changes forme

Tips:
Politoed: Your rain inducer, it has the ability drizzle, which summons rain. Let it hold a damp rock so the rain last longer.

Have rain abusers (have some water types)
E.g kingdra, kabutops, manaphy, mega swampeart, etc. A lot of rain abuser have the ability swift swim.

Take advantage of hurricane and thunder's accuracy in rain:
They will have perfect accuracy in rain. I've seen hurricane more because its ability to eliminate most grass types, which gives trouble to rain teams. Most common hurricane user is tornadorus terrain.

Have pokemon that eliminate pokemon that gives trouble to rain team. Ferrothorn is one of rain's biggest enemy, as it neutralize its fire weakness and it resist water. Make sure that your team is not walled by it.

Take advantage of the decrease of power of fire type moves:
Things like ferrothorn or mega scizor enjoy their four times weakness turning into two. Make sure to check them out.

Sun

Effects of Sun

Taking some time to familiarize yourself with the basic effects of this field condition is a good idea if you plan on building a sun team, so they are listed below for your convenience:

The Base Power of Fire-type moves is increased by 50%
The Base Power of Water-type moves is decreased by 50%
SolarBeam's charge turn is removed
Growth increases Attack and Special Attack by two stages
Thunder's and Hurricane's accuracy is reduced to 50% (for harsh sunlight)
Weather Ball effectively becomes a 150 Base Power Fire-type move
Synthesis, Moonlight, and Morning Sun recover 66% of the user's HP
Pokemon with the ability Chlorophyll have their Speed doubled
Pokemon with the ability Solar Power have their Special Attack increased by 50% but lose 12.5% of their maximum HP per turn
Pokemon with the ability Leaf Guard become immune to status
Pokemon with Dry Skin lose 12.5% of their maximum HP per turn
Cherrim and Castform change formes

Tips:
Ninetails/mega charizard y: Just like in rain team, they are the inducer of the sun. It is neccasary to have at least one of them, sometimes both. Ninetails should have a heat rock. (Only run ninetails and mega charizard y if you really need a back up sun setter)

Have pokemon sun abusers(have some fire types):
A lot of fire types are good battler under sun, their STABs are increased by 50% and water effectiveness against them is decreased by 50%. Some Chorolophyll users are great sun attcker
E.g: volcarona, darmanitan, venusaur, sawsbuck (non mega charizard is actually usable).

Take advantage of solar beam:
solar beam doesn't need to charge in sun, making it a very good coverage for fire types and a good main attack for grass types.

Weather ball:
some chorolophll sweeper like venusaur have weather ball, which have 100 base power when weather is activate. Combined with the sun boost, it will be a 150 base power fire type moves. Making it a very good coverage. Unfortunately, no fire types allowed in ou can learn weather ball.

Growth:
This not commonly used move turned into a great move in sun. It boost a pokemon's attack and special attack by two stages in sun. A lot of grass type knows it and can pull of a sweep with it under sun. (don't use it if you don't have sun)

Sand

The following effects occur in a sandstorm:

Rock-type Pokémon's Special Defense is boosted by 50%
All non-Rock-, Steel-, and Ground-type Pokémon and Pokémon without the ability Magic Guard, Air Lock, or Sand Veil take 1/16 damage at the end of every turn.
The evasion of a Pokémon with the Sand Veil ability is increased by 25% (it was 20% in gen4).
SolarBeam's Base Power is reduced from 120 to 60.
Synthesis, Moonlight, and Morning Sun only recover 25% of the user's HP, as opposed to 50%.
Weather Ball's Base Power is doubled to 100, and becomes a Rock-type move.

Tips:
Hippowdon/Tyranitar: You will need at least one of them as sand setter, as they have the ability sand stream. Both can be run if you need back up. They should hold a smooth rock to make the sand last longer, tyranitar can have a potential mega evolve if you are not planning to run other ones.

Excadrill: This pokemon is the best sweeper in sand in the whole tier, it has 135 attack and the ability sand rush, which makes its speed doubled in sand. It also has access to swords dance and rapid spin. If you are running an offensive sand team, excadrill is almost always necessary.

Stoutland&Sandslash: They both have sand rush just like excadrill. But they aren't nearly as good as excadrill, as they have lower attack, lower speed. Stoutland doesn't have swords dance like excadrill and sandslash has a terrible special defence. Stouland and sandslash are really only back up for excadrill.

Rock types: they get a huge special defense boost, some things like rhyperior are actually viable and becomes insanely bulky. Be sure to think about using them.
E.g. rhyperior, tyrantrum, mega aerodactyl

Sand veil: 25% might not sound too much, but it can be very annoying. Somebody topped the Ou ladder with a sand veil team. You can use something like garchomp, which has the ability sand veil, and then keep using subsitute until the opponent miss. Spreading paralyse could help, making the chance of hitting even smaller.
E.g. garchomp, gliscor(sand veil)

Ground and steel types: doesn't get the special defense boost like rock types but doesn't take damage from sand storm. Pokemon like skarmory can be very helpful to sand teams. Magnezone can also help, since taking down skarmory and ferrothorn can be a pain.

Sand Force: It increases the power of rock/ground/steel move in sandstorm by 30%. Mega garchomp hits extremely hard with it's earthquake in sandstorm. Iron head can be helpful in sand too.
Mega pinsir: Although it doesn't get much from sand, it helps sand a lot by removing a lot of threat for sand team, like keldeo and mega venusaur.
Hail:

Affect of hails:
At the end of each turn, damages each Pokémon for 1/16 of its maximum HP, unless it is Ice-type; has one of the Abilities Ice Body, Snow Cloak, Magic Guard or Overcoat; or is holding Safety Goggles.
a Pokémon with Ice Body will regain 1/16 of its maximum HP at the end of each turn
the evasion of a Pokémon with this Ability is increased by 25%.
Causes Forecast to change Castform to its Snowy Form.
Changes Weather Ball to a Ice-type move and doubles its power.
Allows Blizzard to bypass accuracy check
Causes Solar Beam to deal only half its normal damage.
Causes Moonlight, Synthesis, and Morning Sun to recover ¼ of the user's maximum HP.

Tips:
Abomasnow: Your hail inducer. Icy rock should be hold on abomasnow. You might think this pokemon is useless but it can successfully wall some water types that really on ice type moves to break grass types.

Heatran: not really benefit from hail but benefit hail teams. It checks most pokemon that beats abomasnow except for fighting types and is able to tank fire types move the opponent throw ar you.

Ice types: They are not damaged from hail. Sadly, there aren't many viable ice types in ou. The only ones that are really viable are weavile, kyurem-black and mamoswine

Spinner/defogger: You might need one since abomasnow needs to come in a lot of time and it is weak to stealth rock. Things like starmie makes a nice partner.


Conclusion: That's it, the basics of weather strategies. Overall, rain and sand are used more than the others because they have some very good sweepers. Hail is seen the least, as the weather effect itself is kind of disappointing. Doesn't mean you shouldn't use them, they might surprise you. All weather strategies can be fun to use so why not try them out?

If i missed anything, please tell me.

If you have any question about the strats, please comment below

A neat guide strategy indeed :^)

Thx, do u think i should make it more detailed?

Ninetails isn't really viable, and you never want both on one team, as it wastes a slot. You should also put in all weather tips not to be completely reliant on your weather type, because its game over if someone takes your weather away or if it wears off.

Growth isn't viable either since its too sun reliant.

Just some advice for the guide!

Growth is viable in sun but it sucks either wise. Growth can be useful for the pokemon that needs a set up move or a mix attacker under sun. ninetail can be used if you want the sun to last longer since it can hold heat rock, having both ninetails and zard y is just for back up so that other pokemon can rely on the sun more. Just like some people run hippowdon and tyranitar on the same sand team
thanks for the advice, i will put some in

Its a good reference, Helps me work on my themed teams and what not, thank you

Thanks n_n

Nice guide I would like to add one or two things from personal experience:

First, I read a comment about Growth, and I do think it is reliable. I remember using it on an eviolite Chlorophyll Ivysaur and it was worth seing Unlike sand or rain-based teams, sun-based teams can exploit weather longer because heat rock isn't banned from monotype.

Then, about the sand: my main OU team is sand-based. I recommand an assault vest on an offensive rock type in sand, for an even greater SpD boost. Mine is Tyranitar, which also runs Counter: you need physical moves to hurt it seriously, and then bam! Counter. Sand Force is also a sand-based ability, which increases the power of groud/steel/rock moves in sand. Mega-Garchomp, with natural bulk and decent speed, access to Swords Dance, does heavy damage with a Sand Force-enhanced Earthquake.

Another effect of sand and sun is that they lower to 50% the accuracy of Thunder and Hurricane. Also, Air Lock does ignore the effects of weather, but so does Cloud Nine (Altaria, Golduck), which can be a key in Extreme Tier Shift.

shouldn't ttar have smooth rock for longer sand storm tho
But thanks for the things you point out n_n, i will add sand force in
also, i think thunder and hurricane have 50% in harsh sunlight not sand

Great job Woy. Looks good.

7JayDee7 wrote:Great job Woy.  Looks good.

ever noticed it was there like when the forum started? XDXD

Nope xD

My sandstorm OU team actually features two sand streamers, my smooth rock holder is Hippowdon, so Tyranitar can keep the assault vest.

k, that works n_n Assault vest ttar is sooo bulky XDXD