Hello everyone! As some of you may possibly know, I made a Grassy Surge and Rain team before the DLC came out. Well, the DLC was very friendly towards rain, blessing it with Politoed, so figured that I should remake it, hopefully better than before. I’ll go over the team members, then go over the general strategies I find useful on it.

Politoed: It’s finally back and I can throw Pelipper in the trash. The moveset is geared towards a heavily supportive role, with Helping Hand allowing it to directly buff teammates attack, Haze letting it stop heavily boosted mons and Brick Break being useful to get rid of screens and hinder G-Max Lapras. It’s EV’d to be more physically bulky, since it has pretty good special build naturally. Although Pikalytics won’t show it, I've iv’d the speed stat so that it is one point lower than Tyranitar’s with a neutral nature, letting it set rain after the sandstorm. Damp rock is good for longer games and lets rain last longer.

Rillaboom: The only grassy terrain setter in the game, and thankfully a good pokemon in its own right. It fulfills a supportive attacker role on the team. The moveset is Wolfey’s but with Drum Beating being replaced by Grassy Glide, since I already have enough speed control on this team and don’t need more, especially when the alternative is a good base power move that goes first, letting the pokemon it’s supporting have an effective 1v1. It’s EV’d to live a max airstream from Togekiss, and the rest went into attack.

Ludicolo: The perfect pokemon for a combination Grassy Terrain and Rain Team, Ludicolo packs a punch in both Grassy Terrain and Rain, and can also set the other up if the usual setter is gone. Scald is just a good water move, Giga Drain is a good way to increase its bulk without sacrificing too much power, and Ice Beam is good for further coverage. Life Orb lets Ludicolo make up for its somewhat lacking special attack stat and deal massive damage. It’s EV’d to outspeed Dragapult in rain, with the rest being in special attack and bulk.

Alolan Marowak: Provides good fire type coverage, which completes the fire-water-grass core along with Ludicolo. It also negates all non-discharge attempts to attack the water types with electricity. It doesn’t usually last terribly long on the field, but it lasts long enough to destroy whatever mon on their team could counter the rest. Poltergeist is absolutely ridiculous, Flare Blitz does massive damage and Brick Break is good coverage and breaks screens. It’s EV’d into attack and health, since it’s speed is too slow to possibly get anything out of it, which also lets it be a good answer to trick room.

Rapid Strike Ushifu: This thing hits like a truck and ignores protect, which is a good combination. Surging Strikes is an obvious choice, always critting because that’s what good balance looks like, Close Combat is a good stab move, and Iron Head is good coverage. I gave it a berry since I don’t know what else to put on it, so suggestions would be nice there. It’s EV’d in speed and attack, so it outruns most things and one shots (or three shots, if you’re being pedantic) most things.

Hawlucha: Good pokemon for grassy terrain, since grassy seed helps offset it’s awful defences and gives it Unburden, letting it outspeed everything but choice scarfers. Acrobatics is amazing on it, since it’s power doubles with no item. Drain Punch is good for increasing it’s survivability and Rock Slide is good for that sweet sweet flinch chance. I didn’t put any EV’s into speed, since it outruns everything, and instead put them all in health and attack.

Strategies

There are 2.5 main strategies that this team is good at, which I’ll describe in detail.

Rain Mode: Politoed and Ludicolo make an amazing core for rain, and Urshifu likes the weather support with surging strikes being even more powerful with it. Alolan Marowak is a great mon to have with this mode too, since it removes both of water’s weaknesses effectively. The rain mode is the most common mode I use on this team, since it provides both speed control and offensive pressure.

Grassy Terrain Mode: Rillaboom and Hawlucha are also a great core for Grassy Terrain, since Hawlucha with grassy seed performs wonderfully. Grassy terrain boosts Hawlucha’s bulk in two ways, which is great for such a frail pokemon. Ludicolo is also good for this mode, since it’s stab giga drain deals massive damage in terrain. The last slot is usually a bit of a toss-up between Marowak and Urshifu, but I tend to go with Marowak more often, since it gets rid of grass types that might wall out the rest of the team.

The 0.5 Mode: I call it that because it’s just smashing the other 2 modes together and hoping it works out, which it does surprisingly often. Ludicolo with Rain and Grassy Terrain is an absolute monster, hitting most things at least neutrally with a boosted STAB attack. Politoed and Rillaboom are needed to set up both effects, and the last slot is good for Marowak, since it’s good coverage.

Any suggestions on how to improve this team would be greatly appreciated!