Type: Electric
Ability: PressureHeight: 6'3" / 1.9 m
Weight: 392.5 lb. / 178.0 kg
Gender: No Gender
| HP: | (90) | |
| Attack: | (85) | |
| Defense: | (75) | |
| Special Attack: | (115) | |
| Special Defense: | (100) | |
| Speed: | (115) | |
Defensive Combinations
Raikou, one of the few usable pure Electric Type Pokemon. Raikou's electric typing gives it 1 weakness, Ground, and a resistance to Flying, Electric, and Steel. Due to Raikou's fairly low Defensive Base Stat, one should pair Raikou alongside a pokemon that can take physical hits while having an immunity to Ground moves or resisting it. With that in mind, Bronzong/Gliscor/Bulky Breloom/Bulky Gyarados all support Raikou pretty well. All these pokemon resist or are immune to Ground attacks and can take physical hits quite well. Bronzong deals with most physical dragon attacks, like Dragon Claw/Outrage quite well. Gliscor deals with Heracross (espesially CB versions) and recovers off the damage with Roost and can Taunt away any form of field hazards that might hinder Raikou. Breloom resists all of Tyranitar's attacks (except for DDTar w/ Ice Beam and Boah variants) and can strike back fairly effectively. Breloom can also be viewed as a status absorber with the Poison Heal ability and Toxic Orb and can also provide a 100% accuracy sleeping move, in the form of Spore. Bulky Gyarados is a great asset to Raikou, thanks to it's Bulkiness and it's ability Intimidate. Gyarados also covers Bronzong/Breloom's fire weak and covers Gliscor's 4x Ice Weak while Gyarados' 4x Electric Weak is covered by Gliscor.
Raikou has 2 usable sets, CMKou and SpecsKou, the problem lies in bringing in Raikou without obtaining a status or losing a huge chunk of health in the process. First off, when bringing in Raikou, you have to make sure that anything that outspeeds Raikou is either paralyzed or taken care of before hand, special walls like Blissey are taken care of and when Raikou comes into the field, it will scare off the opposing pokemon forcing a switch and allowing Raikou to set up a Substitute blocking any incoming status. Then while Raikou is setting up, make sure the opposing pokemon will slowly wear itself down. The best way to do so would be field hazards like Spikes/Toxic Spikes/Stealth Rock, it is reccomended to have at least 2 of the 3 forms of hazards. Toxic Spikes being the utmost priority with Spikes/Stealth Rock second. This way, while Raikou is setting up, damage can still be dealt to an opponent which would then put the pokemon into an OHKO range from Raikou's Pseudo Boltbeam or at least force the pokemon to switch, where it then takes damage from Stealth Rock/Spikes.General Counters
A general Raikou Counter can be Snorlax, with his impressive Base HP and SpDef stats, soak up Raikou's Thunderbolt/Hidden Power [Ice] or [Grass] and can attack back with Return/Body Slam/Earthquake. Another general counter would be Blissey with Seismic Toss. As she's one of the best special sponges, she can easily outstall Raikou while whittling away it's HP.Putting It All Together
CMKou + Breloom + BulkyGyarados + Restalk/ScarfHeatran form a great combination. Breloom can easily deal with Blisseys or Swamperts with Focus Punch and Seed Bomb, and can SubSeedStall. BulkyGyarados grants a Ground immunity while being able to stand it's own. Restalk Heatran is great for absorbing Status and taking fire attacks meant for Breloom while being able to strike back with Lava Plume and Earth Power/Dragon Pulse. While Scarf Heatran can net revenge kills while granting the same Poison/Fire/Ice immunity. It's a matter of choosing either durability or speed.
SpecsKou + Breloom/MixApe + Bulky/Restalk Gyarados is like the previous combination for CMKou but altered just a bit. SpecsKou doesn't mind status as much as CMKou but Restalk Gyarados is still an option to absorb it. Breloom deals with Swampert and Blissey once again while Mix Infernape does the same thing with more speed. Bulky Gyarados will be here to take hits while Restalk Gyarados gives it a decent recovery move allowing more durability then Bulky Gyarados at the cost of 1 less move to attack with.Set - CMKou
[ Information | Other Options | Offensive Combos | Strategic Combos | Set Counters ]
A set that's been around since the ADV Metagame. Substitute chips away 25% of Raikou's health for a doll that guards Raikou of any incoming status or aliments while also helping Raikou scout for incoming pokemon. The drained hitpoints can be easily recovered via Leftovers which is why Leftovers is the only item for this set. This Raikou comes in after a decent amount of field hazards are set, and the opponent's main special wall (barring they have one) is defeated. That is where Raikou proceeds to Calm Mind while hiding behind a Subsitute and attacking with it's Pseudo Boltbeam, which is only resisted by Magnezone and Lanturn with Volt Absorb when nessecary. (Magnezone is your onnly real worry as Lanturn is rarely seen in OU) From there it's a rinse and repeat process until your opponent's remaining team is defeated. A word of advice is that Yache Berry Garchomp's require 2 Hidden Power Ice's to defeat and is best dealt with while Raikou's Substitute is still standing.
Substitute is Raikou's main form of protection against Status and other ailments. It also helps scout against incoming pokemon that could possibly pose a threat to Raikou. Calm Mind buffs up Raikou's SpAtk and SpDef allowing it to soak up special attacks with it's Substitute while being able to dish out a fair amount of damage in return. Thunderbolt which gets STAB will be Raikou's main form of dealing damage to an opponent. For the pokemon that resist Thunderbolt, (Mainly Ground types and Dragons) they are dealt with Hidden Power [Ice] which is usually an OHKO after 2-3 Calm Minds.
22 Atk/30 Def IV's are required to get Hidden Power [Ice] at it's strongest, due to Raikou running Timid and legendary pokemon not being able to have perfect IVs.
Other Options
There is only one viable other option for this CMKou set, and it's Hidden Power [Grass]. Now you may ask, why HP Grass? Well, mainly for a Pokemon called Swampert. With it's Nifty Water/Ground Typing, it resists Thunderbolt and takes little damage from Hidden Power [Ice], while Hidden Power [Grass] hits it for 4x the damage. The other pokemon Hidden Power [Grass] can hit harder then Hidden Power [Ice] is Mamoswine, with it's Ice/Ground typing you can hit it on the switch in with HP Grass. Raikou still retains his Ground coverage with HP Grass but the cost for using Hidden Power [Grass] is heavy, Raikou loses to against the OU Dragons. Salamece resists HP Grass while Thunderbolt is neutral, same for Dragonite, Garchomp is immune to Thunderbolt and takes neutral the damage from HP Grass. It is highly suggested to have something to deal with Swampert so Raikou does not have to sacrifice Hidden Power [Ice].
Offensive Combinations
When building a team to revolve around Raikou, one must never forget to include a Physical Attacker of some sort, preferably something that deals with Blissey and Swampert. Mixed Infernape fits perfectly as do Breloom. Infernape 2HKO's Blissey while Grass Knot deals with Swampert, Breloom deals with Blissey by either stalling it with SubSeed or SubPunch while Swampert is dealt with by a Seed Bomb. Breloom would be Raikou's best bet as it resists Raikou's main Ground Weak thanks to it's Grass Typing and somewhat decent Base Defenses.
Strategic Combinations
Raikou can be used early game as a lead, but it's not suggested. It's best to bring Raikou in mid-late game after scouting out your opponent's team a bit and determining what pokemon they carry. After setting up your own field hazards and ridding possible threats to Raikou and things that can rid your field hazards, wait until a chance arises to allow you to bring in Raikou. Again, the Raikou + Breloom combination works quite well in handling Blissey, one of the special walls that can cause trouble to Raikou.
Set Counters
Blissey with Seimic Toss is CMKou's main counter. As it can break Raikou's Sub and possibly paralyze it with Thunder Wave if it carries it. Now, depending on what Hidden Power Raikou runs, his counters actually varies. If Raikou was to run Hidden Power [Ice], then Swampert and Tyranitar counter him. Swampert can simply switch in on either one of his attacks and strike back with either Earthquake or phaze Raikou away. Tyranitar whips up a Sandstorm negating Raikou's Leftovers recovery which is needed to create Substitutes and can shurg off Raikou's attacks with ease thanks to the Sandstorm SpDef Boost it recieves. It can attack Raikou back with a vareity of Physical Moves like a Stab Crunch or Earthquake or Stone Edge. If Raikou was to use Hidden Power [Grass], Raikou's counters switches from Tyranitar and Swampert over to Dragonite/Salamence/Garchomp who all resist Thunderbolt and aside from Garchomp resist Hidden Power [Grass] as well. Salamence and Dragonite simply shrugs off the Thunderbolts and Hidden Power [Grass] attacks thrown at them and can either attack back with Earthquake or proceed to set up on Raikou with Dragon Dance. Garchomp resists Raikou's Thunderbolt and takes neutral damage from Hidden Power [Grass] but even then, it takes very little damage from Hidden Power [Grass] and can attack back with a Stab Earthquake coming from a 130 Base Attack.
Set - SpecsKou
[ Information | Other Options | Offensive Combos | Strategic Combos | Set Counters ]
In the switch to the D/P Metagame, Raikou got a new toy to play with, Choice Specs. An item that increases the user's Special Attack by 1.5x at the cost of locking the user into one move. With that in mind, Raikou can be used either early or late game. Thunderbolt will be Raikou's main form of attack once again, being able to benefit from Stab and Choice Specs and Hidden Power [Ice] is here to deal with any of the ground types that resist Thunderbolt. Shadow Ball and Extrasensory would be what you call "Filler Moves" but can be useful nevertheless. For example, Shadow Ball does slightly more then Thunderbolt against a 252 HP/252 SpDef Cresselia and other Bulky Psychics. Extrasensory can hit Ghost types but Thunderbolt deals more damage so Extrasensory is really only good for dealing with Poison Types such as Weezing.
Other Options
Discharge can be used over Thunderbolt due to the higher chance of paralysis over the cost of 15 Base Power. Hidden Power [Grass] can be used here, but Hidden Power [Ice] is strongly suggested over it due to Ice attacks being one of the best attacking types in the metagame. But if you're really paranoid about Swamperts, by all means go use it.
Offensive Combinations
With Raikou now solely used as a Special Sweeper, it's best to provide some support to help it deal with any obstacles that may stop it's sweep. WishSupport has been limited down to minority, but Raikou could gladly use it due to weathers such as Sandstorm and Hail being ever so popular. Status Support would go along great with that as Raikou doesn't really like status as it can hinder it's staying potential in a battle. Pokemon that both grant Wish support and can help deal with Raikou's ground weakness to some extent would be Vaporeon. As for Status Support, you may opt for either a Heal Bell/Aromatherapy pokemon such as Celebi or may go with a Poison pokemon such as Roserade who can absorb the Toxic Spikes, and can switch in easily to any other form of status thanks to it's Natural Cure.
Strategic Combinations
Great for late game sweeping. When paired alongside a physical sweeper (such as Breloom) that can take down any special walls that may hinder Raikou's potential. Breloom doesn't mind coming in on a Toxic or Toxic Spikes but it doesn't absorb it. After Breloom's Poison Heal activates, Breloom can switch in with Raikou on any form of status.
Set Counters
Blissey stops Raikou once more if it has Seismic Toss, while Snorlax stops Raikou with any form of decent physical attack such as Body Slam or Earthquake. ScarfChomp also stop Raikou; ScarfChomp can stop Raikou with some decent prediction and then being able to outspeed.
