Pokémon Alolan Raichu

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Regardless of the easy accessibility to terrains and rain, Raichu really can be described as a waste of space. What's the point of using it when you've got Koko who fits the fast Electric criteria and Thunder dropper for rain squads? Surge Surfer is cool and all but the fact you're forced to pair it with Koko, who overlaps and overshadows Raichu in the entirety of the Electric role, makes it "just there" for style points or w/e.

What I'm trying to say is, you have to be really specific with Raichu's place on a team cuz Koko outdoes it 95% of the time.
Is pretty much The same thing that using kingdra + omastar, or birdspam, mons that share counters helping each others, but raichu can beat a lot of shit that treaths tapu koko like tapu bulu, marowak, mega venu, phemorosa, and some others
 
It can't go with Surf, but here is a scary Raichu thing: it can use Z-Celebrate. That should be a (somewhat outclassed, but still useful) niche set it can use.
 
Can I go out on a limb and say I think the rain + Koko + Raichu combo is stupid? There's way too many variables there to make the wholly reproducible, and while I appreciate it is one of the more reproducible gimmicks it's so easy to counter (any other weather makes Thunder accuracy drop pretty badly, and any other terrain gimps the speed).

Run Koko with Thunder on rain teams (I'm currently running Scarf on my Koko on a rain team, as it outspeeds things like Kingdra on opposing rain teams). Run Raichu on a dedicated Electric Terrain team with Koko but not with rain, with a hard and fast Poison counter to gimp other terrains. I feel like people trying to force this combo are too much in for the easy win - if you have two factors that are fairly critical to your pokemon's success then it's fairly easy for people to gimp the combo to a large extent and eliminate your reproducibility, and hence ability to ladder high. Just don't do it if you're expecting success, or if you're insisting on the combo then be aware that you need to really over-engineer your team to ensure that success.
 
Can I go out on a limb and say I think the rain + Koko + Raichu combo is stupid? There's way too many variables there to make the wholly reproducible, and while I appreciate it is one of the more reproducible gimmicks it's so easy to counter (any other weather makes Thunder accuracy drop pretty badly, and any other terrain gimps the speed).

Run Koko with Thunder on rain teams (I'm currently running Scarf on my Koko on a rain team, as it outspeeds things like Kingdra on opposing rain teams). Run Raichu on a dedicated Electric Terrain team with Koko but not with rain, with a hard and fast Poison counter to gimp other terrains. I feel like people trying to force this combo are too much in for the easy win - if you have two factors that are fairly critical to your pokemon's success then it's fairly easy for people to gimp the combo to a large extent and eliminate your reproducibility, and hence ability to ladder high. Just don't do it if you're expecting success, or if you're insisting on the combo then be aware that you need to really over-engineer your team to ensure that success.
neighter of the wheater setters can switch against you, nor can any kind of tapu, wich means that you have to sacrifice something every time just to stop rain/eletric terrain, even tough raichu can KO char-y/a-ninetales with psychc after rocks, and ttar with focus miss. +252 hp/s.def tapu bulu is a counter, but i never have faced anything like this, subseed with 164 hp is the bulkier of the most common sets. and:
252+ SpA Life Orb Raichu-Alola Psychic vs. 164 HP / 0+ SpD Tapu Bulu: 161-191 (50 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Raichu-Alola Thunder vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Lele: 185-218 (65.8 - 77.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
nice counters (i'm not going to calc fini for obvious reasons).
 
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OMG this is my favorite Pokemon in SM and I'm so glad it's actually pretty usable. I'm assuming you're using Chu with Top Kek because that's where it fits the best. Here's what I use.
Raichu-Alola @ Aloraichium Z
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt/Thunder
- Psychic/Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Substitute/Nasty Plot/Surf/Grass Knot

So... Chu has a lot of versatility not in terms of it's actual coverage, but it's utility. If you use Thunder, obviously you use LO instead of Z-Crystal, but I like using Z-Crystal and I haven't tried the commonly dubbed stupid Pelican + Achoo + Top Kek combo. Aloraichium Z provides a surprise attack against your opponent. Normally people see that they can live a single t-bolt from Raichu and proceed to stay in and try to wall it. The Z-move lets you slap that arrogant fool with an electric surfboard to the face and show them that your apparent 3HKO is actually a 2HKO and their wall falls right over dead. This set is definitely not gonna be mainstream, but I use it because it's so incredibly unpredictable.
Thunder has uses in rain with Mr. Drizzle Pelican and would be used with life orb, but T-bolt is useful outside of rain.
Psychic ensures Raichu outputs maximum damage, but Psyshock can be used to hit physical walls like the fat pink blob we all know and love hate.
Focus Blast is good coverage alongside Psychic, although this set will commonly be spamming thunderbolts boosted by electric terrain. Focus Blast is more for hitting real big fatties who resist t-bolt and psychic.
Substitute lets you set up all over those passive losers thinking they can stop this absolute beast. Nasty Plot lets you blow up absolutely everything with even stronger thunderbolts and gives you a real Z-move nuke. Surf is better used in rain, but it lets Chu hit bulky grounds better although Grass Knot is another option that can work outside of rain if you don't feel you need the utilities of sub or NP.

I'm all up for criticism, but this is my take on what I think is a fantastic Pokemon.
 

Mario With Lasers

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It can't go with Surf, but here is a scary Raichu thing: it can use Z-Celebrate. That should be a (somewhat outclassed, but still useful) niche set it can use.
PokéBank doesn't accept HM moves? I thought that was restricted to PokéTransfer, Pal Park and its Gen V equivalent.
 
PokéBank doesn't accept HM moves? I thought that was restricted to PokéTransfer, Pal Park and its Gen V equivalent.
no, surf is legal once bank comes out. Bank should accept HMs

I would ALMOST be willing to use Z-celebrate. too bad it's defense is crap.
 
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neighter of the wheater setters can switch against you, nor can any kind of tapu, wich means that you have to sacrifice something every time just to stop rain/eletric terrain, even tough raichu can KO char-y/a-ninetales with psychc after rocks, and ttar with focus miss. +252 hp/s.def tapu bulu is a counter, but i never have faced anything like this, subseed with 164 hp is the bulkier of the most common sets. and:
252+ SpA Life Orb Raichu-Alola Psychic vs. 164 HP / 0+ SpD Tapu Bulu: 161-191 (50 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Raichu-Alola Thunder vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Lele: 185-218 (65.8 - 77.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
nice counters (i'm not going to calc fini for obvious reasons).
That kind of proves my point, as you don't need Thunder to get those calcs (Lele will still be a 2HKO), and so the rain added in was a little pointless. TBolt is was more reproducible, and requires only one mon for the setup - Koko, rather than 2.

I also said the dual setup itself was easily counterable, not that other Tapus were specifically good counters.
 

Martin

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I doubt that it matters at all, but fwiw Surf on Pikachu isn't a HM. It learns it through events in gen 6 (see below), and given that Pokébank is the first platform which allows the transfer of out-of-battle moves (similarly to how you can transfer Defog from gens 4-5 provided you trade to HGSS first). Provided that you obtained any of the event Pikachus listed below and never evolved them, you can do so in Alola to obtain Surf on Alolan Raichu:

upload_2016-11-28_10-20-9.png
 
neighter of the wheater setters can switch against you, nor can any kind of tapu, wich means that you have to sacrifice something every time just to stop rain/eletric terrain, even tough raichu can KO char-y/a-ninetales with psychc after rocks, and ttar with focus miss. +252 hp/s.def tapu bulu is a counter, but i never have faced anything like this, subseed with 164 hp is the bulkier of the most common sets. and:
252+ SpA Life Orb Raichu-Alola Psychic vs. 164 HP / 0+ SpD Tapu Bulu: 161-191 (50 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Raichu-Alola Thunder vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Lele: 185-218 (65.8 - 77.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
nice counters (i'm not going to calc fini for obvious reasons).
Also, Koko's Brave Bird ko Bulu in a similar way, while Lele can only take so much Physical attacks, either from Koko or teammates
 

Martin

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Question: How do you guys deal with Marowak?
252+ SpA Raichu-Alola Surf vs. 248 HP / 212 SpD Marowak-Alola: 166-196 (51.3 - 60.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Raichu-Alola Surf vs. 248 HP / 212 SpD Marowak-Alola in the rain: 248-294 (76.7 - 91%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
 
but then....
Careful Marowak:
+2 252+ SpA Raichu-Alola Psychic vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Marowak-Alola: 216-255 (66.6 - 78.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Impish Marowak:
+2 252+ SpA Raichu-Alola Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Marowak-Alola: 313-369 (96.6 - 113.8%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO

Seriously, just use Nasty Plot. It's much easier than setting up rain.

212 SpD:
+2 252+ SpA Raichu-Alola Psychic vs. 248 HP / 212+ SpD Marowak-Alola: 225-265 (69.6 - 82%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
 

Martin

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If you think NP is better than rain attacker then you're sorely mistaken. Even before you consider that we both forgot to put LO on our calcs (not that it makes much difference, it just turns the OHKO with rocks into an OHKO without them and gives Rainless a chance to OHKO with rocks), you have to consider that a) Marowak isn't constantly at full health and b) that it is significantly easier to spam a STAB and then OHKO anyway than it is to have to correctly guess a switch and deal the exact same amount of damage. Genuinely, Marowak is not a good Raichu answer, unlike is the case with Tapu Koko. And then you consider how much more dangerous spamming Thunder is than Thunderbolt if you can't get a boost (247.5 BP is significantly higher than 202.5, and it has a higher para rate to boot) and the fact that it really isn't hard to get rain+terrain up (if you're having difficulty with this you're doing something very, very wrong 'cause it's literally easier than one of the easiest things in the game (setting up Aurora Veil) despite taking twice as many steps) and the set's significantly higher immediate threat level/ease of use makes it just that much consistent and effective in the long run imho.

Rain>NP>non-rain AOA (i'm gonna change the order in the OP 'cause non-rain has been super underwhelming for me and just isn't worth using over NP unless you desparately want Electro Ball)
 
Hi, I'm not an experienced competitive player but I wanted to get into online battles for a bit and for once rather than discard the game after the main campaign like I did everytime.

I wanted the Alolan Raichu to be part of my A-Team... but after just catching 66 Pichus I am utterly fed-up and done with this LOL, I got one timid however and for some reason a third of them are brave/hasty. Should I stick with timid, get myself another similar Pokemon or keep hunting for my modest Pichu? I love this Pokemon so I ultimately want the Raichu on my team with one of the builds suggested here (per personal preference). I wanted to complement my team with a fast SP sweeper and cause of nostalgia.

By no means will I compete with the most experienced 24/7 but I do want to have somewhat of a good time fooling around online.
 
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but then....
Careful Marowak:
+2 252+ SpA Raichu-Alola Psychic vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Marowak-Alola: 216-255 (66.6 - 78.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Impish Marowak:
+2 252+ SpA Raichu-Alola Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Marowak-Alola: 313-369 (96.6 - 113.8%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO

Seriously, just use Nasty Plot. It's much easier than setting up rain.

212 SpD:
+2 252+ SpA Raichu-Alola Psychic vs. 248 HP / 212+ SpD Marowak-Alola: 225-265 (69.6 - 82%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Just run rain and Nasty Plot, it's what I'm doing currently (though I'm still avoiding Thunder, as I don't want to be caught high and dry at any point). I'd also recommend Psyshock by quite a large margin, as then you can 2HKO Chansey if you need to with a +2 boost. The main reason why I've now put Raichu on my team is that it gets through Marowak which people are inexplicably mad over (it's fine, but not to the extent it's being used in the tier currently) and it can get through Special Walls with Psyshock.

I think Electric Terrain and rain have a really nice overlap - but not from Thunder spam (at least on Raichu that can let you down, it is much better on Koko). It means you have two constant sources of doubling your speed that you can whip out when you please, and if your Pelliper faints or your Koko faints you always have options. It's pretty much a weather offence dream, and means that rain is still above and beyond the best weather out there.
 
Just run rain and Nasty Plot, it's what I'm doing currently (though I'm still avoiding Thunder, as I don't want to be caught high and dry at any point). I'd also recommend Psyshock by quite a large margin, as then you can 2HKO Chansey if you need to with a +2 boost. The main reason why I've now put Raichu on my team is that it gets through Marowak which people are inexplicably mad over (it's fine, but not to the extent it's being used in the tier currently) and it can get through Special Walls with Psyshock.

I think Electric Terrain and rain have a really nice overlap - but not from Thunder spam (at least on Raichu that can let you down, it is much better on Koko). It means you have two constant sources of doubling your speed that you can whip out when you please, and if your Pelliper faints or your Koko faints you always have options. It's pretty much a weather offence dream, and means that rain is still above and beyond the best weather out there.
obviously you can get that nice 2HKO on chansey with Psyshock and is definitely more worth it on NP sets. I think sets without setups shouldn't bother with psyshock though since it doesn't even 2HKO anyways. On LO run Psychic, on NP run shock.
 
obviously you can get that nice 2HKO on chansey with Psyshock and is definitely more worth it on NP sets. I think sets without setups shouldn't bother with psyshock though since it doesn't even 2HKO anyways. On LO run Psychic, on NP run shock.
I agree, there's not really much point in running Psyshock if you're not able to get through mixed walls with it.
 
Only issue with surf right now is technically if you wanted to use it in VGC you cannot since they only allow pokemon born in the alola region. I will assume we will get a surfing pikachu via mystery gift soon though
 
Hi, I'm not an experienced competitive player but I wanted to get into online battles for a bit and for once rather than discard the game after the main campaign like I did everytime.

I wanted the Alolan Raichu to be part of my A-Team... but after just catching 66 Pichus I am utterly fed-up and done with this LOL, I got one timid however and for some reason a third of them are brave/hasty. Should I stick with timid, get myself another similar Pokemon or keep hunting for my modest Pichu? I love this Pokemon so I ultimately want the Raichu on my team with one of the builds suggested here (per personal preference). I wanted to complement my team with a fast SP sweeper and cause of nostalgia.

By no means will I compete with the most experienced 24/7 but I do want to have somewhat of a good time fooling around online.
If you have someone with the ability Synchronise, there is a bigger chance wild Pokémon will have the same Nature as the ability wielder. Maybe that can help you.
 
Only issue with surf right now is technically if you wanted to use it in VGC you cannot since they only allow pokemon born in the alola region. I will assume we will get a surfing pikachu via mystery gift soon though
You also shouldn't use Surf in VGC unless you have Telepathy or Water Absorb (or some other water immunity Pokemon) as a teammate since you'll hurt your own team. Raichu-A probably has way better options in VGC than Surf.
 
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