How to Build a Rain Team in Pokemon Champions

Rain is one of the strongest archetypes in Pokemon Champions Doubles. Champions inherits the standard weather system: Rain doubles Water move damage, halves Fire damage, and lets Thunder and Hurricane bypass accuracy checks. Those three numbers stack to give Rain teams a five-turn window where their core attacks outclass anything else in the format.

The mandatory core

Every Rain team in Champions starts with Pelipper. Drizzle is the only consistent way to set Rain on turn one without spending an item or a move slot, and Pelipper is a credible attacker on its own. STAB Hurricane under Rain ignores accuracy checks and threatens the entire half of the meta with Flying-type weakness. Weather Ball turns into a 100-power Water move under Drizzle. Pelipper also has access to Tailwind, which keeps your speed advantage going for four extra turns even after the Rain expires.

The second piece is a Swift Swim abuser. Ludicolo and Kingdra are the strongest options in Champions. Swift Swim doubles their Speed while Rain is active, which means a Choice Specs Hydro Pump from Ludicolo lands before any non-Tailwind opposing lead can act. That speed advantage plus the +50% Rain bonus on Water STAB is the actual reason the archetype wins.

How Rain teams win

The strategy is simple in shape. Lead Pelipper plus a Swift Swim sweeper. Set Rain on turn one. Spam boosted Water STAB through the speed window while Pelipper redirects with Wide Guard or applies pressure of its own with Hurricane. Most wins come from forcing the opponent to switch their best Pelipper answer into the field while your sweeper KOs the partner Pokémon for free.

Item choice is what separates a beginner Rain team from a tournament one. Damp Rock on Pelipper extends Rain from five turns to eight, which is often the entire game. Choice Specs on Ludicolo turns its Hydro Pump into a one-shot weapon against most non-resists. Life Orb on Kingdra preserves move flexibility across switches and still hits hard enough to OHKO most Steel-types under Rain through Hidden Power Fire or Draco Meteor.

What beats Rain

Sand teams led by Tyranitar are the hardest matchup. Tyranitar's Sand Stream overrides Drizzle on the field, which deletes both the Water boost and the Swift Swim speed buff. Against Sand the win condition shifts entirely: you must KO Tyranitar before it KOs Pelipper. Otherwise the rest of your team plays at base Speed against a meta built to outspeed you.

Trick Room is the other hard matchup. Slowing your sweepers down erases the Swift Swim premise. Against TR, lead Pelipper with a fast Taunt user (Whimsicott is the standard choice) to deny the setup turn entirely. If Trick Room goes up anyway, switch your sweeper out and try to stall the five turns with Protect and pivots.

The third thing to know: Pelipper cannot afford to die early. Protect it aggressively — Wide Guard against spread moves, Protect on the turn it would otherwise eat priority, or hard switches into your Steel-type pivot. Only commit Pelipper forward when you need a fresh Rain window for a closing turn.

Build it now

Rain is one of the most beginner-friendly archetypes once you understand the core, but the remaining three slots — your pivot, your secondary attacker, and your win condition — are where teams differentiate. Start from Pelipper plus a Swift Swim sweeper and build outward based on the matchups you keep losing.

Pick Pelipper as your fixed slot, set the playstyle to Rain, and the AI fills out the remaining roles around the Drizzle + Swift Swim core with format-legal Champions partners.