Everything you've been told is a lie: Weatherless Offense in BW2 OU

Introduction

There are many who will tell you that weatherless offense is a dead playstyle. They will talk about how weather dominates BW and how you need to run a weather to succeed. Ignore the doubters; weatherless offense is as prominent as it has ever been. With many new offensive threats being introduced in BW, there are numerous Pokémon for these teams to choose from, allowing a great variety of strategies. Competitive Pokémon has changed a lot, but these teams stand the test of time. They aren't often affected by bans, meaning you don't have to build a new team every time the metagame shifts. Everything you have been told is a lie.

Common Misconceptions

You need to run a check or counter for every weather type.: When you do this, you no longer have an offensive team but instead a balanced one. That's not what you were aiming for now, is it? Utilizing Pokémon with good type synergy and having a couple offensive checks generally works. Focusing on your goal is what brings success, not attempting to thwart your opponent's.
You need to have an entry hazard-using suicide lead to make a good weatherless offense team.: While Pokémon like these are certainly top contenders, they aren't needed to make a good team. You can opt for an offensive Stealth Rock user, such as Heatran, and still manage to succeed. Plus, this means your hazards aren't gone if your opponent happens to carry a Rapid Spin user.
You have to use certain offensive Pokémon, such as Keldeo, in their preferred weather to succeed.: This isn't true in the slightest! In fact, they excel because you have more room on your team to provide support. You can focus more on support without having to worry about the weather war.

Advantages of Weatherless Offense

You don't have to use a teamslot on a weather inducer.: This is absolutely huge, as it allows you to fit another Pokémon onto your team. This might not seem like much, but think of how many Pokémon on your team you dedicate to winning the weather war. You might have a trapper or a Pokémon with a backup weather move. You might have a Pokémon such as Magma Storm Heatran. That one slot becomes two to three. This gives you a lot more room to fit support for various Pokémon. Were you dying to have another trapper or entry hazard user but couldn't do it without weakening the presence of your weather? You can now add it. You also have more room for Pokémon that synergize well, allowing you to carry those preferred but not always necessary Pokémon. This is an excellent reason to not run a weather.
You can use Pokémon that do not fit well together on any particular weather team.: This might not make sense at first, so let me explain. When you pick to build a rain team, you are consciously deciding that Heatran, Volcarona, and other Fire-types will not be on your team. You are consciously deciding that you will not carry too many Water-weak Pokémon. The same holds true with sun except with Water-types. Even sand teams cannot run certain Pokémon, as sand + Life Orb damage causes Life Orb sweepers to fall much too quickly. Weatherless teams can run all of these Pokémon together and more.
The teams are easy to put together.: I can't stress this enough; weatherless teams are insanely easy to put together. All you have to do is throw in Pokémon that do well together. On weather-based teams, you have to worry about covering other weathers. Heck, you can just go the easy route and use a hazard setter plus five sweepers.

Good Pokémon for Weatherless Offense Teams

Sweepers

I think we all know what a sweeper is, but in case you don't, it's an offensive Pokémon that's meant to, well, sweep through the opponent's team. Many of them fit perfectly on weatherless offense teams.

Landorus needs no introduction, being one of the most deadly sweepers in the tier. Armed with powerful Sheer Force-boosted attacks and Rock Polish, Landorus is quite literally unstoppable for unprepared teams. Even prepared teams can find trouble once their Landorus counter is dead. This is where your extra room for support comes into play; you can use Pokémon such as Weavile in order to defeat Landorus's common counters! You can never go wrong with Landorus on a weatherless offense team, as you are guaranteed great results. Landorus does not discriminate; no weather team can completely stop its wrath.

Keldeo and Terrakion are OU's typical fast sweepers; the former is a special attacker while the latter is a physical one, but their roles are practically identical, so they have been grouped together. As a duo, nothing can stand up to Keldeo's and Terrakion's respective rampages. On a weatherless team, Terrakion provides a key check to sun, while Keldeo excels against rain teams to due to its boosted Water-type attacks.

Breloom has a couple of uses on weatherless teams. For one, it has access to Spore and Swords Dance, allowing it to set up and sweep easily. Boasting a powerful STAB Bullet Seed and priority Mach Punch, Breloom makes for a decent (but admittedly shaky) check to many common rain and sand Pokémon. It is also useful for picking off foes that threaten to sweep your team with their boosted Speed stats.

Hole Punchers

While sweepers are great and all, they need the opposing team weakened before they can sweep. This is where hole punchers come in, ensuring the opposing team is barely hanging on by the time your sweeper comes out.

Kingdra, while normally seen using the weather-inducing Rain Dance, can find its place on fully weatherless teams with a Choice Specs set that makes rain teams crumble due to its blazing Speed and ridiculous power. Kingdra's Choice Specs-boosted Hydro Pump in rain can 2HKO Ferrothorn after one mere switch-in to Stealth Rock and a layer of Spikes, for an idea of its power. It also quadruple resists both Water- and Fire-type attacks, allowing Kingdra to check Keldeo and sun's Fire-types. Having offensive weather checks is imperative on weatherless offense teams, and Kingdra fills the role perfectly.

Latios is most commonly known for its powerful Choice Specs Draco Meteors, and that is exactly what it does on weatherless offense teams. It also provides a decent Keldeo, Breloom, and Venusaur check, three Pokémon that are always important to have a response for. Unfortunately, Latios often finds itself trapped by opposing Tyranitar; in that case, consider Hydreigon. Hydreigon is similarly powerful, albeit much slower, but it boasts access to Fire Blast, Earth Power, and a great secondary STAB move in Dark Pulse. Hydreigon also does not risk being Pursuit-trapped, but it is weak to Mach Punch, which makes it absolutely terrible against Breloom; this goes the same for Keldeo. While Hydreigon does have its advantages, Latios is generally more useful due to the many Pokémon it checks, but heck, run both if you feel like it!

Kyurem-B, once thought to be the worst suspect ever, is now one of the best Pokémon in the OU tier; it also happens to be insanely good on weatherless teams. The main reason for this is that it thrives versus literally every weather in the game. With a simple mixed set that has some HP investment (156 is the amount I personally prefer) and a Modest nature, Kyurem-B can rip apart all weather teams. Politoed and co. are felled by Fusion Bolt, while Venusaur and other Chlorophyll sweepers get murdered by Ice Beam. Earth Power deals with Heatran, Ninetales, Volcarona, and other sun Fire-types. You can go with Outrage or Draco Meteor for a power move or just use Roost to obtain even more staying power. Oh yeah, Kyurem-B is also insanely bulky! It can wall all Water-types not named Keldeo, Chlorophyll sweepers, and Electric- and Grass-type attackers, all the while remaining a legitimate offensive threat. That right there is a perfect Pokémon for an offensive team.

Entry Hazard Setters

Entry hazards, especially Stealth Rock, are vital to every team; weatherless offense ones are no different. Weatherless offense teams have access to numerous hazard setters, but a couple stand out as the best.

Custap Berry Skarmory and Forretress are basically identical Pokémon that do the same job—setting up hazards at the beginning of the game and dying. It is a rather simple process; all you have to do is send out whichever Pokémon you choose on the first turn and use Stealth Rock. If Skarmory or Forretress is then in Custap range, use priority-boosted Spikes and call it a day. If your Pokémon is 3HKOed, you get an extra layer of Spikes. Skarmory is generally preferred due to its higher Speed and access to Taunt, but Forretress has numerous perks, namely a usable Attack stat in conjunction with access to Gyro Ball and Explosion as well as access to Volt Switch for the purposes of gaining momentum if it does not in fact faint after setting up hazards. Bulk does not matter in this case; you should be running 0 IVs in HP, Defense, and Special Defense to ensure that the Custap Berry activates.

Terrakion, Mew, and Azelf. Notice one thing in common between these Pokémon? That is right; they are all suicide leads! They all set up Stealth Rock, learn Taunt, and most importantly have their own niches. Terrakion has power on its side, boasting two insanely powerful STABs in Close Combat and Stone Edge. Azelf sits at a blazing Speed tier of base 115 and utilizes this to fire off a fast Explosion. Additionally, it has access to Fire Blast, which quite literally roasts Ferrothorn, Forretress, Skarmory, and other Steel-types. Finally, Mew can use Tailwind and forgo a Focus Sash for the power of a Normal Gem-boosted Explosion due to its fairly decent bulk. These are all very different Pokémon, but in the end, they all achieve exactly the same result.

Landorus-T is always a great Pokémon, but you had better not run its standard defensive set on an offensive team. Landorus-T should run either an offensive Stealth Rock-setting or full-out sweeping set. It has much more staying power than any suicide lead, allowing it to fulfill another use—checking the notorious Terrakion. Terrakion is stupidly powerful, and every team needs a good check to it; offensive Landorus-T, even with minimal defensive investment, can fulfill that service for you due to Intimidate. The tiger also has a bite to it; 145 base Attack is nothing to mess around with!

Heatran is a useful Stealth Rock setter for one reason—it is a great check to many common sun sweepers. That is it, as Heatran is really just too slow to help with much of anything else. Use Heatran if you are looking for an offensive check that is not named Latios or Kyurem-B; don't even consider it otherwise.

Support

Every team needs its support; weatherless offense generally requires two things in particular—a spinblocker and a trapper (or two). While both might not always be necessary, you would be hard-pressed to find a good team without at least one of the two.

Gengar is the only offensive spinblocker viable in OU (bar the gimmicky Choice Specs Jellicent), earning it a place on many weatherless offense teams. Slower rain teams also happen to hate it; it is often a crucial player against such teams. Generally, you will see it running a Protect plus three attacks set, but Substitute sets also make an appearance. Protect is generally the best option for scouting because Gengar actually needs to survive, and Substitute only causes it to lose health. Additionally, every weather condition affects it negatively in some way, making it a perfect candidate for weatherless teams.

Before I describe Magnezone's qualities, I would like to make a few things clear. First off, the Choice Scarf set is absolutely abysmal. It has no niche, nor does Magneton's version of the same set with the departure of Tornadus-T. You should really only be using the Choice Specs set on weatherless offense teams, as you want Steel-types dead quickly. Now that those few details are out of the way, we can actually discuss Magnezone. Magnezone is not actually a terrible Pokémon outside of trapping and killing Steel-types—the reason you use it. With some HP investment, Magnezone can function as a one- or two-time switch-in to some Dragon-type attackers. This helps immensely against Dragon-type spam teams, which threaten to terminate the existence of all weatherless offense teams. If all else fails, it is an amazing death fodder!

Gothitelle is an absolutely perfect Pokémon on weatherless offense teams due to its extremely adaptable trapping abilities. You can tailor Gothitelle to trap whatever is troubling you. Is it Celebi? Run Signal Beam. Is it Ferrothorn? Run Hidden Power Fire. Is it Blissey? Run Psyshock or Trick. If it is a wall and you want it gone, Gothitelle can do the job for you. The best sets are Choice Specs for its power and Choice Scarf for its Speed.

Baton Pass

Um, yeah, it is Baton Pass. You create a boost chain and ultimately sweep with one of maybe two recipients. Well, it does not actually work this way on weatherless offense teams.

Quick passers are the best Pokémon for your typical weatherless offense team. Gorebyss can SmashPass, has the ability to fire off some attacks of its own, and even gets its Speed doubled against rain teams, which is rather nice. Smeargle puts the foe to sleep and SmashPasses. Venomoth, on the other hand, uses its Sleep Powder and proceeds to set up Quiver Dance. You might question: why even use Quiver Dance when Shell Smash exists? Well, if you would like your incoming recipient to be able to take an attack, I highly suggest running Venomoth. It is easy enough to boost to +2 or +3, from which point the foe can basically say "gg" right there on the spot. Pack a Pokémon such as Nidoking in order to make the best of the Quiver Dance boosts. For Shell Smash recipients, Nidoking is again a great option, as well as Garchomp. Just be prepared for some hate, haha.

Gliscor and Jolteon are your typical SubPassers. The idea is to set up a Substitute and Baton Pass it to either a setup sweeper so it can, well, set up or simply get a free switch-in. Gliscor's niche lies in its ability—Poison Heal—which allows it to create an essentially infinite amount of Substitutes. Jolteon is really fast, which is actually the only reason that it is usually preferred over Gliscor. However, like hazard-setting suicide leads, they both achieve the same thing in the end—a free switch-in for one of your Pokémon.

Get Out There!

As you can see, weatherless teams are fun and easy to use. I hope to see more people on the ladder using this extremely underrated playstyle, so get out there! It is time to play some real Pokémon.

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