Thanks to Drizzle, Pelipper establishes itself as rain teams' dedicated weather setter and the archetype's most important supporting piece. Scald punishes threats like Dragonite and Roaring Moon for using Pelipper as setup fodder as well as Mega Tyranitar for switching in to replace the weather. Additionally, it cripples walls that can be very hard for rain teams to break through like Ferrothorn, Alomomola, and Toxapex. U-turn makes Pelipper an effective pivot; in conjunction with minimum Speed investment, it can comfortably take hits from foes and safely bring in teammates like Mega Swampert and Archaludon afterwards. More specifically, being as slow as possible allows Pelipper to underspeed Ting-Lu and Clefable as well as Speed tie with Alomomola, potentially preventing it from gaining momentum. Not only does Roost allow Pelipper to keep itself healthy so that it can repeatedly set up rain throughout the game in the face of Stealth Rock, Roost also lets Pelipper switch into and check foes like Great Tusk, Urshifu-R, and Zamazenta more consistently. Pelipper can run Defog to act as the team's entry hazard remover, especially due to its positive matchup against the tier's common hazard setters such as Great Tusk, Gliscor, Landorus-T, and Heatran. However, if the team has another form of hazard removal, Pelipper can opt to run Hurricane instead; on top of synergizing well with Drizzle, the move allows Pelipper to immediately threaten Zamazenta and, more importantly, Ogerpon-W, which is a tough matchup for rain. Knock Off is a niche option to cripple walls like Toxapex, Ferrothorn, and Alomomola, allowing Pelipper's offensive teammates to overwhelm them more easily.

Pelipper is exclusively found on rain teams and is essentially required for the archetype. Mega Swampert is Pelipper's best friend, as the rain makes it stronger and enables its Swift Swim, allowing it to outspeed the entire unboosted metagame. Its Electric immunity is also valuable, providing rain teams, especially Pelipper itself, a stopgap against the likes of Tapu Koko and Raging Bolt. Similarly, the team's own Raging Bolt and Zapdos are great teammates, and they threaten bulky Water-types like Alomomola, Toxapex, and Slowbro, which Pelipper draws in and pivots on. Pelipper's rain allows them to take advantage of Thunder as well as Hurricane and run Water-type Weather Ball to deal with their Ground-type checks like Gliscor and Ting-Lu more easily. Defensively, Raging Bolt helps check Ogerpon-W and Mega Charizard Y, the latter of which can remove Pelipper's rain, while Zapdos takes on Zamazenta and Mega Lopunny for rain teams. Other wallbreakers in rain include offensive Water-types like Urshifu-R and Barraskewda as well as Archaludon; Urshifu-R gives rain teams a way to threaten Ferrothorn and Kingambit, Barraskewda is an even faster Swift Swim user than Mega Swampert, and Archaludon can make use of Electro Shot to accumulate boosts and snowball games while providing defensive value in checking threats like Ogerpon-W and Zapdos. Other Steel-types, like Iron Treads and Ferrothorn, that focus more on utility are also valuable, as they take advantage of the weather to do better against Pokemon with Fire-type coverage like Terapagos and Mega Diancie. On top of that, both of them in particular are sturdy checks to Tapu Koko and Raging Bolt, and Iron Treads also provides hazard removal with Rapid Spin, mitigating Pelipper's Stealth Rock weakness and even letting it forgo Defog. In return, Pelipper is great at checking Ground- and Fighting-types that would threaten the aforementioned Steel-types and Raging Bolt out like Zamazenta, Urshifu-R, Great Tusk, and Landorus-T. Tornadus-T can take advantage of the weather for a fully accurate STAB move, be a check to Kartana and—if holding an Assault Vest—Iron Valiant, and become the team's hazard removal instead if necessary.