Double Dragon and Speed of Light Plant under Sun - Peaked 1370. 78 (Smogon Ladder)

[ShiryuExcalibur]

Introduction:

The "Double Dragon and Speed of Light Plant under Sun" Team is a Drought team based on three very good offensive pokémons: Venusaur, Salamence and Dragonite. I used it under the alt of Shyriu.Excalibur on Smogon to peak 1341 points in the 127 position.

Despite the fact it is a "Drought Dragon" team, it started as a thematic team around Shiryu, my favourite character of "Saint Seiya". Following the thematic idea, I've based my team using Dragon and Fighting Pokémons, but as I was seeing it problems, it evolved into this Drought and Double Dragon team.

Although this team has reached 1341 on the Smogon ladder, it has one very clear weakness: Ice. The main threat is Mamoswine, with its strong Ice Shard, because 5 of my 6 monsters are weak to Ice, but usually Venusaur can survive to Ice Shard and 1HKO back with Solarbeam, Dugtrio can also kill Mamoswine in some situations, and Dragonite too with ExtremeSpeed.


General Explanation of the Team:
Drought team, Venusaur is the main star and Runs Timid with 172 Speed EVs to outspeed Scarf Jolly Terrakion, also in the offensive troop there is a Double Dragon group with ScarfMoxieSalamence and Offensive DDNite. Dugtrio and Ninetales are the main weather pokémons, summoning the Sunlight and Trapping and destroying the other weather summoners. The last Pokémon is Donphan, that is a spinner, the main Stealth Rock-user and is good to revenge kill dragons and also sweepers with Sturdy+Earthquake (+Ice Shard).

The Team:


Ninetales (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Drought
EVs: 232 HP / 128 SAtk / 148 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- SolarBeam
- Roar
- Sunny Day


Of course Ninetales is a must because of its ability of calling the Sunlight, when it's a weather war I must keep it safe as much as possible in order to have the Sunlight up to sweep with Venusaur, Donphan Rapid Spin and Dugtrio Arena Trap are helpers to Ninetales job. Roar is usually for Gorebyss take I can usually hit with Solarbeam as it Shell Smash and Roar as it Baton Pass, against Ninjask it's really fun too. Fire Blast and SolarBeam are attacks and Sunny Day is to help keeping the weather usually against Politoed to do some Sunny Day + SolarBeam sometimes on them.





Dugtrio (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Reversal


Dugtrio, a really good weather support, it traps and kill Tyranitar so well, also helps with Politoed, but Dugtrio is MORE much more than a weather support, it traps some important Counters of Venusaur-Dragonite-Salamence as Heatran, Jirachi and Blissey. Also, Dugtrio can set Stealth Rock and cripple Ferrothorn.




Dragonite (M) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- ExtremeSpeed


This is the first member of my offensive trio, Offensive DDNite is a Monster, it's so amazing. MultiScale makes it so easy to set up at least one Dragon Dance, and ExtremeSpeed makes it hard to be revenge-killed by Scarf Pokémons. Dragonite can also works just to came ExtremeSpeed and return to later Dragon Dance.



Donphan (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock


Donphan is a Pokémon that I really love, with Sturdy it is a realiable Rapid Spinner, and can set Stealth Rock. Also with it high Atk Stat it is really good to Ice Shard on the popular Dragons. Also Sturdy + Earthquake is good to kill a lot of sweepers such as SDLucario, CMJirachi, and others.





Salamence (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Flamethrower
- Earthquake
- Brick Break


ScarfMoxieMence, a incredible Pokémon that can sweep and is really fast, putting Salamence against a weakened is a incredible fact that can give you some advantage on the battle, Spamming its Outrage is something really good. One fact that I thing Salamence is sometimes overpowered is that he can set himself up without spend a turn using Dragon Dance, he can just Attack hard and see his attack stat skyrocketting to +1, +2, +3. Flamethower is to kill some Skarmories and Ferrothorns, Earthquake hit Jirachi and Heatran, and Brick Break is a strategy move to break Double Screens.




Venusaur (M) @ Wide Lens
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 84 HP / 252 SAtk / 172 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- SolarBeam
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Growth
- Sleep Powder


Last but not Least, the Main Star, Venusaur, this pokémon under the sun is one of the best sweepers ever, the use of Sleep Powder then Growth than Hidden Power Fire/SolarBeam is really incredible and can sweep entire teams alone. Of course sometimes Sleep Powder is a bit annoying because of its low accuracy, so I use Wide Lens because I REALLY HATE when Sleep Powder misses and it can be the diference if a Win or a Lose. As ScarfTerrakion are so common I had to use Timid Nature and 172 Speed EVs to guarantee that I would outspeed Terrakion, this is very good because some teams only use Terrakion to stop Venusaur. 84 HP EVs may seem non-sense but it helps to survive Ice Shards and BandScizor Bullet Punches and 1HKO them back with SolarBeam/Hidden Power Fire.



Main Threats:


-> Tyranitar
-> Politoed
-> Abomasnow
-> Mamoswine
-> Blissey
-> Heatran
-> HIPPOWDON

[Dark Nikuman]

heatran isn't a problem for your team... but for blissey you can try substitute over espeed on dragonite , this change can help you against mamoswine and heatran if has a baloon and can easily win the 1 vs 1 against tyranitar politoed and abomasnow :D.

For the first 3 problems you can try sunny day over growth to venusaur.

[bubbly]

How exactly do you beat Steel types, or some bulky stuff like Hippowdon? The combination of Heatran + Skarmory, which isn't exactly uncommon, completely walls your team unless you catch Tran with Dugtrio which isn't something you want to rely on. SkarmChansey is possibly even worse. Strangely enough Mamoswine also looks horrific to face since 5 of your 6 members are weak to Ice. Oh yeah and Gliscor too, can set u p fairly easily and also walls substantial portions of your team, while hitting every member supereffectively with its Ice/Ground coverage.

However, your offensive synergy apart from those things I mentioned above is good so I don't want to change too much. To be honest if I was going to run with this team I'd take out Ninetales and Venusaur, they just compound too many weaknesses. Terrakion for instance looks like a perfect fit to cover most of your threats in place of Dugtrio, but without Trio you'll have a hard time keeping sunlight for Venusaur.

Tbh I can't see an easy way to fix this so I'm just going to throw the Terrakion > Dugtrio and taking out Ninetales argument out there.

[ShiryuExcalibur]

@Dark Nikuman
Heatran is a problem for my team, because it can comes in Salamence Outrage and Dragonite Outrage and Venusaur can't touch it much. And i liked the Substitute idea on Dragonite, I am going to try it with Leftovers and Substitute and later I post the results here.

@bubbly
Hippowdon is a problem for my team but i may kill it with some combination with Ninetales and Donphan or Ninetales and Venusaur, but it is really a great problem. Heatran + Skarmory is a problem but both Dragonite, Salamence, Dugtrio and Donphan carries Earthquake and it can just kill Heatran as I can lure it with Salamence or Dragonite or just trap it with Dugtrio or use Sturdy + Earthquake Donphan to kill it.
And Blissey + Skarmory is not really a problem if I control the Weather, Venusaur 1hko Skarmory with Hidden Power and can also put it to Sleep and Growth, but generally if Blissey is active I can Sleep her Growth if Skarmory comes as Blissey has Natural Cure I can just Sleep Skarmory again and Growth again or anything like this. +2 Solarbeam is a 4HKO(not factoring stealth rock) and +4 is a 2HKO(not factoring Stealth Rock) and against SkarmBliss it's not so hard to get +4 Venusaur.

Also I may try BandTerrakion over Dugtrio as it can just spam really strong Close Combats that may keep the opponent may weather inducer off the battle and if some pokémon that is going to kill it i can back it and call Donphan to have it a bigger life.


I am going to try some changes these days to see what happens.

[Dcae]

Minor rate right now, but Heatran is 2HKOed by Mence. I ran a bunch of calcs on my old RMT using it and saw that at +1 Outrage 2HKOs all variants of Heatran and other Steel types with less than 100 base Def + 100 HP.

[ShiryuExcalibur]

Originally Posted by Fat Dcae

Minor rate right now, but Heatran is 2HKOed by Mence. I ran a bunch of calcs on my old RMT using it and saw that at +1 Outrage 2HKOs all variants of Heatran and other Steel types with less than 100 base Def + 100 HP.

haha i had some games, I was at 1341/127 and now 1351/117, improved my rank a bit.
and I really think my Hippowdon weakeness is HIGHER than Mamoswine weakeness.
And yes besides of the fact that sometimes Heatran is a good threat to Venusaur and Outrages, it is not being a so big threat because Dragonite and Dugtrio usually kill it and Salamence of course as you said can cripple it much.

[IbanezObsession]

If you really are having that much of a problem with Hippowdon, you could always try Giga Drain/Energy Ball on Venusaur. It may have a drop in power, but it could really help with your Hippowdon issue.

Really nice Sun team in general, good luck with it!

[ShiryuExcalibur]

Originally Posted by Fat IbanezObsession

If you really are having that much of a problem with Hippowdon, you could always try Giga Drain/Energy Ball on Venusaur. It may have a drop in power, but it could really help with your Hippowdon issue.

Really nice Sun team in general, good luck with it!

Thanks Ibanez, and yes i am going to change SolarBeam for Energy Ball, despite the decrease of power, sometimes Energy Ball is better, primarly for the point of threatning Politoed to come to opposing side.

[Legend Leader]

You know, this is one of the best teams I've seen in a while. I love Saint Seiya, as well. Wide Lens is on Venusaur is... eh... alright, I guess. There isn't really much to say on my part. You might have a teensy bit of trouble with Sand, but it's manageable. Rain should be alright. Beware of hazards. While you do have the Donphan, if it dies, most of your team is in for some hurt. Just be wary.

[ShiryuExcalibur]

Thanks Legend Leader, i know that i might use another item on Venusaur, but rely in a 75% accuracy move is not good, because of that I think using Wide Lens to increase it percentage gives me more wins than using a Leftovers or a Life Orb and missing the Sleep Powder.

[Legend Leader]

I hate missing Sleep Powder. It sucks. I just think that your only Item to benefit one move is meh. That's why unless it's a coup d'etat like a Dragon Gem Draco Meteor, it's pretty useless. But I suppose that since Venusaur is so powerful in the Sun anyway, and you don't need any residual from the Life Orb wearing you down, you're in a good position. Keep up the good work.

[ShiryuExcalibur]

Oh yeah,thanks legend, i've realized this team was great, one of the bests i've had, but after i have been haxed twice i realized it was a bit sickening if played so many times repetitively.

Now, I decided to create a new and succesful team based on Zoroark. I'm studying and going to start laddering with it from about two days from now.

[Nantsuki.]

I suggest for blissey and Tyranitar and politoed,hippowdown(With the help of dug too) a heatran trapp stall on dragonite.

Heatran (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 184 SDef / 72 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Magma Storm
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect/Substitute

So put Stone edge on brick break of Salamence.I suggest too put fortress on donphan(Gyroball) (Steal rock + spike) for Mamoswine

#~Mur~# (Forretress) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Atk / 144 Def / 96 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)(0 IV speed)
- Spikes
- Volt Switch
- Gyro Ball
- Rapid Spin

GL and GG man nice ! ^^