"The Black Sun"- A mono-type Dark Team

My idea for a Mono-DARK OU team. I was going for a Sun theme.



Tyranitar (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Unnerve
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SAtk / 192 SDef
Brave Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Stone Edge
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch

I LOVE this Tyranitar (even if it's a lil gimmicky). It dents a lot of stuff in sun with its coverage and I really needed entry hazards so i gave it Stealth Rock. The EVs and nature are meant to maximize Fire Blast's power in the sun while still maintaining a solid 334 Atk stat (w/o EVs) from the Brave nature.



Honchkrow (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Speed
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- SuperPower
- Sucker Punch
- Tailwind

I liked the idea of a Prankster weather/status user at first and after some suggestions, I decided i needed a legitimate physical threat. With that said I decided to go with Honchkrow.
It's a pretty standard set with the exception of Tailwind. Originally I had a Prankster Liepard with Thunder Wave to help with my team's lackluster speed. Tailwind operates to fill that void and doesn't disappoint. Honchkrow forces switches often and thus can whip up a Tailwind fairly easily.



Sableye (F) @ Heat Rock
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Def / 200 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Sunny Day
- Night Shade

I've always been a fan of using Drifblim on weather teams because of how easily it can set up Weather and stat boosts with huge Substitutes and pass them on. After testing, I really needed a way to neutralize physical threats. I was directed to Sableye. With its typing and Prankster Will-O-Wisps, it stops most fighting types cold. Will-O-Wisp also forces switches and with the oft-present entry hazards I have, Sableye ended up denting many things that normally give me trouble. Moonlight was my an option of recovery due to the sun but I found Recovers' PP and consistency was more desirable after testing. The EV spread was suggested to give Sableye more bulk due to the fact that it's more threatened by Special Attacks.



Hydreigon (M) @ White Herb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Speed
Timid Nature (+Speed, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Focus Blast
- Tailwind
- Fire Blast

Hydreigon is my Wallbreaker. Pretty straightforward. It hits hard with great coverage and Fire Blast gets the boost in sun. I opted for Tailwind mainly because of the great coverage I already have and Hydreigons bulk and ability to force switches. My team needs the extra speed boost more than it needs another attack move. White Herb is amazing on this set as it allows for risk free use of Draco Meteor and my team needs that extra power whenever it can get it.



Houndoom (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Speed
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Nasty Plot
- SolarBeam
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse

Essentially the Nasty Plot sweeper of old. The main difference is the use of Solarbeam over the usual Taunt. If I can manage a Flash Fire boost in the sun, Fire Blast becomes incredibly lethal. It checks Metagross perfectly and switches into its Bullet Punch pretty well.



Drapion (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Battle Armor
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Toxic Spikes
- Ice Fang
- Whirlwind

Originally a spot held by a Chlorophyll-Growth Shiftry, I tested the Drapion set that "TheStarRapper" reccomended. I reeeaaallly loved having Toxic Spikes out and Whirlwind is surprisingly useful with Drapions bulk once I have Toxic Spikes and Stealth Rock out. Ice Fang checks Dragonite and our new OU friend, Garchomp. Earthquake provides an answer to Terrakion and Infernape (as I hoped it would). I really enjoyed the late concept of Shiftry but late game it often lost the sun and once that happened, it became outclassed.





Thanks again to TheStarRapper, Don Honch, and Swamp-Rocket for the suggestions :)



PS. I know I don't have a rapid spinner. This is for one reason, and one reason alone. No Dark rapid spinners. There aren't really any Pokemon that resemble a Dark type that learn it either.


Anyway tell me what you guys think! I think Dark-Sun is an interesting aspect and I'm excited to see what happens!

Wow this is a really cool concept team. I assume you will be using it in a monotype context, so I´ll keep that in mind with this rate. Whenever I have built monotype teams, there are two different goals that I address.

1. What is my win condition, and what Pokemon do I need to accomplish it?
2. How do I prevent the monotypes that I am weak to from walking all over me?

It looks like you have the answer to question 1 covered fairly well, in that you use Dark types abusing sun to its full extent. However, at this moment this team is incredibly weak to the mortal enemies of dark, monofighting and monobug. What I mean by this is that a +1 Volcarona and a banded Scizor, or any variant of Terrakion or Infernape eat this team alive. This is what I will attempt to cover, specifically those threats.

I hate to say that Solarbeam on Tyranitar just doesn't have enough damage output to merit a slot, really only 2hkoing what you would be trying to hit. Instead, replace Solarbeam with Stone Edge, to hit a +1 Volcarona for maximum damage. However, keep in mind that you cannot weather a +1 Volcarona LO Bug Buzz without a sandstorm SpD boost, and must instead use Murkrow to Thunder Wave it, so that you can revenge it with Stone Edge the following turn. I also just wanted you to know that a Chople Berry does not even guarantee that you live a Scarf Terrakion Close Combat, so you might want to consider just switching to Focus Sash, so that you are guaranteed to at least get Stealth Rocks up.

However, it is still plain to see that the majority of Fighting attackers, like Breloom or Infernape, still tear this team apart. I suggest changing Drifblim to Sableye, so that you can launch Will-O-Wisps at the enemy team like they are going out of style. Keep in mind this baby is going to have to be max/max physical defense to take those fighting attacks, as well as go toe to toe with an angry banded Scizor. I'll post the set below.

If Hydreigon doesn't have a single physical move then you need to change its nature to either Modest or Timid. With the frailty of your team, I really think that you need to use Timid to make full use of the base 98 speed tier, because power don't mean a thing if you get outsped by everything above the base 85 range. With the loss in power by changing natures, you should probably use Fire Blast over Flamethrower.

Though Houndoom and Shiftry are powerful offensively in sun, they just don't have a lot of bulk. Because Houndoom at least packs an immunity and a resistance to Bullet Punch, I recommend that you replace Shiftry with Drapion, who takes Close Combats, Bug Buzzes, and Stone Edges neutrally. Because it is hard to say exactly what moves it should be using, I will just custom make a set that seems to be the best fit for your team, though it may not be fully optimal. Look below for that set.

Review- Most threats can be revenged with either a Murkrow Thunder Wave or a Sableye Will-O-Wisp. Status is your best friend, which is fitting for a sinister team.


As a final note, as I have addressed Terrakion as a major threat, make sure to not throw Dark type attacks around randomly, because if he gets an attack boost through Justified, your prospects don't look good.

Sets

Good luck with your future endeavors!

@TheStarRapper Yeah I really like the idea of Sableye. I'm definitely going to use that. Also I'm thinking of replacing Murkrow with a Prankster Liepard. It has more bulk and access to Fake Out. Since I'm really only using it for setting up Sunny Day and ThunderWave, I figured it'd be better to use Liepard. The only issue I have with replacing Shiftry is the team loses a lot of the "Sun" theme it had going for it. One option might be to change it's EVs to be more physically defensive. I'll mess around with it tho and if I do put in Drapion, I'll prolly end up using that set. Maybe put in Sunny Day if I think I need it.

Yeah if this is Mono-Dark Sableye is pretty much what you need since Drifblim isn't a Dark-type.

I literally spent over 30 minutes editing this shit and my account timed out. I fucking hate that shit it pisses me off.

So I'm looking, and I see a Liepard. Liepard isn't exactly an ideal Pokemon for this situation due to the fact that, especially considering that you are going to face really powerful Pokemon out there that will OHKO it way too easily. It also seems very redundant on your team. What you seem to really be lacking is a Pokemon that just cleans off the remainder of a team. From this I would suggest Scarf Krookodile.

Krookodile (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit

Its fast and decently powerful. Also, if anything remains on the field, your buddy Krookodile can easily finish off the remainder. It also fixes up your other issue - a complete lack of strong Physical Attackers. Liepard's Fake Out won't really help out as much as you would think.

Also, use Whirlwind>Fire Fang on Drapion. Drapion isn't that powerful, and Earthquake is hitting most Pokemon harder than Fire Fang. Due to a lack of Power, something may try to Swords Dance or something on you! With Whirlwind, that cannot happen. Also, you have Houndoom and Tyranitar with Fire Blast, and Sableye can burn Scizor, Forry, Ferro, and Skarm, which makes them all weaker.

Never rated a team before so be warned that I may not be the most reliable resource.

Hi there! I'm late here and everyone else above already covered much about your team, but there are things I'd like to talk and suggest.

I agree with Swamp-Rocket about Liepard. Liepard isn't that good. It's frail and it's offensive power is mediocre. Sableye alone can provide the necessary weather that'll help you sweep whole teams with your precious sun. Swamp-Rocket suggested Krookodile, which is nice since it eliminates Victini and Volcarona, two troublesome pokemon for your team. If you don't like to have a choiced pokemon, then I have a perfect substitute even better for you than Krookodile in Moxie Honchkrow. The mobster bird has an incredibly powerful form of priority in Sucker Punch that helps you to eliminate fater threats who otherwise your team struggles to deal with such as QD Volcarona and RP Landorus-I (you'll need to predict, though). Brave Bird is awesome on this team since it can check slower Fighting-types such as Breloom, Machamp and Scrafty. It also has Superpower to deal with rocks and steels, and even Heat Wave if Bug/Steel pokemon and Ferrothorn are really an annoyance. Another good move on it would be Tailwind, since your team is quite lacking in Speed department. Although Honchkrow isn't the bulkiest Pokemon to set it up, the mob krow can do it quite well since it generally forces some switches and plays mindgames.

Also, another thing I noticed is that your team is kinda specially weak. I recommend a small tweak in Sableye's evs and nature to make it specially defensive. A spread of 252 HP / 56 Def / 200 SpD with a Calm or Careful Nature is nice because just some ridiculously powerful special attackers such as Specs Chandelure and Flash Fire-boosted Heatran can OHKO. You may think that the creep in Defense may destroy you. In fact, since Sableye has priority WoW, most physical attackers can be easily crippled and it'll somewhat comfortably wall both sides of attacking. Speaking of the little demon, even though it heals more, Recover is still better than Moonlight since it has more PP and because of its consistent healing effect. Moonlight is awful if you face rain, sand or hail, and setting up any of them instead of the current weather is a gamble since they can kill or cripple Sableye while it sets up. Recover also has more PP, allowing you to stall for more time.

I'd also suggest some moves. If you decide to stay with Liepard for some reason, U-Turn > Sucker Punch. Sucker Punch from Liepard isn't particularly strong against most things unless they are weak to Dark or have a really low Defense stat. U-Turn is good move that allows Liepard to scout and bring your main attackers easily. It also somewhat makes te sun more reliable. I also don't understand the somewhat redundant coverage in Hydreigon. You fear Steel-types so much that you use all three types they are weak to? You could take out Earth Power for either Dragon Pulse or Tailwind. Dragon Pulse is an reliable STAB move that Hydreigon can use when you can't lower its Special Attack, while Tailwind was already explained in Honchkrow's case.



I hope I was helpful for you, and goodluck with your unusual team :D

Don thank you sooo much for Honchkrow with Tailwind. The EV spread on Sableye yielded instant results also. Thanks for the rate, it helped a TON.