Summer Wine - Sun Offense

:)

Hi there!

I got your request so here I am to rate your team.

It's quite the common Sun team which we can see on the ladder, but it has a big weakness to Stealth Rock since you lack a Rapid Spin user or a Magic Bounce user to prevent any kind of entry hazards in general. Your only answer against Stealth Rock users is your Terrakion, which can Taunt them but it's a suicide lead so it'll die quite quickly during your battles and when it's gone your opponent can setup the Stealth Rock without any problem. Therefore, I suggest you to use Xatu instead of your Alakazam which while it's a good Pokemon in general, it can be replaced here. Xatu is a good mon to prevent entry hazards since it can switch into the common entry hazards setter such as Ferrothorn, Skarmory, Forretress and so on easily. It has problems with Tyranitar and Terrakion, which are Stealth Rock user too, but I have a solution for this as well. However, you should use the Xatu set from this page on the site (I hardly support Heat Wave because a) you use a Sun team and because b) with it Xatu can easily bypass some annoying walls like Skarmory and Ferrothorn and destroy Scizor too).

Then, I was speaking about a solution to stop Tyranitar and Terrakion which can smash your Xatu and setup the Stealth Rock anyway on your team and I think that the best option is Dugtrio which can be used instead of Gothitelle. Dugtrio is a good trap-killer too, which allow to eliminate annoying stuff like Specially Defensive Tyranitar (which your Gothitelle loses to), Terrakion and even weaked Politoed. Speaking about the weather setter it only loses to Hippowdon but you have Xatu which walls it all the day so it isn't a problem I guess. You may try the set from this page and see how it goes.

Now I'd fix your weakness to Latios and Lati Twins in general (yes, even Latias is a problem, especially the Calm Mind one which can 6-0'd you with the right support) without changing too much on your team because I already changed two mons of yours. In my opinion, you should go with a bulkier EVs spread on your Heatran, like a Special Defensive one but with Magma Storm. A bulky EV spread of 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe with a Calm nature and with a moveset of Magma Storm, Toxic, Sunny Day and Protect or Roar (Roar is better if you fear Substitute CM Latias) is probably what you need in this team. This Heatran allows to trap-kill mons like Politoed (only the bulky one), Jellicent and even Latias, of course it's a good check for Latios as well thanks its SDef investiment. Try it and see how it works.

As last thing, I have just a preference of mine. How do you feel with your current Ninetales? Frankly I think you should run a bulkier EV spread on it because it's your weather setter and it should live as much as possible. An EV spread of 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 Spe with a Timid nature is probably better than yours, so try it and see what happen.

Good luck!

Thanks for the rate, Alexander.. Of course I'm going to test your suggestion especially the Heatran set seems to be very neat. Replacing Alakazam is hard for me, because it is so good overall, but I need to fix my Stealth Rocks issue and I want to use Xatu really badly. Thanks again.

Hi there. Nice team, first of all. Secondly, I agree most definitely with 1) Replacing Alakazam with Xatu and 2) Changing Terrakion to Dugtrio. Dugtrio is quite useful, almost always setting up rocks with a Focus Sash, destroying Tyranitar and hurting Politoed with a full powered Reversal.

In addition, I would either use the Ninetales spread that Alexander posted, or a fully specially defensive one, with a Calm Nature and an ev spread of 252 HP / 252 Special Defense / 4 Spe, to better take hits from it's stronger specially Defensive side. I had an offensive Ninetales at one point, too, but you really want your weather setter to be as defensive as possible in the case of Ninetales, at least. He's just not offensive enough to be good, and he almost always is better off running Roar, Will-O-Wisp, and Sunny Day, and Flamethrower, just for a good STAB and the above utility moves.

Hello. Alexander gave you some good suggestions, but let me try this too.
First of all, it seems to me that you're too much concerned about trapping other weather inducers. Your Ninetale's set, Magma Storm Heatren, Gothitelle. I don't think all of them are necessary. As you know you have a crippling weakness to Lati twins with your Heatren being the only thing able to stand against them. The problem is your current Heatren can't touch them. You should change it to the standard offensive Heatren.
Heatren@Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
Evs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe
Timid nature
Fire Blast | HP Ice | Earth Power | Roar
Roar replaced SR because you already have a dedicated SR user. Heatren causes a lot of switches, you can predict them and roar the switch in to cause more hazard damage. It helps you with set up sweepers too(believe it or not, Volcarona with Roost will set up in your face and eventually beat you if you lack Roar).
With Alakazam being your revenge killer(Venusaur is unreliable), I suggest using Psyshock over Psychic to be able to revenge more pokemon; Calm Mind users(like Keldeo), Volcarona, Terrakion in sand etc. It also helps you get past blobs and things like specially defensive Jellicent.
Lastly, if you really feel like a dedicated lead to set up Stealth Rock isn't really necessary for you, you can just replace Roar with Stealth Rock on the suggested Heatren set and use a wall breaker instead of Terrakion to help with Venusaur's sweep. Your Terrakion is a suicide lead so it won't live long enough to provide you with some needed physical power. I recommend the standard mixed Infernape for this job. Just use Thunder Punch over Stone Edge to help with Gyarados and water types.
Now only entry hazards remain concerning as they cut your Ninetale's life short but I don't see that problem fixed easily. I think you need to live with it somehow :P
That's all I can say. I hope you have lots of success with this team.