I've seen Scarftrio show up every now and then. He carries a scarf to outrun other scarfed pokemon now it seems. Tyranitar is a problem if it switches in on you. Which it can do with ease.
A Tales set with WoW to cripple TTar switchins hoping to pursuit it can help if Dugtrio is switching in, which will probably be happening as Tales rarely KOs stuff if you use a defensive spread. That followed by an Energy Ball to the face should deal with it nicely.
One of the biggest problems I see with most sunlight teams is that they rely on Ninetales as a starter. This is not a well planned decision when you consider that:
- Ninetales is always faster than Politoed, Tyranitar, Hippowdon or Abomasnow unless the aforementioned Pokemon are using Choice Scarf, which ensures the opposing player wins the battle for weather control
Macho Brace is an option if you really want to get Sun up first, but its probably better to just not use it as a lead.
Ninetales can be useful, it just needs to be used in a role it can fit comfortably in. A starter, unfortunately, isn't that role. Consider something like this for a sunlight team:
Genosekuto @ Life Orb
Rash or Mild/Download
6 ATK/252 SpATK/252 SPD
- U-Turn
- Thunder
- Hidden Power Fighting
- Flamethrower/Nitro Charge/Ice Beam
The whole purpose of this starter is to wreck opposing weather starters while having a chance to U-Turn to an appropriate counter, or Ninetales to invoke sunlight again if necessary.
I agree totally that Tales should not be used as a lead in most cases. I've been using a Porygon2 with Magic Coat to prevent excessive hazards and reflect Taunts, which works decently when considering its insane bulk (helpful since Sun teams lack that).
However, its main boon with my lead and the main issue with Genosect is its inability to stop SR preemptively, which many Sun teams love. You can even get away with not carrying a spinner if this is the case, occasionally. But since my team has only a minor hazard weakness, I'll give this a try as it looks rather awesome.
Shouldn't Grudge be an option for Ninetales? She can strip off all the PP of a move like Surf or Earthquake to make it much easier for your other sweepers to set-up, such as Venusaur.
It is an option, but I prefer the Protect/Disable approach if you wish to prevent something using a particular move (and this may allow Tales to survive, too).
I haven't created a completely successful sunlight based team thus far, but from what I can tell it heavily relies on Dugtrio. Politoed is difficult to deal with but manageable. Tyranitar however is a really big problem, and is everywhere. The only consistent way to completely eliminate him early on is via Dugtrio. Otherwise an intelligent player will just continue to swap Tyranitar out when it is threatened before Ninetales has fainted, and unlike rain or sand based teams, sunlight teams need Drought functioning in order to be effective.
In all honestly I have never felt the need for Dugtrio on my Sun teams, which whilst not leaderboard topping are pretty reliable and have got me to the top 100 in DW. I can see how it would be useful, but I was incredibly paranoid about other weathers whilst building my team, and I guess this has meant that unless 2 are run (Sandstorm) my team usually has little difficulty taking them down (Often before Tales is even revealed), unless they likewise conceal their weather until pretty late-game. I use Jolly Tangrowth to eliminate TTar whilst being able to take most of its attacks well even out of Sun, for example.
I'd also like to add that sunlight teams are very hard to manage due to the restraints on Ninetales, as well as having to rely on Dugtrio. Many of the (reasonable) rolls Ninetales could play it can't because of its restriction on move pool when using the ability Drought, so it loses out on options, and often times becomes dead weight. Dugtrio also becomes a free switch in because of its reliance on Earthquake to take out Tyranitar, and other threats as well.
I don't think we should be deciding wholeheartedly that all Sun teams require Dugtrio until the meta settles somewhat. It may turn out to be in a few months when people become used to permaSun and how to deal with it, but as my experience attests to, it does not seem to be essential as of yet in any case.
Tales is somewhat of a lame duck, but so is Toed - both wre NU before their ability. This is counteracted by the strength they give to the rest of their team with their ability. I don't think the movepool restrictions have that great of an effect, Tales may be predictable but has a reasonable amount of viable moves.
There is also the problem of Stealth Rock, which despite my previous assumptions of its prevalence in the Gen V universe, is now more common than ever. Most sunlight teams can't afford to not have a Rapid Spin user, and there is none that benefit from the weather the way Doryuuzu or Tentacruel/Forretress do, so you're including usually three Pokemon on the team at least that are practically dead weight or don't largely benefit from the suns use, which leaves little room to abuse the weather.
tl;dr Drought teams aren't very good, sadly.
In Gen 4 I did not use a spinner on my Sun teams, I used a Taunt lead to prevent SR going up early on, and from there usually was able to attain enough momentum to take the match without it overtly affecting me even if it went up later on. Following the same mantra this Gen - don't use too many SR weak pokes (I run 2 fires with 2x weaks and Infernape), have a T-Spikes absorber in Venusaur, and a lead to prevent SR initially (Porygon2), I have rarely been hugely impacted by hazards.
Ofc running Ulgamoth or Charizard will necessitate a Spinner, but avoiding them and playing a somewhat HO style will mean you rampage through the opponent's team before they have time to decimate you with SR. The issue is when the opposing weather starter does not go down and you run out of times to bring Tales in, but I have been able to avoid this most times.
I concur that no spinner benefits from Sun significantly whatsoever, however I have been using one poke that does not benefit from weather and doing reasonably well, showing using half your team to deal with SR and trapping duties is not essential.
Finally, although Sun may not be the sheer multipurpose weather that Sand is, nor have the same sheer power as Rain, I still think it contends with both of these weathers to a reasonable extent, as well as the meta, and is very useable.
It does with moves like Sleep Talk and Magic Coat.
EDIT: Also, another piece of evidence indicating GameFreak has shafted abusers of sunlight while favouring those that abuse rain is Leaf Guard no longer cures Sleep status upon using Rest, unlike Hydration which still works the way it did in Gen IV.
I was so disappointed when I found this out. I reckon it may be because Sun abusers get Synthesis, which is also useable in no weather conditions? This move does make stallish Leaf Guard Sun teams a possibility, but in general it seems pretty inferior to the classic HO style Sun team.