This team was originally designed to be a Sunny Day team, but after endless frustration with how defensively bad Fire typing was and just generally lacking resistances and type coverage, it mutated into what it is today. The result is a team that only uses Sun as a boost to get things started and to clean things up later in the game. The goal of this team is to wreak havoc with Mega Charizard Y's fantastic coverage and extremely powerful STAB Fire Blast, and then clean up whatever else is left once Charizard is done. I've had moderate success with it on Pokemon Showdown, but I'm looking to find ways to take this team to the next level. Let's get into the Pokemon:
Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Solar Power
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast
- SolarBeam
Mega Charizard Y is my lead about 95% of the time. Thanks to the huge boost he gets from Drought, Fire Blast does a ton of damage even when it's resisted. Solar Beam has the ability to OHKO most Water types, and Focus Blast can OHKO some Tyranitars if Sandstorm isn't up. The reason I lead with Charizard most of the time is the fear of Stealth Rock. Since Charizard Y retains its Flying type, it'll take 50% damage upon switching back in if Stealth Rock is up. Hence, I go ahead and lead with it and try to get as much damage in as possible while the sun is still out.
Things I've Considered: I used to use Roost instead of Focus Blast, but I never found myself in a situation where I could actually use it. I also ran into another Charizard Y using Air Slash, but despite the STAB, I think the Dragon Pulse coverage and Focus Blast coverage are more important than Flying coverage.
Trevenant @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Harvest
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Leech Seed
- Curse
- Substitute
- Protect
The other "Sun user" on my team, this Trevenant set is probably one of the most frustrating sets of all time if teams don't have an answer for it. Trevenant can stall with the best of them, and Harvest's 100% success rate in the sun only makes it better. Unfortunately, he does run into trouble with Taunt users and Magic Guarders like Clefable and Mega Alakazam. But for those who can't counter him, it's a slow and agonizing death.
Things I've Considered: I've seen a lot of praise for Lum Berry/Rest instead of using Sitrus Berry, but that would require me to give up likely Substitute, so I haven't yet tried it. I often feel quite vulnerable without a Substitute up, so trying Rest instead is a little scary to me.
Blastoise @ Assault Vest
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Aura Sphere
- Dark Pulse
A lot of people are confused by my use of Blastoise, especially in conjunction with Charizard Y. To be quite frank, I might be confused myself. My decision to use Blastoise instead of other Rapid Spinners was based on the fact that he is bulky enough to take a few hits and also has the move pool to dish out some of his own. Dark Pulse can hit for super effective damage on Spin Blockers that switch in, and Scald is there instead of Surf for the burn chance.
Things I've Considered: It kind of pains me that there are only 4 moveslots available, because I really hate not having Ice Beam available. I've considered maybe replacing Aura Sphere with Ice Beam instead, but haven't yet tested it to see if the coverage is better. I've also considered just flat out replacing Blastoise with Excadrill or Donphan, but I think with Mamoswine and the newly added Garchomp, that type coverage would be a little redundant.
Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Stealth Rock
Mamoswine is my Stealth Rock user, an important part of my team since I have a lot of issues with some Stealth Rock-weak Pokemon. He's also there to kill the occasional Dragon or otherwise do some later game cleanup. He doesn't usually make a ton of appearances for my team, but he does important work whenever he's in.
Things I've Considered: Since I'm using Mamoswine as a Stealth Rock user, I've thought about possibly using different items, like Leftovers or Focus Sash. The damage loss without the Life Orb is pretty big, however, so I'm not sure I'd want to make that switch. Plus, once Rocks are up, Mamoswine becomes a lot more expendable, and so survivability over power doesn't seem like a sufficient tradeoff.
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 28 SAtk / 232 SDef
Bold Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
I was trying really hard not to use Rotom-W, but he does too good of a job of covering the matchup issues that Charizard Y and Trevenant have, namely by countering Talonflame. Aside from forcing switches, his main purpose is to toss around Will-O-Wisp and Volt Switch around. Thunderbolt is on this set so that I have a reliable source of damage when the sun's out and to do more damage when Volt Switch isn't enough.
Things I've Considered: I've thought about maybe replacing Thunderbolt with Rest and giving Rotom a Chesto Berry instead to give it a little more reliable way of healing besides just Leftovers. Hydro Pump is understandably not that useful in the sun, but it helps tremendously after the sun is gone and I need to deal with Fire Pokemon.
Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Dragon Claw
Garchomp is the newest addition to my team and functions strictly as a revenge killer. For a while I was using Choice Band Arcanine because of his decent matchup against Talonflame. However, I was finding that I was needing a better option against Fire Pokemon in general, and Arcanine didn't have the coverage I needed to deal with them. Garchomp just excels with regards to everything about being a revenge killer, being faster and a little bit stronger.
Things I've Considered: I wasn't really sure what move to put in the 4th moveslot, so I just threw on Dragon Claw as an alternative to Outrage in case I needed to switch out. I've also considered using Fire Fang instead, but I haven't gotten a chance to try it out since I added Garchomp to my team.
Other Pokemon I've Considered:
Back when this was still a Sun team, I was using Ninetales to give some extra turns of Sun. But I've found that this particular team doesn't really need or use Sun all that much, so Ninetales wouldn't serve much of a purpose.
As I mentioned earlier, for a long while I used Arcanine as my revenge killer. I love Intimidate, and I love his movepool. Unfortunately, it left me without a real way to deal with other Fire Pokemon, which ironically have been one of my biggest problems with this team.
I also experimented a bit with using Dragonite instead of Garchomp. The idea of Weakness Policy and Multiscale was so enticing, but more often than not I found myself never able to actually do anything with Dragonite. Garchomp's superior revenge killing ability and STAB Earthquake made me end up choosing him over everyone's favorite tubby dragon.
Problems and Threats I've Encountered:
Given that this team is reliant on Pokemon with their fair share of weaknesses, I've come across several problems here and there. Most problems have been solved by my addition of Rotom-W, but there still remain a few things that I struggle to deal with.
Mega Kangaskhan might be one of my biggest problems. I can usually wall it with Trevenant, but those variants that run Crunch absolutely obliterate me. My solution thus far has been to pray to be able to get a Will-O-Wisp off with Rotom-W, but other than that the double Sucker Punches and Returns and Earthquakes just demolish me.
As I mentioned earlier, other Fire Pokemon have given me a lot of problems, especially when the sun is out. Namely, Talonflame and other Charizard Ys are incredibly difficult to deal with. Talonflame at least I can handle with Rotom-W, but Mega Charizard Y hits my entire team (except for Charizard Y) for super effective damage when the sun is out. This was part of my reason for turning to Garchomp as with Choice Scarf I can outspeed Charizard Y, but I'm not totally sure that's enough.
Stat boosting Pokemon have also given me a fair bit of trouble, especially the ones that are also Fire types, such as Volcarona and Delphox. I don't have a reliable way of phazing them besides just bad typing matchups, and bulky stat boosters like Clefable and Reuniclus have given me problems because of lacking moves to hit them for super effective damage. Trevenant has been able to handle some of these issues by stalling, but if he falls, the rest of the team goes with him.
Conclusion:
I've fared pretty well with this team so far, but I'm always looking for any improvements possible. I'm open to replacing anyone on the team, though I usually prefer to err on the side of uniqueness. Let me know what you think, and if there's anything I missed, please let me know as well. (I also just noticed I spelled "Partly" wrong the title.)
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