Sunshine the Plant Dinosaur Thing

[Ashley11]

Hello! Im Ashley11, and I am new to OU, and decided to try to build a team and get started in it. After lurking for a while in the OU forums I finally decided to try my hand at OU battling, and this is what I ended up doing.

I got up to 1793 on the PS! ladder. That is kind of mediocre in my eyes, so I apparently have a problem with my team. Thats where you guys come in! ;D This is a nice start to playing OU, but I know i can be better. Without further ado, here is my team and stuff.

Ninetales@Leftovers
Drought
252 hp 120 def 136 Speed
Timid
Flamethrower
Will O Wisp
Sunny Day
Hypnosis

Most teams fall flat on their face if they lose the weather war. This set for ninetales is designed to let it last as long as possible while also making sure that It is not a Sitting Duck. I used flamethrower over fire blast because I want at least one move on this set that wont troll me with misses besides for Sunny Day. It might be a lack of more power without Fire Blast but the sun makes Flamethrower strong enough.

Will O Wisp is there for burning things That might switch in such as A predicted Landorus-T, or a predicted Garchomp. This Greatly Helps my other pokemon such as Venasaur sponge hits when I need to.

Sunny Day is their for setting up the sun on weather inducers such as Abombasnow and Politoed, but I honestly havent found any use for it at all really. If you have any other ideas for this move please tell me.

As weird as it may seem for ninetales to have two status moves, its proved to be a GREAT help. I use it when i am predicting a weather inducer, because if one gets asleep, its pretty much deadweight and the weather war pretty much goes to me. It can also be used on incoming dugtrios, which is a great help.

Garchomp@Salac Berry
Rough Skin
252 attack 252 speed 4 def
Jolly
Substitute
Swords Dance
Earthquake
Outrage

To be honest, I used Garchomp just because I wanted to try this set. It also sounded like a nice idea because it gets a psuedo-resistance to water when sun is up. There may be other sets that are better, tell me if there is.

I used a sub-salac set, meant to get speed And attack through the use of substitute and Swords dance. It works pretty well, but not great. I cant help but wondering if there is something that could be better than this set. The moveset is kind of given, why i chose the moves.

Sunshine@Life Orb
Chlorophyll
252 spA 252 speed 4 hp
Modest
Growth
Giga Drain
Sludge Bomb
HP Ice

Venusaur is one of the prime pokemon on my team. Just one growth and you are set to sweep. The other bonus is that this pokemon can handle every weather-inducer with ease besides for opposing Ninetales which isnt a problem at all. This is a standard set for special sweeping Venusaur. I use modest, but do you think i should use Timid or not? Im not sure what things outspeed and KO me without the timid, so I have it modest right now for the extra power. I love this thing.

Dugtrio@Focus Sash
Arena Trap
252 speed 252 attack 4 hp
Jolly
Earthquake
Reversal
Stealth Rocks
Sucker Punch

This thing is GREAT. I love it. It takes out many pokemon that give my sun team problems such as Heatran and Volcorona, While also revenge killing things. This pokemon is definitely staying on my team, since it is an MVP that I couldnt imagine without.

As for the Set it has though, if there are any other sets you reccomend, I would love to try them. This thing is great as it is, so it would be awesome to see it even greater.

I use Stealth Rocks instead of Stone Edge because I thought i would rather have rocks up. In fact, this has proved to be much more helpful then Stone Edge could ever be.

Xatu@Leftovers
Magic Bounce
248 hp 204 def 56 speed
Bold
Thunder Wave
Roost
Uturn
Heat Wave

Xatu is also a pokemon that will not be taken off the team unless I HAVE to. Xatu has proved to be great, bouncing back spikes and SR while also Giving things TW's and maintaining an offensive presence at the same time. It is also a great Pivoting and gamechanging pokemon because of Uturn. The Uturn has won me so many games. Sometimes I predict a Heatran coming in or a weak and crippled pokemon coming in and I go for Uturn. When I do that I go into Dugtrio and take out a pokemon making this a big gamechanger. I love Xatu on this team, but I have been thinking about switching TW with Toxic. What do you think?

Arcanine@Life Orb
Flash Fire
252 Speed 252 attack 4 hp
Jolly
Flare Blitz
Close Combat
Extremespeed
Morning sun

I use this set specifically to counter air balloon heatran, because without it, air balloon heatran hurts my team a lot. Besides for that it also gives me some game winning Extremespeeds which help out a lot. I like the pokemon, but its really frail. With SR, Flare Blitz recoil and Life orb recoil, even morning sun doesnt really help keep this pokemon alive. Other alternatives to this pokemon would be helpful.
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This is my team, decent, but definitely not the best if could be. Please rate and give suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
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[MCBarrett]

Hey Ashley11, nice team you have here especially for a first try! While it is pretty solid you do have a few glaring weaknesses that could really cause you trouble so hopefully I can help you fix them.

First of all you have a huge weakness to dragon types, specifically Choice Scarf Latios. Latios is a common problem for sun teams since it is the fastest dragon and steel types are few and far between on sun teams. For example Scarfed Latios outspeeds everything on your team and ohko's or 2hko's everything. Specs Latios outspeeds everything besides Venusaur but he will be dealing even more damage with Draco Meteor. Therefore, I think a steel type is needed to sponge some dragon attacks and for this I would recommend specially defensive Heatran. This set is completely safe from any Latios that is not running surf, and if sun is up Heatran won't even take much from surf. Specs Latios 4hko's with Draco Meteor, while Scarf Latios will need 6 full powered Draco's to take out Heatran. The same amount of hits are needed to take out Heatran with surf under the sun. Now for who you should replace, I would recommend taking out Arcanine. Air balloon Heatran isn't as big of a problem as it may seem. You can predict a Heatran coming in on your Xatu thinking you will heat wave and just u-turn out into Dugtrio to break the balloon and trap it.

The rest of your team looks solid but you could improve some sets and EV spreads. I'll start with Venusaur, who seems to be missing a fourth move slot. I imagine this was meant to be either hp ice or hp fire and both of these are solid options. I would think hp ice would be more effective for taking out dragons though which are a major threat, but either will work. For your spread though, you should be running a Timid nature with 180 EV's in speed. This will allow you to outspeed scarfed Latios and do around 50% with Sludge Bomb. Plus you can put the remaining EV's in hp to take hits from threats like Mamoswine better.

For Dugtrio, I would recommend replacing Sucker Punch with Memento. Memento sacrifices your Dugtrio but allows you to cut the opposing poke's attacking stats in half. This will help against set up sweepers and will allow you to get easy Growth boosts with Venusaur.

For Xatu, I think changing Thunder wave to Toxic is a good idea. This allows you to wear down things like opposing Politoed, Hippowdon, Lati@s, etc. It's just really useful against stall and Venusaur outspeeds almost everything anyways so Thunder wave isn't needed much.

Lastly, I would recommend changing Garchomp to a Choice Scarf set. This is just a more effective set in general with its superior coverage, especially with fire blast being a pseudo-STAB option under the sun. This will also help with revenge killing when sun is not up and for taking out slower or un-scarfed dragons.

Hopefully you find these changes useful, here are the sets and good luck with the team!

Hide

Heatran @ leftovers/ air balloon
Calm nature
248 hp/ 252 sp def/ 8 speed
Lava Plume
Roar
Protect
HP ice/ sunny day/ toxic

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Jolly/ Naive nature
252 att/252 speed/ 4 hp
Outrage
Earthquake
Dragon claw/ dual chop
Fire blast/ stone edge

 

[Nova]

Hi Ashley11

This is a pretty solid sun team you've got. It's neat to see people using some underrated Pokemon such as Arcanine. Now as I look at your team, I find a pretty severe weakness to opposing rain teams. Nothing on your team can take Rain boosted Hydro Pumps from the likes of Politoed, Keldeo, or Starmie except for Venusaur who risks getting 2HKO'ed under the rain and so cannot switch into these attacks. To give you some buffer against Rain teams, I suggest trying a Life Orb Latias in place of Arcanine with a moveset of Draco Meteor / Psyshock / Hidden Power Fire / Roost. Life Orb Latias is a great tank who can take hits decently as well as dish out some of her own. Her great bulk lets her switch into Water type attacks and heal off damage with Roost. She also packs quite an offensive punch with STABs in Draco Meteor and Psyshock and a coverage move in HIdden Power Fire that helps with the likes of Ferrothorn and Scizor.

Substitute Swords Dance Garchomp is a cool set but I think a similar set in Substitute Swords Dance Terrakion does the job better. This moveset is Substitute / Swords Dance / Close Combat / Stone Edge and trades the weakness to Breloom for the ability to beat Skarmory, Air Balloon Heatran , as well as speedtie the common Choice Scarf Keldeo after he eats his Salac Berry. He's also able to take a hit from Volcarona who could prove threatening to your team if the moth manages to set up. You also have Breloom well covered with Xatu so he shouldn't be much of an issue for your team. I think you could try Toxic over Thunder Wave on Xatu to help your team wear down some walls like Hippowdon. Thunder Wave is pretty cool but you're already running a bunch of fast Pokemon and the residual damage from Toxic can help you break walls easier.

Hope I helped and good luck with your team!


Sets:

Hide

Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power Fire
- Roost

Terrakion @ Salac Berry
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge

tl;dr

Hide

Arcanine ----> Life Orb Latias
Sub SD Garchomp ----> Sub SD Terrakion
Thunder Wave on Xatu ----> Toxic

 

[Ashley11]

I tested out everything u reccomended and i came up with these changes.

Arcanine ----> Life Orb Latias
Sub SD Garchomp ----> Sub SD Terrakion
Thunder Wave on Xatu ----> Toxic

All of these work great for my team and makes it better.

Thanx!