Through the Fire and Flames

[Ninechu]

Through the Fire and Flames
An OU Sun RMT by Ninechu

Overview:
I've always preferred Sun teams in OU, simply because their general offensive nature caters to my playing style. This team focuses around Sunny Day Ninetales (I know it sounds retarded but read on) and her teammates being able to keep up the sun and wear down the opponent with powerful attacks, with any one of Infernape, Arcanine, Venusaur, or Staraptor bring able to clean up shop. This team thrives on momentum, it damn near lives and dies with it- momentum is everything to this team, most notably due to the presence of fast teammates (the slowest being Arcanine, clocking in at 289 speed), a few frail members, an my lack of hazards. But let's get on to the team itself.

Ninetales @Life Orb
Timid, 252SpA/4SpD/252Spe
Ability: Drought

~Fire Blast
~SolarBeam
~Sunny Day
~Hidden Power Ground

Though its 81 base special attack isn't much by today's standards, with a life orb, max special attack, and sunlight boosting Fire Blast's power to insane levels and eliminating Solarbeam's charge time, Life Orb Ninetales actually hits pretty hard, and is pretty speedy to boot. Take a look:

252SpAtk Life Orb Ninetales (+SAtk) Fire Blast in Sun vs 252HP/0SpDef Gliscor (Neutral): 109% - 129% (387 - 457 HP). Guaranteed OHKO.
252SpAtk Life Orb Ninetales (+SAtk) Fire Blast in Sun vs 4HP/0SpDef Levitate Hydreigon (Neutral): 50% - 60% (166 - 196 HP). Guaranteed 2HKO.
252SpAtk Life Orb Ninetales (+SAtk) Fire Blast in Sun vs 252HP/252SpDef Hippowdon (+SpDef): 64% - 75% (270 - 319 HP). Guaranteed 2HKO.
252SpAtk Life Orb Ninetales (+SAtk) Fire Blast in Sun vs 252HP/252SpDef Hippowdon (+SpDef): 64% - 75% (270 - 319 HP). Guaranteed 2HKO.
252SpAtk Life Orb Ninetales (+SAtk) SolarBeam in Sun vs 252HP/252SpDef Water Absorb Politoed (+SpDef): 51% - 60% (196 - 234 HP). Guaranteed 2HKO.
252SpAtk Life Orb Ninetales (+SAtk) SolarBeam in Sun vs 252HP/4SpDef Tyranitar (Neutral): 67% - 79% (272 - 322 HP). Guaranteed 2HKO.

The fact that Ninetales is a Life Orb variant catches many opponents off guard by itself. And Sunny Day... is awesome. I know, initially, it sounds like the Arceus-damned dumbest idea ever to slap Sunny Day on a pokemon with Drought. People automatically switch their Politoed or T-Tar in on Ninetales for obvious reasons EVERY TIME. Which allows me to back them into a corner with Sunny Day- now, the weather is still at my advantage, and they can either switch back out or get mauled by SolarBeam.
The Hidden Power type is mainly for Heatran. EVs are standard for an offensive variant. Honestly, why do people consider Ninetales and Sun teams so far below other weather? Ninetales is such a baws.

Venusaur @Life Orb
Timid, 4HP/252SpA/252Spe
Ability: Chlorophyll

~Giga Drain
~Sludge Bomb
~Hidden Power Fire
~Growth

Not too much to explain here. Most moves are obvious, Growth over sleep powder for extra power, though sometimes i run sleep powder. I'm strongly considering swapping Growth for Solarbeam OR Giga Drain and swapping life orb -> lefties due to its sheer power. Venusaur acts as a pretty sweet revenge killer, but I'm going to try out exeggutor in its place for Eggy's sheer power (base 125 SpA!). Venusaur is a tank, but at times it can be quite underwhelming without a growth boost.
However, with a growth boost, Venusaur becomes a monster, and with timid, i can outspeed every common choice scarf user in the tier, mainly Latios and Terrakion.

Staraptor @Choice Scarf
Adamant, 4HP/252Atk/252Spe
Ability: Reckless

~Brave Bird
~Double-Edge
~U-Turn
~Close Combat

Let's get it straight. Staraptor is a beast. Holy crap. This thing is a monster, OHKOing max HP Politoed with Brave Bird/Double-Edge with rocks up (I'll get to rocks later.) Doble Edge and Brave Bird are monstrously powerful moves. Brave Bird 2HKOs specially defensive Ferrothorn (!) and has a small chance to 2HKO standard 88 Def relaxed variants.Speaking of Ferrothorn, it is easily 2HKOd by Close Combat. Tyranitar also gets its head bashed in. Even Dragonite fears Staraptor, getting 2HKOd (assuming multiscale is intact) nearly 100% of the time! Intimidate, while a useful ability, is outclassed by Reckless, due to Staraptor's abysmal Special Defense and hit and run nature.

Espeon @Leftovers
Timid, 252HP/4SpA/252Spe
Ability: Magic Bounce

~Psychic
~Shadow Ball
~Hidden Power Fire
~Morning Sun

Dat Magic Bounce.

Seriously, Magic Bounce is absolutely amazing. It is insanely useful, especially because I don't have a spinner or someone to set up rocks. Espeon becomes a vital member of the team this way, as a good chunk of my team is SR weak. This becomes huge, as not only do I eliminate having hazards on my side of the field, but I also reflect them onto mu opponents, giving me coveted momentum. Morning Sun helps keep Espeon alive, recovering 2/3 of its health in the sun! Psychic and max speed allow me to out speed and dismantle the Swords of justice and Infernape, as well as nail Garchomp. Max HP makes Espeon suprisingly bulky (it easily tanks Scarf Terrakion's X-Scissor), and the other moves are relatively self-explanatory. Even with no Evs in Special Attack, Espeon still hits very hard.

Infernape @Life Orb
Naive, 252Atk/4Atk/252Spe
Ability: Iron Fist

~Flare Blitz
~Fire Blast
~Close Combat
~Mach Punch

Infernape's job is to punch holes in the opponent with its powerful STAB attacks, as well as act as a revenge killer with Mach Punch. Infernape has great overall qualities, with great speed and good attacking stats. Infernape provides a powerful hard to counter teammate that greatly helps out the rest of the team. The move choices are to maximize this, giving Infernape powerful and reliable options to take out opponents. Flare Blitz, Close Combat, and Fire Blast all do this provding great coverage, and the aforementioned Mach Punch allows Infernape to pick off weakened foes. The EV spread is fairly standard, as STAB Fire Blast in the sun doesn't need much investment to hit HARD. Infernape is a monster, and will tear opponents apart if given the chance. Except Jellicent. Those things suck.

Arcanine @Choice Band
Adamant, 4HP/252Atk/252Spe
Ability: Intimidate

~Flare Blitz
~Close Combat
~Wild Charge
~Extremespeed

Choice Band Arcanine is a monster. Flare Blitz is crazy powerful, and the other moves provide fantastic coverage for our fiery canine. By giving Arcanine a choice band, it skyrockets its attack to 525, giving it the brute strength to break through even dedicated walls such as Heatran, Vaporeon, Snorlax, among others. Arcanine also provides a solid check to the ever dangerous Heatran with Close Combat, which scores a 2HKO. Adamant nature over Jolly because there isn't anything notable that I would outspeed, and Arcanine needs the extra power. Lastly, Extremespeed allows it to clean up like a boss.

I hope this RMT gave you another taste of how awesome Sun teams can be! Now get out there and go get 'em! Please rate with any suggestions, thanks for reading!

 

[Prinz]

Hi

The first thing I notice when I looked at your team is that you lack a Stealth Rock user (I know you have Espeon which has Magic Bounce but you can't always bounce the Stealth Rock). Stealth Rock is the one of the best move in the whole game because it allows to damage any Pokemon and because it allows, at the same time, to break Dragonite's Multiscale and to hit hard Volcarona (they are both big threats for your team since they can setup on Espeon and Ninetales pretty easily and then they smash your whole team very easily...). You also lack a Steel-type, Steel-types are very important in the current BW OU metagame because they are the only type of Pokemon which can tank a strong Dragon-type attack (Choice Specs Latios' Draco Meteor for example) so if you lack a Steel-type, you'll have big problem with Dragon-types during your battles (in fact Kyurem-B, Latios, Latias etc are all really pain for your team, for example, you haven't a solid switch into a Draco Meteor, which KOs all your team member, and Latias can setup a Calm Mind on Ninetales and Infernape without any problem and then she practically 6-0'd you.

Therefore, I suggest you to use Specially Defensive Heatran replacing your Arcanine, which seems the most useless Pokemon of your team. Specially Defensive Heatran would give you a Stealth Rock user and a decent switch into Draco Meteors and Outrages so it should be fine in your team. I'd use a classic EV spread of 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe with a moveset of Lava Plume, Stealth Rock, Toxic and Protect, with a Calm nature and with Leftovers of course. Specially Heatran would give you a good counter for Volcarona without Hidden Power Ground too (which isn't common nowadays anyway, so don't worry), which is a real pain for your current team since it can setup on Ninetales and Espeon and then you can only revenge-kill it with Staraptor hoping it's still alive (Staraptor is a very fragile Pokemon due to its recoil moves and its weakness to Stealth Rock so it isn't a very good revenge-kill but if you want to keep it, you're free to do it).

Then, I think you should consider a different set on your Espeon. Your set isn't bad at all, but probaby a Dual Screens set is something you should try since it allows you to support Venusaur, which is your main win condition (and which is your main sweeper too, obviously). An EV spread of 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe with a moveset of Psyshock, Hidden Power Fire, Reflect and Light Screen with a Timid nature and with Light Clay (which allows to extend the effect of the screens, as you probably already know) should be fine here. Try also Baton Pass instead of Hidden Power Fire if you fear Tyranitar's Pursuit, which can be really annoying. In short, this set is really nice to support your Venusaur, which is, as already said, your main win condition so you should try it and see how it works during your battles.

As last thing, I strongly suggest you to change Venusaur's nature in a Timid one. Timid nature allows to outspeed Choice Scarf Terrakion, Choice Scarf Keldeo and Choice Scarf Latios which could revenge-kill your current Venusaur (mainly Latios, Keldeo and Terrakion needs a residual damage to revenge-kill Venusaur). Anyhow, since the goal of Chrolophyll is outspeed things you should use a Timid nature on your Venusaur, you'll lose some fire power obviously but I think it's less important than the chance to outspeed the whole metagame when sun is up, also Venusaur is a beast even if with a Timid nature so it's just better than Modest nature.

Here's the set you should use:

Hide

Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 232 SDef / 24 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Protect
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Lava Plume

Good luck!

 

[Ninechu]

Thanks for the awesome rate (and for being the only one :/)

I switched Arcanine out for the heatran you suggested, and it has been working wonders. I made one quick change for substitute->protect though.
Although screens Espeon was interesting, i found it screwed my team over, as the lack of morning sun and leftovers killed most of Espeon's survivability long term, an thus gave me no way to keep hazards off the field.
I also changed Venusaur's nature to Timid, which definitely helped.

Thanks again for the sweet rate!