Inferno Of Truth
Hello all, and welcome to my first (OU) RMT on smogon! I decided to build a sun team this time, because sun has gotten much more powerful lately with the banning of sand rush, and i've always liked sun's abusers, namely venusaur and volcarona, who are both included in this team. It isnt a team focused around a gimmick or setting up and sweeping with a single pokemon, its just a team that tries to eliminate threats and then perform a sweep with one of the forementioned abusers. Or maybe both, i'm not picky. I don't have any massive or impressive peaks to show you, as i'm certainly not the best battler and have only made it to around 1350 before severely tilting down.
The name comes from a process that looks kind of like this.
Sun=fire=Inferno. Me=Truth. Mine=Of.
And so the Inferno of Truth was born!
Team Building
Without any further ado, it's time to meet the team members!
Ninetales(m) @ leftovers
Trait: Drought (duh)
EVs: 128 HP, 252 SATK, 20 SDEF, 108 SPE
Modest Nature (-atk, +satk)
-fire blast
-solar beam
-will-o-wisp
-sunny day
What would sun be without ninetales? The answer: a team dependent on a weather that isn't there. As such, ninetales is an integral part of any sun team. I don't really like the pokemon much, but i've tried to make do with what i have. Fire blast is a nice move on ninetales, trading accuracy for the ability to actually make KOs. It can inflict pretty heavy damage to anything that doesn't resist it and isn't blissey. SolarBeam lets me hit things like Gastrodon and Swampert, although the latter isn't seen too often. It also puts a dent in rotom-W if they happen to go for a hydro pump in sun. I use it over energy ball simply because ninetales really needs the power. Will-o-wisp lets me troll the tyranitar switch-in, which is all too common, without mispredicting and sending dugtrio in to die or make a hasty retreat, as using durtrio to get rid of ttar is vital. Thank you, new world order, for this great set! It performs much better than the old one did and lets me counter opposing weather much more easily.
Venusaur(m) @ black sludge
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 ATK, 252 SPE, 4 SATK
Lonely Nature (+atk, -def)
-seed bomb
-hidden power fire
-earthquake
-growth
Venusaur is a total monster in sun. A monster. He outspeeds the whole OU teir when sun is up, and growth doubles his attack and special attack, making him hit like a truck. This is a standard mixed venusaur, but it really does the job. Once counters like Dragonite are out of the way, the dinosaur rampages through teams and destroys everything in his way. I probably don't need to explain what the moves do, or at least not in detail. Seed bomb is his standard attacking move and smashes everything that doesn't resist it. Hidden power fire is coverage and kills things like forretress, scizor, and ferrothorn. Venus can take a bullet punch from scizor without going down, effectively scoring a KO. Earthquake takes care of most other steels, and if a tyranitar comes in mid-rampage and i have a growth or two set up, it takes care of him handily. Growth whenever possible. have venus come in on something that it hard counters and growth as they switch. Ta-Da! Easier sweep. I used to run solarbeam over seed bomb with EVs in special attack, but this set can kill politoed, and i'm willing to sacrifice a little power for that.
Donphan(f) @ leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 240 HP, 52 ATK, 216 DEF
Impish Nature (-spatk, +def)
-earthquake
-ice shard
-stealth rock
-rapid spin
Donphan is my spinner and also an important member of the team. He can come in on most physical attacks, and puts pressure on ttar, heatran, lucario (if physical) and the like and forces them out. He also trolls things like Dragonite and Landorus with ice shard, as they can't do much to him, and he can definitely hurt them. Donphan doesn't KO dnite, but it DOES break multiscale and then inflict heavy damage with ice shard. If it happens to be a non-bulky variant and goes for a ddance turn one, then Sturdy/Ice Shard/Defense actually can ko. Earthquake is mostly for pressure. Donphan very rarely actually kills something, but it can really mess with sand teams with the combination of EQ for those weak to it and Ice Shard for landorus. rotom-W and Jellicent both hard counter donphan and force it to switch out, but often that switch can put me in an advantageous position, especially if i have control if the weather. The EVs let me take hits well, while still being able to do some damage with Ice Shard.
Volcarona(m) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 240 HP, 216 DEF, 52 SPD
Bold Nature (-atk, +def)
-fiery dance
-bug buzz
-quiver dance
-substitute
Meet the Volcarona. Only actually walled by Heatran and Dragonite, this monster sweeps teams more often than not. By far sun's most powerful sweeper, the mighty Volcarona takes its place as a member of the offensive core of my team. The set is a standard defensive volcarona basically copy-pasted from Smogon, but it does its job, and extremely well too. Bug buzz is for a power move that kills psychics and lets Volcarona check Latias and Reuniclus, simply by coming in and spamming it. Fiery dance provides the obligatory fire move for a sun volcarona, and in my opinion it's one of the best attacks ever made. With 80 base power+STAB+sun and a 50% chance to buff special attack, Fiery dance is a powerful tool to help me sweep. Quiver dance is how the actual sweeps are performed. It's basically calm mind, with a speed boost, so it works kind of like a special dragon dance but better. At +1, volcarona is a formidable threat and can put holes in a team. At +2, if its counters have been takes care of, it's good game. Volc is also able to safely come in on a scizor and setup as it is forced to switch. If the opponent's team doesnt run a hard counter to volcarona, they're done for. sadly i have to be careful with volc due to it taking half HP from stealth rocks, but donphan can usually keep those off the field, and hopefully volc won't have to come in too many times anyway. I've gotten a lot of people telling me to use a substitute volcarona, and i think i'll be using that now, because having a terrakion come in and force a switch after i've set up is...lame.
Dragonite(m) @ leftovers
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 ATK, 252 SPE, 4 HP
Adamant Nature (+atk, -spatk)
-dragon claw
-dragon dance
-fire punch
-extremespeed
A new addition to the team, i feel like dragonite is exactly what's been missing from the team. A solid check to other dragons, a bulky set up sweeper, and another powerful physical attacker. This thing is obscenely powerful, but sadly a bit lacking in speed. Dragon Dance and ExtremeSpeed in tandem fix dnite's problems and let it take out many threats to the team. Multiscale is one of the best abilities in existence imo, and WILL let dnite get off that ko move or set up at least one dragon dance. the only thing i've ever seen ohko it is draco meteor off a specs latios. Anyway, dnite adds a lot of offensive pressure, as there aren't really many things that can stop it in its tracks. I think the only thing that actually walls dnite is heatran, which only adds to his appeal;it lets him bait in heatran to be killed by dugtrio. Dnite is also a sweeper that can function perfectly well in sun, something which the others can't exactly do. After having this spot fluctuate for so long (previous occupants have been: infernape, virizion, cresselia, latios) i've come to a stop with this guy. The team feels like it has a bit of a latios weakness now, but dnite has patched up so many other things that i'm willing to let that go for now.
Dugtrio(m) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 ATK, 252 SPE, 4 DEF
Jolly Nature (-spatk, +speed)
-earthquake
-reversal
-stone edge
-memento
Dugtrio is an amazing pokemon, and i never run sun without it. It can trap and kill numerous threats to the team, such as tyranitar, heatran, volcarona, and non-scarf politoed. yeah, it works. T1 earthquake, T2 reversal if i wasn't burned by the scald. Stone edge OHKO's volc, and i can either pull a 2HKO with earthquake on ttar or T1 EQ, T2 Reversal. Obviously can pull an ohko against heatran, and even beats air balloon variants with ease, stone edging their balloons away then scoring the KO with earthquake. He feels like the glue to the team. Dugtrio will go down more often than not, but he'll usually take out ttar and heatran on the way, letting me bring in ninetales to bring out the sun and then sweep with venus/volc. Sadly if duggy gets haxed or i play him badly and waste him, It can cost me the game. I lead with this guy a massive percentage of the time, because keeping ninetales up front usually baits people into leading with their weather inducer. If Duggy comes in on their weather inducer and it isn't scarfed, i've won the weather war. He usually turns into dead weight after killing what he's meant to kill though, so i have sac fodder near the end of the game. Dugtrio is the perfect counter to sun's massive threats, and imo every sun team should run him. I've changed this set around a lot but i feel that this one is the best i've come across. Reversal is incredibly useful for beating things like terrakion/ttar that don't go down to one EQ, stone edge lets me actually beat volc, EQ is great, and memento is great...in some situations. I don't use it very often, but it's a great move when the situation does come along.
Playing the Team
Get rid of tran, ttar, volc with dugtrio. Sweep with the sweepers.
Conclusions
I think the team has come a long way since its humble beginnings, but it still has some kinks to work out. It still feels rather Dnite weak and ScarfToed weak, and it has a very hard time dealing with SmashPass >___>. It was originally very rain-weak but when i changed around some sets and pokemon, that weakness magically disappeared. I'm pretty proud of how it's turned out for a team that i've built, but i will really appreciate any and all feedback on how to improve it in any way i can.
So please, rate away!
Edits will be in Bold.
Hello all, and welcome to my first (OU) RMT on smogon! I decided to build a sun team this time, because sun has gotten much more powerful lately with the banning of sand rush, and i've always liked sun's abusers, namely venusaur and volcarona, who are both included in this team. It isnt a team focused around a gimmick or setting up and sweeping with a single pokemon, its just a team that tries to eliminate threats and then perform a sweep with one of the forementioned abusers. Or maybe both, i'm not picky. I don't have any massive or impressive peaks to show you, as i'm certainly not the best battler and have only made it to around 1350 before severely tilting down.
The name comes from a process that looks kind of like this.
Sun=fire=Inferno. Me=Truth. Mine=Of.
And so the Inferno of Truth was born!
Team Building
I didn't specifically build this team around a pokemon. I simply wanted to do a sun team at first, and i didn't really have high expectations for it at the time.
What is sun without ninetales? Not sun. The first piece of my team was a ninetales, who arguably remains the absolute most important member of the team.
Venusaur was my next choice. I wanted a chlorophyll sweeper, but i didn't want to use sawsbuck, so i picked venusaur. at the time i was running a specially based growth set with solarbeam and had no idea what i was doing.
I picked volcarona as the next member of the team. It's my favorite pokemon currently, and i thought it would fit very nicely into this shamblesque team i was creating. At the time it was a morning sun set.
Volcarona needs spin support. Needs. I added donphan because he's a cool pokemon and a great spinner, and i didn't think other spinners would fit as well into the team. He's still pretty important, if only for ice shard.
My whole team, other than donphan, was walled by heatran at that point. What better addition than the mighty dugtrio, also known as heatran's bane and the ttar slayer? >_> <_<
The team looked so blissey-weak that it wasn't even funny at this point. And that's pretty blissey-weak. I added an infernape to the team to help deal with this threat, and also to threaten heatran and tyranitar more.
The team was extremely rain-weak at that point, so i added a virizion over infernape. It worked well as a rain-check and put pressure on rain teams a bit, but there were still some major problems...
With the addition of a latios, i hoped to fix my Dnite weakness. It didn't really work, and it made me realize just how painful scarf politoed could be to the team. When i removed virizion, i changed around some sets to make the team less rain-weak.
Following new world order's suggestions i added a cresselia. It countered dnite better than latios ever did, but it was 93% dead weight for everything else, with the possible exception of terrakion. Dugtrio can beat terrakion though.
And, here we are today. Dragonite has added a lot more power and versatility to the team, and i'm very happy with it. in tandem with donphan it makes a wonderful counter to other dnites/other dragons.
What is sun without ninetales? Not sun. The first piece of my team was a ninetales, who arguably remains the absolute most important member of the team.
Venusaur was my next choice. I wanted a chlorophyll sweeper, but i didn't want to use sawsbuck, so i picked venusaur. at the time i was running a specially based growth set with solarbeam and had no idea what i was doing.
I picked volcarona as the next member of the team. It's my favorite pokemon currently, and i thought it would fit very nicely into this shamblesque team i was creating. At the time it was a morning sun set.
Volcarona needs spin support. Needs. I added donphan because he's a cool pokemon and a great spinner, and i didn't think other spinners would fit as well into the team. He's still pretty important, if only for ice shard.
My whole team, other than donphan, was walled by heatran at that point. What better addition than the mighty dugtrio, also known as heatran's bane and the ttar slayer? >_> <_<
The team looked so blissey-weak that it wasn't even funny at this point. And that's pretty blissey-weak. I added an infernape to the team to help deal with this threat, and also to threaten heatran and tyranitar more.
The team was extremely rain-weak at that point, so i added a virizion over infernape. It worked well as a rain-check and put pressure on rain teams a bit, but there were still some major problems...
With the addition of a latios, i hoped to fix my Dnite weakness. It didn't really work, and it made me realize just how painful scarf politoed could be to the team. When i removed virizion, i changed around some sets to make the team less rain-weak.
Following new world order's suggestions i added a cresselia. It countered dnite better than latios ever did, but it was 93% dead weight for everything else, with the possible exception of terrakion. Dugtrio can beat terrakion though.
And, here we are today. Dragonite has added a lot more power and versatility to the team, and i'm very happy with it. in tandem with donphan it makes a wonderful counter to other dnites/other dragons.
Without any further ado, it's time to meet the team members!
Ninetales(m) @ leftovers
Trait: Drought (duh)
EVs: 128 HP, 252 SATK, 20 SDEF, 108 SPE
Modest Nature (-atk, +satk)
-fire blast
-solar beam
-will-o-wisp
-sunny day
What would sun be without ninetales? The answer: a team dependent on a weather that isn't there. As such, ninetales is an integral part of any sun team. I don't really like the pokemon much, but i've tried to make do with what i have. Fire blast is a nice move on ninetales, trading accuracy for the ability to actually make KOs. It can inflict pretty heavy damage to anything that doesn't resist it and isn't blissey. SolarBeam lets me hit things like Gastrodon and Swampert, although the latter isn't seen too often. It also puts a dent in rotom-W if they happen to go for a hydro pump in sun. I use it over energy ball simply because ninetales really needs the power. Will-o-wisp lets me troll the tyranitar switch-in, which is all too common, without mispredicting and sending dugtrio in to die or make a hasty retreat, as using durtrio to get rid of ttar is vital. Thank you, new world order, for this great set! It performs much better than the old one did and lets me counter opposing weather much more easily.
Venusaur(m) @ black sludge
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 ATK, 252 SPE, 4 SATK
Lonely Nature (+atk, -def)
-seed bomb
-hidden power fire
-earthquake
-growth
Venusaur is a total monster in sun. A monster. He outspeeds the whole OU teir when sun is up, and growth doubles his attack and special attack, making him hit like a truck. This is a standard mixed venusaur, but it really does the job. Once counters like Dragonite are out of the way, the dinosaur rampages through teams and destroys everything in his way. I probably don't need to explain what the moves do, or at least not in detail. Seed bomb is his standard attacking move and smashes everything that doesn't resist it. Hidden power fire is coverage and kills things like forretress, scizor, and ferrothorn. Venus can take a bullet punch from scizor without going down, effectively scoring a KO. Earthquake takes care of most other steels, and if a tyranitar comes in mid-rampage and i have a growth or two set up, it takes care of him handily. Growth whenever possible. have venus come in on something that it hard counters and growth as they switch. Ta-Da! Easier sweep. I used to run solarbeam over seed bomb with EVs in special attack, but this set can kill politoed, and i'm willing to sacrifice a little power for that.
Donphan(f) @ leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 240 HP, 52 ATK, 216 DEF
Impish Nature (-spatk, +def)
-earthquake
-ice shard
-stealth rock
-rapid spin
Donphan is my spinner and also an important member of the team. He can come in on most physical attacks, and puts pressure on ttar, heatran, lucario (if physical) and the like and forces them out. He also trolls things like Dragonite and Landorus with ice shard, as they can't do much to him, and he can definitely hurt them. Donphan doesn't KO dnite, but it DOES break multiscale and then inflict heavy damage with ice shard. If it happens to be a non-bulky variant and goes for a ddance turn one, then Sturdy/Ice Shard/Defense actually can ko. Earthquake is mostly for pressure. Donphan very rarely actually kills something, but it can really mess with sand teams with the combination of EQ for those weak to it and Ice Shard for landorus. rotom-W and Jellicent both hard counter donphan and force it to switch out, but often that switch can put me in an advantageous position, especially if i have control if the weather. The EVs let me take hits well, while still being able to do some damage with Ice Shard.
Volcarona(m) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 240 HP, 216 DEF, 52 SPD
Bold Nature (-atk, +def)
-fiery dance
-bug buzz
-quiver dance
-substitute
Meet the Volcarona. Only actually walled by Heatran and Dragonite, this monster sweeps teams more often than not. By far sun's most powerful sweeper, the mighty Volcarona takes its place as a member of the offensive core of my team. The set is a standard defensive volcarona basically copy-pasted from Smogon, but it does its job, and extremely well too. Bug buzz is for a power move that kills psychics and lets Volcarona check Latias and Reuniclus, simply by coming in and spamming it. Fiery dance provides the obligatory fire move for a sun volcarona, and in my opinion it's one of the best attacks ever made. With 80 base power+STAB+sun and a 50% chance to buff special attack, Fiery dance is a powerful tool to help me sweep. Quiver dance is how the actual sweeps are performed. It's basically calm mind, with a speed boost, so it works kind of like a special dragon dance but better. At +1, volcarona is a formidable threat and can put holes in a team. At +2, if its counters have been takes care of, it's good game. Volc is also able to safely come in on a scizor and setup as it is forced to switch. If the opponent's team doesnt run a hard counter to volcarona, they're done for. sadly i have to be careful with volc due to it taking half HP from stealth rocks, but donphan can usually keep those off the field, and hopefully volc won't have to come in too many times anyway. I've gotten a lot of people telling me to use a substitute volcarona, and i think i'll be using that now, because having a terrakion come in and force a switch after i've set up is...lame.
Dragonite(m) @ leftovers
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 ATK, 252 SPE, 4 HP
Adamant Nature (+atk, -spatk)
-dragon claw
-dragon dance
-fire punch
-extremespeed
A new addition to the team, i feel like dragonite is exactly what's been missing from the team. A solid check to other dragons, a bulky set up sweeper, and another powerful physical attacker. This thing is obscenely powerful, but sadly a bit lacking in speed. Dragon Dance and ExtremeSpeed in tandem fix dnite's problems and let it take out many threats to the team. Multiscale is one of the best abilities in existence imo, and WILL let dnite get off that ko move or set up at least one dragon dance. the only thing i've ever seen ohko it is draco meteor off a specs latios. Anyway, dnite adds a lot of offensive pressure, as there aren't really many things that can stop it in its tracks. I think the only thing that actually walls dnite is heatran, which only adds to his appeal;it lets him bait in heatran to be killed by dugtrio. Dnite is also a sweeper that can function perfectly well in sun, something which the others can't exactly do. After having this spot fluctuate for so long (previous occupants have been: infernape, virizion, cresselia, latios) i've come to a stop with this guy. The team feels like it has a bit of a latios weakness now, but dnite has patched up so many other things that i'm willing to let that go for now.
Dugtrio(m) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 ATK, 252 SPE, 4 DEF
Jolly Nature (-spatk, +speed)
-earthquake
-reversal
-stone edge
-memento
Dugtrio is an amazing pokemon, and i never run sun without it. It can trap and kill numerous threats to the team, such as tyranitar, heatran, volcarona, and non-scarf politoed. yeah, it works. T1 earthquake, T2 reversal if i wasn't burned by the scald. Stone edge OHKO's volc, and i can either pull a 2HKO with earthquake on ttar or T1 EQ, T2 Reversal. Obviously can pull an ohko against heatran, and even beats air balloon variants with ease, stone edging their balloons away then scoring the KO with earthquake. He feels like the glue to the team. Dugtrio will go down more often than not, but he'll usually take out ttar and heatran on the way, letting me bring in ninetales to bring out the sun and then sweep with venus/volc. Sadly if duggy gets haxed or i play him badly and waste him, It can cost me the game. I lead with this guy a massive percentage of the time, because keeping ninetales up front usually baits people into leading with their weather inducer. If Duggy comes in on their weather inducer and it isn't scarfed, i've won the weather war. He usually turns into dead weight after killing what he's meant to kill though, so i have sac fodder near the end of the game. Dugtrio is the perfect counter to sun's massive threats, and imo every sun team should run him. I've changed this set around a lot but i feel that this one is the best i've come across. Reversal is incredibly useful for beating things like terrakion/ttar that don't go down to one EQ, stone edge lets me actually beat volc, EQ is great, and memento is great...in some situations. I don't use it very often, but it's a great move when the situation does come along.
Playing the Team
Get rid of tran, ttar, volc with dugtrio. Sweep with the sweepers.
Conclusions
I think the team has come a long way since its humble beginnings, but it still has some kinks to work out. It still feels rather Dnite weak and ScarfToed weak, and it has a very hard time dealing with SmashPass >___>. It was originally very rain-weak but when i changed around some sets and pokemon, that weakness magically disappeared. I'm pretty proud of how it's turned out for a team that i've built, but i will really appreciate any and all feedback on how to improve it in any way i can.
So please, rate away!
Edits will be in Bold.
