Updated Version of a Previous Sun team (OU)

[ManaSamaSRK]

I made a thread earlier, showcasing a sun team I thought up and had some little success with. I changed up the team in order to avoid certain threats that occur in the OU metagame and I think this team is pretty solid.

This updated version did some changes to my previous team, such as taking out Drifblim for Jolt, and Dugtrio for Chansey, making my team almost fully OU with the exception of Cress. I also changed some moves/attributes to certain pokemon that are in this version that were in the previous version as well.

Main Lead- Ninetales
Drought - Air Balloon - Timid

EV Spread: 4 HP, 252 sp.attk, 252 spd.
Flamethrower
Confuse Ray
Will-o-wisp
Solarbeam/Energy ball/HP Ground

Obvious lead. Ninetales only makes an appearance because of the sunnyday aspect it has due to dream world (Thanks nintendo, = =). It's unfortunately not a great pokemon outside of that with it's lackluster sp.attk and bulk, but it's still not bad. No where nearly as good as ttar, or politoad in terms of a weather starter, but good. HP ground is a choice I might consider because I don't run EQ on this team, and in order to take potential threats out like volcarona or other fire types that might sweep my team with the benefit of sun, HP ground seems to fit well over solarbeam, which is currently in the move slot.
EDIT: I have changed out SolarBeam for HP Ground, and I might get rid of Confuse ray for Roar

Specs sweeper- Venusaur
Chlorophyll - Modest - Wise glasses
EV Spread - 4 HP, 252 Sp.Attk, 252 spd.
Energy Ball
Growth
HP Fire
Sleep powder

Venusaur is scary with sun. A pokemon that can potentially sweep a whole team if sun, and one/two growths are set. HP fire is great. Great pokemon to go into against Ferro, which you can set up and easily take out if they aren't expecting the HP fire. HP ground is also a good exception if you wish to put HP fire on another poke. Only issue I have is low accuracy on sleep powder, and the threat of politoad and ttar to take away sun, which makes venusaur potentially useless, but with that, Venusaur doesn't pack bad bulk as a pokemon. Wise glasses are on Venu because I don't want two Life orbers on one team, and so far, I haven't seen it affect Venusaur doing a large amount of damage if played correctly. Great edition to a sun team

Stealth Rock set up/Spec.def wall - Chansey
Natural Cure - Eviolite - Bold
EV Spread- 252 HP, 252 def, 4 spd
Stealth rock
Toxic
Softboiled
Seismic toss

EDIT - changed out SR for Wish...blah >_> I feel dirty lol.

Chansey is a really good wall thanks to eviolite. I use softboiled to compensate for lefty's. I really needed a stealth rocker, and chansey does the job. Toxic was an extra edition since I do have a thunder waver on this team, but it unfortunately takes away from the use of Auromatherapy, but I find toxic more useful against walls against this team. Seismic toss is obvious.

Baton Passer/Revenge killer - Jolteon
Volt Absorb - Leftovers - Timid
EV Spread - 252 sp.attk, 4 sp.def, 252 spe.
Thunderbolt/Volt switch
HP Ice
Substitute
Baton Pass

Some may say "why have jolteon on this team"? Well, my answer is simple...I love getting that advantage with a sub. Jolteon with baton pass left's is very versitile to me, which is what I love about it. I can take care of something like gyra or politoad, dnite/mence, and still have the option to sub/pass for a potential sweep. 393 speed is also very great, as it outspeeds many pokes without scarf. I'm currently using volt switch on wifi while I use thunderbolt on pkmn online. Volt switch has not shown usage since I have yet to use it due to rage quitters, and on PKMN online, t-bolt has been great. I suppose you can go with either option. I put Lefty's on jolteon in order to gain some health after sub, which has actually gotten to be pretty useful. The extra ev's on it's sp.def also gives it certain bulk. It's no blissy, but it's definitely something.

Mix sweeper/Nasty Plotter - Infernape
Blaze - Life Orb - Naive
EV Spread - 252 attk, 24 sp.attk, 232 spd.
Fire Blast/flamethrower
Close combat
Grass knot -
Nasty plot

Some people agree/disagree with mixape, but I have not seen any issue with it so far. Ape deals well against non-scarf'd Heatran, ferro, chans/bliss, politoad if ape has grass knot, and so on. I tend to nasty plot on predicted switches, which people are 50/50 about since they could potentially switch into something that deals well with ape, such as dnite and mence, but with apes great speed, he tends to still be a threat, and he's one of my personal favorite pokemon :D. The only issue I've been having is life orb and getting toxic'd, which can potentially take out the threat of ape. He also does horribly against sub/protect gliscors and scarf heatran (although scarf heatran isn't too popular anymore), as he can easily be walled against gliscor and can potentially get OHKO'd against fireblast by heatran in sun. I'm on the fence as to whether use flamethrower or fireblast. Fireblast can be a burden since it might miss in certain, important situations. Overheat is not an option I want to take.

EDIT - Removed Grass knot for HP Ice

Physical wall - Cresselia
Levitate - Leftovers - Bold
EV Spread - 252 HP, 252 def, 4 sp.def
Moonlight
Ice Beam/Psychic
Reflect
Thunder Wave


Another favorite of mine and a pokemon that I feel is highly underrated.
Pure def-bulky cress is great in OU, and this set has been doing great as of late. Cress needs the bulk to take a megahorn, u-turn, and x-scissors from physical sweepers such as Terrakion and Scizor. Shadow ball is another threat, but with chans, it evens out as a good combo to switch out/into. Reflect also helps wall physical threats even more. I've been using cress with ice beam, but as of late, now that I use HP ice with Jolteon, the move seems very useless and I think the better choice is definitely psychic. T-wave stops those potential threats as well, such as conceldure, terrak, ect. It's NU currently, but I feel it's definitely UU or boarderline between RU and UU.





EDIT - Added in Latios and switched out Jolteon, and added Claydol over Cress.

Special Sweeper/New recruit - Latios
Levitate - Timid - Choice Scarf
EV Spread - 4 HP, 252 Sp.Attk, 252 Spe
Draco Meteor
Thunderbolt
Surf
Trick

Decided to go with what everyone said. Latios is the much better choice over Jolt, which I was very fond of but decided to take out. Latios takes care of Many threats against this team, such as Drizzle teams. Trick also deals with many walls. His movepool is great. He also deals well against rain deals with TBolt, and also resists electric and Water based moves.

Spinner/SR hazard/def wall - Claydol
Levitate - Bold - Leftovers
EV Spread - 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 Sp.Attk
Earth Power
Psychic
Stealth rock
Rapid Spin
Decided to test out claydol. Hazards do seem like an issue and he seems like the best spinner I can use to compensate with. Resists a lot that Cress doesn't either. Although I lose recovery factor with moonlight cress, I receive it back with Wish chans, while also allowing me to have stealthrocks with claydol.


So, that's my team. So far, this team has been doing fantastic. But, I want some input. Please feel free to criticize the team. Please, no insults or useless info as well.

 

[New World Order]

Hi, solid team. However, the first thing I noticed is that this team lacks a Rapid Spinner. Ninetales, especially non-Sunny Day variants, have no business taking on Politoed and Tyranitar. Therefore, it will be forced to switch a lot and this will inevitable build up a lot of damage. The fact that you lack Leftovers furthers this problem. I would therefore suggest a Claydol instead of Cresselia. Claydol brings it all for your team. It brings Stealth Rock to the table, it Rapid Spins, it also checks Sand and Fighting threats, such as Landorus, Terrakion, and Conkeldurr with Ice Beam and Psychic. It's Ground typing and Levitate ability means it resists Stealth Rock and is immune to both Spikes. That Rock resist is also important in that Claydol can take hits for Ninetales and crew. While the loss of instant recovery hurts, it wont matter due to the next change.

With Stealth Rock now on Claydol, you can safely run Wish on Chansey to give yourself a way to heal a battered Infernape or Venusaur. Speaking of Infernape, use 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe, your current EV spread is incredibly inefficent since Fire Blast is the primary move, and it can't even Speed tie Terrakion and Virizion. Gliscor shouldn't be a problem since +2 LO Sun boosted Fire Blast OHKOs, but may want to try out Hidden Power Ice instead of Grass Knot to take out Dragon-types, who wall most of your team.

Jolteon is a god awful way to deal with Dragons and Rain teams. Defnitely toss this thing for a Choice Scarf Latios. Latios resists both Rain and Electric moves, the two most common offensive types found on Rain teams, and can revenge kill numerous Rain threats with Thunderbolt. It can also revenge kill even +1 Dragons, thanks to its 110 base Speed, and Draco Meteor. Trick to screw around with Blissey switch-ins. For more insurace against Rain teams, swap Ninetales to a Sunny Day variant. This gives Ninetales far more survivability, and can turn the momentum of the game in one turn. If Politoed/ Tyranitar switch in as you use Sunny Day, they're now in a position to get KOed by Solarbeam. Don't worry about either's ability to heal, as Chansey has that covered.

GL

TLDR version

Claydol>Cresselia
pros: access to Rapid Spin, still checks everything Cresselia was expected to, Rock resistance, opens up a moveslot for Chansey
cons: less bulk, lack of instant recovery

Wish>Stealth Rock on Chansey
pros: big big Wishes
cons: none, SR now on Claydol

new EV spread on Infernape
pros: much more efficient spread, can now tie fellow base 108s
cons: not much, slightly weaker Close Combat I guess, but much stronger Fire Blast, it might be worth a shot trying HP Ice

Choice Scarf Latios>Jolteon
pros: designated revenge killer for everything Jolteon was supposed to deal with, except Latios actually resists Water and has much higher power
cons: none really, Jolteon is god awful in the sun

Sunny Day Ninetales>Current Ninetales
pros: can now combat Politoed/ Tyranitar, keeps Sun up longer during Weather wars, can turn tides of a match
cons: none, I guess you lose an Air Balloon that you can put back onto Ninetales anyways

Hide

Claydol @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Psychic
- Ice Beam

Chansey @ Eviolite
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Seismic Toss
- Toxic
- Wish
- Softboiled

Infernape @ Life Orb
Trait: Blase
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature (+Spe, -SpD)
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Close Combat
- Grass Knot / Hidden POwer Ice

Latios @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Ice
- Trick

Ninetales @ Leftovers, Air Balloon
Trait: Drought
EVs: 128 HP / 252 SpA / 20 SpD / 108 Spe
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
- Sunny Day
- Fire Blast
- Solarbeam
- Will-O-Wisp

 

[Penance]

I was a bit confused by venusaur... I assume you don't mean choice specs, right?

Wise Glasses help bluff a Choice Specs set but nobody really uses Specs Venusaur so I don't see the point in it but I know nothing.

 

[ManaSamaSRK]

Hi, solid team. However, the first thing I noticed is that this team lacks a Rapid Spinner. Ninetales, especially non-Sunny Day variants, have no business taking on Politoed and Tyranitar. Therefore, it will be forced to switch a lot and this will inevitable build up a lot of damage. The fact that you lack Leftovers furthers this problem. I would therefore suggest a Claydol instead of Cresselia. Claydol brings it all for your team. It brings Stealth Rock to the table, it Rapid Spins, it also checks Sand and Fighting threats, such as Landorus, Terrakion, and Conkeldurr with Ice Beam and Psychic. It's Ground typing and Levitate ability means it resists Stealth Rock and is immune to both Spikes. That Rock resist is also important in that Claydol can take hits for Ninetales and crew. While the loss of instant recovery hurts, it wont matter due to the next change.

With Stealth Rock now on Claydol, you can safely run Wish on Chansey to give yourself a way to heal a battered Infernape or Venusaur. Speaking of Infernape, use 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe, your current EV spread is incredibly inefficent since Fire Blast is the primary move, and it can't even Speed tie Terrakion and Virizion. Gliscor shouldn't be a problem since +2 LO Sun boosted Fire Blast OHKOs, but may want to try out Hidden Power Ice instead of Grass Knot to take out Dragon-types, who wall most of your team.

Jolteon is a god awful way to deal with Dragons and Rain teams. Defnitely toss this thing for a Choice Scarf Latios. Latios resists both Rain and Electric moves, the two most common offensive types found on Rain teams, and can revenge kill numerous Rain threats with Thunderbolt. It can also revenge kill even +1 Dragons, thanks to its 110 base Speed, and Draco Meteor. Trick to screw around with Blissey switch-ins. For more insurace against Rain teams, swap Ninetales to a Sunny Day variant. This gives Ninetales far more survivability, and can turn the momentum of the game in one turn. If Politoed/ Tyranitar switch in as you use Sunny Day, they're now in a position to get KOed by Solarbeam. Don't worry about either's ability to heal, as Chansey has that covered.

GL

TLDR version

Claydol>Cresselia
pros: access to Rapid Spin, still checks everything Cresselia was expected to, Rock resistance, opens up a moveslot for Chansey
cons: less bulk, lack of instant recovery

Wish>Stealth Rock on Chansey
pros: big big Wishes
cons: none, SR now on Claydol

new EV spread on Infernape
pros: much more efficient spread, can now tie fellow base 108s
cons: not much, slightly weaker Close Combat I guess, but much stronger Fire Blast, it might be worth a shot trying HP Ice

Choice Scarf Latios>Jolteon
pros: designated revenge killer for everything Jolteon was supposed to deal with, except Latios actually resists Water and has much higher power
cons: none really, Jolteon is god awful in the sun

Sunny Day Ninetales>Current Ninetales
pros: can now combat Politoed/ Tyranitar, keeps Sun up longer during Weather wars, can turn tides of a match
cons: none, I guess you lose an Air Balloon that you can put back onto Ninetales anyways

Hide

Claydol @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Psychic
- Ice Beam

Chansey @ Eviolite
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Seismic Toss
- Toxic
- Wish
- Softboiled

Infernape @ Life Orb
Trait: Blase
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature (+Spe, -SpD)
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Close Combat
- Grass Knot / Hidden POwer Ice

Latios @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Ice
- Trick

Ninetales @ Leftovers, Air Balloon
Trait: Drought
EVs: 128 HP / 252 SpA / 20 SpD / 108 Spe
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
- Sunny Day
- Fire Blast
- Solarbeam
- Will-O-Wisp

Thanks for the input.
For you advice with chans/claydol combo, I have to decline. I refuse to use wish chans/bliss, since I'm not a fan of the whole "because it came out in an event, that means everyone should use this set.". Chans only got wish because of some underground event in japan. I consider wish chans/bliss an extremely annoying poke that doesn't deserve to have wish. As a gamer, I refuse to use it. It may seem stupid competitively, but I have yet to run into any issues with it.
Also, Jolteon is a revenge killer. He's not the sole defense against a rain team. Latios was an option I considered, but he doesn't seem to fit the role as a pokemon to use in my team without completely changing around certain things. Also, Jolteon has done well against dragons. Unless they have a certain bulk to them, HP ice is usually a 1/2hko. Also, I can't tell you how many times I've swept a team by sub/passing into ape, nasty plotting on predicted switches, and sweeping. A spinner would be nice, especially on a sun team, but I haven't found room for one, and so far, it hasn't killed me.
Also, how exactly does sunny day on a ninetales wins weather wars against poli/ttar? Because i can use sunnday while against toad/ttar who can OHKO ninetales anyways? Not worth it.

 

[ManaSamaSRK]

I was a bit confused by venusaur... I assume you don't mean choice specs, right?

Choice specs venu is stupid. No one would use that because once suns gone, venusaur loses even more use then it would without specs. Wise glasses is a decent substitute for life orb, and I'm an advocate to having the original duplicate item clause (with the exception of leftovers).

 

[AB2]

Cool team, I think that this team is heading in the right direction although you need to be sure of what kind of archetype that you're playing. At the moment, your team seems to be heading in a more defensive direction. I think that trying to improve your team based on this fact would help it vastly. If you decide to run a more defensive team, I would opt for some entry hazards on this team. Forretress is perfect for this job as it gives you the ability to spin hazards away while at the same time providing toxic spikes as well as spikes. You also lack a dragon resistance and Forretress can provide you a solid enough dragon resistance so that you can switch into choiced outrages and draco meteors. A set of toxic spikes / spikes / rapid spin / volt switch with maximum hp and defense with an impish nature would work really well on this team. If you are to take my advice and run Forretress, I would simply drop Jolteon as it is not going to be serving a huge purpose on this team anytime soon.

You're still pretty weak to calm mind Reuniclus. Although you pack chansey and cresselia, both of them can easily be set up on and ko'd by calm mind Reuniclus after six boosts. I think that you can easily fit a Reuniclus check on this team, which is incredibly important if you decide to run a team with a more defensive archetype. Although it is pretty strange, I think that a choice scarf chandelure would fit excellently onto this team. Chandelure will be able to check calm mind Reuniclus pretty easily as well as provide an extremely important spin blocker on this team. Choice scarf chandelure also checks threats such as swords dance + crunch lucario as well as irritating baton pass teams. If you decide to test out chandelure, I would run a set of shadow ball / fire blast / hidden power [fighting] / curse with a spread of max spa / max spe and a modest nature. Infernape is another 'mon that could be considered a weak link, so I decide that you test out chandelure over it. Although curse is a strange option, it stops baton pass teams in their tracks by not allowing them to constantly baton pass around and gain boosts.

Another cool option on this team would be to switch Venusaur's moveset up a bit. Sub seed Venusaur would work excellently on this team with both chlorophyll and entry hazards. Although the regular growth set is pretty cool, I think that the substitute + leech seed set work work so much better on this team. A quick sub seeder with entry hazards can be extremely irritating for your opponent to face, especially since you pack the ability to put your opponent to sleep quickly.

 

[ManaSamaSRK]

Cool team, I think that this team is heading in the right direction although you need to be sure of what kind of archetype that you're playing. At the moment, your team seems to be heading in a more defensive direction. I think that trying to improve your team based on this fact would help it vastly. If you decide to run a more defensive team, I would opt for some entry hazards on this team. Forretress is perfect for this job as it gives you the ability to spin hazards away while at the same time providing toxic spikes as well as spikes. You also lack a dragon resistance and Forretress can provide you a solid enough dragon resistance so that you can switch into choiced outrages and draco meteors. A set of toxic spikes / spikes / rapid spin / volt switch with maximum hp and defense with an impish nature would work really well on this team. If you are to take my advice and run Forretress, I would simply drop Jolteon as it is not going to be serving a huge purpose on this team anytime soon.

You're still pretty weak to calm mind Reuniclus. Although you pack chansey and cresselia, both of them can easily be set up on and ko'd by calm mind Reuniclus after six boosts. I think that you can easily fit a Reuniclus check on this team, which is incredibly important if you decide to run a team with a more defensive archetype. Although it is pretty strange, I think that a choice scarf chandelure would fit excellently onto this team. Chandelure will be able to check calm mind Reuniclus pretty easily as well as provide an extremely important spin blocker on this team. Choice scarf chandelure also checks threats such as swords dance + crunch lucario as well as irritating baton pass teams. If you decide to test out chandelure, I would run a set of shadow ball / fire blast / hidden power [fighting] / curse with a spread of max spa / max spe and a modest nature. Infernape is another 'mon that could be considered a weak link, so I decide that you test out chandelure over it. Although curse is a strange option, it stops baton pass teams in their tracks by not allowing them to constantly baton pass around and gain boosts.

Another cool option on this team would be to switch Venusaur's moveset up a bit. Sub seed Venusaur would work excellently on this team with both chlorophyll and entry hazards. Although the regular growth set is pretty cool, I think that the substitute + leech seed set work work so much better on this team. A quick sub seeder with entry hazards can be extremely irritating for your opponent to face, especially since you pack the ability to put your opponent to sleep quickly.

Thank you for the advice. I do play very defensively and patiently, as one mistake can make you lose a game you controlled so well. With that being said, I agree. I haven't ran into calm mind reun, but I have ran into calm minding espeons, which are a huge annoyance and problem for me. At the same time, I've actually tried those sets of Forrey and Chandalure, but they haven't had as much success as your description. Maybe something else could be a better replacement?

 

[Epic OU]

Hi there

I really like the team it's a very creative sun team and just team for that matter. However I do have a change that I think will help the team. On Ninetales you might want to consider getting rid of Confuse Ray. Your moves would be after that change Flame-thrower
Willow- Wisp/ Solar Beam/ HP Ground. This way you get more attacking moves and are less susceptible for a Taunt. So I think you should change that and Good Luck!!