Chaleur

Chaleur


Introduction


Hello everyone ! This is my very first VGC RMT and I have a sun team to be rated here.I've started building this team before about 20 days in order to participate to the UEPC Autumn WiFi Tournament.Despite the team being quite successful at the PO Ladder(I have been in the first page of the ladder for some time) ,I lost in the 1st Round of the Tournament 2-0 and was eliminated.The reason that made me post that team is to improve it as much as possible before the Autumn Friendly Tournament.While rating,keep in mind that I am not a really experienced VGC Player as VGC events aren't held in my country(I'm Greek) and this was my very first serious attempt to build an effective VGC Team.Anyway,enough with the introduction.Let's have a first glance at the team.


Team Preview

ninetales.png
shiftry.png
latios.png
terrakion.png
escavalier.png
thundurus.png


As you can see,despite the team being a Sun one it does not rely just on sun to win games and that's what I love about this team.I think that more Chlorophyll Abusers and fire types wouldn't really offer the team anything more than power,not to mention the lack of defensive synergy that these pkmn would bring to my team.


Team In Depth




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ninetales.png
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Ninetales (F) @ Iron Ball Trait: Drought
IVs : 31/31/31/31/31/2

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Why This Pokemon ?

Ninetales was the first pokemon to pick for my team due to bringing infinite sunlight to the field.I have to admit that I thought of choosing sunny day users before picking Ninetales since I had the impression that Ninetales sucks from the OU Metagame,but when I looked at the list of sunny day users I was disappointed.The only prankster users with sunny day are Whimsicott and Sableye,two pokemon that I never really liked.Cresselia was a candidate too but since I wanted the team to be as offensive as possible it I decided to go with the beautiful firefox.

Set Explanation

I wanted Ninetales to be as slow as possible in order to outspeed the other weather inducers and that sets does this perfectly.A Quiet nature along with Iron Ball and 2 Speed IVs let Ninetales be the slowest weather inducer in the metagame unless my opponent has a similar set to this one.Another positive aspect of this set is its unpredictability;because nobody expects this set from my personal experience the bring their own inducer(if they have one) and then they start typing thing like ''WTF'' or ''How on the earth this happens''.Last but not least,this Ninetales is a solid answer to TR since it can outspeed quite a few users of TR while TR is up which is really useful.Heat wave is the obvious STAB which hits both targets and gets boosted by the sunlight.Hidden Power Ice hits Dragons and for super effective damage.Will-O-Wisp can cripple physical attackers and TTar or just statuse bulky annoying things like Cresselia and Amoonguss,while Protect doesn't need any explanation in VGC.





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shiftry.png
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Shiftry (M) @ Focus Sash Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Fake Out
- Seed Bomb
- Sucker Punch
- Protect/Low Kick

Why This Pokemon ?

I chose Shiftry because he is a Chlorophyll Abuser,because he is a strong powerful attacker with Fake Out and because he is really cool as a Pokemon.Shiftry has some things that I couldn't find in any other chlorophyll abuser.First of all,he has fake out which is quite important.He can also beat every single weather inducer apart from ninetales when he carries Low Kick and last but not least he can function quite well out of sunlight with it's priority STAB sucker punch.

Set Explanation

This Shiftry is a physical attacker with beautiful coverage when carrying Low Kick.The EV Spread is more than obvious for an all out attacker as 252 EVs in Atk and Speed make it as fast and powerful as possible.Focus Sash is here because otherwise would be constantly OHKO'd which something I don't want to happen.Fake Out is always helpful in turn 1 unless my opponent has an inner focus user.Seed Bomb is my primary STAB hitting many thing for super effective damage(Politoed,Terrakion,Tyranitar,Rotom-W,Jellicent,Suicune).Sucker Punch offers me a strong priority and the chance to hit thing that outspeed me when not in Sun.It's worth to mention some of the pokemon that Sucker Punch hits for super effective damage: Chandelure,Latios,Latias,Cresselia,Musharna,Reuniclus.The 4th Slot is has put me in trouble and for a reason.While protect is always useful,Low Kick is a move that gives me the so wanted coverage against some steels,abomasnow and mostly Heatran,which otherwise gives me a huge amount of trouble.





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latios.png
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Latios (M) @ Dragon Gem Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 248 SAtk / 4 SDef / 248 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Dragon Pulse
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Protect




Why This Pokemon ?

I chose Latios for his beautiful speed tier that makes him the fastest dragon,the nice dual typing and the respectable bulk that comes with raw special power.His typing and speed was the main reasons that made him come to my team as fire+fighting resistances along with a ground immunity make it the most suitable dragon to use in this team.

Set Explanation


The chosen ev-spread is used to due having HP Fire and is taken from the Smogon Website.Dragon Gem is used for two reasons.First of all,it lets me hit dragons with more power(not only dragons though) and I don't want the LO's residual damage that is really deterrent when in Sand/Hail.Dragon Pulse is my primary STAB,hitting dragons and pokemon that resist psychic and hidden power fire for a good amount of damage.I could have used Draco Meteor but I hate the SpA drop.Psychic was chosen instead of psystrike as my second STAB due to hitting conkeldurr,terrakion(outside of sand) and hitmontop for higher damage and because there are not pink blobs in sight :P Hidden Power Fire offers the coverage against steels which Dragons really need and is also quite good in sun since it's boosted.Protect is here because it's protect.





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terrakion.png
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Terrakion @ Air Balloon Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Quick Guard
- Protect

Why This Pokemon ?


Terrakion has been one of my favorite pokemon since its release date and I really wanted to use it.Terrakion is a really important member of this team because it offers beautiful defensive and offensive synergy,can protect me from priority attacks and because he can take out the steels that trouble me;not to mention the rock slide flinch hax.He is also a member of the dark/fighting/psychic core of my team and is an extremely good partner for Latios.

Set Explanation


Air baloon is used to let me counter excadrill effectively and I generally prefer it over Life Orb(since focus sash is already used).As far as EVs are concerned, I have maximum Speed to Speed-tie with Infernape and other Terrakion. 4 EVs each in HP and Defense enable Terrakion to always survive Jolly Tornadus's Flying Gem Acrobatics. 244 Attack EVs give the same Attack as 248, so the remaining EVs are thrown into Special Defense, as they are of no use elsewhere.Close Combat along with Rock slide have beautiful coverage,are STABs and generally cannot be replaced in any Terrakion set imo.Quick Guard lets me avoid being flinched by fake out or killed my bullet puch while Protect is something I am bored to write about again.





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escavalier.png
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Escavalier (M) @ Bug Gem Trait: Swarm
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Megahorn
- Iron Head
- Double-Edge
- Protect
Why This Pokemon ?

The only reason I use this pokemon is to beat Trick Room.If I don't use this pokemon I am helpless against it because Ninetales won't live forever and all the other team members are fast and frail.Unfortunately,when I had my battle for the UEPC Tournament I didn't have an Escavalier so I used scizor,having in mind that it can beat TR too and that is better in general as a pokemon.What happened ?My opponent had a TR and I lost 2-0 trying to wake up from amoonguss spores for 2 turns while my opponent was sweeping me with Reuniclus and Metagross.The lack of this pokemon really mattered yesterday and I don't want this to ever happen again.


Set Explanation

The current ev spread lets me be as bulky,powerful and slow as possible at the same time and that's all I want from a TR Counter.Bug Gem is used to boost Megahorn's Power and I think that Occa Berry would be useless in Sun for a pokemon with x4 weakness to Fire.Megahorn is the obvious stab that can OHKO Cresselia,Reuniclus and Musharna with Bug Gem and is generally the most useful move of this pokemon.Iron Head is my secondary stab while double edge is here for some pokemon that resist both its STABs.Protect is here to save Escavalier for one turn.





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thundurus.png
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Thundurus (M) @ Charti Berry Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Protect/Substitute


Why This Pokemon ?



Thundurus is useful against tailwind teams and rain teams and these are the main reasons I use it.The priority Thunder Wave just saves my ass in such situations and is the only reason I use Thundurus over Zapdos,which I like more in VGC and could be better offensively with Heat Wave.


Set Explanation


I think the ev-spread is pretty much self-explanational for Thundurus.Charti Berry is used for not being that much afraid of Rock Slide and its hax.Thunderbolt and HP Ice form a pseudo-boltbeam combo hitting many pokemon for super effective pokemon.I couldn't avoid using Thunder Wave for the reasons I explained before and the 4th Moveslot is a debate between protect and substitute.Substitute can be really good if I outpredict my opponent and has the advantages of prankster and the continuous use,unlike protect which cannot always be repeated.Protect on the other hand is always a reliable source of protection and cannot be underestimated in VGC.



Conclusion

I hope you liked the team as much as I did since it's really easy and fun to use.I will be happy to test your suggestions out so make any suggestions you may want.I didn't write how I lead against other kinds of teams because I was bored to write anything more and because I can never decide how I will lead before the Team Preview.Under these lines I will post a battle log from a PO Tour Final and the team importable.
See you in my next RMT :)


Team Importable


Ninetales (F) @ Iron Ball Trait: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect


Shiftry (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Fake Out
- Seed Bomb
- Sucker Punch
- Low Kick


Latios (M) @ Dragon Gem
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 248 SAtk / 4 SDef / 248 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Dragon Pulse
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Protect


Terrakion @ Air Balloon
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Quick Guard
- Protect


Escavalier (M) @ Bug Gem
Trait: Swarm
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Megahorn
- Iron Head
- Double-Edge
- Protect


Thundurus (M) @ Charti Berry
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Substitute

Battle between [Balkan]Pika95 and Christos21 started!

Tier: VGC 2012
Mode: Doubles
Rule: Unrated
Rule: Item Clause
Rule: Species Clause
Rule: Wifi Battle
Rule: Self-KO Clause

Your team: Ninetales / Shiftry / Latios / Terrakion / Escavalier / Thundurus
Opponent's team: Tyranitar / Excadrill / Garchomp / Terrakion / Stoutland / Latios

[BoSS]ennih is watching the battle.
Challange me is watching the battle.
Gibbs VI is watching the battle.
Flying Wolf is watching the battle.
Mightyena Jr. is watching the battle.
Funky is watching the battle.
xXEGOxX is watching the battle.
[FA]Show-Miz is watching the battle.
-ChaosHero is watching the battle.
Shumit is watching the battle.
Commandervideo is watching the battle.
Lune is watching the battle.
SuperFail is watching the battle.
Z+V is watching the battle.
murgatroid is watching the battle.
[Ironfist]Kim is watching the battle.
Gibbs VI stopped watching the battle.
Shumit: Go pIKA
Shumit: CHUUUUUUUUUUU
Flying Wolf: Go, uh...right team! :P
Funky: mach ihn fertig pika !
[Ironfist]Kim stopped watching the battle.
Shumit: go
[Balkan]Pika95 sent out Despotar! (Tyranitar)
Christos21 sent out Ninetales!
[Balkan]Pika95 sent out Stalbor! (Excadrill)
Christos21 sent out Shiftry!
the foe's Despotar's Sand Stream whipped up a sandstorm!
Ninetales's Drought intensified the sun's rays!
Shumit: yeah
[Balkan]Pika95: wtf
ThatGuyPsy is watching the battle.
TjMax is watching the battle.
[Ironfist]Kim is watching the battle.
Christos21: Iron Ball Ninetales FTW
[Balkan]Pika95: slow ninetales???
SuperFail: lol
[Balkan]Pika95: u mad but tricky
Mightyena Jr.: how do you know the item?
Mightyena Jr.: oh ok
SuperFail: It is his ninetales... lol
Funky: das hab ich auch gedacht als die sonne gegen regen gewonnen hab
Mightyena Jr.: stupid fuhrer
Mightyena Jr.: ^
Eddie Guerrero140 is watching the battle.
Shumit: no sand stream
[Balkan]Pika95: idk what to do
Team66 is watching the battle.
Mightyena Jr.: change pokes^?
Commandervideo stopped watching the battle.
SuperFail: Switch out Ttar predicting Seed Bomb
Shumit: no rock slide??

Start of turn 1
[Balkan]Pika95 called Despotar back!
[Balkan]Pika95 sent out Knakrack! (Garchomp)

The foe's Stalbor used Protect!
The foe's Stalbor protected itself!

Shiftry used Fake Out!
The foe's Stalbor protected itself!

Ninetales used Will-O-Wisp!
The foe's Stalbor protected itself!

The sunlight is strong!
Team66 stopped watching the battle.

Start of turn 2
[Balkan]Pika95 called Stalbor back!
[Balkan]Pika95 sent out Terrakium! (Terrakion)

The foe's Terrakium is floating on a balloon!
Christos21 called Ninetales back!
Christos21 sent out Terrakion!

Terrakion is floating on a balloon!
Shiftry used Low Kick!
It's super effective!
The foe's Terrakium lost 86% of its health!
The foe's Terrakium's Air Balloon popped!

The foe's Knakrack used Earthquake!
It's super effective!
The foe's Terrakium lost 13% of its health!
The foe's Terrakium fainted!
It had no effect!
It's not very effective...
Shiftry lost 69 HP! (41% of its health)
The foe's Knakrack is hurt by its Life Orb!

The sunlight is strong!
[FA]Show-Miz stopped watching the battle.
SuperFail stopped watching the battle.
Mightyena Jr.: lol
TjMax stopped watching the battle.
[Balkan]Pika95 sent out Despotar! (Tyranitar)

the foe's Despotar's Sand Stream whipped up a sandstorm!
TjMax is watching the battle.
Mightyena Jr.: Christos21 sent out Ninetales!
Shumit: bad choice

Start of turn 3
Christos21 called Shiftry back!
Christos21 sent out Latios!

The foe's Despotar used Protect!
The foe's Despotar protected itself!

Terrakion used Close Combat!
The foe's Despotar protected itself!

The foe's Knakrack used Aqua Tail!
It's super effective!
Terrakion lost 167 HP! (100% of its health)
Terrakion fainted!
The foe's Knakrack is hurt by its Life Orb!

The sandstorm rages!
Latios is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Christos21 sent out Ninetales!

Ninetales's Drought intensified the sun's rays!
[Ironfist]Kim stopped watching the battle.
Aylayne is watching the battle.
ThatGuyPsy stopped watching the battle.

Start of turn 4
Latios used Dragon Pulse!
It's super effective!
Latios's Dragon Gem raised Dragon Pulse's power!
The foe's Knakrack lost 80% of its health!
The foe's Knakrack fainted!

The foe's Despotar used Crunch!
It's super effective!
Latios lost 147 HP! (94% of its health)
Latios fainted!

Ninetales used Will-O-Wisp!
The foe's Despotar was burned!

The sunlight is strong!
The foe's Despotar is hurt by its burn!
[Balkan]Pika95 sent out Stalbor! (Excadrill)

Christos21 sent out Shiftry!

Mightyena Jr.: gl everyone
Shumit: oh no
Mightyena Jr.: at this point
Shumit: flame

Start of turn 5
The foe's Despotar used Protect!
The foe's Despotar protected itself!

Shiftry used Fake Out!
It's not very effective...
The foe's Stalbor lost 8% of its health!

The foe's Stalbor flinched!

Ninetales used Heat Wave!
It's super effective!
The foe's Stalbor lost 91% of its health!
The foe's Stalbor fainted!
The foe's Despotar protected itself!

The sunlight is strong!
The foe's Despotar is hurt by its burn!
[Balkan]Pika95: gg
[Balkan]Pika95: gratz
Christos21: Gg
Lune stopped watching the battle.

Start of turn 6
Shiftry used Low Kick!
It's super effective!
The foe's Despotar lost 75% of its health!
The foe's Despotar fainted!

Christos21 won the battle!
Christos21: Gg.
Funky stopped watching the battle.
Mightyena Jr.: you should protect exca
 
As far as I can tell, your "response" to TR is to let them get TR off. This strikes me as a mistake.

Taunt... such as on a Prankster Thundurus or Tornadus... shuts down TrickRoom, and shuts down Spore. My suggestion, get rid of Protect/Substitute on your Thundurus and have him be your lead against TR. Focus Sash if you're worried about the ice beam response (Shiftry can Life Orb... he's not going to stick around much anyways).

Re: Escavalier - 9T is a surprise TR sweeper. A 2nd one (that has anti-synergy w/ 9T) is a mistake, I think.

Re: Terrakion
Quick Guard seems like a bad choice here. Quickguarding your partner against fakeout might be good for Terrakion/Whimsicott, but other than that take the hit and Protect (or double-protect). Still, you should be the one Faking Out. 9T/Shiftry seems fairly clear - you FO, not them. EQ all the way. Good coverage.

Re: Shiftry
Mixed/Modest special set (w/ underpowered Fakeout) is preferable to this. Fakeout/DarkPulse/Leafstorm (/Bullet Seed)/Protect.
 
Thank you for your rate,you pointed out some useful things.My strategy against TR is to use TR in my benefit but as you say that's not always enough.

I will probably replace Quick Guard with Earthquake on Terrakion as Terrakion needs something to hit Metagross,although I need to have sash to take the bullet punch.

If you have used Shiftry you'll know how much it needs the sash,with LO it will attack once and will be OHKO'd with any powerful atk(his typing doesn't help defensively too).I will try out the special set as well,I'm curious about how it works as I'm satisfied from the physical one.Sucker Punch is a double-edged sword sometimes if my opponent does not attack.

Taunt will be useful on Thundurus but I'm not sure how will it work against non-TR teams,when it will need Protect or Sub.

I don't like Escavalier too because it's useless out of TR,could you propose something ?
 
Might I suggest a different Chlorophyll user? Shiftry has little to no bulk as you have found out as well as poor typing. It also doesn't seem like it hits hard enough. I'm not sure what other Chlorophyll users there are as most are rather frail but the best I can come up with off the top of my head is Venusaur. He has decent natural bulk and better typing. If you find something better though, use it instead. Then again, Venusaur may be rather useless outside of sun. I am not experienced enough with sun teams to really give you much better advice though. I do like the idea of taunt on someone that was mentioned above.

Good Luck with your team!
 
Hello! It's always nice to see a half decent sun team. You have a very nice basis so far, but I think you could make a few changes to make it better.

I don't like Escavalier too because it's useless out of TR,could you propose something ?

If there is one Pokemon that can fill Escavalier's anti trick room and Steel-type duties and synergize well with your team, it's Heatran.

Heatran @ Chople Berry
Flash Fire
Modest
244 HP / 52 Def / 76 SAtk / 4 SDef / 132 Spd
-Heat Wave
-Earth Power
-Substitue
-Protect

Heatran adores the sun and walls common trick room enducers like Chandelure and Cresselia for years. It also has fantastic defensive and offensive synergy with Shiftry, Latios, and Thundurus. Substitute might look strange, but often times people will need to switch out to get a super effective hit on Heatran, allowing you a cool switch in opportunity. The EVs look funky, but they do have a lot of reasoning behind them. With them, you'll be able to live Hitmontop's Fighting Gem Close Combat with your Chople Berry and have enough HP left to create a Substitute. It looks like the perfect fit for your team!

With Heatran's addition though, I'm sure you've noticed a bit of a growing Fighting-type weakness. If it become too huge a problem, consider giving Thundurus Hidden Power Flying over Hidden Power Fighting to ward off Hitmontop.

On your Shiftry, have you thought about switching to Naughty and using Hidden Power Fire in the last slot? You're striking mostly the same stuff for super-effective damage and you have the added benefit of Sun behind you.

Finally, consider using another item on Terrakion. More often then not, Terrakion will be targeted down by Steel or Fighting-type attacks; Air Balloon isn't helping much. Possible alternate items you could try might be a Life Orb, an elemental gem, or a Babiri Berry.

Hope my advice helped!
 
Hi! As a huge fan of fire-type Pokemon I'm glad someone's using sun today. Escavalier is a great alternative to the always boring Scizor, considering it has access to Megahorn and outspeeds many threats in Trick Room. As TheMantyke said, Heatran is a good Pokemon to have while the sun's shining. Moreover, a chlorophyll physical attacker is something that is used not very often today, but I like it. To add a resistance to fighting-types i'd recommend using Venusaur or a physically offensive Victreebel in case you don't wanna loose a physical attacker. But Venusaur is much bulkier and can take much more hits than Victreebel.
In my opinion you need a dedicated support Pokemon so I'd advice you to change Thundurus' set and EVs a little bit. Add Taunt for Trick Rooms, change EVs to rather defensive, like over 200 HP, then Bold + more Defence EVs or Calm with more Special Defence IVs + enough Speed to be faster than common threats. Don't forget about the resistance Berries - Yache Berry in case you decide to get a Defensive Thundurus and Charti Berry for a Specially Defensive one.
 
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