You are my Sunshine (OU Sun, 2100+ on PS)

[causeNeffect]

You are my Sunshine​

Introduction
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Hello again Smogon faithful. It’s that time of year again. With a new generation of Pokemon right around the corner, it seems like the time is right for many to start unleashing and revealing their best teams of the 5th generation. It is my personal opinion that Gamefreak would be better suited having a 4 to 5 year gap in between the release of new Pokemon games, but on the other hand, it’s hard to argue with the success they have had with the franchise. The 5th generation can easily be viewed as one that brought the offensive intrigue of the game to new heights. From the use of pseudo-legends to the prevalence of permaweather teams, 5th Gen had it all when it came to offense. With me not being one to usually adopt an offensive style of play, it took me a while to settle on the mons that I thought were best for this team. The decision was made to go with a sun team that featured Terrakion and Volcarona, two of the most feared threats of the 5th generation. Although neither of these monsters crack the 600 base stat total, they can still wreck havoc on the most defensive of teams. Anyway, enough small talk, let’s take a look at this team.
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At a Glance

In Depth



Easy Bake

Easy Bake (Ninetales) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 8 Def / 232 SDef / 16 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Hypnosis
- Roar
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Ground]
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Ninetails, the bringer of sunlight. Ninetails’ job is simple. Maintain the weather and act as a phazer to special attacking boosters. Ninetails often serves as my preferred sleep fodder, being that its main role is only to provide weather for the team. Heatran can be quite a problem for this team, so going with HP Ground on Ninetails was a no brainer. I chose to run Hypnosis on Ninetails mainly because its generous special defense gives me multiple chances to play the numbers game and hope that one lands. Landing a Hypnosis against a critical member of an opposing rain team or a pesky mon like Heatran will give me tremendous advantage in the battle. If my opponent decides to stay in, I can just phase it and reset the sleep counter or bring in one of my big threats and force a switch out.


Shrapnel

Shrapnel (Forretress) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Atk / 236 Def
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Gyro Ball
- Volt Switch​

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Forretress was easily the most suitable rapid spinner for this team. Being the only Steel Mon I have, Forry is assigned the task of tanking the occasional banded Outrage and making sure hazards stay off the field. Getting at least a layer of Toxic Spikes can give me a big leg up on my opponent. Common threats like Tyranitar, Keldeo, Garchomp, and Politoed to name a few, are all greatly crippled by residual poison damage. When I see that my opponent is very Toxic Spike weak in the Preview, I usually decide to sacrifice my Forretress early to get a layer up. I am generally against wasting one of Forry’s moveslots on VoltSwitch, but I have been impressed at the momentum that Voltswitch brings to my team with the two big threats that I am carrying.


Sailor Moon

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Sailor Moon (Cresselia) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 204 HP / 216 Def / 72 SAtk / 16 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Sunny Day
- Moonlight
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave​

Alright, get ready for this. I will go out on a limb and say that Cresselia is the best mixed wall in the OU Tier. The amount of hits this thing can take and still remain standing is simply incredible. My obsession with Cresselia began on the outset of BW2, when threats like Landorus-I, Technician Breloom and Keldeo-R began to terrorize the new metagame. This Cresselia set allows me to set the pace with my own weather, cripple opposing pokes with status condition and heal 2/3 of my HP with a single Moonlight. A triple-edged sword dare I say. The choice to go with Toxic or Thunderwave is really up to the user. I decided to go with Thunderwave to hit anything unaffected by Toxic Spikes. With the aid of Toxic Spikes, Cresselia can simply change the weather and stall out an opposing Band Tyranitar should it choose to Pursuit. I chose to run 72 Sp. Attk evs to allow Cresselia to break the subs of mons like Gyarados and Kyurem. Cresselia is an invaluable piece to many of my teams. It will be interesting to see how it fares next generation.
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Damage Log​

Kyurem-B@ChoiceBand 252Atk (+Atk) Outrage vs 204 HP/216 Def Cresselia: 65.28% - 77.08%

Tyranitar@ChoiceBand 252Atk (+Atk) Crunch vs 204 HP/216 Def Cresselia: 72.69% - 86.11%

Latios@ChoiceSpecs 252SpAtk DracoMeteor vs 204 HP/16 SpDef Cresselia : 56.94% - 66.9%

Terrakion@RockGem 252Atk(+2)Stone Edge vs 204 HP/216 Def Cresselia: 80.56% - 95.14%

Politoed@ChoiceSpecs 252SpAtk (+SpAtk) Hydro Pump vs 204 HP/16 SpDef Cresselia (+SpDef) : 62.73% - 73.84%

Breloom(Technician)@FocusSash 252Atk(+2)(+Atk) Bullet Seed vs 204 HP/216 Def Cresselia: 22.22% - 26.39% (5-6 hits to KO)


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Noob Saibot

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Noob Saibot (Gengar) (F) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Confuse Ray/Pain Split
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast​

Gengar provides much needed speed and synergy for this team. I chose a Confuse Ray set to work in conjunction with Twave on my Cresselia. Anyone that has faced a Parafusion Jirachi in rain knows just how effective this combo status can be. In most cases, Cresselia will be pretty hard for my opponent to wear down, which means that I will have the opportunity to inflict many opposing pokes with paralysis. Gengar can come in late game and further cripple and clean up any remaining pokes. In any case, Pain Split Gengar would also work fine with this team.

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BAM BAM

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BAM BAM (Terrakion) @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 48 HP / 252 Atk / 208 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge​

Terrakion is my Threat #1. I chose to run Life Orb to inflict as much damage as possible with each hit. Terrakion’s dual stabs, blazing speed and high attack can prove somewhat overwhelming for an unprepared team. With Terrakion being the big threat it is, scaring off an opposing mon and getting a free turn of stealth rocks is quite the norm. I chose to run only enough speed to outpace all base 100-102 speed tiers, most notably Jirachi, Garchomp, and Thundurus-T. Terrakion can also use residual poison to its advantage when trying to take out walls like Celebi, Hippowdon, and Slowbro to name a few.

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Maggot

Maggot (Volcarona) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 176 HP / 36 Def / 184 SAtk / 112 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Quiver Dance
- Roost
- Fire Blast
- Bug Buzz

Volcarona serves as Threat #2 and in sunlight this bug is an absolute monster. In fact, FireBlast at +1 in Sunlight is so strong it can power through Dragonite and Gyarados with the aid of Stealth Rocks. With FlameBody and Roost, Volcarona serves as an excellent incoming switch to all suspected U-turns from Scizor, Jirachi and Landorus. I have always been against using Roost on Volcarona over a third coverage move, but after testing this set I have seen the value of having a recovery move on Volcarona. Heatran is, of course, an obvious problem, but with enough pressure from Ninetails and Terrakion, Volcarona can just hang around the battle until rocks and repeated hits have taken their toll and roost off any damage incurred by hazards in the process. I have found that this unique EV spread of HP, speed, and Sp.Atk gives Volcarona the opportunity to tank a variety of physical hits and pretty much clean sweep my opponent if given the opportunity to get to +2 speed.

Importable

http://pastebin.com/jVjBh28m


In Conclusion

Please feel free to suggest any improvements to this team. Off the top of my head I can tell you that BroMoongus cores and SandStall teams are a big pain in the ass. Also opposing Volcaronas can be very troublesome if my Ninetails is greatly weakened. I have to play smart when facing DD Nite, but generally Cress + Forry can wear it down.










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[Oh Captain]

C&E !
Hey man, so sun is kind of my thing and I just have a few small nitpicks about this team. First off volc's hp evs bring you to 352 which is a lefties number, but you want 353 for an SR number, (its also the lefties number). Small but beneficial change.

Fireblast Vs FieryDance is preference and you obviously know what you do better with.
Looking at your conclusion I would think that maybe a trapper heatran can fit on this team as you can trap and remove ttar, and 2hko Hippowdon and since it won't be able to swap out you won't struggle vs sand stall anymore, this also can help with Bromoongus cores actually, and volcarona lol.
I would put it over Gengar maybe, I would like to say forre but its the spinner and toxicspikes are great for this sort of team.
Only other option could be to heatran> forrey and then tentacruel > gengar reason i suggest this is because you don't have venusaur on your team, and you have 0 water resists outside of relying on sun light, this means keldeo and other powerful pokes like specstoed can be huge issues for your team and really wear you down. Tentacruel is also a more reliable spinner than forrey and has good overall syngery with heatran and cresselia being able to sponge bug attacks and not wear heatran down is helpful to the team, on the same token though you can run starmie but that is pursuit weak and doesn't seem to fit as well as tentacruel might fit.

And as for cresselia it fits well, it checks a lot but i would Icebeam> over sunnyday if you do run trapper tran because this will ease your time with chomp/dnite and other dragons in general. Also heatran makes for a better latias/latios switch in and takes a load off of cresselia in terms of walling.
something to think about. Good luck.


TL;DR (you better have read it)
Heatran>forrey
tenta>gar
Icebeam>sunnyday on cress only if you make the above switches.

gl friend

 

[Kingler]

It's been a while since I've rated a team, but I'll try my best.
First off, I have no idea how you handle rain. Standard sun threats kinda fuck up this team. Threats to your team include, but are not limited to, Heatran, Volcarona and CM Latias. Specially Defensive Heatran walls your entire team bar terrakion, who can't switch in on lava plume.(ninetales can lure it, but HP ground is only a 4HKO). Choice Specs Politoed can and will be a pain, putting pressure on your team, with nothing being able to switch in well. Tyranitar will also be a pain as it can destroy the team with its STABs, Terrakion can be caught off-guard by a stray Superpower, and Forretress easily gets KOed by a well-timed Fire Blast. Hippowdon also seems to be a bit of a pain, being able to wall Terrakion to death, phazing your team out for residual damage, and Earthquake hits stuff like Ninetales and Terrakion hard. Terrakion might be a pain with its STABs, but cress can handle it fine.

Now that I've listed what I think are the threats to this team, I believe some important changes can be made.
First off, imo that Terrakion set really looks out of place. It can't even counter Volcarona as they commonly carry Giga Drain. So my first suggestion would be to replace Terrakion with Dugtrio. While it might look ridiculous, Dugtrio provides better utility to your team in general, being able to set up Stealth Rock and deterring stuff like Heatran, Tyranitar and Terrakion(important in the event that Cresselia has taken prior damage) from coming in. It might not be able to abuse Toxic Spikes, but your team likes its utility better.

My second proposed change is rather small, but still significant; I suggest you change Gengar's set from the current one to a SubDisable set. This abuses Toxic Spikes far more efficiently as few Pokemon have more than one way to deal with Gengar and the residual damage offered by toxic spikes is great for that.

Now that you have something to deal with tran, I'd suggest HP Rock over HP ground on Ninetales to effectively check Volcarona. Also, run Sunny Day over Hypnosis on Toeds that might switch in on you since you lack a Water-resist.

Last but not least, as a measure to check Dragons, you should run HP Ice on Forretress over Gyro ball.

Hope I helped!
tl;dr:

Hide

Terrakion---------->Dugtrio
Current Gengar set--------->Subdisable
HP Ground------->HP Rock,Hypnosis--->Sunny Day on Ninetales
Gyro Ball------>HP Ice on Forretress

Dugtrio set below:

Hide

Dugtrio@Focus Sash
Trait: Arena TrapEVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
IVs: 21 HP, 0 Def, 0 SpD
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Reversal
- Stone Edge

 

[causeNeffect]

Thanks Captain for the great suggestions! I went ahead and changed the HP on my Volcarona to an odd number. You also brought up another great point with suggesting FieryDance. The accuracy of Fireblast and StoneEdge can sometimes be a big detriment to this team. Their will always be some risk vs. reward when considering these powerful, but slightly inaccurate moves. Fireblast allows me to KO Lando-T with no boosts, KO Tornadus in rain at +1 with the help of rocks, KO Dragonite at +1 with the help of rocks, and KO special walls that carry status moves at +1 like Zapdos and Togekiss. You are also correct that not having any water resists can sometimes be a big problem for this team. Im considering replacing Gengar with Tentacruel, and instead of swapping Forretress for Heatran, maybe Bronzong instead. Bronzong will allow me to replace Forry's strong defensive presence and give me some resistance against Garchomp and Toxic Gliscor, a mon that can easily run through this team without the presence of Gengar or Bronzong. Also, by designating Bronzong as my rocks user, I can then replace rocks on my Terrakion with Rock Polish and maybe even run Adamant for added power. This would make the team even more offensively dynamic. Tentacruel would give the water resist I so desperately need and still allow me to run Toxic Spikes at the same time.

C&E !
Hey man, so sun is kind of my thing and I just have a few small nitpicks about this team. First off volc's hp evs bring you to 352 which is a lefties number, but you want 353 for an SR number, (its also the lefties number). Small but beneficial change.

Fireblast Vs FieryDance is preference and you obviously know what you do better with.
Looking at your conclusion I would think that maybe a trapper heatran can fit on this team as you can trap and remove ttar, and 2hko Hippowdon and since it won't be able to swap out you won't struggle vs sand stall anymore, this also can help with Bromoongus cores actually, and volcarona lol.
I would put it over Gengar maybe, I would like to say forre but its the spinner and toxicspikes are great for this sort of team.
Only other option could be to heatran> forrey and then tentacruel > gengar reason i suggest this is because you don't have venusaur on your team, and you have 0 water resists outside of relying on sun light, this means keldeo and other powerful pokes like specstoed can be huge issues for your team and really wear you down. Tentacruel is also a more reliable spinner than forrey and has good overall syngery with heatran and cresselia being able to sponge bug attacks and not wear heatran down is helpful to the team, on the same token though you can run starmie but that is pursuit weak and doesn't seem to fit as well as tentacruel might fit.

And as for cresselia it fits well, it checks a lot but i would Icebeam> over sunnyday if you do run trapper tran because this will ease your time with chomp/dnite and other dragons in general. Also heatran makes for a better latias/latios switch in and takes a load off of cresselia in terms of walling.
something to think about. Good luck.


TL;DR (you better have read it)
Heatran>forrey
tenta>gar
Icebeam>sunnyday on cress only if you make the above switches.



Thanks Captain for the great suggestions! I went ahead and changed the HP on my Volcarona to an odd number. You also brought up another great point with suggesting FieryDance. The accuracy of Fireblast and StoneEdge can sometimes be a big detriment to this team. Their will always be some risk vs. reward when considering these powerful, but slightly inaccurate moves. Fireblast allows me to KO Lando-T with no boosts, KO Tornadus in rain at +1 with the help of rocks, KO Dragonite at +1 with the help of rocks, and KO special walls that carry status moves at +1 like Zapdos and Togekiss. You are also correct that not having any water resists can sometimes be a big problem for this team. Im considering replacing Gengar with Tentacruel, and instead of swapping Forretress for Heatran, maybe Bronzong instead. Bronzong will allow me to replace Forry's strong defensive presence and give me some resistance against Garchomp and Toxic Gliscor, a mon that can easily run through this team without the presence of Gengar or Bronzong. Also, by designating Bronzong as my rocks user, I can then replace rocks on my Terrakion with Rock Polish and maybe even run Adamant for added power. This would make the team even more offensively dynamic. Tentacruel would give the water resist I so desperately need and still allow me to run Toxic Spikes at the same time.

 

[causeNeffect]

Thankyou also Kingler for your rate. I am definitely aware of the threat that an opposing Volcarona can put on my team, which is why I have to make sure Ninetails stays healthy and keep rocks off the field. Volcarona is frequently paired with analytic Starmie. If I can eliminate my opponent's spinner and get my rocks up, the situation becomes alot easier. Im not too worried about CM Latias. Ninetails can take a +1 DragonPulse pretty nicely and phaze, and also, if I have managed to keep rocks off the field, Volcarona can switch in and "Boost and Roost" with Latias. Volc obviously wins that battle, barring hax of course. I really like the Dugtrio suggestion, but to be honest, I seemed to have never had success in the past when using Dugtrio on my sun teams. My opponent always seems to get a layer of hazards up, rendering Dugtrio pretty much useless, unless I'm willing to sacrifice a key member just for the sake of trapping. It seems like Dugtrio can only be successful when paired with Xatu, a change that I cannot afford to make. Also, swapping Duggy for Terrakion would make this team a lot less threatening.