Bright side of life [First team]

[Shadyx3]

Hey guys, today i want to introduce you to my sun team I´ve been improving for a while. It was pretty hard cuz I´m new at pokemon competitive and thatswhy i was going back and forth with the building process. To make the building process short, i´ll show you my newest team.

I decided to make a sun team basically to take up the rain-dominated metagame with the underestimated power of the sun. I ran 3 or 4 sun teams before i thought: "Ok, it´s time to build my own team". As mentioned I´m a newbie so take easy on me please :) Let´s get into this shizzle

Bright side of life

Team-Building Process

In order to build a sun team this lady is kinda important.

As a mixsweeper i decided to go for Hydreigon. It basically deals out huge damage. With the access to superpower heatran and such are easy to take out.

Speaking of heatran, with excellent defensive stats heatran sponges any special moves which are meant for Hydreigon (except Focus Blast)

Landorus-T is a beast. With amazing bulk and access to SR and U-turn and great type coverage, he works as a wall. Now I need a poke who works additional to Landorus-T by setting up spikes and Leech seed... who could that be?

None other than the infamous Ferrothorn. It is indeed perfect for my team not only to stall even more but to give a certain and important defense. But wait, where the hell is my sun abuser?

First I aimed for Venusaur. But most of the dragons destroyed Venusaur without dealing out damage. So I came up with another idea, similar to Venusaur.

Lilligants access to Quiver Dance is an advantage thanks to the spdef increase.

At a glance

Ellie (Ninetales) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SDef / 192 HP / 64 Spd
Calm Nature
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
- Sunny Day
- Substitute

Turn up the lights in here, baby. Should have called her Rihanna but Ellie Goulding is my favourite singer.
A max Spdef variant so it doesn´t die that fast. Good switch-in into a defensive Politoed to force a switch on the opponent side. Since Ninetales` only use is to summon up the sun, i tried to give it another use by using max spdef and the hp ev spread to scout on weatherless teams. This lady needs to be alive in weather wars. (Can be annoying as hell)

Flamethrower: Had to take a attacking move, to take out certain pokes like Jirachi or Ferro. Use it over Fire Blast due to its low accuracy.
Substitute: Important move for this set. After forcing a switch I go straight for a sub. Gives me at least a option to scout or providing the use of Will-O or Pain Split.
Will-O-Wisp: Incapacitate physical switch-ins.
Sunny Day Thanks to Dr Ciel :)

Dré (Hydreigon) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 176 SAtk / 252 Spd / 82 Atk
Mild Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Superpower
- Roost

Hydreigon works as a stall breaker. With the access to Superpower it lures out special walls like Tyranitar. With a base spatk stat of 125 the ev spread was set from there. 176 and Mild nature (+SAtk, -Def) to deal out massive damage and 252 evs on speed to outspeed bulky sweeper. Since Hydreigons speed isnt that good compared to the other dragons but it gives me this surprise effect cuz it´s a rare used dragon. I didn´t use Dark Pulse because first Fire Blast benefits from drought and second to pretend to carry Dark Pulse gives Latias and Latios a risk to switch in. Hydreigon is still a risky pokemon to play because either it forces switches or it gets outspeeds by nearly all sweepers in the metagame. Oh and Dré because Hydreigon works really good with Landorus-T. Can you guess which nickname I gave to Landorus-T? ;D

Draco Meteor: Powerful STAB which forces a lot of predictable switches into SpDef Steel Types thatswhy he carries:
Fire Blast: Sun boosted Fire Blast is devastating. Sometimes kills Pokes who take neutral damage from FB.
Superpower: In combination with Draco Meteor or Fire Blast, pokes like Heatran, Blissey or TTar get destroyed.
Roost: Life Orb damage sucks :(

Eazy-E (Heatran) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 228 SDef / 248 HP / 32 SAtk
Calm Nature
- Protect
- Lava Plume
- Roar
- Toxic

Standard Spdef heatran set. As I mentioned it´s basically in my team because it gives great spdef coverage. Poison and Fire type immunity makes him a troublemaker. Hmm, there is actually nothing more I can say.

Protect: Scout moves
Lava Plume: Not only chosen because of its 30% chance to burn but to make some damage, too.
Roar: Phazing out Set-Up sweeper or walls I can´t handle. Really important when spikes and SR are up.
Toxic: Meant for special sweepers like Volcarona and walls. Works out with Protect.

Eminem (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 200 HP / 244 Def / 64 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake

Yes, the beast, Eminem, king of rap, there is no comparable to him. His rhymes are full of creativity. A genius who can destroy everyone in the rap game but let´s stay on topic.
Just like Eminem, Landorus-T is unique. Good bulk with awesome attack stats make him a hard counter against physical sweepers like Terrakion. Both Intimidiate and his bulk brings those sweepers down to a ridiculous amount of damage. I found this set on complete legitimacy´s RMT "Savior".

Stealth Rock: Eminem is most of the time my lead, to set up SR, especially when I don´t see a spinner.
U-turn: After blocking a physical sweeper I can easily go for U-turn and profit from this advantage.
Stone Edge & EQ: Basically in this set to deal out damage. EQ as a STAB does a reasonable amount of damage. Stone Edge to finish off defensive Rotom-W.

Snoop (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 112 Def / 148 SDef
Calm Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Thanks to ganj4 for pointing out my huge fighting weakness.

Kim (Lilligant) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 60 Def / 252 SpA / 196 Spe
Modest Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Sleep Powder
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Alright, now to my sun abuser. This set is probably complete destruction if Lilligant starts to set up. I chose a modest nature over a timid one to deal out even more damage and 2OHKO potentially threats after a Quiver Dance.

Quiver Dance: The Spdef increase is very important against Latias to stay alive.
Sleep Powder: Thanks to Chlorophyll if the opponent has a threat against Lilligant it will take a nap. From there I´m able to set up and blast some important wholes into the enemy´s defensive core.
Giga Drain: To recover damage taken from Life Orb and STAB ofc.
Hidden Power: For steel types and boosted by Sun.​

I want to mention again that i´m kinda new at this so i would appreciate any help and improvement :)
Changes are marked RED

 

[Dr Ciel]

Hello.

It's always nice to see a sun team with all the Rain and Sun running around in OU in todays metagame, so I'd like to praise you for not using the bog standard teams. Anyways, I see this team has some flaws, and hopefully my rate can iron out those flaws. So, without further adu, let's get to the team! Alright, first up, I would highly recommend using Sunny Day over Pain Split on your Ninetales. Sunny Day is an absolutely necessary move, as it can help you win the weather war, and grab the momentum right back from your opponent. Moving forward, I would like to suggest changing Lilligants spread to a slightly bulkier one of 60 Def / 252 SpA / 196 Spe and a Modest nature over your current EV spread and nature. The aftermentioned EV spread allows Lilligant to outspeed Scarf Latios with a Chlorophyll boost and neutral base 80s and positive base 70s without a boost. Staying on Lilligant, I would like to suggest running Hidden Power Ice over Hidden Power Fire. Dragons seem to be a threat to this team, and Hidden Power Ice is an excellent choice for taking them out. Well, that's all I have to say for now. I hope my advice helped. Have fun and good luck in your future endeavours!

~Dr Ciel~ (The doctor is OUT)

 

[ganj4lF]

Hi. Your team is cool (and somwehat remembers me this one), however you lack the ability to handle relevant threats in the OU environment. Let me do some examples. You have three Fighting weaknesses and only one resistance, which is weak to Ice and Water; Keldeo can easily wreck your team even in Sun if it predicts some switches right (and absolutely wreck you no matter what if you lose the weather war: Hydro Pump OHKOs everything bar Ferrothorn which is 2HKO'd in Rain). You are unable to switch into Mamoswine at all, since it can kill everything with the appropriate STAB (or Superpower for Ferro). Lastly, you can do absolutely nothing for RP Sheer Force Landorus-I after it sets up: a moveset of Rock Polish | Earth Power | Focus Blast | HP Ice has a great chance to OHKO every single member of your team while outspeeding Lilligant in Sun.

Now, solving all those problems while not altering much the team is challenging, but I think there's a creative solution that can work for you. Rotom-W instead of Ferrothorn can take on Mamoswine without fear, can handle Lando quite well (yeah Focus Blast has good chance to 2HKO, but it needs to connect twice and your opponent outpredicting you on the switch-in, and I hope at least one of the two doesn't happen!) and can take an attack from Keldeo somewhat while lessening your weakness to its Secret Sword. The proposed EV spread always avoids a 2HKO from Keldeo's unboosted Secret Sword after SR, and can take a bit better Superpowers or Stone Edges from Mamoswine (both fail to 2HKO coming from an Adamant LO Mamo, if SR aren't in play, while on standard SpD Rotom-W there's a good chance for that to happen). The moveset is a bit tweaked since using Hydro Pump in Sun is painful, so HP Ice is used to achieve pseudo BoltBeam and to punish Ground type switch-ins; Will-O-Wisp handles Ferrothorns, Mamoswines, and other physical pokemons that try to switch into it, while Pain Split and Volt Switch are great moves and cover the same role as in all the defensive Rotom-W set. As an added boon, this thing completes a FWG core with Tran and Lilligant, which is always nice to have. You lose Spikes, but I guess it's a reasonable loss for all the utility you'd gain with Rotom.

Rotom-W

Rotom-W @ Leftovers | Levitate
Calm | 248 HP / 112 Def / 148 SpD
- Volt Switch
- HP Ice
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Hope my rate was useful. Good luck, and welcome to Smogon!

 

[Prinz]

Hey.

Cool team you have here, anyway it seems weak to Rock Polish Landorus which can smash you very easily. To solve this weakness, I suggest you to use Latias, replacing Hydreigon. I'd use a EV spread of 72 HP | 186 SAtk | 252 Spe and I'd use a moveset of Draco Meteor, Hidden Power Fire, Psyshock and Recover with Timid nature and with Life Orb. Latias would fit fine in this team because it has a similiar role among Hydreigon and she can also tank Landorus' hits pretty well. The EVs in HP allow Latias to tank, for example, Landorus and Keldeo's attacks without lose much fire power. Then, I see that Stealth Rock is problematic for this team because if it's up, you'll lose quickly the weather war and Lilligant'll become quite useless because she can't take advantage of Chlorophyll. Therefore, I'd use Donphan, replacing Landorus-T. Donphan can put the Stealth Rock and can check the dragon-types too thanks to Ice Shard but it can also remove the opposing Stealth Rock with Rapid Spin. I'd use a EV spread of 252 HP | 252 Atk | 4 Def and I'd use a moveset of Earthquake, Ice Shard, Rapid Spin and Stealth Rock with Adamant nature and with Leftovers of course. Finally, I agree with Dr Ciel's advice to change Pain Split into Sunny Day and Hidden Power Fire into Hidden Power Ice respectively on Ninetales and Lilligant. Sunny Day helps you to win the weather war more easily and Hidden Power Ice is useful to hit the dragon-types which are quite problematic for this team even if you use Donphan so in my opinion they are both great moves for your team.

Hope I helped, good luck!

 

[Shadyx3]

Now, solving all those problems while not altering much the team is challenging, but I think there's a creative solution that can work for you. Rotom-W instead of Ferrothorn can take on Mamoswine without fear, can handle Lando quite well

Thanks, as you mentioned Keldeo destroyed my team.

Staying on Lilligant, I would like to suggest running Hidden Power Ice over Hidden Power Fire.

Thanks for the suggestions :)
Should I still use Ice instead of Fire since Rotom-W has got HP Ice?

Hey.

Cool team you have here, anyway it seems weak to Rock Polish Landorus which can smash you very easily. To solve this weakness, I suggest you to use Latias, replacing Hydreigon. I'd use a EVs spread of 72 HP | 186 SAtk | 252 Spe and I'd use a moveset of Draco Meteor, Hidden Power Fire, Psyshock and Recover. Latias would fit fine in this team because it has a similiar role among Hydreigon and she can also tank Landorus' hits pretty well. The EVs in HP allow Latias to tank, for example, Landorus and Keldeo's attacks without lose much fire power. Then, I see that Stealth Rock is problematic for this team because if it's up, you'll lose quickly the weather war and Lilligant'll become quite useless because she can't take advantage of Chlorophyll. Therefore, I'd use Donphan, replacing Landorus-T. Donphan can put the Stealth Rock and can check the dragon-types too thanks to Ice Shard but it can also remove the opposing Stealth Rock with Rapid Spin. Finally, I agree with Dr Ciel's advice to change Pain Split into Sunny Day and Hidden Power Fire into Hidden Power Ice respectively on Ninetales and Lilligant. Sunny Day helps you to win the weather war more easily and Hidden Power Ice is useful to hit the dragon-types which are quite problematic for this team even if you use Donphan so in my opinion they are both great moves for your team.

Good luck!

Okay, I´ll give them a try. Could u explain me on how to use Sunny Day to win a weather war or at least how to use it correctly. Cause I don´t get it^^

 

[Prinz]

Sure. When you predict the switch in of Tyranitar, Hippowdon or Politoed, you can use Sunny Day to make it pointless.