Bring Me Sunshine
Introduction
"Sun ?, oh Sun, SUN ?!" is probably what you were thinking when you saw this thread. The OU metagame has less Sun than Neptune (See what I did there with Neptune, God of the Sea and the amount of Rain Dance teams there are :D) so why does a Sunny Day team seem viable. Well looking at the statistics for last month (June) you can clearly see that half of the top 20 used pokémon in OU are weak to Sun based teams such as Scizor, Ferrothorn and Jirachi. But, the amount of other weather starters appear very often in the statistics to the point where OU is a lot more weather based. Since the overpowered pokémon given a test in OU got put back into Ubers people started to look at Sandstorm and the new Drizzle Politoed to better use the offensive threats like Lati@s and Excadrill and defensive threats such as Ferrothorn and Jelicent. In the future we may be looking back at this generation as the beginning of the "Weather Wars in OU" similarly to the weather wars in Ubers just 2 generations ago.
The idea of a Sun based team was too Farfetch'd, pun intended, in a generation like this with Water types pounding you into the wall with Hydro Pump and Ground types smashing you against the said wall. However with a little research, the idea of a Sun team didn't seem that bad. After all, the amount of Steel types in the metagame and Water moves gives Magnezone its niché in the metagame and of course Sun based teams. Granted a lot of the origional pokémon you see here may not be the best for a Sunny Day team e.g. Forretress and Jelicent but their roles can help such a team like this. Also, the way this team is meant to play out is a sort of balanced team. While still being based around the Sun, pokémon like Forretress and Jelicent with coverage moves and Blissey with Flamethrower ensure that being stalled I have an offensive presence with them due to the amount of setting up that can happen otherwise.
The success I've had with this team is really dependent on my opponent see Darmanitan, Venausaur and Ninetales can really help deal with threats to my team whereas Blissey, Jelicent and Forretress can deal with switch ins to them. Granted Pokémon Online suffers from the same dilemma as computer chess. My opponent has no thinking time so there is no time to plan a strategy and since you both make a move at the same time if one end stalls the other end is being impatient causing a severe win or loss or if you're lucky a close game. This meaning I can often lose Pokémon who are a major boon to my opposing team due to mispredictions. That aside I believe any team including this one, yours, the winner of VGC 2011 and the first guy to go home can beat any team if there are no major threats. So let's take an in depth look.
The Team
TheDarkLord (Ninetales) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 92 SDef / 164 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Rest
Ninetales being the fastest Weather Inducer in the OU metagame should really be taken advantage of with a set like this. Flamethrower and Toxic are often seen on SubRoost Moltres hitting anything but Tentacruel and Qwilfish effectively. Substitute eases with prediction since there are two types of both Tyranitar and Politoed : Purely Offensive and Defensive so I can bring in the right pokémon for the job. Rest recovers HP for more spreading Toxic late game.
Other than that Ninetales gets little use otherwise since it can be hard to switch her in. It controls a lot of walls though like Blissey and Ferrothorn if it isn't safe for my sweepers to come in.
Katamari (Forretress) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Atk / 144 Def
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball
Forretress loves setting up Spikes and Sturdy does help. In fact, other than setting up extra layers I've found it to be a good staling Pokémon capable of taking multiple hits. Rapid Spin is nice in helping Darmanitan and Ninetales not lose too much health while Spikes is good for the KOs. Earthquake and Gyro Ball are great moves paired up since they take out Gengar and Magnezone.
Apesh!t (Darmanitan) (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
My revenge killer sporting gigantic stats and that Flare Blitz just owns. It is a great physical attacker and not much to say otherwise. Superpower for Tyranitar and Choice Band for awesome power.
King Bo-bomb (Jellicent) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Ice Beam
A defensive Jelicent with two offensive moves that don't coincide with the Sun. Water Absorb really helps with the Fire types I have and it Makes a good spin blocker. Shadow Ball for STAB and Ice Beam for Gliscor who have set up on me as my water moves would be redundant.
Gen 1 (Venusaur) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Growth
- SolarBeam
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Purely special Venausaur under the Sun beats anything. Solarbeam is kinda risky but this thing slaughters weather starters and having the weather up isn't hard to keep up.
Ignorance (Blissey) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Aromatherapy
- Softboiled
- Flamethrower
- Stealth Rock
Lastly is Blissey who beats anything with a completely special moveset. I've found I can get the rocks easily up with Blissey so it is here.
Conclusion
I hope you have found this Sunny Day team to be inspirational if not that, alerted you the capabilities of Sun and what it can do to any team come Rain or Sand it can do some damage. I appreciate any constructive comments, tips, sets or new team members. Bye :p
Introduction
"Sun ?, oh Sun, SUN ?!" is probably what you were thinking when you saw this thread. The OU metagame has less Sun than Neptune (See what I did there with Neptune, God of the Sea and the amount of Rain Dance teams there are :D) so why does a Sunny Day team seem viable. Well looking at the statistics for last month (June) you can clearly see that half of the top 20 used pokémon in OU are weak to Sun based teams such as Scizor, Ferrothorn and Jirachi. But, the amount of other weather starters appear very often in the statistics to the point where OU is a lot more weather based. Since the overpowered pokémon given a test in OU got put back into Ubers people started to look at Sandstorm and the new Drizzle Politoed to better use the offensive threats like Lati@s and Excadrill and defensive threats such as Ferrothorn and Jelicent. In the future we may be looking back at this generation as the beginning of the "Weather Wars in OU" similarly to the weather wars in Ubers just 2 generations ago.
The idea of a Sun based team was too Farfetch'd, pun intended, in a generation like this with Water types pounding you into the wall with Hydro Pump and Ground types smashing you against the said wall. However with a little research, the idea of a Sun team didn't seem that bad. After all, the amount of Steel types in the metagame and Water moves gives Magnezone its niché in the metagame and of course Sun based teams. Granted a lot of the origional pokémon you see here may not be the best for a Sunny Day team e.g. Forretress and Jelicent but their roles can help such a team like this. Also, the way this team is meant to play out is a sort of balanced team. While still being based around the Sun, pokémon like Forretress and Jelicent with coverage moves and Blissey with Flamethrower ensure that being stalled I have an offensive presence with them due to the amount of setting up that can happen otherwise.
The success I've had with this team is really dependent on my opponent see Darmanitan, Venausaur and Ninetales can really help deal with threats to my team whereas Blissey, Jelicent and Forretress can deal with switch ins to them. Granted Pokémon Online suffers from the same dilemma as computer chess. My opponent has no thinking time so there is no time to plan a strategy and since you both make a move at the same time if one end stalls the other end is being impatient causing a severe win or loss or if you're lucky a close game. This meaning I can often lose Pokémon who are a major boon to my opposing team due to mispredictions. That aside I believe any team including this one, yours, the winner of VGC 2011 and the first guy to go home can beat any team if there are no major threats. So let's take an in depth look.
The Team
TheDarkLord (Ninetales) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 92 SDef / 164 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Rest
Ninetales being the fastest Weather Inducer in the OU metagame should really be taken advantage of with a set like this. Flamethrower and Toxic are often seen on SubRoost Moltres hitting anything but Tentacruel and Qwilfish effectively. Substitute eases with prediction since there are two types of both Tyranitar and Politoed : Purely Offensive and Defensive so I can bring in the right pokémon for the job. Rest recovers HP for more spreading Toxic late game.
Other than that Ninetales gets little use otherwise since it can be hard to switch her in. It controls a lot of walls though like Blissey and Ferrothorn if it isn't safe for my sweepers to come in.
Katamari (Forretress) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Atk / 144 Def
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball
Forretress loves setting up Spikes and Sturdy does help. In fact, other than setting up extra layers I've found it to be a good staling Pokémon capable of taking multiple hits. Rapid Spin is nice in helping Darmanitan and Ninetales not lose too much health while Spikes is good for the KOs. Earthquake and Gyro Ball are great moves paired up since they take out Gengar and Magnezone.
Apesh!t (Darmanitan) (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
My revenge killer sporting gigantic stats and that Flare Blitz just owns. It is a great physical attacker and not much to say otherwise. Superpower for Tyranitar and Choice Band for awesome power.
King Bo-bomb (Jellicent) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Ice Beam
A defensive Jelicent with two offensive moves that don't coincide with the Sun. Water Absorb really helps with the Fire types I have and it Makes a good spin blocker. Shadow Ball for STAB and Ice Beam for Gliscor who have set up on me as my water moves would be redundant.
Gen 1 (Venusaur) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Growth
- SolarBeam
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Purely special Venausaur under the Sun beats anything. Solarbeam is kinda risky but this thing slaughters weather starters and having the weather up isn't hard to keep up.
Ignorance (Blissey) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Aromatherapy
- Softboiled
- Flamethrower
- Stealth Rock
Lastly is Blissey who beats anything with a completely special moveset. I've found I can get the rocks easily up with Blissey so it is here.
Conclusion
I hope you have found this Sunny Day team to be inspirational if not that, alerted you the capabilities of Sun and what it can do to any team come Rain or Sand it can do some damage. I appreciate any constructive comments, tips, sets or new team members. Bye :p