Californication
Introduction:
Even since the start of 4th Gen, weather has been a playstyle I've loved to use. However, after the Drizzle + Swift Swim complex ban, I needed to find a new weather to abuse. Non-Swift Swim Drizzle teams are fun to use, but now it is well prepared for by pretty much everyone, with like 50% of teams now packing SpD Jirachi, Rotom-W, and Ferrothorn which Rain has a really hard time breaking. Sand is similar; people are incredibly well prepared for it, as well as it just being an incredibly predictable playstyle. It was at this point that I turned to Sun. In 4th Gen, I'd always considered Sunny Day teams to be incredibly gimmicky, as there weren't really many good abusers of it and it was shut down pretty easily. However, thanks to some new Dream World abilities, BW Sun is a force to be reckoned with, and definitely isn't prepared for as much as Rain and Sun are.
When I started teambuilding, 2 Pokemon were already set in stone. The fist was obviously Ninetales, since no Sun team is really complete without it. The second was Venusaur, as thanks to its Chlorophyll DW ability and the new Growth mechanics, its a really powerful mixed Sun sweeper. The next 2 Pokemon were Volcarona and Claydol. Volcarona was a pokemon I was really underwhelmed with when I first started playing BW, as although it has a prefect stat distribution for a Special Sweeper, as well as excellent neutral coverage with its STABs, it just never seemed to work. However, I was willing to give it a second chance in a sun team, where its Water-weakness is decreased to give it more chances to set-up, and its Fire STAB becomes even more powerful. Claydol was introduced as a Stealth Rock user and for Rapid Spin support, as running Volcarona without a spinner is pretty dumb. Also, due to Levitate and Ground-typing, its acts as a pretty efficient counter to common Sand sweepers, who I knew would pose problematic to my team. Next added to the team was Latias, who was there as a bulky Water-resist, Wish-user and phazer. It also acted as another check to Reuniclus if it got up too many Calm Minds, because I could just Roar it out and hopefully deal with it later before it can set-up again. The last member of the team was Sawsbuck, who I was pretty skeptical about, since I'm sure that when most of us saw his stat spread and movepool we thought he was going to be terrible. How wrong I was. Sawsbuck is like Venusaur V2, and was pretty useful on the team, because pretty much nothing can counter Sawsbuck, and then also counter Venusaur straight away afterwards. The first version of my team was finished.
However, the team really didn't work as I had hoped. The problem was that Tyranitar and Politoed could just keep switching out and in to get their own respective weathers up over the Sun, which made sweeping really difficult. For this reason, I replaced Latias with a Banded Dugtrio, who can trap and finish off both Tyranitar and Politoed after some residual damage. Also, the lack of a dragon-type resist really hurt, since it meant Latios could come in and was pretty much guaranteed a kill with Draco Meteor. I decided to replace Claydol with Forretress, who could also set up Stealth Rocks, Rapid Spin, but also had the added bonus of being able to set-up Spikes, which prove invaluable for wearing down Politoed and Tyranitar to Dugtrio's Earthquake's KO range.
This introduction is already really, really long, so without further ado, here is Californication:
Meet the Team:
Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SpD
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spe)
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Gyro Ball
Although many people would expect Ninetales to be leading this team often, its actually Forretress who starts the battle off for me. The reason for this is that the current metagame is pretty much dominated by weather; very few teams don't have a Tyranitar or Politoed. Since Ninetales sits at 100 Base Speed, compared to Politoed's 70 and Tyranitar's 61, Ninetales will be unable to get up Sun against them from the start of the battle because they both underspeed her. Having a Pokemon with a 4x Fire weakness may also seem strange on a Sunny Day team, but most of the time, Forretress won't be surviving Fire-type attacks whether sun is up or not, so it really doesn't make much or a difference.
Forretress serves as the team's entry hazard user, setting up Stealth Rock and Spikes to help my offensive core pull off a sweep. Although Forretress has spent a lot of time on the bench in BW, often ditched in favour of more specially-bulky Ferrothorn, he earned a place in this team because of one of the few advantages he has over his Unova look-a-like; Rapid Spin. Spin support is absolutely vital to the smooth functioning of this team, as Ninetales and Volcarona are 2x and 4x Rock weak respectively. Therefore, with Stealth Rock up, it makes it much more difficult for me to maintain the Sun, as it limits the number of times Ninetales can switch in, and it also makes it much harder for me to pull off a sweep, since one of my sweepers is guaranteed to be starting at 50% HP.
Forretress also some nice resistances to the team. The most obvious is the Dragon resistance, and because of the huge Defense investment and Relaxed nature, Forretress can take on the likes of Choice Scarf Garchomp locked into Outrage and Choice Band Dragonite locked into ExtremeSpeed or Outrage. With sun up, Forretress can also set-up on Water-type Physical attackers such as Azumarril and Sharpedo.
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Ninetales @ Leftovers
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 92 SpD / 164 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
Ninetales is obviously a staple for OU Sun teams. This set focuses mainly on bulk, as Ninetales needs to stay around in the battle for as long as possible in order to win the weather war. Ninetales draws the short straw among weather starters, as it is weak to both Tyranitar's Stone Edge and Politoed's Scald/Hydro Pump, meaning it is incredibly difficult for Ninetales to switch in to activate Drought.
Ninetales is a pretty terrible Pokemon, with shitty defensive typing and a crappy support movepool, so this moveset is really just to be as annoying as possible to Sandstorm team in particular. Substiute + Will-O-Wisp is a really nice combination, as it allows me to scout their best switch-in, which is normally Tyranitar, or Garchomp, and get off a Will-O-Wisp to cripple them, as long as the Garchomp doesn't have substitute itself. Hidden Power [Fighting] is mainly just for coverage, particularly against Tyranitar, since as long as Sandstorm isn't up, it can do a load of damage even with any Special Attack investment. Similarly, Flamethrower in the sun is powerful enough to warrant the lack of Special Attack investment. With a Timid nature and 164 Speed EVs, Ninetales hits 303 Speed, which is enough to outspeed Jolly Excadrill by 1 point, making a Ninetales a reliable revenge-killer to it.
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Dugtrio @ Choice Band
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 40 Def / 216 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Aerial Ace
- Sucker Punch
Dugtrio is so damn good, I don't know why nobody seems to use it. His main objective on this team is to remove opposing weather inducers such as Politoed and Tyranitar with Banded Earthquakes. Obviously, this isn't all this guy can do. With an excellent 120 Base Speed, Dugtrio can easily outspeed and KO Terrakion and Infernape with Earthquake; Tornadus and Thundurus with Stone Edge; and Virizion and Breloom with Aerial Ace. Here are some other calcs:
Earthquake vs 252 HP Neutral Nature Politoed - 58.1% - 68.8% (2HKO)
Earthquake vs 252 HP Neutral Nature Tyranitar - 80.7% - 95.5% (OHKO with SR + 1 layer of Spikes)
Sucker Punch vs 4HP Neutral Nature Latios - 75.5% - 89.4% (OHKO after 2x SR)
Dugtrio's massive priority weakness is pretty well covered by the rest of the team, with Aqua Jet resisted by Venusaur and Sawsbuck, which will be doing terrible damage in Sun; Mach Punch and Vacuum Wave resisted by Volcarona and Venusaur; and both Bullet Punch and Ice Shard resisted by Ninetales and Forretress.
Although the EV spread may seem strange at first, since Dugtrio has pitiful defences even with the 40 Def EVs invested, there isn't really much point in using 252 Speed, since he doesn't need to outspeed anything between the 115 Base Speed and 120 Base Speed marks. 216 Speed with a Jolly Nature gives Dugtrio enough speed to therefore outspeed +Spe nature Base 115s, with the extra 40 EVs in defense to at least give it a chance at surviving some of the weaker physical priority attacks.
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Volcarona @ Life Orb
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Hidden Power [Rock]
Volcarona acts as this team's Special powerhouse, and with a couple of Quiver Dance's under its belt it can cruise through teams with ease late-game. With Rapid Spin support on the team, Volcarona gets many opportunities to switch in and set-up Quiver Dances, especially with the sun weakening Water-type attacks.
The rest of the team is pretty much geared towards helping Volcarona sweep. Forretress' Rapid Spin means Volcarona doesn't get wrecked by Stealth Rock and Spikes when it switches in, meaning it has more opportunities to set up and doesn't get revenge-killed as easily. Dugtrio is also a greta teammate, as it can take out stuff like non-scarf Terrakion who resists all the attacks on this Volcarona's moveset.
I chose to a more Offensive EV spread on Volcarona because I simply can't afford to run a bulkier set. If I run ChestoRest or a 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe set then I just don't reach the speed I need to after a single Quiver Dance to take on the stuff that cause this team problems. Having tried out both of these sets while making this team, I found both of these sets got revenged far too easily by the likes of Tornadus, Specs Latios and Scarf Terrakion if Dugtrio had been unable to remove them before I started setting up. For this reason, I chose to use a simple 252/252 Offensive spread to maximise SpA and Speed and make it easier to pull off a sweep. After a single Quiver Dance, Volcarona can now outspeed non-scarfed Latios who is a pretty huge threat to this team.
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Sawsbuck @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorphyll
EVs: 110 HP / 252 Atk / 148 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- Swords Dance
- Frustration
- Horn Leech
- Nature Power
Since both Sawsbuck and Venusaur have very similar movesets in this team, they pair up very well, since for the most part they are walled by the same Pokemon. This means that once Sawsbuck gets taken out, it will be very difficult for them to stop Venusaur from sweeping, since its counters will already be weakened sufficiently that Venusaur can take them out after setting up a Growth.
The fancy EV spread allows Sawsbuck to outspeed +1 Base 110s in the Sunlight. This means that in the sun, Sawsbuck will outspeed Choice Scarf Latios and Choice Scarf Terrakion, 2 pretty big threats to this team. Max Atk with an Adamant nature is just to maximise damage output, and the leftover EVs are stuffed into HP to give Sawsbuck a little more bulk.
The moveset is pretty standard. Swords Dance boosts Sawsbuck's average attack so that it can acually do decent damage. Horn Leech is Sawsbuck's only good Physical Grass STAB, and also provides a form of recovery to make up for the Life Orb recoil. Frustration is also gets STAB, provides nice neutral coverage on stuff like Dragon-types, and is also infinitely cooler than Return. The last slot was a choice between Jump Kick and Nature Power, which becomes Earthquake on Wi-Fi and simulators. Nature Power was my choice, because Skarmory and Bronzong are definitely not threats defensively to this team, especially since the Sun exaggerates their Fire-weakness, whereas Heatran and Scarf Chandelure are pretty big threats.
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Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chloropyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature (+Atk, -Def)
- Growth
- Seed Bomb
- Frustration
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Venusaur is probably the guy on the team who ends up sweeping most often. After Sawsbuck has been taken out, the opponents team is often weak enough for Venusaur to switch in, set up a Growth and finish the job.
Again, the moveset is all standard stuff. The change in Growth mechanics means Venusaur is now a brilliant mixed sweeper in the sun, as it grants it the +2 Atk and +2 SpA, making a mixed set feasible even with Venusaur's sub-par Attack stat. Seed Bomb is the strongest physical Grass-type STAB attack available because Power Whip is illegal with Chlorophyll. Just like Sawsbuck, Frustration is on the set to provide some nice neutral coverage against the Dragon-types such as Latias, Latios, and Salamence, and I find that since Dugtrio or Sawsbuck should have already KOd Heatran and Chandelure before Venusaur comes in, I don't really find much of a need for Earthquake. Hidden Power [Fire] gets the boost from the sun and is pretty powerful enough to take care of Forretress, Skarmory and Ferrothorn even with very little investment. Lonely is the nature chosen because Venusaur already has resistance to a lot of the common physical priority attacks thanks to its great defensive typing, and if it had a -SpD nature, it would be much more difficult for Venusaur to switch-in on all the common OU special attackers such as Thundurus' Thunderbolt and Latios' -2 Draco Meteor.
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Conclusion:
So that is the team. I hope you managed to read all of that, since it is pretty long for a RMT. I will probably write up a threat list in the next couple of hours and then just stick it onto the bottom of this when its done. Thank you for reading!
