Conflagration

Should I replace Leaf Storm on Exeggutor with SolarBeam?

  • Yes

    Votes: 5 33.3%
  • No

    Votes: 10 66.7%

  • Total voters
    15
As you might have been able to tell, this is a 5th gen OU sun team. This team has improved a lot, but I feel like it can be improved more, so please make suggestions! Now, on to the team...
Moveset marked in Bold.

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Ninetales (female)
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252hp/224spatk/32spe
Modest nature
Ability: Drought

Fire Blast
Energy Ball
Will-o-wisp
Protect

Ninetales, the lord and savior of OU sun teams. Maximum HP investment makes it surprisingly bulky, although moreso on the special side. Along with its teammates, mostly Exeggutor and Terrakion, but even sometimes Forretress, Ninetales easily wins most weather wars. Will-o-wisp mellows out physical attacks, but I am thinking about replacing it with something else, due to it not seeing much use. Fire Blast is a staple for Ninetales- combine a decent special attack with STAB and a sun boost, you get a formidably powerful move capable of denting many Pokemon. Energy Ball is used over Solarbeam because I often find myself in a situation where Politoed or Hippowdown is in with low-ish health, and Solarbeam frequently screws me. I use Fire Blast mostly anyways. Protect helps scouting the opponents moves and tendencies while also granting leftovers recovery. Now, let's move onto the true powerhouse of the team- Exeggutor.

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Exeggutor (male)
Item: Choice Specs
EVs: 4def/252spatk/252spe
Modest nature
Ability: Chlorophyll

Leaf Storm
Psychic
Hidden Power (Fire)
Sleep Powder

This thing is an absolute monster. Seriously. Leaf Storm almost always OHKOes neutral targets (and weak targets obviously), with the exceptions of Blissey, Chansey, and Snorlax. Resists without good special defense are 2HKOed,and frail resistors are OHKOed even without stealth rock (which I fail to put up many times). Psychic is a 100% accurate move that destroys pokemon that aren't Dark or Steel type and aren't really, really, FAT. Hidden Power Fire gets a pseudo-STAB in the sunlight and nets a lot of KOes. Sleep Powder is very useful and puts an extremely annoying pokemon in check, even out of play.
Now, you may be wondering- this is a sun team!! Why not use SolarBeam!!!! I will tell you why. When this team was in its early developmental stages, I was constantly losing weather wars. And so, leaf storm arose as a solution. With choice specs Exeggutor reaches a staggering 286 special attack- AFTER the Special attack drop from leaf storm. Before leaf storm....
However, being more successful with weather wars, I am reconsidering SolarBeam and will test it out. Another advantage is that leaf storm packs more of a punch, but.....

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Arcanine (male)
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252atk/4def/252spe
Adamant nature


Flare Blitz
Close Combat
Wild Charge
Extremespeed/Morning Sun

The perfect guard dog. This things brings Heatran to a halt, and without Arcanine, Heatran would destroy my entire team. Flare Blitz is insanely powerful with a Sun, Flash Fire, and STAB boost, doing heavy damage even to resists like Dragonite. Wild Charge is only used on Water Types and frailer flying types so I don't take so much recoil. Close Combat's main purpose is to maul Heatran. Extremespeed and Morning Sun is an interesting choice. They each have their pros and cons, but generally I choose Extremespeed.
Arcanine is awesome- and manly. Complete, pure manliness. He takes hits like a man and dishes them out like a manly man. Very important to the team.

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Terrakion
Item: Choice Scarf
EVs: 252atk/4def/252spe
Adamant nature
Ability: Justified

Close Combat
Stone Edge
X-Scissor
Sacred Sword

Originally this was Landorus, but I found Terrakion to fit the team better. Awesome attack and powerful stab moves are nice, though it gets walled by physical walls like skarmory, it also cannot OHKO some Politoed with CC. However, Terrakion is my best answer to Dragonite, and a great 'mon in general. Sweet revenge killer when I want to preserve eggy- it's also faster. Now.... shall we move on to the thing that apparently evolved from a pinecone?

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Forretress (male)

Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252hp/44def/212spdef
Relaxed Nature
Ability: Sturdy
(0 speed IVs)

Spikes
Stealth Rock
Rapid Spin
Gyro Ball


Although mainly a spinner, it is a fantastic check to Tyranitar, with gyro ball doing heaps of damage, especially to faster and scarfed variants. Otherwise it is pretty self-explanatory. It is also my Dragon resist and make for a pretty decent wall to fall back on. Other than that it doesn't see much use....

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Venusaur (male)
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252atk/4spatk/252spe
Lonely Nature
Ability: Chlorophyll

Growth
Seed Bomb

Earthquake
Hidden Power (Fire)

Mixed 'Saur, destroys heatran and everything in general. Latias can be a problem, but seed bomb will hurt. Very powerful indeed. A great 'mon, and a valuable team member.

So, this is the team! Very successful, and I hope you like it! Feel free to comment with constructive criticism, but don't criticize without reason.! I would be most willing to replace Terrakion, maybe Forry, and possibly 'Saur as well. I hope you enjoyed this RMT!
 
Hey, nice team you have here.

The main problem with this team that you might be having is that you rely on Arcanine too much to take on Heatran, but a smarter player would pick that out before the match and make sure Arcanine is taken care of before their Heatran is sent out. Your Terrakion can also help deal with Heatran, but Gliscor can counter both Arcanine and Terrakion, so I am suggesting that you replace the Venusaur set you have listed on this team with a mixed Life Orb Sweeper Venusaur.

Venusaur
Venusaur (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Overgrow
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Lonely Nature (+Atk, -Def)
- Growth
- Seed Bomb
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Earthquake allows you to deal with those pesky Heatran and along with Seed Bomb and HP Fire, you have almost completely unresisted coverage.

Hope I helped, and good luck!
 
I don't really think Arcanine covers your Heatran weakness that well. Whereas Arcanine needs an extremely high damage roll (about max in fact) to KO Heatran with Close Combat after Stealth Rock (it is always a 2HKO without) Heatran will always OHKO Arcanine with Earth Power after Stealth Rock. Terrakion also gets 2HKOd by Earth Power. Finally you lack a real rain counter. Therefore I suggest using Latios. It can take Heatran's Fire Blasts thanks to great Sp Def and doesn't need to worry about burns. The Choice Specs set hits extremely hard (you already have a revenger with Terrakion so no need for a Scarf) but the Life Orb lets you hit stuff more generally on rain teams as well as no having to switch out as much. Its up to you, but I would choose the Choice Specs set because you have Forretrres to spin hazards and to set them up (Specs Latios forces a lot of switches).

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Latios @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Draco Meteor
-Surf
-Hidden Power [Fire]
-Trick

Draco Meteor hits extraordinarily hard (Scarf Tyranitar is OHKOed when all hazards are down), Surf is for pseudo-STAB in rain, Hidden Power [Fire] hits Scizor hard (although so do all of Latios' attacks) but it is necessary for Ferrothorn. Trick also cripples Ferrothorn as well as defensive Politoed. I would use this over Arcanine or Exeggutor because of the former's low damage output and the latter's redudency with Venusaur.
 
@IbanezObession

Yeah, I had been contemplating about making venusaur more offensive. I have always used special growth venusaur with sludge bomb/energyball/hpground, but I will certainly try the mixed set. However, do to the sun usually being up instead of other weather, I might use SolarBeam instead of seed bomb, but I'll try both. Thanks!

@Skullcandy

I agree with you somewhat (both of you actually) in the fact that I rely on Arcanine too much to take on heatran, however, once CC gets it to extremely low health, it isnt to hard to kill with terrakion or even eggy. I feel that eggy provides too much raw power to the team to replace, (I often kill 3 pokemon or more in a match) but replacing arcanine would leave me with only one powerful physical attacker. I will test it, though. (Arcanine is more powerful than you seem to think, especially with a flash fire boost!)

While heatran is one of the biggest threats to this team, I have found it easy to handle. Arcanine's CC gets it to low health, enough for it to become not much of a problem, and Terrakion's CC outright murders it. Substitute variants are especially annoying though..... Also, I would have to check the calcs- but how does heatran fare against surf, due to the sun? And rain teams are mostly water typed anyway.

Thanks to both of you!
 
I don't really think Arcanine covers your Heatran weakness that well. Whereas Arcanine needs an extremely high damage roll (about max in fact) to KO Heatran with Close Combat after Stealth Rock (it is always a 2HKO without) Heatran will always OHKO Arcanine with Earth Power after Stealth Rock. Terrakion also gets 2HKOd by Earth Power. Finally you lack a real rain counter. Therefore I suggest using Latios. It can take Heatran's Fire Blasts thanks to great Sp Def and doesn't need to worry about burns. The Choice Specs set hits extremely hard (you already have a revenger with Terrakion so no need for a Scarf) but the Life Orb lets you hit stuff more generally on rain teams as well as no having to switch out as much. Its up to you, but I would choose the Choice Specs set because you have Forretrres to spin hazards and to set them up (Specs Latios forces a lot of switches).

381.png

Latios @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Draco Meteor
-Surf
-Hidden Power [Fire]
-Trick

Draco Meteor hits extraordinarily hard (Scarf Tyranitar is OHKOed when all hazards are down), Surf is for pseudo-STAB in rain, Hidden Power [Fire] hits Scizor hard (although so do all of Latios' attacks) but it is necessary for Ferrothorn. Trick also cripples Ferrothorn as well as defensive Politoed. I would use this over Arcanine or Exeggutor because of the former's low damage output and the latter's redudency with Venusaur.

This a terrible suggestion, Latios' Surf is a 4HKO in the sun with Leftovers+Protect... In the sun, Heatran is the counter to Latios.

I strongly suggest that you change your Venausaur's set to Obsession's Mixed set, as it is a great lure for Heatran even though it can sweep on its own. Keep it physically oriented to stick with the OHKO on Heatran. To stick with the special attacking nature of Eggutor, you have two choices. Go with Life Orb Exegutor or Hydreigon.

Exegutor will be much more threatening with his Sleep Powder when he is not choiced. It basically gives him a free turn to smack the switch or nulify his counter, especially Heatran. If you sense a Heatran switchin, go for the Sleep Powder, therefore a teammate can come in safely to KO him. You have a god chance to hit the sleep powder twice on the switchin (6% chance for a miss). It's up to you, but you can use Hidden Power Ice to hit Dragons (Venausaur has Fire covered), as your teams only effective attack against Dragon's (well the most popular) is Terrakion's Stone Edge.

Hydreigon is an awesome force on a Sun team as it can hit Heatran with an Earth Power while essentially getting Stab from Flamethrower. It's is up to whether or not to use Substitute Hydreigon or Life Orb'ed, however I would suggest for both sets to choose Earth Power>Focus Blast (if necessary) to hit Heatran harder and more reliably (Terrakion should switch in to most Ttar very easily). Whichever set you use, be assured that Hydreigon will be awesomely powerful on your team.
 
Okay, I will definitely try Life Orb Exeggutor, and mixed Venusaur (however I will keep leftovers on Venusaur. life Orb i've tried and I die too quickly. I might consider it if I don't do enough damage). I never ended up putting Latios on, because it seemed like it wasnt a great dragon sun abuser. If i want a dragon i could use Dnite, Mence, or Hydreigon. I will think about Hydreigon, however, I am probably going to stick with Eggy.
 
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