Damashiroku no Kyukon

[mukery]

Damashiroku no Kyukon means something along the lines of "Apocalypse of Ninetales" in japanese, in case you were wondering.

Introduction.

Alright, so starting off, I'm making this thread not to show off my team to let people see how awesome a teambuilder I am, but because I would seriously appreciate some feedback on it. Now, to get to business. This all started when I faced this really pro guy using a sun team on Pokemon Online. Already from the start i had my face stomped into the dust, and I happened to type "sun is overpowered". This pro dude happened to bring along a friend of his, who I had a little discussion with, and I ended up losing the game in a pretty bad mood :/ Then I stumbled upon him again, and asked him if we could'nt draw it. He was like, "nope, I'll probably win this, so no way". It ended up being a pretty close match, and I only lost because of a crit. I was so mad, that I thought "you know what? If you can't beat em' you gotta' join em', and fight fire with fire" And so I proceeded to built my own sun cavalery. Let's jump into it!

Team Building Process.

Okay, so as you probably guessed already, this is a sun team, and therefore Ninetales is definitely a must-have. Blissey however, is quite a rare sight on the standard sunny beaches. Blissey is an amazing special wall, and can pass the biggest wishes in the game, and her main purpose on this team is to take care of Politoeds, one of the biggest threats to sun teams. She also makes a great partner for Ninetales, taking the special hits from the specially attacking pokemon that Ninetales can't burn with Will-O.

A spinner is incredibly helpful on any sun team due to the high amount of Fire types, and I thought about it for some time. Starmie will be no good, as sun reduces the power of it's STAB. Excadrill's an option, but he's just going to add more fighting weakness to my team, and I did'nt want that. Forretress was the way to go, as he has great synergy with Blissey, forming a kind of Skarm-Bliss-thing core. He can also set up a ton of different hazards, very beneficial indeed.

Now that the core is in place, it's time to put in some sun abusers, and make it look a little less defensive. Venusaur is one of the main reasons that I think Drought is overpowered. He is basically the Excadrill of sun teams, thanks to his DW ability, Chlorophyll (I'm proud to spell that right). To me he's actually superior to Exca, even though he has lower speed and attacking stats, but we'll get into that later. He was so powerful that I just had to add him.

Arcanine is my second pokemon that takes advantage of the bright sunbeams. A sun boosted Flare Blitz is almost as powerful as Victini's V-Create, he has Extremespeed as priority, and great coverage moves like Wild Charge and Close Combat. He also happens to have brilliant attacking stats and speed. None of that was the selling point for the fiery puppy in this case though, it was his ability Flash Fire. My team was starting to gain a big Fire weakness, especially because of the sunshine. Arcanine was my man, or dog rather, and was added.

I noticed that my team had quiet a weakness to powerful Fighting types, like Terrakion, Breloom, Conkeldurr, and Tyranitar, so I decided to put Gliscor in the final spot, where he fits perfectly. He completes a fine attacking balance with 3 physical and 3 special attackers, and he can also act as a substitute for Forry, should he be brought down due to his lack of Recovery. Furthermore, he also takes advantage of the sun, wich removes his Water weakness.

In Depth.

Ninetales (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 92 SAtk / 164 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
All right, we'll start the party with Ninetales. She is my intentional lead pokemon, as she'll provide the sun that is center of this team. I chose the defensive Substitute variant, as I'm gonna' want it be live as long as possible when facing different weather. However I did change the 92 SpDef EVs into SpAtk since I already have a special wall in Bliss, and I want to make sure that I can 3hit Heatran with HP Fighting. Leftovers for longevity and semi-reliable healing. Flamethrower is for powerful and reliable STAB, and HP Fighting is for Heatran purposes only. Will-O-Wisp is to burn any physical attacker that I might be facing, especially Tyranitar leads, while Substitute eases prediction, and blocks status. Besided providing eternal sun, Ninetales is'nt really of much use. It can do damage and spread status, but not very effectively compared to other OU pokemon. For example, whenever I face a team with no weather inducers, I tend to just lead off with Ninetales, get up my sun, switch out (in case the matchup is unfavorable), and then just use it as fodder later on. Nevertheless, Ninetales is probably the most important pokemon in the pack.

Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Softboiled
- Flamethrower
- Toxic
Blissey is in a small group of pokemon that are fat Normal types with great defenses, the others being Chansey, Snorlax, Lickilicky etc. Among those, Blissey is most definitely the fattest and bulkiest of 'em all. Now, Leftovers is obvious, since it's one of the only things that makes her superior to her little sister, Chansey. Natural Cure is amazing, as it makes her an awesome status sponge. Max HP and Def allows her to take physical hits just a tad better than Ninetales. The best thing about Blissey is her amazing wishes. Especially Ninetales and Forretress appreciates these, as they are both defensively oriented, but has no recovery moves. Two healing moves on one pokemon may seem strange, but wish is for healing teammates, while Sofboiled is for Blissey herself. Another reason that I'm using Blissey over Chansey is her much higher SpAtk stat, wich I utilize by using Flamethrower over Seismic Toss. Flamethrower allows me to beat all Gengars but the SubDisable set, and it also gets boosted by the sun. I used to run Seismic Toss+Flammethrower on this set to beat Heatran, but the rest of this team does that just fine, and Toxic allows me to beat opposing walls. Blissey is extremely important, since it stops so many special attacking threats it's incredible. People calls her a bitch, I call her amazing.

Forretress (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
Forretress, my little spinning... Worm... Thing. Anyway, Leftovers provides me with a bit of recovery every turn, and Sturdy lets me survive any OHKO from full health, giving me a chance to either set up hazards, or spin them away. This is amazingly useful, since even at 24 hp, Forretress can still receive a wish from Bliss as long as there's no hazards (trust me on that one, I've actually been able to pull of a stunt like that a couple of times before, and have people ragequit afterwards xD). The EVs are spread all around the defensive stats, focusing mainly on the Def. To start with, when I added Blissey to the team, I wanted to make her my Stealth Rocker. However, four moveslot syndrome hit her, and they had to be sat up by something else. Forretress now has that duty. I use Spikes over Tspikes cause my team is more offensively than defensively oriented, but I often get into a stall war with my Blissey, Forry and Gliscor, so Tspikes can work too. Rapid Spin is the most important move on Forretress, and is why I use him over Skarmory. Finally, Earthquake can do damage to Rock, Electric, and in rare cases Fire types.

Venusaur (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Sleep Powder
- Growth
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Energy Ball
Venusaur is my main sweeper, and can also work as a revenge killer. Life Orb provides extra power, and Chlorophyll is really the only reason that Venusaur is on this team, doubling his speed. The EVs are'nt mixed, but focused on SpAtk, and so is the nature, modest. Remember what I mentioned earlier, that Venusaur was a superior sweeper to Excadrill? Well, unlike Excadrill, Venusaur can run a mixed set, thanks to Growth, wich boosts both of it's attacking stats by two stages, something that Excadrill can't. Another thing is Sleep Powder. Sleep Powder allows Venusaur to put any "counter" that might switch in to sleep, and just set up upon it, something that Excadrill can't do either. Energy Ball is for Reliable STAB, while HP Fire is for Steel and Grass types. The reason I'm runnnig Energy Ball over Giga Drain is because Energy Ball has a chance to lower the opponents SpDef, something that can be lifesaving in a pinch.

Arcanine (M) @ Choice Band Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Wild Charge
- ExtremeSpeed
This canine is the biggest powerhouse of this team. Choice Banded STAB+sun+Flash Fire boosted Flare Blitz is so amazingly powerful, and the only bad thing is that Arcanine wont last long once he has come in, especially if rocks are on the field. Nevertheless, He's an awesome sweeper. As earlier stated, Flash Fire is the preferred ability due to the Fire absorbing skills. The EVs are pumped into Atk and Spe resulting in maximum sweeping potential, and Jolly nature to at least tie with Gliscor, and outspeed base 90s such as Lucario. Flare Blitz is Arcanines spamming move (Those of you who've listened to the latest Smogcast will know exactly what that means) and does incredible amounts of damage. Close Combat and Wild Charge are for coverage, while Choice Banded Extremespeed is great for picking off enemies at low health.

Gliscor (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Ice Fang
- Taunt
And finally, Gliscor. Gliscor is a bit of an outsider, but he plays a big role on the team, being able to tank tons of physical attackers, especially Tyranitar, wich is a pain in the ass for every sun team. He is actually a better physical tank than Forretress, because of his Ground immunity and Fighting resistance. With a Toxic Orb, Gliscor gets twice the recovery from leftovers and status immunity, making him a status sponge just like Blissey. The EVs provides Glizcor with a ton of bulk, and a bit of speed. Eathquake is a great STAB move, and together with Ice Fang it makes Gliscor's coverage almost unresisted. Ice fang is chosen over Stone Edge and Facade, because I want to be able to OHKO Dragonite after Stealth Rock at +2. Taunt allows me to stop slower pokemon from doing anything but attacking, while Swords Dance allows me to set up upon them afterwards. Pokemon Like Bliss/Chansey and Ferrothorn are amazing setup fodder.

That's about it people, please comment with suggestions to improvements of any sort, and thank you very much for reading!

 

[shadowxevo]

Wow! This is a really nice team... :P
But one small nitpick. Since I really doubt Forretress is going to be doing any damage even with a Super - Effective Earthquake, why not use Volt Switch? Say, if your opponent has a Jellicent. If Forretress is in, it's pretty obvious they are going to switch to it. So, on the switch, Jelly will take a Volt Switch to the face, and then run in horror as a Venasaur comes out, and gets a Growth up. But, just a suggestion.
Good luck!

 

[mukery]

Thanks! :D

You're probably right about that one, I always used EQ on Forry in gen 4, but times has changed. When I made the team I think I glanced at Volt Switch, but did'nt really take it into consideration. I'll try it out!

 

[Aberrant17]

Pretty solid team. My main concern is Forretress's severe Fire-type weakness (a common problem for most Steel-types bar Heatran). However, since it provides not only you hazard and spin support but also your only Dragon-type resistance, it seems to fit on the team just fine.

Also, you might want to drop Softboiled for Protect on Blissey. It has excellent synergy with both Wish and Toxic.

 

[shadowxevo]

Um, Forretress would by KO'd by several Fire attacks anyways, so it doesn't really matter that you stimulate it further. However, I second you on using Protect > Softboiled. To add on to what Aberrant was saying, you also get free Leftovers recovery, giving you even more reason to use it over Chansey.

 

[mukery]

Yes, Protect is indeed a sweet move for Blissey. However, Protect is easy to predict after a Wish, and my opponent may take that chance to switch, substitute, boost up, all that. I've been using Blissey before, and having to use two turns to recover is not too appealing. I see your point, but I've had that into consideration under the team building, and Softboiled is in my opinion better, especially if Blissey has gotten statused. Anyway, I might try it out if I change my mind, thanks for the rate :)

 

[shadowxevo]

Also, what is your check to rain? You don't seem to have one.

 

[Delko]

Hi

This is a very good Sun team and I can't see many flaws to it.
I do however, have some smaller suggestions, which might help you with your team.

First off all, I agree with the user above me, as Volt Switch will be an extremely good move on Forretress, especially with entry hazard support you can keep putting pressure on your opponent. And since it's pretty slow it can bring your main sweepers in unharmed. Volt Switch also lets you escape from Magnet Pull users like Magnezone. There is also no need to run Relaxed nature on Forretress, you don't run mixed attacking sets nor Gyro Ball, if you go with Volt Switch, you should use Bold instead.

Have you ever considered replacing Arcanine with Darmanitan. Darmanitan is much stronger and although you won't have the useful Extremespeed anymore, you will have another useful move in the form of U-turn. To make up for more loss of speed you could run a Choice Scarf set on Darmanitan so it can get some fast Sheer Force + sun boosted Flare Blitz in.
A moveset of Flare Blitz / U-turn / Rock Slide / Earthquake will suffice. With Wish you can recover of the recoil damage anyway.

Opposing Heatran can be a bit difficult for you to handle, especially when it is behind a Sub. You could use Seismic Toss over Flamethrower on Blissey to help with this though.
Also use Protect over Softboiled, it helps you scouting and it works good with Toxic.

On Gliscor I suggest you run 4 more EV's in speed to outspeed opposing Gliscor, who can actually be pretty annoying for your team. This way you can outspeed and KO them before the KO you.
You can take those EV's from Defense as it won't matter much.

I also suggest Sludge Bomb on Venusaur. Opposing DD Dragons can prove a bit difficult for you and with Sludge Bomb you can hit them for at least neutral damage. You can put it over Sleep Powder as you already have Ninetales who is inflicting burn with Will-o-wisp and Blissey who is poisoning with Toxic.

Hope these suggestions helped and good luck with the team!

PS: Giga Drain and Chlorophyl is an illegal combination on Venusaur, that's why you can't use it.

 

[IronBullet]

Hey,

As Delko said, this is a very solid sun team. Definitely go with Volt Switch on Forry, and i really like the idea of replacing Arcanime with a Scarf Darmanitan. The power loss isn't huge with Darmanitans higher base attack, and the big difference in speed is very welcome and makes Darmanitan an excellent revenge killer. Not to mention it gets U-turn, great for weakening its counters and setting up a late-game sweep. I would go with Superpower over Earthquake for the hit on potential Balloon holders such as Heatran and Terrakion and to OHKO TTar outright.

Seeing as Venusaur is your only Water resist, Leftovers wouldn't be a bad idea to try over Life Orb. It greatly increases its survivability and the power loss isn't too noticeable, particularly after the Growth boost. It also makes it easier for Venusaur to continuously switch into resisted hits from the likes of Politoed and Starmie.

I support all of Delkos suggestions, but you can fiddle around with Blissey's moveset as you like. Personally I don't like Softboiled and Wish on the same set, I would go for either Wish | Protect | Flamethrower | Toxic or Softboiled | Toxic | Seismic Toss | Flamethrower. Good luck!

 

[mukery]

Thanks a ton for all the rates guys, I really appreciate them :D

I'll definitely make Forry Bold and put Volt Switch on him, no doubt. I'll try the Darmanitan thingy out too. As for Heatran, I wont be using Seismic over Flamethrower, since Flamethrower is simply more beneficial than Seismic, as it helps me nail things like Skarmory, Forretress and most importantly Ferrothorn, things that constantly switch into Blissey with no fear. I'll try the Wish-Protect thing out though. I'll move the four EVs on Gliscor, that sounds reasonable. About the changes on Venusaur: I wont be using Sludge Bomb, Sleep Powder is just too useful. The pokemon that gets switched in on my Venusaur are usually dragons like Dragonite, Salamence and the Latis, and at that point they are very unlikely to have been burned or poisoned. And about the Water resistance: The sun is a Water resistance in itself, and as long as it's up, Water wont be a problem. And lastly, about the rain. I do'nt "counter" rain, I play around it. Blissey is my MVP when facing rain, as she take son all the special attackers that tend to be on rain teams. Venusaur is also a force that rain teams will have to get through. Leftovers on Venusaur sounds like a good idea since it'll increase it's longevity against rain teams.

 

[Spork]

I'd probably use Intimidate on Arcanine so you can deal with MixApe better.

 

[Guitar]

I don't think fortress is very good in a sun team, you're practically giving your opponent a chance to K.O it with fire, why don't you try a bulky water type? like a Starmie or Tentacruel, that works as a Rapid spinner, and give Blissey SR, since flametrower even in the sun wont do much.. because of Blissey's shit S.At

 

[Dragone]

Fortress is KOed by fire type moves even when there is no weather, I say keep Fortress, and if there is a fire type coming, throw in Arcanine.

 

[mukery]

I'd probably use Intimidate on Arcanine so you can deal with MixApe better.

Flash Fire is of extreme importance, without it, my team will be very very weak to fire. I've seen MixApe causing trouble for me, but I can usually play around it quiet easily, and as it uses a fire move, switch to Arcanine and Extremespeed.