So this is a pretty solid team I've been using for a while now, though I'm no expert when it comes to team building and battling. Nonetheless, I thought I'd share it for advice and possibly to inspire others.
The team focuses around the use of two weather conditions; sunlight and sandstorm. In my experience, it gives good tactical advantages, especially early game, and utilises the weather as much as possible.
Double Weather: Earth, [N/A], and Fire
Ninetales @ Choice Scarf / Band
Drought
Adamant / Jolly
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
- Flare Blitz
- Return
- Iron Tail
- Zen Headbutt
This is always one of my leads, it comes in and sets up the sunlight and from there it's Flare Blitz becomes quite an almighty attack. To be truthful, I almost exclusively use Flare Blitz when playing Ninetales; the rest of the moves are pretty much filler. With the STAB, sun bonus, max Attack, Choice Band, and Flower Gift boost, there's not much that can take a Ninetales Flare Blitz; even resisted.
The nature and item combination really comes down to user discretion. I've tried both Adamant/Choice Scarf and Jolly/Choice Band and they both work as expected; Scarf set outspeeds more, Band set hits harder. It's pretty equal footing but generally I go for Jolly with Choice Band because of the Stoutland set coming up.
Tyranitar @ Tyanitarite
Unnerve
Adamant
252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SpD
- Crunch
- Earthquake / Brick Break
- Rock Slide
- Ice Punch
Tyranitar is partner to Ninetales as my lead for reasons I'll explain when I give a rundown of my battle strategy. Unnerve stops Sand Stream interfering with Drought but the Tyranitarite means I can swiftly switch to a sandstorm if need be.
A pretty standard Tyranitar set I believe. Earthquake hits hard and is viable in this team due to the presence of Cherrim (with protect), Heatran (with Air Balloon), and Tangrowth. Ice Punch for Landorus and dragons.
Cherrim @ Leftovers
Flower Gift
Bold
244 HP / 252 Def / 12 Spe
- Solar Beam
- Weather Ball
- Morning Sun
- Protect
Pretty much the star of the show, this little buddy has saved my ass in more battles than I care to count. Flower Gift is an extremely important ability on this team; offering 1.5x Attack and Special Defence to both itself and it's ally, it can really throw people's predictions off.
244 HP allows for maximum Leftovers recovery, 252 Defence evens out the defences after Flower Gift, 12 Speed outruns non-invested Rotom-W. Solar Beam does base 180 after STAB and Weather Ball 150 in sunlight, so it hits pretty hard. Morning Sun may be unnecessary as my doubles matches tend to go to quick to warrant the use of it but keeping Cherrim alive is vital for the rest of the team.
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Flash Fire
Modest
228 HP / 252 SpA / 28 Spe
- Lava Plume / Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Dark Pulse
- Ancient Power
Not much to say about Heatran. It's typing works perfectly in both sun and sandstorms, Flash Fire allows easy switch-ins to replace Cherrim or Tangrowth, and it has another STAB Fire move which gets a boost from the sun.
Honestly, I made this team so long ago that I can't remember what the EVs allow it to outspeed, but you should definitely use these EVs because I was probably onto something at the time...
Stoutland @ Choice Band
Sand Rush
Jolly
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
- Return
- Superpower
- Play Rough
- Wild Charge
To arrive on the scene once Tyranitar has whipped up a sandstorm. Sand Rush offers 2x Speed which is beautiful, and Choice Band means he'll be hitting hard. Moveset gives pretty efficient type coverage. Again, pretty standard, not much to say.
Tangrowth @ Sitrus Berry
Chlorophyll
Naive
68 HP / 252 SpA / 188 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Ancient Power
- Growth
Doubled Speed and both attack stats doubled in one turn is quite pleasant. Once set up a little, it's time to just Giga Drain away; and Knock Off when it's better suited. Ancient Power hits Talonflame and Charizard (Talonflame's Fire attacks will wreck you in the sun but you'll outspeed so they'll be forced to Brave Bird; which Tangrowth can survive from my experience).
Again, very crappy of me but I cant quite remember what the EVs are about, I'm sure they were genius and outsped something critical but I dunno; maybe I was high. I'll check it out and update once I've got a better picture.
Battle Strategy
So the general strategy for this team is pretty basic and consistent. Lead with Ninetales and Tyranitar and assess their leads. Determine whether you're going to benefit more from sun or sand at the point in time and react accordingly. If the opponent leads with a threat you want dealt with ASAP, then switch out Tyranitar for Cherrim and Flare Blitz the crap out of it using Ninetales; if it's not an OHKO, it's likely to do serious damage.
Another option would be to switch out Ninetales for Cherrim but don't evolve Tyranitar so that it benefits from Cherrim's Flower Gift; giving the same boost to Special Defence which a sandstorm would give, as well as an added 50% boost to Attack. Cherrim is all still somewhat viable in a sandstorm as it has a base 100 Rock move in Weather Ball (I once won a match by the skin of my teeth when it came down to a 1 on 1 of Cherrim versus Mega Abomasnow. I won /brag).
Of course, another option is to simply evolve Tyranitar and bring in either Heatran or Stoutland if your sunny side doesn't seem up to the challenge.
I think one of the biggest advantages of this team is the amount of options available and the synergy (buzzword (remember to drag the readers in)) that all the members of the team have in different combinations.
Any advice offered will be taken into account if anyone can suggest tweaks to make this better, specifically in the EV department; I suck at optimising EVs. But I've been using this team for a while now and it definitely feels pretty solid, just thought I'd put it out there to share and collate our knowledge together like one big hivemind. :)
The team focuses around the use of two weather conditions; sunlight and sandstorm. In my experience, it gives good tactical advantages, especially early game, and utilises the weather as much as possible.
Double Weather: Earth, [N/A], and Fire
Ninetales @ Choice Scarf / Band
Drought
Adamant / Jolly
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
- Flare Blitz
- Return
- Iron Tail
- Zen Headbutt
This is always one of my leads, it comes in and sets up the sunlight and from there it's Flare Blitz becomes quite an almighty attack. To be truthful, I almost exclusively use Flare Blitz when playing Ninetales; the rest of the moves are pretty much filler. With the STAB, sun bonus, max Attack, Choice Band, and Flower Gift boost, there's not much that can take a Ninetales Flare Blitz; even resisted.
The nature and item combination really comes down to user discretion. I've tried both Adamant/Choice Scarf and Jolly/Choice Band and they both work as expected; Scarf set outspeeds more, Band set hits harder. It's pretty equal footing but generally I go for Jolly with Choice Band because of the Stoutland set coming up.
Tyranitar @ Tyanitarite
Unnerve
Adamant
252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SpD
- Crunch
- Earthquake / Brick Break
- Rock Slide
- Ice Punch
Tyranitar is partner to Ninetales as my lead for reasons I'll explain when I give a rundown of my battle strategy. Unnerve stops Sand Stream interfering with Drought but the Tyranitarite means I can swiftly switch to a sandstorm if need be.
A pretty standard Tyranitar set I believe. Earthquake hits hard and is viable in this team due to the presence of Cherrim (with protect), Heatran (with Air Balloon), and Tangrowth. Ice Punch for Landorus and dragons.
Cherrim @ Leftovers
Flower Gift
Bold
244 HP / 252 Def / 12 Spe
- Solar Beam
- Weather Ball
- Morning Sun
- Protect
Pretty much the star of the show, this little buddy has saved my ass in more battles than I care to count. Flower Gift is an extremely important ability on this team; offering 1.5x Attack and Special Defence to both itself and it's ally, it can really throw people's predictions off.
244 HP allows for maximum Leftovers recovery, 252 Defence evens out the defences after Flower Gift, 12 Speed outruns non-invested Rotom-W. Solar Beam does base 180 after STAB and Weather Ball 150 in sunlight, so it hits pretty hard. Morning Sun may be unnecessary as my doubles matches tend to go to quick to warrant the use of it but keeping Cherrim alive is vital for the rest of the team.
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Flash Fire
Modest
228 HP / 252 SpA / 28 Spe
- Lava Plume / Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Dark Pulse
- Ancient Power
Not much to say about Heatran. It's typing works perfectly in both sun and sandstorms, Flash Fire allows easy switch-ins to replace Cherrim or Tangrowth, and it has another STAB Fire move which gets a boost from the sun.
Honestly, I made this team so long ago that I can't remember what the EVs allow it to outspeed, but you should definitely use these EVs because I was probably onto something at the time...
Stoutland @ Choice Band
Sand Rush
Jolly
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
- Return
- Superpower
- Play Rough
- Wild Charge
To arrive on the scene once Tyranitar has whipped up a sandstorm. Sand Rush offers 2x Speed which is beautiful, and Choice Band means he'll be hitting hard. Moveset gives pretty efficient type coverage. Again, pretty standard, not much to say.
Tangrowth @ Sitrus Berry
Chlorophyll
Naive
68 HP / 252 SpA / 188 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Ancient Power
- Growth
Doubled Speed and both attack stats doubled in one turn is quite pleasant. Once set up a little, it's time to just Giga Drain away; and Knock Off when it's better suited. Ancient Power hits Talonflame and Charizard (Talonflame's Fire attacks will wreck you in the sun but you'll outspeed so they'll be forced to Brave Bird; which Tangrowth can survive from my experience).
Again, very crappy of me but I cant quite remember what the EVs are about, I'm sure they were genius and outsped something critical but I dunno; maybe I was high. I'll check it out and update once I've got a better picture.
Battle Strategy
So the general strategy for this team is pretty basic and consistent. Lead with Ninetales and Tyranitar and assess their leads. Determine whether you're going to benefit more from sun or sand at the point in time and react accordingly. If the opponent leads with a threat you want dealt with ASAP, then switch out Tyranitar for Cherrim and Flare Blitz the crap out of it using Ninetales; if it's not an OHKO, it's likely to do serious damage.
Another option would be to switch out Ninetales for Cherrim but don't evolve Tyranitar so that it benefits from Cherrim's Flower Gift; giving the same boost to Special Defence which a sandstorm would give, as well as an added 50% boost to Attack. Cherrim is all still somewhat viable in a sandstorm as it has a base 100 Rock move in Weather Ball (I once won a match by the skin of my teeth when it came down to a 1 on 1 of Cherrim versus Mega Abomasnow. I won /brag).
Of course, another option is to simply evolve Tyranitar and bring in either Heatran or Stoutland if your sunny side doesn't seem up to the challenge.
I think one of the biggest advantages of this team is the amount of options available and the synergy (buzzword (remember to drag the readers in)) that all the members of the team have in different combinations.
Any advice offered will be taken into account if anyone can suggest tweaks to make this better, specifically in the EV department; I suck at optimising EVs. But I've been using this team for a while now and it definitely feels pretty solid, just thought I'd put it out there to share and collate our knowledge together like one big hivemind. :)
