Featured Playstyle #3: Sun (since y'all like it enough to discuss in np thread!)

skylight

a sky full of lighters ☆
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Introduction
In NU there are a variety of different playstyles you can use, however are all playstyles actually effective in this metagame? This project aims to explore the different playstyles you can use in NU, and discover how to make them most effective. Much like Research Group, you'll be discovering whether this playstyle is really cut out for the tier and what you actually need to succeed at it.

What do we discuss here?
The kind of stuff you can discuss here includes:
  • why this playstyle in particular is or isn't effective in this metagame
  • what Pokemon are most successful at this playstyle (is there a pokemon you haven't considered before such as braviary for example viable in stall? why? how?)
  • teams you've been using that fit into this playstyle category
  • speak about your ladder or general experiences with this playstyle
  • if this playstyle was simply better in a past metagame
  • or post about mons you intend to try out with this playstyle
  • be creative!
What is Sun? (2 September - 9 September)
[15:17:23] ☆ <@Felix> with the great sun sweepers we have in NU
[15:17:28] ☆ <@Felix> the playstyle has a bright future

But really, sun is where you set up Sunny Day and base a team around abusing it through chlorophyll users and such. You can also use Heat Rock to expand the turns sun is up for!

Hall of Fame?
There will be one on NU's hub in the future along with Research Group, same applies as there:
  • Users will attempt to reach as high as possible on the ladder with the Pokemon. Breaking past the 2000 mark on the ladder with your registered alt will earn you a spot on the Hall of Fame: Gold Class. Crossing the 1850 mark will secure you a Silver Class spot while a 1700 rating will earn you a Bronze Class spot. Post a screen-shot of your peak in order to achieve this, and a pastebin of your team. Note: this is for Glicko2. You must also have a deviation of 85.
  • Users will be expected to post their experiences with the Pokemon they use, the teams they used, the problems they encountered while trying to make the said Pokemon work.
  • If a user does not participate in the discussion, he will be passed over.
  • In order to participate in the challenge, simply post here with a brand new alt. Post battle logs, experiences with your team on the ladder, and generally how a Pokemon has worked out for you: past or present.
Also feel free to use anything from Research Group for this particular week if it fits into this playstyle! You can discuss the individual Pokemon's performance there, but here you discuss the team as a whole, and the playstyle, too. Have fun!
 
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Celever

i am town
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Hmmm... I haven't played sun since Stage 8 but it was very fun back then, (well and the NU minitour... training other people version of my team >_<) and it seems like some great toys have come down since then; mainly Mandibuzz. It is always a great way to shut down Jynx just by putting it on a timer every time it switches in. Other than that, you should be playing this mostly similarly to how you have in stages gone by, except that you will also need a counter to those strong Megahorns off of Scolipede...

I will build and play a bit and then edit in my team ~~ later.
 

skylight

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i actually think sun is really good right now. having scarf charizard as one of its abusers is awesome because due to its speed its guaranteed to kill anything that aims for the base 95 speed (even with scarf). even cooler is that in sun and solar power it can 2hko things like seismitoad and alomomola, meaning nothing can really safely switch into it. with screen support to live priority or tailwind and roost it becomes even better. i think zard is p much one of the best reasons to use sun right now. i had a really cool sun team last stage which was pretty... unique because it used unorthidox sets but it worked really well. i might actually try out in this week using something like as i mentioned like screens or tailwind to support zard fully. add in eggy and it's a winning combination honestly.
 
one thing i like about sun teams over rain teams is they are naturally not weak to toxic spikes, so you can't just set up a layer of toxic spikes turn 1 and expect to have an easy time. victreebel is not only an awesome sun abuser, it also soaks up toxic spikes. toxic spikes are enough of a pain to rain teams to the point where i'd use scolipede on them. scolipede isn't just for toxic spikes absorbing, as spikes support and beating grass-types is always nice for rain teams, but it would be nicer if one of the good abusers happened to absorbed toxic spikes!

what support pokemon do you guys usually use on sun teams? i like regirock, and prankster volbeat is also pretty cool too. solrock actually seems pretty decent -- it can use stealth rock / sunny day / rock slide / baton pass (or explosion). while its stats are pretty awful, it's a rock-type that has levitate and baton pass. might not be worth using over regirock even with baton pass and explosion, though. if only musharna got sun support -- sunny day / psychic / moonlight / baton pass mushy on a sun team would be way too good to pass up. amazing bulk, moonlight, and baton pass are great traits for a sun support pokemon.
 

watashi

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World Defender
what support pokemon do you guys usually use on sun teams? i like regirock, and prankster volbeat is also pretty cool too. solrock actually seems pretty decent -- it can use stealth rock / sunny day / rock slide / baton pass (or explosion). while its stats are pretty awful, it's a rock-type that has levitate and baton pass. might not be worth using over regirock even with baton pass and explosion, though. if only musharna got sun support -- sunny day / psychic / moonlight / baton pass mushy on a sun team would be way too good to pass up. amazing bulk, moonlight, and baton pass are great traits for a sun support pokemon.
probopass is cool on sun teams since it has sunny day and slow volt switch and sr. jumpluff is cool too since it has a fast sleep powder and u turn or memento to help a sweeper set up growth. another option is heat rock charizard which can set up sun and immediately proceed to do damage to the opponent's team. it misses out on blowing up everything with specs but it still hits really hard even without it.

with that being said i don't really like using sun because of how limited your playstyle is every match. if you can't guarantee sun to be up most of the time then you've pretty much lost and even then you could be beaten if the opponent's team is well prepared. most sun teams are easily predictable and they basically say "hey this is what i'm going to do so you better stop me quickly or i'm going to sweep you!!"
 

FireMage

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How could you build an unconventional sun team? most sun teams I have seen are; Rock type (Sun+SR) / Prankstermon / Grass Type / Charizard / Grass Type 2/ Fire Type

(Grass types usually include Eggy, Victreebel and Sawsbuck)
Is there any way to improve on this particular recipe that people seem to be using consistently? Are there any other unusual pokémon in which the sun can benefit?
 
I love using Drifblim as a supporter on sun teams, it has a surprise sun boosted weather ball which donks steels alongside flying gem acrobatics, and of course that ridiculous ghost support movepool such as Dbond, WoW, disable etc.
 

Pocket

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FireMage, I'm pretty sure you can bluff a normal team by simply using a non-dedicated sun team. A two-man sun core of Heat Rock Regirock / Liepard + Solar Power Charizard or Chlorophyll Sawsbuck would not give away your sun tactic, for example.
 

ebeast

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I haven't used sun that extensively, but from using Annoyer's team and using my own shit back like when Zard first dropped, the main Sunny Day setters that I like to use are: Custap Golem and Probopass. I normally really dislike using Custap over Leftovers bulky Golem but since Sun teams are very offensive, being able to get off Stealth Rock and get up a Sunny Day as you die is awesome so you can immediately start KOing stuff. Probopass works pretty well with a Heat Rock and its slow Volt Switch to get your Victreebel, Charizard, or w/e out safely.

You have a bunch of abusers like Sawsbuck, Charizard, Exeggutor, Victreebel, and Shiftry, but that the main 2 that stick out are Victreebel and Charizard. Victreebel has manly Speed in the Sun and outspeeds even Scarf Charizard which is awesome. It's also pretty damn strong and a moveset of Sleep Powder / Giga Drain / Sludge Bomb / Weather Ball destroys everything. I didn't feel like I ever really needed to use Growth as Victreebel's moves are all already dangerous with Modest, Life Orb, and Sleep Powder allowing to to get over some checks. That and setting it up can be somewhat difficult and doesn't seem that beneficial to me; give up Sleep and Growth will be really hard to set up; give up Weather Ball and now you're walled by Metang, Roselia (Synthesis master race too n_n), Regice and stuff like that. Charizard is strong because of Solar Power; it can just tear things apart with Fire Blast from there. The main sets to use with that would be: Heat Rock with Fire Blast / SolarBeam / Roost / Sunny Day or Scarf with Fire Blast / Flamethrower / Air Slash / SolarBeam. Both are good with Heat Rock Zard being strong while being able to keep itself alive with Roost and set up long weather, while Scarf on the other hand cleans up very well in Sun after everything has weakened opposing Pokemon.

Everything else is good in their own way, like Sawsbuck, Shiftry, and Eggy being able to Nature Power Skuntank so it can't Sucker Punch your other mons, while still being good attackers in their own right. FLCL is right though that Sun, as well as dedicated weather in general, is very match up reliant and will not work consistently. For example, Kangaskhan gives so much trouble to Sun teams due to them having frail attackers that take tons from Fake Out and Sucker Punch, forcing you to play your Golem or w/e very well or attempting to put it to sleep with Sleep Powder in the Sun. (because outside of it, Kangaskhan outspeeds everything minus Sawsbuck and Charizard and can Double-Edge everything. Sawsbuck is somewhat frail and Zard is weak to SR, meaning Kanga doesn't worry about these that much due to Fake Out.) If you don't have your Sun up, you basically have a team of frail attackers that stack all sorts of weaknesses together, which is terrible and can easily put you in danger if you can't keep up the Sun.

Things I've used on Sun outside of the typical Sun Pokemon, was Scarf Haunter. (This is all from Annoyer's team btw if you didn't catch that earlier) It gives me an answer to Sawk Close Combat if it tries to Mold Breaker my Sturdy. The set I use is Shadow Ball / Sludge Bomb / Trick / Destiny Bond, with Trick + Dbond, being great for crippling some bulkier Pokemon that can be annoying. DBond also nails Kangaskhan so I can be at ease with the rest of my mine.

IDK how I wrote so much, but w/e. Back to my 5 hours of homework!! 9.9
 

Pocket

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Yea, I also pack 2 Fire STABs on Scarf Charizard, just because with Solar Power + Sun Charizard can literally clean with Flamethrower without ever missing, but Fire Blast is still amazing for tearing down walls.

If you're using Victreebel, you should really ought to use SolarBeam > Giga Drain, imo. The power-difference is major, allowing you to 2HKO Musharna without hazards and OHKO Kangaskhan on average after SR damage. The health recovery from Giga Drain is certainly appealing, but Victreebel isn't really built to stick around, and the last thing you want is compromise its sweeping potential by giving it weaker moves.
 

Sweet Jesus

Neal and Jack and me, absent lovers...
How could you build an unconventional sun team? most sun teams I have seen are; Rock type (Sun+SR) / Prankstermon / Grass Type / Charizard / Grass Type 2/ Fire Type

(Grass types usually include Eggy, Victreebel and Sawsbuck)
Is there any way to improve on this particular recipe that people seem to be using consistently? Are there any other unusual pokémon in which the sun can benefit?
I like using golduck. Defensively and offenisvely, golduck can complete the fire/water/grass core without being hindered by sun thanks to cloud nine. Having a water type on your sun team also helps a lot against certan leads like armaldo or any other rock type if your only grass move is solarbeam because sun teams which always run fire types (often zard) and who generally carry very few recovery really don't appreciate stealth rocks and nothing threatens most opposing SR mons like a water type that outspeeds seismitoad. Golduck can also run aqua jet even without the EV investment since sun teams have a hard time fitting priority which is bad in general but also leaves them pretty weak to riolu (who will run enough speed to outspeed volbeat).
 
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