Hey everyone, I've been playing randbats and battle factory for years now and laddered very high on both but recently decided to give normal tiers a go. Naturally, building teams was difficult for me and I ended up just using teams from the forums when starting out. However, recently I got tired of that and wanted to make my own teams. This is the first one that I've played more than 10 games with and feel like it has no incredibly major flaws, but maybe there's something I'm not seeing due to my inexperience.
The idea was this: clef is everywhere, corv is everywhere, ferro is a thing, and I was just tired of getting stalled out by such pokemon. Fire is an incredibly potent offensive type in the current meta (at least from what I've seen) so I decided to try something with sun. I'm currently at around 1500-1600 elo.
The Team:
Torkoal @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 20 SpA / 116 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Stealth Rock
- Solar Beam
- Rapid Spin
The premiere sun setter, Torkoal's bulk and access to rocks and spin give it much more utility than something like ninetales. Unless I'm against a different kind of whether (or even then) I'm probably not going to bring this more than two times per battle with how aggressive the rest of the team is. This lets me use it a little bit more liberally on turn 1 perhaps choosing to get rocks up and taking a scald/eq in the process before switching out. I gave it 20 SpA EVs because solarbeam kept leaving seisimitoads that tried to get rocks up with like 4%, and getting rid of them ASAP is obviously nice. I have no idea what do with its defense/SpD EVs though. One of the biggest counter-leads is specs kyurem which can click draco and guarantee a kill on something on my team every time. For that reason I was thinking of making it full SpD, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea.
Cinderace @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pyro Ball
- High Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Court Change
With high speed, high attack, and the ability to get rid of the stealth rocks that plague this team's fire types it was a no-brainer that cinderace would find itself on this team. It can switch into things like clef, hat, and non-scarf gengar to take a hit and then either kill something with a sun-boosted pyro ball or, more importantly, get away those pesky rocks before dying. The biggest problem with court change is if seismitoad is still alive it can simply switch in and get its rocks back up, and with rocks up on both sides of the field they can't be court changed. Therefore, seismitoad needs to be played around smartly so that I don't have to resort to defog when it comes to hazards, and it's usually a better play to click u-turn rather than court change if the opposing toad is still alive.
Darmanitan @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Rock Slide
Sun and sheer force boosted flare blitz from Darmanitan kills literally everything that doesnt resist it and does loads of damage to the frail dragon resists such as dragopult and hydreigon. Choice scarf is absolutely essential for revenge killing faster opponents such as zeraora or dragopult. With the ubiquity of rocks and Darmanitan's frailty, it will rarely be switched in. Instead, its job is to come in after a death and guarantee at least one kill. If the rest of the team did its job well (got rocks up, got rid of rocks on our side, did good chip to fire resists) and priority mons on the opposing team were taken care of, darmanitan can come in and sweep for free by clicking flare blitz. An important thing to note is that it has the same speed as scarfed kyurem, and losing that speed tie can be potentially devestating.
Rotom-Heat @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Volt Switch
- Pain Split
- Defog
CC cinderace isn't enough support for stealth rocks, and the best defogger available is definitely rotom-H. Sun boosted overheats are strong against almost everything (~50% to toad), while being slow and tanky lets it take hits, volt out, and bring in frailer, more attacking pokemon such as darmanitan vs things like hydreigon. High HP and low speed is also ideal vs opposing rotom-Hs, as if they elect to overheat rotom-h can easily take it whereas other pokemon on the team can't. It also gains momentum if both pokemon decide to volt. Right now, since toad is a big problem, I've been considering adding nasty plot over pain split, since toad can keep getting up its rocks since overheat drops my spatk 2 stages. What do you guys think?
Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Weather Ball
- Growth
This thing is a MONSTER in the current meta game, hooo boy. If you manage to bring it in easily (which isn't hard at all due to the opponent trying to keep their rocks up with seismitoad), you're in such a good position. Growth is free, and after a growth in sun this pokemon 1 shots almost everything, and 2 shots pex (which can't hurt it except for haze, which still leads it to being 2 shot). Very few things outspeed and those things usually can't hurt it much, so I don't think it's worth running timid on. The formula to winning is bringing this in with at least 3-4 turns of sun left and claiming at least 1-2 kills.
Charizard @ Life Orb
Ability: Solar Power
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Air Slash
- Solar Beam
- Roost
I feel the first 5 pokemon form a fine core, but I feel this Charizard needs tweaking or replacing. It's too slow to threaten things like Kyurem and Hydreigon, and too weak to be switched into most of the time. While the damage is nice (75 from fire blast to pex) I feel like I definitely could replace this, I just don't know with what. Honestly, I kind of just slapped it on since I knew it had solar power and grass coverage and called it a day, but I think I can do better.
Team Weaknesses:
I've noticed several trends when using this team:
1) Kyurem: with no fairy or steel types, Kyurem gets a free kill every time it comes in on something faster than it. The same also applies specs dragopult and hydreigon.
2) Dug: Leading torkoal is a no go with dug because its simply too risky. If scarfed dug is ran then I can't lead with scarf darm either, but scarfed dug is relatively uncommon.
3) Opposing weather: Rain setters and sand setters are both threats to torkoal and severely weaken the power of the rest of the team
4) Priority: Nobody on this team has any kind of priority. I almost lost to a focus sash/shell smash cloyster earlier because i couldn't get a second hit on it.
I feel at this point, I should get a steel or fairy type that is able to switch into kyurem. However, I don't really know how team building works and am new to the entire process, so I don't know if that's a possibility for such a sun team. Thanks for the help!
The idea was this: clef is everywhere, corv is everywhere, ferro is a thing, and I was just tired of getting stalled out by such pokemon. Fire is an incredibly potent offensive type in the current meta (at least from what I've seen) so I decided to try something with sun. I'm currently at around 1500-1600 elo.
The Team:
Torkoal @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 20 SpA / 116 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Stealth Rock
- Solar Beam
- Rapid Spin
The premiere sun setter, Torkoal's bulk and access to rocks and spin give it much more utility than something like ninetales. Unless I'm against a different kind of whether (or even then) I'm probably not going to bring this more than two times per battle with how aggressive the rest of the team is. This lets me use it a little bit more liberally on turn 1 perhaps choosing to get rocks up and taking a scald/eq in the process before switching out. I gave it 20 SpA EVs because solarbeam kept leaving seisimitoads that tried to get rocks up with like 4%, and getting rid of them ASAP is obviously nice. I have no idea what do with its defense/SpD EVs though. One of the biggest counter-leads is specs kyurem which can click draco and guarantee a kill on something on my team every time. For that reason I was thinking of making it full SpD, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea.
Cinderace @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pyro Ball
- High Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Court Change
With high speed, high attack, and the ability to get rid of the stealth rocks that plague this team's fire types it was a no-brainer that cinderace would find itself on this team. It can switch into things like clef, hat, and non-scarf gengar to take a hit and then either kill something with a sun-boosted pyro ball or, more importantly, get away those pesky rocks before dying. The biggest problem with court change is if seismitoad is still alive it can simply switch in and get its rocks back up, and with rocks up on both sides of the field they can't be court changed. Therefore, seismitoad needs to be played around smartly so that I don't have to resort to defog when it comes to hazards, and it's usually a better play to click u-turn rather than court change if the opposing toad is still alive.
Darmanitan @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Rock Slide
Sun and sheer force boosted flare blitz from Darmanitan kills literally everything that doesnt resist it and does loads of damage to the frail dragon resists such as dragopult and hydreigon. Choice scarf is absolutely essential for revenge killing faster opponents such as zeraora or dragopult. With the ubiquity of rocks and Darmanitan's frailty, it will rarely be switched in. Instead, its job is to come in after a death and guarantee at least one kill. If the rest of the team did its job well (got rocks up, got rid of rocks on our side, did good chip to fire resists) and priority mons on the opposing team were taken care of, darmanitan can come in and sweep for free by clicking flare blitz. An important thing to note is that it has the same speed as scarfed kyurem, and losing that speed tie can be potentially devestating.
Rotom-Heat @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Volt Switch
- Pain Split
- Defog
CC cinderace isn't enough support for stealth rocks, and the best defogger available is definitely rotom-H. Sun boosted overheats are strong against almost everything (~50% to toad), while being slow and tanky lets it take hits, volt out, and bring in frailer, more attacking pokemon such as darmanitan vs things like hydreigon. High HP and low speed is also ideal vs opposing rotom-Hs, as if they elect to overheat rotom-h can easily take it whereas other pokemon on the team can't. It also gains momentum if both pokemon decide to volt. Right now, since toad is a big problem, I've been considering adding nasty plot over pain split, since toad can keep getting up its rocks since overheat drops my spatk 2 stages. What do you guys think?
Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Weather Ball
- Growth
This thing is a MONSTER in the current meta game, hooo boy. If you manage to bring it in easily (which isn't hard at all due to the opponent trying to keep their rocks up with seismitoad), you're in such a good position. Growth is free, and after a growth in sun this pokemon 1 shots almost everything, and 2 shots pex (which can't hurt it except for haze, which still leads it to being 2 shot). Very few things outspeed and those things usually can't hurt it much, so I don't think it's worth running timid on. The formula to winning is bringing this in with at least 3-4 turns of sun left and claiming at least 1-2 kills.
Charizard @ Life Orb
Ability: Solar Power
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Air Slash
- Solar Beam
- Roost
I feel the first 5 pokemon form a fine core, but I feel this Charizard needs tweaking or replacing. It's too slow to threaten things like Kyurem and Hydreigon, and too weak to be switched into most of the time. While the damage is nice (75 from fire blast to pex) I feel like I definitely could replace this, I just don't know with what. Honestly, I kind of just slapped it on since I knew it had solar power and grass coverage and called it a day, but I think I can do better.
Team Weaknesses:
I've noticed several trends when using this team:
1) Kyurem: with no fairy or steel types, Kyurem gets a free kill every time it comes in on something faster than it. The same also applies specs dragopult and hydreigon.
2) Dug: Leading torkoal is a no go with dug because its simply too risky. If scarfed dug is ran then I can't lead with scarf darm either, but scarfed dug is relatively uncommon.
3) Opposing weather: Rain setters and sand setters are both threats to torkoal and severely weaken the power of the rest of the team
4) Priority: Nobody on this team has any kind of priority. I almost lost to a focus sash/shell smash cloyster earlier because i couldn't get a second hit on it.
I feel at this point, I should get a steel or fairy type that is able to switch into kyurem. However, I don't really know how team building works and am new to the entire process, so I don't know if that's a possibility for such a sun team. Thanks for the help!
