[highlight][SIZE=+2]Into The Frying Pan[/SIZE][/highlight]
An OU Sun Offense RMT by Psycho Cut and Ninja Dewott
An OU Sun Offense RMT by Psycho Cut and Ninja Dewott
Hello all. Welcome to "Into The Frying Pan" an OU Sun Offence Team built by myself and Ninja Dewott. Ninja Dewott would offer some commentary on his own here, but, well, he's too lazy or "saving the world", as he puts it.
Anyway, this team has seen moderate success during laddering, peaking at precisely 1800 on Pokémon Showdown. However, we'd really like to get this team higher, with 1900 being our aim. However, we've hit a roadblock, and really need help to try and improve this team. It doesn't feel quite 'secure' if you take my meaning and there feels like there's holes in the team, which I hope you guys can help patch up. This team does always seem to pull through though, something even I was quite surprised by.
There's no teambuiliding section with this team, since there were loads of steps and it'd take ages to write it all. I'll try to explain why each member made the team when I talk more about it. Also note that some EV Spreads may be a little inaccurate, since I'm doing this from memory and can't access showdown (and ND is being unresponsive). I hope you enjoy reading!
[highlight][SIZE=+1]Team in Detail[/SIZE][/highlight]
Ninetales (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 80 HP / 252 SAtk / 176 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Energy Ball
- Will-o-wisp
- Sunny Day
So, obviously, Ninetales is a necessity on a Sun Team and, although many people say that making Ninetales decent is one of the tricky things regarding Sun Teams, I think we've done a pretty good job with this set. Ninetales is pretty fast, and the given nature and EVs ensures she outspeeds many common threats, such as Lucario, Rotom-W and, above all, Toed and TTar. Fire Blast is Ninetales' main move of choice and with a boost from STAB and Sun, it does a fair bit of damage, certainly not to be underestimated with Ninetales' speed. Energy Ball is there to hit Politoed, most importantly, Rotom-W, Hippowdown and, to a lesser extent, TTar. It's capable of ending the weather war with the right prediction at times. Sunny Day was suggested to us to help keep our weather up and reduce the amount of times Ninetales has to switch in. Will-o-wisp was also suggested, this time to cripple TTar and Hippowdon too I guess, as well as giving a bit of passive damage to Politoed and others. It also helps keep my HP up.
Venusaur (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Growth
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Venusaur. The King of Sun Sweepers. Most Sun Teams you'll see will feature this guy, and this team is no exception. We took quite a while deciding on which set to go with. I'd wanted a mixed set, with Earthquake and whatnot, but Ninja Dewott had insisted on a purely Special Sweeper, pointing out that we had Dugtrio to deal with stuff like Heatran. It was a good point, so here we are.
This set is pretty standard for a Special Sweeper. Growth boosts Venusaur's power, and it what really allows it to sweep. Giga Drain is STAB #1, and is great for getting health back. Sludge Bomb is the main, and most powerful STAB, which is always used when a SE hit is unattainable. Finally, we round the set off with Hidden Power Fire. It was a tough decision whether to go with Fire or Ice for this, but we settled on Fire since we have Sludge Bomb, which, hitting most Dragons neutrally, often OHKO's them at +2. If we'd gone for Ice, however, we'd be completely walled by most Steel Types. You may notice the 4 EVs in Defence which, if you were wondering, helps a little against common priority like Bullet Punch and Ice Shard. Clever that. Life Orb was suggested to add extra power, as the recoil matters less with STAB Giga Drain
Dugtrio (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd | 21 HP / 0 Def / 0 SDef
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Reversal
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
Dugtrio's purpose on this team is fairly obvious, to trap things, most notably weather inducers called Tyranitar (though it is very useful against other things too) and KO them. I'm normally not a big Dugtrio fan, but Dugtrio has been excellent on this team and it forms a deadly-duo with Azelf (more about that later). This is a fairly standard Dugtrio set. Max Speed and Attack, with Earthquake as the main STAB and Stone Edge to complete the QuakeEdge coverage. Reversal is for when the sash activates and is a fantastic move, expanding my coverage and useful for just generally obliterating stuff as it becomes more powerful than a STAB Earthquake at 1HP. Much to my sadness, Dugtrio also fulfils role of Stealth Rocker, as Mamoswine, a previous member of the team, was scrapped. I do have to admit that, because of this, it's not uncommon for me not to get Stealth Rock down although it is good being almost guaranteed it if I feel it's really important. Suggestions on helping with this would be greatly appreciated though. The somewhat unusual EV and IV Spread means that Dugtrio will get down to his focus sash as easily as possible and, most importantly, will get down there after 2 Seismic Tosses, helping to beat Blissey. Very clever that. Thanks raters!
Rotom (Rotom-W) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Trick
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Ice]
You may be thinking that Rotom-W is a fairly odd choice on a Sun Team, but hear me out. This slot was originally taken by Scarf Genesect but when it was (quite rightly, may I add) banned, we needed a replacement. To take up the job, we needed a good Scarf-user, that provides momentum, has electric type coverage (you'd be surprised how important we were finding that to be) and was preferably resistant to water (we were having trouble with that at the time). Given the rather specific skill set we had in mind, we were rather pleased to find there was a good OU Pokémon that fulfilled them all. Hence, Rotom-W gained a place on the team.
Rotom-W's role is a pivotal one, in more ways than one. As a Scarfer, it is often used as a revenge killer, especially when Sun is not up. In fact, when Sun isn't up, Rotom-W often becomes the focus, especially if Rain is the reason sun is not up. Rotom-W is my lead against most rain teams and is my answer to Keldeo, Tornadus-T and Vaporeon, as well as an excellent Politoed switch-in. Additionally in Rain, Rotom-W can make use of Hydro Pump, which is why that move is there (it's still not bad in sun though either). Another great thing about Rotom-W is its flexibility thanks to Trick. Often I find that I'd prefer Rotom-W not to be scarved (normally in the case of their being many electric immunities), so I solve that problem by giving (if that's the right word) the Scarf to a Ferrothorn or something, which has a nice bonus of crippling an opponent's Pokémon. Finally, as for the moves I haven't mentioned, Volt Switch is obviously to gain momentum, as well as deal with pesky water types and HP Ice is for coverage, and is especially nice for revenge killing a lot of dragons. Timid was suggested to help me revenge kill more threats
Azelf @ Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Taunt
- Fire Punch
- U-turn
- Ice Punch
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you The Beast, The Ninja, The Destroyer, The One and Only, Azelf. As you may have guessed, we love Azelf. I, in particular, absolutely adore the thing. It's so underrated and so, so, so brilliant. It has 115 Base Speed and Attack, which make it a fantastic sweeper. It's faster than Latios, Gengar and so many other things that you would consider a fast sweeper and it hits almost, if not, harder than them with it's fantastic offensive moves. In addition it has a phenomenal movepool, with fantastic coverage moves like Fire Punch and awesome utility moves like Taunt. Heck, it can even Explode if you want it to. I first used Azelf after being inspired by Twash's Hawiian Air, a team I believe you can find in the RMT Archive. I was surprised and thrilled about how well Azelf performed back then, and the same is true now.
If I remember rightly (it was a long time ago), when we were deciding on the 6th member of the very first draft of this team, we, like with what I mentioned with Rotom-W above, had a very specific list of skills we wanted this member to have. Again, I was very pleased to see that, at the end of my research and cross-referencing, there was a fantastic Pokémon that could fulfil this role.
One of Azelf's roles is a decent lead, against most non-Rain teams. In particular, it is deadly against Sand teams, as I briefly mentioned before. I always lead it against Sand teams and my opponent will often lead with TTar since he, quite understandably, thinks he can get his weather up right from the word go. When faced with Azelf, he dismissed this as something that isn't a threat and proceeds to set up SR or whatever. Azelf proceeds to smash him in the face with U-turn (which does about 50% btw) and switches out to Dugtrio who will finish the smashing process and win me the weather war (Shed Shells omitted, of course). Azelf is also my lead if I see Deoxys-D as it gets its unexpected Taunt in and U-turns out, either gaining me momentum, or dealing a hefty chunk of damage to Deoxys-D.
Anyway, enough rambling, onto more about the set. As I've said, Taunt is used to help prevent hazards getting on my side which is important as, as you may have noticed, I have no spinner. This isn't such a bad thing though due to the offensive nature of the team. U-turn is for gaining me momentum and the two elemental punches are there for KOing. They're unexpected moves which allow me to get the surprise on many an unwitting victim and, thanks to the Expert Belt and Azelf's awesome 115 Base Attack, they usually get the KO. The numbers of Ferrothorn, Lucario, Garchomp, Landorus, Salamence etc, etc, that Azelf has taken out is uncountable. I guess the Ebelt also helps feign a choice item too. The Nature and EVs are standard for a sweeper.
Scizor (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Atk / 48 SpD / 44 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Roost
Scizor is the latest addition to this team and we're still quite unsure about the exact set, hence the slashes. The set is also fairly complicated, but I'll get to that later. Anyway, the one problem we found with this team is that we had no decent switch in to powerful Dragon attacks. The presence of Mamoswine and the offensive nature of the team meant it wasn't too bad, but we felt that a steel would be a good inclusion. The tipping point was the weakness the team had to Gengar and Reuniclus, a weakness we felt we had to patch up. Now, there's on Pokémon that immediately springs to mind (ND's mind at least, since he does love Scizor) when you speak about countering Gengar and Reuniclus and it so happens to be Steel as well. However, we knew we couldn't stick the bog-standard CB Scizor on the team, as it wouldn'f fulfil the roles very well. Therefore, we created this Bulky Scizor set.
Let me start with the EV Spread, which I imagine will have many of you confused. Firstly, we put on 44 Speed EVs which allows Scizor to outspeed uninvested Politoed (and Metagross). Then we turned to the main role: sponging Dragon Attacks. As we were less concerned about Outrage, we created the situation of being able to switch in to a LO Latios DM, tank it and then be able to do something about it. With SR off the field, the 248 HP and 48 SDef EVs ensure Scizor can switch into this attack and then take another one after the SAtk drop, just incase the opponent predicts the Pursuit. We chose to invest heavily in HP over SDef to help with general bulk as well as Outrages and the 248 HP EVs, as opposed to 252, helps with switching into Stealth Rock. The rest of the EVs were put into Attack, to add more power.
The moveset and item are where we are currently encountering issues however. Bullet Punch and U-turn are standard Scizor moves and are the primary tools for taking out Gengar and Reuniclus respectively. Pursuit is another useful move who's primary role is to deal with Latios - an oft annoyance since the scarf varieties outspeed and OHKO Venusaur in the Sun and even the ones that aren't scarved can survive a +2 Sludge Bomb and OHKO back. The fourth moveslot is largely undecided atm though. We're currently rolling with Roost, which, theoretically, ensures long term Dragon Move sponging, but, in reality, it's not actually getting much use. So, as we find that Scizor lacks general power against the things it wasn't specifically designed to take out, Ninja Dewott suggested Swords Dance, as he'd used Bulky SD Scizor in his early days to great success. This would certainly help do some damage.
The hold item is also a bit of an issue. We're currently rolling with Expert Belt, as it does help deal with Physically Bulky Reuniclus and guarantees a OHKO on Latios with Pursuit after SR. Aside from that though, it doesn't come in that handy. Therefore we considered something like Iron Plate or Muscle Band which would help with general power and revenge killing though Scizor specific duties wouldn't be performed as effectively. I've also slashed Leftovers there since I though it would grant some much appreciated extra longevity and would couple well with Swords Dance, if we decided to go with that. At the moment, thanks to suggestions from raters, we are going with Leftovers and Roost, to help maximise bulk
[highlight][SIZE=+1]Conclusion[/SIZE][/highlight]
Ok, so as I've said, although this team has been pretty successful, I still think it can go higher. It does feel a little 'unsafe' at times, and I really think that you guys could help patch up the holes in the team and help make decisions on, in particular, Scizor.
So, thanks for taking the time to read (I hope I made it fairly entertaining) and please take time to rate, it would be much appreciated!
