Introduction to a Drought

Ace Trainer

Introduction

What’s up Smogonites, and welcome to my newest RMT, this is the first time I'm not using Trick Room. A lot of us Trick Room user are starting to try use new strategies now. Since I wanted to try something new, I looked through OU Cores a couple months ago and came across the idea of a Sun team, not hyper offense, but not stall team, but a little balance and offensive. I'm not good with introductions so I'm going to get right down to my team.
​

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Team

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
038.png

Ninetales @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 136 Hp / 252 SpA / 120 Spe
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
Sunny Day
Solar Beam
Toxic
Fire Blast

The weather inducer Ninetales. I'm a little confused about what is the best Ninetales' moveset. I feel as those Ninetales has no offensive prescence on this team. I guess the main purpose is to bring in the sun and counter defensive politoad. I basically use Toxic and Protect together. I toxic a Pokemon then protect the next turn to rack up the Posion damage then Roar them out to rack up some more entry hazards. I kept Sunny Day, to win the weather war if I'm up against another weather team. I usually try to Toxic Stall Politoed to stop him from using Perish Song. Other than those moves, Ninetales sucks in my opinion, I wish Gamefreak gave us a better Drought user.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
170px-051Dugtrio.png

Dugtrio @ Focus Sash
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe (21 Hp / 0 Def / 0 Sp Def ivs)
- Stealth Rock
- Reversal
- Earthquake
- Memento

 I switched Xatu out for Dugtrio with the suggestion from Superpowerdude. With his ability Arena Trap and great speed Dugrtrio gets the first hit when it comes to revenge killing. Focus Sash and Reversal helps Dugtrio switch into Tyranitar and OHKO it with a 1 Hp Reversal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
hydreigon_by_chakisuu-d4dvs1k.png

Hydreigon (F) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Superpower
- Earthquake


Hydreigon is an amazing choice for sun teams. I love the female version of Hydreigon, I feel that it makes it more threaten in my opinion. Having Immunity to Ground and resistance to Fire and Water means that it has amazing synergy with the rest of team. Yes this the mixed set and not the Choice Scarf set, but its more focused on the special part. I prefer Expert Belt mixed set over the Life Orb set. This set bluffs a choice set perfectly, with the bluff Hydreigon can net some very unsuspecting KOs against Heatran and Blissey with just two Superpowers, and with Stealth Rock support. Hydreigon has worked wonders at helping me beat sand teams. T-Tar will always come in after a Draco Meteor, literally every single time, than unexpectedly is destroyed with superpower thus winning the weather war.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~J~~~~~~
205.png

Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP/ 176 Def / 80 SpD
Relaxed Nature (+Def, - Speed) (0 Spe Ivs)
- Gyro Ball
- Volt Switch
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin

Since my team doesn't do well with Choice Band and Choice Scarf Terrakion, I needed someone who can sponge his attacks very easily. Terrakion is the second back up, just in case entry hazards do manage to get on my side of the field. Forretress is here to get Stealth Rock onto my opponent's side of the field. Gyro Ball is here to get some suprise KOs from Terrakion and other faster Pokemon. Since Forretress is slow Volt-Switch is here to keep the momentum on my side and get a sweeper in without them getting hurt from the first attack.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
003.png


Venusaur (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 72 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 180 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Growth
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb

Every sun team needs a Chlorophyll sweeper, and Venusaur is mine. With new access to Chlorophyll + Giga Drain, it can now abuse the extra power of Life Orb without having to worry about slowly dying to recoil damage. At +2, this beast can tear through basically any team with ease. I'm actually suprised at how Sludge Bomb from Venusaur gets a lot of nuetral damge, especially to Dragonite. With the Timid nature, in conjunction with the EVs, allows Venusaur to outpace Scarf Latios under the sun. The HP and Defense EVs assure the team that Adamant LO Mamoswine cannot OHKO Venusaur, even after switching into Stealth Rock. If I'm able to get +2 in Growth, before the weather is change I will be able outspeed almost every Pokemon without a Choice Scarf.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
20100326161703%21392Infernape.png


Infernape @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 108 Atk / 148 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Close Combat
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-Turn

Infernapes main role is to be a mixed sweeper under the sun, effectively multiplying its Fire-type moves by 2 in terms of damage. With a Choice Scarf and Naive Nature Infernape hits 519 Speed, that ties with Scarf Terrakion. Close Combat is Infernape's best STAB to hit Tyranitar, Terrakion, Chansey, Blissey, etc. I liked the idea of a mixed revenge sweeper so I picked Fire Blast as my second STAB to truley abuse the Sun from Ninetales. It gets the OHKO on Forretress, Ferrothorn, Skarmory, Genesect, Scizor, Venusaur, Magnezone I can go on and on. Pretty much any time I scarf a pokemon I like it to have a scout move, U-Turn helps me considerably against Celebi who comes in to sponge a Close Combat. Hidden Power Ice rounds out my set nicely so that I revenge Landorus, Dragonite, Salamence and it gives me something to hit the birds if I'm forced to. For the IVs give it 30 HP and 30 Def so that you can get a base power 70 HP Ice without lowering speed to 518 and losing the Speed ties.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Conclusion


Thanks for reading my RMT, I'm also not good with conclusion #EnglishWriting. I'll just make my points about this team. I know that the OU is mostly filled with rain teams, and I was thinking about switching Infernape for Swords Dance Breloom, but I like Infernape's ability to check a lot of threats and to stop Terrakion 50% of the time.
​
 
First of all,why on earth are you using Modest nature on a defensive ninetails that doesn't even have any attacks?I guess it was a typo.Calm should be the prefered nature.

Now on to the rate,Infernape isn't a good poke in general to start off,and it isn't a very good mixed attacking sweeper.I suggest you switch it for Scarf Victini.Victini has much more power and lets you truck through teams,even through water resists with Sun boosted V-creates.The sheer power will make up for the mixed attacking loss.

Also,if you switch Infernape for Victini,you become more vulnerble to Heatran.So i suggest you switch out one of Forretress's moves for Earthquake.Heatran tends to switch in Forry,so now you can hit it on the switch.It will also help against teams with Magnezone as they too like to switch in on Forry.

Lastly,you're team seems a little water weak.Your two water resists is unreliable because Hydreigon will get worn down easily,and Venusaur is your only sweeper.Latias over Hydreigon would be a very good choice but that would make you weaker to Pink Blobs,Heatran and Tyranitar Sand teams.So I suggest you use Roost over earthquake to increase Hydreigon's durability.And switching to Mild Nature would let you tank water hits a bit better since usually they come from the special side of the spectrum.

Good Luck and hope I helped.
 
Hey man, I really like this Sun team. The first thing I want you to consider however is Landorus-T > Forretress. This reason for this is because Landorus-T is a better pivot, handles Terrakion better, can still set up SR, and still gains momentum with U-turn (like Forre). You also don't need Forre to Rapid Spin because of Xatu.

My second suggestion is that you replace Infernape with Choice'd Heatran. The reason for this is so you don't lose your precious Steel typing (by replacing Forretress), so you can still take on Dragon types pretty well. Now you may want to replace Infernape with Scarf Heatran because you want to keep the high speed, but Venusaur is fast enough, so I recommend going Specs to act as a Wall Breaker.

Overall, really cool team.
 
Hi :D

This looks like a pretty cool sun team with the use of Hydriegon and Choice Scarf Infernape so props on that. However looking at your team i think it will have a difficult time winning the weather war. The reason why i say this is because your Ninetales set is a little unorthodox having no attacking moves on Ninetales and only Toxic to harm rival weather inducers i feel like your Ninetales could be victim to the Stone Edges, Earthqaukes and Hydro Pumps that can be found on Politoed, Hippowodon and Abomasnow. The only real thing that set helps you against is defensive Politoed and even then defensive Poltioeds almost always carry Toxic themselves letting them cripple Ninetales while they could also be ChestoRest so they can cure themselves from Toxic and infact Toxic you.

A much better Ninetales set to help you win the weather war would be Sunny Day Ninetales>Custom Ninetales this Ninetales set still uses Sunny Day to negate other weather effects but it can also abuse Solar Beams 1 turn use in sun to beat down any Hippowdon, Politoed or Tyranitar foolish enough to stay in. With Fire Blast you can beat Abomasnow, and Fire Blast also lets Ninetales do something to Steel-types now. You can still keep Toxic in Ninetales last slot if you liked the Toxic support however Will-o-Wisp and Protect are both good moves to use to, Protect for scouting and Will-o-Wisp for crippling physical attackers. However i would suggest Will-o-Wisp to burn Tyranitar switch ins and cripple threats giving Venasaur an easier time setting up a Growth(s). 120 Spe evs are used to outpseed all non Choice Scarfed versions of Politoed and Tyranitar. Modest and 252 SpA evs are used to make Ninetales moves as powerful as possible while 136 Hp evs give Ninetales minimises Stealth Rock damage and are close to a Leftovers number. As i mentioned in the first paragraph your Ninetales set is kind of wierd and this set is a much better fit for your team because it helps you win the weather war much more reliably.

With this change you are much more equipped to combat other weather teams however your team can be tweaked even further to win the weather war. I suggest a Focus Sash Dugtrio>Xatu with his ability Arena Trap, Focus Sash and Reversal Dugtrio can easily switch into Tyranitar and ohko it with a 1 Hp Reversal. Dugtrio can also take out Blissey and Chansey with Reversal paving the way for a Venasaur sweep. Speaking of paving the way for a Venasaur sweep when Dugtrio is on one Hp and has trapped what it needs to trap you can use Memento giving a free switch into Venasaur while your opponent will also have -2 Atk and SpA so you can easily set up a Growth and sweep. Dugtrio also fits Stealth Rock on his moveset easily so you can free up a moveslot on Forretress. 21 ivs are used in Hp to give you 201 Hp so Blissey/Chansey knock you down to a full power Reversal after two Seismic Toss's. 0 ivs are used in both defences so Dugtrio can get knocked down to his Focus Sash easily and a Hasty nature is used to boost speed and lowen defence, again to make it easier to activate Focus Sash. Honestly you don't really lose to much without Xatu as you already have Forretress to Rapid Spin hazards. With all the Fire-type coverege on your team you don't need Xatu to stop Steel-types because they are already beaten easily. Thunder Wave support is also not needed because with Choice Scarf Infernape and Venasaur your team is already quite fast. Infact Xatu compunds your weakness to Rock giving you two Rock-type weaknesses and no resists.

With Stealth Rock on Dugtrio you can afford to run Spike>Stealth Rock on Forretress. Getting extra entry hazard support is great to help turn some of Venasaurs and Hydreigons 2hkos to ohkos. Again entry hazards help your team win the weather war by punishing rival weather inducers when they switch in. Also speaking of Forretress i have to say i don't agree with White Syphony in using Earthqauke on Forretress. Forretress has sevre 4mss and needs all of his moves. Gyro Ball is absolutely crucial to make sure Forretress is not set up bait for Dragon-types. Rapid Spin is obvioulsy needed and is needed on most competitive teams especially sun. I have already mentioned the importance of Spikes and Volt Switch is a great move to pivot out. Earthqauke is good to beat Magnezone and Heatran but a lot of Heatran carry Air Balloon anyway and besides Heatran is already handled by Infernape and Hydreigon. Magnezone is also victim to the many Fire and Fighting-type attack found on this team. Forretress also does a good job of luring them in then Volt Switching out to the apporopriate pokemon.

Good luck with the team i hope i helped!

Edit: and i just got your request ;)

Sets
038.gif

Ninetales @ Leftovers | Drought
Modest | 136 Hp / 252 SpA / 120 Spe
Sunny Day | Solar Beam | Fire Blast | Will-o-Wisp

051.gif

Dugtrio @ Focus Sash | Arena Trap
Hasty | 252 Atk / 252 Spe (21 Hp / 0 Def / 0 Sp Def ivs)
Stealth Rock | Reversal | Earthqauke | Memento
Tl;dr
Ninetales
.Custom Set--->Sunny Day Set

Xatu--->Dugtrio

Forretress
.Stealth Rock--->Spikes


~Superpowerdude
 
I think Xatu should be replaced with Magic Bounce Espeon mainly because of the lack of SR weakness and Espeon is generaly better for most balance teams and Offense and Hyper Offense and Xatu is exelant on stall and this team looks like Balanced Sun to me. Espeon is better at least on this team because it has more of a offensive presance to threaten evrey non t-tar SR user and has a nifty speed tier outspeed the non scarfed muskateers and speed tying with latia/os and gengar and can deal with most threats better and also has baton pass to escape t-tar and switch to something like Infernap the set is:
Espeon @ Life Orb
Timid/Modest Nature
252 SpA/252 Spe/4HP
Trait:Magic Guard
- Psyshock/ Psychic
- Hidden Power Fire/Ice
- Morning Sun
- Shadow Ball/Batton Pass/Signal Beam

  • Current Xatu---->Espeon preferibly mine

CHEERS
~Oiawesome~
 
Superpowerdude said:
Hi :D

This looks like a pretty cool sun team with the use of Hydriegon and Choice Scarf Infernape so props on that. However looking at your team i think it will have a difficult time winning the weather war. The reason why i say this is because your Ninetales set is a little unorthodox having no attacking moves on Ninetales and only Toxic to harm rival weather inducers i feel like your Ninetales could be victim to the Stone Edges, Earthqaukes and Hydro Pumps that can be found on Politoed, Hippowodon and Abomasnow. The only real thing that set helps you against is defensive Politoed and even then defensive Poltioeds almost always carry Toxic themselves letting them cripple Ninetales while they could also be ChestoRest so they can cure themselves from Toxic and infact Toxic you.

A much better Ninetales set to help you win the weather war would be Sunny Day Ninetales>Custom Ninetales this Ninetales set still uses Sunny Day to negate other weather effects but it can also abuse Solar Beams 1 turn use in sun to beat down any Hippowdon, Politoed or Tyranitar foolish enough to stay in. With Fire Blast you can beat Abomasnow, and Fire Blast also lets Ninetales do something to Steel-types now. You can still keep Toxic in Ninetales last slot if you liked the Toxic support however Will-o-Wisp and Protect are both good moves to use to, Protect for scouting and Will-o-Wisp for crippling physical attackers. However i would suggest Will-o-Wisp to burn Tyranitar switch ins and cripple threats giving Venasaur an easier time setting up a Growth(s). 120 Spe evs are used to outpseed all non Choice Scarfed versions of Politoed and Tyranitar. Modest and 252 SpA evs are used to make Ninetales moves as powerful as possible while 136 Hp evs give Ninetales minimises Stealth Rock damage and are close to a Leftovers number. As i mentioned in the first paragraph your Ninetales set is kind of wierd and this set is a much better fit for your team because it helps you win the weather war much more reliably.

With this change you are much more equipped to combat other weather teams however your team can be tweaked even further to win the weather war. I suggest a Focus Sash Dugtrio>Xatu with his ability Arena Trap, Focus Sash and Reversal Dugtrio can easily switch into Tyranitar and ohko it with a 1 Hp Reversal. Dugtrio can also take out Blissey and Chansey with Reversal paving the way for a Venasaur sweep. Speaking of paving the way for a Venasaur sweep when Dugtrio is on one Hp and has trapped what it needs to trap you can use Memento giving a free switch into Venasaur while your opponent will also have -2 Atk and SpA so you can easily set up a Growth and sweep. Dugtrio also fits Stealth Rock on his moveset easily so you can free up a moveslot on Forretress. 21 ivs are used in Hp to give you 201 Hp so Blissey/Chansey knock you down to a full power Reversal after two Seismic Toss's. 0 ivs are used in both defences so Dugtrio can get knocked down to his Focus Sash easily and a Hasty nature is used to boost speed and lowen defence, again to make it easier to activate Focus Sash. Honestly you don't really lose to much without Xatu as you already have Forretress to Rapid Spin hazards. With all the Fire-type coverege on your team you don't need Xatu to stop Steel-types because they are already beaten easily. Thunder Wave support is also not needed because with Choice Scarf Infernape and Venasaur your team is already quite fast. Infact Xatu compunds your weakness to Rock giving you two Rock-type weaknesses and no resists.

With Stealth Rock on Dugtrio you can afford to run Spike>Stealth Rock on Forretress. Getting extra entry hazard support is great to help turn some of Venasaurs and Hydreigons 2hkos to ohkos. Again entry hazards help your team win the weather war by punishing rival weather inducers when they switch in. Also speaking of Forretress i have to say i don't agree with White Syphony in using Earthqauke on Forretress. Forretress has sevre 4mss and needs all of his moves. Gyro Ball is absolutely crucial to make sure Forretress is not set up bait for Dragon-types. Rapid Spin is obvioulsy needed and is needed on most competitive teams especially sun. I have already mentioned the importance of Spikes and Volt Switch is a great move to pivot out. Earthqauke is good to beat Magnezone and Heatran but a lot of Heatran carry Air Balloon anyway and besides Heatran is already handled by Infernape and Hydreigon. Magnezone is also victim to the many Fire and Fighting-type attack found on this team. Forretress also does a good job of luring them in then Volt Switching out to the apporopriate pokemon.

Good luck with the team i hope i helped!

Edit: and i just got your request ;)

Sets
038.gif

Ninetales @ Leftovers | Drought
Modest | 136 Hp / 252 SpA / 120 Spe
Sunny Day | Solar Beam | Fire Blast | Will-o-Wisp

051.gif

Dugtrio @ Focus Sash | Arena Trap
Hasty | 252 Atk / 252 Spe (21 Hp / 0 Def / 0 Sp Def ivs)
Stealth Rock | Reversal | Earthqauke | Memento
Tl;dr
Ninetales
.Custom Set--->Sunny Day Set

Xatu--->Dugtrio

Forretress
.Stealth Rock--->Spikes


~Superpowerdude
Click to expand...

Thanks Superpowerdude, my computer did not load your rate before I VM you. Xatu was giving me a rock weakness and it was giving me hell, thankfully I'm able to settle that problem with Dugtrio. I did not have that good of a check to Tyranitar, b/c Inferbape was the main person to beat Tyranitar and Abomasnow. Now I can win the weather wars with Dugtrio. Thanks Superpowerdude. Also I changed the Ninetales set, I was wondering why It was very useless on this team. Now Ninetales can be an offensive presence on this team with solarbeam.

Oiawesome said:
I think Xatu should be replaced with Magic Bounce Espeon mainly because of the lack of SR weakness and Espeon is generaly better for most balance teams and Offense and Hyper Offense and Xatu is exelant on stall and this team looks like Balanced Sun to me. Espeon is better at least on this team because it has more of a offensive presance to threaten evrey non t-tar SR user and has a nifty speed tier outspeed the non scarfed muskateers and speed tying with latia/os and gengar and can deal with most threats better and also has baton pass to escape t-tar and switch to something like Infernap the set is:
Espeon @ Life Orb
Timid/Modest Nature
252 SpA/252 Spe/4HP
Trait:Magic Guard
- Psyshock/ Psychic
- Hidden Power Fire/Ice
- Morning Sun
- Shadow Ball/Batton Pass/Signal Beam

  • Current Xatu---->Espeon preferibly mine

CHEERS
~Oiawesome~
Click to expand...

I actually don't think that Espeon would have made any difference on this team. Xatu is a bulker Magic Bouncer, and it fits on more Sun teams better. But I appreciate the suggestion though, but I'm going to take Superpowerdude's suggestions for this team.
 
Hey. Nice sun team. I like the use of Infernape, which is rather underrated. Right now, the largest threat to your team appears to be Special Rock Polish Landorus, which can set up a Rock Polish or Sub on Forretress or Ninetales and begin to mercilessly tear your team apart. To help beat it, I'd recommend trying out a LO Tank Latias over your Hydreigon. Thanks to its auspicious typing and aility, it boasts an immunity to Earth Power and Focus Blast, and thanks to its impressive bulk for an offensive Pokemon, it can absorb a Hidden Power Ice with relatively few problems. I know that you really like Hydreigon, but you mentioned that its main function is to beat sand teams and the pink blobs, functions which Dugtrio, Infernape, and Venusaur already perform admirably. Dugtrio can trap Tyranitar, Chansey, and Blissey, and then beat them with a full power Reversal. Infernape has Close Cmbat, which rips apart Tyranitar and Blissey. Venusaur can set up Growths against the latter two and recover more health than they can drain with Giga Drain, so no problems there. Latias also gives your team a more solid switch-in to powerful Water-type attacks from Keldeo and Politoed, which helps when facing down rain teams. Latias also gives your team a reliable answer to Yache Berry SD Garchomp and CB Terrakion, since Draco Meteor OHKOes the former and Psyshock the latter.

Now, for some nitpicks. You should place your 4 missing EVs on your Venusaur in its Defense stat. Also, to help alleviate a slight vulnerability to Volcarona, I'd recommend using Flare Blitz over Fire Blast on Infernape, if only to assure a 2HKO on bulkier variants and a OHKO on offensive variants under the sun. You should also use 0 Speed IVs on Forretress to maximize the power of its Gyro Ball, while assuring your team that its Volt Switch is as slow as possible. A summarized list of changes can be found below.

Set:
380.png

Latias @ Life Orb | Levitate
Timid | 112 HP / 144 SpA / 252 Spe | 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
Draco Meteor | Hidden Power | Psyshock | Roost

Nitpicks:
  • 635.png
    ---->
    380.png
  • 003.png
    • 72 HP / 252 SpA / 180 Spe ----> 72 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 180 Spe
  • 392.png
    • Fire Blast ----> Flare Blitz
  • 205.png
    • 0 Speed IVs

The IVs on Latias give it a base 70 Hidden Power Fire while minimizing confusion damage. Hope this helps. Good luck with your team!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top