Is It Hot In Here...? [A Sunny Day RMT]

[musicalbento]

Is It Hot In Here...?

A quick intro before we jump into things: this is my first team with Gen V, and I'd like to note that this team is going to be entirely WiFi...there's a convention coming up and I like to have a fresh team ready to go when I hang around, in case anyone wants to battle. I'm by no means an expert so any and all suggestions and critiques are welcome.

Version List

Version 1.0

Removed Ferrothorn because of set confusion.

Version 2.0

Added Donphan to replace Ferrothorn, considering removing Charizard for Venusaur/Whimsicott.

Ninetales (F) @ Air Balloon
Drought
252 HP / 88 SDef / 168 Spd
Timid
- Flamethrower
- Safeguard
- Will-o-Wisp
- HP [Ground]

Firstly, this Ninetales is due credit to everyone in this thread here. The idea came wholly from them, I just changed a move. I haven't tried it out but I think it's worth the shock factor when someone tries to come in and set up on Ninetales and they can't get an earthquake off because of the balloon.

Shiftry (M) @ Life Orb
Chlorophyll
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant
- Seed Bomb
- Suckerpunch
- Swords Dance
- Nature Power

Shiftry is one bad oak tree. With the sun up, Shiftry outspeeds well...a lot. I chose Seed Bomb as a basic stab move, Sucker punch is to try to take care of all those priority moves that think they can one-up the tree. Swords Dance is for obvious set up and Nature Power is to try and weaken a Tyranitar in the off-chance it tries to change up the weather.

Arcanine (F) @ Life Orb
Flash Fire
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Wild Charge
- Morning Sun

Basic Arcanine here, who'll hit like a goddamn truck if she's not checked properly. Flare Blitz for STAB, Close Combat to deal with all those pesky Tyranitar and Blissey. Wild Charge to catch any pesky water guys off guard, and Morning Sun (since I have priority in Sucker Punch) to keep her around longer.

Charizard (M) @ Expert Belt
Solar Power
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest
- Fire Blast
- Air Slash
- Focus Blast
- HP [Ice]

Charizard...oh Charizard. I love this guy so much but he seems so situational on my team. In the sun he can just about knock out anything with Expert Belt (even his counters!) but the fact that I need stealth rocks to be off the field is a bit of a nuisance, especially if they don't set them up early in the game. I don't particularly like "locking in" to moves so I picked an Expert Belt over the Choice items... I may just toss Charizard out for something a bit more stable...Amoonguss or Venusaur perhaps?

Snorlax (M) @ Leftovers
Thick Fat
40 HP / 252 Atk / 40 Def / 176 SpD
Adamant
- Return
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Pursuit

Ah Snorlax...a favorite of mine, this guy is basically there to absorb any and all special attacks you think you can throw at my team, and then hit you like well...he hits really hard. I figured I didn't need Ice Punch if I had Charizard on the team, but I don't see the purpose in having Crunch if I have Pursuit, so if I decide to toss him, I'll probably get rid of Pursuit for Ice Punch. I chose Leftovers over Choice Band because I hate being locked in to moves, as mentioned earlier.

Donphan (M) @ Custap Berry
Sturdy
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4HP
Adamant
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Shard

Surprise set that I snagged from here with the Custap Berry, lets me get off a necessary move at the last minute in case I don't get OHKOed. Replaced Ferrothorn due to a mixup with sets.

-------------------------

The Replacements

In the off chance that I do get rid of Charizard, I was leaning towards Venusaur as a replacement, and this is the set I had in mind:

Venusaur @ Life Orb
Chlorophyll
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest
- Sleep Powder
- Growth
- Energy Ball
- HP [Fire]

Venusaur isn't as susceptible to rocks as Charizard, and in the chance that I don't get to spin them off, he'd be able to still run relatively well, even without a Growth boost. I'd love opinions on Venusaur over Charizard, if you have them.

 

[BTzz]

Good start, here's a quick rate

Arcanine:
I recommend swiching this to a Choice Band set and swapping Morning Sun for Extreme Speed. Arcanine is just to fragile to use morning sun effectivly.

Charizard:
If you keep him, I recommend puttin a Choice Scarf on him with Timid Nature. Charizards not fast enough compared to other sweepers.

Ferrothorn:
Ferrothon doesn't get Volt Change or Rapid Spin. I recommend you replace them with Gyro ball and Stealth rock.

Also your team seems very weak to other whether and you lack a reliable ground immunity

Gliscor (M) @ toxic orb
Trait: poison heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spe*
Impish nature (+Def, -Spe)
-Swords Dance
-Earthquake
-Ice Fang*
-Taunt

Gliscor is a great ground immunity that will stop sandstorm teams from running rampart and it'll stop the Thunder spam that rain teams have. Also, Gliscor's water weakness is nerfed in the sun.

Hope I helped GL

 

[musicalbento]

Good start, here's a quick rate

Arcanine:
I recommend swiching this to a Choice Band set and swapping Morning Sun for Extreme Speed. Arcanine is just to fragile to use morning sun effectivly.

Charizard:
If you keep him, I recommend puttin a Choice Scarf on him with Timid Nature. Charizards not fast enough compared to other sweepers.

Ferrothorn:
Ferrothon doesn't get Volt Change or Rapid Spin. I recommend you replace them with Gyro ball and Stealth rock.

Also your team seems very weak to other whether and you lack a reliable ground immunity

Gliscor (M) @ toxic orb
Trait: poison heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spe*
Impish nature (+Def, -Spe)
-Swords Dance
-Earthquake
-Ice Fang*
-Taunt

Gliscor is a great ground immunity that will stop sandstorm teams from running rampart and it'll stop the Thunder spam that rain teams have. Also, Gliscor's water weakness is nerfed in the sun.

Hope I helped GL

Don't know where I got Volt Charge from, I think I had one too many tabs open. Heh. If that's the case, I'll probably toss Ferrothorn for Forretress most likely, as I'll need the rapid spin to help teammates.

I'll probably toss that Choice Band on Arcanine, but I'll wait to see on the Charizard, I've used this once before (granted it was in Gen IV) and I swept, but if it doesn't work out too well this gen, I'll probably take you up on that.

Also gonna check on that Gliscor.

 

[musicalbento]

On second thought, considering that (if the sun's up) donphan's water weakness is practically irrelevant, I may switch him in for ferrothorn, has more utility than forretress anyway.

 

[TheGreatMilenko]

You need a rapid spinner on this team really bad.

 

[musicalbento]

You need a rapid spinner on this team really bad.

I fixed that up with Donphan, mistake on my part.

 

[musicalbento]

Also, what do you guys think of Whimsicott over Venusaur for Charizard? Granted Whimsicott takes a helluva lot more prediction, but I was looking at this standard set here:

Whimsicott (F) @ Leftovers
Bold
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Prankster
- Sunny Day/U-Turn
- Encore
- Leech Seed
- Taunt

I'm on the fence with the Sunny Day/U-Turn...and this is mainly to keep people from setting up on me, while I can pretty much force a switch on them (because I assume once they see Whimsicott they'll run in fear 'cause they can't Dragon Dance/Swords Dance/etc). I'm quite partial to the U-Turn because it'll help net some healing for my other teammates, but at the same time, my team needs the sun and if something unfortunate should befall Ninetales, I want to have a backup...

So what're your thoughts? Should I go with her? Should I use Sunny Day over U-Turn?

ETA: Another quick question (I'm no good with pokemon calculations it seems and I can't get my hands on a damage calculator)

Just how much damage would a sucker punch from Shiftry do to a Reuniclus? That's the deciding factor I have on keeping Charizard in at this point, considering Whimsicott could be a backup if Shiftry can't take it down.

 

[musicalbento]

Going to try out Whimsicott in place of Charizard to see how things go, shall post up my results later!

 

[musicalbento]

Update

So after quite an extensive bit of testing, Charizard is going to be put on the "bench" so to speak (he's fully EV trained and all that) for Whimsicott. I'm also switching out Donphan for Hitmontop, because he provides a bit of a better resist in other weather (i.e. Sandstorm) and he's bulky enough to take a couple hits and still manage to pull through here and there.

I'll add in sets and the like in a bit, I need to get some sleep before I pass out.