My First Sun Team

[PokeLink09]

As you may know, weather has had a great impact in the OU tier in Gen 5. I always tried making weather teams before, but they always failed. A few weeks back, I made my first Sun Team. I found a large amount of success in this team, and I want to share with you this team.

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Ninetales @ Leftovers
Drought
EVs: 4 SpA / 252 HP / 252 SpD
Calm Nature (+SpD, -Atk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Solarbeam
- Pain Split
- Flamethrower

Ninetales is an essential part to this team as she sets up the sun with Drought. I decided to use a more bulky Ninetales set focused of Sp.Def, and I feel it works pretty well. Will-O-Wisp is very useful on physical attackers such as Scizor and Salamence that are a major OU threat. Since Ninetales has a SpD investment, Will-O-Wisp allows it to take physical attacks as well. Pain Split is a great recovery move that I find useful on many walls. Ninetales isn't that slow, so it can out speed some opponents that are at full health and use Pain Split to recover some health; which has saved me many times. Solarbeam and Flamethrower are two attacks that Ninetales can hit hard with. It doesn't need to charge up on Solarbeam since Ninetales sets up the sun, and Ninetales gets a nice STAB and boost from the sun on its Flamethrower. There are many steel types in OU, so Flamethrower always comes in handy.

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Donphan @ Leftovers
Sturdy
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 HP / 252 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SpA)
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Seed Bomb
- Ice Shard

Donphan is a very important supporter on my team. Since my team has quite a few Fire Types, Donphan is there to Rapid Spin and Stealth Rocks or hazards away. Donphan also sets up Stealth Rocks, which is always good for breaking Sturdy and Focus Sash. He has Seed Bomb for any Politoeds that might replace my Sun with Rain. Ice Shard is a good priority move in this tier due to the large amount of threats that are weak to ice, like Garchomp and Dragonite.

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Chansey @ Eviolite
Natural Cure
EVs: 4 SpD / 252 HP / 252 Def
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic
- Aromatherapy
- Softboiled
- Seismic Toss

Chansey is a solid wall and cleric on this team. OU runs amok with status inflicting Pokemon, like Jirachi and Blissey. Chansey has Arometherapy to get rid of any status conditions that can cripple my team, like having one of my sweepers Paralyzed. Chansey has Toxic to inflict poison on any threats, which Chansey then uses Softboiled to heal damage will the opponent is taking Toxic damage. This makes Chansey a great staller and a Pokemon I can always switch into if I can't directly take out one of the opponent's Pokemon.

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Venasaur @ Life Orb
Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spe / 252 SpA
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Growth
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power Fire

Venasaur is the first sweeper on my team. Venasaur is a monster in the sun, as its ability doubles its Speed in the sun. On top of that, Growth is a great move in the sun as it raises both the Atk and SpA by 2, making Venasuar a real threat. Giga Drain is a great move as it had a solid base power and how it heals damage from Venasaur. This is exceptionally useful with the Life Orb as it heals any damage lost from the Life Orb/ Sludge Bomb is there more a solid move that can be used on Dragon types, and Hidden Power Fire provides great coverage. Giga Drain and Sludge Bomb can't hurt Pokemon like Scizor or Gengar, so Hidden Power Fire allows Venasaur to hit those Pokemon hard.

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Victini @ Choice Scarf
Victroy Star
EVs: 4 SpD / 252 Spe / 252 Atk
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- U-Turn
- Zen Headbutt

Victini is my scarfed user in this team. Victini was blessed with 100 in each stat, which allows it to serve as a good sweeper and moderately take attacks. Victini's ability makes it so all o y attacks on this set become more accurate, which is very useful. V-create is Victini's strongest attack, but the downside is that it lowers Victini's Speed, SpD, and Def. Since Victini is scarfed, it can still out speed a large number of things with one Speed drop. Bolt Strike is another strong move that is usefu for taking out Gyarados, which can be a big threat to my team. U-Turn deals solid damage and allows me to call Victini back, which is very useful aganst things like Alakazam and Latios. Zen Headbutt is a powerful attack with STAB that is used against Pokemon that wall this set, like Hippowdon or Gastrodon.

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Conkeldurr @ Flame Orb
Guts
EVs: 4 SpD / 252 HP / 252 Atk
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- Bulk Up
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch
- Drain Punch

Conkeldurr is a bulky sweeper that is very useful on threats like Blissey and Terrakion. Conkeldurr's ability makes it so its Atk gets boosted when under a status condition, which is great once the Flame Orb activates. Bulk Up allows Conkeldurr to boost its stats when waiting for the Flame Orb to activate or when predicting a switch on the opponent's side. Ice Punch provides good coverage on Dragon types. The downside of the Flame Orb is that Conkeldurr takes damage each turn, so Drain Punch deals a large amount of damage while healing any burn damage. Finally, Mach Punch is there to make up or Conkeldurr's poor Speed, allowing it to hit the opponent before they can hit him.

That was my Sun Team. Please leave any suggestions you have in the comments; feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

[Trinitrotoluene]

Hey. This is a very interesting sun team, but I think a few tweaks can make your team much stronger than it is right now. Right now, opposing dragons look like a massive issue for your team to deal with, since Donphan, your main physical wall, is 2HKOed by a Choice Band-boosted Outrage from Garchomp and Dragonite. Offensive variants of Volcarona also look like massive issues for your team since it can score a boost against every member of your team bar Chansey and sweep your team clean with only SR on the field. First off, swapping your Donphan out for a Defensive Forretress helps resolve your problem against the first group of threats, as well as Mamoswine, thanks to Forretress's convenient resistance to Dragon- and Ice-type moves. Forretress also allows your team to keep its SR setter and spinner, and besides, it's not as though Donphan is a reliable answer to Politoed. More importantly, having Forretress on your team gives you a pivot by which you can bring your frailer elements onto the battlefield in relative safety. As for your second issue, I think switching Victini's nature from Adamant to Jolly, Chansey's nature from Bold to Calm, and Chansey's EV spread to 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD should keep it down. The first change gives your Victini the ability to speed tie with the fastest of Volcarona and Jirachi after one boost, significantly improving your chances against it, while the last two changes make Chansey an even more reliable switch-in to Volcarona, Heatran, and Politoed, among other special threats. Victini's loss of dynamic power is negated by the sun's presence, so that should be a non-issue for you. Also, since you lack Sunny Day on your Ninetales, I earnestly think that you should swap out SolarBeam on Ninetales for Roar or Hidden Power [Rock]. The former allows Ninetales to take on a phazing role, punishing greedy set-up sweepers that think Ninetales is a doormat that they can step upon without any repercussions, while the latter pops any Air Balloons Heatran may hold. Choose the one that fits best for your team.

Now, for a few nitpicks. I don't like your Conkeldurr set. It dies way too quickly for my tastes, and the use of the status orb cuts Conkeldurr's precious time short. Now, I'd like to see you run an All-Out Attacker set over your current Conkeldurr set. This gives you a much more durable attacker which can give and take more punishment than your current set. Anyways, that's really all I have for now. A summarized list of changes can be seen below.

Sets:

Forretress @ Leftovers | Sturdy
Relaxed | 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD | 0 Spe
Stealth Rock | Rapid Spin | Gyro Ball | Volt Switch

Conkeldurr @ Life Orb | Sheer Force
Adamant | 120 HP / 252 Atk / 136 SpD
Drain Punch | Ice Punch | ThunderPunch | Mach Punch

Changes:

• 
  ====>
  
• 
  • Adamant nature ====> Jolly nature
• 
  • 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Bold ====> 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD Calm
• 
  • SolarBeam ====> Roar / Hidden Power [Rock]

Nitpick:

• 
  • Current set ====> All-Out Attacker set

Good luck with your team.

 

[TransparentOpacity]

Solar beam is a pretty bad move on ninetales since you can't use it if the other team still has a weather starter. If you select that move, and they switch in toed, ttar, hippo, or abomasnow, then you are forced to charge it up, and they will KO you.

Ninetales' main purpose is to win the weather war, so you'd be better off using a move like Sunny Day. This way, if they switch politoed into you, you can use Sunny Day and override their rain. Ninetales takes little damage to politoed's attacks in Sun with max HP/SpD.

If you don't like that, I would at least use Protect over Solarbeam, to stall WoW damage, predict attacks, and get lefties recovery.