My OU Sun Team

Illuminati Just

This is my first sun team. I already have a rain team that does great competitively, but I am having a hard time with sun. Give me any feedback that is necessary!

Ninetales @ Leftovers
100 Def 252 HP 156 Spec. Def
Bold Nature
Ability: Drought
Moves:
Will-O-Wisp
Substitute
Flamethrower
Protect

Ninetales is the only choice for a sun summoner in OU, of course. I gave it Protect so it can scout its opponent's moves. Will-O-Wisp cripples physical attackers in their tracks by cutting the attack stat. Substitute guards Ninetales if your opponent switches, and Flamethrower gives Ninetales an accurate sun-boosted move to somewhat defend itself, and prevent it from being Taunt bait.

Porygon2 @Eviolite
252 HP/184 Def/72 Spec. Def
Bold Nature
Ability: Trace
Moves:
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Recover
Toxic

Porygon2 is an absolute beast, sporting some of the best defensive stats the OU metagame has to offer. This set is your typical Defensive Duck set. Having decent defensive stats already, Eviolite boosts them to insane levels. A 432 Defense stat right off the bat helps Porygon2 take a Fighting-Type hit or two from physical attackers, and a 366 Special Defense stat isn't too shabby, either. The BoltBeam combination gives Porygon2 amazing coverage, and Recover combines with Toxic to further improve Porygon2's tanking/stalling abilities.

Donphan @ Leftovers
Impish Nature
252HP/252 Def/4 Atk
Ability: Sturdy
Moves:
Earthquake
Stealth Rock
Rapid Spin
Ice Shard

Donphan is an effective Rapid Spinner, sporting a 372 Defense stat with an Impish nature, and priority Ice Shard helps Donphan revenge-kill Dragon types like Dragonite and Salamence, or Ground-Flying-Types such as Gliscor and Landorus fairly easily. It is very physically bulky, allowing it to take physical hits, and its uninvested attack allows it to defend itself to some degree with STAB Earthquake. Overall, this Pokémon can play a valuable role as a Rapid Spinner on many teams, but don't use it against special attackers like Volcarona, Venusaur, or Starmie, as they will OHKO Donphan on the spot. Venusaur must watch out for Ice Shard, however.

Umbreon @ Leftovers
Bold Nature
252 Def/252 Spec. Def/4HP
Ability: Synchronize
Moves:
Foul Play
Yawn
Protect
Moonlight

Umbreon is part of my defensive core. It uses Foul Play against physical Choice Band and Life Orb users, taking advantage of their own strength. Moonlight gives it 66% HP recovery in sun, making it a great fit for this team. Yawn helps shuffle your opponent's team around, helps rack up Stealth Rock damage, and if your opponent doesn't switch, you cripple one of his or her Pokémon for the entirety of the match. Protect is your typical run-of-the-mill scouting move, helping to ease prediction. This set helps Umbreon become a defensive threat, and helps it to balance well with Porygon2

Victini @ Choice Scarf
Adamant Nature
252 Atk/252 Speed/4 Def
Ability: Victory Star
Moves:
Bolt Strike
U-Turn
Trick
V-Create

Victini is the premier Fire-Type sun sweeper on this team. Bolt Strike protects Victini against bulky Water-Type Pokémon, giving them a nasty surprise. U-Turn allows Victini to scout and maintain offensive momentum while dealing decent damage. Trick cripples defensive and stalling Pokémon, locking them into a single move. A sun-boosted V-Create tears holes in any Pokémon, even resists. Victini was necessary on this team in my opinion. I ran a Choice Scarf set because I feared a Jolly natured Choice Band set, while being immensely powerful, wouldn't be fast enough, and an Adamant, STAB, Sun-Boosted, 180 Base Power move coming off of a 328 Attack stat would be all that Victini needed.

Venusaur @ Life Orb
Timid Nature
72HP/4 Def/252 Spec. Attack/180 Speed
Ability: Chlorophyll
Moves:
Growth
Sleep Powder
Giga Drain
Hidden Power Fire

This is a typical Chlorophyll Sweeper set. Sleep Powder inflicts crippling status, but its 75% accuracy is shaky. Growth in the sun boosts Venusaur's Attack and Special Attack by 2 stages instead of just one, making Ninetales's support crucial to the functioning of this team. Also, Chlorophyll boosts Venusaur's speed by 2x its original amount, making its speed stat 506 instead of just 253. Giga Drain heals HP lost by Life Orb boosts and residual damage, while Hidden Power Fire gives Venusaur a Pseudo-STAB Fire-Type move to target other Grass-Types, Ice-Types, or Grass resists on the switch-in. With the rest of the team supporting it, Venusaur can potentially destroy your opponent's side of the field.

So, give me any feedback you like, and don't hold back, as I am still relatively new to the competitive metagames here at Smogon. Tell me any changes that you deem necessary.
 
If you want to add a little defense into a Sun team, you really need to make sure that you have resists, or at least responses to Dragon and Ground type attacks. Lacking a resist in either of these two prevalent types makes life difficult for sun teams, as they are usually required to sack a pokemon in order to bring an offensive weapon in. Choice Banded Outrages from Dragonite will hurt this team, and it gets chances to switch in on things like Venusaur and Victini in certain situations, as well as Umbreon. Latias and Latios are a little problematic, but at least you have Umbreon to deal with those two. Even so, Umbreon looks like simply a defensive pivot which doesn't contribute much to the offensive efficiency of your team, because Sun teams should be nailing teams down with sheer power rather than stalling out with an Umbreon. Sun is primarily an offensive style, but there are still ways you can try and have a little more bulk.

Another problem is that opposing weather teams will severely hinder your ability to do much. For the most part, things like Politoed, Hippowdon, and Tyranitar are able to switch freely in and out of these team, especially because you have defensive pokemon that act as red flags for your opponent to simply switch in their weather pokemon and destroy your momentum, which absolutely sucks. Dugtrio is a common staple on Sun teams because it helps alleviate this issue. Sun teams, especially yours, need to trap pokemon like Heatran, Tyranitar, etc. pronto. Heatran in particular is a pokemon you can't touch at all without Porygon2. And if that Heatran was specially defensive on a sand stall team, you would be screwed. It will just use Protect to scout any moves your Victini might pull (such as trick), Donphan can't switch reliably into Heatran, and Umbreon has the same problem as Porygon2 in that it would be screwed over by Toxic. You need Dugtrio on this team because you are letting other weather styles and pokemon run rampant with the presence of the defensive core.

Cresselia is a pokemon that works particularly well under sun. It's a niche pokemon, that while not OU, serves an important role on Sun teams in providing the response to threatening Dragon types and a ground immunity, making it a great switch in for things like Gliscor, Dragonite, Salamence, Landorus, and Garchomp to name a few. Moonlight gains a boost in the Sun as well, and is probably a better idea than Umbreon if you want to keep having some sort of defense. This will somewhat cover your weaknesses to Dragons and gives you a much needed Ground immunity.

And, as stated before, Duggy over Porygon2. It's difficult for sun teams to capitalize on defense, because there really isn't much going for it defensively. And you absolutely need the ability to trap on a team that can't particularly handle other weather users or Heatran very well. Heck, since you have Stealth Rock on Donphan, you can have more freedom with Dugtrio's moveset as well. It's also worth noting that Dugtrio and Cresselia work well together because Cresselia handles things like Dragonite and Lati@s pretty well, while Dugtrio does well against things like Tyranitar and Heatran which Cresselia can't touch at all. And while you lose out on some defense running these two, Cresselia is more than enough defense on a Sun team, as your main objective is to be sweeping lategame with Victini and Venusaur -- don't stray from that goal.

Cresselia@Leftovers
Bold 248 hp / 252 def / 8 spd
Moonlight/Toxic/Ice Beam/Psychic

Dugtrio@Focus Sash
Jolly 252 atk / 252 spe /4 hp
Earthquake/Stone Edge/Sucker Punch/Reversal
 
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