They say that at this current time, the sun is the furthest from the Earth, so how about we bring it back?
This is my Guide to building a Sunny Day team in the Gen 9 National Dex...
So to start things of, let's go with the basics, Sun teams are very similar to those of Hyper Offense, very aggressive. However unlike those teams that setup screens and bombard the field with hazards, Sun teams rely on weather, which has huge benefits thanks to Increasing Fire type attacks by 50%, and triggering certain abilites like Solar Power, Chlorophyll, and the newest ability added this gen, Protosynthesis. Your main goal in Sun teams is to Setup Sun(through a Drought user, not manual) and abuse the sun's presence and make the most of it.
I'm gonna ranking the following mons as follows:
This emote will be my approval of this pokemon as being effective for this strategy, and the more happy whoppers, the better.
1 whopper means it is effective, yet not necessary.
2 whoppers means is solid, and can be used more frequently and to great effect.
And 3 means it is a must have, it's either a key piece for the team, or it's just way to good to pass over.
As for this one would be my denial, either the mon either doesmt do much of good use, its outclassed by another mon in the role, or just isn't good at all.
First, the setters:
Torkoal is mainly here for setup the Sun for the team. thanks to Drought. Torkoal can also provides us with some hazard control with Stealth Rock, as well as use some status moves like Will-O-Wisp, Toxic and Yawn. Unfortunately Torkoal just, doesn't seem to do much besides set the temple, it's rather passive, and Fire type isn't really good defensively. However it's not all gloom and doom for our turtle friend, thanks to Terastalization, Torkoal can change it's typing to either Water or Grass. Water is one of the best defensive typings plus it gives him neutrality to Stealth Rock, while Grass give him a Ground resistance, which can be crucial sometimes. However, this does come at the cost of offensive prowess that can be used on another mon in the team, so use it only when needed.
If I see that your team has this as the sun setter, your team is already flawed. Ninetales isn't good at all for the roll, as it just doesn't do much of anything. Similarly passive as the turtle, but overall worse. it is physically frail, and while 100 spdef isn't bad, it can't be compared to torkoal's 140 physical defense and like Torkoal, Fire typing isn't very good defensively. Yes, Tera would be useful, but that is better reserved for one of your sweepers, which Ninetales just isn't part of. It is fast at 100, but that is average in comparison to the speedsters in this metagame. Sure it has some cute moves like Pain Split, which is a good point over Torkoal, and can try and sweep with Nasty Plot, but even this isn't enough to justify it. So unless you do not play seriously, do not pick this one.
Chlorophyll abusers:
Perhaps the first Chlorophyll that comes to the mind of many players, and for good reason. Venusaur under sun is quite the speedster, reaching 518 speed with only Modest nature 252 speed investment. on top of that, it is respectfully bulky, which is welcomed on a swepper, and while 100 spatk is just average, it can boost its spatk further thanks to Growth. I mean, what else can I say other than its prhaps the best Chlorophyll abuser rn? With its combination of decent typing and coverage, Venusaur can mold threw teams given the right circumstances. My tera recomendation would be either Grass or Fire, as Grass can be usefull for boosting Giga Drain, while Fire can boost Weather Ball.
The newest Chlorophyll mon is quite interesting, as it is the first Fire type with said ability, and it's also the first Fire/Grass type(which I personally been waiting for.) This means that it gets boosted by Stab as well as Sun, and with 108 on both attack stats, this makes it even more explosive than Venusaur. But as good as that is, it's also pretty weak defensively, 65 in Hp and both defenses is quite terrible, and this mon is even slower than Venusaur as well, with 75 speed, meanwhile the starter has 80. It's movepool is underwhelming as well.(It has Fire Fang as it's best Fire physical attack, yikes) However it can also make the most of Growth as it can run a mixed set reliably, with moves like Fire Blast, Flamethower, Solar Beam, Giga Drain, Stomping Tantrum, Crunch, Zen Headbutt(be creative). Overall while flawed, it is full of potential, and it can be played over Venusaur and still perform decently. Fire is the recomended Tera for a lil' extra spicy kick. Alternatively, it can use Tera Blast of either Ground or Ice for a fully special based swepper, do that requires you to dedicate him as the mon to Tera if you don't mind that.
(Pokemon Home Dlc)
Pokemon home sure brought us some cool stuff. From the likes of solid pokes like Hisuian Samurott, to broken ones like Ursaluna nadSneasler, to some well, not so great like Hisuian Avalugg. So where does Hisuian Lilligant ended up in? Well for sun teams, I wouldn't call it horrible, as it has an amazing signature move in Victory Dance, a physical clone a Quiver Dance. do with Chlorophyll and an already decent speed of 105, the +1 speed seems almost unnecessarily, so Swords Dance might fit in better. It has a decent 105 attack stat as well, so after a boost it can get pretty nasty. The real issue with Hisui lilligant is its lackluster offensive prowess. Grass Fighting isnt necessarily bad, but far from an ideal offensive typing, nothing like a sun sweeper getting blocked by Gholdengo and Corviknight. It also doesn't help that it has pitiful coverage options, sure Ice Spinner can be cool. but it isnt always going to with the targets u truly want, like say... Gholdengo. Now thankfully it can fix these issues with Terraztalization, which would allow it to use Tera Fire and benefit even more from the sun. But this also means you must keep it exclusively to H lilli, and some other pokes may want teras offensive or even defensive capabilities in some scenarios, a perfect examples is when u face a Rain team, Torkoal can actually make use of Tera Water in order to withstand attacks from Basculegion and Mega Swampert, which can keep him alive much longer.
Now as a physical chlorophyll mon, Leafeon is kinda ok, 110 atk is good, and 90 on a mon with this ability is actually excellent, as you can just make Leafeon adamant for even more power. The issue with it it's the coverage, it is almost non existent, and sure, there is Tera Blast to help in the regard, Tera Fire can give it good coverage that is further boosted by sun. All of this in paper sounds great, and it can work, but in practice, you're left wanting more.
Similar to Leafeon, only that with some coverage, it has Play Rough is excellent for Fighting and Dragon types(R.I.P Kommo-O), Megahorn, Zen Headbutt and Jump Kick are fine options as well. It has Horn Leech, a physical version of Giga Drain, it gets STAB in Return and Double-Edge, and has access to both Swords Dance and Agility(do extra speed seems somewhat unnecessary) 100 atk fine, but a 95 speed Chlorophyll mon is super fast, to give numbers, it reaches 578 speed with Adamant(If only Regieleki has stood in the tier to witness such a blitz) all that sounds good and all but even with this it's outclassed by Leafeon, and Leafeon isn't really good either. Grass Tera or Normal seem to be it's best fit. you can also try Tera Fire with Tera Blast if you don't him being the dedicated Tera user.(still, just use venusaur or scovillain for the roles)
I'm gonna stop here and say that the grand majority of Chlorophyll mons aren't really worth it as all you really need is 1-2 mons, and Venusaur atm is the best of the bunch, with Scovillain being second, there are some that can be tested like the Sawsbuck and Leafeon if you wanna try, But overall, Venusaur and Scovillain are the only good Chlorophyll mons for now.
Protosyntesis abusers= To give reminder for those unfamiliar, Protosyntesis is a new ability added to Scarlet and Violet, and it gives the pokemon a +1 stat boost on its highest stat invested while either holding the Energy Booster item, or while under Sun. so yeah, excellent ability for the strategy.
This new Donphan(or old should I say) is amazing. It is perhaps the best pokemon with this ability, a solid atk, defense and hp, great typing, great utility, but what is really great for sun particular is Protosynthesis, which boostes the highest stat while holding Energy Boster, or, in Sun. 87 speed aint amazing, but it can do work, with Rapid Spin giving it now a +1 speed while removing the hazards for the team, it also has outstanding movepool, Earthquake, Close Combat, Headlong Rush are all solid moves with high base power. Coverage options in Knock off, Ice Spinner and Play Rough are also worth mentioning. It can also reliably be used offensively or defensively, do I recommend a more offensive approach for this one, it's respectfully tanky without any investment in defense, and this can allow to bash threw while supporting the team with its utility movepool. Now it isn't perfect, while 131 def is great, 53 spdef is not, so it has to run away from most(if not all) special attackers, for example, it's a decently good check to Dragon Dance Dragapult, but it doesn't do good at all if the pult is Choice Specs. But it is definitely the Landorus-T of this team, a lil too good to pass over. for Tera options Ground is solid for removing weaknesses while keeping offensive pressure. Alternatively, Flying can be used for a ground immunity(you're gonna need those.)
I have mixed feelings for Slither Wing, it has high highs but also low lows. First the highs, High Atk at 135, decent special bulk at 105, and overall a powerhouse, First Impression and Close Combat are excellent moves to have. It has many moves to run too, Flare Blitz to receive a Sun boost, Wild Charge, Earthquake, Dual Wingbeat for coverage, Morning Sun for massive healing, and Flame Charge or Trailblaze to fix it's speed. With that being said, let's go with the bad, that 81 speed tier is leaving something to be desired. and while bulky, it's typing can be exploited by Fairy, Psychic, Fire, Rock and specially Flying types. However this is no Ramphardos, it can solve it's speed issues with priority as well as the speed boosting moves, and it's typing does have some good mu's like Grass, Dark and Ground. Overall, it could have been better yes, but it can be used if played well. For Tera types, Bug is ok for boost up U-turn and First Impression, but Fighting and Fire are great for Close Combat and Flare Blitz respectively.
This one gave me headaches to rate because appearently, no one uses it. It has decent potential do, 121 spatk is good, 101 speed is lol, and while not a tank, 97 def and 85 spdef are decent alongside 85 hp. The main I issue with Sandy Shocks is the movepool, Almost like Regieleki levels of bad. It naturally doesn't have a good way for with Ground types for supereffective, and 101 speed is nothing for the overall fast metagame, you can make up for it by just running 208 spatk investment with 252 speed plus timid, and the rest can be dumped in hp or defenses to gain +1 speed in Sun instead of Spatk and then add a boost item like Life Orb or Choice Specs. and like Regieleki, it can make his coverage issues a thing of the past(Get it? he is from the past... anyway) by changing into Tera Ice for the ever wanted VoltBeam coverage. I gave a Psyduck emote since I can't really tell whether it's good or not, but in my opinion, as long you don't mind using Tera exclusively for Sandy Shocks, it has the potential to be very effective in the Sun.
I don't really think you want this on your sun imo. It has decent bulk in 99 in both defenses(9999...) and an atk stat of 127 is nothin' to sneeze at, but overall feels gimmicky. it typing has pros and cons(Nothin like using it to tank a hit, only lose to a U-Turn) 55 speed is bad, so forget sweeping with it reliably, and overall sun is an aggressive playstyle, which this doesn't spell the word "aggressive" to me. You can try if you like, but to me, there is just better options in general.
DON'T
Unless you want to meme with it, really, DON'T.
Megas:
Perhaps the first Mega that comes to mind when it comes to sun(Or megas in general) Mega Yard on its own it really good, it's just, not that needed for sun, Sure it can be used as a backup Drought, but a lot of the times, it's not needed, plus Yard holding the Mega Stone means that it can't use Heat Rock to extend the Sun's duration, so u only get 5 turns instead of 8. Then there is the very little minor drawback of it's quad Stealth Rock weakness(yeah, pretty minor) so you're gonna need extra support in order to remove hazards, which isn't always ideal considering u rather waste those turns swinging at the opponent's face. Still, if you REALLY want a backup Drought, and can also make up for the pebbles, it can be a fine choice.
If you ever wanted to play Chi-yu but can't cause it's banned? then sun teams have a great alternative. It has a respectable 115 speed stat, along with a whopping 140 spatk, but more important it's ability, Solar Power, which boost the mons power by 50% while in the sun, at the cost of 1/8 of Hp every turn. With all this Fire power on its finger tips, this thing can really just get in(if done safely) and start blastin'. Here are is a calc that many would be shocked with.
+2 252 SpA Solar Power Houndoom-Mega Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Toxapex in Sun: 263-310 (86.5 - 101.9%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
As if that wasn't enough. it has access to Nasty Plot, further boosting its firepower. Mega Doom is a pretty decent option for a mega in sun, it just seems to be designed for it.
At first glance this one seems odd, as it's ability has nothing to do with sun at all, however it is definitely worth the mega slot for a number of reasons. 1, its titanic 170 atk makes the likes of even Mega Houndoom look weak. 2, it appreciates the ability to use Fire Fangs to deal with certain mons it could struggle with like Corviknight, and while Fire Fang is rather weak at 65 base power, coming out of a 170 atk and under sun makes it feel like a Flare Blitz. and sure, it mega evolving does make him slower which is bad, however Chomp here has access to Scale Shot to make up for it, and after 1 Swords Dance, things just drop dead in front of it. 2 of the 3 Unaware mons used, Clodsire and Skeledirge take serious damage from Earthquake, her are some calcs to show the numbers:
252 Atk Garchomp-Mega Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Clodsire: 432-510 (93.1 - 109.9%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Garchomp-Mega Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skeledirge: 288-342 (69.9 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
as you can see, both are 2hkoed, even a fully physically defensive clodsire has slightly above 50% chance to be ohkoed(without stealth rocks up btw) and the other lesser used one, Dondozo, lacks a good recovery move and has to rely on the universal Rest, which can be exploited by teammates like Venusaur and Scovillain.
252 Atk Garchomp-Mega Scale Shot (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Dondozo: 225-270 (44.6 - 53.5%) -- approx. 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
And while its ability Sand Force does nothing in sun, it also provides the team a better chance against sand teams, boosting its Earthquakes by 30%, getting the jump on mons like Tyranitar, Excadrill and Dracozolt that are often seen in sand teams. Overall while it may look odd, it will make sense once you try it.
Other options:
It is true that Blaziken has fallen from grace, however, I am a strong believer that he is still worth in sun teams. Speed Boost is an amazing ability for offense, and while 80 speed isn't great, if you can get it going, it can be hard to stop. Do Life orb may be attractive for the extra firepower, Blaziken just gets worned down too quickly, but an item that's worth running is Firium Z, after a Swords Dance under the Sun this chicken can do massive damage output, here are some calcs for reference:
+2 252 Atk Blaziken Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex in Sun: 244-288 (80.2 - 94.7%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252 Atk Blaziken Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro in Sun: 297-349 (75.3 - 88.5%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252 Atk Blaziken Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash in Sun: 301-355 (99 - 116.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252 Atk Blaziken Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tapu Fini in Sun: 287-338 (83.4 - 98.2%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
(Seems like someone else is getting fried...)
Now if you did read these calcs, you probably realized that all 4 are Water types, and for a heads up, the Blaziken for this calcs is Jolly Nature. If that didn't convinced you, I don't know what will.
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Another mon that has also fallen, do not the same levels as Blaziken, but it has a place in here as well. A scarf set gives a ton if utility for sun, it can shut down some roadblocks with Final Gambit, U-turn is good for pivoting, and V-Create is powerful under sun. Bolt Strike can be used for coverage, and Trick can be used to ruin pesky walls and passive mons like Toxapex, Dondozo, and Skeledirge. and as a second option, it can run a Normalium Z to use Z-Celbrate and get an omniboost. And it has moves to mix and match too, Blue Flare, Bolt Strike, Energy Ball, Thunderbolt, Searing Shot, Zen Headbutt, and the dreaded Stored Power. If running the scarf variant, Tera Fire for the firepower can be a good choice.
Tornadus-Therian has been having a wonderful time in NDOU ever since it joined the tier, so why not use it in sun as well? It does learns Heat Wave after all. But seriously, this mon brings a tone of value for sun teams, its a Flying type, giving us a Ground immunity, it also has a great speed stat at 121, a solid 110 spatk stat, and comes with the caveat of Regenerator as its ability, meaning that even with rocks up, it can have a shot at sticking around. It does appreciate Heavy Duty Boots do, for not being crippled by the pebbles, but it can also be a great Flynium Z abuser, with it's new move, Bleakwind Storm, replacing Hurricane for a more accurate move at 80%. What's more its movepool can let it go places, Heat Wave, Focus Blast, U-Turn, Taunt, Defog, and Nasty Plot can Knock Off. It can either play the role of a defogger, or it can join in the sweeping fun with Nasty Plot. for Tera Type, Flying, Fighting or Fire work well respectably.
Tapu Lele may not be abusing the sun very much, but that doesn't prevent it from being a valuable pokemon for the team. It's main benefit comes with the ability Psychic Surge, which can summon Psychic Terrain to give a boost psychic moves by 30%, which is great for Tapu Lele, Wait, hold on... I tought this was a sun team, what does this have to do with sun at all? Well for the most part, it doesn't benefit from sun, but it is a great team player, since Psychic Terrain also comes with the bonus of preventing all sorts of priority moves, from Extreme Speed, to Sucker Punch, to even Prankster. This allows the team to bypass one of the few ways of out speeding the mons in our team, namely Venusaur, Scovillain, Blaziken, and Mega Garchomp, Scovillain for example loves the prevention of Sucker Punches and Extreme Speeds from the likes of Dragapult, Dragonite, and Kingambit, considering the pepper's frailty. What's more it can be a decent revenger killer with Choice Scarf, boost itself even further with Choice Specs, and even take advantage of its decent special bulk with Assault Vest. And it enjoys pairing up with sun as well, since most mons in the team can easily handle the steel types like Ferrothorn, Heatran, and Gholdengo that can get in its way, plus it can throw some mean Hidden Power Fires if you want to take advantage of the sun in some way. Best Tera types for it are Psychic and Fairy for a free adaptability.
If Tapu Lele uses sun very little to its benefits, at least it does that, Rotom-Wash wont even bother with Hidden Power Fire, perhaps a Will-O-Wisp if it can fit it in the move set. However like Tornadus-Therian it brings a beneficial ground immunity, but while Tornadus-T might be an offense mon, this one is more of a defensive one, with solid 107 defenses it can be use as the teams defensive backbone, it does a nice pairing with Great Tusk for a defensive core, and while both are weak to grass, this team can set a forest fire if they were allowed to...(poor Smokey), it's typing its excellent defensively as its only weak to grass thanks go Levitate, it can resist the Water attacks aimed at the Fire Types of the team, as well as Ice ones aimed at the Grass types, and Ground types benefit from both of these. it also has decent utility options, Will-O-Wisp, Toxic or Thunder Wave for a crippling status, Defog for hazard removal, Pain Split for a form of recovery, Volt Switch for momentum grabbing, allowing mons like Scovillain and Blaziken to hit the field safely, and it can even run a Choice Scarf set with Trick to cripple walls and passive mons. However one thing I will mention is that Washtom doesn't need Tera as much, since it won't be using it offensively and defensively he is already good, but if I were to mention a type, Steel is excellent for it, as it allows to bypass its only weakness while being the best single defensive type in the game, while also kepping the ground immunity, making it ever tougher to deal with.
Gstrodon's main purpose is similar to that on Washtom's, a defensive backbone. Thanks to its ability Storm Drain, it can not only take Water type atacks, but it is immune to them, and gets a free spatk boost from it. Now its not like Gastro all of a sudden becomes a sweeper with this, specially with sun cutting down Water moves power, but it is a useful stopgap, it can patch certain holes a team might have, like if your team ran Torkoal, Blaziken, Mega Houndoom and Scovillain(yeah, rain teams would be more than happy to see a team with 4 Fire types under rain) Gastro can easily help patch this(do i would suggest to still prevent running too many Fire types, the power is good, but it comes at a cost) more than than, Gastro is quite the bulky special wall, with 115 hp and a decent 82 spdef, it has Recovery for be more annoying, Toxic for it to be less passive, and some decent special attacks like Scald, Ice Beam, Earth Power, Sludge, it can setup Stealth and/or Spikes, which is great for the team to cripple the opponent as much as possible, Yawn can force a switch or put a mon to sleep(the grand majority switch out of it btw) and all in all, it brings decent qualitites for the team. Like Washtom, Gastro doesn't really use Tera very much, but just like Washtom, Tera Steel seems best suiting.
Now it wouldn't be so nice to leave you in the dry right? Well for those ones who wanna play sun but don't know how to build one properly just yet, I came up with a team to get you started:
Well I hope those who read this article found it interesting, I am thinking to do a few like this, do there is no promises, just a possibility. Anyways I wanna give huge thanks for those that help me out on this post, A LOT, And I hope this was of good use
can be quite threatening as they take advantage of Zamazenta once it is locked into Close Combat, and these are mons you do not want to give free turns to in general. They also usually are annoying from preview since you have to take into account the fact that your opponent might decide to make the ballsy move of sending the ghost directly into against it, predicting CC - even though Crunch can be easily clickable as well in certain situations. Specs Pult also can engage into sack wars against Zamazenta late game.
deserve a mention because not only very defensive spreads can avoid the 2hko from anything Zamazenta can throw at it but also threatens it with paralysis. Other resists are pretty meh from what I saw, especially since they are either forced into passivity as they are immediately forced to click the recovery move, or can be pushed into the 2HKO range if you manage to chip them just a little (Choice Band Tera boosted CC is quite obscene lol), like with rocks for example. Tornadus-Therian is interesting as well : it can't really switch into it even with bulky spread but at least it can 1v1 it. I have never seen physdef Moltres ever but that probably can work too as it is a thing that avoid the 2hko from CC while being able to threaten Zamazenta with Flame Body.
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