OU sun team

magibas

Hey guys, today was my first time on pokemon online. I looked around a bit on the forums for advice and took a look at the smogon strategies/setups as guides. Here's the sun team I came up, any help or recommendations would be greatly appreciated, thank you! :)

Salamence @Choice Scarf
Jolly, Moxie (optional)
EVs: Atk 252/ Spe 252/ SpA 4
-Outrage
-Dragonclaw
-Earthquake
-Fireblast

I like having a dragon type because of it's excellent coverage and most teams will have another dragon so I can use Salamence to outspeed them. Once I get outrage going it will usually kill anything in it's path, especially after the moxie boost. Fireblast is nice for any steel types, especially with sun boost. Dragonclaw is for when I don't wanna get locked in, and Earthquake is just there to cover any rock types that come in wanting to stone edge me.

Ninetales @Leftovers
Hardy, Drought
EVs: HP 252/ Def 120/ Spe 136
-Flamethrower
-Sunny Day
-Will-O-Wisp
-Substitute

So this is a hardy Ninetales (lol). It's meant to take a hit or two. I like it a lot because it is essential to my sun team and Will-O-Wisp has definitely saved me against some otherwise physical powerhouses. Drought sets up, sun, but if another weather pokemon comes in I can use Sunny Day. Substitute is there to stall for a bit with the leftovers, but I haven't found it too useful. My usual strategy with him is to gor the will-o-wisp on a physical attacker. Sometimes I use it on a steel type if I must, although I'd rather just use Salamence's fire blast.

Venasaur @Life Orb
Modest, Chlorophyll
EVs: SpA 252/ Spe 252/ HP 4
-Solar Beam
-Giga Drain
-Growth
-Sludge Bomb

If I can't set up sunlight, I go for the giga drain, if I have, I go or the solarbeam. Growth boosts Venasaur to monstrous levels and sludge bomb can be useful for its typing and possible poison plus STAB. He's kind of what this team is built around.

Rotom W @Mystic Water
Modest, Levitate
EVs: HP 232 / SpA 56 / Spe 220
-Thunderbolt
-Thunderwave
-Hydro Pump
-Pain Split

This guy is my answer to water types mostly. Also flying and ground or rock types. Hydro Pump is great for it's stab. Same thing with Thunderbolt. Thunderwave is great to annoy my opponent. I haven't really used pain split and am not sure how to use it successfully.

Donphan @Earth Plate
Impish, Sturdy
EVs: Hp 252/ Def 252 / Spe 4
-Earthquake
-Rapid Spin
-Stealth Rock
-Gunk Shot

Earthquake is standard on Donphan. It's just a great move for him, but his real purpose is to get rid of entry hazards with rapid spin. Stealth rock is there to set up my own entry hazards but I haven't used it much in my battles today. Gunk shot is there because I feel like it's a really nasty surprise coming from Donphan and most people won't expect it. It has great power and a chance of poising. Plus, that name sounds so dirty and raunchy, I knew I had to have that move on him.

Dugtrio @Focus Sash
Jolly, Arena Trap
EVs: Atk 252/ Def 4/ Spe 252
-Earthquake
-Reversal
-Stone Edge
-Sucker Punch

Digtrio. As retarded as he is, I like him on this team. He can come in to hit someone quick with an earthquake and then die so I can switch into something better. Most of the time I can get two hits, one where I outspeed them and one after I survive with focus sash. And when I do get outsped, I can hit at least once because of Focus Sash. Ston Edge is nice for them pesky flying types. I still don't really understand reversal and haven't used it much. Sucker punch is useful for any ghost types. Also if I know I'm going to be outsped, I can piss them off with sucker punch.

So overall this team has done decently. I've had about a 60% win ratio, and several forfeits after Salamence got into outrage, or Venesaur used solarbeam once or twice. I'm just looking for ways to make an awesome sun team. I'm thinking of possibly using Starmie in place of either Donphan or Rotom-W. I've also been thinking of a second Dragon like on here instead of Dugtrio. What do y'all think.
 
Alright, first off, go ahead and change solarbeam on Venusaur to HP Fire. This will allow Venusaur to not be walled cold hard by any steel type (cough ferrothorn cough). Secondly, PLEASE change Ninetales' nature to Timid. Hardy is useless, there is no reason why you should be running that. Next, Gunk Shot is WORTHLESS on Donphan, ice shard is a MUST to revenge kill dragons, which your team is really weak to. Also, change earth plate to leftovers, and on Rotom-Wash, change mystic water to leftovers, and change thunderbolt to volt switch. With volt switch, you'll be able to keep up the momentum and force your opponent in a tough pickle.

That seems to be everything I can think of without changing your team's members. Have fun with the changes!
 
Hey, this is a pretty good start for building a sun team. But there are a few gaping holes here.

Firstly, I think you might be playing with item clause in mind. Remember there is no item clause in OU, so replace Mystic Water and Earth Plate with Leftovers on Rotom-W and Donphan.

Secondly on Donphan, Gunk Shot really only gives you coverage over Grass types. The 3 most used Grass types in OU are Venasaur, Ferrothorn and Celebi. The first two are immune / resistant to Gunk Shot, while Celebi is neutral and has Natural Cure to remove the poison status. In place of it, Ice Shard allows you to check Dragons especially opposing Salamence and Latios.

The guy above me already suggested using HP Fire on Venasaur, and I second that. Without it, Ferrothorn would have a field day in front of Venasaur.

Lastly you used a Jolly nature on Salamence, which gives +Spe,-SpA. You invest 4 EVs in SpA then use a nature which cuts down your SpA, thus undermining its Fire Blast. I would suggest using Naive or Hasty nature, keeping both attack stats intact. Moxie shouldn't be optional, you should definitely use it as Scarf Moxie Salamence can be a great revenge killer and late game sweeper.

Good luck for the future.
 
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