Introduction
Hey all, back at it again with another NFE RMT. I know it's quite soon but considering the complete lack of NFE RMTs, my crippling boredom and my desire for attention, I'm back! This time, I'm coming at you with that hot hot hot ~sun~. I've had a fair amount of success with this team, reaching #1 on the ladder which is nice (before I lost to some garbage T-Wave spam team that gave me an aneurysm) so I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable on the playstyle. Sun does have a tendency to be matchup reliant but I think I've found a happy medium here and I'd say this team gets a solid to good matchup most of the time if you don't play trash like me.
Teambuilding Process
Vulpix is the only Drought user in the NFE tier and it is most definitely not by choice because this mon is garbage. But, Vulpix is still much better than having to manually set sun so we're stuck with it.
I wanted to play a more offensive build so the next thing I added were two chlorophyll abusers. The best ones in the tier are Tangela and Ivysaur, with Tangela providing more bulk and Ivysaur with the Poison STAB and Weather Ball abuse.
Along with my two Chlorophyll abusers I was also looking for a Fire-type wallbreaker. Charmelon was the obvious choice but I was finding that it was lacking in bulk and while Magmar is good I wanted to add a physical attacker to the team. I went with Raboot as it provides a spammable move in Flare Blitz, incredibly good ability in Libero, and an ability to pivot with U-Turn.
At this point I was looking for a pokemon to set hazards and some hazard removal. Clefairy provides some very useful utility in Stealth Rock, Sunny Day, and Teleport while Wartortle on the other hand not only provides Rapid Spin, but it also serves as a nice special wall covering other Fire-type attackers but also an ability to pivot with Flip Turn.
The Team
Clefairy @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sunny Day
- Stealth Rock
- Teleport
- Moonblast / Knock Off
Clefairy is the choice of lead in about 9/10 matches. Stealth Rock is this team's choice of hazard, and almost always your first move. The follow-up after that is to go for Sunny Day, the only way I can manually set sun. If I take little damage the first two turns, Teleport lets Clefairy take one more hit (if it doesn't die) so I can swap in Tangela/Ivysaur/Raboot. Vulpix is an incredibly hard Pokemon to switch into so this way I can set sun early-on, preserving my Vulpix for later, and gain a few turns of offensive momentum. I'm not usually able to go for the sweep then so the goal then is to spread as much Knock Off as possible with Tangela, spam a few Flare Blitzes with Raboot, or cause some havoc with Ivysaur. The final move on Clefairy is Moonblast, which is just so I'm not complete setup bait against something like Gurdurr. Knock Off could go in this last slot so I don't get set up on by Lampent but it isn't common enough for me to find it worthwhile. The EVs on Clef are so I can live two High Horsepowers from Piloswine, letting me set up a Rocks + Sun while also preserving some special bulk.
Wartortle @ Eviolite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Flip Turn
- Weather Ball / Scald
- Toxic
- Rapid Spin
Wartortle is the glue of this team. It provides me a special wall, a form of hazard removal, a pivot mon, and something to spread status with. Wartortle is to be switched in on anything that can deal some heavy special damage so I can pivot out either to set up sun or go into one of my offensive mons. Flip Turn is one of the main ways I can gain momentum, letting me switch out while dealing some nice chip damage. I chose to go Weather Ball over Scald as it helps me target things like Ferroseed, Thwackey, Tangela, etc. while avoiding taking 1/2 damage output of Scald under sun. Toxic helps me deal chip to common walls like Gorsola and Rapid Spin is pretty self-explanatory lmao.
Sidenote: Now that I think about it you could go min-speed Sassy if you want that slow Flip Turn but I haven't tried it out
Vulpix @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Weather Ball
- Will-O-Wisp / Toxic
- Encore
- Memento
Vulpix is bad, like, real bad. But, I use it out of necessity. The EVs (credit to uhuhuhu7 I think) outspeed max not-positive natured base 60 mons while the rest is dumped into SpA because you're going to die to any strong neutral hits anyways. Weather Ball is the attacking move of choice while Will-O-Wisp is the status move of choice (but tbh Toxic could go here if you wanted it that's your choice). Encore lets you avoid getting set-up on while Memento lets you go for that final sweep once you're ready (be careful tho, you don't want to get rid of Vulp too early).
Tangela @ Eviolite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 192 HP / 252 SpA / 64 Spe
Modest Nature
- Growth
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Knock Off / Ancient Power
Tangela functions as a mid-game wallbreaker and also as a late-game sweeper against bulkier teams. To be completely honest, Tang has very mediocre movepool. It gets easily walled by common defensive mons like Golbat and Ferrosseed and it's lack of STAB Sludge Bomb means that it's hard to OHKO anything with decent bulk that resists Grass coverage at +2. However, Tangela's niche lies in its very nice physical bulk meaning that it's much easier to switch on on things like Thwackey and Gurdurr and set up without taking lots of damage. Similarly, if you are playing against bulky offense teams, oftentimes you are still able to outspeed most of their mons outside of sun, meaning that Tangela can continue to wallbreak/sweep after you lose your Chlorophyll boost. The EVs are so that Tang can outspeed base 55 scarfers under sun.
Someone just mentioned to me that you COULD run Ancient Power over Knock for that Golbat lure which...would be a choice. Not completely awful but I don't personally endorse it :p
Ivysaur @ Eviolite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 192 HP / 252 SpA / 64 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Growth
- Solar Beam
- Weather Ball
- Sludge Bomb
Ivysaur is the late-game cleaner of choice. STAB Solarbeam + Sludge Bomb in conjunction with Weather Ball hits everything neutrally (don't quote me on that) for high amounts of damage at +2. EV'd for the same things as Tangela, Ivysaur has some nice bulk so you can tank at least one neutral hit, set up a Growth, and proceed to destroy the opposing team. Pretty self-explanatory.
Raboot @ Choice Band
Ability: Libero
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- High Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Assurance / Sucker Punch
The final, most versatile mon on this team is Raboot. Raboot is one of the most ridiculously strong Pokemon under sun. Early on in the game I try and switch in Raboot as quickly as possible (Clefairy sets rocks --> Teleport --> Raboot) as only the most physically defense Pokemon are able to avoid the 2hko from CB Flare Blitz. If I feel like they're going to swap in something like Mareanie I can go for U-Turn and go into a different abuser. HJK is the secondary attacking move of choice and tbh you're barely going to use it. Assurance and Sucker Punch are interchangeable and I change my opinion on which one to use daily. Assurance lets you cover things like Lampent without getting into Sucker Punch mindgames while Sucker lets you check Sash Kadabra more easily (which otherwise can get problematic).
Things that are really aggravating to play against
fortunately this mon is slow as balls but if they can get the lucky double protect or if I have something defensive like Clef/Tort in, it can get scary pretty fast, especially if sun is up
really bulky and annoying, especially with nuzzle
only if it has TWave. Actually any mon that carries TWave is annoying but these two in particular cus it can catch me off guard
if it's sash I can kinda auto-lose if I'm not able to chip it early and if it's LO everything dies (but it isn't as difficult to beat)
the occasional max speed (lol) shell smash tort bops me hard if i can't toxic it early with my own tort (especially if my tort gets chipped or statused). otherwise i can outspeed the basic bulky shell smash set with tang/ivy
bulky golbat can be hard to break but ivy can do a crap ton with +2 weather ball and usually opposing bat switch in on my tang which i can knock
sticky web can cause issues, nuff said
/ 
/ 
/ 
these are very rare to see but obv weather battles are annoying and difficult because vulpix is bad
really only an issue because cursed body will sometimes disable STAB moves -_-
Shoutouts
Jett thanks for helping and playing games with me ^_^
Marjane thanks for helping as well :]
uhuhuhu7 thanks for helping pt. 3 :]
Take Azelfie cus u asked
P.S. I also made this handy dandy "build ur own sun team like mine" guide which i think is pretty cool.
Hey all, back at it again with another NFE RMT. I know it's quite soon but considering the complete lack of NFE RMTs, my crippling boredom and my desire for attention, I'm back! This time, I'm coming at you with that hot hot hot ~sun~. I've had a fair amount of success with this team, reaching #1 on the ladder which is nice (before I lost to some garbage T-Wave spam team that gave me an aneurysm) so I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable on the playstyle. Sun does have a tendency to be matchup reliant but I think I've found a happy medium here and I'd say this team gets a solid to good matchup most of the time if you don't play trash like me.
Teambuilding Process
Vulpix is the only Drought user in the NFE tier and it is most definitely not by choice because this mon is garbage. But, Vulpix is still much better than having to manually set sun so we're stuck with it.
I wanted to play a more offensive build so the next thing I added were two chlorophyll abusers. The best ones in the tier are Tangela and Ivysaur, with Tangela providing more bulk and Ivysaur with the Poison STAB and Weather Ball abuse.
Along with my two Chlorophyll abusers I was also looking for a Fire-type wallbreaker. Charmelon was the obvious choice but I was finding that it was lacking in bulk and while Magmar is good I wanted to add a physical attacker to the team. I went with Raboot as it provides a spammable move in Flare Blitz, incredibly good ability in Libero, and an ability to pivot with U-Turn.
At this point I was looking for a pokemon to set hazards and some hazard removal. Clefairy provides some very useful utility in Stealth Rock, Sunny Day, and Teleport while Wartortle on the other hand not only provides Rapid Spin, but it also serves as a nice special wall covering other Fire-type attackers but also an ability to pivot with Flip Turn.
The Team
Clefairy @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sunny Day
- Stealth Rock
- Teleport
- Moonblast / Knock Off
Clefairy is the choice of lead in about 9/10 matches. Stealth Rock is this team's choice of hazard, and almost always your first move. The follow-up after that is to go for Sunny Day, the only way I can manually set sun. If I take little damage the first two turns, Teleport lets Clefairy take one more hit (if it doesn't die) so I can swap in Tangela/Ivysaur/Raboot. Vulpix is an incredibly hard Pokemon to switch into so this way I can set sun early-on, preserving my Vulpix for later, and gain a few turns of offensive momentum. I'm not usually able to go for the sweep then so the goal then is to spread as much Knock Off as possible with Tangela, spam a few Flare Blitzes with Raboot, or cause some havoc with Ivysaur. The final move on Clefairy is Moonblast, which is just so I'm not complete setup bait against something like Gurdurr. Knock Off could go in this last slot so I don't get set up on by Lampent but it isn't common enough for me to find it worthwhile. The EVs on Clef are so I can live two High Horsepowers from Piloswine, letting me set up a Rocks + Sun while also preserving some special bulk.
Wartortle @ Eviolite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Flip Turn
- Weather Ball / Scald
- Toxic
- Rapid Spin
Wartortle is the glue of this team. It provides me a special wall, a form of hazard removal, a pivot mon, and something to spread status with. Wartortle is to be switched in on anything that can deal some heavy special damage so I can pivot out either to set up sun or go into one of my offensive mons. Flip Turn is one of the main ways I can gain momentum, letting me switch out while dealing some nice chip damage. I chose to go Weather Ball over Scald as it helps me target things like Ferroseed, Thwackey, Tangela, etc. while avoiding taking 1/2 damage output of Scald under sun. Toxic helps me deal chip to common walls like Gorsola and Rapid Spin is pretty self-explanatory lmao.
Sidenote: Now that I think about it you could go min-speed Sassy if you want that slow Flip Turn but I haven't tried it out
Vulpix @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Weather Ball
- Will-O-Wisp / Toxic
- Encore
- Memento
Vulpix is bad, like, real bad. But, I use it out of necessity. The EVs (credit to uhuhuhu7 I think) outspeed max not-positive natured base 60 mons while the rest is dumped into SpA because you're going to die to any strong neutral hits anyways. Weather Ball is the attacking move of choice while Will-O-Wisp is the status move of choice (but tbh Toxic could go here if you wanted it that's your choice). Encore lets you avoid getting set-up on while Memento lets you go for that final sweep once you're ready (be careful tho, you don't want to get rid of Vulp too early).
Tangela @ Eviolite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 192 HP / 252 SpA / 64 Spe
Modest Nature
- Growth
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Knock Off / Ancient Power
Tangela functions as a mid-game wallbreaker and also as a late-game sweeper against bulkier teams. To be completely honest, Tang has very mediocre movepool. It gets easily walled by common defensive mons like Golbat and Ferrosseed and it's lack of STAB Sludge Bomb means that it's hard to OHKO anything with decent bulk that resists Grass coverage at +2. However, Tangela's niche lies in its very nice physical bulk meaning that it's much easier to switch on on things like Thwackey and Gurdurr and set up without taking lots of damage. Similarly, if you are playing against bulky offense teams, oftentimes you are still able to outspeed most of their mons outside of sun, meaning that Tangela can continue to wallbreak/sweep after you lose your Chlorophyll boost. The EVs are so that Tang can outspeed base 55 scarfers under sun.
Someone just mentioned to me that you COULD run Ancient Power over Knock for that Golbat lure which...would be a choice. Not completely awful but I don't personally endorse it :p
Ivysaur @ Eviolite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 192 HP / 252 SpA / 64 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Growth
- Solar Beam
- Weather Ball
- Sludge Bomb
Ivysaur is the late-game cleaner of choice. STAB Solarbeam + Sludge Bomb in conjunction with Weather Ball hits everything neutrally (don't quote me on that) for high amounts of damage at +2. EV'd for the same things as Tangela, Ivysaur has some nice bulk so you can tank at least one neutral hit, set up a Growth, and proceed to destroy the opposing team. Pretty self-explanatory.
Raboot @ Choice Band
Ability: Libero
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- High Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Assurance / Sucker Punch
The final, most versatile mon on this team is Raboot. Raboot is one of the most ridiculously strong Pokemon under sun. Early on in the game I try and switch in Raboot as quickly as possible (Clefairy sets rocks --> Teleport --> Raboot) as only the most physically defense Pokemon are able to avoid the 2hko from CB Flare Blitz. If I feel like they're going to swap in something like Mareanie I can go for U-Turn and go into a different abuser. HJK is the secondary attacking move of choice and tbh you're barely going to use it. Assurance and Sucker Punch are interchangeable and I change my opinion on which one to use daily. Assurance lets you cover things like Lampent without getting into Sucker Punch mindgames while Sucker lets you check Sash Kadabra more easily (which otherwise can get problematic).
Things that are really aggravating to play against
fortunately this mon is slow as balls but if they can get the lucky double protect or if I have something defensive like Clef/Tort in, it can get scary pretty fast, especially if sun is up really bulky and annoying, especially with nuzzle only if it has TWave. Actually any mon that carries TWave is annoying but these two in particular cus it can catch me off guard if it's sash I can kinda auto-lose if I'm not able to chip it early and if it's LO everything dies (but it isn't as difficult to beat) the occasional max speed (lol) shell smash tort bops me hard if i can't toxic it early with my own tort (especially if my tort gets chipped or statused). otherwise i can outspeed the basic bulky shell smash set with tang/ivy bulky golbat can be hard to break but ivy can do a crap ton with +2 weather ball and usually opposing bat switch in on my tang which i can knock sticky web can cause issues, nuff said / / / these are very rare to see but obv weather battles are annoying and difficult because vulpix is bad really only an issue because cursed body will sometimes disable STAB moves -_-https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1235207167 Was able to effectively break all the necessary walls. Raboot did some nice work and Ivy cleaned up.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1235125726 Set up with Tang early on and was able to sweep the rest of Jett's team due to Tang's incredible bulk and decent speed outside of sun.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1235102140 early-game tang sweep pt 2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1235018288 raboot wallbreaking lead to a nice ivy sweep
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1234971050 tang sweep
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1235125726 Set up with Tang early on and was able to sweep the rest of Jett's team due to Tang's incredible bulk and decent speed outside of sun.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1235102140 early-game tang sweep pt 2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1235018288 raboot wallbreaking lead to a nice ivy sweep
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1234971050 tang sweep
Shoutouts
Jett thanks for helping and playing games with me ^_^
Marjane thanks for helping as well :]
uhuhuhu7 thanks for helping pt. 3 :]
Take Azelfie cus u asked
P.S. I also made this handy dandy "build ur own sun team like mine" guide which i think is pretty cool.
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