Stormy Sunshine

magnusmistro

Ninetales @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 120 SAtk / 136 Spd
Calm Nature
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SAtk / 30 SDef / 30 Spd / 2 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Donphan @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock

Heatran @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
- Magma Storm
- Protect
- Toxic
- Taunt

Sawsbuck @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Horn Leech
- Nature Power
- Swords Dance
- Double-Edge

Venusaur @ Black Sludge
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sleep Powder
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Kingdra @ Life Orb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Fire]

After watching popular Youtuber Eric (kwandaorenn66) use this team for his recent convention tourney, I just had to give it a go. Not being the biggest OU playing, watching someone deal with the biggest threats with this team helped me understand the ins and outs of it, learning which pokemon can take hits from the metasgames' top threats. Weather, being a key part of the current metagame, is a great place to start, and not really liking any of the other 4 inducers, sun was my most favoured option. So on with the team:

Ninetales @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 120 SAtk / 136 Spd
Calm Nature
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SAtk / 30 SDef / 30 Spd / 2 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

What a beast. The main purpose is to bring in the sun and counter defensive politoad builds. With the sun up, and a little Sdef investment, it laughs in the face of scalds without having to fear a burn. Flamethrower is the STAB attack of choice, with the best balance between PP and base power as well as perfect accuracy. With the sun up, it's not exactly weak even with no investment. Will-o-wisp is mainly for TTar and big physical treats switching in on a predicted protect. As they predict a protect in order to get leftovers gain, I will-o-wisp and cripple the fool who thinks he can take me out. Hidden power fighthing is there for heatrans. Without earthquake on my venusaur, getting rid of potential balloons are going to aid my other sun sweeper (sawsbuck) with nature powers. It also hits TTar hard, being quad weak to it. abomasnow doesn't like switching in on it either.

Donphan @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock

Rocks, rapid spin, ice shard. Need I say more? Donphan is a great way of clearing the field of hazards thanks to it's study ability. Ice shard is needed for the dragons, who will attempt to set up and rip holes through my team early game. If sturdy is still intact, 2 ice shards will be doing hefty damage to D-nite/ Salamence (for example) who might attempt an early game sweep. EQ is nice, powerful stab that has all right coverage in combination with ice shard. It deals with the biggest plague to sun teams (heatran), although it does fear a will-o-wisp/toxic. Stealth rocks are obviously important for breaking late game sashes on things like mamoswine, as well as chipping down the health of flying types witch would otherwise threaten my team.


Sawsbuck @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Horn Leech
- Nature Power
- Swords Dance
- Double-Edge

This is number 1 sun abuser. It's a physical attacker, which is odd for a chlorophyll user which are mostly special attackers. The benefit of chlorophyll is that to be fast it doesn't rely on a scarf, and gets a extra bit of power from Life orb. Horn leech is for Stab and recovery, Double-edge is for Stab and hitting big threats that resist grass attacks (mostly flying types or the rare sap sipper poke). Finally, nature power (EQ) which hits heatran, metagross and other pokes weak to ground. Swords dance is needed for that little extra power on the switch, as sometimes you will just miss out on a kill without a boost (nature power on a metagross).

Heatran @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
- Magma Storm
- Protect
- Toxic
- Taunt

Now we start cooking with fire. This is always catching people off guard, with magma storm seeing very little use in my experience. It's the perfect trap for the likes or volcorona, who think they can set up in a heatrans face and get away with it. It's also fantastic chip damage on any weather abusers that want to switch in, especially with choiced users. You can protect to see what move the weather user will lock itself into and switch accordingly. Toxic is to rack up the chip damage, which takes it's toll after 2-3 turns. taunt really rounds off this set. Another consideration for this slot was earth power to hit other heatrans, however I felt that preventing quiver dances or Perish songs was more useful, as I have other pokes to deal with opposing.

Venusaur @ Black Sludge
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sleep Powder
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Sun sweeper number 2. Perfect special attacker in the sun with nearly encountered coverage. Sleep powders on the switch to put anything that checks venusaur to bed. The dragons have to deal with HP ice as well as ground and flying types. Sludge bomb is the powerful stab that dents most other pokes greatly. Giga drain is for the other Stab, gastrodon/ rotom-w/ mamoswine etc... The only thing that really walls is is tentacruel, however tentacruel can't really hurt venusaur in return (unless it's the rare offensive icebeam/blizzard set).

EDIT: also acts as a pivot switch if donphan is dead.

Kingdra @ Life Orb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Fire]

WAIT WAIT WAIT. This is a rain team. What's going on here. This is the counter sweeper. The hanky in the sleeve. No one predicts this. Hp fire on a kingdra. People will, without thinking, switch in their ferrothorns, scizors and what not into my attack and be crying at my feet for mercy. Of course, when the rain is up it's not as effective, however with a quad resistance to fire attacks and water attacks, it makes a great switch in for politoad or any choiced fire attacker. When the sun is up, use HP fire to deal with the standard kingdra checks. Draco will also deal a chunk to those that don't resist it. When the rain is up however, rain teams need to be ready. Swift swim / Stab / Rain boosted/ Life orb surf is nothing to joke about. It outspeeds a LOT of common choiced pokes thanks to the speed boosts. A great rain counter indeed.
 
Hey magnusmistro creative sun team you have here that Kingdra looks interasting.

Looking at this team it seems to have a hard time keeping its weather up. This is due to the fact that Ninetales is hit super effectively by all weather inducers and even Abomasnow if it carries Earthqauke. Unlike a lot of common sun teams your team doesn't utilise a Dugtrio or a Sunny Day Heatran, or Venasaur to help you win the weather war. This isn't exactly ideal due to your team being really reliant on having the sun up to help your Chlorophyl sweepers (Sawsbuck, Venasaur) because with out it the two start to seem like dead wieght.

To help your team win the weather war easier i suggest Sunny Day Ninetale>Current Set This Ninetales is designed to help win the weather war easier which as i mentioned earlier is ideal due to this teams sun sweepers. Sunny Day is used on this set so even if your opponent switches in his weather inducer you still have sun up. Ninetales also has Solarbeam which doesn't have it's charge turn under sun and smashes opposing Politoed, Tyranitar and Hippowdon who decide to stay in after sun is up. Although it doesn't do much to Abomasnow Fire Blast boosted by sun will destroy it. The 136 Hp evs give Ninetales 321 Hp giving Ninetales a maximum amount of switch-ins to Stealth Rock whiles also having a high Leftovers number and 120 evs are used in speed so you can out speed all non scarf varaints of Politoed and Tyranitar. Regarding your Venasaur i think you would be better off with Growth>Sludge Bomb Growth boosts up your attack and special attack by 2 stages in sun turning Venasaur into an even more terrifying sweeper. You really don't lose to much from losing Sludge Bomb. Coverage wise you are still walled by steel-types and even though you don't have that high powered stab move anymore Growth will be boosting the power of your moves anyway. Growth is great in combination with Sleep Powder once your opponent is asleep you get at least one turn of free set up with Growth and then you can sweep your opponents team.

Good luck with the team i hope i helped!

Sets
038.gif

Ninetales @ Leftovers | Drought
Modest | 136 Hp / 252 SpA / 120 Spe
Sunny Day | Solar Beam | Fire Blast | Will-o-Wisp

Tl;dr

Ninetales
.Sunny Day Set--->Current Set

Venasaur
.Growth--->Sludge Bomb



~Superpowerdude
 
I do see your points and I will try out your modifications. I should point out though, venusaur also acts as a pivot switch into fighting moves or whatever thanks to the poison resistances. It's the reason for carrying leftovers instead of life orb. Growth does give it the sweeping edge, however for switching it in repeatedly, growth isn't as useful.


With the ninetales, the hidden power fighting was more of an after thought, I wasn't sure what else to put into th slot. I like the bulk that this defensive variant has, so I can switch into the toad with little fear. I can always run sunny day in the last slot, but that still doesn't get rid of my dependence on ninetales. I could put sunny day on another poke, buti'm finding it hard to find an avalible move slot.
 
I am using the same team and it works well.
I am using offensive heatran on a balloon and one thing is shell smash cloyster , it can destroy everything in this team.
Try replacing kingdra with ferrothorn your team doesn't really need to counter sweep rain as its fairly easy to get rid of politoed with sawsbuck and venusaur.
Ferrothorn can handle cloyster really well also provide the team with t-wave + spikes support t-wave is wonderful on incoming tornadus-T.
You might want to run roar over taunt if you bring in ferro for phazing.
On venusaur i am running Growth over sleep powder and HP[Fire],
you might want look at that set.

And don't get rid of sludge bomb as it provides good coverage and hits dragons which would otherwise wall the set w/o it.
 
Jstan said:
I am using the same team and it works well.
I am using offensive heatran on a balloon and one thing is shell smash cloyster , it can destroy everything in this team.
Try replacing kingdra with ferrothorn your team doesn't really need to counter sweep rain as its fairly easy to get rid of politoed with sawsbuck and venusaur.
Ferrothorn can handle cloyster really well also provide the team with t-wave + spikes support t-wave is wonderful on incoming tornadus-T.
You might want to run roar over taunt if you bring in ferro for phazing.
On venusaur i am running Growth over sleep powder and HP[Fire],
you might want look at that set.
Click to expand...

I feel that rain is much less of an issue with kingdra about. There are loads of dragons on rain teams (Dnite/ specs mence) that are out speed thanks to the swift swim kingdra. It also helps bait in scizor and other ferros which would normally wall it, and kill with HP fire. It's a surprise factor that I feel is more important that hazards. T-wave isn't too important either, with most of my offensive pokes having chlorophyll.

Heatran walls cloyster fairly well in the sun. Even a razer shell isn't going to do too much, and with cloysters lack of special defense, magma storm does a number. However I will consider a balloon variant as I don't have any ground resists.

I will however try it out to see what it's all about.
 
I also suggest you try return over double edge on your sawsbuck as most pokes that you would want to go for double edge are not bulky and after SD return does a tonne and return also increases its life spam in the battle field.

I am still not sure heatran can tank a hit outside sun from cloyster after a shell smash but anyway cloyster is rare.

I wanted to know if you faced any CMreuniclus.
I had a small problem with it as sawsbuck is the only one able to hit it hard after a calm mind and it will fall to a focus blast mist to 2HKO.In this case you might want Sleep powder on your venusaur or roar on either donphan or heatran.
for this reason i wanted to test a shiftry over sawsbuck but i still have not tried it.

SD lucario can do alot of work with CC and Espeed if it gets a boost and your donphan is around 75 percent HP.
I am using CB arcanine with intimidate to take a hit with its decent defenses and fire off a FlareBlitz.

I was also trying the sawsbuck set on smogon with less speed and more HP.I wanted to know if those Evs will help or should i just add speed.
 
Hey cool team dude! Double chlorophyll sweepers is awesome.

So the first biggest threat I see is Offensive Heatran. It only really has to fear your Donphan's Earthquake and Sawsbucks Nature Power. The rest of your pokemon he can come in on, sometimes completely free, and when it comes in there is a high likelihood you're going to lose a 'mon. Due to the very Sun you bring even Kingdra isn't going to stand up against the volcanic behemoth. I don't want to change much about the team, because I actually think it gels well together, so I'm going to recommend ways by which Offensive Heatrans can't as readily dominate. I suggest running Earth Power over Taunt on your own Heatran. You mentioned that you had thought about this change and I think it would really help you. At the moment, opposing Heatrans can come in for free(even for a gain with Flash Fire) on your own and proceed to spam Earth Power/Fire Blast to dent your team. Earth Power not only can be used to deter switch-ins but it can also be used to tackle those opposing Heatran who aim to take you on.

My next suggestion is to change Venusaur's set a bit. The set I suggest is:

003.png

Venusaur @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 156 Atk / 172 SAtk / 180 Spd
Naive Nature
IVs: 30 Spd
- Sleep Powder
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake

The EVs allow it to OHKO most Heatran(definitely all offensive ones) while also outspeeding Choice Scarfed +Spe Nature 110s like Lati@s. This set comes with many of the same properties yours does but is overall more refined. It can still use Sleep Powder to render a pokemon harmless, and it can still revenge dragons with HP Ice. It also now has the added bonus of handling rogue Heatrans.

My next suggestion is to try running these EVs for Sawsbuck: 114 HP / 246 Atk / 150 Spe still with an Adamant nature. The Spe EVs allow it to outpace the same Scarfed 110s(like Venusaur) and the HP EVs give it some extra bulk and a Life Orb number.

I also support Superpowerdude's suggestion of Sunny Day Ninetales.

Good Luck!
 
Jstan said:
I also suggest you try return over double edge on your sawsbuck as most pokes that you would want to go for double edge are not bulky and after SD return does a tonne and return also increases its life spam in the battle field.

I am still not sure heatran can tank a hit outside sun from cloyster after a shell smash but anyway cloyster is rare.

I wanted to know if you faced any CMreuniclus.
I had a small problem with it as sawsbuck is the only one able to hit it hard after a calm mind and it will fall to a focus blast mist to 2HKO.In this case you might want Sleep powder on your venusaur or roar on either donphan or heatran.
for this reason i wanted to test a shiftry over sawsbuck but i still have not tried it.

SD lucario can do alot of work with CC and Espeed if it gets a boost and your donphan is around 75 percent HP.
I am using CB arcanine with intimidate to take a hit with its decent defenses and fire off a FlareBlitz.

I was also trying the sawsbuck set on smogon with less speed and more HP.I wanted to know if those Evs will help or should i just add speed.
Click to expand...


I haven't actually come across any CMclis, however I recognize how they could be a big threat to my team. With sawsbuck being one of the few pokes to hit it hard, surely double edge for the extra power is worth it over return?

Joeyboy said:
Hey cool team dude! Double chlorophyll sweepers is awesome.

So the first biggest threat I see is Offensive Heatran. It only really has to fear your Donphan's Earthquake and Sawsbucks Nature Power. The rest of your pokemon he can come in on, sometimes completely free, and when it comes in there is a high likelihood you're going to lose a 'mon. Due to the very Sun you bring even Kingdra isn't going to stand up against the volcanic behemoth. I don't want to change much about the team, because I actually think it gels well together, so I'm going to recommend ways by which Offensive Heatrans can't as readily dominate. I suggest running Earth Power over Taunt on your own Heatran. You mentioned that you had thought about this change and I think it would really help you. At the moment, opposing Heatrans can come in for free(even for a gain with Flash Fire) on your own and proceed to spam Earth Power/Fire Blast to dent your team. Earth Power not only can be used to deter switch-ins but it can also be used to tackle those opposing Heatran who aim to take you on.

My next suggestion is to change Venusaur's set a bit. The set I suggest is:

003.png

Venusaur @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 156 Atk / 172 SAtk / 180 Spd
Naive Nature
IVs: 30 Spd
- Sleep Powder
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake

The EVs allow it to OHKO most Heatran(definitely all offensive ones) while also outspeeding Choice Scarfed +Spe Nature 110s like Lati@s. This set comes with many of the same properties yours does but is overall more refined. It can still use Sleep Powder to render a pokemon harmless, and it can still revenge dragons with HP Ice. It also now has the added bonus of handling rogue Heatrans.

My next suggestion is to try running these EVs for Sawsbuck: 114 HP / 246 Atk / 150 Spe still with an Adamant nature. The Spe EVs allow it to outpace the same Scarfed 110s(like Venusaur) and the HP EVs give it some extra bulk and a Life Orb number.

I also support Superpowerdude's suggestion of Sunny Day Ninetales.

Good Luck!
Click to expand...

With sunny day ninetales getting more then one mention, it's now a top priority to test. Most of the changes you've mentioned aren't too drastic, and can be implemented with ease. I'm still apprehensive about using Life orb on venusaur though. It's my common switch in on things like keldeo, and losing the recovery might ware down over time.
 
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