Sun Team

[Sumvin]

Hey, so I've been trying to make a good sun team for a while now. I'm not so sure on this one for I go with some rather unorthodox sets here so I'd like your opinions.

Team at a Glance

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Ninetales w/Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 252SpA/4HP/252Spe
-Fire Blast
-Solarbeam
-Will o Wisp
-Hypnosis​

This is a pretty standard Ninetales, just meant to set up the sun, and maybe burn off some physical sweepers, and hypnosis so I can get a safe switch in

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Starmie w/Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252SpA/4HP/252Spe
-HP Dark
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Rapid Spin​

Now here me out. This team has Volcarona, who would be absolutely wrecked if stealth rocks were up, so naturally I'd need a good rapid spinner. However, alot of times people carry Gengar or Jellicient to counter Rapid spin, and with HP Dark, I end up tripping them up. I know I can use sucker punch hitmontop, but 1 that's really predictable and 2 with starmie I can hurt them the second they get in. Ice beam can help counter dragons if necessary, and T-bolt could help against rain teams, though I'm considering using psychic instead

Cresselia w/Light Clay
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252HP/252SpD/4SpA
-Reflect
-Light Screen
-Lunar Dance
-Psychic​

Since ground types are going to be a good threat to my team, I feel Cresselia's levitate makes it a perfect candidate for a Dual Screener. Lunar Dance can be used to Reload Venasaur or Volcarona, and psychic is just to have psychic. I wouldn't mind using Espeon, though I think Cresselia's levitate will better benefit this team

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Volcarona w/Life Orb
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 204HP/252SpA/52Spe
-Bug Buzz
-Fiery Dance
-Giga Drain/Quiver Dance
-Roost​

Volcarona is going to be a major sweeper on my team. I can't decide to let it have quiver dance, or just use giga drain and make this a beatstick.

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Venasaur w/Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252SpA/252Spe/4HP
-Growth
-Giga Drain
-HP Fire
-Sludge Bomb​

If Cresselia manages to get screens up then Venasaur should have no trouble getting growth up. I see Venasaur mainly being used to counter rain teams with giga drain, and HP Fire will be devastating in the sun. I choose Sludge Bomb over Sleep Powder because I never have good luck with sleep powder, and I already have Ninetales with Hypnosis

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Garchomp w/Choice Scarf
Traint: Rough Skin
EVs: 252Atk/252Spe/4HP
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Outrage
-Fire Fang​

No matter what the purpose of the team, I always have an anti-dragon unit, and it's always paid off. This time I decide to go with a scarfed Garchomp, as a scarfed Lucario with Ice punch could potentially get slaughtered by a fire move with the sun up. Garchomp now easily outspeeds most if not all other dragons. I also give it earthquake and stone edge to sweep some other threats if the need ever arises, and figure fire fang could be horrifying in the sun.

 

[undisputed]

Hey!

Solid start to your Sun team. You can make some small changes and make it much more efficient though.

First, definitely change your EV spread on Ninetales. 248 HP / 56 Def / 68 SpD / 136 Spe is my personal spread. A little Defense to take on Tyranitar switches which always comes in handy. Ninetales is already Specially Defensive anyway, so you don't need that significant an investment in my opinion. The reason Ninetales needs to be Defensive is that you'll be using it mostly to keep Sun up. It's a horrible sweeper otherwise, so I'd definitely recommend a Defensive spread to beat Tyranitar+Politoed.

On Starmie, I'm going to recommend you use Recover instead of HP Dark. HP Dark is horrible. Thunderbolt hits Jellicent a lot harder, and if you wanted to kill Gengar, I'd recommend Psyshock. Recover is a good option because you'll need some staying power in the match. You'll want to make sure you can keep Stealth Rock off the field for as long as possible to allow Volcarona to do its thing.

Next, for my big suggestion, I'd like to advocate Dugtrio over Cresselia. I know Cresselia is a solid pivot and supporter, but you don't really have any way to beat Tyranitar. If Tyranitar can switch in all match and wall you to death, then you're going to lose every battle vs. a Sun team. Use Stealth Rock / Earthquake / Revenge / Stone Edge in my opinion. You could consider Memento too for Rock Polish Landorus.

And that's about it. Solid Sun team.

Good luck!

 

[Asek]

Hi

Cool team. First off seconding all of undisputed's suggestions, as they have picked up on some of your teams problems, and the fixes there are all pretty good. I would like to suggest removing Hypnosis on Ninetales. It really is a horrible move, and is not accurate enough to be relied on when the need arises. Instead, try out Protect in that slot. Considering Ninetales needs to preserve its health to win weather wars, protect lets you gain extra leftovers recovery, and scout movesets, which can help win weather wars. Most noticeably whether a choiced tyranitar will pursuit or stone edge, so you can act accordingly. Also try out Energy Ball > Solarbeam. Solarbeam is pretty average on any non sunny day ninetales. Energy Ball lets you hit all the other starters bar abomasnow for solid damage when they switch in, and aboma is already wiped out by the STAB so its a non issue.

For Volcarona use Quiver Dance + Giga Drain > Roost. Giga Drain supplies you with the recovery roost was supplying, while also letting you deal extra damage to bulky waters, which is always nice and can help if you lose the weather war to rain. Quiver Dance is what makes volcarona so threatening, there is no reason why you should not use it, as its really its claim to fame and what makes it so hard to stop. Finally for garchomp try out Dragon Claw > Stone Edge. SE doesn't offer much in ways if coverage, and dragon claw gives you a way to revenge opposing dragons without locking yourself into outrage, which can be deadly at times.

GL with the team

 

[Jimbon]

Hi there,

Cool Sun team, glad to see someone giving it a try after the Genesect ban and factoring in the prevalence of Rain, it's a little harder to successfully utilize Sun to its full potential. First of all, I'd definitely agree with Undisputed's bulky Ninetales, as you are pretty reliant on Sun as your main win condition is through Venusaur who needs Sun up to do well. Making it bulkier just allows you to switch into Scalds and such much easier, while you really don't need to go fully offensive with Ninetales given that Venusaur and Volcarona do the job much better and already have it covered. One thing I would suggest is to invest more in Special Defense that his set suggests, as that really is the strong point of using Bulky Ninetales.

When running a Sun team, I always like a Scarfer alongside my Chlorophyll sweeper, but for this team I don't think Garchomp is the right candidate. From my experiences, Garchomp as a Scarfer is pretty easy to switch into, as Outrage and Earthquake have a lot of common resistances and immunities respectively. I feel as if something like Scarf Terrakion poses much more of a threat in that role, and in general is a much better scarfer. It can do everything that Garchomp can but also speed ties with everything up to base 108 Speed such as Keldeo and Infernape, while also being able to revenge Dragons just as Garchomp did, but takes less from Extremespeeds and Outrages. Terrakion's amazing STAB coverage means it is a lot harder to wall than Garchomp, while also not exposing your weakness to Mamoswine. A set of 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe with a moveset of Close Combat / Stone Edge / Rock Slide / filler would work.

Looking over your team, you didn't specify the Natures on some of your Pokemon. Because your Venusaur is running Max Speed, I'm going to assume it's Modest, but there is a way you could get a little more efficiency out of your set. If you change your Venusaur set to 76 HP / 252 SAtk / 180 Spe with a Timid Nature, you outspeed everything up to Scarf Latios under Sun, which is probably the fastest most relevant benchmark you need to hit. Because there's nothing else you need to outspeed with this set, you can afford to run a little more investment in HP to make it easier for you to sweep. The loss of power really isn't notable with a Timid Nature, especially when you're running Growth and a Life Orb on Venusaur which more than makes up for it.

Whilst looking through your team, I also picked up on your interesting Cresselia set. Right now, the way your team is, it's pretty much your only thing to take hits, and your set seems to be contradicting this slightly when you're running Lunar Dance. This leaves you wide open to literally any Pokemon that poses some sort of offensive presence, who can force you out of whatever you switch into. One of Cresselia's strong points is how good it is in this offensive metagame. If you really want to get the most out of it, I'd suggest a spread of 252 HP / 40 SAtk / 216 SDef, with a moveset of Ice Beam / Moonlight / Hidden Power [Fire] / Thunder Wave, Reflect or Psyshock. With this set, you beat everything you need to allow Venusaur to sweep effectively. Ice Beam for Dragons, while Hidden Power [Fire] OHKOs Scizor in Sun with 40 SAtk EVs, while leaving a big dent in hazard setters such as Ferrothorn and Forretress who otherwise hope to wall Cresselia. This is important because your spinner in Starmie cannot Spin against either of these without dying.

Good luck!