Preface
Yet another attempt at making a viable OU Sunny Day team. Again, I am faced with the problem of trying to make a Sunny Day team as effective as my Rain Dance team; by "my" I mean the one that I use which is more or less similar to every other one you see out there. Rain Dance has inherent synergy and it is tough to go too far wrong with them. Sunny Day teams, on the other hand, are seemingly less underpowered compared to their drizzly friends (in OU at least). My problem is the lack of power and movepool available to the Chlorophyll Pokemon. In RD teams you have the likes of Omastar who possess an offensive stat above 110 with not only a weather-assisted STAB, but a nice rounded list of options. Sunny Day teams seem to need more support, rather than blind attacking in an attempt to crash through. In my previous setup, I tried to amend the lack of sweeping power in my team by setting up entry hazards to take off HP that may stop a OHKO. This had mixed results, but ultimately once the team was broken down or entry hazards were taken care of, it was like shooting ducks in a barrel. So now I've looked at the synergy aspect of the team, and tried to go more offensive with the assistance of Stealth Rock alone.
Team Summary
Team Building
From the outset, let me just say that it would be completely INSANE for me to try to go through all the building steps. This team has been moved around a lot, so I will try to go through my reasoning as much as possible, but be aware that it has not been a completely linear process as it may appear to read.Anyway, on to it...
1. The Base
Having used nearly all the Chlorophyll Pokemon, Tangrowth has given me the best results. I have managed to rip through teams to give myself a 5-0 advantage alone with him, once he has Swords Danced. His defensive bulk is a plus, meaning he can be brought in on a lot of physical threats. So the team starts with him. I think this is a far better base to work off, as opposed to Shiftry (the base of the last team) since he needs far less protection.
2. Supporting Acts
Rotom-H has been on all versions of the team, and has proven itself a countless number of times. His ability to take out steels, namely Scizor and Metagross, is vital as they can pose serious threats to just about any team. Scizor is a major threat in particular as his U-Turn is brutal to anything that is weak to it - which is a lot of members on this team, quite frankly. He is also my source of electric attacks and can shut down physical threats with Will-O-Wisp. I just can't picture not having him on the team.
Next I started looking at defenses. Thick Fat immediately sprung to mind. Hariyama and Snorlax paired together made a decent physical and special defensive pairing. Neither of them minded the sun being out to boost fire moves, and Snorlax relished in the chance to get free Curses when switching into the likes of Heatran. However, as time went on I found that I needed another sturdy Sunny Day user in the middle order of the team. I was tossing up who to switch out, and sadly, it was Snorlax who was retired. In his place I brough in Cresselia, who brings a number of options. Firstly, she is mighty bulky, so I have faith in her ability to bring out the sun. Secondly, Moonlight is boosted in the sun, giving her excellent recovery for more/longer stints. Thirdly, she can counter Dragons better than even Hariyama, who is my physical attacker. Finally, she can induce status, and fills some defensive holes for challenging the likes of Infernape. The loss of a Thick Fat user was amended with subsequent changes to the team.
3. More Offense
Being an offense-based team, I needed to make more use of the sun. Who else to have boosted fire attacks than Heatran? His Flash Fire ability also makes up for the loss of Snorlax's Thick Fat. No more needs to be said here. He is the revenge killer, and has nice support for when he needs to switch out.
4. Lead
This has probably been the toughest part of the building, as you all know how important a good lead is. I spent a lot of time using Crobat, as he has done great things with my Rain Dance team. The difference here is that this team lacks the sweeping power of my RD team, and I really felt the need for Stealth Rock. Aerodactyl can do mostly the same duties as Crobat, with the same speed, and bring out SR... however he is frail and I wanted my lead to be able to come back. For that reason I have gone with Celebi, who can confuse a lot of players as to what it is going to do. I would consider Jirachi also, but it lacks an instant recovery move which helps Celebi survive. So far it has been working well enough.
5. Amendments
Spikes support was suggested to help the sweepers and to rack up the damage from constant switch ins. Forretress, whilst being less effective at using Sunny Day, allows me to set up a whole lot of entry hazards and take a ton of hits. His is vulnerable to fire like Celebi was, but has a crapload of resistances, so I'm not really losing out in that department.
Team Breakdown
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 SDef
Careful nature
- Spikes
- Payback
- Stealth Rock
- Sunny Day
Forretress is a very sturdy lead with only the one weakness to be wary of. He functions to make switch-ins a nightmare for opposing teams, and can set up the sun to assist Tangrowth, power up Heatran's Flamethrower and SolarBeam, and take on the likes of Latias with Payback. The choice of item is up to you - Shed Shell obviously saves you from Magnezone, whilst Heat Rock can give an extra three turns of sun to play in. Lum Berry on the other hand lets me get at least one entry hazard up without being put to sleep. On the second turn if I am put to sleep then this just activates sleep clause and I will work around it. Besides the likes of Latias, Forretress does not have much of an offensive role in the team, hence does not mind being put to sleep.
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Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Moonlight
- Sunny Day
- Thunder Wave / Psychic
My backup Sunny Day user. Cresselia brings a lot of stability to the team and works by taking down threats that the rest of the team can't handle, and hurting others with status. Ice Beam is for the dragons and walls such as Gliscor, which she can switch into most of the time and still hit back. Thunder Wave hurts counters and helps the slower guys such as Harriyama and Cresselia herself impose their will a bit more.
Another important switch in is Kingdra. By cutting its speed, and also STAB water attack with Sunny Day, Heatran can do its work with Dragon Pulse without being obliterated.
Nullifies:
- Salamence
- Dragonite
- Hippowdon
- Swift Swimmers
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Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 80 HP/172 Atk/252 Def/4 Spd
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Whirlwind
- Stone Edge
- Brick Break
- Knock Off
Physically defensive Hariyama shuts out some of the biggest threats to the team - Tyranitar and Weavile to name a couple. Tyranitar can't hurt Hariyama as he resists basically all of his attacks save Aqua Tail (should T be carrying it), and even that is of little concern. He retaliates with Brick Break and says goodnight. Same goes for Weavile. Another one on his hit list is Abomasnow, whos Ice typing makes him weak to Brick Break also. That is 2 of the 3 auto-weather inducers taken out, meaning my sunshine will be far less hampered.
Whirlwind also starts to wreak havoc with Stealth Rock in the air as well as pHazing, whilst Knock Off will begin to cripple those who rely on their items to function properly. All-in-all, Hariyama is a vital component to the team. His last move slot was originally Sunny Day, but his lack of recovery move saw him wasting HP that he cannot get back. This is why Cresselia was brought in.
Nullifies:
- Tyranitar
- Weavile
- Scizor
- Mamoswine
- Abomasnow
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Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/164 Def/92 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Will-o-wisp
- Shadow Ball
- Overheat
Nullifies:
- Scizor
- Lucario (wary of Crunch)
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Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 Def/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Power Whip
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
My physical sweeper. Unfortunately if all goes to plan (Sunny Day -> Switch -> Swords Dance) I can only take out a max of 5 Pokemon. Still, 6-on-1 is a tough fight (this is assuming I go with Heat Rock on Forretress). This has happened a few times but I obviously can't take everything out. Scizor is one such Pokemon who needs special attention, and is duly handled by Rotom or Heatran.
Power Whip can OHKO Calm Mind Suicune without the assistance of Swords Dance, just as an example of how useful he can be with Life Orb. Rock Slide and Earthquake take out pretty much any fire hazard I need to worry about, aside from random Hidden Powers. Anything that resists this set can usually be dealt with fairly easily by others in the team. Heatran and Rotom, for example, resist a lot of the type-threats that will be thrown his way.
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Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Dragon Pulse
- SolarBeam
Scarf Heatran. He will hurt you again and again and again. Whats more, I have such great confidence in the synergy of this team that I feel very safe using a Choice item - something I usually avoid like the plague. I think we are all accustomed to his moveset and general application. However to avoid the "what more can I say?" comment, I will mention just how important his resistances are here, and how well he fits in with the sun up. Firstly, water attacks become neutral, which is great. Secondly, I can use SolarBeam straight up without a charge phase. That means I don't have to be bullied out by the water types and can simply claim another scalp. The risk is having a Sandstorm user come in, but I think I have that covered with Cresselia and Hariyama.
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I'll hopefully (this time) compile a threat list, although I think I mentioned some of the more important threats already.
