Unconventional sun team

Sandwich

I've been watching competitive battles for a couple years and I only recently started battling on Pokemon Showdown. I whipped a nifty sun team that I realize is a bit on the strange side, but I like its synergy. Now I realize there are some major flaws, like chansey and other sun teams, that need addressing. Mind helping out?
Changes in red

SETS:


Beauty Queen (Ninetales) (F) Leftovers
Drought
EVs: 252 SDef 252 Spd 4 Spa
Modest Nature
Overheat
Solarbeam
Power Swap
Will-O-Wisp
Most use Ninetales as a throwaway for setting up sun, but she can be useful as a partial special wall/stall breaker in tandem with Whimsicott. For example, I encore a sweeper into setting up, then switch to Ninetales and power swap the boost to me. Or I can be extremely annoying and spam STAB Overheat and PS for maximum rage.


Terrakion (M) Choice Scarf
Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk 252 Spd 4 HP
Jolly Nature
Close Combat
Stone Edge
Earthquake
X-Scissor

Your Mom LOL (Victreebel) (F) Life Orb
Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Spa 252 Spd 4 Atk
Rash Nature
Giga Drain
Weather Ball
Sleep Powder
Sucker Punch
Vicky's greatest element is the element of surprise. Seeing GD, the opponent switches in a steel type or other resists thinking I run a dual STAB set, and BOOM! super effective Weather Ball to the face! Sucker Punch can take out low HP psychic types looking to KO, and Sleep Powder can help if I need to switch out, but still retain momentum.

Fossilized (Donphan) (M) Leftovers
Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP 252 Def 4 Atk
Adamant Nature
Ice Shard
Earthquake
Stealth Rock
Rapid Spin
He's my physical wall and spinner, plain and simple. Ice Shard can help with Sturdy pokes and weaker dragons he walls. Fire Fang is to counter Ferrothorn, who thinks he can wall Donphan, as well as hitting Ghost types not named Jellicent hard with its pseudo-STAB in sun. STAB Earthquake is a nice reliable move, able to take a healthy chunk out of many pokes.

Baby Cousin (Whimsicott) (M) Leftovers
Prankster
EVs: 252 HP 252 Def 4 SpD
Bold Nature
Encore
Taunt
Toxic
U-Turn
This pain in the tuckus helps with nearly every sweeper, and he destroys Baton Passing teams. Encore-ing a poke into a set up move or non attacking move gives me switch advantage, or I can Toxic if they choose to stay in. He has a nice synergy with Ninetales and Power Swap, as I mentioned earlier. He can also U-Turn into my walls to force a switch.

Guardian Angel (Latias) (F) Leftovers
Levitate
EVs: 252 HP 252 SPDef 4 Spa
Modest Nature
Healing Wish
Dragon Pulse
Recover
Calm Mind
I chose Latias over Latios for the better SpD, and her SpA is still respectable enough to use. She also functions as my special wall. Healing Wish I mainly use to heal a sweeper, most often Typhlosion b/c of his lacking bulk. I switch between a lot of moves for the last option, but now that I'm thinking about it Calm Mind might be best.
​

Any advice is appreciated, thanks!
 
Hi Sandwich!

First off I'd like to say welcome to Smogon! I really like using the Sun playstyle and I think you have a cool team here with some underrated Pokemon such as Victreebel and Whimsicott. Now as you mentioned in your introduction, your team is indeed threatened by opposing Sun teams. Chlorophyll Venusaur, who is likely the most common Sun sweeper, can outspeed your entire team and plow through it with its STAB combination of Giga Drain and Sludge Bomb. For this threat, I recommend replacing Scarf Typhlosion with a Choice Scarf Heatran with a moveset of Fire Blast / Flamethrower / Earth Power / Hidden Power [Ice]. Heatran's dual Steel and Fire typing couple with its Flash Fire ability make it one of the best checks to opposing Sun teams. It easily checks common Sun threats such as Ninetales, Victini, and Venusaur that do not pack Earthquake or Hidden Power [Ground]. Choice Scarf helps Heatran's normally pedestrian Speed stat and turns him into a powerful revenge killer and late game cleaner. It also provides some surprise value as many teams pack Dugtrio as their primary Heatran check and normally do not expect a Scarf Heatran who outspeeds the mole and easily disposes of it. Fire Blast and Flamethrower are extremely powerful with Heatran's high Special Attack stat and the Sun boost; the former provides more power while the latter is used when you can not afford to miss. Earth Power nails opposing Heatrans and Fire-types and Hidden Power [Ice] provides coverage against Dragon and Ground types.

Now for some smaller changes. On Donphan, I recommend replacing Fire Fang with Stealth Rock. Although Fire Fang is a great move to surprise opposing Ferrothorns and Forretresses, you already have several Pokemon that can handle them, and the utility of Stealth Rock is greater in this metagame. Stealth Rock cripples some of the top threats in OU such as Dragonite, Volcarona, and the Therian formes, and also helps with your weakness to Sun teams. Donphan is a great Pokemon to have set up Stealth Rock with his great bulk and synergy with Sun teams. Next, I recommend changing Whimsicott's EV spread to a bulky spread of 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef with a Bold nature. With Whimsicott's Prankster ability giving her priority to non-attacking moves, she does not need the Speed investment. The only attacking move she packs is U-turn and it is usually actually more advantageous to have a slow U-turn so you can more easily gain switch advantage. The extra bulk greatly helps her take physical attacks and allows for increased survivability. Whimsicott is likely also your best best to deal with Chansey/Blissey. Next, I would change Latias' EV spread to 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd with a Timid nature. Maximizing Latias' Speed stat is important to take advantage of her Speed tier that allows her to tie with opposing base 110's and outspeed base 108's. Increased speed allows her to more easily pull off a Calm Mind sweep. Lastly, I would change Psyshock on Latias with Recover. Dragon Pulse already provides great neutral coverage by itself and Psyshock isn't helping against opposing Steels. Recover allows her to heal off damage and set up more Calm Minds, increasing the likelihood of a sweep.

Hope I helped and good luck with your team!


Set:
Heatran (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
-Fire Blast
-Flamethrower
-Earth Power
-Hidden Power [Ice]


tl;dr
Choice Scarf Typhlosion ----> Choice Scarf Heatran
Fire Fang on Donphan ----> Stealth Rock
Whimsicott's EV Spread ----> 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef with Bold Nature
Latias' EV Spread ----> 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd with Timid Nature
Psyshock on Latias ----> Recover
 
Hello,

First, welcome to Smogon! Speaking about your team, it has a big weakness to dragon types and to Volcarona. To solve this weakness, I suggest you to use Choice Scarf Terrakion in place of Typhlosion. Terrakion is useful to revenge-kill dragon types after one Dragon Dance and Volcarona after one Quiver Dance, it can also revenge-kill many other threats as Keldeo and Stoutland with the sandstorm up, for example. Second, I saw that your team hasn't the Stealth Rock. They are useful against many threats like Dragonite, Salamence, Volcarona, Thundurus-T and Tornadus-T, for this reason, I'd use Stealth Rock in place of Fire Fang on Donphan. I think that Donphan doesn't need Fire Fang because you have already many fire moves in your team. Third, I agree with Novaray's advice to change Whimsicott's EV Spread into 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef and to use Bold Nature in place of Jolly nature. Whimisiscott has Prankster, so it doesn't need speed to use its moves. Fourth, I suggest you to change Latias' EV spread to 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd and I'd use Timid nature in place of Modest nature. This EV spread and Timid nature allow to outspeed many threats like Landorus, Keldeo, Terrakion and so on, and it's important for your team also I suggest you to use Refresh in place of Psyshock and Recover in place of Healing Wish. Psyshock isn't very helpful because already Dragon Pulse has a great coverage and Psyshock doesn't hit effectively the steel types that tank well Latias' Dragon Pulse, Refresh conversely is a really useful move to setup on many defensive pokèmons and to avoid status that can be annoying for Latias. Recover allows to setup more Calm Mind and to tank hits better, it's also useful to increase the possibilities to sweep. Finally, I don't like at all Ninetales' EV spread, I'd change it into 252 HP / 124 Def / 132 Spe and I'd use Timid nature in place of Modest nature. This EV spread allows to take hits better and to win the weather wars more easily, I'd use a defensive EV spread on Ninetales because it needs to stay alive long, anyway your team has already many offensive pokèmons so it doesn't need an offensive EV spread on Ninetales. Hope I helped with this rate, gl and Merry Christmas! Here's Terrakion's set:

terrakion_gif.gif

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
 
I'd like to thank both of you guys for replying and giving advice! I think I'm going with a Scarfed Terrakion, considering my team's lack of a physical poke.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top