Victorious Inferno! Rate my Sun Team!

Hey guys! I’m rather new to the forum, and I’m hoping to get some advice on a team I hope to be running at a tournament in July. This is my first crack at a sun team, so any and all advice is greatly appreciated! Here’s the team:
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Obviously, I’m slightly conflicted on my choice of lead, so please weigh in on Victini vs. Infernape. Thanks!
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@ Life Orb

Ability: Victory Star
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
-V-Create
-Fusion Bolt
-U-Turn
-Brick Break

My Victini lead is meant to either a) tempt an arrogant Politoed or Tyranitar to stay put while I kill them with Fusion Bolt and/or Brick Break, or b) to scout the opponent’s team to see if it’s safe for Nintales to poke its head out with U-turn. V-Create is dag nasty in sunlight, and Fusion Bolt+Brick Break pretty much cover weaknesses.

OR
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@ Focus Sash

Ability: Blaze
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
-Flare Blitz
-Close Combat
-Stealth Rock
-U-Turn

Infernape is more of a dedicated lead, setting up rocks and scouting the opposition, again, to see if Ninetales can come out of hiding. Flare Blitz is obvious STAB, and under sunlight with Infernape’s attack, it gets…ugly. Close Combat hits the ever-present Tyranitar and others for super effective damage. Then Infernape can U-Turn away to haze away the defense drops. Very conflicted here between the two.

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@ Leftovers

Ability: Drought
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP/252 SAtk/252 Spd
-Will-o-Wisp
-Fire Blast
-Solarbeam
-Sunny Day

The obligatory sun team pokemon also happens to be a favorite of mine. Will-o-wisp weakens the opposing team’s physical attackers, while Sunny Day lets me cancel the slower weather inducer’s abilities. I opt for Fire Blast over Flamethrower because this thing needs to hit like a truck to be of use. Solarbeam works well in conjunction with Sunny Day and is just more raw power.

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@ Life Orb

Ability: Chlorophyll
Nature: Lonely
EVs: 64 Atk/192 SAtk/252 Spd
-Growth
-Giga Drain
-Earthquake
-Sleep Powder

Sleep Powder allows this big fat dinosaur to set up on an opponent, and after a growth boost under sun, things get pretty nasty. I go with mixed Venusaur here because nothing else on my team carries Equake, and I need it to get past the troublesome steels that wall Venusaur (also Tyranitar). Giga Drain is respectable after boosts, and recovers life orb recoil for me.

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@ Choice Scarf

Ability: Solar Power
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP/252 SAtk/252 Spd
-Air Slash
-Dragon Pulse
-Fire Blast
-Solarbeam

Scarfzard outspeeds many of the threats that would otherwise take him down, and with the Solar Power boost, he can rip through opposing teams. Dragon Pulse hits dragons that tend to be a problem, Air Slash hits fighting types that are prevalent in OU, and Solarbeam finishes out the coverage. Fire Blast is my personal preference.
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@Leftovers

Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 HP/252 SAtk/4 Def
-Substitute
-Wish
-Baton Pass
-Ice Beam

Vaporeon fills a couple of roles here nicely. It sets up giant substitutes and wish passes to my pokemon who have taken a beating from recoil or other damage, allowing them another crack at a sweep. It also carries Ice Beam to take down the ever-so-common dragons that plague the team. Overall, it’s a bulky ‘mon that can support the rest of ‘em. I suppose another offensive pokemon could fit here, though.
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@Light Clay

Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 HP/4 SpA/252 Spd
-Reflect
-Light Screen
-Draco Meteor
-Healing Wish

Latias here is an important cog in my team. She is my dual screener, allowing the otherwise frail fire types to sweep behind cover. She carries a nice STAB attack in Draco Meteor, allowing her to do some damage, again, to dragons. Lastly, she carries Healing Wish in order to revive a KO’d sweeper to give them another crack at finishing the job, or Ninetales to set up sun once more.

Overall, I’m pretty new to this sun team thing. Any advice/criticism/suggestions are more than welcome! Be as harsh as you need to! Thanks!
 
This team is really good! Overall, it works really well, just a few small things.

-I suggest Hidden Power Fire > Sleep Powder.. With Hidden Power Fire, Venusaur can handle other Grass-type Pokemon and not be walled by them, as well as to giving more coverage, with boosted power in sun. I also suggest Mild > Lonely, Special Attack is more important in this set than Attack for Earthquake, as EQ is only used mostly to handle Heatran.

-I also suggest replacing Vaporeon with Defensive Rapid Spinning Starmie. With Ninetales and especially Charizard, you need a spinner to make their roles more effective. Defensive Starmie is great for your team; it can live longer with Recover and Natural Cure, spin Stealth Rocks away, and still be a great offensive presence with it's amazing speed.

-I believe that Infernape is the superior option of a lead to Victini. Infernape can guarantee Stealth Rocks almost all the time with Focus Sash, has great speed and power, and can keep momentum with U-Turn. Victini is powerful, but that's all; it doesn't offer much utility to the team, and is more of an anti-lead. Hazards support your team well in sweeping.

-Finally, I may offer a more Defensive Set for Ninetales. As your team does not have a sure fire way to handle other weather inductors, Ninetales needs to live as long as possible; having it fare against Politoed and Tyranitar isn't the best suggestion to win the weather war. It would be good to test the set out and see how it does; if it doesn't work, Offensive works as well.

That's all I have for your team. Hopefully, my rate has helped your team; good luck with it! =)

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Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spd / 4 SAtk
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
- Scald
- Psyshock

Pretty such explanatory set; not much to say about it, handles Terrakion/Keldeo well with Psyshock, two big threats to sun teams.

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Ninetales @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 136 Spd / 252 HP / 120 Def
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
- Sunny Day
- Substitute / SolarBeam

Same set basically: EV's are more defensive, and Substitute is an option to avoid status inflictions, as well as cripple with WoW. Not much else to say about it. Roar could also be used to phaze out threats like opposing leads, or Lati@s.

Pokemon Change(s):
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Move/Nature Change(s): Sleep Powder -----> Hidden Power Fire; Lonely ----> Mild ----->
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Set Change(s): (Possible; should be tested, though recommended.) Defensive Set ---->
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Lead Pokemon:
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Hey nice sun team you have going on here! Just a couple of things I Thi k will help your team out a bit. First off, if you really need rocks for your team, then I suggest you use Infernape since it gets rocks up reliably and gives your team fighting coverage and still hits hard with Flare blitz. Victini is sorta deadweight if you lose the weather war since V-Create needs sun support to void rain from wrecking its power.

Secondly, I'd run HP fire over sleep powder on Venusaur. Relying on a 75% accuracy move might screw you over if it misses and that isn't good in a tourney. It nails ferrothorn, scizor, grass types etc which can sometimes prove to be trouble some.

If you're running Charizard, it might be smart to run a spinner that Zara doesn't lose 50% of its health per switch in. You should try a)Tentacruel, a solid counter to rain teams and is a great special wall or you can take the offensive approach with a fast spinner in starmie who is also good at revenging dragons . These guys should replace Vaporean if you want a spinner.

Tentacruel@Black Sludge
Trait:Rain Dish
252 HP/252 SpD/4 Def
Nature:(+SpD,-Atk)
-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Toxic Spikes
-Rapid Spin

Starmie@Leftovers/Life Orb
Trait:Natural Cure
4 Def/252 SpA/252 Spe
Nature:(+SpA,-Atk)
-Surf/Hydro Pump
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Rapid Spin

Lastly, if you need a dual screener, consider replacing Latias with cresselia who, imo, doesn't a much better job. It loses the dragon typing so no weakness to dragon+ice and has great natural bulk. It sets up screens with ease and with sun, Morning Sun gets a huge buff.

Cresselia@Light Clay
Trait:Levitate
252 HP/128 Def/128 SpD
-Morning Sun
-Hidden Power Fighting/Psychic/Ice Beam/
-Light Screen
-Reflect

That's all I got for now! Good luck on your tourney! Sorry for any typos, hope you'll understand them. Wanted to get the thoughts out before I have to go out.
 
Thanks so much for the help, guys!

I can see the merits of Cresselia vs. Latias, but I'm hesitant to drop Latias because Healing Wish does so much for me.

I think the suggestions on dropping Vaporeon for Tentacruel or Starmie have merit, and Vaporeon is on the way out. But the question is which do I use instead? I can see that I'll need those two to beat any rain that comes my way.

Another option is this one, just to complete my trio of starters:

Blastiose @ Leftovers
Ability: Rain Dish
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SpD
-Scald
-Rapid Spin
-Dragon Tail
-Toxic

Thoughts on this?

Governess, the changes will be made to Venusaur and Ninetales. Thanks so much for the advice!
 
-Any of the three spinners that was mentioned has it's merits; let me list a very brief pros/cons for each one.

Blastoise
Pros:
-Great bulk
-Dragon Tail to phaze
Cons:
-Bad fit to sun team; scald is weakened, no other attack
-No Reliable recovery
-Slowness

Tentacruel
Pros:
-Access to Toxic Spikes
-Great defenses, Ice Beam and Scald for coverage
Cons:
-Doesn't really fit well on sun teams
-Makes Terrakion even more of a threat to your team
-Slowness

Starmie
Pros:
-Access to recovery
-Great offenses and speed; can check a lot of threats
-Great coverage moves
Cons:
-Decent, not great bulk
-Pursuit bait from T-Tar, a big threat

Please excuse me if I have forgetten something.
**In this case, if you really want to handle Terrakion and other threats, while still keeping your spinner alive with recovery, I highly suggest Starmie. Starmie can also check Keldeo, a huge OU threat. If you want bulk, but no other way to heal, along with Phazing/setting Toxic Spikes, Tentacruel/Blastoise is the way to go.**

-I also see that keeping Latias is the way to go imho, not only does the Dragon-type resistance helpful, Healing Wish is great for your weakened sweepers.
 
Umm, Governess, don't want to sound rude or anything but dragon is SE against dragon.

Anyways, it's up to you if you want to run Cress or not. Just a suggestion. Try both out and see which one works bet for you.

About the spinner thing, I think Starmie is the best thing to use on your team. Dragons can run straight through your team if Charirzard dies. With good speed, Starmie revenge kills them with ice beam. Your team doesn't really need to much toxic spikes support and latias is already a special wall. Blastoise is kinda unreliable because it doesn't do much out of spin and toxic things and ends up being dead weight after.
 
Umm, Governess, don't want to sound rude or anything but dragon is SE against dragon.

Anyways, it's up to you if you want to run Cress or not. Just a suggestion. Try both out and see which one works bet for you.

About the spinner thing, I think Starmie is the best thing to use on your team. Dragons can run straight through your team if Charirzard dies. With good speed, Starmie revenge kills them with ice beam. Your team doesn't really need to much toxic spikes support and latias is already a special wall. Blastoise is kinda unreliable because it doesn't do much out of spin and toxic things and ends up being dead weight after.

Yes; I'm well aware that Dragon is SE against Dragon. I meant of how it fares against other dragon types. I should've made it more specific, my apologies.

And yeah, you should try both of them and see how they work with your team.
 
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