Warm Weather and Sunny Days

[Blatreutka]

I'm not one for long introductions, so I'll just get right into the team.

Team Building Process

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Ninetales is a requirement for any sun team and Venusaur was my favorite sweeper from my original team way back before Smogon's PO server. It was actually one of the only things on that team that actually worked, to be honest.

After reading Blaziken's thread in Uncharted, I knew that he would be a good sun sweeper. I knew that I wanted a balanced team, so I needed two walls.

Claydol and Cresselia were my first choices because I have used them both to great success in the past. Claydol is especially useful for my team because it gives Rapid Spin and Stealth Rock support. Cresselia is great against almost every Dragon, which is invaluable to any team. They both also give much needed Ground immunities and Psychic resistances as my team is very weak to both types. From here, I desperately needed more resistances. Who can do that better than a Dragon?

Ok, I know what you're thinking. This is one god awful team and it played like one. From here, I went with a huge revamp.

I changed basically everything except Ninetales and Salamence. Blaziken was too frail and was useless on its first turn. Arcanine has much more bulk with Intimidate and Morning Sun. It has a similar moveset with Close Combat and Extremespeed instead of High Jump Kick and Stone Edge. Donphan doesn't share Cresselia's Psychic typing, so they make for a much better combo now that Cresselia is more specially defensive. Venusaur changed from mixed to purely special for more bulk with Giga Drain. This is my current team.

In-Depth

Ninetales @ Leftovers
Drought
Timid Nature
252 HP / 92 SpD / 194 Spe
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power Fighting
- Substitute
- Toxic

This is a fairly standard Ninetales. I've gone with Toxic over Will-o-wisp to help against Jellicent who can be a problem for my team. Venusaur can generally handle Jellicent, but it can't handle its common teammates. Even with no SpA EVs its Flamethrower still hits fairly hard, so it isn't completely dead weight against non weather teams.
Usefulness: 9/10

Venusaur @ Leftovers
Chlorophyll
Modest Nature
32 HP / 252 SpA / 224 Spe
- Growth
- Giga Drain --> Energy Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power Fire

After learning that Venusaur can't legaly have both Power Whip and Chlorophyll, I searched for a different set. At first, I used Petal Dance over Giga Drain, but that restricted it as only a late game cleaner and having both Outrage and Petal Dance on the same team made me very weak to Steels. I generally use it early- to mid-game as a way to prepare for a Salamence sweep.
Usefulness: 8/10

Arcanine @ Life Orb
Intimidate --> Flash Fire
Adamant
120 HP / 252 Atk / 136 Spe
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed --> Wild Bolt
- Morning Sun

Arcanine is the closest thing to a wallbreaker that I have. Fire + Fighting takes out SkarmBliss, though it is walled by Jellicent as I mentioned above. It is also completely walled by Flash Fire Chandelure as it is immune to every attack.
Usefulness: 7/10

Donphan @ Leftovers
Sturdy
Impish
252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake

Donphan functions as my physical wall and spinner. The lack of recovery hurts, but it covers my team's rock weakness well. I was prepared to write a bad review, but now that I've changed that Hardy nature to Impish, it is much more effective. It also doesn't share any weaknesses with Cresselia and has generally good synergy with her. If I change this guy, it will have to be to another spinner.
Usefulness 7/10

Cresselia @ Leftovers
Levitate
Careful
252 HP / 108 Def / 148 SpD
- Moonlight
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam
- Reflect

Despite being my special wall, Cresselia is the star of my team. With her special bulk along with reflect, she is an amazing counter to almost any Dragon as well as several Sandstorm sweepers like Landorus and Terakion (Ninetales is my only answer to Excadrill). There is nothing I want to change here.
Usefulness: 10/10

Salamence @ Life Orb
Intimidate
Jolly
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast

The classic DDmence. It serves as a good partner to Venusaur as a late-game sweeper. Cresselia can handle Scarf Latios that try to revenge kill it. Fire Blast in the sun is incredibly powerful even with the Jolly Nature and it gets nearly perfect coverage with the moves (Balloon Heatran).
Usefulness: 9/10

Threats

Gyarados - As a water-type that isn't weak to grass, it's fairly hard to take down. More trouble as a Rest Talking phazer than an offensive Pokemon.

Reuniclus - I hate Reuniclus. My best bet is Arcanine's Flare Blitz for the Calm Mind sets or if I get depserate Salamence can outrage agaisnt it, but neither of those can OHKO even in the sun. TR sets outspeed my entire team and are generally just as hard to kill.

Scizor - Only the Swords Dance sets are a problem. Cresselia outspeeds and can set up Reflect to take a hit or two, but it can't do anything back. Arcanine is generally my answer to it because of intimidate.

Tyranitar - Only a problem when they carry Ice Beam. With Ice Beam / Crunch / Stone Edge it can hit my entire team super-effectively.

Chansey - It just doesn't die. Arcanine can OHKO with Close Combat, but if it gets paralyzed I'm doomed.

Jellicent - Walls Arcanine, threatens Salamence with a burn. If it comes in on Ninetales then I'm set.

Latias - For CM sets, only way I can beat it is by paralyzing it then bringing in Salamence after it kills something.

 

[Boorego]

Hi, I have a couple of suggestions for you.

1st: change venusaur's item from leftovers to life orb, you are missing out on a huge amount of power, for example at +2 venusaur can ohko 252 hp rankrusu and latios with sludge bomb with the life orb equipped, not possible with lefties. venusaur can even recover the life orb recoil back with giga drain.

2nd: try changing arcanine's ability to flash fire, yeah intimidate is usually the better ability, but you sorta need a good switch in to fire type moves because thoese fire resists become just neutrallity to fire under sun. 212 speed evs could be handy for always outrunning heatran, this with flash fire makes him a good tran check. Also, condisder changing to the item to choice band and replaceing mourning sun with wild bolt, you can OHKO many (some may survive with a tiny bit of health) rankrusu in the sun with flare blitz now and wild bolt is an electirc attack that both jellicent and gayradose fear. From personal expericene with arcanine, life orb and flare blitz recoil is a bit too much for him often, choice band gets rid of some of this extra recoil.

Hope this helped a bit :)

 

[Benlisted]

Hey, the guy above me gives pretty good advice, so his points are good, I'll just elaborate on them somewhat. Venusaur cannot run Giga Drain+Chlorophyll legally as it is also an egg move, so replace it with Energy Ball either now or when PO gets round to making it illegal. You almost certainly want a LO, however, as you lose immeasureable amounts of kills without it. Even with the lack of Giga Drain recovery it still sweeps whole teams.

On Tales consider adding a few EVs to SpAtk in order to ensure the 3HKO on Heatran with Defensive investment, as well as deal some more damage to TTar.

On Arcanine Wild Bolt is an option given the issues you have with Gyara and Jellicent. I hesitate to say this, but try it over Extremspeed, since you need Fire+Fight and without recovery you'll be dying very quickly - a CB would just increase the recoil to a point where it is similar to that of LO. I'd also advise EVing to outspeed Scizors if you are having trouble with them and find that you don't already (sorry I'm not sure what the standard speed run is), as even +2 BP will do little to Arc, letting him deal with it well. I normally recommend FF Arc on Sun, but you do have a lot of resists/bulk anyway, so it may not be needed, but be sure to consider it if opposing fires are tearing you a new one.

Not too sure how to deal with Latias and reuniclus (but Arcanine can blast a hole in the latter fairly nicely). CM on Cress may help you boost up alongside, but I'm not sure how well even that would do VS Latias. Anyway hope I've helped, and gl.

 

[Blatreutka]

Thanks for the rates, guys. I'll definitely try Wild Bolt on Arcanine, though I'm not sure its better than Extremespeed. Arcanine already outspeeds Scizor and I haven't had a problem with Heatran (to be fair, I've only seen one). My main problem is that I rely on Arcanine for too much and it dies to residual damage before it can kill what I need it to.

I didn't realize Giga Drain was illegal, I just assumed Power Whip was the only notable issue since that's all people seem to talk about. Does anyone have a suggestion for a better Chlorophyll sweeper?

 

[Benlisted]

Given your two Psychic types to take out Fighters, try out Sawsbuck or Shiftry. The former's Megahorn and the latter's Dark attacks may help you out with Reuniclus and Latias. I'd be inclined to try Shiftry as it can still run HP Fire well (you don't have many firea attacks otherwise), and Megahorn on Saws means you have to drop either SD or lose a lot of coverage, though a 4 attacks set wouls still work excellently.

Try maybe a Shiftry with Dark Pulse/Sucker Punch, Low Kick, HP Fire and Growth. Leaf Storm is a good option, but it depends on what you want to cover really. You could even drop Growth for it since it's quite hard to setup a Growth with him given his frailty.

I will stress that Venusaur works fine without G Drain, however. You don't need to drop it.

 

[Farewell]

Shiftry can set use with Focus Sash making Growth eligible.

Victreebel can also be used over Venusaur... Weather Ball + Leaf Blade + Hidden Power Ice + Growth provides lots of power and coverage, handling Dragons and Steels besides Heatran. Fire types become an issue, which is where Flash Fire Arcanine comes into view.

try out Victreebel, and if you need more coverage, try Sleep Powder or Sucker Punch on Victreebel.