Watch the SUN come up!
Soz, but I’d like to showcase my latest team that utilises boring old Sun to its fullest potential! I’ve always loved Sun however; it was pretty damn underwhelming last gen. However, this Gen brought us a saviour in the form of Drought being available on my favourite Pokemon, Ninetales! This Gen, Sun is able to compete with the more popular weather, Hail. LOL JK Sand and Rain. This Gen also brought us a few viable Pokémon that work effectively under Sun and I’m gonna showcase them in this RMT! I’d appreciate any comments, rates or suggestions!
Soz, but I’d like to showcase my latest team that utilises boring old Sun to its fullest potential! I’ve always loved Sun however; it was pretty damn underwhelming last gen. However, this Gen brought us a saviour in the form of Drought being available on my favourite Pokemon, Ninetales! This Gen, Sun is able to compete with the more popular weather, Hail. LOL JK Sand and Rain. This Gen also brought us a few viable Pokémon that work effectively under Sun and I’m gonna showcase them in this RMT! I’d appreciate any comments, rates or suggestions!
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Ninetales (F) @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Drought
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Rest
- Toxic
- Will-O-Wisp
Sunny Day team with a Ninetales? SHOCK. Well anyways, I pinched this set from Benlisted and to be honest, I haven't looked back. When I first drafted this Sun team, I had planned to make Ninetales a Special Wall thinking that it would increase its longevity throughout the battle. However, I found that it was literally just sitting there not achieving much as it was always getting raped by the other weather changers especially without any recovery. So, I decided to use this set as it supports the team through the use of burn and poison. Well you know its role, set up sun and basically try to stay alive throughout the battle as having the weather in my favour is needed to make the most out of this teaam.
- Fire Blast under the sun is an attack that should not be underestimated. Whilst Ninetales does have mediocre SpA; Sunlight boosts it to where it becomes respectable. Pokes such as Reuniclus who wouldn't care about staus, now has to face a Sunlight boosted FB which now does respectable damage instead of becoming bait.
- Rest when used in conjunction gives me a one time 100% recovery without any repercussions. After that, if I were to use Rest, I'd have to stay in and wait for 'Tales to wake up. T_T. Anyways, I've never found myself to Rest more than once in a match and this set perfectly compliments Ninetales' strengths - it's speed, SpD and supporting moves. Rest's main function is to give Ninetales a few more shots of setting the weather and therefore giving my team the natural advantage.
- Toxic when used under the Sun makes getting rid of Ninetale's number one counters much easier; Water types (well excluding Tentacruel and Starmie T_T). Sun neuters special effective water attacks making them neutral and thus makes Toxic Stalling them much easier given that their water attacks generally target Ninetale's 100 SpD stat. Toxic in generally is helpful to my team as any passive damage is useful making a sweep more successful.
- Will-O-Wisp totally rapes incoming Physical attackers who think they can have a free switch in without any repercussions. The number one weather changer, Tyranitar, gets burned and crippled due to the halving of its attack making it easier to have control of the weather. Burn also gives Dragons who think they're able to sponge Fire Blast / Energy Ball / Hidden Power [Fight] a nasty surprise.
Hitmontop (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Foresight
- Rapid Spin
- Mach Punch
Hitmontop utility lies within its ability to sponge a variety of Physical attacks due to Intimidate and RAPID SPIN. With it's good Def + SpD, combined with Intimidate, it looked like it could take hits from both sides of the spectrum with ease. The lack of proper recovery hurts Hitmontop greatly however, it's only every really switched in on Rock + Dark attacks which are resisted which alleviates this problem. Hitmontop’s role is to prevent Stealth Rock from hampering Volcarona and Ninetales’ ability to switch in multiple times throughout the battle.
- Close Combat is needed for a reliable attack. Its other Physical attacks such as Brick Break simply do not hit hard enough with any investment in Atk. Even though the -1 Def & SpD drops are undesirably, Hitmontop usually doesn't stay long enough to care about it. CC gives me a way to not allow Tyranitar or Ferrothorn to turn this weak Hitmontop into setup fodder.
- Sucker Punch may seem a bit weird at first on this set. However, it provides me with much needed revenge killing utility such as taking out weak Latio/as and Gengars who would run over this team if Sunlight isn't up. Whilst it may seem replaceable, Bullet Punch doesn't seem as effective as it doesn't have Technician on top of being unSTABed. Hello, I'm not Scizor here! Foresight or Toxic could be used in this slot however, I've never found a reason to use Foresight as Ghosts do not create a problem for me and I have 9/10 been successfully able Rapid Spin without the need of Foresight currently. Toxic being used would have overlapped with the amount of status being run on this team and Heatran and Ninetales are better Toxic lures for Pokemon that create problems for this team.
- Mach Punch; MORE PRIORITY. Well since when did having more priority become a bad thing? :D Mach Punch allows for me to pick off weakened Excadrills and Heatrans which gives me reliable priority STAB against generally anything. The combination of Sucker Punch and Fighting attacks however does leave me helpless against Ghost & Psychic types, well if they don't attack me that is. :(
- Rapid Spin is the reason Hitmontop takes a space in the team and in fact, is completely essential as it allows Volcarona to switch in without being completely crippled before it even gets to sweep! RS increases the longevity of Volcarona but also Ninetales. Ninetales is what this team is centred around, seeing as it sets up the weather so the lack of damaging entry hazards for this team - THE BETTER.
Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Reflect
- Dragon Pulse
- Roar
- Recover
Ahhh, precious Latias. Without you, Fire attacks as well as Choiced Dragons would rape me! :') I opted for a more supportive set as I needed to constantly sponge Fire, Water, Fighting and most importantly Ground attacks. Levitate gives my team a much-needed Ground immunity as Sawsbuck's job isn't to constantly soak up Ground typed assaults. Latias is the glue that holds this team together as it sponges attacks from both sides of the spectrum well and checks many Pokemon that would otherwise ruin my team.
- Reflect supports the team massively who are weaker on the Physical side than they are Special and makes Volcaronas job of sponging priorty moves easier as they're mostly Physical. It also ensures that threats such as Scizor, Tyranitar and Conkeldurr can't switch in expecting to take me out easily.
- Dragon Pulse is needed so I'm not Taunt (or BalloonTran T_T) bait Even without SpA Evs, Dragon Pulse isn't as weak as you'd like to think being able to 2HKO notable threats such as Darmanition and Infernape. Dragon Pulse was chosen over Psyshock / Psychic as I don't want to give more reasons for Tyranitar and Scizor to switch in and Dragon Pulse has great neutral coverage against the majority of OU 'Mons.
- Roar provides me with a much-needed Phazing ability and doesn't make me a sitting duck for threats such as CM Reuniclus and BU Conkeldurr. Extra SR damage doesn't hurt too, as free damage on the likes of Dragonite, Salamence and Zapdos.
- Recover is the crux of this set extending Latia's longevity. Without Recover, I wouldn't be able to sponge numerous Water, Fire, Grass & Electric attacks as Latias is extremely vital to this team's core. Reflect + Recover also allows me to stall out Physical Pokes of their low PP moves such as Payback and Recover when needed.
Heatran (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Lava Plume
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Very unorthodox I know, but it works! Heatran provides me with my ONLY Dragon resist on the team being able to take Draco Meteors and Outrage seamlessly. In fact, without Heatran, Dragons would tear up this team firing random Dragon attacks without a care in the world. Also, under sun, one of its weaknesses is removed and therefore makes fighting Water types much easier. It's ability Flash Fire prevents my team from being raped by the likes of Choiced Flare Blitz's coming from Darmanitan, Arcanine and Emboar.
- Lava Plume was chosen over Fire Blast / Flamethrower as the 30% burn rate was welcome as I've said any type of passive damage is useful especially if it's crippling Physical attackers who give me problem. Also under Sun, the power difference hasn't been that noticeable.
- Dragon Pulse is needed simply for Dragons that run over this team. There wouldn't be any use in sponging Dragon attacks if all I could do was Toxic! Dragon Pulse immediately threatens most Dragons, usually 2HKOing most. It also provides good neutral coverage when paired with Fire.
- Stealth Rock, well, is there any need for any explanation? It limits the switch-ins of Flying and Fire types especially and racks up the damage. Latia's Roar makes use of Stealth Rocks and is especially useful Volcarona as it's main checks (Dragonite, Salamence + Gyarados) are damaged heavily through SR.
- Toxic may seem like a weird choice given that Ninetales already carries it however under circumstances where SS or Rain is present, it can sometimes be my only offense against Pokes like Tyranitar, Rotom-W, Politoed or Zapdos. When Lava Plume is weakened through Rain, or is resisted, it simply isn't hitting hard enough and transforms Heatran's offenses in LOL. Toxic's job is simple surprisingly put its counters on a time limit of the amount of turns it can stay in and slowly whittle its health down where the sweepers can set up on them or straight KO them.
Sawsbuck (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick
- Return
This thing is a beast under the Sun and only stopped by priority Fighting attacks and Skarmory. The reason I felt the need for a Grass type on a Sun team is that it holds the Chlorophyll ability and it's part Grass type. Its Grass type totally nullifies any Pokémon attempting to SubSeed me which gives the majority of this team a problem. Also, I felt that having 2 special sweepers would double up on my Blissey / Chansey weakness and therefore decided to go for a physical sweeper. With Sunlight, it acts as a my only revenge killer due to the 100 base Atk and none of the other weather changers enjoy switching in on Sawsbuck to change the weather gien their shared weaknesses to Grass.
- Sword Dance vs. Aromatherapy: Do I sweep or support... SWEEP. I did contemplate Aromatherapy as a Volcarona who is Toxic'd or Latias who is Paralyzed is plain annoying and makes it harder to sweep however I need to keep the momentum in my favour and Sword Dance allows me to keep the advantage. Sawsbuck's main role is to attempt a sweep with SD and to be honest, without SD, it's attacking potential is rather disappointing. Sword Dance turns 2HKOs to OHKOs such as Ferrothorn and makes revenge killing it much harder. An example would be Dragons who think they can revenge a Sawbuck who only manages to 2HKO without a SD, however with SD, it's turned into a plain OHKO. GOODBYE.
- Horn Leech gives me a reliable STAB which allows me to recover any SR / Spikes and especially LO damage. It also gives bulky waters, grounds and Rocks a reason not to switch in as +2 Horn Leech OHKOs the majority of them. However, given that Grass is a crappy offensive STAB, I've needed to utilise Sawsbuck's secondary STAB!!!...
- Return. How exciting. 102 Base power with 100% accuracy. Honestly, I use Return more often than I do with Horn Leech given the higher base power unless I need the recovery. Anything that Horn Leech or Jump Kick can't take of, Return certainly will!
- Jump Kick rounds off my coverage and gives me a good chance of removing Ferrothorn and therefore the entry hazards that plague this team. Shame Skarmory only takes half from a +2 JK. Sad face. Bulky Pokemon such as Scrafty and Chansey take more from JK than they do from my other moves. The one drawback of this move is that if it misses, Sawsback will most likely be dead as it's insanely frail despite the HP EVs and it really can't take a hit following a miss unless it's insanely NVE aka Luvdisc's Water Gun.
Volcarona (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Hidden Power [Rock]
Volcarona is a beast. That is all. This thing has saved me numerous times in battles simply with 1 Quiver Dance. I has 2 amazing offensive STABs and very little can stop this without status or Blissey / Chansey. Whilst it does require a lot of support, its all worth it as a 135 SpA + 105 SpD + 100 Spd is too amazing not to use especially when it benefits highly from the Sun. In fact, it is immediately threatening even without boosting and Toxic / Thunder Wave is honestly the only way that you’ll stop it in its track.
- Quiver Dance's during late game = you can most guarantee that it'll be GG. In my opinion, Volcarona is the number 1 threat on Sun teams due to the combination of Quiver Dance, Fiery Dance, amazing dual STABs and perfectly distributed stats for sweeping! This move gives a +1 to SpA, SpD and Spd! The boost to SpD is amazing when setting up on Special Sweepers such as Starmie making their attempts at taking me down futile. In fact, many Special attacks do laughable damage once 1-2 Quiver Dances have been set up. Do I even need to explain by a boost to the SpA and Spd is useful? T_T
- Fiery Dance vs. Fire Blast vs. Flamethrower: The reason I'm using Fiery Dance is that I get the benefits of the other two moves. Fiery Dance has the 100% accuracy needed for a consistent late game sweep but also has the raw power of Fire Blast (after a boost of course ^_^). Fire Blast, whilst not totally inaccurate, doesn't have the desired accuracy. I didn't set up the whole sweep only for it to miss, PFFFT! IN addition Flamethrowers 10% burn doesn't really help in comparison to the 50% SpA boost.
- Bug Buzz is an amazing STAB when paired with Fiery Dance allowing for great neutrality. Whatever Fiery Dance doesn't hit for neutral damage, you can bet that Bug Buzz will. Bulky waters such as Vaporeon, Suicune or Luvdisc will not like taking a Bug Buzz, let alone a boosted one. In addition, Bug Buzz decimates Reuniclus who gives me problems if it has Calm Minded previously. For things that are not hit for neutral by either such as Gyarados or Jellicent, I will most likely end up using Fiery Dance as the sun is up boosting its damage and also for the chance of a SpA boost.
- Hidden Power [Ground] is used for one pokemon and one pokemon only - Flareo-- I mean Heatran. Heatran has always been a bitch to my team, and I've noticed a pattern that MOST Sun teams have a problem with it also. Hidden Power Ground smacks Heatran around like a little bitch and therefore makes sweeping a breeze (well easier... T_T). I've never found Hidden Power [Rock] to be all that useful to be honest. Whilst it does hit a plethora of Pokémon for Super Effective damage such as Salamence, Dragonite, Gyarados and opposing Volcanronas - I've found that under the sun, Fiery Dance does enough damage to not warrant HP [Rock]. Anyways, I don't have troubles dealing with the mentioned Pokémon however; my team has severe problems attempting to break through Heatran so HP [Ground] is a necessity! Flash Fire Pokémon such as Arcanine (or Flareon - ELOHEL) are also treated to a Hidden Power [Ground] who are immune to Fire and take a NVE Bugg Buzz. But seriously, Flareon. Really.
And that's the team!
Threat List:
With Earth Power removed from my own Heatran, there’s no viable way to kill it without sending in Volcarona or Sawsbuck. It walls pretty much half of my team and is basically given a free switch in every time Ninetales is switched in. I can check it with Latias but all it can do back is Dragon Pulse + Recover which is a pretty unreliable way to kill it.
Blissey who? Anyways, when these two are used in tandem, neither of my sweepers can effectively break through both. Sawsbuck’s Jump Kick does just about half and then I’m either Whirlwinded out or severly damaged using Brave Bird. Volcarona OHKOs Skarmory but LOL hi Chansey. Without enough SpA boosts, I’m Toxic’d, Thunder Waved or Seismic Tossed to death. I can only hope the amount of Toxic I’m running on this team wears it down to the point where Volcarona can revenge kill it. Meh. Fuck SkarmChans 2k11!
So that's it! Rate, hate or even steal. Thanks. :D
