RMT - Sunny Offense Team

[Grizzlpaw]

Sooo... It was bound to happen evenutally, but I'm finally starting to get tired of OU.

I've tried TR, Stall, Anti-Weather, Rain... lots of rain... I haven't tried Baton Pass yet, but I figured why not, so now I'm going to give sun a shot.

Starting out with the most obvious pokemon choice~

Ninetales @Leftovers
Ability: Drought
252 Hp/ 120 Def/136 Spe
Timid Nature

Flamethrower
Will-o-wisp
Sunny Day
Hidden Power Ground

My standard setter-upper of sun. A defensive variant is chosen to give my team at least some buffer against fire moves, since It doesn't carry any resists. Sunny Day is to screw with any Politoed that tries to switch in, and Hidden Power Ground is unknowing Heatran that try to switch into a Fire Move.

Metagross @Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
252 Hp/ 252 Att/ 4 Spe
Adamant Nature

Metor Mash
Bullet Punch
Earthquake
Pursuit

Note: This spot was debated for quite a while. I originally Had Alakazam here, but while he was decent, he wasn't getting the job done like I wanted him too. Heatran later replaced him to help me defend against Fire atatcks, but aside from that he hasn't been too helpful.

Metagross was picked because, otherwise, Scarf Latios runs all over this team. Seriously, without metagross he gets a free kill on each switch in, no prediction necessary. Metagross is here to come in on Latios locked into Draco Meteor and Pursuit use pursuit to kill him as he switches. Max Hp is to allow Metagross to tank a hit as best as he possibly can on a switch in while not giving up anything in power. It's also noteworthy that Starmie in the sun is easy to pursuit trap. Metagross can come in on a rapid spin and either catch Starmie or Pursuit it until it dies (Surf does pitiful damage in the sun)

My team also appreciates the physical power Metagross provides, he helps Landy take care of special walls like Blissey or Jirachi in the rain, who'd otherwise wall/Paralyze Venu and Volca.

Venusaur @Black Sludge
Ability: Chlorophill
4Hp/ 252 Sp.A/ 252 Spe/
Modest Nature

Giga Drain
Hidden Power (Fire)
Growth
Sleep Powder

This guy is a monster agaisnt rain teams. With Politoed out of the way, and usual counters like Latios and Salamence gone (Metagross and Donphan/Landorus respectively do a good job of handling these guys) this guy can usually sweep with little problems.

Hidden Power Fire over sludge bomb because it has better overall coverage and it gets Pseudo-stab in sun.

Shell Smash Cloyster is a danger to this team. Thankfully Venu in the sun does still manages to outspeed him after a boost and take him out.

Donphan @Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
252 Hp/ 252 Def/ 4Spe
Impish Nature

Earthquake
Steath Rock
Ice Shard
Rapid Spin

Poor old Donphan gets all the hate. I'm not going to lie, part of the reason why I put him here is so I can throw a figurative middle finger to all the people who disrespect him in the PS chat.

But the real reason he's here is because Donphan helps my team out by fulfilling multiple roles. Stealth Rocks are crutial. And they break Shell Smash Cloyster's Sash, so that I don't have to send in Metagross, or sacrifice Donphan with Ice Shard before Venu can take it out.

He semi-checks threats like Salamence and Garchomp who try to set up, because even an uninvested ice shard is going to hurt a bit.

Finally Rapid Spin gives Ninetales more opportunities to switch in, and prevents volca from losing half it's health from annoying rocks.

Volcarona @Leftovers
Ability: Flame Body
252Hp/ 204 Def/ 52 Spe
Bold Nature

Fiery Dance
Bug Buzz
Morning Sun
Quiver Dance

Volca might as well be named "Broom" because that's exactly what it does. Once my team has managed to power through Volca's checks, sweeping is no problem after it manages to get a boost up.

Morning sun makes Volca all the more threatening in the sun, and maximises it's ability to set up, alowing it to come in on even more threats. Not much else to be said here.

It IS fun to switch Volcarona in on Scizor though. Getting the burn on it as it switches out with U-turn brightens my day every time :D

Landorus-T @Choice Scarf
Trait: Intimidate
4 Hp/ 252 Att/ 252 Spe
Jolly Nature

Earthquake
SuperPower
Stone Edge
U-turn

This guy is teams best way of dealing with the other thing that plagues my team. Fire.

Pokemon like Bulky Volcarona at +1 and Heatran who would normally power thorugh this team are stopped ead by this guy. Other noteworthy threats like Moxiemence and Terrakion are defeated as well. (Also if I predict wrong and U-turn when they stay in, Donphan can come in and either set up rocks or Kill both with Ice Shard, so that helps lots)

This guy helps me keep momentum on my team's side, and...generally is an great pokemon to have. He hasn't dissapointed me yet.


Weaknesses:

Fire!

Unfortunately, my team has no dedicated Special Walls. Powerful Fire attacks end up taking my own sun and shoving the boost back in my face. The only resist I have against it is Ninetales, HP Ground at least helps deal with Heatran. But Heatran carring balloon has managed to give this team grief multiple times.

Also, just switching into powerful fire blasts is a pain. Pokemon Like Infernape and Salamence are also problematic because they can come in, on Volcarona or Venusaur, and either set up or hurt the next pokemon to come in badly with no prediction required.

This is why I had heatran before, but with Heatran, my team struggles against Chansey, since even landy's SuperPower does pitiful damage to it.


Fire isn't tooo big a problem, since, even if I can't counter powerful fire wielders, I can still check them. And getting U-Turns with Landy as they switch helps me at least gain some momentum back. (Unless the person keeps them in in which case... Yeah... It's usually a toss up here of whether I should U-Turn or not).

If Metagross is gone, then Latios pretty much runs all over this team. LO variants of Latios carrying HP fire are a problem because Meta cant Pursuit trap them as easily, especially in the sun. Volca can deal with Latios, but only if Rocks aren't up, which (more often than not they are). Latios in the rain is dificult to deal with, since my team has no special walls, and its attacks hurt.

Edit: Fixed some typos

 

[IceArrow]

Switch Landorus-T to Dragonite. That will definitely help with your Fire weakness and adds another sweeper.

 

[mood4food77]

how does metagross help you against fire types? outside of earthquake, shouldn't they make mince meat of him?

kingdra would be a better fit, although its water attacks would be pretty week

 

[Schoo]

I like the team for the most part, but I think instead of Leftovers you should give your Ninetales Heat Rock. That is my personal preference.
I don't like Landorus, but that is just my anti-legendary mindset speaking. Since X and Y are out, you can easily replace Landorus for a Houndoom with Flash Fire. That will solve your fire weakness issue, and you can even slap it's mega evolution in there to further boost it's synergy with your sun team, since it's mega evolution get's Solar Power. It's pretty fast to begin with, so it makes a really nice sweeper in the sun.

 

[IceArrow]

This is a 5th gen team. I really doubt Xiroey will use this team in 6th gen.

 

[Schoo]

Yeah that's true. But come December, our dear Xiroey may transfer his team over for future use.

 

[IceArrow]

Nah, Xiroey is smart, he knows sun is terrible now. Well it's not horrible since there is Mega Charizard (whichever has drought) but Xiroey would have to fully change this team.

 

[Schoo]

Nah, Xiroey is smart, he knows sun is terrible now. Well it's not horrible since there is Mega Charizard (whichever has drought) but Xiroey would have to fully change this team.

He can still use Drought Ninetales..

 

[IceArrow]

It's horrible though now that there is Charizard.

 

[Schoo]

Just because there is something that is a better choice does not make the previous choice 'horrible'. Charizard and Ninetales are two completely different Pokemon with different uses. Ninetales is usually used for setup and supporting, whereas people typically use Charizard as more of an offensive Pokemon. That's not to say he can't use BOTH in his team. That would be 2 (Potentially more if you include switch-outs) easy sources of sunlight. Additionally, maybe he just likes Ninetales, and wants to use it. I mean, don't get me wrong, who doesn't love Charizard? But some people just like taking the road less traveled.

 

[IceArrow]

I hate Charizard, however I'm not going to use Custap Crustle over Custap Forretress because it is less used. I would disagree with 2 sun users because it would create a huge sun weakness and would have less room for sun sweepers.

 

[Schoo]

It wouldn't be too bad. I've seen a great deal of people recently using Timid Mega Charizard Y's as pseudo sunsweepers. However, I wouldn't waste my mega slot on Charizard for a sun team, I would use Houndoom, thanks to Solar Power, and Houndoom being faster than Charizard anyway. Houndoom is just much better in a sun team anyway.
And frankly, I don't blame you for picking Forretress over Crustle, because nobody likes Crustle anyway! (kekeke) My point remains, if somebody likes a Pokemon enough, they will still use it even if there are better options, because they can find ways to make it work. Unless of course you like Dunsparce. ;( I wish Dunsparce was better...

 

[IceArrow]

If someone really likes a pokemon, than you shouldn't recklessly throw it into battle being severely outclassed. Also Stealth Rock is huge in this metagame and Fire types can't be recklessly thrown on to Sun teams.

 

[Schoo]

Rapid Spin, courtesy of our kind Donphan up above. But if you don't have a Rapid Spinner available, and they have stealth rocks on the field, I'm sure you would find switching into a Ninetales would be a little bit more reliable than switching into a Charizard Y, due to Charizard taking a whopping 50% of his health away just because he needed to switch back in to provide a little bit more sun. Ninetales would only take 25%, and unlike a Charizard Y, Ninetales has item options like Leftovers, Heat Rock, Focus Sash etc... Or, of course, you could just use Groudon for drought and have that matter settled, but sometimes using legendaries takes away from the flare of winning, unfortunately.

 

[IceArrow]

Groudon isn't in OU and never will be in OU.

Being against legendaries is stupid because they have a tier for overpowered pokemon.

 

[Schoo]

Which is a tier I don't participate in.