Here Comes The Sun!

[Texas Cloverleaf]

Rotom-H vs T-Tar=free burns

Also counters Earthquakes :naughty::naughty::naughty::naughty::naughty::naughty::naughty:

Don't play Sun much so no input vs rain.

 

[alphatron]

*Has been using volcorona, tangrowth, salamence, forretress, and balloon heatran on all or half of his sun teams*

Earthquake....problems...?

As far as excadrill goes, sun is still allowed to use the stuff that counters him. Gliscor still handles excadrill, while scaring most Tyranitar variants and losing his weakness to water (which basically means that he loses his weakness to waterfall and aqua jet).

I handle other weather starters by simply switching smartly. Most sun teams carry a ferrothorn or jirachi, which is a quick switch in for Ninetales. From there, I too burn the incoming politoed or tyranitar, causing it to lose 25% of its health to the combination of burn+stealth rock every time it switches in. I normally carry an answer to tyranitar and politoed on most of my sun teams and through constant switching, I eventually kill them off. Stuff like scrafty and gastrodon work pretty well. Nasty plot Ninetales kills choice specs politoed all by itself. It also picks off weakened tyranitars with hp fighting (as in, tyranitar around 69% of his health or so.) and you don't even need a life orb to accomplish this. Hippodown will need some prior damage, but he isn't a problem for sun teams...at all.

On the team I've actually been laddering with (and doing surprisingly well too), I use a dugtrio to pick off tyranitar and sometimes politoed. One time, he killed an abomasnow. I will never condone anyone else using dugtrio though, simply because he exists to dissapoint (except for when he lives through +1 Jirachi flash cannon).

 

[Byrn Dragonstone]

Excadrill should never be a problem for any sun team. Ninetales is probably the best revenge killer for it ever invented (Outspeeds and OHKOs). I recently started running Tangrowth again and I have to say it hard stops almost all physical pokemon out there. It has helped with my earthquake problems too.

On another note Ninetales makes a suprisingly good counter for rain teams in and of itself, sand is where I have more issues. (Landorus and his stupid boosted stone edge/earthquake)

As bad as it is the biggest threat I have faced recently has been Heatran. I removed Arcanine for a while and all of a sudden my entire team falls apart. So Arcanine is now part of my team again.

Has anyone else tried Latios out and been disappointed? I definately was, it added another Tyranitar opportunity, which Sun Teams really don't need.

Final question. What are the general type ratio's on your teams?

 

[alphatron]

When I used to use latios, I used him as a lure for tyranitar. I aim to cripple that pokemon as much as possible so that it will eventually die from hazards and the constant switching games it has to play with Ninetales. That being said, LO Latios was able to pull his own wieght once I realized that specs just wasn't worth the trouble. I haven't been running him recently though.

Ninetales vs. Sand is a problem mainly for landorus. Gliscor is not taking hits from offensive Ninetales (Gliscor is not taking hits from defensive Ninetales either when sun is up, but eh...). Landorus outspeeding you by one point and forcing you to switch is the biggest issue. And if he u-turns, you wind up having your EQ answer being faced with a scizor/rotom-W.

I haven't been bothered by Heatran for quite some time. I usually run something on my team that gives him trouble these days, like gastrodon, infernape, etc.

My sun teams usually go like this: 2 fire types, 1 grass type, 1-2 steels. The last spots are whatever I need them to be for general utility.

"It's time to try our new secret weapoon!"

Infernape @ Life orb
Trait: Blaze
Nature: Naive
Evs: 44 Atk, 212 spA, 252 spd
-Nasty Plot
-Fire Blast
-Close combat
-Vacuum Wave/Grass Knot

I'm not gonna bother drawling on about it's utility. Here are some calcs.

+2 LO Fire blast vs. 252/0 Rotom-W(sunlight): 97.7% - 115.5%
No sunlight: 65.5% - 77%

+2 LO Fire blast vs. 248/0 Jellicient (sunlight): 74.9% - 88.3%
+2 LO Grass Knot vs. 248/0 Jellicient (no sunlight): 111.7% - 131.5%

+2 Lo fire blast vs. 156/0 Gyarados (sunlight): 85.1% - 100.3%
+2 LO grass knot vs. 156/0 gyarados: 75.9% - 89.5%

+2 LO fire blast vs. 248/8 gyarados(sunlight): 79.4% - 93.6%
+2 LO Grass knot vs. 248/8 gyarados: 70.7% - 83.5%

+2 LO fire blast vs. 252/0 Dragonite (sunlight): 81.6% - 96.1% (not factoring in multiscale)
+2 LO fire blast vs. 252/252 careful dragonite(sunlight): 58.8% - 69.2% (only thing so far that lives after rocks)

+2 LO fire blast vs. 252/0 Tentacruel(sunlight): 73.9% - 87.1%
+2 Lo fire blast vs. 252/136 Calm Tentacruel(sunlight): 59.9% - 70.6%

+2 LO fire blast vs. 252/0 Vaporeon(sunlight): 70.6% - 82.9%

+2 LO fire blast vs. 252/0 Slowbro(sunlight): 95.7% - 112.7%

+2 Lo fire blast vs. 0/0 Naive salamence(sunlight): 127.8% - 150.5%
+2 LO fire blast vs. 0/0 Naive salamence(no sun): 85.2% - 100.6%

+2 LO Fire blast vs. 4/0 haxorus (sunlight): 143.9% - 169.4%
No sunlight: 95.9% - 113.3%

+2 LO fire blast vs. 4/0 hydriegon(sunlight): 105.8% - 124.5%
+2 LO Vacuum Wave vs. 4/0 hydreigon: 94.5% - 112.3% (Less damage than fire blast)

+2 LO fire blast vs. 252/0 Suicune(sunlight): 81.9% - 96.5%
+2 Lo grass knot vs. 252/0 suicune: 121.6% - 143.3%

LO Fire blast vs. +1 252/0 Cosmic Power Sigilyph(sunlight): 88.1% - 103.8%
LO fire blast vs. 252/0 reuniclus(sunlight): 99.7% - 117.7%
+2 LO Vacuum Wave vs. Excadrill: 88.4% - 105%

For the hell of it:
+2 LO fire blast vs. 252/0 Latias:(sunlight) 69.2% - 81.6%
+2 LO fire blast vs. 4/0 Latios(sunlight): 96.3% - 113.6%

This pokemon is your sweeper, late game cleaner, LO beater, late game cleaner, death machine, late game cleaner, tyranitar/heatran answer, and late game cleaner. You send this guy out midway through the match when most of your opponent's pokemon have taken prior damage from hazards and you set up. Crush them. Eat them. You will like it. I assure you. I gave you calculations on a bunch of bulky pokemon who resist Infernape and most of them are ohko'd with stealth rocks up or are 2HKO'd. The ones that are 2HKO'd lack the ability to ohko Infernape back. Partner him up with a pursuiter to get rid of Starmie and Lati@s and you're pretty much home free. With encore working the way it should now, you can even use him alongside wobbufett.

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

(except for when he lives through +1 Jirachi flash cannon).

*waves*
Damn weakRachi.

I recall using NP Ape alongside Blazekin when he was still around. Worked decently but ended up overlapping with Blaze too often. Main issue I found with him was the lack of set-up oppurtunity but that's more likely because I wasn't using him in the role you described.

 

[GreenWater10]

Great guide! This will help me improve my sun team. thanks!

 

[Z-rex]

damn i tested charizard and he's suc a boss with the right support ..

spec power is huge .. and he has focus blast for those tyranitar switch-in ..

too bad he requires too many support to work well , but the payoff is huge ..

juste have a question ,what's a poke that cas switch on ttar but pose threat to sand team , i mean not something like hitmontop who just sit there and do nothing ..

 

[Byrn Dragonstone]

Excadrill is a nice pokemon to pair with Charizard. They cover each others weaknesses, and excadrill learns rapid spin for rocks too. Also Blastoise makes a good pair with him, but you have to be careful when using a water type in the sun.

 

[Z-rex]

Excadrill sounds like a good idea .. but having him increase the weakness to rain teams ..

 

[Byrn Dragonstone]

Use a Starmie. BoltBeam/Rapid Spin/Recover would be good.