SM Doubles OU Sunny Day Team: Tapu Bulu/Torkoal core

[TheBigKyurem]

Torkoal @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Def / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
- Earth Power

Torkoal is here as my Sun setter, and is meant to stay in the fight for a long time. Using a defensive EV spread and Protect, i'm able to keep Torkoal from getting KOed on the first turn, allowing me to switch it out to set sun later.In addition, HP ice is here in order to allow my Torkal to be able to be used as a check against Lando-T, in addition to any Flying types that Earth Power cannot hit. Torkal is one half of the core of this team, with Tapu Bulu being the other.

Salamence @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 124 Def / 132 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Fly
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake

Salamence is my safety button. In case I somehow cannot set Sun, Salamence is here to be an attacking pokemon that is functional outside of Sunny Day. It's moveset is geared toward pure offense; a panic button. The only reason that I have Fly on this moveset is to be able to use the Flyinium Z, the move will not be used otherwise, as generally people will switch out before their pokemon can be hit by it. If an opportunity arises to use Dragon Dance, I can also use Salamence as a physical sweeper.

Heliolisk @ Life Orb
Ability: Solar Power
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hyper Voice
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch

Heliolisk is my special sweeper. Using it's ability combined with the Life Orb, I sacrifice survivability for raw offensive power. HP Ice is here as a check for Landorus-T, and Volt Switch is here in case I need to swap immediately. The reason that I gave Heliolisk 4 HP EVs is to make it so the Life Orb/Solar Power combo will not be as self-devistating as it would be. Hyper Voice is on this moveset to give my team a bit of AOE coverage in their attacks. While Heliolisk is not built to be bulky, It can be used as a sort of suicide bomber.

Tapu Bulu @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 60
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Protect
- Megahorn
- Superpower

Tapu Bulu is my bulky physical attacker. With it's ability, EV spread, and Leftovers, Bulu can stay in the fight for a long time, and mitigate a lot of the damage taken in recoil from Wood Hammer. In additon, Superpower is on this moveset in case I need coverage against Steel types in desperate situations. Using Bulu and Torkoal's Protects, I can stall out one single turn in the beginning of a match to see what kind of team the opponent is running, as generally any Trick Room or Weather effects will be set on Turn 1.

Beedrill-Mega @ Beedrillite
Ability: Adaptability
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Protect
- Poison Jab
- X-Scissor

Like Salamence, Beedrill-M is meant to be used as a physical sweeper that can function outside of Sunny Day. I have Knock Off on it in order to stop item-based pokemon, as well as having Protect to scope out what kinds of supereffective moves the opponent might have. Poison Jab and X-Scissor are here for STAB, however I am unsure if these are the best moves to have on this set. Any feedback on replacing these two moves would be appreciated. Potentially, Leech Life could be used in place of X-Scissor.

Exeggutor @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Chlorophyll
Level: 50
EVs: 8 HP / 124 Def / 252 SpA / 124 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Solar Beam
- Protect
- Sleep Powder

Exeggutor is my bulky special attacker. I wasnt sure if I should use Sunny Day on it or not, so I opted to have Sleep Powder instead for now. this build is meant to let Exeggutor take a lot of hits, while still dishing out damage. Sleep Powder is a gamble, but in a desperate situation I might need to have a sleeping move on my team in order to eliminate threats. While all of the other moves on this set are risky, Protect and Psychic serve to be reliable Defense/Offense moves respectively. Like Beedrill, any moveset critiques will be appreciated.


I'm new to teambuilding, so I would like to know if I filled out all of the roles of a team well. Thank you for your feedback!

 

[TPP]

Welcome to Smogon! I'm locking your RMT for the time being as the forum rules require that you provide at least 3 lines of descriptions for each Pokemon to explain their roles. Please read the rules carefully and take a look at Team Showcase to see the level of detail we require. PM me with updated descriptions and I'll be happy to unlock this.

Edit: Unlocked!

 

[Level 51]

Hi TheBigKyurem, sorry for taking so long to get to this!

While teams based around Sun setters have definitely seen recent success in SM DOU, there's two key differences between most such teams and your team:

• Firstly, most of these teams run Charizard Y instead of Torkoal, since it's much stronger and can do other things besides just setting up the sun (e.g. Tailwind, getting big KOs with Overheat)
• Secondly, most of them don't rely on the weather so much—most of them use Charizard Y as a very strong Fire-type attacker to synergise with the team's overall offensive structure

The reason most teams don't all center around sun is that making your whole team reliant on the weather to reach their full potential can be fairly shaky. Other weather setters such as Tyranitar and Pelipper are fairly common in the format, and they're able usually to switch in on Torkoal or Charizard without much of a second thought, which means you'll have to reset the sun to get most of the team working again.

Therefore, I won't be doing a full rate since to do a sincere rate I'd probably want to switch up most of your team, by which point it wouldn't really be much of "your team" anymore. Instead, here's some examples of some teams that I think have used the sun well, which you could look at and try to learn from:

• AuraRayquaza's sample team (4th team in that post) may not rely on the actual sun much, but the combination of Charizard, Tapu Koko, and Kartana creates a huge amount of offensive pressure with great coverage that can put the opponent on the back foot easily. (You can read more about it in the thread.)
• My Calm Mind Cresselia team is a reasonably common archetype (MajorBowman is another player who's used it to good effect) and does make use of the sun, but only to boost the amount Moonlight heals Cresselia by, making it more durable—note that Cresselia still works well even if the sun isn't up. (This team is a little weak to Incineroar, so it's probably not the best team to copy, but it's more of an example of how you can use sun without having the team be very reliant on it.)
• GenOne's Torkoal/Venusaur team—this team does actually make use of Torkoal and a Chlorophyll Pokemon (Venusaur), but stops there—notably, it has other methods of speed control such as Trick Room to help the team continue to function even if the sun does go down.

Overall, sorry that I couldn't help more, but I hope looking at those teams might give you a bit of inspiration to build a more well-rounded team. You can even try using those teams on the ladder to see for yourself how they work, especially AuraRayquaza's team which is quite simple to use but effective. Good luck with the team, and hope you continue to have fun with DOU!

(edit: also, remember to make your Pokemon level 100! DOU is played at level 100, not level 50 like VGC.)

 

[TheBigKyurem]

Hi TheBigKyurem, sorry for taking so long to get to this!

While teams based around Sun setters have definitely seen recent success in SM DOU, there's two key differences between most such teams and your team:

• Firstly, most of these teams run Charizard Y instead of Torkoal, since it's much stronger and can do other things besides just setting up the sun (e.g. Tailwind, getting big KOs with Overheat)
• Secondly, most of them don't rely on the weather so much—most of them use Charizard Y as a very strong Fire-type attacker to synergise with the team's overall offensive structure

The reason most teams don't all center around sun is that making your whole team reliant on the weather to reach their full potential can be fairly shaky. Other weather setters such as Tyranitar and Pelipper are fairly common in the format, and they're able usually to switch in on Torkoal or Charizard without much of a second thought, which means you'll have to reset the sun to get most of the team working again.

Therefore, I won't be doing a full rate since to do a sincere rate I'd probably want to switch up most of your team, by which point it wouldn't really be much of "your team" anymore. Instead, here's some examples of some teams that I think have used the sun well, which you could look at and try to learn from:

• AuraRayquaza's sample team (4th team in that post) may not rely on the actual sun much, but the combination of Charizard, Tapu Koko, and Kartana creates a huge amount of offensive pressure with great coverage that can put the opponent on the back foot easily. (You can read more about it in the thread.)
• My Calm Mind Cresselia team is a reasonably common archetype (MajorBowman is another player who's used it to good effect) and does make use of the sun, but only to boost the amount Moonlight heals Cresselia by, making it more durable—note that Cresselia still works well even if the sun isn't up. (This team is a little weak to Incineroar, so it's probably not the best team to copy, but it's more of an example of how you can use sun without having the team be very reliant on it.)
• GenOne's Torkoal/Venusaur team—this team does actually make use of Torkoal and a Chlorophyll Pokemon (Venusaur), but stops there—notably, it has other methods of speed control such as Trick Room to help the team continue to function even if the sun does go down.

Overall, sorry that I couldn't help more, but I hope looking at those teams might give you a bit of inspiration to build a more well-rounded team. You can even try using those teams on the ladder to see for yourself how they work, especially AuraRayquaza's team which is quite simple to use but effective. Good luck with the team, and hope you continue to have fun with DOU!

(edit: also, remember to make your Pokemon level 100! DOU is played at level 100, not level 50 like VGC.)

thank you! ill keep all of this in mind :)