OU Sun Team

[Savanny Killersaurus]

EDIT: CHANGES IN BOLD

Hello! This is my new sun team. I've played with this team on Showdown about 20+ times, and so far, it's fared pretty well. However, I'm open to suggestions on how it could be even more successful. So here we go:

Ninetales
Item: Expert Belt
Ability: Drought
Nature: Timid (+ Spe : - Atk)
EVs: 252 SpAtk : 252 Spe : 4 SpDef
Moves:
Sunny Day
Fire Blast
Solarbeam
Hidden Power: Ice

Ninetales is of course the notorious sun summoner. Instead of the usual defensive approach many use for Ninetales, I made her more of an offensive presence on my team. Her job is to get the sun up, then either quickly re-apply it if an opposing weather inducer comes in, or hit whatever is in front of her hard. Fire Blast is a STAB move that nails anything hard in the sun, Solarbeam hits water-types, while Hidden Power: Ice deals with dragons that resist the other two attacks. With max speed and special attack, she can usually put a dent in anything that switches into her. Since entry hazards, especially Stealth Rocks, could do some real damage to her, I chose:

Forretress
Item: Custap Berry
Ability: Sturdy
Nature: Relaxed (+ Def : - Spe)
EVs: 252 Def : 252 HP : 4 SpDef
Moves:
Rapid Spin
Stealth Rocks
Toxic Spikes
Volt Switch

Forretress was my choice for a hazard-spinner, being able to perform the two jobs quite well. He protects Ninetales from pesky Stealth Rocks damage, while at the same time littering the oppponent's field with his own. Despite being extremely weak to fire, his Sturdy ability guarantees that he'll at least get one layer of hazards down before inevitably being KO'd. Volt Switch is used as an easy get-away after hazards have been laid down or rapid spun away, giving me a free switch-in to whatever is needed. To help cover his fire weakness (notably Heatran) I chose:

Dragonite
Item: Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
Nature: Adamant (+ Atk : - SpAtk)
EVs: 252 Atk : 252 Spe : 4 SpDef
Moves:
Dragon Dance
Outrage
Fire Punch
Earthquake

Dragonite seems like the perfect choice to be Ninetales's and Forretress's partner. Dragonite is immune the the Earthquakes that Ninetales fears and the fire attacks that plague Forretress. With Multiscale, he has a great chance of surviving a first blow, Dragon Dancing, and then proceeding to sweep. A Lum Berry is chosen over Leftovers because it offers a get-out-of-jail card from possible status and an extra volley of Outrage if needed. Fire Punch is chosen to deal with pesky Steel types that try to wall Dragonite as well as getting a sun boost. Earthquake is chosen to mainly deal with Heatran, which usually gives sun teams hell. It also provides nice coverage against opposing fire types that may try to switch into my sweepers. Which leads me to:

Sawsbuck (replaced Shiftry)
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
Nature: Adamant (+ Atk : - SpAtk)
EVs: 252 Atk : 252 Spe: 4 HP
Moves:
Horn Leech
Megahorn
Jump Kick
Return

Shiftry just wasn't cutting it for my team. He was much too frail and easily was KO'd before even doing any damage, so I replaced him with Sawsbuck. He's extremely fast under sunlight with Chlorophyll, and his variety of moves offer much coverage, with Horn Leech and Return offering powerful STAB moves, while Megahorn hits Celebi and Verizion hard. Jump Kick takes care of Heatran as well. I chose Jump Kick over Nature Power due to many Heatran carrying an Air Balloon which would render Nature Power useless (due to it turning into Earthquake). My special sweeper then is:

Volcarona
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Flame Body
Nature: Timid (+Spe : - Atk)
EVs: 252 SpAtk : 252 Spe : 4 SpDef
Moves:
Quiver Dance
Bug Buzz
Fiery Dance
Giga Drain

Volcarona is my special sweeper. I chose her because she synergizes well with Shiftry, resisting his fighting, ice, and bug weaknesses. With just one Quiver Dance, she outspeeds many threats and is able to OHKO them. Bug Buzz and Fiery Dance provide strong STAB moves, while Giga Drain is used to regain health lost by Life Orb as well as hit opposing water types hard. With 3 solid Pokemon acting as my offensive core, I figured my team needed another good support Pokemon, which made me choose:

Chansey
Item: Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Bold (+ Def : - Atk)
EVs: 252 HP : 252 Def : 4 Spe
Moves:
Wish
Protect
Heal Bell
Toxic

Chansey is an excellent cleric and special wall. With Eviolite, her defenses are boosted even higher than her evolution, Blissey's. Since two of my Pokemon could be worn down quickly by Life Orb damage, I needed a Pokemon that could switch in, safely Wish, then switch out to heal my weakened sweepers. She has also come in handy when Stealth Rocks are on the field, enabling me to switch Ninetales in without fear of damage due to immediate healing from Wish. Her Heal Bell takes care of any statuses that may plague my team. Protect was chosen in order to Wish and Protect + heal herself if her health was too low. Finally, Toxic wears down anything not steel or poison type, allowing Chansey to do some damage while she's on the field.

This is my OU sun team! Please offer polite suggestions and criticism, it's greatly appreciated! Thank you for reading!

 

[Hayate Ayasaki]

I think abusing custap berry would be better on forretress taht way your guaranteed two turns of hazards, maybe life orb or choice specs or even expert belt would be better than leftovers on ninetals if your not investing in bulk it'll just be OHKO'd most of the time anyway so its either completely defensive or all out attacker it hasn't got the base stats or the typing to do both. those are my main nitpicks apart from advising that you use ANY chloropyll sweeper apart from shiftry, and because you hate heatran so much you could give venasaur hp ground or fighting, or heres something that I really like that you might find gimmicky, but I find is 100% effective vs heatran or magnezone

Forretress@Custap Berry
Adamant 252hp 4def 252atk
Rapid spin | Stealth Rocks | Toxic spikes | Hidden power ground(

The beauty of this set is forretress is still guranteed its 2 turns of set up via sturdy+custap berry and if you don't see heatran on your opponents team in preview it can function normally, but if forretress is in and your opponent has heatran in hes not going to switch hes going to try and burn forretress to a crisp or use stealth rock expecting you to switch but your going to hit him really hard and even a 252/0 heatran has 53% chance to be OHKO'd and your guaranteed to get in 1 more move with custap berry but if heatran used stealth rocks you can rapid spin for free and if heatran survived possibly even ko it in the process and get down to custap berry activation range and set up rocks or toxic spikes or even earthquake if you feel like it.

 

[T-Bolt]

Well, Shiftry is quite frail, so it might be difficult to grab a swords dance boost, which is quite important considering that the base power of Shiftry's attacks are relatively low. You could try Sawsbuck as an offensive chlorophyll sweeper instead-

Sawsbuck@ Life Orb/Choice Band
Adamant nature
252 Atk/252 Spe
Horn leech
Megahorn
Jump kick/Nature power
Return

Horn leech and return are STAB moves, megahorn hits many Pokemon in OU Like Latios and Celebi hard. Nature power turns into Earthquake allowing Sawsbuck to beat Heatran rather easily. However, many Heatran variants use an Air Baloon, so Jump kick can be considered instead. Choice band for extra power, or Life orb if you don't like being locked into a move

Then, I noticed that you have rock weakness, which means that Pokemon like Terrakion are major threats to your team. I'm not sure what Pokemon you should replace with a counter though.

 

[Savanny Killersaurus]

I think abusing custap berry would be better on forretress taht way your guaranteed two turns of hazards, maybe life orb or choice specs or even expert belt would be better than leftovers on ninetals if your not investing in bulk it'll just be OHKO'd most of the time anyway so its either completely defensive or all out attacker it hasn't got the base stats or the typing to do both. those are my main nitpicks apart from advising that you use ANY chloropyll sweeper apart from shiftry, and because you hate heatran so much you could give venasaur hp ground or fighting, or heres something that I really like that you might find gimmicky, but I find is 100% effective vs heatran or magnezone

Forretress@Custap Berry
Adamant 252hp 4def 252atk
Rapid spin | Stealth Rocks | Toxic spikes | Hidden power ground(

The beauty of this set is forretress is still guranteed its 2 turns of set up via sturdy+custap berry and if you don't see heatran on your opponents team in preview it can function normally, but if forretress is in and your opponent has heatran in hes not going to switch hes going to try and burn forretress to a crisp or use stealth rock expecting you to switch but your going to hit him really hard and even a 252/0 heatran has 53% chance to be OHKO'd and your guaranteed to get in 1 more move with custap berry but if heatran used stealth rocks you can rapid spin for free and if heatran survived possibly even ko it in the process and get down to custap berry activation range and set up rocks or toxic spikes or even earthquake if you feel like it.

As T-Bolt suggested, I'll switch Shiftry out for Sawsbuck and see how he works. Shiftry does get KO'd an awful lot before he even has a chance to attack, so maybe Sawsbuck will have a better chance...
I never thought of putting Hidden Power: Ground on Forretress... I'll try that set. Thank you for the advice!

Well, Shiftry is quite frail, so it might be difficult to grab a swords dance boost, which is quite important considering that the base power of Shiftry's attacks are relatively low. You could try Sawsbuck as an offensive chlorophyll sweeper instead-

Sawsbuck@ Life Orb/Choice Band
Adamant nature
252 Atk/252 Spe
Horn leech
Megahorn
Jump kick/Nature power
Return

Horn leech and return are STAB moves, megahorn hits many Pokemon in OU Like Latios and Celebi hard. Nature power turns into Earthquake allowing Sawsbuck to beat Heatran rather easily. However, many Heatran variants use an Air Baloon, so Jump kick can be considered instead. Choice band for extra power, or Life orb if you don't like being locked into a move

Then, I noticed that you have rock weakness, which means that Pokemon like Terrakion are major threats to your team. I'm not sure what Pokemon you should replace with a counter though.

Yeah, Shiftry is usually KO'd before he has a chance to do much of anything. Sad, really, because I like Shiftry but he's too frail to really survive well in OU, it seems. I'll try Sawsbuck out in his place.
So far I haven't encountered a Terrakion, so I guess I'm really lucky. But yeah, rocks could wreck my team. I suppose Sawsbuck is really my only hope in taking Terrakion down with a Horn Leech or a Jump Kick...

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

 

[Hayate Ayasaki]

Sorry it just damned on me, well I was half asleep yesterday, hp ground does less than 50% and forretress gets earthquake? also most heatran variants get air balloon :L

 

[Savanny Killersaurus]

Sorry it just damned on me, well I was half asleep yesterday, hp ground does less than 50% and forretress gets earthquake? also most heatran variants get air balloon :L

Yeah, I realized that yesterday. XD But, I think Dragonite and Sawsbuck are fine enough in dealing with Heatran. I've used the edited team once and I battled an ubers sandstorm team and won 3-0, so it's doing much better thanks to the suggestions you two have given me.