Post by Slar Flar on Feb 9, 2016 0:00:34 GMT
Hey guys, it's Slar! With the meta still fresh after the February drops, and the unbanning of heat rock 
I've decided that the best thing to do was to make a team built around sun! Sun used to be a monstrous team type before heat rock was suspected and Sawsbuck left the tier to go onto bigger things (like PU). However, now that heat rock is back if feel that sun will once again be a great team type to use in this meta.
here's the squad:
The sets:
Onix @ Heat Rock
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sunny Day
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Explosion
This onix set is a superb sun lead, and arguably one of the best in the tier. With onix's decent 70 speed, access to sunny day, stealth rocks, taunt, and explosion, onix can quickly set up rocks while preventing the opponent from doing the same, set up rocks and sun, and explode to prevent rapid spin or defog while also breaking sturdy or sashes.
Volbeat @ Heat Rock
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Sunny Day
- Encore
- Thunder Wave
- U-turn
The team's secondary sun setter, and the one that will be setting up sun the most, Volbeat is a very annoying pokemon that can cause plenty of troubles for your opponent if they don't play carefully. Not only does Volbeat have prankster and thunder wave, but it also has access to encore, making it able to punish pokemon that try to sub up to prevent themselves from getting hit with the yellow magic (t-wave). On top of this, Volbeat's speed with a relaxed nature is relatively low, being able to outslow max speed neutral nature base 45s. Why is this beneficial? This allows Volbeat to have access to the wonderful niche in slow pivot with u-turn. All of these factors make it an awesome sun resetter and annoyance mon for any sun team.
Weepinbell @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Sleep Powder
- Weather Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Solar Beam
Weepinbel is a monster. There's no denying that fact. If the opposing team doesn't have the right counters to Weepinbell, it is very easy for this monster of a plant to punch holes in your team with stab solar beams, stab sludge bombs, and sun boosted weather balls. If something that walls Qeepinbell does come in, it has to risk catching a sleep powder, allowing Qeepinbell to switch out freely into an appropriate check/counter. Even if the opponent has counters, they're usually handled by other teammates, which I'll get to later.
Maractus @ Life Orb/Miracle Seed
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch/Synthesis/Growth
Maractus doesn't look very appealing to the untrained eye, or sometimes even the well-trained eye, with its shallow movepool and not-so-great stats. Even I once deemed this beautiful cactus creature as being subpar to other grasses in the tier, mainly Quilladin and Weepinbell. After further inspection however, Maractus is revealed to be the best physical sweeping monster under the sun (literally). With 86 attack and 60 speed (more than Weepinbell's special attack and speed!), Maractus is able to outspeed quite a bit in the tier and hit them with a powerful stab 120 base power life orb boosted wood hammer (didn't know it got that? Me neither). Along with this, it has wonderful dark+fighting coverage in drain punch and the wonderfully broken move knock off. On top of this, if you don't want to run synthesis or life orb, you can choose to go with the setup sweeping set with miracle seed and growth. Truly an underrated pokemon, and a huge threat to any ill-prepared team. EDIT: Sucker punch is also a good option over growth and synthesis as it helps you beat other weathers and not be completely crippled out of sun (credit to ranbu for the find).
Simisear @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Solar Beam
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast
- Knock Off
Do I really have to explain anything about this team member? It's Simisear, what explaining do I have to do? it's fast, strong, powerful, has good coverage, great offensive stats with 98/98, and is at an amazing speed tier with 101 speed. Nothing will appreciate this monkey hitting them with anything from its arsenal, and teams should be trembling as soon as they see it in team preview. Best of all? This thing practically breaks anything Weepinbell can't, with a few exceptions (Swalot).
Electabuzz @ Eviolite
Ability: Vital Spirit
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Focus Blast
Oh Electabuzz, is there anything not to like about you? Good special attack, good speed, access to eviolite, good movepool, the only thing not great about this is its defense and HP, and even those aren't horrible. Electabuzz offers a great flying counter/check to the team, being able to swap straight in on flying types or swap in after Weepinbell puts something to sleep. Not only that, but its powerful attacks and great speed and coverage with HP Fire and Thunderbolt will scare away 2/3s of the simis, and beat simisear 1v1 thanks to its bulk from eviolite.
I've decided that the best thing to do was to make a team built around sun! Sun used to be a monstrous team type before heat rock was suspected and Sawsbuck left the tier to go onto bigger things (like PU). However, now that heat rock is back if feel that sun will once again be a great team type to use in this meta.here's the squad:
The sets:
Onix @ Heat Rock
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sunny Day
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Explosion
This onix set is a superb sun lead, and arguably one of the best in the tier. With onix's decent 70 speed, access to sunny day, stealth rocks, taunt, and explosion, onix can quickly set up rocks while preventing the opponent from doing the same, set up rocks and sun, and explode to prevent rapid spin or defog while also breaking sturdy or sashes.
Volbeat @ Heat Rock
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Sunny Day
- Encore
- Thunder Wave
- U-turn
The team's secondary sun setter, and the one that will be setting up sun the most, Volbeat is a very annoying pokemon that can cause plenty of troubles for your opponent if they don't play carefully. Not only does Volbeat have prankster and thunder wave, but it also has access to encore, making it able to punish pokemon that try to sub up to prevent themselves from getting hit with the yellow magic (t-wave). On top of this, Volbeat's speed with a relaxed nature is relatively low, being able to outslow max speed neutral nature base 45s. Why is this beneficial? This allows Volbeat to have access to the wonderful niche in slow pivot with u-turn. All of these factors make it an awesome sun resetter and annoyance mon for any sun team.
Weepinbell @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Sleep Powder
- Weather Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Solar Beam
Weepinbel is a monster. There's no denying that fact. If the opposing team doesn't have the right counters to Weepinbell, it is very easy for this monster of a plant to punch holes in your team with stab solar beams, stab sludge bombs, and sun boosted weather balls. If something that walls Qeepinbell does come in, it has to risk catching a sleep powder, allowing Qeepinbell to switch out freely into an appropriate check/counter. Even if the opponent has counters, they're usually handled by other teammates, which I'll get to later.
Maractus @ Life Orb/Miracle Seed
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch/Synthesis/Growth
Maractus doesn't look very appealing to the untrained eye, or sometimes even the well-trained eye, with its shallow movepool and not-so-great stats. Even I once deemed this beautiful cactus creature as being subpar to other grasses in the tier, mainly Quilladin and Weepinbell. After further inspection however, Maractus is revealed to be the best physical sweeping monster under the sun (literally). With 86 attack and 60 speed (more than Weepinbell's special attack and speed!), Maractus is able to outspeed quite a bit in the tier and hit them with a powerful stab 120 base power life orb boosted wood hammer (didn't know it got that? Me neither). Along with this, it has wonderful dark+fighting coverage in drain punch and the wonderfully broken move knock off. On top of this, if you don't want to run synthesis or life orb, you can choose to go with the setup sweeping set with miracle seed and growth. Truly an underrated pokemon, and a huge threat to any ill-prepared team. EDIT: Sucker punch is also a good option over growth and synthesis as it helps you beat other weathers and not be completely crippled out of sun (credit to ranbu for the find).
Simisear @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Solar Beam
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast
- Knock Off
Do I really have to explain anything about this team member? It's Simisear, what explaining do I have to do? it's fast, strong, powerful, has good coverage, great offensive stats with 98/98, and is at an amazing speed tier with 101 speed. Nothing will appreciate this monkey hitting them with anything from its arsenal, and teams should be trembling as soon as they see it in team preview. Best of all? This thing practically breaks anything Weepinbell can't, with a few exceptions (Swalot).
Electabuzz @ Eviolite
Ability: Vital Spirit
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Focus Blast
Oh Electabuzz, is there anything not to like about you? Good special attack, good speed, access to eviolite, good movepool, the only thing not great about this is its defense and HP, and even those aren't horrible. Electabuzz offers a great flying counter/check to the team, being able to swap straight in on flying types or swap in after Weepinbell puts something to sleep. Not only that, but its powerful attacks and great speed and coverage with HP Fire and Thunderbolt will scare away 2/3s of the simis, and beat simisear 1v1 thanks to its bulk from eviolite.
Some threats:
Quilladin:
Quilladin's typing and ability allow it to completely wall both Maractus and Weepinbell. Luckily, Electabuzz and Simisear handle it nicely. As long as you keep them healthy, this shouldn't be a huge problem.
Swalot:
Swalot's awesome bulk and ability to hold AV without fear of knock off makes it a hindrance to this mostly special team. Thankfully, Swalot doesn't get any status moves with AV, and lacks the slow and steady recovery of leftovers, so this makes it so it can only swap in a limited amount of times.
Other Weathers:
As you could probably guess, other weathers can hinder this team a bit (especially rain if they manage to setup with golduck or volbeat). Sand and Hail are also problems but their setters are easily handled by the team, since solar beam from weepinbell in sand will still kill standard sand setting hippo after chargeup is complete (252+ SpA Life Orb Weepinbell Solar Beam (60 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Hippopotas in Sand: 408-484 (120 - 142.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO) and is ohko'd by wood hammer from life orb Maractus. Snover is easily handled by all 4 of the attackers since they all have super effective moves to hit it hard with.
Importable:
pastebin.com/6gkMjCjQ
Quilladin:
Quilladin's typing and ability allow it to completely wall both Maractus and Weepinbell. Luckily, Electabuzz and Simisear handle it nicely. As long as you keep them healthy, this shouldn't be a huge problem.
Swalot:
Swalot's awesome bulk and ability to hold AV without fear of knock off makes it a hindrance to this mostly special team. Thankfully, Swalot doesn't get any status moves with AV, and lacks the slow and steady recovery of leftovers, so this makes it so it can only swap in a limited amount of times.
Other Weathers:
As you could probably guess, other weathers can hinder this team a bit (especially rain if they manage to setup with golduck or volbeat). Sand and Hail are also problems but their setters are easily handled by the team, since solar beam from weepinbell in sand will still kill standard sand setting hippo after chargeup is complete (252+ SpA Life Orb Weepinbell Solar Beam (60 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Hippopotas in Sand: 408-484 (120 - 142.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO) and is ohko'd by wood hammer from life orb Maractus. Snover is easily handled by all 4 of the attackers since they all have super effective moves to hit it hard with.
Importable:
pastebin.com/6gkMjCjQ
sucker is a really good idea, thanks. I'll edit the post to include that now
