So I'm having fun with this team I'm about to show you guys, it's helped me learn a lot more about our current meta and it's probably the first serious team I've ever made and tried to stick with.
I usually made teams based on flavour of the month themes and tried to fit every random idea I saw on the forums into it.
This one is a bit different so I’m offering it up for your consideration:
Not Sunny Enough.
So I would describe the team as a Sun team, however that only nominally fits the bill. The 2 dominant weathers in OU are Rain and Sand respectively so this is my take at breaking that dominance. So of course my first Pokemon is going to be the Drought-inducing Ninetails:
Ninetales @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 6 SDef
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Fire Blast
- Toxic
- Pain Split
This Ninetails is set for one purpose. Set up Sun and proceed to annoy. At 328 speed she can sub-up on many pokemon and if bringing her in causes a switch I get a free turn to do one of 3 things;
1- Roast them with a powerful Fire Blast which surprisingly KO’s things like Cloyster thinking to come in and break my subs with Rock Blast.
2 - Badly poison them with Toxic, a great move to land on Politoed and special walls.
3 - Regain HP with Pain Split if I have subbed a few times and my HP is low, which can mean the difference between keeping Ninetails alive or losing the weather war in some matches. I haven’t invested in HP EV’s at all, firstly to keep my HP at an odd number for Lefties and secondly so that Pain Split on a full HP opponent switching in HURTS.
So now that the Sun is shining and the birds are singing in the trees my second pókemon steps out of the forest and runs with the blinding speed of a Chlorophyll sweeper:
Sawsbuck @ Expert Belt
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 6 HP
Adamant Nature
- Double-Edge
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick
- Nature Power
I have tried to use Sawsbuck before with dubious results but on this team and in the current meta I find him so so useful to my team.
The basics. Base 95 speed isn’t great, but it still allows me to outspeed all non-scarfed standard Politoeds (unless they invest in physical defense which is very rare) and Tyranitars (non-Chople carrying T-tars that is) which are both 1HKO’d by Horn Leech and Jump Kick respectively. That on it’s own, in the first turn of the match can be enough to ensure the sun shines forever more. Against opposing Sun teams, Ninetails is easily outsped and KO’d by Nature Powers Earthquake effect. Another common lead on rain teams is Rotom-W and Sawsbuck outspeed all but max speed Timid varieties and KO's with Horn Leech.
For the rest, the coverage provided by his 4 attacking moves are enough to bring most mons to their knees. Catching a Dragon or Therian on the switch with a powerful Double-Edge allows an easy 2HKO at the cost of some HP and the ghost immunity it brings can be quite helpful to his other team-mates.
Not only that, but should one of his team-mates fall to the might Terrakion, Sawsbuck under sun can outrun it and KO with Horn Leech, recovering HP in the process.
With Double-Edge carrying such a high risk/reward I have been considering swapping Expert Belt for LO but I have yet to run the calcs to see whether it’s worth it to secure any worthwhile KO’s but so far Sawsbuck has provided me with a fast capable physical attacker.
So with the my 2 Sun pokémon there to scream to the world “Sun Team!” from here the definition starts to break down.
But as many teams require something to sponge those huge special attacks that fly from the likes of the Therians, I looked to my favorite pink blob for support.
Blissey @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SDef / 6 HP / 252 Def
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Seismic Toss
- Stealth Rock
- Aromatherapy
This is the standard Blissey EV spread, but it’s standard for good reason; she is excellent at what she does. Natural cure aborbs status like a boss and she sets up SR, mends the team with Wish and Aromatherapy and Seismic Toss gives you reliable damage on everything but ghosts, There have been many a Reuniclus or Latias that have regretted using Psychic and not carrying Psyshock to get past my pink blob of Doom.
One of my favorite move combos to pull out when I predict a switch to a hard hitting physical attacker is to throw out a Wish and switch to my next team member:
Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 6 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Superpower
The new Landorus works well for my team. Coming in on all sorts of physical threats and set up sweepers to cancel out their boosts and retaliate with a powerful attack of his own, if I get passed a Wish from Blissey I can even come in on the likes of Terrakion, to drop it’s attack, tank a hit and be rocketed back up to full HP. From there I can play my own prediction game or U-Turn out to keep momentum in my favour.
I have 3 possible concerns with this mon. I don’t really have an answer to Gliscor or other Landorus apart from Stone Edge and have been considering dropping Superpower for HP Ice.
Second is a concern about the item, Lefties is kind of my default choice as I don’t really want to choice lock myself into EQ and LO is kinda counter-intuitive to how I’m using this mon - to come in on physical attackers to reduce their effectiveness with Intimidate and kill their momentum.
The third would be the nature:
Is Jolly overkill? Am I outspeeding anything important or am I missing out on key KO’s by not running Adamant.?
Or considering that I’m using him as a pseudo physical tank would I be best in investing more into defense itself while keeping my attacking options wider than using Gliscor would allow me?
He is working well in the role I set for him though.
Of course one thing that defines competitive pokemon these days is entry hazards, and I believe a key to success is getting your own up and keeping your opponent’s off the field. And since I haven’t been able to fit a suitable spinner on my team I went for the next best thing:
Espeon @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 6 Def
Timid Nature
- Morning Sun
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
So originally I was planning to use her as a deterrant to entry hazards but the more I use this little creature I realise just what a BEAST she is in the current meta.
To give you an idea of how under-rated Magic Bounce is as an ability I would say perhaps 1 in 10 players used an offensive move as I switched my Espeon into an obvious hazard setting pókemon. Of the most obvious ones, only Heatran and Ferrothorn are of any offensive concern. Heatran especially if Sun is up as it can KO me on the switch with Fire Blast. But usually even those that correctly predicted my Espeon switch in and brought me below 50% HP then 9 times out of 10 go on to spamming hazards again. This is my cue to use Morning Sun and against a spikes using Ferrothorn it is most gratifying as it’s a perfect opportunity to bring in Ninetails or Salamence to steal a Sub or a DD boost as they attack again.
As mentioned above, the amount of Psychic users Blissey and Chansey have brought to their knees is why I run Psychock on Espeon. It still OHKO’s the scariest fighting types of the meta (Breloom, Terrakion, Keldeo) and Espeon’s excellent 110 Base speed and 130 Base Special Attack gives her the same offensive presence as Latios! Shadow Ball hit’s the likes of Gengar and Jellicent as well as providing good neutral coverage and HP Ice destroys dragons that switch in wrongly thinking that Espeon on a Sun team will carry HP Fire. This does allow steel types to wall her but she has many other team members to take care of them.
And of course, no mention of Magic Bounce Espeon would be complete without saluting all of those Brelooms and Ammongus that like to Spore first, ask questions later.
So after the rest of my team has blown chunks in the opponents offense, cracked a few bricks in their walls and bounced back their entry hazards on top of their foolish heads - Enter, The Dragon.
Salamence @ Leftovers
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 6 SAtk
Hasty Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
After a DD boost, Salamence is faster than many things that switch into it and with Moxie, the boosts don’t stop building up one you get on a roll and usually by the time I’ve KO’d my first póke with Dragon Claw and their steel switch in with EQ and they realise I’m not choice locked it’s time to exchange GG’s and go our separate ways.
Fire Blast needs no further explanation as it’s a staple of many dragons to allow them to roast steel-types out of the way. I have been considering going for Flamethrower to avoid miss hax but I haven’t calced out whether I need Fire Blast to get past some specially defensive steel types that may be immune to EQ.
Final Words:
So as you see, although I call it my Sun Team, what really sets this team apart from many other Sun Teams is that I have no prominent fire types to abuse the extra power afforded and it’s less about having my weather up to win as opposed to removing the benefits theirs provides.
I'd appreciate any and all comments/discussions over how best to tweak and improve my team in the new and exciting BW2 meta.
I usually made teams based on flavour of the month themes and tried to fit every random idea I saw on the forums into it.
This one is a bit different so I’m offering it up for your consideration:
Not Sunny Enough.
So I would describe the team as a Sun team, however that only nominally fits the bill. The 2 dominant weathers in OU are Rain and Sand respectively so this is my take at breaking that dominance. So of course my first Pokemon is going to be the Drought-inducing Ninetails:
Ninetales @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 6 SDef
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Fire Blast
- Toxic
- Pain Split
This Ninetails is set for one purpose. Set up Sun and proceed to annoy. At 328 speed she can sub-up on many pokemon and if bringing her in causes a switch I get a free turn to do one of 3 things;
1- Roast them with a powerful Fire Blast which surprisingly KO’s things like Cloyster thinking to come in and break my subs with Rock Blast.
2 - Badly poison them with Toxic, a great move to land on Politoed and special walls.
3 - Regain HP with Pain Split if I have subbed a few times and my HP is low, which can mean the difference between keeping Ninetails alive or losing the weather war in some matches. I haven’t invested in HP EV’s at all, firstly to keep my HP at an odd number for Lefties and secondly so that Pain Split on a full HP opponent switching in HURTS.
So now that the Sun is shining and the birds are singing in the trees my second pókemon steps out of the forest and runs with the blinding speed of a Chlorophyll sweeper:
Sawsbuck @ Expert Belt
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 6 HP
Adamant Nature
- Double-Edge
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick
- Nature Power
I have tried to use Sawsbuck before with dubious results but on this team and in the current meta I find him so so useful to my team.
The basics. Base 95 speed isn’t great, but it still allows me to outspeed all non-scarfed standard Politoeds (unless they invest in physical defense which is very rare) and Tyranitars (non-Chople carrying T-tars that is) which are both 1HKO’d by Horn Leech and Jump Kick respectively. That on it’s own, in the first turn of the match can be enough to ensure the sun shines forever more. Against opposing Sun teams, Ninetails is easily outsped and KO’d by Nature Powers Earthquake effect. Another common lead on rain teams is Rotom-W and Sawsbuck outspeed all but max speed Timid varieties and KO's with Horn Leech.
For the rest, the coverage provided by his 4 attacking moves are enough to bring most mons to their knees. Catching a Dragon or Therian on the switch with a powerful Double-Edge allows an easy 2HKO at the cost of some HP and the ghost immunity it brings can be quite helpful to his other team-mates.
Not only that, but should one of his team-mates fall to the might Terrakion, Sawsbuck under sun can outrun it and KO with Horn Leech, recovering HP in the process.
With Double-Edge carrying such a high risk/reward I have been considering swapping Expert Belt for LO but I have yet to run the calcs to see whether it’s worth it to secure any worthwhile KO’s but so far Sawsbuck has provided me with a fast capable physical attacker.
So with the my 2 Sun pokémon there to scream to the world “Sun Team!” from here the definition starts to break down.
But as many teams require something to sponge those huge special attacks that fly from the likes of the Therians, I looked to my favorite pink blob for support.
Blissey @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SDef / 6 HP / 252 Def
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Seismic Toss
- Stealth Rock
- Aromatherapy
This is the standard Blissey EV spread, but it’s standard for good reason; she is excellent at what she does. Natural cure aborbs status like a boss and she sets up SR, mends the team with Wish and Aromatherapy and Seismic Toss gives you reliable damage on everything but ghosts, There have been many a Reuniclus or Latias that have regretted using Psychic and not carrying Psyshock to get past my pink blob of Doom.
One of my favorite move combos to pull out when I predict a switch to a hard hitting physical attacker is to throw out a Wish and switch to my next team member:
Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 6 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Superpower
The new Landorus works well for my team. Coming in on all sorts of physical threats and set up sweepers to cancel out their boosts and retaliate with a powerful attack of his own, if I get passed a Wish from Blissey I can even come in on the likes of Terrakion, to drop it’s attack, tank a hit and be rocketed back up to full HP. From there I can play my own prediction game or U-Turn out to keep momentum in my favour.
I have 3 possible concerns with this mon. I don’t really have an answer to Gliscor or other Landorus apart from Stone Edge and have been considering dropping Superpower for HP Ice.
Second is a concern about the item, Lefties is kind of my default choice as I don’t really want to choice lock myself into EQ and LO is kinda counter-intuitive to how I’m using this mon - to come in on physical attackers to reduce their effectiveness with Intimidate and kill their momentum.
The third would be the nature:
Is Jolly overkill? Am I outspeeding anything important or am I missing out on key KO’s by not running Adamant.?
Or considering that I’m using him as a pseudo physical tank would I be best in investing more into defense itself while keeping my attacking options wider than using Gliscor would allow me?
He is working well in the role I set for him though.
Of course one thing that defines competitive pokemon these days is entry hazards, and I believe a key to success is getting your own up and keeping your opponent’s off the field. And since I haven’t been able to fit a suitable spinner on my team I went for the next best thing:
Espeon @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 6 Def
Timid Nature
- Morning Sun
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
So originally I was planning to use her as a deterrant to entry hazards but the more I use this little creature I realise just what a BEAST she is in the current meta.
To give you an idea of how under-rated Magic Bounce is as an ability I would say perhaps 1 in 10 players used an offensive move as I switched my Espeon into an obvious hazard setting pókemon. Of the most obvious ones, only Heatran and Ferrothorn are of any offensive concern. Heatran especially if Sun is up as it can KO me on the switch with Fire Blast. But usually even those that correctly predicted my Espeon switch in and brought me below 50% HP then 9 times out of 10 go on to spamming hazards again. This is my cue to use Morning Sun and against a spikes using Ferrothorn it is most gratifying as it’s a perfect opportunity to bring in Ninetails or Salamence to steal a Sub or a DD boost as they attack again.
As mentioned above, the amount of Psychic users Blissey and Chansey have brought to their knees is why I run Psychock on Espeon. It still OHKO’s the scariest fighting types of the meta (Breloom, Terrakion, Keldeo) and Espeon’s excellent 110 Base speed and 130 Base Special Attack gives her the same offensive presence as Latios! Shadow Ball hit’s the likes of Gengar and Jellicent as well as providing good neutral coverage and HP Ice destroys dragons that switch in wrongly thinking that Espeon on a Sun team will carry HP Fire. This does allow steel types to wall her but she has many other team members to take care of them.
And of course, no mention of Magic Bounce Espeon would be complete without saluting all of those Brelooms and Ammongus that like to Spore first, ask questions later.
So after the rest of my team has blown chunks in the opponents offense, cracked a few bricks in their walls and bounced back their entry hazards on top of their foolish heads - Enter, The Dragon.
Salamence @ Leftovers
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 6 SAtk
Hasty Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
After a DD boost, Salamence is faster than many things that switch into it and with Moxie, the boosts don’t stop building up one you get on a roll and usually by the time I’ve KO’d my first póke with Dragon Claw and their steel switch in with EQ and they realise I’m not choice locked it’s time to exchange GG’s and go our separate ways.
Fire Blast needs no further explanation as it’s a staple of many dragons to allow them to roast steel-types out of the way. I have been considering going for Flamethrower to avoid miss hax but I haven’t calced out whether I need Fire Blast to get past some specially defensive steel types that may be immune to EQ.
Final Words:
So as you see, although I call it my Sun Team, what really sets this team apart from many other Sun Teams is that I have no prominent fire types to abuse the extra power afforded and it’s less about having my weather up to win as opposed to removing the benefits theirs provides.
I'd appreciate any and all comments/discussions over how best to tweak and improve my team in the new and exciting BW2 meta.
