SM PU Sun will shine - First selfbuild team

[AartoG]

Hey everyone,
I've been lurking a while, also before I made this account, and have been watching alot of content on youtube. After a while of using teams from the forums and whatnot, I decided to try my hands on a selfmade one. Now, I love the PU tier just because of the fact that it makes bad pokemon look like monsters.

without further ado, this is the team, with some info with each pokemon:

Liepard @ Heat Rock
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sunny Day
- Encore
- U-turn
- Sucker Punch

Now Liepard is my go to lead, just because it get's sun up 100 percent of the time, seeing as it has the prankster ability. If they have a standard lead and go for stealth rocks, its always an easy encore into U-turn to get a sweeper in safely. alternatively it dies right after setting up the sun and you get that free switch regardless.

Charizard @ Firium Z
Ability: Solar Power
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sunny Day
- Fire Blast
- Solar Beam
- Air Slash

I put this charizard in for fun, because I really like the mon, but after playing a while with it I realised that a solar power boosted Inferno Overdrive kills about anything in the tier, regardless if it's resisted or not. downside to this is the constant draining of HP and the obvious weakness to stealth rocks, what makes matters worse is that I didn't find room for a good defogger/rapid spinner on the team.

Lilligant @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Quiver Dance
- Solar Beam

This is one of the mons on the team that does so well, like, 90 percent of the time. You can get up quiverdances if the enemy has to make a switch, or just hit someone up with a life orb boosted Solar Beam. the Hidden Power Fire is there to surprise some grass mons that would like to switch in. Also I'm not sure on Giga Drain, but it's nice in some late game scenarios.

Sawsbuck-Autumn @ Choice Band
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Double-Edge
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick
- Megahorn

this is also one of my sun abusers, I would call in a wallbreaker (?), seeing as with his choiceband it OK's or 2 hit KO's a lot in the tier. Only problem is being locked in. speed is no problem seeing as Chlorophyll boosts it, so I thought Adamant was a good idea. The most clicked moves are Double edge and Jump kick respectively, but a well placed mega horn can take out unexpecting psychic types.

Mesprit @ Heat Rock
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sunny Day
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic
- Healing Wish

just my second Heat rock weather setter. To be fair, this mon hasn't done all that much for me, but I kept it around as it is has alot of utility to it, that being said, I don't know if this it the right set to run at all in this kind of team. Stealth rocks I put in there, as I do not have another mon on the team that can learn it, the healing wish is also nice to get one of my sweepers back to full, or get rid of its poison. the Psychic is there because I really missed a psychic type attack on the team.

Mudsdale @ Choice Band
Ability: Stamina
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Toxic

now this together with charizard makes a really nice core, they cover each others weaknesses pretty good, and also cover a good offensive basis. I put toxic choice band to cover for knock off, or just to get a last ditch toxic off if need be.


Rate my team please, and improve it if you see major flaws!
any criticism is greatly appreciated.

 

[MZ]

Hey man, and welcome to Smogon. I like the start with weather since it's fairly basic to pick up, but there's definitely some stuff I'd change here. First off with a couple of set changes, Knock Off > Sucker Punch on Liepard and Focus Blast > Air Slash on Charizard. Sucker leaves you without any reliable damaging move and sucker just isn't terribly useful for weather, although if you really really wanted to cripple faster things you could always go Thunder Wave over Encore (I like encore more but it's an option). As for Charizard, Air Slash is actually weaker than resisted Fire Blast in the sun with Solar Power, so might as well use Focus Blast to hit... mostly just Guzzlord. Still better though. Onto Mesprit, I can't see any good reason for a specially defensive spread. There's no explanation in the rmt, and physically defensive ought to better take on a good portion of the tier including Primeape and Kangaskhan, so I'd stick with that unless there's some reason not to. For your main weather sweepers, they're definitely odd choices when Victreebel and Shiftry and Leafeon are all around, but if you find them working I can see the reasoning behind it at least. Shiftry and Leafeon both have a lot more issues with Weezing than Sawsbuck does, and Lilligant's got some speed and the dual threat of Quiver Dance. So yeah I'm not strictly gonna recommend anything about those two, partially because of the change I'm recommending below, but looking at other choices (and perhaps un-choicing sawsbuck) might lead to some better results here.

Anyway the big change that needs to be made here is Mudsdale, it's just super out of place compared to everything else. It's slow, saps momentum, wastes sun turns, and it's just not a great wallbreaker overall. I think the best thing to replace it here is Chlorophyll Shiftry to just really double down on sun. The cons are that Kangaskhan and Mach Punch users are going to be more annoying, but benefits include: having Defog for Charizard, breaking down Weezing better with Sawsbuck, and doing slightly better vs Abomasnow which is still gonna just mess with Sun super hard anyway but it's definitely better than having Mudsdale. Anyway, I hope these changes helped and good luck with this team!

Shiftry @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Defog
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Solarbeam / Leaf Storm (this just depends on if you find yourself wanting a grass nuke outside of sun a little too much)

 

[Twix]

Alternatively to Zard's suggestions, Hitmonchan is also another solid option in Mudsdale's slot. Essentially, it provides Rapid Spin, priority in Mach Punch, another answer to Steel-types other than Charizard. While you do lose another Chlorophyll sweeper and have a bit more struggles with Weezing, Hitmonchan offers better matchup against Pokemon such as Kangaskhan and Abomasnow, which are heavily threatening to the rest of the team.

Hitmonchan (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Drain Punch
- Rapid Spin
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch

Other than this, I agree with basically every suggestion given by zard.

 

[AartoG]

Knock Off > Sucker Punch on Liepard and Focus Blast > Air Slash on Charizard

Onto Mesprit, I can't see any good reason for a specially defensive spread. There's no explanation in the rmt, and physically defensive ought to better take on a good portion of the tier.
For your main weather sweepers, they're definitely odd choices when Victreebel and Shiftry and Leafeon are all around, but if you find them working I can see the reasoning behind it at least. Shiftry and Leafeon both have a lot more issues with Weezing than Sawsbuck does, and Lilligant's got some speed and the dual threat of Quiver Dance. So yeah I'm not strictly gonna recommend anything about those two, partially because of the change I'm recommending below, but looking at other choices (and perhaps un-choicing sawsbuck) might lead to some better results here.

Anyway the big change that needs to be made here is Mudsdale, it's just super out of place compared to everything else. It's slow, saps momentum, wastes sun turns, and it's just not a great wallbreaker overall. I think the best thing to replace it here is Chlorophyll Shiftry to just really double down on sun. The cons are that Kangaskhan and Mach Punch users are going to be more annoying, but benefits include: having Defog for Charizard, breaking down Weezing better with Sawsbuck, and doing slightly better vs Abomasnow which is still gonna just mess with Sun super hard anyway but it's definitely better than having Mudsdale. Anyway, I hope these changes helped and good luck with this team!

Shiftry @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Defog
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Solarbeam / Leaf Storm (this just depends on if you find yourself wanting a grass nuke outside of sun a little too much)

Thanks for your pointers! I'm gonna change the team up about accordingly to your suggestions and see how it fares.

My reasoning behing sawsbuck and lilligant is just because I really like them. I was also asking around a while ago at easy Q&A and found out I should probably be using swords dance normalium-Z sawsbuck so I can be a bit more versatile in more matchups, so I'd put charizard on a choice specs/scarf.
I'm gonna change up Mudsdale with Shiftry like you suggested and gonna switch it around with the hitmonchan suggestion in the comment right above!
I'll post my findings after some testing again, and then update the team in the post above or in a reply bellow ( Don't know what the rules dictate )

On a side note, you think I should change out Mesprit for an entirely different mon, or is it a good second sun setter?

EDIT: OH MA LORD, Charizard is BL4 now? so I can forget using that mon...