





Intro:
I was initially intending on doing a


Pokepaste:







Zarude @ Life Orb

Ability: Leaf Guard
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 56 HP / 252 Atk / 200 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Solar Blade
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Synthesis
Most people seem to have forgot that Zarude does actually get an ability - Leaf Guard. With it, Zarude cannot get statused while the sun is up. Combine this with a sun boosted Synthesis and naturally fantastic 105/105/95 bulk, Zarude has an incredible resilience that let's it switch into passive mons that rely on status/other means of dissuading mons from switching into them.
On top of it's resillience, Zarude can threaten immediate damage/KOs vs shit like









Even vs offense, it has the ability to outspeed and threaten immediate KOs on common mons like







Spread is pretty simple, enough speed to outpace Crown, max attack and rest into hp. Moves are pretty self explanatory too. I opt for tera fairy as just a good all around type that gives you a fighting and U-turn resistance, but other options like poison, water and ghost all seem perfectly fine to me too. Life Orb is used as Synthesis counteracts chip and the damage increase from it is necessary to push Zarude into unwallable levels. Here are some calcs for reference:


















Fezandipiti @ Rocky Helmet

Ability: Toxic Chain
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 44 SpD / 64 Spe
Careful Nature
- Play Rough
- U-turn
- Taunt
- Roost
Mixed defensive Fez is a fantastic pivot that can switch into a whole litany of common offensive mons like







Toxic Chain is a really funny ability, letting you potentially badly poison an opponent even while U-turning out. However, it's not too often Fez can make use of this as Fez does struggle to keep steel, poison and status immune pokemon out - which is where Zarude comes in. Zarude happens to apply massive amounts of pressure on stuff like





The speed lets you outpace Bolt while the spdef investment let's us avoid the 2hko from it's Thunderbolt. Rest goes into phys def to let us handle foes like Zama and Wellspring as best as possible. Rocky helmet let's you punish U-turns and let's you chip down foes like Zama. Taunt is used to deny things like recovery from Corv and Chilly from Glowking. Never tera'd this thing while playing so tera can be whatever you like, I just put flying in as filler.

Heatran @ Air Balloon

Ability: Flash Fire / Flame Body
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 140 SpA / 40 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Will-O-Wisp
- Stealth Rock
While Zarude + Fez is really nice, neither of them can really handle fire types, particularly

Because we don't need to rely on Heatran as our primary source of breaking, we're not running a typical Solar Beam + Taunt set and instead are running a fairly bulky Wisp set instead. This set is nice for letting Heatran act as an emergency check to another offensive threat that typically terrifies sun -

Finally, the speed is to outpace Gambit and the rest just goes into SpA to make sun boosted Magma Storms as strong as possible. Tera bug is crucial to let Heatran act as an emergency check to

Flame Body can be considered an alternative option that forfeits your ability to put a complete stop to Moth, relying heavily on either AV Wake or a defensive tera for it, in exchange for allowing you to consistently cripple physical sweepers and attackers like Moon and Tusk. A fire resist tera can be considered to still allow for Heatran to still check Moth in a pinch.

Ninetales @ Heat Rock

Ability: Drought
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 20 Def / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Weather Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Encore
- Healing Wish
Ninetales is of course our setter and additionally is super good for making endgames vs


Only other thing I will say is that I was a Ninetales believer from very early on with my first attempts at building more unconventional sun teams around the end of 2023 making use of it (though I think I was using scarf Tales initially, honestly should probably try it again cause it's sun boosted moves were decently strong.) I was also using Heatran back then too (even without Eruption it was still the goat of sun.)
Very standard set, nothing much to say. Speed lets us outpace Crown and rest into bulk, tera ghost maybe as an emergency button for Zama in case I fucked around too much.

Great Tusk @ Leftovers

Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Ice Spinner
- Rapid Spin
- Bulk Up
Bulk Up tusk provides some speed on the physical side as well as providing an incredibly strong wincon vs offense. Zarude makes for a perfect partner for Tusk for it's ability to pressure bulky waters like






The set itself is pretty classic, don't need to talk too much about the set itself other than tera ice. I've really come to like ice as my tera as it provides a decent neutral typing that isn't weak to EQ or Earth Power which makes it a more consistent check to DDancers like





Walking Wake @ Assault Vest

Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 124 Def / 56 SpA / 80 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Steam
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Flip Turn
This was initially a pretty boring standard 12/244/252+ Wake with Wise Glasses but as suggested by Leng Loi below, AV is a fantastic item that just gives Wake a lot of extra bulk to trade with and lets Wake do things like check


This Wake is quite weak so don't rely on it for sweeping or anything but it does it's job of being an offensive pivot that can force out and pivot on mons weak to it's stabs like





The phys def investment allows you to usually eat a +1 Knock after rocks or usually a +1 tera flying Acro without rocks from


I opt for tera water because this Wake is quite weak and the option to boost it's power is very nice, particularly when trying to pick off fatter targets like

Side note, initially the team didn't have an AV pivot which made me sad because I love using AV pivots but now we've got one so that's how I know this is a good team now.
Replays:
Vs. 1931 Offense






- Early tera on Zarude to remove Zama and greatly weaken Prim to allow for either Wake or Tusk to sweep (which Tusk does)
Vs. 1846 Stall






- The replay everybody wants to see, Zarude 6-0ing stall
Vs. 1873 Offense






- U-turn Fez and Flip Turn Wake never let the opponent into a position to achieve anything leading to a near 6-0
Vs 1887 Offense






- Zarude tera's turn 2 and proceeds to get 6 kills
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