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Gen 5 Drought

ShinyFlareon

bowtie coconut birb
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Dec 24, 2007
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Title is pretty self-explanitory. Let's get started. Changes in bold.

Ninetales@Wide Lens
Calm nature
Drought ability
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Sp. Atk / 252 Spe
- Hypnosis
- Wil-O-Whisp
- Fire Blast
- Solarbeam

Obvious sun lead is obvious. Wide Lens helps with the accuracy of it's status and STAB moves, and Solarbeam is loads better than Energy Ball with Drought in play, IMO. She's not meant to stay in for very long at the beginning of the match, but to set up the weather and come back in later on after the opponent's weather-producer is down. Nature and EVs changed to hopefully make her a bit more bulky.

Volcarona@Lum Berry
Modest nature
Flame Body ability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Sp. Atk / 252 Spe
- Quiver Dance
- Rest
- Fire Dance
- Bug Buzz

The special sweeper of the team. The idea is to get up a few Quiver Dances, then Rest off the damage, wake up with Lum Berry, and start wrecking things. Lum Berry over Chesto Berry in case the opponent decides to try and cripple me.

Sawsbuck@Expert Belt
Jolly nature
Chlorophyll ability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick
- Return
- Nature Power/Megahorn

The Chlorophyll abuser of this team. Nature Power become Earthquake over WiFi, which means excellent things for this set's coverage. Megahorn is still a good option, though.

Excadrill@Air Balloon
Jolly nature
Sand Rush ability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk. / 252 Spe
- Rapid Spin
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake/X-Scissor
- Rock Slide/X-Scissor

This is here to serve as a Rapid Spinner and to screw with Sandstorm teams. Being immune to Toxic Spikes and being 4x resistant to Stealth Rock makes him a boon to this otherwise very Rock-weak team. He should be able to function all right outside of the sand as well. Not much has changed here, except possibly replacing one of his damaging moves with X-Scissor to help deal with things like Reuniclus.

Darmanitan@Choice Scarf
Adamant nature
Sheer Force ability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk. / 252 Spe
- Flare Blitz
- Superpower
- Stone Edge
- U-turn

This guy's still a solid choice, even without the sun, but in it, it's even more of a beast. Flare Blitz just wrecks everything, and Superpower and Stone Edge wreck everything else. U-turn is for scouting purposes.

Landorus@Choice Specs
Modest nature
Sheer Force ability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Sp. Atk. / 252 Spe
- Earth Power
- Psychic
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power (ice)

Sheer Force is this guy's Dream World ability, and though it may not have much in the way of a special movepool, it does have some interesting options to take advantage of this ability and it's base 115 special attack. Earth Power is the obvious STAB, and along with Psychic, is powered up by Sheer Force. Grass Knot and Hidden Power Ice are for coverage. I don't think this guy's released yet, so I might replace him with a special Nidoking or something.
 
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I think i have faced this team before. Anyways, im not getting the point of aerial ace. 60*2=120 base power whereas 90(leafblade)*1.5=135 base power on fighting types. not to mention steel type wall it. That being said, it really cant deal with these steels. Also, if you want to get rid of TTar, sac your rain counter and ko with Dugtrio. Otherwise, virizion can get rid of everything on a standard SS team after a CM. Lastly, if a sanstorm team isnt ready for escadrill, they deserve to lose. most are. gliscor, hippodon, and other balloondrills deal with it. Its not a sure fire counter.
 
I find it kinda strange you only have one Pokemon that actually uses the sun to it's advantage, which is Leafeon. You also have no SR which means Dragons can come in freely and only thing that can answer to them is Excadrill (who is worthless in the Sun) and Kingdra(who get's outsped, except if it's like a bulky Dnite it's up against), and Dragons also resists both Grass and Fire, so how do you take them down?

How do you take down Heatran(Kingdra's Hydro Pump in the sun? Excadrill can get OHKO'd by Fire Blast, especially in the sun).

Idk seems like you're aiming for hyper offense, but at least get lead Espeon with Light Clay and Dual Screens.
 
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^ hes got a point.

Also, venusaur is almost always a better sun sweeper and iirc, growth boost both your attack and special attack by +2 under the sun. It if nothing else can help you bluff a mixed set.
 
Excadrill was supposed to be my Stealth Rocker, but I forgot he couldn't get it. :-(

:-/ Yeah, obviously this team needs a lot of work. TBH, I was trying to find a good way to incorporate 4 of my favorite pokemon (being Ninetales, Leafeon, Sawsbuck, and Volcarona) onto the same team. Again, Excadrill and Kingdra were mainly put on there to mess with other weather teams.

The unfortunate thing is that I can't test out teams before putting them up here to be rated - Shoddy long ago decided it hated my computer and wouldn't work at all, and PO isn't compatible with Macs. So a lot of this is all theory. If I go for a more balanced offense, who or what should I replace?
 
Yes, and for whatever reason it still won't work properly. Believe me, I've looked for ways to get them to work.
 
I use a mac, and i can use it either through Wine software or through the mac version. Both work. If the normal one doesn't work download Wine and use the widows version via that.
 
How did you get a "mac version"? And I did try downloading Wine. It got as far as letting me build the team before for some reason it refused to save it or let me log on for battles.
 
Don't use Solarbeam on Ninetales, you will get trapped and KO'd by any weather changer.

You could do a Specially Defensive bulky spread on Ninetales if you want, that'd make switching into Politoed easier. Although if you want to stay offensive, consider a Timid nature since Ninetales best asset is her speed.

Sawsbuck and Leafeon are redundant. I know one is a Chlorophyll sweeper right now, and one isn't, but I'd probably just pick your favorite and use Chlorophyll on that. I love them both so I will not be picking sides.

I'm a poor team builder, but to me this team looks messy. You need a more focused vision of your win condition. Having to waste two spots to 'counter' other weather teams when you have a weather starter yourself seems like it will stop this team from performing as a unit.
 
Kingdra is probably not a good Idea with Toxic. I'd swap it for a more offensive move (D-Dance? Dragon Pulse? Yawn?). also - why Mild Nature? Swap Outrage for Draco Meteor or Dragon Pulse, or Hydro Pump for Waterfall...
 
Honestly I stole the idea to carry SS Kingdra on a sun team from a very successful battle I saw on Youtube...but I see the point.

Sawsbuck is probably the better pokemon competitively, or at least for attacking. Could I change Leafeon to a physically bulky set with Leaf Guard, do you think?

Specially bulky Ninetales is also completely doable (though about Solarbeam, I had more thought of getting her in at the beginning, statusing something, then bringing her back in once I'd killed off the opponent's weather-inducer if they had one).

I'll change Volcarona to an entirely offensive set, perhaps with Hidden Power Ice or Ground over Rest.

Since Excadrill is gone, I'll need a Rapid Spinner, preferably one that can pull triple duty spinning, setting up rocks, and dealing with Heatran. I'm not sure how possible that is, though :-/ Perhaps a Heatran of my own? Heatran can pack SR and Earth Power, and it seems as though Scarftran seems to be waning in use. Heatran can't Rapid Spin, though...

...Call me crazy, but hear me out.
Cloyster@White Herb
Jolly nature
EVs: 4/ HP/ 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Shell Break
- Rapid Spin
- Icicle Spear
- Explosion
 
For weather teams (believe me, I've run a few), usually half of the team is dedicated to your weather, and the other half is dedicated to its counters that can work with the weather you're playing as well as without it. I'm used to sand teams, so that makes it a bit more difficult seeing as it chips away at the health of non Rock/Ground/Steel types. But this is sun; only thing you have to worry about is Water-type moves and things with Dry Skin, that sort of thing. For sun, I'd go with your inducer (Ninetales, and I like the set by the way, but not so much Solarbeam), your Chlorophyll 'mon (Right now you have Leafeon... not the best choice. Maybe check out some more), and something with a Fire move that will benefit from the power (Volcarona is a very good choice). From there, you'd take the weaknesses of these three and let the other members of the team take care of it, as well as having them fill roles that your team needs. For example, Ninetales and Volcarona are both Stealth Rock weak as well as mutually weak to Rock and Water. Therefore, you need a Rapid Spinner, and something that can take care of the Rock and Water weakness as well.

If you want, I'd like to see you rebuild the team with these guidelines. If you do, leave me a VM and I'll come check things out.
 
No reason to have Excadrill on a sun team, I don't give a shit what you're doing, but Excadrill should ONLY exist in Sandstorm teams, sista.
 
No reason to have Excadrill on a sun team, I don't give a shit what you're doing, but Excadrill should ONLY exist in Sandstorm teams, sista.

Just because they're mostly used on Sandstorm teams doesn't mean they aren't useful otherwise. And like they pointed out, it's mostly to counter people who try to mess up your Sunny Day with Sandstorm.
 
Extremely interesting team, in my own decidedly imperfect opinion. It does look very promising.

Personally, however, I wouldn't waste two whole spots just to take advantage of other weather teams. At least one, but probably both will be wasted and they'll be hugely outnumbered anyway, not to mention their lack of synergy with the rest of the team.

An odd consideration, if you truly despise other weather teams, is Gardevoir. With Trace and a Scarf, it can outrun pretty much every weather abuser going, including most Excadrill, before KOing with super effective moves or STAB Psychic, which also helps deal with your slight fighting type problem (looks like you'd have trouble taking the powerful Mach Punches and Hi Jump Kicks running around nowadays).

This would then free up a whole slot on you're squad for something else. Personally, I'd recommend of Clorophyll Venusaur for the extra sweeping potential.

Or perhaps a rapid spinner in this slot, like Claydol (who appreciates the reduced water weakness) or, and I truly wouldn't use it, Torkoal. Either way, you do seem to need a Rapid Spinner, so maybe replace Leafeon or Sawsbuck.

Finally, I'd make Ninetails either bulkier or faster (Timid) or maybe both. Without Nasty Plot Ninetails isn't really powerful enough to merit Modest, but truly does need the speed and/or bulk to repeatedly bring down the status and sun.

Apart from that, this team looks very promising. I love the moveset on tails, Volcarona is always an excellent choice and the overall concept is good, it just needs fine tuning.
 
On Volorana, use Morning sun over rest so you can have either a life orb or leftovers, in sun morning sun heals 3/4s health :)
 
Woah...didn't expect to see this team jump back into the spotlight. Thought people would check out the other one I put up shameless plug is shameless.

Well, that does encourage me to actually try and rebuild this team. :3

Wiil, check your PMs :p

No reason to have Excadrill on a sun team, I don't give a shit what you're doing, but Excadrill should ONLY exist in Sandstorm teams, sista.

I need a Rapid Spinner, and Excadrill is the only one that really stands out to me. Were this not a sun team, I'd probably be using Starmie or Tentacruel. Besides, Mold Breaker (DW ability) Earthquake could catch a few things off guard.

An odd consideration, if you truly despise other weather teams, is Gardevoir. With Trace and a Scarf, it can outrun pretty much every weather abuser going, including most Excadrill, before KOing with super effective moves or STAB Psychic, which also helps deal with your slight fighting type problem (looks like you'd have trouble taking the powerful Mach Punches and Hi Jump Kicks running around nowadays).

Indeed odd, but perhaps worth considering. Gardevoir's defense isn't that great, though. She'd only be good for a few hits.

This would then free up a whole slot on you're squad for something else. Personally, I'd recommend of Clorophyll Venusaur for the extra sweeping potential.

TBH I adore Sawsbuck to itty bitty tiny little bits. :3 If I'm going to use a Chlorophyll sweeper, it'll be him. But Sap Sipper works on grass type status moves like Sleep Powder, too, so I'm really torn on which ability to use...

Finally, I'd make Ninetails either bulkier or faster (Timid) or maybe both. Without Nasty Plot Ninetails isn't really powerful enough to merit Modest, but truly does need the speed and/or bulk to repeatedly bring down the status and sun.

I purposefully used Modest over Timid to ensure that Ninetales was slow enough to get the weather up should she come out against another weather user. She probably could do with a little more bulk, though - what kind of EV spread do you recommend?

Apart from that, this team looks very promising. I love the moveset on tails, Volcarona is always an excellent choice and the overall concept is good, it just needs fine tuning.

Thank you! :)

On Volorana, use Morning sun over rest so you can have either a life orb or leftovers, in sun morning sun heals 3/4s health :)

Morning Sun is an option, but Rest gets rid of status, so Volcarona can recover from being paralyzed or somesuch thing. :)
 
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