Sun Team [No Legendaries]

Note: Changed will be in bold italicized

Hello, everyone. Thank-you in advance for taking time to read and criticize my team. I've never had a weather team since I always hear they are cheap, but I figured, "Hey, I've been playing Pokémon since Red & Blue, so why not try everything I can?" Anyway, here it is:


Ninetales (Kyukon) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 232 HP / 24 Sp.Atk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Will O Wisp
- Flamethrower
- Solarbeam
- Hidden Power fighting

Upon hours of research, I found that Ninetails is a typical sun team lead, so why not? Basically, Ninetails will get the sun up instantly for my team. Hidden Power fighting for coverage, Flamethrower since it will be really powerful with the sun up, Solarbeam for coverage, and then Will-O-Wisp to cripple leads.



Charizard (Rizardon) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Solar Power
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast
- Air Slash
- Dragon Pulse

Charizard has always been my favorite Pokémon (a huge, multi-paragraph explanation's worth on why). Charizard will be a (literally) monster with the sun up and Solar Power to increase his special attacking power even more. HP Ice for flying types & dragons. Air Slash as a stab move.


Venusaur (Fushigibana) @Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
32 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 220 Spe
Modest nature (+SpA/-Atk)
- Giga Drain (Giga Drain is now legal with Chlorophyll)
- Sleep Powder
- HP Fire
- Growth

A typical Venusaur sun team moveset...well, people could argue with Solarbeam and/or Sleep Powder. Anyway, Growth to raise attack while in the sun makes Venusaur a (literally, again) monster. Chlorophyll will make Venus' faster too, which is nice.



Nidoking (Nidoking) @ Life Orb
Trait: Encourage
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt

Nidoking has replaced Infernape now. Basically since Nido allows my team to resist Rock-types better, as well as being able to deal a good amount of damage.



Starmie (Starmie) @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid (-Atk, +Spe)
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power Fire
- Rapid Spin

I chose Starmie for her (I like to think Starmie is a female) good movepool and spike resistance, meaning I can get rid of spikes on the battlefield. Ice Beam for dragons mainly.



Dragonite (Kairyu) @ Choice Band
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant
- ExtremeSpeed
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Fire Punch

Figured, "why not have a Dragon-type Pokémon on the team?" Multiscale allows Dragonite to take half-damage when at full HP, so that's great when I send out Dragonite fresh. Extremespeed is for other weather leads and Outrage for just about anything else. EQ & Fire Punch for coverage.

OTHER POKéMON LEFTOVER:

Ok, here are some Pokémon I also considered to be on the team. Please, feel free to tell me if I should switch anyone on the current team for one of these "other" Pokémon. Thank-you!


REPLACED BY NIDOKING
Infernape (Goukazaru) @ Leftovers
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Mach Punch
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat



Dugtrio (Dugtrio) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Reversal
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge



Scizor (Hassamu) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower


Last, but not least:


Volcarona (Ulgamoth) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 240 HP / 216 Def / 52 Spd
Bold Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Morning Sun
- Fiery Dance


All-in-all, I just want constructive criticism. Do not tell me what's wrong with this team and then not tell
me what I need to do to fix it. Again, thank-you for reading this post and criticizing it. If you were wondering, I chose
no legendary Pokémon because, as I have always personally believed, they are whack and should never be used outside the
metagame. Heck, I never use them in-game anyway.

Since Ninetales is using a Timid nature, it might be worth considering to give it an offensive set. Will-o-Wisp can go over Toxic to compensate for Ninetales' low Defense. Energy Ball can fit in somewhere on the set to hit Tyranitar and Politoed hard.

If you still want Ninetales to play a defensive role, use this set:
-Flamethrower
-Will-o-Wisp/Toxic
-Substitute
-Hidden Power (Fighting)/Hypnosis/Protect/Rest
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP/120 SDef/136 Spe
Item: Leftovers/Chesto Berry
Ability: Drought

While Modest seems like a tempting nature for Charizard, it might be better off with Timid to tie-speed with max base 100s. It still hits hard either way in the sun.

Giga Drain is now legal with Chlorophyll Venusaur, so might as well use that. A max Special Attack/max Speed spread is also better to use.

HP Fire is a better choice on Starmie because that move benefits from the sun. The other slot can go to Psyshock or Psychic so Starmie has a STAB move to use.

As for your other team replacements:

You can consider Infernape over Charizard; while it doesn't hit as hard, it's faster. Choice Band is a better item to use than Lefties in this case.

Comments in bold, changes in blue.

WaterIse said:

Ninetales (Kyukon) @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Drought
EVs: 232 HP / 24 Sp.Atk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Toxic
- Rest

Upon hours of research, I found that Ninetails is a typical sun team lead, so why not? Basically, Ninetails will get the sun up instantly for my team. Hidden Power fighting for coverage, Fire Blast since it will be really powerful with the sun up, toxic to poison other leads/weather starters, and then Rest with a Chesto Berry to wake it back up.

HP Fighting hardly covers anything that's worth it besides Tyranitar, but even then it does minimal damage since TTar is almost always running some Special Defense investments as well as its aforementioned stat being boosted by Sand. Anyway, you're probably better off just going with Solarbeam instead of HP Fighting for coverage against things like Gastrodon and the scarce Jellicent. This is a mostly offensive set so why do you have Rest + Chesto? Your best option is just going with Air Balloon or Leftovers and replacing Toxic with Will-o-Wisp or adding it over Rest for double status. Also, just go ahead and invest what you have in HP to your Special Attack.

Venusaur (Fushigibana) @Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
32 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 220 Spe
Modest nature (+SpA/-Atk)
- Energy Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- HP Fire
- Growth

A typical Venusaur sun team moveset...well, people could argue with Energy Ball and/or Sludge Bomb. Anyway, Growth to raise attack while in the sun makes Venusaur a (literally, again) monster. Chlorophyll will make Venus' faster too, which is nice.

This is a Sun team, so go ahead and go with Solarbeam over Energy Ball and you could add Earthquake over Sludge Bomb for some neutral coverage on Electric-types like Jolteon, since HP Fire covers what Sludge Bomb would cover.

Click to expand...

Thought I would have more to say but the rest of the team seems pretty solid to be honest.

Thank-you both for commenting. I have updated the OP with your changes, as well as some of my own.

You have no steels, so when latios comes in it can fire off a draco meteor and pretty much get a ko every time. It's unfortunate that you refuse to use "legendaries" because heatran / genesect would fit awfully well here but that's your call. I'd at least use forretress over starmie so that you can have at least one dragon resistance. Although forretress isn't as good of a spinner at least you won't get completely wrecked by most dragons. Tbh, I don't really see why you're using charizard. Although I guess you could say that volcarona falls into the "legendary" category it is really a much more deadly sweeper than charizard so I'd definitely give that a shot again. Dugtrio would also work much better than nidoking on this team for obvious reasons like it can trap tyranitar and weakened politoed.

While it isn't a bad team, you seem to have awful type resitance(Like my Electric team, Gliscor is an instant defeat for everyone). Let's say a Torkoral with Fire(Like Fire blast), Ground(Like Earthquake) and Rock(Like stone edge) moves. Two thirds of your team are gone. Rain dance, Sandstorm or any other weather move/ability will end your team instantly if Ninetales is gone. I would have at least one other Pokemon with drought or sunny day for later in the fight when you need it again.
Other than that, it seems like a pretty good team.