Thread: Tropical Assualt: A Sunny Day Team by Takaki (Peaked 1451)

Tropical Assault


Introduction
Welcome to my first RMT here on Bulbagarden. After leaving Pokemon towards the end of generation 4 to focus on my studies, I returned towards the end of the Black and White Era- before the new formes were introduced in Black and White 2. I came back to find a metagame that I could never really find my feet in. The majority of the success I enjoyed during Diamond and Pearl came from semi-stall teams, however with the introduction of the new powerhouses this generation, I've found it to be a far less effective option. I mostly played typical balanced teams that could never break into the top 100 on the ladder because they were just too predictable. With the turn of Black and White 2, everything changed.

Tropical Assault is a Sunny Day team based around two objectives: to block out the popular new toys of the current generation and to abuse the monstrous power of Venasaur under the sun. As you can see, the team's focus is all around suppressing the hugely powerful new therien formes and Keldeo, in addition to taking out weather inducers before my Ninetails goes down. There are several threats that can prevent a Venasaur sweep, and the supporting members of my team are all about removing them for the power flower to come in and sweep up. Although sun appears to have suffered this generation, with it having arguably the worst weather inducer of them all, and being weak to many of the common threats in the metagame, I have found it to be very effective given the correct support.

The team peaked at 1551 on the ladder, my highest yet this generation. I feel that the team still has a lot more to offer, with it having many glaring weaknesses that rip it to shreds, and hope that by posting this RMT I can gain an insight on how to fine tune it to patch up these holes. During my conclusion I'll go over the main weaknesses of my team and present possible suggestions for how they could be fixed.

In Depth

Ninetales (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 112 HP / 252 SAtk / 112 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- SolarBeam
- Sunny Day
- Fire Blast
- Toxic
Ninetails is arguably the most difficult weather inducer to keep alive for a long period of time. That is why this set is tailor made to give it plenty of switch-ins against other weather teams whilst providing additional team support. The speed evs allow it to out speed all other weather inducers giving me first hit if they are low on health. Sunny Day may seem an odd choice at first, however it allows me to maintain victory over the weather war when predicting a switch in from Poltoed, Tyranitar or Hippowdon. This is especially important when considering that Politoed cannot beat Ninetails if the sun is up. Whilst the HP evs are optimal to maintain some bulk, the special attacks evs allow Ninetails to smash of full power Solarbeams and Fire Blasts in the sun, which are deadly to a large proportion of the metagame. Toxic allows me to cripple an opposing wall that Ninetails cannot beat if I predict a switch, in addition to allowing me to reduce the longevity of other weather inducers.Despite the moveset, Ninetails is still pretty dead weight when it comes to general play. If there are no other weather inducers in play, I'm usually pretty happy to sack her for some warm weather.


Heatran (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock

Heatran is generally considered the scariest creature under the sun (quite literally) and on this team it really gives me a piece of everything. Despite, this, I find the set to be quite underwhelming at times in terms of it's long term utility. I generally set up Stealth Rocks (Heatran is a really reliable Stealth Rocks user, especially with it's water weakness removed) and then fire (these puns are getting worse) off a few hits before he dies. This being said, he is my best answer to the cold blooded dragon (Sorry) types that are so prominent in OU and tend to wreck havoc on my team if I don't have Venasaur in. Moreover, Stealth rocks is crucial to my team. It allows Venasaur to net a K/O on Dragonite by breaking through Multiscale. I chose Magma Storm over Fire Blast to trap Pokemon like Chansey and bulky waters who I can taunt to prevent from recovering. Poltitoed is also a very common switch and Magma Storm chunks away at his health nicely. I have considered Toxic over Taunt, however I have found that Heatran attracts similar switch-ins to Ninetails who already has Toxic.


Venusaur (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Sleep Powder
- SolarBeam
- Growth

This thing is just unbelievably good. He goes from being completely dead weight to the most threatening sweeper in the tier once sun is up. Once steels, the blobs, weather inducers and Volcarana are removed, this creature gobbles up everything in the game with access to a sleep move, an incredible boosting move, blazing speed (I must admit, the sun jokes are getting pretty naff), and two great coverage moves. I decided to use Leftovers instead of Life Orb because I find that I often bring in Venasaur in response to threats such a Breloom or Rotom-W to fire off a sleep and decided that it was best to keep it long lasting (I rarely require the extra power of Life Orb). Solarbeam and Hidden Power give phenomenal coverage over anything neutral to Grass or weak to Ice whilst Growth combined with Venasaur's bulk and its sleep move giving me a free turn allows it to boost it's stats to gargantuan levels. I have considered Sludge Bomb over Hidden Power Ice, for the extra power and stab, however it isn't as effective against Dragonite or the Therians.


Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
Starmie provides the important asset of removing hazards from the field as well as absorbing status with its natural cure ability. This allows my other Pokemon much safer switch-ins and fear from status effects. I decided to remove Hydro Pump from the set and run Hidden Power Fire because of the boost it gets in the sun. This combined with bolt beam allows me to hit everything in the entire game for at least neutral damage. Hidden Power Fire is generally unsuspected, giving Starmie easy kills on Pokemon such as Magnezone, Scizor and Jirachi which all threaten my sweep with Venasaur. The star also has reasonable bulk, completing my fire, water and grass core and giving me a way to take hits from opposing Heatran (Which usually really trouble sun teams).


Wobbuffet (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Shadow Tag
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Def / 228 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Counter
- Mirror Coat
- Encore

With the power creep of generation 5 and the nerf to Encore, Wobbufet's hopes of usage seemed over but I for one still believe that he has a place in the game. For my team, he clears up proplems with Pokemon such as Calm Mind Reunculusf and Calm Mind Latias whom he can encore, giving my other Pokemon free roam over their team. I usually use him if momentum appears to be swinging away from me. For example, if I'm losing the weather war I will sack him to take down the opponents weather inducer. I mostly see Wobbuffet as giving my team a free turn, which Venasaur loves. On the other hand, Wobbufet is still most likely the easiest member of my team to replace because the team still appears to function well without him. I'm considering changing him for a Pokemon with Levitate (my whole team is grounded) that can still manage to take on the threats of bulky setup attackers.


Arcanine (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- ExtremeSpeed
- Morning Sun
I finally bring you to the MVP of my team (That is correct, it isn't Venasaur). This guy patches up all of my problems with Chansey, Blissey, Tyranitar, Heatran and other steels. If you have not used it before I recommend doing so. It is incredibly versatile, with amazing stats and a great movepool. With Rapid Spin support, his Stealth Rock weakness disappears and the access to the amazing recovery of Morning Sun, he is incredibly hard to take down. In addition to this, he can even beat bulky waters who can't touch him under the sun and take a stack load from the boosted Flare Blitz. He also acts as a last minute revenge killer with extremespeed. My only concern with him is that close combat cannot K/O Chansey after rocks (It can K/O Blissey without them 0_o), allowing her to Thunder Wave him. This becomes more worrying as the use of Thunder wave on Chansey gets more popular. For this reason I have considered using Fighting Gem, but the boost life orb gives to his other moves is invaluable. I refuse to change this Pokemon under any circumstances, it can win games on its own.

Conclusion

This teamhas had great success but I feel that it still requires fine tuning. I'm considering a relevant change to Wobbufet (that still does the same job) and I'm also looking at changes to the Heatran set. Namely, I'm thinking about Calm Mind Latias (over the blue blob) or testing out Air Balloon on Heatran to give me a ground immunity.

Thank you for reading my RMT, if you wish to battle it, shoot my a visitor message and we can arrange something.

Importable
Here is the importable version of the team. Feel free to use it.

Wobbuffet (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Shadow Tag
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Def / 228 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Counter
- Mirror Coat
- Encore
- Safeguard

Heatran (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock

Arcanine (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- ExtremeSpeed
- Morning Sun

Venusaur (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Sleep Powder
- SolarBeam
- Growth

Ninetales (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drought
EVs: 112 HP / 252 SAtk / 112 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- SolarBeam
- Sunny Day
- Fire Blast
- Toxic

Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam

I really like your team, and it seems like it's very well worked out. The only suggestion I have right now is to give Venusaur Giga Drain over Solarbeam (possible, I'm sure you're aware, with the advent of BW2), and maybe swap lefties for life orb to compensate for the power difference. This way, Venusaur isn't as vulnerable to a sudden change in weather derailing his sweep and turning his greatest (viable) stab move into dead weight. It also improves his longevity, by giving him more substantial recovery than Lefties, if not more reliable.

True, it does get wrecked by a change in weather. I'll test it out with Giga Drain and Life Orb and see if the slight loss in power is viable.

I think I'll definitely be switching to Air Balloon on Heatran and most likely Giga Drain on Venasaur.

Thank you for the suggestion.

Has this team been outright swept by anything as of yet?

Originally Posted by Takaki

I think I'll definitely be switching to Air Balloon on Heatran and most likely Giga Drain on Venasaur.

Thank you for the suggestion.

Another advantage to Giga Drain over Solarbeam is that Venusaur no longer gets stopped cold by Chansey/Blissey. By using their own HP against them via Giga Drain, they essentially become setup fodder for you, as most of them won't immediately switch out on a Venusaur, allowing you the time to get another Growth boost up. Watch out for T-Wave though, as that could still ruin your sweep.

This team is yet to get completely destroyed by anything. Most of its losses have come through my own incompetence. Saying that, it has only lost 3 games on the ladder.

Venasaur is definitely better with Giga Drain, though I wouldn't even consider keeping it in on Chansey or Blissey. Those two are running Thunder Wave more and more often (My Heatran can beat them with Taunt and Magma Storm anyway).

How do you handle Tornado-T and Thunder-T?

If I have sun up then Venasaur can revenge them nicely. This is especially true as with Life Orb Tornadus I can Superpower. I always win the weather war against rain so they haven't been an issue as of yet in the sun.

My rain team is practically built to be a match for this.

Originally Posted by Takaki

If I have sun up then Venasaur can revenge them nicely. This is especially true as with Life Orb Tornadus I can Superpower. I always win the weather war against rain so they haven't been an issue as of yet in the sun.

How are you Revenge Killing them?

You should also have something that can use sunnyday that is not your Ninetales that way if you were to ever lose it or make a mistake and it get KO'ED you would then have a back up for it.

I can easily revenge them with Venasaur or Arcanine if they have low health. I don't need any Sunny Day users other than Ninetails because the whole team is focused around beating other weather inducers, which it achieves.

Originally Posted by Takaki

I can easily revenge them with Venasaur or Arcanine if they have low health. I don't need any Sunny Day users other than Ninetails because the whole team is focused around beating other weather inducers, which it achieves.

Hmm Ok Cool. Well watch out at least that Tornadus-T Does not drop Heat Wave or Hurricane on Venasaur! I do not see Thundurus-T as being any sort of threat to you and Landorus-T will just end up crying when you HP Ice him.

The theriens really aren't going to be getting many switch-ins against me because my whole team is based on offensive moves.

Yea Therian's should never switch in it is to predictable as is already. If they come out after a KO its different but switching in on something proves deadly to them. Especially Thundurus-T. I like the looks of your team. Have you ever though of using Will-o-Wisp on your Ninetales?