I have been a t500 doubles OU player in the past and I peaked around 1600+ but I never really attempted to properly build teams before. I came back to showdown after a break and have decided to try and start properly building teams but I’m still probably quite bad with this being one of my first real attempts. its a hyper offensive sun team, as weather teams are some of my favourite to build, and while I have had some success with this team any improvements that could be made are well appreciated.
Venusaur @ Black Sludge
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sleep Powder
- Protect
- Sludge Bomb
- Weather Ball
I chose Venusaur for this team for quite clear reasons. With Chlorophyll it can out speed most Pokémon even with choicescarf allowing it to put key threats to sleep at the beginning of a battle and then strike back with powerful STAB sludge bombs on neutral targets. It can also exploit the Sun in other ways as through weather Ball it can bait out grass types looking to counter, sleep powder and its poison STAB like amoongus and hit them quite hard with super effective damage with fire type Sun boosted weather ball. Venusaur also has enough bulk to take neutral hits quite well while black sludge can help keep it Alive throughout the course of a battle allowing it to switch in and put threats to sleep as necessary. Finally protect is used not only to initally stall out moves like fake out and other priority moves but also as a useful repositioning tool to stall out effects or to help stall while other Pokémon switch in. Ultimately it is a great lead Pokémon and can help threaten key Pokémon in the meta game mostly fairy types as Pokémon like Tapu Koko a threat to Venusaur as it can prevent sleep powder can be handily out sped and one shot with sludge bomb.
Torkoal @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Lava Plume
- Yawn
- Protect
I chose Torkoal as my Sun setter for a couple of reason mainly because it is the premier Sun setter in DOU as far as I know but for other reasons as well. Torkoal itself is so slow that it can set Sun up consistently in the face of other weather leads like drizzle politoad/ pelliper and sand stream tyranitar/ hippowdon furthermore its egregiously slow speed also has another advantage mainly under speeding key pokemon in trick room like Hatterene and amoongus making Torkoal a good offensive check to the pressure exerted by trick room on my quite fast later Pokémon. Eruption is on the set mainly because it’s hits like a truck giving Torkoal the damage it needs to be a proper threat to trick room Pokémon , lava plume takes up a slot because of how it hits allied Pokémon on the field which allows Torkoal to trigger Heatran‘s flash fire making the main sweeper of this team even more threatenin, lava plume can also be used as damage in emergency situations but generally spamming eruption works better. Yawn is on Torkoal because of how as a lead paired with Venusaur it can force grass types to switch out and threaten Pokémon like Cradily, which can usually be a massive wall to this team, with sleep allowing the other team members to kill it off and generally yawn is a good support move. protect holds a similar role as it did for Venusaur allowing you to take super effective hits while other Pokémon switch in allowing for more effective repositioning of Pokémon.
Gastrodon @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Scald
Gastrodon was one of the MVP’s of this team and a great support Pokémon for Sun in general mostly for its ability storm drain which hard counters not only water types but opposing weathers in general. Rain teams get walled by Gastrodon who can protect your fire types from powerful water type attacks from Pokémon like Urshifu rapid strike, fishious rend’s from dracovish and even steam eruptions from Volcanion furthermore by it hard walls these other physical water types and Pokémon generally with Rocky helmet. Rocky helmet means that even if dracovish doesn’t use fishous rend instead opting to use something like ice fang or leech life on Gastrodon they take chip damage more damage probably than Gastrodon itself can deal with a boost from storm drain the same goes for urshifu close combat (albeit close combat does hit harder). recover is generally used for longevity mostly again rain teams as the constant switch of weather generally can lead to longer games meaning Gastrodon the key defensive Pokémon against this must stay healthy to have a better chance of winning. Ice beam is a great offensive move against dragon types which can usually wall the fire type attacks the rest of your team outputs, ice beam is usually mostly Used against Pokémon like dragon dance Dragonite which can be taken quite unaware by the damage, it can also be used on Pokémon like Salammace. Earth power is the first of the ground coverage moves used to destroy other Sun teams and cripple Pokémon like Heatran (if not kill it outright) it can also be used to whittle down Pokémon like Toxapex and tyranitar whilst also being a generally good STAB move that is unaffected by the Sun itself. Scald is the final move I run on Gastrodon mostly because burning physical attackers hard walls them even more than I believe Gastrodon already does.
Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Eruption
- Earth Power
- Heat Wave
- Magma Storm
Heatran is the main sweeper for this team. Through the use of choice scarf it out speeds most of meta game allowing it to fire off sun boosted eruptions onto a team which by the time it is sent out should hopefully be rid of anything that could possible think about walling it boosted even further by sun and even flash fire from Torkoal there is very little that can stop Heatran. Earth power is a good coverage move mostly because you can switch into opposing Heatran‘s, hopefully, stuck using eruption, and destroy them. Heatwave is a good option if Heatran has fallen to lower health giving a more consistent damaging move which also has the side benefit of potentially burning a target. Magma storm is the move I’m less confident in I find myself hardly using it and while it’s passive damage and ability to trap is good if feels like there is no reason to use it over eruption especially with the inconsistent accuracy of the move (I have considered switch it out for flash cannon for better fairy coverage).
Blacephalon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Mind Blown
- Solar Beam
- Heat Wave
Blacephelon can be used in a couple different ways. choice scarf allows it to outrun our own heatran making a Blacephalon, Heatran lead a good option against faster frailer teams as Blacephelon can sacrifice half its health with mind blown to deal massive damage and active flash fire followed by eruption from Heatran which can for the most part kill less bulky opposing leads and can hamper pokemon that try to boost turn one. It can also be used as a targeted wall breaker with STAB shadow ball hitting a lot of Pokémon for neutral damage and helping break down walls like eviolite dusclops on trick room and it can outspeed and kill dragapult as well effectively neutralising ghost type threats that aren’t priority move. Solar beam adds to it’s usefulness as a wall breaker as it can take chunks out of opposing bulky water types like suicune or milotic. Finally it’s last role is as a second sweeper with beast boost and heatwave it can act as almost second Heatran, outspending and spreading high damage fire moves on a wide open enemy with this role only supported by the constant boosts it receives and it can quickly snowball at the end of games.
Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Extrasensory
- Sludge Bomb
- Weather Ball
i initially struggled to find a good coverage Pokémon for this team that can benefit from the removal of ice types and the weakening of water moves but I eventually decided on Landorus in this iteration of the team as it can provide a lot of great high power coverage moves that allow it to act as a second wall breaker on the team. Earth power is used for its general synergy with life orb/sheer force but it is also used to catch one of the biggest threats to the the team that being mostly rock types and sand teams as the only other good counter to rock types in this team is Gastrodon (Heatran can be good but it’s hard to find switch in opportunities especially with the threat of moves like earthquake) however Gastrodon just doesn’t have the offensive power to break through the special bulk of sandstorm boosted rock types which is where landorus comes in as it can one shot tyranitar in sand and effectively wall Pokémon like Excadrill making it a good counter to many of the pokemon on sand. Extrasensory was a choice I made to break through any fighting type pokemon that appear and it can outspeed and one shot urshifu rapid strike which is the most usual recipient of this move but any other fighting type threats can dealt with in the same way. Sludge bomb is another good coverage move while weather ball allows it to exploit the sun and fire off high power fire type moves on unsuspecting pokemon.
as my concluding thoughts on this team in its current form it feels good while on the offensive however it feels as though it has a lack of good defensive pivots on the team that help keep momentum which can make it prone to getting bogged down. Also I have mostly just used EV spreads that I feel work rather than fully optimising them and it’s probably the thing I want to work on most with this team in its current form. however I myself probably doesn’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to team building at all so any helpful suggestions to not only help with this team but the process of team building in general would be well recieved.
thank you.
Venusaur @ Black Sludge
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sleep Powder
- Protect
- Sludge Bomb
- Weather Ball
I chose Venusaur for this team for quite clear reasons. With Chlorophyll it can out speed most Pokémon even with choicescarf allowing it to put key threats to sleep at the beginning of a battle and then strike back with powerful STAB sludge bombs on neutral targets. It can also exploit the Sun in other ways as through weather Ball it can bait out grass types looking to counter, sleep powder and its poison STAB like amoongus and hit them quite hard with super effective damage with fire type Sun boosted weather ball. Venusaur also has enough bulk to take neutral hits quite well while black sludge can help keep it Alive throughout the course of a battle allowing it to switch in and put threats to sleep as necessary. Finally protect is used not only to initally stall out moves like fake out and other priority moves but also as a useful repositioning tool to stall out effects or to help stall while other Pokémon switch in. Ultimately it is a great lead Pokémon and can help threaten key Pokémon in the meta game mostly fairy types as Pokémon like Tapu Koko a threat to Venusaur as it can prevent sleep powder can be handily out sped and one shot with sludge bomb.
Torkoal @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Lava Plume
- Yawn
- Protect
I chose Torkoal as my Sun setter for a couple of reason mainly because it is the premier Sun setter in DOU as far as I know but for other reasons as well. Torkoal itself is so slow that it can set Sun up consistently in the face of other weather leads like drizzle politoad/ pelliper and sand stream tyranitar/ hippowdon furthermore its egregiously slow speed also has another advantage mainly under speeding key pokemon in trick room like Hatterene and amoongus making Torkoal a good offensive check to the pressure exerted by trick room on my quite fast later Pokémon. Eruption is on the set mainly because it’s hits like a truck giving Torkoal the damage it needs to be a proper threat to trick room Pokémon , lava plume takes up a slot because of how it hits allied Pokémon on the field which allows Torkoal to trigger Heatran‘s flash fire making the main sweeper of this team even more threatenin, lava plume can also be used as damage in emergency situations but generally spamming eruption works better. Yawn is on Torkoal because of how as a lead paired with Venusaur it can force grass types to switch out and threaten Pokémon like Cradily, which can usually be a massive wall to this team, with sleep allowing the other team members to kill it off and generally yawn is a good support move. protect holds a similar role as it did for Venusaur allowing you to take super effective hits while other Pokémon switch in allowing for more effective repositioning of Pokémon.
Gastrodon @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Scald
Gastrodon was one of the MVP’s of this team and a great support Pokémon for Sun in general mostly for its ability storm drain which hard counters not only water types but opposing weathers in general. Rain teams get walled by Gastrodon who can protect your fire types from powerful water type attacks from Pokémon like Urshifu rapid strike, fishious rend’s from dracovish and even steam eruptions from Volcanion furthermore by it hard walls these other physical water types and Pokémon generally with Rocky helmet. Rocky helmet means that even if dracovish doesn’t use fishous rend instead opting to use something like ice fang or leech life on Gastrodon they take chip damage more damage probably than Gastrodon itself can deal with a boost from storm drain the same goes for urshifu close combat (albeit close combat does hit harder). recover is generally used for longevity mostly again rain teams as the constant switch of weather generally can lead to longer games meaning Gastrodon the key defensive Pokémon against this must stay healthy to have a better chance of winning. Ice beam is a great offensive move against dragon types which can usually wall the fire type attacks the rest of your team outputs, ice beam is usually mostly Used against Pokémon like dragon dance Dragonite which can be taken quite unaware by the damage, it can also be used on Pokémon like Salammace. Earth power is the first of the ground coverage moves used to destroy other Sun teams and cripple Pokémon like Heatran (if not kill it outright) it can also be used to whittle down Pokémon like Toxapex and tyranitar whilst also being a generally good STAB move that is unaffected by the Sun itself. Scald is the final move I run on Gastrodon mostly because burning physical attackers hard walls them even more than I believe Gastrodon already does.
Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Eruption
- Earth Power
- Heat Wave
- Magma Storm
Heatran is the main sweeper for this team. Through the use of choice scarf it out speeds most of meta game allowing it to fire off sun boosted eruptions onto a team which by the time it is sent out should hopefully be rid of anything that could possible think about walling it boosted even further by sun and even flash fire from Torkoal there is very little that can stop Heatran. Earth power is a good coverage move mostly because you can switch into opposing Heatran‘s, hopefully, stuck using eruption, and destroy them. Heatwave is a good option if Heatran has fallen to lower health giving a more consistent damaging move which also has the side benefit of potentially burning a target. Magma storm is the move I’m less confident in I find myself hardly using it and while it’s passive damage and ability to trap is good if feels like there is no reason to use it over eruption especially with the inconsistent accuracy of the move (I have considered switch it out for flash cannon for better fairy coverage).
Blacephalon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Mind Blown
- Solar Beam
- Heat Wave
Blacephelon can be used in a couple different ways. choice scarf allows it to outrun our own heatran making a Blacephalon, Heatran lead a good option against faster frailer teams as Blacephelon can sacrifice half its health with mind blown to deal massive damage and active flash fire followed by eruption from Heatran which can for the most part kill less bulky opposing leads and can hamper pokemon that try to boost turn one. It can also be used as a targeted wall breaker with STAB shadow ball hitting a lot of Pokémon for neutral damage and helping break down walls like eviolite dusclops on trick room and it can outspeed and kill dragapult as well effectively neutralising ghost type threats that aren’t priority move. Solar beam adds to it’s usefulness as a wall breaker as it can take chunks out of opposing bulky water types like suicune or milotic. Finally it’s last role is as a second sweeper with beast boost and heatwave it can act as almost second Heatran, outspending and spreading high damage fire moves on a wide open enemy with this role only supported by the constant boosts it receives and it can quickly snowball at the end of games.
Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Extrasensory
- Sludge Bomb
- Weather Ball
i initially struggled to find a good coverage Pokémon for this team that can benefit from the removal of ice types and the weakening of water moves but I eventually decided on Landorus in this iteration of the team as it can provide a lot of great high power coverage moves that allow it to act as a second wall breaker on the team. Earth power is used for its general synergy with life orb/sheer force but it is also used to catch one of the biggest threats to the the team that being mostly rock types and sand teams as the only other good counter to rock types in this team is Gastrodon (Heatran can be good but it’s hard to find switch in opportunities especially with the threat of moves like earthquake) however Gastrodon just doesn’t have the offensive power to break through the special bulk of sandstorm boosted rock types which is where landorus comes in as it can one shot tyranitar in sand and effectively wall Pokémon like Excadrill making it a good counter to many of the pokemon on sand. Extrasensory was a choice I made to break through any fighting type pokemon that appear and it can outspeed and one shot urshifu rapid strike which is the most usual recipient of this move but any other fighting type threats can dealt with in the same way. Sludge bomb is another good coverage move while weather ball allows it to exploit the sun and fire off high power fire type moves on unsuspecting pokemon.
as my concluding thoughts on this team in its current form it feels good while on the offensive however it feels as though it has a lack of good defensive pivots on the team that help keep momentum which can make it prone to getting bogged down. Also I have mostly just used EV spreads that I feel work rather than fully optimising them and it’s probably the thing I want to work on most with this team in its current form. however I myself probably doesn’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to team building at all so any helpful suggestions to not only help with this team but the process of team building in general would be well recieved.
thank you.
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