SS OU Solar Blade Kartana HO

[yeziqie]

The initial starting point of this team was a Kartana with Solar Blade, and the reason is very simple: the poor power of the grass STAB Leaf Blade. Although Kartana has a terrorist attack of 181, it is still difficult to play because of its low STAB power skills. Finally I found Solar Blade in its skill list, which has 39% more power than Leaf Blade, even more bonus than a LO. As long as it is sunny, Kartana is equivalent to a terrorist sweeper with two items. However, the team still has some problems. I hope you can help me improve it.
Team: https://pokepast.es/760511b4764ca37c

Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Solar Blade
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword​

This PM uses a simple 252 EV allocation. The reason for carrying two grass STAB skills is to prevent no skills available when there is no sunny day (for example, against a rainy team) . Knock Off and Sacred Sword are irreplaceable. In contrast, Defog becomes less important.

Torkoal @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Lava Plume
- Rapid Spin
- Explosion
- Stealth Rock​

A regular sunny weather generator. Carrying Explosion instead of Toxic is to exit in the middle of a battle.

Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Growth
- Solar Beam
- Weather Ball
- Earth Power​

Another regular beater on sunny days. My ultimate goal is to let Kartana continuously trigger the effect of Beast Boost to kill several PMs at the end of a battle. To do this, I need a powerful Wallbreaker to break through its obstacles. Venusaur has the same attributes and counters as Kartana, and can always overloads enemy shields through redundancy.

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Eruption
- Earth Power
- Ancient Power​

Another sunny day beneficiary and fire resistance provider of the team. As the team is fast enough, Choice Scarf is not needed. As this team is powerful enough, Choice Specs are also not needed. Finally, I chose the Air Balloon, which allows it to recklessly transfer from enemy's Heatran, and directly Eruption in front of Landorus. The reason why Ancient Power is carried is that it can hit nearly half of Pelipper's life, so that it can be 2HKO when unhealthy. I'm really afraid of rainy teams. GF, please give my Hidden Power back!

Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Eject Button
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 184 HP / 68 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Knock Off
- Superpower
- Defog​

Since neither U-turn nor Volt Switch is carried, this team is too heavy for me. Thus, I think it is necessary to have an Eject Button carrier in order for the beaters to come on the stage. Among all Regenerator holders, Tornadus-Therian has the fastest rhythm and can benefit from Acrobatics after losing its item. 68Atk is to ensure that you can 1HKO a 0HP/4Def Blacephalon, and the rest of EV goes to HP. Superpower can defeat Tyranitar, which the team is very afraid of, and I think it is also necessary.

Zeraora @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Knock Off
- Blaze Kick
- Volt Switch​

A fast-paced electrical-immune PM who can deal with Tapu Koko, Zapdos and Regieleki. The troublesome Dragapult will also be revenge killed. Carrying Blaze Kick instead of Close Combat can quickly process Ferrothorn and consume more HP of Landorus.

 

[Fancy1]

Solar blade kartana is a really cool idea for a team and I think you executed it pretty well.

you seem pretty scared of rain (which is reasonable for a sun team) but I would be more scared of sand
after a swords dance excadrill can ohko kartana with earthquake (assuming sand is up) and threaten the rest of the team with EQ and iron head (i would replace something on the team with rillaboom maybe tornadus becasue rillaboom can still switch our sun sweepers in with u-turn and rillaboom decreases earthquakes power and increases solar blade/leaf blades power)

that’s just my two cents tho have a nice day

 

[yeziqie]

Solar blade kartana is a really cool idea for a team and I think you executed it pretty well.

you seem pretty scared of rain (which is reasonable for a sun team) but I would be more scared of sand
after a swords dance excadrill can ohko kartana with earthquake (assuming sand is up) and threaten the rest of the team with EQ and iron head (i would replace something on the team with rillaboom maybe tornadus becasue rillaboom can still switch our sun sweepers in with u-turn and rillaboom decreases earthquakes power and increases solar blade/leaf blades power)

that’s just my two cents tho have a nice day

To some extent, what you said is reasonable, but removing Tornadus-Therian will make my team lose the only ground immunity. Meanwhile, this will make my team have three grass type PMs at the same time, which is not a good news for switching in. Thus if I have to choose, maybe I will consider removing Venusaur.

 

[chimp]

I second the swap from Venusaur to Rillaboom. Boom makes Solar Blade hit even harder, which, if you’re building your team around SB Kart, you might as well get as much power out of it as possible. Boom also helps get Kart in with U-turn where as Venusaur is kinda just doing its own thing.

 

[Freezerman]

ok so a sun team, this seems to have a couple problems
1) this just wins, not unnatural for sun to lose to dnite but you have 0 counterplay(even fringe stuff such as toxic torkoal), that mon is getting +2 and sweeping.
2) nothing switches into reliably, everything is 2hkoed or ohko'd, I know what you're trying with tornadus-therian but your next options are zera and kartana which are both countered by common draga teammates such as buzzwole. not to mention that playing
3) clicks cb crunch due to lack of resists(same w weav and cb knock).
4) rain is a scary matchup.
5) The lack of momentum hurts your team.

suggestions:
for , I might've clowned on omari for this but this poke is the saving grace of sun teams, it solves your problems with pult, gives on momentum, beats dnite if the set has toxic and also defogs.
can be switched to a ground like , it also allows you to fit toxic on torkoal as garchomp can carry rocks.

that's all I wrote this late at night so sorry if I missed some stuff. have a good one!

 

[yeziqie]

ok so a sun team, this seems to have a couple problems
1) this just wins, not unnatural for sun to lose to dnite but you have 0 counterplay(even fringe stuff such as toxic torkoal), that mon is getting +2 and sweeping.
2) nothing switches into reliably, everything is 2hkoed or ohko'd, I know what you're trying with tornadus-therian but your next options are zera and kartana which are both countered by common draga teammates such as buzzwole. not to mention that playing
3) clicks cb crunch due to lack of resists(same w weav and cb knock).
4) rain is a scary matchup.
5) The lack of momentum hurts your team.

suggestions:
for , I might've clowned on omari for this but this poke is the saving grace of sun teams, it solves your problems with pult, gives on momentum, beats dnite if the set has toxic and also defogs.
can be switched to a ground like , it also allows you to fit toxic on torkoal as garchomp can carry rocks.

that's all I wrote this late at night so sorry if I missed some stuff. have a good one!

You mean I need something that can fight , and at the same time. Thus, is a physically defensive appropriate? Or a ?

 

[Red Raven]

Just based on my past experiences with sun teams, is nearly irreplaceable and I agree with Freezerman's suggestions. Sun teams are an auto lose to Dragapult and sd Garchomp. Pult just clicks shadow ball and you can't stop it while Chomp leads against Torkoal, clicks sd, and rips apart sun teams. It also provides defog and given that Torkoal has no reliable recovery and is weak to stealth rocks, the more options to remove them the better. As such, Mandibuzz is a very important member for sun teams because it is the one pokemon that can handle both dragons in one slot. I'd suggest it in Tornadus' slot

Using over is also a very good idea. Zeraora is really bad afaik rn and if you really want an electric immunity, ground types are a much better option. I usually would think that would be a much better option but given how easy it is to wear down and the fact that Tyranitar is probably as big a threat as the two dragons I mentioned earlier, I'd say Garchomp is a better fit solely because it resists stone miss and punishes crunch with rough skin. It also eases the matchup against opposing Heatrans which can be a massive pain for sun teams

Aside from that, I would also just remove . Weather teams can rarely afford to be hyper offensive because their members need the weather and you need a defensive backbone to ensure that your setter can do its job especially against opposing weather, especially against Tyranitar. Atm, I would suggest using in this slot because the team still needs something to deal with Weavile and even though it hates the sun, Weavile still spams knock off and there's nothing you can do about that. I'm not a hundred percent sure about this though. This also greatly eases the rain matchup

For some minor changes

On , replace explosion and rocks with body press and yawn. The current set is a complete free switch to Tyranitar and I've already mentioned how much it terrorizes sun teams. This way, you threaten to kill it if it tries to switch in on you. Yawn would also guarantee some sort of momentum since it would force a switch most of the time

With , replace overheat with fire blast. This pokemon serves as the main source of firepower and you do not want to lose that firepower because of overheat. You might also want to consider using scarf on it since you have no speed control outside of sun. Just a consideration, not a real change I would immediately suggest

I can't provide the evs for the two major changes because I haven't played in months and only been following tournament replays but I can provide the moves they need to use

Hide

Mandibuzz @ Boots
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: ?
- Defog
- Roost
- U turn
- Foul Play

Garchomp @ Lefties
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 HP / ?
- Toxic
- Protect
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Toxapex @ Black Sludge / Eject Button
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / ?
- Toxic
- Recover
- Knock Off
- Scald / Light Screen

Also, you're still in a massive guessing game against Tapu Lele. Heatran and Toxapex can resist moonblast but they get ripped apart by psychic and adding something to handle it would compromise the team so you'll have to play aggressively to get your pokemon in and kill Lele

 

[RaikouLover]

I like most of the suggestions above. Though to add I would consider Specs Heatran since the whole point of sun is to just nuke shit while you can. I agree Mandibuzz is invaluable for sun.

A hipster choice I like on sun is actually Flygon > Garchomp. Although Garchomp is better in stats, they share the same typing but Flygon is unique in that it adds a second Ground immunity, Defog (for enemy Heatran with Rocks), U-Turn to regain momentum, and recovery in Roost. Flygon is perfect for Sun.

Heatran @ Choice Specs
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Eruption
- Flash Cannon
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power

Flygon @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 184 SpD / 72 Spe
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost

I highly disagree with Toxapex. It doesn’t add anything for sun archetype defensively and it wastes a lot of sun turns.