4th Gen Sandstorm Team (OU)

CHANGES IN BOLD


Hippowdon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Def / 104 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Crunch
- Ice Fang

My lead. Hippo's role on the team is to start the sandstorm and faint the opposing lead. Crunch faints most azelfs in 2 hits while ice fang faints most aerodactyls in two hits as well. Earthquake destroys those that are weak to it, and provides sufficient damage to those that are neutral to it. Slack off is there to make sure hippo does not die an early death. He easily take on all leads not named roserade and the like.


Gliscor (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Taunt
- Roost
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang

My scout and stall breaker. Taunt prevents stallers from getting set up. This allows me to switch to a reliable counter or attack them with gliscor himself. Earthquake is standard on any gliscor and provides decent STAB. Roost is also standard allowing me to stall if necessary. Ice fang is where things get changed up a bit. Ice fang allows me to attack opposing gliscor and can 2HKO dragonites and flygons. Sand veil is a haxy ability that has saved me time and time again. Gliscor struggles with any and all water pokes and those possessing ice type attacks.


Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon
- Explosion

My special sweeper. Magnezone is a special sweeper than has the capabilites to take down two or three pokes. Thunderbolt is standard and allows me to take out pesky water types. Hidden power fire provides excellent coverage and OHKOs the ever so common scizors. The choice scarf allows it to outspeed all 110 base speeders giving the opponent an unwanted surprise. The last two move slots are just fillers honestly. I've never used flash cannon nor explosion. They are both just there because of smogon sets. I suppose explosion could be useful late game but magnezone never survives that long. Flash cannon is useless in my opinion.


Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- ThunderPunch
- U-turn

My physical sweeper. Flygon has saved me countless times in battle. Earthquake is an excellent STAB that can eliminate all that are weak to it. Outrage is another great STAB that lets my sweep the opposition. However, I've been thinking that I should replace it with dragon claw since this would allow me to switch and not be set up bait AND would prevent confusion. Thunderpunch is reserved for gyrados and starmie. It OHKO the former and severely cripples the latter. U-turn allows me to cripple celebi. It also allows me to inflict some damage and switch to a better counter. The choice scarf allows flygon to outspeed almost everything.


Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 64 Atk / 252 SAtk / 192 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Fire Blast
- Close Combat
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power [Ice]

The jack of all trades. Everything about Infernape is amazing. While it doesn't have Heatran's power, Infernape can still sweep late and early game. Fire blast eliminates any and everthing that has a weakness to it. Close Combat finally gives me a counter to Blissey and Snorlax. Grass Knot takes care of Swanpert and Hippowdon. HP Ice is a nice little surprise to take out Dragonite and Flygon. The one area I am concerned about is its item. Life Orb provides considerable damage but it also cuts short Infernape's sweep.
(Thanks to BlisseyofDoom for recommending this)


Metagross @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Zen Headbutt
- Explosion

My late game sweeper. Metagross is an undeniable beast of a sweeper. STAB meteor mash eliminates anything that doesn't resist it, those that do resist it will still take massive damage. Earthquake faints anything that doesn't resist it or is a bulky water. Zen headbutt is another powerful STAB that lets me take out those annoying machamps. Explosion is a last ditch effort to KO a poke if I know metagross isn't going to be able to sweep. The choice scarf allows me to get the first strike nine times out of ten.

Well, there's my team. Other weather teams really ruin my momentum, especially rain dance. A trick room team loves to be able to pick on my 4 scarfers. Starmie is a notable threat since magnezone can't outspeed the timid variants. Notable flaws would be weaknesses to ground AND water. Any and all suggestions are welcome.
 
Sweet! I've been playing with sand since I was a young' n!

I think Ice Fang would give Hippowdon better coverage in order to hit things like Gliscor, Staraptor, Roserade, etc. for better damage, although you could keep Thunder Fang if you're more concerned about Skarmory and bulky waters (which Hippo usually wants to avoid).

Tyrannitar would probably benefit from Fire Punch over Aqua Tail in order to severeley hurt Scizor, Abomasnow, Weavile, Skarmory, etc, and you're team is able to handle a Flash Fire-er if something switches in.

While the set is good, you need a spread of either 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD or 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD if you want to do well. HP is always a must if you're going to take hits.

Perhaps a Curse Cradily or SubDanceTurne could help you deal with alot of the threats you listed.

Cradily @ Leftovers
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD__Careful
~Rock Slide
~Curse
~Rest
~Sleep Talk

Cacturne @ Bright Powder
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe__Adamant
~Swords Dance
~Substitute / Seed Bomb (depends on what you want / need)
~Sucker Punch
~Drain Punch
 
Hmm...
Seems a little weak to special attackers and gyarados/ other waters.
Perhaps add something non-sandstorm for surprise value, as sandstorm types are similar in weaknesses and it might be obvious that you're using a sandstorm team when you send out hippowdon (and a second pokemon) i'd suggest rotom-a (heat? - for steel types) - it can spinblock and take out gyarados, starmie, scizor, etc, and it is immune to fight and ground which might be aimed a t-tar, heatran, etc - i'd suggest a specially defensive since its immune to fight and ground (attack types) and you have a special sweeper and a physical wall
as for roost on scizor if you don't like it maybe use pursuit since you don't have it on t-tar (you might be better off with a different item like choice band too since you have bullet punch priority) (scizor is probably better as a revenge killer than a sweeper also)
rain dance- since you have 2 sandstreamers you should try to switch one in to end the rain, just be careful not to take a water move - rotom-a will also help against waters and rain dance
zapdos- try baiting a heatwave with scizor and switching to heatran, then owning it with boosted fireblast, or use t-tar
 
Roost is pointless on a scarfer. What are you going to do? Jump in, nab a quick roost, tank a hit, and switch out?
Anyways, replace roost with pursuit for sure. It fixes your Starmie problem.
 

Aerrow

hunter
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Hello. This seems to be a pretty cool team you have here, but there are definitely a couple of changes I'd like to suggest. First of all, before I get into the threats of this team, I suggest running Ice Fang over Thunder Fang on Hippowdon as it will allow you to dent the likes of Dragonite as well as Aerodactyle; also, trying out a Britscor over your current Gliscor variant may be a good idea, as BritScor makes an excellent offensive partner to LO Heatran (while also fully exploiting the entry hazard support your team provides). Moving on; Bulky DD Gyarados, as well as MixNite (and assorted other set-up sweepers, like SD Lucario), all seem to pose as huge as big problems to this team, due to two reasons: there of your Pokemon are easy set-up bait for these sweepers, and you have no way to stop them after they have set up.

To help with this, I recommend using a Choice Scarf Flygon over your choice Scarf Tyranitar, as Flygon will easily be able to defeat the aforementioned threats, even at +1, while also benefiting from the sandstorm and entry hazard support you team provides, as Flygon will often be causing many switches through U-Turn. Also, replacing Tyranitar won't be a big change to your team's structure, as the likes of Gengar and Starmie are already taken care of by Scizor, while the likes of Forretress and Scizor are easy set up bait for Skarmory (sets up easily on Scizor), while Heatran can switch in for free on both of these Pokemon (bar a Brick Break / Superpower from Scizor). I hope this has helped, and good luck!

Suggestions in Short

  • Ice Fang over Thunder Fang on Hippowdon
  • BritScor over current Gliscor variant
  • Choice Scarf Flygon over Choice Scarf Tyranitar
 
Having 4/6 of your team as scarfers is very redundant. If you want speed on metagross make it agiligross:

Metagross @ Leftovers
EV's: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant [+Atk, -Spe]
Ability: Clear Body
-Agility
-Meteor Mash
-Earthquake
-Thnderpunch
 
This is trivial argument but since this is an OU team I believe that it can be posted in both the OU thread and 4th gen thread. But it'll stay here until a mod or admin decides to move it.
 
This is trivial argument but since this is an OU team I believe that it can be posted in both the OU thread and 4th gen thread. But it'll stay here until a mod or admin decides to move it.
...lmao

Anyway, on to your team. And my god. . .I like Choice Scarf as well, but I think you may have overdone it. Having 4 Pokemon in any team with Choice items leaves your team weak to entry hazards such as Spikes and Stealth Rock, and to a lesser extent, Toxic Spikes. May I recommend replacing your Magnezone (as Steel-types are already heavily threatened by Scarftran) with a rapid spinner? Preferably one who resists Ice-, Water-, and (for Hippo) Grass-type attacks that your defensive core doesn't like to face, while drawing in Fire-type attacks to give great synergy with your Heatran? The options left here include Starmie sets, Tentacruel sets, and (probably the choice with the greatest amount of synergy here) Forretress. Otherwise, you are left with a defensive core of only Hippowdon and Gliscor, who both have similar weaknesses. Am I the only one here really bothered by 4 CS users on one team that would be put to better use as a more balanced team (SS Offensive teams in Gen 4, in my experience, are neither reliable nor terribly threatening). I'd also recommend replacing Ice Fang on Hippowdon for Thunder Fang, and replacing ThunderPunch on Flygon with Fire Punch? I don't think that Gyarados nor Starmie are big threats to an Agiligross (or, going with my earlier suggestion, a Starmie of your own), who can set up alongside Gyarados to go for a sweep, and who takes little damage from Starmie in general.
 
Well after some trial and error, I've discovered agiligross still doesn't work as well as I would like it to. However, I tried out those three rapid spinners and starmie worked the best in my style of play. This is the starmie I've been using:


Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump

Does this look like a good switch for the magnezone? Thunderbolt still allows me to cripple skarmory, but no longer allows me to OHKO it which I miss. Hydro pump provides a powerful STAB option, something the opponent will be caught off guard by in a sandstorm team. Rapid spin allows me to rid entry hazards, allowing my team to have nearly free switch ins. Recover is where I start having doubts. Should I leave it there, or replace it with psychic or icebeam?
 
Well after some trial and error, I've discovered agiligross still doesn't work as well as I would like it to. However, I tried out those three rapid spinners and starmie worked the best in my style of play. This is the starmie I've been using:


Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump

Does this look like a good switch for the magnezone? Thunderbolt still allows me to cripple skarmory, but no longer allows me to OHKO it which I miss. Hydro pump provides a powerful STAB option, something the opponent will be caught off guard by in a sandstorm team. Rapid spin allows me to rid entry hazards, allowing my team to have nearly free switch ins. Recover is where I start having doubts. Should I leave it there, or replace it with psychic or icebeam?
If Skarm is walling your team hard enough to miss the OHKO (i.e., if the damage done to Skarm isn't enough to be able to kill it off later), then you may have a point to keep Magnezone.. Have you tried a choice specs Starmie set? You can keep Rapid Spin, Hydro Pump and Tbolt, but would lose your recovery move, which could hurt I suppose in the long run. If you want to keep Recover and are concerned about getting rid of Skarmory, might I recommend investing 248 of those HP EVs into SpA to ensure the OHKO?

I wouldn't recommend Psychic either way, as it is a fairly weak move due to Steel and Dark resists being so prevalent in the metagame. A STAB Hydro Pump from Starmie should mostly take care of Fighting-types who Psychic is meant for anyway.
 
You have a Starmie counter, but not a reliable Special Kingdra counter. Sure Flygon, but if it gets a rain dance up on your switch to Flygon it's swift swim makes your Flygon toast
 
I was just looking but ANY team a form of entry hazard and of course the most standard is Stealth rock. You should put SR on Hippowdon and replace Crunch with it. And I just noticed but this team has 4 choice scarfers? Seriously? Replace Magnezone with a LO starmie. here's the set:

Starmie @ Life Orb
Timid evs: 4hp/ 252atk/ 252speed
Natural Cure
-Hydro Pump/ Surf
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Recover

This Starmie is very powerful and can OHKO Skarmory (unless it is specially defensive, still it does good damage) Your choice for a powerful STAB comes down to the usual power vs accuracy. Then you got the excellent Bolt-Beam for excellent coverage. The last slot is for LO and Sandstorm recoil you might get. Even though Rapid spin would be good, you don't really need it because all your pokemon only take 12.5% damage or less from it.
 
I like my scarfs... But I'll try out that starmie. Looks like a perfect swap. The only time I have problem with entry hazards is when their entire team is dedicated to it. A water sweeper is just what I need. I don't think I need SR but it doesn't hurt to try.

Also, on an unrelated note, should I put a lum berry on hippowdon? Breloom usually forces me to lose one of my pokes if it leads. Ice fang can't OHKO but it'll get it low enough so breloom can't sub.

Another counter I struggle against is rotom-h/w. Any recommendations to countering it?
 
I feel like I have to comment this on practically every team.
The team is brilliant, All around and has good coverage, but there is a single move that will devastate more than half your team. ATTRACT!!!!
 
Attract really isn't my main concern. I don't know of any OU pokemon that can successfully use that move. And even though that starmie is great it lacks one crucial element. Magnet pull. That ability allows me to destroy most steel types. And on the topic of magnezone, is there any ground type move I can teach it to take out heatran?

Also, should I consider changing my lead?
 

deinosaur

now available in lowercase
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Okay well general teambuilding protocol does not allow for 4 scarfers, especially when most of them are susceptible to spikes, stealth rock, and toxic spikes.
I must say this team gets utterly raped by a half decent player with a stall team.
I suppose the Starmie may help a little with rapid spin, but you still really have no way to stop someone from killing you by forcing you to switch extremely often.

I would replace Heatran for the good old stallbreaker of Infernape:

[BOX]

Infernape@Life Orb
Blaze
64 Atk, 252 SpA, 192 Spe
Naive
-Fire Blast
-Close Combat
-Grass Knot
-Hidden Power[ICE][/BOX]

This Infernape is a beast against stall. As someone who uses stall very often, I must say I dispise facing this thing if I have not come prepared with a Gyarados. You also have Starmie/Magnezone to take care of Gyarados.
This Infernape will encourage spikers such as Forretress or Skarmory to stay out of the field, which helps your team a lot.

Seems like a good team. Good Luck!

EDIT: For your weakness to Kingdra, you might replace thunderpunch for explosion on Metagross as a last-ditch effort to stop it.
 
Attract really isn't my main concern. I don't know of any OU pokemon that can successfully use that move. And even though that starmie is great it lacks one crucial element. Magnet pull. That ability allows me to destroy most steel types. And on the topic of magnezone, is there any ground type move I can teach it to take out heatran?

Also, should I consider changing my lead?

Magnezone can run Hidden Power Ground to heavily damage Heatran. I wouldn't, however, consider Magnezone to be an all-purpose check because it cannot effectively deal with either Shuca Berry or Specially Defensive variants of Heatran.
 
Rather short post here, not really a real rate. Just a couple of nitpicks.

-You don't have to have mono Rock/Ground/Steel for an effective Sandstorm team; just make sure the rest of your team can function well in one.
-Yeah, four scarfs is pretty redundant. I know a guy who pulled off an effective all-choice team, but it really takes something else to do this.
 
Ok, Great team except for a couple of options. This is gonna be short.

First of all, 4 of your pokemon are Male. That just leaves a huge gap for mainly, Attract. It is much more common than people think it is.

Also, only one of your pokemon can set up sandstorm. If Hippo get KOed and someone pulls out a weather move, you're kinda screwed. Always have a back up.
 
Wow lot of rates when I was gone.

BlisseyofDoom: That infernape is amazing! However, is there any other item you would recommend because the combination of life orb and SS makes infernape's sweep short lived. Also, I will be changing thunderpunch back to explosion momentarily.

Kingdra: I guess I'll change two of my pokes to female then. Still haven't seen anyone use attract but better safe then sorry. Also, Tyranitar is the only other pokemon I would consider using since I'm not wasting a turn to set up a temporary SS. Should I switch it for the metagross? And what set should I use?

EDIT: Yep Infernape is a keeper. Will edit the first post soon.
 

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