First and my best Sand team. OH YEAH.

[Bestow5000]

!SAND TEAM!



Hey, ya'all. I'm back again doing another RMT, and this one is featuring my first ever sand team. It also surprisingly turned out to be my best one as well. So far, it score me many wins, and not a lost yet besides me being rusty and whatnot (and I know it'll eventually lose, so...). Lastly, this is my current best team at the moment until B/W 2 is released. But enough of all of my talk, let us take a look at the team, shall we?

Dark Kiva (Tyranitar) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
Tyranitar, we all already know his main purpose for sand team, along with setting up the most famous entry hazard move in the game, Stealth Rocks! But yeah, other than setting up the obvious Sandstorm and rocks, he is a specially defensive Tyranitar, designed to trap Latios and any other that are weak to Dark-Type moves, really. Other than that, he serves me as a death fodder for later. Superpower is there for an opposing Tyranitars, or predicting a Terrakion switch in, or something else. Now, I also do have Leftovers, but I also can't decide if I should have a Chopa Berry or not over Lefties, and it's hard to decide, so I add a Leftovers instead of some health recovery. If I do need a Chopa Berry (please correct me if I'm wrong with that berry's name), then let me know.

Habataki (Terrakion) @ Choice Band
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Quick Attack
- X-Scissor
Terrakion! Now the biggest threat in the OU metagame. No matter what you give him, he's so threatening, you'll have almost no safe switch in against a Terrakion, especially for a Choice Band set. He's just there as a hard hitter, really. I love pure raw power against anything, and Sand (and rocks if I managed to set it up) racks up more damage, making life against anything but an unpredicted Gliscor switch in easy. Surprisingly too, it can 2HKO a Gliscor with a Stone Edge as long as I predict it. Only thing that bothers Terrakion is Reuniclus and a SD Scizor. Quick Attack is also there for a needed priority.

Faiz (Scizor) (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 184 HP / 252 Atk / 74 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Superpower
Now you're probably wondering something obvious, "WHY 2 CHOICE BAND POKEMON?!". Because I can. I am prone to run at least 2 of the same Choice items to keep me running fine, and Scizor is just a must in every one of my team because I love Scizor. And he's the best priority user as well. There also isn't much to be talked about this guy. Even though he's not the most important member in my team, he's still a must because priority and double priority alongside with Terrakion is nice against anything that has set up well enough to sweep my entire team.

Den-O Rod (Rotom-W) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 100 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 154 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunderbolt
- Pain Split
- Hydro Pump
Before the battle starts, many people would think I'm running the "boring and obvious" Volt-Turn tactic. Ha ha ha...well no, I'm not running Volt-Turn. He's just a bulky Rotom because bulky is nice, and it does best against most annoying physical attacking stalling Pokemon or Scizor or breaking Skarmory's Sturdy and whatnot. I also edited the EVs a little bit, so I can outspeed a lot of other bulky Rotoms and other kinds of Poke that usually outspeeds him and threaten without the need of a Choice Scarf to catch them off guard and mess with them. It seem to also work better as a defensive set over the Scarf, Specs or RestoChesto (even though I haven't tried it yet) set. It has all the self-explanatory moves and the only thing needed to talk about is my own custom EVs and why is it a bulky set over a Scarf set.

Sasword (Gliscor) (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 178 Def / 88 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Swords Dance
- Protect
Basic standard Gliscor set. There to take physical hits along with Terrakion's attack unless he predicted my switch in. The only thing there is to mention about is that I also edited the EVs a little bit because once again, I can, and I added more Special Defense EVs because it helps Gliscor take most special attacking hits rather well, and retaliate with whatever I can to hit hard with. He's just really a standard set, and his main purpose is to just take physical hits, and also counter some kind of status hitting stalling Pokes as long as I can quickly get my Toxic Orb activated. He sides best with Rotom-W too along with Terrakion when the sand is up.

Cyclone (Celebi) @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 200 HP / 252 SAtk / 56 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Nasty Plot
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Psychic
Ahh, Celebi. Ever since Nasty Plot is available for Celebi, she's been much better and now usable for me just because I hate using a stall Celebi. But yeah, most of her moves are standard. I have Hidden Power Ice over Fire is because I have more trouble dealing with Gliscors, Dragonite and other dragons over dealing with something that won't pose a threat to me like Ferrothorn or Scizor. Psychic is a must need on her move slot because I have such a hard time against Fighting-Types, especially for Conkeldurr which can tank my entire team, I got nothing else to really hit hard or OHKO with. I used to run a Timid 252 HP and Speed and 4 HP Celebi, but then the Modest Nature variant is much better and takes hits better as well. The EVs are also slightly changed again, and I can now outspeed any kind of standard Nasty Plot Celebi along with stalling ones and other Pokes too to ensure I do the damage first and not my opponent. I can't leave HP Ice alone too. It has been working well for me over HP Fire and plus, I got 2 to 3 other guys to threaten it as if I'm the big untouchable guy and the enemy is a wimp that can't do much to me at all. Wow, also, longest description out of all my other Pokes in this team.


And now, for the threat list:

Now while it does seem a little strange that Volcarona is actually a threat to my team even though I have like, a good enough team to easily defend myself against a Volcarona, but the truth is, he's just scary and it's not even funny at all. Sun and Rain Volcarona can do a lot to almost wreck me. Sun has that Sun boosted fire attack to decimate anything and even with Rotom and Tyranitar if he has plus 1 up, and then Rain Volcarona has Hurricane to take on my Terrakion, which is the only thing capable enough to endure any of his hits. Hidden Power Ground is scary as well. Not gonna lie. However, a normal Clear Skies Volcarona can't really do much to me so he's not that threatening.

Sun Venusaur... Now he's actually the biggest threat against my team. Chlorophyll Venusaur (if I can't set up my Sand anymore once my Tyranitar died and he has his sun up), plus 2 with Growth, Solarbeam, Sludge Bomb and Hidden Power Fire is just enough to entirely sweep my team. In fact, he doesn't even need plus 2 to already dent about any of my team members. So let alone he's so threatening, I'm always scared when I see him. So this is another reason why I also have 2 priority, because of Venusaur!

Infernape... He's just so versatile, a MixApe is the main headache to my team. He can go from Hidden Power Ice, Mach Punch, Fire Blast and Close Combat to screw all over my team, and it'll have to cost me about 3 Pokes to take him down usually and if not, he's gonna threaten my team like hell. This is also another reason why I need double priority to take on an Ape. Besides MixApe, other sets don't cause much pain too. But a Scarf Ape can be a little bit annoying.



Anyway, I guess that'll be it for now. I'll edit if I noticed I either missed something, or I made a mistake in this post. I also hope I don't type all of this for nothing. Thanks for reading this and also thanks in advance if you have anything to say about it!
Bye!​

 

[Zachattack71399]

infernape weakness will go away by doing one thing: switching choice band for scarf on terrakion. You lose power but you have enough of that. you earn the ability to rvenge a good portion of the metagame.

also a scarfed terrakion revenges a plus +1 volcorona.

 

[Adamant Zoroark]

If you want to cover your problem with Volcarona, you should just run a Choice Scarf on Terrakion. Of course, that would mean Quick Attack would be useless, so I'd recommend using Rock Slide over it. This can also help you with your Venusaur problem, though you may need to weaken Venusaur first.

You may also have trouble with your run-of-the-mill Scizor + Rotom-W Volt-Turn team. Celebi is a decent check to both, but you aren't using HP Fire, so Scizor suddenly becomes a hard counter to Celebi. I strongly recommend you use HP Fire over HP Ice on Celebi in order to make it easier to handle Volt-Turn teams.

As for Tyranitar... I'm struggling to see why you have two Pokemon with Pursuit. I think the standard mixed T-tar will do best on your team, because I don't think you need two Pursuiters.

Tyranitar @ Leftovers / Chople Berry
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SpA / 192 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam / Superpower

That's all I have for now. Other than that, it's a solid team. Good luck with this team!

 

[Bestow5000]

If you want to cover your problem with Volcarona, you should just run a Choice Scarf on Terrakion. Of course, that would mean Quick Attack would be useless, so I'd recommend using Rock Slide over it. This can also help you with your Venusaur problem, though you may need to weaken Venusaur first.

You may also have trouble with your run-of-the-mill Scizor + Rotom-W Volt-Turn team. Celebi is a decent check to both, but you aren't using HP Fire, so Scizor suddenly becomes a hard counter to Celebi. I strongly recommend you use HP Fire over HP Ice on Celebi in order to make it easier to handle Volt-Turn teams.

As for Tyranitar... I'm struggling to see why you have two Pokemon with Pursuit. I think the standard mixed T-tar will do best on your team, because I don't think you need two Pursuiters.

Tyranitar @ Leftovers / Chople Berry
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SpA / 192 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam / Superpower

That's all I have for now. Other than that, it's a solid team. Good luck with this team!

Hiya, Ryuu! Volcarona isn't the biggest threat out of the Pokes I listed in the threat list, and he's the easiest to deal with out of all. But yeah, I might consider about replacing Quick Attack to Rock Slide since I've noticed a few people have been using it lately. Thanks!

Volt-Turn teams don't cause any trouble to me, nor will Scizor will even know that I'm actually carrying HP Ice over Fire. So it tends to scare them off and I rarely use that move. Maybe usually after Scizor or Ferrothorn is down.

And for Tyranitar, I tried the set you gave me before, and it didn't worked out well in my favor. And as for the 2 Pursuit attacking Poke, oh yeah, I forgot to mention that there are certain Pokes that can harm Scizor, so I can't pursuit trap them. And at the same time, there are certain Pokes that can harm Tyranitar. So really, I have 2 Pursuit for that reason. But I mainly use Tyranitar as my main Pursuit. Otherwise, Scizor's Pursuit is just there for ehhh... filling in Tyranitar once he's dead, or something else I don't even know.

Thanks too, btw!

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

I have to support the scarf Terrakion suggestion. Scarf terrakion really does check every single one of your listed threats, just make sure you use rockslide > quick attack so you don't lose 20% of the time lol.

Also run HP fire > HP ice on Celebi, Celebi isn't sweeping through dragons any time soon and the ability to kill off Forretress and also Scizor is too good to pass up. Earth power > psychic is also something to consider since you already have Gliscor for Breloom and Conk.

 

[destinyunknown]

Hi Bestow,

This team is pretty good, but it seems that you are a bit weak to sun teams, so I have some suggestions to improve your team. First, I would consider using Latias over Celebi. Latias gives you a Sun (and Infernape) check, and it can still be used as a pivot to switch on Fighting and Water type attacks. Here's the set:

Latias@Life Orb | Levitate
Modest Nature | 152 HP / 176 SpA / 180 Spe
Draco Meteor / Surf / Recover / Hidden Power Fire

I also think that your current Gliscor's set slows down too much the ''tempo'' of your team, as it has an ofensive fast path that a different Gliscor set would fit much better. I'm recommending using AcroBat Gliscor, as thanks to Sandstorm and how well Terrakion can break physical walls, Gliscor will have a lot of opportunities to sweep, without stopping the general offensive pressure your team induces.

Gliscor@Flying Gem | Sand Veil
Adamant Nature | 4 Def / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Substitute / Swords Dance / Acrobatics / Earthquake

 

[Bestow5000]

I have to support the scarf Terrakion suggestion. Scarf terrakion really does check every single one of your listed threats, just make sure you use rockslide > quick attack so you don't lose 20% of the time lol.

Also run HP fire > HP ice on Celebi, Celebi isn't sweeping through dragons any time soon and the ability to kill off Forretress and also Scizor is too good to pass up. Earth power > psychic is also something to consider since you already have Gliscor for Breloom and Conk.

The problem I have with Scarf Terrakion is Venusaur. In Sun, I'm not sure if Terrakion can even outspeed Venusaur or not which is annoying. And as for my Celebi, he's normally meant to counter Water-Types, and not meant to generally sweep unless I actually have a full advantage over my opponent. Besides that, I seem to have a lot of trouble with the dragons over Forretress or Scizor unless if he is carrying SD. Conkeldurr on the other hand, can only be countered by Celebi because there is literally nothing that can touch him after a Bulk Up. Not even Gliscor, and Rotom won't be doing much and he'll just Drain Punch to gain some health back and tank the crap out of the rest of my team which is what I'm worrying about. That's the reason why I replaced Earth Power for Psychic.
I'll try to analyse my team much more deeper, and try out your suggestions.
Thanks a lot!

Hi Bestow,

This team is pretty good, but it seems that you are a bit weak to sun teams, so I have some suggestions to improve your team. First, I would consider using Latias over Celebi. Latias gives you a Sun (and Infernape) check, and it can still be used as a pivot to switch on Fighting and Water type attacks. Here's the set:

Latias@Life Orb | Levitate
Modest Nature | 152 HP / 176 SpA / 180 Spe
Draco Meteor / Surf / Recover / Hidden Power Fire

I also think that your current Gliscor's set slows down too much the ''tempo'' of your team, as it has an ofensive fast path that a different Gliscor set would fit much better. I'm recommending using AcroBat Gliscor, as thanks to Sandstorm and how well Terrakion can break physical walls, Gliscor will have a lot of opportunities to sweep, without stopping the general offensive pressure your team induces.

Gliscor@Flying Gem | Sand Veil
Adamant Nature | 4 Def / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Substitute / Swords Dance / Acrobatics / Earthquake

Hm... Life Orb Latias seems pretty interesting and I'll try it out. But then again, wouldn't be Latios be more useful since he has more power than Latias?
P.S: I tried defensive Latias with HP Fire before, and it didn't work out well in my favor even without HP Fire.

Another thing about Gliscor is I doubt I'll be able to even take a banded Terrakion's hit now, and that's what I am worrying about. I'm also not to fond with Acrobatics Gliscor but hey, it's worth trying out.

Thanks a lot too!

 

[Adamant Zoroark]

Scarf Terrakion outspeeds Modest Venusaur under sun, assuming you use Jolly, and Modest Venusaur is basically the only Venusaur that exists in OU.

 

[Bestow5000]

Scarf Terrakion outspeeds Modest Venusaur under sun, assuming you use Jolly, and Modest Venusaur is basically the only Venusaur that exists in OU.

Oh... Well that works then. Just hopefully I can pray some kid doesn't run Timid over Modest.

 

[Bestow5000]

I disagree with DestinyUnknown and I strongly suggest you keep your Gliscor as Bulky as possible so it can handle CB Terrakion. I also think you would benefit from using Taunt>Protect on Gliscor so that you can beat Skarmory 1 on 1 and it stops you from being Leech Seeded by Ferrothorn.

However I do feel that you should use Latias>Celebi as it will give you a way of handling sun sweepers who have no problem picking off Celebi. For instance Venusaur, If Tyranitar is gone, a set of HP Fire, Solarbeam/Energy ball, and Sludge bomb will OHKO everything you have wheras Latias will have no problem taking it on.

Finally I must agreee that Choice Scarf Terrakion will certainly help you because many Sweepers such as Dragonite, Gyarados, Salamence, and Volcarona are all kept in check by Terrakion, who all otherwise have little problem against your team, especially at +1.

So That's it I hope this post was helpful, Good Luck!

Hm, you have a good point there, dude. But wouldn't I have trouble against bulky waters too? CM Latias can't stay in long due to status, and offensive set won't hit them hard and with Terrakion not having CB anymore and Conke with plus 1 too, can give my team pain. Which set do you recommend best, though?
Thanks, btw!!

Lol wut Rik lol