LC The Dornish Marches

[Donphantastic.]

Harsha: This will be reopened in about two weeks. Please do not post multiple RMTs in close proximity.

Hi everyone, After getting a lot of help on my previous NU Team, i still abandoned it, because i simply could not seem to climb above 1500 rating even if i w on 10 battles and lost 1, so i went to have a shot at Little Cup.
After an unsuccesful hail team, i came up with the following Balance Sand storm Team. I climbed from 100 to 1595 on the ladder in two days, so the team works quite well.


Obara (Hippopotas) (F) @ Eviolite
Trait: Sand Stream
Level: 5
EVs: 132 HP / 20 Atk / 212 Def / 100 SDef / 20 Spd
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Slack Off

The obligatory sandstorm inducer, obara has not surprised me in any way, but neither has she disappointed; she takes physical hits quite well, and 2 shots most variants of Misdreavus cleanly. Stealth rock, when i can get it up, is also very convenient.

Doran (Lileep) (M) @ Eviolite
Trait: Storm Drain
Level: 5
EVs: 228 HP / 220 Def / 60 SDef
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Recover
- AncientPower
- Toxic

Doran is my best special wall, and has a very handy water immunity that allows him to hit quite hard after that Special Attack boost. Toxic is quite helpful against a lot of pokemon, and recover and giga drain make him very, very hard to break. His only hard counter i have discovered yet is tentacool, which walls him to oblivion with liquid ooze, but the rest of the team easily disposes of it with earthquake.

Areo (Drilbur) (M) @ Eviolite
Trait: Sand Rush
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 212 Spd / 36 Def
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Shadow Claw

This thing is an incredible monster, if my opponent doesn't have a good physical wall (read: bronzor), snover, or another weather inducer, i can usually get laughably easy sweeps with him.

Quentyn (Wooper) (M) @ Eviolite
Trait: Unaware
Level: 5
EVs: 236 HP / 196 Def / 76 Atk
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Waterfall
- Yawn
- Recover

This is my hidden weapon. I can just not believe how many people try to set up on them when i switch him in, unaware (see what i did there?) of his ability. He is also a decent physical wall, and deals respectable damage.

Trystane (Magnemite) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Magnet Pull
Level: 5
EVs: 240 SAtk / 240 Spd
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Trystane brings some much needed speed to my team, and is the only pokemon i have that can actually threaten Snover. He can also get easy surprise kills on opposing Diglett/Swinub with flash cannon, which 2shots digglet, and 1shots some swinub.

Oberyn (Misdreavus) (M) @ Eviolite
Trait: Levitate
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 40 Def / 80 SDef / 240 Spd / 80 SAtk
Timid Nature
- Heal Bell
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

I first had a lickitung here, but that gave my team an enormous fighting weakness, and the main reason for it was heal bell, which Oberyn runs too.
Pain split and sand storm work very well together, allowing me to heal off sandstorm damage and deal more out at the same time. Shadow ball and will-o-wisp are for some other damage, and crippling physical attackers respectively.

Major threats to my team are:
Hazards (i used to run sandshrew in place of Oberyn, but that was too much ground types), especially toxic spikes are extremely annoying, as my cleric is quite useless against them. Stealth rock isn't such a big deal, as most of my team resists it, and spikes aren't very common in LC, i've only seen them once.
Knock Off, i don't have pokemon that comfortably takes this, except maybe Areo, who doesn't mind missing eviolite that much.
Snover, this thing just wrecks my team, unless i can get a flash cannon/Hp fire to hit it, but that hasn't worked out yet. It also hits Trystane very, very hard with blizzard, even though he resists it.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Furai]

Hi Donphantastic, nice sand team!

Along with the threats you have mentioned (besides Knock Off as that really can't be fixed) I spot a horrible weakness to Scraggy. It can come in mid-/late-game, set up, and sweep your team once that Hippopotas is weakened. Wooper is your only check, and it's a rather iffy check too, as if coupled with a Knock Off user, you won't be taking Scraggy's moves easily.

I think that your team's weakest link is Wooper; it's not granting you any support. Therefore, I would recommend changing Wooper with Mienfoo. Mienfoo is one of the notable forces in Little Cup, I'm sure you know that, and I'm also sure you know what is the reason. Mienfoo is one of the best glues in the metagame; checks a wide array of threads, provides momentum with U-turn, and can utilize Knock Off to help your team hit harder. 36 SpD EVs may look random, but they allow Mienfoo to survive 2 hits from +2 Shadow Ball from Misdreavus. You can try Payback > Knock Off to hit Misdreavus, but Knock Off seems like a greather aid for your team.

Mienfoo

Mienfoo (M) @ Eviolite
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 156 Atk / 196 Def / 36 SpD / 76 Spe
Impish Nature
- Fake Out
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- U-turn

Next, onto your Snover weakness. By changing Magnemite's item from Choice Scarf to Eviolite, Magnemite can repeatedly shrug off Snover's STABs and retaliate back with Flash Cannon or scout with Volt Switch.

To fix your entry hazards weakness, you should try changing Drilbur's set to the All-out Attacker. It still packs immense power, while also giving you the ability to Rapid Spin and having very wide coverage. With Mienfoo's Knock Off, Drilbur no longer needs Swords Dance to hit harder than it hits anyway.

Drilbur

Drilbur @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Rush
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 212 Spd / 36 Def
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Shadow Claw

This should be it, good luck!

 

[Donphantastic.]

Thank you, i will incorporate all of those changes, except for the Magnemite item change, because i really need him to be fast, to have some speed out of sandstorm.
Thanks Again!

EDIT: i'm also not sure if i'll go for fake out on Mienfoo, as i believe it's not such a great move, but i'll try it.

 

[Rowan]

Thank you, i will incorporate all of those changes, except for the Magnemite item change, because i really need him to be fast, to have some speed out of sandstorm.
Thanks Again!

EDIT: i'm also not sure if i'll go for fake out on Mienfoo, as i believe it's not such a great move, but i'll try it.

I'm not going to give you a full rate, but I'd just really like to reinforce Furai's point about eviolite on Magnemite. It will give you a much easier time against Snover as with eviolite it can repeatedly switch in on it throughout the match. Having speed outside of sandstorm isn't necessary. The only time you will be outside of sandstorm is when the opposing team has a Snover, in which case it is much better to have eviolite. With sand up Drilbur gives you the speed you want.