Hey Smogon! Let me start off by introducing myself in a few short sentences. Im Nyron777, you may have seen my amateur teams or rates in the past, but i recently stopped playing Pokemon to do a bit of track in school. #healthy-boy! Anyway, im trying to become a bit more involved in the community while im at it. Why not? I enjoy creating teams that are really, well... creative and usually within the meta although i find it fun to play those really wierd OU teams. (My Favorite Tier). Now that im back i figure, in the spirit of change i might as well get out my comfort zone (rain) and try something new.
While experimenting with a couple different play styles including; stall, hyper offensive, hail, sun, sand, and baton passing. All of these except 1, sand of course, i really enjoy. My favorite aspects of rain were the boosts it gave and the versatility in that i could play really any style, stall or offensive or balanced. That aspect i really enjoyed, mixing and matching all different kinds of Pokemon. I found all this in sand and more!
With sandstorm teams i found that the after turn buffet was extremely helpful, and frankly saved me ass a couple times. Its let me K0 rotoms, Latias, and other big ou Beasts. And it let me have a choice between weather starters, something im not used to. So i started looking at some other teams and i found that i really like a balanced play style and from there i started building my team and here i am now. (PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT THE TEAM BUILDING)
My weather starter of choice, and one of my two defensive cores. I choose hippowdon over Tyranitar for various reasons. Although they both has access to stealth rock and set up a sandstorm, Hippowdon has slack off and whirlwind. Hippowdon lasts longer on the field and as a wall i need him to have some way to recover. Tyranitar is a more specially defensive pokemon as he gets that extra boost, however I was looking for a more physical pokemon and tyranitar also calls for a more offensive playstyle.
Part 2 of my Dual core is Rotom-W. Rotom-w covers the water weakness of most of my team and having levitate is a plus. Rotom-w does get buffeted by sand every turn but with pain split i can count on him to replenish health and diminish walls such as blissey. Rotom-w also has thunder-wave which is very useful for crippling scarfers, and with great natural physical bulk combined with full investment in SpDef, Rotom-W is an issue for alot of teams who are prepared for him.
Landorus was my designated sweeper for the next slot. I choose him over landorus-t for the simple reason of sand force. Landorus-T calls for some speed boost, and although you can slap a scarf on it, it still wont be as powerful with moderate speed. Landorus seems overall a better choice for the role he plays in my team, lure out gliscors and other hippowdon, and shoot a hp ice straight at 'dat Ass.
Ah. Scizor and Magnezone. I chose magnezone to sponge powerful dragon attacks and trap five potential threats; scizor, skarmory, ferrothorn, forretress, and lucario. Aside from that he is my sleep talker and water 'fauker. Forgive my terrible rhyming puns but yea he takes out water pokemon that would hurt me potentially and Breloom' psshhhhh no problem. A timed switch in spore and a sleep talk can OHKO that thing after rocks and sand. Magnezone does his job and does it well, and for that he has earned a spot on my team. With the addition of Magnezone i started thinking, i need a revenge killer. Scizor no doubt about it. With resistance to sand and the powerful Banded TechPunch combo, it destroyed Terrakion and tyranitars. Scizor also deals well with (OHKO) the lati twins after 2 stealth rocks and sand damage. In late games with resistances gone, he is able to punch holes in other teams with ease.
Looking at my team then it didn't take me long to say well with rotom gone who's gonna sponge those fire attacks? Sponge, heh, how bout ABSORB!? yea Heatran sucks up those fire attacks, pause, and sends them back with devastating power. It also makes the opponent think twice about using fire at all and can hurt sun teams if my weather goes down.
I replaced scizor with stoutland because with his speed in the sand, he doesn't need the priority, he can send banded STAB with more power at the foes. Stoutland carries ice fang which proved helpful in dealing with dragons very much. With the removing of scizor also came the utter uselessness of Heatran. And looky looky here comes latias, the absolute beast that she is. I couldn't decide which set to use and in fact i still can't truthfully but i found that tricking usually works well. Latias also covers with Hp fire and surf, two moves which prove helpful in today's meta.
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Hippo's are cute aren't they? Sure, but not this fearsome bastard. Hippowdon was an easy choice over tyranitar when i decided his purpose was, Defensive Tank. I didn't want a weather starter that, sets up weather, attack attack attack, dies... new weather comes up. And that's exactly what Tyranitar does. Dont get me wrong he is an awesome weather starter, although he has a far more offensive playstyle that hippo here, and even if it were given full EV investments, it'll be in the special defense category. However the one factor that truly proves hippowdon better in my eyes, Slack-Off. With this Hippowdon is able to last very long on the field and can slack off while sandstorm piles on damage for the opponent. Because of slack-off Hippowdon is guaranteed to last longer than tyranitar and can set up the weather more than once and perish. In fact, Hippowdon is almost never used as death fodder as he is an essential part of this team. With this being said he sealed the deal on lead weather starter.
His ev's are those of a typical tank, full hp and defensive investment and the remaining in SpDef. Hippowdon and his SAND STREAM has proven his worth living a +2 Bullet Punch from Scizor, Dragon claws from band chomp, and waterfall from DD Dragonite. It lives with a measly amount of health but enough to slack off and break Multiscale and sashes with the sand.
Hippowdon has proven to be more useful to me that a tank and a weather stopper/starter, due to his awesome use of stealth rock. Stealth rock is almost essential to any team now-a-days and he has it. Stealth rocks benefits this team greatly with the combination of the weather. Every switch in causes damage and at the end of turns, the spinners usually suffer enough that starmie needs to recover before succumbing to an earthquake. With the combination of Whirlwind i can pile on damage with stealth rocks and slack off all damage on a resisted foe. Whirlwind is also essential in stopper baton passers and subbers. A +6 speed boost is no good when your getting forcefully switched now is it?
On slot 4 i was torn between two choices, Ice Fang or Earthquake. I ended up choosing EQ for powerful STAB. Also Dragons didn't pose to much of a threat because the only ones that pose a threat is Salamence with his mixed sets and lati twins. That being said they are usually the ones i switch against until i figure the sets out And even so, ice fang hits for near nothing as hippowdon is not the best attacker and its easy to roost off damage on my switch that usually follows immediately after an attack.
Synergy:
Rotom-w perfectly covers Hippowdons weakness and with the chosen ev's Sponges Special Attack Hits and he can also send some of his own back. I chose left overs on Rotom-W because it is just a safe alternative and pain split although it never fails might not always restore enough that the buffet will not kill me. ( the opponents start to catch on pain split after a while.) LEVITATE
His evs were chosen to be a specially defensive wall. I didnt need full investment in special defense because he is bulky enough so i decided to invest some in special Atk. This way he can dish out damage take damage and restore damage. Rotom covers the weaknesses of Hippowdon perfectly and can take a surf or ice shard with 92-93% Hp remaining. He deals quickly with the threat known as Mamoswine as he can pain split it and and hydro pump it. Rotom also checks Latios and latias and almost any scarf. With his bulk he is almost guaranteed to live at least one hit and send back a thunder wave to stop that pokemon in his or her tracks.
Rotom carries volt switch for the offensive momentum and to switch in to the appropriate counter or resistance to check the opponent.
Pain split is perhaps the most useful move in this set and is what makes it all work. Rotom still takes damage from the storm and with pain split and leftovers he is able to negate that damage. As a wall i feel it is important for him to have any means of recovery other than leftovers. He also deals with any threat well at full hp. Thunder wave it, split it, kill it. (that's the ideal situation however)
Synergy:
Scarfed Landorus Performs extremely well in the sand. With his SAND FORCE boosted moves he does not need the banded power or adamant nature which lets me make him a speed freak.
I choose him over his therian brother because with his therian form he does not run scarf well and needs boosting moves like swords dance and rock polish which then further limit his move pool to eq and stone edge. However non therian form has just enough Atk Power to OHKO mostly anything in sand while using scarf to u-turn out for offensive momentum.
His Ev's are all out attacker full speed and attack with a defensive investment just incase.
Earthquake because of STAB and Sand force boost. And Stone edge for another boost and coverage for flying types.
Now hidden power ice may seem a bit odd but it lures out those gliscors that think they are all that and rejects them down unexpectedly. It also hits for neutral if everything else fails.
Synergy: (Mentioned in Rotom)
Magnezone's job is pretty simple. Trap Steel Types with MAGNET PULL, and Destroy them with hp fire. Magnezone counters alot of checks like ferrothorn and deals with them nicely.
Sleep talk is specifically for Brelooms where any of these moves combined with stealth rock and sand can OHKO. It has shown amazing progress in games and i think its worth it on all magnezone sets.
Hp fire is to deal with those pesky Steel types that it so very easily traps.and can OHKO with 400+ Special Atk.
His Evs are a bit weird but they are so he can take a hit as he is my backup resistance incase the other cores go down. Also with max speed, he isn't outspeed much in ou and most steels are slow anyway so he doesn't really need to.
Thunderbolt and Flash Cannon are pretty self explanatory, Major STAB bonus . Volt switch was a no no on this team so he can deal with amoongus, Smeargle, and Breloom quite easily.
Synergy: (Mentioned in Rotom, mostly all)
Latias works wonder on this team. I chose Her over her counterpart because she is a bit more bulky and will be enduring sand and life orb while Latios works better as a choice attacker.
Her Evs are chosen as special attacker and it was tough but, i didn't go for the substitute set because it wouldn't really fit. She would take too much damage from storm and substitute combined and with recover i would limit my set to 2 attacking moves. Trick works out but only sometimes and it can be a risk if they predict and switch into their special attacker.
Recover is for longevity so she will last through LO and sandstorm. Recover is a big part of what makes this set work and recover>roost just because roost is gay...
Surf is for coverage and Latias uses it very well. This move mainly targets sun team members like Victini and Infernape.
Dragon pulse is essential for STAB and can OHKO mostly dragon.
Psyshock over psychic for STAB and it works wonders on this set. This move mainly focuses on Conkeldurr which can punch, literally punch, holes in my team.
Latias deals with dragons that magnezone can't afford to take a hit from yet as long as there is a steel type running a muck. I.E Scizor + Garchomp. She also posses the LEVITATE quality and devastating speed, being the faster of the two twins.
Banded Stoutland With SAND RUSH. What type of dog would he be in real life? A Doberman.. Jk! Anyway! My ultimate late game sweeper. This guy is nothing more than pure speed and practically created the team name.
I chose adamant nature because he doesn't need the jolly speed boost as he has sand rush and that is way more than enough speed he needs to take down anything
Return for STAB and Crazy Fucking Shit Ton of damage on near anything non resisted.
Superpower to deal with pesky rock and steel types trying to resist return. This move mainly covers other Tyranitars and Terrakion.
Pursuit is simply pursuit. This move is the cherry on top as it traps the opponent forcing a switch but also if they Dont its still a huge dent on any pokemon.
Wild Charge is just for coverage and is probably the least most used move and this set and im thinking of replacing it but i Dont know what to replace it with yet. However, when tested against rain teams with their weather down, this thing is an absolute monster and a keldeo in a sandstorm is nothing.
In conclusion this team has brought me very good results but there are things that can be better handled and that is why i am posting it here. If you like this team and test it/ rate it please give it a LUVDISC so it can be seen by a few more people and hopefully they can make it better too. *THREAT LIST AND IF REQUESTED IMPORTABLE COMING SOON*
THANKS AND HAVE A GOOD DAY/NIGHT
