Wolfey
VGC 2016 Masters Champion
OU RMT, peaked #7 on PO
Welcome!
Introduction:
Ever Since I began competitive battling, I enjoyed using Sandstorm. I liked the Pokemon one could use on a Sandstorm team and I enjoyed the very concept of sandstorm. Lately, Ive been playing around with one sandstorm team in Particular, and its been very successful for me. The team is completely different then when I started, but then again it's also alot better, so without further ado I present my Sandstorm team.
At A Glance
It all began with a battle id had on wifi. I was still fairly new to competitive battling, so most of my pokes werent IV bred or EV trained with good spreads. My opponent led off with a Mamoswine.He KOed 4 pokes in a row using a combination of Ice shard and Earthquake. Finally, one of my pokes managed to survive and hit his mamo, but, unfortunately it was focus sashed. He proceeded to KO my last 2 pokes with EQ and Endeavor, leaving my last poke with 1 HP and left open for a priority move KO. I knew as soon as the battle was over that I wanted a mamo lead for my new team.
Great, now I had a lead, but I needed something that worked well with mamo. Mamoswine resists sandstorm and hail, so I decided to follow up with a tyranitar.
Great, now I had some sandstorm support, but I needed a wall. I decided on skarmory as it also resists Sandstorm and helps with tyranitar's ground weakness.
great, now I had a physical wall, I wanted a special wall. More then that, I wanted a water type. After a while of considering, I decided on an unusual variant of a specially defensive vaporeon.
perfect, now I had walls and weather, I needed a sweeper. I decided on a special sweeper, and one that was uncommon to see. Thats right, I chose specs salamence.
Now all I needed was a physical sweeper. After some thought I went for a SD Lucario
Now the team had some problems. Immediately, entry hazards. opponents would set up SR and roar out my mamo breaking his sash. Spikes hurt most of the team, especially those without leftovers, and SR combined with Sandstorm really hurt salamence. So I decided to put something with rapid spin on
Now, this was good, but I didnt like Salamence. I decided to switch him out for a jirachi.
Now, I wanted a spin blocker as it was rather disheartening to set up SR and 3 layers of spikes to have it all spun away. I went for rotom-h after some thought because I really liked his rest talk set and he could burn opponents. Lucario wasnt pulling his weight, to frail for my liking so I took him out.
well, this was good, but unfortunately I still had a big problem. The fact was if the opponent set up toxic spikes, then when blastoise switched in he was poisened before he could clear the way for tyranitar. Also, my team was desperately week to special attackers, so I killed 2 birds with one stone.
After tentacruel, I decided that I didnt like mamo as a lead anymore. I also wanted a lead that could set up SR and roar. now that I had toxic spike support roar and whirlwind were becoming more usefull. So I went for a Swampert. Its bulk made him very useful to me, and he absorbed electric attacks and allowed tentacruel a free switch in against grass knots.
I liked this team, it was doing well, most of my weaknesses were covered, and then I came across a poke I knew I had to have. It was a gliscor, the stall breaker set on smogon. It effectively destroyed my team, taunting my skarmory, earthquake'ing my tentacruel and t-tar, taunting my rotom. I knew I needed to use it. In the end I decided everything I needed on my team, except for rotom.
A closer Look
Swampert @ leftovers relaxed
252 Hp 252 Def 4 Atk
~ Earthquake
~ Ice Beam
~ Stealth Rock
~ Roar
Swampert Is essential to this team. He sets up Stealth Rocks in the beginning of the game, and because of his bulk he can come in later to set them up again if theyve been spun away or he can wall or phaze later. Often, youll find yourself up against something with taunt. In this case if you predict their taunt you can break the opponents sash if they have one. Ice beam forces opposing gliscors and salamences to switch out. Earthquake is useful against electric types and rock types, and combined with ice beam he hits 9 out of 17 types for super effective damage. He works well with tentacruel, covering each others weaknesses and helping out with physical/special attackers.
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf Jolly
252 Atk/252 Speed/ 4 HP
~ Crunch
~ Pursuit
~ Superpower
~ Stone Edge
Ah, scarftar, you never dissapoint. Its too bad youre now expected everywhere and far overused, you used to be so surprising. I enjoyed watching people flip out when there +2 speed Empoleon was KO'ed by a superpower. Tyranitar does several important things. The first is set up a sandstorm. The second is outspeed common threats to this team, like salamence before a dragon dance. Tyranitar helps against Rotom-H who used to be a Huge problem for this team. His speed is amazing, and his defences are actually pretty good as well. He can switch into a thunderbolt easily and can live through a LO kingdra's surf.
Jirachi @ Leftovers Timid
252 HP/176 Spe/80 Sp A
~ Calm Mind
~ Substitute
~ Psychic
~ Thunderbolt
Ah, Calm Mind Rachi, how awesome could you get? I like this rachi particularly because of a few things. One is that he has the element of surprise, as when most people see rachi's these days they automatically assume there there either scarfed or the flinch hax rachi or wish rachi. If possible, alot of people will try to thunder wave rachi. This rachi works well with gliscor against blissy. If a blissy comes in and try's to thunder wave one of my pokes I switch to gliscor to take that. If they try to Ice beam gliscor in comes rachi. Substitute on the new thunder wave, and begin calm minding. Jirachi is capable of producing 101 HP subs, and so blissy cant OHKO it with seismic toss. Calm Mind until your plus 6 and procceed to sweep. with sandstorm in to help with neutralizing blissy's leftovers, your opponent wont have a chance. Rachi makes a great late game sweeper as well, and hes fast enough to OHKO gyrados before a DD with thunderbolt.
Skarmory @ Shed Shell Impish
252 HP / 64 Atk / 176 Def / 16 Spe
~ Whirlwind
~ Spikes
~ Roost
~ Brave Bird
Good Old Skarmory, one of the best physical walls in the game. Skarmory's job here is pretty self explanitory, set up spikes and phase. He really helps KO SD Life orb'ed Lucario, and other physical attackers. Hes good bait for magnezone, which gives gliscor a free switch in. Roost helps alot here, especially when you whirlwind in a physical attacker after taking some damage from someone else. Brave Bird can be used to surprise a pokemon who just taunted my birdy. Skarmory is immune to any earthquakes thrown at my tyranitar and he does good against fighting as well. Electric types dont prove a problem with gliscor and swampert.
Gliscor @ leftovers Jolly
252 HP 216 Spe 40 Def
~ Roost
~ Toxic
~ Earthquake
~ Taunt
I love Gliscor. He solves many of the teams problems at once. Taunt stops most walls in their tracks, and due to his high base speed, a plus speed nature, and some speed EV's he will most likely be using it before any wall. This stops those pesky rotoms from will-o-wisping me and if they stay in to shadow ball they get toxic'd. Earthquake is good against tyranitar and to do damage to anything poisoned when I dont need to roost or re-taunt. Roost provides good recovery, and lowers my Ice weakness to x2 instead of x4. As ive already said, however, the main attraction of this set is taunt. If a skarmory decides to stay in and brave bird, fine by me, I can rapid spin away any entry hazards or set up some spikes of my own. Toxic helps against pokemon with substitute that arent steel, and if they are steel or poison then they can eat an earthquake. Gliscor also has immunity to electric moves which is useful to have.
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge Calm
252 HP 136 SP D 120 Def
~ Toxic Spikes
~ Rapid Spin
~ Sludge Bomb
~ Surf
Tentacruel serves many purposes on this team. One is to remove toxic spikes upon entry without even needing to rapid spin. Another is Rapid spinning away entry hazards. He can also set up toxic spikes, or even attack if he needs to. Tentacruel's typing works well. He can lure in a Choiced Earthquake allowing skarm or gliscor to set up. He can lure in an electric attack and switch to gliscor. He can survive a Draco Meteor from a Specs latias. He can absorb a grass move aimed at swampert or a special move aimed at skarmory. But the thing that is the most important about him is the fact that he is my infernape counter. there is a massive mixape weakness to this team, and tentacruel helps tremendously on that. He can surf to try and KO the demon, or if I expect the switch I can set up toxic spikes so that the infernape wont be allowed to just sit there and sweep.
Introduction:
Ever Since I began competitive battling, I enjoyed using Sandstorm. I liked the Pokemon one could use on a Sandstorm team and I enjoyed the very concept of sandstorm. Lately, Ive been playing around with one sandstorm team in Particular, and its been very successful for me. The team is completely different then when I started, but then again it's also alot better, so without further ado I present my Sandstorm team.
At A Glance
EVOLUTION:
It all began with a battle id had on wifi. I was still fairly new to competitive battling, so most of my pokes werent IV bred or EV trained with good spreads. My opponent led off with a Mamoswine.He KOed 4 pokes in a row using a combination of Ice shard and Earthquake. Finally, one of my pokes managed to survive and hit his mamo, but, unfortunately it was focus sashed. He proceeded to KO my last 2 pokes with EQ and Endeavor, leaving my last poke with 1 HP and left open for a priority move KO. I knew as soon as the battle was over that I wanted a mamo lead for my new team.
Great, now I had a lead, but I needed something that worked well with mamo. Mamoswine resists sandstorm and hail, so I decided to follow up with a tyranitar.
Great, now I had some sandstorm support, but I needed a wall. I decided on skarmory as it also resists Sandstorm and helps with tyranitar's ground weakness.
great, now I had a physical wall, I wanted a special wall. More then that, I wanted a water type. After a while of considering, I decided on an unusual variant of a specially defensive vaporeon.
perfect, now I had walls and weather, I needed a sweeper. I decided on a special sweeper, and one that was uncommon to see. Thats right, I chose specs salamence.
Now all I needed was a physical sweeper. After some thought I went for a SD Lucario
Now the team had some problems. Immediately, entry hazards. opponents would set up SR and roar out my mamo breaking his sash. Spikes hurt most of the team, especially those without leftovers, and SR combined with Sandstorm really hurt salamence. So I decided to put something with rapid spin on
Now, this was good, but I didnt like Salamence. I decided to switch him out for a jirachi.
Now, I wanted a spin blocker as it was rather disheartening to set up SR and 3 layers of spikes to have it all spun away. I went for rotom-h after some thought because I really liked his rest talk set and he could burn opponents. Lucario wasnt pulling his weight, to frail for my liking so I took him out.
well, this was good, but unfortunately I still had a big problem. The fact was if the opponent set up toxic spikes, then when blastoise switched in he was poisened before he could clear the way for tyranitar. Also, my team was desperately week to special attackers, so I killed 2 birds with one stone.
After tentacruel, I decided that I didnt like mamo as a lead anymore. I also wanted a lead that could set up SR and roar. now that I had toxic spike support roar and whirlwind were becoming more usefull. So I went for a Swampert. Its bulk made him very useful to me, and he absorbed electric attacks and allowed tentacruel a free switch in against grass knots.
I liked this team, it was doing well, most of my weaknesses were covered, and then I came across a poke I knew I had to have. It was a gliscor, the stall breaker set on smogon. It effectively destroyed my team, taunting my skarmory, earthquake'ing my tentacruel and t-tar, taunting my rotom. I knew I needed to use it. In the end I decided everything I needed on my team, except for rotom.
A closer Look
Swampert @ leftovers relaxed
252 Hp 252 Def 4 Atk
~ Earthquake
~ Ice Beam
~ Stealth Rock
~ Roar
Swampert Is essential to this team. He sets up Stealth Rocks in the beginning of the game, and because of his bulk he can come in later to set them up again if theyve been spun away or he can wall or phaze later. Often, youll find yourself up against something with taunt. In this case if you predict their taunt you can break the opponents sash if they have one. Ice beam forces opposing gliscors and salamences to switch out. Earthquake is useful against electric types and rock types, and combined with ice beam he hits 9 out of 17 types for super effective damage. He works well with tentacruel, covering each others weaknesses and helping out with physical/special attackers.
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf Jolly
252 Atk/252 Speed/ 4 HP
~ Crunch
~ Pursuit
~ Superpower
~ Stone Edge
Ah, scarftar, you never dissapoint. Its too bad youre now expected everywhere and far overused, you used to be so surprising. I enjoyed watching people flip out when there +2 speed Empoleon was KO'ed by a superpower. Tyranitar does several important things. The first is set up a sandstorm. The second is outspeed common threats to this team, like salamence before a dragon dance. Tyranitar helps against Rotom-H who used to be a Huge problem for this team. His speed is amazing, and his defences are actually pretty good as well. He can switch into a thunderbolt easily and can live through a LO kingdra's surf.
Jirachi @ Leftovers Timid
252 HP/176 Spe/80 Sp A
~ Calm Mind
~ Substitute
~ Psychic
~ Thunderbolt
Ah, Calm Mind Rachi, how awesome could you get? I like this rachi particularly because of a few things. One is that he has the element of surprise, as when most people see rachi's these days they automatically assume there there either scarfed or the flinch hax rachi or wish rachi. If possible, alot of people will try to thunder wave rachi. This rachi works well with gliscor against blissy. If a blissy comes in and try's to thunder wave one of my pokes I switch to gliscor to take that. If they try to Ice beam gliscor in comes rachi. Substitute on the new thunder wave, and begin calm minding. Jirachi is capable of producing 101 HP subs, and so blissy cant OHKO it with seismic toss. Calm Mind until your plus 6 and procceed to sweep. with sandstorm in to help with neutralizing blissy's leftovers, your opponent wont have a chance. Rachi makes a great late game sweeper as well, and hes fast enough to OHKO gyrados before a DD with thunderbolt.
Skarmory @ Shed Shell Impish
252 HP / 64 Atk / 176 Def / 16 Spe
~ Whirlwind
~ Spikes
~ Roost
~ Brave Bird
Good Old Skarmory, one of the best physical walls in the game. Skarmory's job here is pretty self explanitory, set up spikes and phase. He really helps KO SD Life orb'ed Lucario, and other physical attackers. Hes good bait for magnezone, which gives gliscor a free switch in. Roost helps alot here, especially when you whirlwind in a physical attacker after taking some damage from someone else. Brave Bird can be used to surprise a pokemon who just taunted my birdy. Skarmory is immune to any earthquakes thrown at my tyranitar and he does good against fighting as well. Electric types dont prove a problem with gliscor and swampert.
Gliscor @ leftovers Jolly
252 HP 216 Spe 40 Def
~ Roost
~ Toxic
~ Earthquake
~ Taunt
I love Gliscor. He solves many of the teams problems at once. Taunt stops most walls in their tracks, and due to his high base speed, a plus speed nature, and some speed EV's he will most likely be using it before any wall. This stops those pesky rotoms from will-o-wisping me and if they stay in to shadow ball they get toxic'd. Earthquake is good against tyranitar and to do damage to anything poisoned when I dont need to roost or re-taunt. Roost provides good recovery, and lowers my Ice weakness to x2 instead of x4. As ive already said, however, the main attraction of this set is taunt. If a skarmory decides to stay in and brave bird, fine by me, I can rapid spin away any entry hazards or set up some spikes of my own. Toxic helps against pokemon with substitute that arent steel, and if they are steel or poison then they can eat an earthquake. Gliscor also has immunity to electric moves which is useful to have.
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge Calm
252 HP 136 SP D 120 Def
~ Toxic Spikes
~ Rapid Spin
~ Sludge Bomb
~ Surf
Tentacruel serves many purposes on this team. One is to remove toxic spikes upon entry without even needing to rapid spin. Another is Rapid spinning away entry hazards. He can also set up toxic spikes, or even attack if he needs to. Tentacruel's typing works well. He can lure in a Choiced Earthquake allowing skarm or gliscor to set up. He can lure in an electric attack and switch to gliscor. He can survive a Draco Meteor from a Specs latias. He can absorb a grass move aimed at swampert or a special move aimed at skarmory. But the thing that is the most important about him is the fact that he is my infernape counter. there is a massive mixape weakness to this team, and tentacruel helps tremendously on that. He can surf to try and KO the demon, or if I expect the switch I can set up toxic spikes so that the infernape wont be allowed to just sit there and sweep.