Anti-Sandstorm team

[Garud]

Hey guys, first time RMT, but I've been battling for a while. While my knowledge of the metagame is not what you call comprehensive, I do think I have a pretty good bearing.

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A bit of background, my playstyle used to involve using my favorites to extremes with no thought to how viable they were. My results were varied, I didn't lose all the time surprisingly. But after switching to Gen V, I started to notice my faves weren't cutting it. One team specifically popped up as a constant thorn in my side, and that was Sandstorm teams that use Excadrill. Excadrill got me almost every single time, except for the time that the opponent let me get 2 Shell Smashes off with Cloyster. This is when I decided that I'm going to do whatever it takes to take the little mole down a peg.

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So that's the history. I thought long and hard about what would be the best way to counter Excadrill. The source of Excadrill's power was Sand-Rush. The only way to beat Excadrill is to outspeed him. I traced that back and realized there are 4 potential ways to get the jump on the mole.

1) Priority that can OHKO. The first thing that comes to mind is Conkeldurr with Mach punch. Still, the opponent is smart enough to see Conk coming, and have Landouros or Gliscor ready. No-one is stupid enough to keep Excadrill in against Conk.
2) Natural Outspeed. Excadrill is quick as hell in Sandstorm, reaching a max of 604 speed, meaning that I need to have a pokemon that is faster than that with a Choice Scarf and has access to a Fighting, Water or Fire move that OHKO's (Air Balloon makes Earthquake a bad choice). (x) = 604/1.5 = 402. 3 Forms of Deoxys, Ninjask and Accelgor? The Deoxys forms are probably on the way to being banned, and both of the alternatives are bug types, walled by Landorous and Gliscor again.
3) Eliminate his ability. Simple Beam, Worry Seed and Mummy. Whimsicott may be viable with Worry Seed, but it's just not helpful overall as a switch-in. Simple Beam is dangerous as it makes Swords dance twice as effective, and Mummy is not a reasonable strategy as Excadrill doesn't use contact moves.
4) Get rid of the Sandstorm. Now we're cookin'. The root of this problem stems not to Excadrill, but to Tyranitar. Eliminate the presence of the Sandstorm and Excadrill is relegated to his otherwise crappy speed tier.

I decided to go with Number 4, since it's the most viable strategy. Weather is very big in Gen V, so having your own weather team can really tilt the tide in your favor, and even when the team goes against other weather types it can stand a chance.

Out of Sandstorm, Rain, Hail and Sun I wanted the biggest offensive presence. I reduced the benefits to two weathers, Hail and Rain. Rain's 100% accuracy Hurricane and Thunder is incredibly viable, meaning I would have to carry Politoad. On the other hand, Hail provides a 100% accurate Blizzard, but requires Abomisnow. While the variety is there with Flying/Thunder, Ice is still one of the premier offensive types hitting many ever-present pokemon for enormous damage. I went with Ice.

The Team:

I know what you are thinking. A Team built to beat Sandstorm with Excadrill on it? This guy must be mad! Stick him in the loony bin! I'll explain later. On to the Team.

Cruel
Tentacruel
@ Black Sludge
Bold
Liquid Ooze
-Rapid Spin
-Toxic Spikes
-Hex
-Surf
[252HP, 252SDef, 4Spd]

Leading with the tentacles as opposed to Abomasnow? Well, the snow man appreciates Toxic Spikes support, and as long as there aren't many poison types in the opponents team, this works out quite well, turning 2HKO's into OHKO's all over the board. Being able to sponge special hits also works in Cruel's favor. Hex is there for coverage, Surf is for Stab and can hurt Ground and Rock types, while hitting some Steel types in their secondary weakness (Excadrill's ground type, Heatran's fire type, etc). Liquid Ooze helps against Conkeldurr's drain punch too. Hex destroys spin blockers like Gengar and Confagarius.

Frosty
Abomasnow
@Leftovers
Calm
Snow Warning
-Substitute
-Leech Seed
-Ice Shard
-Focus Punch
[252HP, 172Def, 84Spd]

This guy is great. Many people don't like Abomasnow, but I've seen him beat Garchomp without much trouble, and put a severe dent in Shaymin-S. He's powerful if you can use him right. This is the basic Sub-seed set, you know the drill. Focus punch helps with T-tar, Ice Shard nails Gliscor, Landouros, Tornadus, Thundurus and Garchomp for major damage all-round, and the priority makes sure he gets the first move. Leech seed supports not only Abomasnow, but whomever he switches to. Abomasnow can also come in on Earthquakes also, which is nice.

Clamp
Cloyster
@King's Rock
Skill Link
Jolly
-Shell Smash
-Rock Blast
-Razor Shell
-Icicle Spear
[48HP, 252Att, 208Spd]

Wow, just wow. Everyone should fear Cloyster. After 2 Shell Smashes, everything just dies. Everything. King's rock is for times when Cloyster needs to dish out multiple attacks in a row but not get hit. Useful on hitting walls when you haven't shell-smashed. Icicle spear murders Dragons, and things that resist it go down too. Just has to come in on something that doesn't threaten it and set up.

Mustard
Walrien
@Leftovers
Ice Body
Bold
-Toxic
-Substitute
-Protect
-Surf
[220HP, 252Def, 36Spd]

The legendary Stallrien returns. This set-up is built to maximize stalling potential. Toxic is there if the opponent is a flier. The residual damage from hail will kill 2 of their pokemon over time if you can stall out with Sub+Protect. Leech seed support helps immensely, but it doesn't NEED it. Surf is there as Stab and as a response to taunters.

North
Kyurem
@Choice Scarf
Pressure
Timid
-Focus Blast
-Blizzard
-Dragon Pulse
-Draco Meteor
[4HP, 252SpA, 252Spd]

If you don't 4x resist Ice or OHKO Kyurem before it can touch you, then you die. 150 base Special Attack, plus STAB no-miss Blizzard is lovely. Draco Meteor/Dragon Pulse is for outside of Hail and get's great STAB and great coverage. Focus Blast is for Heatran mainly, but is for all Steels who resist Ice and Dragon, and is not a horrible move to be locked into. Beaten by faster Dragons with scarves, but it's not his job to take them out.

Drillis
Excadrill
@Air Balloon
Sand Rush
Jolly
-Rock Slide
-Earthquake
-Rapid Spin
-Swords Dance
[4HP, 252Att, 252Spd]

If Sandstorm is still up for some reason, I can do my own sweeping with Excadrill. Also counters most Excadrill who don't carry Brick Break, due to the Air Balloon, in which case it will come down to a speed tie. Murders everything if you let it get going. Air Balloon over Life Orb simply because it allows him to come in on Earthquake.

Threats:
Scizor
Conkeldurr
Machamp
Choice Scarf Dragons that outspeed Kyurem
Fighting and Rock types in general


So there you have it. Rate, comment, etc. Don't be afraid to be harsh. I have won with this team so it hasn't been a failure at least.

 

[ChaosNebula]

Instead of Excadrill, why not a Landolos?

It can still abuse the sand and is faster with or without the sand.

 

[Benlisted]

This team's theory and idea look really cool and I actually like it a lot, but you appear to have completely overlooked a key threat in this meta - Sun teams, which steal your weather and utterly decimate your entire team with relative ease.

There's not a lot you could easily do to solve this, as with any Hail-based team, but simply adding something like a BulkyMence to Phaze, or a Heatran to do similarly could help out a lot if you could fit them in. In terms of your team right now, Hail>Hex on Cruel to make it not an easy switchin for Venusaur and Tales, Ice Shard on Cloyster to kill Chlorophyllers (and White Herb so you're not as vulnerable to priority if you do Shell Smash), Super Fang+Brine>Surf and Toxic on Walrein, Substitute>RS on Excadrill could do well to make you not entirely destroyed by a good Sun team.

This is pretty specialised advice I know, but since it deals with one of your main weaknesses I hope you think about it at least.

 

[Methmite]

I find it interesting you run 2 spinners. I'd suggest dropping spin on Excadrill for Brick break. This way, you're still keeping your Plan B sweeper, and it gives you a solid counter to the most common sweeper on offensive sandstorm. I'm not sure if Kyruem learns it, but you could give it rain dance over Dragon Pulse as an "oh shit" card for when you need opposing weather gone fast. I say rain dance over hail, because like Benlisted said, sun teams are an issue for this team. Rain gives your whole team at least neutrality to their shared weakness ('cept obama.) It might sound gimicky, but weather is prominent enough to make it worth while.

 

[Garud]

Thanks for the advise guys, really appreciate it. I will be makin some changes to my team shortly. I'll probably take out Excadrill and replace him with something like Heatran.

This team's theory and idea look really cool and I actually like it a lot, but you appear to have completely overlooked a key threat in this meta - Sun teams, which steal your weather and utterly decimate your entire team with relative ease.

My strategy is to eliminate the other weather types early. Eliminating Ninetales, Politoad, Hippodon and Tyranitar is a big thing, which is why I don't lead with my weather starter. Still, I see your point, and any Grass Type with Chlorophyll will tear most of my team to shreds if I let it get unchecked.

I find it interesting you run 2 spinners...

The spinning is because of my team's weakness to Stealth Rock, and the fact that residual Toxic Spikes/Spikes will really wear me down over time.

Your advise has been helpful, changes to come soon...

 

[JayyChow]

you could also counter Excadrill with Trick Room, thot i'd throw that out there.
ergh... I'd give Cloyster a White herb instead. Maybe Venoshock instead of Hex for Tentacruel.

I don't like how you have 5 pokes weak against fighting... but the only other options i can think of immediately(while not taking hail dmg) are Reuniclus[which has nice trick room + focus blast/HP Fighting], Sigilyph [x0.25 Fighting], and Frosslass.

Trick Room Reuniclus may actually help with your fighting weakness + magic guard = no SR dmg.

I don't think quick Dragons would be a threat since you have Ice Shard on at least 1 Poke. And unless they're a hydreigon, Cloyster should still endure 1 hit and get off an icicle spear.

As for scizor, you don't have a pokemon that could absorb hits from a scizor, except tentacruel. Scizor's BP poses threats to your Ice-typing which you have an abundance of [you probably already knew that]. maybe you could pull off an HP Fire somewhere. LOL otherwise juss hope for no Scizors ><