Going with the flow..
(A 5th generation OU sandstorm team)
(A 5th generation OU sandstorm team)
Alright so I'm new to the 5th generation battling scene but I would like to call myself experinced with the 4th generation battling. I've spent about a good 2 hours creating my team and then a further week or so testing. I generally keep a steady 5-10 win streak then lose once or twice. I'm quite terrible at picking flaws in teams so I decided to bring it to people more experinced at smogon. So lets take the covers of my team and have the first look at it.
Team preview
So looking at my you'll see that it's got the usual suspects for a sandstorm team. Now you can see that I have the usual suspects for a sandstorm team but I don't want to take to much of a stab in the dark. I decided to make this team as basic as possible. My main problem with this team is ice moves as I got 2 weaknesses and only 1 resist in the team making me want to change salamence for a ice resist but I go no idea who. So let's look at my team under the microscope.
Changes will be displayed in RED.
The team under the microscope
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Stream
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SAtk)
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge
So this is tyranitar whos job around the team is to make sure sandstorm is good and runing and stealth rock is up. I play this guy extremely carefully around other weather teams like I would be playing chess and his king. He doesn't play a major role in the team other then to keep sandstorm up and runing and make sure the oppenent doesn't have weather in their favour. I've got crunch there as it's STAB and hits alot for super effective damage and its great for getting suprise KO's on espeon looking for a free stealth rock. I have ice beam as its good coverage and it helps a ton with gliscors who think they can stop my excadrill sweeps. Now I have once again for coverage mainly against steels who would resist the set and it can OHKO forretress looking to kill me with gyro ball which is an awesome thing as I don't need to worry about losing hazards and crap. I would like tyranitar to play a bigger role in the team rather then controling weather affects and getting stealth rocks up.
Excadrill @ Air balloon
Trait: Sand rush
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SAtk)
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor / Rapid Spin
Meet excadrill who plays the role as the teams primary sweeper getting some swift sweeps every couple of games. The factor it has sand rush just makes it twice as more threatening outspeeding the whole metagame bar ninetails and speed boost ninjask just mc hammered (protect) my rockslide. Both are very easily ownt by rock slide and earthquake respectively. Swords dance is to get my attack which is already stupidly high to higher levels making this guy a real threat if there team comes unprepared. Earthquake is STAB for excadrill and pokemon that take neutral damage still get OHKOed very easily. Rock slide has good coverage against those high fliers. I choose X-scissor over brick break because as levitate which earthquake doesn't hit comes most likely from psychic types, That means that lati twins.. I generally find excadrill having to stop the sweeping fun due to bulky pokemon like brongzong, skarmory and gliscor who think it's funny and laugh on top of a cliff I can't reach. I'm considering puting rapid spin somewhere but I do lose some good coverage.
Salamence @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate
Naive Nature (+Spe, -SDef)
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 SAtk
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
This is salamence who with excadrill resist every type in the game bar ice which I talked about in my introduction. His job is to dragon dance against something fat and ugly like.. Tangrowth then procide to sweep with outrage. EQ and fire blast are for perfect coverage. I find he dies way to fast in the sandstorm and having roost means he will die so it's kinda difficult.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spe)
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SDef
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
This is ferrothorn who is pretty gay but he gets the job done and thats why he is on my team. Power whip and gyro ball are argubally ferrothorns best moves and spikes is for some more hazards to help with the lack of life orb on salamence. Leech seed is to help with hardly any recovery on ferrothorn and helps against stall wars. I dont really have much about ferrothorn, I got no problems apart from the lack of recovery.
Jellicent @ Leftovers
Trait: Cursed Body
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
EVs: 248 HP / 214 Def / 48 Spe
- Scald
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Taunt
This is the other half of my defensive core paired with ferrothorn, they are hard to beat IMO. I choose cursed body over water absorb as it really helps against stall potentially screwing over pokemon with 1 attack and taunting them means they have to struggle XD. I put 48 Speed EVs to outspeed the standard jellicent set and outspeed scizor so I can burn him to prevent crap like pursuit to do much. Once again this guy gets his job done along with ferrothorn.
Latios @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spe / 4 SDef
Draco Meteor
Thunderbolt
Hidden Power (Fire)
Trick
This is latios who breaks stall with powerful draco meteors to the face. I replace surf to thunderbolt as I was having troubles with skarmory so with a quick switcheroo and I helped one of my weaknesses. Theres not too much special about my latios other then its a freaking monster. Trick is epic when pokemon like chansey switch in and it can catch them by suprise. I dont have too much to say his pretty good but his moveset might need tweaking with.
The ending of the RMT
NOTE: I'm going to expand the descriptions of salamence, ferrothorn, jellicent and latios majorly when I get time as it's my brothers birthday today. Please be flexible as I will update the team the descriptions soon.
