Sand Storm OU

[Shurtugal]

Hello RMT raters. I have been doing my best to come up with the best sandstorm formula. I hope you can show me all my weaknesses and help me counter all of them. Without Further ado, lets get started.


Lead: Tyranitar @ Lum Berry/Leftovers
Nature: Sassy
Effort Values: 252 Hp/180 Sp.Atk/76 Sp.Def

~ Ice Beam
~ Fire Blast
~ Crunch
~ Stealth Rock

Analysis: Tyranitar is used to summon the sandstorm that links this entire team. Having mixed offensive stats, I can hit anything that will pack a bunch based of my opponents lead. His main role is mainly to set up stealth rock, ans since he is so obvious as a lead, my opponents lead will have some way of crushing mine. So if I can safely manage a stealth rock, I most likely switch to a pokemon that can deal with the lead, or force it to switch. T-Tar's Ice Beam and Fire Blast are one of my only Ice and Fire Type moves on this team making him mire valuable.



Wish Support: Jirachi @ Leftovers
Nature: Careful
Effort Values: 252 Hp/216 Sp.Def/40 Spd

~ Iron Head
~ Wish
~ Protect/U-Turn
~ Thunder Wave


I cannot decide between U-Turn or protect. By running protect, I can stall a wish in case my Jirachi ever needs it. U-Turn however, enhances its wish support job. Jirachi mainly cripples my team with a T-Wave, making all my team members faster. By using T-Wave, and the opponent stays in, I can get a free surefire to hit first Iron Head that has high hopes of flinch. Iron Head hits many pokes with a STAB bonus and usually a flinch in its belt. This pokemon is a great asset to this team.


Phy.Sweeper: Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Nature: Jolly
Trait: Sand Rush
Effort Values: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 Hp

~ Swords Dance
~ Earthquake
~ Rock Slide
~ X-Scissor

Analysis: Excadrill's sand rush doubles its 302 speed to a whooping 604 speed. Scarfers can only hope to be able to outspeed him. Swords Dance makes his sweeping capabilities better, when used on a predicted switch/set-up/protect. Not many pokemon can take a STAB Earthquake to the face, especially when he's boosted with Swords Dance. X-Scissor is their for type coverage, mainly grass, but it can hit OU psychic's as well.


Type Support: Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Nature: Impish
Effort Values: 252 Hp/172 Def/84 SPd

~ Swords Dance
~ Taunt
~ Earthquake
~ Ice Fang

Analysis: Gliscor carries my final ice type attack. S-Dance makes him a valuable sweeper. Gliscor can come in on a lot of fighting/Fire/Fire-Fighting threats to this team. Earthquake can domolish fire type opponents anfd fighting type opponents. Ice Fang is for ice type support. Being part ground/flying, he can resist both fire and fighting. Taking down many of my threats with it.


Sp.Sweeper: Latios @ Expert Belt
Nature: Timid
Effort Values: 252 Sp.Atk/252 Spd/4 Hp

~ Thunderbolt
~ Surf
~ Dragon Pulse
~ Recover

Analysis: his recover is much needed if he is to take SS damage. his wide move pool makes it easy for him to also take down some of my threats. Thunderbolt helps me with my water type threats, so I chose it over HP fire. Surf can get rid of excadrill that want to engage battle with mine. D-Pulse is for STAB, and on dragons, that would be a Expert Belt STAB. This Latios was too good to refuse.




Wall: Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Nature: Sassy
Effort Values: 20 Def/252 Sp.Def/238

~ Leech Seed
~ Spikes
~ Gyro Ball
~ Power Whip

Analysis: Ferrothorn can leech my opponets (which usually makes them switch) or I can get some benefits for a bit. I find that T-Tar's Stealth Rocks combined with his Spikes, makes for deadly damage on most pokemon. Gyro Ball hits with STAB and so does Power Whip. Power Whip being the attack of choice, because it hits many of my water type opponents. Clearly, this team needs him.

On to my final analysis of this team, except, this will be their threats list. Please bear with me a little longer.

Threats

Hide

Aerodactyl -

Breloom -

Conkeldurr -

Darmanitan -

Dragonite -

Excadrill -

Gyarados -

Haxorus -

Heatran -

Heracross -

Hydreigon -

Infernape -

Kingdra -

Kyurem -

Latios -

Lilligant -

Lucario -

Machamp -

Mamoswine -

Mienshao -

Reuniclus -

Salamence -

Scizor -

Scrafty-

Starmie -

Terakion -

Tyranitar -

Venusaur -

Virizion -

Weavile -

Blissey -

Bronzong -

Celebi -

Chansey -

Gliscor -

Jellicent -

Latias -

Ninetales -

Politoed -

The Threat list may look big, but most of my Pokemon can counter them. Please help me if you see that there is one I cannot counter. Thanks!

 

[monty1104]

Just heading off to bed, but CM Virizion can will cause havoc if it runs HP ice (which most do).

Will rate properly when I get a chance.

 

[Blue_Star]

I don't think virizion breaks this team, since gliscor can stop SD ones and jirachi can stop CM ones. Anyways, I really think you should run Rapid Spin over X-scissor on your excadrill. With x-scissor, stall/hazard teams will give this team a hard time.

 

[Shurtugal]

X-Scissor can hit Latios (which HP Fire/Surf is deadly to my team) Sure my latios is maximum speed. I really don't want to go in a speed war. Latios can hit Tyranitar and Gliscor before they can even strike it with a OHKO. Leaving only my speed Excadrill. Without the X-Scissor, I can never OHKO Latios. What would you suggest? I think its safer to keep X-Scissor b/c of him. Tell me your opinion, b/c a stall team could be a problem.

 

[BKC]

As mentioned earlier, stall teams will give you some trouble, since you lack a solid method of breaking through standard defensive cores. Another issue is Rotom-W, who spreads burns on everything bar Gliscor, who can't do anything back and will be OHKO'd by Hydro Pump. Calm Mind+Refresh Latias in Latios's place would be an excellent fit for this team. With the ability to shrug off status, it can turn stall teams' Blissey/Chansey's Toxic attempts into setup bait, and Rotom-W's previous way of getting any sort of damage on her is also neutered.

Latias @ Leftovers | Timid | EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Calm Mind | Refresh | Recover | Dragon Pulse

If you do not want to make this change, I strongly recommend using Facade in Ice Fang's place on Gliscor. You will often find Rotom-W switching on it and Facade smacks it pretty hard, significantly cutting its longevity and making it easier for your team to deal with. I've noticed that teams with Rotom-W tend to use it as their sole Gliscor counter, so you can pave a path for a sweep this way.

As for more minor changes, I'd drop Excadrill's X-Scissor for Rapid Spin and the Jolly nature for Adamant. X-Scissor is only useful for Celebi, who is handled by Lati@s / Jirachi, while Rapid Spin is virtually unblockable on Excadrill because he can 2HKO every ghost-type in the metagame, which will help in two different ways: 1). it means Tyranitar won't have to take large amounts of damage on each switch-in, making it much easier to win weather wars against Politoed / Ninetales, and 2). it'll pressure stall teams who rely on hazards to wear their opponent down. Since you have a Gliscor of your own, you don't have to worry about outrunning other Excadrill with your own, so Adamant is definitely the superior nature choice here. Good luck!

 

[Aeroblacktyl]

If you go along with the Latias set proposed by BKC over Latios, and the Rapid Spin change on Excadrill, then take these points into consideration as well:

Body Slam over Thunder Wave on Jirachi. For one thing, you won't do shit to Jellicent, and Gengar can't do shit to you. Body Slam is the thing that sets it apart as it makes Excadrill/Landorus highly hesitant on coming in on you.

With so much hazards support going on, why don't you run Jellicent? It would seem to fit perfectly over Gliscor, as it still handles fighters. While the thing that it opens up is Excadrill, it also points me to your horrible Landorus weakness. The easiest solution? Replace standard ass Ferrothorn with standard ass Skarmory. Skarmory gives you the same goals as Ferrothorn in Spiking, but now it adds in Landorus protection.

P.S. If you're not running Leftovers on Tyranitar, run one of it's resist berry. Shuca Berry can be really suprising for Excadrill where as Chopple will definitely get Deoxys-S users annoyed.

 

[setters4ever]

having T-Tar as my lead scares me, but I suppose no guts no glory. In my opinion I think that heatran would be a very nice addition to the team to help with a majority of your threats.