ORAS OU Suspect Survivor Sand Offense Peaked 22th(1742 elo)

[Terry24]

Hello everyone.Today I'm here with a sand offensive RMT build around Meta Metagross(God I need a new playstyle). The reason why I built it because I was excited that metagrossite survive the suspect and I wanted to build a sand team around it. So here we go and I would really like some positiv criticism on it because I believe this team has alot of room for improvement.

Proof of ladder(Alt name Jack41):

Recommended music while reading RMT:

MK_III (Metagross-Mega) @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Ice Punch
- Hammer Arm
- Zen Headbutt

So heres pretty much the focus of the team. This set is pretty much kinda standard except I didnt want to use earthquake because I didnt want to be walled by Ferrothorn and no grass knot because quagsire with latios and volcarona which will be introducted later.

P.S If someone gets the reference in Metagross nickname you are my hero :)

Volcarona @ Lum Berry
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Giga Drain
- Flamethrower
- Quiver Dance

Volcarona has been a very fun poke too use on my sand teams lately. The reason for its ev spread because I wanted to outspeed scarf Lando_t after a quiver dance. Flamethrower is to ensure I kill scarf Lando-T after rocks. Hidden power ground is so Volcarona doesn't get walled by Heatran. Because of its bulk, Lum Berry and Quiver Dance it can set on bulky water types like Rotom-W, Quagsire, Slowbro etc...
Also its main job is to handle steel types life Ferrothorn and Skarmory that walls half of this team.

Latios (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Draco Meteor

So on everyone of my sand team(okay all my teams) I want to make sure I have a way to deal with breloom with focus sash in a way that I dont have to sach a poke or make a poke sleep fodder. Latios here takes that role with its lum berry. Initially it was specs latios but then I realised some game mechanics around Choice items + Sleep talk that actually didnt help me so I change it to a calm Mind set to give it nearly the same power. HP Fire is mainly for steel types since they kinda wall half my the team.

Tyranitar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse/Taunt
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock

Tyranitar Is here Because I wanted to add the sand rush Combo with Excadrill. I chose Special Hazard T-Tar because Physical T-Tar wasnt working with the team well enough because T-Tar was being Will-O-Wisp'd alot. Also Ice beam and fire blast does alot of damage and potential OK pokes like Ferrothorn, Gliscor, Landorus Skarmory and Scizor/Mega Scizor. The reason i chose focus sash instead of smooth rock was so it survive a hit and deal damage and the extra 3 turns of sand can do more harm then good i rely on the sand rush combo. Taunt can be used instead of dark pulse to have better hazard control and most people dont suspect Tyranitar to have Taunt.

Shoutouts to Analytic for the idea to add taunt onto Tyranitar since I got the idea from his Altaria sand team

Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake

Excadrill Here is pretty much the standard set. I usually like to use Jolly excadrill on my sand team so I wouldnt risk speed ties with Adamant drill but I really needed the extra offensive power so I can handle against stall pokes like chansey and scarf Lando-t because their threats too this team. Also, Excadrill really helps against birdspam since it outspeeds most birds in the sand and rock slide is an almost guaranteed 1HKO against Talonflame unless it miss. Then you just cry lol.

-1 252+ Atk Life Orb Excadrill Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 24 Def Landorus-T: 136-161 (42.6 - 50.4%) -- 1.6% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Excadrill Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 320-376 (49.8 - 58.5%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO

Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Superpower
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave

Thundurus main role on this is as a special attaker to deal with bulky water types and pokes like skarmory so Zard Y didnt have the pressure to get rid of threats to sand alone. The reason for superpower instead of Focus blast is A. It hurts the soul when focus blast miss don't you dare say other wise and B. It has a good potential to 2hko Chansey. Thundurus helps against Bird spam. Proirity T-Wave helps me gain the speed advantage and help me revenge kill against set uo sweepers. TBH when i was building the team I really i added Thundurus because i wanted something that can handle Mega Gyarados even if it setted up or not so thundy can either kill it or ensure the revenge kill.

Replays:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-218219992
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-218216058
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-216892009 Peaked Match
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-216890218
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-216854723
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-216875255 Vs Draco Ninja's Metagross Team

Importable

MK_III (Metagross-Mega) @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Ice Punch
- Hammer Arm
- Zen Headbutt

Excadrill (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Tyranitar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock

Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Superpower
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave

Latios (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Draco Meteor

Volcarona @ Lum Berry
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Giga Drain
- Flamethrower
- Quiver Dance

In Conclusion, I hope people like this team and any thoughts on improving it is very appreciated. I think this team needs alot more work. Have a nice day everyone.

P.S any grammar erroes I apologize in advance.

 

[Scotti]

Hey cool team, but I have a few changes. On volcorona Fiery Dance > Flamethrower. I am pretty sure your running flamethrower, because you want a move strong enough to kill lando-t without missing. However flamethrower is pretty meh. Fiery Dance is a lot better than flamethrower, because you have a 50% chance of getting an attack boost, which means more kills overall. However if your worrying about power, then imo go fire blast. Fire blast gets a lot more kills then both flamethrower and fiery dance and is the superior choice overall. This is like scald and hydro pump with surf in the middle. Surf has more power than scald and better accuracy then hydro pump, but is generally passed up because scald has a great affect and hydro pump has great power. That latios set is pretty fucking weird and truthfully I am not a fan of it. Looking at your team you say you run hp fire, because steel types wall your team. However, you have 4 mons that hit steel for super effective damage, so I recommend you replace hp fire with roost because keldeo shits on your team if latios is weakened.. Because you have roost, I recommend running life orb over lum berry. This will allow you to break through defensive teams easier. Eh I am very iffy on the tyranitar set. Like I dont mind lead tar that, but your missing out on tyranitars best qualities. Its amazing physical attack, its amazing bulk, and pursuit. I really recommend running smooth rock spdef ttar, as you can abuse excadrill to the fullest. Also excadrill makes an amazing revenge killer in sand, so having smooth rock is also helpful. You also get destroyed by talonflame, with your only check being thundurus, so being bulkier helps a hell of a lot. The final change I recommend, is running fire blast slowbro over thundy. Slowbro makes a great lure to steel types and it keeps you from getting fucking 6-0d by excadrill. Opposing sand rush excadrill fucks the shit out of you. You pretty much lose unless your opponent is horrible as shit. Slowbro makes an amazing check to life orb slowbro and a great lure for steel types.I will post the set down below :3

sets

sets

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Fire Blast
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave

Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Pursuit
- Rock Slide
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock

hope i helped.

 

[Terry24]

Hey cool team, but I have a few changes. On volcorona Fiery Dance > Flamethrower. I am pretty sure your running flamethrower, because you want a move strong enough to kill lando-t without missing. However flamethrower is pretty meh. Fiery Dance is a lot better than flamethrower, because you have a 50% chance of getting an attack boost, which means more kills overall. However if your worrying about power, then imo go fire blast. Fire blast gets a lot more kills then both flamethrower and fiery dance and is the superior choice overall. This is like scald and hydro pump with surf in the middle. Surf has more power than scald and better accuracy then hydro pump, but is generally passed up because scald has a great affect and hydro pump has great power. That latios set is pretty fucking weird and truthfully I am not a fan of it. Looking at your team you say you run hp fire, because steel types wall your team. However, you have 4 mons that hit steel for super effective damage, so I recommend you replace hp fire with roost because keldeo shits on your team if latios is weakened.. Because you have roost, I recommend running life orb over lum berry. This will allow you to break through defensive teams easier. Eh I am very iffy on the tyranitar set. Like I dont mind lead tar that, but your missing out on tyranitars best qualities. Its amazing physical attack, its amazing bulk, and pursuit. I really recommend running smooth rock spdef ttar, as you can abuse excadrill to the fullest. Also excadrill makes an amazing revenge killer in sand, so having smooth rock is also helpful. You also get destroyed by talonflame, with your only check being thundurus, so being bulkier helps a hell of a lot. The final change I recommend, is running fire blast slowbro over thundy. Slowbro makes a great lure to steel types and it keeps you from getting fucking 6-0d by excadrill. Opposing sand rush excadrill fucks the shit out of you. You pretty much lose unless your opponent is horrible as shit. Slowbro makes an amazing check to life orb slowbro and a great lure for steel types.I will post the set down below :3

sets

sets

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Fire Blast
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave

Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Pursuit
- Rock Slide
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock

hope i helped.

Thank you for your reply its really helpful the only thing i dont agree with is the Life orb>Lum berry on latios because i really need something to lead with sash lead breloom without going having to sack or decide sleep fodder becayse that ca really destroy my momentum especially if breloom leads. So if you have any other ideas on how to deal with that it will be really appreciated.

 

[Leftiez]

Hey there, thats a cool team you got here, i really like your volcarona set because im using same on my team, im using some pokemon that can pressure latios/latias like this i can handle it even without bug buzz. Tbh your team is solid overall considering that you're using HO and you're forced to use check/revenge killer but there is a big weakness in your team and i'll help you to fix it obviously.

-As i said before you got a big weakness that you cant event handle except you wins tie, yeah im talking about excadrill that can just annoy you, assuming that you can still try to lure it with tyranitar, thats clearly not enough and is pretty risky because it means you have to sac one pokemon everytime it get in and since you're playing tyranitar you cant really prevent it from getting sandstorm up. Well i cant really suggest you to swap thundurus because he's actually a solid glue against offense and he can still be one of your check to landorus-i if latios die (i mean if you're opponent is playing ttar or metagross pursuit which are pretty comon) or at least gliscor SD, thats why i don't really agree with scotti's change (sorry) because when adding slowbro you're just making the team worst against thing like landorus (only one ground resist) and you're also removing his zard y revenge killer if latios die to ttar/metagross/Bisharp pursuit, plus slowbro make you weaker to bisharp while you're p weak against it. So i'd suggest to swap Tyranitar with mixed wall hippowdon, actually hippowdon is very useful to your team because he's acting as a glue to your main weakness which are excadrill/bisharp. I know that Tyranitar was your lure but with theorymoning you can notice that all those thing you mentionned such as ferrothorn/skarmory/scizor/gliscor/lando are setup bait for Thundurus/Volcarona which is very good for you, so you don't really need to lure them, and then with the mixed one you can also check gengar as much as possible (Tyranitar couldnt do it because OHKO'd by focus blast) and kill it with rock slide or stone edge and it's also still safer against charizard y.

252 SpA Life Orb Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 112 SpD Hippowdon: 192-227 (45.7 - 54%) -- 3.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 112 SpD Hippowdon: 195-229 (46.4 - 54.5%) -- 6.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

- Since you're pretty Keldeo weak i'd swap Hp fire with roost which can give you enough longevity for Keldeo or thing like Rotom/Zard Y.

i hope i helped and good luck next ;]

Hippowdon

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide/Stone edge/Toxic
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock

 

[GeeMick]

Hey,
Volcarona Sand is pretty nice to run because Volcarona sets up on the bulky grasse & steels that trouble the playstyle to an extent and also lures some dater types like Keldeo which can become pretty hard to check given the amount of pressure it applies. I'll just suggest a few changes you could want to consider, and which might make this team's matchup a bit better against some archetypes/structures.

• I definitely stand for Scotti's proposal of changing Tyranitar to a Smooth Rock Specially Defensive set. What's more, running Pursuit on it would be really beneficial to your team's functionment, as it allows Volcarona to sweep much more easily, its most common counters being trapped by Tyranitar (this is also the one reason that makes this set, in my opinion, vastly superior to the Bug Buzz one). This Tyranitar can run a set of Stealth Rock - Stone Edge - Pursuit - Ice Beam/Fire Blast/Crunch/Earthquake.
• I understand that Metagross is checked by Rocky Helmet Garchomp and defensive Lando-T, but a set with Grass Knot > Ice Punch (Hasty nature) seems to fit much better, as without it, Hippowdon just walls your whole team, and it's one of, if not the most common component of the defensive backbone of balance teams in this metagame, as well as Slowbro being annoying as hell to deal with without Grass Knot. Which bring me to my next two points :
• I've never really understood the use of T-Wave Thundurus on Sand offense builds. Whilie it is an amazing pokemon on this teams, I feel like you would benefit so much from running Nasty Plot over Thunder Wave. This allows you to litterally smack balance builds, and in particular smash Hippowdon at +2, as well as making SDef Roost Mega-Scizor unable to stall you out, among other perks.
• If you choose to go with Nasty Plot on Thundurus (which you really should in my opinion), you don't need to lure in Hippowdon quite as much, which might allow you to keep Ice Punch without being troubled by Hippowdon. This is really good because your team pretty much loses to any Rock Polish Landorus-I + Tyranitar build, and Ice Punch denies Landorus any set up chance. Alternatively Bullet Punch is another option in this slot to KO Landurus and overall a lot of offensive threats with Stab + BP.
• With RP Lando-I being such a threat to your team because your two checks to it get eliminated relatively easily, consider going Jolly > Adamant on Excadrill to outspeed +2 Modest Landorus-I under the sand, and putting it in range of a priority move (which might be another reason to run BP on Metagross).
• Pretty creative Latios set, I do quite like it, I don't really know if you need double Lum Berry but I understand the huge threat that Rock Tomb Breloom is. However running Roost > HP Fire seems pretty important since, as Scotti previously stated, it is your only Keldeo switchin, and considering the amount of free switches it's going to get against Tyranitar, that change seems pretty important as well.

This team reminds me of one I built some weeks ago, and I do quite like the Volcarona + Sand + Thundy core, I came up with something rather similar (this was a pretty bad team and it was made for the former suspect ladder and is thus completely smashed by Metagross, but you get the idea).

 

[Terry24]

Hey,
Volcarona Sand is pretty nice to run because Volcarona sets up on the bulky grasses, steel that trouble the playstyle to an extent and also lures some Water types like Keldeo which can become pretty hard to check given the amount of pressure it applies. I'll just suggest a few changes you could want to consider, and which might make this team's matchup a bit better against some archetypes/structures.

• I definitely stand for Scotti's proposal of changing Tyranitar to a Smooth Rock Specially Defensive set. What's more, running Pursuit on it would be really beneficial to your team's functionment, as it allows Volcarona to sweep much more easily, its most common counters being trapped by Tyranitar (this is also the one reason that makes this set, in my opinion, vastly superior to the Bug Buzz one). This Tyranitar can run a set of Stealth Rock - Stone Edge - Pursuit - Ice Beam/Fire Blast/Crunch/Earthquake.
• I understand that Metagross is checked by Rocky Helmet Garchomp and defensive Lando-T, but a set with Grass Knot > Ice Punch (Hasty nature) seems to fit much better, as without it, Hippowdon just walls your whole team, and it's one of, if not the most common component of the defensive backbone of balance teams in this metagame, as well as Slowbro being annoying as hell to deal with without Grass Knot. Which bring me to my next two points :
• I've never really understood the use of T-Wave Thundurus on Sand offense builds. Whilie it is an amazing pokemon on this teams, I feel like you would benefit so much from running Nasty Plot over Thunder Wave. This allows you to litterally smack balance builds, and in particular smash Hippowdon at +2, as well as making SDef Roost Mega-Scizor unable to stall you out, among other perks.
• If you choose to go with Nasty Plot on Thundurus (which you really should in my opinion), you don't need to lure in Hippowdon quite as much, which might allow you to keep Ice Punch without being troubled by Hippowdon. This is really good because your team pretty much loses to any Rock Polish Landorus-I + Tyranitar build, and Ice Punch denies Landorus any set up chance. Alternatively Bullet Punch is another option in this slot to KO Landurus and overall a lot of offensive threats with Stab + BP.
• With RP Lando-I being such a threat to your team because your two checks to it get eliminated relatively easily, consider going Jolly > Adamant on Excadrill to outspeed +2 Modest Landorus-I under the sand, and putting it in range of a priority move (which might be another reason to run BP on Metagross).
• Pretty creative Latios set, I do quite like it, I don't really know if you need double Lum Berry but I understand the huge threat that Rock Tomb Breloom is. However running Roost > HP Fire seems pretty important since, as Scotti previously stated, it is your only Keldeo switchin, and considering the amount of free switches it's going to get against Tyranitar, that change seems pretty important as well.

This team reminds me of one I built some weeks ago, and I do quite like the Volcarona + Sand + Thundy core, I came up with something rather similar (this was a pretty bad team and it was made for the former suspect ladder and is thus completely smashed by Metagross, but you get the idea).

Well thunder wave is to make revenge killing pokes like mega gyarados because if I let mega gyarados get too plus 2 in speed then I just lose. Also it really helps me gain offensive momuntem back if Im losing it. But I do see your point.

 

[Leftiez]

• With RP Lando-I being such a threat to your team because your two checks to it get eliminated relatively easily, consider going Jolly > Adamant on Excadrill to outspeed +2 Modest Landorus-I under the sand, and putting it in range of a priority move (which might be another reason to run BP on Metagross).

You're rite about the landorus weakness but as you can see, it cant find any way to setup a rock polish here assuming excadrill hard hit it with iron head and tyranitar is still running ice beam.

 

[GeeMick]

You're rite about the landorus weakness but as you can see, it cant find any way to setup a rock polish here assuming excadrill hard hit it with iron head and tyranitar is still running ice beam.

Yeah definitely, even though it theoretically can at full health on non IP/non BP Metagross.

 

[Leftiez]

Yeah definitely, even though it theoretically can at full health on non IP/non BP Metagross.

I totally agree on the fact that bullet punch is needed here tho, since you can just revenge kill it if iron head doesnt kill (i mean full life landorus) or something like that.