ORAS OU The Sleepy Sands (Mega Ampharos Sand Team)

[CashKP]

Hey everyone. YKP or YoungKingPat here and this is my first RMT :) Little background about myself, I used to be a big OU player in gen 5 and I think I peaked at #20 something on the ladder or maybe the higher teens. After that I really liked OMs (other metas) and I started playing and laddering those. Thats where I made almost all of my friends on showdown and I still hang out in the OM room everyday so feel free to stop in and say hi. So anyway I had a bunch of life stuff going on (school, lacrosse, girlfriend) and Ive been afk for about 8 months or so but now I have time and I'm trying out ORAS. Anyway here is the team I've been playing and climbing really well during the suspect.

Member #1 - Slowbro

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

So we start off with a purely physically defensive Slowbro. I really like Slowbro as a defensive wall with utility and reliable recovery. Basically I use this to check things like Mega Bunny or Mega Gross and then either t-wave them so the rest of my team can kill them or spam scald to try to get burns. It also checks Talonflame and Zard-X (as long as you switch it in right away or it will get 2hkoed by dragon claw at +1). So yeah beside that regenerator is a ridiculously good ability and allows a little wiggle room in case you need to take a big hit or make a bad prediction. I'm not 100% sure about ice beam but it helps me hit grass types and it hits thunderous hard so that's why I went with that.

Member #2 - Tornadus-Therian

Tornadus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 132 HP / 160 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave

Next off we have regenevest Tornadus-T. So Torn pretty much functions as a bulky pivot and a utility mon. It has some HP investment to make it bulkier along with assault vest to give it special defense. Its not supposed to be a wall or anything. Just more of a stall/pivot/utility kind of deal. Then regenerator on top of that really helps it switch in over and over and stay healthy. It has 216 speed to make the speed 365 which outspeeds base 115 +speed nature. The rest of the evs are in special attack because those are the attacks that are meant to kill/dent things. Hurricane is standard obviously, STAB and hits super hard. Also the confusion hax sometimes really help out. Heat wave is basically on here to kill Ferrothorn and Skarm. Lots of people try to send those in because they predict U-turn and sometimes you can catch them and kill those annoying walls. Then I'm using u-turn as a pivot move and knock off as a utility move. I know I'm running -attack nature but those moves aren't really for damage, they are for utility and Id rather not lose any bulk.

Member #3 - Hippowdon

Hippowdon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off

Pretty normal hippo. I made it full physically defensive because I think my team needed that more then anything else. It mostly has to check Bisharp or physically attacking Aegislash. Big thing is that it sets up sand which is a very important win con for this team. You DO NOT want to lose hippo unless it sets you up for a guaranteed win. So basically this just sets up rocks and sand while spreading toxic on switches. Slack off is to heal to get more sand and earthquake is to hit mostly Aegislash and other Excadrills, which this team would be weak too. I've considered running smooth rock on this to get extra sand turns but I'm not sure if that's worth trading the lefty health for. Its also shiny because I like the grey more then the normal color :)

Member #4 - Excadrill

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

So another pretty standard but very effective set. Many games this is my late game sweeper and my win con. I have life orb adamant on here to hit as hard as possible because sand is boosting my speed enough to outspeed pretty much anything I need to. However since this is life orb, it has limited hits and needs to be conserved. So I have all the normal coverage moves and spin. To be honest this team isn't that weak to rocks so I don't even always spin them if i don't have to. However, I need a way to deal with spike stacking so that's what spin is for. So basically try to keep this in the back and pivot into it to pick up kills once things start getting worn down. I also made this shiny because the shiny colors remind me of the 90's hah

Member #5 - Aegislash

Aegislash (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Atk / 172 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Head Smash
- King's Shield
- Shadow Ball

Next up is the suspect itself. I never actually played while this thing was in OU so I have no idea what it was like back then. So I decided that I should try it out now. I had no idea what set to really run on it so I pretty much just took the one that Joey was using in one of his videos. Max HP because that's all it really needs to be bulky and the rest is into mixed attack. Kings Shield is pretty obvious, good for defensive stuff and then shadow sneak gives me some priority which I am lacking on this team. Head Smash is just a gimmick hah Ill probably run flash cannon over it soon because that's going to be better for sure. Another point is that Aegi doesn't take sand damage and has a protect move which is good for stalling a bit of damage.

Member #6 - Mega Ampharos

Ampharos (M) @ Ampharosite
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 28 SpA / 232 SpD
Calm Nature
- Volt Switch
- Dragon Pulse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

So far this team isn't unique or anything but this is the twist. RestTalk specially defensive Ampharos. So some people may be wondering how in the world this fits on a sand team but I would argue that its one of the more important members and Ill tell you why. So start out as normal Ampharos, we have static. Static is actually a good ability or at least its decent. I've actually gotten quite a few paras from it taking u-turns and fake outs. Then since it is slow, it doesn't need anything from its mega beside that bulk. So you can basically mega any time you want. Now this forms a volt-turn core with Torn and on top of that, we have mold breaker volt switch which will even go through volt absorb. So the main is purpose of this is to beat other weather. Lets look at the mons that set up weather on switch in. Politoad and Zard Y. Both of these get hard walled and basically destroyed by volt switch. And toad switches into mega pert 100% of the time so its an easy double :) So Mega Ampharos is really good threatening out / killing other weather starters and getting us momentum. Rest is for recovery and sleep talk is to get damage off or switch out while resting.


So yeah that's the whole team. Basically the overall goal is pivot around and keep up momentum while slowly wearing the other team down. Its sand and volt turn and bulk all in one. The games are a little long which is annoying to some players but a lot of times other players will just leave out of frustration so that speeds things up hah so I hope you like the team and please give it a rate and let me know what I could improve or change. Thanks for reading!

PS - For threats the only thing that absolutely wrecked me so far is Mega-Gyarados with crunch. Dont really have much for it

Importable-
Ampharos (M) @ Ampharosite
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 28 SpA / 232 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Dragon Pulse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Tornadus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 132 HP / 160 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Thunder Wave
- Slack Off

Hippowdon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off

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

Aegislash (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Atk / 172 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Head Smash
- King's Shield
- Shadow Ball

 

[Ryfi110]

Just a question... have you tried Manectric > Ampharos? If one of the only reasons for using Mega Amph is to form a Voltturn core, nothing can do it better than Manectric. It outspeeds the unboosted/unscarfed metagame with the exception of Mega Lopunny (Hawlucha? Havent seen too many, if this is the case). And no one is going to leave their Hawlucha in on Manectric, post evo.

 

[CashKP]

Just a question... have you tried Manectric > Ampharos? If one of the only reasons for using Mega Amph is to form a Voltturn core, nothing can do it better than Manectric. It outspeeds the unboosted/unscarfed metagame with the exception of Mega Lopunny (Hawlucha? Havent seen too many, if this is the case). And no one is going to leave their Hawlucha in on Manectric, post evo.

Well the thing is that I play this team kind of like stall, thats why I am using Ampharos. So if I used Manectric I think it would get worn down from sand + rocks and end up hurting me since I cant wish pass to it.

I think I might try to make a variation of this team thats more offensive though so ill try Manectric on it. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[motherlove]

Just a question... have you tried Manectric > Ampharos? If one of the only reasons for using Mega Amph is to form a Voltturn core, nothing can do it better than Manectric. It outspeeds the unboosted/unscarfed metagame with the exception of Mega Lopunny (Hawlucha? Havent seen too many, if this is the case). And no one is going to leave their Hawlucha in on Manectric, post evo.

Manectric can't really switch in on charY or politoed.

 

[Grimlock00]

I've notice that you have no dark or ghost resists. That's could be a huge problem seeing you have two dark weak mons on your team.(just thank the gods greninja a got banned). For an example, hydreigon(can't think of any ou mon ATM.) can destroy excadrill with fire blast, Draco meteor ampharos, take a chunk out of aegislash, OHKO slowbro, and come out smiling unless Aegislash can sacred sword it.
You could swap Hippowdon for Tyranitar, as you already have 3 steel resists, two fighting resists, ground immunity, fairy resist, and 2 water resists. Tyranitar can set rocks also and in addition to its defense typing, it's stab rock and crunch can add much needed coverage. Unfortunately, Ttar obviously can't recover, so if stall is a necessity, then you would have to stick with hippowdon or give ttar an assault vest set.

Also: I noticed you had 3 psychic resists already.

 

[Ryfi110]

Manectric can't really switch in on charY or politoed.

One of his two reasons was his ability to form voltturn. Manectric isnt made to come in on stuff. It does its voltturn thing, and it does it well.

 

[Grimlock00]

One of his two reasons was his ability to form voltturn. Manectric isnt made to come in on stuff. It does its voltturn thing, and it does it well.

Dragon typing helps absorb grass, fire, and water that could overwhelm slowbro in his case. Also do you hear stall? Mega Manectric is crap at that.

 

[CashKP]

I've notice that you have no dark or ghost resists. That's could be a huge problem seeing you have two dark weak mons on your team.(just thank the gods greninja a got banned). For an example, hydreigon(can't think of any ou mon ATM.) can destroy excadrill with fire blast, Draco meteor ampharos, take a chunk out of aegislash, OHKO slowbro, and come out smiling unless Aegislash can sacred sword it.
You could swap Hippowdon for Tyranitar, as you already have 3 steel resists, two fighting resists, ground immunity, fairy resist, and 2 water resists. Tyranitar can set rocks also and in addition to its defense typing, it's stab rock and crunch can add much needed coverage. Unfortunately, Ttar obviously can't recover, so if stall is a necessity, then you would have to stick with hippowdon or give ttar an assault vest set.

Also: I noticed you had 3 psychic resists already.

Yeah I noticed this the other day too and Ive been considering trying TTar but I'm not sure how it would go. I'm going to test it out when I have some time. Id probably run like smooth rock on it and just try to play it more carefully. Thanks for the suggestion

 

[CashKP]

One of his two reasons was his ability to form voltturn. Manectric isnt made to come in on stuff. It does its voltturn thing, and it does it well.

Yeah but both the reasons are important. I need the defensive stats, its core to the team.

 

[CashKP]

Well since Aegi didnt make it down to OU (RIP) does anyone have any suggestions on what might be a good mon to use in its place?

 

[YUNG GOAT]

Scarf Keldeo looks like it could be a good replacement for aegi because it can stop Mega Gyara at +1 and the water coverage helps you a lot to hurt neutral switch ins. Although Keldeo does not do as much for your team as Aegi I think the only way to adapt this team too replace aegi is to change it a lot.

gl

 

[YUNG GOAT]

Importable?

 

[CashKP]

Scarf Keldeo looks like it could be a good replacement for aegi because it can stop Mega Gyara at +1 and the water coverage helps you a lot to hurt neutral switch ins. Although Keldeo does not do as much for your team as Aegi I think the only way to adapt this team too replace aegi is to change it a lot.

gl

Thanks, Ill try that out and I posted an importable (with aegi so you just need to change that to whatever you want)

 

[Dee Train]

I like the concept alot, perhaps Swords Dance over rapid spin on Excadrill..... your team is not particularliy weak to hazards (plenty of resitst, torn is weak but regen mitigates so you could benefit from added sweeping power a sd drill provides... ( Air baloon is nice on sd drill as you can set up on ground types)

 

[CashKP]

I like the concept alot, perhaps Swords Dance over rapid spin on Excadrill..... your team is not particularliy weak to hazards (plenty of resitst, torn is weak but regen mitigates so you could benefit from added sweeping power a sd drill provides... ( Air baloon is nice on sd drill as you can set up on ground types)

Yeah that might be good but I have some problems killing ferro with this team so then I cant stop spikes from getting set up. So I feel like I need the spin in case of that. Im trying to find something for the 6th slot right now so maybe if I can get something that can kill steels or defog or spin then I could change the Excadrill into the SD Sweeping Role