SANDard Offense (Peaked #1, 1511 points)

Hey Smogon, just going to post my team here so it can get some comments and suggestions. It's done pretty well on the ladder, peaking at over 1500 points about a week ago and it's the reason I got on the UU Senate probably. It's based on what is probably the most overused and effective team archetype in the metagame right now, Support Roserade and a sweeper core of Stoutland and Alakazam. Well, here's the team:




Sand Mon (Hippowdon) @ Leftovers
252 HP, 252 Defense, 4 Special Defense
Relaxed Nature
-Earthquake
-Stealth Rock
-Slack Off
-Roar

We start with the universal UU Sandstorm starter: Hippowdon. Unlike the previous metagame's Hippopotas, Hippowdon has utility besides setting up the Storm. Hippowdon has amazing Physical bulk and allows the team to take some of the tougher hits in the metagame such as Stoutland's Return, Flygon's everything, Snorlax's everything, and most of Rhyperior's attacks. Without Hippowdon's bulk, this team would be a lot less effective. Against another Sand team or a nonweather team, I play Hippowdon more liberally, using him mostly just to Phaze and set up SR without as much regard to whether he lives or not unless the opponent's Stoutland becomes threatening. However this team does pretty well against Stoutland so again Hippowdon isn't critical to defeating opposing Sand teams. The Stealth Rocks this Pokemon sets up are invaluable to the team, however.



DA BIG NIG (Alakazam) @ Murder Orb
What the fuck do you THINK the EVs are?
-"Timid" Nature
-Psyrape (Psychic, not Psyshock)
-Focus Miss
-Shadow Ball
-Substitute

Okay, so I needed something to kill everything, and then I used Alakazam, and I killed everything. Basically since this is a Sand team, people love leading with their Roserades and Machamps and other stupid shit. So I lead with this boss and immediately capture the momentum. If Alakazam gets a Substitute up and the opponent doesn't have a Sableye (who is an asshole), I'm getting a kill, simple as that. Most good teams have a Pursuiter, so try to keep that Sub up. I chose Life Orb over wimpy ass Focus Sash because why would you want Alakazam as a revenge killer when it manhandles the entire freaking metagame with Life Orb?



Death Dog (Stoutland) @ Choice Band
If you can't guess the EVs please stop rating my team
ADAMANT NATURE (+ATTACK, -WHO THE HELL CARES)
-Return
-Crunch
-Fire Fang
-Pursuit

Okay, so this thing is a boss. It's basically what you get if you feed Chuck Norris Uranium-238 and then light him on fire or some shit like that. No, but really either this guy or Alakazam is the star of the show. Reutrn is chosen over Frustration because though this guy will kill you and everything you hold dear in a matter of nanoseconds, he's a lover, not a fighter. Crunch beats Ghosts that think this Pokemon is wallable, Fire Fang shits on that asshole snail (Escavalier), and Pursuit makes this thing 25% Krookodile (in that it can revenge Alakazam). What's great about this Pokemon is that it works so well with hazard support, but unfortunately this team has no Spikes.



Sexy Flower Thing? (Roserade) @ Leftovers
252 HP, 120 Def, 136 Special Defense
Calm Nature
-Spikes
-Sludge Bomb
-Giga Drain
-Rest

(if you really thought a UU team didn't have Spikes please play the metagame for about eight seconds)
Okay, so let's stop with the high-powered assault Pokemon and take it slow for a minute. There is a reason that Roserade is on every team and that's because it works. Only problem is that it has worse four-moveslot syndrome than Thundurus and Excadrill combined. Sludge Bomb is nice to hit other Roserade, but it has no Sleep Powder but it needs Giga Drain but then it has no Toxic Spikes but it needs to have Rest, etc. However though her role is limited mainly to setting up Spikes, she does it well. Even one layer of Spikes is another 12.5% taken, and once you have to start switching into multi-layers plus Stealth Rock you should just call yourself Stoutland chow. Giga Drain and Sludge Bomb provide good enough coverage, as if Alakazam switches into either then he'll be in Stoutland's KO range.



Lurk Moar (Golurk) @ Leftovers
208 HP, 252 Attack, 48 Speed
Adamant Nature, Iron Fist ability
-Substitute
-Focus Punch
-Earthquake
-Shadow Punch

Golurk is a Ghost who isn't affected by Sandstorm. Unfortunately that's about the only reason I use him, as he's not bulky enough to withstand hits and not strong enough to kill things. However, though he rarely beats Rapid Spinners, he does weaken them enough so they can't Spin, and that's good enough for me. If he can get the opponent's Donphan to 30%, Roserade will put Donphan between a rock and a hard place. If Blastoise wants to come in, he's going to 1. Switch into hazards, 2. have to take a Quake and then 3. Switch back into hazards. Good luck Spinning then Asstoise. I wish Golurk was just a little better so it could pull its weight a little more, but he jstu barely accomplishes what it has to.



Actually Bulky Water! (Milotic) @ Leftovers
252 HP, 248 Def, 8 Speed
Bold nature
-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Recover
-Toxic

Okay, people are out there with their Asstoise and their Suicoon and their Shitbro and other stuff, but this guy is the real. mother. fucking. deal. Only one supposedly bulky Water has good MIXED bulk, recovery that doesn't force you to go to Sleep and waste two moveslots, and still enough room for a coverage move and that's Milotic. I run Toxic over Haze because Hippowdon can Roar most things and Stoutland outspeeds like everything even if they set up so I really didn't see the point. Toxic allows this guy to beat other Milotic and doesn't leave me fucked against Sableye. You can see Sableye really does a number against this team. Milotic is the Sableye slayer on this team, as he can both Burn (Scald always burns btw, the 30% is a typo) or Poison the Prankster. Without status, Sableye WILL wall this team so it's important to get Milotic in ASAP. He really doesn't care for WoW burns as then he gets to Marvel Scale the opponent's ass.


Okay so that's my team. It's pretty good IMO but can probably get better and that's where you bosses come in. So rate it and remember Sableye is an asshole, Alakazam's not broken and Sand is really fucking good. Also fuck Rain teams.

EDIT: This team was not based off, stolen from, or had anything to do with Scoopapa's team. I didn't even know Scoopapa posted his team until WhiteQueen posted it. And I don't claim to have created Sand offense, but this team isn't stolen...

Ah yes I played against this team at least 3 times and I remember distinctly how the battles turned out. Stoutland comes out, I send in CB Rhyperior, something dies to Earthquake.

There is a very simple fix for that though, just use Mismagius (Bulky or not) over Golurk. This will allow you to actually have a fighting chance at beating teams with Rhyperior.

Otherwise, I think if the opponent has no Rhyperior that you leave them no chance with your well-built cores. Good job!

Not much to say tbh, since obviously this team is fantastic lol. Nicepresentation too, made me grin a couple of times. Just one question, why relaxed on hippowdon? wouldn't impish be better in every way?

unless it's so that sand goes up before hail against obamasnow...

Oh I think it is Impish I just typo'd there. I'll definitely test Missy over Golurk as I know Golurk's my weakest link.

very original and good sand team good job

this is pretty much a copy of scoopapa's sand team...with some minor changes.

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3454546

the uu master has learned uu sand tends to look similar ^^ :o

yeah they're all the same and have the exact same core. but congrats nonetheless! #1 is not an easy feat, unless you're me lol

btw, i am not hating on you lolcat. this is an awesome team. i just hate sand teams (especially ones this good) in general for obvious reason :)

fuck haters, this is a great team

you get style points for using milotic, the best bulky water in uu

my only change would be to suggest switching stoutlands set to life orb + retaliate/return/crunch/wild charge, you get a revenge hit the size of jupiter and dont get walled by fucking empoleon, since milotic already shits on that asshole snail ;)

Well done becoming number 1! I can only imagine how much time you must have spent on hold.

But my Sableye is drooling over the prospect of going Home Alone all over your team, and I'd be surprised if that Milotic stood in its way. The easiest change I could imagine, which doesn't really remedy gem-eye's ability to cripple or defeat two-thirds of your team or more, is to modify Roserade's offensive capabilities. Without altering her EVs, Roserade can OHKO Sableye with a LO Leaf Storm (100.7% - 118.8% on 252/252+), so by sacrificing some bulk by ditching Leftovers and Giga Drain, you gain a true counter to that lovely little pest.

yeah me and pk made a really similar team except with snorlax over milotic. It did decently but you really hit the nail on the head with this, so congrats!

Regardless, I've found that my (and by default, yours) version of this has a big weakness to CB Escavalier, who pretty much does whatever he wants when he comes in on the right attack. Bugs in general are annoying, but escavaliers probably the biggest threat. atm there really isn't much you can do because that's literally probably this team's only big weakness. Only thing I can see happening is putting HP Fire over one Roserade's STAB moves so you can bash it, but then you lose on coverage on other stuff. Really a pick your weakness kind of thing, hey its uu :p

Lol, it looks like all are ending to the same conclusion about teambuiliding a sand team. I said that, because i have a similar sand team but using sableye instead of golurk. It's probably doesn't matter, since i don't think anybody is copying teams (for god's sake),but it's curious xD

Anyways, pretty decent team, nothing important to suggest, i haven't played for 2 weeks so i don't know what things are the most used now (i suppose there haven't been many changes in the using stats though).

Congratulations.

Excellent team! It pretty much shows how effective sand is in UU. As the previous comment said, you lack a ground weakness and, with Stoutland, CB Rhyperior spamming Earthquake might be a huge issue. You can try a Bulky Mismagius over Golurk. While it's still OHKOed by Stone Edge, you should switch-in Hippowdon on Rhyperior first, then send it only if they're locked into Earthquake.

Good luck!

Yeah, I'm definitely going to test out a bulky Mismagius, the only concern I have is now I have a bigger Snorlax weakness but I guess that can't be helped.

I don't think you'd be that weak to lax, especially if you use Taunt + Will-o on Missy. Seems to me like Crocune would be a big threat though, so you might want to try either Haze on Milotic or give Zam Encore over sub.