An often underrated and consequently under-explored team archetype in the newly forming Ubers metagame is Sand Stream. Sand Stream has several unique features which the two most common weathers, Rain and Sun, lack, giving it a unique niche in the current metagame. The primary boons of Sand Stream are the passive damage it has and the abusers.
Tyranitar, the sand inducer used the most often in Ubers, has a cool niche of being able to check several common, new Uber threats that were released in BW2; furthermore, Tyranitar's Sand Stream gives Tyranitar a massive Special Defense allowing it to check much more than the newly released threats. With the release of Soul Dew from BW2, Lati@s were buffed immensely as they now have fantastic specially-defensive and specially-attacking stats making them one of the most common Kyogre checks currently. Tyranitar can take advantage of the ubiquity of these Pokemon and trap them with Pursuit or Crunch them to death giving an early 6-5. With Lum Berry Tyranitar becomes a fantastic check to several other Pokemon as well. It can switch into Darkrai with ease, or lead against it Turn 1 and tank the Spore and proceed to OHKO it with a fighting-type move. On the same token, a Lum Berry is precious to have versus opposing Ho-Oh's, graced with Regenerator from Dream World, as Tyranitar resists both of it's STAB's, can fight off the burn, and then proceed to OHKO with a Rock-type move. Reshiram, Thundurus, and MewTwo are also checked easily by Tyranitar, the latter being safely checked with a Chople Berry.
Hippowdon is another sand inducer that has a solid place in Ubers, although it is not seen as often. In BW1, more experienced players typically used Hippowdon in Rain teams with its Dream World ability Sand Force. This was good for a few reasons:
- You could run a different forme of Arceus instead of Ground.
- Hippowdon, unlike Groudon, didn't interfere with Kyogre's benefits it gave from Drizzle.
With the release of BW2, a rival came along for the job of a Rain Ground-type, however. Landorus-T has a few advantages over Hippowdon which I personally think make it better suited for the job such as speed to outspeed neutral Base 90's, an immunity to Spikes, better overall bulk, power, and U-turn. With this in mind, Hippowdon's primary, new-found niche is in Sand Stream for team support and checking several different Pokemon than Tyranitar. Hippowdon basically walls as many things Physical and Tyranitar does Special. The most powerful Physical attackers such as SD ExtremeKiller Arceus, Zekrom, and even Groudon succumb to this fat ass. Keep in mind its Sand Stream opens the doors to the beautiful passive damage and the sand abuse, even if it cannot abuse the Sand itself like Tyranitar.
Sand has several upsides while using it.
WIP:
- cores (tyranitar + ogre, tyranitar + ferrothorn + gira)
- EXCADRILL CAN SPIN SPIN WELL WELL
- ARCEUS ROCK
- grass is good too.. but rock man..
- garchomp i guess
- passive damage which sun and rain dont have
- next paragraph for good partnerz
- big girl latias
- faggot vag ferrothorn
- ho-oh ~~~~~~~ <3
- lugia i guess but i dont like it
- dialga sucks
- gastrodon is actually OKAY in sand, try it out!
- CONCLUSION
- sum it all up
- reread since i did this at midnight and my grammar will be terribleeeee
What is your opinion on sand? What are the major assets and downfalls to utilizing it? What are some cool or innovative ideas you have to help further our exploration into this team type?
Discuss!