It's pretty obvious now that we need not only another Water resist but also a way to solidly check Electric types and Steel types that can slip through the fingers of Drilbur. Grass types immediately come into mind because they can also check Sand teams- and the nomination of Snover shows that some of us are also thinking in this direction. However, there are some unfavorable issues about Snover that, in my opinion, does not make it the best next pokemon for the team. Its Hail is an extremely double edged sword. Sure, it defeats Sand, but the Hail also harms our own pokemon too- Tirtouga can't rely on its Sturdy as much, and it will find it tough to set up against any opponent like it can outside of Hail. The residual damage also pesters Drilbur, who already lacks recovery, has to switch into hazards repeatedly to remove them, and also has to sponge a few predicted Flash Cannons or Scalds in its conquest to destroy opposing Electric types. Snover's additional weakness to Stealth Rock only amplifies this predicament.
Going along the lines of an offensive Grass type is certainly correct- as they provide valuable resistances and coverage that this team desperately needs. However, we don't want to kill our momentum with a pokemon like Shroomish or Foongus, since they have bulk but not enough power to reliably check Magnemite / Chinchou. Instead, I would like to nominate
Choice Scarf Deerling.
Deerling @ Choice Scarf
Jolly / Sap Sipper
196 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpDef / 236 Spe
Seed Bomb / Jump Kick / Return / Nature Power
Deerling may seem crazy at first, but it has a lot of useful traits that make it an almost perfect match for the team both offensively and defensively. Offensively, it provides the team with Fighting, Grass, Normal, and Ground type coverage- hitting nearly all of our walls (Chinchou, Magnemite, Grimer, Lickitung, Bronzor, Ferroseed, Hippopotas, etc) for super effective OHKO's / 2HKOs. Seed Bomb and Jump Kick is the key- as they hit Water and Steel types quite hard, and can also be used to combat Drilbur / Hippo who lack Bug type coverage. Nature Power rounds off the coverage by nailing Electric types for super effective damage- making Deerling a good offensive check to Magnemite because it doesn't have to take more than one hit to reply back. Jump Kick is good coverage that hits Lickitung, who can pretty much wall the whole team, and orher steels such as Ferroseed or Pawniard. Return is good, powerful STAB that smacks flying types and bug types for a fair amount of damage. Defensively, Deerling also provides a lot. It's a great Sand check even without the double edged sword in Hail- and can check Drilbur and Hippopotas well and even defeat Lileep one v one, something snover can't do. Speaking of bulky Grass types, Deerling beats them all, too, because of its useful ability, Sap Sipper, which lets it wall Shroomish, Foongus, Lileep, Choice Locked Snover, and Cottonee, all of which wall Tirt / Drilly. Deerling provides us with a nice Spore / Stun Spore / Leech Seed 'sponge' that also hits very hard afterwards. Most of all, it resists Electric and Water, letting us use it to solidly help Drilbur check such pokemon.
Since this thread has been dead for a while let's get it kickstarted again. I'll update the thread with the noms tomorrow, so be sure to get your descriptions in or you might be overlooked!! (Nozzle).