My OU Sandstorm team

This is my first post so bear with me please :)

This team has gone through like 5 incarnations to get to where it is now, and I feel it's the best it's going through my ability. Any help is wonderful. I'm fairly new to competetive battling, and this team has only recently been finished after about a dozen games of playing and shuffling pokes

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast

T-Tar has always been my go to lead for the team although at one point he almost lost his spot to Hippowdon. T-Tar is my sand starter and gets the ball rolling. With his naturally high defense, and the EVs in SpD he can take most hits pretty well.

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 232 Def / 252 HP / 24 Spd
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Brave Bird

Skarmory is here for stall, and to set up spikes to compound Stealth Rock on T-Tar. He's also the only team member immune to ground attacks so he's my go to for pokes that threaten with it. Whirlwind is there for damage shuffle, and Brave Bird is for STAB.

Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Spd / 216 Def
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Taunt
- Recover
- Toxic

My main SpD wall and Spin Blocker. Rotom-W held this spot for a bit but was eventually relegated to Jelly. Scald is for STAB and Burn, Taunt stops setup against him as a wall, and Toxic is there to setup against other walls.

Stoutland @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Superpower
- Wild Charge
- Pursuit

My revenge killer. Stoutland out-speeds everything unboosted in the current meta. Main reason I use him is I found a max Atk/Spe Adamant female in White 2 to use in game, and it found its way on to my team. I love this puppy.

Donphan @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Stone Edge
- Ice Shard

Originally this spot was designated for Sandslash to counter spin blockers. After losing Sandslash way too easily I traded him out for Donphan. Donphan has a little more staying power and priority in Ice Shard.


Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Rock Polish
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Lastly Landorus used to be a Nidoking with Sheer Force and a Life Orb, but without a way to boost Nidoking's speed I eventually settled on this guy. Runs rock polish to boost his already deadly speed against the threats he doesn't already beat out. He's basically my late game sweeper, but Soutland has taken to that role much more than I thought it would.

Hi,

Very nice team you have here, I like a lot the use of Donphan, I think it needs more love anyway I have some advice to tell you so let's start with the rate!

Looking at your team, it has a big weakness to Tornadus-T, especially the life orb version, you haven't switch into it and you can only revenge-kill it with Stoutland when sandstorm is up. To solve this weakness, I suggest you to use Special Defensive Rotom-W, replacing Landorus. I'd replace Landorus because it's the most useless pokèmon in your team. I'll post Rotom-W's set below in this same rate. Then, on Tyranitar I'd change Fire Blast into Stone Edge. Fire Blast is quite a useless move in your team because Scizor, Ferrothorn and Forretress don't give you any problem. Stone Edge otherwise can be useful against Volcarona, which is quite problematic for your team after one Quiver Dance, and it's useful against threats like Dragonite and Salamence too. Finally, I'd use Will-O-Wisp, replacing Toxic on Jellicent. Will-O-Wisp hits anyway walls like Blissey, Chansey and Hippowdon but it can also hit other walls like Ferrothorn, Skarmory and Amoonguss so I suggest you to use it.

That's about your team. Here's the set you should use:


Good luck, I hope I helped!

Hi, there

Your team is very weak to Tornadus-T, do not suggest Rotom-W instead of Landorus because otherwise diventeresti weak to Ninetales + + Dugtrio Venusaur, but, I would try to use Latias Calm Minder, instead of Landorus, for several reasons . Putting Rotom-W instead of Landorus, would precisely weak to what was said above, while Latias covers you well both from Tornadus-T that by Sunny Day team.
Now I want to change a little 'more. For example, the spread of Evs Jellicent in this 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Speed ​​and Will-o-Wisp> Toxic this because with Evs in speed exceeds assigned Scizor Choice Bander standard than they could use you have in front Pursuit, so instead the exceed the uses and Will-o-Wisp burning and making it virtually harmless throughout the game.
Also allows you to hit Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Hippowdon Amonguss (that even if you hit it with Toxic, Will-o-Wisp decrease the attack).
Good Luck, with your team!

Set

Hi there,

This is a pretty solid Sand Team you got here, so props for that. Anyway, as for your team, I'd argue that Rain Teams are probably your worst matchup. You look pretty weak to Tornadus-T given that your only Hurricane resists in Skarmory and Tyranitar do not want to switch in, the former in fear of being 2HKO'd by a Specs Hurricane, while Tyranitar fears a Superpower. I think the easiest change to help with this would be to switch Skarmory over to a Specially Defensive set; shift those 232 Defense EVs over to Special Defense and run a Careful Nature. This gives you a buffer for Tornadus-T, as well as helping you out against variants of Latias / Latios. Given that you won't want to keep switching into Tyranitar with hazards up when playing against opposing weather, Skarmory gives you a backup answer to these too. You don't lose out on a lot, as Jellicent + Donphan really gives you insurance against most physical threats.

When looking through your team, I noticed something -- you lack a Scarfer. You might argue Stoutland can function like a Scarfer, but you're not always going to have Sand up all the time. When running some sort of Chlorophyll / Sand Rush Pokemon, I always like to have a Scarfer alongside it just for insurance, so you're not completely helpless against faster threats outside of Sand. The easiest way to implement this into your team would be to change Tyranitar's set to a Choice Scarf set. This helps you beat everything you did before (Latias / Latios / Gengar / Starmie), but you fare much better against similarly fast Pokemon such as Thundurus-T, who you now have some sort of answer for. Tyranitar removes some of Landorus's most common checks making it easier for it to sweep, so I think you'll sweep a lot more consistently if you decide to go with this change.

If you do decide to go with this change, you'll notice that you do lose your Stealth Rock, and you do become a little more prone to being setup fodder for Ferrothorn and friends. To compensate for losing Stealth Rock on Tyranitar, I'd suggest you use Stealth Rock somewhere on Donphan, probably over Stone Edge. Given that Donphan is a great switch-in to a lot of physical attackers, allowing you to get Stealth Rock up easily helping out Landorus during your attempts to sweep. As for the exposed Ferrothorn weakness, I'd highly suggest the use of Will-O-Wisp over Toxic on Jellicent, mainly because now you can shut down Ferrothorn with Taunt + Will-O-Wisp, and a lot of common Jellicent switch-ins, namely Tyranitar, will not appreciate a Will-O-Wisp.

Good luck!

Thanks a lot for all the help so far guys! I went ahead and took the advice of swapping out Jellicent's EVs and added Wil-O-Wisp, changed T-Tar to a scarfer, switched Donphan's Stone Edge with Stealth Rock, and added the Latias.

So far I'm 12-0 since I started playing tonight, even took out someone pushing 1800 (I'm only now pushing 1480).

Once again I appreciate all the help you guys gave me so far, and look forward to contributing more instead of lurking like I have the last few years ;)