Sand Stall

So this is my first post, after lurking for quite a while. I started playing competitively about a month ago, using a hail stall team. I decided it was time to upgrade, so I made this. I kinda suck, so I'm posting it here for some advice (since there is no "help me build a better team" forum)


So it wouldn't really be sand stall without sand, would it? I chose to play Hippowdon over Tyranitar because scarf-tar isn't fast enough to revenge kill most of the big treats, doesn't have near as good coverage as Stoutland, and can't take hits well enough to win the weather war. Specially defensive T-tar doesn't have any reliable recovery method (other than leftovers), and I need it to outlast their weather inducer. Hippowdon, on the other hand, is an excellent physical wall, has access to Steath Rock and Slack Off, in addition to scouting with Protect. Putting all my EV's into defense lets me take physical hits so much better, and I can just switch out when presented with a special attacker. Earthquake is the only decent STAB Hippowdon has access to, and I don't like having to switch out after a taunt.



I already have a wall, now I need a special wall. Heatran is perfect, because he also has Stealth Rock and Protect, letting me set up and scout. I don't like it when they try to set up on me, so I have Roar to fix that. Lava Plume is for hax, otherwise it would be Flamethrower. Max HP and SDef for taking Scalds like a boss, and I can just switch if they have a physical threat.



I need a Rapid Spinner, and being able to tank hits is nice. Tentacruel does both really well, acting as my second special wall. The moveset is kinda self-explanatory, Toxic Spikes gets off residual damage, Protect scouts and deals 6% damage under sand, or gives me an extra 18% under rain. Surf is for an offensive move, and Rapid Spin is Rapid Spin.



Best. Wall. Ever. Only weak to fire and electric, and there aren't too many pokes that have those types and aren't checked/countered by Tentacruel or Hippowdon. Skarm also gets to take advantage of the free turns by laying spikes or roosting up. Whirlwind also counters set-up sweepers, which are a huge threat to this team. 24 speed ev's so I can whirlwind their skarm first, and I rarely miss the extra defense.



This metagame has some threats that can't really be stalled out easily (anything with regenerator/a recovery move/steel typing). Stoutland helps with that a lot, in addition to providing late-game sweeps. He can also out-speed and OHKO just about any sweeper that might be giving me trouble.



Celebi is great all-around, taking weak hits and OHKOing Rotom-W. Psychic isn't the greatest STAB, but it's the only (non-grass) one he has. Perish Song is great against set-up sweepers, and my only reliable method of killing CM Reuniclus.

Hello.

This is a cool sandstall team, as they are very rare nowadays with rain offense teams running around, so I must give you some huge props for trying it out. Anyways, this team seems to be really put together, and hopefully with my rate, it can get even better. Okay, first off, I would highly suggest using a Choice Scarf Tyranitar in place of your current choice of Hippowdon. Choice Scarf Tyranitar has the ability to revenge kill a wide variety of threats such as Latios, Starmie, Unboosted Volcarona, Lucario and a whole lot more. Moving on, I suggest changing Tentacruel's EV spread to a Physically Defensive one of 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spe over your current spread. The main stat in the aftermentioned EV spread is the 20 EV's in Speed, as it allows Tentacruel to outspeed Timid Magnezone and Adamant Breloom, which would otherwise pose a huge threat to him. Moving forward, I would suggest that you use a Choice Band on Stoutland in place of your current choice of Life Orb. Choice Band gives Stoutland some sky high attack, turning some 3HKOS into potential 2HKOS and even OHKOS. Finally on your Celebi, I would change it to a Specially Defensive set over your current one. With great typing, an amazing ability and access to Recover as we all know allows it to check a wide variety of water typers in the tier. Well, that's all I have to say for now. I hope my advice helped. Have fun and good luck with your team!



~Dr Ciel~ (The doctor is OUT)

Hi there.
It is a very solid and very effective team, I can't really rate your team because it seems very correct, but I see that you are very disadvantaged against Latios you have nothing to tank his attacks, even if you possess Heatran, Latios has Surf and Heatran is OHKO by Surf, then if Latios is LO you lost, Latias also, then you are very disadvantaged against Reuniclus Bulk CM, Reuniclus is 3HKO by Stoutland Adamant LO Crunch (252 + Atk Life Orb Stoutland Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252 + Def Reuniclus: 179-213 (42.21 - 50.23%) - guaranteed 3HKO) and then Reuniclus has Recover to heal, I suggest you put Tyranitar Scarf on Hippowdon, I agree with Dr.Ciel because
with Tyranitar Scarf you can easily come on Starmie to prevent it from using rapid spinn, but you can also come on Latios/Latias/Reuniclus easily then if Tyranitar dies you can continue or finish with Stoutland. and now you can swap Roar with Toxic on Heatran for Volcarona.



Tl;dr

Hide

Hippowdon--->Tyranitar
Heatran--->Toxic

Hope I Helped and Good Luck with your Team.

Just wanted to comment on your set: Why not IcePunch>IceBeam on your given suggested set?

CedOmega said:

Just wanted to comment on your set: Why not IcePunch>IceBeam on your given suggested set?

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Because of Landorus-t and gliscor.

Neliel Tu Oderschvank said:

Because of Landorus-t and gliscor.

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Ok, I see its purpose now. Thanks for clearing that up, Neliel.

Hi there! Nice stall!

Your team doesn't require huge changes but will a few small tweaks here and there.
The first thing that i want change is to put HP Fire> Psychic to Celebi, so you have a better chance of stopping the volturn chain that the main core is always formed with Scizor and RotomW.
With HP fire can also create problems to the main setter of hazards, for example ferrothron, Forretress and Skarmory, but also you can hit anyway Breloom.
Your ev spread is distributed wrong, the standard 252 HP / 232 SDef / 24 Spd calm nature will be okay.

I suggest you put Scald > Surf on Tentacruel, so you'll have 30% to burn the Pokémon that you hit, it's really useful to be able to burn Lati@s, Rotom and stuff that will enter on him and reducing drastically their staying power.

At this point i want advice to put IceFang> FireFang to stoutland to be able to better contrast the Drag mag team 'cause with Skarmory you can use only WhirlWHind if the opponent has too life, IceFang will be very useful in this team.

You have two Pokemon with stealth rock, one is enough so then I suggest you to insert Toxic > stealth on Heatran, so you can poison all fire resistor which will come on Heatran, for example Politoed, Lati@s, Rotom and some dangerous threats.

As a final step you should enter Whirlwind> Protect to Hippo, in this way you will have another Pokémon can do switcharing the opponent causing further damage with your hazards, protect is "useful" only to scout the Lati@s' move @ChoiceItem but you have Heatran and celebi for check them, so it's definitely better whirlwind.

Sets:

Thank you all for the rates! I'll try scarf Tyranitar, even though I like being able to recover HP.

Dr Ciel said:

Moving on, I suggest changing Tentacruel's EV spread to a Physically Defensive one of 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spe over your current spread. The main stat in the aftermentioned EV spread is the 20 EV's in Speed, as it allows Tentacruel to outspeed Timid Magnezone and Adamant Breloom, which would otherwise pose a huge threat to him.

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What's the point in outspeeding them? Tentacruel can't hurt either of them, and they're not too common.