Sandstorm Balance (double strategy team)

Sandstorm Balance​

Introduction:

I start building this team a couple of weeks ago with the intention to get voting rights.

Taking a break from Hail teams I opted for a more offensive team instead. It ended up being a Sandstorm team but since those type of teams all look so similar it's easy to get counter-teamed. Therefor I tweaked it a bit making sure I can utilizing multiple strategy and thus preventing from being countered easily. Just as the already famous "Enter the Dragon" team I utilize a 2Drag1Mag strategy, with Magnezone taking out opposing Steel types so Garchomp and Latios can cause havoc on the rest of the team. The CB Garchomp and SD Excadrill combination is also a very effective one, with Garchomp breaking down walls so Excadrill can finish the job. Tyranitar also makes a great teammate for both Garchomp and Excadrill who can abuse their sandstorm abilities to the fullest. Tyranitar also helps with the so called "weather wars", making sure that non-sandstorm weather are not given an advantage. Last but not least this team also a stallbreaker in the form of Mew, who can just take out stall teams just by itself.

This team actually made it to that 1450 peak to gain voting rights, but I made a miscalculation with the decay or something as the the day of the deadline this team was at 1442. Anyway, since this team abuses 3 pokes who are nominated for being banned from OU, I decided to retire this team.

The Team:


Tyranitar is the closest thing I have to a lead, but when I see my opponent is using a Stall team (not that common actually) or has something like Conculdurr, I will obviously lead with Mew. Tyranitar has 3 jobs it must perform, with the first one being to summon a Sandstorm. Not only will this provide a check to opposing weathers it will also activate the effects of Garchomp and Excadrill. Tyranitar's second job is to lay down Stealth Rocks. Thunderus can be problematic for this team and with the lack of Rapid Spinners this gen, Stealth Rocks acts as one of my best checks for aformentioned Thunderus and the likes (also comes in handy for breaking MultiScale). Tyranitar's last but not the most important job is to lure in and kill Gliscor. Magnezone traps Steels but Gliscor still be annoying to both Garchomp and Excadrill. With him taken care of I will have a much easier time with my physical guys. I opted for a bulkier set and Superpower instead of Fire Blast as I have Magnezone to take care of Steels. Superpower gets to hit opposing Tyranitar and Terrakion and the likes for good enough damage, even without investment.


Stallbreaker Mew is such an amazing pokemon, being able to counter most stall teams al by itself. Mew also acts as my counter to the physical menaces that run around in the metagame, Burn cripples them and it provides good residual damage as well. Mew is such a versatile pokemon and by the time my opponent finds out my moveset, half his team will be crippled. Mew also lures in Tyranitar and Scizor. With those 2 burned Latios will have an easier time sweeping.


People commented on how strange this Latios set is. That might be but trust me when I say that this set is pretty damn effective. With Steel types removed, there aren't a lot pokes that can switch-in on a Draco Meteor (Blissey is 2HKO'ed by Psyshock + SR). With Mew crippling Scizor and Tyranitar I can use Latios more aggressively, without the fear of being killed by Pursuit. I added Recover to this set as it prevents Latios from being Life Orb stalled. Latios is also my only Water resists so I try to preserve him as long as possible if my opponent has something as SpecsToad on his team. The combination of Magnezone + Latios + Garchomp (2Drag1Mag) is a pretty effective combination, putting a lot of pressure on opposing teams.


CB Garchomp hits like a truck! With Magnezone taking care of the Steel types there isn't much that like taking a hit from this thing. Even Gliscor can't switch in as it is 2HKO'ed. If I see that my opponent is using a somewhat frailer or Garchomp weak team I lead with Garchomp and start to Outrage right from the bat, which has caused many ragequits in the past let me tell you that. If his strength wasn't enough, with the aid of Tyranitar and his autoweather in the form of Sandstorm, Garchomp gets to abuse one of the most broken abilities in the game, Sand Veil. If my opponent even has something to kill this thing he still needs to get passed that 20% evasion boost. I found it strange that there aren't more people abusing this set as it is able to rip holes to alot of teams used in this metagame.


Magnezone is an important member of the team, removing the Steel types that stand in the way for a double-dragon-sweep. Ferrothorn, the most used pokemon, turns into set up bait for this set. When Ferrothorn finally dies, there isn't much that likes taking a +6 attack either, especially when behind a Sub. If it goes according to plan, Magnezone takes out 2 guys per match. I opt for Flash Cannon instead of Thunderbolt to have better coverage. To a lesser extend Magnezone also provides me with a useful Dragon resist, which has come in handy at times.


Excadrill is a beast. With Magnezone and Garchomp weakened the opposing team tremendously, Excadrill just has to set up an SD and it's pretty much GG. Exadrill also provides me with an important check to stuff as Volcarona and Thunderus, who have the possibility to become big problems for this team. Lately I'm testing Rapid Spin on him instead of Sword Dance with mixed results. Sometimes getting a Spin off was very useful, while on other occasions I wished I had Sword Dance.

Conclusion:

All-in-all, this team is a very fun team to use, and although it has the obvious flaws it is successful most of the time. I also used this team during amateur tutoring sessions because it's an easy, yet effective team to explain stuff as predictions, luring or wallbreaking with. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this RMT, if you have any questions, remarks or suggestions, you can leave them in a reply and I will get back to you.

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Threatlist.

I think your team has a severe DDance Scrafty weakness :P. UmI am no expert but I would suggest a Quagsire set. The one that I usually run Is Specially defensive.

Quagsire@Leftovers

252 HP 252 SpD 4Atk ( + SpD - Atk) (I forgot the nature name, I'm on my phone with slow internet)
Curse
Earthquake/Waterfall
Earthquake/Waterfall/Toxic
Recover

Nice team and our battle was ruined with that end hax lol, maybe I should make it into a warstory, do you have the log saved?

Mew handles non-Shed Skin Scrafty decently if it's a full health though.
I think you mean Quagsire instead of Garchomp so I'll try that out, thanks! ^^

I did promise to rate this so even tho its nearly 2 AM...

Anyway its a really solid team you have here Delko and I don't think you have much to change. Firstly, the thing that really strikes me is that you are rather Fighting weak. BU Scrafty can kinda be a bitch to you while opposing Garchomp and Excadrill do have the potential to threaten your team (Sub SD Garchomp especially will beat Mew and Latias + Garchomp have to be saced to break the sub so Excadrill is really your best option). Excadrill only really gets stopped by your own Excadrill if its balloon is active.

Personally, I don't see the problem of running a Gliscor over Mew. A set of SD/Taunt/Earthquake/Ice Fang still checks those physical attackers and you can still pseudo stall break with Taunt. Physical attackers still get checked and as a bonus, Gliscor also solves your BU Scrafty weakness. The only problem I can forsee is that DD Scrafty becomes a bit more of a bitch however, they cannot really set up on much without taking a big hit (even Tyranitar can Superpower) and Excadrill can revenge it when it falls around 50-60% which is not hard with SS, Stealth Rock and LO flying around.

Cheers man and GL with the team

Thanks for the rate Ginganinja ^^

Mew handles Fighting types pretty well actually, +0 Payback from Conculdurr and +0 X-scissor from Terrakion won't even 2HKO.
Opposing Garchomp and Excadrill have a hard time switching in though, and can only come in safely after someone has fainted or on a really good prediction (like Mew Roosting or something). But you are right though, I actually lost against Franky in the Smogon tour because he froze Mew, which resulted in a free SD for his Exadrill, I lost the speed tie with my Excadrill so I lost the battle. But usually Mew can take any +2 hit from Excadrill and cripple it.
Anyway, I like the Gliscor suggestion though, so I shall try that out, thanks.

You should use a naive nature for your banded garchomp with fire blast so that fire blast can hit harder. I would also make him scarfed so you have at least a chance of hitting genie bros for some damage when they are spamming.

Excadrill outspeeds the genies, and the power of a Choice Band Outrage is tremendous. But indeed, there are situations where a Scarfed set would be appreciated. I'll test it then, thanks!

EDIT: Vinc2612 also suggested Dragon Tail instead of Dragon Claw on Garchomp. This sounds like a good idea to handle Baton Pass (Shell Pass) teams better. So I'm currently also trying that.

Hey Delko, this is a really awesome team that features some of the best pokemon in OU right now. I really like the combination of Swords Dance Excadrill and Choice Band Garchomp offense and I think you did a good job of pulling that off here. From a quick glancing over threats, there is one big problem that this team might face, and that is Drizzle teams. You only have one water resist which is Latios, but overall that isn't really the best of pokemon to use as your water resist. If you want a quick fix to this problem, then I think a simple pokemon switch would really help you against teams Drizzle teams, especially those that carry Thundurus [which is basically all of them]. I think that running a specially defensive Gastrodon over your Latios would work well on this team. Gastrodon gives you the ability to check Thundurus more easily, as you stated that you have some trouble in rainy conditions. Gastrodon is also an excellent switch into other Drizzle abusers such as Starmie and more offensive Politoed itself. Although the removal of Latios is not really favorable, Gastrodon and Mew will give you a nice few defensive pokemon to fall back on. You could also try running Chople Berry on Tyranitar to assist you in taking non boosted fighting moves, which allows can ease prediction against the likes of Thundurus.

Gastrodon

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Calm 252 HP | 4 SpA | 252 SpD Storm Drain
Scald | Recover | Ice Beam | Toxic

Other than that, this is a really nice team. Good Luck.

Heya Delko,

COol team! I have a couple of suggestions though...

FIrst is runnnig a spread of EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 180 SDef with a Sassy nature. It just seems a tad unnecessary running that much special defense.

If there were any chance of this becoming a DW team then I would suggest Sableye over Mew, but I highly doubt it.

Magnezone doesn't really need HP Fire seeing as how you trap the steel Pokemon then kill it with Charge Beam. The Charge Beam set I use utilizes HP Ice and THunderbolt over Flash Cannon and you current HP. GIve it a try as I think it could really help.

While you're not as weak to FIghting as everyone is suggesting I do see Scrafty (especially BU set) giving you trouble. I personally would second the recommendation of Gliscor, seeing as how he does pretty well on a Sand team.

As for some of the recommendations, Naive nature isn't needed. LOwering Fire Blast's power won't stop any major OHKO's/2HKO's that I am aware with. Keep Garchomp's amazing defences in tact. Also with Dragon Tail you NEED to run a bulky set. I personally wouldn't consider it because honestly Gorebyss can't set up on anything in the team.

GL

Hey Delko,

Great team, can't see many potential problems. Defensive CM Reuniclus can be an absolute bitch to this team though, seeing as the only thing you can do is taunt it with Mew and it can stall out Chomps Outrages. One possible change is replacing Latios with a Roar + CM Latias. The only that resist Latias' Dragon Pulse are Steel types, which are taken care of by Magnezone. Scizor and Ferrothorn, the two most common counters to this set, are trapped and killed. Roar allows you to deal with Baton Pass, and Latias brings a much higher Special Defense stat to the table to help you deal with rain. It's an amazing late-game cleaner with great bulk and speed, and it also helps deal with CM Virizion, another Pokemon who could trouble your team.

Okay, thanks for the feedback guys, I'll try it all out! ^^

Okay guys thanks for the suggestions, I've tried them all (not that easy with Garchomp being banned).
But anyway, Gliscor was a good replacement for Mew, but it didn't seem to take care of the DD Scrafty weakness and it gives an additional weakness to the standard lead MixTar (no matter how offensive this team is, nothing can OHKO that). On the other hand Gliscor did provide a solid status absorber. With Garchomp being banned now, Gliscor is the pokemon I'm using in his place.
HP Fire on Magnezone seemed to be more useful as it hits opposing Magnezone harder. It also makes it easier to revenge kill Scizor with Brick Break or Superpower, and if an Excadrill is stupid enough to set up on Zone, he dies as well.
CM Latias instead of Latios was also a good suggestion, they also seems to be much more common these days. But I miss the fact that Latios can hit hard and fast without have to set up first, Latios also handles CM Virizion and the likes much better. Reuniclus isn't actually that big of a problem it might seem to be, it dies to a 3 turn Outrage, Tyranitar can Pursuit it until he is killed and with the Pursuit damage in, Excadrill can finish him with X-scissor. And it can't set up on Mew who has Taunt and resists it's attacking moves.
Dragon Tail instead of Dragon Claw on Garchomp helped with Baton Pass team (including Smash'nPass) but Dragon Claw is preferred for finishing stuff like Rotom-w off without being stuck in Outrage. Those Baton Pass teams weren't even common. Dual Chop might be more interesting though.
Gastrodon also was a good suggestion, but it makes to team loose to much of it's offensive momentum. Chople Berry on Ttar worked fine, but again, it's situational, as Chople berry helped once, while Leftovers is more effective in the long run.

Who're you going to replace Garchomp with now that it's been banned again?

zahariel said:

Who're you going to replace Garchomp with now that it's been banned again?

Click to expand...

Delko said:

With Garchomp being banned now, Gliscor is the pokemon I'm using in his place.

Click to expand...

Gliscor does okay. It's slower and less powerful but it can tank much better, act as a status absorber and has that little extra recovery extra turn.

Its a pretty solid team, I have to say though, Magnezone needs more bulk, or else powerwhip breaks your sub from the standard Ferrothorn. Give it 152 HP for this, and take those evs from special attack.

not a bad team. Could try out Landorus to replace garchomp, but i think your team might be a little weak to priority moves? and a common weakness to fighting?

Pretty good team. If you are really fearing Scrafty, change mew's attack to aura sphere

Actually, Landorus does sounds like a nice replacement, with Sand Force it still does a good chunk, I'm definitely trying that. Thanks!

I'll use a bulkier set for Magnezone then, thanks.

Aura Sphere doesn't do much against BU Scrafty though, and Psychic helps against Fighting types and stuff like Gengar. I've seen a lot of people use Ice Beam over it though.

EDIT: Landorus does an excellent job as a Garchomp replacement, even luring in and kill Gliscor ^^