Team: Ban Sand Veil

Team Ban Sand Veil


Introduction
Hi there, I am a guy who loves playing on the UU ladder probably to the point where its unhealthy and I also like hearing what other people think of my teams I play with. I became bored after a while of using plain old stall on the ladder (stall will always work in singles!) and the game became a bit stale with me knowing lots of the teams of the ladder and some people knowing my team. So then I made a sand team, but not any sand team, I decided I wanted to abuse Sand Veil just to make people mad. It took literally ten minutes to make this team and only a few hours total to ladder very near the top which I find ridiculous because of the luck. I feel bad for relying on luck instead of a well executed strategy so I will not really play with this team anymore, and yet I feel that the team cannot possibly be based on luck too much since it gets consistent wins. Perhaps luck itself is a strategy? That is besides the point though I rather have people tell me what I should do to make it better and what you think of this team.

The Team

Impish: 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 Spe w/ Eviolite (Sand Stream)

• Earthquake
• Stealth Rock
• Roar
• Slack Off

Nothing particularly interesting here except it is pretty much required to have a sand team. Every team ought to use Stealth Rocks, this is no exception. Hippo is very bulky physically despite its meek appearance but it rarely ends up walling stuff. It generally sets up SR and sand as soon as possible in the match and is later used as death fodder for a switch in to one of my sweepers. I still use max defense because it makes setting up easier and Hippo's other stats are to poor to invest in. This is truly irreplaceable on a sand team.


Adamant: 252 Att, 252 Spe, 4 HP w/ Leftovers (Sand Veil)

• Swords Dance
• Sucker Punch
• Substitute
• Drain Punch

This thing is kinda horrifying and I really cannot understand why it is still NU. More base Attack than Lucario is what stood out to me, along with having STAB on the strongest priority move. It has low speed but my huge investment means I can out speed anything up to Rotom-H that has no speed EVs which includes all the bulky waters except offensive Suicune. Sucker Punch gives it even better speed though, OHKOing crap loads of stuff after a boost including Zapdos and Intimidate Arcanine. Substitute works perfectly for a Sand Veil abuser and a Sucker Punch abuser; it takes just one miss to make a quick sweep. Drain Punch gives me almost perfect coverage while Sucker Punch after a boost can still do massive amounts to Heracross. Recovery is also nice when I am chopping away my health with Substitute. Not being able to use Seed Bomb is sad but its not like bulky waters are staying in or beating me in most cases anyways. This is definitely the best offensive piece to the team, although it really adds to my long list of Ice weaknesses with no good resists (too scared to switch in on Scalds because burn).


Jolly: 252 HP, 168 Spe, 56 SpD w/ Eviolite (Sand Veil)

• Earthquake
• Substitue
• Roost
• Swords Dance

Let me start off by saying I do not like this Gligar at all but I cannot seem to find a replacement for it and is still good enough to get the job done. It cannot touch anything floating which is annoying but it can still reliably stall some of them out, like Bronzongs for the most part. After a boost this little NFE becomes pretty strong even without attack investment, stronger than an unboosted Sucker Punch from Cacturne actually. The EVs allow me to outrun the fastest neutral nature Kingdra while still allowing my Substitute to withstand a Giga Drain from defensive Roserade or HP Grass from non-Life Orb Raikou. Obviously this is used very late game only when all the floating opponents have been eliminated. This thing just adds to my now very big pile of Ice weaknesses in exchange for another sweep attempt and a so so wall.


Adamant: 252 Att, 252 Spe, 4 Def w/ Life Orb (Sand Rush)

• Return
• Crunch
• Pursuit
• Fire Fang

Everyone knows Stoutland right? This is really the safety of the team, being able to revenge kill most anything even if they boost speed except Rocks and healthy Steels. Life Orb is good because it allows me to switch moves which is nice considering I have decent coverage. Pursuit and Return are the two big moves I use, with Return mauling everything in sight and Pursuit being able to catch low defense pokes. They are not necessarily always weak to Pursuit, Roserade and Crobat fleeing take big damage from a boosted Pursuit, especially if they run offensive sets. Its not such a bad idea to Pursuit early in the game because Life Orb lets me switch moves and not be locked into a 40 base power move. Synergy wise Stoutland lets me use Gligar and Cacturne better since it can easily punch holes that allow them to sweep while Cacturne can set up on bulky Waters and Gligar sets up on Rocks and Steels. Stoutland also allows me to use more defensive pokes since it can revenge kill stuff that try to set up on them.


Bold: 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 Spe w/ Leftovers (Torrent)

• Scald
• Ice Beam
• Foresight
• Rapid Spin

Not such a bad poke at all Blastoise is; it is pretty great at spinning being able to pull off one spin a game usually if I need to. Also the burn it dishes out is nice to hit floating pokes so Gligar has a better shot to win a one on one match up with them. The EVs make it physically defensive so it can switch in on Darmantian and friend more easily but I was thinking of making it more specially defensive to beat Chandelure. Unfortunately Blastoise dies off more easily than its EVs would indicate in part of the fact its the one taking most of the abuse from my opponent (notice how its the only Ice resist). Ice Beam is nice to hit incoming Grasses for some good damage because their switch in is usually obvious. I would not say this is the glue of the team of anything but it definitely is useful is sucking up moves and then dishing a few back.


Bold: 252 HP, 168 Def, 80 SpD, 8 Spe w/ Leftovers (Sheer Force)

• Toxic Spikes
• Roar
• Ice Beam
• Earth Power

A great utility poke that can still hurt things nicely because of Sheer Force. The EVs I hate to say are sorta arbitrary but they give me good bulk and I noticed Milotic cannot 2HKO me without getting a burn on the first Scald. Toxic Spikes is very very useful, checking threats like Mew and Deoxys-D that could otherwise beat me while Ice Beam makes me that much less Flying weak. It adds to the Ice weakness sadly but it will not be beat by a Weavile with a single CB Ice Punch showing my bulk, and Earth Power lets me retaliate. It tends to suck up moves just like Blastoise except not dying so soon because a Stealth Rock resist and more importantly a sand immunity.

An importable is here, use the team if you want for better rates.

Threats
Mew, especially defensive. Deoxys-D, especially defensive. Weavile, especially SD. Togekiss, especially NP. Rain in general. There are some more but those are the biggest, hopefully you will notice some more if you use the team. Thanks for reading!

I think you could use toxic gligar or something, seems better than that set.

Since your team is based on Sand Veil abuse I don't see much changes to do without screwing the theme, but I guess you could use another hazard user over Nidoqueen who had better sinergy with the team (I mean, it cannot abuse resistances to get a switch on this team) or maybe replacing it with Escavalier, who gives you an answer to Mew, Deoxys, Weavile and can take some abuse from Togekiss (unless you get badly haxed...)

PS: Sand Veil sucks >.>

Just a nitpick, but on your Gligar, you still have 32 EV's leftover so put those into atk/def/sp.def.

Hey, I've got a few suggestions for your team.

Since sand teams are based around stacking entry hazards and sweeping, you could really benefit from having a spin blocker. I suggest replacing Gligar with Sableye.

Sableye (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Foul Play

Sableye is, imo, the best Ghost-type to use on sand teams. The reason for this is because it is neutral to Stealth Rock (Chandelure), and has priority Recover, which means that sandstorm damage won't be an issue. Taunt and Will-O-Wisp come in extremely handy with breaking stall / stopping sweepers, and can help wear down Pokemon like bulky Water-types that can give you hassle.

You're quite weak to bulky Water-types, and your Grass-type doesn't have any super effective STAB against them. The only thing I can suggest is to try out Seed Bomb somewhere on its moveset, or replacing it with something along the lines of Shaymin or Roserade.

Good luck with the team, hope I helped!

I wouldn't get rid of Gligar, it can block pretty much any physical attacker who doesn't have Super Effective STAB. I would suggest Toxic or another attack (Stone Edge I guess?) over Swords Dance though.

I don't see Toxic Spikes doing too well in UU, Roserade is used a lot. Might want to replace Nidoqueen's slot.

I use a variation of this team with Roserade instead of Nidoqueen and SubToxic Gligar over SD. I prefer Rose because currently you have no direct switch in to the bulky waters that plague the metagame. Cacturne is a great switch in after a KO, but I hate the idea of switching in on a Scald or Ice Beam and being crippled for the rest of the game. I also just like SubToxic Gligar because it doesn't rely on the opponent being grounded to take on the opposing team. Overall the team is really fun to use, but a tad too inconsistent to use all the time.