The Sand Shifters

Hi! I don't see why you have Tyranitar on your team, especially when it is not running Pursuit. Physically defensive Hippowdon seems as much better fit on your team, being a much better at wining weather wars and being one of the best checks to Terrakion, which is a big threat to your team. You already have two Steel-types and only Jellicent as your Water-resist, which means that Rain teams can easily sweep you after Jellicent is gone and the same is true for Sand teams with Tyranitar and Keldeo. To solve this problem while still having a Spikes user, you can replace Skarmory with Roserade, which has good special bulk, reliable recovery in rest, and can beat every pursuit trapper. Finally, change Garchomp to a better revenge killer, particularly Landorus, which is stronger with sand up, has U-turn, doesn't need to lock itself in Outrage to kill some stuff, and is not weak to Spikes which your team has a problem with. You could even use Mamoswine with HP Fire in the last slot to deal with Forretress, and have double priority to make up for the lack of a scarfer.

Here are the proposed changes in a nutshell:

- Replace Skarmory with Roserade. Here is the Roserade set:

- Replace Tyranitar with Hippowdon. Use the standard physically defensive set on-site.

- Replace Garchomp with either Choice Scarf Landorus or Hidden Power Fire Mamoswine. Here are the sets:

Good luck, hope i helped!

Thanks for the reply! I really like your Roserade proposal, I've always wanted another specially defensive Pokemon on my team but I just didn't know which one to choose from or which Pokemon to let go of. Also it's true that with Jellicent gone my team is as good as dead against Rain teams, so it's good to have a Pokemon to help Jellicent counter rain teams since he's all by his lonesome. As for your Hippowdon idea, I'll try it out later on. I actually had Hippowdown as my weather starter before, but I just didn't like him that much during the time. Garchomp really was a recent addition to the team, because before him I used Landorus as my scarfer.What's funny is that the set you gave is the exact same set I ran when I still had Landorus on my team. I guess I'll just put him back on the team then. As for Mamoswine, I really do prefer Landorus to him anyways. Thanks again for the review!

First of all, awesome artwork choices, haha.

Now, on to business! I've noticed a couple of things that may be problematic for you on the opposition, so let's go over those. Breloom looks to be a big one, seeing as you don't really have a way to take the sleep and your best guy to take him on can be trapped and killed by Magnezone. Even without Magnezone, Breloom can whittle away at Skarmory with Focus Punch and force openings on you. It just adds insult to injury that you can't Roost off damage if he is behind a sub.

The common Keldeo core can also give you some trouble, since Jellicent is your best bet and he can be punished by opposing Tyranitars. Sun with Dugtrio could be a bit of an issue as well. Luckily, you have generally good team choices and this should not be too hard to fix!

One quick moveset change to consider here. I highly recommend the use of SD Lum Garchomp, as it pretty much just beats Sun (and honestly everything else) into the ground. With proper prediction and given a free opening, this is probably the hardest sweeper to defend against.

Garchomp (F) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Aqua Tail / Fire Fang
- Swords Dance

The set is pretty much self explanatory. The third attack is a toss up, Fire Fang beats up Skarmory while Aqua Tail beats Gliscor, Landorus and Balloon Heatran, which seem to be slightly more common. Getting an enemy rain boost on your Aqua Tail is also fun.

Next, a somewhat bigger change. I have to recommend Celebi on this team, in place of either Skarmory or Scizor. The choice on which to swap is yours, however Celebi offers a great deal for this team in that it can safely deal with both Breloom and Keldeo, while also not being completely afraid of Keldeo's other common team mates. There are so many different ways to go with Celebi that could benefit you, such as support Celebi with T-Wave and even SD Baton Pass to help give your other sweepers an extra push. You can also choose to be a hipster and run moves like Healing Wish or Heal Bell to further support your team. Healing Wish in particular would be kinda funny since it basically makes the opponent have to beat your Garchomp and Tyranitar twice, which can give you a big edge against stall or other weather teams. I hope these suggestions were worth your time!

Thank you TEzeon for the review and for the compliments on my artwork choices! I searched high and low for those awesome pics (credits to their artists). I've chosen to replace Garchomp with Landorus as alexwolf has suggested (at least for the time being) but I'll keep that SD Garchomp set in mind since it looks solid and it seems that the only problems I'll encounter from that set are scarfers with HP Ice and the occasional Ice Shard from Mamoswine. Celebi sounds like a great addition to the team, since she can help Jellicent counter any rain teams that try to rain on my parade (pardon the pun) and she has amazing synergy with my Heatran.

Trying this team out as well. I made some changes from TTar to Defensive Hippo then Skarm to Ammongus. Debating on changing Ammongus to Celebi, though.

Thanks Ballofire! Glad to see someone is using my team.

Pretty nice team you got there. However, banded Terrakion royally screws this team, especially since you rely on Scizor to revenge it. As much as I love good ol' Chomp, you should replace it with Scarf Landorus-T. This helps with your Terrakion problem and also provides offensive momentum with U-turn. You might want to consider defensive Rotom Wash over some Pokemon.

You know, the thing about Sand teams are that they more or less always feature the same pokemon. Obviously for a good reason, as they work.

So, yeah. I agree with Landorus-T > Garchomp for reasons others have already explained (giving you offensive momentum with u-turn, intimidate, all that good stuff). I also think that your team wouldn't mind having two phazers in Skarmory and Heatran. Running standard Specially Defensive Heatran could possibly help a bit given that you enjoy the sand and hazards. Also, do the Hippowdon > Tyranitar switch. Ttar doesn't really bring anything to the table as it is, and Hippo is more physically bulky with less standard weaknesses.

Magnezone seems to give your team trouble aswell, but I can't really form an opinion how to adjust to that. I mean, Hippo+Lando-T should be the aid needed.

Heatran and Hippo set

I would disagree with the above. Air balloon tran with rocks is superior for this team IMO.