Accidental Sandstorm - OU Sand

[BlankZero]

ACCIDENTAL SANDSTORM
An OU Sand Team RMT

Hey folks! So this team is one of the many I've made, and this one is really fun to play. I usually HATEHATEHATE weather teams, and this wasn't going to be one originally, but it accidentally became one. I know, I know, how does a team "accidentally" become a sand team? Let's take a look shall we? Maybe that will clear it up a bit for you.​

Team at a Glance

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Team-Building Process

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Like I mentioned at the beginning, I started this as a team built around Scizor. More specifically, Choice Band Scizor.

Now Scizor hates Fire with a passion, so, what better team mate than Heatran? Balloon Heatran in this case.

Next I needed a Fighting check, as Heatran was VERY susceptible to Fighting types. I started with Latios with DDance, a weird set that acts like the ScarfTos set, but with more options and no choice-lock.

Next, I'd need a Fighting type to help my new Dark-Type weakness. I messed around between Terrakion and Keldeo, finally settling on Scarf Keldeo.

Next I decided to put a Dark type on my team to combat Psychic types. I already had Pursuit on Scizor, but that wouldn't always cut it. I also had no way to combat weather, so after some thought, I threw on Tyranitar, my favorite pokemon during Gen 2.

Now, adding sand to the team brought up some problems. namely, I had 2 pokemon who didn't like Sand all that much. So I made some trades. I brought in Trick Room Reuniclus over Latios, as it was bulkier, and Trick Room REALLY screws up almost every single team out there. Then I looked at Keldeo and thought about using Terrakion, but I remebered Lucario got Justified as its DW ability, and paired with its Double Resist to Dark types, it made perfect sense.

Now I had one spot left on my team, but no idea what to use. I felt a bit weak on the special sweeper side after trading Keldeo out for Lucario, so I put in RP Landorus-I as my current stopgap.

Now this is the team I have, and it has been doing very well, losing only twice in 20 games. And I know most of you are looking at this and saying "But Blank! You're so very Water weak! Rain will trample you! as soon as TTar goes down." Yes, I know that. I'm currently considering either Specially Defensive Jirachi or even Gastrodon to solve my water/Torn-T weakness.

The Sets

Scizor

Scizor @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- U-turn

Pretty much Scizor's best set, and the one I chose to build a team around, Scizor's Choice Band set really destroys things without much thought. Bullet Punch is the STAB of choice here, and with Priority and a Technician boost, it hits like a Tyson Haymaker coming off that 130 Base Attack. Pursuit traps pretty much any and all Psychic types and Ghost types. U-Turn is to scout if need be, and Superpower completely wrecks Ferrothorn.

Heatran

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Roar
- Flame Charge

Flame Charge Balloontran is a bit of a wild card. Roar is for phazing, obviously, but between the speed boost it gets from Flame Charge and the power behind Fire Blast and Earth Power (for coverage), I can slam every Steel type that blocks Scizor or Lucario.

Reuniclus

Reuniclus (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SAtk / 172 HP / 84 SDef
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Shadow Ball
- Psyshock
- Trick Room
- Focus Blast

This guy is my Wild Card. Although I may change the EV spread a bit, he absolutely wrecks most teams. TR sets up and he annihalates all those little frail sweepers the opponent carries, including most Steel types, Psychic types, even Ghosts, all things that Lucario appreciates.

Lucario

Lucario @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- ExtremeSpeed
- Ice Punch
- Swords Dance

This guy has slowly become the MVP of this team, and I'm not sure how. Between T-Tar, Scizor and Reuniclus rendering all his usual checks into oblivion, this guy comes in with SD Espeed and cleans out everything very efficiently. Ice Punch for the random Gliscor that walls ESpeed, but usually Landorus takes those out with HP Ice, so I don't have to worry about it. this guuy is beastly though, and takes out so many things. Added to this, he double-resists Rocks, meaning he comes in with 94% health unless someone manages to get Spikes up too.

Tyranitar

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

Specially Defensive Tyrantiar, with Shed Shell to escape Dugtrio. Also traps Espeon, fries Ferro/Forry, kills Deo-D, and always wins the Opening Weather War by being nice and slow.

Landorus

Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Rock Polish
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]

RP Landorus is my Dragon Killer of Choice. after a single RP, he runs through most teams like nothing. Life Orb + Sheer Force + STAB and Earth Power wrecks anything and everything. Focus Miss and HP Ice for coverage, with only HP Ice not getting a Sheer Force boost sadly. now if only this guy got Ice Beam or something.

Closing Thoughts

All and all, I still hate weather. I think it is very over-centralizing and just not very good, but Sand Stream has been around since Gen 3, and even TTar has been using Sandstorm since Gen 2, so I guess I can' hate it too much.

Also, I'll be editing and prettying this up later after it isn't 3 am anymore. Sorry if it isn't quite up to standard yet. I'll beautify it later.


Thanks for reading! Try it out, Luvdisc, whatever you want! Let me know how I can improve on this or how you would tweak it.

Importable

Scizor @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- U-turn

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Roar
- Flame Charge

Reuniclus (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SAtk / 172 HP / 84 SDef
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Shadow Ball
- Psyshock
- Trick Room
- Focus Blast

Lucario @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- ExtremeSpeed
- Ice Punch
- Swords Dance

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

Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Rock Polish
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]

 

[BlankZero]

Reserved for Threat List

 

[BlankZero]

Please disregard the current ugliness of the RMT. I will pretty it up when I get back to my computer tomorrow night. Til then, I'm tethered to my phone.

 

[PokèManiac Livio]

Nice team dude..

At first u have a problem with evs spread... Like lando, you should give it 188 spd and all the rest in hp, with this spread u can outspeed all its threat and have more bulkyness too, Scizor needs only 248 hp to recover something more and Tyranytar needs 56 Satk if u want to use Fblast.
U have a big problem with Water types... Keldeo or Gyarados for example are a very doungerus threat for this team, i suggest u to replace Reuniclus with Latias, that is a good counter for opponent s sheerlando and give u a nice water resistor (Roost orber it s a good idea). What else? Ah, u can give Quick Atk> Pursuit on scizor, u ve already a pursuitter, so your revengekiller has some chanche more to win a 1vs with an oponent Thundurus. I don t like Lucario s set anyway, usually i suggest to use Bpunc+Espeed to hit tytar scarf or terrrakion, if u don t want, is always better crunch, cause u can hit Jellycent and slowbro (without Genesect people will use it again).

 

[Neliel]

Hi there!
Your team as you have already said have a lot of problem against rain teams, specifically against strong water attack like Keldeo's hydro pump and Tornadus-t.
Some of your set also, does not make so much sense. Having two pursuiters in the same team is not that usefull, locking into Pursuit on your scizor is not a great idea since its your main way to revenge kill things, and tyranitar already have pursuit to eliminate lati@s and maybe celebi.
The other thing i noticed is that you run a Flame charg Heatran with Roar, which actually does not make any sense, since if you run flame charge you want to sweep with it so you need all the coverage it can get (in this case, Hidden power ice)

Also, i saw you changed Keldeo and Latios just because they were weak to sand, but thats not really an issue, Latios has roost to recover and Keldeo is one of the best partner for Tyranitar, since ttar can eliminate Latios, Starmie, Jellicent, Celebi and others common check to Keldeo.

Honestly your lack of resistance to Water and Eletric types that makes you so weak to Thundurus-t and Keldeo is just because you changed Latios for reuniclus; However, i think that latias is better than latios here since you need to take less damage from water, anyway latias has a nice speed and the stab draco meteor, it has some of the resistances of reuniclus but also levitate, which can come in handy to stop Polish Landorus for example, also i dont think that this team benefits much from trick room, since scizor and Lucario already have priority, Heatran has flame charge and Landorus needs rock polish to sweep. A set of Drago meteor, Surf, Roost, Psyshock should be good. Psyshock kills Keldeo and Terrakion while surf gievs you some coverage against steel types, i think its worht trying overall.

Now you have to fix your torna-t as well as some other things like Gengar, which can stop Lando-t, it can focus blast Heatran and Lucario and also tyranitar. The first thing i would change is your item. Shed shell on tyranitar is not that usefull right now, honestly i dont see anymore the lavos spawn's team, sometimes i see torna-t paired with dugtrio but since you cant switch on it due to Superpower its just not that good. i think that a chople berry fits better, because you can win the 1vs1 against this focus blast users. The problem now is that you lack of a way to kill Torna-t and Thundurus-t after the focus blast. Honestly i would replace Fire blast with Stone edge, so that you can kill them. I dont think you have so many problem with ferrothorn, Landorus, Heatran and Lucario can all beat it. However, if you feel like its a problem while testing, feel free to change Surf for Hp fire on Latios.

Now i would like to change your Heatran set, as i said before it does not make sense in my opinion. Honestly i dont think that flame charge can work if you dont have a plan to eliminate Politoed, which can just come in and stop your sweep, so i would just replace it for Hidden power ice, which can hit Dragons, Gliscor and its a good coverage move. Roar can still be good to phaze the like of Volcarona or Subdd Dragonite, so its fine.

As for Lucario, i would change for Keldeo. Keldeo as i said, is perfect paired with Tar. The set i would like to use is the choice scarf one, the problem is that you need something fast to revenge kill stuff in a pinch, and Terrakion here just does not fit because its an another pokemon weak to water, but keldeo can do the job. Scarf keldeo can revenge kill Salamence+1 or dragonite without having to worry about a magnezone trapping your scizor, and its also cool to spam a strong hydro pump under rain against tornadus-t. Its typing helps also, to switch-in more easily on Scizor and Heatran, and its still a fighting type so ferrothorn have to think twice to swithc-out on you.

Also consider at least Quick attack on scizor to revenge kill Water and fire pokemon, since pursuit its nto usefull with tar in the same team.
thats it i suppose, i hope to i helped somewhat!

Set:

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Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Def
Timid Nature
- Recover
- Surf / hidden power fire
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Secret Sword

Fire blast > stone edge
Shed shell > Chople berry

Flame charge > hidden power ice

Pursuit > quick attack

 

[BlankZero]

Thanks for the rates! I'll give these a test when I can!