Another go at Sand (Peaked 1411 and still going)

[Freze]

Ok I've been laddering with sand ever since the start of BW. I have managed to do well until the banning of Garchomp. After Chomp was banned I struggled to even get past 1200 (lol), but now I have managed to get 3 accounts (Freze, Frezealt, Trollololol) past 1400. Despite having pretty good success there are a few pokes that give me trouble still. Mainly Gastrodon though.

Well the team at a glance:

It is a pretty standard Sand team to be honest, but that might be why I'm doing this RMT. If a team is too standard and good it is countered.

Ok the team in pieces:

Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Sassy
Sand Stream
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Sp Def
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Rock Slide
- Ice Beam

There is my standard lead along with Rotom-W. Tyranitar provides a great switchin on most special attackers due to its Sp Def boost in the sandstorm. Tyranitar also provides my team with the essential Stealth Rocks. I chose Tyranitar over Hippowdon because it can go mixed and provide a check to non-SD Gliscors. I also have Chople Berry > Lefties because that pretty much guarantees my rocks up and allows me to take a Superpower from Deoxys-S or Focus Blast from special attackers at slightly lower HP. This also makes for a makeshift Thundurus check because it can take a +2 Focus Blast from Thundurus even after Stealth Rocks.

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Impish
Sturdy
252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
- Spikes
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Whirlwind

Skarmory is the physical wall of the team and also provides great spikes support as well as phazing. Skarmory is also my best thing against Balloon Lucario which can be a hassle to play around otherwise. Skarm can take on most Physical threats and phaze them out or set up spikes on them. This is just pretty much works as my best physical wall on the team albeit Latias can take some hits but meh. Nothing much to say because these pokes are so standard... Hazards are extremely important for this team so a good spin blocker would also be nice, but honestly I can't think of one that would work witht he team. Better to just set up on the poke that spins stuff away for now.

Rotom-W @ Choice Specs
Modest
Levitate
4 HP / 252 Sp Atk / 252 Spe
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power Grass
- Trick

Ok something slightly less conventional. Most people expect Scarf Rotom-W which is why this set is so amazing. They switch to something to take a hit they would take well from Scarf Rotom-W and then take a huge chunk of damage from the hit and at worst have to sac that poke. Volt Switch also hits Politoed hard with Specs. I have thought about Thunderbolt over Trick in order to get a OHKO on most if not all Politoeds. There is also something alse I've thought about which is running HP Grass for other Rotom-W and the big thing Gastrodon. Gastrodon gives me a huge load of trouble to hitting it on the switch with a HP Grass would be amazing hitting a sure OHKO after SR and spikes or 2 layers of spikes. Although HP Fire is good for hitting Celebi on the switch in as well 2HKO or possibly OHKO with the appropite hazards. As I said with Specs Rotom-W hits extremly hard. Hydro Pump can devastate many things such as T-Tar if it doesn't invest in a significant amount of bulk (albeit most do) it will get OHKOd.

Conkeldurr @ Leftovers
Brave
Guts
252 Atk / 120 HP / 136 Sp Def (0 Spe IVs)
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Payback
- Mach Punch

Bulk Up Conkeldurr is one of my sweepers. This team has actually 3 real sweepers which is alot but they all sweep differently which is handy and I like playing very offensively. After 1 Bulk Up Conkeldurr has 624 attack which is amazing nothing is going to like to take a hit from that especially because I have the infamous Fighting Dark coverage which is amazing. Drain Punch will be healing back my HP that I lose. This is also great against rain team is they don't have something that can OHKO me as I set up 1 Bulk Up on Ferrothorn then I can dent most teams quite badly. Conkeldurr prefers to be in an environment where there is no Sand so that he can get lefties recovery still, but of course Conkeldurr is also good int he sand. Also another thing to take care of Balloon Lucario because it is a big threat to most sand teams. Conkeldurr also provides me with a good status absorber if need be.

Latias @ Leftovers
Timid
Levitate
252 HP / 252 Spe / 4 Def
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Recover
- Substitute

Latias is my second out of three sweepers. This thing switches into something that it can Calm Mind up on and then either Calm Minds or Substitutes when they switch to their beloved Ferrothorn to stop me in my tracks. Sadly for them with a little prediction I can PP stall out their Gyro Ball as it only has 8 PP making Ferrothorn the perfect set up fodder and hopefully ending in Latias sweeping their entire team. This also provides me with a good switch on scarfed Politoed and other not too strong attackers be it special or physical and gradually set up on them or just hit switches with Dragon Pulse. Much like Conkeldurr Latias prefers to be out of the sand while sweeping which might seem weird to have 2 sweepers on a sand team that dislike sand, but hey it works and because rain is so popular it is fully possible for me not to be in the sand. Also it is good to know that most rain teams on the ladder have either a Tentacruel or a Ferrothorn which both provide good set up fodder for this Latias.

Excadrill @ Balloon
Adamant
Sand Rush
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Oh Excadrill some of us love you some of us hate you. Excadrill is a great multifunction pokemon. First it is a revenge killer in the sand and second it is a great sweeper in the sand. Obviously Excadrill is my third sweeper. Really this is one of those pokes that everyone knows so not much to say. Excadrill with Balloon can set up on for example choice Landorus or anything that only attacks with ground attacks. Balloon is also great for switching in on predicted ground attacks. Also it helps int he situation of Excadrill vs Excadrill. Break their balloon (if they have it) earlier in the game and you set to win when it comes to Excadrill vs Excadrill. Just all in all a grea pokemon for this team.

Ok the reason I made this thread is because I have 2 giant holes in this team. Gastrodon and a hole I don't know about that someone is going to point out for me hopefully.

In my sig there are two battles linked to show how this team works. At the very least they should be entertaining to watch.

Apoligizes for the shorter RMT this time, but I hope I got everything out there that needs to be there.

 

[Boondocker]

Why not run roar over calm mind on latias? It sucks wasting subs switching out of scizor and ttar everytime, but with roar you can wear them down, as well as conkeldur and exadrills counters.

 

[KyogreBlue]

Not much to say here, this team is too standard. Maybe jolly over adamant on excadrill, as you already have sword dance. Roar over substitute on latias to beat reuniclus.

 

[ZeoAbyss]

Runing Roar Over calm mind sucks dude ^ CM Is the whole reason he has the subs.
Running roar over Substitute is way better. I have used that set and it has annoyed all my opponents I won 14 matches and 1 loss with this set. Instead Of conkelldurr Jirachi should go in there this set is good

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 12 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Psyshock
- Wish
- Thunderbolt
- Calm Mind

 

[Freze]

Runing Roar Over calm mind sucks dude ^ CM Is the whole reason he has the subs.
Running roar over Substitute is way better. I have used that set and it has annoyed all my opponents I won 14 matches and 1 loss with this set. Instead Of conkelldurr Jirachi should go in there this set is good

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 12 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Psyshock
- Wish
- Thunderbolt
- Calm Mind

Are 2 CM pokes really a good idea? I wil try that though.

Roar over sub seems pretty good as well. I'll test both of those out. Oh yeah can you clarify about that Jirachi. Atm EVs add up to more than 508.

Roar over CM actually sounds like it would work tbh though not sure how good it is in practice. Although sub without CM sucks.

Mono Lati does actually quite a bit of sweeping or damaging. Just saying.

Jirachi didn't exactly work out too well... :/ Conkeldurr was too vital for the team.

 

[Boondocker]

Roar over cm does not suck...mono lati is not sweeping anytime soon with all the jirachis scizors exadrills ttars etc running around trust me so you might as well turn her into a pure supporter. If you put it over sub then you become extremely easy to trap unless you spam roar, in witch case you will eventually bring a counter in..try both though and see witch ine you like.

 

[Nachos]

Nothing on your team can switch into CB Terrakion, and it can easily come in on Tyranitar and just use Close Combat and KO something. Skarm which I assume is your first switch in, will get destroyed, especially if they have rocks up. Latias can take a CC, but it'll have to recover immediately, and if they have a Tyranitar of their own which is commonly paired with Terrakion, it's dead. To make it harder for Terrakion to switch in, I suggest you change your Tyranitar to this set:

Tyranitar (M) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 232 HP / 212 Atk / 60 SAtk / 4 Spd
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Ice Beam
- Superpower
- Pursuit
- Stealth Rock

Ice Beam lets you deal with Gliscor switch-ins, who make it hard for Conk and Excadrill to sweep. Superpower means Terrakion can't get in for free, just be wary of better players who might double switch to Terra as you send in Tar. You have Rotom who can easily hurt Skarm and doesn't care about Spikes, so Fire Blast isn't needed.

Onto the Terrakion weakness itself, I feel that by having Slowbro over Latias would be ideal. I'm not sure what Latias' purpose is, as Rotom can just Volt Switch into a Ttar anyway, preventing it from countering it. Slowbro can also take a hit from Landorus. Here's a good Slowbro set:

Slowbro (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic
- Scald
- Psychic
- Slack Off

Toxic is there for Gastro's that try to switch in on Scald. I suppose you can change Psychic to Ice Beam or Flamethrower if you discover some new threats. Seeing as Slowbro, TTar and Conk is prone to being hurt badly by Spikes and former two by TSpikes, I suggest you put Rapid Spin over X-Scissor on Exca.

To be honest, I don't think Gastro is too much of a problem if you can play well, which judging by your record seems to be the case. Conkeldurr can switch in on Toxic and Scald and get that Guts boost, before restoring the HP lost with Drain Punch. Rotom can Trick it, negating it's recovery. Skarm can set up on it and Exca can just EQ it and knock off lots of HP.

I hope in some way this helped, gl.

 

[-Tsunami-]

Hey there. Cool team.

If you want to beat Gastrodon, run Hidden Power Grass over Hidden Power Fire on Rotom-W. Gastrodon is the #1 switch-in to Rotom-W, and with this, you can do from between 83.57%-98.59% damage to it. After entry hazard damage, it's an easy KO, and will stop your opponent from switching in Gastrodon so ignorantly. Hidden Power Fire really doesn't kill anything notable besides Ferrothorn, which can be hampered by Trick. Celebi isn't too big of an issue for your team because of Latias, although you could run Signal Beam over Trick on the last slot in order to completely obliterate Celebi switch-ins.

Switch Tyranitar's set into a specially defensive variant. You have no real special wall, and Tyranitar can take some hits with investment. This will also let you destroy Volcarona, who becomes a real problem for your team, as with 2 Quiver Dances, you lose automatically.

Specially Defensive Tyranitar

Hide

Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Sassy
Sand Stream
252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Rock Slide
- Pursuit

Fire Blast and Ice Beam are much more predictable then they used to be, so they aren't as effective. Rock Slide lets you destroy Volcarona and Thundurus. Pursuit is used in the last slot because it will let you destroy Latios, who can do severe damage to your team with Draco Meteor.

Run a Brave Nature on Conkelldur with 0 Speed ivs, as that will ensure that you are slower than the majority of the metagame, allowing your Paybacks to be even stronger. With this, Conkelldurr will be slower than the Standard Slowbro, as long as they still have 31 speed ivs. Conkelldurr loses to Slowbro otherwise, so this can potentially save your Conkelldurr's sweep.

Your team will get worn down by entry hazards, allowing stall to become much more problematic. For this reason, I suggest replacing X-Scissor on Excadrill for Rapid Spin. Excadrill is a very good Rapid Spinner, as it can do mass damage to common spin-blockers such as Jellicent. Also, it is faster than basically the whole metagame. X-Scissor does not kill anything notable besides Celebi, whom Latias takes care of (again, if you feel that this will make you too Celebi weak, run Signal Beam over Trick on Rotom-W).

On Latias, run 252 Speed evs, as the speed tie with other base 110's is pretty important, as things such as Latios and Gengar can basically destroy you otherwise (or do severe damage if you have a Calm Mind up). This will give you a 50% chance of outspeeding them, and doing a ton of damage to them (it's especially useful after a Calm Mind because it will lessen the amount of damage that you take). The extra defensive bulk isn't that useful regardless.

Overall, solid team. Good luck.

 

[Freze]

@ Everyone.

So far I have put the changes on my team bolded on the OP. Yes Slowbro does help with Terrakion, but is dead weight to me when I don't face CB Terrakion. I'd rather have one thing I am weak to than play with 5 and a half pokes.

Also the T-Tar spread that was suggested by Nachos just destroys the things bulk. Not an option.

I dislike Pursuit without Crunch and I absolutely NEED Ice Beam. It doesn't matter if it is predictable you can try to get it on a switch and you can show Rock Slide to them and they might think they are safe as Rock Slide + Ice Beam is a very rare sight imo. I'll test Pursuit some more though. I just don't see how I can possibly beat Gliscor if I lose Rotom-W. Latias can do something but not too much without boosts.

Also with a sp def T-Tar Latios 3 OHKOs at best. :/

Thanks to all who have rated so far.

 

[BKC]

First off, a minor change - try running Shed Shell over Leftovers on Skarmory to avoid a thrashing from Magnezone+CB Haxorus teams. With a 50% instant recovery move in Roost, you'll have no trouble keeping your health up. These teams are very common now and will continue to rise in usage since the team that introduced them has just been placed in the RMT archive. CM Reuniclus is dangerous. Your only counter is ChopleTar, and if the berry is gone from something like Thundurus's Focus Blast/Hammer Arm, it's gg. Since Psyshock hits the physical defense stat, Latias isn't a safe counter either, but it can be with one simple change: Roar over Substitute. Now you can CM up to +4 or +5 along with Reu then suddenly get rid of its boosts, and with all the hazard support you've got, you'll often get an easy sweep. Roar also gives you a much more secure counter to CM Virizion. If you predict correctly, you can phaze out Latias's common switchins (Scizor, Tyranitar, Jirachi, Blissey - who are all grounded, which equates to being spikes weak) as soon as they switch in, leading to a ton of hazard damage and making it alot easier to eliminate them for a sweep.

Forretress / Rapid Spin Excadrill are becoming more and more common, so the lack of a ghost means you'll have alot of trouble against stall since you rely on hazards to do the majority of your damage. Overall, your team seems reliant on bulk, but Rotom isn't contributing much in that department. Why not try a Jellicent in his place? By running max HP+max defense with a Bold nature, you can spinblock against even the mighty Excadrill without fear of an Earthquake 2HKO, while Taunt prevents Forretress from setting up hazards in your face. Jelli's typing is partially the same as Rotom's so your synergy will remain mostly the same.

Just a few things to consider, this is a really solid team. Good luck.

 

[frogoholic101]

Solid team, and a little nitpicky here, but you want to run Stone Edge over rock slide on T-tar (Much more power)
In addition to this, to help you with your CM Reuniclus weakness, you could use a Latias with the following moveset:
Wish
Protect
Dragon Pulse
Roar

Hope that helps.

 

[Freze]

@BKC

Hmm I'll try Roar over sub on the Latias again. :)

My team is quite reliant on bulk, but replacing Rotom is really a nono as it provides the team with alot of power. A spin blocker would be nice, but I'd have to take something important out as everything in the team is very important. Usually if I get spun by an Excadrill I can just set them up again as with my playing style they will have very few chances to even spin around. I can give it a go though.

@ Frogholic

Hmm what does the SE power boost help in? I'll try that Latias. What EV spread?

 

[frogoholic101]

@BKC

Hmm I'll try Roar over sub on the Latias again. :)

My team is quite reliant on bulk, but replacing Rotom is really a nono as it provides the team with alot of power. A spin blocker would be nice, but I'd have to take something important out as everything in the team is very important. Usually if I get spun by an Excadrill I can just set them up again as with my playing style they will have very few chances to even spin around. I can give it a go though.

@ Frogholic

Hmm what does the SE power boost help in? I'll try that Latias. What EV spread?

SE is a whole 25BP stronger, so quite a lot.
The Latias should have 252HP/4Def/252Speed.

 

[Freze]

I know SE is 25 BP Stronger but what do I need that power for... I think I kill everything I need to or SE won't make a difference.

 

[JMPesce]

I just had to bump this thread because I love this team so much! What have you come to alter since the last rate? I'm really interested to know! :D