First Team! Sandstormers

[SwaggXdoggiesdoggies]

This is my first team. I'm building it and using it (or what it becomes) to introduce myself to competitive battling. I figured I'd make a sandstorm team to make use of the very pretty Excadrill. I'm sure there's a lot of vulnerabilities in this group. Please tell me what needs changing and what factors I need to keep in mind when building teams. Wisdom of generations would make my day. Here it goes!

Tyranitar
move 1: Flamethrower
move 2: Ice Beam
move 3: Thunder bolt
move 4: Stealth Rock
item: expert belt
ability: sand stream
nature: Timid
evs: 4 SpD / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

So I've got a Sp.ATar here instead of my previous Hippowdon. He's going to set up rocks + sand while providing more offensive coverage than Hippowdon. I'm not entirely sure about this set though.. does it make sense? It's neglecting his natural attack, but he doesn't get any good mixed type physical attacks.

Garchomp
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Substitute
move 3: EQ
move 4: Double Chop
item: Life Orb
ability: Sand Veil
nature: Jolly
evs: 212 Hp / 40 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Speed

This set looks really interesting to me. Being tricky seems interesting, and that is exactly what this set does. I can switch in on something that Garchomp can easily kill thanks to Hippowdon's Roar(s) and use swords dance while forcing a switch. I can Sub + set up on a wall and then sweep.

Excadrill
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Rock Slide
move 3: Return / X-scissor
move 4: Rapid Spin
item: Life Orb
ability: Sand Rush
nature: Jolly
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

I don't want to waste time setting up with swords dance and I want to cover as many types as possible. I'm gonna have to experiment with return and X-scissor to see which one works best. I have Rapid Spin for my Volcarona.

Rotom-W
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Hydro Pump
move 3: Hidden Power Fire
move 4: Pain Split
item: Leftovers
ability: Levitate
nature: Modest
evs: 128 HP / 252 SpA / 128 Spe

Due to my teams general weakness to ground and water, I have Rotom-W to cover those holes. HP fire takes care of Ferrothorn and Scizor.

Conkeldurr
move1: Bulk Up
move2: Drain Punch
move3: Mach Punch
move4: Payback
item: Leftovers
ability: Guts
nature: Brave
evs: 120 HP / 252 Atk / 136 SpD

I feel Conkeldurr could be useful on this team taking out other Excadrill's via mach punch. He might also be nice to have for ice types lurking around corners looking to get their grubby hands on my Garchomp...

Reuniclus
move 1: Recover
move 2: Focus Blast
move 3: Psycho shock
move 4: Shadow Ball
item: Life Orb
ability: Magic Guard
nature: Modest
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA

Sort of a wall killer / Bulky sweeper. Looks pretty cool on paper

Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom.

 

[Woodchuck]

Does Choice Band give you any notable KO's? if not, then definitely Life Orb over Choice Band for more flexibility on Excadrill. I would actually suggest running Rapid Spin over either X-Scissor or Return on Excadrill because Volcarona needs to have SR off the field, especially to be remotely bulky, which is needed in the set you're running.
Once Volcarona is down, you can't touch Skarmory. At all. Therefore, I suggest a MixTar over Hippowdon that can lay down rocks and still have some offensive pressure throughout the game.

Volcarona can definitely set up on Blissey and Nattorei, as it doesn't fear their statuses thanks to Rest (but will force Nattorei out).

 

[Punktoad]

really got to point out that a water type will destroy them like a vaporeon or blastoise
just add an electric move or on that volcarona just switch him into a cradily with storm drain to dominate any heavy water thinkin of messin with yah

 

[SwaggXdoggiesdoggies]

Does Choice Band give you any notable KO's? if not, then definitely Life Orb over Choice Band for more flexibility on Excadrill. I would actually suggest running Rapid Spin over either X-Scissor or Return on Excadrill because Volcarona needs to have SR off the field, especially to be remotely bulky, which is needed in the set you're running.
Once Volcarona is down, you can't touch Skarmory. At all. Therefore, I suggest a MixTar over Hippowdon that can lay down rocks and still have some offensive pressure throughout the game.

Volcarona can definitely set up on Blissey and Nattorei, as it doesn't fear their statuses thanks to Rest (but will force Nattorei out).

So instead of Hippowdon....

Tyranitar
move 1: Flamethrower
move 2: Ice Beam
move 3: Thunder bolt
move 4: Stealth Rock
item: expert belt
ability: sand stream
nature: timid
evs: 4 SpD / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

I put thunder bolt in there because of what Punktoad said. I'm not sure about the set though. It feels weird putting SpAtks on a poke with much better Atk. Does it look alright? Maybe I should swap Fthrower for Fblast?

 

[mixmaster.mewthree]

Replacing Volcarona with Rotom-W would help your team a lot, imo. Rotom-W has awesome water/electric typing combined with a ground immunity thanks to Levitate. This would help your team a lot since you seem to have a pretty big weakness to water and ground type attacks with no pokemon that resist it. Instead of doing a purely special Tyranitar, I would probably do one with Stealth Rock / Flamethrower / Payback or Crunch / Ice Beam. EVs and nature are kind of up to you. Most people run a lot of HP and special attack EVs and then put the rest into attack, and run something like Brave, Sassy, or Quiet if you decide to use Payback (the -speed natures are useful since Payback damage doubles if you attack last). Or you can use a Careful nature if you decide to use Crunch.

 

[SwaggXdoggiesdoggies]

Yeah all that makes sense. I'm gonna make those changes

 

[Iconic]

I would honestly just use Special Defensive Tyranitar with Pursuit because you don't have a safe switch for Latios and Latias. Not even Tyranitar can repeatedly switch in to take Draco Meteors, so trapping and killing them with Pursuit could help you a lot. Crunch is there for the extra power in case Latias tries to stay in and set up Calm Minds against weak Pursuits, while Fire Blast hits common Steel switch ins like Ferrothorn or Excadrill. Fire Blast with a Brave nature is great to hit Ferrothorn very hard (always 2HKOed I believe) and it's also a good choice against Skarmory, Scizor and Forretress.

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
Nature: Brave (+Atk, -SpA)
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
- Stealth Rock
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Fire Blast

Reuniclus's set doesn't really accomplish anything at all right now, as you've sort of merged its two best sets: Calm Mind and Trick Room. I would stick to a bulky Calm Mind set to help you deal with troublesome physical threats like Conkledurr and Excadrill in a pinch. Try a Bold spread of 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA and the moves Calm Mind / Recover / Psychic / Focus Blast. It's great for breaking stall and its huge bulk is also helpful for taking something like a +2 Excadrill's Earthquake in a pinch. Garchomp's set is fine, but its EV spread is really questionable. Just stick to a simple 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Speed spread with a Jolly nature to maximize its chances at a sweep.

Although Special Defensive Tyranitar makes you much less weak to Rain Dance / Drizzle teams, a well played one is still going to give you huge problems. You might want to consider Swords Dance Virizion over Conkledurr to help with this, since its huge Special Defense is extremely helpful when having to absorb the odd Surf. It also helps synergy wise with your team since you have two Pokes weak to Grass and no resistances, and it still provides your team with the same Rock-type and Dark-type resistances that Conkledurr had.

 

[SwaggXdoggiesdoggies]

Thanks for the ideas, Iconic. I didn't update my team, however, after a long discussion with mixmaster.mewtwo about my team.

My new team will consist of a balloon MixTar with no speed investment due to having no need to out speed many major threats.

Garchomp has been replaced with a mixed dragon dance Salamence. It deals with threats much better than Garchomp.

Excadrill and Rotom-W will remain the same.

Conkeldurr will be replaced with Ferrothorn. Sort of just a filler.. Conkeldurr wasnt accomplishing anything.

I might have to take your advice on Reuniclus. My set for him isn't making use of his possibilites.. What do you think of running trick room on him? It would benefit him and and Ferrothorn, and even Tyranitar in some situations.

 

[Xmagnet]

Trick Room is not recommended with Garchomp and Tyran, also using a Toxic Orb/Guts Conkuldurr might work out. I really don't recommend Focus Blast on Reuniclus as its so inconsistent, He might also be better with lefties. As a side note, Excadrill does not really need rapid spin as ur team in pretty resistant to SR and TS. As for Ferrothorn, using a leech seed/Ingrain w/ Rocky Helmet might work out.

 

[SwaggXdoggiesdoggies]

Yeah, the only reason i have Rapid Spin is for Salamence. Is the loss of an offensive move worth the HP i'd be saving? The reason why I think trick room would work on this team is that it would also help ferrothorn and occasionally Tyranitar. It's really mostly just for Reuniclus and Ferrothorn though since it only lasts 5 turns (If you think my reasoning is faulty, explain why. I dont want to overlook things).