No Weather Sandstorm Offensive Team

[topspin1617]

Yeah, I know the title doesn't make any sense haha. I don't like using a weather team, but I also realize how effective and common they are. So I included Tyranitar on this team mainly to cancel out opposing weather (and because Sandstorm has less of an impact on things than Sun or Rain), but also because Tyranitar is good in his own right.

I haven't played in a while, but heard about PS and thought I'd give it a try. I haven't been able to play around with the team quite as much as I may have liked to far, but I have been happy with it, if not thrilled.

Tyranitar (F) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SAtk / 192 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spe)
- Crunch/Pursuit
- Superpower/Stone Edge
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam​

As I mentioned above, the main motivation for including Tyranitar was the ability to cause a Sandstorm, more for the ability to cancel out opposing weather than for using it myself. I decided to use Tyranitar's versatile moveset to my advantage and went with 4 attacking moves plus Expert Belt. If Tyranitar hasn't seen much action yet, Expert Belt can fake a Choice Item, allowing me to catch an opponent completely by surprise and possible OHKO a second Pokemon. I wanted to use Stone Edge, but the four moves it currently has all seemed more important. Ditto with Pursuit.

Landorus (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 Spe
Naive Nature (+Spe, -SDef)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Hidden Power Ice/Hammer Arm​

If I'm using Tyranitar, I may as well take advantage of the Sandstorm. Landorus with Sand Force and Choice Scarf is a great revenge killer. U-turn allows me to send Landorus in at pretty much any time I'm uncertain of what my opponent might do. I really wanted to use Hammer Arm to take on certain pink blobs as well as any random Dark-types, especially considering that Tyranitar's Superpower is my only other Fighting-type attack on the entire team. However, HP Ice just seemed necessary to deal with things such as Gliscor.

Skarmory (F) @ Leftovers/Shed Shell
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
- Roost
- Brave Bird​

Skarmory fills three very important roles for me; it is a defensive monster, sets up Stealth Rock to hopefully combine with Sandstorm and take advantage of all the switches an offensive team may cause, and it phazes. Because I can't stand Substitute. I suppose there isn't much to say about Skarmory that everyone doesn't already know, though I will mention that being Steel-type is nice for not taking damage from Sandstorm.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam/Recover
- Surf​

Rapid Spin is always nice to have around. I prefer more offensive Pokemon, and I really like Starmie's offensive capabilities, so this one was kind of a given for me. Moveset is standard I guess, but I feel like I need to shift the EVs to something a bit for defensive; perhaps swap the HP and SAtk numbers. Starmie being a spinner by definition means it needs to switch into hazards multiple times, so it needs to be able to survive that. I also want to include Recover in the moveset for the same reason, but I didn't really know where to put it. I'm thinking that I don't really want to lose Starmie's STAB or its ability to take on other Water-types, plus I already have two other Pokemon with Ice-type moves, so that I could maybe lose Ice Beam for Recover.

Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power Fire
- Psyshock/Energy Ball​

Latios is an absolute offensive monster. He's my set up or late game sweeper, and is very good at his job. After some Stealth Rock damage, Sandstorm, and a Calm Mind, Latios can tear through a ton of Pokemon. Dragon Pulse is the powerful STAB that hits all but Steel-types for at least neutral damage; HP Fire is there to take care of the Steels, as well as pull double duty against Ferrothorn and Scizor. I chose Psyshock as the final move because it lets Latios take on Blissey, as well as anything else that is lacking on the physically defensive side. I may consider Energy Ball as a Grass-type move, especially if Celebi ends up not working out too well.

Random Question: I know Soul Dew is banned, but why isn't that noted in the Smogon OU Ban List announcement here?

Celebi (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 232 HP / 240 SAtk / 36 Spe
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Leaf Storm
- Shadow Ball
- Recover​

Filling the last slot was tough, and Celebi seemed to be the one Pokemon that could do all of the things that I wanted. I really wanted a strong Grass-type to take on all of the Water-types that are all over OU, with all of the Rain teams around. Celebi's ability to not only do this but also cripple opposing Pokemon with Thunder Wave made it a very interesting choice for the team. Paralyzing multiple Pokemon on the opponent's team allows Tyranitar to become more of an offensive threat. I chose Shadow Ball as a coverage move to take on Psychic-types that I don't have many other direct answers to. However, I worry that Celebi has many weaknesses, and including it gives me three weaknesses to Dark, Ghost, and Ice. Unfortunately, I couldn't see a way around this; I couldn't think of another way to complete the team with what I thought it still needed. I considered Breloom (was leaning towards Technician to have a boosted Mach Punch), as its Fighting-type could also be of use to the team. I guess I can't really give a specific reason for choosing Celebi instead, I just went with it.

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Any thoughts and suggestions are welcomed. The team definitely has some issues that are apparent to me, and there are probably other glaring ones that I won't notice unless pointed out.

 

[Sayonara]

hey, nice team. on latios, i'd definitely go with recover over psyshock / energy ball, in order for you to heal off the residual sand damage and life orb recoil, which increases latios' survivability and lengthens its sweep. after a couple of boosts, dragon pulse and calm mind already wrecks everything, so a coverage move isn't too necessary. i find that your team would really appreciate spikes support, helping your offensively-oriented team get past opponents, who are weakened by spikes, and turning 2hkos into ohkos. i'd replace skarmory's stealth rock for spikes, and change tyranitar's ice beam for stealth rock. ice beam isn't too useful on tyranitar anyways, as its main targets are faster than tyranitar and can take him out before you can utilize ice beam (for example, gliscor). skarmory can come in on many physical threats like cb scizor, so it has many opportunities to stack up the spikes. i find your team would greatly benefit from a more defensive starmie with an ev spread of 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 Spe (with a timid nature), and a moveset consisting of scald / psyshock / rapid spin / recover. with this set, you can tank hits with more ease and quickly spin hazards away. recover is useful to keep starmie in good shape, as the sand's residual damage cancels leftovers recovery. psyshock helps you deal with threats like CM Virizion and Keldeo, who are both outsped by starmie. with the ev spread, cb terrakion cannot even ohko this starmie. on landorus, i'd go with hidden power ice in the last slot instead of hammer arm - this lets you get past gliscor, who would wall you otherwise. with starmie shifting to a defensive set, gliscor would become slightly harder to deal with, so hidden power ice remedies to this situation. sorry for the lack of proper punctuation; i'm using a weird keyboard. anyways, cool team, and good luck! hope i helped.

 

[topspin1617]

hey, nice team. on latios, i'd definitely go with recover over psyshock / energy ball, in order for you to heal off the residual sand damage and life orb recoil, which increases latios' survivability and lengthens its sweep. after a couple of boosts, dragon pulse and calm mind already wrecks everything, so a coverage move isn't too necessary. i find that your team would really appreciate spikes support, helping your offensively-oriented team get past opponents, who are weakened by spikes, and turning 2hkos into ohkos. i'd replace skarmory's stealth rock for spikes, and change tyranitar's ice beam for stealth rock. ice beam isn't too useful on tyranitar anyways, as its main targets are faster than tyranitar and can take him out before you can utilize ice beam (for example, gliscor). skarmory can come in on many physical threats like cb scizor, so it has many opportunities to stack up the spikes. i find your team would greatly benefit from a more defensive starmie with an ev spread of 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 Spe (with a timid nature), and a moveset consisting of scald / psyshock / rapid spin / recover. with this set, you can tank hits with more ease and quickly spin hazards away. recover is useful to keep starmie in good shape, as the sand's residual damage cancels leftovers recovery. psyshock helps you deal with threats like CM Virizion and Keldeo, who are both outsped by starmie. with the ev spread, cb terrakion cannot even ohko this starmie. on landorus, i'd go with hidden power ice in the last slot instead of hammer arm - this lets you get past gliscor, who would wall you otherwise. with starmie shifting to a defensive set, gliscor would become slightly harder to deal with, so hidden power ice remedies to this situation. sorry for the lack of proper punctuation; i'm using a weird keyboard. anyways, cool team, and good luck! hope i helped.

Thanks for the feedback!

Going more defensive on Starmie I definitely agree with. I'll go with those EVs and try Scald over Surf. Is there a reason you went with Psyshock over Thunderbolt and Ice Beam? I was thinking I might want to keep Thunderbolt, as I have no other Electric moves, and that lets Starmie take on other Water-types, especially Slowbro.

I'll try the changes to Tyranitar and Skarmory.

As for Latios, I definitely see what you mean, but I'm a bit more hesitant there. I know Latios is really powerful after a Calm Mind or two... and maybe Blissey is about the only thing that Psyshock is good for. I can't think of anything else that resists both of his other moves that wouldn't also resist Psyshock, so maybe it isn't really worth it. Hmm, maybe I will give it a shot haha.