OU Balanced Sand (Peak at 2014)

[DartMonkey29]

Greetings Smogon! This is DartMonkey29 (or as the majority of you know me Chomp29) posting an RMT of the team I used to hit #13 on Pokemon Showdown (2014).

The team easily has potential to hit #1 however in the hands of someone more dedicated. As I went 50-8 with this team, a lot more games could have been played to a achieve a greater result.

Here is a screen shot: http://imagepaste.nullnetwork.net/viewimage.php?id=5705

Disclaimer: I made this team completely on my own, however given that the team itself is relatively standard there is almost a 100% chance that there are similar teams out there.

With that out of the way...


Team building process:

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Started with this team:

Then:

So at first I had a life orb tank Latias with HP [Fire], Dragon Pulse, Surf, and Recover. However the problem I was running into was in simply OHKOing certain things, namely Keldeo, Mutliscale Dragonite, and Terrakion (there were MANY other things, however those were the most important). By replacing Latias with a Specs Latios, my team's overall damage output was ramped up quite a bit, and I was able to run Psyshock which was EXTREMELY important.

Of course with the change from Life Orb Latias to a Specs Latios, My team at this point had 4 Choice items (Rotom-W was equipped with Choice Specs). After trying multiple different non-choice sets, by far the best one was a slightly spD Chesto Rest Rotom-W, I will go into the set in-depth in the in-depth section (lol).

Prior to the changes I made, my Tyranitar was running a set with a 252/252 Sassy EV spread and Leftovers as an item. However in light of the sizable increase in Gengars and Alakazams I was seeing, it became necessary to run Chople Berry so as to survive a hit from Focus Blast and then proceed to either OHKO with Crunch or lay down Stealth Rocks depending on what the situation warranted. I also transferred a few evs from spD to spA in order to more consistently OHKO Gliscor with Ice Beam, and Ferrothorn with Fire Blast (if it had a small amount of prior damage).

At a Glance:

In Depth:

Tyranitar (F) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SAtk / 192 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
- Crunch


Of course this being a sand team, Tyranitar is a core component of this team. He has three main jobs and excels at all of them. First, he summons a permanent sandstorm onto the field. This allows my team to more effecively wear down opposing teams and gives Landorus a strong boost to its main coverage moves. Additionally, Tyranitar sets up SR which puts tremendous offensive pressure on the opposing team, especially when combined with a volt-turn core. Finally, Tyranitar serves as a strong check to many offensive threats such as Latios/Latias, Alakazam, and Gengar (given that it is equipped with Chople Berry), in addition to beating commone defensive threats such as Skarmory, Ferrothorn, Chansey (with a bit of luck), and Reuniclus (again due to Chople).

Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit
- Bullet Punch


Scizor is quite possibly the MVP of this team, the utility, power, and momentum he provides the team in addition to his multiple resistances make him a stellar Pokemon in his own right. But if this wasn't enough, he has very high synergy with the rest of the team itself, having four Pokemon that resist his only weakness, as well as he himself resisting all of Latios's and Rotom-W's weaknesses. He packs a high-powered priority STAB in the form of Bullet Punch which allows him to threaten a huge portion of the metagame out, and gain momentum by smashing a switch in with a strong U-Turn. This then allows you to bring in a counter to whatever the opponent switched in and subsequently force them out again. Super Power is by far Scizor's best coverage move, as it nails steel types that resist both of its STABs. Finally, Pursuit is used over quick attack in this case as Tyranitar does not pack Pursuit himself, and therefore revenge killing the likes of Latios and Gengar is even more important than ever.

Rotom-W @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 96 spA / 160 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Rest


Chesto-Rest Rotom-W is very strong in the metagame right now, especially considering the fact that you encounter a Jirachi virtually every game once you get to the 1800's. It also allows Rotom-W to take resisted and Neutral hits better as it can simply bring itself back to full health in one turn. This allows it to not get worn down by Politoed and opposing Rotom-W. The moveset is quite obvious, Volt-Switch/Hydro Pump are reliable STAB attacks, and Wil-O-Wisp is extremely important for crippling Ferrothorn and Jirachi, which is mainly what this set is designed to do. Additionally, Rotom-W's lack of leftovers often can act as a bluff to making opponents think that you are Choice Scarfed.

Latios (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Psyshock


Choice Specs Latios hits like an absolute truck. If played correctly it should ALWAYS take out at least one of your opponents Pokemon, and generally a great deal more if they lack a strong Pursuit user. Even if they have one, if the predict wrong by bringing in Scizor into an HP [Fire] or a slightly dented Tyranitar into a Surf, Latios can easily turn the tables on them. Having HP [Fire] also allows it to usually 2HKO Jirachi with SR who is a very common switch in to Latios. Heatran can be dealt with using Surf, and Psyshock beats Chansey in addition to OHKOing most Calm Minders by ignoring their stat boosts. I chose Latios over the Life Orb Latias that I had been using prior to it because I needed a Pokemon with stronger wall breaking potential.

Landorus (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Hidden Power [Ice]


Choice Scarf Landorus in my opinion is one of the most underrated Pokemon out there. The early game pressure and late game clean-up potential it provides are insanely strong, and it has a sizable advantage over Scarf Garchomp due to it being able to utilize U-Turn, and having a resistance to Fighting in addition to an immunity to ground. Its Earthquake hits ridiculously hard in the sand, almost as hard as Life Orb Landorus Earth Power, the big difference being that physical Landorus can get away with being Scarfed, and it has U-Turn to back it up. Stone Edge and HP [Ice] provide strong coverage against flying types that are immune to your ground STAB.

Keldeo (Keldeo-R) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Secret Sword
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Dark]


CM Keldeo provides insane wall-breaking potential, in addition to late game sweeping presence. It also makes for a strong surprise lead in which you can set up a Calm Mind and cleanse yourself with Lum Berry. Then proceed to take down 1-2 of you opponents Pokemon as they attempt to kill you (Keldeo is very had to OHKO). Lum Berry is chosen on this set as it allows you to set up on a Jirachi, or gives you immunity to a Scald burn from Tentacruel or Politoed who may try and cripple you. HP [Dark] is chosen on this set as it hits Celebi, Jellicent, Latios, Latias, and Slowbro, without lowering your stats like HP [Ghost] does. The ONLY reason to run HP Ghost > Dark would be to hit Toxicroak slightly harder than Secret Sword. However, this is generally faulty logic as you should almost always be switching out of Toxicroak regardless of which Hidden Power you pack (unless it is psychic).


Playing with the team:


Essentially, you should try and get as much early switching pressure as possible with Scizor, Landorus, and Rotom-W in order to gain a favorable switch-in to Tyranitar. You then set up Stealth Rock and proceed to keep up offensive pressure with your high powered Choice users. Keldeo can be used both as an early lead against certain threats like Landorus-T, or it can be a mid game wall breaker against the likes of Jirachi and Heatran. Landorus and Scizor will be your strongest late game cleaners, as they have the most speed (or in Scizor's case pseudo speed). You should also look for opportunities to bait in opposing Latios or Gengar so you can Pursuit trap them with Scizor (tho you should be wary of HP [Fire]. Do not be too worried if you opponent sets up an early layer of Rocks. You simply need to play more agressively and make predictions rather than always relying on U-Turn or Volt-Switch to ease prediction. Having a Rotom-W with an instant recovery helps a lot against pressure from switching into SR too much. Be especially careful against opposing Mamoswine, Alakazam, and Scarf Keldeo, as the Mamoswine smashes through your team if Rotom-W gets worn down, and the latter 2 can very easily sweep you late game if you let your checks get too worn down.

I will add a threat list later, in addition to a credit section, and a section discussing the metagame as a whole.

 

[Prinz]

Hello there,

Very cool team you have here so props for it!

Looking at your team, I see that entry hazards in general can be very annoying for it because Stealth Rock and Spikes destroy your Volturn chain and because Toxic Spikes are annoying too since they hit both Tyranitar, which is your weather summoner and Keldeo, which is your main sweeper. Therefore, I suggest you to use Starmie replacing Rotom-W; you lose an important member of your Volturn core but you gain a Rapid Spin user which is really useful, if you don't want to lose against teams with Stealth Rock and Spikes, Starmie is definitely good to support your Volturn core since entry hazards are very annoying for it. An EVs spread of 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe with a moveset of Hydro Pump, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam and Rapid Spin, with Timid nature and with Leftovers should work fine on your team.

Then, I'd use Stone Edge replacing Fire Blast on Tyranitar because steel-types such as Ferrothorn, Skarmory and Forretress don't seem a problem for this team since you can beat them with Keldeo and surprise and kill them with Latios' Hidden Power Fire; Scizor is good for Ferrothorn too and Starmie is good for both Skarmory and Forretress. Otherwise Stone Edge allows you to hit Volcarona, which can sweep easily your team with its STAB move if for some reasons your Landorus dies during the matches and it's a strong STAB to do some damages in general.

Third, I'd try Trick replacing Surf on Latios because it's really good against stall teams, which can give you some problem even if you decide to use Starmie instead of Rotom-W, with Trick Latios can hit some walls such as Blissey, Chansey, Jirachi under rain and so on and that's useful in my opinion when you have to battle against a stall teams. This is optional however, if you prefer Surf you can keep it but I'd try Trick and I'd see how it works during your matches.

As last thing, I suggest you to use Hidden Power Ghost replacing Hidden Power Dark on Keldeo because it hits the same things that Hidden Power Dark it but it doesn't active Terrakion's Justified, so it's simple a better choice than HP Dark. You can also try Hidden Power Ice replacing Hidden Power Dark, which hits both Celebi and dragon-types such as Dragonite Salamence, which walls your current set; but it doesn't hit Jellicent and Slowbro but you can trap and kill them with Scizor's Pursuit if you play well, so I'd regard Hidden Power Ice as a good move on Keldeo.

Good luck!

 

[Myzozoa]

This team looks very solid, one thing I don't see is a reason to run Calm Mind on Keldeo. I guess it's fine, but I would prefer to see a typical expert belt 4 attacks moveset, or if you choose Calm Mind make sure to use Leftovers. Keldeo is an important pokemon for your team against both rain and sand so you want to preserve it's health as much as possible.

The rest of the team is fine, but you're pretty weak to CB (and SD-Salac to a lesser extent) Terrakion, not much to be done for it unless you want to change Landorus-i to Landorus-t. Your team also doesn't have very much fun against Rain with Ferrothorn, but you have enough water resists that even if you lose the weather war you may get a sweep with Keldeo or Landorus-i spamming earthquake. As long as you play carefully you'll be fine. Consider changing Latios to Life Orb and Keldeo to Choice Specs, it might be more effective.

 

[Zephir]

Hi Dartmonkey, and congrats for the peak. This team archetype is indeed very effective in the meta and the team is already solid. I used a similar one for reqs and I was surprised at how well performed MixTar (mine outspeed Zor though), CM Keldeo and Physical Lando. But yours has a volturn approach with RotomW that I like.

Concerning Keldeo : I somewhat understand Lum Berry's utility (avoid toxic spikes once, set up on Jirachi, bluff longer a choice) but I found Leftovers to be very useful overall. He's more difficult to wear down with it (good for a wallbreaker), especially in sand without a spinner. While you may not avoid a scald burn (30%, in theory), you will only lose 6% per turn, exactly what you lose under sand right now. Jirachi is well handled by Zor/Rotom/Lando anyway, and with Keldeo's coverage and hard counters, bluffing a choice is not that important especially when running Calm Mind. This way, Keldeo will have easier time setting up on water attacks from choiced opponents, and you don't risk being swept by an Offensive SD Zor because Keldeo is under 50%. On the topic of HP Dark, the 1 point gain in defenses only affects high BPed attacks which will do 1-3 hp less, but if you don't mind hitting Toxicroak 5% harder it's up to you. Also have you tried Hydro Pump ? You may prefer the perfect accuracy, but Keldeo goes through Tentacruel easier and can be handy against Jirachi / Scizor / Dragons.

Two blatant (and common) weaknesses are CB Terrakion and CS Keldeo (because of RotomW replacing Celebi). I don't think the first one can be helped, but for the second you should consider running more Sp Def on RotomW, which will be weakened by other water attacks or passive damages. It would also help against Gengar, Tornadus, and Lando I if it managed to set up a RP on a choiced Earthquake for example.

Good luck !

 

[DartMonkey29]

Thanks to all for the rates!

@Alexander

You are most certainly right that entry hazards (mainly SR can be annoying to a team with no spinner and only packing one SR resistance. Tho toxic spikes really are not an issue at al as 4 pokemon are perma-immune, and one is equipped with a lum berry. Additionally, spikes can be somewhat of a nuisance, but I do have 3 immunities which helps. With regards to a spinner, I would actually love to incorporate one, but I just don't see where I can fit one. While Starmie fills some of the niches of Rotom-W, it fails in a few key areas, but most importantly failing to deal with Mamoswine who otherwise WRECKS my team without insane prediction on my part. The problem with Starmie is it is easily easily KO'd by a LO EQ + Ice shard (even without factoring in SS damage), thus making it impossible to reliably switch in. With regards to sedge > FB, my team cannot deal with Ferro as well as you might think, Lati can OHKO out of rain with hp fire, but its choiced, so is not as reliable, and nothing else on my team can OHKO it, so having FB on Ttar really helps for massive damage to it, and also in dealing with Skarm better. As for Latios, you are right that there are times in which it is better to run Trick than Surf, but my team really is not weak to stall at all. I mean, Keldeo alone generally wrecks it, but the high-pressure high-momentum aspects of my team allow for me to easily pick it apart and dominate other weathers such as rain. So really, I don't often need trick, and HP fire has saved me multiple times against certain threats.

Also I already talked about why I run HP Dark>Ghost and I'm really not keen on changing it since I have already thought this through a great deal of time. I have NEVER hit a Terrakion's justified EVER with HP Dark EVER. And this is even less of a concern since I am not choiced. And I HAVE lived with 1 HP a few times before because Iv's didn't lower my stats.

@Myzozoa

The reason I run CM on Keldeo is that it needs it desperately to break through defensive monsters like spD Jirachi, Jellicent, Celebi, and Tentacruel. Without CM, it really cant do a thing to these potent metagame threats, but with it, it can break through most of them immediately, and some of them after a little weakening from the rest of the team.

And yeah Terrakion is a bitch. But let's be honest... He is a bitch to every team ever made. It is almost impossible to counter him, because the very few things that beat the CB set (slowbro/gliscor etc), are beaten by the SD + Rock Gem set. So really, there are next to zero true counters (Tangrowth, Cresselia (if she can keep sun up), and absolutely MAX/MAX Impish Gliscor).

But at least I do have 3 solid checks and 1 shaky one... so there is that.

@Zephir

Your make a very strong statistic-backed argument for Leftovers>Lum Keldeo, and for that reason alone I will re-test it. Lum Berry has proven extremely useful in the past especially against Jirachi, who on shodown, as any 1900+ player would know is virtually omnipresent on the ladder when you get higher up. It has also bought me enough time to not be poisoned by Tentacruel while setting up, such that I am able to KO it, the same applies to Jellicent and random scald burns (which as you pointed out on its own does not justify Lum Berry due to the odds and damage %). So if i do end up going with leftovers it will be a direct function of the % of times I am able to avoid Poison/Para from Jirachi/Tenta/Misc vs the % of times leftovers recovery has prevented a KO. I will test this.

Also, for my comments on Terra read my comments to Myzozoa.

The point that you brought up though which I think is most promising is making Rotom-W mroe SpD. I like this concept quite a bit, as it would certainly help against certain things (at the cost of some power ofc). I will test this, and also test him with Leftovers + Pain Split > Chesto Rest (since some extremely SpD Rotom-W benefit more from this).

 

[DartMonkey29]

Bump

 

[Candice]

Hey Chomp ! Solid team you have there and very agressive too. Agressive but also quite frail as you don't have any solid walls that can really tank hits properly (especially physical hits) Terrakion has been mentionned before and I do think you need something for him. Lando T could actually help you a lot. Maybe instead of Lando and give the choice scarf to either Latios or Keldeo. And ttar could carry Stone edge or pursuit. I also think expert belt keldeo could work well, but you already said that you liked the CM one for many reasons so that's your call. Anyway, great team and i'm sure you could get higher with that one !