Punching In The Sand

Team Preview

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Introduction

Hello all you probably recognize me by now and realize how much I love making RMTs; I believe this will be my sixth here on smogon and my fifth OU RMT. The team I bring you is what I consider generally my most successful ladder team with a peak around 2,000 with 64 glicko. The team itself is focused around spreading poison, burns, and sleep via spore, will-o-wisp, and toxic to allow breloom to open up huge holes with the criminally underused subpunch set to eventually let me clean up late game with heatran or latios depending on the team scenario. You will undoubtedly see some unorthodox move choices on some of the pokemon but upon testing they have proven to be incredibly useful and at times game changing. This team has had many variations of it and would take forever for me to attempt to give you the run down on the team building process, so let's jump straight into the team shall we?
In Depth Analysis


Heatran @ Leftovers

Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 SDef / 248 HP / 12 Spd
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Protect
- Roar
Heatran is the pokemon this team revolves around and is a damn good pokemon to build around. The subtoxic set I have grown to love over the last few months that I've been perfecting this team as it allows for me to ware down pokemon that could be a giant nuisance including the likes of keldeo, terrakion, and latias. the combination of poison and sand is amazing to have on this team as I can remove threats or ware them enough for latios to come in lategame and destroy the remaining team. Lava plume is there for the 30% chance to burn however flamethrower is the main slash on this set because of the higher base power it carries. Earth power allows me to hit other heatrans and more importantly terrakion. Substitute rounds out the set with allowing me to scout out my opponents initial switch in and cripple it with damage or toxic.


Latios (M) @ Choice Scarf

Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Surf
- Sleep Talk
Latios was initially choice specs and would destroy my opponents team however if you look at it the team is slow and needs a fast pokemon that can patch up the speed problem. It is also a nice counter to have around for breloom and venusaur. Psyshock is there to deal withh they myriad of fighting, and poison types within the overused metagame. Draco meteor being the main stab allows me to get rid of choice scarf salamence, and more importantly get rid of +2 dragonite incase I allow my opponent to set up their dragonite to that level. Surf is the primary coverage move as it allows me to deal with heatran, and hippowdon for some decent damage. Latios is also the lategame cleaner that heatran, and breloom are meant to breakdown walls for so that it can sweep with surf, or psyshock.


Hippowdon @ Leftovers

Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Impish Nature
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
Standard physically defensive hippowdon that can wall the crap out of any pokemon for days given the assistance it gets from rotom wash and jirachi I can get enough walling capability to deal with what I need to. Slack off is fairly easy to explain as it can heal off any amount of health hippowdon has lost. The 4 speed evs allow me to outpace opposing hippowdon and whirlwin them wout before they can whirlwind me. Stealth rock and earthquake round out this set preventing my opponent from making me taunt bait and to deal well with rain jirachi, and to deal passive damage with sandstorm damage as they switch in.


Rotom-Wash @ Chesto Berry

Trait: Levitate
EVs: 216 SDef / 248 HP / 44 Spd
Calm Nature
- Rest
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
This set is a custom ev spread that is essentially enough to outrun minimum investment landorus therian and hydro pump it before it can u-turn on me. Hydro pump and volt switch allow me to gain momentum and hit hard while providing dual stab for rotom to attempt to do damage with. Will-0-Wisp is there to cripple pokemon along with heatran and breloom. Rest is there as I find pain split unreliable as I find restochesfto more reliable for dealing with pokemon and more importantly status as I can lead it against lead breloom burn the chesto berry and burn it.


Breloom @ Toxic Orb

Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 Spd / 244 Atk / 12 HP
Jolly Nature
- Focus Punch
- Spore
- Substitute
- Seed Bomb
This set really needs some more love and appreciation it is so underrated in today's metageme but can singlehandedly destroy half of the metagame. Focus punch is amazing how powerful it hits allowing wallbreaking capabilities. Typically believe it or not I will lead with breloom and sub down as they switch to their sleep talker or sleep fodder. This allows me to scout out the opponent's switch in and potentially determine their set. Seed bomb being primary stab allows me to destroy water types that assume I'm physically defensive subseed after they notice i have poison heal and substitute. Spore is obviously to cripple one of my opponent's pokemon permanently for the rest of the game. This can often be the difference between life and death in some matches.



Jirachi @ Expert Belt

Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 152 Atk / 208 SpA / 148 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hidden Power (Ice)
- Iron Head
- Thunder
- Fire Punch
Jirachi has been on the team awhile however the set has varied from specially defensive sets, to a choice scarf set. I finally decided on the wall breaker expert belt set to catch landorus therian for breloom, ferrothorn and scizor for latios, and to deal with politoed for heatran. Iron head is a stab move that is amazing at times to get crucial chip damage so I can destroy them with the appropriate coverage move. There is a final option that can be chosen for jirachi over any move and that would be healing wish which I have found to be crucial at times but can be annoying as it takes up a crucial spot on jirachi.

Import

Heatran @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SDef / 8 Spd
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Protect
- Toxic

Latios (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Surf
- Sleep Talk

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Impish Nature
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Rotom-Wash @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 216 SDef / 248 HP / 44 Spd
Calm Nature
- Rest
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp

Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 Spd / 244 Atk / 12 HP
Jolly Nature
- Focus Punch
- Spore
- Substitute
- Seed Bomb

Jirachi @ Expert Belt
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 152 Atk / 208 SpA / 148 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hidden Power (Ice)
- Iron Head
- Thunder
- Fire Punch
Final Glance

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Last edited:

ShootingStarmie

Bulletproof
is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Hi there, so this is a really cool team you have here, however I feel I have a few suggestions to make your team slightly better.

So, this is a sand balance team with a cool Water Fire Grass core, which is a really solid choice. Jirachi acts as a lure for the team, and Latios revenge kills threats. However, I feel that your Breloom set is pretty weird, and I feel it's kinda redundant with Jirachi already wall breaking (mainly because of the surprise factor, not because it's super powerful).

So here's my first suggestion. Replace Breloom with Celebi. Celebi has incredible synergy with Heatran and Hippowdon, and fits you team like a glove. Like I've said before, I don't think Breloom's wall breaking is appreciated, as you don't have a late game cleaner to take advantage of the opposing walls being weakened. Here's the set.



Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Spd / 216 SDef
Calm Nature
- Baton Pass
- Giga Drain
- Psychic
- Recover

So I'm suggestion the SpDef set as it seems like Keldeo could run through this team after Rotom-W is slightly weakened. So 40 speed EVs are used to out speed Adamant Scizor, Tyranitar, and Adamant Breloom (which also seems like a problem for your team once Latios is weakened). The rest of the EVs are placed into HP and SpDef, to better tank hits from Politoed, Keldeo, and Rotom-W. So Baton Pass forms a "Voltturn" core with Rotom-W, as they gain a ton of momentum and give you switch advantage. Baton Pass also prevents Celebi from being trapped by banded Tyranitar and Scizor with Pursuit. Giga Drain is STAB and keeps water types like Rotom-W and Starmie at bay. Psychic is also STAB and hits Terrakion and Breloom for great damage. Finally, Recover is used to keep Celebi around for the majority of the match.

So my next suggestion would be to change Heatran's set to the SpDef set. From your description on how you use Heatran, it seems like your wasting it's EVs into Special attack, when you're in fact Toxic stalling and hoping for the burn with Lava Plume. Here's the set.


Heatran @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 SDef / 248 HP / 12 Spd
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Protect
- Roar

So there isn't much difference from your current set to this one. However, the EVs have been moved to SpDef, to allow Heatran to act as a better Toxic staller for your team. I run 12 Speed EVs to out speed opposing SpDef Heatrans to get the Roar off first. Lava Plume is your main form of STAB and as you know has a 30% burn rate. Toxic hits bulky water types like Politoed, Rotom-W, and Keldeo on the switch. Protect is used for scouting purposes and ranks up more residual damage, while also gaining cruical Leftovers recovery. Finally, Roar is used to phaze Latias, Volcarona, and other special sweepers trying to set up on Heatran.

Other than that, I really like this team. Congrats and good luck in the future with it!
 
Importable has toxic hippo :[ Now onto the actual rate. I feel like your team needs specially defensive heatran over your current set, as ShootinStarmie said above, as your heatran really isn't doing it's job as well as it could be. Especially because your 2 steels are offensive variants and I could see Latios/Latias plowing through your team late game. Solid team, congrats!
 
Hi there, so this is a really cool team you have here, however I feel I have a few suggestions to make your team slightly better.

So, this is a sand balance team with a cool Water Fire Grass core, which is a really solid choice. Jirachi acts as a lure for the team, and Latios revenge kills threats. However, I feel that your Breloom set is pretty weird, and I feel it's kinda redundant with Jirachi already wall breaking (mainly because of the surprise factor, not because it's super powerful).

So here's my first suggestion. Replace Breloom with Celebi. Celebi has incredible synergy with Heatran and Hippowdon, and fits you team like a glove. Like I've said before, I don't think Breloom's wall breaking is appreciated, as you don't have a late game cleaner to take advantage of the opposing walls being weakened. Here's the set.



Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Spd / 216 SDef
Calm Nature
- Baton Pass
- Giga Drain
- Psychic
- Recover

So I'm suggestion the SpDef set as it seems like Keldeo could run through this team after Rotom-W is slightly weakened. So 40 speed EVs are used to out speed Adamant Scizor, Tyranitar, and Adamant Breloom (which also seems like a problem for your team once Latios is weakened). The rest of the EVs are placed into HP and SpDef, to better tank hits from Politoed, Keldeo, and Rotom-W. So Baton Pass forms a "Voltturn" core with Rotom-W, as they gain a ton of momentum and give you switch advantage. Baton Pass also prevents Celebi from being trapped by banded Tyranitar and Scizor with Pursuit. Giga Drain is STAB and keeps water types like Rotom-W and Starmie at bay. Psychic is also STAB and hits Terrakion and Breloom for great damage. Finally, Recover is used to keep Celebi around for the majority of the match.

So my next suggestion would be to change Heatran's set to the SpDef set. From your description on how you use Heatran, it seems like your wasting it's EVs into Special attack, when you're in fact Toxic stalling and hoping for the burn with Lava Plume. Here's the set.


Heatran @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 SDef / 248 HP / 12 Spd
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Protect
- Roar

So there isn't much difference from your current set to this one. However, the EVs have been moved to SpDef, to allow Heatran to act as a better Toxic staller for your team. I run 12 Speed EVs to out speed opposing SpDef Heatrans to get the Roar off first. Lava Plume is your main form of STAB and as you know has a 30% burn rate. Toxic hits bulky water types like Politoed, Rotom-W, and Keldeo on the switch. Protect is used for scouting purposes and ranks up more residual damage, while also gaining cruical Leftovers recovery. Finally, Roar is used to phaze Latias, Volcarona, and other special sweepers trying to set up on Heatran.

Other than that, I really like this team. Congrats and good luck in the future with it!
I feel that the specially defensive heatran would work wonders for this team however celebi is not going to be used breloom is a staple for this team to function the way it needs to in order to wall break throught many of the physically defensive walls in this team. If i were to use celebi maybe the nasty pass set to baton pass to latios lategame?
 

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