Gen 3 RMT - Sandstorm

[Zenox]

This is a sanstorm based team. The one pokemon I don't feel like I use very well is skarmory, so i'm especially looking for suggestions for him.

Registeel @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rest
- Rock Slide
- Thunder Wave

Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP / 6 Def / 252 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Drill Peck
- Roar
- Spikes
- Toxic

Metagross @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 156 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spd
Hardy Nature (Neutral)
- Agility
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Meteor Mash

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Spd / 104 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt

Tyranitar (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Taunt

Flygon (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 140 HP / 192 Atk / 176 SAtk
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Screech
- Toxic

 

[morning storm]

like most sandstorm teams, you have a bit of a problem with bulky waters, specifically the move surf. vaporeon, swampert, suicune (CM cune especially), and milotic's surfing will hurt.

-like most sandstorm teams, you could add something like STALK zapdos to beat those bulky waters, but he's prone to ice beam anyway.

-so far you have 1 thunderbolt on the team, which is jirachi, who has no spec def evs, and has no way to recover. you could make him more defensive, and a team player opposed to a sweeper, and whack light screen and wish on him.<--thats probably the easiest and best thing imo, giving you some nice all round support, seeing as metagross, tar, flygon, jirachi and skarmory so far have nothing but leftovers to support.

-next, gotta deal with that dugtrio and spikes weak. i say this together, as most of these pokes (ie tar, metagross, jirachi, and registeel especially) will not be OHKOd by a duggy EQ, but with some spikes on the ground, this is often the difference between survival and death). dugtrio traps and kills 4 players of your team, especially if he has spikes down (and you have no way to really stop that), and your team is hurt.

-for a spinner, if you want to stay with the TSS theme, you could add forretress, donphan, armaldo, claydol.. i would put one of these over registeel, since, even though he's cool and underused, he's UU for a reason, and he's not doing much imo but seeing things set up..

-forretress could have lightscreen and more spikes, but would be redundant because of skarm's spikes anyway which you have. so id say go claydol or donphan- (you really need a spinner since a sandstorm team is generally one which wins over time, not immediately, and spikes is definately the kind of thing that will wear a team down to be swept a DD mence or something.)

-big dragon dancer weakness. dd mence will sweep at turn 20. add swampert imo- he's the best all round counter for those things, goes with the sandstorm theme, and is common among TSS teams for a reason... put over something... if you wanted to fit the spinner + mence counter in 1 spot, i guess you could use claydol with ice beam... but not as reliable..

-and make metagross' nature adament

and voila, you will have a standard TSS team, which is standard for a reason. the usual trade off of cool points for ability is one i dont like to make either.

[i put some text is bold not because i feel my suggestions are so awesome, but just for the ease of reading]

 

[rtc3]

I recommend OP to pay attention to morning storm's post, as it's some good advice.

And btw, just because it's a sandstorm team doesn't necessarily mean that all the pokes need to be immune to Tar's sand stream.

 

[Polatrite]

I applaud the fact that you're using Registeel. I -HIGHLY- recommend that you go more defensive with him, though. Check out this build, it's served me nicely:

 Registeel (RegisteelOfDoom) @ Leftovers
204 hp / 188 def / 116 sp. def
(Clear Body) [Bold nature]
Amnesia
Rest
Seismic Toss
Toxic

You can switch him in on everything but STAB earthquakes, calm mind electric/water, heavy-duty fire (like blast burn or overheat). But since you lead with him, I recommend just staying in. If the opponent is special attacks, use amnesia once (700+ special defense right there), if it's not fire, or uber damage, it'll barely do anything, and you'll heal quite a bit of it with leftovers. Throw down some toxic and seismic toss. If the opponent is going to use earthquake, stay in unless it's stab, hit them with seismic toss, and bring out skarmory to take the second earthquake. You'll still be over 100 hp (enough to rest against a pokemon later and have registeel start fighting again). Registeel is surprisingly effective and undercredited, IMO. You just need to watch out for the obvious 404 subs, blissey, snorlax, dugtrio. Aside from that, you can leave this thing in against the likes of Blaziken and Charizard and turn around and own them. Be wary of critical hits.

As far as the rest of the team, listen to the experts, not me. =P

 

[Umby]

More like Counter/Explosion. You'll take things out quicker and won't be stalled by the many things that learn Rest. You might want to switch things around and work a Claydol in there and go with a Sleep Talking variant of Metagross, that being your one true outlet to destroying Regice, and can take on Gengar as well. You also definitely want to work a Bulky water in here too, preferably Swampert. A Bold Wish Jirachi would work great for support, especially on a TSS team.