Sands of Time - SS tRMT ft. Relicanth

[Team Perfect]

Hello! And welcome to my first Sandstorm team. This is my first sandstorm team that i at first half mindedly threw random Ss pokes together. Then i refined it through trial and error.


Order of RMT:

At a glance
In Depth
Team Building
Threat List
Final Glance


At a glance:

In Depth:

Hungry Hungry Hippo (M)

EV's: 252Hp 168Def 88Def
Ability: Sand Stream
Nature: Impish
Item: Leftovers
Moves:

Earthquake
Slack Off
Stealth Rock
Roar

First up we have hippowdon our SS set up poke and SR layer. He also acts as a physical wall scouting the opponents team as well as denting a few with STAB earthquake. This is a pretty standard set, but works nicely. Roar is to phaze any set up pokes (Mence, gyara, Latias, etc.) Slack off adds to his walling abilities. He works well in the lead position as mentioned sets up SS.

How he deals with other leads:

Azelf: Go to Heatran to scout if it carries fire blast or physic than switch to scizor or stay in and only switch on the expected explosion back to hippo

Aerodactyl: Scizor BP clean 2KHO

Roserade: Take the sleep like a man and go to scizor to 2HKO with BP

Machamp: Set up SR and roar it away

Swampert: See Machamp

Metagross: Set up SR and EQ it to death

Tyranitar: It can't do anything SR then EQ

Infernape: SR then roar or EQ

Heatran: SR then EQ

Super Man (M)

EV's: 4Hp 252Spe 252SpA
Ability: Flash Fire
Nature: Timid
Item: Chople Berry
Moves:

Fire Blast
Earth Power
Hidden Power [Grass]
Toxic

Heatran plays an extremely important role on my team by taking fire atks aimed at my scizor. The chople berry helps me fake a choice set which helps me gain a lot of surprise kills on many pokes. Fire blast is STAB and hits quite hard especially after a flash fire. Earth power hits other fire types relatively hard and also hits non levitating steels hard as well and the chople berry allow me to survive a close combat and OHKO back. Hp grass is for bulky waters and ground types most notably swampert. Toxic allows me to also fake a bulkier set and allows me to cripple water types on the switch in. Heatran plays the all important role of holding my team together.

Batman (M)

EV's: 252Hp 56Def 200Spe
Ability: Sand Veil
Naute: Jolly
Item: Leftovers
Moves:

Taunt
Toxic
Rock Polish
Baton Pass

This is a rather gimmicky moveset. I can fake the stall breaker set with the help of taunt and toxic, so that usually causes some switches allowing me a free turn to rock polish and baton pass to my slow, but bulky sweepers. Toxic is for crippling water types and basically every none steel type in the game. Taunt shuts down any set up attempts and causes some switches which allows for a rock polish. My main receivers for the rock polish boost are heatran, tyranitar, and relicanth. And with SS and sand veil, getting a rock polish is even easier ^_^

Spider Man (M)

EV's: 252Hp 252Atk 4Spe
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
Moves:

Bullet Punch
Superpower
Pursuit
U-Turn

Well a standard CB zor with a bit more ev's invested into spe to outspeed other cb zors. Anyways CB zor is the OU of OU for a reason and it really works well on a SS team thanx to the special defense boost it can take hits a bit better. BP is for revenge killing and priority. Superpower is to take care of t-tar and blissey. Pursuit is to take care of rotom-a and latias. And u-turn is for scouting. Since scizor has a fire weakness, heatran is a perfect partner for it taking all the fire attacks aimed at zor. Scizor also makes a good late game janitor cleaning pokes low on health with its powerful BP's.

Mr.T (M)

EV's: 48Atk 208Spe 252SpA
Ability: Sand Stream
Nature: Naive
Item: Expert Belt/babiri Berry
Moves:

Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Dark Pulse
Superpower/Flamethrower

Mixtar is a complete beast thanx to the usage of scarf tar (ty so much). People expect a scarf tar every time and they send in a physical a physical wall and and instead they get a special atk in their face. T-blot and ice beam form the infamous boltbeam combo hitting everything for neutral damage. I'm stuck on whether to replace superpower with flamethrower to hit scizor and switch expert belt to babiri berry to survive a BP and OHKO with flame thrower. He is also one of my main receivers for a rock polish boost from gliscor because without a scarf t-tar is pretty slow.

Chuck Norris (M)

EV's: 4Hp 252Atk 252Spe
Ability: Rock Head
Nature: Jolly
Item: Life Orb
Moves:

Head Smash
Earthquake
Waterfall
Double Edge

Here is the star of the show! Relicanth is insane after a rock polish because a STAB LO boosted head smash is no laughing matter. Now some of you may be wondering why not choose aggron instead well, the reason is because aggron's are the most common head smash user and some teams prepare for an aggron and relicanth is rarely seen and relicanth has a higher bass hp. Waterfall is STABed, and hopefully some flinching. EQ takes care of rocks/steel types. And double edge lets me hit breloom for neutral damage. Head smash is usually the main attacking choice because of its 150 base atk and cuz the name, HEAD SMASH!!! thats the manliest name there is.

Team Building:

I wanted to base this team around a relicanth because of STAB head smash and aqua tail.

I guess i decided i needed something to take the htis that are aimed at relicanth and baton pass some speed, so gliscor came into the family.

The way i looked at it i needed an ice resist so scizor and heatran were chosen to take ice atks and the two have great synergy together.

Next i looked at my team and a SS theme began to develop so i used the two pokes in OU that can summon a sandstorm.

Threat List: Coming Soon

Final Glance:

 

[Boondocker]

Its not wise to pass speed to a choice user. Use life orb over choice band on relicanth and swords dance on gliscor. Also, a duel screen rotom over ttar doesnt seem like a bad idea. This will help gliscor set up easier. Oh and change gliscors item to yache berry.

 

[Team Perfect]

Ok i'll change them now.

 

[BreTran]

I like your team, but you need more phazers to make it easier for relicanth, i agree with Ladies Man that you should use a LO or maybe an expert belt to fake a choice set

 

[Darkamber8828]

Is outspeeding other scizor a good idea?

The slower scizor wins 1 v 1, because of the superpower defense drop.

The slower scizor also gets to uturn on a revealed pokemon, scouting stuff. You get it.

How do you deal with Crocune? It looks like it only needs one cm to sweep here. HP grass isn't cutting it. I suggest swapping it for explosion, since ttar and relicanth can take fire attacks anyway.

Also...Waterfall is better than Aqua Tail, because it doesn't miss and you can flinch stuff.

This looks like a nice team, anyway. Also beware, apparently my rates suck.

 

[Team Perfect]

@Darkamber8828: Ev's have been changed and waterfall is being used instead, hp grass will stay because of pert weakness.

@Ladies Man: After testing pure baton pass team, i prefer my set

 

[Team Perfect]

BUMP

 

[ginganinja]

Well their is not much elese to suggest but you need a check for suicune since it blasts through your team with no effort. i suggest a Celebi or a Shaymin to check these bulky waters. It could go over Heatran since T-tar can take Fire Blasts.

Have a Nice Day

 

[Team Perfect]

Thanx for the rate, i have actually been thinking of celebi

 

[Jah.Anon]

I've noticed that Starmie could be a problem because it can outspeed and ko nearly everything on your team(not sure if Tyranitar can live a Hydro pump). As mentioned before Celebi could really help your team, even Defensive Latias can help. And as I say to every sandstorm team evert type dosen't have to be rock water or steel, because it opens you up to fighting, water, ground and sometimes grass(Shaymin).
When your fighting people make sure to keep Hippowdon alive or Lucario will sweep you, assuming it has Ice Punch.

 

[ginganinja]

Drop the CB on Relicath since its really bad to be locked into a move if its been B/Ped speed. LO or expert Belt are excellent alternatives

 

[Team Perfect]

I changed the item to LO and after some testing celebi is in! thanx for the suggestion ginganinja

 

[Rising_Dusk]

Hello:

Relicanth is a pretty darned cool Pokemon to base your team around, but there are a lot of issues with this team that should be addressed if it's going to fare well in the OU environment. I know that you seem intent on making this a "sandstorm team", but if you want to support relicanth properly, you really need to move outside the rings of steel-, rock-, and ground-type Pokemon a bit. Please consider my following suggestions and give them a try.

First of all, you run two sand stream users, which is very redundant. Hippowdon is a very stall-oriented Pokemon and really doesn't fit the style of this team well at all. I know it can be alluring to get sandstorm going as soon as possible, but with Tyranitar alone you don't have to worry - it gets many chances to switch in. You need a Pokemon that can switch into grass and ground attacks aimed at Relicanth. A great Pokemon for this job that won't slow down the team is Gyarados - despite being only neutral to grass.

I suggest replacing Hippowdon with the following Gyarados:

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 156 HP / 72 Atk / 96 Def / 184 Spe
Nature: Adamant
- Dragon Dance
- Taunt
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge

This gives you an important immunity to ground for Relicanth. This will also double as backup for your Heatran, who lures Water- and Ground-type attacks that this Gyarados will happily set up on. I suggest Bulky Gyarados so it isn't completely deteriorated by the sandstorm theme of the team with its Leftovers. If you really don't want any Pokemon vulnerable to sandstorm, then Skarmory makes a good candidate in this slot with its 4x grass resistance, but it's pretty stall oriented and will slow down the rest of your team.

Since Hippowdon is being replaced, I recommend moving your own heatran to the lead position and running the Stealth Rock (Lead) set as listed below. This will keep you with a very early Stealth Rock and still gives you the ability to beat other common leads while retaining the core of your team. This also gives you a strong explosion to put down opponents like Swampert and Vaporeon with, who are likely to switch into you.

Heatran @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Naive
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion

Next, I'd like to suggest a replacement for Gliscor. You want more coverage for the attacks that threaten Relicanth and you want the ability to cover moves that threaten Relicanth. You also generally have an issue with bulky waters, so something that immediately threatens them will be a big boon. Zapdos fits all of these roles and will fit handily into your team.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Def / 88 SpA / 36 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Agility
- Baton Pass
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Grass / Roost

This HPGrass will help check Swampert superbly, while Thunderbolt off of its 125 SpA stat will maim other bulky waters. If you don't mind Swampert that much, although you will, then Roost for keeping Zapdos healthy is worth considering in the last slot, especially given the ice attacks it can lure. Do note that while Gliscor performs this role admirably in a sandstorm team, you're only compounding your bulky water weakness by using him with his 4x ice weakness and 2x water weakness. This is made worse by the fact that you're running Heatran and Tyranitar, all of which are weak to water.

I think that these things will best help your team set up a successful Relicanth sweep in the current OU metagame. Give them a try and tell me what you think; I'd be happy to help you further if you have other concerns. Good luck with your team!

 

[Team Perfect]

Ok first off, tran is changed to celebi, but i was too lazy to edit it, but i will edit that soon, Second i need a lead to set up SR and i dont want celebi or tran, Third dos and gyara are weak to SR which i like to keep away from. Sorry if i sound stubborn, but that's my battling style