Sandstormish team

[Ukkoclap]

Hi there. I haven't battled for awhile, but recently picked up X/Y so I'm really into competetive battling again. This is my currnt GenV team. It's a somewhat sandstorm team and also with Stealth Rock / Spikes.

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Atk / 76 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Nice things about T-tar is during the sandstorm his sdef is increased by 50% that makes him bulky against water moves, but having 4x weakness against Fighting is still a problem. Good physical sweeper with Choice Band and good to swap in against physical pokemon and using pursuit on them if they're tyring to run away.

Garchomp @ Focus Sash
Trait: Rough Skin
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Swords Dance
- Fire Fang
- Earthquake

Garchomp is an amazing sweeper. What I like from Garchomp vs other Dragon pokemon it has Earth and Dragon as STAB. I do have noticed that garchomp can't really take many special hits. Good against Fire/steels with Earthquake and Fire Fang for Pokemon like Scizor or other weak to fire types. Outrage makes also a good combination when fighting non-steel types and dragons that are slower than Garchomp also OHKOs Dragonite when not at full HP. Sword Dance boosting attack when I get the chance.

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 6 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Substitute
- Toxic
- Protect

From what I've read Gliscor can be used either as a stall or Baton Passer. I've chosen for the stall tactic, because I don't have many other defensive or bulky Pokemon as long I don't encounter pokemon using strong Ice attacks Gliscor can pretty much wall many physical attacks and wear out the oponent with Toxic and I can protect myself with Substitute and Protect also can thrown in earthquakes aslong they aren't immune to it or flying.

Scizor @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Bug Bite

Scizor is another great sweeper if I can get 1 sword dance off Bullet Punch is a killer or Bug Bite versus physics. Roost can keep Scizor healthy only danger is fire moves which pretty much can OHKO Scizor. I chose HP EV over Speed for a more bulky Scizor since you'd mostly use Bullet Punch which is a priority move and if I'm gonna Sword dance 1 round it wouldn't matter if I go first or not.

Gothitelle @ Leftovers
Trait: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 SAtk
Bold Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Psychic
- Hiddenpower Ice
- Thunderbolt
- Trick

Gothitelle is kind of trapper if its convinient. With Shadow Tag the oponent can't escape I can tickle the oponent and set up Calm Mind enough to OHKO with psyshock. Only weak thing with semi-wall Gothitelle is there's no reliable recovery, since she doesn't get Recover.

Skarmory (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 SDef
Timid Nature
- Whirlwind
- Spikes
- Brave Bird
- Roost

This set allows me to setup spikes, and wall pokemon that aren't using fire or thunder. The thread for skarmory is pokemon using fire or thunder moves especially if they are special sweepers, because skarmory is fairly frail to special attacks. But if i can successfully setup 3 spikes and can pretty much hurt the enemy and whirlwind or having him force to switch. I can also Roost up to stay healthy and Brave Bird weak pokemon.

I usually start off with Gothitelle to trap the enemy or Garchomp and stealthrock. If there's a good physical to wall I can swap in with Gliscor and toxic them to either keep walling them or have them force to switch to another pokemon. Fromt here pretty much keep sweeping untill I win.

Threaths
- I usually still feel trapped against certain combinations also my team really isn't fond of Water/Ice oponents.
- Also my team is in great danger if my oponent can get off dragon dances or 2 then having greater speed than any other of my Pokemon and kills them off left and right since most pokemon are rather frail.
- Jirachi - pretty annoying overall usually takes 3 tries to kill it. Also strong when i'm either stuck in Outrage or when my oponent anticipates my move knowing I'm gonna Draco Meteor.
- anything crippling my pokemon with para/burn.
- Not sure what else.

I feel I still kinda lack something on the support department or should I also be considering swapping some sweepers for something else with not the same weakness? Maybe swap around some other Pokemon. Sometimes I feel I lack something with Ice/Thunder. Gothitelle can be useful when trapping the right oponent and tricking them if it fails its not too usefull. Its special attack is weaker than allakazam and Latios/Latias.


Also with Gen6 in the make I feel my team is also somewhat outdated so I was wondering if there's any new pokemon worth looking at. I probably still want to keep Garchomp, Gliscor and Skarmory on my team. Garchomp is an amazing pokemon and has great offenses, gliscor is a great wall, and Skarmory can be useful also against oponents that use Sword Dance, substitute and whatnot.

Any tips/feedback would be much appreciated.

 

[noobcubed]

FWIW, even though gen VI is already upon us, I might as well rate this team. Some of the principles will most certainly apply anyways.

So anyways, there are several things lacking here that should be on most every team:

A water resist. Even in gen VI, rain is likely to exist (particularly if Swift Swim is unbanned, which, with the weather nerf, is highly plausible). Not having one of these is suicidal on all but the most hyper-offensive of teams.

A Choice Scarf user. How are you going to deal with opposing sweepers? Especially since you have a pretty slow team, but equally not a full stall team (and even full stall often carries a revenge killer).

About the threats this teams faces:

Yeah, rain. Particularly Keldeo, who can just kill everything on this team with rain-boosted Hydro Pump (idk the calcs, maybe Skarmory can survive and KO back with Brave Bird). Like I said, you very much need that water resist. If you are going down the stall route, you almost certainly need two.

There are three ways of defeating set-up, with the method depending very much on the team's style. These are: apply so much pressure that there isn't time to set up (for offensive teams), revenge kill with a scarfer (offensive/balance), or run whirlwind, dragon tail, haze, unaware, or some other method of getting rid of set-up (stall).

As for Jirachi, well that thing is so damn versatile that it's pretty much impossible to make a fail-safe counter. For example, Skarmory normally does a pretty good job of jut being able to lay Spikes against it and phaze out variants like Sub CM. However, it is made to cry by rain offense sets with Thunder, and the Choice Scarf set can make it pretty much useless with Trick. So that's a tough one. At the moment you will just have to be careful not to lock yourself into outrage while it is around.

Also, there's a bit of a weakness to Jolteon here, since most run Hidden Power Ice which destroys Garchomp and Gliscor, plus it outruns your whole team and resists your only priority move.

Onto individual sets:

Tyranitar: I'm not so much a fan of the Choice band set for a team like this. Since it seems to be built so heavily on sand (which is also a flaw IMO), you probably want a bulkier set with Leftovers that is built to survive. That way you could also run Stealth Rock, which your team lacks. Running Pursuit also seems redundant when you also have a dedicated trapper. Maybe, since you seem to have a sort-of stally team, you could run Hippowdon instead.

Garchomp: Focus Sash is a really bad idea, especially when you're not running a spinner. Stick a Life Orb on it at the very least. Alternatively a Choice Scarf can outrun even Scarf Jirachi, which is cool.

Gliscor: Redundant with Skarmory, they do pretty similar things and Gliscor is just stacking your rain weakness. This is probably the Pokemon I would most want to change. Not sure what to, but instinctively Swords Dance / Baton Pass Celebi sounds cool, to assist the several physical attackers in the side, and simultaneously packing a water resist.

Scizor: No complaints, not everyone has to use Choice Band.

Gothitelle: Seems a bit strange. I don't know what opponents you particularly need to trap. In this spot I would put my revenge killer. Since you say you have a problem with water-types, Rotom-W seems like a perfect fit in here. A somewhat standard set like Hydro Pump / Volt Switch / Trick / Filler would do fine here. Trick is sweet to really irritate the likes of Ferrothorn, Gastrodon, and Blissey, who are likely to switch in.

Skarmory: Fine.

Anyway, don't feel you have to make all these changes, if you did it would barely be you team any more. Rather I'm giving you a few different options so you can see what works best for you.