The Rough Sand - (Peaked 18th)

[Mizuhime]

Introduction

Hiya Smogon, This is Exeggutor back with yet another rmt, I love these things really. but I digress. To date this has been one of my most successful teams to play with. It has a custom Heatran set that we will get into later. The team is focused on keeping the pressure on my opponent all game long. A couple of scarfers, a volt turn core, some sand, and a powerful sweeper often leaves my opponent confused, one mistake and it could be the end of the game before they know it. I've played with team for just over a month and a half now, made it fairly high on the ladder, peaking some where around 2150 and a ranking of 18. It's a fairly straight forward team to use, just be as offensive as possible and you will find good success, But now lets get into the details. also, if anyone could make me a banner, I would love you forever

First look ​

The In-Depth analysis​

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SAtk / 192 SDef
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
- Crunch

Tyranitar, one of the best Pokemon in the OU tier, has been since his grand appearance in the 2nd generation of Pokemon. Due to his spectacular ability in Sand Stream, he also gets a 50% boost to his already respectable base 100. Tyranitar can serve many roles on many different teams, from A DDer, To a CB set, to Scarf, to the wonderful mix set he's just one of the greatest Pokemon in the tier. On my team Tyranitar's role is a mix attacker, my stealth rocker, and a wonderful specially defense Pokemon, Though his defensive typing may not be the greatest ever, it still does his job, managing to take on the lati twins and Starmie without much trouble.

The coverage Tyranitar gets is outstanding. Beyond good is an under statement. Stealth rocks is the greatest move in all of Pokemon and is a must on any team that hopes to be successful. Lots of Pokemon in the OU tier are weak to ice, which is why ice beam is a great move on the set. Landorus-t and I both hate ice beam. Salamence, Dragonite, Tornadous-t any grass type and i'm sure there is more can't think of none at the moment. Fire Blast helps round out some coverage taking on some steel types like Ferrothorn, Skarmory, the odd Forrytress and genesect if it's feeling gutsy enough to switch in. Crunch is the only stab move the set carries and is one of the most important. It gives TTar the ability to take on big special attacks such as the Lati's, Alakazam to an extent, and Gengar. Tyranitars amazing bulk allows it to serve many roles on the team, and will always be one of the best Pokemon in the tier, it's definitely one fo the key members on this team.

Heatran @ Shed Shell
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earth Power

Here would be the odd Heatran set I spoke of early. The Standard? Shed Shell Heatran set is rest talk, lava plume protect/toxic. That's a Set I didn't want to use for 1 second. On an offensive team I thought an offensive Tran would make a lot more sense. So I came up with this. Shed Shell Heatran Single handed Demolishes all sun teams. Dugtrios think they can switch in, they eat an attack, I switch out and go to Landorus-T. A Defensive tran would weigh this team down, and really has no place on this team, It's an odd set but it works. and for opposing teams they boost the stab of their own worse nightmare to start with. Even though Shed Shell seems like it be worthless at other times, but lately I have seen an outbreak in dugtrio for people trying to win the weather wars the easy way. This set kind of just demolishes all Trios to every touch the field.


The moves the set has are pretty standard. Fire blast is for a powerful stab, and hits a lot of Pokemon hard. No Need to say what it's really for because we all really know. Hp ice is better then Dragon Pulse for coverage reasons, it also hits more dragons hard due to the fact that most dragons carry a flying type as well as dragon, leaves them at a 4x weakness. Earth power, is for opposing Heatran, and the extremely rare Infernape that think's he can switch into a fire blast. Over Heat is the last move I chose to have on this set. Similar to scarf tran, Shed Shell doesn't like to stay in long. If an opposing Dugtrio tries to revenge i'm able get out. Over heat nets that little more power as well if I really want something dead and I don't know if fireblast will kill it.. or hit it.

I know this set is wired, and uncommon to say the least. But trust me on this one, It works, and it works well. Once again I refused to use A rest talk tran on an offensive team, and this set still allows me to mess up sun teams with out a problem at all. Sometimes the creative/odd sets, are the greatest sets you can use as long as they're good, keep that in mind.

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch

Rotom wash.. Much can be said about this Pokemon but to sum it all up, it's good. With good offensive typing, a good move pool to abuse that typing, and the wonderful ability called Levitate, this pokemon is a must on any team that has volt turn. Rotom serves as one of my main checks to rain teams. Well firing off stab thudnerbolts, and Hydro pumps. it's natural bulk allows me to stay alive for extended times well fighting rain which is needed as rain gives me some trouble.


The Coverage on this set is simple, Thunderbolt for stab, Demolish that annoying little toed, That Bird Tornadous-T and that ugly pony Keldeo. Volt Switch allows me to gain the advantage and keep the pressure on my opponent making them think twice about switching and giving me the advantage. Hydro Pump is the main powerful stab this set has, an easy prediction nets a kill on a volt absorber. Will-o-Wisp is one of the better moves on this set, for pokemon that think they can switch into a Elec attack or a Hydro Pump can just as easily take a burn, and it cripples some of them such as Terrakion, Dragonite, Salamence, ect. Rotom is an amazing pokemon and can find a spot on every team.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
- U-turn

Lando-kitteh is one of the most under rated Pokemon in the tier. Factoring in Intimidate, it has better bulk then Gliscor, and a far better attacking stat. This Pokemon is a great Offensive pivot, and often forces out the opponent giving me advantage with U-turn, the bast 91 speed stat isn't the greatest, but hey, lando-kitty is a monster, and has amazing offensive synergy with Rotom-w.


The set is pretty self explanatory. Earthquake is the main stab, could fire off earthquakes for days backed by a base 145 attack stat. Stone Edge is to hit pokemon like Salamence, Dragonite ect as they switch, Thought I am considering putting HP ice on this set Due to the release of Garchomp back to OU, would help me fight the beast and also give me a way to kill of flying dragons as they switch in. Super Power is used to mostly kill the pink blobs, I hate them, I really do, and finally U-Turn makes lando-kitty 1/3rd of my volt switching core.

Genesect @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Download
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Atk
Naive Nature
- Ice Beam
- Flamethrower
- Thunderbolt
- U-turn


awwwwww, Genesect. Whatever you want to call it, it's good. The release of this extremely annoying bug took the OU scene by storm. Wonderful ability in download. A great move pool. mirrored attacking stats, and defensive stats. this Pokemon can put ginormous dents in any team and sweep you in the blink of an eye if your not properly prepared. Some say you can't be prepared for it, and that it's broken, But that's a different argument for a different time. (protip it's not broken). My Genesect also hold a choice scarf. I've always liked running 2 scarfers as it usually isn't expected. It also helps me check some of the faster common OU pokemon like keldeo, torandous-t ect, which landorus has a hard time doing.


The set abuses the fact that Genesect has so many option in it's arsenal, Ice beam is to revenge dragons locked into an outrage (see mence), thunder bolt is for anything that wants to get hit by it, and flamethrower is for the ferrothorns that think they can switch in, you see it more often then you would think really. Uturn allows Genesect to be the last member of the volt turn core, and Genesect also has surprisingly good synergy with rotom-w yet again we see another instance where rotom is just good as hell.

Breloom @ Leftovers
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Spore
- Swords Dance

Breloom got an ability that put it up there with the powerful revenge kill that we all love to hate named Scizor. Technician mach punch coming from a base 130 attack is going to hurt anything that doesn't resist it. Well having Loom on a team with some uturns and a volt switch it finds many chances to set up din the duration of a match. Breloom all though have one of the lowest BSTS in OU, is looked at one of the most powerful threats, funny how that works.


Mach punch is the main abuse for a stab that Breloom has. Backed by Technician and +2 attack after a swords dance, it's not a move that many pokemon want to take. Bullet seed is used as a grass move that's boosted by Technician as well, And I don't think breloom gets any other move. Depending on how well rng likes me that day Bullet Seed can manage to take out Gliscor depending on the hits. Spore is ued to sleep something after forcing a switch so it's an easy set up for a SD. Breloom also helps me a lot with the problem that is rain. Easily taking out any Pokemon with a water typing. Though Breloom is the weak link on this team imo. And Personally I can't think of anything to replace it.



I would Like to thank anyone who rates this team in advance. And A few special shout outs are necessary

First thanks to Iconic and Bloo for pushing me over the edge and making me a better player

2nd I would like to thank all the PL nubs who really got me started in pokeon. I still hate most of you <3

finally, Special shout out to who ever makes me a banner :D​

 

[Snowflakes]

Instead to handle the bold zam weakness i suggest Scarf Breloom it outspeeds and can spore or OHKO it Bullet Seed: Icicle Spear: 207-246 (65.92 - 78.34%) -- guaranteed 2HKO. it also is useful for sporing other fast threats that don't expect it.

EDIT: Also running Naive instead of Timid on Genesect

Also running less speed is an option (unless you wanna outrun +1 lolvire/speed tie other scarf lando-t) you can drop it to 244 spd EVs to outspeed scarf Heatran or 224 sp EVs to outspeed +1 Adamant Dragonite and put the rest in HP. the bulk is probably negligible though.

Other then that awesome team, glad to see a fellow sand user shuck ^.^ pro tran set. good shit.

Superedit:

Erm...Bold Zam? Is that a thing?

She faced one on PS ladder and lost a battle because of it, it's more of a joke then a real rate lol.

 

[bubbly]

Erm...Bold Zam? Is that a thing?

Anyway, really really nice team, the only real issue is Rain because both your water resists are incredibly flimsy. Every time Specs Toed (heck, even Scarf Toed) comes in it's basically getting a kill. Keldeo is even worse; you can revenge it after a kill yeah, or it could even be Scarfed, in which case you basically lose. You are also somewhat weak to opposing Breloom as well.

First of all, I think you need to replace your Breloom with either Amoonguss or Roserade (basicaly, bulk vs Spikes). Both give you a solid answer to Keldeo and Breloom, while doing substantially better than Loom at absorbing Water attacks. You could also use a specially defensive EV spread on your Rotom-W for more defense against Rain, especially Tornadus-T.

Hope that helps, congrats on the ladder peak :)

 

[phoopes]

Oh hey, one of those PL nubs here with an awful banner. (Black and White because that's the generation you're playing in, *wink wink*)

Seriously though, that's an awesome team you've got there. Like Snowflakes, I especially like the Tran set. Like you said though, I'd try HP Ice over Stone Edge. The only things you're missing out on hitting for SE damage by making the switch are Bugs. Meanwhile, you get a nice 4x hit on a bunch of stuff. Great team as always.

 

[Mizuhime]

Erm...Bold Zam? Is that a thing?

Anyway, really really nice team, the only real issue is Rain because both your water resists are incredibly flimsy. Every time Specs Toed (heck, even Scarf Toed) comes in it's basically getting a kill. Keldeo is even worse; you can revenge it after a kill yeah, or it could even be Scarfed, in which case you basically lose. You are also somewhat weak to opposing Breloom as well.

First of all, I think you need to replace your Breloom with either Amoonguss or Roserade (basicaly, bulk vs Spikes). Both give you a solid answer to Keldeo and Breloom, while doing substantially better than Loom at absorbing Water attacks. You could also use a specially defensive EV spread on your Rotom-W for more defense against Rain, especially Tornadus-T.

Hope that helps, congrats on the ladder peak :)

Thank you kindly bubbly and yes to help you with the bold zam questions, there was a battlle where I got extremely trolled by a bold alakazam as my opponent 2nd last pokemon ( other was espeon) and i had heatran and genesect left, I thought I had it won and let him set up calm minds with zam, I bring in genesect and go for the uturn and it gets the 25% to live and destroys me with hp fire, It's a featured replay on ps and no one will let me live it down :(

 

[TGMD]

Hey Exeggutor, nice team!

After looking through your team I noticed a huge weakness to Offensive Quiver Dance Volcarona, who can sweep your entire team at +1. It can come in on Breloom (after sleep clause is activated), Rotom-W, Heatran, Landorus locked into Superpower and Genesect locked into Ice Beam, then once Volcarona gets to +1 it outspeeds and OHKOs your entire team other than Tyranitar (who takes 62.38% - 73.27% from Bug Buzz and can't do much in return.) To help remedy this situation I suggest running a Choice Scarf Landorus-I over your current Landorus-T. Landorus-I can outspeed and OHKO +1 Volcarona, mitigating your Volcarona weakness, Landorus-I functions as a much better scarfer than Landorus-T, its base 101 speed allows it to outspeed a large portion of the metagame. You will miss Intimidate and the extra "bulk" it brings to the team but you really can't afford to be so weak to such a common pokemon.

You really do have a huge problem with offensive rain and offensive water types in general, your only water resists are Breloom (which is almost never going to be switching in on anything) and Rotom-W. Your current Rotom-W can't take rain boosted Hydro Pumps at all and as Bubbly pointed out; Keldeo can really barrel through your team and then there's Tornadus-T, who can be checked by bulky Rotom-W, but again, your current set's lack of bulk really lets you down. To fix all these problems I suggest a Specially Defensive Rotom-W over your current offensive set. This Rotom-W is one of the best defensive pivots in the game and can very easily take almost any special hit thrown at it. The lack of offensive presence may be irritating at first, but with the bulkier Rotom-W this team will regain all the bulk it loses if you decide to change to Landorus-I and lose Intimidate.

Anyway, I hope this rate helped and GL with the team! Luvdisc'd :)

Choice Scarf Landorus-I

Landorus @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-Turn
- Hidden Power [Ice] / Superpower

Specially Defensive Rotom-W

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 32 SAtk / 228 SDef
Calm Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

 

[ClubbingSealCub]

Loving this team!

Minor nitpick - I don't see why you would pack both Fireblast and Overheat on Heatran. You say that you use Overheat due to power and accuraccy issues, but difference in both power and accuraccy (especially accuraccy) is negligible.

Have you considered Rock Slide to alleviate the Volcarona problem Doom mentions? Most Volcarona feel safe QDing up when facing an offensive Heatran, because these Heatrans tend to lack anything that can hurt them and Volca can just use HP Ground to KO them whenever it feels like it. Even with a hindering nature, Rock Slide has a 60% chance to KO opposing bulky Volcarona after SR, and offensive firemoths take minimum 80% damage. If you do try Rock Slide out, I would replace Fire Blast with it, as an offensive Heatran at -2 SpA is like a big neon sign saying "SET UP ON ME PLEASE" for Volcarona.

Sincerely,

Your clubbiest fan

 

[Gary]

The whole thing about Genesect being broken is BS. He's easily checked by Heatran, who resists every single one of his moves and his immune to Flamethrower, and is also checked pretty nice by Scarfed Latios with HP Fire.

Anyways, really nice sand team! If you want a replacement for Breloom that plays similar roles, you could opt for a Substitute SD Virizion. It does lack priority and power off the bat like Breloom, however after one SD his power nearly surpasses Breloom and when behind a Substitute, it can be downright deadly. It has the same STABS as Breloom, and finds it quite easy to come into Pokes like Blissey and Politoad to set up a Sub and attempt a sweep. Lastly, it's MUCH faster then Breloom with a Jolly Nature, and has very nice Specially Defensive bulk to go along with it.

Virizion @ Life Orb/Leftovers
Trait: Justifed
EVs: 20 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spd
Jolly Nature/Adamant
- Substitute
- Leaf Blade
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance

Virizion now being in UU, may seem like a bad Pokemon in OU, but with the proper chance to set up, Virizion can truly destroy it's foes and out speed many threats. Also, if you don't like Substitute, you could also opt for Stone Edge or a Hidden Power of your choice, preferably Ice.

Hope this helped stir up an idea. Good luck!

 

[Mizuhime]

Hey Exeggutor, nice team!

After looking through your team I noticed a huge weakness to Offensive Quiver Dance Volcarona, who can sweep your entire team at +1. It can come in on Breloom (after sleep clause is activated), Rotom-W, Heatran, Landorus locked into Superpower and Genesect locked into Ice Beam, then once Volcarona gets to +1 it outspeeds and OHKOs your entire team other than Tyranitar (who takes 62.38% - 73.27% from Bug Buzz and can't do much in return.) To help remedy this situation I suggest running a Choice Scarf Landorus-I over your current Landorus-T. Landorus-I can outspeed and OHKO +1 Volcarona, mitigating your Volcarona weakness, Landorus-I functions as a much better scarfer than Landorus-T, its base 101 speed allows it to outspeed a large portion of the metagame. You will miss Intimidate and the extra "bulk" it brings to the team but you really can't afford to be so weak to such a common pokemon.

You really do have a huge problem with offensive rain and offensive water types in general, your only water resists are Breloom (which is almost never going to be switching in on anything) and Rotom-W. Your current Rotom-W can't take rain boosted Hydro Pumps at all and as Bubbly pointed out; Keldeo can really barrel through your team and then there's Tornadus-T, who can be checked by bulky Rotom-W, but again, your current set's lack of bulk really lets you down. To fix all these problems I suggest a Specially Defensive Rotom-W over your current offensive set. This Rotom-W is one of the best defensive pivots in the game and can very easily take almost any special hit thrown at it. The lack of offensive presence may be irritating at first, but with the bulkier Rotom-W this team will regain all the bulk it loses if you decide to change to Landorus-I and lose Intimidate.

Anyway, I hope this rate helped and GL with the team! Luvdisc'd :)

Choice Scarf Landorus-I

Landorus @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-Turn
- Hidden Power [Ice] / Superpower

Specially Defensive Rotom-W

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 32 SAtk / 228 SDef
Calm Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Thank you for the suggesting doom, you're not the first person to actually suggest the Landorus switch, so it looks like I will be testing it soon, as for the rotom, that does seem like a better set to me.

 

[Joeyboy]

Was just about to come in and recommend SpDef Rotom-W :D So I second Doom's suggestion of it. It will definitely help you against offensive rain teams and it'll give you a much more reliable switch-in to the omnipresent Tornadus-T.

My second suggestion is to replace Tyranitar with Hippowdon. Tyranitar is having a very rough time adjusting to life in BW2 and your set especially has a hard time doing what it used to do in BW1. Dugtrio is everywhere and Rain teams paired with it threaten to dismantle you. Shed Shell Heatran ensures that you won't have a difficult time against GeneSun but if a Rain team runs a spread akin to GeneSun(ex. Politoed/Torn-T/Dugtrio/Genesect) then it has a very easy time winning the weather war against you, due to Tyranitar being trapped by Dugtrio. The set I recommend is:

Hide

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Atk
Careful Nature
IVs: 25 Def
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off

This set has much more survivability than your current Tyranitar while also performing many of the same tasks. It lays Stealth Rocks down, almost assuredly only losing to fast Taunt users. It keeps the Ice-type coverage from your Tyranitar. The main draw is of course that Hippowdon cannot be simply trapped and removed by those powerful Rain teams. The lowered Def IVs ensure Genesect gets an Atk boost when facing Hippowdon. Without the SpAtk boost Ice Beam does significantly less damage. With this change you do however become a little more weak to Lati@s, but I believe the pros out way the cons. Plus your team deals with them alright.

Good Luck!