Sandstorm? HELL YEAH.

Hey Smogon! It's been a while since I've posted, and I've grown in skill, but my team making skills are still needing your kind suggestions and constructive criticism. This team has been serving me well in Shoddy Battle, but I feel like with some adjustments, the wins could go through the roof, but enough talk. Let's get on with the RMT!

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Overview:

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In-depth:

Storms, the male Tyranitar..
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@ Choice Band
Sand Stream
HP: 50 / ATK: 252 / SPD: 208
Adamant
-Crunch
-Pursuit
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge

TTar initially sets up the storm, Choice Band lets this deadly lead deal MASSIVE damage to opponents. Crunch is his main stab offense. He RAPES most ghosts and psychics with it. Pursuit is on him as well to catch the switch outs. Pursuit is just pure own on this killer. EQ is for coverage, Stone Edge gets stab and gives MAJOR damage.

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Slashes, the male Garchomp..
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@ Yache Berry
Sand Veil
HP: 6 / ATK: 252 / SPD: 252
Jolly
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Fire Fang
-Swords Dance

I LOVE this 'Chomp. First off, Swords Dance makes his attacks also just purely beastly and Yache Berry lets him get one, maybe two off. Sandstorm also gives me the occasional Sand Veil hax, which is saving my butt now and then. Dragon Claw and EQ for stab, Fire Fang covers Skarm and Zong well.

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Skies, the male Gliscor..
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@ Leftovers
Sand Veil
HP: 252 / ATK: 6 / DEF: 172 / SPD: 80
Impish
- Aerial Ace
- Taunt
- Roost
- Ice Fang

Alright, time for this big bad pokemon.. First of all, Sand Veil abuses the storm and gives him an evasion edge like 'Chomp. 'Cor usually targets fighters and dragons, using Ace and Fang when necessary. Roost lengthens his already long life. Taunt is placed instead of the standard EQ just for the support.

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Sounds, the male Bronzong.. (Yes, I know they're genderless..)
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@ Lum Berry
Levitate
HP: 252 / ATK: 152 / SPDEF: 106
Relaxed
-Gyro Ball
-Stealth Rock
-Hypnosis
-Toxic

This guy loves to ToxiStall... Well, anyway, I gave him 0 Speed IVs, and a Speed reducing nature to fully unlock Gyro Ball's power. It works wonders against fast sweepers, and along with Toxic, sending them in against my Zong is condemning them to death. Running Hypnosis lets me get sleep support. SR gives great support. Lum Berry gives him a chance to absorb some status, just in case.

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Stars, the male Starmie.. (Yes, I know these are genderless too..)
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@ Leftovers
Natural Cure
HP: 160 / SPATK: 134 / SPD: 216
Timid
- Thunderbolt
- Surf
- Rapid Spin
- Recover

You got your basic SpinStar here. TBolt covers my Gyarados weak, and Surf covers up Infernape. Rapid Spin keeps my team free of spikes and SR. Recover for standard purposes. This Spinner also boosts the average speed of my team, keeping me in the runnings of the metagame.

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Saviors, the male Lucario..
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@ Life Orb
Inner Focus
HP: 6 / ATK: 252 / SPD: 252
Jolly
-Swords Dance
-Close Combat
-Extremespeed
-HP Ice

Alright! SDLuke for the win! This guy works as a sweeper, ice/normal killer, dragon/flying/grass killer, and revenge killer. This guy works beautifully with the others in the team, and has saved a game for than once.

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Thanks in advance for the great help I know I'll get!
(matty, latinoheat, Gouki, muna, Kangster123, TAY, .Baris., you guys ROCK!)
 
For this team i see two glaring weaknesses in Gyarados and fighters in general, for instance an opposing SDLucario will rip through this team and Heracross will pick this team apart.
Even though sandstorm is basically the concept of this team i would first replace Hippodown with Gliscor to cover the fighting weakness.

For the Gyarados weakness i'm gonna suggest Vaporeon over Breloom, Vaporeon (Surf,HP Electric,Protect,Wish) will not only stop Gyarados but as this team has no real recovery Wish would be helpful as support. It also covers the glaring mixape weakness you have and gives you a pokemon that can actually switch in to Heatran.

If you go with this option i would also suggest trying out Sleep Talk Bronzong not only because you don't have anything that can absorb status but more importantly Bronzong is the only thing saving you from getting destroyed by several common pokemon (Deoxys,Electavire,Weavile,Mamoswine)


Lead with either Bronzong or Tyranitar and as suggested above replace Focus Sash with Life orb on Lucario.
 
I'm going to start off by saying that I don't feel Hippowdon is a gorg lead anymore, and that you are better off leading with Bronzong. Use the standard set of Hypnosis, Gyro Ball, Stealth Rock and Explosion with a Lum Berry, or possibly even Shed Shell, as Magnezone or Wobbuffet will be able to take out a rather important part of your team's defense.

CB Garchomp fails to 2HKO Skarmory with Fire Fang, replace it with Fire Blast instead.

As previously pointed out, you have a lot of problems dealing with Gyarados. Additionally, you have issues with Skarmory and Forretress, and Spikes in general. To fix these problems, as well as your glaring Infernape weakness, you can use a standard Surf, Thunderbolt, Recover, Rapid Spin Starmie. This would probably do well as a Breloom replacement, since the rest of your team does not really suit Breloom anyway.

Since Hippowdon is not leading anymore, and as latinoheat pointed out, you have Lucario issues due to your lack of a Fighting resist, replacing it with Gyarados or Gliscor will help the team. Since you already have a 4x Ice weakness, Gyarados seems to be the better choice.

Finally, I strongly feel that you should change Lucario's item to Life Orb, and that changing the nature to Jolly will help in the long run, as with Adamant you will have some trouble dealing with Mamoswines that are accompanied by Magnezone.
 
This isn't a suggestion to change your team directly, but I did find that your nicknames were strange and perhaps gave something away. The nickname, Stream, gives away that you have a sandstorm team (to an extent). Swords, the Lucario, completely gives away the set. Apart from that, I would have to agree that your team is very mixape weak.
 
Thanks for all the help guys, I'm at a friend's house ATM, so I can't make the changes yet, so I'll edit this post and the main post once I get back later tonight. Thanks again for the help guys!

EDIT: K, changes have been made, check it out!
 
24 Hour Bump.

I just want one more batch of opinions to see if my team is finished for now. Anyway, I'll use this post to explain all the changes and edits... So...


Tyranitar was swapped into lead position, and Hippodon was replaced by Gliscor. Meanwhile, 'Chomp's Adamant nature was switched with Jolly, keeping his speed up with his monstrous attack. Fire Fang wasn't switched to Blast due to the fact that this team now has Starmie to deal with that steel bird beast. Bronzong, on the other hand is more of a threat. Now, as I mentioned earlier, Gliscor is now a functioning member of the team. I run him as a standard Supporter packing Aerial Ace for fighters and Ice Fang for dragons. He also packs the standard Roost and Knock Off instead of EQ for the support. Bronzong now has Gyro Ball, SR, Hypnosis, and Toxic under his belt (or bell :p). Hypnosis over Explosion because well.. it just wasn't really helping. Lum over Lefties also to absorb some status. Breloom was replaced by Starmie. Starmie just runs the basic SpinStar set, targeting Skarms, Gyaras and Apes. Lastly Lucario's Sash was ditched for a Life Orb, and his revealing name "Swords" was transformed into the more secretive "Saviors."
 
After the most recent changes, i see two major problems:

First, you still have a ridiculous HP Ice Infernape weakness. He outspeeds and OHKO's everyone except Starmie, who is generally poor at taking hits anyway, not to mention if they also have a pursuit user you're toast. To make this slightly better, I think Chomp should just be the standard SD Yache Chomp, so it could take an HP Ice if need be. ScarfChomp would work as well, but at that point getting set up on by Gyarados, Garchomp, etc becomes an issue. And be sure it has Outrage! The extra boost in power is what allows Garchomp to OHKO Gliscor with two Swords Dances.

The second problem is that you're going to have a hell of a time getting through Gliscor, unless your opponent does something stupid or you hax it. Honestly I would just give Lucario HP Ice over Crunch, so when your opponent switches in Gliscor you can easily clear it out, which will make things a lot easier for TTar and Garchomp. Using Lucario against Gengar is a huge risk anyway, and TTar can already deal with Cresselia, Celebi, and the slow Ghosts.

On a related note, it wouldn't be so bad to give TTar some HP EV's out of his speed, since nothing else is really near his speed tier. 208 Speed will beat most Suicune (which is actually a pretty big threat to this team), and TTar will earn 11 extra HP, which isn't so bad with his monstrous defenses. Sure, you might be outsped by other TTars, but your entire team hits TTar for super effective damage (lol), so I doubt that will be a problem.

You would benefit more by giving Gliscor Taunt over Knock Off. Knock Off needs many turns to show a significant effect, but you're doing so much damage so fast that taunt would be better to prevent your opponent from healing and abusing status. He should also have some speed EV's; 80 Speed will outrun the base 100's who try to outrun TTar, to stop Celebi's Leech Seed/Recover, Jirachi's Wish, and Zapdos' Roost. If such a large drop in defense is uncomfortable for you, then at the very least he should have like 36 EV's to outspeed other Gliscors so he can easily beat them 1v1.

Good Luck; Hope this Helps! --TAY
 
After the most recent changes, i see two major problems:

First, you still have a ridiculous HP Ice Infernape weakness. He outspeeds and OHKO's everyone except Starmie, who is generally poor at taking hits anyway, not to mention if they also have a pursuit user you're toast. To make this slightly better, I think Chomp should just be the standard SD Yache Chomp, so it could take an HP Ice if need be. ScarfChomp would work as well, but at that point getting set up on by Gyarados, Garchomp, etc becomes an issue. And be sure it has Outrage! The extra boost in power is what allows Garchomp to OHKO Gliscor with two Swords Dances.

The second problem is that you're going to have a hell of a time getting through Gliscor, unless your opponent does something stupid or you hax it. Honestly I would just give Lucario HP Ice over Crunch, so when your opponent switches in Gliscor you can easily clear it out, which will make things a lot easier for TTar and Garchomp. Using Lucario against Gengar is a huge risk anyway, and TTar can already deal with Cresselia, Celebi, and the slow Ghosts.

On a related note, it wouldn't be so bad to give TTar some HP EV's out of his speed, since nothing else is really near his speed tier. 208 Speed will beat most Suicune (which is actually a pretty big threat to this team), and TTar will earn 11 extra HP, which isn't so bad with his monstrous defenses. Sure, you might be outsped by other TTars, but your entire team hits TTar for super effective damage (lol), so I doubt that will be a problem.

You would benefit more by giving Gliscor Taunt over Knock Off. Knock Off needs many turns to show a significant effect, but you're doing so much damage so fast that taunt would be better to prevent your opponent from healing and abusing status. He should also have some speed EV's; 80 Speed will outrun the base 100's who try to outrun TTar, to stop Celebi's Leech Seed/Recover, Jirachi's Wish, and Zapdos' Roost. If such a large drop in defense is uncomfortable for you, then at the very least he should have like 36 EV's to outspeed other Gliscors so he can easily beat them 1v1.

Good Luck; Hope this Helps! --TAY

Thanks, I've edited what needs to be edited, and I'll play a few Shoddy Battles to test your ideas. I'll edit this post later.

EDIT: It's all working wonderfully! Your adjustments are really helpful! Thanks again!
 
i see a big yanmega weak,because bronzong haven`t a recovery.Yanmega is mostly a lead,maybe you make you`re bronzong to the lead,which can kill yanmega with the lum berry or you play sleeptalk bronzong.You can also make Milotic > starmie,cauze you haven`t a special wall.(only the spin is now a problem,maybe you put a foretress over you`re bronzong.And if you want play milotic pls with sleeptalk,since status suckz on milotic.
sry for my bad english,lol
 
i see a big yanmega weak,because bronzong haven`t a recovery.Yanmega is mostly a lead,maybe you make you`re bronzong to the lead,which can kill yanmega with the lum berry or you play sleeptalk bronzong.You can also make Milotic > starmie,cauze you haven`t a special wall.(only the spin is now a problem,maybe you put a foretress over you`re bronzong.And if you want play milotic pls with sleeptalk,since status suckz on milotic.
sry for my bad english,lol

Thanks for the suggestions, yet I find my team fully capable of eliminating Yanmega.
 
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