Team pastebin: http://pastebin.com/TZc9zV0m
So I've decided to make a Sand team balance team cause I love balance. I've played Pokemon showdown for a year now so I good knowledge of the metagame. I've found myself to be a player that loves to play offensive but also like play stall too.
Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 80 Def / 180 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
I chose Tyranitar as sand and stealth rock setter because he's a little bit more offensive than Hippowdon. He gives me a bird spam and lati twin check that can pursuit them. I went with the standard Smogon spread cause it's reliable. Smooth rock over leftovers or chople berry for more stand turns.
Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Rock Slide
You can't have a sand team without Excadrill. He is my main sweeper and win condition. I went sword dance of rapid spin cause I've seen the power of +2 excadrill, it can 1 hit ko standard
Ferro and Slowbro. Also felt I could add hazard control in a different mon. I went adamant and Life orb over air balloon for the power it gives.
Tangrowth @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 244 HP / 216 Def / 48 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Leech Seed
I have my offense, now I need so defense. Whenever I'm building I always look for a good fire, water grass core. I thought of doing a core Heatran and Tangrowth. I've been using Tangrowth in alot of recently and I love this Pokemons bulk and that regenerator ability is amazing. I went with a physically defensive set since it deals with those bulky ground and water types like Hippowdon, Slowbro, Rotom- W and defensive Landorus. I originally had leftovers and sleep powder, but after testing the team online I found myself liking rocky helmet more. Also during testing, because of my bad luck I seemed to miss like almost all of my sleep powders. So I just switched it Synthesis for more reliable recovery. There were times when the pokemon Tangrowth was suppose to beat was winning the 1v1 since I wasn't able to heal up enough.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Protect
- Toxic
- Roar
Heatran I love and I also despise this pokemon. Playing against a heatran or a ferrotorn is so annoying they wall so much of the meta and they never die. Heatran forms an amazing core with Tangrowth. Tangrowth switches into the ground and water type moves aimed at Heatran, while Heatran eats up all the flying, bug, poison,ice and fire attacks aimed at Tangrowth. Heatran also performs as my 2nd talonflame switch in. I have max Hp and max special defense with calm nature to give maximum bulk on the special side. Protect helps get more leftover recovery and helps scout. I have roar over taunt cause I feel it's a better option since it lets me faze out things like talonflame that can set up on it.
Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 36 Def / 224 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Recover
- Reflect Type
- Rapid Spin
Starmie is my final piece to my fire, water, and grass core. It's my spinner, which my teams doesn't really need since my team isn't weak to rocks, but it's good to have for hazard stacking. Also Starmie gives my team a static absorber and a switch into Keldeo which tears through my team.
Infernape @ Fist Plate
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Mach Punch
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Close Combat
So after taking a step back and looking at what I had so far, I found my self-being pretty week to Weavile.
I originally thought about Lucario since it resists Weaviles stabs and also can get an justified boost from Lucario knockoff while have amazing priority in Extremespeed, but it's kinda slow. So then I thought about Infernape since it's best counter to Weavile. First I thought about a bulky set, but found my team lacking offense and becoming very stally. I then switched to banded since it gave me some more offense and U- turn for momentum. During testing I found being locked into a move was becoming an issue. So I changed to Fist plate since close combat and U-turn were the 2 moves I used the most. I have Mach punch for priority and Iron Fist to boost the power of mach punch.
Threats
My team gets 6-0 ed by this thing. Literally the only way I deal with this thing is with excadrill in the sand.
This thing is a monster. Only switch in is Starmie (if it doesn't have thunder punch which is really rare) and it has to at full. If it does have Thunderpunch then Tangrowth is my only other counter. Tangrowth can't switch in to Mega Medicham since it takes like 60 percent. I have sack something bring Tangrowth in and spam Synthesis.
Let me know what changes I can make to make this team better and also how I can Improve on my RMT posts.
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