Thank you very much. I didn't even know about Japan Sand teams. I was familiar with region styles in fighting games, but knowing that it happens in Pokemon as well is kinda blowing my mind. While it is a little discouraging to know it would require a lot of effort and knowledge, it is very motivating to know that EVENTUALLY you could get good enough at team building to make things like that work.
You mentioned Mega-Chomp being bad though. When would I want to use it? While we're at it, when would I want to use Mega Tyranitar too? All the information that I've gathered has been that "they're good, they just require a lot of support."
It was only ever named "Japan Sand" because the core was first popularized by the Japanese, a lot of people know it as "quick sand" (lol) too after it caught on in Europe/North America.
Mega Chomp is not "bad" per se; 170 Atk / 120 Sp. Atk with STAB + Sand Force boosted Earthquake / Earth Power is no laughing matter, especially with a strong boost to Rock Slide and Iron Head. Mega Chomp's only disadvantage is literally a -10 Speed drop from 102 as non-Mega to 92 as Mega and that's... 80% of what scares off most people honestly. There's the philosophical standpoint of "opportunity cost" as you could use regular Garchomp, which functions similarly and is very good on its own, in addition to another mega such as Kangaskhan. The team I posted is fairly odd, I agree, but it shows that Garchomp can viably run on a double Mega team.
Generally you want to use regular Chompy for the better Speed, Mega would only be used as a secondary (Mence/Garde and Khan to some extent render it a bad choice for primary mega imo) if you have only one dedicated Mega and some solid Speed support. Even then, LO Chomp is better imo, Mega needs Sand to really stand out.
Non-Mega Garchomp honestly functions pretty well by itself, only support it really needs is something to sponge Ice attacks and piss off Landog, which is filled by basically any Water mon. Scarf Hydra is a big problem for it as well, as is Gardevoir, but these are all standard threats every team has answers for without going out of its way.
Tyranitar is a veritable beast. Scarf is the common set, but Dragon Dance Mega TTar isn't absurd either and is extremely dangerous if you can buy it a turn with Fake Out / Rage Powder / Follow Me. I've seen Tailwind-supported Weakness Policy sets that you do not want to stomach, and TTar has no shortage of weaknesses backed by great bulk, good power, and amazing coverage. It can also run a Mixed or specially focused set; hits decently on a neutral hit but demolishes Landog, Garchomp, Ferrothorn, Amoonguss, and acts as a shock set to crush normal checks, but EVs are stretched thin so it has to sacrifice bulk and/or Speed.
If you want TTar as a main or secondary Mega that's perfectly fine, but it also has a few non-Mega options if you want to run it with Mence, Garde, etc. instead.
TTar needs support if it doesn't have Scarf / Dragon Dance up, as it is quite slow and has many weaknesses that will 1-2HKO despite great bulk. Amoonguss is generally the best for this as it redirects Fighting, Steel, and Water moves while not sharing any weaknesses. TTar helps by smashing Fire/Flying/Psychic for Amoonguss.
TTar + Chomp, regardless of which, if any, is Mega, needs heavy support against Fairy types and bulky Waters like Milotic that run Ice Beam. Again, Amoonguss helps here, but starts to stack up Ice weaknesses.
Heyo!! Excellent tips right there. I deffo wanna include aegi and thus not ferrothorn but amoonguss instead. However I want my physical attacker to have at least one water move too. I mean the only one there with a water move is blastoise and it can't be a rain team with only one pokemon that benefits from rain lol.
I was thinking of including rhyperior because it's a great phys attacker, but the weakness to water while it's most likely raining is kinda scary.
At the moment, I'm thinking Blastoise, Aromatisse, Aegislash, Amoonguss, and maybe Rhyperior, but I still need a 2nd TR setter. Since most TR setters are more special-orientated, and thus will have a special attack and not a physical one, I was thinking that maybe Aegislash should have a physical attack build and not a special one, simply because I don't want Rhyperior or whoever i decide to put in to be the only physical pokemon there D: what do you think? Again I have no idea which poke to choose as a second TR setter :') and my lack of water types could potentially be solved by teaching rhyperior aqua tail but I'm not sure... what do you guys think?
Aegis + Amoonguss I haven't tried but sounds fine; obvious fire problem but Rain + Mega Blastoise helps with that :P
I run a Drought team. Char-Y obviously sets and benefits, but after that a Chlorophyll Venusaur is the only thng that benefits in any way and even then it eats boosted Fire moves like Zapdos' Heat Wave.
It also occasionally runs Mega Venusaur with no sun at all, and my Swampert is actually hindered by Sun weakening its Water attacks.
Just because you have weather doesn't mean you need to abuse it to the max and depend on it; teams that depend on TR, Rain, Sun, etc. and cannot function without it get in nasty spots sometimes. Mine doesn't really give a fuck if its Sun, Rain, or Hail, it runs largely the same. In fact, Venusaur and Swampert BENEFIT in Rain, and Hail is rarely a problem with Charizard.
Toed like people mentioned is great, for auto-Rain and works acceptably in TR. If you run Goth as the second TR inducer you can also run PerishTrap as an option (or at least make your foe shit a brick over the mere threat in team preview).
Physical rain mons, main ones are Kabutops and Mega Swampy but those are horrible in TR. Only TR physical water mon I can think of is... Barbaracle, Feraligatr maybe? Both are kinda... bad.
Special heavy is fine, my teams usually have 2 physical mons at max lol. Intimidate is common, as is Will-o-Wisp; there are no abilites that auto-dampen Special attacks and Snarl is rare.
Rhyperior would be bad in Rain though yes.
Physical Aegis is ok, most run special (because Intimidate / WoW) but it does get Shadow Claw / Iron Head / Shadow Sneak and could do Swords Dance or Weakness Policy or something.
Escavalier benefits in Rain, and slaughters Tr mons like Cress that may use it to negate your setup, while also blasting Amoonguss and neutral hits with 135 Atk and Megahorn/Iron Head flinchspam. Rain reduces its Fire weakness too. I'd run Escavalier over physical Aegis. Pretty trash against Zapdos / Thundurus though.
