I really put too much work into these things. x_x
So, after experimenting in UU for quite a bit, I moved onto Sandstorm, which I absolutely love. The goal of the team was to wear down the opponent through sandstorm damage, switching, and offensive power until it was safe enough to sweep with Stoutland or a secondary powerhouse. The team saw minimal success and as a result I thoroughly began working on it (and since it's summer and all my summer work is done, I had a lot of free time) until it was successful enough to get to around 220 on the ladder (unfortunately I lost and went back to around 300). Why have I come to Smogon? Because I cannot get past 220, specifically because I encounter a hail team which always has the edge, or other dumb reasons. Hopefully, with some help, I can make my way further up the ladder.
Oh, and because I can, every team member is named after a Shadow Dragon. If you're not familiar with them, they are from Dragon Ball GT (although GT was quite bad, in my opinion, quite a good saga), which is my personal favorite anime and show (not GT, of course). And that would explain why I showed a picture of Black Smoke Shenron, their creator.
Team Building Process
I started off with Hippopotas, probably the most important member of this team only because it creates permanent Sandstorm, which is very necessary for this team. Without Hippopotas, I wouldn't be able to call this team a sandstorm team.
Next, I added Stoutland, my main sweeper. Stoutland is basically the Excadrill of UU sandstorm. Every sandstorm team has it because of his incredible ability, Sand Rush. This makes him a powerful and speedy sweeper that is a staple on any sandstorm team.
Next, I added Mamoswine. Mamoswine is not only a handy revenge killer, but he takes advantage of Sandstorm, and even bigger advantage of Sandstorm's mortal enemy, hail.
I then added Ferrothorn, who added a Spiker and a plethora of resistances. He also gave me paralysis support, which would make Mamoswine's life easier because of his mediocre speed.
I wanted a rock pokemon that could take advantage of Sandstorm's Sp. Def booster, and Armaldo fit the bill. He is a spinner and beats Froslass who thinks she can set up on him with Rock Blast.
I had a small water weakness and even though Ferroseed resisted it, he's frail in terms of HP stat and I wanted a pokemon that could really take advantage of water attack. Because of Storm Drain's boost, Gastrodon could become a threatening sweep after a boost and he made it onto the team.
Hail was incredibly hard to beat, and Ferroseed wasn't pulling his wait, so I replaced him for Hariyama, who had super effective stab against Ice and boasted Thick Fat, laughing at any ice move that hit it.
After awhile, I realized that Gastrodon wasn't really doing much and that he wasn't hitting as hard as I had hoped, so I replaced him and but Ferroseed back on the team.
As you probably could have expected, I had the same result with Ferroseed as before. Fortunately, Empoleon made an amazing replacement. He still boasted a plethora of resistances and could hit very hard, while giving me another counter to the every so threatening Hail team.
Hariyama wasn't really doing much and was really only there for Hail, so I dropped him for Houndoom. He gave my a trapper and still super effectiveness on hail, which was greatly needed.
At this point, I was begging fighting types to tear holes in my team with four pokemon weak to it, so I dropped Houndoom for Spiritomb. This gave my a reliable counter to fighting types and I still had a trapper.
As much as I loved Armaldo, I felt that he wasn't really that useful, and being weak to Stealth Rock while spinning was redundant, so I replaced him for Hitmontop, who helped against hail and still filled the spinner role.
Spiritomb wasn't really good, and wasn't doing much, so I replaced it for Sigilyph, who covered my fighting weakness like a boss and provided a late game cleaner and status absorber.
Up Close
Hippopotas (Haze) @ Eviolite
252 HP|4 Atk|252 Def
Impish Nature
Sand Stream
Hippopotas is one of a kind, and not in terms of typing or moves, in terms of ability. Hippopotas boasts Sand Stream, the key to a Sandstorm team. He is the only pokemon in the UU metagame that has such a power, and therefore is vital to the team. Normally, I can safely sacrifice Hippopotas when needed if the opposing team doesn't carry Abomasnow. If they do, however, Hippopotas becomes one of the most important pokemon on the team, and for good reason. Hippopotas on a whole doesn't really do much offensively, but he's very capable defensively. He can take physical hits easily, and he sets up Stealth Rock. He then phazes the opponent to search out members that he can nail with Earthquake and rack up Stealth Rock damage. I decided to go all out in Defense and HP since there is really no reason that he needs to survive weak special attacks and I have Empoleon to take the hits, anyways.
Possible Changes
I have considered Toxic over Roar to help stall out the opponent's pokemon. Otherwise, Hippopotas is vital and doesn't deserve a replacement.
Type Synergy
Empoleon
Rotom-S
Hitmontop (Nuova) @ Leftovers
252 HP|4 Atk|252 Def
Impish Nature
Intimidate
Hitmontop fills the role as spinner and more insurance against Hail teams. I went the defensive route on Hitmontop because otherwise he's very frail and doesn't last long, which in my opinion, a good spinner should. Hitmontop can be very useful early game to break holes through the team with his 120 BP stab move. He causes a lot of switching because of Intimidate which can incredibly lower a sweeper's power to sweep. Foresight nails ghosts on the switch so that he can safely spin or use Close Combat for damage. Stone Edge hits flying types (Yanmega, Moltres, Rotom-S) that otherwise would be very hard to take down with Hitmontop. Toxic is, well, hilarious. Normally, I'd go with Foresight, but Toxic allows Hitmontop to hit stuff like Slowbro and ghost-types on the switch. Slowbro is disgustingly hard for this team to take down and Toxic makes it so a lot easier to.
Possible Changes
Stone Edge to Sucker Punch to take down ghosts more easily.
Type Synergy
Empoleon, Rotom-S
Empoleon
Empoleon (Oceanus) @ Leftovers
252 HP|4 Atk|252 Sp. Atk
Mild Nature
Torrent
Empoleon does so much for this team that it isn't even funny. He boasts 11 resistances and the most important resistance is probably to Ice type. He's my biggest insurance against hail because of his resistance to Ice and Poison and that means he can take on stuff like Walrien with no problem. I opted for an bulky offensive set because Empoleon has no great recovery and I'd rather threaten opposing pokemon when I switch into a resistant move. Aqua Jet gets the jump on damaged pokemon and allows me to hit set up mons that I can't 2HKO. Grass Knot is normally better then HP Grass due to heavy pokemon like Slowbro and Walrien running around. Ice Beam hits dragons and Grass types which would wall me otherwise. At first, I opted Scald over Surf because of the 30% burn chance, but I decided I needed more power.
Possible Changes
Hidden Power Fire over X move to catch Abomasnow and the like by surprise.
252 HP -> 252 Spe.
Type Synergy
Sigilyph
Hippopotas, Mamoswine
Sigilyph
Stoutland (Syn) @ Choice Band
4 HP|252 Atk|252 Spe
Adamant Nature
Sand Rush
Stoutland is the main sweeper of this team, and for good reason. He's, as I said before, the Excadrill of UU Sandstorm. Thanks to his amazing ability, Sand Rush, his speed doubles to an astonishing 518 and a whopping 492 attack because of Choice Band, all with a built in immunity to Sandstorm. Stoutland normally acts as my late game cleaner when all rock, steel, and ghost type pokemon are gone, so he can spam Frustration 'till his heart's content. His moveset allows him to get perfect coverage on everything legal in UU. Literally nothing normal can outrun Stoutland, and this lets him function quite well as a pseudo-revenge killer. There really isn't much to say about Stoutland, since he's quite bland and straightforward. Take out what normal resists, and spam Frustration from there when you feel necessary.
Possible Changes
Choice Band to Life Orb for move switches.
Crunch to Pursuit for trapping.
Type Synergy
Sigilyph
Sigilyph (Rage) @ Leftovers
252 HP|252 Def|4 Spe
Bold Nature
Magic Guard
To be perfectly honest, Sigilyph is mostly here to counter my horrible fighting weakness, although that's not all the uses he has. He acts as a status absorber, boasting one of the best abilities in the game, Magic Guard, which means he can safely take a burn or poison status without any worry. He also acts as a late-game sweeper in case Stoutland's job fails for some unexpected reason. Once he safely sets up a few Calm Minds he is hard as hell to kill, and Stored Power will generally be OHKO'ing almost anything in Sigilyph's path. After a few Calm Minds, prediction is normally quite moot when using this guy, and that's one of the best things. I can safely spam Stored Power without fear of misplaying normally, and that's amazing. Sigilyph rules over hazards and status for a reason, right?
Possible Changes
None so far.
Type Synergy
Empoleon, Hitmontop
Hippopotas, Mamoswine
Empoleon, Stoutland
Empoleon
Empoleon, Hitmontop, Hippopotas
Mamoswine (Eis) @ Life Orb
252 HP|252 Atk|4 Spe
Adamant Nature
Snow Cloak
Information about MamoswineOh, and because I can, every team member is named after a Shadow Dragon. If you're not familiar with them, they are from Dragon Ball GT (although GT was quite bad, in my opinion, quite a good saga), which is my personal favorite anime and show (not GT, of course). And that would explain why I showed a picture of Black Smoke Shenron, their creator.
Team Building Process
I started off with Hippopotas, probably the most important member of this team only because it creates permanent Sandstorm, which is very necessary for this team. Without Hippopotas, I wouldn't be able to call this team a sandstorm team.
Next, I added Stoutland, my main sweeper. Stoutland is basically the Excadrill of UU sandstorm. Every sandstorm team has it because of his incredible ability, Sand Rush. This makes him a powerful and speedy sweeper that is a staple on any sandstorm team.
Next, I added Mamoswine. Mamoswine is not only a handy revenge killer, but he takes advantage of Sandstorm, and even bigger advantage of Sandstorm's mortal enemy, hail.
I then added Ferrothorn, who added a Spiker and a plethora of resistances. He also gave me paralysis support, which would make Mamoswine's life easier because of his mediocre speed.
I wanted a rock pokemon that could take advantage of Sandstorm's Sp. Def booster, and Armaldo fit the bill. He is a spinner and beats Froslass who thinks she can set up on him with Rock Blast.
I had a small water weakness and even though Ferroseed resisted it, he's frail in terms of HP stat and I wanted a pokemon that could really take advantage of water attack. Because of Storm Drain's boost, Gastrodon could become a threatening sweep after a boost and he made it onto the team.
Hail was incredibly hard to beat, and Ferroseed wasn't pulling his wait, so I replaced him for Hariyama, who had super effective stab against Ice and boasted Thick Fat, laughing at any ice move that hit it.
After awhile, I realized that Gastrodon wasn't really doing much and that he wasn't hitting as hard as I had hoped, so I replaced him and but Ferroseed back on the team.
As you probably could have expected, I had the same result with Ferroseed as before. Fortunately, Empoleon made an amazing replacement. He still boasted a plethora of resistances and could hit very hard, while giving me another counter to the every so threatening Hail team.
Hariyama wasn't really doing much and was really only there for Hail, so I dropped him for Houndoom. He gave my a trapper and still super effectiveness on hail, which was greatly needed.
At this point, I was begging fighting types to tear holes in my team with four pokemon weak to it, so I dropped Houndoom for Spiritomb. This gave my a reliable counter to fighting types and I still had a trapper.
As much as I loved Armaldo, I felt that he wasn't really that useful, and being weak to Stealth Rock while spinning was redundant, so I replaced him for Hitmontop, who helped against hail and still filled the spinner role.
Spiritomb wasn't really good, and wasn't doing much, so I replaced it for Sigilyph, who covered my fighting weakness like a boss and provided a late game cleaner and status absorber.
Up Close
Hippopotas (Haze) @ Eviolite
252 HP|4 Atk|252 Def
Impish Nature
Sand Stream
- Earthquake
- Roar
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
Hippopotas is one of a kind, and not in terms of typing or moves, in terms of ability. Hippopotas boasts Sand Stream, the key to a Sandstorm team. He is the only pokemon in the UU metagame that has such a power, and therefore is vital to the team. Normally, I can safely sacrifice Hippopotas when needed if the opposing team doesn't carry Abomasnow. If they do, however, Hippopotas becomes one of the most important pokemon on the team, and for good reason. Hippopotas on a whole doesn't really do much offensively, but he's very capable defensively. He can take physical hits easily, and he sets up Stealth Rock. He then phazes the opponent to search out members that he can nail with Earthquake and rack up Stealth Rock damage. I decided to go all out in Defense and HP since there is really no reason that he needs to survive weak special attacks and I have Empoleon to take the hits, anyways.
Possible Changes
I have considered Toxic over Roar to help stall out the opponent's pokemon. Otherwise, Hippopotas is vital and doesn't deserve a replacement.
Type Synergy
Hitmontop (Nuova) @ Leftovers
252 HP|4 Atk|252 Def
Impish Nature
Intimidate
- Close Combat
- Foresight
- Rapid Spin
- Stone Edge
Hitmontop fills the role as spinner and more insurance against Hail teams. I went the defensive route on Hitmontop because otherwise he's very frail and doesn't last long, which in my opinion, a good spinner should. Hitmontop can be very useful early game to break holes through the team with his 120 BP stab move. He causes a lot of switching because of Intimidate which can incredibly lower a sweeper's power to sweep. Foresight nails ghosts on the switch so that he can safely spin or use Close Combat for damage. Stone Edge hits flying types (Yanmega, Moltres, Rotom-S) that otherwise would be very hard to take down with Hitmontop. Toxic is, well, hilarious. Normally, I'd go with Foresight, but Toxic allows Hitmontop to hit stuff like Slowbro and ghost-types on the switch. Slowbro is disgustingly hard for this team to take down and Toxic makes it so a lot easier to.
Possible Changes
Stone Edge to Sucker Punch to take down ghosts more easily.
Type Synergy
Empoleon (Oceanus) @ Leftovers
252 HP|4 Atk|252 Sp. Atk
Mild Nature
Torrent
- Aqua Jet
- Grass Knot
- Ice Beam
- Surf
Empoleon does so much for this team that it isn't even funny. He boasts 11 resistances and the most important resistance is probably to Ice type. He's my biggest insurance against hail because of his resistance to Ice and Poison and that means he can take on stuff like Walrien with no problem. I opted for an bulky offensive set because Empoleon has no great recovery and I'd rather threaten opposing pokemon when I switch into a resistant move. Aqua Jet gets the jump on damaged pokemon and allows me to hit set up mons that I can't 2HKO. Grass Knot is normally better then HP Grass due to heavy pokemon like Slowbro and Walrien running around. Ice Beam hits dragons and Grass types which would wall me otherwise. At first, I opted Scald over Surf because of the 30% burn chance, but I decided I needed more power.
Possible Changes
Hidden Power Fire over X move to catch Abomasnow and the like by surprise.
252 HP -> 252 Spe.
Type Synergy
Stoutland (Syn) @ Choice Band
4 HP|252 Atk|252 Spe
Adamant Nature
Sand Rush
- Crunch
- Frustration
- Wild Charge
- Fire Fang
Stoutland is the main sweeper of this team, and for good reason. He's, as I said before, the Excadrill of UU Sandstorm. Thanks to his amazing ability, Sand Rush, his speed doubles to an astonishing 518 and a whopping 492 attack because of Choice Band, all with a built in immunity to Sandstorm. Stoutland normally acts as my late game cleaner when all rock, steel, and ghost type pokemon are gone, so he can spam Frustration 'till his heart's content. His moveset allows him to get perfect coverage on everything legal in UU. Literally nothing normal can outrun Stoutland, and this lets him function quite well as a pseudo-revenge killer. There really isn't much to say about Stoutland, since he's quite bland and straightforward. Take out what normal resists, and spam Frustration from there when you feel necessary.
Possible Changes
Choice Band to Life Orb for move switches.
Crunch to Pursuit for trapping.
Type Synergy
Sigilyph (Rage) @ Leftovers
252 HP|252 Def|4 Spe
Bold Nature
Magic Guard
- Calm Mind
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Stored Power
To be perfectly honest, Sigilyph is mostly here to counter my horrible fighting weakness, although that's not all the uses he has. He acts as a status absorber, boasting one of the best abilities in the game, Magic Guard, which means he can safely take a burn or poison status without any worry. He also acts as a late-game sweeper in case Stoutland's job fails for some unexpected reason. Once he safely sets up a few Calm Minds he is hard as hell to kill, and Stored Power will generally be OHKO'ing almost anything in Sigilyph's path. After a few Calm Minds, prediction is normally quite moot when using this guy, and that's one of the best things. I can safely spam Stored Power without fear of misplaying normally, and that's amazing. Sigilyph rules over hazards and status for a reason, right?
Possible Changes
None so far.
Type Synergy
Mamoswine (Eis) @ Life Orb
252 HP|252 Atk|4 Spe
Adamant Nature
Snow Cloak
- Ice Shard
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Superpower
Mamoswine is quite amazing. Not only does he get immunity to sandstorm, he also has immunity to hail and Snow Cloak, making him a threatening opponent in either weather condition. Mamoswine is the glue to the team. He's a very bulky, offensive pokemon that is is a powerhouse. He takes on the Steel types that Stoutland has quite a bit of trouble with, and anything that switches in still takes a hefty chunk. Ice Shard is great on Mamoswine. Generally slow, it allows him to revenge kill and take down Flygon easily, and when super effective Ice Shard becomes a 120 power move. Stone Edge hits harder then Ice Shard against Flying and Bug types. Earthquake hits Fire types on the switch and takes down Steel types with no problem, and is generally the most used move. Superpower gets the jump on Dark types and Normal types such as Chansey and Snorlax.
Possible Changes
Life Orb to Choice Band to hit a lot harder.
Type Synergy
