A friend's team... Sandstorm?

[Kaede11]

Hi all Smogoners. My last post was blocked, so I'll try to make a better RTM post here. A friend of mine wanted his team to be rated and I suggested him to put it here in smogon, so I'm showing his team to all of you.

Well, first of all, my friend's team is a little weird from my point of view. He tries to use a team based on Hippowdon's / Tyranitar's sandstream and all of his pokemon are immune to sandstorm.
I will describe the uses and all those things just like he explained them to me.

Let's start with the first one

The Starter

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Sandstream
EVS: 252 HP / 6 Att / 252 Def
Impish nature

- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack off
- Stone Edge

This is his starter pokemon, Hippowdon. His main use is to put up the sandstorm and stealth rock. He seems to love defensive-oriented pokemon so he prefered Hippowdon over Ttar.

The Staller

Skarmory @ leftovers
Keen eye
EVS: 158 HP / 100 Att / 252 Def
Impish Nature

- Brave Bird
- Spikes
- Roost
- Whirlwind

The second one, the steel bird, skarmory. He uses Skarmory because of his defense stat and his potential to tank with roost and to put up the spikes, creating the Spike + SR + Sandstorm combo. It's also used to abuse from enemy switches with whirlwind.

This one worked pretty well since the start of the team but are the EVs okay? Wanna know the opinion of others.

The TrickRoom Boy

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Levitate
EVs: 252 PS / 114 Att / 20 Def / 94 Sp.Def
Relaxed Nature

- Gyro ball
- Trick Room
- Hypnosis
- Earthquake

Whew... and this is where I think that things start to mess up a bit. Let's see... he said to me that Trick room is great because his hole team is slow and this makes them become faster than most enemies, but his only trick room user is this bronzong. I'm not sure if this is useful at all or not, Personally I don't like it, but we'll see what you all think.

He said that Bronzong uses trick room when he comes out and after that he switches pokemon or uses Hypnosis, putting the enemy to sleep. He also insisted on saying that Trick Room was perfect if combined with his Relicanth, which we'll see later.

The Sweeper

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Sandstream
EVs: 252 HP / 129 Def / 129 Sp.Def
Careful Nature

- Dragon Dance
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake
- Crunch

And we've reached the pokemon which I like the least of my friend's team. He said that he uses Ttar when the trick room is not in play, dragon dancing and attacking and he chose a defensive - oriented EV spread.

I don't like this one because it doesn't work well with the trickroom if he uses dragon dance and anyway if he wants to use a dragon dancer ttar maybe he should choose a diferent EV spread. Not sure though so I hope that you all help with this guy. (He thought about using Rhyperior instead of Ttar)

The Rare Fish

Relicanth @ Choice Band
Rock Head
EVs: 58 HP / 252 Att / 200 Sp.Def
Adamant Nature

- Head Smash
- Waterfall
- Double Edge
- Earthquake

He seems to love Relicanth because he's not used a lot and he has the power to bring down some opponents when trick room is up. We know he's not used a lot but he has average attack and a good defense stat and Head Rock with no recoil damage is nothing to laugh at.

If he keeps the fish away from grass attacks, it usually is okay.

Last, but not least, the special wall:

Cradily @ Leftovers
Suction Cups
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 94 Sp.Def
Impish Nature

- Toxic
- Recover
- Confuse Ray
- Earthquake

Another unused pokemon out there. It's Cradily! With sandstorm in play his special defense is very good and he uses him to "Sponge" special attacks while recovering HP. He can also confuse opponents or spread toxic status to the enemy team and it worked well since the first day. He says that Cradily is one unexpected good component of his team.

___________________________________________________________

And basically, that's all. He also wanted to replace one of his pokemon with a Marowak or a metagross but he doesn't know which one he should replace.

Also, maybe using another pokemon although it wasn't immune to sandstorm would be a better idea, I'm not sure.

Well, Any help will be appreciated and thank you all for reading this RTM!

 

[Dark Talon]

A Trick Room Sandstorm Team with a DD Tyranitar? Well, I can honestly say I've not seen anything like this before. Anyways, I foresee a large problem with BulkyGyara, especially Taunt variants. Cradily and Bronzong are nothing but set up fodder for it, and it can 1-2hko every other member of your team. Also, what's up with Tyranitar's EVs? They seem counterproductive to just about everything it's trying to do. If it's Dragon Dancing, why doesn't it have Attack and Speed EVs? If it's trying to Trick Room sweep, why is it Careful Nature. And why doesn't it have Stone Edge? Crunch and Stone Edge are pretty much musts for Tyranitar. It can't really break Zapdos without it, and Gyarados/Salamence will have a field day with it.

I'm still trying to figure out whether this team is offensive or defense. Trying to mix two completely different playstyles using only 6 Pokemon doesn't work, because even though you might be 'flexible', you have less resources to devote to each task, therefore weakening your team.

If you're going defensive, take away Trick Room completely since getting it up will waste turns and not contribute to your stall. DDTar doesn't really have a place on a stall team either, due to the time it takes to set up as well as it's numerous weaknesses. It also doesn't really wall anything important.

If you want to go offensive. change Cradily to a Swords Dance variant

Cradily @ Life Orb
Suction Cups | Adamant Nature
112 HP | 252 Atk | 144 Spe
Swords Dance | Rock Slide | Earthquake | Recover

is the standard set, although you can run Stone Edge over Rock Slide if you wish.

Rock Polish and Substitute Rhyperior variants also work well on a Sandstorm offensive team.

Skarmory doesn't really have a place on offensive teams, because taking three turns to set up Spikes will really screw up your pace, possibly even allowing your opponent to gain control of the game.

Sandstorm's main advantages come from the residual damage to opponents, Rock-type Sp.Def boosts, and blocking of other weather effects like rain (lol Kingdra), and not in having your entire team just be immune to it.

Bronzong can remain on the team if it is offensive, but consider changing it to a dualscreen variant carrying explosion and either hypnosis or an attacking move. Hypnosis can't be discounted, but its shaky accuracy makes me hesitant on suggesting it.

Hippowdon also wouldn't have a place on an offensive team. Aerodactyl is a good choice, seeing as it benefits from Sandstorm, and can get Stealth Rock up quickly.

I don't think Relicanth can really work unless you are using a dedicated Trick Room team with 2-3 Pokemon running Trick Room, seeing as it is painfully slow, and is weak to common offensive types such as Electric, Fighting and Grass, so it will almost never get a chance to sweep.

If you want something on the special side of the spectrum, CM Jirachi and most Heatran variants are good choices.

What I'm really concerned about with this team is the offensive/defensive split. You don't really seem to have one single plan for this team to attempt to carry out. I don't think I can really help too much until you (or your friend) redesigns this team a bit.

 

[Kaede11]

I'll show this to him tomorrow, thank you for the suggestions. Going to sleep now. ;)

 

[haunter]

Once again, your descriptions explain almost nothing about your Pokemon and movesets. Please read this thread and take particular note of this paragraph:

BE DESCRIPTIVE. BE AS DETAILED AS POSSIBLE. But don't be pretentious. Don't use words you don't know, that just confuses the raters.

The best rates can only come after playing with the team. However, the raters are obviously not willing to play thirty battles with your team to figure out what is wrong with it and how it works. This is why we want you to tell us about your team.

Synergy is important, right? The purpose of any given team is to be able to work together in any situation to win. If we don't know how your team works, we can only assume things about your team - and that does not lead to good rates. The more descriptive you are about your teams and your weaknesses and what you would like for your team, the better the raters can help you. This is a rule for a reason - and comments like "RHYPERIOR OHKOS SHIT WITH CB ROCK WRECKER LOL", “standard X”, “Mixed Sweeper”, etc does not tell us anything other than the fact that you shouldn't be building teams nor rating them.

Be descriptive. Tell us how each member contributes. You can do this by telling us why you chose a specific Pokemon (and "it's my FAVORITE" doesn't count – we are competitive here!) and how it contributes to the overall picture.

When you'll have some actual words to say about your Pokemon, feel free to post a new RMT. Locking under rule 3 again.