National Dex An attempt at using Mega Garchomp Sand

[Gryffin]

Hello! Been playing pokemon and showdown for a while, and even though I'd say I'm an okay player, I'm not the best at teambuilding, but well, looking to learn and improve. As a result of a lengthy discussion between me and a few friends, we decided that I'd make a team with Mega Garchomp and see if it's decent enough.

After some deliberation, I settled on making a Sand team. I'm open to any suggestions/swaps/improvements to almost everything with this team, except Mega Garchomp. That boy needs to stay. The EV spreads are either standard or stuff I came up with at random because rounds numbers look good to me. I am also rather horrible with Tera types. I tend to lean towards offense, and while that definitely shows here, I've tried to do something different here. Any tips would be massively appreciated as well! Anyway, here goes.

Garchomp-Mega @ Garchompite
Ability: Rough Skin
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Scale Shot
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
- Swords Dance

The centerpiece of this team, really. Not much I can say about this other than the fact that it's a pretty standard set to me. Scale Shot is to help setup a potential sweep after Swords Dance, or allow Mega Garch to clean up late game if need be. EQ is EQ and Poison Jab is there for Fairy types outside of Sandstorm or Fairy types that resist EQ.

Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Body Press
- Dragon Tail

Sand setter and physical tank of the team. I'm a bit unsure about this set tbh, especially as it is the only sand setter on this team. Thus I want it to have staying power, so I thought investing into physical bulk would be a good idea, especially with Sandstorm buffing the special defense. Tera Fighting is there to resist any fighting moves, and also to get STAB on Body Press which I thought would be a nice addition thanks to the max defense investment.

Excadrill @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Rush
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide

Sand Rush Choice Band is again a very simple set. Rapid Spin is there because I don't have any other sort of hazard removal. This is also one of my answers to fast fairy types, like Tapu Koko and Speed Booster Iron Valiant. Assuming I'm not switching in on a Close Combat, Excadrill can outspeed and OHKO with Iron Head in the sand. I wouldn't mind switching the item to, Air Balloon or Life Orb or anything else and running Swords Dance instead of Rock Slide as well.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Protect

Ferrothorn is my Special Tank, and well, just, in general tank, to come in, sit and tank attacks, heal with leech seed, leftovers and protect and punish contact moves with Iron Barbs. Tera Water gets rid of it's single biggest weakness and Gyro Ball is there to threaten the fairy types again. It's mainly there to resist the water and grass types that we'll face.

Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 176 HP / 80 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Stored Power
- Shadow Ball

Reuniclus I've tried to build bulky, hoping that it'll be able to output significant damage with Stored Power after a couple of Calm Mind boosts. The EV is done to maximise damage with the max special attack and modest nature, and the rest is to give it some physical bulk, with the special bulk coming from Calm Mind. Tera Fairy is honestly just a random choice, so is Shadow Ball, as I wasn't quite sure what to use for that 4th slot.

Great Tusk @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bulk Up
- Headlong Rush
- Close Combat
- Ice Spinner

Needed something that was fast and not entirely dependent on Sandstorm in this slot, so I decided on one of my favorite new mons, Great Tusk. My simple mind would've preferred Attack EVs, but I wanted the Booster to activate on Speed, so max HP and max Speed instead. Bulk Up is there to hopefully help makeup for the damage loss.


And that's the team. As I said at the start, any tips, suggestions, improvements are welcome. Any suggestions and ideas on how to pilot this team are also welcome. Thank you for taking the time to read through, hope you have a great day!

Edit: My stupid self forgot to change the item on Ferrothorn from where I was copying.

 

[Hittite Jumpscare]

This looks like a pretty solid team! Though I would like to share a few changes I would make

First off, I would make Tyranitar's, Ferrothorn's and Great Tusk's HP investment to 248 (move the 4 extra on Tusk to defence) as usually an odd HP is better in most scenarios.

I don't like Choice Band on it as Excadrill really would like switching moves as Choice Banded Earthquake is very easy to abuse. I'd say Life Orb is better, or change the set into the one below:
Excadrill @ (Any good item)
Ability: Sand Rush
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide

I'd say replace Shadow Ball with Acid Armour, Focus Blast or Tera Blast. Acid Armour to boost Stored Power + become incredibly bulky, and the other two for coverage.

Also your team has no resistance to Ice or Ground, which could be a problem (Kyurem would destroy you), but I don't know how to fix that. I hope this helps you in one way or the other.

 

[Elvira]

This looks like a pretty solid team! Though I would like to share a few changes I would make

First off, I would make Tyranitar's, Ferrothorn's and Great Tusk's HP investment to 248 (move the 4 extra on Tusk to defence) as usually an odd HP is better in most scenarios.

I don't like Choice Band on it as Excadrill really would like switching moves as Choice Banded Earthquake is very easy to abuse. I'd say Life Orb is better, or change the set into the one below:
Excadrill @ (Any good item)
Ability: Sand Rush
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide

I'd say replace Shadow Ball with Acid Armour, Focus Blast or Tera Blast. Acid Armour to boost Stored Power + become incredibly bulky, and the other two for coverage.

Also your team has no resistance to Ice or Ground, which could be a problem (Kyurem would destroy you), but I don't know how to fix that. I hope this helps you in one way or the other.

Going off of the last part of this statement regarding Kyurem:

If you are looking for a reliable way of answering to Ice you would prefer to keep Iron Head STAB on Excadrill along with keeping Ferrothorn healthy to tank some hits and recover with leech seed. Hope this helps! <3

 

[Gryffin]

This looks like a pretty solid team! Though I would like to share a few changes I would make

First off, I would make Tyranitar's, Ferrothorn's and Great Tusk's HP investment to 248 (move the 4 extra on Tusk to defence) as usually an odd HP is better in most scenarios.

I don't like Choice Band on it as Excadrill really would like switching moves as Choice Banded Earthquake is very easy to abuse. I'd say Life Orb is better, or change the set into the one below:
Excadrill @ (Any good item)
Ability: Sand Rush
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide

I'd say replace Shadow Ball with Acid Armour, Focus Blast or Tera Blast. Acid Armour to boost Stored Power + become incredibly bulky, and the other two for coverage.

Also your team has no resistance to Ice or Ground, which could be a problem (Kyurem would destroy you), but I don't know how to fix that. I hope this helps you in one way or the other.

Thanks for the tips! I've changed Excadrill to a Swords Dance set like you suggested, and have decided to forgo the Rock Slide in favor of keeping Iron Head, as suggested by other response. In line with the same, for now, I've slapped Steelium Z onto Excadrill, but I might swap it out for Air Balloon down the line depending on results.

Similarly, for now, I've gone with Tera Blast on Reuniclus, but I'll also try Focus Blast and Acid Armour based on results. Thank you once again for the suggestions!

 

[Wildfiree]

Cool idea but I see there is alot of overlap which you leaves you very weak to rain teams and water moves in general alot of pressure is on ferro to check them.

1. First change I would suggest is changing the garchomp set

Garchomp @ Garchompite
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Earthquake
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock

This is a truly disgusting set I call it the fat ripper. Bulky teams that carry and will want no part of this set.

2. I think the next best thing you can do with :tyrantitar: is give it band. Stone edge,knock.super power and pursuit.

3. > you need a ground immune. So I suggest putting zap here it helps you vs pesky stuff like and as well.

Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Tera Type: Dragon
Bold Nature
- Hurricane
- Volt Switch
- Heat Wave
- Roost

4. You can run this set since you’ll have steelium-z on as stated above.

Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 Spe
Tera Type: Fairy
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Recover

5. set can be changed as well.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 SpD
Tera Type: Ghost
Impish Nature
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
- Gyro ball

Since you have rocks on chomp I opted for spikes on ferro. I gave ferro gyro ball since you are a bit weak. Those are the changes I would make Goodluck!