Another Sandstorm Team.

[Dreamer-]

Another Sandstorm team that needs fixing. It's a pretty standard sandstorm team that I've been using, I normally lean towards more offensive playing. I started off with Hippowdon and Excadrill as most sandstorm teams do, then decided to throw in Empoleon. He's a good meta-game steel along with being water, making him not destroyed by water and ice (which I suspected would be two main weaknesses, along with fighting). So then I added Gliscor to take on those horrible Gen V fighting-types. I noticed I was lacking a bit of bulk for a sandstorm team and saw how much Shuckle was used (succesfully, too) and he proved useful. Lastly, I tried running a switcheroo-scarf Cacturne and abuse sucker punch but it turns out he can't have focus punch, drain punch and have both seed bomb and switcheroo through breeding.

First Glance:

In-Depth:

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Iron Barbs
Nature: Careful (+SpD, -SpA)
Evs: 252 Hp, 48 Def, 208 SpD
-Spikes
-Power Whip
-Leech Seed
-Protect

Lead
Every sandstorm and almost every other team has one of these. A safer lead than Hippowdon, having much more resistance. Power Whip for Taunt and Water types. Spikes for hazards that go with Hippowdon and his SR and roar. Protect to rack in a bit of hp, which could determine life and death. Special defense to wall special sweepers that would otherwise own my team. Stalling all game until the Excadrill sweep is the name of the game for sandstorm team. (Thanks jiggz15 & pindigo).

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Sand Stream
Nature: Impish (+Def, -SpA)
Evs: 252 Hp, 252 Def, 4 SpD
-Stealth Rocks
-Roar
-Slack Off
-Yawn

Sand Support
My sandstormer, I chose him over ttar because of his survivability especially if I need him later on in the event of another weather team. He's not weak against every single pokemon and is able to effectively SR and scout. No damage on Hippo?! I originally started with EQ but I noticed that I never needed to use it because both Gliscor and Excadrill already carry it. Yawn is to set up for Excadrill, for a forced switch or them taking the sleep. Decided to use max physical defense to take advantage of Hippowdon's more noticeable physical defense and probably should avoid special attacks like Surf or Grass Knot anyway. (Thanks again jiggz15).

Excadrill @ Balloon
Sand Rush
Nature: Jolly (+Spd, -SpA)
Evs: 4 Hp, 252 Atk, 252 Spd
-Swords Dance
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-X-Scissor

Physical Sweeper
Along with sandstorm, Excadrill is unstoppable. He's the average Excadrill, max speed to not be outsped by other Jolly Excadrills. Not much to say here other than here for a powerful fast hit. Rapid spin could also be an option, but I normally aren't too scared of hazards due to my typing against SR and toxic spikes.

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Regenerator
Nature: Bold (+Def, -Atk)
Evs: 252 Hp, 252 Def, 4 SpD
-Scald
-Calm Mind
-Psycho Shock
-Recover

Wall
Never tried Slowbro before but looks promising. Focused on physical defense because Calm Mind and Recover could cover special defense pretty easily. Scald and Psycho Shock are not only for STAB coverage. Scald takes care of physical attackers with its burn and Psycho Shock takes care of special walls that might come in after a couple Calm Minds. Also was hoping to use Ice Beam but not sure how I could squeeze that in.. (Thanks Dezza Laa).

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Poison Heal
Nature: Impish (+Def, -SpA)
Evs: 252 Hp, 184 Def, 72 Spe
-Fling
-Acrobatic
-Earthquake
-Ice Fang

Bulky Nuisance
Here's the trouble. It looks a lot better on paper, I find myself not using him to his full extent. I'm thinking of redo-ing his EV spread, I'm not good at EVs at all.. Thinking of making him bulkier and less like a sweep, seeing as how I already have my two. Also thinking of replacing Ice Fang with Protect, for recovering 12.5% (seeing as how he lost Roost) AND dealing 6.25% ss damage. Also maybe taunt?? I can't decide! I really like this guy nonetheless.

Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Magic Guard
Nature: Bold (+Def, -Atk)
Evs: 252 Hp, 208 Def, 48 SpD
-Psycho Shock
-Energy Ball
-Focus Blast
-Recover

Bulky Special
Replaces Breloom because it's just more fit. Magic Guard and Life Orb are nice, along with 125 SpA and 110/75/85 defenses. Psycho Shock and Energy Ball take out my main weaknesses: Fighting and Water. Creative Evs! Why? Because I stole it from someone.. Not sure why but it seems reliable. I made him more physical defense oriented because he's most likely to take Fighting attacks and Pursuit, luckily he tanks a Pursuit and will blast all dark types with Focus Blast. Tank hit - Kill - Tank hit - Recover - Repeat.

Help!

• Definately a more effective and creative Ev spread..
• Rapid Spin on Excadrill over X-Scissor?
• Ice Fang on Gliscor?
• Maybe a bit overboard on Ferrothorn, Slowbro, AND Reuniclus? 3 Pokemon just for Fightings and Waters?
• Basically any suggest and comments will be appreciated!

 

[jiggz16]

Just a couple of things:

For Hippo, I would recommend shifting it's EVs toward a more physical spread and then changing Shuckle's towards the special side. Hippowdon works great as a physical wall and is weak to common special types. With max defense, Hippo can help check things like Conkledurr and other Excadrill. Also, you might want to give it at least one attacking move. Taunt leads still exist and you will more than likely be left completely boned. If you don't like Earthquake, try Ice Fang, it can pop Excadrill's balloon and helps do damage to other Gliscor. Personally, I run a Hippo with max defense and Earthquake/Ice Fang/Roar/Slack Off. Works great as a lead against most things not named Politoed or Deoxys.

For Empoleon, I don't think the pinch berries were made available, unless that's a recent development. If I'm right, you might want to replace Sub with another coverage move like Grass Knot. Water/Ice/Grass gets great coverage and after 1 Agility you outspeed most of the metagame. Life Orb can be used for some extra oomph.

Most Gliscor I run into are of the Swords Dance variation:

Impish 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 Spe
or
Jolly 4 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spe

If you like the Acrofling version, maybe try Impish 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spe and replacing Ice Fang with Protect, Taunt, or even Swords Dance.

For Shuckle, like I said, maybe try a more specially defensive spread seeing as how you already have Hippo and Gliscor for most physical attackers. I don't really have much experience with Shuckle so that's all I have to say.

The Breloom set itself isn't bad, but your team as it is can get completely ruined by a special sweeper once Excadrill is gone and you can't revenge it. Shuckle might help with this, but as it is right now is complete set up bait for stuff like Calm Mind Reuniclus. You might want to consider replacing Shuckle with a special wall. Blissey comes to mind first, but if it isn't up your alley maybe Cradily? It gets Storm Drain from the Dream World and water immunities are always helpful on a sand team. Not sure about the set but probably Calm with max special defense and Recover/Energy Ball/Toxic/Filler. Unfortunately that still leaves you open to Reuniclus. Instead of Breloom you might want to try Tyranitar. I run both Sandstreamers and it helps a lot in winning weather wars. You could try a fast Scarfer or a more bulky Bander.

I hope I helped and good luck with the team!

 

[Dezza Laa]

The most obivous change I see from your help section which patches almost all your issues is to change Shuckle to Slowbro. Slowbro has resistance to Fighting, Ice and Water as well as giving you a bulky water and something else opposed to Grounds/Steels.

GL

 

[pindigo]

Hey,
Pretty new to this (first post. yay), I've been playing around with sandstorm for a while now. Great team.
First off, would recommend you change x-scissor on excadrill to rapid spin. That mole makes a great rapid spinner, as you probably know. In my experience, x-scissor really doesn't help that much, and it's just nice switching in an excadrill, rapid spinning predicting a switch to their check. X-scissor hits psychic, dark, grass, and personally, I've never found rock/ground coverage to struggle against any common users of those types. I suppose if you're really afraid of the rare bronzong, you could keep it. Shuckle and Hippowdon don't like spikes or toxic spikes either.
Lots of special attackers look like they can eat your team though, so completely agree with jiggz. I'd say use ferrothorn over breloom. Ferrothorn walls all water types to hell and back, and a specially defensive one could help solve your special attacker problem. If you're that concerned with fighting, perhaps a sigilyph run over shuckle might help?
I notice you're lacking a revenge killer--consider running scarfchomp over something.
Ferrothorn:
Spikes/Leech Seed/Power Whip/Gyro Ball
252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpDef
Rocky Helmet
Garchomp:
Outrage/Fire Fang/EQ/Dragon Claw
4 hp/252 atk/252 spe
Hoped this helped!

 

[Dreamer-]

Thanks guys! I took all your comments into full consideration, my team seems a lot more well-rounded and hopefully more efficient! Any other suggestions? Anyone?