Brutal Sand Survival Team

[Oxypad]

Shoddy team - At a glance...

Wanting to use Tyranitar, the rest of the team was constructed. Notice the 5 other pokes can all recover their health. Leftovers on every poke. Battles with this team should last many turns. EVs are just to be different because 252/252/4 is boring and it's not like I went through damage calcs. In any case, they're explained.

Tyranitar (F) @ Leftovers,
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP/64 Atk/176 Spd/18 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stone Edge
- Dragon Dance
- Crunch
- Substitute
---

Tyranitar starts the sandstorm. Substitute (101 HP) eases prediction - it's good to be able to scout Snorlax/Bronzong with little risk. It also scouts Lucario if it comes in to counter (and choice moves in general), and avoids status. I see no reason to not run both of Tar's best physical STAB moves with Dragon Dance. Phazers like Steelix and Hariyama would make me sad. Otherwise, it's not a total failure to Sub and get a a hit in neutrally with Crunch/Stone Edge against phazers like Swampert, Skarmory, and Hippowdon.

EVs in speed to get to 304 after 1 DD (a chance to hit first on Adamant Garchomp). Random special defense since I felt like it could make a difference with that 1.5 times boost to Tar's special defense (240--> 360 yay).

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/176 Def/36 Spd/46 SDef
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Roar
- Roost
- Hidden Power [Ice]
---

The Flying/Fighting resist to stop Togekiss. Physically defensive in an attempt to counter Gyarados. Provides Phazing. Roost to heal.

Gastrodon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sticky Hold
EVs: 212 HP/178 Def/120 SDef
Sassy nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Yawn
---

Overlooked Ground/Water. Rock resist (how else can a poke take Tar's Stone Edge?) Default switch-in to Heatran too. I have yet to see if it can recover and stay in the game against SpecsMence Draco Meteor after the special attack drop. Anyhow, I've got a Dragon resist in Bronzong.

EQ + Ice Beam suits it well. Foregoing the water move is easier on this thing than on Swampert (which has Torrent.) Speaking of abilities, Sticky Hold should come in handy against a Gliscor w/ Knock Off or something.

Yawn is great with the lack of Subs (as compared to in Advance which is what I used to play) and serves as another means of phazing. Plus I don't feel like a homo by using other haxy sleep moves, and it's up to my opponent if they want to let their poke fall asleep or just switch. Respect. Yawn may also make Kingdra think twice about staying in to sweep.

Gliscor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP/216 Def/42 Spd
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Taunt
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Roost
---

With Tyranitar, it seemed great to pair it with Gliscor to cover those physical threats. Sand Veil is what it is I suppose. Hyper Cutter would be less haxy and I would normally want that, but there's no use for it on this set. Max HP, +Def to the magic number, then the rest in speed to use Taunt better. Stall w/ Roost and Toxic.

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/128 Def/128 SDef
Sassy nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Light Screen
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Rest
---

Bronzongs are hard to kill. Made it slow as fuck for Gyro Ball. Attacking is the last thing I want to do with this guy though with that poor pp. It's basically the supporter set with Rest over Hypnosis. Light Screen + Rest should make Magnezone bored if I get trapped by it. Rest since I figured my sole Dragon resist needs to be kept around.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/216 Spd/42 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Reflect
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
- Surf
---

Surf, Rapid Spin, and Recover are crucial. Reflect for those instances where I'm faster than a pursuiter (like Tar). Still kinda fails versus Weavile without Reflect up in time. Reflect can also be put up against Gyarados before it DDs or Garchomp and then I can do as I please with more safety. Did I mention this counters Infernape? (aka rapes the ape) It should.

I have used this team for a day or two now. What do you think? Stealth Rock, Reflect, Light Screen, the instant recovery, Tar to start and do the major hurting.

 

[Corrupted]

That DDTar set is so utterly walled by so many things, give it Ice Beam to take out Gliscor. Bronzong is easily a better lead than DDTar.

I dont see Gastrodon doing any thing for this team. You need some wall breaking with something like MixApe. As the only thing hurting Blissey is TTar. Standerd set is fine.

Please put Ice Fang on that Gliscor. And if you want to use TauntScor give it enough speed to outrun Breloom atleast.

Hypnosis > Rest on Bronzong. Shed Shel if you're worryed about Zone.

Reflect on Stamie is fairly situational, just go with ThunderBolt as Zapdos just gets KOd by StoneEdge.

I really dont know what this team is trying to accomplish. It looks stallish but theres no Toxic Spikes, no anything. Maybe Tenta could go over Starmie. He stin spins and can help with the stall theme this team is trying to go for.

 

[tee tee]

Yeah I'm going have to agree with Corrupted it sorta does. It doesn't have enough full force offense in my eyes.

Props for using Gastrodon!!!! :) HMMMM. I never thought of Yawn on it, but it seems like it could work! I might have to breed one with that egg move to see how it turns out!

 

[Venom]

It's better if you lead with Bronzong. Getting rocks up in the first turn can come in handy later, same with Hypnosis. I would remove rest from Bronzong and put in Hypnosis, since Rest and Light Screen won't really so anything to Magnezone. I would take off Substitute from Tyranitar and put Earthquake or Ice Beam, since Substitute isn't gonna do much with the set you have. Take out Gastrodon, it isn't gonna do a better job than Swampert, who can resist Garchomp more. If you want it to resist a Tyranitar, even a CB one, go 252 HP and 252 Def to survive it.

 

[Oxypad]

Anyone think Lapras looks like it could've evolved from Gastrodon? The first time I saw Gastrodon I was like "Lapras has now got a base form."

:/ Nevermind.

The selling point for Gastrodon over Swampert is Recover, making Gastrodon an incredible switch-in to Heatran. It also weighs 65.9 lbs. (29.9kg), so Grass Knot has 60 base power against it, in case anyone was interested. Not like that matters too much.

The theme of the team is to have safe switch-ins and recover. Sure it doesn't have much offense because I can't just throw in a MixApe, a crazed offensive madhouse, on a Sandstream team and say it has great synergy. Stealth Rock suffices as the indirect damage. Easy to set up. Besides, I have no Ghost (nor do I want one with sandstream around) to keep blocking spin attempts if I utilized Spikes.

Hypnosis > Rest on Bronzong. Wow. Should have saw that one coming. Magnezone can still trap and use Sub+Magnet Rise to make any Bronzong dead, but not mine if I keep Rest. I'd rather be a man and have Yawn on Gastrodon anyways.

Gliscor can get more speed for Breloom (good point) since I want Taunt on it. If I hit Tar's counters with Toxic from Gliscor, it helps. Toxic Spikes accomplishes that too, but Tentacruel can't recover, Forretress is totally boring, and the other users of Toxic Spikes are either of those as well (or they suck).

Thanks for the criticism. I still think the team is promising.

 

[chaos 9]

yeah I think you need a little offense. Things like blissey and cress combined with say gliscor wall you to hell. With tar being your only atker without wish support he will go down then you will be walled. Plus, you dont have nearly enough residual damage to stall with. You seem caught in between stall and balenced which is never good.

 

[Dormin]

Hmmmm, I will iterate what others have suggested and highly recommend switching Bronzong to your starting poke. Heck, if your worried about Magnezone so much you could try a Calm Mind set, but generally you would be better off with the standard Hypnosis+Stealth rock etc. set to give you the advantage early in the battle. Give it Shed Shell if the thought of Maggy still bothers you.

Tyranitar can stay on the team, but wants the standard DDtar set with Ice Beam/Taunt, whatever you fancy more, for late game sweeps. It wants at least have enough to outspeed Garchomp after a DD--god only knows who uses Adamant Garchomp anymore.

I fail to see what Gastrodon is doing better than Swampert, who actually phazes with Roar, where as Gastrodon will probably only "phaze" once with yawn before the opponent sends in a Resttalker/Celebi to soak it up.