When I got bored one day I made an all weather team, which sucked might I add. But there was one saving grace for this team and it was Hippowdon. I made a bulky one using the uncommon move Stockpile. After this I put it on my normal team to find out that it was just extremely powerful. So here it is my Hippowdon.
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Stockpile
- Slack Off
- Toxic
- Earthquake
With OU teams today one thing that is very common to see is very powerful pokemon that use no boosting moves. These pokemon can be choiced, life orbed or just have no good boosting moves to use. This Hippowdon takes advantage of this trend and becomes so bulky that its hard for anything to kill it unless they have toxic or boosting moves. It is more SDef then most Hippowdon because I wanted the both defenses to be close to even so it can take both physical and special attacks equally as well. Also from doing this people think that there best bet is to use a Special attacker which lets me get at least one free boost. Sadly though for this set is that it does not have cosmic power so the best boosting move for it is stockpile which caps at +3 Def/SDef. Even though it cannot get +6 in Def/SDef it still becomes extremely bulky with 3 stockpiles reaching 682 Def / 667 SDef. A common switch into Hippowdon like Rotom-w stands no chance as it only does 28.57-34.28% damage with hydro pump which can easily healed off by slack off.
Toxic is the main form of damage as I used it as a toxic staller. Just toxic the other pokemon and then just heal off any damage that they do to you. The other move I used for attacking is earthquake to take down some of the more annoying steel/poison types that it may have to face and to break subs. Also the sand storm is sometimes what needs to be used to kill pokemon like gengar, who can not kill Hippowdon when it is fully boosted. It also adds damage making toxic stalling a bit faster.
A lot of the battles that I used Hippowdon for ended in a rage quits because my opponent realized that he had nothing on his team to kill it. For this reason I did not save to many replays of Hippowdon owning because I normally like saving battles that don't end in rage quits. Anyways here are two replays that i did save that show Hippowdon in action.
This is when it was on my all weather team and was truly the only reason I won the battle.
http://www.pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou8323024
The next one is when it was on my normal team.
http://www.pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou8720683
While not perfect it still can destroy a team that is not prepared enough to kill it just with its sheer bulk.
This is an interesting Hippowodon set. If you wish to compromise between the two, I would suggest running BOTH. So use the Hippowodon set exactly and then these two:
Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 204 HP/52 SpD/252 Spe
Nature: Jolly/Careful
-Fling/Taunt
-Protect/Swords Dance
-Earthquake
-Acrobatics/Aqua Tail
This Gliscor abuses its Toxic Orb to strengthen Acrobatics while poisoning an opponent of choice, letting it take on a hybrid defensive-offensive role. Protect allows for Toxic/Poison Heal stalling, but Swords Dance can be used to boost attack higher still. Earthquake is arguably the best STAB in the game and hits many things hard, especially after a Swords Dance. Lastly, Acrobatics is great for STAB and a doubled power after the Toxic Orb is gone. If you don't want Acrobatics for whatever reason, Aqua Tail is the next best alternative due to the high frequency of rain teams. If not using Acrobatics, Taunt is a decent [aforementioned] alternative to Fling.
Cradily (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SpA
Nature: Calm
-Giga Drain
-Ancientpower
-Recover
-Confuse Ray/Earth Power/Barrier/Block
Cradily is a surprisingly solid counter to many Pokemon commonly used on rain teams. Like Gastrodon, it can take water-type moves to boost its Special Attack. Unlike Gastrodon, it can take advantage of the Sandstorm by making it a special wall and having a STAB that Water-types are weak to. Giga Drain is great against Gastrodon, Rotom-W, etc. for doing major damage and for healing. Ancientpower is a nice STAB to hurt Ice-types that trouble this three-Pokemon core. If you are lucky enough to get the +1, Cradily can tank hits much better and boost its offensive presence significantly, but the 10% rate of this happening is not worth counting on. Recover is Cradily's main source of Recovery, obviously. Confuse Ray is a move I have found very useful for haxing the opponent, and it can force switches. There are alternatives, however. Earth Power is useful for Steel-types, especially Heatran, which Cradily can typically live at least one or two hits from (be careful with the defensive ones that run Toxic, though). Barrier is another decent alternative to make Cradily a mixed wall, letting it handle Fighting-type moves slightly better. Lastly, Block can be very deadly should your opponent mispredict, and depending on the opponent, will let you trap and eliminate it, or let you use it as set-up fodder. However, this is quite situational since the opponent can switch before you use Block.
To deal with Ice-types better, I would also suggest running Tyranitar. With this four-Pokemon defensive core, you have two special walls, two physical walls, and two Sand inducers.
Tyranitar (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def
Nature: Impish/Relaxed
-Stealth Rock
-Pursuit
-Stone Edge
-Superpower/Fire Blast/Toxic
This is somewhat a standard Tyranitar that gives itself a free 50% SpD boost from the Sandstorm it creates upon entry of the battlefield. Stealth Rock is great for residual damage, and should be a default move somewhere on every Sandstorm team since both inducers can learn it. Pursuit serves as the Psychic trap (and for Gengar), and makes Tyranitar even more useful. Stone Edge is Tyranitar's best physical STAB move. Superpower is great for Steel-types who resist the other moves, and Fire Blast is an alternative for Forretress, Breloom on the switch in, etc. The final alternative is Toxic since it fits onto stall teams very nicely.