XY LC Darude - Sandstorm

[Fiend]

Before I begin, quick shoutout to Aerow He's a cool guy and is the reason for the RMT. Blame him for this.

This team originally stems from me being extremely bad at pokemon and bored with the game. Originally, I had made a manual sand team involving the dreaded Vulpix and Tangla core along side an incredibly bad Double Rush core of Sandstorm Drilbur and Sandstorm Sandshrew. Since then, Tangla has been smashed by the ban hammer leaving me to abandon the team. However, recently this guy named Corporal NerdLevi inspired me to bring back by manual sand shenanigans and after several phases I managed to create a decent team, sotra. Thus, I present:

Darude - Sandstorm

The song? (Lileep) @ Eviolite
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 5
EVs: 148 HP / 220 Def / 140 SpD
EVs: 228 HP / 220 Def / 60 SpD
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Stealth Rock
- Recover
- Sandstorm

Lileep is the first pokemon within my Fire-Grass-Water core and provides much needed team support. Setting up Stealth Rock and Sandstorm are Lileep's primary functions; the second is to wall or pivot and switch into Pokemon that trouble its teammates, such as Foongus, Abra, Staryu, Chinchou, Ponyta, and an assortment of other special attackers. Giga Drain gets STAB while recovering HP, and hits the common Rapid Spinners hard. Recover is fairly self explanatory and synergizes well with Lileep's Special Defense boost in Sand. Lileep also has the added bonus of being able to take on Sun sweepers fairly well and ruining their reighn with SandStorm.

Name of 1st song? (Ponyta) @ Eviolite
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 5
Happiness: 0
EVs: 116 HP / 76 Def / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Impish Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Flare Blitz
- Frustration Toxic
- Morning Sun

Ponyta is the second member of the Fire-Grass-Water core and synergizes well with Lileep as it takes on most Fighting types and Steel types who try to harm Lileep. Ponyta will happily spreads burns throughout the opposing team weakening their attacks. Flare Blitz can and will cause a surprising amount of late game problems for most teams. Morning Sun provides recovery, increasing the longevity and utility of Ponyta greatly. The addition of Toxic allows Ponyta to out handle other threats, such as Shellos and Lileep, with more efficiency.

Song at 0:21? (Shellos) @ Eviolite
Ability: Sticky Hold
Level: 5
EVs: 228 HP / 132 Def / 100 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Recover
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Stockpile

Shellos was going to be the obvious choice for my Water type as Chinchou made me lost to Drilbur way too often and really despise Mienfoo's Knock Off. Diglett trapping Chinchou also sucked to an extreme amount. Shellos doesn't suffer from any of these at the expense of not beating Fletchling nearly as often, but I have enough checks for Fletchling anyway. Recovery outside of Resttalk is also greatly liked and Earth Power makes Croagunk and Chinchou regret switching in as well.

The song's name? (Timburr) @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 196 Atk / 236 SpD
Careful Nature
- Bulk Up
- Mach Punch
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off

Timburr primary acts as both a Status absorber and an answer to Dark types who handle my team decently without Timburr present. Drain Punch keeps it healthy enough throughout the match, allowing Timburr to continue to be useful for awhile. Mach Punch is one of Timburr's main draws over Mienfoo, and adds some nice and very needed priority to the team. Having another win condition is also fairly handy.

What is that song? (Pawniard) @ Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 236 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 116 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sandstorm
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch

Pawniard provides Knock Off support throughout the game as well as priority Sucker Punch to screw over Gastly and picking off Abra who otherwise simply ruin me. Iron Head helps with dealing with Spritzee and Cottonee which also annoys this team a tad more than I would enjoy and compliments the Knock Off core formed between Timburr and itself well. Pawniard also sets Sandstorm for some passive damage and a buff to Lileep and Sandshrew for a few turns.

Song name? (Sandshrew) @ Eviolite Berry Juice
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 5
EVs: 116 HP / 76 Atk / 76 Def / 196 SpD / 36 Spe
EVs: 236 Atk / 236 Def / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Tomb Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Sandstorm

As the final sand setter for this team, Sandshrew also provides much needed Rapid Spin support and handles Trubbish relatively well. 11 speed is used to outspeed most scarfers when in the Sandstorm and allows bulk to be maximized and a small amount of Attack to be invested. Rock Tomb is used as Rock Slide lacks any notable traits besides the Flinch chance, but since Sandshrew and the team are so slow, the speed drop from Rock Tomb possesses more utility. 36 Speed EVs allows Sandshrew to hit 22 Speed while Sandstorm is active, enough to outspeed 14 Speed Choice Scarf users while allowing me to maximise its attack. With this higher attack, Rock Slide gains KOes over Rock Tomb, especially after Stealth Rocks. Berry Juice gives Sandshrew the ability to live an extra hit, granted it doesn't KO him (very few physical attacks do) or is Knock Off.
​

Importable

The song? (Lileep) @ Eviolite
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 5
EVs: 228 HP / 220 Def / 60 SpD
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Stealth Rock
- Recover
- Sandstorm

Name of 1st song? (Ponyta) @ Eviolite
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 5
Happiness: 0
EVs: 116 HP / 76 Def / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Impish Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Flare Blitz
- Toxic
- Morning Sun

Song at 0:21? (Shellos) @ Eviolite
Ability: Sticky Hold
Level: 5
EVs: 228 HP / 132 Def / 100 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Recover
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Stockpile

The song's name? (Timburr) @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 196 Atk / 236 SpD
Careful Nature
- Bulk Up
- Mach Punch
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off

What is that song? (Pawniard) @ Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 236 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 116 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sandstorm
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch

Song name? (Sandshrew) @ Berry Juice
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 236 Def / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Sandstorm

​

 

[Yagura]

Hi there Fiend Hound such a creative team there, it seems really fun! Anyways, I got some few suggestions that will hopefully help your team be even better:

On Lileep I suggest using a 228 HP / 220 Def / 60 SpD EVs spread with a Bold nature your current spread gives you an odd number in Special Defense so switching the 80 EVs into HP will be wiser.

On Ponyta I'll suggest Toxic over Frustration, I don't know why you're using Frustration it's pretty useless and doesn't seem to be hitting anything but Toxic will be really effective to win a 1v1 against stallish Pokémon like Porygon.

I'll also suggesting using Drilbur over Sandshrew, I understand that Sandshrew has a better physical bulk but that's its only niche over Drilbur, meanwhile Drilbur allows you to set up Sandstorm and Rapid Spin way faster and it has also more power which may be game deciding in various situations:

Drilbur @ Eviolite
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 212 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Tomb / Rock Slide
- Sandstorm

Like I said this is a great creative team, hope I helped and good luck!

 

[Aerow]

Hey Fiend! This is a really cool and fun team! There are a few, small things I would fix however, to make it better.

First of all, I support Yagura's suggestion with optimizing Lileep's EVs to improve its bulk. I also agree with removing Frustration from Ponyta, and replace with Toxic or use a more offensive Ponyta set with Attack EVs and Wild Charge.

I disagree with the suggestion of Drilbur over Sandshrew however; Drilbur is way, way too frail to be able to set up Sandstorm and not being revenge-killed super easily. 1 Attack less on Sandshrew is nowhere close to being noticeable enough to sacrifice Sandshrew's amazing physical bulk. However, I would rather use this set for Sandshrew:

Sandshrew @ Eviolite (maybe Berry Juice?)
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 236 Def / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance / Rapid Spin / Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Sandstorm

This set bolsters Sandshrew's physical bulk, and maximizes its Attack. 36 Speed EVs allows Sandshrew to hit 22 Speed while Sandstorm is active, enough to outspeed 14 Speed Choice Scarf users. More Speed EVs can of course be used over Defense EVs if you want to outspeeds more threats. I see you use 196 Special Defense EVs on Sandshrew, but you rarely want to set up Sandstorm against Special Attackers anyway, and Sandshrew also really wants to have its Attack maximized. I haven't tried it myself, but I recommend trying out Berry Juice, because it looks like it can work very well on paper.

 

[Fiend]

Thanks for the feedback guys.
I don't know why Lileep had those odd EV's as that is the spread I wanted it to have originally, but thanks for catching that. Frustration was used over Toxic or Wild Charge as Chinchou would otherwise completely wall Ponyta. Still, it isn't the best of ideas anyway and has been replaced for Wild Charge so I can better deal with Archen. And lastly, I'm going to stick with Sandshrew over Drilbur; Drilbur is just too frail for it to work well for me.

EDIT: After talking with Yagura for a bit, I've decided to go with Toxic for the reasons he has above.