ORAS OU Darude Sandstorm

Savve · Nov 8, 2015

Hi everyone, my name is Calvin and I've been playing Pokemon at a competitive level since the very end of fourth generation. I would say I'm a pretty competent trainer and over the years I've developed my competitive battling skills to come to this juncture. I developed this team with the idea in mind that I wanted to get to the top 100 players of the pokemon showdown OU ladder. Currently I'm just out of the top 500 players (lol) sitting at 1469 points. The team itself is pretty balanced, featuring some of my personal favorite mons along with mons that function exceptionally well in a ladder type format. Now onto the team!

Here's the team:

Like I stated earlier I wanted to peak in the top 100 players on the OU ladder of pokemon showdown. The best and fastest way to rank up on showdown is generally through hyper offense; however, hyper offense is NOT my play style at all. I really like to slow the game down and take it turn by turn, which I think this team does very effectively. So into the players themselves!

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 80 Def / 180 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Pursuit

The first member of the team and honestly the star of the show in most cases, Tyranitar. Ever since the first time I laid eyes on this beast of a Pokemon I absolutely fell in love with it's design. Choice Scarf ttar is an absolute beast as it provides great offensive pressure forcing switches and then proceeding to hit something very hard with it's STAB stone edge or pursuit trapping the like of latios, latias, alakazam, gengar ,starmie, etc. Ttar also has enough bulk to switch into any resisted hit and almost any neutral hit making him one of if not the star member of this team. I'm running a choice scarf on him as my team lacks lots of speed and with a scarf Ttar hits 364 speed which is high enough to outpace base 110 speed pokemon. Choice scarf Ttar also catches many people off guard being able to snag KO's on the likes of mega pinsir and bisharp with relative ease. Overall a key player on the team and one of my personal favorite pokemon to use.
Edit: I changed Ttar's set to be a more bulky variant that can set up stealth rocks to alleviate rocks pressure from excadrill as I was having difficulty getting rocks up in most games and the added fire blast to more effectively deal with the likes of scizor and ferrothorn.

Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Toxic
- Protect

The second member of the team and possibly the other star of the show sand rush Excadrill. This mon absolutely ruins teams that are unprepared for it and when played well teams that are prepared for it. There aren't a lot of pokemon in OU that can easily switch into an iron head or earthquake from a max attack excadrill. Coupled with sandstorm support from ttar this thing turns into an absolute monster OHKO'ing anything that it's STAB moves hit super effectively. The biggest reason I chose to have excadrill on this team is I needed something that could maul fairy types and set up stealth rocks so excadrill seemed to me to be the perfect choice. Along with the fact that it works incredibly well with ttar made it almost a must have.
Edit: I added toxic over rock slide as I wasn't really using rock slide all that often and when I was it was very underwhelming to I added toxic to catch common switch ins such as rotom-w and lando-t off guard. I also added protect over stealth rocks as ttar now carries that responsibility and scouting is always nice (plus medicham can catch that floor now when he tries to high jump kick me >:D)

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Belly Drum
- Knock Off
- Play Rough

A pretty standard demon rabbit set in belly drum azumarill comes in for the third member of my team. Azumarill is another pokemon that can absolutely maul teams that are both prepared and unprepared for it's damage. There are not a lot of reliable switches to a +0 waterfall let alone a +6 waterfall. On top of having excellent typing and STAB priority in aqua jet Azumarill finds its place on my team as a key switch into ice, fire, fighting, and dragon attacks as well hitting like an absolute truck and guaranteeing at least one KO every match. Overall the demon rabbit is a pretty key player as it can come in on the likes of outraging dragons and the ever prevelant Landorus-T and proceed to knock either one out in a single hit, as well as revenge killing many common faster threats such as M-Lopunny and M-Alakazam.
Edit: Changed up the EV's and swapped out waterfall for knock off as after a belly drum waterfall was basically unnecessary and knock off helps in a lot of situations where common azumarill threats would be able to switch in for free.

Latias @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Healing Wish
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock

Again another painfully standard set but necessary on this team. When I was team building, I got to this point and thought that I really needed a dragon type on this team and a way to rid of hazards. One of the lati-twins seemed to me to be the best option as both hit really hard on the special side (another thing this team desperately needed) and can get rid of hazards. The choice really came down to needing healing wish. Healing wish is an incredibly useful move and has gotten me out of several sticky situations. It allows me to play much more recklessly with my sweepers and pivots. For example because I have healing wish I can risk my ttar getting burned by a scald or I can have a second chance to sweep with azumarill's belly drum. Plus I desperately needed an immunity to ground as my team is fairly weak to it after excadrill's air balloon has been popped.
Edit: Changed the EV's a little bit to take hits slightly better

Talonflame @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 88 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance

The first thing I want to say about Tflame is how much I absolutely despise this pokemon. When talonflame was first revealed I thought that is the coolest generation bird GameFreak has come out with since Staraptor. Now everytime I see this stupid bird I think kill it with fire before my entire team is dead. Tflame has one of the most broken abilities in the entire game. Gale win (as I like to call it) gives tflame priority on brave bird and roost, which basically mitigates the need for any speed investment at all. I have just enough speed investment to speed creep base 100 pokemon and enough bulk to be able to switch into some resisted and neutral hits. Tflame is more or less a late game sweeper and can set up on a plethora of pokemon in the OU tier that it either scares out or simply tanks that can't touch it due to it's phenomenal typing. Heatran without roar or toxic would be the prime example of a pokemon that can't touch tflame 90% of the time as it resists both of heatran's best STAB moves and kills the standard specially defensive set fairly easily after a few bulk ups. Usually I save tflame in my back pocket for a late game cleanup but if I need to revenge kill something or even just force something out tflame is the go to. Overall a pokemon with lots of options and pure power in its STAB brave bird.
Edit: Changed from a bulky variant to a much more offensive variant to better deal with the likes of scizor and ferrothorn on top of creating a much stronger late game sweeper.

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Def / 144 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
- Synthesis
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain
- Sleep Powder

And at long last we finally come to one of my personal favorite mega evolutions released, M-Venusaur. Venusaur has been one of my favorite pokemon and was actually the first starter I ever chose in pokemon blue way back when that game first came out, and ever since then has been one of my favorite pokemon to use both in game and competitively. Venusaur was blessed with chlorophyll in fifth generation when weather teams were absolutely dominant in the meta and was blessed with godly defensive stats and the single best ability it could have gotten in thick fat in sixth gen. Thick fat removes two of venusaur's biggest weaknesses being fire and ice and allows venusaur to switch into many threats that it wouldn't be able to otherwise. I have just enough special attack investment on this guy to reach 300 special attack and enough bulk to eat up almost any neutral or resisted hit thrown it's way. I don't use sleep powder due to missing it constantly (I missed sleep powder 7 times in a singular game and stopped using it since then) and run synthesis instead. Synthesis is crippled by ttar's sand stream ability but thankfully sandstorm is no longer permanent making this not as bad of an issue as it would be otherwise. The rest of its moves are there for coverage purposes sludge bomb hitting opposing grass types and fairies for super effective damage if not outright killing them. Giga drain is secondary STAB and hits water, ground and rock types for super effective damage. On top of healing venusaur for a small amount usually but any sustain is sustain on a mega evolution. Hidden power fire is there simply because this team has no other fire type attacks and has an incredibly hard time dealing with both ferrothorn and scizor because of this. HP fire alleviates this issue somewhat but it's still a huge problem for my team.
Edit: Changed the EV's around to make Venusaur more tanky overall and changed out hp fire with sleep powder (wish me luck) as my team has more moves to deal with ferro and scizor ie tflame flare blitz and ttar fire blast

Thanks to Absollite and SlaySlenderDragonXD for the suggestions!!

That's the team guys thanks so much if you read all that feel free to give me as much constructive criticism as possible as I'm still aiming for that top 100 on PS!

Thanks for Rating

Absollite · Nov 8, 2015

Hey there, cool team! Also welcome to Smogon! :D I'm only suggesting minor nitpicks for your team, as it looks quite solid.

First thing I notice is Waterfall on a BD Azu. Usually they don't run Waterfall, since Aqua Jet already demolishes the stuff it needs to. You also lack a Knock Off user. Because of this, I would suggest Knock Off > Waterfall on Azumarill. Azumarill still hits hard with Play Rough if you don't get a boost anyways, and Knock Off looks better for your team.

Also, the next thing that you should consider is the 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe EV spread on Latias. This lets you tank certain hits while still hitting hard with your STAB attacks.

Since you said you had trouble with Scizor and Ferrothorn, I think you should run Fire STAB on Talonflame, as the only way you can hit them is HP Fire on Venu. I think you should use the offensively inclined variant instead of the Bulk Up variant. I think either the choice banded variant or the Swords Dance variant would be better for your team. The swords dance one still lets you have a setup sweeper if you still want one. These two variants on TFlame carry fire coverage, helping a ton vs Scizor and Ferro.

Choice Banded variant:
Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature / Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Steel Wing

You could run Adamant if you wanted the extra damage. Also Steel Wing in the last slot you can change, but TFlame doesn't really have the biggest movepool to choose from.

Swords Dance variant:
Talonflame @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Roost

I don't see what hitting 300 SpA on MegaVenu does for you, besides hitting a little harder with your attacks, which isn't really necessary. Since I changed your TFlame to a more offensive variant, I think your Venusaur needs to be made into the bulkier variant. Your team isn't too bulky as of now, so I think your team would appreciate the bulk a lot. Leech Seed in place of HP Fire could also be considered, although I think HP Fire is okay for now. Also, just a minor nitpick: Venusaur's ability before mega evolving should be Chlorophyll in case you get a clutch outspeed on a zardY or something. You also won't be staying in your normal form long enough to get low and use a grass attack anyways.

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Def / 144 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
- Hidden Power Fire

I got this spread straight from the SmogDex analysis of Venusaur, so if you want to change it, you can.

If I were you, I'd also consider changing TTar to a bulkier variant, but it isn't completely mandatory and I think the scarfed variant of TTar works well enough for your team.

Hope I helped!

Take Azelfie · Nov 8, 2015

Yo man liking the team and the goal but I do have a few recommendations.

Tyranitar may want to run Fire Blast somewhere is its moveset due to the team being particularly weak to Ferrothorn and Scizor. I would hard to fit but i do feel it can apply a lot of pressure to those mons since Talonflame has to take a hell of a lot of damage to kill either of them and Mega Venusaur does get worn down by Zor. Doing this might also leave room for Earthquake to be used over Superpower which also helps with your Diancie problem a bit better.

Sand Rush Excadrill is neat but you aren't sweeping with it so I'm glad you aren't running Swords Dance because you felt like you needed to. Since Tyranitar deals with Flying types and you will most likely switch into this after Tyranitar sets up Sand. It might be a nice option to use Toxic as it baits in things such as Rotom Wash and giving them a "surprise" Toxic can help with the match later on.

Azumarill doesn't necessarily have any purpose to run Waterfall over Knock Off since Aqua Jet picks off anything that it needs to and the rest of the team handles anything that Aqua Jet would hit particularly well. Also this Azumarill spread might help better.
Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Knock Off
Taken straight from the Azumarill Analysis

This set is good, I don't really see any changes that could be made. Unless you feel better being able to take 2 hits from a LO Thundurus w/o Stealth Rocks up then you should use this spread.
Latias @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Healing Wish Thunderbolt is also nice move to replace Psyshock to hit pokemon like Slowbro but it makes your team weaker to Chansey so whatever you feel is right.

This team has a hard time dealing with Steel Types in general if they don't get hit by Excadrill so pokemon like Ferrothorn and Bronzong are hard to take down. Flare Blitz is sort of needed to help break down certain threats like those and also for something that wants to clean late game is should try setting up fast or else it doesn't get the job (Except ~~Sataneye~~ Sableye)
I recommend changing it to the Swords Dance set as it allows faster set up and an easier way to deal with Steel types.
Talonflame @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Roost

The venusaur set seems kind of random. I would recommend using the one of the SmogDex sets available. Each one serves a different purpose but they would both fit. Since this is your team I'll let you choose.

Savve · Nov 8, 2015

Hey guys, thanks for taking some time out of your schedules to give me some pointers and fixes I'm taking both of your advices and swapping around some of the sets! Notable the ttar and venusaur sets. I updated the sets up in the team above to work with what I changed!

Karou · Nov 8, 2015

Hey, cool team! 4 of those mons (tyranitar/exca/talon/azumaril) were on the best team i have ever done with (2k) at the beginning of XY and they have killer offensive synergy. Here are a few suggestions that i think could help streamline the team:

Knock off > Waterfall. A +6 play rough nukes anything and everything that waterfall does, and aqua jet picks off anything >80% anyway. Knock off has the benefit of being able to OHKO ferrothorn though, something that you can't do with waterfall (and ferro will KO back with power whip) Calcs:

+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 88+ Def Ferrothorn: 344-405 (97.7 - 115%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 88+ Def Ferrothorn: 212-250 (60.2 - 71%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Not quite sure what the talonflame/ mega suar ev spreads do, could you elaborate? If there is no pressing need for them then i highly advise changing the venusaur set to a standard defensive one:

248 HP / 96 Def / 144 SpD / 20 Spe > 206 HP / 224 Def / 80 SpA

The team could also really benefit from Fire Stab off of that nice talon speed tier to hit the likes of scizor/ ferrothorn/ excadrill ect:

Flare Blitz > Will-o-Wisp
You could also potentially run either Sword Dance > Bulk Up (more immediate power) or even a banded set. This would allow you to kill things like mega venusaur before they bring you into priority range of things like Espeed.

+1 0 Atk Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 232 HP / 0 Def Mega Venusaur: 272-324 (75.7 - 90.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 0 Atk Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 232 HP / 0 Def Mega Venusaur: 362-428 (100.8 - 119.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Extreme Speed vs. +1 248 HP / 0 Def Talonflame: 117-138 (32.5 - 38.4%) -- 2.9% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery.
Say after a mega venusaur sludge bomb + recoil or tank chomp recoil, you can be KO'ed by Espeed even at +1, while at +2 you KO venu before it can get off the sludge bomb.

Anyway GL with the team!

Nedor · Nov 8, 2015

after analyzing the build, there are multiple goals that the build is meant to achieve; i will essentially try my best to enhance the foundation and what the team is meant to do without making too many drastic changes as it is already fairly solid. first off, you have a standard core of pursuit + mega venusaur which is typically found on balance and bulky offense, which aims to remove prominent bulky psychics, mainly being the lati twins, allowing mega venusaur to potentially kill and stall out the rest of their team. secondly, you pressure common checks to bulk up talonflame with the combination of latias (healing wish is also beneficial) and mega venusaur. despite this, you overlooked multiple threats that you auto-lose to once an easy set-up opportunity is found on a large portion of your team, mainly being bulky set-up win conditions like suicune and reuniclus as the offensive presence lacks a balance breaker that is capable of punching holes early-mid game. although you do have counterplay towards sand offense in azumarill + mega venusaur, both of your ground immunities lose to excadrill, and if its swords dance, its incredibly hard to deal with.

first of all, i'd recommend banded azumarill as opposed to belly drum. on that specific playstyle, as i mentioned above, a way of offensively pressuring defensively oriented builds is mandatory so you don't have a terrible match-up against mons commonly found on slower archetypes such as semi-stall, fat balance, and balance. also, belly drum azumarill is not optimal and doesn't really fit the teamstyle. banded azumarill fulfills offensive responsibilities in breaking down defensive cores and revenge killing weakened threats. not only this, but it 2hko's standard defensive rotom-w which is a similar counter between your excadrill and talonflame, allowing them to clean efficiently. it's also your main way of switching into weavile which is normally a big issue, but with the support of healing wish, you can check it to a greater degree.

now, i find that scarftar alongside rocks drill limits the build and overall goal of the team a lot. i say this because you have multiple forms of priority in talonflame and azumarill, while your speed control and form of dealing with offense has minimal amount of turns to take advantage of. for this reason, i'd recommend utility ttar > scarftar. you would still have a pursuit trapper to support mega venusaur which was one of the original goals of the team, but now as you have a rocker, there is suddenly a freed up slot on excadrill that wouldn't limit its capabilities. as you already have a form of hazard control in latias, i'd opt for swords dance instead of stealth rock. as i mentioned above, banded azumarill easily pressures and breaks down checks to excadrill, being bulky waters and grounds, but it also finds set-up opportunities on the likes of landorus-t and hippowdon with an air balloon; making it extremely hard to check, especially with healing wish support. furthermore, with the extra sand turns ttar now provides, you are more free to make safer plays, and offense typically has to switch around multiple times to stall out your turns, but it makes it extremely difficult when rocks are up, which may result in a late game clean from talonflame. the downside of this alteration is that you become more vulnerable to bisharp, but you do not automatically lose to it as you have multiple forms of priority as well as physdef mega venusuar.

as for smaller changes / optimizations, i'd probabaly change your talonflame's ev spread to 248 hp / 228 spdef / 32 speed as your current spread does get 2hko'd by lo gengar's shadow ball even after leftovers, making you uncapable of beating it with roost in a specific scenario. secondly, 72 hp on latias would enable you to better check offensive electric types and avoid certain 2hko's which is appreciated. lastly, to better check physical attackers like mega lopunny and excadrill that you are prone to, a spread of 248 hp / 240 def / 20 speed on mega venusaur should be used which aims to maximize its bulk, and to creep certain variants of azumarill.

even with these modifications, the build remains relatively weak to offensive pressure from prominent ground types such as excadrill, landorus-t, and garchomp as you heavily rely on the combination of azumarill and mega venusaur (two shaky ground checks) to beat them. while this is a problem, you still have multiple ways of dealing with them, even a potential ice beam from utility ttar to lure them and whittle them severely. sd bisharp can also be really annoying as it finds set-up opportunities on a few of your members, so playing around it cautiously is mandatory.
---------
optional
---------
there are many variations and options this build has as it is a skeleton, but another solid option that i would recommend you testing is cm + roost latios as opposed to standard latias, alongside rapid spin excadrill. as i mentioned in the threatlist, bulky cm mons are extremely problematic, and latios does an amazing job pressuring them especially with access to psyshock which hits on the physical defense and pressures defensively oriented builds greatly. rapid spin would be required at that point on excadrill to support talonflame. secondly, an option you have as the rates above mentioned is offensive sd talonflame to apply even more pressure and appreciate your wallbreaker in azumarill, but you would be extremely bisharp weak. the goal of this team is to essentially beat the opposition with mega venusaur, or apply enough offensive pressure to the point where your opponent can't do anything, hence the many options at your hands.
---------

------
tl;dr:
------

Choice Band > Belly Drum

Utility > Choice Scarf

Swords Dance > Stealth Rock

248 HP / 228 SpD / 32 Spe > 200 HP / 144 SpD / 164 Spe

72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe > 252 SpA / 252 Speed / 4 Def

248 HP / 240 Def / 20 Spe > Your original spread
---------
That's all I got and I hope my changes could help you! If you have any questions about the team feel free to inquire.

ORAS OU Darude Sandstorm

Savve

Absollite

Take Azelfie

More flags more fun

Savve

Karou

Nedor

thiccc