ORAS OU darude sandstorm

darude sandstorm
revolves around sandstream/ sandstorm-related abilities (sand force, sand rush)
tried a few games with this set, want to see if i can improve it.
just like give me an honest opinion

Dugtrio @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Night Slash

this guy is one of the four sweepers. equipped with both choice band and sand force, its moves will pack a punch.
jolly nature's to ensure that dugtrio always goes first.

aerial ace- to deal with pesky grass and fighting types, ones that completely counter this comp.
earthquake- staple move, 100 pwr and 100 acc, overall a great move.
rock slide- good against flying types that cant be hit by eq.
night slash- this one's just filler, just didnt know what to put here.

overall, he isn't the most important on this team, but he isnt to be ignored, either.

Hippowdon @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang

as i said before, this team greatly revolves around sandstorm. a good team also needs some set-up. who's better at both than hippowdon? his held item's a smooth rock- important for keeping sandstorm up as long as possible, also combos with sand stream. my main strategy with this poke is to get stealth rock up, and then immediately switch out, switching back in only when i need something to take a blow or to reset sandstorm.
impish nature's for, again, taking a blow.

toxic- good setup move, what more can i say?
stealth rock- ^, limits the opponent's switching.
earthquake- staple move, 100 pwr and 100 acc, overall a great move.
ice fang- another decent move to try to deal with flying and grass types.

this guy's essential if the team is to be successful.

Excadrill @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor

ahhhh, excadrill. i consider this bad boy to be my main sweeper. the ridiculous things you could do with this guy. get a swords dance or two up, ensure that there is a sandstorm blowing, and boom, super sweeper RIGHT THERE.
adamant nature for bonus dmg.

earthquake- staple move, 100 pwr and 100 acc, overall a great move.
swords dance- great setup move, adds so much damage
rock slide- good against flying types that cant be hit by eq.
x-scissor- good against bug types

mmm, so many games carried with this guy, 2x speed OP

Tyranitar-Mega @ Tyranitarite
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake

i needed a mega, so here's one. comes with sand stream too, in case hippowdon somehow gets ko'd. i guess you could consider this guy to be the third sweeper, with dragon dance, i could see him taking me higher up the ladder. but so far, with my 30+ games with this set, he hasnt really been so... bright, whereas the others were beacons. oh well.
adamant nature for the dmgs

dragon dance- good setup move, speed and attack gets teetar more of a chance of one-shotting everything it sees.
outrage- good move, tons of damage, only move i can use against fighting types that counter it.
stone edge- counters the flying types.

backup for hippowdon.

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Recover
- Amnesia
- Ice Beam
- Counter

people underestimate gastrodon. sure, its base stats arent too good, and sure, its name is GAStrodon, but its still a cool poke. i made it into a special defense tank, made to last out long enough to harass the enemy. set up a few amnesias, counter them when they physical attack you, and recover when they die.
calm nature for spdef

recover- great healing move.
amnesia- to set up tank mode.
ice beam- to get those darned grass/flying types.
counter- hahaha the things ive ko'd with this move.

pretty good.

Stoutland @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Aerial Ace
- Crunch
- Wild Charge

stoutland, eh. i really didnt expect this guy to do much, at all. but holy crap, does it do damage. the main thing i spam with this guy is return, and with sand rush, you're almost always guaranteed to strike first, dealing an absurd amount of damage. to top that off, id consider its other moves to well pretty versatile.
adamant nature for big boom

return- 102 power, 100 accuracy, better than earthquake. plus, stab is nice.
aerial ace- grass types tremble in fear at this move. FEAR IT
crunch- decent power, enemy can flinch. why not?
wild charge- good damage, counters water and flying types.

won me some games, lost me some others. pretty good though.
 
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Hey xninjaofthenorth, this is quite the literal sand team. The issue with it though is that you're left weaker to water types like Azumarill, Manaphy, and Keldeo, especially since your Gastrodon can't touch them by only running Ice Beam, as well as to grass types, namely Serperior and Amoonguss. I'll try to help you with this and patch up a few other holes with my rate.

Frankly, Dugtrio is weak as hell and even Sand Force isn't helping with that. The one niche that Dugtrio has to make it useful is Arena Trap, since it's outclassed at doing virtually everything else outside of trapping. So to provide you with an additional water resist and an answer to Sub + Calm Mind Keldeo, which your Gastrodon can't beat, you should run Latios > Dugtrio. Latios can act has a hazard remover, as well as run HP Fire to hit nuisances such as Bisharp, Ferrothorn, Skarmory, etc. This also helps you not lose to Belly Drum Azumarill, which can easily sweep your team with Aqua Jet, and Knock Off or Play Rough in Gastrodon's case, as well as act as a check to Breloom, Amoonguss, and M-Venusaur.

Now to help you deal with Serperior, as well as Zard Y which can change your weather and gain momentum, you should run Choice Scarf Heatran > Stoutland. This also provides you with a solid Scizor check, and a fast attacker and revenge killer when the sand isn't up. Next up, you should run a set of a Scald / Earthquake / Toxic / Recover, as well as physically defensive on your Gastrodon. The physical defense helps it take on Calm Mind Slowbro (takes less from Psyshocks), Azumarill, and Keldeo's Secret Sword much better, Earthquake allows it to beat Calm Mind Raikou, and Toxic lets it beat Nasty Plot Thundurus, Calm Mind Slowbro, SpDef Talonflame, and others, as well as provides a way to weaken Rotom-W.

Next, you should switch you should switch your megas around and run Smooth Rock on Tyranitar > Tyranitarite since on a build like this Tyranitar serves better as a lure / support rather than adding weaknesses to the same Pokemon, and run Mega Scizor > Hippowdon. A support Tyranitar + Scizor grants you a switch in to the Latis that isn't a win condition, and M-Scizor checks M-Lopunny, Hoopa-U (loosely), Kyurem-Black, and M-Metagross and more, and also can serve as a win condition on top of a defensive pivot. With Ice Beam + Fire Blast, your Tyranitar can lure and take out defensive Garchomp, Landorus-T, Gliscor, and Skarmory that wall / annoy your Swords Dance Excadrill, giving it more leeway to clean through teams.

Lastly, you should definitely run Iron Head > X Scissor on Excadrill since this not only grants it solid STAB, but it also grants it a way to immediately threaten Fairy types. Earthquake is Base 150 with STAB, and X Scissor is base 160 on super effective targets, namely Slowbro. The damage difference isn't huge, and the immediately power that Iron Head has is much more useful, especially in revenge killing M-Altaria in case Scizor gets trapped by a Magnezone. You should also run Air Balloon > Expert Belt on Excadrill since this allows you to set up a Swords Dance on Landorus-Therian and Hippowdon switch-ins risk free, and force damage on them before they pop your Balloon.

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Recover
- Toxic

Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Atk / 164 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Pursuit / Stone Edge
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Beam

Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Rock Slide

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Atk / 16 Def / 200 SpD
Impish Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- U-turn
- Roost

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Defog

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power
- Stone Edge
Also, for future reference, you should run Jolly on Mega Tyranitar since that allows it to outspeed Weavile at +1 and kill it before it can Low Kick you, as well as outspeed base 70s like Bisharp at neutral.

Hope i was able to help!
 
I agree with Celes suggestions. I also noticed the Grass and Water weaknesses. However, I would recommend Gliscor over Scizor. The reason for this suggestion is the large fighting weakness that ground teams seem to always have, as would this one. Additionally, you would receive another ground immunity, which also was a problem for your team.

You could actually run the exact set you had on Hippowdon with Gliscor, which would help you maintain a Stealth Rock user, as well as keeping t-tar as your Mega.
 
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