Desert Storm - An Offensive Centered Sandstorm Team

Kane Dunestorm

I decided to retry my team with Cacturne on it, adding another Pokemon to base it around, the Desert Spirit, Flygon, and it seemed to have worked pretty well.

Here's how I went about making it (changes are in red):



I started out with Cacturne and Flygon, looking onwards to making a Sandstorm Team, obviously, and looked at their type weaknesses. I noticed that I was 6x weak to Ice (4x Flygon, 2x Cacturne), 4x weak to bug (Cacturne only), among others.



So, I needed a Steel/Bug to fill that gaping hole, and the most potent Steel/Bug type is obviously Scizor.



Now, with Scizor, I had a major Fire and Fighting Weakness arise, so I filled those holes with two Pokemon, Swampert and Gliscor.



Now, finally, I added in my Sandstorm support in the form of Expert Belt Tyranitar. I chose Expert Belt Tyranitar over the popular ScarfTar or DDTar variants.

So, without further adieu, here is the team (again, changes are in red):



Swampert (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP/4 Atk/252 Def
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Surf
- Stealth Rock
---
Standard lead mixpert, he is mainly used to fill in a major fire weakness. He acts as both a tank for taking hits and a mixed sweeper. I've also gotten really lucky with Ice Beam as of late, and it freezes the opponent every 3 hits usually.



Tyranitar (M) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk/208 Spd/48 SAtk
Hasty Nature (+Spd ,-Def)
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Flamethrower
---
My main source of Sandstorm, is Tyranitar. This set has fooled many people into thinking its a choiced variant, as it does just as well, but gives me more variety in what moves I can use. I once got 4 straight OHKOes with him against someone, until they finally figured out that he wasn't locked into a choice item.



Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Fire Blast
- U-turn
---
Flygon is a very good Pokemon in the sand, and he provides excellent sweeping coverage. He has great synergy with Scizor, and I can easily switch between the two by use of U-turn, which both of them have. Fire Blast is for any Grass types such as Breloom that threaten the entrire team, not to mention that with his Scarf EV spread outspeeds most Breloom.



Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP/252 Atk/8 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- U-turn
---
Scizor, revenge killer extraordinaire. He's won me countless battles, most of them helping me come up from behind. Bullet Punch and Superpower are the main two moves that I go with, for their wide coverage of most Pokemon in the metagame. I wish I didn't have to resort to using such an overused Pokemon, but he just works way too well not to.



Cacturne (M) @ Brightpowder
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 Atk/8 Def/248 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
- Focus Punch
- Substitute
---
Cacturne, the star of the show. This moveset is the evasive dancer set, which I have used in the past before. Sucker Punch is for STAB priority against threats weak against it such as Latias and Ghosts. Focus Punch and Substitute are for a good, strong attack that rapes steels that laugh at Sucker Punch. Swords Dance, is obviously to make him even more dangerous, which works very well with his increased evasion in the sand.



Gliscor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP/40 Def/216 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Taunt
- Toxic
---
Gliscor provides a good defense and taunt support for the team, without resorting to weakening my offensive options. Not much else to say about him, he's probably the one I'm most considering replacing on the team. 'I'm considering replacing Toxic with Stone Edge or something else however, allowing me to hit fliers/levitators - any thoughts?

Note, I am thinking of replacing him with this Rotom-H set:



Rotom-H @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/168 Def/88 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp
---
Rotom-H, theoretically removes both my Gyarados Weakness AND my SD Luke weakness in one blow, and gives me a valuable asset in a spin blocker. With Thunderbolt to hit Gyarados, Shadow Ball for a STAB option, Overheat for a power attack, and Will-O-Wisp for statusing support, he is a very useful floating toaster full of tricks.
 
Darkamber8828

Darkamber8828

Cacturne isn't defensive. If it's taking a neutral hit, it's going to be too dead to fire off a drain punch. Don't use it. Also, Drain Punch is too weak.

Also, isn't cacturne too...slow...to be using encore? Hel-p, it has the same base speed as Blissey! If I'm not mistaken, and I probably am, adamant with 248 speed evs is enough to outspeed neutral suicune with no speed, so yay for another stat point.

Er, about encore, howsabout replacing it with substitute?

Cacturne
@ BrightPowder
Adamant
~ Swords Dance
~ Sucker Punch
~ Substitute
~ Focus Punch / Seed Bomb
252 Atk / 8 Def / 248 Spe

Focus Punch is fun to abuse in Sandstorm, and hurts steel pokemon that laugh at SP.

By the way.

This team fails HARD when facing Mixape, only revenged by priority, one part unreliable and one part resistant. You do know that not all your sandstorm pokemon need to resist sand, right?

btw you also fail against water attacks, as cacturne is too frail to take a hit. Scarf Flygon, so it can reliably outspeed 'nape and kill it. Also give it U-turn/Roost, because U-turn is the reason Flygon exists.

Meanwhile, replace Gliscor with a Defensive CM Wish PassingLatias...Better Than It Sounds, it can tank Bulky Waters and set up on them.

Latias
@ Leftovers
Timid
~ Calm Mind
~ Wish
~ Dragon Pulse
~ Substitute
128 hp/128 spa/ 252 spe

I've used this set, I can advocate it's usefulness. It can sweep and it can support. Also, between scarfgon and ttar-Flamethrower, steels can be dispatched efficiently enough. Ttar can also kill Scarftar locked into Pursuit with Superpower (if they are stupid enough to stay in)

Eh...nice team. Points for Cacturne, which is really an awesome poke that needs love. And beware, my rates suck.
 

Kane Dunestorm

Darkamber8828 said:
Cacturne isn't defensive. If it's taking a neutral hit, it's going to be too dead to fire off a drain punch. Don't use it. Also, Drain Punch is too weak.

I'm not trying to make it defensive, just trying to improve survivability while still allowing it to hit hard.

Also, isn't cacturne too...slow...to be using encore? Hel-p, it has the same base speed as Blissey! If I'm not mistaken, and I probably am, adamant with 248 speed evs is enough to outspeed neutral suicune with no speed, so yay for another stat point.

Er, about encore, howsabout replacing it with substitute?

I've actually found that Cacturne is too fast for Encore some times. Although that might be because I was doing it wrong, using it upon a switch in. Regardless, I've found Encore to work better than Substitute, due to the fact that Encore doesn't drop health when used, and the evasion lets me get by if I encore an attacking move. By the way, Spd means Speed, and SpDef means Special Defense, meaning that I gave Cacturne 252 Speed EVs.

Cacturne
@ BrightPowder
Adamant
~ Swords Dance
~ Sucker Punch
~ Substitute
~ Focus Punch / Seed Bomb
252 Atk / 8 Def / 248 Spe

Focus Punch is fun to abuse in Sandstorm, and hurts steel pokemon that laugh at SP.

I've actually used that set before, and I can say that I've been doing better with my current one.

By the way.

This team fails HARD when facing Mixape, only revenged by priority, one part unreliable and one part resistant. You do know that not all your sandstorm pokemon need to resist sand, right?

btw you also fail against water attacks, as cacturne is too frail to take a hit. Scarf Flygon, so it can reliably outspeed 'nape and kill it. Also give it U-turn/Roost, because U-turn is the reason Flygon exists.

Good idea, thanks, I'll try it out.

Meanwhile, replace Gliscor with a Defensive CM Wish PassingLatias...Better Than It Sounds, it can tank Bulky Waters and set up on them.

Latias
@ Leftovers
Timid
~ Calm Mind
~ Wish
~ Dragon Pulse
~ Substitute
128 hp/128 spa/ 252 spe

I've used this set, I can advocate it's usefulness. It can sweep and it can support. Also, between scarfgon and ttar-Flamethrower, steels can be dispatched efficiently enough. Ttar can also kill Scarftar locked into Pursuit with Superpower (if they are stupid enough to stay in)

Another good idea. I'll try that as well.

Eh...nice team. Points for Cacturne, which is really an awesome poke that needs love. And beware, my rates suck.

Thanks, he's actually my favorite. :D
Click to expand...
Comments are in bold. Thanks for the rate.
 

maniac200

If you want to go with the offensive theme for your lead, I suggest Choice Band Hippowdon. Use this set:

Hippowdon@Choice band
Sand stream
Modest
252 atc, 252 hp, 4 speed
Earthquake
Stone edge
Crunch
Sleep talk

This Hippo is designed to beat many common leads. It KO's aerodactyl and azelf through crunch and stone edge, and sandstream finishes off azelf(they all tend to taunt you, so they don't even get to set up SR. EQ SOMETIMES 2hko's standard lead swampert through lefties. It beats Metagross handily, KO'ing it with EQ, and meta can't do much in return, bar explosion. Scarf jirachi leads like to trick hippow, they they will be forced out as you deal massive damage with EQ. Infernapa can't KO with anything, you just EQ it into oblivion. Machamp 3hko's at best, and bar confusion hax, you will deal massive damage and 2hko with EQ. Ninjask is annoying. You'll have to guess whether you think it's a sub or a focus sash variant. If you think it's a sub one, then crunch for the accuracy so it doesn't get to swords dance.. If you think it has a sash, use stone edge, because it has a 100% chance of a KO, and sand stream will kill it. Roserade will almost always die to sleep talked moves, as SE and EQ will KO. Crunch unfortunately doesn't, so it will get one layer of Tspikes up. Lastly, Tyranitar is beat by EQ. Nice team, I agree that cacturne is underrated.
 

Kane Dunestorm

24 hour bump! I've been thinking lately about replacing Swampert and Gliscor with Heatran and Gyarados. Any thoughts? I think it could work, as it will round off my weaknesses and make my team more balanced.
 

azntrumpet

Infernape with HP Ice/Fire Blast/Grass Knot/Close Combat outspeeds and OHKO's everything on this team. Your only chance is to wear it down with switches or take it out with priority, but it will still kill at least one of your Pokemon and do some severe damage to the rest of your team. Other things like Sub/Petaya Empoleon, DD Gyrados, and set up bulky Waters in general give you a lot of trouble.

Your lack of general team speed, non-Ice weak Water resist, and any attack that can hit Water for SE is the main source of this so I would suggest HP Electric/Surf/Wish/Protect Vaporeon in place of Flygon who is pretty redundant with stall-breaking Gliscor and cannot counter SDLuke. I also advise replacing Surf with Roar on Swampert as there is almost nothing that Swampert would stay in on or not force out that Surf does more damage too. Roar protects you from Ninjask leads, wear down set-up Pokemon, and allows you to rack up SR damage while scouting. Lastly, in my opinion Cacture is far too frail to benefit from Drain Punch and really needs Substitute to run an evasive set to its fullest potential.
 

Kane Dunestorm

The thing is, is that Cacturne actually DOES benefit from Drain Punch according to my test results, often making him last longer than he does with the standard set. I also don't want to lose Flygon, however, I am looking to replace Gliscor. Would you recommend I replace Gliscor with perhaps Starmie instead, who could possibly counter SDLuke as well, and act as a rapidspinner too? Starmie also goes very well in tandem with Scizor and Tyranitar as teammates.
 

azntrumpet

Starmie is NOT a SD Luke counter because +2 Extremespeed OHKO's it unless you're running a really defensive spread (which can be worn dowbn by entry hazards). There really isn't anything that will replace Gliscor to fix your bulky Water weakness while not opening up holes for SD Luke unless you'd want to run the Vaporeon I suggested and Scarf your Tyranitar or Flygon (Flygon wouldn't be that great of a counter though).
 

Kane Dunestorm

What about a Bulky Dragon Dance Gyarados, like this:

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Adamant Nature
156 HP / 72 Atk / 96 Def / 184 Spe
Dragon Dance
Taunt
Waterfall
Bounce

This is a Pokemon I was considering using over Gliscor, along with lead Heatran in place of Swampert.
 

Korali

Kane, listen to me man.

Drop Drain Punch, it's not worth it. Cacturne is way too flimsy to heal up easily like that. Run the 252 Atk 252 Speed with Brick Break or Subsitute. It will be worth it in spades. Trust me.

As for your Gliscor, I suggest keeping it, or switching it to a bulky Rotom-A with Will-O-Wisp for spin blocking (even though you only have SR) and Will-o-Wisp support. He also fixes the Bulky Water weakness.

If you want a rapid spinner who can anti Lucario, I suggest the UU champ Donphan. Sandstorm beneficial, bulky enough to tank and oneshot Lucario, and has access to useful priority moves. Give him a shot if you want.
 

Kane Dunestorm

Alright, I'll try the Swords Dance/Sucker Punch/Substitute/Focus Punch set on Cacturne once more. Perhaps I might have more luck running 252 Attack/8 Defence/248 Speed EVs though?

As for the bulky Rotom-A, wouldn't Dusknoir do a better job of being bulky, despite the fact that he doesn't levitate?

Good idea with Donphan too, which Pokemon should I switch out for him?
 
george182

george182

You have a major ice weakness, 2 4x weakneses and 1 2x weakness, with only 1 resist to it, you need to solve this problem. Anyone spamming ice beams can do very well against you.

I have no immediate suggestions for this, as it would affect the whole synergy of the team and I think you may need to look into this. As taking flygon out leaves you mence and gyrados weak (scizor is trapped by the popular mence+magnezone combo). Taking gliscor out leaves you lucario and stall weak. Taking cacuturne out leves you weak to water types.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

  • ... and 1 more.
    • Top