Earthsunder
This is my first Gen 5 RMT. Enjoy.
At a glance:
Summary:
If I had to sum this team up as succinctly as possible, I would probably describe it as bulky sandstorm offense. It's built around sandstorm and entry hazards racking up damage while my pokemon put dents in things until the entire enemy team is damaged enough for excadrill's or even latios's checks are gone and one of them can finish them can finish the rest of the opposing team off. All of my pokemon can hit pretty hard and take a hit as well, although latios and excadrill are more offensively biased than the others.
Typing:
Redundant weaknesses like the 3x weakness to water are generally offset by a slew of redundant resistances to said type so I don't hinge on a single pokemon to protect me from them. There is not a single type that my team has more weak pokemon than resistant pokemon for. In general, the team has strong defensive typing and certainly offers more resistances than weaknesses.
A closer look:
Changes are in red.
Sirocco (Female)
Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs:252 HP / 176 SpA / 80 SpD
Nature: Sassy (+SpA / -Spe)
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Slide
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
Tyranitar serves as one of the two possible bases for any sandstorm team, the other being hippowdon. Tyranitar features higher base stats than hippowdon, gets the special defense boost brought in by sandstorm due to its being a rock type and gives my team greater type diversity given that I already have two ground types on my team. It also has powerful mixed stats that allow me to run moves like fire blast and ice beam to take care of a wide variety of Pokemon.
As a lead, tyranitar introduces sandstorm to the field with near certainty seeing as only the rarely seen abomasnow is slower than it. This means that even if the possibility of a politoed focus blasting or hydro pumping me forces me to immediately switch out, I still get sandstorm down as a boon for the rest of my team. It also puts down SR to rack up entry hazard damage. Quiet nature allows the majority of its offensive moves to hit harder and only hampers its fairly useless speed stat. Leftovers give it more staying power coupled with its high defenses in sandstorm. I'm fairly uncertain about the choice to give it pursuit or crunch. On one hand, crunch hits way harder and allows me to actually threaten the bulkier psychic types. On the flip side, pursuit is an absolute nightmare for frailer ghosts and psychics. As far as the name goes, the Sirocco is a dry, dust-bearing Mediterranean wind.
Psynergy:
Fighting: Gliscor, latios on special hits, rotom can usually handle physical ones
Ground: Gliscor, latios, rotom, excadrill can set up on these if it still has its balloon.
Bug:Gliscor, ferrothorn can handle most physical hits.
Steel: Rotom and ferrothorn.
Water: Ferrothorn, rotom, latios on special attacks.
Grass: Ferrothorn, latios on special attacks.
??? (???)
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD
Nature: Relaxed (+Def / -Spe)
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
Ferrothorn has secured a niche in the current metagame as an extremely sturdy pokemon with strong, unique defensive typing that serves as a nightmare for the bulk of physical pokemon without fire or fighting moves to take advantage of its weaknesses. Leftovers and leech seed make up for its lack of straightforward recovery moves. Spikes gives me a second entry hazard to help rack up damage alongside what sandstorm and iron barbs do. Gyro ball and power whip give me some STAB offensive options to take advantage of its acceptable attack stat. Power whip is especially nice because it is the only grass type offensive move on my team.
Ferrothorn fits into my team because it is one of the few grass types that enjoys being in sandstorm. Grass is a good typing for such teams because it doesn't mind being hit by the water and grass type attacks that plague rock and ground type pokemon. I'm definitely open to suggestions on the moveset as Ferrothorn can run a lot of viable sets and I'm not entirely sure which would most benefit this team. This set seems to work alright, though. I also absolutely need suggestions on its name as this is one of the last pokemon that I haven't bred in the DS version of my team.
Psynergy:
Fighting: Gliscor, latios can shrug off most special hits, rotom can burn physical attackers lacking guts and pain split to recover.
Fire: Rotom, tyranitar, latios can deal with special hits.
Kamina (Male)
Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant (+Atk / -SpA)
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Return
Excadrill is a fearsome threat because of its ludicrously high attack and speed in a sandstorm after a swords dance. It is a vital component to my team as it adds a horrifying sweeper than can utterly annihilate opposing teams after its checks are removed while still not being a complete glass cannon. It is one of the few pokemon that fills this role so well since garchomp, a fierce competitor, is now banned. The set is pretty standard. Swords dance pumps up its already high attack stat. EQ gives me a potent STAB move with good coverage while rock slide hits the flying types that EQ can't touch.
There are a couple of things that I'm not entirely sure about as far as my excadrill goes. First, I ran an air balloon for the sake of allowing it to avoid a fatal earthquake from any number of opposing pokemon, including gliscor and countless others. I'm contemplating replacing it with life orb though, just for the sake of a little extra power. I can't say for certain what extra OHKOs/2HKOs that would give me, though. Thoughts? I'm also not certain if I should run x-scissor or return. X-scissor is attractive because it gives coverage on things like celebi, latias and latios among other things, all of which are common and quite sturdy. On the other hand, return is just a strong, reliable move in general to hit for neutral damage. It's named after Kamina, a character in the anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann who can be quoted as saying "Mine is the drill that will pierce the heavens!"
Psynergy:
Fighting: Gliscor, latios can shrug off most special hits. Rotom can burn physical attackers without guts.
Ground: Gliscor, rotom, latios, excadrill can set up on these if it still has its balloon.
Fire: Rotom, tyranitar, latios can take most special hits.
Water: Rotom, ferrothorn, latios can deal with special water attacks.
Marceline (Female)
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 176 Def / 88 Spe
Nature: Impish (+Def / -SpA)
- Swords Dance
- Taunt
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
Gliscor is another strong defensive pokemon with a fairly unique typing that works well in sandstorm. The set is pretty standard. With SD, it can also serve as a powerful sweeper. Earthquake gives me a strong STAB with good coverage and ice fang handles opposing gliscor, dragons and other pokemon weak to ice. Poison heal coupled with toxic orb heals me for great amounts and renders me immune to status after the first turn, while sandstorm does nothing to me and whittles down the health of any opposing pokemon. Taunt lets me stop pokemon from setting up or healing and stops baton pass chains in their tracks. Flying type gives me a nice earthquake immunity which allows gliscor to check excadrills that aren't running an air balloon with great ease. She's named after Marceline, the vampire queen, a character from Adventure Time.
Psynergy:
Water: Ferrothorn, rotom, latios can take most special hits.
Ice: Rotom, tyranitar can take most special hits due to sandstorm boosting his special defense.
Party Pat (Sexless)
Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Nature: Bold (+Def / -Atk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
Rotom-W is very common these days and for good reason. While it doesn't have the sandstorm immunity of the majority of my team, rotom adds vital resistances to ice, water and fire type moves while also having an immunity to ground type attacks that leaves it with only a grass weakness. The EV build capitalizes on rotom's sturdy defenses while also allowing it to hit very hard with its twin stab moves that offer a lot of coverage for my team. Will-o-wisp is the bane of physical attackers lacking guts and pain split gives it a ton of staying power while also dropping its victims to very low amounts of health.
The main point of Rotom-W is that it covers a lot of types that many of my pokemon are weak to while also being a strong, reliable pokemon seen in a variety of teams. I'm open to suggestions, but this is a pretty standard set on a key pokemon for my team. He's named after Party Pat, a partying, dancing bear from adventure time. I couldn't resist after seeing rotom-w's dancing BW sprite.
Psynergy:
Grass: Ferrothorn, latios can shrug off most special hits.
Sin (Male)
Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs:4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid (+Spe / -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Hidden Power Fire
- Recover
What's a team without a dragon type? While not possessing immunity to sandstorm damage, latios adds a fearsome special sweeper with more useful resistances. Latios isn't as much of a tank as his sister, but it has pretty decent special bulk and isn't going to go down easily to an unboosted, resisted physical attack from most pokemon either. Fighting, fire, water, grass and ground are all types that other pokemon on my team are weak to and latios can take them easily enough, especially using recover to keep himself up.
Dragon pulse gives me a strong STAB attack vs other dragons and is only resisted by steel types and the like. Surf and HP fire offer coverage that's fairly uncommon on the rest of my team and allow latios to take care of a variety of threats with its diverse coverage. Timid makes him incredibly swift and the life orb adds some more kick to his already potent attacks. He can recover off its damage too, to some extent. I'm open to suggestions, though. He's named Sin because I hacked him in the DS version of this team because HPs on legendaries are a PITA.
Psynergy:
Bug: Gliscor. Ferrothorn can take most physical hits.
Ghost: Ferrothorn or tyranitar
Dragon: Ferrothorn, gliscor can take most physical hits and attack with ice fang.
Dark: Ferrothorn or tyranitar.
In Conclusion:
Yeah, sandstorm teams are all the rage. Thanks in advance for viewing and rating this.
This is my first Gen 5 RMT. Enjoy.
At a glance:
Summary:
If I had to sum this team up as succinctly as possible, I would probably describe it as bulky sandstorm offense. It's built around sandstorm and entry hazards racking up damage while my pokemon put dents in things until the entire enemy team is damaged enough for excadrill's or even latios's checks are gone and one of them can finish them can finish the rest of the opposing team off. All of my pokemon can hit pretty hard and take a hit as well, although latios and excadrill are more offensively biased than the others.
Typing:
Redundant weaknesses like the 3x weakness to water are generally offset by a slew of redundant resistances to said type so I don't hinge on a single pokemon to protect me from them. There is not a single type that my team has more weak pokemon than resistant pokemon for. In general, the team has strong defensive typing and certainly offers more resistances than weaknesses.
A closer look:
Changes are in red.
Sirocco (Female)
Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs:252 HP / 176 SpA / 80 SpD
Nature: Sassy (+SpA / -Spe)
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Slide
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
Tyranitar serves as one of the two possible bases for any sandstorm team, the other being hippowdon. Tyranitar features higher base stats than hippowdon, gets the special defense boost brought in by sandstorm due to its being a rock type and gives my team greater type diversity given that I already have two ground types on my team. It also has powerful mixed stats that allow me to run moves like fire blast and ice beam to take care of a wide variety of Pokemon.
As a lead, tyranitar introduces sandstorm to the field with near certainty seeing as only the rarely seen abomasnow is slower than it. This means that even if the possibility of a politoed focus blasting or hydro pumping me forces me to immediately switch out, I still get sandstorm down as a boon for the rest of my team. It also puts down SR to rack up entry hazard damage. Quiet nature allows the majority of its offensive moves to hit harder and only hampers its fairly useless speed stat. Leftovers give it more staying power coupled with its high defenses in sandstorm. I'm fairly uncertain about the choice to give it pursuit or crunch. On one hand, crunch hits way harder and allows me to actually threaten the bulkier psychic types. On the flip side, pursuit is an absolute nightmare for frailer ghosts and psychics. As far as the name goes, the Sirocco is a dry, dust-bearing Mediterranean wind.
Psynergy:
Fighting: Gliscor, latios on special hits, rotom can usually handle physical ones
Ground: Gliscor, latios, rotom, excadrill can set up on these if it still has its balloon.
Bug:Gliscor, ferrothorn can handle most physical hits.
Steel: Rotom and ferrothorn.
Water: Ferrothorn, rotom, latios on special attacks.
Grass: Ferrothorn, latios on special attacks.
??? (???)
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD
Nature: Relaxed (+Def / -Spe)
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
Ferrothorn has secured a niche in the current metagame as an extremely sturdy pokemon with strong, unique defensive typing that serves as a nightmare for the bulk of physical pokemon without fire or fighting moves to take advantage of its weaknesses. Leftovers and leech seed make up for its lack of straightforward recovery moves. Spikes gives me a second entry hazard to help rack up damage alongside what sandstorm and iron barbs do. Gyro ball and power whip give me some STAB offensive options to take advantage of its acceptable attack stat. Power whip is especially nice because it is the only grass type offensive move on my team.
Ferrothorn fits into my team because it is one of the few grass types that enjoys being in sandstorm. Grass is a good typing for such teams because it doesn't mind being hit by the water and grass type attacks that plague rock and ground type pokemon. I'm definitely open to suggestions on the moveset as Ferrothorn can run a lot of viable sets and I'm not entirely sure which would most benefit this team. This set seems to work alright, though. I also absolutely need suggestions on its name as this is one of the last pokemon that I haven't bred in the DS version of my team.
Psynergy:
Fighting: Gliscor, latios can shrug off most special hits, rotom can burn physical attackers lacking guts and pain split to recover.
Fire: Rotom, tyranitar, latios can deal with special hits.
Kamina (Male)
Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant (+Atk / -SpA)
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Return
Excadrill is a fearsome threat because of its ludicrously high attack and speed in a sandstorm after a swords dance. It is a vital component to my team as it adds a horrifying sweeper than can utterly annihilate opposing teams after its checks are removed while still not being a complete glass cannon. It is one of the few pokemon that fills this role so well since garchomp, a fierce competitor, is now banned. The set is pretty standard. Swords dance pumps up its already high attack stat. EQ gives me a potent STAB move with good coverage while rock slide hits the flying types that EQ can't touch.
There are a couple of things that I'm not entirely sure about as far as my excadrill goes. First, I ran an air balloon for the sake of allowing it to avoid a fatal earthquake from any number of opposing pokemon, including gliscor and countless others. I'm contemplating replacing it with life orb though, just for the sake of a little extra power. I can't say for certain what extra OHKOs/2HKOs that would give me, though. Thoughts? I'm also not certain if I should run x-scissor or return. X-scissor is attractive because it gives coverage on things like celebi, latias and latios among other things, all of which are common and quite sturdy. On the other hand, return is just a strong, reliable move in general to hit for neutral damage. It's named after Kamina, a character in the anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann who can be quoted as saying "Mine is the drill that will pierce the heavens!"
Psynergy:
Fighting: Gliscor, latios can shrug off most special hits. Rotom can burn physical attackers without guts.
Ground: Gliscor, rotom, latios, excadrill can set up on these if it still has its balloon.
Fire: Rotom, tyranitar, latios can take most special hits.
Water: Rotom, ferrothorn, latios can deal with special water attacks.
Marceline (Female)
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 176 Def / 88 Spe
Nature: Impish (+Def / -SpA)
- Swords Dance
- Taunt
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
Gliscor is another strong defensive pokemon with a fairly unique typing that works well in sandstorm. The set is pretty standard. With SD, it can also serve as a powerful sweeper. Earthquake gives me a strong STAB with good coverage and ice fang handles opposing gliscor, dragons and other pokemon weak to ice. Poison heal coupled with toxic orb heals me for great amounts and renders me immune to status after the first turn, while sandstorm does nothing to me and whittles down the health of any opposing pokemon. Taunt lets me stop pokemon from setting up or healing and stops baton pass chains in their tracks. Flying type gives me a nice earthquake immunity which allows gliscor to check excadrills that aren't running an air balloon with great ease. She's named after Marceline, the vampire queen, a character from Adventure Time.
Psynergy:
Water: Ferrothorn, rotom, latios can take most special hits.
Ice: Rotom, tyranitar can take most special hits due to sandstorm boosting his special defense.
Party Pat (Sexless)
Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Nature: Bold (+Def / -Atk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
Rotom-W is very common these days and for good reason. While it doesn't have the sandstorm immunity of the majority of my team, rotom adds vital resistances to ice, water and fire type moves while also having an immunity to ground type attacks that leaves it with only a grass weakness. The EV build capitalizes on rotom's sturdy defenses while also allowing it to hit very hard with its twin stab moves that offer a lot of coverage for my team. Will-o-wisp is the bane of physical attackers lacking guts and pain split gives it a ton of staying power while also dropping its victims to very low amounts of health.
The main point of Rotom-W is that it covers a lot of types that many of my pokemon are weak to while also being a strong, reliable pokemon seen in a variety of teams. I'm open to suggestions, but this is a pretty standard set on a key pokemon for my team. He's named after Party Pat, a partying, dancing bear from adventure time. I couldn't resist after seeing rotom-w's dancing BW sprite.
Psynergy:
Grass: Ferrothorn, latios can shrug off most special hits.
Sin (Male)
Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs:4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid (+Spe / -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Hidden Power Fire
- Recover
What's a team without a dragon type? While not possessing immunity to sandstorm damage, latios adds a fearsome special sweeper with more useful resistances. Latios isn't as much of a tank as his sister, but it has pretty decent special bulk and isn't going to go down easily to an unboosted, resisted physical attack from most pokemon either. Fighting, fire, water, grass and ground are all types that other pokemon on my team are weak to and latios can take them easily enough, especially using recover to keep himself up.
Dragon pulse gives me a strong STAB attack vs other dragons and is only resisted by steel types and the like. Surf and HP fire offer coverage that's fairly uncommon on the rest of my team and allow latios to take care of a variety of threats with its diverse coverage. Timid makes him incredibly swift and the life orb adds some more kick to his already potent attacks. He can recover off its damage too, to some extent. I'm open to suggestions, though. He's named Sin because I hacked him in the DS version of this team because HPs on legendaries are a PITA.
Psynergy:
Bug: Gliscor. Ferrothorn can take most physical hits.
Ghost: Ferrothorn or tyranitar
Dragon: Ferrothorn, gliscor can take most physical hits and attack with ice fang.
Dark: Ferrothorn or tyranitar.
In Conclusion:
Yeah, sandstorm teams are all the rage. Thanks in advance for viewing and rating this.
