(Super high effort banner by myself) (Also s/o to WreckDra for getting me interested in doing a long style RMT with this great post)
With Crown Tundra releasing within just over a week, I wanted to send off DLC 1 with an RMT of what I consider to be my best team in the tier. The name is "Enter the Dunes", as this is a sand team which has shown consistency and the ability to give results through tournaments and on ladder. I originally built this for my UPL semis match against Jaajgko. The team first showed it's ability there, winning the game in a long drawn out fashion, which it proved it doesn't have to do but can if needed. The building process is a little old, but the core 6 remained the same since I first used it, and I think this is the best way for the core to work together.
Building Process:
Going into the game against Jaajgko I knew one thing, which was that I wanted to build around a sand core. I hadn't experimented with sand post DLC 1 up to that point, so this was a good starting point. Thus, the core 2 of Excadrill and Tyranitar started it. (Click individual sprites for each set as they changed)
Originally from there, the route I was interested in taking was Gothitelle sand. Fast specs gothitelle has the ability to trap and deal massive damage if not OHKO Skarmory, Corviknight, and Quagsire, all of which can put a quick stop to a dynamax Excadrill sweep.
From there I added one of the lasting members of the team; Zacian-C. The breaking power it has is great in all circumstances, and was an addition that just fit with the team naturally. The set changed from 4 attacks to later being standard swords dance. The idea was to pressure and overwhelm checks such as Necrozma-DM and Quagsire with Excadrill for Zacian-C to late game clean, or for Zacian-C to force progress on Pokemon such as Corviknight looking to soft check it so Excadrill can clean late game.
The final two Pokemon added in this first draft of the team were Toxapex and Skarmory. This gave the team a very solid hazard core, providing the team with both toxic spikes and spikes, while also giving a knock off Pokemon in Toxapex to help Gothitelle trap targets holding a shed shell trying to take on Toxapex such as Eternatus coming in to absorb toxic spikes.
This version of the team while potent on paper, had a lot of glaring flaws. Toxapex was a mediocre at best way to deal with Dracovish since psychic fangs can 2HKO, and in rain Fishious Rend can sweep through most of the team, 2HKO'ing even physically defensive Toxapex. Kyurem-Black also looked to be an issue, since Zacian-C couldn't take hits after it had dynamaxed, and the rest of the team was helpless against it. In the first edit though, I didn't fix these problems right away, but instead targeted the issue of Zacian-C which with wild charge could easily beat this team, and against arguably the biggest threat in the whole metagame, losing to that just wouldn't make for a viable team. Toxapex was switched out for Quagsire which gave a more solid answer to Zacian, and skarmory was switched out for Corviknight, giving a more sturdy on both sides defogger rather than a physically defensive tank spiker. Here's where the Zacian set also changed to sd 3 attacks, and it remained that way. For a while I also made Excadrill life orb adamant, which even with Corviknight could have been revenged with ditto and stopped my sweeping attempts in their tracks, so this was only around for this change. Here is the full updated team up to that point.
It was at this point I realized that I didn't like the idea of this version either, mainly because of the glaring weakness to both Kyurem-Black and Dracovish/Rain in general. The Zacian problem was covered, but 2 others appeared. From there, I made a breakthrough on the team, and turned it into the final product.
This mon completely changed how I approached the team, as now I had a defogger and Excadrill check while also having a water resist. It didn't cover Dracovish, but Drednaw on rain teams was now covered close to as best as it could be, since before my water resist was clicking the x button. With that covered over Corviknight, I decided Gothitelle also had to go. The change wasn't what I wanted since the team was supposed to be Gothitelle sand, but this made it so much better than what it would have been. Eternatus replacing Gothitelle gave me actual switch-ins to Pokemon such as Dracovish, Marshadow, and Urshifu without relying heavily on sacking and hard reads. The team until a few hours before the game looked like this.
Before I went through with the team, the point of Kyurem-Black still just clicking buttons and winning was apparent. The final change to fix this was put in, changing Quagsire to Necrozma-DM. This gave a Kyurem-Black check with thunder wave paired with Zacian-C, as well as keeping the opposing Zacian check on the team. The final team going into it looked like this, and only a few minor changes to spreads were made, which will be talked about in the analysis. Excadrill returned to being air balloon jolly, assisting in the opposing sand MU more.
The Team:
Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Shadow Claw
Excadrill is the main sweeper on this team, and a major piece of success for it. Swords dance lets it run through teams that are weakened, especially if they have already used their dynamax and can't respond defensively to Excadrill. Rock slide sets sandstorm with max rockfall, letting it have a solid few turns where it's self sufficient in setting sand and sweeping all in one. Earthquake for standard STAB, hitting a lot of relevant Pokemon for Super Effective damage since a lot of the tier's staples like Necrozma-DM, Eternatus, and Zacian-C are all weak to it. Shadow claw was chosen as a great way to OHKO Lunala, as well as dropping the defense stats of it's targets, letting Excadrill break through Pokemon like Rotom-wash, Corviknight, Skarmory, and Quagsire easier. Air balloon helps it beat opposing ditto looking to copy, as well as opposing life orb excadrill while both are in sand.
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Pain Split
Rotom-Wash acted as the necessary defogger and opposing Excadrill sand check. It has a standard moveset of defog for hazard control, hydro pump for STAB damage as well as hitting things like Quagsire, Necrozma-DM, Excadrill, and others hard while also being able to set up rain if needed against opposing Excadrill for Zacian-C to revenge them outside of sand. Volt switch is great momentum, pivoting on almost everything due to the lack of ground types in the tier, and finally pain split for much needed recovery as well as chipping targets with large HP stats like Blissey since Rotom has a comparably terrible HP.
Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Def / 200 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Crunch
- Rest
Tyranitar is necessary on sand teams which don't have any other way to block special attacks, which is why it is generally preferred over hippowdon since it can compress those roles while having utility itself. The spread allows it to survive a jolly +1 max wyrmwind from Dragauplt without dynamaxing itself in return, letting it fire off a thunder wave or crunch while preserving dynamax for later. This was chosen as the rocks setter since Necrozma typically prefers it's 2 attack 2 support moveset. Thunder wave slows down everything, really helping especially in the Volcarona MU as well as catching opposing physical attackers like Zacian and Marshadow trying to switch in on a crunch. Crunch is there for STAB, and hitting a ton of Pokemon Tyranitar wants to check such as Lunala, Mewtwo, and Volcarona for not insignificant damage. Rest is a great utility option in the last slot imo, as it can heal off all damage done to Tyranitar over a long game which might be taking repeated hits from Pokemon like Eternatus and getting statused by things like Eternatus and Blissey.
Zacian-Crowned @ Rusted Sword
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Wild Charge
- Behemoth Blade
Zacian-Crowned needs no introduction really, as it's the most threatening breaker in the tier. Even checks like Necrozma-DM can lose 1v1 if played right and depending on their set, so it obviously pulls it's weight. SD lets it steamroll teams late game with it's good coverage options. Wild charge being standard hitting stuff like Toxapex, Pelipper, Corviknight, and Skarmory. Behemoth blade last can get a ton of kills as a strong STAB move such as Gmax-Drednaw outside of rain, Eternatus after an SD, etc. Forms a physical spam core with Excadrill, and has proven it's perfect for this team.
Necrozma-Dusk-Mane @ Leftovers
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Sunsteel Strike
- Earthquake
- Moonlight
Necrozma-DM really holds down the team defensively. It is a good blanket check to the meta's strongest threats, mainly Zacian-C, Kyurem-B, Zekrom, among others. Thunder wave from this thing is a nuisance, statusing everything and slowing them down to be taken advantage of by Pokemon which are normally slower like the defensive Eternatus here outspeeding paralysed offensive ones late game. Sunsteel strike is standard STAB, hitting Blissey, Kyurem-Black and White, and others very hard. Earthquake does well against opposing Necrozma, Zacian-C, and unboosted Excadrill, overall being a super strong coverage option. Moonlight paired with sand is unsynergetic by nature, but still works as a passible enough recovery. It heals the normal 50% outside of sand, and with leftovers still heals 31% if used in sand, upping that to almost 38% if it comes in on a status move, gets leftovers, moonlights on a forced switch, then gets more leftovers.
Eternatus @ Shed Shell
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dynamax Cannon
- Flamethrower
- Recover
- Toxic Spikes / Toxic
Eternatus is an incredibly solid option for covering a lot of physical attackers that would normally threaten everything else on the team like Marshadow, Urshifu, and Dracovish. While Necrozma protects against the most powerful threats in the meta, Eternatus covers the rest of them by itself most of the time. Timid nature with 16 speed lets it outrun max speed base 100's, then the rest was put into near max hp then near max defense. Dynamax cannon is super powerful, only lacking in how much PP it has. Flamethrower is standard coverage, hitting all the steels strong and having the possibly deadly burn chance that comes with flamethrower. Recover lets it outstall a lot of moves being thrown at it, especially since a lot of strong moves on the physical side like behemoth blade, poltergeist, and wicked blow all have 8 PP, cut down to 4 with pressure. Toxic spikes was used for most of my time, but toxic could also be an option to pressure boots wearing Pokemon and Mandibuzz who flies over the tspikes and defogs them.
Enter the Dunes - Paste
Threatlist:
The threatlist is fairly small from what I've seen, since the team compliments it's members really well with how they synergize. Blue will be for minor threats, and orange will be for medium threats. I don't think the team has insane threats that pressure it aside from some Pokemon that require prediction on every turn to succeed and hit the right coverage to break their checks.
Necrozma-DM - Minor threat, but the threat still exists. Defensive DD or normal DD can give Rotom-Wash a hard time, but through the combination of para spam, sand excadrill, and Zacian to outspeed offensive variants paralyzed or not boosted enough it's very manageable.
Venusaur - Another minor threat, but it's a sun sweeper than can pressure Tyranitar with it's grass STAB unlike Charizard who relies on prediction with focus blast and it's dmax variation. Not being quad weak to rock is also a plus over Charizard against this team, but as soon as it's out of sun it can be easily revenged by Zacian, heavily weakened by Eternatus, and taken on by Excadrill since it can float above the earth power with air balloon and weather ball will become a rock type move in sand which does very little.
Dugtrio - An uncommon pick, but still something that warrants discussion for the team. Zacian when weakened gets trapped and removed by it, getting rid of one of the offensive backbones. Tyranitar can also be trapped, although it can be dynamaxed to OHKO non dynamaxed dugtrio if needed. These two Pokemon are fairly important to the team, so as a revenge killer Dugtrio is an annoyance for the team, but can be dealt with through the rest of the Pokemon.
0 Atk Tyranitar Max Darkness vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Dugtrio: 310-366 (146.9 - 173.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Excadrill + Mold Breaker - One of the issues with relying on Rotom-Wash as the ground check is this specific scenario, where mold breaker Excadrill can actually pose a big threat to the team. It's luckily extremely uncommon as sand sweeper ones are almost always better, and if it's mold breaker they're likely a lead variant and not choice scarf which can be beat by losing some health on Eternatus as a counter-lead.
Peaks/Replays:
It was linked higher up in the post, but this game was the one I made the team for, and the one that brought this whole idea into my head. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ubers-514989
Edit: As promised, more tournament replays I recently got
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ubers-522782 - Ubers Live Semis Vs. Soulwind
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ubers-522790 - Ubers Live Finals Vs. Skysolo
I also decided to ladder with the team to test it's consistency, and was able to get a great 40-2 record and hit #8 on ladder, only losing once to some bad para luck and once to just a set I didn't see coming and misplayed against. Probably could have pushed further also but ladder becomes hard to search on for consistent games and with DLC coming fast, I decided that this peak was worth enough for ladder play. I also have pushed my main account from around 1600 up to 1700 consistently with the team, so it works well regularly.
Conclusion:
As a metagame, I personally loved the Ilse of Armor DLC in Ubers. I think a few threats, mainly Kyurem-Black and possibly Excadrill were a bit too much for the tier, but it'll be changing immensely very soon with all the legends returning and dynamax being tested as a whole. This short meta was probably the most fun I've had in one, and I wish it could stay around a bit longer, but the tier changes, and we have to adapt. I just wanted to send it off with the best I got, and if DLC 2 can match the enjoyment from this one, I look forward to playing much more SS Ubers.
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