ORAS OU My Darude Sandstorm Team!

Zaqwe51

Zaqwe51

I've trying to make my first competitive team, but when testing it out in Pokemon Showdown it hasn't gone too well. I seem to be winning about a little less than half of the battles, but I still have trouble with things like Belly Drum Azumarill or Pokemon that can quickly set up an sweep. My Pokemon always seem to be slower and its tough trying to win.



My Darude Sandstorm Team

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Larry (Tyranitar) (M) @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit

Tyranitar is my lead, and it is used to set up Sandstorm. Its very useful for tanking hits and dealing hits. Things like Scald or Power Whip usually take multiple hits to take Tyranitar out. Stealth Rock is for entry hazards, and Earthquake is for damage. Stone Edge is for Flying types and Pursuit is for Pokemon that try to switch out. The max HP lets him tank hits well and the max Attack lets him deal the hits.

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Gold (Lucario) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Tail
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed

Lucario is a great late game sweeper and it is able to set up as well. Swords Dance is great for setting up and Iron Tail is useful for Fairy Types. Close Combat does loads of damage and Extreme speed has priority so it can hit threats first. My main problem with Lucario is that it can't outspeed other Pokemon well. It's often outsped and it isn't able to get many hits off.

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Magneto (Magnezone) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch

My Magnezone is meant to be a slow special attacker, but it seems to be tank more than a damage dealer. It is either able to tank hits or it gets OHKO'd by HP Fire. It has Thunderbolt and Flash Cannon for damage, HP Ice for Dragon types, and Volt Switch to run away from opposing threats. It is able to some damage, but it seems less than the rest of my team.

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Meta (Metagross) @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Toxic
- Gyro Ball

Metagross is supposed to be a tank, but it is more easily taken out than Magnezone. It can set up screens to minimize damage, It has Toxic to take out other tanks, and it has Gyro ball for just a little bit of damage. I used to use a Mega Metagross, but it seemed to easy to take out and it was too slow to do much damage. My Metagross also seems to be prone to dying from Pokemon like Azumarill using Knock Off.
latest

Jaws (Garchomp-Mega) (M) @ Garchompite
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail

Mega Garchomp is very powerful and it is able to set up easily with Substitute + Swords Dance. Earthquake is for power, and Dragon Tail is able to get rid of Pokemon trying to set up. The only issue with it is that Dragon Tail doesn't affect Fairy Types and that it has very little diversity in its moves. It is decently fast and it is able to set up, so it is very deadly, but its defenses are rather lacking, so it is difficult to set up with.

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Extra (Excadrill) (M) @ Soft Sand
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Excadrill is the Pokemon that I usually like to send out after Tyranitar faints, because of its insane speed because of the sandstorm, and because it can get rid of traps from the enemy. It has a diverse movepool so I am able to take out lots of different types of Pokemon with it. The only downside of it is that as soon as the sandstorm stops it is very vulnerable to being outspead and defeated.



Overall, this team is decent, but it is very difficult to win matches. Any help or tips would be appreciated!
 
Hey Zaqwe51, this team definitely has potential, but it has a lot of fundamental flaws.

All teams, especially Sand builds, should have Water resists, which your team doesn't. This is mainly why your team is very weak to Belly Drum Azumarill as you stated, and also why your team seems to have a very hard time breaking bulky water types like Slowbro, Rotom-W, Suicune, Gastrodon, and Quagsire. You also don't have a Fighting resist although 4 of the 6 members of your team are weak to it, or a Ground resist although 5 of the 6 members of your team are weak to that as well. Due to you not having such necessary resists on your team, common threats in the tier such as Keldeo, Slowbro, Landorus-T, opposing Sand Rush Excadrill, and M-Lopunny are extremely hard for your team to deal with.

These issues seem to stem from you not wanting any member of your team to take Sand damage, and so you stack Rock, Ground, and Steel types together to prevent that. However, as you already know, Sand Stream isn't permanent in this Gen, so being fixated on preventing your team from taking Sand damage is working against you more than anything since Sand won't always be up. My rate will be focused on fixing these issues while also trying to improve your teams offensive and defensive synergy.

I'll start with your sand core of Tyranitar + Excadrill + M-Garchomp, since a few of your sets can be changed around a bit to improve how your team functions. You should run Ice Beam > Earthquake on Tyranitar to get rid of bulky Ground types like Landorus-T, Gliscor, and Rocky Helmet Garchomp that commonly switch into it to allow the other two members of your offensive core to have an easier time in breaking through teams. You should also run a spread of 248 HP / 80 Def / 180 SpD with a Relaxed Nature on Tyranitar to allow it to check Latios, Raikou, M-Manectric, Kyurem-B, Dragon Dance Charizard-X, Talonflame, Dragon Dance Dragonite, and Heatran much more reliably.

Onto M-Garchomp, I feel as if you're not fully utilizing its wallbreaking abilities with your current set. Dragon Tail should only be used on defensive variants, but seeing as though this is your main wallbreaker, you should run a more effective Swords Dance set. So, you should run a set of Dragon Claw / Stone Edge / Swords Dance / Earthquake on M-Garchomp. Stone Edge also gets a boost from Sand Force, and can prevent you from being countered by Togekiss, and also allow you to do massive damage to Skarmory at +2 and destroy other flying types like Mandibuzz or Zapdos that think they can take a +2 Dragon Claw or Outrage and retaliate. Stone Edge is also nice for revenging a pesky Charizard-Y that might take out Tyranitar with Focus Blast, or change weather due to Drought, as well as revenging Volcarona and SpDef Talonflame. Lastly, you should run Air Balloon > Soft Sand on Excadrill so you can get off extra damage on bulky Ground types like Garchomp, Hippowdon, Landorus-T, and Gliscor before being forced out. And to fully take advantage of the additional sand turns, you should run Swords Dance > Rapid Spin on Excadrill to heighten its already immense Attack stat and give it the ability to wallbreak.

Now it's time to fix the defensive issues that your team. As I stated before, your team doesn't have a Ground, Water, or Fighting resist, which all teams generally try to have, especially Sand teams. So, to provide you with all of them at once, you should run Celebi > Metagross. Celebi helps you deal stuff like Keldeo, Azumarill, Slowbro, M-Lopunny, Terrakion, and Rotom-W, and with Nasty Plot it can break Calm Mind users like Slowbro, Suicune, and Manaphy. With Hidden Power Fire you can still lure in and dent into Skarmory and M-Metagross, and prevent both Bisharp and Scizor from getting a free Swords Dance.

For another water resist, and a Pokemon to force out bulky Ground types and Skarmory that your team aims to weaken, you should run Keldeo > Lucario. Keldeo still checks Bisharp and Scizor like Lucario did (you should run Justified > Inner Focus on physical Lucario btw so you can get an attack boost from being hit with Dark Type moves like Knock Off or Sucker Punch), but also can act a a much needed check to M-Gyarados and Feraligatr which decimated your team, and a M-Sableye answer. Keldeo also benefits from Tyranitar's Pursuit since that gets rid of the Latis, and with Hidden Power Electric it can 2HKO Slowbro to support your sand core.

Lastly, for a new form of hazard removal, a check to Manaphy, and Fighting and Water resist and a Ground immunity, you should run Latios > Magnezone. Latios helps check bulky grass types like Amoonguss and M-Venusaur, adds more speed to your team to help you revenge kill things such as Swords Dance Garchomp and Kyurem-B, and acts as a check to Charizard-Y without having to risk your sand setter in Tyranitar. With Hidden Power Fire it also can bait in Skarmory so you can damage it greatly, and also prevent Bisharp from freely getting a Defiant boost when you Defog.

Also, on a bit of an unrelated note, Magnet Pull is Magnezone's best ability in OU since it allows it to trap and get rid of Skarmory, Scizor, and Ferrothorn with Hidden Power Fire very reliably to support its team members (usually M-Pinsir, Azumarill, M-Gyarados, or M-Altaria). Since it provides such immense team support, Magnet Pull is the sole reason why people run it in this tier. Analytic isn't as viable for it in OU as it was for it during early XY UU, but if you were to run it, Choice Specs would be a better item than Air Balloon to help heighten its damage output.

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

Garchomp @ Garchompite
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Dragon Claw

Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Electric]

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 240 HP / 152 Def / 116 Spe
Bold Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Recover

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Defog
Hope i was able to help!
 
Last edited:
Well, this team seems to be doing a lot better than my old one. I really like using Celebi mainly because of its ability to set up and heal.
Some Battles:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-342900050
This one I was able to set up Celebi against the Conkeldurr and sweep a lot of his team.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-342903289
Latios was really handy in this one.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-342911750
On this one, I technically lost, but he ended up disconnecting on the last turn. Any tips for beating a Dragon Dance Altaria?
 
Zaqwe51 said:
Well, this team seems to be doing a lot better than my old one. I really like using Celebi mainly because of its ability to set up and heal.
Some Battles:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-342900050
This one I was able to set up Celebi against the Conkeldurr and sweep a lot of his team.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-342903289
Latios was really handy in this one.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-342911750
On this one, I technically lost, but he ended up disconnecting on the last turn. Any tips for beating a Dragon Dance Altaria?
Click to expand...

From watching the battles, you seem to lead Tyranitar and try to sack it before sending anything else out. For instance, you stayed in against an Azumarill turn 1 although you had Celebi to check it, and stayed in against Weavile although you had Keldeo.

Like I said before, Sand isn't permanent this Gen, so you shouldn't stay in against Pokemon that you have the means to check. Switching is one the most essential elements of winning games since it allows you to preserve key Pokemon, keep up offensive pressure with double switches, and sack to try to help you comeback from a losing position.

But to answer your question, Excadrill is the M-Altaria check, so you generally keep Tyranitar alive so it can keep the Sand up so you can outspeed it with Sand Rush and Iron Head it. You can also pressure it with M-Garchomp's Earthquake or Tyranitar's Ice Beam to prevent it from setting up if you don't want to hard switch into Excadrill. You can also run Icy Wind over Hidden Power Electric on Keldeo if you want to prevent it from setting up on you, or to catch it on switch-in.

If you have any further questions, feel free to PM me.
 
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