Hello there! I've been playing the game for quite a while, but not very actively. With the introduction of Gen V, though, I decided to play on a more regular basis and came up with this team.
The decision of making a sandstorm-based team was simple - Tyranitar was one of my favourites for a while, and Gen V brought him an invaluable teammate in Excadrill, so I started my team with those two. I've aso tried utilising a Double Ground combo of heavy offense - performed by the aforementioned Excadrill and Landorus. The rest mostly came to support and cover those three.
Now, onto the team itself:
Tyranitar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 180 SAtk / 76 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Crunch
- Superpower
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
MixTar is pretty amazing this gen. It's perhaps the best lead a sandstorm team could wish for, setting up sand reliably and then OHKOing most of enemy leads. It's also useful in the later part of the match, due to his tanking capabilities and great coverage. Crunch is the obvious and ever-useful STAB move, Fire Blast effs Steels, Ice Beam is for Grounds and Dragons that are hit on switch-in. Superpower is useful all-around, especially aginst opposing Tyranitars.
The EVs makes Tyranitar both a strong mixed attacker, and rather competitive defensively.
Excadrill (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Swords Dance
This set of Excadrill is not original, obviously. Who cares about originality when it just goddamn destroys any opposition? SD isn't even obligatory most of the time - if the opponent doesn't have any priority (ab)users, he's in deep trouble. EQ is obvious hard-hitting STAB, Rock Slide and X-Scissor provide good coverage. The EVs are straightforward.
Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rock Polish
While it may seem that using both Excadrill and Landorus is somewhat redundant, they do complement each other rather well. The genie comes up with useful immunity to Ground attacks, as well as resistance to Fighting. Sand Force is a nice ability and coupled with life orb, it provides insane amounts of damage. Setting up Rock Polish is also benefitual to outrun just anything. HP Ice while not completely obvious, is for Gliscor, which otherwise walls both Drilly and Russy easily.
Reuniclus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Recover
- Calm Mind
Ah, CM Reuniclus. A very neat pokemon, really. It's bulky enough for tanking or it can simply come on a special attacker and start setting up, while recovering the damage. Psychic and Focus Blast provide great coverage (although Focus Blast accuracy is HATE). Really, if only Reuni was a bit speedier, it would be undefeatable. Alas, it is not - but it still is good for my team which lacks Special pokes.
As for item of choice I just drooled over chance of having a 30% more powerful attacks for free. Leftovers may, however, be a better item.
Empoleon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Scald
- Grass Knot
- Yawn
- Stealth Rock
It's rather hard to imagine a good team without Water pokemon, IMO. So here comes amazing Empoleon. It's a defensive-support set, designed mainly for team type coverage and stuff like SR. Yawn is invaluable as well, causing tons of switches or maybe even putting opponents to sleep. Scald can otherwise burn opponents and cripple them, and Grass Knot covers what Scald doesn't.
Virizion @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Leaf Blade
- Swords Dance
Bulky, powerful, with amazing typing and stat distribution - what else can you wish for? Virizion is the only pokemon on my team suffering from sand damage, but who cares? After a bit of set-up (or when needed, even without it) it can proceed to decimate anything and everything, being scared off only by speedy sweepers with Fire or Ice moves. Close Combat is a must on physical Virizion, and Leaf Blade is also an awesome STAB move (not to forget somewhat hax but still useful crit-ratio boost). Stone Edge is for additional coverage against Flying-types, although it's prone to miss and overall unamusing.
***
Well, this pretty much wraps this up. Constructive criticism and advice are expected.
The decision of making a sandstorm-based team was simple - Tyranitar was one of my favourites for a while, and Gen V brought him an invaluable teammate in Excadrill, so I started my team with those two. I've aso tried utilising a Double Ground combo of heavy offense - performed by the aforementioned Excadrill and Landorus. The rest mostly came to support and cover those three.
Now, onto the team itself:
Tyranitar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 180 SAtk / 76 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Crunch
- Superpower
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
MixTar is pretty amazing this gen. It's perhaps the best lead a sandstorm team could wish for, setting up sand reliably and then OHKOing most of enemy leads. It's also useful in the later part of the match, due to his tanking capabilities and great coverage. Crunch is the obvious and ever-useful STAB move, Fire Blast effs Steels, Ice Beam is for Grounds and Dragons that are hit on switch-in. Superpower is useful all-around, especially aginst opposing Tyranitars.
The EVs makes Tyranitar both a strong mixed attacker, and rather competitive defensively.
Excadrill (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Swords Dance
This set of Excadrill is not original, obviously. Who cares about originality when it just goddamn destroys any opposition? SD isn't even obligatory most of the time - if the opponent doesn't have any priority (ab)users, he's in deep trouble. EQ is obvious hard-hitting STAB, Rock Slide and X-Scissor provide good coverage. The EVs are straightforward.
Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rock Polish
While it may seem that using both Excadrill and Landorus is somewhat redundant, they do complement each other rather well. The genie comes up with useful immunity to Ground attacks, as well as resistance to Fighting. Sand Force is a nice ability and coupled with life orb, it provides insane amounts of damage. Setting up Rock Polish is also benefitual to outrun just anything. HP Ice while not completely obvious, is for Gliscor, which otherwise walls both Drilly and Russy easily.
Reuniclus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Recover
- Calm Mind
Ah, CM Reuniclus. A very neat pokemon, really. It's bulky enough for tanking or it can simply come on a special attacker and start setting up, while recovering the damage. Psychic and Focus Blast provide great coverage (although Focus Blast accuracy is HATE). Really, if only Reuni was a bit speedier, it would be undefeatable. Alas, it is not - but it still is good for my team which lacks Special pokes.
As for item of choice I just drooled over chance of having a 30% more powerful attacks for free. Leftovers may, however, be a better item.
Empoleon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Scald
- Grass Knot
- Yawn
- Stealth Rock
It's rather hard to imagine a good team without Water pokemon, IMO. So here comes amazing Empoleon. It's a defensive-support set, designed mainly for team type coverage and stuff like SR. Yawn is invaluable as well, causing tons of switches or maybe even putting opponents to sleep. Scald can otherwise burn opponents and cripple them, and Grass Knot covers what Scald doesn't.
Virizion @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Leaf Blade
- Swords Dance
Bulky, powerful, with amazing typing and stat distribution - what else can you wish for? Virizion is the only pokemon on my team suffering from sand damage, but who cares? After a bit of set-up (or when needed, even without it) it can proceed to decimate anything and everything, being scared off only by speedy sweepers with Fire or Ice moves. Close Combat is a must on physical Virizion, and Leaf Blade is also an awesome STAB move (not to forget somewhat hax but still useful crit-ratio boost). Stone Edge is for additional coverage against Flying-types, although it's prone to miss and overall unamusing.
***
Well, this pretty much wraps this up. Constructive criticism and advice are expected.
