My First RMT, a sandstorm team

[Jojobobo]

Aerodactyl (lead) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4HP 252 Atk 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Stealth Rock
Taunt
Earthquake
Rockslide

Aerodactyl is your standard suicide lead. I’ll use him to try and prevent the opponent getting out his stealth rock with taunt, get out my own SR, and then do as much damage as possible. If he manages to survive long I can use taunt to mess with Blissey or anything else that wants to inflict status effects. I want to abuse hazards which is why I need Aerodactyl as the fastest stealth rocker out there.

Tyranitar @ Life Orb
Ability: Sandstream
EVs: 4 HP 252 Atk 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant
Dragon Dance
Stone Edge
Crunch
Earthquake

Tyranitar is my physical sweeper. I’ll try and swap him in against a Gengar or other ghost or psychic pokemon, use dragon dance, and then sweep as best as I can. After a dragon dance he should be able to out speed a lot of unboosted neutral speed pokemon, making him a good counter for MixMence, Infernape, Gengar, Lucario and Metagross amongst others. He also sets up that all important sand storm.

Dusknoir @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP 28 Atk 228 Def
Nature: Impish
Will-O-Wisp
Pain Split
ThunderPunch
Fire Punch

Dusknoir is my spin blocker and mixed wall. He should be able to deal with the likes of Starmie, Forretress and Tentacruel who are the most common rapid spinners. On top of that I’ll use him to burn sweepers thereby stopping them in their tracks, most notably Scizor who this team will suffer from. He will deal well with some bulky waters due to thunder punch and pain split, taking into account their high hp and his low hp.

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP 64 Atk 176 Def 16 Spe
Nature: Impish
Brave Bird
Roost
Spikes
Whirlwind

Skarmory is my physical wall, spiker and phazer. I’ll try to get it out as early on in the battle as possible to set up spikes. I’ll use it to combat grass, fighting and bug types; notably Heracross. Also if I see a Scizor I’ll swap in and use it to get out as many spikes as possible. On a side note would putting EVs into special defence be beneficial? Most of my pokemon can take special hits and as Skarmory is one of my only phazers I thought it might help his survivability.

Lucario @ Choice Specs
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 4HP 252 SpA 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
Aura Sphere
Shadow Ball
Vacuum Wave
Dragon Pulse / Ice Punch

Lucario is my special sweeper. I’ll use him to take out opposing Tyranitar, as well as Weavile and anything else susceptible to his attacks. Vacuum wave is there for revenge skills. For the last attack as Lucario is timid and has good speed investment he should be able to outspeed neutral speed nature low speed investment Flygons and Salamences - which quite a few of the mixed varieties are - but which attack would be better for this? Dragon pulse runs off his special attack but I thought ice punch might do more damage as most dragons carry a x4 weakness to it and besides it wouldn’t be suspected on a Choice Specs Lucario. For more arguments for each dragon pulse lets me get at Kingdra whereas ice punch wouldn’t, but I would have to change Lucario’s nature to Hasty or Naïve if I take ice punch making him less defensive. Suggestions?

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 188 HP 252 Def 68 Spe
Nature: Bold
Wish
Protect
Surf
Yawn

Vaporeon gives me wish support allowing to swap to and heal pokemon that are suffering, notably Tyranitar. It also provides an excellent counter for Heatran, Swampert and any other fire, ground or rock type that get in its way. Yawn allows it to phaze for more damage from my entry hazards, and protect lets it absorb explosions.

Criticism is appreciated, if I’ve missed any obvious counters to my team can you point them out. Thanks in advance.

 

[danmantincan]

NastyPlot Infernape can deal serious damage to your team after a NP. I outspeeds your entire team (excluding Aerodactyl which would be dead by the time it comes in). You may want to switch Lucario into a mixed or SD set with ExtremeSpeed, this would allow you to pick off Infernape (assuming it isn't carrying Vacuum Wave) after Stealth Rock, Life Orb and Sandstorm have done some damage.

 

[Jojobobo]

Wouldn't Vaporeon be a good counter unless it's packing grass knot? Why what EV spread would be good on a mixed Lucario? I'm fairly new to this so I'm not sure what balance between SpA and Atk EVs I'd need to make it work.

Would this be better:

Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 64 Atk 192 SpA 252 Spe
Nature: Hasty
Aura Sphere
Shadow Ball
Extreme Speed
Ice Punch

Are you not allowed 2 Life Orbs on one team? I just thought I'd heard that before, and I guess I'd have to think about Tyranitar if that was true.

 

[danmantincan]

Unless you are playing with Item Clause (which is uncommon) you can have as many Life Orbs on your team as you want.
Vaporeon is OHKOd if Infernape has Focus Blast (though it has rather low accuracy) and was able to get a Nasty Plot.

That EV spread on Lucario can work. You can lower his Speed EVS to 224 which allows you to outrun (non-scarfed) max speed base 86s and put the rest into SpAtt or leave them in speed if you are worried about other base 90s.
Use Dark Pulse/Aura Sphere/Extreme Speed/Close Combat as your moveset. Dark and Fighting give unresisted coverage, I think, Extreme Speed is for a priority move and Close Combat will give you a OHKO on Blissey's that aren't 252 HP/252 Def and Bold, who would wall this set otherwise.

I just noticed that you have Timid (+Spd/-Att) as your Dusknoir's nature, which only hinders it. I would recommend running Impish (+Def/-SpAtt), Adamant (+Att/-SpAtt), or Careful (+SpDef/-SpAtt).

 

[Jojobobo]

Yeah sorry I meant to put Impish, I posted my thread this morning with Dusknoir having an Impish nature but it got deleted due to poor format! I've editted it now anyway.

As in regards to Lucario, is ice punch really not a good option instead of close combat? I wanted the speed EVs to outspeed neutral nature low EV speed investment Flygons and Salamences and counter them with ice punch, as I didn't think I really had too many efficient counters for them otherwise. Would it be better to have close combat instead of ice punch? Apart from that I agree with swapping shadow ball as it doesn't effect normal pokemon like dark pulse does.

Thanks everyone for your coments so far too, I guess I tried to cover types with my team but I'm not really aware of all the specific variations on pokemon like nasty plot Infernape, keep the criticism coming.

 

[Jojobobo]

Bump.