My First Team - UU Sand Stall

HiImGrey

So, I like stalling, and Sandstorm inflicts damage + gives Sp. Def boosts, so why not? UU because I think it's easier to stall with Sandstorm in UU, although I don't get Hippodown.


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Hippopotas (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Yawn
- Earthquake

Set-up Stealth Rock then probably dies. If it doesn't die, I either Toxic or Earthquake if it'll do major damage. I've never ever used Yawn (partly because Hippopotas doesn't survive very long), but I don't know what to put in its place, maybe Protect to buy another turn + scout. If opposing lead can Taunt, I either Earthquake if they can get hit by it, or switch out if they are immune. Against Ambipom I switch out when they Fake-out to preserve Focus Sash.


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Cradily (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Suction Cups
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Confuse Ray
- Toxic
- Recover
- Rock Slide

Cradily takes hit deceptively well, as many times people switch in an attacker only to have it poisoned on the switch-in and then see their attacks do only 20%-40% with even super effective hits, then they lose to Recover + poison damage. It's also here soak up Leech Seed, and for some reason some people think this is a Bug type and Leech Seed anyway. Confuse Ray is stall plus damage all in one slot, and is chosen over Seed Bomb because Cradily often switches into Grass types.


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Shuckle (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Gluttony
EVs: 248 HP/252 Def/8 SDef
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Toxic
- Protect
- Rest
- Knock Off

Shuckle is an insane wall, shrugging off any attacks not named Seismic Toss or Nightshade. Shuckle can Toxic a good part of the opposing team as they switch in answer after answer without any of them working. Knock Off gets rid of opposing Leftovers and gives me something to do in between Protects.

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Milotic (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 4 HP/252 Def/252 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Recover
- Light Screen

Switch-in for opposing water attacks. At first I had Quagsire in this slot because of Water Absorb, but the Ground type was kind of useless as nobody would ever Thunderbolt me in the first place for me to negate the damage, and Quagsire was weak on SDef so my team was getting killed by special sweepers. I then tried Slowking but I still took decent damage if I switched into Waterfall, and its Psychic type gave it more weaknesses. Milotic takes Waterfall much better, and its only weaknesses are covered by my team. Light Screen ensures my team lives for the next little while since my team has Def pretty well covered.


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Altaria (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Def/252 SDef
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Roar
- Aerial Ace
- Heal Bell
- Roost

Roar to phaze and to make use for Stealth Rock. It also has excellent resistances to cover for the rest of my team, and also counters Blaziken with Aerial Ace. Heal Bell gets rid of Shuckle's sleep from Rest and other status from opposing Toxic and random paralysis form Thunderbolts. I chose Roost over Rest because the switch out after Rest was much too slow, and removing Altaria's flying type is pretty useful.


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Steelix (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 HP/4 Atk/252 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Roar
- Protect
- Explosion

A second Phazer because my team loses to pretty much anything with Sword Dance or Nasty Plot that is not stopped. Explosion is to kill any problem Pokemon such as Clefable. If my opponent isn't running anything threatening I probably don't even need to switch this in. I want to try Regirock over this because it gets a SDef boost from Sandstorm, but Regirock has not Roar , or Donphan because of Rapid Spin, but Donphan doesn't take hits as well.

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I want to include a Ghost-type to negate Rapid Spin, and something with Rapid Spin to remove Stealth Rock for Shuckle and Altaria, as well as the lesser used Toxic Spikes, but I don't know what to take out. I also got killed pretty hard by Rain Dance because Hippopotas eventually dies and Milotic only lasts so long, and I don't see anyway to make up for it without losing some stuff in other match-ups.

Thanks for reading!
 
The team needs more entry hazards. Phazing isn't that helpful if you're only racking up SR damage. Add who better to lay down Spikes under sand than Cacturne? Since you can't use it in the lead spot, I'd suggest a Choice Scarf variant that can quickly lay down Spikes and return for revenge kills later.

Cacturne @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Veil
Nature: Timid
EV's: 4 Hp/ 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
-Spikes
-Dark Pulse
-Focus Blast
-Destiny Bond

This particular set can come in and serve several functions. Get two or three layers of Spikes early on while dodging moves with Sand Veil, come back for a revenge kill with an unexpectedly fast Dark Pulse/Focus Blast, and maybe snag a free kill with a 343 Speed Destiny Bond.

Also, it's silly to use a defensive phazer who needs investment in SDef to function when you get a free boost from the weather. Rhyperior can be a real pain to take down even from the Special side when sand is combined with it's excellent ability, Solid Rock. It can easily take a hit and Roar away threats. While lacking explosion, it has enough raw attack power and fearsome STABs to remove defensive threats like Clefable with one or two hits. The Sandstorm Special Tank set on Smogon should do fine, but you can adjust the moves to take on certain threats.
 
Reply

It's a reasonable team you've got there.
I second the cacturne, you really need him.
You said that you were worried about night shade and seismic toss,
I advise putting in chansey as it will take those if they're scratches.
Here's my fav moveset:

Chansey
Natural cure
Leftovers
Calm nature
252def/252spd/4spe
-Aromatherapy
-Thunder wave
-Softboiled
-Seismic toss

It's really handy and i find is actually great on UU stall teams.
 
Alright, one thing, as a *somewhat* UU SS team expert, you should definitely go with Protect over Toxic for Hippopotas. Toxic is nice, but otherwise, it decreases Hippo's usability and overall goodness. Against almost all leads, except fake out leads, you want to use Yawn first turn to force a switch. That way you can get rocks up easily. Then, all it is is Yawn, Protect, Yawn/EQ, etc. after that.

Cradily does much better with its curse set. It can set up pretty well and take hits on the special side very very well.

Cradily@Leftovers
Impish
Suction Cups
252 HP/4 Atk/252 SpD
-Rockslide
-Curse
-Rest
-Sleep Talk

This is a very effective late game sweeper/staller especially once Blaziken and any Steels/Fighting types are removed.

Also, Cacturne is insane on UU Sand teams.
Running Chateau's set is very interesting, and I doubt anybody would expect a scarfed Cacturne running amok and laying down the spikes. If you plan on running that set for stall, it would work pretty well. That, or you can run the SD set instead, so that you get alot of nice kills:

Cacturne@Leftovers
Adamant
Sand Veil
252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe
-Sucker Punch
-Seed Bomb/Focus Punch
-Swords Dance
-Substitute

Since you have a Cleric on your team already, Cacturne shouldn't fear status too much.

Anyways, good luck out there using almost full stall. (You certainly will need Spikes/T-Spikes if you plan on doing so though)
 
I agree with the Rhyperior that Chateau suggested as it works well with Sandstorm since it gets the 1.5 SpD boost and also has the Solid Rock Ability. Which means you won't have too invest too much into SpD, but you still have an Extreme amount off offense thanks to Rhyperior's naturally high Atk. Plus, he has an already extremely high Def meaning he can take hits from both ends of the spectrum. If you don't feel like looking, here's the set...

Rhyperior @ Leftovers | Solid Rock
Adamant | 244 HP / 16 Atk / 248 SpD
Earthquake/Stone Edge/Megahorn-Roar/Rest

I put rest as an option with Megahorn because, while he can take many hits, he lacks recovery. Since you already have Heal Bell on the team, Rest can be much more of an option then it would normally be.

I also agree with the Cacturne that Chateau suggested as it adds Spikes to your team and act as a revenge killer on your team. Thanks to it's Sand Veil ability, it can also dodge some hits, allowing it to be a much more reliable way of setting up Spikes than most other Spikers.

I would say put Rhyperior in place of Steelix and Cacturne in place of Shuckle.

Now, this would mean your team is essentialy Toxic-less if you were to run the Curse set on Cradily as suggested by Acklow. This is bad as you will more than likely lose to other stall teams without some form of Toxic. So I would suggest keeping the current Cradily set as you will need it to get some very needed Toxics up.

Hope I helped Gl :)
 
Hmm your team seems pretty decent but your Shuckle seems out of place. Rest gives your opponent 2 valuable turns to set-up, something that can be very harmful, especially in stall. Also, besides Toxic, it doesn't have a decent attacking move, so Steel and Posion types, which are pretty common in UU, set-up extremely easily. If you insist with Shuckle I think ResTalk suits you better, and support from Dugtrio taking down both Steels and Poisons would be much appreciated.
 
Acklow's advice on Hippopotas I second entirely. Protect is a must to break sashes while avoiding Fake Out. The Yawn -> SR combo is almost always the best opener indeed. If you really need SR however, which you may as you run stall, be wary of newer players saccing the awakeness of their lead to KO hippo as you try to setup SR. Protect should help with this, however, if you predict correctly.

Currently T-Spikes pose you a bit of a problem as it limits the time Cradily and Milotic can spend in without needing a Heal Bell. To this end and also to having a viable win condition I recommend using Cradily as a Curser, again as Acklow said. This will also give you an excellent way to stall out some toxic damage on the opponent if you can spread it with the rest of your team.

Sadly my SS teams have been much more geared towards offence, so I can't advise as well as I'd like as to how you should alter the rest of your team. A Spinblocker does seem important, however, especially given the huge Fighting weakness Cradily and Steelix have, so I'd recommend Spiritomb, which has gelled well with my SS team. I ran a Restalk CM variant for the survivability, but perhaps a Dark Pulse/Toxic/Rest/? would serve you better due to having heal bell and needing to spread status?

Hope this has helped.
 
Hi all, thanks for the quick and lots of replies! I'll reply once I've tested out the suggestions posted here.

I'll definitely put in Rhyperior over Steelix, I can't believe I missed Rhyperior when considering team members.

Chateau said:
The team needs more entry hazards. Phazing isn't that helpful if you're only racking up SR damage. Add who better to lay down Spikes under sand than Cacturne? Since you can't use it in the lead spot, I'd suggest a Choice Scarf variant that can quickly lay down Spikes and return for revenge kills later.

Cacturne @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Veil
Nature: Timid
EV's: 4 Hp/ 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
-Spikes
-Dark Pulse
-Focus Blast
-Destiny Bond

This particular set can come in and serve several functions. Get two or three layers of Spikes early on while dodging moves with Sand Veil, come back for a revenge kill with an unexpectedly fast Dark Pulse/Focus Blast, and maybe snag a free kill with a 343 Speed Destiny Bond.
Click to expand...

I have a question about this set. Wouldn't it get OHKO'd after setting up its first layer of spikes, and is also pretty hard to switch it as it gets KO'd quickly outside of Sand Veil hax? (And I can't rely on hax THAT much.)

pikachu26134 said:
It's a reasonable team you've got there.
I second the cacturne, you really need him.
You said that you were worried about night shade and seismic toss,
I advise putting in chansey as it will take those if they're scratches.
Here's my fav moveset:

Chansey
Natural cure
Leftovers
Calm nature
252def/252spd/4spe
-Aromatherapy
-Thunder wave
-Softboiled
-Seismic toss

It's really handy and i find is actually great on UU stall teams.
Click to expand...

Well, Seismic Toss and Nightshade were only scary against Shuckle, and I don't think I have enough slots for 2 clerics as I'm already scratching my head what to take out for the Cacturne. And Chansey also adds to my fighting weakness.

Acklow said:
Alright, one thing, as a *somewhat* UU SS team expert, you should definitely go with Protect over Toxic for Hippopotas. Toxic is nice, but otherwise, it decreases Hippo's usability and overall goodness. Against almost all leads, except fake out leads, you want to use Yawn first turn to force a switch. That way you can get rocks up easily. Then, all it is is Yawn, Protect, Yawn/EQ, etc. after that.

Cradily does much better with its curse set. It can set up pretty well and take hits on the special side very very well.

Cradily@Leftovers
Impish
Suction Cups
252 HP/4 Atk/252 SpD
-Rockslide
-Curse
-Rest
-Sleep Talk

This is a very effective late game sweeper/staller especially once Blaziken and any Steels/Fighting types are removed.
Click to expand...

I'll definitely take your advice for Hippopotas -- sounds great! For Sleep Talk Cradily, I actually tried something like that, but I kept hitting Rest with Sleep Talk and they set up... But I'll definitely give this another try because it does sound good and maybe it was just horrible luck on my side. The problem I see it that I won't have enough Toxic users if I remove it from Cradily.

I think I'll try the spikes Cacturne first, then if that doesn't work I'll test out offensive Cacturne.

crims0nst4rz said:
Hmm your team seems pretty decent but your Shuckle seems out of place. Rest gives your opponent 2 valuable turns to set-up, something that can be very harmful, especially in stall. Also, besides Toxic, it doesn't have a decent attacking move, so Steel and Posion types, which are pretty common in UU, set-up extremely easily. If you insist with Shuckle I think ResTalk suits you better, and support from Dugtrio taking down both Steels and Poisons would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

I don't think a RestTalk set works well on Shuckle because there's nothing good to Sleep Talk on Shuckle.

Benlisted said:
Currently T-Spikes pose you a bit of a problem as it limits the time Cradily and Milotic can spend in without needing a Heal Bell. To this end and also to having a viable win condition I recommend using Cradily as a Curser, again as Acklow said. This will also give you an excellent way to stall out some toxic damage on the opponent if you can spread it with the rest of your team.

Sadly my SS teams have been much more geared towards offence, so I can't advise as well as I'd like as to how you should alter the rest of your team. A Spinblocker does seem important, however, especially given the huge Fighting weakness Cradily and Steelix have, so I'd recommend Spiritomb, which has gelled well with my SS team. I ran a Restalk CM variant for the survivability, but perhaps a Dark Pulse/Toxic/Rest/? would serve you better due to having heal bell and needing to spread status?

Hope this has helped.
Click to expand...

Yeah, a spin blocker is pretty important especially if I add Cacturne for spikes, and I have been considering Spiritomb or Rotom, but I am having trouble deciding what to take out without losing the Sandstorm SDef boost. Shuckle seems like the best candidate, but then it's been one of the MVP with its ability to laugh off any hits.
 
Here's what I suggest. Instead of the Restalk Cradily set, run the Chesto-Rest set. It runs the same, except with more coverage. However, since you still want Toxic, you could run the Restalk set with Toxic instead of Sleep Talk and Chesto Berry instead of Leftovers. That way, you will always be able to absorb status (though Venusaur beats you there, no biggy as most of your team is prepared for that anyhow), spread status, and potentially stall out counters (except Registeel, but I'm assuming that you will make attempts at taking him out, especially if you decide to run Cacturne, Focus Blast can easily take a Regi by surprise on the switch).
 
That sound greats, I'll add that to my test list.

EDIT: Tested some stuff

Rhyperior: It hasn't been very helpful as anything that it resists it also stopped by my other walls. It's immune to Thunderbolt, but that's pretty much it and Milotic takes non-STAB Thunderbolt quite well already. It does wall stuff though but I feel that the slot can be used for something more useful. It also doesn't kill Clefable (surprisingly, at least to me).

Cacturne: The spikes version of this also didn't work out that well as it's very difficult to get in 2 layers of spikes before it dies, and it's very difficult to switch because it dies to or is severely injured by everything. Even with max speed and choice scarf it still got outsped by enemy sweepers (that were probably Choice Scarfed as well). Perhaps its because Sand Veil hasn't been good to me. I still need to test the sweeper version.

The 3 things I'm losing to is Rain Dance team, Clefable and Registeel, so I'm testing out Hariyama to kill the latter two. I've also tested some weird stuff like Worry Seed Sceptile and Skill Swap Uxie to counter Magic Guard, but obviously those ended up being terrible.
 
To help with the rain weakness i suggest a Omastar. Try it Timid with max spd/spa. Surf/Earth power/Spikes/Rapid Spin. Hope this helps.
 
Alright I have run a few sandstorm teams and I can see some things that would help you on your team.

First off, Cradily is a WALL it should be used like one. Run Stockpile over Confuse ray, as at +3 it completely walls anything in the UU environment (A Choice Band Rhyperior's Earthquake only does 25% - 29.8%. A Specs Alakazam only does 23.9% - 28.7% with Focus Blast.) The only thing it needs is Cleric support via Heal Bell.

Use a Rock polish Rhyperior as a late game sweeper. Eliminate the threats switch in Polish up and proceed to sweep their team with the highest Base attack outside of Ubers (and some NU poke's).
 
I recommend switching Milotic's EV spread to 252 HP / 192 Def / 56 SpD / 8 Spe [Calm] or otherwise 248 hp / 252 def / 8 spe [bold]; the first spread gets you more overall defensiveness and 56 SpD gives you a bonus point. the second gives you more even defensiveness as milotic seems to have to check a HUGE amount of pokemon for your team.
 
Use RestTalk set > Your current set on Milotic, you'll get a +50% Def boost and it also gives you a good recovering move. [yes i'm aware of Recover]

Milotic @ Leftovers
252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD
Calm
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Surf
- Ice Beam
 
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