My OU Sand Team

[The Darknes]

This is my first RMT, a Sandstorm team centered around Garchomp. I am a pretty new player so any and all suggestions are appreciated even if they are major changes to what Pokemon are present and their builds.

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Tyranitar @ Focus Sash
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP, 8 Attack, 252 Special Attack
Mild Nature
~ Pursuit
~ Ice Beam
~ Fire Blast
~ Stealth Rock
Tyranitar functions as my usual lead and allows me to get sandstorm on the field first due to his low speed. After that he can be used as a counter to certain threats or to keep up Sandstorm. If he does not need to be kept alive for these reasons, I will just use him to do as much damage as possible before my opponent can take him down. Pursuit allows him to counter threats such as Latias. Ice Beam can kill dragons and Fire Blast can kill other leads such as Ferrothorn. Stealth Rock is just necessary.

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Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP, 236 Special Defense, 20 Speed
Careful Nature
~ Iron Head
~ Body Slam
~ Wish
~ Protect
Jirachi is the main Special Wall of the team and can help my sweepers set up. Iron Head and Body Slam combine with Serene Grace to prevent my opponents from attacking. Body Slam is particularly helpful as paralysis allows my other Pokemon to defeat many threats. Wish allows Jirachi to heal himself and his teammates. Protect can be used to scout my opponent's moves and stall for Wish/Leftovers recovery.

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Skarmory @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Defense, 4 Speed
Impish Nature
~ Spikes
~ Roost
~ Whirlwind
~ Brave Bird
Skarmory is the main Physical Wall of my team and can help defeat the Fighting Types that plague the above members of my team. Skarmory also functions as a back up lead if my opponent has a lead that is strong against Tyranitar. Spikes acts as another entry hazard. Roost allows Skarmory to heal if needed and Whirlwind allows Skarmory to phaze set up sweepers and threats to Skarmory. Brave Bird provides STAB and can be used to defeat fighting types, Grass Types, etc.

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Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Defense, 4 Special Defense
Bold Nature
~ Calm Mind
~ Recover
~ Psychic
~ Focus Blast
Reuniclus serves as a Bulky Special Sweeper and can help break stall team. Along with Skarmory he helps lessen the Fighting type weakness of the other team members. His ability Magic Guard allows him to run Life Orb with no drawback and not take passive damage allowing him to function perfectly on a sandstorm team. Calm Mind allows him to set up on enemy walls and Recover allows him to heal back any damage he takes. Psychic allows him to defeat Bulk Up physical attackers such as Conkeldurr. Lastly, Focus Blast provides helpful coverage.

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Heatran @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Special Attack, 4 Special Defense, 252 Speed
Timid Nature
~ Fire Blast
~ Earth Power
~ Hidden Power Ice
~ Stealth Rock
Heatran helps this team as he can absorb the Fire type attacks that harm Jirachi and Skarmory with Flash Fire. Air Balloon helps alleviate his weakness to Ground attacks. Heatran also can take out the ground immune Steel Types that wall Garchomp and can prove a significant threat to sun teams. Fire Blast provides powerful STAB to and Earth Power can defeat some enemies that resist Fire Blast. Hidden Power Ice can help defeat Dragon Types as Heatran can resist Dragon Type attacks. Lastly, Stealth Rock as a back up to Tyranitar when it must be kept alive in weather wars.

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Garchomp @ Leftovers
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Attack, 252 Speed
~ Substitute
~ Swords Dance
~ Dragon Claw
~ Earthquake
Why have a land shark when you can have a FLYING Shark in Garchomp. Garchomp is the main sweeper of this team and its physical sweeper. Substitute allows Garchomp to avoid status and aides in setting up but I may remove it for better coverage. Swords Dance is used to increase Garchomp's attack. Dragon Claw is a STAB move with coverage that I use over Outrage as Outrage adds a lot of counter play but is stronger. Earthquake is an even stronger STAB that will heavily damages anything that does not resist it or is immune to it. (These threats should be defeated by Heatran.)

 

[Prinz]

Hi

The first thing I thought when I saw this team is your massive weakness to any kind of mon which run a Water-type move. Keldeo, Politoed, Feraligatr etcetera are all very hard to deal with for your team because you haven't a Water resistor and a good switch into Hydro Pumps and Surfs accordingly. From what I can see looking at your team, I'd solve your weakness to Water-type move putting a Jellicent somewhere, perhaps instead of Garchomp or Reuniclus. Jellicent is a great switch into all the things you're weak to, as Keldeo and Politoed and it's also one of the greatest spin-blocker available which means you can keep up your Stealth Rock and Spikes with more chances. Now, for small nitpick, I'd change Tyranitar's item for a Chople Berry or a Leftovers or even a Shed Shell, the choice is your. Chople Berry allows to take an hit from Alakazam and Gengar and to Pursuit them back but since you have already Specially Defensive Jirachi which is one of the best Alakazam and Gengar's counter you probably don't need it. Otherwise, Leftovers is always an useful way to recover HP, as you probably already know. The last option, Shed Shell is maybe the most useless in your eyes but it can be really useful sometimes. Sun teams + Dugtrio is a combination which your team seems to hate and you can solve this problem using Shed Shell on your Tyranitar so try it. As last thing, if you decide to keep Reuniclus in your team, you may try Leftovers removing Life Orb, while it's a better option on Trick Room sets, I think Leftovers it's just too good on Calm Mind ones because it allows to setup Calm Minds more easily. Once again try it and see how it goes. Oh, and as lagalag4 found out, you have two mons with Stealth Rock, one is enough so put Crunch on your Tyranitar which allows to shoot Lati-Twins if they stay in. That's all I guess, good luck.

 

[Laga]

Sup.

When I see this team, I think, why 2 pokemon to set up Rocks? I always think one rock setter is plenty, and I think Heatran has the potential to become even more threatening if you trash Rocks and leave a slot open. Here is how I would suggest your Heatran should look like:

Heatran @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 HP / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power Ice
- Substitute

Offensive Substitute Heatran is a monstrous threat if played with right. With a base 130 SpA stat and strong STAB, many a pokes are forced out, and it's coverage allows it to hit all kinds of pokemon. It's larger problem is water types though, and that is what the next change is there for ~

The second thing is everything Alexander already said, but to more precise, I would replace Reuniclus with a defensive Jellicent. Here is the Jellicent set I had in mind:

Jellicent @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spd
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Will-O-Wisp / Toxic
- Recover
- Taunt

Nice team man, I hope I helped a bit :]

 

[The Darknes]

Thanks for the help. Your advice has been very helpful. The change to Heatran is welcome as Substitute has been more helpful than Stealth Rocks. Jellicent over Reuniclus has helped counter Water Sweepers and can still fight Fighting types.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

One thought hat came to my mind is that in this teams current form, it makes a rather nice defensive team, all you really need to finish it off is a rapid spinner. On this team, having both Jirachi and Tyranitar is a bit redundant, consider possibly dropping one for a spinner. Tyranitar really only offers sand to this team, so dropping Tyranitar is probably the best option. I am not sure which spinner would be the best honestly, but either Tentacruel or Starmie would make a good fit, Forretress could work but it kind of clashes with Skarmory for a role, unlike Starmie or Tentacruel which only share a common type with Jellicent.

As for sets, the standard Support Tentacruel set on site should be fine, but with maybe Ice Beam over Protect or Substitute, as you lack rain. Starmie though, is a bit more tricky since this team is more balanced in nature, but either the Offensive or Bulky Rapid Spin sets on site should be good.

If you make this change, be sure to have Stealth Rock on Heatran again.

good luck