Introduction
With the recent banishment of Garchomp to the realm of Ubers, most sandstorm teams lost their crucial component. Swords Dance Garchomp was the centrepiece of most sandstorm strategies, being a fantastic late game cleaner, who was also able to apply consistent pressure to the opponent throughout the game. With this amazing centrepiece gone (unfairly in my opinion, but this thread is not the place to discuss tiering), I began to search for a replacement sweeper to fill the hole left by Garchomp's departure. There were two criteria that I was looking for:
1. The Pokemon must be able to apply pressure consistently throughout the game.
2. The Pokemon must be able to function as an effective late-game cleaner by effectively eliminating weakened pokemon on the opponents team.
These were, in my opinion, the two main factors which Garchomp contributed to the sand teams which I enjoyed playing. Garchomp, obviously, has many other features which made it so useful (such as great bulk, sand veil, and amazing STAB coverage), but to replicate these in another Pokemon, you would be basically forced to replicate Garchomp. Once I had decided what I desired in a replacement, I came up with a shortlist of potential candidates:
1. Landorus
With 125 Base Attack, 115 Base Sp. Attack, Sand Power and almost as trolly a speed as Garchomp (101 as opposed to 102), Landorus seemed an obvious replacement for the Land Shark. I tried running several different movesets, including Swords Dance, Rock Polish and Choiced Sets, but found all off them marginally underwhelming. Whilst Landorus retained the power of Garchomp (even surpassing it using Sand Power), it found itself at a loss for coverage against many foes due to it lacking the amazing neutral coverage provided by Garchomp's Dragon STAB. I found that the Rock Polish set never had the required power, and the Swords Dance set didn't have the required speed for my tastes. Landorus played very similar to Garchomp, but was slightly worse in every way, and I wanted a Pokemon that would bring something fresh to the team, and Landorus didn't quite fit in in the way that I wanted.
2. Terrakion
Sporting Base 129 Attack (lol wut?) 108 Base Speed and horrifically amazing STAB coverage, Terrakion looks to be a perfect fit for what I wanted. The best set that I found for what I was looking for was the Double Dance set, with Rock Polish, Swords Dance, Stone Edge and Close Combat. It could come in early and put pressure on by threatening a Swords Dance, and could clean up easily in the late game with Rock Polish. Unfortunately, with Close Combat dropping his defenses and Stone Edge being the worst move in the game, I found Terrakion often ran straight into missing with Stone Edge or being revenged killed by a light breeze, and so ended up being ineffective.
3. Excadrill
When people think of Sandstorm teams, Excadrill often appears at the forefront of people's minds, which I think is odd, as Excadrill's most common set (the swords dancer) is actually easy to stop. It it easy to wall, and easy to revenge, and I had always found it underwhelming. I had been reluctant to try out Excadrill because of its reputation. I had been playing close attention to the suspect process in round 4, and was well aware that many people were not enamoured of this little mole. Therefore I decided to see if I could make Excadrill actually work for me, as I had always found it underwhelming to play against. I looked through various set possibilities, and eventually settled on a substitute Excadrill set. I reasoned that Excadrill's problems lay with being revenged, and being walled. Given that Excadrill does not learn taunt, I don't think there is an Excadrill set that can stop itself from being walled. However, by running Substitute over Swords Dance, I found I was able to keep Excadrill from being revenged during its late game cleanup, and still able to apply pressure early on by the threat of maybe carrying Swords Dance. I think this is one of the reasons that SubDrill has worked so well for me, is that people assume its carrying Swords Dance, when in fact it is not. Therefore I settled on using Excadrill, and Team New Model Quickstall was born!
Team at a Glance
Team in Depth
1. Tyranitar
252 HP | 4 Attack | 252 Special Defense
Adamant | Leftovers | Sand Stream
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Superpower
Tyranitar is my lead, and also my main method of Special Tanking. With Sandstorm boosting its Special Defense, Tyranitar can come in on most special attacks and change the weather. I like to use bulky Tyranitars on teams which require weather, as they often need to change the weather many times. By using an Adamant Nature, Tyranitar can 2KO Reuniclus with Crunch, who can otherwise give this team a lot of trouble. Superpower is for taking out opposing Tyranitar and Ferrothorn, whilst Stone Edge allows me to use Tyranitar as a check to Volcarona. It takes a maximum of 77% from a +1 Modest Bug Buzz and always KOes back with Stone Edge (barring a miss). Stealth Rock should be self-explanatory. I almost always lead with Tyranitar, as it allows me to set up Sand early such that Excadrill can begin to apply pressure.
2. Excadrill
4 HP | 252 Attack | 252 Speed
Adamant | Life Orb | Sand Rush
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Substitute
The team is all about this guy. I've already explained what he does, and why he's the man for the job, but as a quick recap, he applies early pressure by threatening the possibility of Swords Dance, but also provides late game cleanup without being revenged due to its substitute. I tend to not reveal substitute until I'm ready to begin the late game cleanup and have weakened the opponents team enough that Excadrill can simply run through them. Once Excadrill has a sub up in such a situation, that's basically a gg, as it then becomes very hard to stop. I run X-Scissor over the more standard Return as without Swords Dance, Excadrill needs all the super effective coverage it can get, and my team can struggle with grass types otherwise. I considered running leftovers, as Excadrill has to switch in a lot, but Life Orb's power boost was too hard to pass up, and Excadrill 4x resists Stealth Rock anyway. The choice between Jolly and Adamant was much harder to make, but I found that with Adamant, teams rarely had more than one pokemon that could outspeed Excadrill anyway, and I could more often than not beat it using Substitute, so I went with the extra power offered by Excadrill.
3. Skarmory
252 HP | 220 Special Defense | 36 Speed
Impish | Leftovers | Sturdy
- Spikes
- Roost
- Whirlwind
- Taunt
Specially Defensive Skarmory with taunt is absolutely essential to the success of this team. In order to capitalize on the pressure exerted by Excadrill, I needed a pokemon to set up spikes. I then had three real choices; Skarmory, Ferrothorn, or Forretress. I ended up choosing Skarmory due to its Ground Immunity and ability to pHaze, of which both are qualities that this team really appreciates. Skarmory also makes a fantastic counter to opposing Excadrill, who could otherwise be quite dangerous to this team. Taunt allows me to beat other walls with the help of Mew (I'll come back to this later), and is part of what made me dub this team a 'quickstall' style. Skarmory's Evs are as they are as I often need it to soak up weaker special attacks and whirlwind away threats like calm mind virizion until Excadrill can clean them up later. Choosing between leftovers and shed shell is always hard, but with this team carrying Mamoswine, Dragon types are unlikely to run through my team even if Skarmory is eliminated, so I felt confident in running leftovers. Skarmory is Female, as Choice Band Rivalry Haxorus has been becoming increasingly popular, and Skarmory is a full stop to it, being female means skarm takes less damage from its attacks.
4. Mamoswine
4 HP | 252 Attack | 252 Speed
Jolly | Life Orb | Snow Cloak
- Earthquake
- Icicle Crash
- Stone Edge
- Ice Shard
First off, Mamoswine is a BOSS! There is no Pokemon that has anywhere near the sheer coolness of the tusked mammoth. Second, now that he has recieved a proper STAB attack in Icicle Crash, Mamoswine is a very scary Pokemon to go up against. Mamoswine is my kill button for the many scary pokemon in the meta. STAB ice shard is a full stop to Pokemon such as Calm Mind Latias / Latios, Calm Mind Virizion, Nasty Plot Thundurus, and tons of other dangerous threats in the Metagame. Mamoswine is really good as a general kill things pokemon, and has surprisingly high bulk to boot. He's a bit of a wildcard on this team, but he always pulls his weight. Unfortunately, despite his coolness, he's usually the Pokemon that's first to go unless the opponent has a lati or thundurus, as I probably take too many risks with him. Mamoswine is also my back-up plan. This team is already good at beating Skarmory and Bronzong, the big stops to Mamoswine, and he does a fantastic job of weakening the opponents team once they are gone. Mamoswine is already an amazing Pokemon who is currently very underrated, and from here things can only get better. As soon as Mamoswine gets thick fat he will become an amazing Pokemon. Expect to see much more of this Mammoth in the future!
5. Rotom-W
124 HP | 252 Special Attack | 132 Speed
Modest | Leftovers | Levitate
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Pain Split
A solid counter to rain teams, a powerful offensive force, and a great switch-in to both Skarmory and Gliscor, my team could ask little more of Rotom-W. Despite the heavy reliance I tend to place on Rotom-W, it always performs its role admirably. Specs Politoed is very hard to deal with, but Rotom-W can comfortably switch-in to specs hydro pump and follow up with Pain Split. with only 272 HP, most things that switch in to Rotom from rain teams (most commonly Nattorei) will take heavy damage, and almost completely heal my washing machine. Rotom can then follow up with Hidden Power, Thunderbolt of Hydro Pump depending on what came in. Rotom-W is part of the Stallbreaker Squad (Skarmory, Mew and Rotom-W) and a vital component of it, as it is my main switch in to Gliscor and Skarmory, both of whom can stop Excadrill's sweep. Rotom-W is probably my MVP on this team, he's gotten me out of more scrapes than I can count, and I lean on him very heavily for the all too common rain matchup. I know lots of people recommend Will-O-Wisp over Hidden Power [Fire], but I carry Will-O-Wisp on Mew, and found myself never needing it. The ability to KO Nattorei is far more useful to my team.
6. Mew
252 HP | 224 Defense | 32 Speed
Bold | Leftovers | Synchronize
- Psychic
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Softboiled
Those of you who played 4th Gen Ubers will remember stallbreaker Mewtwo, who ran almost this exact set. Stallbreaker Mewtwo was a centrepiece of a strategy known as Quickstall, which used bulky, fast pokemon to stall offensive teams, and were also able to break stall teams using pokemon such as Stallbreaker Mewtwo. That's what this team aims to do (hence the name), and Mew is pivotal to that strategy working. Mew can almost singlehandedly break through stall teams using a combination of Will-O-Wisp and Taunt. In addition, Mew is no slouch against offensive teams. Mew is insanely bulky for its appearance, and Will-O-Wisp is the single strongest weapon in the game against Physical Sweepers. The Choice between Psychic and Psycho Shock is a tough one for any Psychic Type. I chose Psychic because it does more damage to a Conkeldurr with a Bulk Up, and also because it allows me to threaten Gliscor, who is horrible to face. Mew is a fantastic counter to the various fighting types that are everywhere, and also my most potent weapon against stall. Mew, Skarmory and Rotom-W work as a team against stall, with Skarmory also carrying Taunt to break mons that have been burned by Mew, and Rotom-W can switch in and force out most stall Pokemon. This Mew is one of the reasons I decided to post this team now, as with this Mew set being featured as an underrated moveset in The Smog #15, I thought I could show how Mew could function in a team. Also, with more people now aware of how threatening Mew can be if played correctly, it has become somewhat less satisfying now that I see her much more frequently on the ladder.
How I play this team
I called this team 'New Model Quickstall' for one main reason. Against stall teams, it feels like I'm playing an offensive team, and against offensive teams, it feels like I'm playing a stall team. This means that matches are always interesting, but more importantly, it means that I can almost always control the pace of the game. As most pokemon players know (and all should know), momentum is really important in matches. I make extensive use of team preview, and really carefully rank my team members in order of how valuable they are to my team's success. I then evaluate the risk vs reward of every possible move based on this importance, and always try to keep one step ahead of my opponent, and this team is very much designed with that in mind. The team can be hard to get to grips with, but once you learn to use it it will serve you very well.
Importable
Threat List Coming Soon!
With the recent banishment of Garchomp to the realm of Ubers, most sandstorm teams lost their crucial component. Swords Dance Garchomp was the centrepiece of most sandstorm strategies, being a fantastic late game cleaner, who was also able to apply consistent pressure to the opponent throughout the game. With this amazing centrepiece gone (unfairly in my opinion, but this thread is not the place to discuss tiering), I began to search for a replacement sweeper to fill the hole left by Garchomp's departure. There were two criteria that I was looking for:
1. The Pokemon must be able to apply pressure consistently throughout the game.
2. The Pokemon must be able to function as an effective late-game cleaner by effectively eliminating weakened pokemon on the opponents team.
These were, in my opinion, the two main factors which Garchomp contributed to the sand teams which I enjoyed playing. Garchomp, obviously, has many other features which made it so useful (such as great bulk, sand veil, and amazing STAB coverage), but to replicate these in another Pokemon, you would be basically forced to replicate Garchomp. Once I had decided what I desired in a replacement, I came up with a shortlist of potential candidates:
1. Landorus
With 125 Base Attack, 115 Base Sp. Attack, Sand Power and almost as trolly a speed as Garchomp (101 as opposed to 102), Landorus seemed an obvious replacement for the Land Shark. I tried running several different movesets, including Swords Dance, Rock Polish and Choiced Sets, but found all off them marginally underwhelming. Whilst Landorus retained the power of Garchomp (even surpassing it using Sand Power), it found itself at a loss for coverage against many foes due to it lacking the amazing neutral coverage provided by Garchomp's Dragon STAB. I found that the Rock Polish set never had the required power, and the Swords Dance set didn't have the required speed for my tastes. Landorus played very similar to Garchomp, but was slightly worse in every way, and I wanted a Pokemon that would bring something fresh to the team, and Landorus didn't quite fit in in the way that I wanted.
2. Terrakion
Sporting Base 129 Attack (lol wut?) 108 Base Speed and horrifically amazing STAB coverage, Terrakion looks to be a perfect fit for what I wanted. The best set that I found for what I was looking for was the Double Dance set, with Rock Polish, Swords Dance, Stone Edge and Close Combat. It could come in early and put pressure on by threatening a Swords Dance, and could clean up easily in the late game with Rock Polish. Unfortunately, with Close Combat dropping his defenses and Stone Edge being the worst move in the game, I found Terrakion often ran straight into missing with Stone Edge or being revenged killed by a light breeze, and so ended up being ineffective.
3. Excadrill
When people think of Sandstorm teams, Excadrill often appears at the forefront of people's minds, which I think is odd, as Excadrill's most common set (the swords dancer) is actually easy to stop. It it easy to wall, and easy to revenge, and I had always found it underwhelming. I had been reluctant to try out Excadrill because of its reputation. I had been playing close attention to the suspect process in round 4, and was well aware that many people were not enamoured of this little mole. Therefore I decided to see if I could make Excadrill actually work for me, as I had always found it underwhelming to play against. I looked through various set possibilities, and eventually settled on a substitute Excadrill set. I reasoned that Excadrill's problems lay with being revenged, and being walled. Given that Excadrill does not learn taunt, I don't think there is an Excadrill set that can stop itself from being walled. However, by running Substitute over Swords Dance, I found I was able to keep Excadrill from being revenged during its late game cleanup, and still able to apply pressure early on by the threat of maybe carrying Swords Dance. I think this is one of the reasons that SubDrill has worked so well for me, is that people assume its carrying Swords Dance, when in fact it is not. Therefore I settled on using Excadrill, and Team New Model Quickstall was born!
Team at a Glance
Team in Depth
1. Tyranitar
252 HP | 4 Attack | 252 Special Defense
Adamant | Leftovers | Sand Stream
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Superpower
Tyranitar is my lead, and also my main method of Special Tanking. With Sandstorm boosting its Special Defense, Tyranitar can come in on most special attacks and change the weather. I like to use bulky Tyranitars on teams which require weather, as they often need to change the weather many times. By using an Adamant Nature, Tyranitar can 2KO Reuniclus with Crunch, who can otherwise give this team a lot of trouble. Superpower is for taking out opposing Tyranitar and Ferrothorn, whilst Stone Edge allows me to use Tyranitar as a check to Volcarona. It takes a maximum of 77% from a +1 Modest Bug Buzz and always KOes back with Stone Edge (barring a miss). Stealth Rock should be self-explanatory. I almost always lead with Tyranitar, as it allows me to set up Sand early such that Excadrill can begin to apply pressure.
2. Excadrill
4 HP | 252 Attack | 252 Speed
Adamant | Life Orb | Sand Rush
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Substitute
The team is all about this guy. I've already explained what he does, and why he's the man for the job, but as a quick recap, he applies early pressure by threatening the possibility of Swords Dance, but also provides late game cleanup without being revenged due to its substitute. I tend to not reveal substitute until I'm ready to begin the late game cleanup and have weakened the opponents team enough that Excadrill can simply run through them. Once Excadrill has a sub up in such a situation, that's basically a gg, as it then becomes very hard to stop. I run X-Scissor over the more standard Return as without Swords Dance, Excadrill needs all the super effective coverage it can get, and my team can struggle with grass types otherwise. I considered running leftovers, as Excadrill has to switch in a lot, but Life Orb's power boost was too hard to pass up, and Excadrill 4x resists Stealth Rock anyway. The choice between Jolly and Adamant was much harder to make, but I found that with Adamant, teams rarely had more than one pokemon that could outspeed Excadrill anyway, and I could more often than not beat it using Substitute, so I went with the extra power offered by Excadrill.
3. Skarmory
252 HP | 220 Special Defense | 36 Speed
Impish | Leftovers | Sturdy
- Spikes
- Roost
- Whirlwind
- Taunt
Specially Defensive Skarmory with taunt is absolutely essential to the success of this team. In order to capitalize on the pressure exerted by Excadrill, I needed a pokemon to set up spikes. I then had three real choices; Skarmory, Ferrothorn, or Forretress. I ended up choosing Skarmory due to its Ground Immunity and ability to pHaze, of which both are qualities that this team really appreciates. Skarmory also makes a fantastic counter to opposing Excadrill, who could otherwise be quite dangerous to this team. Taunt allows me to beat other walls with the help of Mew (I'll come back to this later), and is part of what made me dub this team a 'quickstall' style. Skarmory's Evs are as they are as I often need it to soak up weaker special attacks and whirlwind away threats like calm mind virizion until Excadrill can clean them up later. Choosing between leftovers and shed shell is always hard, but with this team carrying Mamoswine, Dragon types are unlikely to run through my team even if Skarmory is eliminated, so I felt confident in running leftovers. Skarmory is Female, as Choice Band Rivalry Haxorus has been becoming increasingly popular, and Skarmory is a full stop to it, being female means skarm takes less damage from its attacks.
4. Mamoswine
4 HP | 252 Attack | 252 Speed
Jolly | Life Orb | Snow Cloak
- Earthquake
- Icicle Crash
- Stone Edge
- Ice Shard
First off, Mamoswine is a BOSS! There is no Pokemon that has anywhere near the sheer coolness of the tusked mammoth. Second, now that he has recieved a proper STAB attack in Icicle Crash, Mamoswine is a very scary Pokemon to go up against. Mamoswine is my kill button for the many scary pokemon in the meta. STAB ice shard is a full stop to Pokemon such as Calm Mind Latias / Latios, Calm Mind Virizion, Nasty Plot Thundurus, and tons of other dangerous threats in the Metagame. Mamoswine is really good as a general kill things pokemon, and has surprisingly high bulk to boot. He's a bit of a wildcard on this team, but he always pulls his weight. Unfortunately, despite his coolness, he's usually the Pokemon that's first to go unless the opponent has a lati or thundurus, as I probably take too many risks with him. Mamoswine is also my back-up plan. This team is already good at beating Skarmory and Bronzong, the big stops to Mamoswine, and he does a fantastic job of weakening the opponents team once they are gone. Mamoswine is already an amazing Pokemon who is currently very underrated, and from here things can only get better. As soon as Mamoswine gets thick fat he will become an amazing Pokemon. Expect to see much more of this Mammoth in the future!
5. Rotom-W
124 HP | 252 Special Attack | 132 Speed
Modest | Leftovers | Levitate
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Pain Split
A solid counter to rain teams, a powerful offensive force, and a great switch-in to both Skarmory and Gliscor, my team could ask little more of Rotom-W. Despite the heavy reliance I tend to place on Rotom-W, it always performs its role admirably. Specs Politoed is very hard to deal with, but Rotom-W can comfortably switch-in to specs hydro pump and follow up with Pain Split. with only 272 HP, most things that switch in to Rotom from rain teams (most commonly Nattorei) will take heavy damage, and almost completely heal my washing machine. Rotom can then follow up with Hidden Power, Thunderbolt of Hydro Pump depending on what came in. Rotom-W is part of the Stallbreaker Squad (Skarmory, Mew and Rotom-W) and a vital component of it, as it is my main switch in to Gliscor and Skarmory, both of whom can stop Excadrill's sweep. Rotom-W is probably my MVP on this team, he's gotten me out of more scrapes than I can count, and I lean on him very heavily for the all too common rain matchup. I know lots of people recommend Will-O-Wisp over Hidden Power [Fire], but I carry Will-O-Wisp on Mew, and found myself never needing it. The ability to KO Nattorei is far more useful to my team.
6. Mew
252 HP | 224 Defense | 32 Speed
Bold | Leftovers | Synchronize
- Psychic
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Softboiled
Those of you who played 4th Gen Ubers will remember stallbreaker Mewtwo, who ran almost this exact set. Stallbreaker Mewtwo was a centrepiece of a strategy known as Quickstall, which used bulky, fast pokemon to stall offensive teams, and were also able to break stall teams using pokemon such as Stallbreaker Mewtwo. That's what this team aims to do (hence the name), and Mew is pivotal to that strategy working. Mew can almost singlehandedly break through stall teams using a combination of Will-O-Wisp and Taunt. In addition, Mew is no slouch against offensive teams. Mew is insanely bulky for its appearance, and Will-O-Wisp is the single strongest weapon in the game against Physical Sweepers. The Choice between Psychic and Psycho Shock is a tough one for any Psychic Type. I chose Psychic because it does more damage to a Conkeldurr with a Bulk Up, and also because it allows me to threaten Gliscor, who is horrible to face. Mew is a fantastic counter to the various fighting types that are everywhere, and also my most potent weapon against stall. Mew, Skarmory and Rotom-W work as a team against stall, with Skarmory also carrying Taunt to break mons that have been burned by Mew, and Rotom-W can switch in and force out most stall Pokemon. This Mew is one of the reasons I decided to post this team now, as with this Mew set being featured as an underrated moveset in The Smog #15, I thought I could show how Mew could function in a team. Also, with more people now aware of how threatening Mew can be if played correctly, it has become somewhat less satisfying now that I see her much more frequently on the ladder.
How I play this team
I called this team 'New Model Quickstall' for one main reason. Against stall teams, it feels like I'm playing an offensive team, and against offensive teams, it feels like I'm playing a stall team. This means that matches are always interesting, but more importantly, it means that I can almost always control the pace of the game. As most pokemon players know (and all should know), momentum is really important in matches. I make extensive use of team preview, and really carefully rank my team members in order of how valuable they are to my team's success. I then evaluate the risk vs reward of every possible move based on this importance, and always try to keep one step ahead of my opponent, and this team is very much designed with that in mind. The team can be hard to get to grips with, but once you learn to use it it will serve you very well.
Importable
Code:
Tyranitar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Superpower
Excadrill (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Substitute
Skarmory (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 220 SDef / 36 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Roost
- Taunt
Mamoswine (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Snow Cloak
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Icicle Crash
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Ice Shard
Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 124 HP / 252 SAtk / 132 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Pain Split
Mew @ Leftovers
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Psychic
- Softboiled
- TauntThreat List Coming Soon!
