SS OU New player, Dual screens offense

[bluestar_ultra]

Been playing pokemon casually since I was a kid, but finally decided to dip a toe into the competitive side of the game. After doing some research I’ve come up with the following:



Grimmsnarl (M) @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Spirit Break
- Sucker Punch

Obviously, a dual screens team needs a screen setter. It’s bulk, prankster ability, and ability to contribute on offense make Grimmsnarl an obvious choice. I decided to slot in Sucker Punch instead of Taunt because I was struggling to revenge kill with this team, but I’m not 100% sold on the change.


Excadrill @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Brick Break

Every team needs hazard removal, and Excadrill seems to be one of the best RS users. Brick Break recently replaced SD because I noticed I was eating too much damage, and wasting sand turns, whenever I went for SD. BB threatens Ferrothorn and TTar, and hits Corviknight for neutral damage while clearing enemy screens.


Clefable @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 196 HP / 252 SpA / 60 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower
- Thunderbolt
- Moonlight

Life Orb/Magic Guard Clefable seems like one of the best non-setup damage options available. It demolishes Ferrothorn and Toxapex, and threatens heavy damage on a great deal of the metagame. In addition it can soak status like toxic and burns. I’m not sold on Moonlight, at least for this team. I never seem to click it.


Polteageist @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shell Smash
- Shadow Ball
- Stored Power
- Giga Drain

Polteageist is a late game cleaner, and surprisingly difficult to wall. Once set up, it’s main check seems to be priority moves. I’ve considered slotting Sucker Punch instead of Giga Drain, but even after a boost it’s attack is so low that I don’t if it’d do anything. But it’s tempting as an out to Aegislash’s Shadow Sneak.

Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock

Seismitoad provides some much-needed backbone to the team, without being too passive to maintain momentum. In addition, it sets up rocks, switches into water attacks aimed at Excadrill and TTar, and threatens crippling status.


Tyranitar @ Shed Shell
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Atk / 152 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Thunder Wave
- Rest

Tyranitar rounds out the sand core, providing sand of course, plus solid damage, hitting sweepers with paralysis, and soaking status with Rest. That being said, this pokemon is one that I’m still fiddling with. Rest often seems cumbersome in practice, but I can’t tell how much of that is down to my inexperience.



The team itself seems to be solid so far, with most of my losses clearly having more to do with me being inexperienced and making mistakes (especially trying to set up Polteageist too early) than shortcomings the team may have. Still, I want to know what you all think so I can iron out the wrinkles.

 

[Noborrola]

Im not a big fan off Sand Rush exca; rotoms carrying wowisp's are not that rare in the current ladder, and mold breaker can come in really handy.
Plus, Rest on tyranitar doesnt seems that good. Many mons carry focus blast/hjk, and with those EVs you get at least 2HKO'D
Im also new on the competitive scene, peaked 1400 on OU, so Im not that pro tips guy

 

[Gravelmouse]

Is there a reason you used heavy duty boots on excadrill? I assume that was a typo
Shed Shell on TTar is also a bit strange, was that a typo as well? Dugtrio is not common enough to warrant this, I would run smooth rock to give more sand to excadril. I would replace rest on TTar as well, if you click it, it essentially makes your tyranitar useless for the rest of the game, as you then have to burn 2 turns of sleep.
Replace rest with stone edge, for a strong STAB option. Also any sweepers you might be paralyzing you should really be attacking, I don't see where Twave comes in use.
The final change I would do without re-making your team is putting swords dance on excadrill over brick break, this will give excadrill more sweeping potential

 

[granddmmasteraryan]

choice band tyranitar is way better than shed shell, replace rest for fire punch and twave for stone edge. Use leftovers on drill instead of boots, and use sd, brick break is hard to use efficiently in battle.

 

[chimp]

So, a couple of major changes. Dual Screens Hyper Offense is great in the metagame right now- but I don't think this team is quite effective, yet. What I mean is, when I think of Dual Screens HO, I think of an army of threatening set-up sweepers, which your team has an odd lack of.
So, I approached this rate with the mindset of making the team a bit more offensive while trying my best to keep the composition as best as possible.

A couple of major changes:
1) Replace your Tyranitar set with a Dragon Dance set. I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of your current set is, but a DD set would fit much better on a Screen HO.

Tyranitar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Stone Edge
- Crunch / Earthquake
- Fire Punch

Tyranitar's good movepool and great bulk make it even scarier behind screens. Try and aim to get multiple Dragon Dances if you can. In addition, the screens will let it take most super-effective attacks, allowing it to safety activiate Weakness Policy. As granddmmasteraryan shared, a Choice Band set could also work particularly well, since it hits ridiculously hard, and getting it into the match when screens are up should be fairly easy.

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake

2) The second major changed I'd recommend is swapping Polteageist for Aegislash. I've been a fan of double dance Aegislash that uses both Autotomize and Swords Dance, and a nifty HO team on the OU Sample Team threads has such an Aegislash set, it looks like:

Aegislash @ Air Balloon
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shadow Claw
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
- Autotomize

There are many other great Aegislash sets that can function here, too, such as Special Attacker with Sub or Choice Band- I won't paste each set, but if you are curious just let me know. Aegislash and Tyranitar have good type synergy together, though the core can struggle a tad vs. bulky waters. Therefore, the final major change I'd suggest would be:

3) Swap Seismitoad for Gyarados. I know Seismitoad's bulk is preferred, by Gyarados can function has a very threatening water type sweeper or breaker, even without Dynamax. I would recommend a set like:

Gyarados @ Heavy Duty Boots
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Power Whip
- Earthquake / Crunch

Gyarados is a water-type that can pressure other Water-types thanks to Power Whip, further helping pave the way for Tyranitar or Aegislash to bully with their set-up sets.

A few minor changes,
For Grimmsnarl, replace Sucker Punch for Taunt. Sucker Punch may seem more appealing for its anti-sweeper support, but Taunt works in that regard as well, and allows Grimmsnarl to keep its screens up in the face of Defog users like Corviknight and block Court Change from Cinderace.

As Gravelmouse shared, definitely replace Excadrill's Heavy Duty Boots with Focus Sash. Excadrill already resists Stealth Rock, and generally you want to be leading with SR Excadrill anyway, making HDB even more useless. Focus Sash will guarantee you will always get rocks up if you lead with it. You should also replace Brick Break with Stealth Rock, especially if you get rid of Seismitoad. Brick Break in general really is unnecessary, since it doesn't hit anything that Ground/Steel STAB wouldn't. Atleast, none that I can think of. It is useful for clearing screens away, but just be careful with your Grimmsnarl's Taunts and that shouldn't be a huge problem.

So, overall:
Change Tyranitar to Dragon Dance or Choice Band
Swap Polteageist to Aegislash
Swap Seismitoad to Gyarados
Replace Sucker Punch with Taunt on Grimmsnarl
Replace Brick Break with Stealth Rock on Excadrill
Remove HDB on Excadrill and put Focus Sash instead.

I hope this helps! I hope I didn't change too much too drastically. I know it might seem like you don't have great answers to big attackers like Dracovish and Darmanitan and thas because... you don't. But thats sort of the trade off with HO- you basically have to smack your opponent before they can smack you.

Good luck!