Oh look, yet another sandstorm team.

X Kitsune X

Yeah, I've fallen into the proverbial trap of weather teams. This is another rotation team, but I've only been able to test it in singles due to pokemon online. It seems to work pretty well, but with all the good sandstorm abusers out there, I'm a bit overwhelmed about what to use.

Hippowdon @ Passho Berry
Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP, 152 Defense, 104 Special Defense.
Impish
-Earthquake
-Slack Off
-Stone Edge
-Stealth Rock
My team lead, who's service to the team is obvious. With Hippowdon's mediocre attack, it can do some real damage, and slack off any damage it gets back, as well as setting up rocks. Passho berry lets me live a strong water attack fairly well.

Landorus @ Expert Belt
Sand Force
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed.
Timid
-Earth Power
-Focus Blast
-Grass Knot
-Sludge Bomb
Landorus is a tad more complicated. I've had alot of trouble finding special attackers for my sandstorm team, and max sp attack sand rush earth power coming from landorus is nothing to sniff at. Grass knot gives me a good counter for the large water weakness my team has, so I don't need to rely on torterra for good damage, and sludge bomb is a filler move that also takes care of grass types, with higher power than Hidden power fire and a chance of poisioning as an added bonus.

Excadrill @ Choice Band
Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP.
Jolly
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-X-Scissor
-Return
This is the main physical powerhouse. With choice band and sand rush, excadrill is primed for sweeping. X Scissor is another anti-grass moves that can take care of things like umbreon, and return goes in there for coverage.

Torterra @ Life Orb
Shell Armor
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Adamant
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Wood Hammer
-Rock Polish
Standard rock polish torterra is standard. Although the recoil is massive, once it gets a rock polish in, it can hit like a ton of bricks. Wood hammer over seed bomb because it apparently OHKOs milotic, which seems popular on wifi right now. Shell armor is on there because I am unlucky as hell, and torterra wouldn't be able to do nearly as much damage if it was hit by a crit on the switch/rotation.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP, 128 Defense, 128 Special Defense.
0 Speed IVs.
Relaxed
-Thunder Wave
-Leech Seed
-Gyro Ball
-Seed Bomb
This ferrothorn is designed to be near enough invincible. With leftovers and leech seed, I'll be recovering a good amount of HP each turn. With absolute minimum, ferrothorn has a whopping 40 speed, allowing for a good solid hit with gyro ball, and seed bomb gives me a good power stab attack with enough PP to last as long as ferrothorn does.

Tyranitar @ Choice Specs
Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Special Attack, 4 Speed.
Modest
-Flamethrower
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Dark Pulse
An unpredictable Tyranitar, and another chance to set up sandstorm after hippowdon goes down. It has enough special attack and diversity to 2HKO most things that I've come across so far, and thunderbolt gives me another option for the water types, while flamethrower does the same for grass types. Ice beam gives me another attack against any other ground type pokes that want to use my sandstorm against me as well.

So that's pretty much it. This team has to abide by the item clause, as it's for use in random wifi. As I said, I had alot of trouble coming up with special attackers, when most ground types are physically based. I normally try to keep a balance of 2 special attackers, 2 physical attackers, and 2 walls. I look forward to any feedback you can give me on my ideas, and I'm also looking for nicknames too, if anyone has any ideas. Thanks in advance.
 
You know, it's okay to have all physical attackers or all special attackers. In my opinion, it doesn't need to be distributed. Ask other Smogon users. Okay, now on to the RMT! Landorus doesn't fit well as a special attacker. Here is a much better set.

Landorus @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Force
EV's: 252 Atk/4 SpA/252 Speed
Nature: Jolly
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-Turn/Hammer Arm
- Hidden Power (Ice)


Choice Specs isn't really a good item for Tyranitar because of his variety of moves in his moveset. You should give him a Chople Berry to reduce damage from a Fighting-type attack like Drain Punch, as Tyranitar is a Rock and Dark type. If you're up againist a Scrafy, Mienshao, or Machamp, and your Tyranitar doesn't have a Chople Berry, its gonna get OHKO'ed.

Replace Seed Bomb with Power Whip on Ferrothorn. If you want, run a Rocky Helmet so Pokemon who attack Ferrothorn will get hurt because of his ability Iron Barbs + Rocky Helmet.

Well, that's all I gotta say. Good luck with your team!
 
Ferrothorn:
-You may want to change around Leftovers for Big Root, as it allows you to get more out of the opponent through leech seed without compromising the HP gain
-Seed Bomb is not a good move for Ferrothorn, as its relatively lower attack can't inflict much damage even with STAB. Personally I would stick with Gyro Ball as it already provides good STAB, and change Seed Bomb to Protect so as to allow you extra turns to recover HP. If you do want to stick to a Grass STAB, Power Whip is a better choice with 10 PP.
As for your Special Attacker problem, if you are not too concerned that it doesn't really gain anything from Sandstorm, you could use Heatran with Earth Power
Switch your Tyranitar to an Attacker, its more effective with Thunderpunch to remove any water-types hoping to destroy your team
 
I disagreewith what mavsobbesion said about the distribution of physical and special attackers, distributing your physical and special attackers is a very important part of any team, but other then that I agree with what MavsObbesion said.
 
First, Lefties>Passcho on Hippo.

Second, use physical Landorus. It just hits too hard.

Third, remove X-scissor on Excadrill for Brick Break for enemy Excadrill.

Fourth, there are better options than Torterra; like Gliscor. Standard Taunt SD Scor should suit fine, though a special attacker like Thundurus is also great.

Fifth, give Ferrothorn more SpD and switch Seed Bomb out for Spikes.

Sixth, I'm kinda iffy about that Ttar, Tar isn't the best special attacker.
 
Just a quick idea. Don't have t-wave and gyro ball on the same set. T-wave drops gyro balls power due to the speed drop of the opponent.
 
On ferrothorn run something like this.
Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave

Since, you don't have anyone with spikes on this team this might help you set up entry hazzards.(although its not really necessary.) Power whip is for hurting pokemon like Jellicent an other water pokemon. That's all I have to say about this team. Take the suggestion if you like it and leave it if you don't.
 
Wow, thanks for all the replies guys, I was worried I was posting in the wrong place or something ^^

I've made the changes advised to most of my team, but if I get rid of torterra for gliscor or heatran, 5 of my team will be weak to water. I want to utilize heatran, but I don't know how I can fit him in without nailing my team's coffins with the water weakness. Any suggestions?
 
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