OU sandstorm team (4th gen)

[BJbenny]

hey, just thought of this new sandstorm team. the movesets arnt very original but oh wells :D
so here's my team:

Let's start out with my lead

Aerodactyl @Focus Sash
Trait-Pressure
Nature-Jolly
6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Speed

moveset:
Earth Quake
Stone Edge
Stealth Rocks
Taunt

Aerodactyl is probebly one of the best suicide leads in OU. I know Ill get SR's up and at least get in one EQ or SE with the focus sash. and since Aero is pretty common (even if not on Sandstorm teams) my opponent wont know it's a sandstorm team, like they would if i lead with a Ttar.


Weather Inducer:

Tyranitar @Choice Band
Trait-Sand Stream
Nature-Adament
252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Def

moveset:
Earth Quake
Stone Edge
Pursuit
Crunch

My weather inducer. IMO Ttar is better then Hippo so i chose him. Natural bulkyness plus the 1.5x SpD it gets from sandstorm makes this set almost impossible to take down. A choice banded pursuit also makes this set a good revenge killer if i predict the switch.


My moving tank:

Mamoswine @Life orb
Trait-Oblivious
Nature-Adament
252 Atk / 6 Def / 252 Speed

moveset:
Earth Quake
Stone Edge
Ice Shard
SuperPower

My main phisical attacker for my team. with a Atk of 394, this thing can wreck through teams. And with a life orbed ice shard, it can hit things without getting a scratch. (besides from life orb of course) i needed a good poke to kill grass types while having a life orb. with life orb, the sandstorm, and being able to kill of grass types, mamoswine was an obvious choice.


My sandstorm stall:

Gliscor @Leftovers
Trait-Sand Veil
Nature-Jolly
252 HP / 6 Def / 252 Speed

moveset:
Roost
Toxic
Earth Quake
Protect

Basically my own little blissey, but with a sandstorm teams twist. The strategy is, come in on a Ground or Electric type move, Toxic, then Protect and Roost the rest. Maybe EQ if there not getting much damage off.


My Revenge Killer:

Flygon @Choice Scarf
Trait-Levitate
Nature-Adament
252 Atk / 6 SpD / 252 Speed

moveset:
Earth Quake
Outrage
U-Turn
Fire Blast

My fastest poke. With a wide moveset, good Atk and Speed, makes flygon one of the best revenge killers in OU. I chose Fire Blast over Stone Edge because my team is a little weak to grass types. Using a Scarfed U-Turn is great, expect a move one of your pokes can immune, U-Turn out, and come in with the immune poke.


My type coverage'er....?

Jirachi @Leftovers
Trait-SereneGrace
Nature-Adament
6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Speed

moveset:
ThunderBolt
ThunderWave
Psychic
FlashCannon


Switched back to Jirachi, just now relising my Gyrados weakness...chose the SpA over Atk jirachi this time though so hopefully it works better. Simple set, TWave if faster then me, then follow up with a STABed Psychic or Flashcannon. TB is there for, of course, water types...

So that's my new Sandstorm Team, any suggestions?

 

[Plusle]

Hi! Nice team. 1 slight change to make. Run Taunt over Protect on Gliscor. This allows Gliscor to beat Walls from toxicing him by cimplately disabling them.

Gl with your team

 

[Tenshinhan]

4 weaks to Ice, and nothing to be safe. Most Ice atacks are Special, such as Ice Beam or HP ice, and mamoswine has a bad Sp.Def.

I know that weavile is not very used, but if ur opponent use it ... GG.

Then, 5 Weaks to Water (not celebi) * most water pokemon such as starmie or empoleon have Ice Beam.

And all your team is fisical, not special (bar celebi), Skarmory can stall all your team (Celebi has not anything to do)


I recomended you to use a Empoleon:
-Resist x4 to ice
-Resist water
-Special Sweper
-Defeat Skarmory

A subpetaya version can be very useful, you can replace it by Mamoswine

 

[BJbenny]

i switched out celebi for jirachi again, hopefully helping against my ice weakness. and now i could Tbolt the skarm.

 

[Smith]

Hey I got your message! I agree that water and ice attacks are problematic. "Sandstorm teams" always seem to have this problem. One common misconception is that on sandstorm teams, everybody needs to be immune to sandstorm. Another is that "sandstorm" is a playing style. In truth, sandstorm is just a weather effect induced by some very common Pokemon in OU, and simply doesn't make a good team. Firstly, even your opposition is going to have a lot of Pokemon strong against sandstorm, seeing as how common ground and steel types are for example. Secondly, having a team of rock/steel/ground types just invited fighting, water and ice type to bounce on you, as these types are usually pretty similar defensively. Thirdly, even if your team is successful in this aspect... It's just 6% per turn. Nothing to really "make a team" around. I'll tell you my opinion about sandstorm, and that is this- if, by the process of team building, you find that your team would benefit from the inclusion of Hippowdon or Tyranitar, then by all means include him. If you have a stall team looking for some additional residual damage, sandstorm would be nice. But it certainly doesn't mean that everybody has to be immune to ss- indeed, many successful teams induce a weather that literally nobody else on the team is immune to, such as this fantastic team.

However, please don't take all of this personally. I blame this guide since I really don't think sandstorm is a playstyle, despite being presented as such. I'm just simply hoping you understand this for the future.

Anyways with my rant out of the way, onto the rate. Yep synergy problems. 3 Pokemon weak to ice and steel with only 1 resist, plus 4 POKEMON WEAK TO WATER AND NO RESISTS. To fix this, I'm unfortunately going to have to replace some members. 3 ground Pokemon is a bit excessive in my opinion. I'd get rid of Mamoswine- in today's metagame, he's rather lack-luster, and generally nonthreatening to any team with Skarmory, Rotom, Gyarados etc; and since his previous role was covering up dragons with ice shard, since the Latias/Mence ban he's even less useful. I'm going to recommend replacing him with Vaporeon:

@ Leftovers
188 HP / 252 Def / 68 SpD
Bold
-Wish
-Protect
-Surf
-Roar

Vaporeon helps with all of your weaknesses to water, ice and steel, as well as filling up concrete weaknesses such as Kingdra, Starmie, Gyarados, Suicune, Infernape, Scizor, and even Weavile! Roar is an odd choice but covers as many threats as possible in a single move and stops set up sweepers from going to town on poor Vaporeon.

Aerodactyl also seems like he's easily replaced- other members of this team can set up stealth rock, he only compounds weaknesses and in reality isn't that effective of a lead- I mean, every lead in the book prepares for him, and while he usually gets up SR, you have to start the match 6-5! I don't know, I'm just not personally a fan. Anyways, you might try going for ChestoRest Kingdra.

@ Chesto Berry
144 HP / 160 Atk / 40 SpD / 164 Spe
Adamant
-Dragon Dance
-Outrage
-Waterfall
-Rest

This Kingdra, if you've never used it, is pretty awesome- basically, you can just set up dragon dances thanks to miraculous bulk, rest off damage at +2/3/4 and just go crazy. Problems often arise with this Pokemon when people try to make it their only bulky water and it gets worn down by Infernape, Gyarados etc.; thanks to Vaporeon, however, Kingdra can set up on whatever the fuck he likes and do just fine- oppponents like Suicune and Starmie are often good prey. He's a great transition Pokemon and glue for offensive teams, and often pulls you out of some rough scenarios.

I'd also suggest a quick change on Jirachi. Try Wish Calm Mind instead of your current set:

@ Leftovers
252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spe
Bold
-Wish
-Calm Mind
-Psychic
-Thunderbolt

Firstly, this set has greater sweeping potential than yours- with wish healing himself while he calm minds, offensive and stall teams alike often have real trouble with this guy and can often only trick him a scarf or something- which is a great opportunity for CB Tyranitar. You see, this Jirachi has unbelievable synergy with the rest of your team. If somebody tries to trick it, you have Tyranitar, and Jirachi often lures in Heatran, Swampert and Tyranitar, which provides innumerable opportunities for Jirachi to wish on the switch (as it commonly will) and pass a wish to really any of your team members. Dual wish passers never hurt anybody, especially since the rest of the team lacks "reliable" recovery. The final reason to use him is the increase in bulk- what with being the team's only steel types and main stop to a lot of annoying threats, the added bulk that comes with this set will help you tons, I'm sure.

And that's all I have, sorry for all the changes. I hope this helps!

 

[LeviLamprey]

Gosh, Water and Ice give you problems! Take away Aerodactyl, sub SR on another team member and run for a Vaporeon ASAP!

 

[strictlypreme]

not a bad team but gliscor, flygon and aerodactyl are 4 times weak to ice. i suggest substituting aerodactyl for heatran and make flygon your lead with scarf

 

[Faladran]

I'm not really sure what happened to Celebi on this team, but I felt that it would be really useful as a switch-in to opposing Water-types. Celebi actually makes for a reliable counter to many variants of Gyarados as well. This team also could benefit from some extra offensive firepower. Taking the theme of Sandstorm into account, I would recommend leading with Gliscor and using LO Aerodactyl instead. This is a somewhat unusual set, but it is fantastic at cleaning up weakned opponents late-game. Lead Aerodactyl typically just sets up Stealth Rock and then faints, while LO Aerodactyl is a potent offensive threat, especially in Sandstorm.

[box]

Aerodactyl @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Taunt[/box]
QuakeEdge provides great attacking coverage with just two moves, and Stone Edge in particular hits hard with STAB factored in. Roost preserves Aerodactyl's health, while Taunt helps out a lot against slower stall teams, who tend to struggle a lot with this set.

Good luck!

 

[The Grand Babido]

As Smith pointed out, the common misconception on these types of teams is that every Pokemon has to be immune to Sandstorm. In fact, that is the biggest downfall to teams like this.

While I would like to suggest a bunch of changes, in the end that would completely change your team around too much. However, my first change would be for you to try a standard Vaporeon over your Mamoswine. Currently Infernape, Gyarados, Starmie etc just clean sweep this team and Vaporeon may help protect you from these glaring weaknesses to Infernape and offensive water-types.

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Bold | Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpAtk
Wish / Protect / Surf / Hidden Power [Electric]

Vaporeon, as outlined earlier, helps protect you from the plethora of threats that your team has and is able to replenish many of your Pokemon with Wish. Hidden Power [Electric] is needed to check Gyarados and does substantial damage to stuff like Starmie. This Vaporeon should replace Mamoswine.

Anyway, that will fix most of your weaknesses currently, although really, you need another water-resist, so I think that Celebi you have up there but which isn't actually in your team would be a nice switch in somewhere on your team. You should also consider Pokemon like Shaymin and Heatran, who help against your compounding weaknesses.

Definitely use Taunt over Protect on Gliscor, it has a ridiculous amount of utility and helps you break down stall teams, which you currently cannot touch outside of Tyranitar.
Also you have to replace Jirachi or at least change its set.