OU Sandstream [RMT]

[StealingUrAir]

Edit: Wow, I messed up on the title >.>
Another edit: Thanks to whoever fixed the title.

I've been using this team on shoddy for a few days now and its been doing really well, but I think it could still use some improvements. Obviously, its based around sandstorm and the effects that come with it. Basic Strategy: Sandstorm and stealth rocks wear down the other team while I pound away at their pokemon with powerful sweepers that compliment eachother well (I think). Alright, on with the RMT!

The team at a glance:

(Rotom-C)

The Lead

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Impish
252 Hp/ 168 Def/ 88 SPDef
~Stealth Rock
~Earthquake
~Stone Edge
~Slack Off

Hippowdon works as an excellent lead. Its pretty much guaranteed that he sets up SR before he is KO'd, and most of the time he can Slack Off any damage he has taken. Earthquake works well against Jirachi, Metagross, and its even useful for wearing down a MixPert lead. Stone Edge over Roar because I don't like situations where Hippowdon can't really do anything against flyers or levitaters, but I don't have any other pokemon with Roar or Whirlwind, so I could use some help there. It also sets up a sandstorm for the rest of the team.

The Choice Bander

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Adamant
176 HP/ 252 Atk/ 80 Spe
~Aqua Tail
~Crunch
~Pursuit
~Stone Edge

Choice Banded Tyranitar works as mid to late game sweeper. I used Aqua Tail to hit bulky ground types that threaten it like Hippowdon and Gliscor hard. Crunch for a strong STAB attack. I'm not sure if I want to keep Pursuit or not. I really hate it when I switch in, use Pursuit, and they saw it coming so they didn't switch out. It seems like Pursuit is very easily predictable, so I'm thinking about replacing it with EQ or one of the elemental punches it can learn, so I'd like some opinions with that. Stone edge is obviously for its other STAB move.

The Revenge Killer

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Naive
4 HP/ 252 SPAtk/ 252 Spe
~Flamethrower
~Earthpower
~Explosion
~HP [Ice]

The main reasons I brought Heatran in was to counter a Scizor trying to get an easy kill on my Tyranitar and because I don't really have any other pokemon on the team that can beat it after a Swords Dance. Its a pretty standard ScarfRan, but I used HP [Ice] for threats like Salamence and Flygon, who can do some major damage if they come in at the right time. Heatran also stops an SD Lucario from getting a couple of kills off. Overall I think it works pretty well on the team, but I'm open to suggestions

The Bulky Water

Swampert @ Leftovers
Relaxed
240 Hp/ 216 Defense/ 52 SPAtk
~Earthquake
~Surf
~Ice Beam
~Protect

MixPert comes has come in handy many times. Ice Beam helps stop the threat of Salamence, and Protect helps me figure out what kind of set a certain pokemon is running (i.e. Bulky Gyra or DD Gyra, MixMence or DD Mence, etc). It also helps take water hits for Heatran. I don't have Roar or SR because he's not a lead. With only one weakness, it can take hits from alot of pokemon and is usually a reliable switch when one of my Choice pokemon are stuck using a move that isn't very useful

The Monster

Lucario @ Life Orb
Adamant
252 Atk/ 252 Spe/ 4 Def
~Swords Dance
~Close Combat
~Crunch
~Extreme Speed

Anyone who's played for more than a day in the current metagame knows how deadly and effective this thing can be if it gets and SD off. The basic strategy with this guy is come in on a pokemon that I know can't hurt it and set up an SD, two if possible. After that the goal is to just sweep sweep sweep. If I think a fire attack is coming, I switch to Heatran to absorb it and let it take over. Most defensive walls can't even take a hit from Lucario after 2 SD's, so I'm not really worried about getting stalled.

The Unexpected Twist
(Sorry, I couldn't find a sprite for Rotom-C)
Rotom-C @ Leftovers
Modest
252 HP/ 168 Def/ 88 Spe
~Thunderbolt
~Shadow Ball
~Will-o-wsip
~Leafstorm

Yes, it sticks out like a sore thumb, but there is actually some reasoning behind it. One major problem I noticed with my team is that I could have some serious trouble against a MixPert. At this point, I pretty much have no sure fire way of taking out. The only hope I would have is my MixPert, but if thats gone I'm pretty much screwed. So, here it is, Rotom-C on a Sandstream team. Thunderbolt and Shadow ball for STAB, Will-o-wisp to cripple physical attackers that could be a threat, and Leafstorm to OHKO a Swampert. It does the job that I made it for, but its not my favorite thing to be using, so any suggestions here on a replacement would be really appreciated.

Another thing I'd like help with is a way of stopping a DD Gyra. In the games I've played I've taken it out or crippled it before its gotten one off, but I think if it gets one off I'll be in some serious trouble, so any help with that could be really appreciated.

Ok, I'm done now. Have at it.

 

[kd24]

hi, cool team, pretty standard just a few fixes i would like to suggest.

first, i realize you like hippo as a lead but you have a ddgyara and infernape weakness of sorts. have you considered occa berry metagross? I usually dont support specialized leads like that but i think something that can sr, explode to take out gyarados, and lure in heatran / infernape only to ohko back with earthquake would be a fine replacement over hippowdon on this team. you also lose that auto ss for right away, possibly allowing rotom-h to come in without taking ss damage which is always a plus.

basically, i love hippo but hes generally more geared towards stall while your team is built around sandstorm + bulk attacking, and therefore metagross would probably fit this better, taking out everything you mentioned with eq, explosion, or bp. also, this isnt anything official but in my experience, i usually find it required to have 2 priority users (in this case lucario + gross) on a team, to avoid being trapped in a sudden sweep.

with metagross and everything else, i really dont see why you are so worried about swampert, he doesnt have recovery outside of rest, and if they are using cursepert, they are saving some pursuiters for ghost-types which nullifies rotoms job. i like the originality of rotom here, i just think it could be doing something else, most likely reflect. this gives you extra super protection against physical attackers (wow / reflect) or even light screen as it shuts down pert (physical versions wont touch you while being wisped and special attacks wont break through light screen quick enough).
or if you really want to try something interesting, you can try your hand with scarfgengar / lo gengar (the latter beating ddgyara and mence which is always really helpful on a team like this). lo gengar though is handy for just beating everything. all in all though, i would stick with rotom until it feels like dead weight and then try out scarfgengar.

 

[Gir!]

Well, first of all, Im gonna say something that has been really common this last few days: Weak to SD Lucario. Your only real response against him is Heatran, and thats if he manages to come in into anything not named Close Combat, you got no Pokemon who can reliably kill him. Now, you might say. "Well ,I got hippowdon to take care of him" well, here are some calculation after 1 SD

Damage: 342 - 403
Damage: 81.43% - 95.95%

Thats factoring Max Attack and adamant nature, yet, you see it has a small chance of OHKO it SR is in play, and trust me, it usually is.

Now, another problem I see is your weakness to MixPert after Rotom and your own Swampert are gone, as most of your team is 2HKO by him.

 

[StealingUrAir]

Thanks for the advice, KD24. I'm gonna try out the gross idea on Shoddy. I also like the ideas for Rotom and ScarfGengar, I think I'll try those too and see how they work out.

Gir, Heatran usually comes in after Lucario has already sweeped a pokemon, so Heatran can take it down with flamethrower since extreme speed won't OHKO. But I see what your saying, and if Heatran's gone I'm pretty much done lol any suggestions on how I can fix that?

 

[kd24]

well to be fair, lucario doesnt get a single chance to set up 1 swords dance on anything other than tar pursuit (and maybe heatran locked in a wrong move but that will be rare). what i would suggest perhaps, is to replace choice band for an expert belt on ttar, as well as put fire blast on, possibly over aqua tail. this switch will pretty much always fool a user of sd lucario. however, the real reason for this switch is you lack a good way to beat skarm + bliss, so fooling skarm to come in on ttar allows you to fire blast it to hell and hopefully break through tough defenses.

 

[haunter]

I don't see this massive Lucario weakness: yes, it can set up on TTar and maybe eliminate one pokemon, but scarf-Tran will prevent it from sweeping and, by the way, Hippowdon is probably the only physical wall which can take even a +2 life orb'd CC.

I would be a lot more worried about Gyarados: offensive variants can pose a massive threat to your team considering that your best answer to Gyarados (Rotom) must be almost at full health to take a +1 life orb'd waterfall (which does up to 77% to the said Rotom). Sadly Swampert is 2hko'd by offensive Gyarados, and since Swampert and Hippowdon seem pretty redundant on the same team, I would replace Swampert with a Vaporeon, which may also help with Infernape. Infernape can be a problem and you have to play around it with prediction, especially against mix-Ape.
So my suggestion is:

Vaporeon@leftovers
nature: bold
EVs: 188 HP / 252 Def / 68 SAtk
-wish
-protect
-surf
-hidden power electric

I believe that with this pokemon your team will be a lot more solid and it will aslo provide wish support.

Good luck!

 

[Elevator Music]

I'm going to have to agree with Haunter that using Pert and Hippo on the same team is fairly redundant. Replacing Swampert with Vaporeon will go a long way for your team, furthering your insurance against Gyarados and providing Wish support for your fairly bulky team. It also gives you a Water immunity, which your team could really use... However, that leaves you a bit open to Salamence, as with Vaporeon over Pert not only does Mence have an extra pokemon to set up on, you also lost what was probably your best switchin to it. So, to get rid of the Mence weakness that you would possibly create by taking out Swampert, I'm going to suggest two things.

One is to put Ice Fang over Stone Edge on Hippowdon and take 12 EVs from HP and pace them in Attack. This puts you one above a number divisible by 16 for your HP, making it optimal for switching into entry hazards/leftovers/etc, but more importantly it guarentees you will OHKO a 4 HP Salamence after SR damage. It's a small change but in some circumstances it may be helpful.

The second change would be to replace Rotom-c (who really doesn't serve much of a purpose anymore). You have a few options here, but ultimately you're looking for a few things, namely the ability to switch into Fighting/Ground attacks, the ability to check Swampert, and a means of combatting Salamence, whether that be directy or indirectly, all while not being redundant on your team. Two pokemon I can think of off the top of my head are Celebi or Gliscor, though neither of them do al the things you would want them to do. Celebi can TWave Salamence, making it much easier for you team to revenge kill. It also easily checks Swampert (though tbh you shouldn't be too worried about it with Vaporeon as you can kinda stall it out via Wish+Protect). Unfortunately, it's defensive capabilities overlap a lot with Vaporeon. Gliscor, on the other hand, is probably much more reliable at taking on Salamence, but kinda overlaps with Hippowdon and doesn't do much else for the team, not to mention Swampert destroys it (but like I said you DO have Vappy to fall back on)

Cresselia coud technically work as well, but I'm only mentioning her, not reccomending her as she's kind of deadweight and invites Scizor and Tyranitar in against you (though to be fair you can handle them relatively well...). Moonlight also won't work as well in SS, which is another turnoff.

If you can think of something better over Rotom-c, I suggest trying it out. I would also say, try Celebi over Rotom first, then Gliscor, then anything else.

---

Another thing is that I would also agree with kd24 that using a MixTar with Expert Belt over your current CBTar would also help out your team a lot. I don't really see what CBTar does for you currently that Expert Belt MixTar coudn't do for you. Stone Edge, Fire Blast, Crunch, and either Ice Beam, Earthquake, or Pursuit in the last sot shoud be fine.

 

[StealingUrAir]

I see your point about using Vaporeon, Haunter. I'll definetly try it out.
I'm glad you guys don't see a huge SD Lucario weakness either. Elevator I'm gonna put ice fang on hippowdon with the extra EV's and see how that works out, that would do alot against my mence weakness. MixTar doesn't seem like a bad idea either, I do kinda feel like having a CB Tar really limited what it could do for the team. Thanks guys