Gen 7 RATE THIS GEN7 (OU) SAND BASED TEAM

[MarsHunter]

First, I'm brazilian, so forgive me if I made some writing mistakes

I've builtthis team when I first joined into competitive games, I want to see what can I change in it to improve it's effectivity. I think it's a pretty good team and it made me climb actually really fast os the ladder reaching much higher positions.

It's a sand based team, so I choose this Tyranitar as a sandstorm setter:

Tyranitar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge​

Tyranitar is a very strong pokémon and can be used in many ways. To this team I preffered to use it in my deffensive core to start the sandstorm and to block some threats.
Pursuit is the leading role move here that allows Tyranitar to block and kill or just give a great ammount of damage at some threats.
It resists to almost anything that hits it with special attacks at least for 2 or 3 turns thanks to the sand stream + assault vest comnination!
Even focus blast Alakazam-Mega only 2HKO this set, but it will never happens since Tyranitar can OHKO Alakazam-Mega with crunch.
As this team lacks a physical sweeper Tyranitar can do this job since with this set it has a massive 304 atk, wich ih VERY GREAT for a wall.

The second slot in my deffensive core is actually the ace on my sleeve, wich is Cradily

Cradily @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Mirror Coat
- Recover
- Giga Drain​

With great special deffense and HP plus the storm drain ability Cradily is a wall capable of scare almost any threat that tries to sweep this team.
Due to storm drain it's spA is raised in 1 stage after hit by water type attack wich allows a great damage with giga drain to any pokémon that it hits supereffective or neutrally. Leftovers + Recover + Giga Drain provides a great sustain to Cradily.
Toxic is for some threats that can be brought into switch and mirror coat speak for itself.
Even if not in the sandstorm to receive the 50% spD buff it can survive even specs greninja ice beam (wich hits it 4x) and bring it down with mirror coat. Alakazam-Mega, Gardevoir-Mega and almost any special sweeper in the meta should fear it.

The deffensive wall of this team speaks for itself too. Skarmory has a great deffense and HP as well as a great typing wich allows it to stall a lot of physical sweepers that can try to bring damage to the team.

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Spikes
- Defog​

Rocky helmet is for spinners or even just to bring some damage to some sash variants of physical sweepers like bisharp or Excadrill. It's flying type also prevents the team from.beeing harmed by landorus, Excadrill or Garchomp wich one of them that have very strong supereffectives stabbed earthquakes lol. Defog is the only hazard control wich makes skarmory a important member of that team. Spikes are for switch im set ups, roost for sustain and brave bird to bring some damage.

Now, we've reached the most exciting oart of the team (at least for me), the offensive core. As I wanted a very solid team with a lot of coverages and ability to sweep and stall even in the same match. A team wich can deffend and counter attack effectivily, I also looked for a team that could bring me a lot of damage to my opponents if I wanted to be agressive.

The first sweeper is Diancie-Mega, but sometimes it's not even necesary to mega evolve it, since thanks to Diancie great deffense stats and the Tyranitar sandstorm it can be used as a wall too.

Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
- Protect
- Psyshock​

Diancie is a real MONSTER! Mega evolved it's very strong and fast. Diamond storm is a great stab move as so moonblast. Diamond storm has a coin flip chance of sharply raising Diancie's deffense wich I think is so overpowered that Diancie should be on Ubers. Moonblast is a great move to that hits hard at almost anything. Psyshock is for toxapex and some spD walls that resist diamond storm (wich is a physical move).
Protect is for preventing Loppuny-Mega fake out, for stalling and for bring damage too. As some of the main threats of this team are Loppuny-Mega and Hawlucha, as both of them will try to hit diancie with a strong Hi Jump Kick, protect gives Diancie a chance to help the team more effectivily.

As the second threat we have my FAVORITE mon in the team: Heatran.

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earth Power​

Flash fire is to cover some fire type moves that could hurt skarmory or Magnezone as well as boost Heatran's fire blast power. Even a Charizard-Mega-Y will have problems of it get's hit by a stabbed fire blast + flash fire im the sun.
Flash cannon is for fairy and rock types, and earth power for opposing modest Heatran, toxapex, or any.other poison, rock or steel types.
Hidden Power Ice is for OHKO Garchomp or Landorus, the last one is easily outspeeded if it doesn't run choice scarf.

To finish the team we have another beast, wich is magnezone.

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]​

Magnezone's main role in this team is to trap and deal with opposing ferrothorn, Magearna, Scizor, Skarmory or Magnezone as well.
Hidden power fire can deal with all of them, but for Skarmory discharge seem te bo more useful.
Flash canon is again for fairy and rock types, discharge is the main eletric move and volt switch is here for gain some mommentum and scape some threats.

I hope u all liked my team. In my opinion, with all humildity, is a VERY GOOD team with a great sinnergy bettween all of it's members, great coverage, and hability to switch between gameplay styles.
With this team, one is able to go for an all out attacker gameplay, a great stalling with many wallbreakers and a balanced style wich is recommended.
It's possible to change.the style in the same match and I think this versality is the main reason why I got way up in the ladder.

 

[Diophantine]

Sand Balance is a pretty viable team archetype in this tier, and this team has potential. There are some things that I'd change to suit the metagame more, however.

Firstly, I'd replace Cradilly with Ferrothorn. Cradilly, while good at walling Special attackers, can be pretty passive and and sometimes be a "do nothing" type of Pokemon. Ferrothorn, however, has powerful attacks, hazards and Leech Seed, so it gets a lot more utility out of coming in. You could chip things with a Leech Seed, set up some hazards, chip things for damage as they switch in. Stealth Rocks are pretty necessary in this tier to keep a lot of threats in check. Spikes can't touch Flying and Levitating Pokemon, so Stealth Rocks is used to chip them. I would go with this. You can replace Gyro Ball with something like Knock Off, Thunder Wave, or whatever suits your taste. I went with this to deter Tornadus from switching in.

Very small note, but I'd give Tyranitar 32 Attack EVs and 224 HP EVs, as this still lets it do all of its defensive capabilities by hitting its intended benchmarks while getting a few nicer damage rolls with its attacks. This is optional, however, as you can always do with a few extra HP just in case.

I would also change up the Skarmory set. I think that Counter is pretty good to have, as it lets us have a better way of dealing with Mega Mawile, Kartana, Mega Charizard X, Mega Swampert and any other Physical attackers that threaten Skarmory. Let's go with Roost, Counter and Spikes. We can use Defog too, if we want. We could also replace the Rocky Helmet with Shed Shell or Leftovers, as we already punish Physical attackers with Counter. If we do this, however, we are slightly worse off against Scarf Landorus-Therian, as we let it U-Turn for free without predictions.

As for Dianicie, Psyshock seems pretty unnecessary. Earth Power is pretty good for dealing with Heatran and Magearna that think they can switch in for free, as well as still hitting the same benchmark as Psyshock for Toxapex.

Instead of a Choice Scarf Heatran, I think we can go with a Sand Rush Excadrill for speed control. It works much better as a late-game sweeper, it appreciates Magnezone a lot more, and it doesn't get locked into one move. It also hits a nicer speed tier, as Heatran with a Scarf can still be outsped by a number of threatening Pokemon after setting up. You could use this set, or you could go with a Normalium-Z set for Rotom-Wash. Depends on if you want more hazard removal or more sweeping potential. Try both out and see what you think.

Finally, I'd make the Magnezone Specs. I don't think that we need a Scarfed one, since we deal with Kartana pretty well with Skarmory, though if you are scared of Swords Dance Fightinium-Z (you should only be scared of this if you go with Shed Shell instead of Leftovers), then you can feel free to keep it. I'd go with Specs to be able to 2HKO Celesteela more comfortably while punishing a Gliscor, Landorus and Garchomp prediction a lot more with a Flash Cannon.

Here is the team with my edits.

I hope you enjoy :)