RMT Sandstorm Offensive

[Kilink]

Hello Hello Everybody. So first of all I would like to say that this is my first time making a competitive pokemon team so please be mindful. Second of all comes a little backstory of why I'm making this team.

Well a friend of mine and I decided one day that we would both build a new team and battle when they were both ready. Neither of us is really into competitive battling so IV's are not that important for us.

So I was surfin through smogon and remembered I saw some team guides in the Article Section of the D/P part of the home page.

I browsed through "Playing in the Sandbox" for a while and decided to try having a Sandstorm team.

So the first thing I did was choose my Lead. The obvious choice for me was Tyranitar, even though I like Hippodown better I felt a certain...attraction to Tyranitar. Besides his STAB Pursuit and Stone Edge proves for a nice basis against major threats for the team(A.K.A Special Attackers) also the 50% plus on his defense makes him a monster :)

Once I decided on my lead I could see Lucario following the list. He is a nice fighting type pokemon that can help me kill Dark, Steel, Ice and Rock pokemon easily, specially those who get the benefit of increased DEF. from my sandstorm. Also he being a steel type he can resist lots of different types including poison. Extreme speed also comes in handy since with a couple of Sword Dances he can turn into an unstoppable force.

Another Physical Attacker that can help me sweep grass, electric, ice, flying and bug pokemon is Mamoswine. With STAB earthquake and Ice Shard he is truly powerful. It is a little risky to present him in front of a Grass type but with Ice Shard as a priority attack he has a nice advantage, all this plus his massive attack.

Needing a Special Sweeper I found a good Magnezone would do the job. His Magnet Pull is great since he can kill all the Steel types with a combination of this and HP Fire. This is the only one I have with perfect IV's since I got him on a trade here. Leftovers and Subsitute prove a nice combination since he can heal the damage back and being a steel type he has few weaknesses. Also Magnet rise elminates the threats of ground type. He is useful against weak to fire Pokemon and those pesky Water Types that can OHKILL most of my ground pokemon.

Moving on to the Wall part of the team I found Gliscor useful for setting a nice Baton Pass Sword Dance for other team members such as Mamoswine and Tyranitar. He can heal with roost and a Yache berry reduces the damage done by ice types. His awesome defense and STAB Earthquake can damage if needed.

Finally I chose Swampert...why? After considering different pokemon for the team I realized most of them would get OHKO by a fighting attack or a fighting type pokemon since most would be Ice, Rock and Steel. This swampert gives a nice defense coverage with Earthquake and Avalanche. Curse plus Rest is deadly since once he has buffed himself he can rest to heal and come back to action thanks to a Chesto berry and OHKILL with either Earthquake or Avalanche.

After reading the two responses I decided that it would look good if I combined both suggestions into one. I popped in Hippowdon as a Lead since its better to use stealth rock and roar for scouting than using Gliscor for setting up a batton pass swords dance. I also added Flygon, his fireblast is good to deal with Grass Pokemon and U-Turn is good to get a free switch. I couldn't, though, get a HP Ice magnezone...I don't know how to breed one.

So this is a more in depth pokemon by pokemon glance at my team.

Hippowdon@Leftovers
[Sand Stream] Impish
252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
~Earthquake
~Stealth Rock
~Roar
~Slack Off

His enormous amount of HP makes him a better lead than Scarftar. He can also set up Sandstorm and Stealth rock as well as still pack a nice punch with STAB Earthquake. His Roar is good for getting rid of pesky pokemon that may OHKO him.

Lucario@Life Orb
[Steadfast] Jolly
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
~Extremespeed
~Close Combat
~Stone Edge
~Sword Dance

Lucario is pretty much the main sweeper since he has very few weaknesses and helps clean a path for other Steel, Rock and Ice pokemon that can affect very much the entire team. Swords dance can give an enourmous boost and better if he receives support from Gliscor's Sword Dance.

Magnezone@Leftovers
[Magnet Pull] Timid
40 Atk / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
~Thunderbolt
~Magnet Rise
~HP Fire
~Substitute

Special sweeper and a major threat against steel since it is also one of the weaknesses of the team. He can special attack kill most targets and resist with substitute. Kiss earthquake goodbye with a nice positiones 5 turn magnet rise. T-Bolt makes a nice STAB damage.

Tyranitar@Choice Scarf
[Sand Stream] Jolly
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Pursuit
Crunch
Earthquake
Stone Edge

The main character of this team he is in charge of setting up the storm. His STAB moves, specially Pursuit makes him a great lead since he can Kill the escaping pokemon easily and still survive most of the attacks that would OHKO him with the 50%+ to his defense from the Sand Storm.

Flygon@Choice Scarf
[Levitate] Jolly
252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 Spe
~Earthquake
~Fireblast
~Outrage
~U-Turn

I have always believed U-Turn to be a good move. This pokemon can take down the mostly feared Grass type using his Fireblast or even his U-Turn for a free switch. Levitate proves vital for any pesky grass knots...I guess. What I really like the most is his ability to revenge kill an Infernape.

Swampert@Chesto Berry
[Torrent] Careful
252 HP / 40 Def / 216 SpD
~Earthquake
~Avalanche
~Curse
~Rest

Late game sweeper cursepert is great for...well...late game. He can increase defense and attack at the cost of speed which in turn is good for avalanche since chances are he will take damage. If needed he can Rest+Chesto berry to bounce back for a STAB Earthquake and a double damage Avalanche.

______________________________________________________________

MY NEW WORRY IS THAT NOW HALF MY POKEMON ARE JOLLY, IS THAT BAD?


REMOVED:

Mamoswine@Choice Band
[Snow Cloak] Adamant
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
~Ice Shard
~Ice Fang
~Earthquake
~Stone Edge

Mamoswine takes care of most of the Bug and Grass pokemon who are a major threat against the team. He has priority Ice Shard so, even though a little risky to face a grass type that could Leaf Storm kill him his priority plus a Sword Dance can easily kill grass types.

Gliscor@Yache Berry
[Sand Veil] Jolly
252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 Spev
~Sword Dance
~Baton Pass
~Roost
~Earthquake

Mostly used to give a little sword dance boost to attackers like Tyranitar and Mamoswine. Also roost and defense makes him really hard to kill. His STAB earthquake and inmunity to electric types and ground moves make him good at taking hits. His x4 weakness to ice is extremely dangerous specially if we are taking about a mamoswine but I hope Yache Berry will be enough.

 

[Th3 Ac3r]

The first thing that I see is a glaring weakness to a MixApe carrying grass knot, as he OHKO's most of your team with CC, and is faster than your entire team as well. If I were you I would run a Hippowdon lead like this:
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Nature: Impish
EV's: 252 HP l 168 Def l 88 Sp Def
~ Earthquake
~ Stealth Rock
~ Slack Off
~ Roar

He gets out rocks reliably, and is able to roar out some of the team before he goes down to scout and deal additional damage. You can still have a Tyranitar if you feel a certain pull to him, just leave him for later in the match. Also Hippowdon can come in (if you saved him) on an Infernape and OHKO with a SE Earthquake. Also, I think you should take out Swampert and add in a Wish passer Jirachi/Vaporeon. I would go Vaporeon, but thats just my personal preference.

 

[Setsuna]

I don't exactly know what to interpret when you said that "IV's are not that important for you", but if you have been testing this team on Shoddy then that's not a problem at all since IVs are an automated feature. On with the rate, there are a few things I would like to point out. First off, the idea of leading with ScarfTar is not too good, since it fails to beat the most common leads in OU (Aerodactyl, Swampert, Metagross, Machamp...), and means that from the very beginning of the game you'll have your first Pokemon locked into a move that may not be effective against every mon of the opponent's team, fact that could cause a breach in your own Pokemon party. On the other hand, I find Gliscor not to be benefiting your team that much if the idea is to pass a boost to either Mamoswine or Tyranitar, who happen to be packing a Choice item that prevent them from choosing moves freely. In order to remedy these two problems, I suggest first moving Gliscor to the lead position and use the following set instead: Earthquake / Stealth Rock / Taunt / Roost with a Jolly nature and the EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe, with Leftovers as the item. By interchanging the position of Tyranitar and Gliscor, respectively, and using the above listed set, you'll start off the things much better in almost every game you'll play. Gliscor now has the possibility to serve as a useful Stealth Rock user and still a solid check to some common Pokemon such as Lucario and Machamp, while on the other hand Tyranitar now plays the function of a trapper and does not have to worry anymore about things like getting stucked into an unfortunate move. Having said this, another detail I would like to mention is that I think you could abstain from using Mamoswine since the only thing it does is to add one more weakness to Fire-type moves; considering how weak this team is to almost every variant of Infernape, I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to remove Mamoswine and place Flygon instead, specifically ScarfFlygon. By using ScarfFlygon you still keep that invaluable immunity to Electric-type moves, add one to Fire-types, and also contribute to the team in general with a fast and useful revenge killer who can dispose of a lot of Pokemon when needed, such as Infernape and Salamence, for instance.

Finally, I recommend you to change the Hidden Power Fire to Ice on Magnezone, so that you will be able to hit Dragon- and Ground-type Pokemon effectively -- HP Fire has no point since Magnezone can kill off Scizor and Forretress by using STAB Thunderbolts. You pack Substitute, so a Superpower from Scizor could be prevented from hitting on the target.

Not a bad team overall, gl.

 

[Kilink]

I don't exactly know what to interpret when you said that "IV's are not that important for you", but if you have been testing this team on Shoddy then that's not a problem at all since IVs are an automated feature.

Thanks for the advice. What I mean with that is that we play wireless and neither of us has POKESAV or knows how to RNG abuse, thus neither of our pokemon have perfect IV's except for my Magnezone which I got from here.

More suggestions are welcomed.

 

[ginganinja]

I still don't like how this tea mstill gets hammered by Machamp and Infernape. Flygon can outspeed INfernape but Repeated Fire Blasts will eventually take their toll. I think that a Gliscor can lead much better than Hipowdon can. Use Setsuna's set.

I also think that a Bulky Gyarados can work over magnetzone to check Infernape and to take Fire Blasts as well. It still takes care of scizor and is an excellent check to scarf Heatran. With Gliscor in the lead and Gyarados in the team Infernape will be no problem and machamp will also have less of a threat to the team.

Have a Nice Day!

 

[c.falcon-arrgh]

I disagree with the above post.

Firstly swampert can take out infernape easily as even a life orb grass knot fails to OHKO (77.23% - 91.09%), while swampert easily kills infernape with earthquake.

Gliscor doesn't lead better than hippowdon because firstly, this is a sandstorm team and getting sandstorm up to break lead sash is always a good idea. Second, hippowdon has the bulk to deal with most leads and can do everything gliscor can do with the exception of taking a sleep, and there's not much leads that sleeps you nowadays (smeargle are rarely seen and roserade may either miss or go for leaf storm instead)

Also, switching magnezone to gyarados is a bad idea, because should roserade lead be encountered, he will have nobody to take the leaf storm except lucario who is still going to take a large hit anyway. Apart from that, magnezone is his only special attacker (not counting flygon because it has like 0 sp.att EV and isn't going to do much to physical walls either) Which helps in both trapping steel types and acts as a reliable skarmory switch in so he doesn't get whirlwinded to death.

for magnezone i think you should get either flash cannon instead of magnet rise instead, because firstly you are not going to outspeed a great deal of things and use ground attacks, unless you switch into something locked into a resisted move, sub, and magnet rise while your opponent breaks your sub. However, it would be much more viable if you just attack your opponent while he breaks your sub, and switch to something that is immune to ground (flygon). This way it will give you a decent option vs tyranitar, or if you opt to go for explosion it can go out with a bang.

I can't think of any pokemon that can outright sweep this team, although some pokemons are pretty threatening to you. For example, a salamence that sets up a dragon dance while your tyranitar is locked into pursuit would be quite deadly because you only can either go to hippowdon, take the outrage and roar it out, or risk it actually dragon dancing and go to flygon while he's dancing, and hope he isn't jolly, and KO with outrage.

Starmie is also a pretty big threat, seeing you have not a single pokemon that resist water type, and hydro pump will wear down magnezone eventually (might even 2HKO), so I suggest that you get a scarf celebi instead, and replace either swampert or flygon. Although celebi may seem strange in a sandstorm team, it provide useful resistance to grass, ground, fighting and water, and has great psynergy with tyranitar (only bug is feared from both sides). It helps in taking care of water type sweepers like starmie, and can also act as a decent salamence revenge if you give it hp ice and timid nature.

Otherwise, this is a pretty good team.

 

[ginganinja]

@c.Falcon

Its true that Swampert can take an Grass Knot however the issue it that you lack a viable switch in to Infernape. The fact that the team has fallen to relying on Swampert to check Infernape just shows how vulnerable to it the team is. 1v1 Swampert wins however it needs to0 be on almost full health to be safe, and, as stated, it canot switch in to Infernape since a Fire Blast + Grass Knot will most likely KO.
I guess the point is that why Infernape is not sweeping the team you lack ANY reliable switch in. (No Swampert does not count).

Currently the team has a 3x weakness to Grass, Ground and Fighting.

If you add Celebi over the team over Swampert you drop your 3x grass weakness foran extra 3x Fire weakness and an extra Ice Weakness.

IF you add Celebi over Flygon nothing changes (still have a 3x weakness to fighting, Ground and Grass) however you recive another Fire Weakens as well and make your tea malready more weak to infernape.

Sure Setsuna's (and mine) Gliscor suggeston does not get SS up immediatly but since he is runnig a scarf Tar SS will be up soon anyway. SandStorm is not like rain, it is not needed to get up immediatly for the team to be effective. while I will not deny that SS help if you get it up first it is not essential. Gliscor and Gyarados (together) mean that the fighting, Fire and Ground Weaknesses are less severe which helps the team as a whole. In regards to the Roserade senario, remember I was suggesting Gyarados in conjuction with Gliscor. sure, none of the team like taking a Leaf Storm but as the team stands, it still does not like taking a leaf storm anyway and Magnetzone (your grass "counter") will hate switching into an HP Fire or Sleep Powder. The lack of a Special attacker is unfortunute I freely admit however the large weaknesses to common attacking types need to be addressed first, and Celebi does not address these weaknesses yet.

Have a Nice Day!

 

[Kilink]

Wow thanks for all the interest. I'm rather new at this so I'm not familiar with all the "threats". Also I will be mainly using this team against a friend of mine in a face to face battle. I'm planning on entering to the Tutoring program once Round 48 starts but still wanted to try and build a team on my own first so I know what aspects I lack.

I'll start considering your suggestions and see how I can improve the team more.