Sand Sweep

[Xand3r]

This is my attempt at a sandstorm team, and it is going really well so far. I am 28 and 17 on showdown which is good for me.

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 96 Spd / 160 HP
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Tail
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Superpower

T-Tar is a beast. Natural bulk plus an hp bonus allows him to almost always beat other weather pokemon. His attack gets crazy high with the his choice band. I am thinking about switching aqua tail for ice punch because I have barely used aqua tail. Overall, T-Tar kills almost all psychics/ghosts with pursuit and everything else with superpower.

Gengar @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Pain Split
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

I have used this set with gengar before, but on this team he shines. He switches in on any fighting move and uses sub. Going back and forth between shadow ball and focus miss brings his health down. He then pain splits to nearly kill another pokemon. He usually gets two KOs.

Latios (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Psyshock
- Trick

There are nearly no pokemon who can take a draco from latios. He hits hard, and then he leaves. His other moves have helped a lot also. Trick can severely cripple a pokemon, and allow me to sweep with more coverage.

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 172 HP / 252 SAtk / 84 Spd
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Thunder Wave
- Substitute

Magnet pull allows me to get rid of pretty much all steel types. I used to use hp grass for gastrodon, but I have celebi which freed up magnezone for an hp fire. He guarantees a kill on ferrothorn with sub. Sub also helps to prevent status effects. Many amoongus users have rage quit when they can't get their spore off. He helps against rain teams and can take an outrage or two.

Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 Spd
Bold Nature
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Leech Seed
- Recover

The ultimate tank seeder on my team. It can take minimal damage from any neutral or resisted hit. Recover doesn't get much usage, but it helps when it does. Hp fire again to get surprise kills.

Sandslash @ Lum Berry
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge

The best sandstorm abuser on my team. When in sand, nothing ever outspeeds him. He can scare away a pokemon to setup a sword dance. After one sd, he destroys everything. The rapid spin is an added bonus to get rid of the junk the ferrothorns and tenticruels leave behind. Lum berry helps against poison and burns (he never gets paralyzed).

My team is able to preform well in and out of the sand. I haven't been missing it, but would a stealth rock help on T-Tar or someone. Any comment is appreciated. Tell me how I can get stronger. Thanks in advance.

 

[Joeyboy]

Cool sand team dude :)

So the number on threats to this team are Tornadus-T and Genesect-Dugtrio teams. The only pokemon are your team who resists Tornadus-T's Hurricanes is Magnezone; unfortunately if it switches in it is out sped and subsequently finished by Tornadus-T's Fighting-type coverage. The first suggestion is to change your current Magnezone to a Choice Scarf Magneton. The set I recommend is:

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Magneton @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Def
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunder / Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]

This set plays very similarly to your current one, trading bulk for speed. Choice Scarf Magneton out speeds Tornadus-T, which allows it to switch in to Hurricane and threaten with a Volt Switch.

My next suggestion is to help against the Genesect-Dugtrio combination that is all over the OU ladder. Your team does not want to lose the weather war, if it does numerous pokemon threaten to completely overwhelm you. The strength of the GeneTrio combo is that it allows many weather teams to remove Tyranitar with little effort. With that, I suggest you replace Tyranitar with a SpDef Hippowdon. The set I recommend is:

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Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Atk
Careful Nature
IVs: 25 Def
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Ice Fang

This 'mon will never be trapped by the likes of Dugtrio, and it can set up Stealth Rocks(something you were missing!) against the very present lead Genesect. The lowered Def IVs ensure Genesect gets a +Atk boost, making its Ice Beams even weaker against Hippowdon. This Hippo will still bring the Sand your team enjoys while also bringing utility and bulk to your team.

Smaller changes I recommend; while Celebi gets flack for being so weak to Genesect something I've found to be horribly effective on it is Thunder Wave. Celebi's two biggest switch ins are Genesect and Tornadus-T, Thunder Wave puts both of them in a world of hurt. I suggest running Thunder Wave over Leech Seed. Celebi loses some of its passive recovery/damage but Thunder Wave will cripple a lot of top tier pokemon.

Finally I suggest running Life Orb over Lum Berry on Sandslash. With +2 Atk and a Life Orb Sandslash is guaranteed to OHKO the bulkiest of Jellicent, the only ghost who might block your spins.

Good Luck!

 

[Harlot]

hey man, cool sand team.

as joeyboy mentioned, dugtrio / genesect teams especially when paired with tornadus are your biggest threats. first of all, i fully support his changing of tyranitar to specially defensive hippowdon. hippowdon is virtually dugtrio proof, which is an amazing trait to have in a metagame as infested with dugtrio as this.

hippowdon set

Hippowdon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind

this is pretty much the set that joeyboy posted above me. the only change i'd recommend over his set is whirlwind over ice fang. as uncommon as it is right now calm mind latias can be a problem for your team, especially if it wins the speed tie vs. gengar. whirlwind hippowdon can somewhat alleviate this so you can revenge kill it with another mon later in the game.

changing from tyranitar to hippowdon leaves you very vulnerable to offensive variants of heatran, so another change i think you should make is using specially defensive rotom-w over magnezone. i don't think magnezone has much utility on this team, as it's main goal is to trap genesect and other steels. the problem with this that offensive steels only come in on latios and celebi, both of which they will uturn out of. so unless you plan on double switching to magnezone, you aren't going to be trapping them. rotom-w accomplishes most of the main goals as magnezone with similar effectiveness but with one key difference: it beats tornadus-t and heatran.

rotom-w set

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 32 SAtk / 228 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-o-Wisp
- Pain Split

the given evs on this rotom set allow you to always ohko tornadus-t in rain and always ohko gliscor as well.

tl;dr:
specially defensive hippowdon over tyranitar
specially defensive rotom-w over magnezone

that's pretty much all i have to say. hope i helped, gl with the team.

 

[Xand3r]

Thanks for responding both of you guys. I have been playing with joeyboys' changes, and about half of the changing I am going to keep. Troll, I am trying your suggestions now. I hope it goes well. I agree with the rotom thing. Mag hasn't been the most helpful unless it is ferrothorn.

 

[Gimmick]

Hi Xand3r!

I really like the offensive nature of this team while holding a few nice defensive cores, like Celebi/TTar. However, I can see some possible changes with your Celebi. Firstly, you mentioned that you don't really like Recover. Of course, on an offensive team as this, sometimes Recover may reduce pressure on the opponent, allowing them to gain some momentum of their own. Firstly, Giga Drain has pseudo-recovery and is a bit more reliable than Grass Knot. Although Grass Knot can get massively powerful, it's just too inconsistent especially on a defensive pivot like Celebi. For example, Grass Knot has 60 BP when hitting Politoed while Giga Drain has 15 more at 75 and recovers a ton of HP. One of Celebi's best jobs, though, is to be able to switch into Rotom-W and easily take it down, but Grass Knot only has a depressing 20 BP when used against it. So, get rid of Grass Knot for Giga Drain. With that, you now have 3 ways to recover HP, so I'd get rid of either Leech Seed or Recover for Psychic. Leech Seed allows you to put a bit more pressure on the opponent, but you don't have a definite or large amount of recovery. Recover is a quick and easy way to heal off hits, but it gives your opponent a free switch, which can't be good against a team like this. It depends on your preference, but I'd get rid of Recover. Psychic supplies extremely rounded coverage, allowing you to hit Flying types as well as massacre the many Fighting types that your blessed typing resists. For example, Psychic allows you to beat Breloom 1 on 1 as well as put a huge dent in Pokemon like Conkeldurr or Virizion (which can hurt once Latios is down). So, your final Celebi set should look a little something like this:

@ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Giga Drain
- Psychic
- Leech Seed / Recover
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Hope this helps! :] Good luck in your future endeavors~

 

[Xand3r]

Gimmick, I'm glad you can see the true nature of this team. I will definitely try the new celebi. Although, the t wave has been helpful to spread around para. I think psychic will help though. Thanks for responding.