Sand Team!!

[dfiend]

Sand Stall OU


I have always been fond of sandstorm teams, ever since I got my first TTar. I have attempted to make sand stall teams before with little luck. Offensive style seems easier to build, but a slower play style fits me more.





Team Building


For the sand starter, I had 2 choices. I chose Hippowdon for his extra bulk, as well as his access to recovery. Second I need a special wall that could take hits for the team, and heal itself as well. Cradily came to mind. It has an above average Sp.D stat, and gets a boost in SS. After my first two pokes, I have a weakness to ice. Heatran to the rescue. Her bulk, as well as a typing that resists dragon gained her a spot on this team. Next I decided to add a fast mon that could use a hit and run tactic, with great move coverage. Flygon seemed to fit this role well. Since the ice weakness keeps coming up, a Bronzong seemed like a decent choice as a switch in. Last but not least, I need something to clean up the mess. Scizor has a fantastic typing mixed with its bulk and priority STAB.





The Team

​

Hippowdon (M) @ Rocky Helment


Ability: Sand Stream


EVs: 252 HP / 152 Def / 104 SpD


Adamant nature


-Stealth Rock


-Earthquake


-Fire Fang


-Slack Off


This set is designed to get the SR out, and start the SS. With Def investment, Hippowdon is very hard to take down with the rocky helm. Also, slack off is for instant recovery, in case the sandstorm needs to come back later in the game. Fire fang is used over Ice fang because of Skamory and Ferrothorn, both of which can survive in the SS and resist SR.

​

Cradily (M) @ Leftovers


Ability: Suction Cups


EVs: 252 HP / 4 Sp.A / 252 SpD


Sassy nature


-Giga Drain


-Ingrain


-Toxic


-Confuse Ray


This set is designed as a special wall. Giga Drain and ingrain with leftovers insures a good amount of HP back every turn. SS, with Toxic and confuse ray will slowly but surely wear the opponent down. With Suction Cups, Cradily cannot be phased out and the SpD boost from SS makes him incredibly hard to take down.





Heatran (F) @ Air Balloon


Ability: Flash Fire


Evs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe


Calm nature


-Lava Plume


-Will o Wisp


-Protect


-Dragon Pulse


This set is a counter to any ice types that threaten my team. Heatran can either come in on a fire or ground attack, then will o wisp the foe to cripple any physical attackers that will probably switch in. Lava Plume is for STAB, and Dragon Pulse is for dragon pokes that think Heatran is not a problem. Protect is used for scouting moves and add SS and burn damage.





Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf


Ability: Levitate


EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant nature


-Dragon Claw


-Earthquake


-Fire Punch


-U-Turn


Flygon is potentially one of the best Scarf uses out there. It has near perfect coverage in its moves, making it a great revenge killer. Dragon Claw and EQ are for STAB, and fire punch is for Scizor, Ferrethorn, and Skamory. U-Turn is a great move, as it always keeps the enemy guessing, and it’s a good way to get a switch in that will benefit me. Adamant gives a little extra power behind the punch, since Scarf raises the speed.


Bronger (Bronzong) @ Light Clay


Ability: HeatProof


EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Sp.D


Sassy nature


-Light Screen


-Reflect


-Flash Cannon


-Toxic


Bronzong is an excellent stall pokemon on a sand team. With both screens up, the power of moves are cut in half. With Toxic and Sandstorm we have a way to take out bulky walls, and potentially dangerous sweepers. Flash Cannon is used over Gyro Ball because of the extra PP, and since Bronger is a staller, more PP is better.



Scizor (M) @ Life Orb


Ability: Technician


EVs: 252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 SpD


Adamant nature


-Bullet Punch


-Bug Bite


-Sword Dance


-Roost





Scizor, being one of my all-time favorite Pokemon defiantly needed a spot on this team. I chose the slightly bulkier version, as it goes better with my team. BP and Bug Bite are the STAB moves, that both receive technician bonus, and BP being priority. Sword Dance is perfect for this set, as a +2 BP is almost perfect for clean up sweeping. Roost is there to recover from recoil of life orb and any damage Scizor may have taken switching in. ​

Conclusion


This is my first RMT, and I really appreciate you taking the time to read this. I am open to any changes you may have. Thanks ;D​

 

[Shiny Charizard]

If you are pulling off a Sandstorm team, I recommend Tyranitar over Hippowdon. Since you want a Tyranitar that can take hits and switch in, I recommend this set.

Tyranitar- 252 HP, 100 Defense, 156 Special Defense
Ability: Sand Stream
Nature: Careful
Moves: Stealth Rock, Pursuit, Crunch, Superpower
Item: Chople Berry/Leftovers

If you prefer, you could go all out Careful 252 HP, 252 Special Defense, 4 Attack on Tyranitar. Also, your team can't really stand up to high stat special attackers that use HP Ice, mainly Thunderus. However, you can use Stealth Rock and a Tyranitar carrying Crunch counter that. Also, giving Pursuit to Tyranitar makes it that much harder to deal with. There will probably be a lot more experienced users posting here soon, so you should take their advice over mine, but I still recommend Tyranitar. I hope my comments weren't too harsh, and good luck with the team!

-Shiny Charizard

 

[Huntofthelion]

Hi.

Flygon is an OK Pokemon but I think at this point it's outclassed as a Scarfer by Landorus since Landorus is both faster and stronger, which is huge since it can always out speed +1 Salamence and +1 Volcarona while being able to do more damage to almost everything. The only thing you really lose is the neutrality to Stealth Rock and Dragon STAB, but I think it's more than a fair trade off considering the offensive bonuses along with a Fighting resist that you pick up.

Landorus

Landorus @ Choice Scarf
Naive | Sand Force | 252 Spe / 252 Atk / 4 SpA
Earthquake / Stone Edge / U-turn / Hidden Power Ice

Plays a lot like Flygon in the sense that you spam U-turn early game unless you NEED to kill what they have, like if it's a Terrakion that just did Sword Dance or something, and then you clean up late game with whichever move will serve you best. Earthquake is really strong given STAB and the Sand Force boost, Stone Edge hits things immune to EQ and is also boosted by Sand Force, and HP Ice is for coverage against the flying grounds / the flying dragons if you don't want to risk stone edge missing.

Next thing I'd change is finding room for a water resist on your team. It's absolutely mandatory given how prevalent rain teams are, and right now you have no reliable switch in. If sand is up Cradily can tank a few water hits but sand won't always be up and when it's not you're basically going to have to sacrifice something to deal with it. To be perfectly honest you really should have at least two, but the bare minimum is one. I'd suggest using Ferrothorn for that role preferably over Cradily, but you could put it in over Bronzong I guess if you'd rather keep Cradily around since Ferrothorn will also help check Dragons although not as well given the fire issue.

Ferrothorn

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Relaxed | 0 Spe IV| 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Gyro Ball / Leech Seed / Thunder Wave / Power Whip

Standard Ferrothorn, Leech Seed and the two attacks help wear down the other team while Thunder Wave lets you spread paralysis which should help Scizor sweep a little easier and just in general help your team deal with fast threats. You could opt for Spikes to get more passive damage but it's kind of wasted without a spin blocking Ghost, or you could use protect if you'd rather have the scouting and extra turn of leftovers / leech seed that it offers.

Lastly just a few tweaks, Hippowdown would do better with Leftovers instead of a Rocky Helmet because it appreciates any and all healing given that it needs to come in a lot and has to be at good health to keep providing your team sandstorm as well as check physical attackers. Lava Plume and Will-o-wisp is sort of redundant, I'd drop WoW for Earth Power so you can handle other Heatran since right now they're a problem for you. Bronzong might want HP Ice over Toxic to better handle Dragons, definitely something to test out. Also I'd suggest trying to fit a water type somewhere on this team, probably over Bronzong or Cradily, as like I said a second water resist would be great and right now your only fire resist is Heatran which could become an issue if you face Genesect / Dugtrio cores. Rotom-W would probably be my choice, as it can take water attacks, flying attacks from tornadus-t, fire attacks, and provide a volt-turn core in conjunction with Landorus. I'll include the set, but I didn't want to change your team too much and I already changed a lot so I'd classify this one as less important.

Rotom-W

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Modest | 112 HP / 252 SpA / 144 Spe
Volt Switch / Hydro Pump / Pain Split / Will-o-wisp

Standard again, lets you take the attacks I mentioned while still being able to hit back and spread status. Pain split offers more recovery, which is important since you're using a defensive minded team.

Hope this helps, good luck.

 

[brandharro]

I recommend Tyranitar over Hippowdon.

 

[Yeezy D]

Storm Drain over Suction Cups on Cradily. As Hippowdon falls prey to any kind of STAB Special move, namely Scald/Pump/Surf, switching into Cradily who can sponge the damage and convert it to Special Attack, (I think?) it would function the same as Flash Fire Heatran in a switch in from Scizor/Sect that was about to get toasted by a fire-move.

 

[dfiend]

@huntofthelion, I appreciate the criticism, as I know this team needs work. Ttar seems decent instead of hipp, and I'll deff change the flygon to landorus bc I already have one with hp ice. I also like the rotom idea, bc I love volt turn teams. The ferrothorn over cradily also seems usable in place of cradily bc of leech seed. Thanks I will deff use some of these changes.

Just gotta breed for Ivs -.-