SandStorm Stall and Defensive Boosting

[potatoman42]

This is a sandstorm team that I've been adding too over the past couple of months. Although not concieved to be a proper stall team it sort of is now. There are some glaring holes in this, but I'll get into that later.

*IVs are HP/At/Df/SA/SD/Sp*
*Changes in bold*

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Adamant
Sand Stream
252/32/0/0/224/0
-Earthquake
-Payback
-Stone Edge
-Stealth Rocks
This is the basic LeadTar, although for a different purpose than just owning Azelf, which it still does. The real purpose here is to set up Sandstorm and rocks, but still preserve Hippowdon for later and with a full movepool. EVs and nature are those provided in analysis.

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Impish
Sand Stream
176/0/84/0/248/0
-Earthquake
-Roar
-Stockpile
-Slack Off
Ahh Stockpilopotomas. A huge pain to take out, and contributes to the spirit of this team. I use this thing when Cradily fails, and this thing is weaker, but more versatile version of Cradily. The EVs and Nature are standard defensive.

Cradily @ Leftovers
Calm
Suction Cups
252/0/216/0/40/0
-Recover
-Toxic
-Amnesia
-Reflect
Hey, don't bash it until you try it. Before it's banning, one might cite ythis as one of the few things that could set up on Latias. Sandstorm and a Calm nature give this and instant SpDef boost, from where it can continue to boost whatever defense stat the opponent is attaking with. The big issues this thing faces is well, everything part steel. EVs are standard although I've considered switching it's nature to Bold.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Timid
Natural Cure
136/0/0/0/156/216
- Rapid Spin
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Recover
Suggested by ARandomBoy. I agree that it provides better coverage and fills the role. Put EVs in SpDef, as I am by no means short of physical walls.
Originally Claydol.

Azelf @ Expert Belt
Timid
Levitate
4/0/0/252/0/252
-Flamethrower
-Psychic
-Thunder Bolt
-Grass Knot
I cannot annnunciate how mush I love this thing. He bluffs a choice item, and many are unprepared to deal with Azelf as a non-Lead, especially on such a team. This guy can give me an advantage early on, hitting many top threats in OU for SE. A real team player. The only team member with out lefties *rolls eyes*.

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Impish
Keen Eye
252/0/176/0/60/20
-Spikes
-Roost
-Whirlwind
-Brave Bird
Standard defensive set-up Skarm. A real pain for opponents. and is a crucial member of the team I often find my self often having to sacrifice him, which is something I'd like help avoiding, as with most of the rest of the team.

Closing notes:
-You may notice I have no spin blocker. I have not had an issue with this as of yet had an issue with this.
-The synergy on this team is terrible, if existant at all. Does anyone have any suggestion as to how I can fix this without sacrificing any major roles.
-Please, if I didn't want constructive critisism I wouldn't post this.
-Sprites credit to arkeis.com

 

[Enroyalle]

Your team has gaping weaknesses to Ice and to Water, with 3 weaknesses each and 0 resists. To remedy this, I suggest replacing Claydol with Starmie, who can fill its role equally well (if not better) while provided resists to said types, and helping with that Gyarados weakness.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 136 HP / 156 Def / 216 Spe
Timid nature (+Spe, -Atk)

- Rapid Spin
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Recover

Taken straight from the analysis. This Starmie fits very well into your team. It Rapid Spins just as Claydol does, and although it's not as bulky, it's much quicker and has arguably better typing. It has access to Thunderbolt to squash Gyarados, who is a major threat to this team at the moment.

Hope it helps. :)

 

[HouseFantastic]

Cradily @ Leftovers
Calm

Sandstorm and a careful nature give this and instant SpDef boost,

Kind of a contradiction there, but anyway.

Four of your pokemon are weak to bug, and two of your bug weak pokemon are weak to steel. This means that Scizor, the most commonly used pokemon today in the OU metagame is going to have a field day with your team.

I would like to suggest that you fit a Heatran somewhere on your team. Its steel type would protect it from harm in the sand, and its earth power adds to the strong earth presence in your team.

@choice scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
Nature: Naive/Rash
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
~ Fire Blast / Flamethrower
~ Earth Power
~ Explosion
~ Dragon Pulse

You can pick whatever you prefer for your fire option, but I strongly suggest using a choice scarf so that you can effectively revenge kill scizor, unless it nabs you with a superpower (which might happen, so be sure to scout for superpower or choiced variants before bringing it in on a scizor).

Also, Dragon Pulse is important here because there isn't any way this team could stand up to a dragon assault as it is. Granted that Salamence's status as an OU is not going to last much longer, but I could see Dragonite and Kingdra giving this team a few things to worry about.

 

[potatoman42]

Your team has gaping weaknesses to Ice and to Water, with 3 weaknesses each and 0 resists. To remedy this, I suggest replacing Claydol with Starmie, who can fill its role equally well (if not better) while provided resists to said types, and helping with that Gyarados weakness.

Taken straight from the analysis. This Starmie fits very well into your team. It Rapid Spins just as Claydol does, and although it's not as bulky, it's much quicker and has arguably better typing. It has access to Thunderbolt to squash Gyarados, who is a major threat to this team at the moment.

Hope it helps. :)

Aha! I knew there had to be some obvious alteration I could make. I'll add that, but with SpDef Ev's instead.

Kind of a contradiction there, but anyway.

Oops, halfway through writing this I remembered that -Atk is better on a Pokemon with no attacks and forgot to change it.

I have considered Tran for this team, but there has never been anyone I could swap out for it. I'd also considered Rotom-h, which fills a similar Scizor countering role and is a spin blocker. However, given Salamences recent ban-hammering, *dances with joy* I suspect that Scizor will be less of a problem.