Sandstorm Stall-n-Slay-n-Suicide

I've practiced with this team for around a week or so, and I've won most of the time, but I've noticed some major weak points that I try to cover but only end up making it worse, so I'm posing my team here to see if you guys can help. Also, this is my first RMT, so have pity on my soul.

Team at a Glance


In Depth

Tyranitar@Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 240 HP/36 Atk/48 Def/184 SpD
Careful Nature (+SpD, -SpA)
-Taunt
-Counter
-Fire Punch
-Crunch

A standard choice for lead Tyranitar. I start with Tyranitar to obviously activate sand stream. He also acts as a great counter for many common leads, especially suicide leads, such as Azelf, Aerodactly, Celebi, Bronzong, and sometimes Machamp. This Tyranitar usually tricks the foes into Taunting while it lays the first hit, then Counters to kill. Common downfalls of this set are that without health recovery, Tyranitar usually dies after killing one foe. Machamp is a problem because with my luck, I live with Focus Sash, then kill myself in confusion. Without a Rapid Spinner and because of Tyranitar's relatively slow speed, Stealth Rock is usually unavoidable.


Heatran@Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Spe/252 SpA
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
-Fire Blast
-Hidden Power Electric
-Dragon Pulse
-Earth Power

Heatran is very synergetic with both Scizor and Skarmory. He's a great revenge killer, and once he gets a Flash Fire boost, he's usually unstoppable. Heatran's hard to switch in, and admittedly hard to switch out. Skarmory and Gengar take care of Ground attacks, but I honestly have no counter for water attacks, especially specially bulky water types that can take HP Electric..


Scizor@Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EV's: 32 HP/252 Atk/224 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
-Brick Break
-Bullet Punch
-Swords Dance
-X-Scissor

Scizor is just a basic sweeper, and usually sweeps a couple enemies with its 4x boosted Bullet Punch before facing a fire. That's when I switch to Heatran and that's how its synergetic. If you're wondering, 32 HP is for 11 Life Orb attacks.


Gengar@Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA/252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe,-Atk)
-Shadow Ball
-Focus Blast
-Thunderbolt
-Destiny Bond

With 3 immunities vital to this team, Gengar is a fragile counter to water types and that pesky Latias. After 7 attacks or so, or when there is an enemy I have absolutely no counter for, I use Destiny Bond on it, which I find much more efficient than explosion. This Gengar is a mini sweeper and kills most enemies that have no HP or SpD EV's. Just wondering, is Destiny Bond legal?


Skarmory@Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
EV's: 252 HP/62 Atk/176 Def/16 Spe
Impish Nature (+Def, -SpA)
-Brave Bird
-Roost
-Whirlwind
-Spikes

Standard wall, and with both weaknesses either unaffected or absorbed by Hippowdon and Heatran, respectively, it is pretty easy to set up Spikes and Whirlwind till my hearts content. Brave Bird has shocked enemies numerous times. This Skarmory is specially fragile and water attacks do some big damage, and I have nothing to switch to without taking big damage.


Hippowdon@Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP/168 Def/88 SpD
Impish Nature (+Def, -SpA)
-Earthquake
-Stealth Rock
-Yawn
-Slack Off

It's kind of annoying to set up Stealth Rock late in the game, and Sleep Clause is starting to bite me in the butt. Earthquake either doesn't affect or does little damage to most switch ins. Basically, I do my best to wall then use Yawn to hopefully cause a switch, and if they don't switch, then I switch.


This set tries to make the most out of residual damage with Sandstorm, Spikes, and Stealth Rock, but is majorly lacking a special wall. I've searched and there aren't that many special walls that can live in a sandstorm. So, I hope you liked it and may I mention that I went on a 10 in a row winning streak with this set, and in a couple days I rose from 1100 to 1400 in rank. So, I thought that since I had no idea how to keep the synergy of the team and still cover up the problems, I could get help here. Also, Gengar used to be Empolean, but that didn't go too well. O.K. I'm done and I appreciate all comments made, thank you.
 
By the look of this team, you're trying to maintain a solid defense with spikes users, but you have two Life Orbers? Scizor and Gengar are Magnezone and Scizor bait respectively. I suggest replacing both of them for more bulkier counterparts, such as Metagross and Rotom. I know this is changing the team up a bit, but it is needed in order to keep a successful tone with the team.

Now there is a great special wall to use in sandstorm, and its name is Cradily. With its rock typing you also get a boost in Special Defense by 1.5. By replacing Hippowdon with Cradily, you gain a great special wall that can't be roared out, and can setup a late game sweep if needed with SD.

Tyranitar, you can drop counter for SR, so you have an early game entry hazard. Then just replace the item for Lum Berry, as you have a nice 1 time status absorber with that.

These changes will change the team drastically in some ways, but I feel they are needed for this team. Good luck with the team, and hope you at least try the suggestions before you form your opinion on them!
 
ok ill try cradily, but metagross adds another ground weakness that i cannot afford, and rotom is a good idea, but I sort of need speed right now. Gengar also has destiny bond, a unique feature to assure a kill. Tyranitar may need a change and ill see how it goes, but this counter set is working like a charm. if I were to give it stealth rock instead of counter I might as well give it a whole new set. Thanks for the advice though, Cradily will hopefully help against water types like suicune.
 
To be honest, your team seems to have a huge MixApe problem. Heatran can try to revenge kill it, but if you send Heatran in hastily your opponent will know its Scarfed. To solve this problem, replace Gengar with Tentacruel.

Tentacruel@ Black Sludge
Liquid Ooze
Calm nature (+Sp. Defense, -Attack)
252 HP/120 Defense/136 Sp. Defense

Surf
HP Electric
Rapid Spin
Toxic Spikes

Surf is your STAB move, while HP Electric hits Gyarados, Vaporeon and other bulky waters. Rapid Spin dosen't need an explanation, while Toxic Spikes are a great choice here. This will give you all three forms of Entry hazards.

Hope I helped, and Good Luck!
 
i just started posting on smogon , but take my advice :)

get rid of taunt on tyrannitar. because with bronzong not as common as azelf or aerodactyl, your not fast enough to effectively use it. however bronzong seems covered by heatran. use subsititue instead. however if you fear trick room, i guess you could stick with it.

on heatran, hp electric serves little use, imo. the only major thing this threats is gyara, but you wont outspeed once its dd'd (unless its bulky).
but since your running timid, i see your options DO make sense.

also, if heatran is out of the game, your team is owned by Mixape. the only thing you have against it thats faster is gengar. i am also pretty sure it lives against a +2 life orb bullet punch from scizor. you need a counter for mixape. ^ use a tentacruel :D

a solid team, but mixape (almost) completely counters it

hope i helped. this is my first team rating -.-
 
Hello!

I'm going to go ahead and say you need to decide between Stall and Offense. You can create something inbetween, like the newish 'semi stall', but that still doesn't fit the card of your team. You can have a mostly stall oriented team and have one late game sweeper, perhaps one that works well in sand like Rhyperior or Cradily, but having frail and random sweepers like Gengar and Scizor on a stall team is not going to do anything. In the same fashion, having pokemon like Hippowdon are only going to slow down an offensive team.

I'm going to suggest that you try and build a more defined team, and once you have a stronger concept and more thought out team, I and other raters can help rate your team. Sandstorm is fine to play, but you must decide exactly what you're going to do with it, because running frail sweepers and bulky tanks won't do much. Good offensive choices take benefit from sandstorm by racking up more damage or gaining more bulk through rock type, pokemon such as Tyranitar, Rhyperior, and Flygon. Good defensive choices include pokemon that can stop threats and stall well through sandstorm and status effects like toxic, such as Rhyperior, Cradily, and Gliscor. You might find this article really helpful in working with your team. http://www.smogon.com/dp/articles/sandstorm_teams

I hope this helps!
 
I got Gengar for his immunities, and even though sandstorm wears him down pretty quick when coupled with LO, Gengar is fast enough to kill most enemies and Destiny Bond stronger sweepers. Also, I was sort of shooting for an all-around team, even with 2 defensive walls and no special walls. Thanks for all the help though. I'm going to give Tyranitar Stealth Rock instead of Taunt and probably switch Hippowdon with Cradily and see how that goes and I'll get back to you.
 

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