Sandstorm Team

[Laiho1923]

so i got bored with beatdown teams and decided to try something new. enter sandstream.


Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Sand Stream
HP 252, SpD 88, Def 168
Impish
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
- Slack Off

> I briefly tried Tyranitar as my sand stream lead, and that was pretty much a fiasco. So I turned to Hippo instead and must say it works a lot better. It gets rocks up 100% against non-super effective special-attackers and can shuffle with Roar. Slack Off is great for stalling or keeping your shuffler alive. Earthquake is always a nice surprise the first time you use it, especially if your opponent is trying to be cute with an Agiligross or Heatran.

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Keen Eye
HP 252, Atk 64, Def 176, Spe 16
Impish
- Spikes
- Roost
- Whirlwind
- Brave Bird

> Skarmory's job is simple, set up more entry hazards, and shuffle without dying. Due to the number of Skarmorys that have no damaging attacks, Brave Bird is a nice surprise, especially when your opponent Taunts and thinks you're screwed. It's also nice in case you get into a stall war to actually be able to do some damage.

Rotom - H @ Leftovers
Levitate
HP 4, Spe 252, SpA 252
Bold
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp

> Obviously this is my spin-blocker, as Rapid Spin completely wrecks my strategy. Beyond that, I opted for the offensive Rotom rather than the wall because the stall portion of my team revolves around entry hazards and the 6% damage from Sandstorm. Most people expect the bulky Rotom anyway so it surprises some people with how hard it hits. I'm using Will-O-Wisp less and less, but I really don't know what to replace it with. Ideas?

Lucario @ Life Orb
Inner Focus
Atk 252, Def 4, Spe 252
Adamant
- Swords Dance
- Extremespeed
- Close Combat
- Crunch

> Now that the set up is done, it's time for the sweepers to take care of my opponent's hopefully crippled (or at least weakened) team. Lucario is obviously my physical attacker, and it does its job quite well. A Swords Dance on an expected switch plus the entry hazards OHKO's most non-physically defensive non-resistors and hits everyone hard. Life Orb really can be a pain in the a** as it shortens Lucario's life, but I need the stat-boost without limiting myself to a single attack. Expert Belt is possible here, but Lucario's not always hitting with super effective attacks post Swords Dance. Its Steel typing is a bonus as it's not hit by sandstorm.

Empoleon @ Life Orb
Torrent
HP 24, Spe 232, SpA 252
Modest
- Surf
- Agility
- Grass Knot
- Ice Beam

> Another Steel-type attacker, this time my special sweeper. Empoleon fills basically the same role as Lucario but on the special side. Agility is nice to wipe out its biggest weakness, and can mess up some of the faster Ground-types (see Flygon) that would normally destroy Empoleon. Grass Knot's main purpose is Swampert, but it is also good for a stall-war against another water type.

Swampert @ Choice Band
Torrent
HP 136, Atk 204, Def 69 (haha), Spe 101
Adamant
- Waterfall
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake

> Swampert is my hardest-hitter, and really is just used when I need a KO on a switch since the Choice Band really cuts its versatility. I used to have a Gyarados here, but the weakness to Rocks and Sandstorm was kind of a pain. Overall, Swampert is probably the weakest link in my team, but I can't think of what to replace it with (hint hint).


So overall, some feedback would be great, and possible alternatives for Swampert. As it is now, my team isn't really bothered by entry hazards (Swampert and Hippo are the only ones hit by Toxic Spikes, and I have good resistance to Stealth Rock). I think the weaknesses are balanced well, as I have two resistors and Hippo to counter my sweepers' weaknesses to Ground. Really the only thing that gives my team trouble is the increasingly common Taunt lead and my own awe-inspiring noobiness at critical times......

 

[danmantincan]

WoW seems rather useless on your Rotom, simply because the one upside of burn over toxic poisoning is the drop in physical damage and you have Skarmory and Hippowdon, who can take almost any physical attack thrown. That being said, you can opt for Toxic to where down you opponents more, or HP Fighting or Ground, depending on whether you want to hit Heatran or Tyranitar more, both of which are common Rotom-H switch ins. HP Fighting will be able to kill most Tyranitar before they get an attack in if you can predict the switch in. HP Ground will OHKO a Heatran with no HP or SpDef EV investment if you have 3 layers of Spikes.

With Spikes up, you could add a Gravity user on your team instead of Swampert. I would recommend Dusknoir, since it still has good offensive power and a priority move.
Dusknoir
Careful W/ Leftovers
252 HP, 4 Def, 252 SpDef
- Gravity
- Dynamic Punch/Earthquake
- Shadow Sneak
- Pain Split

Gravity makes your Spikes all the more deadly, because flying and levitating are now affected by them. Pain Split is the obvious choice to keep Dusknoir healthy, Dynamic Punch is now more accurate under Gravity, and provides unresisted coverage with Shadow Sneak (except from Spiritomb), or you could chose to use EQ instead which will now be able to hit all Pokemon after Gravity.

 

[Plus]

Hello.

This isn't a bad team, you have some pretty nice offenses going here with Lucario and Empoleon, however there are some weaknesses your team should really try to address.

First, Gyarados is going to be hitting your team pretty hard. Especially late game, where your Rotom-h is going to be weakened by constant switches into SR and whatnot, and might not have the longevity to withstand something like DD Gyara, in which case you're going to have to pray that it doesn't pack Earthquake so you can come through with Empoleon. Your team tends to rely pretty heavily on Swampert to take the Fire attacks, pokemon like Heatran and Infernape can run through your team -- Grass Knot Infernape in particular does a huge number to this team and shouldn't be ignored. Rotom-a also poses a threat to your team, and honestly I would suggest Tyranitar in the lead slot which you said you used, though may I ask which lead Tyranitar you used? Tyranitar makes a great lead, and coupled with Skarmory you are usually going to start the game off with at least one type of entry hazard down, whether it be spikes or sr. With Hippowdon around, you'll have a tougher time dealing with Azelf, Starmie, and Heatran, all of which are pretty common as leads nowadays. If you haven't already, consider trying out a lead Tyranitar with Lum, Adamant 252 HP / 252 Atk with Stone Edge / Crunch / Taunt / Stealth Rock, which allows you to make sure something like Forretress won't get the rocks up on you, and sleeping leads such as Smeargle and Roserade won't be able to get entry hazards up as easily. Could you explain your problem with Tyranitar a bit more? I'm curious as to what your problems actually are.

First off, having a status absorber in this team would be pretty nice. I also realize that you had Gyarados initially in Swampert's slot, however I doubt you were using Restalk Gyarados. Restalk Gyarados can recover off the SR and Sandstorm and wall a significant portion of physical sweepers thanks to Intimidate and it's decent defenses. This is a very solid response to Heatran and Infernape, even moreso than Swampert.

Next, consider trying out Scarf Rotom to better arm yourself against Gyarados and Stall teams, Scarf can easily mess up opponents and this makes an easy slot over Will o Wisp on your current Rotom. This nets you a revenge killer, and while it gets revenge killed by Lucario this opens up a hole for Empoleon to set up for a sweep.

Lastly, try out Sub Petaya Empoleon over your current Agility Empoleon if you haven't already. Sub Petaya makes a stronger sweeper, and is much harder to break as opposed to LO Agility Empoleon. Though more susceptible to priority, I usually find it sweeping teams much easier as opposed to Agility LO, though if you have a specific reason for using Agility I don't mind. However, try it out if you haven't, it's a good set.

I already gave you the sets for Tyranitar and I assume you know the standard Scarf Rotom set, but here are the other changes that I have outlined.

Gyarados @Leftovers
Impish 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 Spe
Waterfall / Roar / Rest / Sleep Talk

Empoleon @ Petaya Berry
Modest 24 Def / 252 SpA / 232 Spe (30 IV in HP)
Surf / Ice Beam / Substitute / Agility

Gyarados is ev'd to give maximum defensive coverage, while 12 evs allow it to outspeed skarmory and opposing restalk gyara so you can go first with roar should they be whirlwinding or roaring you otherwise. Empoleon has a spread that allows it to activate petaya after three subs as opposed to four, and allow it to sweep through teams with +1 torrent surf off of a massive Satk. Ice beam is preferred over Grass Knot to sweep through dragons, as most Vaporeon will succeed in killing you off even if you ran grass knot and dragons such as Latias are more important to kill off as opposed to other pokemon like Swampert who you can just use Surf on.

Hope I helped, good luck.

 

[Laiho1923]

@Plus - I had been using the standard lead Tyranitar running Earthquake instead of Rest. I'll try swapping it out for Taunt and giving it another shot. As for rest-talk Gyarados, I'm sort of reluctant to use a set that relies heavily on luck wrt Sleep Talk. I've had some bad experiences in the past but I'll definitely try it out.

@danmantincan - I'll give Dusknoir a shot, but i'm worried it will become too much dead weight with a bulky set.

I had also been toying with the idea of a Cacturne:
Cacturne @ Brightpowder
Adamant 4 Def / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Substitute / Swords Dance / Seed Bomb / Sucker Punch
but this seems to be a high-risk-high-reward set and if I don't anticipate a switch correctly it gets destroyed before I can get my sub up..