SS OU Skorch Sand BO

Wackin

Wackin

I am pretty decent at team building, normally I keep my teams private or pass it to friends. But, I am curious to what the general consensus of my teams will be.
Sand has always been my fav playstyle, and I haven't really seen sand on the ladder which I think is really under rated.


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Hippowdon @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def/ 4SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rocker
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind
I chose hippo as my sand setter, due it to being one of the best phys def mons and the best sand setter imo. Hippo uses smooth rock a lot better than ttar and not having to worry about it being trapped. You can also run a mixed set to help check dragapult and hydreigon.


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Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Rockslide
- Earthquake
There is no need for an explanation as to why I picked excadrill, it's the best option to abuse sand. I chose this set because the recovery helps drill soft check things, and sd plus rock slide makes corviknight become set up fodder(as long as no body press). With the extra sand turns from smooth rock, using turns to swords dance doesn't really hurt and allows you to force kills you normally wouldn't.


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Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Baneful Bunker
- Recover

Toxapex is one of the best defensive mons in the meta. It's ability to spread statuses with burns and toxics make it's very valuable, a long with it being able to check most of the tier. Most of the moves are no pretty standard, I chose to ran baneful bunker to help deal with dracovish is a big threat. Between poison chip,sand chip, and even rocks it makes dracovish a lot easier to deal with.


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Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 196 SpD / 64 Spe
Careful Nature
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog
This is the best defogger in the meta imo, it's ability to pressure stall and pivot makes corviknight super valuable. The spread allows you to eat fire blast pretty comfortable from a clef and check hydreigon.


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Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Flash Cannon
The two best sets for hydreigon are specs and nasty plot 3 attack. Specs fits better on the team for not allowing extra chip from the life orb which can add up with the sand or any hazards. If you make a right read you can force a 2hko, which allows you to play aggressive and can let you double so the lose more momentum. Even without nasty plot, it still allows you to break.



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Centiskorch @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Fire Lash
- Leech Life
- Thunder Fang
- Knock Off
For my last mon i wanted something that could come in on clefable easily and offer some pressure. Centiskorches great move pool and it's ability to spam knock makes such a great partner for drill allowing you to remove items or chip something easily. I debated removing leech life for power whip to allow it to break the water and ground types, but being able to leech life has come in clutch. And knocking off toad has become sufficient enough to make toad get chipped for drill.

THREATS


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Any teamthat doesn't have a water absorber automatically makes this mon a huge threat. However having pex helps with baneful bunker and sand chips goes a long way. You can't afford to give this mon free switches.





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I haven't seen a team where this isn't a threat. Being able to nasty plot with it's great coverage has turned this mon into one of the best wall breakers. If you don't play around it's moves after it plots, be prepared to sac a mon.

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Lastly specs dragapult, it isn't nearly as threatening as the other 2 however if the opponent corrects reads or gets spdef drops. This mon can become a problem


THE TEAM https://pokepast.es/e809b0c98535918d
 
Hey man cool team, there are a few thing that can be changed an optimised here to make this team much better and more consistent, I guess I'll start with the larger changes and work my way through to the smaller tweaks!

But first there are a few things worth noting
- I think you should recognise that centiskorch is mediocre in this current meta, it has a sure niche, but it's a C rank Mon and your putting it on a team where you have sand chipping it away . But let's roll with it for the sake of the team idea.

Firstly, with a core of hippo + pex, games are gonna be much slower, centiskorch is not always gonna be able to check life orb clef for a whole game, for this reason I would change hippo to spdef. I'll post an example set below

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off

This won't be 2hkoed by life orb clef moonblast, and comfortably does solid damage back with eq allowing you to force clef to switch and even give you rocks if you want! Leftovers are ran here to allow you to solidly check special Mons better, this set can comfortably check almost every single special move user in the metagame rn, inc. specs pult and nasty plot hydreigon (hydreigon can pressure alot tho with since you have to whirlwind it) I also think that smooth rock is not needed since you don't often need many turns with drill to do some big damage.
I would also like the breifly comment on the hippo > tar argument you gave which I actually disagree with read below but for the sake of not rejigging the whole team we'll stay with hippo
often cases tar can actually run a shuca berry in order to lure out a dugtrios focus sash or flat out lure it for a ko leaving drill untrappable this is an invaluable tool Vs fatter teams that like to remove threats their team struggle with via sash dug trapping.

My next small change would be tweaking the set of your corvaknight, in the light of how many offencive fairy's are arround nowdays I would be tempted to make a change to iron head over brave bird here, even when hippo is a decent check to clef, corv with iron head can seal the deal since it can comfortably eat one super effective hit and hit clef back for a solid chunk, secondly since hippo can now reliably check pult for you, you can afford to potential invest a little in physdef and even maybe add bulk up in order to reliably check opposing drill without having to risk a speed tie. I would suggest a set like this one below

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 188 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- bulk up/body press
- Defog
- Roost

This set should still live 2 specs pult shadow ball in a pinch of you lose hippo for whatever reason and a tech for ensuring you beat drill is great after changing hippo to spdef since you now have improved matchups Vs both drill pult and hydreigon, 2 of which where on your threat list

Last minor changes are very small set changes

Pex
Haze > toxic
pex can quickly become set up fodder for sub set up users when it's not equipped with haze, this will allow it to beat or check a plethora more theats eg. Sub+DD pult, cm clef, bulk up corv and check SD bisharp, centiskorch... The list goes on

Drill
Offensive item > lefties
drill is very strong, but in the event that the opponent has a solid check, this team has few lures to help drill muscle past, I would suggest an item like life orb or metronome to help excadrill punch a bit harder Vs the likes or corviknight, rotom, hippo and fat waters such as vapoureon and jelicent which can soft check it

Hope all this helped at least a little, I was hesitant to make any major changes outside of set tweaks since people can be quite protective of their cores and certain mons being in a team either way hope you consider implementing some or maybe all of my suggestions and I wish you the best of luck in the new year

☮✌ Watermess
 
watermess said:
Hey man cool team, there are a few thing that can be changed an optimised here to make this team much better and more consistent, I guess I'll start with the larger changes and work my way through to the smaller tweaks!

But first there are a few things worth noting
- I think you should recognise that centiskorch is mediocre in this current meta, it has a sure niche, but it's a C rank Mon and your putting it on a team where you have sand chipping it away . But let's roll with it for the sake of the team idea.

Firstly, with a core of hippo + pex, games are gonna be much slower, centiskorch is not always gonna be able to check life orb clef for a whole game, for this reason I would change hippo to spdef. I'll post an example set below

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off

This won't be 2hkoed by life orb clef moonblast, and comfortably does solid damage back with eq allowing you to force clef to switch and even give you rocks if you want! Leftovers are ran here to allow you to solidly check special Mons better, this set can comfortably check almost every single special move user in the metagame rn, inc. specs pult and nasty plot hydreigon (hydreigon can pressure alot tho with since you have to whirlwind it) I also think that smooth rock is not needed since you don't often need many turns with drill to do some big damage.
I would also like the breifly comment on the hippo > tar argument you gave which I actually disagree with read below but for the sake of not rejigging the whole team we'll stay with hippo
often cases tar can actually run a shuca berry in order to lure out a dugtrios focus sash or flat out lure it for a ko leaving drill untrappable this is an invaluable tool Vs fatter teams that like to remove threats their team struggle with via sash dug trapping.

My next small change would be tweaking the set of your corvaknight, in the light of how many offencive fairy's are arround nowdays I would be tempted to make a change to iron head over brave bird here, even when hippo is a decent check to clef, corv with iron head can seal the deal since it can comfortably eat one super effective hit and hit clef back for a solid chunk, secondly since hippo can now reliably check pult for you, you can afford to potential invest a little in physdef and even maybe add bulk up in order to reliably check opposing drill without having to risk a speed tie. I would suggest a set like this one below

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 188 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- bulk up/body press
- Defog
- Roost

This set should still live 2 specs pult shadow ball in a pinch of you lose hippo for whatever reason and a tech for ensuring you beat drill is great after changing hippo to spdef since you now have improved matchups Vs both drill pult and hydreigon, 2 of which where on your threat list

Last minor changes are very small set changes

Pex
Haze > toxic
pex can quickly become set up fodder for sub set up users when it's not equipped with haze, this will allow it to beat or check a plethora more theats eg. Sub+DD pult, cm clef, bulk up corv and check SD bisharp, centiskorch... The list goes on

Drill
Offensive item > lefties
drill is very strong, but in the event that the opponent has a solid check, this team has few lures to help drill muscle past, I would suggest an item like life orb or metronome to help excadrill punch a bit harder Vs the likes or corviknight, rotom, hippo and fat waters such as vapoureon and jelicent which can soft check it

Hope all this helped at least a little, I was hesitant to make any major changes outside of set tweaks since people can be quite protective of their cores and certain mons being in a team either way hope you consider implementing some or maybe all of my suggestions and I wish you the best of luck in the new year

☮✌ Watermess
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I decided to add some spdef to centiskorch, making my hippo mixed or even spdef would make my team too weak to physical threats. Me having a slow momentum isnt a huge deal since centiskorch''s niche is exactly what i need for my team. it also comes in on ferro and allows teams to get threatened with knock off.
Centiskorch @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 64 Atk / 196 SpD
Careful Nature
- Fire Lash
- Leech Life
- Power Whip
- Knock Off
here is my new and improved centiskorch, i've come to realize that thunderfang is useless and adding spdef allows it to come in on clef all game.
 
Wackin said:
I decided to add some spdef to centiskorch, making my hippo mixed or even spdef would make my team too weak to physical threats. Me having a slow momentum isnt a huge deal since centiskorch''s niche is exactly what i need for my team. it also comes in on ferro and allows teams to get threatened with knock off.
Centiskorch @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 64 Atk / 196 SpD
Careful Nature
- Fire Lash
- Leech Life
- Power Whip
- Knock Off
here is my new and improved centiskorch, i've come to realize that thunderfang is useless and adding spdef allows it to come in on clef all game.
also everything you mentioned that beats my pex without haze, gets countered by hippo. if i were to make hippo mixed i would get 6-0d by sub pult, the haze on pex wouldn't change anything. in terms of drill, corviknight is set up fodder as long as no body press. the power i get from the item hasn't been as valuable as the sustain to soft check things with lefties. Metronome sounds pretty cool tho
Click to expand...
 
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