Hey guys! I’m Lycopoky (or Lyco for short), some of you may know me from Pinkacross’ Discord server or from the VGC community and I'm writing my first RMT here, this is about a Sand team I made not too long ago that has done well.
Paste: https://pokepast.es/3e29f280d8791698
Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Rush
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin
The goat of goats is the anti offence of the team, which is nice into offensive playstyles as a result. I chose Substitute because there has been a rise of 
Sub Exca’s and wanted to give it a shot and it was probably the best Exca set i ever played in SV OU (and i also played SD and CB sets). Not to mention Sub also protects Exca from a strong attack that would be able to KO it and can be set up vs things that it threatens like 
, 
, 
and 
. Despite this i valued Rapid Spin since it boosts Excadrill’s Speed and with the Sub up i could get a chance to get a Spin for free while also removing Hazards which is always good. Tera Ground and Adamant gives me much more damage to work with and Rock Slide complements EQ quite well and is imo walled by less things overall, Rock Slide hits some targets that usually wall Dual STAB Exca like Moltres and Zapdos, however this does worsen the MU vs Enamorus (misses and Rock Slide won’t be able to OHKO at full HP 100% of the time) but it should still be good overall assuming you set up Sub or have Sand up.
Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch
- Low Kick
is great in the weather wars and with a 
it could hit really hard and punch holes in the enemy team for my Pokémon, not to mention I already had Stealth Rocks covered by and generally STAB Knock Off from a Choice Band is pretty damn strong. Tera Dark powers up Knock Off further which is very valuable in this team due to it’s use of Spikes and Stealth Rocks, Ice Punch is valuable vs 
, 
and 
, Low Kick is very nice vs , 
and 
.
If you want to change the set, i’d recommend a defensive Tera like Flying or Ghost since the team doesn’t really need Tera Dark Knock Off that much and defensively it’s nice. Tera Rock could even work out to threaten more consistent damage at the cost of accuracy (compared to Tera Dark Knock).
Tinkaton @ Air Balloon
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Gigaton Hammer
- Encore
- Thunder Wave
If i’m going with CB Tyranitar, I needed a Stealth Rocks setter and fit the bill, being a Mold Breaker Stealth Rocks setter which is good with the rise of 
, Sand chip immunity, T-Wave speed control along with being annoying for Fairy types with it's Steel type + Gigaton Hammer. Encore is always a valuable asset vs Defensive pokemon like , 
and 
by locking them into a status move that won’t be able to do much like Protect, Soft Boiled and Sleep Talk respectively and Rocks setters like , 
and more. Tera Water is great for tanking Fire moves and is generally a good defensive Tera type for a utility Pokémon. Of course Mold Breaker is great because setting up Stealth Rocks in front of Hatterene is a valuable asset to have and the occasional mon who depends on it's ability a bit like 
and 
, but Pickpocket is also good to steal items which can be quite good for the team but for now i value
Sinistcha @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Heatproof
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Matcha Gotcha
- Shadow Ball
- Strength Sap
Sinistcha is the best spin blocker in the tier due to it’s already great MU vs, and along with some uncommon mons like 
and 
and it’s great on Sand due to checking some mons great against it like , 
and and in return Sand beats some Sinistcha answers like Dark (with Low Kick Tyranitar), Ghost and Flying. Poison lets me resist stuff like Poison and is generally a great defensive type while also keeping the Fighting resist which is nice. HDB gives me hazards immunity which is always appreciated on a bulky mon with healing and Calm Mind is a nice backup plan to sweep teams in case my offensive guys can’t sweep or clean up the game.
Moltres @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Flamethrower
- Roost
- U-turn
- Roar
Moltres is great on Sand teams despite making the Wellspring weakness worse because it walls stuff like Non Stone Edge, , (who isn’t really a problem for the team but you never know with this bastard and it’s millions of sets) and is great at dealing with 
and the Sand duo in return beat Rock types. Roar is great vs IDBP Tera Fire Zama where you force it to lose out on something (like burning it or Defence boosts) and let Exca EQ it’s ass later. U-Turn is always appreciated when you have a breaker on the team and it’s burns can also make progress along with Sand and hazards which can be very nice to have (if you get the burns of course, which i never do).
If you want to change anything on Moltres, i’d recommend looking at Tera Grass over Fairy for a backup plan vs Wellspring and Dragons are already handled by Drill and Tink.
Ogerpon-Wellspring (F) @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ivy Cudgel
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Spikes
is pretty good on this archetype too, doing really well vs Water types like 
, 
, 
and isn't too bad into other , and being a great offensive pokemon with good synergy with Excadrill and Tyranitar. I know having 2 Grass types on the same Sand team may not sound great but considering they have different roles, share only 2 weaknesses (that Sand claps) and since i’m already running Grass STAB on Sinistcha i don’t need it as much on Wellspring, it’s perfectly fine and acceptable. Utility with Spikes isn’t a bad option for the breaking core with Rocks and CB Tyranitar + it's strong Knocks. U-Turn is also nice pivoting which lets me quickly switch out and chip things like and 
and Spikes is a great progress maker against defensive teams (especially when i get the chance to set up more than 1 layer of Spikes). Knock is also nice to remove boots and items against enemies that threaten but aren’t as threatening to Ogerpon like Ground and Steel types while also not relying on too much to Knock, especially nice when i want to preserve ’s health.
Credits to Pinkstork for reviewing the RMT and giving advice for some of the writing, and Pinkacross for his videos that have helped me drastically and is the main reason why i gave this tier another shot again last year (and if it wasn't for him, i probably would have never come back to this tier).
I am really happy about getting that high on the OU Ladder for the first time, sure my team may have some flaws but regardless it got me there and i think the team can be higher up, i'm just not capable of getting to places like Rank 1 (yet). See you all later on the forums (or social media lmao)!
By the way, if you want to give feedback or advice whether it's the RMT or the team itself don’t be afraid to do so! This is my first RMT and help is always appreciated for future RMTs i might make and no team is ever perfect.
EDIT: Just corrected a few mistakes i noticed and changed some sentences to make them feel better reading (although they were ok), that is all, second edit i hit a new peak but i tilted a bit downward and out of 1700 elo, so this peak will be staying for now.
Paste: https://pokepast.es/3e29f280d8791698
I love Excadrill. Yeah that's the biggest reason why i'm using Sand lmao. But i also think Sand has potential because Tyranitar still has many moves it can run along with items and it’s also appreciated vs Veil, Sun and STAB Knock Off is no joke with a lot of coverage options + STAB Stone Edge.
Excadrill was another Pokémon that i was interested in, an incredible amount of bias aside, it does have a nice matchup vs more offensive playstyles due to Double Speed in Sand and with some extra damage can rip apart Pokémon on those playstyles. Even though it’s Balance matchup isn’t exactly good, the Excadrill set i am using could still maybe sweep with Tera Ground EdgeQuake coverage mid-late game.
Tbh i played Sand for basically over a year at this point, after i returned to Singles. I did make teams that did well for me but those teams didn't carry me as much as this one. I mainly played casually and for fun with Sand since i think SV OU is fun overall despite it flaws (looking at you Dnite, and other mons too but i hate Dnite the most in SV OU specifically). Now lets go over how this team started out below.
I mainly built this team as inspiration from another one used in a PokeaimMD video 
and i really liked how it felt when playing it, so i thought i wanted to make my own team similar to this. Moltres over Tornadus gives me much more defence and burning opponents can be pretty good especially with Sand and hazards making a lot of progress, and i replaced Toxapex for Ogerpon-W to make up for the offence lost by switching Torn-T to Moltres and i still had Spikes, not to mention it's a great answer to Water types and is a nice pivot to have at times, plus Ivy Cudgel is just braindead funny to click sometimes lol.
Excadrill was another Pokémon that i was interested in, an incredible amount of bias aside, it does have a nice matchup vs more offensive playstyles due to Double Speed in Sand and with some extra damage can rip apart Pokémon on those playstyles. Even though it’s Balance matchup isn’t exactly good, the Excadrill set i am using could still maybe sweep with Tera Ground EdgeQuake coverage mid-late game.
Tbh i played Sand for basically over a year at this point, after i returned to Singles. I did make teams that did well for me but those teams didn't carry me as much as this one. I mainly played casually and for fun with Sand since i think SV OU is fun overall despite it flaws (looking at you Dnite, and other mons too but i hate Dnite the most in SV OU specifically). Now lets go over how this team started out below.
I mainly built this team as inspiration from another one used in a PokeaimMD video
and i really liked how it felt when playing it, so i thought i wanted to make my own team similar to this. Moltres over Tornadus gives me much more defence and burning opponents can be pretty good especially with Sand and hazards making a lot of progress, and i replaced Toxapex for Ogerpon-W to make up for the offence lost by switching Torn-T to Moltres and i still had Spikes, not to mention it's a great answer to Water types and is a nice pivot to have at times, plus Ivy Cudgel is just braindead funny to click sometimes lol.Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Rush
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin
The goat of goats
is the anti offence of the team, which is nice into offensive playstyles as a result. I chose Substitute because there has been a rise of Sub Exca’s and wanted to give it a shot and it was probably the best Exca set i ever played in SV OU (and i also played SD and CB sets). Not to mention Sub also protects Exca from a strong attack that would be able to KO it and can be set up vs things that it threatens like , , and . Despite this i valued Rapid Spin since it boosts Excadrill’s Speed and with the Sub up i could get a chance to get a Spin for free while also removing Hazards which is always good. Tera Ground and Adamant gives me much more damage to work with and Rock Slide complements EQ quite well and is imo walled by less things overall, Rock Slide hits some targets that usually wall Dual STAB Exca like Moltres and Zapdos, however this does worsen the MU vs Enamorus (misses and Rock Slide won’t be able to OHKO at full HP 100% of the time) but it should still be good overall assuming you set up Sub or have Sand up.Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch
- Low Kick
is great in the weather wars and with a it could hit really hard and punch holes in the enemy team for my Pokémon, not to mention I already had Stealth Rocks covered by and generally STAB Knock Off from a Choice Band is pretty damn strong. Tera Dark powers up Knock Off further which is very valuable in this team due to it’s use of Spikes and Stealth Rocks, Ice Punch is valuable vs , and , Low Kick is very nice vs , and .If you want to change the set, i’d recommend a defensive Tera like Flying or Ghost since the team doesn’t really need Tera Dark Knock Off that much and defensively it’s nice. Tera Rock could even work out to threaten more consistent damage at the cost of accuracy (compared to Tera Dark Knock).
Tinkaton @ Air Balloon
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Gigaton Hammer
- Encore
- Thunder Wave
If i’m going with CB Tyranitar, I needed a Stealth Rocks setter and
fit the bill, being a Mold Breaker Stealth Rocks setter which is good with the rise of , Sand chip immunity, T-Wave speed control along with being annoying for Fairy types with it's Steel type + Gigaton Hammer. Encore is always a valuable asset vs Defensive pokemon like , and by locking them into a status move that won’t be able to do much like Protect, Soft Boiled and Sleep Talk respectively and Rocks setters like , and more. Tera Water is great for tanking Fire moves and is generally a good defensive Tera type for a utility Pokémon. Of course Mold Breaker is great because setting up Stealth Rocks in front of Hatterene is a valuable asset to have and the occasional mon who depends on it's ability a bit like and , but Pickpocket is also good to steal items which can be quite good for the team but for now i valueSinistcha @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Heatproof
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Matcha Gotcha
- Shadow Ball
- Strength Sap
Sinistcha is the best spin blocker in the tier due to it’s already great MU vs
, and along with some uncommon mons like and and it’s great on Sand due to checking some mons great against it like , and and in return Sand beats some Sinistcha answers like Dark (with Low Kick Tyranitar), Ghost and Flying. Poison lets me resist stuff like Poison and is generally a great defensive type while also keeping the Fighting resist which is nice. HDB gives me hazards immunity which is always appreciated on a bulky mon with healing and Calm Mind is a nice backup plan to sweep teams in case my offensive guys can’t sweep or clean up the game.Moltres @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Flamethrower
- Roost
- U-turn
- Roar
Moltres is great on Sand teams despite making the Wellspring weakness worse because it walls stuff like Non Stone Edge
, , (who isn’t really a problem for the team but you never know with this bastard and it’s millions of sets) and is great at dealing with and the Sand duo in return beat Rock types. Roar is great vs IDBP Tera Fire Zama where you force it to lose out on something (like burning it or Defence boosts) and let Exca EQ it’s ass later. U-Turn is always appreciated when you have a breaker on the team and it’s burns can also make progress along with Sand and hazards which can be very nice to have (if you get the burns of course, which i never do).If you want to change anything on Moltres, i’d recommend looking at Tera Grass over Fairy for a backup plan vs Wellspring and Dragons are already handled by Drill and Tink.
Ogerpon-Wellspring (F) @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ivy Cudgel
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Spikes
is pretty good on this archetype too, doing really well vs Water types like , , and isn't too bad into other , and being a great offensive pokemon with good synergy with Excadrill and Tyranitar. I know having 2 Grass types on the same Sand team may not sound great but considering they have different roles, share only 2 weaknesses (that Sand claps) and since i’m already running Grass STAB on Sinistcha i don’t need it as much on Wellspring, it’s perfectly fine and acceptable. Utility with Spikes isn’t a bad option for the breaking core with Rocks and CB Tyranitar + it's strong Knocks. U-Turn is also nice pivoting which lets me quickly switch out and chip things like and and Spikes is a great progress maker against defensive teams (especially when i get the chance to set up more than 1 layer of Spikes). Knock is also nice to remove boots and items against enemies that threaten but aren’t as threatening to Ogerpon like Ground and Steel types while also not relying on too much to Knock, especially nice when i want to preserve ’s health.Ogerpon-Wellspring: Pray this is not SD Knock or something like that. While Sinistcha is a great answer it can’t always answer Ogerpon-W and it threatens 3 pokemon on this team and Tinkaton can only do so much against it. I’d recommend try to threaten the Tera out of it so Excadrill can quickly revenge kill it with Tera Ground EQ or just try to passively chip this Pokémon down as much as you can, T-Waving with Tinkaton is never a bad thing into this pokemon.
Rillaboom: Even though I have Moltres on the team, Grassy Terrain teams can still be very annoying with Rillaboom beating a good chunk of my own pokemon and Knock with Stealth Rocks won’t make Moltres a super good answer. The problem was mainly trying to beat Moltres’ threats while dealing with Rillaboom but with some practice G-Terrain won’t be too bad and the matchup will be a 50/50 or higher in your favour, although not always.
Walking Wake: This pokemon has a good matchup vs 3 of your own pokemon and i don’t think Sinistcha or Wellspring want to take a Draco Meteor from Specs Wake. Try to use Tinkaton to paralyze Walking Wake so you can finish it off with Excadrill or Tyranitar. If you can Knock Off the Choice Specs that would also be nice to have and if you need to sack Tyranitar then go ahead and bring in Drill to Tera Ground EQ and make sure it goes down.
Blaziken: This dumbass chicken is really hard to wall for this team after it sets up a Swords Dance, sure you can try using Sand Excadrill to kill it and Moltres can roar it out at least but be very careful with this mon, especially if it has something like Protect, not unwinnable but regardless don’t be too careless with it.
Arcanine-Hisui: I know this is a pretty uncommon mon but for some reason i keep running into it and it does well into my team. With the wrong lead this mon can easily pick up a free knockout (especially CB Sets). Ogerpon-W is of course great after you sack a mon and Tinkaton’s Thunder Wave can also be very useful as that lets Drill kill it without needing Sand (and speaking of, Drill resists Rock so thats nice when it locks itself into a Rock move).
Rillaboom: Even though I have Moltres on the team, Grassy Terrain teams can still be very annoying with Rillaboom beating a good chunk of my own pokemon and Knock with Stealth Rocks won’t make Moltres a super good answer. The problem was mainly trying to beat Moltres’ threats while dealing with Rillaboom but with some practice G-Terrain won’t be too bad and the matchup will be a 50/50 or higher in your favour, although not always.
Walking Wake: This pokemon has a good matchup vs 3 of your own pokemon and i don’t think Sinistcha or Wellspring want to take a Draco Meteor from Specs Wake. Try to use Tinkaton to paralyze Walking Wake so you can finish it off with Excadrill or Tyranitar. If you can Knock Off the Choice Specs that would also be nice to have and if you need to sack Tyranitar then go ahead and bring in Drill to Tera Ground EQ and make sure it goes down.
Blaziken: This dumbass chicken is really hard to wall for this team after it sets up a Swords Dance, sure you can try using Sand Excadrill to kill it and Moltres can roar it out at least but be very careful with this mon, especially if it has something like Protect, not unwinnable but regardless don’t be too careless with it.
Arcanine-Hisui: I know this is a pretty uncommon mon but for some reason i keep running into it and it does well into my team. With the wrong lead this mon can easily pick up a free knockout (especially CB Sets). Ogerpon-W is of course great after you sack a mon and Tinkaton’s Thunder Wave can also be very useful as that lets Drill kill it without needing Sand (and speaking of, Drill resists Rock so thats nice when it locks itself into a Rock move).
Stall: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2437542144-yawd9ang3xl7x463l4s8o5vym6b0320pw
Offence: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2437532840-x5napuncoj9rtb9ituyjh4qm2d3ifdlpw?p2
Balance: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2437004863-d6tv7mslyl1c0i0fua173gq3a7rbaobpw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2436985730-1shnk2peowi0j2jju54mm2ebdejc09fpw?p2
Webs: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2436996052-untpu1ncputbtfshy89nvyaendaok53pw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2436998325-ym0k0hfmw1ofj74gks78pt3qggjer91pw
Grassy Terrain: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2436321220-g8deenw9c80a0ki6uotb8klsc8ieg7cpw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2436310715-79ighwlx1h8daetxh8j9w4p17tiarnkpw
Sand: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2438266254-mcmremmq503cfcsycbpe312rv4b1sltpw?p2 (gravity too for some reason)
Offence: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2437532840-x5napuncoj9rtb9ituyjh4qm2d3ifdlpw?p2
Balance: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2437004863-d6tv7mslyl1c0i0fua173gq3a7rbaobpw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2436985730-1shnk2peowi0j2jju54mm2ebdejc09fpw?p2
Webs: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2436996052-untpu1ncputbtfshy89nvyaendaok53pw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2436998325-ym0k0hfmw1ofj74gks78pt3qggjer91pw
Grassy Terrain: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2436321220-g8deenw9c80a0ki6uotb8klsc8ieg7cpw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2436310715-79ighwlx1h8daetxh8j9w4p17tiarnkpw
Sand: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2438266254-mcmremmq503cfcsycbpe312rv4b1sltpw?p2 (gravity too for some reason)
Credits to Pinkstork for reviewing the RMT and giving advice for some of the writing, and Pinkacross for his videos that have helped me drastically and is the main reason why i gave this tier another shot again last year (and if it wasn't for him, i probably would have never come back to this tier).
I am really happy about getting that high on the OU Ladder for the first time, sure my team may have some flaws but regardless it got me there and i think the team can be higher up, i'm just not capable of getting to places like Rank 1 (yet). See you all later on the forums (or social media lmao)!
By the way, if you want to give feedback or advice whether it's the RMT or the team itself don’t be afraid to do so! This is my first RMT and help is always appreciated for future RMTs i might make and no team is ever perfect.
EDIT: Just corrected a few mistakes i noticed and changed some sentences to make them feel better reading (although they were ok), that is all, second edit i hit a new peak but i tilted a bit downward and out of 1700 elo, so this peak will be staying for now.
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