Team Bandwagon

Nettlekid

As in, jumping on the. I tried to hold out my originality and creativity, but it failed in the long run. I created a Sandstorm team here a while ago (Darude) and I'm still working on that, but I've made some major modifications over the past few weeks. Well, maybe not major. But enough to warrant a new thread.

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move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Crunch
move 3: Pursuit
move 4: Superpower
item: Focus Sash
nature: Careful
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
This is usually my lead, and it's been doing the job well. Sandstorm is great to get going as soon as possible, to really make that residual damage count. With Focus Sash Tyranitar will be alive to restart weather later if necessary, and is guaranteed to at least set down Stealth Rock if I keep it in. There's not much that has to be said for Tyranitar, everyone knows what it does. This one's mainly defensive, to act as a backup special wall and do heavy damage with Superpower and Crunch's good coverage, and Pursuit picking off stronger but frail attackers. I may be convinced to switch this for Hippowdon, depending.

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move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Rock Slide
move 4: X-Scissor
item: Life Orb
ability: Sand Rush
nature: Adamant
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Again, this one requires little explanation. When you use a gamebreaking Sandstorm team, Excadrill is who you think of. Even if they stay in, Excadrill's high HP can take a lighter hit to Swords Dance, but thanks to Adamant and Life Orb it can deal heavy damage even before it Swords Dances. Then it just goes wild, decimating anything in its path. Adamant does the job since it outspeeds anything slower than Scarfed Dugtrio. This is usually brought out late-game, to destroy the scraps. I'm considering giving it Air Balloon, but most of the time I get too nervous about taking hits so I just fire away with a +0 Life Orb boosted attack instead.

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Move 1: Spikes
Move 2: Power Whip
Move 3: Leech Seed
Move 4: Protect
Nature: Relaxed
Item: Rocky Helmet
EVs: 252 HP, 48 Def, 208 Sp.Def

It was a hard toss-up between Ferrothorn, Forretress and Skarmory to add to my team, and I could be convinced to switch this out for either of the other two. Ferrothorn is good because it's very bulky on either side of the defensive field, and from personal experience it's been able to set up Spikes excellently, in conjunction with Tyranitar's Stealth Rock. Protect is good for stalling Leech Seed and Sandstorm damage. Honestly, despite protests that Leftovers serves it better, I LOVE Rocky Helmet. I'm a big fan of switching around a lot, tanking hits and letting residual damage add up. This combo deals 25% damage to all contact attacks, many of which Ferrothorn resists or at least can handle with its high defense. It makes a huge difference. I may switch out Power Whip for another supporting move; although this makes me severe Taunt-bait, Ferrothorn doesn't hit hard and I'd rather let the rest of my team hit harder by doing something to cripple my opponent.

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Move 1: Reflect
Move 2: Light Screen
Move 3: Psychic
Move 4: Baton Pass
Nature: Timid
Item: Light Clay
EVs: 252 HP, 4 Def, 252 Speed

Espeon is one of the reasons this team has changed greatly. Thanks to it, I feel like I can be safer without Rapid Spin on Excadrill and I don't have to worry as much about Tyranitar or Ferrothorn wasting time with hazards since they often get bounced back. Oftentimes when a lot of people see a lead Tyranitar they immediately assume the Stealth Rock, so they either Taunt or let Stealth Rock be set up on both sides. Espeon can take great advantage of either of those, and then Dual Screen to cover frail attackers like Excadrill or Haxorus. Psychic is so I can hit back a little in case I have to, and good coverage against the Fighting types that my team doesn't like. Baton Pass is to escape Pursuit users, and also pass boosts from Scizor to Haxorus or Excadrill. I may replace Psychic with Wish, just for that little extra health. Obviously Espeon isn't scared of Taunt.

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Move 1: Outrage
Move 2: Earthquake
Move 3: Brick Break
Move 4: Dual Chop
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed

So. Haxorus. It comes in, and it destroys ALL. Anything is at least 2HKOed by the right move, and some thing even by the wrong move. That's why Outrage is safer here than on a lot of other Pokemon. No matter what, when in doubt I can just plow through. Thanks to Espeon I feel better about switching in and out a lot, and with its dual screens I feel safer keeping Haxorus in against an opponent who might survive a hit and hit back. Although Haxorus is capable of breaking through most things on its own, it actually serves as more of a pre-sweeper for Excadrill. Since most Steels can't stand against Earthquake and Brick Break (including those who Levitate, like Bronzong) and even walls like Gliscor and Hippowdon can't stand forever. Excadrill will have a clear path to victory.

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Move 1: Swords Dance
Move 2: Agility
Move 3: Baton Pass
Move 4: Bullet Punch
Nature: Relaxed
Item: Iron Ball
EVs: 252 HP, 40 Atk, 216 SpD

This may look like a very strange Scizor, and I may switch it for a Poison Heal Gliscor who can do the same things. But it's not a sweeping Scizor, that much is obvious. Instead, I plan to exploit its decent defenses and good resistances to Baton Pass a powerful stat boost to someone who needs it. Swords Dance most often goes to Excadrill and Agility to Haxorus, though Haxorus with Swords Dance AND Choice Band kind of instakills all. It's not uncommon for me to get both boosts, or two of a kind, thanks to Scizor's defenses and Espeon's screens. Bullet Punch is there so I'm not total Taunt-bait and can strike back if I need to. The reason for the Iron Ball and Relaxed Nature is that I want to go after my opponent so my Baton Pass switchin can come in unscathed, maximising the time it can go nuts.


So that's it, as it stands now. I'm big on revisions, so give me all your criticisms. Hopefully I can iron out its flaws, though it's worked well for me so far.
 
Use Jolly and/or a Scarf on Haxorus. Adamant banded Haxorus is ridiculous. Also why are you using Baton Pass on a non-Baton Pass team?
 
dregster, you do realize Adamant Band Haxorus Outrage 2HKOs Heatran and Jirachi among others right?

As for the team itself, its a decent standard sand team, however, you're absolutely going to get mowed down by opposing sand teams. It seems that Espeon is bringing the least to the table. I suggest replacing it with a Gliscor, who takes on most of what Espeon used to take on such as Conkeldurr as well.

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Poison Heal
Impish
252 Hp/ 176 Def/ 80 Spe
Swords Dance
Earthquake
Ice Fang
Taunt

Your team is team bandwagon. I just made the most bandwagon rate in existence :P
 
Great team! I'll give my input.

Tyranitar: Very powerful and interesting lead. I'm not a huge fan of pairing a defensive EV setup with a Focus Sash as the item, but with Tyranitar this is an exception. I can see this Tar still being around in mid-game if the opponent decided to switch out, or lead with a special attacker. Stealth Rock is a must have, Crunch is the STAB, Superpower is coverage...but Pursuit? In my opinion Pursuit isn't worth spit on a lead set. If you're playing on wifi and team preview occurs, the opponent will more than likely think you're going to lead with Tyranitar...and in all cases you are. The opponent will choose to lead with the Pokemon that is most favorable to combat Tyranitar, or they will choose a lead that can set up on your Tyranitar. Pursuit's use is limited to mid-game, and with no Atk EV's, you might as well be using Rage.

Replace Pursuit with Toxic. This way, on the off chance that your opponent leads with a bulky-mon that will set up on Tar and threatens to annoy you throughout the game, at least you can date its execution with a lasting effect. Some examples of these annoying Pokemon would be Bulky Rotom, Swampert, and bulky Politoed.

Excadrill: Haha...hey look. It's Excadrill. Awesome. Moving on....

Ferrothorn: Great choice for a wall. Sadly, being the only serious wall on your team, you're left with a gaping Fighting weakness, but fear not. I think your Espeon's Reflect fixes this problem anyway. Beware of STAB Close Combat though, because it will hurt no matter what. If you chose Forretress or Skarmory for Spikes, you wouldn't have this problem, but the truth is that Ferrothorn's Leech Seed is a powerful redeeming factor for choosing him over something that may have filled the primary role of gelling up the team's weaknesses. I understand that you like Rocky Helmet. Personally, I don't blame you. If it were me, I'd choose Leftovers, but I won't criticize you for doing what you like.

Espeon: This Pokemon is the soul of your team. It lets Haxorus sweep without getting OHKO'ed by numerous things, it does the same for Excadrill, and it makes Ferrothorn unbreakable. I like the addition of Baton Pass as the third move. I think in specific situations it would help Scizor's passes to circulate, and as you mentioned, it allows you to escape Pursuit users.

Haxorus: Great alternative to your heavy trucker Rhyperior. You pack even more power with Outrage, and your type resistances are vast thanks to the mono-Dragon typing. If Reflect and Light Screen are up, and Scizor gave him an Agility boost, then I would highly recommend the opponent pisses him/herself. GG. Next.

Scizor: This is when your Tar that survived the first 3 turns of the game comes in handy. Fire? Tar will eat it. The cool thing about Baton Pass Scizors is that even in late game when there are no good Baton Pass recipients, you still have a chance of setting up some Swords Dances and priority sweep ftw. You've already established how you're going to Baton Pass safely (with screens), so I can't possibly criticize the seemingly crude act of giving Scizor not one, but two types of boosts it can pass, thus limiting it's movepool greatly. Swords for Excadrill? Agility for Haxorus? Yeah...it works. Plus, the whole Iron Ball idea makes it even more awesome. Even on the off chance that you don't have screens up, Baton Passing to Haxorus/E-drill safely for the sweep is more than possible.

Suggestions: Replace Pursuit with Toxic on Tyranitar, and give Skarmory a try. Between Scizor and Tyranitar, you already have a ton of Special Bulk. If you use Skarm, you'll be able to reduce the damage your team takes from physical attackers very effectively. I can't name any specific examples, because you do have other Pokemon who can take out those threats effectively, but Skarm lets you set up the Spikes, and gives you a Pokemon immune to Ground type moves (thus having more chances to switch in). Reduction of that Fighting weakness is key to allowing Sandstorm teams like this one to be successful. Roost on Skarm will also work better for recovery than Leech Seed ever will for Ferrothorn. With a Pokemon weak to Electric on your team, it may give you more chances to switch in Excadrill and sweep. You can run any item you desire on Skarm as far as I'm concerned, from Rocky Helmet to Shed Shell, as long as it works.

Great team. I'm relieved that it's nothing like the cookie-cutter Sandstorm teams that are going viral.
Peace.
 
You have no special attackers on your team other than Espeon... You should, at the very least, switch Haxxo to a Latios, if not start from scratch...
 
Chople Berry > Focus Sash on Tyranitar. The only attacks that are OHKOing that spread are physical Fighting types, and using a Chople Berry lets you survive them regardless of whether you're at 100% health or not.
 
you have iron ball on scizor to let him BP after the opponent attacks::: but you have agility to double its speed. It seems very redundant to me and I would suggest either leftovers or perhaps occa berry to survive some non-STABbed fire attacks.
 
New World Order said:
dregster, you do realize Adamant Band Haxorus Outrage 2HKOs Heatran and Jirachi among others right?

As for the team itself, its a decent standard sand team, however, you're absolutely going to get mowed down by opposing sand teams. It seems that Espeon is bringing the least to the table. I suggest replacing it with a Gliscor, who takes on most of what Espeon used to take on such as Conkeldurr as well.

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Poison Heal
Impish
252 Hp/ 176 Def/ 80 Spe
Swords Dance
Earthquake
Ice Fang
Taunt

Your team is team bandwagon. I just made the most bandwagon rate in existence :P
Click to expand...

I wouldn't want Frailorus to be outsped by a Scarf Haxorus.
 
@Dregstr As NewWorldOrder pointed out, CB Haxorus can 2HKO even bulky Steels. That is a testament to its power. Anything that isn't Steel-type is pretty much beaten, and I can deal with a lot of what is. I don't care about CS Haxorus, because Excadrill will be faster. And I'm using Baton Pass because of the reasons I listed. Sure it's not a BP team, as in I'm not putting all my eggs in one basket. But I CAN use Scizor to BP some serious power to my main sweepers, who are still capable of sweeping even without that.

@NewWorldOrder Although I see where you're coming from with that, since I know how godly Poison Heal Gliscor can be, I think Kycap summed it up well when they talked about Espeon. I know it looks like it does very little, but it's an integral part of letting Excadrill and especially Haxorus do what they do best. As well as keeping walls like Tyranitar and Ferrothorn up for as long as possible.

@Kycap O____O that was probably the most glowing praise any team of mine has ever gotten. Well, I haven't put up many teams, but anyway. You seem to really get what I wanted to do with the synergy, not looking so much at types (although not disregarding them) and instead focusing on the maximum potential of each Pokemon. I'll give Skarmory a try, and I'll try that out with Toxic on Tyranitar. Honestly I'm no good at predicting with Pursuit anyway, and base 80 isn't even that strong anyway. I'd rather hit the switchin.

@Howard Hmm, you're right, I suppose that isn't very good. But then again, what physical walls can't I take care of? Ferrothorn? Gliscor? Haxorus can beat those. And it wastes the efforts of my opponent's special walls like Blissey or Jellicent, not having something to come in on.

@GtM Hmm, maybe. But I think that STAB Close Combat would decimate me no matter what. Honestly, Tyranitar's only there for Rocks and Sandstorm, maybe to buffer some special attacks later. For those first two it just has to be alive, and Focus Sash does that.

@SpoeMeister The Iron Ball and Relaxed nature are there BECAUSE I have Agility. Yes Agility doubles speed, but I don't want Scizor to be going first. That's why I cut its speed with Iron Ball, so I can still go second to pass the speed boosts to Haxorus undamaged. My only attacking move is Bullet Punch which bypasses speed anyway, so it doesn't matter that my speed is so low.

Any other comments? I see that maybe a Ghost type as anti-Spinner and a Fighting sponge could come in handy.
 
I was reffering more towards Skarmory. What you could do is switch something for Jellicent/Gengar. Both wreck stall, with a combo of Taunt/WoW or Sub/Pain Split. Maybe over Scizor, since he offers a lot of redundant coverage and their weaknesses are checked extremly well by other members of your team.
 
@Howard I guess so, I hadn't really thought of Skarmory. But I don't think Jellicent or Gengar really has a place on this team. Jellicent can't hit hard enough for my tastes, and Gengar is far too fragile. I like Scizor in there because of the potential he brings with all the boosts. But you're right, if someone is unnecessary then perhaps it would be Scizor. For Skarmory, might it work if I simply give Espeon HP Fire instead of Baton Pass?

Maybe a Magnezone could be helpful, to trap the Steels like Skarmory and opposing Scizor that would limit Haxorus' and Excadrill's sweep. Especially for Haxorus, if I were to get a Swords Dance then Outrage is pretty much 2-3 opponent's Pokemon beaten, unless a Steel comes in. On the note of my sweepers, should I switch Haxorus' item to a Life Orb and Excadrill's to an Air Balloon, or keep as is? I don't want to switch Haxorus out if it were to get a boost from Scizor, but I can't keep it in if it confuses itself with Outrage. So it would be nice to switch moves.

Another thought I had was to get rid of Tyranitar and Excadrill, Ferrothorn to Skarmory as suggested, and just do away with the Sand aspect of this altogether. Get a different lead, different sweeper, etc. Still not a Baton Pass team, even if Scizor were to stay. Opinions on that?
 
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