BW UU Welcome To Jamrock (Peaked #4)

[fatty]

Welcome To Jamrock

Introduction:
well with hippo being banned now, i see no reason to not post this team. i had a fair amount of success with it, peaking #4 on the ladder and going 3-0 in the homefield tourney thus far, but it's now time to part ways because i'm not about to revamp this team with hippopotas > hippowdon. anyways, as for the background behind the team, when the new mons such as chandelure, hippo, machamp, and tornadus dropped down to uu, there were quite a few changes to the metagame. due to this, i set out to try and find what playstyle / mons would be successful in the new meta. after testing numerous teams (mostly non-weather bo) i decided to try out a sand team of my own since i was seeing a shit ton of them and they seemed to be pretty solid. with that said, though, i didn't want to use a copycat version of the standard sand team (hippo/ rade/ toise/ alakazam/ stoutland/ sableye, or something of the like). i wanted to be a little innovative so that i could deal with threats that usually give sand trouble and give me the upper edge on other bog standard teams. i originally was going to go with a more offensive approach, but after interchanging numerous slots in order to patch up weaknesses, the finished product sort of took on a slight quick-stall feel. the teams success lies in being able to soak up hits and set up hazards early in the match so that my two make-shift cleaners can pick up the remnants of the opposing team in the end. all-in-all, i had a lot of fun using this team and it's definitely one of the most solid teams i've ever used in uu. like i said, i probably won't be revamping this team, but it never hurts to get some last minute rates in because this team does have a couple notable weaknesses. oh btw, on a side note, i laddered with this team on the alt 'merther', which is a reference to damian marley's line "down in the streets they call it merther" in the song "welcome to jamrock", so that's where i got the name of this rmt. merther: denotes the sensations of smoking marijuana while listening to dub reggae. here's the song if you want to listen to it and have your mind blown:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlCmQcRPtRg.

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Hippowdon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 236 HP / 152 Def / 120 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Toxic

once i said i was abusing a sand team, this slot should of been obvious. while usually not directly contributing to a match that much, it's hippo's support traits that make it one of the most vital members on the team. first of all, he brings about the sand that this team needs to be successful. it allows stoutland to be fast as hell, makes aero a great special tank, and provides another means of secondary damage on the opposing team. secondly, hippo is my sr layer. with threats like zapdos, chandelure, victini, darmanitan, and tornadus looming, it's incredibily beneficial for any team to run sr, and my team especially can use all the secondary damage it can get. lastly, hippo is my main physical pivot. i can use it's immense bulk to soak up hits from rhyperior, heracross, krookodile, golurk, and bisharp, among others, and then proceed to set up sr, spread toxic, or pivot to my other hazards layers / stallers. hippo's also my best bet for electrics like rotom-h, zapdos, and raikou. that's why i have a little bit of spd investment, and also why i've considered stone edge > toxic. 236 hp is a lefties number and 152 def is a jump point.

Roserade (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 16 SAtk / 236 SDef / 8 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Spikes
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Rest

hippo's partner in crime. roserade provides me with a good switch-in into bulky waters, grasses, and other special attackers that plague hippowdon. furthermore, it makes the other half of my spikestacking duo by laying down spikes, which should be no surprise because most uu teams abuse spikes anyways. spikes just add another layer of residual damage for this team to abuse and allow me to break down opposing defensive teams a lot easier and allow powerful sweepers limited opportunities to wreak havoc. roserade also has a couple of subtle traits that lets the team run a lot smoother. for example, it's poison typing lets it soak up toxic spikes so i don't have to risk damage on toise to get them off the field and natural cure lets me use rade as a make-shift status absorber. as for the ev spread, i know it's not the standard all out spd spread that you might be accustomed to seeing on stall oriented teams, but it's the spread i've been using since the formation of the bw uu tier. it makes it a lot harder for sub cmers like mismagius and raikou to set up on you, allows me to hit suicune a lot harder after it calm minds, destroys dumb xatu's that try to block my spikes, and just makes roserade overall harder to switch-in to. also, with the extra health i gain from a more powerful giga drain, the bulk lost from not using a calm natured set is often offset. as for changes i'm willing to make, i've actually been meaning to test out aromatherapy somewhere. it'd help a lot against random status which most of my mons hate, but i honestly don't know what move to exchange for it.

Blastoise (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Roar

rounding out my immediate and standard defensive core is the illustrious blastoise. ok who am i kidding, blastoise sucks and i wouldn't be using him if he wasn't the best / most viable spinner atm. nonetheless, he plays a key role in the success of this team and can be helpful sometimes. as i said, rapid spin is pretty much the only thing keeping me from using a different bulky water. this is because i absolutely need rapid spin. stall teams in the first place loath hazards, then add the fact that two of my members are sr weak (aero and chandelure) and you'd understand why that is. blastoise is the best spinner available because it provides useful resistances, a good defensive pivot, can beat froslass one-on-one, and isn't slow as fuck like hitmontop and donphan, enabling it to spin against slower teams. blastoise also kinda comes in handy when i need to pHaze out a threat like dd kingdra in an emergency. the ev spread is pretty self explanatory, max defense for maximum tanking potential. for the other moves, scald allows me to burn random stuff and annoy the shit out of my opponent and ice beam hits grasses and dragons harder.

Stoutland (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Frustration
- Crunch
- Fire Fang
- Wild Charge

as the only real 'hard hitter' on the team, i rely on stoutland a ton to clean up a match in which i've set the stage for it by spreading hazards and abusing all my residual damage. stoutland has become a staple on pretty much every sand team, and for good reason. just like excadrill did in ou, stoutland can revenge kill basically anything in the sand, even boosted mons, and lays the hurt on the opponent with it's destructive STAB. whenever i'm in trouble and on the brink of losing, it's almost always stoutland who gets me out of it just because of his revenge killing capabilities factoring in it's tremendous speed. what really makes stoutland a team player, though, is it's synergy with the team. it provides the perfect offensive cleaner for a secondary damage based team, brings some speed to a rather slow team, checks overly powerful sweepers that my walls can't handle. hippowdon then in return provides the sand to boost stoutland's speed and a switch-in into the steels and rocks that wall stoutland. the ev spread is standard max atk, and the moveset is pretty much all stoutland has access to. i mostly spam frustration, but in the off chance that i need to catch an incoming escavalier, ghost, or empoleon, i'll use one of it's otherwise useless coverage moves.

Chandelure (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 152 Def / 16 SDef / 92 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
- Pain Split

this was the last member added, so it's kinda the missing piece that i was looking for to patch up all the weaknesses sand teams usually have. first and foremost, chandelure actually gives me a fighting chance against hail team, easily switching into abomasnow and spiker froslass. from there, it can fire off a some fairly strong STABs or spread burn with WoW. on top of that, chandelure functions as this team spin-blocker, making sure all the turns i use to set up hazards don't go to waste. this is also part of the reason why i went with a bulky spread and set rather than a standard offensive variation. chandelure has some very nice resistances and immunities that are incredibly helpful, and it has acceptable bulk which allows it to use them. it can switch into stallbreaker mew, victini, darmanitan, machamp, heracross, and roserade rather easily, all who would give my team a lot of trouble if i didn't have chandy. the ev spread and set are both tailored to make switching into and handling the aforementioned threats a lot easier. 248 hp is to maximize both physical and special bulk, 92 spe lets me outrun minimum speed roserade and most bulky waters, calm + 16 spd helps with special bulk and is a jump point, and the rest is thrown into defense. flamethrower and shadow ball are my two STABs, which are still pretty strong coming off of 326 spa. WoW is awesome for cutting powerful physical attackers like rhyperior's and machamp's attack in half. pain split is a terribly unreliable way to stay healthy, but hey, it's all i got. something that i could use advice on is whether i should use energy ball > shadow ball, because bulky waters are the most common switch-ins into chandy.

Aerodactyl (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 80 Atk / 180 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Taunt
- Toxic
- Rock Slide
- Roost

last but definitely not least, we have aerodactyl, the second part of my cleaning tag team. i've referenced aero throughout the rmt, but i don't really think i've put enough emphasis on how vital aero really is to this team. after playing all the matches i have, i can confidently say that aero is the glue that holds this team together and makes it so successful. it does this by performing numerous tasks throughout the match. for one, with the sand boosting it's spd due to it's rock typing, aero is actually a very good special tank, capable of easily checking threats such as alakazam and mismagius with it's speed and bulk. continually, aero also functions as this teams answer to opposing stall. having one of the fastest taunts in the game in conjunction with toxic spells death for a lot of stall teams already, but when you add entry hazards to punish constant switches to avoid taunts and toxics, oppsing stall often just crumbles. these same traits also make aero successful against offensive oriented teams. aero can prevent opposing mons for stat boosting, can can slowly wear them down with pressure, toxic damage, and it's reasonable bulk. thirdly, aerodactyl actually has a very beneficial typing for sand teams in general. it gives me a ground immunity so that cb rhyperior doesnt rape me and gives me a nice check to the bu acrobatics tornadus set that's growing in poularity. with the sand boost that i mentioned before, i can also even switch into threats such as roserade and chandelure and win one-one-one.

main weaknesses

• kingdra - i think this one was obvious. i don't have a steel, and my best answer is blastoise, who can only roar it away. i'm alright if i can keep kingdra from getting too many dd's, because stoutland can always revenge, but it's still a bitch. specsdra can also go eat a dick.

• empoleon - probably the biggest threat to the team because i literally have 0 direct answers. for reference, my first switch-in into it is blastoise just to try and get the scald burn on it lol. once it's burned i can try stalling it out with smart switches and roserade, or revenge with stout + wild charge, but it definitely has the opportunity to punch holes in my team.

• nidoking - simply put, i can't switch-in. blastoise and hippowdon can tank a hit and ko back if they're at high enough health, but other than that i need to rely on stout to revenge again.

and that's the team. hope you enjoyed reading it, because i certainly enjoyed writing it! (not really, it was actually fairly time consuming and boring at times). i'd really appreciate any and all feedback because i spent quite a bit of time tweaking this team to be it's very best, or as close to it as possible.

 

[destinyunknown]

Nice sandstorm team, you have covered most things well. It doesn't make much sense to fix the weaknesses now, but i think cradily could have covered both your problems with empoleon and nidoking, while also helping against stall teams.
Kingdra will still be a bitch though, at least specs version would have been stopped by cradily too.

 

[fatty]

yeah cradily actually woulda been a pretty good fit over aero, but I guess I just kinda liked the speed that aero brought to the team. thanks for the rate!

 

[Soto]

I make a MUCH SIMILLAR TEAM, but.. Sp.Def Hitmontop > Blastoise (FORESIGHT is much good, and priority is necessary, i think) and Slowbro > Aero (good core defensive, just saying... Def Chandelure + Slowbro + Hippo + Hitmontop probally counter all physical pokemons of game, incluing the "incounterable" Stotland and Darmanitan huge the powers).

Ah, i used FULL def Chandelure, but you evs probally is better.

Hide

My team is IDENTICAL, j/s... I used toxic Hippo, i used Spikes Rose, i used CB Stout, i used def Chandelure (but my Chan have more def).

No more, u team is much good, congratz.

 

[Godsend]

Hey Fatty, you've got a great team here, it's a shame that the Big Hippo got banned. I like your unorthodox approach to Sand, overall going for a more defensive theme. I made a very similar team, five of the same six pokes, but different moves sets on every one exculding Stoutland. I'm not good at rates, so I won't say much else. I would say that it probably isn't worth the bother of having Energy Ball>Shadow Ball on Chand. I doubt you'll do enough damage to make a difference tbh. Have you tried this team with Hippopotos>Hippowdon? I'd be interested to know how that works out.

 

[fatty]

@godsend: well energy ball actually has a chance to 2hko a lot of bulky waters after sr / spikes.

and bump i guess

 

[SJCrew]

You seem extremely weak to Suicune. The only Roserade variants that can stop it are offensive; the one you're using just gets set up on. I suggest you replace Roserade with Specs Shaymin and Chandelure with Utility Froslass to keep your Spikes and add a Suicune counter. Alternatively, you can give your Roserade Toxic Spikes to work with the defensive theme, which also allows you to give it Sleep Powder and Leaf Storm, and help Chandelure stall out Blastoise, and for Hippowdon to stall out Rhyperior, not to mention make it die more quickly. I understand what you have Ice Beam for, but Blastoise is too weak and it just isn't threatening enough against Roserade and Shaymin. You can better utilize that turn of prediction to spin on Ghosts with Foresight.

As for Wild Charge and Fire Fang - pick one. It's extremely important that you be able to Pursuit trap faster, less defensive Ghosts, especially Froslass, so that they don't come back in and try to check you when you're locked into Return. I'm biased toward Wild Charge, since it helps with your Empoleon weakness and ensures agility variants cannot sweep you with Sand up.

EDIT: It also goes without saying that this team is outdated because of the Hippowdon ban. You can either update the OP with any progress made in UU if you're still using Sand with Hippopotas, or we can just leave this thread to die as a relic of a metagame past.