What are the keys at the hour to do a Sandstorm team?

Maestro Arena

Maestro Arena

I want to make a sandstorm team with Tyranitar (my favourite Pokemon), but I don´t know what to use. I have only decided Garchomp and Blissey.

What are the keys at the hour to do a competitive Sandstorm team? What shall be put and what shall don´t be put?
 
You dont need Blissey, you can use a Rock Pokemon that takes advantage of the Sandstorm boost. Best one is probably Cradily.

Well, you need Spikes and Stealth Rock I must say, a Rapid Spinner and possibly something that blocks rapid spins (ghost).

Atleast 4 Pokemon in your team should be immune to SS, try to balance the weaknesses so that you dont get a major weak.

My 2 cents.
 
Rest/Sleep Talk Cresselia is good because it counters some of the big problems those teams have (Infernape, Heracross, etc.), especially if it's using Psychic.

Salamence is on alot of those teams because it counters them too, except when Heracross predicts the switchin and uses Stone Edge, and can be a good special attacker among all the Tyranitars and Rhyperiors those teams use. Any other good Heracross/Infernape counter is good too. Gliscor is good at countering Heracross and can have Sand Veil.

Starmie is usually used to beat Garchomp, Gyarados etc.

Really, it's like any other team built on a good strategy. Decide the 1-2 pokemon you want first and build your team around that.
 
My recommendation is to use things that take full advantage of the Rock Types Special Defense boost and anything in general that takes advantage of Sandstorm, like the ability Sand Stream.

There are many options. I'm running a Sandstorm team myself and have found that there's a surprising amount of variety. Remember, Steel, Rock, and Ground are immune to Sandstorm. However, I would recommend using a Tyranitar lead to get the sand churning as soon as possible.
 
There are plenty of Sandstorm teams in the RMT subforum, you should check them. However, I'd pick Hippowdon as a starter, he doesn't get owned by Weavile starts and he's an overall better starter than Tyranitar. He's a nice Stealth Rock user, so go ahead and use it.

Cradily is an option, but I still prefer Blissey, it's your choice here.

Other Pokémon like Swampert, Magnezone, Dugtrio, Rhyperior are also options. Just try to cover yourself from both Heracross and Infernape.
 
The most important thing when making a Sandstorm team is making sure you aren't really weak to one type. A lot seem to be Fighting weak, so make sure you take care of that. Walling isn't that difficult, Cradily/Blissey are pretty good for special and Hippo/Donphan are good for physical.
 
Cradily is not a replacement for Blissey, although if you wanted 2 special walls you could use both. I'd honestly rather use Empoleon though, it doesn't get the boost but it does more damage to stuff, and counters Specsmence alot better (resisting Draco Meteor, Dragon Pulse, and Hydro Pump, instead of being neutral to all). You have Tyranitar for unboosted special attacks anyway. It's not weak to Ice either, and, if you really have to (which you shouldn't), it can come in on a Heracross if you can predict anything except Close Combat, since it resists Bug/Rock/Dark.

Shuckle has no good recovery move, and it really doesn't do much besides Knock Off, which admittedly is pretty good since it gets rid of Leftovers and any Choice item on Heracross


You don't even need a team full of Sandstorm resistors, just the 1 that starts the Sandstream and 2 others (or 1 other, if you are using Tyranitar and Hippowdon). There's really too much you can't counter when you really limit yourselves to Ground/Rock/Steel types. I wouldn't ever use more than 4.
 
Remember, there are other Pokemon that can be included like, say, Cacturne whose Sand Veil can be very useful and Focus Sashed Counter can eliminate Heracross or physical Infernape. Might add some nice diversity.
 
TheBM said:
Remember, there are other Pokemon that can be included like, say, Cacturne whose Sand Veil can be very useful and Focus Sashed Counter can eliminate Heracross or physical Infernape. Might add some nice diversity.
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Seconded on the Cacturne thing. It only shares one weakness with felow rock/ground types (ice), and resists Sandstorm despite being Grass/Dark, which is nifty.
 
For special walls, definately go empoleon...as for pysical you could try hippowdon to keep the storm going, or even donphan which is nice to hit dragons hard. Gliscor can counter TTars weakness to fighting\ eq nicely and provides Stealth rock. Mixpert is viable as well for a phazer and tank. With Hp electric it covers gyarados nicley, as he will be a big threat to a SS team
 
For a physical wall, I like Sand Veil Gliscor. Swampert works too, but doesn't have the hax factor.

Another good surprise is Cacturne, abusing Sand Veil too and has a nice movepool.

And like said above, Hippowdon is an awesome starter. Sandstorm teams are very variable.
 
What about Regirock as a dual-purpose wall. He gets the sandstorm boost, which helps his decent Sp. Def, and has exceptional Defense.
 
Something like Relicanth is a really nice tank in a sandstorm team. It gets the 50% special defense boost which allows it to survive even a Porygon-Z Thunderbolt, physical hitters have a really hard time killing it with its 100 base HP and 130 base defense. But, don't forget that it has a no recoil Head Smash which can do a lot of damage on anything trying to kill him and really dents anything trying to switch in. Although, if you have him on your team, you should put a grass resistor since grass attacks are one of thee things that can actually OHKO him.
 
His typing is terrible for walling though. Weaknesses to Fighting and Ground are terrible for the physical side, and weaknesses to Water and Grass on the special side, while not as bad, are still pretty bad. He also has pretty much no handy resists (Normal... and pretty much nothing else).
 
I didn't say wall, I said tank. Tanks are something that can take hits well and dish them out. Walls are just things that soak up hits basically.

By the way, there are special fighting/ground attacks and physical water/grass attacks in DP...

Umm...and I do believe that it has better resists than just Normal. Ice resist is always handy since Ice is a widely used offensive type, a double resist to Fire means it can shrug off stuff like Infernape's Flare Blitz, and a Flying resist means it can take Togekiss Air Slashes very well...
 
Bologo, that was bad posting time. I was responding to darkie about Regirock. And while yes, there are special fighting/ground, and physical water/grass, the former are compromised mostly by physical attacks (Sans Aura Sphere/Focus Blast and Earth Power), and the latter by special (except Waterfall/Aqua Jet and Seed bomb/Power Whip). Only Focus Blast and Waterfall are TM's/HM's, so they are kinda uncommon. But anyway, that was my bad, I should have indicated that I was responding to Darkie.

I actually do like Relicanth, a lot. Head Smash is murder off of it, and if it can get a Rock Polish off it is a massive threat. The Special Def. boost helps it out a ton too.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot that Rock also resists flying. My bad once again.
 
Heh, oh sorry bout that. But Regirock isn't that bad at it. The Normal, Fire and Flying resists are still useful. Regirock can Tank too though, remember it does have 100 base attack, and if it uses enough special defense EVs, it can rise over its monstrous physical defense. I will admit though, 5 weaknesses isn't very good, but it can take advantage of the more physically-oriented ones with Counter from the ADV move tutors. :]

I can see a good reason why he wouldn't be good at walling though, seeing as his only means of recovery is Rest...
 
Cacturne is a pretty cool sweeper, but it's resistances are pretty useless since it's defense are so weak. Quagsire is a cool water resist, and with hp lightning it helps with gyarados who can hurt sandstorm teams.
 
choop said:
Quagsire is a cool water resist, and with hp lightning it helps with gyarados who can hurt sandstorm teams.
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I agree with choop's statement, quagsire is nice, but I think if you want that typing isn't swampert better? I mean swampert can get hp electric and is bulk(ier). Yeah, Gyarados can tear up sand storm teams if he catches them unprepared, but sandstorm teams wear down sweepers after a while and I don't think that Gyarados can run any sort of reocvery so bear that in mind.

Donphan is really nice (especially with ice shard) I think that as long as half your team is immune to sandstorm, you're doing fine, I run a calm mind blissey alongside tyranitar and the whole "zomg, what happened to my leftover's recovery!?" is not a big deal. Blissey is nice as a special wall, don't let the fact that you are using a sandstorm team disuade you from using the big egg.
 
MinorthreaT said:
I agree with choop's statement, quagsire is nice, but I think if you want that typing isn't swampert better? I mean swampert can get hp electric and is bulk(ier). Yeah, Gyarados can tear up sand storm teams if he catches them unprepared, but sandstorm teams wear down sweepers after a while and I don't think that Gyarados can run any sort of reocvery so bear that in mind.

Donphan is really nice (especially with ice shard) I think that as long as half your team is immune to sandstorm, you're doing fine, I run a calm mind blissey alongside tyranitar and the whole "zomg, what happened to my leftover's recovery!?" is not a big deal. Blissey is nice as a special wall, don't let the fact that you are using a sandstorm team disuade you from using the big egg.
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I'm thinking the reason choop said Quagsire over Swampert was because Quagsire gets Water Absorb as its trait.

Also, I agree with your Blissey statement, it does get Softboiled if it ever gets into any real trouble from Sandstorm.

But, if you want something good with Ice Shard, why not just use Mamoswine? Ice Shard from that thing can actually OHKO dragons as well as having a very potent Earthquake.
 
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