Rock All! - shrang     
IntroductionSo yeah, with firecape making the "Burn All" team and trickroom running "Drown All", you could see something like this coming from a mile away. Sandstorm has always been an excellent weather condition, and this is no exception in Ubers, it's just that Groudon and Kyogre are so damn dominant that it is a bit harder for Tyranitar and friends to compete. No matter, Tyranitar is still Uber Strongth and deserve to be placed among the greats of the Uber metagame. I was thinking of doing "Freeze All" as well, since I have a reasonable Hail team as well, but this team is better, so I'll showcase it. It is basically an ad for Uber Sand teams. It was originally a Dream World team, in which I altered it so it was legal on WiFi. Unlike Burn All and Drown All, this team does not focus on stacking hazards like pyramids on the opponent, but aims to remove them from my own side so my bulky attackers can come in again and again to apply pressure on the opponent and control the pace of the game. By the way, Burn All loses horribly to the Dream World version of this team as Latias and Chandelure get completely roflstomped by Tyranitar, while it can be a massive pest to Drown All if I get rid Giratina-O, possibly Lugia and Kyogre (I've had my fair share of wins). Incidentally, anyone notice that Burn All and Drown All are both heavily susceptible to Spikes themselves? Anyway, enough trashing well-made teams. Originally, the main focus of this team was Rock Arceus, but in the end, I got rid of it since I just had way too many Fighting and Ground weaknesses to be sustainable. Now, the main focus is to facilitate an Excadrill sweep, but that isn't usually how I win anyway. Basically, apart from Excadrill, this Sandstorm team can just be treated as a normal Ubers team that happens to have Sand in it. After the removal of Rock Arceus, the emphasis was less on Sand and more on plain bulky offense. This team got to #3, but like trickroom said, getting a high ladder spot means little in Ubers. Basically, the idea is to look at Team Preview and decide what would be the game winner. If I see weather (which is like on every team), I will keep Tyranitar as healthy as possible. If I see sun, I will make sure Stealth Rock is off my field because Ho-Oh is going to kick some major ass. Rain is a bit more annoying to deal with, but it normally involves me using Grass Arceus to scout for what kind of Kyogre they're running. If they're running bulky, slow Kyogre, Excadrill can just SD up and kill it. It they're running Choiced Kyogre, I would try and tank a hit or two with Grass Arceus, and hopefully catch it on Ice Beam or Thunder with Tyranitar, and move in for the Pursuit. The biggest flaw with this team is that sometimes, even when victory is around the corner, it can take AGES to finish a match (Say an opposing stall team has Lugia left and I have Excadrill and Giratina left, you know I'm going to win, but it can take ages simply because Lugia is a pain to take down). I really need Toxic on something just to quicken up those situations. This is not to say that this team has trouble with Stall. It doesn't, when their entry hazards are removed as soon as they go up, anyway. The nicknames are basically taken from names of Dragon Ball Kai's soundtrack, but I doubt anyone cares about that o_0. The Team
Ho-Oh @ Leftovers I don't have a lead, because, you know, they are kind of obselete now. Ho-Oh just happened to be the last Pokemon to appear on my team. That aside, one might be surprised why I have Ho-Oh... on a Sandstorm team. The reason is simple, and that is because Ho-Oh is such a badass she can belong on pretty much any team and still kickass (okay, maybe Rain teams are a bit of a stretch, but she's still not bad in them). There are two main reasons why Ho-Oh is such a great Pokemon to use on this team. The first is that she literally takes a bird crap on Fighting Arceus, who would otherwise destroy most Sand teams. The second reason is that she can pretty much 6-0 some sun teams if I play her correctly. I mean, if you are running Dragon Tail on Groudon, you are in a world of pain when Ho-Oh switches in and completely wrecks your face. Ho-Oh makes Groudon a liability, and that is great because Groudon can switch in on Tyranitar just too freely. If I see a Groudon and a poorly made sun team, I won't even bother to bring in Tyranitar since Ho-Oh would just kill everything. For the record, run Roar on Groudon, otherwise Ho-Oh would completely annihilate you. Barry4ever knows what I mean. Dragon Tail fails to break Ho-Oh's Substitute, meaning it can just Sub in your face and proceed to destroy whatever you decide to use to break her Sub. I don't see that much point in running Dragon Tail, to be honest, simply because who the hell is going to have the guts to Taunt Groudon apart from Baton Pass Mew? Groudon isn't a weak piece of shit like Lugia, he doesn't need to use Dragon Tail to bypass Taunt. Roar can at least let you set up Stealth Rock and Roar away Ho-Oh regardless of Sub or not. Anyway, back to Ho-Oh, the moveset is just standard. 32 Speed lets her outspeed Adamant Tyranitar (although no-one uses him anyway) and stall out his Stone Edges. It also allows me to outspeed most uninvested base 90s, which is like, a lot of them. 252 Atk and Adamant is for FULU-PAWA, and the rest go into HP, allowing Ho-Oh to switch in twice to Stealth Rock. I didn't use Life Orb because this Ho-Oh is still primarily used to tank hits, and with Sandstorm raging, she is going to die just too quickly to recoil and it's not worth it. Substitute and Recover allows Ho-Oh to Pressure stall out Stone Edges and Spacial Rends and the like, while Sacred Fire and Brave Bird allows her to hit very, very hard. I chose Recover over Roost so Ho-Oh will be able to stall out Stone Edge from Groudon no matter what, and then recover the health without being susceptible to EQ later (Would kind of suck to stall out Stone Edge, Roost off the damage and then die immediately to EQ, right?). Ho-Oh is a key counter to Fighting Arceus, so it needs to be kept relatively healthy. Stealth Rock needs to removed at all costs. Fortunately for this team, removing entry hazards is a walk in the park. Between the two of Tyranitar and Excadrill, spin-blockers are taken out without much difficulty at all. Giratina-O that don't carry Aura Sphere or Earthquake are taken out handily by Pursuit (TTar can survive an unboosted Aura Sphere if need be and Crunch the thing anyway), while Ghost Arceus is handily OHKOed by +2 EQ from Excadrill after Stealth Rock. Giratina is also 2HKOed by +2 EQ, and even Will-O-Wisp cannot save it from getting removed by Excadrill, who would then Rapid Spin in the opponent's face.
Grass Arceus @ Meadow Plate Grass Arceus is the glue and utility of this team, if you will. Originally, I ran Calm Mind Grass Arceus, but since I have Calm Mind Giratina on my team now, I don't really need CM Grass Arceus to take on mono Kyogre and Manaphy any more. Also, Gliscor pissed me off to no end, so I replaced Stealth Rock on Tyranitar for Ice Beam, meaning Arceus had to take up the mantle of setting up SR. Still, even without CM and coverage moves, Grass Arceus does just fine at checking Groudon and Kyogre and many other threats that bother my team. There really isn't much to say about Grass Arceus apart from the fact that it does what it's supposed to do. The EVs allow Arceus is outspeed Jolly Garchomp, meaning I could potentially Recover off any damage it decides to do to me before it does anything else. The rest of the EVs go into Special Defense to take attacks like Water Spout from Kyogre. With the current EVs, Kyogre has like a 3% chance of 2HKOing me with a fully powered Water Spout, so I'm willing to take that risk. Grass Knot is used since Manaphy isn't that much of a threat, and Grass Knot hurts pretty much everything else in Ubers for more damage anyway. It also has more PP. Stealth Rock is on Arceus since there is nothing else on my team that can run it, while Roar can get rid of annoying setup sweepers in a pinch, although Ice Beam lets me take out SD Rayquaza. Recover rounds off the set since Arceus is actually needed to come in and out and take hits.
Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf This is glue number 2, the revenge killer for the team. I thought for a while which Pokemon I should use in this slot. Firstly, I wanted a Pokemon that could outspeed Dragon Dance Rayquaza, since Air Lock allows him to ignore the Sand and Excadrill's attempts to revenge kill it. I had a few options, which were Palkia, Jirachi, and Garchomp. I originally had Palkia, as he was a fantastic switch-in to Kyogre, but I hated how Spikes and Toxic Spikes he was. So with that in mind, Garchomp was quickly discarded as well, since he is an even bigger Spiker bait (Forretress, Skarmory, Ferrothorn all love to switch in on Outrage, and as put in the words of one battler, "All ScarfChomp does is sit there and jack off while they set up hazards"). Jirachi, on the other hand, was just way too weak for my taste. I briefly considered Flygon, but quickly dismissed for similar reasons. So then, after looking around the Pokedex for suitable replacements, I saw trickroom QC Scarf Hydreigon, and just seemed perfect. Here was a revenge-killer that could outspeed DD Ray, while not being a weak piece of shit, AND was not Spikes or Toxic Spikes weak. It doesn't end here, since he has that Dark-typing to troll Wobbuffet with. His power is still not what I want it to be, but 125 SpA is good enough to reap the benefits of running Hydreigon anyway. Not being able to revenge Salamence is unfortunate, but no-one runs Mence in Ubers these days and Excadrill is more than enough to revenge him anyway. Once Genesect comes out I may try him out, but Hydreigon is a great revenge killer in the Uber metagame, if you haven't tried it out yet, you should. Draco Meteor is obviously Hydreigon's most powerful attack to be used in revenge-killing purposes, taking out most Dragon-types that are found in Ubers. Fire Blast gives fantastic coverage, annihilating Pokemon like Scizor, Forretress, Skarmory, etc. Dark Pulse gives Hydreigon a move to revenge-kill Mewtwo with, who could pose a problem if Excadrill is gone. U-turn rounds out the set, allowing Hydreigon to keep the momentum for the team. The EVs are as simple as you can get, just your typical 4/252/252 spread. When Genesect is released I may try him out, but I really like the additional Ground resist/immunity.
Giratina @ Leftovers To be honest, I really don't know why I have Giratina in this spot. It just seems to work. The only real reason I can think of is to counter those pesky Blazikens that would otherwise hurt my team quite badly, and to hurt ExtremeKiller Arceus enough so Excadrill can come in and revenge-kill it. It also provides a decent check to Calm Mind mono-Kyogre, since he resists Scald or Surf and can easily PP stall the leviathan to oblivion with Pressure, should Kyogre not get a lucky crit. Apart from this, Giratina is still very out of place on my team, even though right now, I can't find anything that does its job better. Giratina-O would have been more preferable, but it doesn't synergise well with Sandstorm since the thing has no recovery or any kind. Latias would be f**king perfect with Soul Dew was released =O. I've even tried Gyarados just to prove trickroom wrong when he was raving about it, and it actually pulled its own for a while until I was like "Why the fuck am I even doing this". I tested Jellicent lately as well, and didn't think it was that good, either. Any suggestion on what a good replacement might be would be highly appreciated. So when I finally decided to stick Giratina onto this team, a few things came up. 1) Giratina is the biggest stall-bait ever, since virtually every Spiker or Stealth Rock user can just come in and set up layers for free, time which Excadrill would have to spend spinning instead of sweeping. 2) It is rather weak. So I thought "you know what, I'll make those Forretress users regret that they try to set up layers on me by sweeping them instead". I seriously doubt any of you would even think about setting up layers if you were watching Giratina boost itself up in right front of you. Once Giratina has got to +2 or something, don't even think about taking it out unless you have a move called Perish Song, Haze, Trick or Ghost Curse. Something like Scarf Palkia's Spacial Rend does a pitiful 30.95% - 36.90%. Still, even with its massive defenses, RestTalk and Calm Mind, I haven't been able to showcase Giratina that much since it takes too long to setup and the other Pokemon get the job done anyway. I've replaced Sleep Talk with Will-O-Wisp as the main option so I can deal with Extremekiller Arceus better, but Dragon Tail is also an option since it lets me make sure I get rid of BP Mew. Giratina is more of a fall-back Pokemon. The EVs and moveset are as simple as you can think of. I put 8 Spe just to outspeed uninvested base 90s who may just put their last 4 EVs into Speed, and the rest go into HP and Defense to allow to tank some of the hardest hits. Calm Mind, Rest and Sleep Talk allows Giratina to heal its health and status, while Dragon Pulse is a fantastic mono-STAB to work with.
Tyranitar @ Leftovers This should probably be my lead, but it really doesn't matter since I get to change anyway. Tyranitar is Uber Strong! Apart from Water Spout and Aura Sphere, there is virtually no special attack that this beast cannot take. The given EVs allow Tyranitar to tank a +1 Aura Sphere from Life Orb-less Mewtwo, which shows how much of a monster this thing is. Basically, he is my all-round special sponge that unlike Blissey, can deal decent damage to the Pokemon that he is supposed to counter. Here are just some damage calculations to further cement Tyranitar's place in the Uber tier (in the Sandstorm, of course): Choice Scarf Palkia's Spacial Rend: 25.25% - 29.70% One-on-one, Tyranitar can defeat all of them. Tyranitar can easily Pursuit fleeing Palkias or Giratina-O's, as well as stuff like Scarf Kyogre trapped into Ice Beam or Thunder. Crunch is Tyranitar's most reliable STAB attack and can do huge amounts of damage to stuff like Giratina-O who decide to stay in. With Giratina-O removed, Excadrill can use Rapid Spin or even sweep without much trouble at all. Crunch even allows Tyranitar to defeat Lugia variants that don't carry Reflect (see trickroom). Basically, Crunch does ~50%, so it can repeatedly pound Lugia as it Roosts until it gets a Defense drop. Realising that it cannot stay in with the Defense drop, Lugia will attempt to flee, only to be molested by Pursuit. If this was Dream World Ubers, then Tyranitar would be even more of a beast, with stuff like Chandelure and the Lati twins to gobble up, but let's not get too ahead of ourselves. I originally had Stealth Rock on Tyranitar, but after getting my ass totally handed to me by Gliscor, I decided to stick Ice Beam just to lure it in and remove it forever. It can also deal SOME damage to Garchomp that think they can switch in for free, assuming that Tyranitar decides to hit (Sand Veil is such a bastard). Low Kick rounds out the set, allowing Tyranitar to 2HKO Dialga (that don't run Bulk Up) and Heatran, both are utterless helpless against the tyrant. It can also deal some nice damage to Ferrothorn, although I do have better methods against that thing. Leftovers is to help it live longer, obviously.
Excadrill @ Life Orb So, we come to the main event! In a Sandstorm, this thing has a blistering 550 Speed, and after a Swords Dance, 810 Attack. Excadrill is almost the ideal sweeper. However, like every Pokemon in the team, it can also play a supporting role by using Rapid Spin. Like I said in Ho-Oh's description, between Excadrill and Tyranitar, they can remove pretty much every spin-blocker without much trouble, the only one that may survive is Giratina, whom after SR and Sandstorm is very likely to be 2HKOed by +2 Earthquake even if he pulls off the burn. Excadrill can then proceed to use Rapid Spin to tear down the hard work of any stall team, as well as letting Ho-Oh in for free. Excadrill + Ho-Oh is such an epic combo. Excadrill is also so the revenge killer to go to if Hydreigon can't kill whatever threat it is (Hydreigon can come off a bit weak sometimes). It outspeeds stuff like Mewtwo, Darkrai and others and does huge amounts to ExtremeKiller Arceus all the while taking a +2 Extremespeed. Basically, I will look at your team and decide on how to remove your weather inducers. Groudon can't take hits forever from this thing, but I will be quite careful playing around the sun-inducing bastard. If I know Groudon is coming in, I'll probably just spin away rocks then go straight to Ho-Oh, and if your Groudon is carrying Dragon Tail, you know the horrors that will ensue. For Kyogres, I'll scout out your set. If it's bulky, I'll just SD up and OHKO you. If it's fast (usually Choiced), I'll lure you into Ice Beam or Thunder and then Pursuit you with Tyranitar. If it's something annoying like CM + 3 Attacks, I'll wind you down with Grass Arceus. In short, Excadrill doesn't always sweep, but when it does, watch out. The moveset is very simple. Adamant nature and max Attack for maximum power (I used Jolly for a while, but Adamant always OHKOs Ghost Arceus with +2 EQ, so that's staying). Max Speed is so it doesn't get outsped by stuff that's not supposed to outspeed it as well as beating most Base 90s that don't invest in Speed. Swords Dance, Earthquake and Rock Slide are attacks seen on pretty much every Excadrill. I used Shadow Claw for a while to kill Giratina-O when I then realised "why am I bothering when Tyranitar kills pretty much every Giratina-O anyway". Rapid Spin is used so Ho-Oh and others have more switching around time. ImportableConclusionSo yeah, that's the team. I really can't bothered with a Team Building process, I've done enough writing, sorry. |