Looking for help with my OU Sandstorm Balance Team

[Macc]

No matter what I put together as far a Pokemon Team goes I always seem to find myself changing everything and trying to start from scratch. With this thread I want to make a team that I can create and use in the real Pokemon game instead of just Shoddy Battle. So, without further adieu... Here's my team, which I like to call...

The Green Cheese Storm

Togera (Tyranitar) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 240 HP/36 Atk/48 Def/184 SDef
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Counter
- Taunt

This is my Lead Tyranitar. Lum Berry will come into play for leads like Breloom that think they can spore me. Little do they know... Earthquake is to hit steels and pretty much anything that Fire Punch wouldn't be too effective on. I found it to be more useful than Crunch since it didn't really get any use. Fire Punch is for Steel Types like Bronzong. Counter comes into play when my opponents think they can one shot my Tyranitar with an Earthquake leading to Tyranitar KOing them instead. Lastly, Taunt is for prevention of stealth rock or anything else on slower leads as well as Pokemon who are attempting to set up on Tyranitar. I decided to switch his Careful Nature to an Impish Nature *by suggestion* for the boost to Def to help with Counter. Careful was originally intended to help Tyranitar survive Gengar's boosted Life orb Focus Blasts... I do believe it was a rare chance though...

Zero (Scizor) (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP/136 Atk/120 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Brick Break

This is my Physical Sweeper / Revenge Scizor. I chose not to use Life Orb, because the dmg it gave was annoying. Bullet Punch is an obvious STAB priority move that seems essential to every Scizor set. U-turn is another STAB move, but U-turn will allow me to deal dmg and switch. Pursuit is to punish pokemon like Alakazam or Azelf. Brick Break felt necessary for more coverage and the ability to break down Light Screen or Reflect barriers. This set used to have Roost in place of Brick Break, but since Scizor isn't using Life Orb there wasn't nearly as much of a need for it.

Adramelech (Dragonite) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 112 Atk/240 Spd/156 SAtk
Lonely nature (+Atk, -Def)
- Outrage
- Thunderbolt
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam

This is my Mixed Sweper / Revenge Dragonite. Choice Scarf is what makes him so useful and surprising! No one expects their fast sweeper to go slower than a Dragonite after all... Outrage is STAB and a wonderful finishing move once I have cleared out my opponent's Steel Types / anything else that could prevent an Outrage Sweep. Thunderbolt will take out a Gyarados in one-shot going first even if they had a Dragon Dance boost *most of the time*. Fire Blast was chosen over Earthquake to hit steels who think they can come in on my Dragonite. With proper prediction I find it more useful that Earthquake was, eventhough this set is walled by Heatran without it... Lastly, Ice Beam is for fellow Dragons, Ground Types and some Flyers.

Ness (Gengar) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def /252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Thunder Bolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Destiny Bond

This is my Special Sweeper/ Revenge Gengar. Shadow Ball and Thunderbolt seem almost obligatory for a Gengar set, but despite how standard it seemed I find them to be extremely useful. Hidden Power Ice is there as a surprise. I found that people expected my Tentacruel to have Ice Beam and I needed a back up Ice attacker so I decided to give it to my Gengar since it allowed him to have the max speed stat I wanted. Destiny Bond is for revenge or to take out something I may not have an answer to with the rest of my team.

Calamari (Tentacruel) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/120 Def/136 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Giga Drain
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes

This is my special Defending Tentacruel. The first move slot is currently being taken up by Hidden Power Fire for a dreadful little surprise for Steel type Pokemon and for the fact that my Gengar doesn't have Hidden Power Fire. Mainly Hidden Power Fire is for Forretress and Scizor, However, it needs proper prediction to be useful at all... Giga Drain is a surprise for the ever so common Swampert and it's Tentacruel's only form of recovery on this set. Toxic Spikes and Rapid Spin were added by suggestion and the difference it made was huge! Rapid Spin helps my Dragonite come in and last longer. It's like Viagra for my Pokemon! Also, I didn't realize how much better my team worked with the ability to have both Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes put on the field. It will help to cripple my opponent's team along with Sandstorm. Leftovers is used to counteract the negative effect of sandstorm on my Tentacruel.

Bottomless (Hippowdon) (F) @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP/168 Def/88 SDef
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
- Slack Off

Last on the team is my Physical Defending Hippowdon. It uses Rindo Berry to get the jump on a Mixed Infernape attempting to Grass Knot only to get KOed by Earthquake! Stealth Rock is obvious yet very helpful move for my team and its dmg dealing abilities. Roar was re-chosen over Yawn for its better phazing ability. Slack Off is for health recovery.


This team takes advantage of Sand Storm for residual dmg and excellent synergy to whittle away my opponent's team. It also seems to deal with most if not all of the OU threats in one way or another. Now what I need is your opinions and advice so I can make it as best as it can be. Even if that means replacing Pokemon or even starting all over again. I feel like there is a lot for me to learn and I hope this thread will help me do so.

Thank you for your time!

 

[silver249]

Ok, here are a few ideas.
Careful nature seems kind of weird on Tyranitar for the moveset you gave him I would use Adamant, Jolly or maybe even Impish. Sandstorm already gives all rock types a 1.5 boost to their special defence which is normally enough for Tyranitar. Adamant and jolly would make him a better sweeper and impish would set up your counter strategy better.

Leftovers on rotom is also slightly unfit. While it does get rid of sandstorm damage, rotom aren't exactly known for taking hits in the first place and seeing as it's a sweeper better items could be used (choice specs?).

This team takes advantage of Sand Storm for residual dmg and excellent synergy to whittle away my opponent's team.

From what you said here, your strategy is to use gradual damage to whittle away your oponent. I can only suggest to put toxic spikes on Tentacruel (perhaps in place of knock off?) since your team does not use any status inducing moves (besides yawn). Being poisoned is a real pain in drawn out battles, add in sandstorm and it's even worse.

As for hippowdon, I would suggest switching yawn with roar. I know that you explained why you preffered yawn already but roar can be more of a pain for your opponent. This is because a:in the case of yawn your oponent gets to chose who to send out next where they get no choice when hit by roar. b:They are not actually forced to switch by yawn. c:if you are playing under the sleep clause, yawn will rarely work more then once. d:roar will help you rack up stealth rock (and possible toxic spike) damage much faster as yawn takes two full turns to complete where as roar only takes 1. Also with yawn gone you will have less reason not to use toxic spikes on your Tentacruel. Rindo Berry is good but if you do decide to take leftovers off of Rotom then I would suggest putting it on Hippowdon.

I'm just throwing out some ideas, the final decision's yours.

 

[groovitational snubbul]

this goes for everyone on the forums.

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T USE THE STRATEGY DEX!!!

i cannot stress that enough. the stratege dex is very flawed, if you want basic sets and spreads go here.

i'll rate a little later.

 

[Macc]

Thanks for your responses. I just realized that I haven't been checking up on my thread and had made a few changes from play testing that have changed things up quite a bit. I have edited the main post from your suggestions and what I have altered. Thanks again!

 

[Zenotwapal]

You may want rapid spin on tentacruel, to get rid of toxic spikes and spikes.

 

[Macc]

Well, Rapid Spin is only useful when I make a mistake and allow my opponent to set up on me. Most of the Spikers that exist be it Skarmory or Forretress can't set up on my lead Tyranitar or my Tentacruel. I find that more moves for better coverage on Tentacruel is much more effective than Rapid Spin, which I have not used yet... I've playtested this team on Shoddy-Battle a lot lately and I have never needed rapid spin, because stealth rock isn't a big deal for my team. Toxic Spikes can be absorbed and Spikes usually will not get placed.

 

[Blue Ace]

Careful was originally intended to help Tyranitar survive Gengar's boosted Focus Blasts either by Life orb or Choice Specs... I do believe...

Yyou are always OHKOed by a Timid LO Focus Blast despite your nature and EVs

Zero (Scizor) (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 176 HP/100 Atk/56 Spd/176 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Brick Break

Why are you running Speed Evs on this? Shedinja is raped by Sandstorm and Magnezone are always Scarfed, so the 56 Speed EVs do absolutely nothing.

252 HP/ 136 Atk/ 120 SpD

This spread is much better, CB Scizor finds itself switching in to whatever attack it resists, thus the need for Max HP, to take hits better from both sides of the attack spectrum. 136 Attack is a simple jump point and the 120 Special Defense Evs are all extra to take Special Attacks better.

Calamari (Tentacruel) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/216 Def/40 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Giga Drain
- Toxic Spikes

Calm Nature: 252 HP/ 120 Def/ 136 SpD

This is much better at taking hits, Tentacruel is not a sweeper so you should not attempt to use it as one. Also use Rapid Spin > HP Fire, as Dragonite needs Stealth Rock to be gone if you want to use it effectively.

 

[Macc]

Thanks for the advice Blue Ace. I play tested the new Tentacruel you pretty much gave me and I must say my team worked better. I lost only one match today on Shoddy and I barely lost that match.

I looked up why there were speed evs in the set that I based my Scizor on and well... There was absolutely no justification whatsoever! Thank you for pointing out that ridiculous ev error I that I failed to realize.

As far as what to do with Tentacruel's moveset... I really liked Hidden Power fire on him, because it got quite a few steel kills where as I found surf to be almost never used since anything Tentacruel would need to surf could probably survive and one-shot him right back with Earthquake. I did use Giga Drain and it was useful sometimes, but... Hidden Power fire and Toxic Spikes seem to be the only thing worth keeping...

Do you think I should adjust the movesets of my other teammates to grant greater coverage or should I just worry about Tentacruel? What moveset would you give my Tentacruel?

Thanks again!

 

[Macc]

Bump! I've been playing around with this every once and awhile on Shoddy Battle and it has been dramatically improved thanks to the advice I received from here, but I don't think I am ready to try and make it in the real game yet. I'd greatly appreciate a rate or two if you have the time!

 

[zapper22001]

Just a minor nitpick
Scizor should have 248 HP EV"s so it takes less damage from the omnipresent Stealth Rock. After two switch-ins Scizor will actually have more HP then the original spread. So your new spread should probably be:

248 HP/ 136 Atk/ 124 SDef

But Blue Ace gave you the original spread so I probably shouldn't be messing around with him.

You also have a rapid spinner so the need to change the spread is lessened even further.

 

[Xephyr]

Why are you running Speed Evs on this? Shedinja is raped by Sandstorm and Magnezone are always Scarfed, so the 56 Speed EVs do absolutely nothing.

252 HP/ 136 Atk/ 120 SpD

This spread is much better, CB Scizor finds itself switching in to whatever attack it resists, thus the need for Max HP, to take hits better from both sides of the attack spectrum. 136 Attack is a simple jump point and the 120 Special Defense Evs are all extra to take Special Attacks better.

248 HP is usually used as it minimizes stealth rock damage. Scizor switches in and out a lot, y'know?

I usually like to stick in 12 Speed in there to outspeed other choice banded Scizors to the Bullet Punch. That's just me, though, since the common CB Scizor's use 8 speed or nothing.

 

[Macc]

Huh... So one less point in HP would benefit my Scizor more than a full amount since 343 isn't divisible by four. So... I would want HP that is divisible by 4 only if I was using something like leftovers *amongst other things* right?

I'm not worried about using my Scizor against another Scizor, so I think I'll try out the 248 HP / 136 Atk / 124 SDef set rather than re-allocating some of my current evs to Speed. Afterall, this Scizor is used as a switch in very often and needs to be taking dmg from other Pokemon before trying to beat those of its own species. Thank you for your input though!

 

[Blue Ace]

Having one less stat point in HP means you have an odd stat point, meaning that you can take 1 more Stealth Rock switch in. Of course this is assuming you manage to switch in Scizor unscratched all the time, otherwise it does nothing at all.

 

[Macc]

I see... and that's why you recommended going full out 252 HP, because it would be more helpful to my overall defenses rather than just putting that 1 point into SpD. Scizor usually doesn't see stealth rock dmg before attack dmg since he is a Pokemon I use to switch into Tyranitar with commonly. I think I'll stick with 252 Hp then. Thanks again for the Evs!