El Dorado Canyon

Hello, all. Erm... how to get started. Well, I'll just start by bragging how successful I was with this team since I first made it late May. There have been literally no changes bar Tyranitar's moveset so everything is in mint condition; untouched and exactly what it was when I first used this team. This may seem strange to some of you, but as the French say, "Don't fix what ain't broke." Currently though, I'm sitting at a 1534 CRE on the Beta server and was somewhere around 1376 on Smogon before the crash. My rank tends to fluctuate a lot though, since I don't really have an alt to test with and those numbers are not really an indication of how well I did with this team. Nonetheless, I'm finding myself using this band of Pokemon less and less (only when I really want to win :p) and I really want to try experiment with some more stuff. In fact, the last time I'm using this team is in the Survival tournament.

Although, it may seem like standard Sand fare nowadays, the reason I'm posting this team is to send it off in a respectable fashion and hopefully garner some good rates as well. The times have caught up to it and more people are prepared for these types of teams. I'm still interested in how to improve this team despite retiring it soon. It's been fun and these dudes have been sticking with me since the start of summer, but summer's almost at an end (at least where I am).

This is just a humble RMT from your friendly neighborhood flamehaze94, so no pretty banners or colors or cool names or anything. I'm not very good at introductions but at least those paragraphs look long enough....



Team Building Process:





Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Atk / 220 SpD
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Low Kick
- Stealth Rock

Tyranitar, the leader of the operation. I generally avoid leading with Sand unless I see that the opponent doesn't have a weather changer or he has a Tyranitar himself. Since I'm not running a -Spe nature I'll usually get a free kill with Low Kick. Chople Berry is useful on Tyranitar for several reasons: It helps me guarantee a 2HKO on even the bulkiest Reuniclus and gives me another check to Thundurus should the need arise. Running a Tyranitar without Pursuit is stupid imo. Tyranitar has the right stats and typing to switch into other weather starters like Ninetales and Politoed and trap them in the wrong move. Hell, I've even trapped Kyogre's with this Tyranitar; it's the best Pursuit user bar none. Crunch is for the reliable 2HKO on Reuniclus and the instant OHKO on Latios, who can give me trouble otherwise. I'll usually have Rocks up before midgame so that my bulky sweepers can put dents into the opposing team. I would love to have Ice Beam and Fire Blast if there were six moveslots, but oh well.



Rotom-W @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 104 HP / 252 SpA / 152 Spe
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Trick

Specs Volt Switch is so freakin sexy. I get hot just from spamming it all the time. Rotom-W serves an important role in my team in several ways. It provides vital resistances to Ice, Fire, and Water and an immunity to Ground. From there, it can pick apart my opponents team with boosted attacks. Prediction is the key to this Rotom set. If I switch into Politoed's Surf, I won't Volt Switch right away. Sometimes, I might catch Gliscor on the wrongly predicted Electric attack, Hydro Pump maims Politoed if it stays in anyway. It's also fairly easy to predict a Ferrothorn switch to burn it to crisps. Rotom-W also lures in Lati@s for a free Volt Switch to Tyranitar. Boom instant kill. This clears up room for some of my other offensive Pokemon later in the game. This is also my answer to many forms of stall. If I catch a Chansey with Trick I usually leap onto my desk and do a victory dance since I have the match made right there.



Skarmory @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD
Impish Nature (+Def, -SpA)
- Brave Bird
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Roost

Skarmory is one of the physical walls this metagame. It walls many things like Excadrill, Landorus, Conkeldurr, and Scrafty. Brave Bird is deceptively powerful that I sometimes find myself spamming that instead of Spikes! With SR up, one or two layers of Spikes means a great deal of hurt for any Grounded threat since my team is very good at forcing switches. Skarmory is also my second switch in to Latios since the SpD EVs allow it to take Draco Meteors very well. Very simple and very effective. Setting up on specially defensive Jirachi makes my day. Skarmory is also female because Haxorus shenanigans are ridiculous.



Virizion @ Leftovers
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Giga Drain
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]

The first of my sweepers and a fine one at that. I would run a physical set if it weren't neutered by Will-O-Wisp from Rotom-W and Jellicent. Virizion is still a relevant threat despite the falling of popularity. Nabbing a free Calm Mind is very easily, getting a +2 usually means gg unless they have Scizor or Mamoswine in the wings. Volcarona's such a bastard though, that I wanna run HP Rock to slap him upside his ass. Rain struggles with this Pokemon as I hit everything on the standard offensive Rain team for SE.



Salamence @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 8 HP / 108 Atk / 216 SpA / 176 Spe
Rash Nature (+SpA, -SpD)
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Brick Break
- Roost

Prepare for some major desert ass kicking. You old hipsters that still remember that this thing was called Toymence back in the day (wayyyy back), must also remember how this thing shred and trample on teams, hopes, and dreams. Everything else gets the ball rolling for this monster to break bones (and walls). I think I deserve credit for half of the usage stats for this dragon. An underrated threat that most teams have trouble against. With Spikes and Rocks up, this thing will sent shivers down the oppoent's spine. The process is: go to Salamence, hit Draco Meteor, go to Rotom-W, switch to Salamence; rinse and repeat. Intimidate is such a great ability and fits with Salamence's image perfectly.



Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

The Desert Punk. The last member but certainly not the least! This is the best Rapid Spinner in the game when used in tandem with Tyranitar. This Pokemon keeps hazards off my side of the field so that my bulky sweepers can come in again and again to wreak havoc. It also gives me liberty to switch into anything I like without fearing Toxic Spikes or Stealth Rocks. Common counters in Skarmory and Gliscor are usually Spin fodder and both give a free switch to Rotom-W to begin the mindgames. Swords Dance is the least used move here, and I have been considering X-Scissor for Celebi and switching to Life Orb.



This is my lazy attempt at a "threat list". I have a couple threats that I would like to point out. First and foremost are Rain stall teams. Tentacruel + Gliscor shove poisoned Spikes up my ass and Gliscor pours salt on the wound with Sub + Protect. If they also happen to have a Chansey, my fate sealed. Another troublesome Pokemon would be Jirachi in the rain. With Thunder, I lose my free switch in with Skarmory and Excadrill in the Rain is asking to be revenge killed. Salamence also can't 2HKO it while it's i's in rain. Very annoying. Defensive Rain 'mons tend to give me trouble so any help with that is appreciated. Volcarona may be a threat in the Sun that I may sometimes have to sacrifice Skarmory to BB or WW it.

In closing, this was a great team that's giving me many wins and many great matches and great players. Feel free to archive this team and sticky it :p. The next RMT though will be an Ubers one, I'd like to introduce Ubers battling to the community, but I'll leave that to next time. So with that, this team is officially retired.

Sickens me this hasn't got a rate or even a comment. I get that this team is very good, but still. :/ lol

Anyway, the only 'real' issue i can spot would be Dual Dance Balloon Terrakion, but it cant even set up on anything really at all.

However what i WILL recommend is that you max Salamences speed and use Naive. There is a couple of important things that are above 280 speed which your spread grants. Namely Hydreigon, Lucario (NPer might be an issue if Virizion is dead) and Haxorus but thats up to you, i feel outspeeding them is rather important. I mean unless all that attack does something important ? I also love MixMence as it beats those BS dual screen smashpassing teams and you're right its extremely underrated. :]

As for Volcarona (who is is also BS) maybe you could find room for a rock move on Tar ? It lives a boosted Bug Buzz in the sand. Better than nothing lol.

Other than that, great job really. Not many holes as said.


EDIT:

Oh and Shed Shell over Leftovers on Skarm imo. Mag + Drag teams are horribly common now and to lose such a vital Pokemon would be devastating for your team. Not just its defensive utility but Spikes too.

Appreciate your rate =)

Double Dance Terrakion is indeed fearsome to face and luckily it's not as common compared to Scarf versions. Like you said there's really nothing to set up on, but I'm pretty conscientious about Tyranitar staying alive if I see a Latios still alive or something, so if it gets a SD on the switch there, I'll probably have to sac Salamence for Skarmory to wall it if it still has Balloon.

I have never considered Naive Mence before, that's interesting. I have been in some situations where I need that extra speed against Timid Rotom-W or something. It might also come in handy against those SubVeil Gliscor (don't miss :x) I see every now and again. I'm mostly worried about the drop in attacking power but I see that it's a fair trade off.

I haven't met much MagDrag teams before I retired this team, but if I were to use it now, I would definately use Shed Shell. Dragon + Steel spam is disgusting. Most likely I'll wait until this round is over before I start laddering seriously again (too much summer hw >.<). Since this topic got a bumpyay I'll work on fluffing out the format and prose and stuff once I get the time.