Rate my Sandstorm Team

[twindelphine]

Hi, it's been a while. I hope all of you guys are doing well.

Anyways, I'm back for another round of Pokemon team advise. This time it's a full team singles build, and I want to use Excadrill as a team. Already have a team tested on Pokemon Online, but I don't think I'm still good enough against sandstorm/anti-sandstorm teams.

P.S. Criteria is Excadrill, so it's either sand or anti-sand.

Without further ado, here's my team:

Tyranitar @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Nature: Jolly
EV: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 Def
Moves: Dragon Dance, Flamethrower, Rock Slide, Crunch

As expected from Ttar, the offensive permanent sandstorm team. After setting up just once of Dragon Dance, he's a force to be reckoned with. Then takes care of Ghost, Psychic, Steel and Ground types with it's other 3 moves.

Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
Nature: Jolly
EV: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 HP
Moves: Swords Dance, Earthquake, X-Scissor, Rock Slide

The main star of the team. Can't say anything more about him but he's an excellent sweeper. But once the opponent switches in an Excadrill, it's battle of the fastest and deadliest Excadrill.

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Veil
Nature: Jolly
EV: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 HP
Moves: Outrage, Flamethrower, Stone Edge, Earthquake

Garchomp have a higher chance of evading moves that have <100% accuracy (e.g. Fire Blast, Blizzard), so he has a longer chance to stay on the field and kill off opponents' Pokemon.

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
Nature: Careful
EV: 252 HP, 252 SpD, 4 Def
Moves: Spikes, Roost, Whirlwind, Brave Bird

A support-defense type Pokemon that can throw in Spikes and Whirlwind the opponents' Pokemon away to get more damage.

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
Nature: Jolly
EV: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 HP
Moves: Close Combat, Stone Edge, X-Scissor, Sacred Sword

Another strong but not as fast powerhouse, and the only fighting type in the group to take care of most sandstorm teams except for those faster than him.

Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Modest
EV: 252 SpA, 240 Spd, 16 HP
Moves: Ice Beam, Surf, Agility, Grass Knot

A not so strong sweeper, but is added in for more coverage against ground and rock type thanks to its STAB Surf. Also takes care of Water type Pokemon with Grass Knot.

 

[Ooka]

First off here's a post by D_A, a little rude but I think it gets the point across: https://www.pokecommunity.com/posts/5574293/

Alright, Garchomp is Uber now so you can't use him. :P Also, I think Empoleon just adds to the Fighting / Ground weakness.

Instead I'd replace Empoleon with something like:

Rotom-W@Leftovers
Modest Nature
112 HP / 252 Sp. Attack / 144 Speed
Pain Split
Volt Switch
Hydro Pump
Will-O-Wisp

This lets you come in on Politoed, Gyarados, basically any powerful Water type Pokemon. Since you have plenty of power on the Physical side in your team, I'd suggest Latias in your slot where Garchomp used to be so you'll be able to come in on powerful Fighting types:

Latias@Leftovers
Timid Nature
252 HP / 4 Sp. Attack / 252 Speed
Calm Mind
Recover
Dragon Pulse
HP Fire

That lets you take on those pesky Ferrothorns as well. It gives you another Pokemon to set up on stuff, and just really helps balance it out altogether.

Lastly a couple changes to your existing stuff. Excadrill either wants to be Jolly with Life Orb, or Adamant with Balloon. It lets you OHKO things like Jellicent after a SD. Also, since you aren't running stall, Skarmory would be better off running Stealth Rock > Spikes, though with the highly offensive nature of the team I don't really see where he fits in. :P Good luck with the team. :D

 

[Vrai]

Excadrill is Uber as well, Ooka. Nothing can really fit his role, tbh, though you do have options like Gliscor and Landorus.

 

[Ooka]

Oh yeah, it is banned on Smogon, I play on PO so I don't really notice. xD But with Excadrill gone you could definitely use Gliscor, which works decently with Latias.

 

[NothingPersonal]

After seeing weather team after weather team, I got sick of it and went to UU. But I used to play around with sandstorm, so I'll give you some suggestions. The first pokemon that came to mind is Reuniclus. I've used it before, and magic guard protects it from any weather, and any indirect damage.

Reuniclus (M) @ Leftovers / Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Recover
Fighting resist is always nice, life orb is viable, but after multiple calm minds, leftovers recovery becomes more useful imo. But it's really up to you.

Here's the gliscor set:
Gliscor (M) @ Flight Gem
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Acrobatics
- Earthquake
- Substitute
Substitute allows h4x with sand veil, but this relies on the 20% h4x, remember. Swords dance under the substitute, then abuse your powerful EQ STAB. Acrobatics is a secondary STAB, and when powered with flight gem, will devastate and 2HKO or 1HKO most pokemon. Even after the use of flight gem, the power jumps to 110, so it's extremely powerful.

As for Tyranitar, you really don't want to start the game off with a set up sweeper. So I recommend this set (which a kind person gave me on my sandstorm team):
Tyranitar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SAtk / 192 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
You can set up rocks and not get walled by the annoying toxic orb gliscor. Crunch is for STAB, while Fire Blast can come as nice surprise.

Skarmory seems legit, so feel free to keep it for steel typing.
Terrakion, I'm not sure of, but a revenge killer is always nice.

Even in UU, I've found empoleon to be a weak sweeper. Rotom-W should definitely be used over it as your water type against the incoming rain teams, because it can fry pretty much half the team with volt switch (don't forget it's water and electric typing!).

 

[Ooka]

Gliscor (M) @ Flight Gem
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Acrobatics
- Earthquake
- Substitute

With Substitute this thing wants Poison Heal, and Sand Veil just relies on hax anyways. Flight Gem is meh imo, especially if you're SDing anyways. I'd just go with a Toxic Orb and Poison Heal instead. Though of course you're free to make your own choice, they both work.

As for the Ttar set, well, I really don't think having Spikes on this team would do you any good, so running SR on this instead just seems like wasting a perfectly good sweeper imo. Besides, Rotom-W takes care of Gliscor all day.

But again, it's all up to you, just giving plenty of input for you to make your decisions from.

 

[soupercell]

Throw in a Gliscor or Reuiniclus, or both in that team(Replace Garchomp since it's uber, and if you play on Smogon servers, replace exca too). The team has a massive Fighting weakness, so having something bulky to take them would be extremely helpful.

well, I don't play OU (I mostly play RU on PO servers) so don't really know what else to say.

 

[Ooka]

What I was meaning was if Ttar got SR, Skarm would get Spikes (Since he doesn't need two Pokemon with SR), and when you play offensively, momentum tends to be everything, so when you slow down to Spike and shuffle, they get an opportunity to set up or spike themselves.

 

[twindelphine]

Thanks for all the advise :) I wanted to say though that I was preparing a local tournament. It seems it was not clear in my original post.

The tournament I intend to play in requires an Excadrill, and no legendaries are allowed except some like Heatran. So Garchomp is a playable Pokemon.