[RATE MY TEAM] Shark Sighted Enter at own Risk!

[Pokeventurer]

Hi guys i am back with another RMT post, this time i wanted to try out mega sharpedo as the base of my team as i really liked it's speed boost ability in the standard form and then the strong jaw ability when it goes mega, from which it can aquire both brutal force and ultimate speed and guess what i will not be running 252/252/4 sharpedo though, you'll see in a moment. as i already warned enter at your own risk so be careful just saying. Let's get started!

The Team Building Process:
i wanted to build around m-sharpedo as everyone already knows though, after making it's spread it couldn't have survived much so i needed a bulky/defensive core around to keep it alive with the first though of adding redirection, wide guard was one thing i acknowledged as important from sharpedo's point of view. after which i added DD t-tar and excadrill as  it was the best weather in my purpose. the last slot was extremity shaky shaky as i tried out many but in the end just kept aegislash, which supported many of the members perfectly

The Team:

Changes/Updates are in blue, thanks to everyone who rated the team


Sharpedo @ Sharpedonite
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 228 Atk / 52 SpA / 228 Spe
Naive Nature
- Protect
- Ice Beam
- Waterfall
- Crunch

. Outspeeds jolly scarfed lando after a +1 boost.
. OHKO'es a 4 HP salamence with ice beam.
. Rest was tossed into Attack stat.

Sharpedo despite being the main focus of the team doesn't gets much to discuss about though. it gets brought into every match by now and often proves to finish off the games and the mons weakened by it's partners. sharpedo is also observed to be a momentum shifter, sharpedo wipes away any lando-t which are big threats to sand mode and other 4x weak dragons in general too though. sharpedo becomes an attack magnet by achieving such great speed but surely does gets one or two OHKO'es. if sharpedo is left unchecked then it would be gg from my opponents from me.


Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 212 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Protect
- Giga Drain
- Spore
- Rage Powder

. Survives zard's H-wave in sand.
. Giga drain to wipe off gastrodon and swampert's threat.
. Rocky helmet to improve matchup against kangaskhan and fighting types in general, who the team either can't handle well or are a big threat to it

You had the overview of this mon already. amoongus in addition to all the things mentioned above was greatly synergistic with sharpedo and so became the member of the core i wanted to form around it. amoonguss brings a natural counter to Trick room modes which who won't love. amoongus also likes to redirect water type moves from the sand duo and rotom-h itself, with such sp.atk investment it can tank some ice beams before going down to them.


Rotom-Heat @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 164 HP / 4 Def / 204 SpA / 4 SpD / 132 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp

. Safety goggles to help it against any Powder move users as well as prevent sand damage
. Speed investment to burn down bisharps.
. Will-o-wisp helps against the threat of fighting types to the team (god forbid any guts conk)

Rotom-h forms this team a picture perfect core which i really liked. F/W/G cores were something easy to think off and build around i this case of the team i did the same and loved to play it. rotom while being naturally bulky works better in the presence of m-sharpedo as the third member of the team. i honestly have seen some calm nature very bulky rotom sets which i hate the most as the utilize two attacking moves aparently it wasn't my style to play, i choose for an offensive spread with safety goggles to give it a fairly good chance of OHKO'ing amoonguss'.


Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Superpower
- Taunt

. Choice scarf to pick of OHKO'es fast rock slides to get flinch haxes.
. Choice scarf syncs in well with the team overall.
. With four pokemons on the field immune to chip damages and becomes really useful.

Tyranitar as discussed before was at first a DD variant but then even after 252/252/4 i thought it was missing out it's own potential especially against things like breloom and venusaur while setting up who negate rage powder's effects. the team surely did acquired a fighting move at thing point to deal with sand mirror matches the interesting part comes when aerial ace makes it. even with the presence of rotom-h i though this was an extremely important slot to fulfill the requirement of a flying type move to deal with m-venu with the best of my ability, t-tar's last move would've been optional so i just had aerial ace on it.


Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 212 Atk / 20 Def / 20 SpD / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drill Run
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Protect

. Speed EV's to outspeed lando-t by one point behind sand.
. Attack EV's make it an equivalent to 200 total attack stat + life orb adding to the damage scale.
. The rest dumped into the bulk making it exceptionally bulky.

i know this is weird but let me explain. you guys may think why not EV to counter opposing excadrill like 252 speed and jolly nature to tie and win under some conditions? after Aaron zheng's landorus thingie excadrill's chances of appearing are just further more reduced, and also people are using that after you  or protect, last resort gimmicky ways with stoutland. even if one apears i just have to lead with amoongus and aegislash rage power + sacred sword if it goes for drill run i'm fine and even when it goes for an EQ which will activate the weakness policy. so that was my explanation. now for the set, rock slide haxes out when i trymy luck in addition slowly helps in wearing off my opponent's team, iron head to fairly deal with fairies though, drill run over EQ fearing wide guards that many teams carry with them + i wasn't comfy making switches into rotom-h after setting up sand.


Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 12 Atk / 4 Def / 236 SpA / 20 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Ball

. SP.def to survive max sp.atk specs hydreigon's dark pulse.
. Team still needed mobility with fighting coverage, hence sacred sword.
. I didn't minded having bulk (while loosing damage) as the whole team was extremely offensive.

You know how important this slot is in almost any sand team though. i mainly choose it to fulfill and support the following purposes: another way to switch in with fighting types, wide guard to support everything from spread moves, something not adding to the weaknesses of the overall team even more' something not hindered by intimidate as much as the sand mode. with all the design objectives aegislash proves to be a constant good option providing extra switch in mobility with it's typing. if someone questions why did i choose sacred sword over flash cannon? it would be as excadrill's iron head deals much better with OHKO'es on fairies other than the slower stalls of flash cannon plus sacred swords comes in handy against nay dark or steel types that the meta throws at me.

Problems with the team (suggestions required to fix these issues)
. Water weaknesses (3x) and fighting weaknesses (3) are often able to wall me easily.
. The team has too many tactics, tricks even to defeat a certian mon e.g breloom: rotom + amoonguss on the field with sand for surety
. No great way to defeat any rain modes other than stall or disrupt with sand.
. Too many switch in's other than built in ways to counter threats to themselves.
. Playing aggressively, and mons loose to fast.

Conclusion:
Hope u liked reading through the team and hopefully have some good suggestions to fix the team, Bye for now!

[Bucsfan818]

If you run a +SpD nature with 20 evs in SpD on aegislash you survive specs Dark Pulse from Hydreigon 100% of the time (252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 236 HP / 20+ SpD Aegislash-Shield: 138-164 (83.6 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO). Then you can dump the extra 80 EVs in SpA and hit a higher SpA stat than what you are hitting now (+SpA with 156 EVs hits 99 SpA stat, Nuetral with 236 EVs hits 100 SpA). Also imo running EQ on Excadrill is much better than Drill Run. Not only because of Spread damage, and just that EQ is stronger, but using a move just to eliminate predictions (in this case using Drill Run on Excadrill so you dont have to predict wide guard) isnt always the best idea. Just my thoughts

[Chimchared7]

i love the team! im gonna suggest some things tho

First i dont suggest aireial ace on ttar i would run ice punch

second i wouldnt run mixed aegi heres a set i would run

Aegislash @ Life Orb
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 SpA / 100 SpD
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield

i also suggest this excadrill

Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Protect

hope this helps

[Marcusube]

Your team is pretty solid as is to be honest. In usage, I won all but one match out of 5 games. The one loss is to a Calm Mind Rest Talk Scald Suicune.

The fighting weakness never came as much of a concern, however, running Aerial Ace on Tyranitar didn't help at all. I faced a Mega Blaziken (in the same matchup as the Suicune). Aerial Ace surprisingly didn't OHKO. It left it with about 15-20% HP. With that said, I recommend substituting Aerial Ace with a better coverage move like Foul Play, Aqua Tail or even Earthquake.

Mega Sharpedo is a good call. The only thing that disappointed me was when it missed out on a kill on Landorus-I (not that it changed the outcome of the game or anything). No one saw mixed Sharpedo coming and the element of surprise came in handy. This mon is indeed VGC viable.

I think you need a stronger Grass type on this team. The redirection from water attacks with Amoonguss does help but not in a majority of the situations. Maybe Ferrothorn would work in this spot, even though it racks up your fighting weaknesses. Another option is Virizion.

Rotom-Heat seemed good at first but I found it skipping out on too many necessary KOs particularly with Thunderbolt. I want to suggest running Sableye here. Reason for this is that the loss that I had with this team was contributed to the fact that there was no Taunter on this team. Also, the Will-o-Wisp support from Rotom-H is what really made me like it. The option of Fake Out and Recovery on Sableye is good as well in conjunction Knock Off, Foul Play, Quash etc. If you really need the fire coverage, run Flamethrower or Fire Blast on Ttar over Aerial Ace.

That's about it from me. Strong team. Nothing too unusual about it. It functions well in the meta.

#PS - I forgot to mention that Flash Cannon on Aegislash would have saved some frustration in the games I played

[Pokeventurer]

(Aug 8, 2015, 07:46 AM)Marcusube Wrote: Your team is pretty solid as is to be honest. In usage, I won all but one match out of 5 games. The one loss is to a Calm Mind Rest Talk Scald Suicune.

The fighting weakness never came as much of a concern, however, running Aerial Ace on Tyranitar didn't help at all. I faced a Mega Blaziken (in the same matchup as the Suicune). Aerial Ace surprisingly didn't OHKO. It left it with about 15-20% HP. With that said, I recommend substituting  Aerial Ace with a better coverage move like Foul Play, Aqua Tail or even Earthquake.

Mega Sharpedo is a good call. The only thing that disappointed me was when it missed out on a kill on Landorus-I (not that it changed the outcome of the game or anything). No one saw mixed Sharpedo coming and the element of surprise came in handy. This mon is indeed VGC viable.

I think you need a stronger Grass type on this team. The redirection from water attacks with Amoonguss does help but not in a majority of the situations. Maybe Ferrothorn would work in this spot, even though it racks up your fighting weaknesses. Another option is Virizion.

Rotom-Heat seemed good at first but I found it skipping out on too many necessary KOs particularly with Thunderbolt. I want to suggest running Sableye here. Reason for this is that the loss that I had with this team was contributed to the fact that there was no Taunter on this team. Also, the Will-o-Wisp support from Rotom-H is what really made me like it. The option of Fake Out and Recovery on Sableye is good as well in conjunction Knock Off, Foul Play, Quash etc. If you really need the fire coverage, run Flamethrower or Fire Blast on Ttar over Aerial Ace.

That's about it from me. Strong team. Nothing too unusual about it. It functions well in the meta.

#PS - I forgot to mention that Flash Cannon on Aegislash would have saved some frustration in the games I played

Thanks for taking the time to write a reply though. you said u lost a game to a suicune *that no one probably ever used before* and i guess that is fine for the team? :/ maybe..... if suicune is the reason u recommend strong grass typing i don't think that someone is ever gonna face dat beast again though rage powder is the only thing that keeps sharpedo alive for some time and also pays off in TR. as u suggest that the team needs a taunter maybe replacing t-tar's aerial ace for taunt? i never felt that need though as u did this slot might be worth it? i will currently be replacing aerial ace for taunt as it will in one way or the other improves matchup against a mega venu, leer alongside physical attacks was something i came across (and have used before :P, no need for the ice beam as sharpedo does the job of it.

[Pokeventurer]

(Aug 8, 2015, 06:58 AM)Chimchared7 Wrote: i love the team! im gonna suggest some things tho

First i dont suggest aireial ace on ttar i would run ice punch

second i wouldnt run mixed aegi heres a set i would run

Aegislash @ Life Orb
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 SpA / 100 SpD
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield

i also suggest this excadrill

Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Protect

hope this helps

I think i did gave my reasoning for changing these usuals into what i have currently. please read each's description again.

[Chimchared7]

i think you should add thundurus for taunt and it can give you less of a ground and fighting weakness

[Marcusube]

(Aug 8, 2015, 09:28 AM)Pokeventurer Wrote: Thanks for taking the time to write a reply though. you said u lost a game to a suicune *that no one probably ever used before* and i guess that is fine for the team? :/ maybe..... if suicune is the reason u recommend strong grass typing i don't think that someone is ever gonna face dat beast again though rage powder is the only thing that keeps sharpedo alive for some time and also pays off in TR. as u suggest that the team needs a taunter maybe replacing t-tar's aerial ace for taunt? i never felt that need though as u did this slot might be worth it? i will currently be replacing aerial ace for taunt as it will in one way or the other improves matchup against a mega venu, leer alongside physical attacks was something i came across (and have used before :P, no need for the ice beam as sharpedo does the job of it.

The strong Grass type suggestion is because not only Suicune but Rotom-W, Milotic, Gastrodon, Swampert, Politoed and other common support water types in VGC give your team problems

And P.S. Suicune is commonly used. Not the set I encountered but the mon itself is still a threat to your team.

Rage Powder stops you from single target moves, not spread moves. Pokemon that use spread moves can sponge Sharpedo's attacks with ease and retaliate destructively.

Aerial Ace Tyranitar doesn't give you easier matchups with Venusaur. I suggested Ferrothorn for the sole reason of it being able to take on opposing Grass and Water types with relative ease.

Tyranitar is too slow and frail of a Pokemon for it to be a stable Taunter.

Leer beside physical attacks worst best if you use a Prankster Pokemon

[Rogue]

The more I compare adamant 252/252 to your spread, the more I can't find an actual reason on why to use naive ice beam.
Ice Fang will always do more damage, even when intimidated. Unless you were jolly + intimidated, you do a few % less damage. But you still net OHKO's against things like M-Salamence and Landorus. Also, the damage of ice beam is low against something like Thundurus, where Ice Fang can even OHKO depending on the spread. I love the uniqueness of the idea, but for bettering the team I'd say 252/252 adamant nature is better 9/10 times.

Also, max speed adamant mega sharpedo at +1 speed ties with jolly max speed scarf lando. It's really rare to run into jolly scarf lando, especially with max speed. Even if they are running something like this, it's still a 50/50. I think the rare chance of this happening is worth the large amount of damage you get from adamant with 252 attack. Sometimes simple builds are for the best.

I also don't really like how the team only has one pokemon that has an ice move. Ice beam won't always OHKO if they're invested in bulk, meaning if you ice beam someones lando/mega mence/etc and they live, and you lose your sharpedo you no longer have a way to beat those mons.

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Excadrill/Tyranitar add way too many weaknesses to the team together, especially paired with aegislash. Aegislash works well with the team due to it's wide guard (although i think you should so special instead of mixed, you'll get more out of it and theres already so many intimidate users running around) but those 2 just make the team as a whole weaker.

3 Fighting weaknesses (Sharpedo, Tyranitar, Excadrill)
3 Ground weaknesses (Tyranitar, Excadrill, Aegislash)
3 Fire weaknesses (Amoongus, Excadrill, Aegislash)
3 Water weaknesses (Rotom-H, Tyranitar, Excadrill)

All 4 of these are very common typings in the meta as well. Water can crush you the most, because Suicune just sets up all of it's support roles for free. Giga drain amoongus isn't an accurate check to it, and the only other thing that can hit it super effectively is weak to water in the first place. A wacan berry suicune could cause you a lot of trouble.

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I think you should drop excadrill/tyranitar. Yeah they're really good, but they don't synergize with the team well. They're better off for a more dedicated sand team. I'm sure they do work, but only if your opponents team isn't ready for the sand pair they bring. Ontop of that, scarf taunt tyranitar doesn't seem like a good idea either.You taunt, and then you have to switch. If you really wanna keep them, at least try out a special scarf tyranitar. If you lead excadrill/tyranitar and they lead landorus + anything youre in big trouble. A well played AV Landorus really have a lot of fun against this team.

Anywho, fun and interesting team. Hope I helped.
If you wanna keep it as is I understand.