Sand Team Build - Printable Version+- Pokemon Forever (http://pokemonforever.com)
+-- Forum: POKéMON (http://pokemonforever.com/Forum-POK%C3%A9MON)
+--- Forum: Competitive Pokemon Discussion (http://pokemonforever.com/Forum-Competitive-Pokemon-Discussion)
+---- Forum: Competitive Discussion Archive (http://pokemonforever.com/Forum-Competitive-Discussion-Archive)
+---- Thread:
Sand Team Build (/Thread-VGC-Sand-Team-Build)Sand Team Build - Da BossMan + - May 28, 2015
I was pretty bored, so I was looking around for a nice team idea, when I remembered sand teams. They can be quite strong, with some pokemon like T-tar, Excadrill (The king of sand IMO), Hippowdon, Terrakion, and Landorus. So without further ado, here is my team:
Jerry (Excadrill) Life Orb/Air Balloon
Sand Rush, Adamant, 252 Att, 68 Spe, 188 HP
-Earthquake
-Iron Head
-Rock Slide/Swords Dance
-Protect/Swords Dance
Self Explanatory. Excadrill is an absolute speed devil with insane attack to boot. Earthquake and Iron Head for STAB. Rock Slide is a nice atack for coverage, spread damage, and also flinching, while swords dance is for potential switches and protects and other predicts, to get your already insane attack over the roof for essentially guaranteed OHKOs (most sash pokemon are also dead after sandstorm damage) and Protect for scouting, predictions, protecting if you use your own spread move, etc. and Swords Dance for the same reasons stated earlier. Life orb is for extra damage, and air balloon is some temporary ground immunity.
The King (Tyranitar) @Tyranitarite
Sand Stream, Mild, 208 HP, 252 SpA, 36 Atk, 12 Def
-Dark Pulse
-Rock Slide
-Ice Beam/Earthquake
-Protect
Ttar is a great sand setter, with great defensive, and offensive stats. Normal and mega both have sand stream for setting, or resetting sandstorm (go mega). Dark Pulse and Rock Slide are both great STAB attacks. Ice Beam is a dragon, ground, flying, or grass killer, and Earthquake for general coverage. Protect is for scouting, spread moves, and predicts.
TheHornedOne (Terrakion) Choice Band
Justified, Jolly, 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 SpD
-Close Combat
-Rock Slide
-Iron Head
-Earthquake
Choice banded killing machine. Close combat and rock slide for STAB, Iron Head and Earthquake for coverage.
GreenGoblin (Latios) Red Card
Levitate, Bold, 252 Spe, 252 HP, 4 Def
-Roost
-Dragon Pulse/ Draco Meteor
-Psyshock
-Protect
Latios is a great pokemon in general, with great stats and good movepool. Roost is nice recovery. Dragon pulse could be used in place of draco meteor due to the lack of stat drops, and psyshock is nice STAB. Protect again for the same reasons. I run red card because at this moment i can not think of a good item and red card is pretty hilarious. I would appreciate some item suggestions!
For these last two slots I was looking for some nice bulk or priority. I was thinkg between pokemon like scizor, hippowdon, talonflame, mandibuzz, porygon2, lando-T, azumarill, and rotom-W
ScumEater (Mandibuzz) Leftovers
Overcoat, Calm, 252 Def, 252 SpD, 4 HP
-Roost
-Foul Play
-Defog/Protect
-Toxic/Protect
Mandibuzz is a very nice fit as it is a great tank, and its ability, overcoat, also grants sandstorm immunity. Roost is for recovery, and Foul Play is some damage to wear down opponents.
Defog could be useful, for the occasional spikes and sticky web, but i prefer protect because rocks aren't to worrysome for this team. Toxic is nice to wear down opponents and toxic stall.
And finally, as i wanted a revenge killer/priority user, and something to counter fire types,
RescueRabbit (Azumarill) @ Assault Vest
Huge Power, Adamant, 252 Atk, 252 HP, 4 SpD
-Knock Off
-Aqua Jet
-Play Rough
-Waterfall
Azumarill is a great pokemon for revenge killing. It is quite bulky, has a powerful priority attack in aqua jet, and access to great moves like play rough and knock off. This set is quite good at countering special attackers and the combination of latios, mandibuzz, and azumarill, I feel you get a solid defensive core. It is also a nice counter to fire types.
Matchups:
I haven't doe too much testing yet, but off the bat, some powerful teams, like rain, sun, perish trap, trick room, mix n match teams are decent matchups for this team.
Rain and Sun: Sand will actually be set over the others as the sand setter, Ttar is very slow compared to ninetails, charizard y, and politoed, so it will set after the opposing pokemon and sand will be the actual weather condition up, allowing a big advantage.
Trick Room: It could be a slight problem, as this team is quite speed built.
Perish Trap: Difficult to tell, as perish trap is strong, but uncommon
Mix n Match: I feel a lot of common pokemon are easily dealt with due to excadrill alone. It outspeeds essentialy the entire meta under sand rush, and can easily kill them. Strong backup in Ttar, Terrakion, and Azumarill is good for cleanup or even general offense. However, Tflame is pretty problematic.
Share your thoughts down below, with critique, suggestions, or anything you like! Constructive Critisism appreciated!
PS: I also need some help on how to insert pictures!
RE: Sand Team Build - Marcusube - May 30, 2015
You're extremely weak to Fairy types and possess a huge common weakness to Fighting, Steel and Water types.
- You don't need Swords Dance on Excadrill. It is powerful enough plus without redirection you won't have an opportunity to set it up.
- I suggest going for a Focus Sash on Excadrill. This way you don't lose it to a priority Aqua Jet, Sucker Punch or Mach Punch.
- I recommend distributing Tyranitar's EVs a bit better to survive Breloom's Mach Punch, Scizor's Bullet Punch, Azumarill's Play Rough and other attacks that can OHKO it with the spread you have. Also don't use Mild Nature, just go for Quiet or Brave, you need the defenses.
- Take off Choice Band on Terrakion and go for either Expert Belt, Stone Plate, Lum Berry, Focus Sash or Life Orb. You don't want to have your offensive support locked into a move since one bad prediction results in it getting OHKOd. Run Quick Guard, Protect, Rock Slide and Close Combat. Your team really needs the Quick Guard support since a good chunk of priority moves OHKO your team mates
- Run either Life Orb, Focus Sash or Draco Plate on Latios. Also Energy Ball over Roost to help you with your match ups against Rotom-W and Gastrodon, both who give this team a hard time. Go for Max speed max Sp. Atk. Latios is not supposed to be a bulky Pokemon, if you're doing it that way you're doing it wrong. That is what Latias was made for.
- Defog and Toxic don't work in VGC. Why, because entry hazards aren't used, neither is Toxic stall viable with the average time span of a VGC match.
Here is a VGC Mandibuzz build. The analysis for it can be found here
Your team needs more bulky Pokemon. It is pure hyper offensive and these days people are playing more defensively, meaning that you are going to see a lot of Scrafty, Venusaur, Amoonguss and Cresselia, all which give your team trouble.
I suggest the addition of a Fire Type like Arcanine for Intimidate support or Talonflame for that priority Tailwind in case you can't bring Tyranitar to set up the sand and priority Roost. Fire types put the pressure on Pokemon like Breloom, Amoonguss, Venusaur etc and moves like Heat Wave pressure the opponent from making careless switch ins.
Not a bad team but you need to fix the areas like your common weaknesses, speed control and defensive play