How does a Sandstorm team work in this metagame?

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DarkCrisis

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I am new to competitive play and would like help building a sandstorm team to use against my friends to start off. The Pokemon for sure that I would like to have on my team are Tyranitar, Excadril, and Lucario. I am not sure what other Pokemon that might work with a sandstorm team and can help with the problems that these teams naturally face. Any advice is appreciated, thank you :)
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

Excadrill is banned from standard play so you'll need to change that. Garchomp is something I'd recommend, but keep in mind that you have to use Rough Skin as the ability since Sand Veil was banned. Sand teams are naturally weak against rain teams. To help combat them, you might consider Cradily with its high defensive stats. Latios or Latias could prove helpful also to fight against rain teams.
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

What tier are you planning on using this in? If its VGC, that means its doubles with a banlist made by Ninetendo which only includes event-only and high BST legendaries, not based on playability. If you're talking about OU, that means its singles with a tier list made by Smogon which bans Pokemon based on how strong or weak they are in a specific tier (you can find the tiers for this easily enough by just googling Smogon tiers). If you're trying to play in OU, Excadrill is banned, and I wouldn't recommend Lucario in Ubers, the tier above OU, as he is not powerful enough to keep up there.
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

I am looking to build my team for OU mainly but excadril will be on my team when im just battling with buddies. I plan to switch him out for another pokemon when it comes to actual competitive play. Hope that information helps further

Right now I have 4 pokemon I want to using against my buddies on my team
Tyranitar
Excadril
Lucario
Garchomp

Unsure about the last 2 pokemon I would like to add and im hoping you guys can help me out. Thanks again!!
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

You can try Land-I. It has Sand Force, and combined with its own high speed stat it can sweep with EQ. There is also another Sand Rusher: Stoutland. Now this guy is not very common and I don't know much about it myself. But it's definitely a change in the team's format, what with not being weak to water or ice. But that's all I know about it.
You can also add a Hippowdon so you can change the weather again if your opponent rans a weather team as well.
Generally speaking though, there aren't many sand abusers. Apart from Excadrill, Sand Veil Garchomp and maybe Land-I there aren't many Pokemon you should specifically add. You can go with bulky Rock or Steel types like Aggron and Metagross, or generally any Pokemon that resists Sandstorm.
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

Stoutland is a decent alternative to Excadrill for when you play on simulators, as is Sandslash. They're both very fast in a sandstorm, and have solid offense to boot. Stoutland typically runs Frustration / Superpower / Pursuit / Wild Charge while Sandslash runs Swords Dance / Rapid Spin / Earthquake / Stone Edge.

Two Water-resistances are crucial on mostly any team due to how solid rain is. I always end up including Calm Mind Latias and Specially Defensive Rotom-W in my teams, as the two of them can check pretty much every common threat to rain, with the only ones escaping them being Dragonite and Toxicroak, both of which can be beat by Garchomp.

Just as a tip, it's okay to have Pokemon on a sandstorm team that aren't immune to sandstorm's passive damage. If you load up your team with only Rock-, Ground- or Steel-type Pokemon, you will lose to nearly any rain team.
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

Im still having alot of trouble making these decisions. Didnt know it would be incredibly hard to build a pokemon team like this one. Still looking to have Tyranitar, Excadril, Lucario, and Garchomp around but need 2 more pokemon to complete the team and help combat the team's weaknesses. Any suggestions?
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

Well, you've got 3 fighting weaknesses. This is a big problem as something like Conkeldurr or Terrakion can rip through most of your team. Jellicent is a ghost type which can help with that an also get water absorb to help against rain teams.
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

What about adding a Reuniclus? Would that help with the fighting weakness as well?
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

Yes it would. Make sure it has the Magic Guard ability since this will also let it avoid taking damage from Sandstorm or Toxic.
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

Alright so now im looking at Tyranitar, Excadril, Lucario, Garchomp, Reuniclus but lacking 1 more pokemon to further help deal with some threat I might run into. And thanks for all the help guys its really been helping with my team building process so far.
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

Honestly, I would ditch Lucario in favor of Keldeo. Keldeo is amazing at keeping sun and hail at bay while also acting as a great rain threat. Assuming that you use their most common sets, here's what I suggest:

SDef Tyranitar
Scarf Keldeo
SD Excadrill / Band Terrakion
Yache SD Garchomp
Life Orb Tank Latias
SDef Jirachi

Tyranitar gives you a reliable Stealth Rock setter and weather starter. You may even like Hippowdon better due to its better survivability and synergy with Jirachi. Keldeo I talked about above the team list. SD Excadrill (when with friends) is your prime sweeper, and its unfairly powerful and speedy. In its place, Band Terrakion provides you with what may be the best Band user in the game, capable of tearing apart walls for Garchomp to sweep. Yache Garchomp acts a good failsafe for Mamoswine, who looks like a threat to your team outside of Terrakion and Keldeo. He is your secondary sweeper if using Excadrill and primary if using Terrakion. LO Latias is a great offensive tank that helps with sun and rain teams. It essentially takes out all of the weather stuff that threatens you and helpfully walls special Landorus and Thundurus-T. Finally, I would put SDef Jirachi in your last spot. It's a great wrap-up in this team, helping with insurance against Tornadus(-T) and opposing Lati@s. I don't like Reuniclus nowadays because its only good set is Trick Room, which REALLY counteracts your team. Lucario is also underwhelming now with the powercreep and abundance of Keldeo and Breloom.

Hope I helped. Feel free to customize that skeleton as you see fit. Other good sand Pokemon include Rotom-W, Celebi, Breloom, Cradily, Stoutland, Sandslash, Latios, Heatran, Jellicent, etc. It's a fairly customizable weather.

~AoH
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

I'll take note of it all thanks AoH, still trying to stick to the pokemon I have chosen so far cause they fit the sandstorm team as well as me having a personal liking to them. I also dont favor legendary pokemon much unless pseudo legendaries, those I dont mind at all. So for now im still looking at Tyranitar, Excadril, Lucario, Garchomp, and Reuniclus without having a 6th pokemon figured out yet. Anymore suggestions anyone?
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

BUMP....Any more advice anyone?...I battled with my team a while ago (Tyranitar, Excadrill, Lucario, Garchomp, Reuniclus, Landorus) and it was doing alright, even against fighters thanks to Reuniclus, but I ran into a bit of a problem dealing with Water typs...any suggestions?
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

DarkCrisis said:
BUMP....Any more advice anyone?...I battled with my team a while ago (Tyranitar, Excadrill, Lucario, Garchomp, Reuniclus, Landorus) and it was doing alright, even against fighters thanks to Reuniclus, but I ran into a bit of a problem dealing with Water typs...any suggestions?
Click to expand...

It was noted earlier to add Jellicent due to being immune to your Fighting as well as your Water weakness. He has high defenses, access to Recover, and absorbs Water-type attacks
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

Would switching Reuniclus for Jellicent be a good idea since Jellicent wont be touched by Fighting and can also pacify my water weakness as well whereas Reuniclus only cover one weakness and Jellicent can cover two?
 
RE: Help building Sandstorm team

You could, but I'd remove one of your other Pokemon for it instead because your entire team aside from reuniclus/jellicent is physical, which is just asking to be walled completely by something like skarmory.
 
Thanks Void. After playing a few more matches im considering Tyranitar, Excadrill, Lucario, Garchomp, Reuniclus, Jellicent instead. This seem like a better build now that I have two SpA to deal with walls like skarmory?

I was also considering a Gengar with leftovers
 
What would I be removing Lucario for? What build would you suggest instead?

Also wondering how well Metagross would do on my team
 
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