Sand Box (Sand Team)

[Super__Sonic]

Hello all,

I decided that I like weather teams recently, so now I intend to build one of each (Rain, Sun, Sand, Hail).

This here is the tricky one, as I haven't seen one throughout my tenure of Gen V.

Welp. Here goes nothing!

Ability - Sand Stream @ Impish Nature

Held Item : Leftovers

EV Spread

252 HP | 252 Def | 4 Sp.Def

Slack Off
Earthquake
Ice Fang
Stealth Rock

My Sand Summoner. I like the hippo more than T-tar as my lead. Mainly for that extra defense and a bit more recovery. Hippowdon is used as my physical wall/Rocks support. With this spread it's also quite bulky. Slack Off is for recovery, Earthquake is STAB, Ice Fang for coverage, and everyone knows what Stealth Rocks is for. Hippowdon on this set trades handling Special Pokemon, for weather checks.

Ability - Rough Skin @ Jolly Nature

Held Item: Haban Berry

EV Spread

252 Atk | 252 Spe | 4 HP

Swords Dance
Outrage
Fire Fang
Earthquake

My Sweeper. Garchomp got the ban hammer lifted, which made me rather happy. This meant I could do what I wanted to do earlier this generation. Build a beast. Garchomp has the tools and the talent to power through the OU metagame with a +2 ontop of that mamoth Attack stat. Fire Fang is for opposing Ferrothorn that may try to be the proverbial thorn in my side. Earthquake and Outrage are for obvious STAB reasons. And finally, Swords Dance to bring that already huge stat to insurmountable levels.

Ability - Poison Heal @ Impish Nature

Item: Toxic Orb

Ev Spread

244 HP | 248 Def | 16 Spe

Earthquake
Toxic
Ice Fang
Roost


Although Roost may seem like a wasted space, it actually compliments Gliscor quite well. Allowing me to regain quite a bit of HP along with Poison Heal to keep me at close to full HP the majority of the time. Toxic for obvious reasons. It just wears everything down. While I don't like the typical stall sets, I do like this one, as it takes advantage of Gliscors Defense stat. Ice Fang is for added coverage against opposing Dragons. Earthquake for STAB.

Ability - Iron Barbs @ Relaxed Nature

Item - Red Card


EV Spread

168 Def | 100 HP | 240 Sp.Def

Power Whip
Leech Seed
Gyroball
Thunderwave

This is entirely devised on my own, I decided that I did not feel like using Jellicent, so I thought about making Ferrothorn a mixed wall. While being able to handle opposing threats like Tyranitar and various other Rock or Ground types with Leech Seed + Power Whip or Gyro Ball, Thunder Wave is for added Support. I also decided that with the extra 100 EV's that I would throw them into HP, to make very bulky Ferrothorn.

My moveset may seem off, but I think the Leech Seed + Power Whip/Gyro Ball will work out okay for most threats this team may have. You are welcome to guide me in one way or another on this.

Ability - Torrent @ Calm Nature

Item - Leftovers

EV Spread

248 HP | 44 Def | 216 Sp.Def

Scald
Toxic
Aqua Ring
Ice Beam


This is my replacement for Jellicent. A Pokemon of similar BST. Also equal support. While Empoleon in DPP would be geared towards offense, here I am going to use it's sizeable Special Defense stat as a viable support Pokemon. And a Special Wall. Empoleons unique typing can aid in a lot useful resistances, namely being unaffected by Toxic. Which Gastrodon and Jellicent cannot achieve.

Another perk for Empoleon is no Sandstorm damage taken between turns. Making it an even more useful Pokemon than Jellicent under these conditions.

Now for the moveset. Aqua Ring is quite useful in conjunction with Leftovers for recovery. Toxic for wearing down opponents. Scald for the burn aspect and for Pokemon that are weak to it (I'm talking about you Tyranitar). Ice Beam for added coverage.

Ability - Magic Guard @ Quiet Nature

Item - Life Orb

EV Spread

252 Sp.Atk | 192 HP | 64 Def


Trick Room
Shadow Ball
Focus Blast
Psychic

In comes the Special Sweeper. Reuniclus is for taking out those threats by the name of Conkeldurr and other various fighting types. He also has a niche in getting rid of the Lati's since he can learn Shadow Ball with that nice Special Attack stat. This is a bulky Reuniclus as well. Which is why the extra EV's go to Defense.

My moveset is pretty standard for a Trick Room abuser, but I shall explain. Psychic is for STAB, Trick Room is for Trick Room. Shadow Ball and Focus Blast for added coverage + Lati's




Well. What do you think?

 

[iSharingan]

First off you can either use [animate]name[./animate] tags or url[./img] tags (the second will need an image url. I recommend using images from Pokecheck's image database, but there are others available). remove the enclosed periods when using the tags, ofc.

Jellicent's synergy with Ferrothorn partially revolves around it's resistance to fire and immunity to fighting, both of which Ferrothorn is weak to. Empoleon, on the other hand, is neutral to fire and takes super-effective damage from fighting, so it's not the best replacement if you were aiming for that specific role. Additionally, your Empoleon isn't designed for switching into attacks like Jellicent is in the standard Jellithorn core (Aqua ring would take effect at the end of the second turn, making a 2HKO very probable and hard to avoid). My suggestion would be split either the defensive core into a trio with some offensive capability as well (Ferrothorn, Heatran, +fighting&ground resist - since Heatran helps against Sun and ferro hinders a considerable portion of commonly used rain abusers when given special bulk and Leech Seed like your set) or using straight up Jellithorn (leftovers + recover is still plenty viable in sand).

Just keep in mind everything on your team doesn't have to be immune to your weather. Leftovers (or Black Sludge for poison types) will recover exactly the same HP that is lost via weather each turn.

With Gliscor, a set with Protect+Substitute is very usefull even if it's only attack is EQ. Ovet the course of 2 turns (1 for substitute and the other for protect), Poison Heal will heal back all of the HP lost by Substitute's use. While it doesn't alter type effectiveness, it is extremely good at stall, especially when the for has burn/poison (and can even KO mons with SS damage alone).

I do like your choice in Hippowdon, who is much more annoying than Ttar imo. I personally prefer more SDef investment (cuz Politoed, who loses the weather war if both sent out first, so no rain boost), but it's not always needed (especially if you run Water Absorb Jellicent). your set is perfectly valid (and infuriating for physical threats) so go with what works best.

One of the biggest weaknesses I see is the total lack of priority. Though rare, Prankster Riolu will destroy this team and the much more common Skill Link Cloyster will be unstoppable after a shell smash, as it KOs everything on your team before they can KO back (except for Empoleon, which is easily dispatched by the likes of Scizor, Jellicent (and other special walls), and Breloom - just to name a few. Reuniclus will not get a chance to actiavte Trick Room after cloyster comes out due to the negative priority curse (even slower than Roar&co.) plus the need to switch in on the turn Cloyster smashes (Cloyser won't switch in on Reuniclus and Reuniclus isn't that great until mid/late game).

 

[Super__Sonic]

Hmm. Thanks for the advice! Who do you suggest could potentially be replaced for priority? More importantly, who is a fairly good priority Pokemon who can help this team?

 

[.maiden]

Just a couple quick suggestions:

Yache Berry on Garchomp - Ice type attacks from the likes of Starmie, Keldeo, and Mamoseine are far more likely to halt your sweep.
Spikes > Thunder Wave on Ferrothorn - Thunderwave has limited support capabilities for your team since your primary win condition is Trick Room Reuniclus.

 

[iSharingan]

Well, straight off the top of my head, Technician Scizor is as effective as they come on most teams if you can offer support for what the set you choose can't handle. Poison Heal Breloom still regains HP in snad/hail but only helps your cloyster probem if you can spore it on the turn it shell smashes (even at -1 Def, Cloyster is still physically bulky enough to survive Technician Breloom's Mach Punch and Poison Heal Breloom's Focus Punch - ignoring focus sash for the moment, though the latter often KOs after weather). Prankster Sableye (Will 'o Wisp/Taunt/Foul Play/Recover Bold with 252 HP/252 Def/ 4 SDef and leftovers) is effective on almost any team for priority, physical walling, burn-stall, and overall trolling, though slightly more effective in ubers where it's psychic immunity can come into play more and even special attackers have massive physical attack to exploit (Burn doesn't effect Foul Play's damage but still halves the physical damage the foe can deal).

I do want to point out that Stealth Rock is key on any sand team due to the prevalence of ground types/ground moves on the team. SR helps wear down switch-ins to ground moves, which usually have Levitate or are Flying types, and thus render spikes ineffective (unless you happen to use the old Gravity abuse Sand teams of the DPP era). TR sand was semi-common in VGC iirc, but it's much harder to pull off in OU. Without it, you could easily switch Ferrothorn to Twave/Stealth Rock/Leech Seed/Power Whip and still be plenty effective. Just remember Twave+Gyroball is never a good choice due to ground's immunity to Twave and resistance to steel (coupled with the power loss against paralyzed foes)