Gen V Sandstorm, Epic Awesomeness

Hippowdon
Sand stream, Leftovers, impish
252 hp, 252 defense, 6 attack
-Earthquake
-Steal Rock
-Slack Off
-Ice Fang

This here is my lead. He'll get the sandstorm up, cover things with ice and ground, heal off attacks, and stall opponents. He's a necessity for a sandstorm team. Right off the bat I'll get a sandstorm up, unless I feel like I might get taunted. If that happens, I would go to either darmanitan or sazandora. He can wall off many physical attackers, and Ice fang helps with type coverage



Cradily
Suction cups, leftovers, sassy
252 hp, 252 special defense, 6 attack
-Rest
-Sleep talk
-Rock Slide
-Curse

The classic rest-talk cradily. Curse up for defense, spd is already amazing because of the sandstorm, and rock slide away. He is my special wall. With amazing typing cradily will be very difficult to take down, and is my prime counter to blissey. He can just rest off twaves and seismic tosses while walling thunderbolts and cursing enough to take it down with rock slide. If roopushin switches in, and I have at least 2 curses I should be able to take it down.



Goruugu (http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-bw/623.shtml)
No Guard (makes all moves 100% accurate), Life Orb, Adamant
252 attack, 252 hp, 6 speed
-Dynamic Punch
-Earthquake
-Heavy Bomber (steel attack, higher difference in weight=more damage)
-Shadow Punch

When I saw this pokemon's ability and access to dynamic punch, I fell in love. With No Guard, all attacks on the field will never miss, giving me a 100 power 100 accuracy fighting move that confuses the opponent every time I hit. This makes Goruugu a great Roopushin counter, as he can switch into a drain punch and confuse him with dynamic punch. Earthquake, heavy bomber, and shadow punch are just for type coverage and I am fine with changing them. This poke is by far my favorite of fifth gen, and hopefully I will use it well.




Tentacreul
Liquid Ooze, Black Sludge, calm
252 special defense, 252 hp, 6 special attack
-Toxic Spikes
-Surf
-Rapid Spin
-Sludgebomb

Basic tentacreul, nothing special here. His job is to spin away my entry hazards and start setting up his own toxic spikes. Tentacreul gives me that surf/sludge bomb initiative to be super effective against rock and grass, which are 2 large weaknesses to my team. Also, toxic spikes will let hippowdon and cradily stall more effectively



Terrakoin (http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-bw/639.shtml)
Heart of Justice, Leftovers, Jolly
252 attack, 252 speed, 6 hp
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge
-Swords Dance
-X-Scissor

Yet another amazing pokemon. With base 108 speed and jolly nature, he will outspeed a lot. Also, under a swords dance, 129 base attack, and those moves, this thing will be a beast. The sandstorm will also gives this thing more special defense as it is Rock-Fighting, and will be my physical sweeper.


Sazandora (http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-bw/635.shtml)
Levitate, choice specs, Modest
252 special attack, 252 speed, 6 hp
-Draco Meteor
-Overheat
-Surf
-Dark Pulse

There wasn't really much reason I put this guy in here, other than the fact that he is awesome. He's got good coverage and decent specal attack and speed. He can switch in on someone using earthquake, and hit it back with a specs hit coming from that amazing type coverage. He makes for a good revenge killer and a possible late game sweeper. It seems like this will be a pretty uncommon poke in 5th gen, so I could get some surprises out of people.

This team has a lot of problems, I will point them:

Hippowdon: it needs 252 HP/156 def/ 100 sp.def, so it's not dying to special attacks so easily. You could also replace ice fang with roar.


Tentacruel: first, change the choice scarf for black sludge or leftovers. It has no use, dude. It looks like you were crippled by a tricker. And else, that tentacruel is too physically frail, get a spread of 252 HP/200 def/56 sp.def calm.


Darmanitan: dude, this is dumb. You're using hihidaruma's dumb 30 special attack, while ignoring its 140 attack. If you want to use daruma mode, you'll have to change its trait, but a pinch sweep at a sandstorm is completely dumb. You should also replace it for a Nattorei (this guy ) an excellent weapon against rain teams.


Goruggo: lol, this DEFINITELY DOES NOT counter roobushin. Its attacks don't do enough damage to a +1 roobushin and it has payback to fuck with you. If you want a poké to counter roobushin, get a trick room rankurusu (him ) with 216 HP/40 Def/252 Sp.Atk, since it's not 3HKOed by paybacks and OHKOes with psychic.


Sazandora: and finally, sazandora needs fire blast/flamethrower, since it's a way to kill dragon resistors. Use it over flash cannon, since steel is an horrid attacking type, hitting only rock and ice for SE. Surf and Flamethrower do that also.

do those changes and good luck

Blue_Star said:

This team has a lot of problems, I will point them:

Hippowdon: it needs 252 HP/156 def/ 100 sp.def, so it's not dying to special attacks so easily. You could also replace ice fang with roar.

Tentacruel: first, change the choice scarf for black sludge or leftovers. It has no use, dude. It looks like you were crippled by a tricker. And else, that tentacruel is too physically frail, get a spread of 252 HP/200 def/56 sp.def calm.

Darmanitan: dude, this is dumb. You're using hihidaruma's dumb 30 special attack, while ignoring its 140 attack. If you want to use daruma mode, you'll have to change its trait, but a pinch sweep at a sandstorm is completely dumb. You should also replace it for a Nattorei (this guy

) an excellent weapon against rain teams.

Goruggo: lol, this DEFINITELY DOES NOT counter roobushin. Its attacks don't do enough damage to a +1 roobushin and it has payback to fuck with you. If you want a poké to counter roobushin, get a trick room rankurusu (him

) with 216 HP/40 Def/252 Sp.Atk, since it's not 3HKOed by paybacks and OHKOes with psychic.

Sazandora: and finally, sazandora needs fire blast/flamethrower, since it's a way to kill dragon resistors. Use it over flash cannon, since steel is an horrid attacking type, hitting only rock and ice for SE. Surf and Flamethrower do that also.

do those changes and good luck

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The darmanitan thing was a weird copy paste error, I edited it out. Also, if I can survive to land a dynamic punch on roopushin, it will most likely switch out because bulking up will make his self attacks in confusion to a ton of damage

Edit: I changed flash cannon to overheat on sazandora, is this a good change?

I changed flash cannon to overheat on sazandora, is this a good change?

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I prefer flamethrower since it doesn't miss. Since you're using specs, the extra power isn't necessary.

it will most likely switch out because bulking up will make his self attacks in confusion to a ton of damage

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And no, bulk up also increases its defense, so the confusion will do the same damage as if it was +0

Blue_Star said:

I prefer flamethrower since it doesn't miss. Since you're using specs, the extra power isn't necessary.




And no, bulk up also increases its defense, so the confusion will do the same damage as if it was +0

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Thats unfortunate, but I am willling to try my luck and hope that the roopushin hurts himself in confusion and I can land another attack on it

I could see this team having a severe weakness to a standard rain team of politoed, kingdra, kabutops/ludiculo/gorebyss, nattorei. Rain teams usually attack primarily with water, ice, grass, electric in which your team covers fairly poorly. Surf hits 3 members super effective with only 1 resist and ice beam hits every member except tentacruel and terakion super effectively. Specsdra seems like it'd be a huge threat to your team along with LO starmie running something similar to thunder, surf, icebeam, recover/psychic which can outspeed and ko pretty much everything on your team even hitting and average of 50% on your specially defensive tentacruel.

hullohihello said:

I could see this team having a severe weakness to a standard rain team of politoed, kingdra, kabutops/ludiculo/gorebyss, nattorei. Rain teams usually attack primarily with water, ice, grass, electric in which your team covers fairly poorly. Surf hits 3 members super effective with only 1 resist and ice beam hits every member except tentacruel and terakion super effectively. Specsdra seems like it'd be a huge threat to your team along with LO starmie running something similar to thunder, surf, icebeam, recover/psychic which can outspeed and ko pretty much everything on your team even hitting and average of 50% on your specially defensive tentacruel.

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What do you suggest to fix this problem?

Storm Drain Cradily.

From what I can tell, Sazandora, Terakion, and even maybe Cradily and Hippowdon are going to have MAJOR probolems with Roobushin. May I suggest swapping Goruugu with a CM Rankurusu? Magic Guard also allows it to take SS damage while setting up, and it allows you to switch in on WoW, Toxic, Boil Over, etc.

Rankurusu @ Life Orb
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD - Bold
-Calm Mind
-Recover
-Psychic
-Focus Blast

Tyrant626 said:

From what I can tell, Sazandora, Terakion, and even maybe Cradily and Hippowdon are going to have MAJOR probolems with Roobushin. May I suggest swapping Goruugu with a CM Rankurusu? Magic Guard also allows it to take SS damage while setting up, and it allows you to switch in on WoW, Toxic, Boil Over, etc.

Rankurusu @ Life Orb
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD - Bold
-Calm Mind
-Recover
-Psychic
-Focus Blast

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If I did the same thing, but swapped out cradily instead, would that work?

TheWaft said:

If I did the same thing, but swapped out cradily instead, would that work?

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Tsssssss...I'm not too sure. Goruugu+Rankurusu would make you rather weak to Ghosts and Dark, along with a HUGE weakness to T-Tar (especially if Terakion died and there T-Tar is scarfed). Then again, Rankurusu+Sazandor would give you a big weakness to things like Denchura, Urugamosu, and especially Nidoking. The reason 'king is a threat is because of how common and useful it has become this gen. It's immune to SS, immune to TS, and resistant to the rocks while it proceeds to KO Sazandora and Rankurusu with Megahorn, then swap between EQ and Avalanche. Cradily is also a grat asset to your team (especially if Curse-SleepTalk is possible with Storm Drain), so dropping it may be hard to deal with.

Rankurusu for Cradily seems like the wise decision to me. Ghost moves really aren't super common, same with Dark outside of Pursuit, and Sazy can switch into either without any problem and hit the switch with Draco Meteor really hard.

Tyrant626 said:

Tsssssss...I'm not too sure. Goruugu+Rankurusu would make you rather weak to Ghosts and Dark, along with a HUGE weakness to T-Tar (especially if Terakion died and there T-Tar is scarfed). Then again, Rankurusu+Sazandor would give you a big weakness to things like Denchura, Urugamosu, and especially Nidoking. The reason 'king is a threat is because of how common and useful it has become this gen. It's immune to SS, immune to TS, and resistant to the rocks while it proceeds to KO Sazandora and Rankurusu with Megahorn, then swap between EQ and Avalanche. Cradily is also a grat asset to your team (especially if Curse-SleepTalk is possible with Storm Drain), so dropping it may be hard to deal with.

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Jaroda said:

Rankurusu for Cradily seems like the wise decision to me. Ghost moves really aren't super common, same with Dark outside of Pursuit, and Sazy can switch into either without any problem and hit the switch with Draco Meteor really hard.

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I think I'll try swapping Rankurusu with Cradily, mainly because I realized that I won't be able to get a cradily with both storm drain and rest-talk in gen v. As for the nidoking weakness I think Tentacruel would be able to handle him quite well

Have you ever considered Latios over Sazandra? He's slightly more powerful and quite a bit faster than the hydra, but he's still using a Specs set to deliver strong Draco Meteors. (Draco Meteor, Surf, and two of Psychic, Dragon Pulse, Thunderbolt, or HP Fire) I guess it boils down to whether you want your dragon to be taking dark attacks (Sazandra) or fighting attacks (Latios) better.

Sazandra helps protect Goruugu better but leaves you more exposed to fighting moves between him, Cradily, and Terakion. Then again, Terakion can block dark moves, too.

Latios, on the other hand, can help the fighting weaknesses of Cradily and Terakion. But you do have some anti-fighting defense with Tentacruel and Goruugu already.

Your call.

EDIT: Also, keep in mind that No Guard is Goruugu's Dream World ability, and Gobitto isn't available in the Dream World yet.

RedMeowth said:

Have you ever considered Latios over Sazandra? He's slightly more powerful and quite a bit faster than the hydra, but he's still using a Specs set to deliver strong Draco Meteors. (Draco Meteor, Surf, and two of Psychic, Dragon Pulse, Thunderbolt, or HP Fire) I guess it boils down to whether you want your dragon to be taking dark attacks (Sazandra) or fighting attacks (Latios) better.

Sazandra helps protect Goruugu better but leaves you more exposed to fighting moves between him, Cradily, and Terakion. Then again, Terakion can block dark moves, too.

Latios, on the other hand, can help the fighting weaknesses of Cradily and Terakion. But you do have some anti-fighting defense with Tentacruel and Goruugu already.

Your call.

EDIT: Also, keep in mind that No Guard is Goruugu's Dream World ability, and Gobitto isn't available in the Dream World yet.

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The problem is I think Latios will still be an uber next gen. Does anyone else have more input on this?

TheWaft said:

The problem is I think Latios will still be an uber next gen. Does anyone else have more input on this?

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50/50 actually.

On one hand, it is a little too powerful for its own good.

On the OTHER hand, things like Doryuuzu, Urugamosu, Denchura, Pendoraa, Borutorusu(Thundurus, right?), Blissey, Evo-Stone chansey, and Nattorei are HUGE problems to Latias (Natty, not too much, but still)

Tyrant626 said:

50/50 actually.

On one hand, it is a little too powerful for its own good.

On the OTHER hand, things like Doryuuzu, Urugamosu, Denchura, Pendoraa, Borutorusu(Thundurus, right?), Blissey, Evo-Stone chansey, and Nattorei are HUGE problems to Latias (Natty, not too much, but still)

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In that case, since I really don't like Latios, I'm interested in putting a bulky dragon dance dragonite in my team, possibly in place of sazandora. Do you think this would be a good change? Dragonite can handle roobushin pretty well, finally getting my team over that poke

Switch Cradily with Evo Stone Lileep, takes hit much better

Lileep@ Eviolite
Nature: Sassy
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP/ 252 SP.Def/ 4 Sp.Atk
move 1:Leech Seed
move 2: Giga Drain
move 3:Earth Power
move 4: Hidden Power Ice

Lileep can wreck all water types that try to destroy Lileep, he resists water type attacks with Storm Drain, and with his gargantuan SP.Def in Sandstorm, it can take most hits from Water types (since like, 3 Water types are physical attackers) Leech Seed is better than Leftovers, Giga Drain is takes care of the loss of Resttalk, Earth Power hits Electric types, and Hidden Power Ice hits Grass types, who are immune to Leech Seed and resist Earth Power and Giga Drain.