Introduction:
After playing with my rain team for a while i decided i needed a change of scenery and after realising that sandstorm teams dominate the top of the leaderboard I decided to have a crack. I started off with tyranitar and excadrill, then i slapped on rotom w who i knew could wreck rain teams from experience, heatran to take care of sun teams, and celebi to deal with psychics, the only thing that was missing was a priority user and so
I used scizor as my last poke. This team has managed to reach around a 1350 rating ranked about 150th last round however i would like to be able to consistently be in the top 150 and this team has many weaknesses in particular to fighting types which is why i am posting it here.
I hope you enjoy...
Changes will be made in bold
Analysis
Tyranitar @ chople berry
Nature: Brave (+atk - spe)
Trait: Sandstream
Evs: 252 hp/186 atk/ 68 spdef
- stealth rock
- fire blast
- pursuit
- stone edge
I found this set on the wolfgang rmt posted by Franky and it serves me well with lots of utility, this guy sets up rocks and traps psychics and latios who can wreck this team with powerful draco meteors. Stone edge is a powerful stab move coming off 380 attack and with chople berry i can survive a focus blast off of thundurus and hopefully ko back if stone edge actually hits. Fire blast is a nice move 2hkoing ferrothorn and skarmoury who is a royal pain and also hitting all those cocky excadrills who think they can set up a swords dance as i switch, which they always do. This guy has great bulk and can withstand a lot of punishment however he is at a disadvantage against other weather starters as ninetales tends to burn him and politoed hit him with super effective water moves. I have found pursuit to not be very effective as trapped pokes tend to stay in and jellicent burns me then laughs as i attempt to ko it.
Changes? I am really open to suggestions for this guy, choice band, dragon dance all seem like sets i would like to try out and i also want to switch pursuit for crunch and give this guy enough evs to outspeed jellicent. I have thought of giving him fire puch over fire blast and running modest nature then dumping some hp evs into speed. Please suggest an effective set for this guy and i will try it out as i dont think i am using him to his full potential.
Excadrill @ air balloon
Nature: Adamant
Trait: sand rush
Evs: 252 atk/ 252 spe
- swords dance
- earthquake
- rock slide
- rapid spin
The king of the sand himself. With 410 attack and 550 speed this guy is a sweeper of monstrous proportions as we all know. Stab earthquake demolishes and rock slide provides great coverage and the insanely broken np thundurus becomes no problem thundurus as is he outsped and koed with rock slide. This guy comes out to wreck late game when his counters are removed which can all be beaten except bronzong with some rock slide flinch hax. Rapid spin is a crazy move on this guy as there isn’t a spin blocker that can survive blocking this guy, and helps to handle stall well. Air balloon gives him some great opportunities to switch in and beat non balloon excadrill. Despite everyone knowing him to be a massive threat this guy still racks up a tonne of kills and is the MVP of the team without a doubt, even without sand he can still cause some damage against rain teams.
Changes: life orb? Suggest away
Scizor @ life orb
Nature: Adamant
Trait: technician
Evs: 232 hp/ 252 atk/ 24 spe
- Swords dance
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Bug Bite
This gal is probably my favourite pokemon to use and is one every one of my teams. She ( rivalry haxorus usage means she is female) is great for revenging things with her powerful bullet punches and with 2 swords dances the only things that can survive a bullet punch without taking large amounts of damage are 4x resistors. Whilst life orb does reduce her survivability i find that the extra damage output more than makes up for it allowing her to ohko some things with a boosted bullet punch that she wouldn’t normally be able to. Superpower is a good move to ohko ferrothorn after a sd and do 60 percent to skarmoury whilst also being able to hit magnezone and heatran if i predict the switch in. Scizor can also revenge one of the biggest threats to this team, terrakion but she is going to be switching into any close combats because choice band will probably ko. Also after a few close combats she can hopefully revenge infernape if they are causing too much havoc. scizor straight up counters reuniclus and can come in on a -2 latios and do some damage although she isn’t switching into draco meteor which does over 60 percent (p.s latios is broken and needs banned).
Changes: With enter the dragon, magdrag teams are on the increase and if june’s statistics show a significant increase in magnezone usage i might slap on a shed shell as it would be nice to save scizor and grab heatran a flash fire boost off an unsuspecting magnezone.
Dragonite @choice band
Nature: Adamant (+ atk -spa)
Trait: Multi Scale
Evs: 252 atk/ 130 hp/ 122 spe
-Outrage
-extremespeed
-Fire Punch
-Earthquake
Cb dragonite is being used over heatran bringing grass, water, and fighting resistances which helps with the fighting weakness, and also a nice ground immunity like heatran. Outrage does a lot of damage and can 2hko physical walls like gliscor, fire punch is for skarmoury and other steels and earthquake to hit other steels like jirachi.
Extremespeed means he can clean up late game even outspeeding other priority as extremespeed is +2 and he can kill weakened mamoswine and weavile who are trying to ohko with ice shard.
He also fills heatrans role of countering sun teams as the two main stabs of fire and grass that are thrown about in sun are both resisted, seeing as sun teams usually only carry one steel after that is removed extremespeed does a tonne of damage and wrecks sun teams and if they dont have a steel this guy is bound to grab at least 2 kos if i avoid a burn from ninetales.
Overall this guy is doing very well but this spot is still being tested
Rotom-W @ leftovers
Nature: Modest ( +spa - atk)
Trait: levitate
Evs: 124 hp/ 252 spa/ 132 spe
- hydro pump
- thunderbolt
- will o wisp
- pain split
Rotom W is one of the useful members of the team and never disappoints. One of his key roles is in countering rain teams and in tandem with celebi he can wreck them. His moveset is standard for non choiced rotom-w with 2 stabs, wow for burning ferrothorn and other physical attackers and pain split for recovery. Rotom is fairly bulky and provides a much needed water resist on the team, also at fullish health he can take an infernape close combat and ko back with hydro pump or thunderbolt which is important as infernape is a powerful threat to this team. Levitate also means that this guy can handle common sandstorm threats such as gliscor and excadrill provding that hydro pump hits on the latter and that rock slide does not flinch or crit. Rotom-w also counters dragon dance gyarados who can be a pain to take down if it has bounce for super effective damage on celebi. Theres not much more i can say about this guy, he is a key member of the team and always performs well.
Changes? I would be willing to try out different movesets such as choice on this guy.
Celebi @ leftovers
Nature: Timid (+ spe -atk)
Trait: Natural Cure
Evs: 252 spa/ 252 spe
-Nasty Plot
-Giga Drain
-Hidden Power fire
-Psychic
Celebi plays a very important role on this team, being able to counter rotom-w and providing an important water resist which is key for taking care of rain teams. Against rain teams this guy and rotom-w are very effective both forcing out politoed with their super effective stabs. Even with no investment celebi is surpisingly bulky and can take some punishment although any bug move is bound to cripple or ko it, and so this guy cannot handle terrakion or excadrill. Having a fighting resist is very key to this team and celebi does well against conkeldur, however mienshao has u-turn, infernape has fire stab and other fighting types has super effective coverage moves on celebi. The moveset aims to provide optimal coverage with psychic hitting fighting types giga drain deaing with rotom-w and rehealing health and hp fire takes care of scizor and ferrothorn easily, however the lati twins and sazandora wall this set all day long. With max speed celebi can outpace a fair few things and is a solid member of the team however with many weaknesess she leaves much to be desired as the main threats to this team are infernape, terrakion can both ohko her.
Overall a core member of the team and one im not willing to replace without good reason.
PAST MEMBERS
Conclusion, thanks for reading this rmt I really love playing with this team and i would like some suggestions to make it better although i don’t want it to end up looking like a cookie cutter sandteam and so i don’t really fancy putting gliscor, latios or jirachi on this team unless it will make a huge difference. Please give me a rate and I will try out all suggestions
Have a good day :) x
Credit for sprites goes to "Aragornbird"
After playing with my rain team for a while i decided i needed a change of scenery and after realising that sandstorm teams dominate the top of the leaderboard I decided to have a crack. I started off with tyranitar and excadrill, then i slapped on rotom w who i knew could wreck rain teams from experience, heatran to take care of sun teams, and celebi to deal with psychics, the only thing that was missing was a priority user and so
I used scizor as my last poke. This team has managed to reach around a 1350 rating ranked about 150th last round however i would like to be able to consistently be in the top 150 and this team has many weaknesses in particular to fighting types which is why i am posting it here.
I hope you enjoy...
Changes will be made in bold
Analysis
Tyranitar @ chople berry
Nature: Brave (+atk - spe)
Trait: Sandstream
Evs: 252 hp/186 atk/ 68 spdef
- stealth rock
- fire blast
- pursuit
- stone edge
I found this set on the wolfgang rmt posted by Franky and it serves me well with lots of utility, this guy sets up rocks and traps psychics and latios who can wreck this team with powerful draco meteors. Stone edge is a powerful stab move coming off 380 attack and with chople berry i can survive a focus blast off of thundurus and hopefully ko back if stone edge actually hits. Fire blast is a nice move 2hkoing ferrothorn and skarmoury who is a royal pain and also hitting all those cocky excadrills who think they can set up a swords dance as i switch, which they always do. This guy has great bulk and can withstand a lot of punishment however he is at a disadvantage against other weather starters as ninetales tends to burn him and politoed hit him with super effective water moves. I have found pursuit to not be very effective as trapped pokes tend to stay in and jellicent burns me then laughs as i attempt to ko it.
Changes? I am really open to suggestions for this guy, choice band, dragon dance all seem like sets i would like to try out and i also want to switch pursuit for crunch and give this guy enough evs to outspeed jellicent. I have thought of giving him fire puch over fire blast and running modest nature then dumping some hp evs into speed. Please suggest an effective set for this guy and i will try it out as i dont think i am using him to his full potential.
Excadrill @ air balloon
Nature: Adamant
Trait: sand rush
Evs: 252 atk/ 252 spe
- swords dance
- earthquake
- rock slide
- rapid spin
The king of the sand himself. With 410 attack and 550 speed this guy is a sweeper of monstrous proportions as we all know. Stab earthquake demolishes and rock slide provides great coverage and the insanely broken np thundurus becomes no problem thundurus as is he outsped and koed with rock slide. This guy comes out to wreck late game when his counters are removed which can all be beaten except bronzong with some rock slide flinch hax. Rapid spin is a crazy move on this guy as there isn’t a spin blocker that can survive blocking this guy, and helps to handle stall well. Air balloon gives him some great opportunities to switch in and beat non balloon excadrill. Despite everyone knowing him to be a massive threat this guy still racks up a tonne of kills and is the MVP of the team without a doubt, even without sand he can still cause some damage against rain teams.
Changes: life orb? Suggest away
Scizor @ life orb
Nature: Adamant
Trait: technician
Evs: 232 hp/ 252 atk/ 24 spe
- Swords dance
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Bug Bite
This gal is probably my favourite pokemon to use and is one every one of my teams. She ( rivalry haxorus usage means she is female) is great for revenging things with her powerful bullet punches and with 2 swords dances the only things that can survive a bullet punch without taking large amounts of damage are 4x resistors. Whilst life orb does reduce her survivability i find that the extra damage output more than makes up for it allowing her to ohko some things with a boosted bullet punch that she wouldn’t normally be able to. Superpower is a good move to ohko ferrothorn after a sd and do 60 percent to skarmoury whilst also being able to hit magnezone and heatran if i predict the switch in. Scizor can also revenge one of the biggest threats to this team, terrakion but she is going to be switching into any close combats because choice band will probably ko. Also after a few close combats she can hopefully revenge infernape if they are causing too much havoc. scizor straight up counters reuniclus and can come in on a -2 latios and do some damage although she isn’t switching into draco meteor which does over 60 percent (p.s latios is broken and needs banned).
Changes: With enter the dragon, magdrag teams are on the increase and if june’s statistics show a significant increase in magnezone usage i might slap on a shed shell as it would be nice to save scizor and grab heatran a flash fire boost off an unsuspecting magnezone.
Dragonite @choice band
Nature: Adamant (+ atk -spa)
Trait: Multi Scale
Evs: 252 atk/ 130 hp/ 122 spe
-Outrage
-extremespeed
-Fire Punch
-Earthquake
Cb dragonite is being used over heatran bringing grass, water, and fighting resistances which helps with the fighting weakness, and also a nice ground immunity like heatran. Outrage does a lot of damage and can 2hko physical walls like gliscor, fire punch is for skarmoury and other steels and earthquake to hit other steels like jirachi.
Extremespeed means he can clean up late game even outspeeding other priority as extremespeed is +2 and he can kill weakened mamoswine and weavile who are trying to ohko with ice shard.
He also fills heatrans role of countering sun teams as the two main stabs of fire and grass that are thrown about in sun are both resisted, seeing as sun teams usually only carry one steel after that is removed extremespeed does a tonne of damage and wrecks sun teams and if they dont have a steel this guy is bound to grab at least 2 kos if i avoid a burn from ninetales.
Overall this guy is doing very well but this spot is still being tested
Rotom-W @ leftovers
Nature: Modest ( +spa - atk)
Trait: levitate
Evs: 124 hp/ 252 spa/ 132 spe
- hydro pump
- thunderbolt
- will o wisp
- pain split
Rotom W is one of the useful members of the team and never disappoints. One of his key roles is in countering rain teams and in tandem with celebi he can wreck them. His moveset is standard for non choiced rotom-w with 2 stabs, wow for burning ferrothorn and other physical attackers and pain split for recovery. Rotom is fairly bulky and provides a much needed water resist on the team, also at fullish health he can take an infernape close combat and ko back with hydro pump or thunderbolt which is important as infernape is a powerful threat to this team. Levitate also means that this guy can handle common sandstorm threats such as gliscor and excadrill provding that hydro pump hits on the latter and that rock slide does not flinch or crit. Rotom-w also counters dragon dance gyarados who can be a pain to take down if it has bounce for super effective damage on celebi. Theres not much more i can say about this guy, he is a key member of the team and always performs well.
Changes? I would be willing to try out different movesets such as choice on this guy.
Celebi @ leftovers
Nature: Timid (+ spe -atk)
Trait: Natural Cure
Evs: 252 spa/ 252 spe
-Nasty Plot
-Giga Drain
-Hidden Power fire
-Psychic
Celebi plays a very important role on this team, being able to counter rotom-w and providing an important water resist which is key for taking care of rain teams. Against rain teams this guy and rotom-w are very effective both forcing out politoed with their super effective stabs. Even with no investment celebi is surpisingly bulky and can take some punishment although any bug move is bound to cripple or ko it, and so this guy cannot handle terrakion or excadrill. Having a fighting resist is very key to this team and celebi does well against conkeldur, however mienshao has u-turn, infernape has fire stab and other fighting types has super effective coverage moves on celebi. The moveset aims to provide optimal coverage with psychic hitting fighting types giga drain deaing with rotom-w and rehealing health and hp fire takes care of scizor and ferrothorn easily, however the lati twins and sazandora wall this set all day long. With max speed celebi can outpace a fair few things and is a solid member of the team however with many weaknesess she leaves much to be desired as the main threats to this team are infernape, terrakion can both ohko her.
Overall a core member of the team and one im not willing to replace without good reason.
PAST MEMBERS
This guy used to be in dragonites spot
Heatran @air balloon
Nature: Modest (+ spa –atk)
Trait: flash Fire
Evs: 252 spa/ 252 spe
- flame charge
- earth power
- flamethrower
- hidden power ice
Heatran is a double edged sword, he provides an important fire immunity but means I am even weaker to fighting and water moves, and whilst he and celebi form the celebtran combo he cannot switch in and absorb attacks aimed at celebi as he is most effective when his air balloon is intact. Heatran also provides a good counter for sun teams although well prepared teams with fellow heatran or dugtrio can handle him as can darmanitan. You don’t see a lot of flame charge heatran and he works best by switching in on something he threatens then flame charging so he can hopefully outspeed the incoming check or counter. Flame charge is a safe move as he can use it on scizor or ferrothorn and still do plenty of damage if they think i will overpredict and so don’t switch out. Balloon is a great item if intact allowing me to beat gliscor, dragonite, landorus and salamence with a 4x effective hp ice. It also allows me to check excadrill unless they predict well and rock slide as i switch in.
Earth power is a nice move for other heatran or balloon tran running less speed and for other fire types and the occasional weakened tyranitar not running superpower. Flamethrower is not as powerful as fire blast, however i prefer the consistency which could make or break a game.
Changes: Heatran is the guy im least sure about as he makes me very weak to strong fighting types like mienshao, terrakion and infernape. I would like to find a replacement for him who resists fighting and or water, i have considered gyarados, latias and dragonite for the position. Cb dragonite seems like a good member as i run him on my rain team and he obliterates sun teams with extremespeed as they generally only carry one steel. Please suggest a replacement
Heatran @air balloon
Nature: Modest (+ spa –atk)
Trait: flash Fire
Evs: 252 spa/ 252 spe
- flame charge
- earth power
- flamethrower
- hidden power ice
Heatran is a double edged sword, he provides an important fire immunity but means I am even weaker to fighting and water moves, and whilst he and celebi form the celebtran combo he cannot switch in and absorb attacks aimed at celebi as he is most effective when his air balloon is intact. Heatran also provides a good counter for sun teams although well prepared teams with fellow heatran or dugtrio can handle him as can darmanitan. You don’t see a lot of flame charge heatran and he works best by switching in on something he threatens then flame charging so he can hopefully outspeed the incoming check or counter. Flame charge is a safe move as he can use it on scizor or ferrothorn and still do plenty of damage if they think i will overpredict and so don’t switch out. Balloon is a great item if intact allowing me to beat gliscor, dragonite, landorus and salamence with a 4x effective hp ice. It also allows me to check excadrill unless they predict well and rock slide as i switch in.
Earth power is a nice move for other heatran or balloon tran running less speed and for other fire types and the occasional weakened tyranitar not running superpower. Flamethrower is not as powerful as fire blast, however i prefer the consistency which could make or break a game.
Changes: Heatran is the guy im least sure about as he makes me very weak to strong fighting types like mienshao, terrakion and infernape. I would like to find a replacement for him who resists fighting and or water, i have considered gyarados, latias and dragonite for the position. Cb dragonite seems like a good member as i run him on my rain team and he obliterates sun teams with extremespeed as they generally only carry one steel. Please suggest a replacement
Threats:
In general fighting types plague this team with only one resist and 3 weaknesses, also my only resist celebi is outsped and hit supereffectively by common moves carried by these 3. note this is pre dragonite
DRAGONITE HELPS COVER THIS WEAKNESS UNFORTUNATELY TERAKION HAS STONE EDGE, AND INFERNAPE AND MIENSHAO SOMETIMES USE HP ICE SO THEY ARE STILL A THREAT
These two used in tandem can wreck me as nothing on my team can take repeated draco meteors and so i have to trap latios with tyranitar who has a hard time keeping up ss when weakened by latios
With rain up thundurus completely sweeps me after a nasty plot, but everyone knows he is broken and he will hopefully be banned soon.
In general fighting types plague this team with only one resist and 3 weaknesses, also my only resist celebi is outsped and hit supereffectively by common moves carried by these 3. note this is pre dragonite
DRAGONITE HELPS COVER THIS WEAKNESS UNFORTUNATELY TERAKION HAS STONE EDGE, AND INFERNAPE AND MIENSHAO SOMETIMES USE HP ICE SO THEY ARE STILL A THREAT
These two used in tandem can wreck me as nothing on my team can take repeated draco meteors and so i have to trap latios with tyranitar who has a hard time keeping up ss when weakened by latios
With rain up thundurus completely sweeps me after a nasty plot, but everyone knows he is broken and he will hopefully be banned soon.
Conclusion, thanks for reading this rmt I really love playing with this team and i would like some suggestions to make it better although i don’t want it to end up looking like a cookie cutter sandteam and so i don’t really fancy putting gliscor, latios or jirachi on this team unless it will make a huge difference. Please give me a rate and I will try out all suggestions
Have a good day :) x
Credit for sprites goes to "Aragornbird"
