I decided to retry my team with Cacturne on it, adding another Pokemon to base it around, the Desert Spirit, Flygon, and it seemed to have worked pretty well.
Here's how I went about making it (changes are in red):
I started out with Cacturne and Flygon, looking onwards to making a Sandstorm Team, obviously, and looked at their type weaknesses. I noticed that I was 6x weak to Ice (4x Flygon, 2x Cacturne), 4x weak to bug (Cacturne only), among others.
So, I needed a Steel/Bug to fill that gaping hole, and the most potent Steel/Bug type is obviously Scizor.
Now, with Scizor, I had a major Fire and Fighting Weakness arise, so I filled those holes with two Pokemon, Swampert and Gliscor.
Now, finally, I added in my Sandstorm support in the form of Expert Belt Tyranitar. I chose Expert Belt Tyranitar over the popular ScarfTar or DDTar variants.
So, without further adieu, here is the team (again, changes are in red):
Swampert (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP/4 Atk/252 Def
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Surf
- Stealth Rock
---
Standard lead mixpert, he is mainly used to fill in a major fire weakness. He acts as both a tank for taking hits and a mixed sweeper. I've also gotten really lucky with Ice Beam as of late, and it freezes the opponent every 3 hits usually.
Tyranitar (M) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk/208 Spd/48 SAtk
Hasty Nature (+Spd ,-Def)
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Flamethrower
---
My main source of Sandstorm, is Tyranitar. This set has fooled many people into thinking its a choiced variant, as it does just as well, but gives me more variety in what moves I can use. I once got 4 straight OHKOes with him against someone, until they finally figured out that he wasn't locked into a choice item.
Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Fire Blast
- U-turn
---
Flygon is a very good Pokemon in the sand, and he provides excellent sweeping coverage. He has great synergy with Scizor, and I can easily switch between the two by use of U-turn, which both of them have. Fire Blast is for any Grass types such as Breloom that threaten the entrire team, not to mention that with his Scarf EV spread outspeeds most Breloom.
Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP/252 Atk/8 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- U-turn
---
Scizor, revenge killer extraordinaire. He's won me countless battles, most of them helping me come up from behind. Bullet Punch and Superpower are the main two moves that I go with, for their wide coverage of most Pokemon in the metagame. I wish I didn't have to resort to using such an overused Pokemon, but he just works way too well not to.
Cacturne (M) @ Brightpowder
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 Atk/8 Def/248 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
- Focus Punch
- Substitute
---
Cacturne, the star of the show. This moveset is the evasive dancer set, which I have used in the past before. Sucker Punch is for STAB priority against threats weak against it such as Latias and Ghosts. Focus Punch and Substitute are for a good, strong attack that rapes steels that laugh at Sucker Punch. Swords Dance, is obviously to make him even more dangerous, which works very well with his increased evasion in the sand.
Gliscor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP/40 Def/216 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Taunt
- Toxic
---
Gliscor provides a good defense and taunt support for the team, without resorting to weakening my offensive options. Not much else to say about him, he's probably the one I'm most considering replacing on the team. 'I'm considering replacing Toxic with Stone Edge or something else however, allowing me to hit fliers/levitators - any thoughts?
Note, I am thinking of replacing him with this Rotom-H set:
Rotom-H @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/168 Def/88 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp
---
Rotom-H, theoretically removes both my Gyarados Weakness AND my SD Luke weakness in one blow, and gives me a valuable asset in a spin blocker. With Thunderbolt to hit Gyarados, Shadow Ball for a STAB option, Overheat for a power attack, and Will-O-Wisp for statusing support, he is a very useful floating toaster full of tricks.
Here's how I went about making it (changes are in red):
I started out with Cacturne and Flygon, looking onwards to making a Sandstorm Team, obviously, and looked at their type weaknesses. I noticed that I was 6x weak to Ice (4x Flygon, 2x Cacturne), 4x weak to bug (Cacturne only), among others.
So, I needed a Steel/Bug to fill that gaping hole, and the most potent Steel/Bug type is obviously Scizor.
Now, with Scizor, I had a major Fire and Fighting Weakness arise, so I filled those holes with two Pokemon, Swampert and Gliscor.
Now, finally, I added in my Sandstorm support in the form of Expert Belt Tyranitar. I chose Expert Belt Tyranitar over the popular ScarfTar or DDTar variants.
So, without further adieu, here is the team (again, changes are in red):
Swampert (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP/4 Atk/252 Def
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Surf
- Stealth Rock
---
Standard lead mixpert, he is mainly used to fill in a major fire weakness. He acts as both a tank for taking hits and a mixed sweeper. I've also gotten really lucky with Ice Beam as of late, and it freezes the opponent every 3 hits usually.
Tyranitar (M) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk/208 Spd/48 SAtk
Hasty Nature (+Spd ,-Def)
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Flamethrower
---
My main source of Sandstorm, is Tyranitar. This set has fooled many people into thinking its a choiced variant, as it does just as well, but gives me more variety in what moves I can use. I once got 4 straight OHKOes with him against someone, until they finally figured out that he wasn't locked into a choice item.
Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Fire Blast
- U-turn
---
Flygon is a very good Pokemon in the sand, and he provides excellent sweeping coverage. He has great synergy with Scizor, and I can easily switch between the two by use of U-turn, which both of them have. Fire Blast is for any Grass types such as Breloom that threaten the entrire team, not to mention that with his Scarf EV spread outspeeds most Breloom.
Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP/252 Atk/8 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- U-turn
---
Scizor, revenge killer extraordinaire. He's won me countless battles, most of them helping me come up from behind. Bullet Punch and Superpower are the main two moves that I go with, for their wide coverage of most Pokemon in the metagame. I wish I didn't have to resort to using such an overused Pokemon, but he just works way too well not to.
Cacturne (M) @ Brightpowder
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 Atk/8 Def/248 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
- Focus Punch
- Substitute
---
Cacturne, the star of the show. This moveset is the evasive dancer set, which I have used in the past before. Sucker Punch is for STAB priority against threats weak against it such as Latias and Ghosts. Focus Punch and Substitute are for a good, strong attack that rapes steels that laugh at Sucker Punch. Swords Dance, is obviously to make him even more dangerous, which works very well with his increased evasion in the sand.
Gliscor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP/40 Def/216 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Taunt
- Toxic
---
Gliscor provides a good defense and taunt support for the team, without resorting to weakening my offensive options. Not much else to say about him, he's probably the one I'm most considering replacing on the team. 'I'm considering replacing Toxic with Stone Edge or something else however, allowing me to hit fliers/levitators - any thoughts?
Note, I am thinking of replacing him with this Rotom-H set:
Rotom-H @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/168 Def/88 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp
---
Rotom-H, theoretically removes both my Gyarados Weakness AND my SD Luke weakness in one blow, and gives me a valuable asset in a spin blocker. With Thunderbolt to hit Gyarados, Shadow Ball for a STAB option, Overheat for a power attack, and Will-O-Wisp for statusing support, he is a very useful floating toaster full of tricks.