Basically this is a (rather gimmicky) team built around getting as much mileage out of Hippowdon's surprisingly powerful Earthquakes as possible. Musharna provides Trick Room and Gravity support so he can go fast and not have to worry about type immunities, and also provides Telepathy Helping Hand support. Tangrowth was chosen as the fourth member because, thanks to its typing and amazing physical bulk, it only takes ~15% from Earthquake and can provide useful Rage Powder support. Hitmontop is generally good and helps with the slight Bug weakness the team has, while Jellicent takes some of the Trick Room-setting burden off Musharna and gives us a semi-decent Rain check. Excadrill should need no explanation, as it's pretty much obligatory for a Sand team (how is this a dark horse?), but I run Sand Rush on it despite the Trick Room presence on my team so I can maintain an offensive presence even when I can't keep Room up (or if Hippo dies early). It also appreciates the Gravity that Musharna brings so it too can spam powerful, fast, and difficult-to-resist Earthquakes.
I'll post sets later as I might ladder with this some more (and I never saved any interesting replays so I should do that too).
Sooo after one too many opponents that thought using Thunder Wave on Musharna would be a polite thing to do I'm going to take a little break and just post the team:
Hippowdon @ Soft Sand
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Ice Fang
- Fire Fang
- Earthquake
- Protect
Hippowdon's EQ is stronger than any spread move Tyranitar can dish out, and is nearly as powerful as its Crunch. As such, it's the move I use most often on this set- the fangs are explicitly for hitting annoying 4x weaknesses such as Landorus, Dragonite, Genesect, and Abomasnow. Soft Sand is chosen over Life Orb to boost Earthquake's power without compromising its useful bulk.
Excadrill @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Protect
I honestly don't see how this is a dark horse given how ridiculously clutch it is. Really every sand team should have one, although given that many Sand teams devolve into Trick Room I can sort of see why they don't...but expecting to keep Trick Room up for an entire game is wishful thinking so I just run boring Sand Rush Excadrill to keep some offensive presence outside Trick Room.
Musharna @ Mental Herb
Trait: Telepathy
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Gravity
- Psychic
- Helping Hand
- Trick Room
I knew when making this team that I wanted it to abuse Gravity+Earthquake, but that requires partners that can avoid EQ damage without relying on typing or Levitate. Enter Musharna- Telepathy means my Ground-types can spam EQ all day without worrying about hitting their partner. Musharna also doubles as the Gravity and Trick Room setter. Helping Hand for spread moves is very useful, while Psychic allows it to break sashes and generally not be dead weight once the field effects are up. Mental Herb allows me to freely ignore the fact that Taunt and Encore exist (mostly).
It's probably worth pointing out that, while this is a Gravity team, Musharna is the only setter, so I rarely get it up more than once and sometimes not even then. Due to the fact that Gravity is only situationally helpful (there's not much reason to set it up against a mostly grounded team), this isn't too big of a deal.
Tangrowth @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SDef / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Power Whip
- Sleep Powder
- Rage Powder
- Protect
Hey look, a mon that's actually obscure and not just freakishly low on usage! Tangrowth is here because, like Musharna, it's basically immune to Earthquake. Instead of Telepathy though, Tangrowth gets it through its typing and humongous physical bulk letting it basically ignore the damage. Leftovers helps it maintain its bulk and counter-acts sand damage (this is a really terrible sand team in that regard). Sleep Powder allows it to eliminate one problematic target per game provided I predict well (and have either Gravity up or the RNG on my side), and lets it pick on full Trick Room teams- my team is fairly fast for a Trick Room team so it's to my advantage to not let it stay up in most mirror matches. Rage Powder is the bane of gimmicks everywhere, thwarting Terracott, Guard Split Blissey, Skill Swap Slaking (i usually just ignore this one and smack it though), and others while also letting Tangrowth serve as a resilient bodyguard for my sweepers.
The EVs on this one could probably use some tweaking- while Tangrowth's physical bulk is fantastic, even resisted special attacks (especially rainy ones) tend to do much more damage to it than I'd like.
Hitmontop (M) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Wide Guard
- Sucker Punch
oh man i bet you haven't seen this guy before!!!
Standard Hitmontop is standard. I run Lum Berry instead of the usual Fighting Gem/Eject Button because I find Top is a status magnet thanks to constantly using a certain contact move on moths and mushrooms. It also has the advantage of not forcing him out against anything threatening to use Will-o-Wisp. The moves should be self-explanatory- Wide Guard is chosen over Feint so he can dodge allied EQs (and protect me from Heat Wave/Muddy Water which is huge) while the rest are obligatory.
Jellicent @ Life Orb
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 4 Def / 252 HP / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Scald
- Shadow Ball
- Trick Room
- Protect
It's probably more that I'm just using him in the worst possible way but Jellicent seems rather underwhelming for not being a dark horse. It was chosen last, to serve as a back-up Trick Room user, a second Bug resist, and as a half-assed Rain check. It also pretends to check Cresselia by doing ~35% with a "super-effective" Shadow Ball and then taking more damage in return from LO recoil+sand+Psychic damage. I would run Leftovers on this but its damage output is pathetic without LO so I don't think it would be a good idea.
