SS OU ExcaZolt Sand Offense

[DoomTrain89]

Hi there everyone!
My name's DoomTrain 89 and I'm from Italy. I've bene playing competitive pokemon since gen 5, then I had a long break from playing. Now I decided to start playing again but just for fun.
In this post I'm going to show you the latest team I've been using that gave me some satisfaction but I feel like it's missing something.
The team is a balanced offensive sand team, I started with the idea of using both Dracozolt and Excadrill as they can punch holes in opposing teams with ease and, thanks to Sand Rush, outspeed most of the meta.
Then I needed sand. I first opted for Tyranitar but after a few games I felt thst Hippo could have been a better choice.
Then, I wanted something for better take on rain teams and added Ferrothorn (still not convinced on the set though).
Next I decide to add Latios as it is one of the fastest pokemon in the tier and with Choice Specs is a force to be reckoned with.
Lastly, I needed to complete my defensive core and added Clefable, as it has good synergy with Ferro and magic guard is a godsend.

Let's get into details:

Dracozolt @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 120 Atk / 136 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Bolt Beak
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake

Here it is, the star of the show. Mixed Dracozolt can rip holes in unprepared teams. Get rid of the electric resist/fairy type, Then just click Bolt Beak/Draco Meteor and watch things die. However it is very frail and can't safely switch into nothing that is not neutral; thankfully, Dragon- type gives some useful resistances. Therefore, I've been thinking About some Volt/Turn/Teleport support, but idk.

Excadrill (F) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin

Excadrill is still one of the biggest threats in ou and one of the few that can scare Magearna away. Air Balloon is nice agaist Landorus-T or enemy Excadrill, but I'm considering running Life Orb instead. Swords Dance makes Excadrill a huge late game threat, Earthquake and Iron Head are obvious STABs and Rapid Spin to get rid of hazards.

Hippowdon (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Toxic
- Earthquake

OMG Hippo. It has became my new favourite Sand Stream user. It can take on threats like Cinderace with relative ease. It has reliable recovery and can set up rocks, what else? Considering running Smooth Rock instead of Leftovers but I like the extra longevity it can provide. Toxic can cripple the usual Hippo switch-ins like Landorus-T or Pelipper. Earthquake is self-explanatory.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed

Ferrothorn is my water resist. It can set up more entry hazards and can be really annoying. It is my usual switch-in to special attackers that don't run fire-type attacks. I initially ran Rocky Helmet instead of Leftovers but I felt I needed some more durability. I also ran power whip over gyro Ball but I found myself never clicking it and I ofted wanted to have gyro ball instead, for example agaist Shift Gear Magearna. Knock off gets rid of enemy items and leech seed for extended durability.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Soft-Boiled
- Wish
- Moonblast
- Knock Off

I feel like Clefable is the weak spot of the team. I like the defensive fairy type but I think it's not resistant enough. I'm using wish as a recovery for my sweepers and ferro. Moonblast is an obvious STAB attack and Knock off can surprise anyone who doesn't expect it.

Latios (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Mystical Fire
- Trick

Latios's set is pretty self-explanatory, Draco Meteor is a nuke that very few mons can take, Psychic easily kills mons like Toxapex and can seriously damage anything who doesn't resist it. Mystical Fire OHKOs Ferrothorn and hits steel-types in general. Trick for crippling defensive mons like Blissey, Ferro or Corviknight.


So this is it, please tell me what you think about it and your suggestions. Thank you for reading!

Importable

Excadrill (F) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin

Dracozolt @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 120 Atk / 136 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Bolt Beak
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake

Hippowdon (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Toxic
- Earthquake

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Soft-Boiled
- Wish
- Moonblast
- Knock Off

Latios (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Mystical Fire
- Trick

 

[Red Raven]

You know, with the exception of Clefable, this team is actually very similar to my own team. It's still rather recent and I called it 'The Purging Sands II: Legacy'. Feel free to check that out considering that literally only three pokemon are different on the teams

First off, if you wanna drop things left and right with Dracozolt, use the 'ocelzolt' set instead. It's a set by Liquidocelot that hits really hard. Yes it is rather slow but its job is not to sweep. It's job is to drop things left and right as mentioned

Since you already have Dracozolt on your team, I would recommend just dropping Latios entirely and replacing it with . The only thing that can stop an Excadrill or Dracozolt from going berserk are random CInderace sucker punches and especially Rillaboom's grassy glide. Lele would provide you with control over the terrain, thus negating Rillaboom's own and preventing Excadrill's earthquake damage from being cut in half. More importantly, it stops you from losing to random Crawdaunt or Azumarill aqua jets as Lele's terrain blocks it

With Tapu Lele on your team, you don't need Clefable. Other than my personal distaste for it, you're stacking weaknesses with the double fairy types. I would suggest one of the regular slow twins for this slot as it provides you with another much needed water resist and more importantly, one that isn't that easy to wear down

Here are the sets that I recommend

Hide

Dracozolt @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 88 Atk / 212 SpA / 208 Spe
Rash Nature
- Fire Blast
- Bolt Beak
- Earthquake
- Draco Meteor

Tapu Lele @ Choice Specs
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast

For the slow twins, just choose which one among either Slowbro or Slowking, depending on whether you have more trouble against physical or special attacks. Personally though, I would suggest Slowking as Hippowdon is already a big fat physical wall but Slowbro does provide you with insurance against Garchomp so you might want that but Slowking does help take some pressure off Ferrothorn

Slowbro @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Teleport
- Slack Off
- Future Sight

Slowking @ Heavy Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
- Scald
- Teleport
- Slack Off
- Future Sight

Finally, since I've been abusing sand since like forever, I am adamant that you use adamant nature on Excadrill. Life orb or leftovers is a personal preference item but for me, I prefer life orb because it is very rarely expected and you already outspeed nearly the entire tier under sand. The only thing that would be faster would be scarf Dragapul and I believe scarf Tapu koko but the chances of you encountering them being scarfed is very low not to mention it would be revealed instantly as their damage will be lower than what you are used to

 

[AM]

The above changes make your already tough matchup against Kartana almost feel like a 6-0 against it. I'm not sure if there's a really defined goal with this type of build either besides throwing up spikes hoping you can wear down numerous offensive threats. I don't use adamant life orb excadrill ever because I think the direction of the metagame especially with bulkier sand builds like these it needs leftovers to maintain the hazard control game against opposing spike balances. Jolly means at worst you speedtie other Excadrill, running Jolly makes sure you're able to beat Nidoking and Timid Heatran if sand is not up. Some changes you can consider are using an archtype like this, (lets assume all ideas below are Bolt Beak, Draco, Sub, Fire Spin Dracozolt with Leftovers since its probably the set you want anyways). Clickable sprites





These are sort of blueprints of what I would go for on your build without compromising or at least maintaining some sort of foundation in using a spike oriented Sand build while trying to cover most threats. The first team helps you cover the usual Dragapult builds due to Mandibuzz while Whirlwind annoyances such as the mentioned into Spikes damage through Whirlwind. Taunt deters mons like Corviknight and other slower Spikes such as Ferrothorn or Skarmory from laying down their own spikes. Also an emergency solution to stop a Volcarona sweep but you'll have to play carefully around this anyways. Foul Play and Mandibuzz itself helps slow down the threat of Kartana, Dragapult as mentioned and in some cases Rillaboom. It's not a perfect solution but in this metagame I mean what is? The second archetype is a little more offensively oriented with Nasty Plot Torn-T and same concept of spike stack. This one trades a slighter weakness to Dragapult for handling Zapdos, Volcarona, Kartana a bit better you would play this like an offensive build and you can justify a more offensive Dracozolt on this version if you wanted to (not the special set mentioned above you want more physical power for Clefable/G-Slowking here.) Torn is a pretty versatile mon here so its not delegated to be a Nasty Plot mon but Nasty Plot helps cut through some of the fatter archetypes being used. Third build probably going to be the more defensively sound if you're more of a slower player. It trades Ferrothorn for the Spikes coverage with Skarmory to help deter Garchomp/Kartana and Amoonguss as the grass choice to deter Rillaboom and secondary check to Kartana. This version is unfortunately pretty weak to Volcarona minus Excadrill revenge killing it and you need to be careful with Tapu Lele. Corviknight is an option over Skarmory here to help with Tapu Lele better and is better at pressure Stalling Stone Edges from Garchomp and Lando-T but you lose the Spikes behind the build with it.

Justification for SubFireSpin Dracozolt is you want to deter the constant dancing around of its coverage moves through the use of trapping with Fire Spin and Substitute. I think Life Orb Dracozolt is okay if you're using a team that is more offensive but this team is utilizing Hippowdon as its sand setter so you're already dedicating yourself to a pretty bulkier or balance type sand build. I like the Spikes concept here and I think the Hippo, Exca, Dracozolt core can work but last slot requires as mentioned lots of things, granted many options such as a Zapdos here offensive or defensive based on preference, to be covered so you will unfortunately be weaker to some things than others. Hopefully this break down and some of the suggestions in the pokepastes can help a bit and good luck.

 

[Red Raven]

AM the goal of my suggestions is actually to abuse Ocelzolt. That thing drops things left and right with the exception of specially defensive ground types and as mentioned, priority, especially Rillaboom, screws over sand teams greatly, which is why I suggested Tapu Lele to have some terrain control. The last thing a sand team wants is to have its Excadrill sweep cut short because of the terrain cutting earthquake's power in half. The idea is to get in Dracozolt to start dishing out damage and more importantly, to remove Slowbro, Landorus Therian and Rillaboom with its high damage output. I really don't think that weather teams should try to be that defensively safe. I mean yeah you do want a couple backbones to fall back to if the weather is down but I think that weather teams should abuse the effects of the given weather to quickly punch holes in the enemy team, which is something Ocelzolt does very nicely

As for the sand setter, is there really any reason to use Tyranitar as the main sand setter over Hippowdon? Tyranitar doesn't exactly have the best matchup in the meta right now and its type synergy with Excadrill is even worse than Hippowdon's

Kartana does seem a problem and it is, but you can always just use Toxapex as a fighting and water resist while replacing Ferrothorn with Skarmory. And since you mentioned Volcarona, haze Pex would be good to prevent it from mindlessly spamming quiver dance and ensure that it doesn't get +2 speed, which would be really bad

Honestly, I think it all comes down to how the first guy wants to play his sand team. I just made my suggestions to play aggressively, which would usually prevent opposing mons from laying down hazards, or at the very least limiting it. That adamant life orb Excadrill is also just a personal preference since I believe only Slowbro can survive its earthquake from full, or a max hp max def Ferrothorn. I even use rock slide over rapid spin on my Excadrill because losing to Zapdos as a sand team is stupid but the general idea is to be as aggressive as possible

 

[AM]

Would rather not have a back and forth discussion on someone else's RMT because it's counter-productive to purpose of forum as a whole so this will be the only comment with respect to Doom's thread. Will say that running a sand balance needs to be defensively sound because the power level of threats are too high, you can't rely on Life Orb Dracozolt to put in the majority of the work when its easily worn down and slow without sand, players normally just dance around its coverage on this variant. You need to cover the metagame at large and RMTs unfortunately are not an indicator of how one plays a build. The original team choices DoomTrain89 chose are largely slower choices, which means direction of team is probably going to go in that manner without making very large changes. Tapu Lele is a large change, it complicates the offensive ground weaknesses as part of mons being grounded and doesnt have the luxury of switching into anything outside of risky double switches or passive mons. You also need to account for its speed tier which now requires you to find ways to handle the offensive threats above the 95 base speed benchmark that isn't solely relied on Dracozolt revenge killing it (can't afford to switch into anything cause Life Orb damage long term). There's some other in battle scenarios you need to take into account for as well such as being another prediction reliant mon as Dracozolt is when carrying Life Orb but I want to keep this short because casual back and forth kind of pointless and it's really Doom's choice to do whatever he/she would like.

 

[DoomTrain89]

You know, with the exception of Clefable, this team is actually very similar to my own team. It's still rather recent and I called it 'The Purging Sands II: Legacy'. Feel free to check that out considering that literally only three pokemon are different on the teams

First off, if you wanna drop things left and right with Dracozolt, use the 'ocelzolt' set instead. It's a set by Liquidocelot that hits really hard. Yes it is rather slow but its job is not to sweep. It's job is to drop things left and right as mentioned

Since you already have Dracozolt on your team, I would recommend just dropping Latios entirely and replacing it with . The only thing that can stop an Excadrill or Dracozolt from going berserk are random CInderace sucker punches and especially Rillaboom's grassy glide. Lele would provide you with control over the terrain, thus negating Rillaboom's own and preventing Excadrill's earthquake damage from being cut in half. More importantly, it stops you from losing to random Crawdaunt or Azumarill aqua jets as Lele's terrain blocks it

With Tapu Lele on your team, you don't need Clefable. Other than my personal distaste for it, you're stacking weaknesses with the double fairy types. I would suggest one of the regular slow twins for this slot as it provides you with another much needed water resist and more importantly, one that isn't that easy to wear down

Here are the sets that I recommend

Hide

Dracozolt @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 88 Atk / 212 SpA / 208 Spe
Rash Nature
- Fire Blast
- Bolt Beak
- Earthquake
- Draco Meteor

Tapu Lele @ Choice Specs
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast

For the slow twins, just choose which one among either Slowbro or Slowking, depending on whether you have more trouble against physical or special attacks. Personally though, I would suggest Slowking as Hippowdon is already a big fat physical wall but Slowbro does provide you with insurance against Garchomp so you might want that but Slowking does help take some pressure off Ferrothorn

Slowbro @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Teleport
- Slack Off
- Future Sight

Slowking @ Heavy Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
- Scald
- Teleport
- Slack Off
- Future Sight

Finally, since I've been abusing sand since like forever, I am adamant that you use adamant nature on Excadrill. Life orb or leftovers is a personal preference item but for me, I prefer life orb because it is very rarely expected and you already outspeed nearly the entire tier under sand. The only thing that would be faster would be scarf Dragapul and I believe scarf Tapu koko but the chances of you encountering them being scarfed is very low not to mention it would be revealed instantly as their damage will be lower than what you are used to

First of all, thank you for your suggestions.
I've been thinking about switching Clef with Slowbro/Slowking too and I will definitely try it out, probably I'm gonna go with Slowking. It provider Teleport and Future Sight support top and that's all good.
Rillaboom is actually a big threat, but CB versions are more manageable than SD sets, same thing with Kartana. I'm considering replacing Ferro with Skarmory/Corviknight to better check those threats.
I like Tapu Lele and I'll try it out for sure, however its speed tier scares me a little.
Definetely going to try the Ocelzolt set, but with the Excadrill I think I'm gonna stock with Jolly and maybe Leftovers, I don't want a Life Orb recoil for using Rapid Spin. Things may change with the insertion of Skarm/Corvi equipped with defog, however I should kiss Spikes goodbye, so idk.

 

[DoomTrain89]

The above changes make your already tough matchup against Kartana almost feel like a 6-0 against it. I'm not sure if there's a really defined goal with this type of build either besides throwing up spikes hoping you can wear down numerous offensive threats. I don't use adamant life orb excadrill ever because I think the direction of the metagame especially with bulkier sand builds like these it needs leftovers to maintain the hazard control game against opposing spike balances. Jolly means at worst you speedtie other Excadrill, running Jolly makes sure you're able to beat Nidoking and Timid Heatran if sand is not up. Some changes you can consider are using an archtype like this, (lets assume all ideas below are Bolt Beak, Draco, Sub, Fire Spin Dracozolt with Leftovers since its probably the set you want anyways). Clickable sprites





These are sort of blueprints of what I would go for on your build without compromising or at least maintaining some sort of foundation in using a spike oriented Sand build while trying to cover most threats. The first team helps you cover the usual Dragapult builds due to Mandibuzz while Whirlwind annoyances such as the mentioned into Spikes damage through Whirlwind. Taunt deters mons like Corviknight and other slower Spikes such as Ferrothorn or Skarmory from laying down their own spikes. Also an emergency solution to stop a Volcarona sweep but you'll have to play carefully around this anyways. Foul Play and Mandibuzz itself helps slow down the threat of Kartana, Dragapult as mentioned and in some cases Rillaboom. It's not a perfect solution but in this metagame I mean what is? The second archetype is a little more offensively oriented with Nasty Plot Torn-T and same concept of spike stack. This one trades a slighter weakness to Dragapult for handling Zapdos, Volcarona, Kartana a bit better you would play this like an offensive build and you can justify a more offensive Dracozolt on this version if you wanted to (not the special set mentioned above you want more physical power for Clefable/G-Slowking here.) Torn is a pretty versatile mon here so its not delegated to be a Nasty Plot mon but Nasty Plot helps cut through some of the fatter archetypes being used. Third build probably going to be the more defensively sound if you're more of a slower player. It trades Ferrothorn for the Spikes coverage with Skarmory to help deter Garchomp/Kartana and Amoonguss as the grass choice to deter Rillaboom and secondary check to Kartana. This version is unfortunately pretty weak to Volcarona minus Excadrill revenge killing it and you need to be careful with Tapu Lele. Corviknight is an option over Skarmory here to help with Tapu Lele better and is better at pressure Stalling Stone Edges from Garchomp and Lando-T but you lose the Spikes behind the build with it.

Justification for SubFireSpin Dracozolt is you want to deter the constant dancing around of its coverage moves through the use of trapping with Fire Spin and Substitute. I think Life Orb Dracozolt is okay if you're using a team that is more offensive but this team is utilizing Hippowdon as its sand setter so you're already dedicating yourself to a pretty bulkier or balance type sand build. I like the Spikes concept here and I think the Hippo, Exca, Dracozolt core can work but last slot requires as mentioned lots of things, granted many options such as a Zapdos here offensive or defensive based on preference, to be covered so you will unfortunately be weaker to some things than others. Hopefully this break down and some of the suggestions in the pokepastes can help a bit and good luck.

Thank you for trading and for your suggestions. I really like the defensive cores you suggested, especially the Amoonguss/Slowking/Skarm one (Skarmory has always been one of my favourites).
However I'm feeling like the sets you proposed are a little too "defensive". Yes, I called it balanced but I like it to be a more aggressive take on balanced. One may say that this team is somewhat between HyperOffense and Balanced.
Anyway, I rally appreciated your advices and I will try them for sure!

 

[Lando-San]

Hello buddy!

I actually agree a lot with what AM said on his post. I'm also a big fan of sand and tried a lot of combinations, and all of the 3 teams he proposed are solid, just they have different focus on how to play the team and how you will enable your win conditions to actually win the game.
If I should pick one, I would use first one, because it has actual counterplay to Cinderace + FS support in Mandibuzz, Taunt to prevent Defog and keep your spikes on the field, and answers to a lot of threats, but the Volcarona issue can be solved if you want by replacing with . This keeps you with two Water-resists to combat rain, but also Haze to prevent Magearna and Volcarona going bonkers. If the Heatran matchup is an annoyance, you can use Shed Shell to prevent the Pex being trapped and can gain momentum going into a Ground-immunity because any Heatran player would Taunt or EP the Pex.

Good luck!

 

[JackPilotF2]

That's fire, mate