I'm just not a fan of Politoed, that's all

[Nemusus]

I've been messing around with sand teams for a while, and I've with this team I've managed to peak at around 1500 on Pokemon Showdown. However, lately I've been going back and forth between 1400 and 1450, and I was wondering if anyone could help get this team back on its feet.

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
- Ice Punch

Tyranitar acts like a standard Choice Bander here: He gets outrun by Politoed, so he gets up the Sand-Storm. Pursuit scares Lati@s away from Keldeo to an extent, and gets STAB for Rock-resistant mons. Stone Edge hits hard with STAB, and Superpower gets great coverage alongside Stone Edge. I chose Ice Punch mainly to deal with Gliscor, who otherwise walls this set, although it sees occasional use against Dragon types.

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump/Surf?
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind
- Hidden Power [Grass]

Tyranitar and Scizor work really well with Keldeo, scaring off Psychic types with Pursuit, and, in Scizor's case, U-turn. Secret Sword gets STAB, and Icy Wind slows down key threats, which is useful against something that Keldeo can't KO, but Tyranitar or someone can. Hidden Power Grass is basically there for Politoed and Rotom-W, helping me win the weather war. Even if rain wins out as the dominant weather, Keldeo can hit hard with rain-boosted STAB Hydro Pump. However, lately I've been having issues with Hydro Pump's accuracy, so I've been alternating between it and Surf for Water-type STAB.

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Substitute
- Protect
- Toxic
- Earthquake

Gliscor is my team's physical wall, and it does a great job. I try not to spam Sub + Protect, just because it makes me easy to predict and switch on. The only issue is that so many pokemon are immune to EQ that I often end up having no way damaging whatever I'm trying to wall bar Toxic, which doesn't really work on Steel types like Scizor.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- U-turn

Scizor is one of my favourite pokemon and one of the most used on the ladder, and it's not hard to see why. Bullet Punch lets him revenge kill things that Keldeo can't, and often spamming Bullet Punch is enough to win matches in the late-game. Pursuit is mainly for the Lati twins, and Superpower is for coverage. U-turn lets me hit hard and then bail, usually to Rotom-W, and I don't often miss the extra power of Bug Bite.

Rotom-Wash @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Calm Nature
- Trick
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp

Although this Rotom doesn't have any healing through Pain Split, I can often pick up Leftovers by using Trick on a wall. Hydro Pump blasts many things that Scizor can't handle, and Volt Switch hits most members of Rain teams (bar Ferrothorn) hard. Will-o-Wisp can occasionally require that I sacrifice Rotom, but usually I do fine. This thing basically functions as a special wall, but it can take the odd physical hit thanks to WoW.

Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rock Polish

Landorus is my late-game cleaner, although he often pops out sooner to Focus Blast opposing Scizor, whom I don't really have an answer to. Rock Polish isn't always necessary, and I'm debating whether I should switch it to Psychic or maybe U-turn. Earth Power gets STAB, and alongside Focus Blast it gets nice coverage. HP Ice is fun for catching Gliscor switch-ins, and even the occasional dragon if my opponent has no other choice. I use Sheer Force over Sand Force so that Landorus can still function in rain, and I can sometimes catch a physical wall by surprise with Focus Blast.

Threat List:
-Cloyster can be hard to stop once it gets off a Shell Smash. My best strategy is to toxic with Gliscor, stall with protect, then KO with Scizor once Glisor dies.
-Opposing Scizor are pretty hard to stop, as they are immune to Gliscor's toxic and generally play around him, and I have no fire moves to put them down. I usually end up having to get Keldeo or Landorus to spam their fighting moves, but Scizor beats Landorus if he Bullet Punches on the switch-in. Keldeo can usually take him, but only gets the 2HKO if he runs Hydro Pump.-
-Stall teams. Freaking stall teams. Scizor/Rotom handle them to an extent, but they eventually get worn down due to the lack of spin support​

 

[Neliel]

Hi,

This is a standard sand team, however i see some problem with it.
First of all, you dont have a stealth rock user. Stealth rock its pretty necessary in every team, being one of the best move in the game. Some of your set are also somehow wrong, so they need to be fixed. You also have landorus and gliscor in the same team, which is reduntant. This also leaves you more weak to rain teams and water pokemon in general.

The first suggest i have for you is to remove sub toxic gliscor. Sub toxic gliscor isnt as effective as it was before, and in general it doesnt fit in your team, because it slows down your momentum. A great choice to also have a check for rain teams is orb latias; this will also give you a keldeo, thundurus, and landorus-t check that you were lacking before. In general the typing of latias will help you more than gliscor in this metagame, and at the same time you will have a great offensive presence.

Now i would like to change your landorus into defensive landorus-t. The reason is pretty simple, since you dont have gliscor anymore, you lost some defensive capacity, so landorus-t will give you the defense you need. Landorus-t also can be a great stealth rock user, that your team lacks, and unlike gliscor it doesnt hit like a girl, and it can effectively use u-turn to gain momentum. U-turn here also has a second purpose, which is to fix your weakness to baton pass celebi, which is enough common to care about.

Now you probably need to change your hidden power on keldeo. Grass doesnt really help against politoed, which takes enough damage by secret sword anyway, and without hidden power ice you wont revenge kill those dragons like salamence and Dragonite, which are really more important than politoed.

Into scizor, please use this spread instead of your current one: EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spd in this way you will take less damage from stealth rock and you will have more chance to outspeed other scizor.

Into tyranitar, i dont agree with ice punch. Even if gliscor walls your set, you have 3 other pokemon that can easily beat it (latios, keldeo, and rotom) so it doesnt have a real purpose, at least not as important as crunch. Crunch lets you hit jirachi, jellicent, and in general will deal more damage to everything. Sometimes the things you want to pursuit, like celebi, starmie, and jellicent, will stay in to attack you and without crunch you can even lose to them.

As for rotom-w, the set doesnt really have much sense. Choice specs its a bad choice in general for rotom-w under sand, since you dont want to be locked into volt switch everytime a ground pokemon switchs into you. In top of that, you have a special defensive spread with trick and will-o-wisp; my advice here is just to use the same spread, with leftovers and pain split instead of trick. This will help you staying alive more with pain split and it will avoid you to being locked on some ground pokemon.

Thats it, hope this helps!

Hide

On tyranitar: ice punch--> Crunch

On keldeo: Hidden power grass--> Ice

Gliscor--> Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Psyshock
- Recover

on rotom-w: Choice specs--> leftovers
Trick--> Pain split

landorus:--> Landorus-T (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 200 HP / 76 Atk / 136 Def / 96 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock

 

[Nemusus]

Thanks for the advice about Latias. I was just wondering, wouldn't HP Fire on Latias have better coverage than Surf? Also, if Landorus-T gets up Stealth Rock, then Icy Wind has a 93% chance of KOing Dragonite after SR damage. It gets a OHKO if I get a modest nature though...

Thanks for the help, just one more question. Should I pick Hydro Pump or Surf for Keldeo?

 

[Neliel]

oh, im sorry, i misread your keldeo. i tought you didnt have icy windy. Honestly the set i always use is surf / Hydro pump / Secret sword / Hp ice. Icy wind its ok, its just i dont like the imperfect accuracy and the less power it has, but its somehow usable. Also for the scarf set i dont like to rely on hydro pump to hit things, you always end up losing for a miss. Having both its better for me. By the way if you really have to use an hidden power, then eletric is a superior choice. It still catch politoed, jellicent and tentacruel but also gyarados.

As for latias, hidden power fire is usable but then you will lose against tyranitar and heatran. The fact that surf 2ko offensive variants of tyranitar its too good to not use surf.

 

[dragonuser]

Hey there,

So this is a pretty cool and standard sand team, but I do see some weaknesses. To start I would like to support Nel's suggestion of Latias > Gliscor as it really helps to improve the synergy of your team and is a strong offensive pivot. However while Latias helps, some rain teams still look threatening, especially since your Rotom-W lacks recovery. Frankly I would suggest running Pain Split and Leftovers > Trick and Choice Specs as the extra recovery can be very useful and helps Rotom-W tank hits much better. While tricking specs can cripple an opponents team I see the utility of Pain Split as more helpful, giving you a more reliable Water-Type resist which takes some load off of Latias. Now I would really prefer to not make you lose Landorus-I as he is your main cleaner and win condition, so I would suggest changing Tyranitar to have Stealth Rocks. This lets you keep your main sweeper and win condition while allowing your team to have Stealth Rocks and maintain its Offensive nature. The Tyranitar set is really up to what you want, and can range from a more bulky Specially Defensive Tyranitar to a more offensive Focus Sash Tyranitar, basically whatever you feel more comfortable with. Anyways, cool team and gl.

 

[Nemusus]

Actually, I just tried Tyranitar w/ rocks after losing a couple of matches with Neliel's team. It works fairly nicely. Landorus T didn't seem to work (that's probably just me) so I'll bring Landorus I back in. Latias works like a dream, however, so thanks for suggesting her.