Hello! I'm Nahrven, and this is my first post on the Smogon boards, nice to meet you all!
Since Rain + Swift Swim was banned on Smogon, i decided to try and abuse the newest "brokenness" of the metagame, hence came the idea of building a team around Excadrill in Sandstorm. I also wanted to make an offensive team, since defensive teams are more prone to being messed up by the RNG. I am currently ranked 12th on the Dream World Smogon PO server with this, and would like to improve it in order to make a more solid, less "hit or miss" -kind of team. This was actually just a rough draft that i cooked up a weak ago, but it turned out so well on the ladder that i had difficulties changing it. Anyway, here goes.
Tyranitar (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 180 SAtk / 76 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Superpower
- Crunch
Mixed specially defensive Tyranitar. In order to make a Sandstorm team, i needed Sandstorm. Ttar and Hippowdon are both valid candidates for providing this. I found a mixed sweeping tyranitar to be the most solid choice on this particular team, since he grants me mixed attacking, which is good at taking out various threats to my offensive core (Landorus, Excadrill and Garchomp) like Ferrothorn and Skarmory. I also considered using both Hippowdon AND Tyranitar, mainly for securing the late-game sandstorm against switch-happy opponent Ninetales and Politoeds, but i decided i needed the offensive power if i were to pull off this idea of mine. The EV's are not precisely crafted to KO or survive certain things. They were just made to give Ttar som special surviveablity and to give his Fireblast some much-needed power.
Excadrill (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Throw
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- X-Scissor
- Rock Slide
Another part of the "core idea" of the team. Excadrill is a freaking monster in the current Dream World metagame. Even without Swords Dance, he can rip through teams that have lost their physical checks. The worst enemies i have encountered to this pokémon are Politoed, Skarmory and Balloon-wielding enemy Excadrills. I will adress the Excadrills later though. Other considerations for this Excadrill are Balloon and Jolly Nature, both giving him more means to survive, while taking away from his KO-ability. For the moment i decided to go with raw power, as i can take care of enemy Excadrills with another poké + Ditto.
Chandelure (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Shadow Tag
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Energy Ball
- Shadow Ball
- Psychic
In order to pull off offensive dominance, i need revenge-killing. Scarf-Chandelure gives me special power, and that little extra "oomph", for finishing off a pokémon that survived the physical onslaught of Landorus, Garchomp or Excadrill. Chandelure is freaking amazing, and it fits well for a team that needs to eliminate certain checks before the "main strategy" of running rampart through the enemy team with a superpowered Excadrill can be executed. My friend suggested that i use Overheat over Flamethrower which i probably should. I do, however, dislike the idea of using moves with less than 100% hit unless it's strictly necessary. Another alternative is replacing psychic with a type of hidden power that covers better. Atm i'm using Psychic for fighting-types, to varying degrees of success.
Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Rock Polish
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Hidden Power [Ice]
I wanted more Sandstorm-boosted offense, and Landorus gives me that. In the Sandstorm, he functions almost exactly like Excadrill, although he is abit slower and hits somewhat harder before boosts, OHKO'ing alot of the metagame without earthquake resistance or immunity. His speed is still respectable, and he has pretty decent coverage with HP[Ice] helping with Dragontypes and Gliscor. Skarmory walls this set pretty well, so i guess HP[Fire] could be considered, even though Chandelure will probably do a better job at taking out Skarm. Stone Edge is also boosted by Sand Power, which adds great and powerful coverage. Rock Polish will allow Landorus to outspeed the entire metagame, and hit hard with the appropriate attack. EV's and nature are made for max speed, and high physical offense.
Garchomp (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Outrage
- Swords Dance
- Draco Meteor
- Earthquake
By now it's pretty evident that my team has problems with Rain. Hence i wanted a sandstorm-boosted poké that isn't weak to rain. I turned to Garchomp, the offensive juggernaut from Generation 4. Outrage and Earthquake are his powerful cookie-cutter STAB moves. I wanted him to do some mixed-sweeping in order to not make him too easily wallable by physical walls, and threw in Swords Dance for good measure. Considerations for this poké:
Changing Swords dance to Substitute will allow me to try and hax my way to free subs, and gives me a safe decision for when i force a switchin. I do, however, like Swords Dance for the stall-breaking options it gives me.
Changing Draco Meteor for Fire Blast. This will allow me to take on foes such as Skarmory, but will subtract from the raw power that is STAB Draco Meteor.
EV's are obviously made for powerful Draco Meteors, and max speed.
Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Eccentric
EVs: 255 HP
Hardy Nature
- Transform
The pokémon that ties everything together. This team has some very severe weaknesses, like bulky water types and setuppers. Oftentimes when something unexpected happens, Ditto will just magically turn the situation in my favor. It revenge-kills, steals setup-moves and checks alot of metagame threats, while adapting to your opponents team extremely well. In Sandstorm wars, he gives me another Excadrill or Landorus. Against rain-teams, he allows me to steal a bulky-water and toxic the opponent team, wish-pass, whatever. At the moment, i feel Ditto is just too good to not be used on any team.
So about threats to this team, i feel like i have most things covered through either directly killing the enemy pokémon, or through some sort of sacrificing a pokémon in order to down a specific threat. The thing about this team is that it doesn't need to have everything intact in order to function - since the core is comprised purely of offensive powerhouses. The idea is trying to take down the Pokémon that can stop your Sandstorm-powered sweep, and then run through the rest with either Excadrill, Landorus or Garchomp (in rare cases even Ditto, if you opponent was stupid enough to setup more than his own team can handle).
I realize that some of my arguments might sound silly, but simple as the idea behind this team may be, it's hella effective against the current metagame, and i urge you all to try it out!
Since Rain + Swift Swim was banned on Smogon, i decided to try and abuse the newest "brokenness" of the metagame, hence came the idea of building a team around Excadrill in Sandstorm. I also wanted to make an offensive team, since defensive teams are more prone to being messed up by the RNG. I am currently ranked 12th on the Dream World Smogon PO server with this, and would like to improve it in order to make a more solid, less "hit or miss" -kind of team. This was actually just a rough draft that i cooked up a weak ago, but it turned out so well on the ladder that i had difficulties changing it. Anyway, here goes.
Tyranitar (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 180 SAtk / 76 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Superpower
- Crunch
Mixed specially defensive Tyranitar. In order to make a Sandstorm team, i needed Sandstorm. Ttar and Hippowdon are both valid candidates for providing this. I found a mixed sweeping tyranitar to be the most solid choice on this particular team, since he grants me mixed attacking, which is good at taking out various threats to my offensive core (Landorus, Excadrill and Garchomp) like Ferrothorn and Skarmory. I also considered using both Hippowdon AND Tyranitar, mainly for securing the late-game sandstorm against switch-happy opponent Ninetales and Politoeds, but i decided i needed the offensive power if i were to pull off this idea of mine. The EV's are not precisely crafted to KO or survive certain things. They were just made to give Ttar som special surviveablity and to give his Fireblast some much-needed power.
Excadrill (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Throw
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- X-Scissor
- Rock Slide
Another part of the "core idea" of the team. Excadrill is a freaking monster in the current Dream World metagame. Even without Swords Dance, he can rip through teams that have lost their physical checks. The worst enemies i have encountered to this pokémon are Politoed, Skarmory and Balloon-wielding enemy Excadrills. I will adress the Excadrills later though. Other considerations for this Excadrill are Balloon and Jolly Nature, both giving him more means to survive, while taking away from his KO-ability. For the moment i decided to go with raw power, as i can take care of enemy Excadrills with another poké + Ditto.
Chandelure (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Shadow Tag
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Energy Ball
- Shadow Ball
- Psychic
In order to pull off offensive dominance, i need revenge-killing. Scarf-Chandelure gives me special power, and that little extra "oomph", for finishing off a pokémon that survived the physical onslaught of Landorus, Garchomp or Excadrill. Chandelure is freaking amazing, and it fits well for a team that needs to eliminate certain checks before the "main strategy" of running rampart through the enemy team with a superpowered Excadrill can be executed. My friend suggested that i use Overheat over Flamethrower which i probably should. I do, however, dislike the idea of using moves with less than 100% hit unless it's strictly necessary. Another alternative is replacing psychic with a type of hidden power that covers better. Atm i'm using Psychic for fighting-types, to varying degrees of success.
Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Rock Polish
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Hidden Power [Ice]
I wanted more Sandstorm-boosted offense, and Landorus gives me that. In the Sandstorm, he functions almost exactly like Excadrill, although he is abit slower and hits somewhat harder before boosts, OHKO'ing alot of the metagame without earthquake resistance or immunity. His speed is still respectable, and he has pretty decent coverage with HP[Ice] helping with Dragontypes and Gliscor. Skarmory walls this set pretty well, so i guess HP[Fire] could be considered, even though Chandelure will probably do a better job at taking out Skarm. Stone Edge is also boosted by Sand Power, which adds great and powerful coverage. Rock Polish will allow Landorus to outspeed the entire metagame, and hit hard with the appropriate attack. EV's and nature are made for max speed, and high physical offense.
Garchomp (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Outrage
- Swords Dance
- Draco Meteor
- Earthquake
By now it's pretty evident that my team has problems with Rain. Hence i wanted a sandstorm-boosted poké that isn't weak to rain. I turned to Garchomp, the offensive juggernaut from Generation 4. Outrage and Earthquake are his powerful cookie-cutter STAB moves. I wanted him to do some mixed-sweeping in order to not make him too easily wallable by physical walls, and threw in Swords Dance for good measure. Considerations for this poké:
Changing Swords dance to Substitute will allow me to try and hax my way to free subs, and gives me a safe decision for when i force a switchin. I do, however, like Swords Dance for the stall-breaking options it gives me.
Changing Draco Meteor for Fire Blast. This will allow me to take on foes such as Skarmory, but will subtract from the raw power that is STAB Draco Meteor.
EV's are obviously made for powerful Draco Meteors, and max speed.
Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Eccentric
EVs: 255 HP
Hardy Nature
- Transform
The pokémon that ties everything together. This team has some very severe weaknesses, like bulky water types and setuppers. Oftentimes when something unexpected happens, Ditto will just magically turn the situation in my favor. It revenge-kills, steals setup-moves and checks alot of metagame threats, while adapting to your opponents team extremely well. In Sandstorm wars, he gives me another Excadrill or Landorus. Against rain-teams, he allows me to steal a bulky-water and toxic the opponent team, wish-pass, whatever. At the moment, i feel Ditto is just too good to not be used on any team.
So about threats to this team, i feel like i have most things covered through either directly killing the enemy pokémon, or through some sort of sacrificing a pokémon in order to down a specific threat. The thing about this team is that it doesn't need to have everything intact in order to function - since the core is comprised purely of offensive powerhouses. The idea is trying to take down the Pokémon that can stop your Sandstorm-powered sweep, and then run through the rest with either Excadrill, Landorus or Garchomp (in rare cases even Ditto, if you opponent was stupid enough to setup more than his own team can handle).
I realize that some of my arguments might sound silly, but simple as the idea behind this team may be, it's hella effective against the current metagame, and i urge you all to try it out!