So after years of waiting we finally have access to shiny keldeo. Back in the day I was very fond of the synergy in gen 5 of keldeo and tyranitar and the sand teams i built around them, and while some things have changes for the worse and/or better the combination of the two still find strength in the gelling together they find with their fellow team mates.
What do you get when you make a godzilla made out of rocks? Tyranitar of course! While the sheen for tyranitar has been lost on his freshly gen 9 rock polished body, as more and more new threats take advantage of his rather "mixed" defensive typing and sand being less prevalent than before, he packed his ou bags to find a home in uu. Still Tyranitar is more than viable in ou and is the main reason excadrill is viable in ou in the first place, as it's the only viable sand setter in ou given how hilariously outclassed hippowdon is as a bulky ground type now. Now as mentioned the big guy is here for his ability to set up sand for excadrill and at the same time the team is built to take advantage a tad of that chip damage that is provided by the weather condition. The set is the bread and butter one on the smogon site and for good reason.
-Item, nature, eves and terra, The item is leftovers to provide recovery for tyranitar, i had considered smooth rock for extra time if i got a wish passer or more ways to keep tyranitar healthy, but excadrill isn't crippled outside of sand and very much can use rappid spin to keep faster than the competition if need be. A sassy nature is to keep the big boy nice and specially bulky but take advantage of his decent special attack thus granting him the ability to net easy ko's with ice beam on ground types often poor special defence. The eves allow tyranitar to be specially as bulky as possible with 16 in defence to avoid getting koed by weaker great tusk head long rush. Flying terra allows tyranitar to flip a lot of it's weaknesses like ground on their head which can be handy in a pinch to destroy a troublesome gliscor as an example.
-The movepool, Stealth rock on something thats gonna lead and is great at setting it up is never a bad thing, the team can handle a switch in from great tusks with the likes of sinistea and it means nothing else has to sacrifice a slot for rocks, ice beam hitting the likes of lando-t and gliscor just destroys them unless they terra to protect making them do so or taking a chance on t-tar not having it on it's roster, Knock off is just a fantastic way to cripple pokemon that rely too heavily on their item with tyranitar he also gets stab making it hurt badly from his solid uninvested attacking stat. I wasn't sure roar or dragon tail for the last slot given faires lol at dragon phasing moves but it's ability to cause damage that i wnat to chip chip away at and the fact i can easily fairy begone with excadrill having iron head make it the better fit in the end.
Keldeo finally you got shiny but compared to gen 5 you are no long sparkling in the same way you did in that ou meta. Still keldeo is no slouch and gen 9 has been mostly kind to it, for starters toapex while existing is rarely used as much as it had been in past gens. It lacks competition for the water/fighting spot with it's competitors either banned to ubers or being trash mons, being able to teratize is a boon too but if im being honest in the role he has found as a piviot it's not as important here, oh and yes he got priority to pick off weakened threats in stab vacuum wave hence between that and flip turn he has become a solid piviot in out. His movepool may be barbarically bad, but he has what it takes in his stab to deal with the pesky grounds, rocks, steels ect. that hurt sand team in ou now as they once did in the past.
-Item, nature and eves and terra, Heavy duty boots is a piviots best friend, keldeo may resist stealth rock and getting rid of t-spikes is easy, spikes hoever are still a thing and keldeo very much takes damage from them plus the sand dusting around the teams chip so they keep the kelpie pivot nice and healthy. timid nature is essential to be faster than threats slower than it to which they are many and either ko or pivot out of them. To that end 252 speed eves also are required achieve this goal with the rest in special attack to hit as hard as possible, 4 for a lil spd. Water terra allows keldeo to hit like a truck in a pinch with surf to net the odd ko while being a great pure defensive type.
-Movepool, Keldoe has a terrible movepool but what it has are ideal for it's role- Surf is reliable water stab as scald is gone now from it's movepool, Aura sphere hits targets on the special side better which worry me more than certain pink blobs that are destroyed by teammates anywyas, Vacuum wave allows keldeo to pinch off weakened threats with stab priority and this team loves it's ability to do so, and rounding it off is flip turn to allow kedeo to switch out in a pinch with stab to make up for the lack of attacking prowess.
Excadrill is the classic sand rush pokemon and the only viable one in over used, sadly given the amount of great bulky ground types in ou he is outclassed outside of this. However in this role he easily outpaces much of the metagame, threatening with his stab and making full use more than ever of abusing the utility that rappid speed provides in hazard removal and making excadrill faster, which is handy for when sand stops.
-Item, nature, eves, and Terra- Air bloon has been and continues to be a common sight on excadril for it's ability to provide an immunity to the common ground type moves that plauge ou, in addition in him being able to switch in on those moves also for a team make like tyranitar or slowking that make not wnat to stomach one much like himself but excadrill can handily ko like earth power/ earthquake iron treads. Jolly nature allows excadrill to be as fast as possible which is great as shis attack is already the highest on this team with a staggering base 135 and the mole sometimes having to use the speed given by rappid spin after setting up as the sand dissipates. The eves are just flat full on max speed offensive too to facilitate this with 252 in attack and speed with the jank 4 going in defence. Terra type felt a tad tricky but the power to go nuclear with earthquake and the fact that being stuck into ground is still a very solid defensive and offensive typing made it win out in the end.
-Movepool- The move choice is like those that can before it very bread and butter- earthquake hits like a truck from excadril, swords dance allows the mole to boost, iron head rides the team of fairies and acts as a a powerful second stab, rappid spin rounds things off by beign a weak move but additional coverage and insane utility in it's ability to boost speed and lift hazards all three can make it a game changer easily.
Trading in the water type for poison and thus creating the poison/psychic type we know today is the glarian slowking. An insane movepool, stat distribution, typing, and ability, as well in addition to being one of the best defensive abusers of terra make slowking galar truly a king of the ou metagame. The tanky slowbro counters many common threats to the team and can switch out or terra in a pinch to be a flat out headache to switch into eith the list of prominents threats checked or countered including but not limited to, raging bolt, enamerus, zammazenta, and corviknight amongst many others.
-Item, nature eves and Terra. Assault vest is the name of the set and the item of choice, slowking has the luxury thank to regenerator of not having to rely on recovery and it's fantastic movepool and stat distribution pairs well into the weakness of being locked into attacking moves only. Nature is modest to hit hard as possible while natural special bulk combined with assault vest keeps the bulk while it now can threaten bulky ground types, steel type ect. thanks to stronger flamethrowers and ice beams more than ever, the eves allow the perfect blend of offensive and defensive with an effective special spefence of 420 handling special moves like a champ, 321 special attack taking out ice and fire weak pokemon in a pinch with beam and thrower, and 16 in defence much like tyranitar to handle weaker ground type moves comming it's way from being kos to 2 kos. water terra makes for a fantastic well rounded typing to change to in a pinch to overcome it's primary typings weaknesses.
-Movepool - sporting a stellar movepool, and as mentioned before icebeam/flamethrower allow slowking gar take out steel and bulky ground types with a snap of his fingers, psychic noise can cripple pokemon wanting to regenerate and is also psychic stab that hurts the likes of zammazenta, and we round it off with sludge bom to hit grass and fairies hard with solid stab that has a good shot at poisoning as a by-product.
Introduced in the dlc of gen 9 this little cup of tea makes the most out of it's typing and movepool by compressing the ability to check many prominent threats into one itty bitty cup. for the team it happily does this for the likes of zammazenta or great tusk with ease, making it easier for the team to handle these threats or just handle it themselves.
item , nature eves and terra type- Item of choice is heavy duty boots to allow sinistcha to avoid taking any damage from hazards to which all hit it neutrally, a bold nature is allow for a good physically bulky pokemon with 160 in defence to facilitate this while 96 allows it to outpace the likes of ursaluna and kingambit with adamant natures the rest going into hp to allow overall solid bulk for a teapot ready to take on rappid spiner threats to the team as well like great tusk. A poison terra type allows sinistcha to keep important resistances to fighting as an example while being able to shed it's weaknesses to ice, dark and ghost in particular.
-movepool -pretty straightforward here again for the tea cup, but simplicity is sometimes always produces the best results. Matcha gotacha is such a harliously good signature move in the fact it can burn, damage, self heal all in the one'r it's pretty nutty so yep it's here XD, okay so i plan on maybe getting a lucky burn or a bit of poison from king so hex is used over shadow ball just on the off chance to hit harder than normal shadow ball much more at the cost of being weaker outside of statused pokemon, strength sap allows for more ways to heal and nerfs the many physical attacking pokemon that sinistcha is tanking even further, often to force them out, and finally foul play hits hard on the other side of the spectrum while being able to kill already set up pokemon that threaten the team like waterpon much much more consistently.
Smogon bird has had it's ups and downs, getting much and loosing viability to other bulky pokemon that have taken on it's roles better. Still skarmory has something they do not and thats the ability to do mulitple things at once, and for the team it made it the obvious choice over corviknight and friends as result. What is it? Well i'm glad you asked smogon bird has always been able to maintain a high level of out viability for it's ability to fit multiple roles into one sturdy (:P) package. Being able to set up hazards, phase out pokemon, pocess reliale recovery to stay in the fight as well as the aditional bonus it found last gen and keeeps this gen of using it's massive defence to actually to avoid being the passive smogon bird of yester years in body pressure, well mostly ghosts are a thing after all.
-Items, natures, eves and terra. Rocky helment is made for pokemon like skarmory that are often comming in to take physical hits that frequestly make physical contact with it's metalic feathers and thus taking chip damage from it, and reliable recovery is the cherry on the cake as it forfeits leftovers recovery to do so. Well as im not going down the route of iron defence it's full on max investment in defence all the way in addition to not actually needing to use my physical attack the result is a skarmory with a bold nature with 0 ivs in attack to reduce foul play/confusion damage and a nature that bulks that defence to the max for body press damage. Naturally the eves are 252 in defence and hp with 4 in special defence to allow skarmory max bulk on it's physical side. Terra dragon on skarmory is great for numerous resistances it flips like electric and fire.
-Movepool- skarmory thats the right tools for role compression and do it it's job admirably. As mentioned before body press is a way of keeping skarmory from being passive with it's insane 140 defence making it strong right off the bat more so than even zammazenta or corviknight in raw base power alone, roost allows skarmory to heal in a pinch and is it's only way to do so, spikes allows for additional hazards the team likes and uses to take advantage of, and finaly whirlwind allows skarmory to phase, which is great for the chip damage of sand and hazards as well as getting rid og ghost/ghost terra set up users that take advantage of the metal birds only means of dealing damage.
Poke Paste
Tyranitar @
Ability: Sand Stream
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Ice Beam
- Dragon Tail
Tyranitar @
Ability: Sand Stream
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Ice Beam
- Dragon Tail
What do you get when you make a godzilla made out of rocks? Tyranitar of course! While the sheen for tyranitar has been lost on his freshly gen 9 rock polished body, as more and more new threats take advantage of his rather "mixed" defensive typing and sand being less prevalent than before, he packed his ou bags to find a home in uu. Still Tyranitar is more than viable in ou and is the main reason excadrill is viable in ou in the first place, as it's the only viable sand setter in ou given how hilariously outclassed hippowdon is as a bulky ground type now. Now as mentioned the big guy is here for his ability to set up sand for excadrill and at the same time the team is built to take advantage a tad of that chip damage that is provided by the weather condition. The set is the bread and butter one on the smogon site and for good reason.
-Item, nature, eves and terra, The item is leftovers to provide recovery for tyranitar, i had considered smooth rock for extra time if i got a wish passer or more ways to keep tyranitar healthy, but excadrill isn't crippled outside of sand and very much can use rappid spin to keep faster than the competition if need be. A sassy nature is to keep the big boy nice and specially bulky but take advantage of his decent special attack thus granting him the ability to net easy ko's with ice beam on ground types often poor special defence. The eves allow tyranitar to be specially as bulky as possible with 16 in defence to avoid getting koed by weaker great tusk head long rush. Flying terra allows tyranitar to flip a lot of it's weaknesses like ground on their head which can be handy in a pinch to destroy a troublesome gliscor as an example.
-The movepool, Stealth rock on something thats gonna lead and is great at setting it up is never a bad thing, the team can handle a switch in from great tusks with the likes of sinistea and it means nothing else has to sacrifice a slot for rocks, ice beam hitting the likes of lando-t and gliscor just destroys them unless they terra to protect making them do so or taking a chance on t-tar not having it on it's roster, Knock off is just a fantastic way to cripple pokemon that rely too heavily on their item with tyranitar he also gets stab making it hurt badly from his solid uninvested attacking stat. I wasn't sure roar or dragon tail for the last slot given faires lol at dragon phasing moves but it's ability to cause damage that i wnat to chip chip away at and the fact i can easily fairy begone with excadrill having iron head make it the better fit in the end.
Keldeo @
Ability: Justified
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Aura Sphere
- Vacuum Wave
- Flip Turn
Ability: Justified
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Aura Sphere
- Vacuum Wave
- Flip Turn
Keldeo finally you got shiny but compared to gen 5 you are no long sparkling in the same way you did in that ou meta. Still keldeo is no slouch and gen 9 has been mostly kind to it, for starters toapex while existing is rarely used as much as it had been in past gens. It lacks competition for the water/fighting spot with it's competitors either banned to ubers or being trash mons, being able to teratize is a boon too but if im being honest in the role he has found as a piviot it's not as important here, oh and yes he got priority to pick off weakened threats in stab vacuum wave hence between that and flip turn he has become a solid piviot in out. His movepool may be barbarically bad, but he has what it takes in his stab to deal with the pesky grounds, rocks, steels ect. that hurt sand team in ou now as they once did in the past.
-Item, nature and eves and terra, Heavy duty boots is a piviots best friend, keldeo may resist stealth rock and getting rid of t-spikes is easy, spikes hoever are still a thing and keldeo very much takes damage from them plus the sand dusting around the teams chip so they keep the kelpie pivot nice and healthy. timid nature is essential to be faster than threats slower than it to which they are many and either ko or pivot out of them. To that end 252 speed eves also are required achieve this goal with the rest in special attack to hit as hard as possible, 4 for a lil spd. Water terra allows keldeo to hit like a truck in a pinch with surf to net the odd ko while being a great pure defensive type.
-Movepool, Keldoe has a terrible movepool but what it has are ideal for it's role- Surf is reliable water stab as scald is gone now from it's movepool, Aura sphere hits targets on the special side better which worry me more than certain pink blobs that are destroyed by teammates anywyas, Vacuum wave allows keldeo to pinch off weakened threats with stab priority and this team loves it's ability to do so, and rounding it off is flip turn to allow kedeo to switch out in a pinch with stab to make up for the lack of attacking prowess.
Excadrill @
Ability: Sand Rush
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
Ability: Sand Rush
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
Excadrill is the classic sand rush pokemon and the only viable one in over used, sadly given the amount of great bulky ground types in ou he is outclassed outside of this. However in this role he easily outpaces much of the metagame, threatening with his stab and making full use more than ever of abusing the utility that rappid speed provides in hazard removal and making excadrill faster, which is handy for when sand stops.
-Item, nature, eves, and Terra- Air bloon has been and continues to be a common sight on excadril for it's ability to provide an immunity to the common ground type moves that plauge ou, in addition in him being able to switch in on those moves also for a team make like tyranitar or slowking that make not wnat to stomach one much like himself but excadrill can handily ko like earth power/ earthquake iron treads. Jolly nature allows excadrill to be as fast as possible which is great as shis attack is already the highest on this team with a staggering base 135 and the mole sometimes having to use the speed given by rappid spin after setting up as the sand dissipates. The eves are just flat full on max speed offensive too to facilitate this with 252 in attack and speed with the jank 4 going in defence. Terra type felt a tad tricky but the power to go nuclear with earthquake and the fact that being stuck into ground is still a very solid defensive and offensive typing made it win out in the end.
-Movepool- The move choice is like those that can before it very bread and butter- earthquake hits like a truck from excadril, swords dance allows the mole to boost, iron head rides the team of fairies and acts as a a powerful second stab, rappid spin rounds things off by beign a weak move but additional coverage and insane utility in it's ability to boost speed and lift hazards all three can make it a game changer easily.
Slowking-Galar
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 144 SpA / 96 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic Noise
- Sludge Bomb
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 144 SpA / 96 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic Noise
- Sludge Bomb
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
Trading in the water type for poison and thus creating the poison/psychic type we know today is the glarian slowking. An insane movepool, stat distribution, typing, and ability, as well in addition to being one of the best defensive abusers of terra make slowking galar truly a king of the ou metagame. The tanky slowbro counters many common threats to the team and can switch out or terra in a pinch to be a flat out headache to switch into eith the list of prominents threats checked or countered including but not limited to, raging bolt, enamerus, zammazenta, and corviknight amongst many others.
-Item, nature eves and Terra. Assault vest is the name of the set and the item of choice, slowking has the luxury thank to regenerator of not having to rely on recovery and it's fantastic movepool and stat distribution pairs well into the weakness of being locked into attacking moves only. Nature is modest to hit hard as possible while natural special bulk combined with assault vest keeps the bulk while it now can threaten bulky ground types, steel type ect. thanks to stronger flamethrowers and ice beams more than ever, the eves allow the perfect blend of offensive and defensive with an effective special spefence of 420 handling special moves like a champ, 321 special attack taking out ice and fire weak pokemon in a pinch with beam and thrower, and 16 in defence much like tyranitar to handle weaker ground type moves comming it's way from being kos to 2 kos. water terra makes for a fantastic well rounded typing to change to in a pinch to overcome it's primary typings weaknesses.
-Movepool - sporting a stellar movepool, and as mentioned before icebeam/flamethrower allow slowking gar take out steel and bulky ground types with a snap of his fingers, psychic noise can cripple pokemon wanting to regenerate and is also psychic stab that hurts the likes of zammazenta, and we round it off with sludge bom to hit grass and fairies hard with solid stab that has a good shot at poisoning as a by-product.
Sinistcha @
Ability: Heatproof
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
Bold Nature
- Matcha Gotcha
- Hex
- Strength Sap
- Foul Play
Ability: Heatproof
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
Bold Nature
- Matcha Gotcha
- Hex
- Strength Sap
- Foul Play
Introduced in the dlc of gen 9 this little cup of tea makes the most out of it's typing and movepool by compressing the ability to check many prominent threats into one itty bitty cup. for the team it happily does this for the likes of zammazenta or great tusk with ease, making it easier for the team to handle these threats or just handle it themselves.
item , nature eves and terra type- Item of choice is heavy duty boots to allow sinistcha to avoid taking any damage from hazards to which all hit it neutrally, a bold nature is allow for a good physically bulky pokemon with 160 in defence to facilitate this while 96 allows it to outpace the likes of ursaluna and kingambit with adamant natures the rest going into hp to allow overall solid bulk for a teapot ready to take on rappid spiner threats to the team as well like great tusk. A poison terra type allows sinistcha to keep important resistances to fighting as an example while being able to shed it's weaknesses to ice, dark and ghost in particular.
-movepool -pretty straightforward here again for the tea cup, but simplicity is sometimes always produces the best results. Matcha gotacha is such a harliously good signature move in the fact it can burn, damage, self heal all in the one'r it's pretty nutty so yep it's here XD, okay so i plan on maybe getting a lucky burn or a bit of poison from king so hex is used over shadow ball just on the off chance to hit harder than normal shadow ball much more at the cost of being weaker outside of statused pokemon, strength sap allows for more ways to heal and nerfs the many physical attacking pokemon that sinistcha is tanking even further, often to force them out, and finally foul play hits hard on the other side of the spectrum while being able to kill already set up pokemon that threaten the team like waterpon much much more consistently.
Skarmory @
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Body Press
- Whirlwind
- Roost
- Spikes
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Body Press
- Whirlwind
- Roost
- Spikes
Smogon bird has had it's ups and downs, getting much and loosing viability to other bulky pokemon that have taken on it's roles better. Still skarmory has something they do not and thats the ability to do mulitple things at once, and for the team it made it the obvious choice over corviknight and friends as result. What is it? Well i'm glad you asked smogon bird has always been able to maintain a high level of out viability for it's ability to fit multiple roles into one sturdy (:P) package. Being able to set up hazards, phase out pokemon, pocess reliale recovery to stay in the fight as well as the aditional bonus it found last gen and keeeps this gen of using it's massive defence to actually to avoid being the passive smogon bird of yester years in body pressure, well mostly ghosts are a thing after all.
-Items, natures, eves and terra. Rocky helment is made for pokemon like skarmory that are often comming in to take physical hits that frequestly make physical contact with it's metalic feathers and thus taking chip damage from it, and reliable recovery is the cherry on the cake as it forfeits leftovers recovery to do so. Well as im not going down the route of iron defence it's full on max investment in defence all the way in addition to not actually needing to use my physical attack the result is a skarmory with a bold nature with 0 ivs in attack to reduce foul play/confusion damage and a nature that bulks that defence to the max for body press damage. Naturally the eves are 252 in defence and hp with 4 in special defence to allow skarmory max bulk on it's physical side. Terra dragon on skarmory is great for numerous resistances it flips like electric and fire.
-Movepool- skarmory thats the right tools for role compression and do it it's job admirably. As mentioned before body press is a way of keeping skarmory from being passive with it's insane 140 defence making it strong right off the bat more so than even zammazenta or corviknight in raw base power alone, roost allows skarmory to heal in a pinch and is it's only way to do so, spikes allows for additional hazards the team likes and uses to take advantage of, and finaly whirlwind allows skarmory to phase, which is great for the chip damage of sand and hazards as well as getting rid og ghost/ghost terra set up users that take advantage of the metal birds only means of dealing damage.
Attachments
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over 
could work ngl cuz you have no way to take advantage of the hazards you place on the field aside from ttar knock which isnt reliable. Also improves stall and rain mu
over 
could also work if your gonna do the first change since your using cha that provides easy blocking on tusk offense teams but not corv fat teams.