5 Minute Excadrill Sand Team - yee & Super Mario BroIntroductionIf you know me well, you know there is nothing I hate to see more than a standard sand team. I long for the banning of Excadrill so it can leave us alone and make that Rotom-W Volt Switching around that much less annoying. That SR Tyranitar usually does nothing but set up SR, troll my spinner, and rub sand damage into my Blissey while it takes that Volt Switch to the Excadrill, who then gets his free spin or set up. What im posting here was your standard Excadrill sand team made in 5 minutes, except no Gliscor, Rotom-W, Scizor, Celebi, or Tyranitar. The team traces its roots to an old non weather stall team I was running which featured a changing 6th moveslot. It was originally a Haze Murkrow, which actually tied up a lot of the team's loose ends, mainly trolling Baton Pass. Later I tried Sub/Roost/Dragon Tail/Haze Dragonite to tie up that very same loose end. This is where my bud Super Mario Bro came in. He recommended I use Fire Blast over Haze, because when I wasn't facing Baton Pass, that set would be very good. He was right, it was easily the most handy set on the team, spreading both kinds of Spikes around very effectively, and killing Forry/Skarm/Natt etc. coming in thinking I was a parashuffler that couldn't touch them. Now, Super Mario Bro isn't into stall very much. However, he liked the Dragonite set so much he build a 2 minute team around it for me. He told me it would be incredible with paralysis support and gave me the initial team-      
A whole core of paralysis, the Dragonite, and between Tyranitar/Excadrill free spins all day. The other 3 minutes of team building were three changes. 1) Tyranitar is gay in BW. I chose Hippowdon because its a badass and can actually be useful outside of Stealth Rock/Sandstorm, if it chooses to use both. Needless to say it's less expected than Tyranitar these days. 2) With Dragonite being the boss, I want some Spikes to compliment Dragon Tail. Roserade over Celebi to fill the same defensive utility needs for the team. 3) Spin blocking in BW can really be a wasted effort, and this team was lacking a sturdy counter to physical threats like Terrakion, Mamoswine, and Gyarados that I could not rely on Hippowdon to wall. Slowbro was the replacement, and another T-Wave user. Here is the final result-   
The Team
Hippowdon @ Leftovers This guy grabs the frontlines in battle, and shruggs off more hits than anything else I have used in BW. He manhandles Tyranitar obviously, shrugging off Ice Beam without even being 2HKOed. What may suprise you is how well he takes on bulky Politoed and Ninetails- Uninvested Politoed Scald- 40-47.1% Uninvested Ninetails Fire Blast- 27.1% - 32.1% Before I go on, Hippo isn't my first switch in to any type of Politoed. Now, as you can see, Hippo is a boss at weather wars, especially when it's recovering off hits like that with Slack Off. One particular thing I like to do with Hippowdon is mess up Tentacruel on rain stall teams, not being 2HKOed by it, cutting off its recovery, and assuming I double switched in I will have slashed a good chunk off of their spinner. The same magic happens against Toxicroak. Onto the moves, Stealth Rock is especially good now that I can see whether it's an Excadrill or a Forry spinning, and because I can set it up in front of almost anything. EQ is it's main STAB and is much more impressive than the attacks you see from modern Tyranitar. Roar has really dropped in usefulness this gen IMO, which gave me more incentive to run Ice Fang. If you're really clever, you'll notice that I run IVs for Hidden Power Ice and a Relaxed Nature, which I did at one point so I could counter standard Gliscor. However, Ice Fang lands a much better hit on targets like incoming Virizion, Latios, Dragonite etc. and comes with that stupid freeze chance. The Relaxed Nature and IV stayed in tribute to my in-game Hippo and to outslow any Politoed. Slack Off is key to it's amazing longevity. The EVs are absolutely ideal. With 72 defense hitting a jump point, I am guranteed to survive a +2 Adamant LO EQ from Excadrill, and thanks to Slowbro/Excadrill I will almost always be at full health when this happens. The special defense lets it push through special attacks as demonstrated through the Politoed and Ninetails calcs, and Slack Off against Specs Latios because Timid Draco Meteor has almost no chance to OHKO. Because Hippowdon gets involved so much, I often think of him as the leader of the team.
Dragonite @ Leftovers This Dragonite is really strong. Once everything is paralyzed, the opponent oftentimes can't even touch me. Throughout the entire game Dragonite can act as a quick check to almost anything I need to GTFO with Dragon Tail and Multi-Scale, Draco Meteors really have nothing on me. In fact, if sand isn't up, standard Specs Latios has only a tiny chance of 2HKOing me as I roost up. Without Multi-Scale Dragonite can still do incredible things. It can take an SR switch in and a +2 LO Sludge Bomb from Modest Venusaur almost guranteed, and its subs survive a Volt Switch from standard stupid Rotom-W. Substitute mixed with paralysis is like paraflinching. You're forced to try and deal with it directly while paralysis makes it even harder. Roost is mostly used when behind a sub, and to wait for opponent to take a full paralysis. Dragon Tail and Fire Blast from behind the sub torture paralyzed teams with hazards on their side. Fire Blast is really cool right now with everyone expecting a standard parashuffler as I use Substitute. With 80 spA EVs, I can 2HKO any Skarmory, and because most of them are max defense are nowadays I put massive damage on them. Forretress, Ferrothorn, Tangrowth and friends all fall for this trick too. Again, thanks to Super Mario bro for this incredibly effective set.
Roserade @ Leftovers If you have stalked my battles this gen you may have noticed I am a huge fan of Roserade. Usually I run it in the rain with Weather Ball, where to be quite honest it performs even better than it does here, but still Rose is a boss. Every move here is a necessity, I haven't dismissed Sleep Powder just because it only hits on the 4th attempt. Spikes increase each members effectiveness. Aromatherapy is vital for this team, not only because most of my members are really hindered by status, but also because I am very agressive in spreading it. For example, in a Jirachi vs. Rotom-w match-up (which happens every time you lead against standard sand), I will usually Body Slam instead of switching to Rose. Giga Drain is basic STAB and gives me psuedo-leftovers recovery, in testing I find it significantly more useful than Leaf Storm, especially against bulky waters. Lastly, HP Fire is to minimize Ferrothorn switch ins, and nail any Scizor to stop the fucking U-Turn chains from shoving the move up my ass. The set looks weird at first glance but Roserade is so great I have found it lasting long enough without Rest, and doing massive damage without Sleep Powder. The old 4th gen EVs are still my favorite to use, I couldn't stand to use max HP/max spD and be so Pursuit weak. This spread takes both Bullet Punches and Draco Meteors. Overall Roserade fits the team perfectly and gives just the right support.
Jirachi @ Leftovers Jirachi is my main special wall and sturdiest steel. Between Slowbro and Jirachi, I can spread all the paralysis I need. Just like Slowbro does on the physical side, Jirachi checks special threats that I could have a lot of trouble against otherwise, mainly Tornadus, Reuniclus, and predicted Draco Meteors. Jirachi is also pressed with the responsibility of taking an Outrage sometimes, only CB Outrages put too much stress on Hippowdon and Slowbro and I have Excadrill in the wings so its not too big of a weakness. Because Tornadus, Reuniclus, and special dragons are the only special threats I would really crumble too should I lose Jirachi I can safely drop Protect for U-turn. Wish+Protect makes an awesome wall, but I don't need the recovery enough to miss out on scouting while trolling Magnezone. I try to not to dick around with Iron Head too much, and only abuse Serene Grace with Body Slam, because other members of the team can make a paralyzed pokemon suffer. I have actually lost consecutive face-offs with Reuniclus due to lack of flinching which was depressing, but thanks to Dragonite not all hope is lost and I can potentially PP stall it. As for speed creep, I just settled for the jump point in spD and wanted to outrun the Jolly Tar benchmark.
Slowbro @ Leftovers Slowbro got an amazing gift this gen in its new ability, Regenerator. It's immense bulk massively helps out the team in dealing with threats like Mamoswine, Cloyster, and Terrakion that the rest of my team would hate to face off against. Not only does it take on most of the threats that the rest of the team struggles with, it also overlaps duty with Hippowdon to the point that I can keep both in tip top condition. Slowbro does this while catching the right things on the switch with Thunder Wave, like Latios and Rotom-W, that would otherwise be tricky to catch with Jirachi. I have used Surf to avoid the risk of burning anything because obviously the goal is paralysis. I used to run Fire Blast just because I hate Ferrothorn, but it makes playing against Conk much harder and v. Gyarados I have a horrible match-up, not to say I won't occasionally run Fire Blast for you people expecting me not to. Max defense is an obvious choice so I can survive 2 boosted EQs from standard Gliscor easily and maximize physical walling potential. I also decided to put Scald on Slowbro so I could burn Skarmory and Ferrothorn, Surf doesn't OHKO Excadrill/Terrakion/anything significant so the power loss is no big deal. Just gotta be more careful about burning a Rotom-W/Hydreigon etc. on the switch. Thanks Heist for recommending it!
Excadrill @ Leftovers If you hadn't noticed, Excadrill is like a giant Swiss Army Knife (above 2 feet tall in fact). It can revenge pretty much anything, it can spin at any time, and it can directly hit the opponent hard when you want it to. Leftovers Excadrill puts on the pain while having an unfair amount of durability. Immunity to Thunder Wave, Toxic, and sand damage is huge. The 52 defense EVs are quite nifty, taking Gliscor's EQ and bulkygyara's Waterfall like a boss. It's decent special defense lets it easily survive anything electrics are throwing out besides Focus Blasts and Aura Spheres, from there I can spin for free while I put the fear of death into them or just kill them. The ability to pull spins out of almost any situation is incredible considering the stall battles I go through and Dragonite's ability in particular. I dropped Swords Dance for X-Scissor because once Rotom-W with will-o-wisp became more and more common so did Celebi because of its Natural Cure ability, HP Fire for Scizor etc. However, it's not just handy for Celebi, it is also extremely useful for Hydreigon/Latios on those Dragon spam teams which tend to be at a huge risk of being 6-0ed by Excadrill. Those teams were a part of the spread building process. 52 defense EVs is cool on Exca because it helps against Scizor and Skarmory noticeably, but taking out of attack meant I missed the KO on 62% Mamoswine, which has happened multiple times. It wasn't the only one to troll me with 216 attack. Taking them out of speed lets me outrun Scarf base 110s and below while only missing out on Scarfmie and ScarfGenies, which I am not concerned with at all. Importable |