• Welcome to The Cave of Dragonflies forums, where the smallest bugs live alongside the strongest dragons.

    Guests are not able to post messages or even read certain areas of the forums. Now, that's boring, don't you think? Registration, on the other hand, is simple, completely free of charge, and does not require you to give out any personal information at all. As soon as you register, you can take part in some of the happy fun things at the forums such as posting messages, voting in polls, sending private messages to people and being told that this is where we drink tea and eat cod.

    Of course I'm not forcing you to do anything if you don't want to, but seriously, what have you got to lose? Five seconds of your life?

Sandstorm teams

Karkat Vantas

Karkat Vantas

Virile God-Snake Tower of Masculinity
Well, I've decided to try a Sandstorm team. (OU, since I need a Tyranitar for this team)

I haven't figured out what I'm going to do, though. The only team members I've decided on are Tyranitar, Swampert, and Forretress.

Tyranitar is a must for this sort of team, with Sandstream. I'm not sure if having a Hippowdon would be helpful or not, though. Moveset would probably be something along the lines of Dragon Dance, Earthquake, Crunch, and something else. Not sure what, though.

Swampert works well as a wall, and Forretress as a rapid spinner.

What else?
 
I find Lucario makes a pretty awesome special attacker on Sandstorm teams, especially since most rock/ground/steel types tend to be more physical.
 
Psst, I'm kinda new to competitive battling, so if I'm stating the obvious don't kill me.

Anyway, Sandstorm teams seem to have a huge grass/water weakness. If you want a physical wall, Skarmory seems like a good choice: it can take grass attacks without a problem, stand up to physical attacks, and Roar/Whirlwind out Pokemon if you've set up Stealth Rock or Spikes, as well as set entry hazards itself. Most grass and water attacks are special though, but I don't really have any suggestions for a special wall...

Some other suggestions could include Flygon (Sand Veil, and it resists grass), Cacturne (Sand Veil again, but it's got bad defenses and requires excellent prediction to use properly), or Metagross (with Agility, perhaps, to make up for its below-average speed).
 
Hippowdon's got Sand Stream, too, and does an excellent job killing enemy Tyranitars.
 
Well, I'd recommend that you have another rock-type Pokemon on the team, to take advantage of the 50% special defense boost rock-types get. Right now, you have a bit of a fire weakness: assuming that Bronzong has Levitate, a good fire-type sweeper could rip through half of your team, namely Lucario, Bronzong, and Foretress.
Hm... Perhaps have an Aerodactyl as your lead? You can set up Stealth Rock and whatnot, and as far as I can see it doesn't share many weaknesses with your other choices.
Is Bronzong supposed to be another mixed wall? You already have Swampert as a mixed wall, and your Forretress could probably act as a physical wall, given its high defenses, so you could kick off Bronzong, though that leaves your team pretty vulnerable to special grass attacks.
 
It's key to recognize that just because your team is sandstorm-themed, you don't need to have all its members be immune to sandstorm. You should look into including pokémon that cover the rest of your teams' weaknesses, both offensively and defensively; I'm not sure what you're saying your team would be at this point--lucario, tyranitar, bronzong, forretress, swampert, and flygon? Forretress looks rather pointless on this team: none of them are weak to stealth rock, most of them resist it, and half are immune to toxic spikes as well. It's hard to really suggest a replacement without knowing more about what the rest of the pokémon, that is, how they're intended to function together.

Also no mention of scizor yet what.
 
Riiiight, Scizor. Although that'd add to the fire weakness, Scizor is a good physical sweeper, which I think your team is lacking.

Going off of what Negrek said, though, a Pokemon holding Leftovers will negate the Sandstorm damage, so if you do add in a Pokemon that is not immune to sandstorm, then you might want to give it that. If you can give us the movesets, that'd be great, since we don't know what types your Pokemon can and can't take on.
 
Aerodactyl? K then.

So now it's Tyranitar, Swampert, Bronzong, Lucario, and Aerodactyl. I'm not sure what else to use... Magnezone? Hippowdon? Scizor? Hippowdon is what I'm leaning towards. seeing as he's a must for a Sandstorm team.

forgot that steel types were immune to poison, hence why i added forretress.

Would using a kamikaze Lopunny work? I'm thinking of the "Toxic Orb Switcheroo Facade" approach here to annoy Blissey and other Pokemon.
 
Well, i'm also a new competitive battler, but I suggest a Garchomp. It can be a very good sweeper.
 
Garchomp's an uber, though, from what I remember, so unless Kam wants to play in the uber metagame then it's a no-go. Sandstorm is frequently eliminated in ubers, too, 'cuz of Groudon and Kyogre.

I don't see much of a physical sweeper in your team, though; that much is true. If Tyranitar and perhaps to an extent, Swampert, are both knocked out, then good luck with Blissey. I'm not sure how well Lopunny would hold up... If it has Klutz, then you can't exactly activate the power boost for Facade, but if it does, then I don't know how long it'd last with Sandstorm and poison eating away at its health. Blissey will probably have Natural Cure, though, so Switcheroo-ing on the evil pink nurse-thing will be a lost cause and... well, from what I've heard a Flame Orb is a better item to Switcheroo, assuming you have Klutz or course, since burn cripples physical sweepers.

Off the top of my head, though, the largest threat I can see for your team is opposing Swampert. You don't seem to have much of a way to deal with that. Grass Pokemon tend to function pretty badly in Sandstorm though, so perhaps a Pokemon with Energy Ball...? Not very sure. Actually, your entire team overall will probably have troubles with the abundant water-Pokemon you're bound to see.
 
No, he's got a massive water weakness already and Ice Beam is really, really common.

Why hasn't anyone suggested Heatran yet...? iirc Heatran's OU.
 
I was thinking of Heatran at first, but wasn't sure if I should do it.

Torterra doesn't have a water weakness. Grass/Ground means that it takes neutral damage.
 
Yes, and 4x from Ice. How many water types can you think of that don't carry Ice Beam or Ice Punch or that one other move? Ice moves are frequently used on Water Pokemon and the same thing'll beat the crap out of half of your team already.
 
Psh, use Jirachi or Metagross, then have something to cover their weaknesses. I'd go with Hippowdon over TTar any day, but that's just because I'm biased. Magnezone is nice if you come across any water types, especially Gyarados.
 
If you are making a sandstorm team, you simply have no choice but to look at this page. It contains all the best ideas for sandstorm teams, and how to use them.

...My recommendations being SubPetaya Empoleon and Specially Defensive Rhyperior

395.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom