My defensive sandstorm team

[lcampoy8]

Yea this is my team...

W: Fire(x4)
Nature: Impish
Hold item: Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EV: 252 HP / 44 Atk / 212 SpD
Moveset:
~ Spikes
~ Toxic Spikes
~ Payback
~ Rapid Spin

He's kind of my lead, even though he kind of sucks at being a lead.

W: Fire
Nature: Brave
Hold item: Life orb
Ability: Levitate
EV: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Moveset:
~ Trick Room
~ Gyro Ball
~ Explosion
~ Earthquake

His trick room is awesome and for some reason a lot of people switch when I bring out Brongzong which is good for me

W: Water, Ice, Grass
Nature: Impish
Hold item: Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EV: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Moveset:
~ Earthquake
~ Slack Off
~ Stealth Rock
~ Roar

he's awesome too...

W: Water, Rock, Steel
Nature: Sassy
Hold item: Leftovers
Ability: Gluttony
EV: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Moveset:
~Toxic
~ Protect
~ Wrap
~ Encore

My favorite pokemon. I made this whole team because of him. Though he sucks again Steel/Poison types.

W: Ground, Fire
Nature: Adamant
Hold item: Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
EV: 252 HP / 236 Atk / 20 Def
Moveset:
~ Meteor Mash
~ Earthquake
~ Explosion
~ Ice Punch

meh...

W: Ice(x4), Rock, Dragon
Nature: Mild
Hold Item: Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EV: 112 Atk / 196 SpA / 200 Spe
Moveset:
~ Waterfall
~ Draco Meteor
~ Flamethrower
~ Thunderbolt

My team was missing a lot of types of attacks so i put him in.

 

[mood4food77]

your running a SS team without tyranitar
and shuckle is just horrible in OU

lastly never use life orb on a SS/Hail team, it's just asking to die quickly

 

[Wave⁂]

Only use Trick Room on an offensive team; it is a waste of a moveslot and turn.

Don't use Tyranitar on a defensive team.

Dragonite is worn down by both Sandstorm and Stealth Rocks, in addition to its Life Orb.
Latias can run a similar set of Draco Meteor / Surf / HP Fire / Thunderbolt. You could throw in Recover. Leftovers, of course.

Shuckle is sexy. Keep him.

Either give Forretress an Occa Berry or replace with Stealth Rock lead.

Spin blocker would be nice. Try a Rotom-C, to take care of Swampert.

Lack of Skarmory is very confusing.

 

[lcampoy8]

metagross picture didn't come up... it works now

I don't really like tyranitar because he's weak against everything.

Shuckle is awesome! I took down sweepers with him.

I still think trick room is good with this team. Hippowdon, Metagross, Brongzong can still benefit with it.

I think i may switch dragonite with latias. Thanks

is skarmory a good lead?

 

[Wave⁂]

Trick Room requires a moveslot and two turns to use. You get to "abuse" it for only four turns.

Skarmory isn't a bad lead, but there are definitely better ones. For a long-lasting lead, consider Swampert, Gliscor, or Tyranitar. For a suicide lead, try Aerodactyl.

 

[lcampoy8]

Brongzong can take the abuse and if he is low in health i just use Explosion. Then it can benefit the rest of the pkmn.

 

[Wave⁂]

Is that what Bronzong is for? Taking abuse and exploding? You can do better than that.

Bronzong does not have a good Attack stat, does not have reliable recovery, and does not support the team. The only good thing about it is, well, Rain Dance and Trick Room heavy offense support.

 

[Gates]

If you don't like Forretress as your lead, use something else. You could keep Forry on your team and move Hippowdon into the lead position and you'd do quite well since Hippowdon not only sets up rocks but also sandstorm. Shuckle can also be a good lead, but you'd likely have to replace Protect and Wrap with Stealth Rock and Rest and Leftovers with Lum Berry for best effects.

Skarmory should probably be on your team instead of Bronzong if you do intend to make this a defensive team. Skarmory's high defenses are comparable to Bronzong's and he can also set up spikes which allows Forretress to use Rapid Spin and just generally removes pressure from him. Skarmory is also a better phazer, a better physical wall, can taunt or torment other stallers, and has the same typing so you won't need to adjust your team much. The only thing you would lose by getting rid of Bronzong would be an exploder (which you only need one of generally) and a Earthquake user (which you already have two of).

If you insist on running Bronzong though, you should really change your build. I strongly reccommend the Trick Macho Brace build instead of what you currently have. Life Orb on Bronzong is just...absurd.

 

[betterthanbonds9]

Yea this is my team...

W: Fire(x4)
Nature: Impish
Hold item: Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EV: 252 HP / 44 Atk / 212 SpD
Moveset:
~ Spikes
~ Toxic Spikes
~ Payback
~ Rapid Spin

He's kind of my lead, even though he kind of sucks at being a lead.
Yeah, he's a bad lead. Either use an SR lead or put hippo as your lead so you can start the SS off early
not to mention this guy doesn't have SRs.... your lead should use SR and at least 3 leads i can think of (azelf, heatran, infernape) can flamethrower/fireblast you and some even have taunt (aero, azelf, probably another one out there). In other words, Forry is owned by most everything and the things that dont will get to switch in on you and then kill you..

W: Fire
Nature: Brave
Hold item: Life orb
Ability: Levitate
EV: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Moveset:
~ Trick Room
~ Gyro Ball
~ Explosion
~ Earthquake

His trick room is awesome and for some reason a lot of people switch when I bring out Brongzong which is good for me

Saying as how your team is garbage offensively I guess this isnt bad.... I disagree with anyone that says bronzong can't attack, he's got a base 89 attack stat and gyro ball is base 150 with STAB and EQ is base 100. With that said, bronzong is still a bad choice for this team with something like lucario or scizor able to take up the "resist stuff, deal damage" idea. Bronzong can't do **** to rotom, which at least for me would be the first thing i'd switch to after i saw you TR. After that you're looking at not doing **** to gyarados and most water pokemon.

Trick room is useless if the only pokemon that can really take advantage of it is banded...

W: Water, Ice, Grass
Nature: Impish
Hold item: Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EV: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Moveset:
~ Earthquake
~ Slack Off
~ Stealth Rock
~ Roar

he's awesome too...
Make him the lead, you really have nothing else as a lead

W: Water, Rock, Steel
Nature: Sassy
Hold item: Leftovers
Ability: Gluttony
EV: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Moveset:
~Toxic
~ Protect
~ Wrap
~ Encore

My favorite pokemon. I made this whole team because of him. Though he sucks again Steel/Poison types.
I haven't seen wrap used since RBY. Use knock off or rest there

W: Ground, Fire
Nature: Adamant
Hold item: Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
EV: 252 HP / 236 Atk / 20 Def
Moveset:
~ Meteor Mash
~ Earthquake
~ Explosion
~ Ice Punch

meh...

I love Bullet Punch on metagross. Take out either explosion or ice punch for it (id advise the explosion). This guy is good, but once he's gone, you lose and if you hold him until late game you have probably already needed to death fodder 2 of your pokemon

W: Ice(x4), Rock, Dragon
Nature: Mild
Hold Item: Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EV: 112 Atk / 196 SpA / 200 Spe
Moveset:
~ Waterfall
~ Draco Meteor
~ Flamethrower
~ Thunderbolt

My team was missing a lot of types of attacks so i put him in.
I love Dragonite. But it's WAY too little WAY too late


DD Gyara kills you so bad, at the very least it will take out one pokemon and then do major damage to hippo or forry. Forry can probably only do 30% i'd imagine and hippo can only roar. Shuckle can't recover so toxic stalling wont work that well on gyara, but i guess it's your safest bet until somebody using swampert come in. You can't kill swampert and you really can't kill much unless you're slower than dragonite or take a MM from metagross...

does this team even win 20% on shoddy?

 

[UltiMario]

This team is bad. Let me fix it.

Get rid of Shuckle, take Forry out of the Lead Position, and make this your lead:

Tyranitar@Focus Sash
Jolly/Sand Stream
16 HP/252 Atk/208 Spd/32 SDef
Stealth Rock
Crunch
Earthquake
Sleep Talk

While not manditory, I suggest having Gliscor over Hippo, seeing as only Hail teams will be negating your Sandstorm enough to NEED Hippo.

Gliscor@Leftovers
Jolly/Sand Stream
252HP/40Def/216Spe
Earthquake
Taunt
Roost
Toxic/U-Turn

If you run Toxic, get TSpikes off Forry nad put EQ or Explosion over it. If you run U-Turn, you HAVE to get TSpikes out with Forry.

Latias works better on SS Teams than DNite. Better overall Synergy. Choose a Latias that works best for you from Smogon. Scarf would help a lot with that DDGyara problem, BTW.

Not sure if CBGross or Agiligross would do better on this team.
Test it out, maybe?

Trick Room Zong isn't helping. This team doesn't have enough offense, which Bronzong is bringing down even more. Sandstorm teams can't run full defense like this, it just doesn't work. Maybe Heatran would help with some Fire problem?

 

[lcampoy8]

I was think of putting Hippowdon in the lead but he would suck against pkmn like Azelf or Aerodactyl which will force me to switch. I'll probably will just find some other pkmn for a lead and replace someone.

what would you all recommend on Brongzong? or should i replace him?

I probably will take of explosion on metagross 'cause I rarely use it.

and i probably will just replace dragonite...

 

[Terywj [태리]]

If you're running a defensive Sandstorm team I'd suggest placing Skarmory somewhere in there.

Test out Stockpile Cradily too.

-Terywj

 

[UltiMario]

Why Stockpile Cradily when theres Curse Cradily?

 

[Terywj [태리]]

Why Stockpile Cradily when theres Curse Cradily?

Stockpile would work a bit nicer with the Special Defense boosts? I'm aware Cradily would be capped at +3 defenses.

-Terywj

 

[UltiMario]

Sandstorm gives you all the SpD you need.

So then you can sweep with +6 Atk.

 

[Terywj [태리]]

That's true. Guess Stockpile Cradily only works without Sandstorm, as ironic as that sounds.

-Terywj

 

[UltiMario]

Too bad you don't use Cradily w/o SS.

EVER.

 

[Pink Reaper]

Cradily in SS still has a **** ton of things that can kill it specially.

Also, drop Dragonite, use this

Breloom@Toxic Orb
Impish/Poison Heal
236Hp/248 Def/24 Spe
-Substitute
-Leech Seed
-Spore
-Focus Punch

This is an amazing defensive option on SS teams.