RMT: Sandstorm - Could use some help...

[O D I N]

Hello hello! Welcome one and all to my...



Ah, screw it. I made myself a Sandstorm team, and I've hit a few snags. Here's what I got so far...

Forretress@Leftovers
Impish/Sturdy
244 Hp 252 Def 12 Speed
-Explosion
-Toxic Spikes
-Stealth Rock
-Rapid Spin

Starter; Sets up spikes and SRs, and spins away opponents. Only real attack is to explode when he's done. I've decided that he's staying.

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Modest/Flash Fire
252 Sp. Att 252 Spd. 6 hp

-Dark Pulse
-Overheat/Lava Plume/Flamethrower (Can't decide, though Overheat hurts a lot)
-Dragon Pulse
-Earth Power

Sp. Sweeper. I think I need to redo this guy, but I have the general idea of what I wanna do with him. He can't take much of a hit, and contributes to my fighting/ground weakness. Loves to eat Fire attacks though.

Tyranitar@Leftovers
Quiet/Sand Stream
252 Hp 68 Speed 188 Sp. Att
-Crunch
-Ice Beam
-Focus Punch
-Substitute

Tyraniboah; mixed sweeper. Truth be told, I don't much care for this type anymore, so I'm thinking of what could replace him. He usually goes in after Forretress has done his job, to get the sand going, so he's pretty crucial to the team (otherwise... it's not a sandstorm team... >_>)

Gliscor@Leftovers
Impish/Sand veil
252 Hp 252 Def 4 Speed
-Earthquake
-Aerial Ace
-Knock Off
-Roost

Physi wall. He's my Heracross counter, since I have such a huge weakness to one if it starts going. Knock off to take care of other walls with lefties, EQ for coverage and stab, Aerial for Hera and stab, and Roost to heal. Sand veil for dodging. I've decided that he should stay.

Garchomp@ Life Orb/Bright Powder
Jolly/Sand Veil
252 Att 252 Speed 4 Hp?(can't remember on the last one)
-Earthquake
-Swords Dance
-Fire Fang
-Dragon Claw

Standard Garchomp. Brightpowder was a thought since I'm running sandstorm, could get more dodging hax. Life orb is for hitting harder, and is currently on him. I like him. I think he should stay.

Cradily@Leftovers
Careful/Suction Cups
220 Hp 252 Def 36 SpDef
-Recover
-Grass Knot
-Rock Slide
-Earthquake/Confuse Ray

My idea of a spec wall. I think Cradily has a lot of options, but I'm not sure which would be the best way to go. This is the ideal moveset I thought would fit. :shrug: I dunno. Recover for obvious reasons. Grass knot for coverage, Rock slide for stab and accuarcy over Stone Edge, and I was thinking Confuse Ray for annoyance, but EQ could work for coverage.



My other options that I was looking at was an Empoleon, since he could learn Ice Beam, couple with Grass Knot, but I don't think he's as sturdy as I'd like him to be.

Well, fire away.

 

[Christopher Rodriguez]

You desperately need a sleep absorber. Heatran can fulfill the job nicely with restalk. Heatran's base defenses are over 100, so his survivability will improve drastically after this change.

Tyranitar's nature is Quiet (+sp.atk, -spe). Are you sure you didn't mean Modest, since you're running spe EVs?

Cradily can use Mirror Coat and Stockpile to add to his defensive options. If Cradily is a sp. wall, why are a majority of his EVs placed into def?

Empoleon over Cradily will add a very helpful water and ice resist to your team. He will add another ground weakness, though.

Outside of Garchomp, your team is very slow and may have trouble dealing with fast, stat-boosted sweepers.

Water, Fighting, Ground, and Ice attacks will cause you trouble. Fire isn't much of a problem because your only fire-weak is Forretress and he's going to explode anyways. It almost renders Heatran's Flash Fire ability useless.

Oh and don't be afraid to use pokemon that can be hurt by sandstorm in your team. It's a very common mistake in sandstorm teams to use only pokemon that resist sand.

 

[O D I N]

You desperately need a sleep absorber. Heatran can fulfill the job nicely with restalk. Heatran's base defenses are over 100, so his survivability will improve drastically after this change.

Tyranitar's nature is Quiet (+sp.atk, -spe). Are you sure you didn't mean Modest, since you're running spe EVs?

Cradily can use Mirror Coat and Stockpile to add to his defensive options. If Cradily is a sp. wall, why are a majority of his EVs placed into def?

Empoleon over Cradily will add a very helpful water and ice resist to your team. He will add another ground weakness, though.

Outside of Garchomp, your team is very slow and may have trouble dealing with fast, stat-boosted sweepers.

Water, Fighting, Ground, and Ice attacks will cause you trouble. Fire isn't much of a problem because your only fire-weak is Forretress and he's going to explode anyways. It almost renders Heatran's Flash Fire ability useless.

Oh and don't be afraid to use pokemon that can be hurt by sandstorm in your team. It's a very common mistake in sandstorm teams to use only pokemon that resist sand.

Since Crad is going to be running in a Sandstorm, he gets a bonus to his Sp. Def from Sandstorm (He's a Rock/Grass).

I might wanna look at other options then, outside of ground/steel/rock.

Yes, Tyranitar is quiet. I got the moveset off of Libelldra Forge.

Well, since my options opened up, I'm not sure who else to toss in, and who to replace. :-/ Tyranitar needs to be changed, as does Heatran. I do have a dusknoir, that could probably be used to absorb fighting attacks, as well as a Cresselia (that's a sleep talker now, but should be redone), and Tangrowth.

I also thought off putting an Abomasnow as a starter; since his Snow Warning would work for him, I could easily switch to Tyranitar (or Hippowdown, as someone elsewhere mentioned for me) to get the sandstorm going again. Could even bring in a mamoswine to switch in after Abomasnow to mindgame them into thinking I'm running a hail team.

Anyone else? Thanks for the feedback so far Deff.

I could also use more electric. My team is seriously lacking.

 

[JesiahTEG]

This SS team is actually alright...CB Tyranitar will work better, and you really don't need a sleep absorber, so don't fret.

 

[O D I N]

This SS team is actually alright...CB Tyranitar will work better, and you really don't need a sleep absorber, so don't fret.

Thanks.

Still, I could use a spec wall, and I'm thinking a CB Tyranitar would work nicely.

Any recommendations on a spec wall, or something that would work well?

 

[TombStone]

This is a rather gimmicky Empoleon set, but it could work pretty well for you.

Empoeon @ Choice Scarf
Torrent / Timid
6 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spd
-Grass Knot
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-HP Fly/Electric

Bear with me here, I think this would work great when combined with your Garchomp. I used this on my SS team, and it was a beast. First of all, it absorbs Ice attacks like nothing else, given its superb SpDef and x4 resistance. So that will help cover Glisicor and Garchomp.

In my use of this set, I always noticed one thing. Blissey ALWAYS comes out to counter it. Meaning this guy makes an excellent bait. Throw him out, then swap immediately to Garchomp if you predict a Blissey. Gives you a free SD and godly sweeping potential.

The speed thing might seem really dumb, but no one ever expects it. Great for surprise strikes. "SCARFPOLEON?!" The first three moves are obvious. Hidden Power can be used to fill your team's needs. Personally, I had Heracross problems, so I used HP [Fly].

Oh yeah, Empoleon is kind of a Special Wall, too.

 

[O D I N]

This is a rather gimmicky Empoleon set, but it could work pretty well for you.

Empoeon @ Choice Scarf
Torrent / Timid
6 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spd
-Grass Knot
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-HP Fly/Electric

Bear with me here, I think this would work great when combined with your Garchomp. I used this on my SS team, and it was a beast. First of all, it absorbs Ice attacks like nothing else, given its superb SpDef and x4 resistance. So that will help cover Glisicor and Garchomp.

In my use of this set, I always noticed one thing. Blissey ALWAYS comes out to counter it. Meaning this guy makes an excellent bait. Throw him out, then swap immediately to Garchomp if you predict a Blissey. Gives you a free SD and godly sweeping potential.

The speed thing might seem really dumb, but no one ever expects it. Great for surprise strikes. "SCARFPOLEON?!" The first three moves are obvious. Hidden Power can be used to fill your team's needs. Personally, I had Heracross problems, so I used HP [Fly].

Oh yeah, Empoleon is kind of a Special Wall, too.

I had considered one, but not like this. Never even consider HP Electric. Thanks!

Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

[0RLY]

Machamp could run circles around your team with ice, fire, and fighting attacks. Bulk Up-champ spells your doom.

 

[JesiahTEG]

Tyranitar as a special wall is horrible, he's weak to everything. Just use Blissey, even if she isn't ground/steel/rock.

 

[Iron Dragon]

Jesiah is right. Blissey is your best overall bet. Oh and also on Garchomp you might wanna run Yache Berry(Ice weakener) it's pretty standard. You bring Garchomp in on something that can't take him out. You SD on a switch. If Cresselia pops out, SD once more, now Yache works very well in conjunction to SS. Because if Cress tries Ice Beam right away and she misses by chance, she's basically screwed since now you'll have 2 free boosts.

Also CB TTar does work better. Here's a good set

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature(+Atk,-SAtk)
252 Attack EVs,74 Speed,184 Sp.Def

Crunch
EQ
Pursuit
Stone Edge

Let me explain this thing a little better so you don't get the wrong idea. The reason for this set is a few things, not only is it super powerful but the 74 Speed EVs allows you to Stone Edge skarmory before he can roost, it also can Earthquake magnezone before he can Magnet Rise and is generally faster than metagross. The Sp.Def EVs are good for a reason. 184 EVs lets you hit 279 Sp.D. Take 1.5 of 279 and add it to 279 you get 418 Sp.D. This thing can easily come in on a Starmie's Surf(who can generally beat up on SS Teams pretty well) take maybe 25-30% at most I'd think and Pursuit starmie to her death.

Just some thoughts......other than that it looks like a pretty sturdy standard SS Team.