Poe's Really Cool Sandstorm Team

[Poetic]

Hey there, Poe here with another RMT. In this one, I'm kinda sorta getting out of my comfort zone a little, so pardon me if, y'know, this team is bad.

At a Glance

Teambuilding

So, this team, like a lot of my others. Started off with me browsing the internet while bored. I decided to look up offensive and defensive cores for the lulz and this one just sorta resonated with me, to be honest. Probably because Gengar is just one of my favorite Pokemon ever, but still. These three are my primary offensive core.

While a core is all fine and dandy, it does need back up. I knew pretty quickly these guys would need someone who could perform amazingly in sand. Garchomp fits that role rather well and provides a second source of Physical damage for the team.

Once the basic team took shape, I knew I'd need something to try and counter rain, seeing as that would be one of my biggest threats. Starmie's role here is to take some water and ice hits for the fellas before Tyranitar can come back out and whip up a sandstorm again.

For the sixth slot, I really had no idea what to put on the team. So, I figured I'd go with Ditto, who is always an amazing filler. People love to set up and Ditto loves to take those set ups and throw them back. With the addition of the little pink ball of goo, the team was finally done.

Now For the Fun Part

@ Black Sludge

Trait: Levitate

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Pain Split

- Substitute

- Shadow Ball

- Focus Blast

Good old Gengar. He's been with me since I started playing Pokemon Online and he is almost always a major player on my team. This variation is no different from his predecessors. With Subsplit, he can take a couple hits and restore his health while dealing quite a lot of indirect damage to the opponent. Shadow Ball is there for a lovely bit of STAB and Focus Miss is to deal with bothersome Dark and Steel types.

@ Choice Band

Trait: Sand Stream

EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spd

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Stone Edge

- Fire Punch

- Pursuit

- Aqua Tail

Following Gengar is my weather-setter, Tyranitar. I've seen a lot of good come from delayed weather and this team seems to benefit from it, too. I'm gonna be honest with you all, this was my first time using Tyranitar, so I just went with what seemed like a basic set. Stone Edge for STAB, Pursuit to catch an unlucky Ghost on the switch, Fire Punch to hit Steel and Grass, and Aqua Tail to hit those pesky Rock and Ground types.

@ Leftovers

Trait: Magnet Pull

EVs: 172 HP / 252 SAtk / 84 Spd

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Thunderbolt

- Thunder Wave

- Flash Cannon

- Hidden Power [Fire]

Magnezone, what can I say about you that hasn't be said? You are the ultimate trapper for those stalling Steels like Skarmory and Ferrothorn. Twave to spread some paralysis to my opponent's faster Pokemon, Tbolt and Flash Cannon for some powerful STAB moves, and HP Fire for the fairly obvious reason.

@ Focus Sash

Trait: Imposter

EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd

Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)

- Transform

- --

- --

- --

Ditto is well. A Ditto. His purpose is exactly what you'd expect. Someone throws out something powerful or manages to set up on me, and Ditto steals it. I can already hear people saying why not use Scarf over Sash. To be honest, I like using Sash because it gives me access to all of my opponent's moves rather than one and I typically have a 50/50 shot at winning the speed tie anyway.

@ Choice Scarf

Trait: Sand Veil

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Outrage

- Earthquake

- Fire Fang

- Dual Chop

Garchomp is sorta like Tyranitar. I know I need him to make this team work, but I've never really used him before. This set is half what I assumed a basic Garchomp set would be and half me throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. Outrage for the typical Dragon STAB, EQ for the typical Ground STAB, Fire Fang for Steel types with an Air Balloon or Grass types who'd like to try and ruin my day. Dual Chop is basically filler.

@ Leftovers

Trait: Natural Cure

EVs: 4 HP/ 252 SAtk / 252 Spd

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Thunder

- Scald

- Psychic

- Toxic

And finally we get to Starmie, my rain counter. Thunder is there just for the purpose of abusing potential rain and hitting hard, Scald and Psychic are decent STAB moves that work well, plus Scald's chance of burn can shut down a potential physical sweep. Toxic is there just to sorta, y'know, poison people that a burn wouldn't bother.

Well, um, that's it. This is my first real time playing a Sandstorm team, so any advice would be very welcome. As per usual, you'll find an importable below if you want to test this team out for yourself. Thanks for reading, everyone. Poe away!

Geist (Gengar) (M) @ Black Sludge

Trait: Levitate

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Pain Split

- Substitute

- Shadow Ball

- Focus Blast

Gojira (Tyranitar) (M) @ Choice Band

Trait: Sand Stream

EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spd

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Stone Edge

- Fire Punch

- Pursuit

- Aqua Tail

Bolt (Magnezone) @ Leftovers

Trait: Magnet Pull

EVs: 172 HP / 252 SAtk / 84 Spd

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Thunderbolt

- Thunder Wave

- Flash Cannon

- Hidden Power [Fire]

Wild Card (Ditto) @ Focus Sash

Trait: Imposter

EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd

Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)

- Transform

- --

- --

- --

Sand Shark (Garchomp) (M) @ Choice Scarf

Trait: Sand Veil

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Outrage

- Earthquake

- Fire Fang

- Dual Chop

Coral (Starmie) @ Leftovers

Trait: Natural Cure

EVs: 4 HP/ 252 SAtk / 252 Spd

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Thunder

- Scald

- Psychic

- Toxic

[Dark Desire]

Cool team Poe! It looks pretty solid to me, but if your using Band T-tar, maybe replace Fire punch with Superpower and Aqua Tail with Crunch, that's just my personal preference but it may work better for you, i don't know. Also, maybe replacing Pain Split with Destiny Bond or Disable maybe? Seeing as Gengar isn't the most defensive player on your team, maybe those two could work better for him. And lastly, since your running Starmie on your team and you have no spinner on your team, you might as well take out Toxic for Rapid Spin, also maybe switching Thunder for Tbolt, of course Thunder does get to abuse commom rain that poli brings but you won't always have that situation. But this looks like a really nice team! Keep it up!

Rate: 9.5/10

[diana]

Thunder in the middle of the fucking sandstorm

I have played against this, a few times. It's a really nice and solid team, but...

~Garchomp could get Aqua Tail over Dual Chop, or maybe Swords Dance.

I attempted to find something else but I really couldn't. 9.5/10~

[Unknown Guy]

If You Use Hydro Pump Instead Of Scald Then It is more effective
Use Sword Dance Instead Of Dual Chop It Would Be Better
my rate for this team = 8/10

[Summer]

If You Use Hydro Pump Instead Of Scald Then It is more effective

Use Sword Dance Instead Of Dual Chop It Would Be Better

my rate for this team = 8/10

...I agree.

In this case, remove Garchomp's Scarf for Brightpowder or leftovers.

[The Fush]

...I agree.

In this case, remove Garchomp's Scarf for Brightpowder or leftovers.

I wouldn't do that, since Garchomp doesn't have a lot of staying power if it isn't fast, and Scarf is the only way to make Garchomp faster.

Why? Because Poe's Garchomp set, and Garchomp in general, isn't attributed to being a tank; it's more of a "kill everything". Brightpowder+Sand Veil/Snow Cloak may seem great, but sometimes it's fallen short for me; and leftovers is out of the question.

I do agree with Swords Dance, though. Garchomp doesn't need both Dual Chop and Outrage to fulfill it's needs; remove either one of them.

[Joker]

Garchomp is plenty fast to outspeed a lot of things, and with Sand Veil + Brightpowder, he won't be getting hit very often.

Substitute|Swords Dance|Dragon Claw/Outrage|Earthquake\Fire Blast would probably be the best set to abuse this. All you really have to do is bring him out on something you know will be slower, like a Ferrothorn for example. A Starmie came in and got some lucky hits in, you can always switch to Magnezone or your own Starmie to take whatever it would dish out.

Anyway,

Garchomp (F) @ BrightPowder

Trait: Sand Veil

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd

Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

- Substitute

- Swords Dance

- Earthquake

- Dragon Claw

Or

Garchomp (F) @ BrightPowder

Trait: Sand Veil

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd

Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)

- Substitute

- Swords Dance

- Fire Blast

- Outrage

But honestly, the first one works better from my experience.

One last thing, you might want to consider putting Rapid Spin over Toxic on Starmie. Someone may have said that already, but just making sure anyway. Other than that, it's a really good team. 9/10.

[Kiozo]

Heyo Poe. I'm going to try to accompany some parts of what you were going for here, and make some suggestive changes according to that.

First off - congrats on using a team not in your nature and using a sand team not according to the stereotypical nature. The first is important to show growth and the latter is something that people forget can happen, so I'm glad to see both.

Tyranitar - a Banded set is fearsome. Maxing attack like you did shows a rediculous power and is wonderful. The first suggestion I have is to analyze your moves power. You have Stone Edge selected - with STAB, it's a 150 power move. With Fire Punch against Steel/Grass types, that's a 150 power move. True, Rock doesn't work well against Steel, but you switch straight to Magnezone. The moves have the same effectiveness against Grass types, with Bug/Ice getting hit harder by Stone Edge. Fire Punch really only hits Steel effectively for you, so you can do without the move. Adding in Crunch would give you a viable option to stay in on the opponent and still hit them with a STAB move. Superpower really wouldn't do much in coverage for you, since Rock/Steel/Ice is already taken care of, and Earthquake would provide somewhat repetitive coverage as well. That's mostly a flavor pick for specific Pokemon that give you trouble. Otherwise, I would check the EVs to make sure that you're taking minimal potential damage on the special side while still taking decent HP EV's overall.

Starmie - I'm going to echo a little of what's been said here but with a small change. Starmie looks to be the answer for the opposing rain, but that seems to be only for Politoed and other applicable water types. I can see Thunder fitting in here. The only thing that comes to mind for Psychic however, is Toxicroak, and that doesn't really feel like it warrents a moveslot over Rapid Spin, which Toxic feels like it could be more widely applicable in rain minus the Hydration ability. You have enough to take care of Toxicroak in other Pokemon I would think. The only reason is to give assurance to Ditto, but if you feel it's not worth it, that's fine.

Gengar - first, the importable is missing a line for him. Second, he seems to have a good set, although Focus is iffy to take that potential advantage from you if the opponent misplays, but overall it seems odd for a lead set. I understand that you do not want weather to be your lead, but did you analyze what you really get out of it? I'm not to sure you get a lot. Ditto could move there in order to get that copy onto opposing stealth rockers, and save sash, and on top of that too save a slot from not needing rapid spin as bad. Alternatively, you could send Starmie there if you forsee rain leads being an issue and want to stop them swiftly off of misplays. If you have a reason that it works, I would like to know.

If you have any questions about what I said, feel free to ask on the server. I see some small stuff otherwise, but that's nitpicking. Good job on the team.