[insert clever desert-based pun here]

[Hazegopteryx]

Hello, RMT, as you might be able to tell by the post count, I've just recently made this account, however, I've been lurking and battling for a great deal longer.
I decided that if I wanted to make a weather abusing team, it would be Sandstorm, because there is a special hate in my heart for Drizzle Politoed, and Ninetales has always been unreliable for me. With this in mind, I started this team thinking I would carry both Tyranitar and Hippowdon, along with a bunch of sets that seemed to be beating me. Yeah... not the best process. After a construction period on a different forum, I came up with this team and I'd like you guys to take a look at it

At a glance:

In-depth:

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind

This is Hippowdon, who surprisingly, often ends up a minor player on this team. Nonetheless, he sets up the storm, gets the rocks on the field, slacks off the damage, then either whirlwinds, earthquakes, or switches for another pokemon. This Hippowdon is maxed out to take physical hits, and has what I believe to be a good synergy with my Special wall, Jellicent, as Jellicent is immune to water-type attacks, which threaten Hippowdon. Meanwhile, Hippowdon soaks up electric-type attacks, which threaten Jellicent. I generally don't use Hippowdon as a lead, as he's far to easy to OHKO, often forcing a switch to Jellicent before he can get much done, and he's far too easy to make useless with Taunt, as a good portion of Taunt users are ghosts with Levitate.

Terrakion @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat

Terrakion is an offensive monster, who unfortunately gets cut down by priority. Terrakion will switch in against a resisted hit, hopefully dark-type. Terrakion will generally force out something, giving it a free chance to either set up Swords dance or Rock Polish, as the opponent switches out. From there, it can basically wreak havoc, until it gets worn down by Life Orb, or gets hit by priority. Terrakion usually gets saved for late game cleaning, after I can cripple or kill its counters.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 SDef
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Iron Head
- Body Slam
- Protect

Jirachi is my go-to pokemon for fast threats, which it cripples with Serene Grace Body Slam. Afterwards, it can paraflinch, and recover, on the off chance a move connects. Jirachi's ability to cripple fast sweepers makes it good to let someone who needs to set up in. Hippowdon can get rocks on the field, Terrakion can set up with one of its boosting moves, or Jirachi can make way for Reuniclus to start some srs bsns.

Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Recover
- Calm Mind
- Focus Blast
- Psyshock

Reuniclus is quite arguably the most dangerous pokemon on this team. With defensive investment, nd a few Calm Minds, he becomes nearly unstoppable. Psyshock hits even Chansey and Blissey for massive damage (a OHKO with a few boosts), while Focus Blast deals damage on the special side, murdering (usually physically defensive) steel-types. Reuniclus can also switch in on Toxic, and all entry hazards, which is very good. He's very dangerous, once enemy Scizor and Sableye are dealt with.

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Secret Sword

Here he is, my revenge killer. In short, he revenge kills anything without a monstrous SDef stat, and effectively counters most Salamence, specifically Dragon Dance sets, as Keldeo will still outspeed it after a Dragon Dance boost. Keldeo is very good at what he does, and I'm quite sure what more there is to it.

Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 216 SDef / 44 Spd
Bold Nature
- Surf
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover

The final member of the team is Jellicent, my Special wall. He has good synergy with my Hippowdon, being immune to one of Hippowdon's weaknesses, and vice versa. The Speed IVs are there to outspeed and cripple banded Scizor with a burn, if he gets any ideas about switching in. Taunt makes him an effective Forretress counter as well, as he's immune to Rapid Spin, and can Taunt Forretress to stop it cold. I often use Jellicent as a lead, because peopel often expect me to lead with Hippowdon, to set up the storm. He makes a good Anti-lead, with Taunt, and if I see an Alakazam or Espeon on their team, switching into a Surf is always a nasty surprise.
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Importable:

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Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 Def / 252 HP / 252 SDef
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind

Terrakion @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 SDef
Careful Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Spd
- Wish
- Iron Head
- Body Slam
- Protect

Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Recover
- Calm Mind
- Focus Blast
- Psyshock

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Secret Sword

Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 216 SDef / 44 Spd
Bold Nature
- Surf
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover

 

[byk]

Considering a lot of your team is weak to grass attacks I think adding Scizor for Terrakion would be a good idea. It also gives you a priority move user to hit something that already set up, plus has a resistance to grass

 

[Hazegopteryx]

Considering a lot of your team is weak to grass attacks I think adding Scizor for Terrakion would be a good idea. It also gives you a priority move user to hit something that already set up, plus has a resistance to grass

Alright, thanks, I'll try one out, what set would you suggest, Scarf or Band?

 

[Electrolyte]

Hey there, I got your request.

It seems as if your Sand team is unusually weak to Grass types and as a result Sun. This is quite obviously because you have 4 pokemon that are weak to Grass, as well as because you lack ways to hit and kill these pesky Grass types. Celebi is a huge threat to this team, no matter what set it runs, because it can easily flat out wall and KO Hippowdown, Reuniclus, Keldeo, and Jellicent, and it can sponge an attack from Terrakion and dent it hard as well. Some Sun sweepers like Venasaur may also be a threat if Reuniclus or Jirachi are taken down, as those two are the only ones that can not be KO'd. Volcaronas that carry Giga Drain can also be very annoying, since they can use it to hit Jellicent and Keldeo. As you may or may not have noticed, the root of all of these problems seem to me as if they stem from Keldeo. Its revenging role can be and should be given to Terrakion (I'll explain later) because Keldeo's coverage can be walled by many of the grass types in your team- and the fact that they can wall it is one of the biggest problems in this team as it makes it hard for you to successfully revenge opponents. Keldeo is also weak to Sun- a weather your team already struggles with- so why make things any worse? I feel as if replacing Keldeo with Choice Band Scizor and then giving Terrakion Choice Scarf is a good way to improve the team.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Adamant / 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Bullet Punch / U-Turn / Pursuit / Superpower

First off is Scizor. The reason why I think Scizor along with Choice Scarf Terrakion would be more effective is because Scizor completely erases all of your Grass type weaknesses whilst still retaining a lot of good bulk and revenging / cleaning capabilities. Scizor can easily OHKO or 2HKO most Grass types with its powerful U-Turn, which can also be used to scout switch ins. Its magnificent x4 resistance to grass will allow it to switch in multiple times to take hits from Breloom or Celebi. Its powerful Choice Banded priority STAB move in Bullet Punch is quite explosive in power and fast too- letting you easily revenge kill many opponents. Bullet Punch also maims Tyranitar and Terrakion- the former of whom can trap Reuniclus and the latter of whom can be used to prevent your own Terrakion from dealing much damage. Pursuit lets Scizor trap Psychic / Ghost types, which will also be extremely useful- as those are types your team may have trouble with. Scizor can trap Lati@s, Espeon, Gengar, Reuniclus, Zams without HP Fire, and much more, and all of the above list can pose a significant threat to Terrakion and Reuniclus. Finally, Scizor has Superpower, which can be used to OHKO Ferrothorn, Magnezone, and Heatran, 3 common checks / counters to Scizor. It may seem as if Scizor only hurts your chances against Sun, but it does anything but that. Bullet Punch cleaves off ~70% from Venasaur, which allows Jirachi of such to finish it off. Scizor's U-Turn and Pursuit can also help at keeping rogue Xatus at bay, and to stifle the effect of Dugtrio.

The second major change I suggest is to give Terrakion a Choice Scarf.

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Jolly / 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Stone Edge / Close Combat / X-Scissor / Earthquake

With Keldeo gone, Terrakion can now take the role of dedicated revenge killer / cleaner, and I think it will serve your team better. One of the mainreasons why I have this thought is because Terrakion has much better coverage than Keldeo- and because its coverage directs a weakness towards Ground types, not Grass types like Keldeo does. This again helps decrease your grass type weakness. Terrakion's Stone Edge can also be used to hit Volcarona and DDancers- something Keldeo doesn't do as reliably. Terrakion's powerful, accurate Close Combat can also be used to clean up weakened teams once Scizor has trapped all of the Fighting resists. Terrakion's X-Scissor is another useful move that lets it nail Psychic or Grass types- and it heavily cripples Celebi. This is really important as it prevents those psychic types from setting up and running you over. Lastly, Terrakion's Earthquake hits Toxicroak and Jirachi, and it can also be used in times where you want drawback-less moves. Or, you can try Sandstorm, to quickly change the weather in your favor to screw with Sun / Rain.

Now, for a minor change. I'd definitely suggest that you run Shadow Ball over Recover on Reuniclus. This helps you hit Ghost types like Jellicent / Gengar and Psychic types like Lati@s, Alakazam, or Celebi. Again, having coverage against those pokemon is important as it decreases your general vulnerability to those types. This also makes Reuniclus a lot more dangerous and harder to wall- giving it perfect coverage. It doesn't really need Recover as Lefties will aleays be providing healing anyway.

Good luck! I hope I helped!

 

[Hazegopteryx]

Hey there, I got your request.

It seems as if your Sand team is unusually weak to Grass types and as a result Sun. This is quite obviously because you have 4 pokemon that are weak to Grass, as well as because you lack ways to hit and kill these pesky Grass types. Celebi is a huge threat to this team, no matter what set it runs, because it can easily flat out wall and KO Hippowdown, Reuniclus, Keldeo, and Jellicent, and it can sponge an attack from Terrakion and dent it hard as well. Some Sun sweepers like Venasaur may also be a threat if Reuniclus or Jirachi are taken down, as those two are the only ones that can not be KO'd. Volcaronas that carry Giga Drain can also be very annoying, since they can use it to hit Jellicent and Keldeo. As you may or may not have noticed, the root of all of these problems seem to me as if they stem from Keldeo. Its revenging role can be and should be given to Terrakion (I'll explain later) because Keldeo's coverage can be walled by many of the grass types in your team- and the fact that they can wall it is one of the biggest problems in this team as it makes it hard for you to successfully revenge opponents. Keldeo is also weak to Sun- a weather your team already struggles with- so why make things any worse? I feel as if replacing Keldeo with Choice Band Scizor and then giving Terrakion Choice Scarf is a good way to improve the team.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Adamant / 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Bullet Punch / U-Turn / Pursuit / Superpower

First off is Scizor. The reason why I think Scizor along with Choice Scarf Terrakion would be more effective is because Scizor completely erases all of your Grass type weaknesses whilst still retaining a lot of good bulk and revenging / cleaning capabilities. Scizor can easily OHKO or 2HKO most Grass types with its powerful U-Turn, which can also be used to scout switch ins. Its magnificent x4 resistance to grass will allow it to switch in multiple times to take hits from Breloom or Celebi. Its powerful Choice Banded priority STAB move in Bullet Punch is quite explosive in power and fast too- letting you easily revenge kill many opponents. Bullet Punch also maims Tyranitar and Terrakion- the former of whom can trap Reuniclus and the latter of whom can be used to prevent your own Terrakion from dealing much damage. Pursuit lets Scizor trap Psychic / Ghost types, which will also be extremely useful- as those are types your team may have trouble with. Scizor can trap Lati@s, Espeon, Gengar, Reuniclus, Zams without HP Fire, and much more, and all of the above list can pose a significant threat to Terrakion and Reuniclus. Finally, Scizor has Superpower, which can be used to OHKO Ferrothorn, Magnezone, and Heatran, 3 common checks / counters to Scizor. It may seem as if Scizor only hurts your chances against Sun, but it does anything but that. Bullet Punch cleaves off ~70% from Venasaur, which allows Jirachi of such to finish it off. Scizor's U-Turn and Pursuit can also help at keeping rogue Xatus at bay, and to stifle the effect of Dugtrio.

The second major change I suggest is to give Terrakion a Choice Scarf.

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Jolly / 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Stone Edge / Close Combat / X-Scissor / Earthquake

With Keldeo gone, Terrakion can now take the role of dedicated revenge killer / cleaner, and I think it will serve your team better. One of the mainreasons why I have this thought is because Terrakion has much better coverage than Keldeo- and because its coverage directs a weakness towards Ground types, not Grass types like Keldeo does. This again helps decrease your grass type weakness. Terrakion's Stone Edge can also be used to hit Volcarona and DDancers- something Keldeo doesn't do as reliably. Terrakion's powerful, accurate Close Combat can also be used to clean up weakened teams once Scizor has trapped all of the Fighting resists. Terrakion's X-Scissor is another useful move that lets it nail Psychic or Grass types- and it heavily cripples Celebi. This is really important as it prevents those psychic types from setting up and running you over. Lastly, Terrakion's Earthquake hits Toxicroak and Jirachi, and it can also be used in times where you want drawback-less moves. Or, you can try Sandstorm, to quickly change the weather in your favor to screw with Sun / Rain.

Now, for a minor change. I'd definitely suggest that you run Shadow Ball over Recover on Reuniclus. This helps you hit Ghost types like Jellicent / Gengar and Psychic types like Lati@s, Alakazam, or Celebi. Again, having coverage against those pokemon is important as it decreases your general vulnerability to those types. This also makes Reuniclus a lot more dangerous and harder to wall- giving it perfect coverage. It doesn't really need Recover as Lefties will aleays be providing healing anyway.

Good luck! I hope I helped!

Alright, thanks a lot for the analysis. Just a question, though. On the subject of Reuniclus, in most places I've gone, I've heard that CM needs Recover support on Reuniclus, in order to get a sufficient number of boosts in. Is this not true, as you've suggested I trash Recover?

Also, for my Hippowdon, would you suggest a Mixed or Physical Wall?

 

[joshe]

You're pretty Scizor, Landorus, and sun weak I suppose. lets see what we can do. this rate is gonna be pretty short because im pretty tired (edit: LOL nvm) but i've been looking at this team for a while and seeing what i can do to improve on it.

I'd like to start with reuniclus. With your current set you have just too many problems with Tyranitar, Scizor, Jirachi and the mass of U-turners who give you a ton of trouble regardless of how many boosts you have and it makes reuniclus kinda useless vs teams that have these Pokemon (which are most of the metagame). I really want you to use an offensive trick room version of reuniclus and try out the suggestions I'll suggest below. This clearly makes your team a lot more offensive and it fits better in this meta as everything is mostly speed related. You'll have a few opportunities to set up as well and whatever switches in on it, namely scizor, blissey, etc, won't like your life orb boosted attacks which deal tons. you can read more about it here to decide what moves you want to use. this set is very powerful and it accomplishes what i think you want it to do.

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Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 192 HP / 64 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
- Trick Room
- Psyshock / Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball / Hidden Power [Fire]

With reuniclus as an offensive version, i'd like to set up another strategy that could help your team out greatly, and you have the right slots to do this and the right mons to abuse this. Firstly, put U-turn on Jirachi over Protect. I feel it'd be a much better option for scouting rather than protecting and possibly misplaying by giving your opponent an extra turn. You really want to keep the offensive momentum in your favor and U-turn helps you keep yourself 1 step ahead and still deals damage. you also should be paralyzing a ton of stuff anyway with body slam and u-turning while they switch out forces your opponent to switch out on whatever you switch in against it or die.

Building upon this u-turn strategy that I'd like to incorporate, I feel like Rotom-W would be a better fit over Jellicent. The only thing you'd lose out on would be a spin blocker which more/less isn't that needed due to you only having stealth rock. With the constant u-turning and volt switching, dragonite wont be able to get a free turn to switch in and set up due to multiscale anyway. Rotom-w also handles landorus a little better than jellicent due to it being immune to earth power but I'm pretty sure it still gets 2HKOd by Focus Blast (focus blast shouldn't ever hit twice in a row unless you're really unlucky so you can consider rotom-w a counter to landorus). Other than that it plays pretty much the same way, albeit much more offensively as a pivot for your team to keep that offensive momentum up when you need it. The chesto rest version is pretty cool if you want a status absorber other than with reuniclus but really any version works well with Jirachi, forming the famous Volt-turn combo.

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Rotom-w @ Chesto Berry / Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 232 SDef / 28 Spd
Calm Nature
- Will-o-Wisp
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Rest / Pain Split

as for the rest of the team, you can try out a few things. Firstly you could give Keldeo a Choice Specs and use it as a wall breaker for reuniclus to break down walls and stuff that hampers reuniclus' sweep such as celebi, scizor, tyranitar, blissey, and chansey. by doing this you should give Terrakion a Choice Scarf to handle those speedy threats that can give you a problem on sun teams for example although you'll still be troubled by venusaur, but you'll have to play that match up very carefully regardless of what you change on your team (dont let it switch in for free). with Jirachi and Rotom-w acting as your offensive pivots you shouldn't have too hard of a time getting both of these pokemon in when they want to be in and keeping up that momentum so you can keep firing off those powerful hydro pumps and close combats. I'll list sets below then explain them after:

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Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind
- Hidden Power [Ghost] / Hidden Power [Bug]

AND

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor

These moves are pretty specific and i'll just tell you generally what they do. Specs Icy Wind from Keldeo 2HKOs most versions of Latias and Latios with exception of 252 HP Latias AND slows their speed which means you either kill them or they switch out to something that gets -1 speed. Hidden Power [ghost] is mainly for jellicent and i guess to have a shot at 2hkoing celebi but bug will harm it even more and still hit psychic types as well. it's up to you to choose as both are pretty darn good. Hydro Pump should 2hko a lot of things and 3hko pretty much everything. Secret Sword makes Blissey hurt. a lot. this is great for reuniclus as i doubt focus blast 2hkos (you shouldn't rely on it to hit twice in a row as I'm sure you already know). For Terrakion he plays pretty much as a revenge killer and his moves are pretty self explanatory. play him like you used to play scarf keldeo as they are very similar.

I don't really see much else with this team that i want to change. Grass type weakness doesn't really mean that much when you have Specially Defensive Jirachi to tank most of those attacks and reuniclus to set up on pretty handily. you could try scizor over keldeo if you want but you'll have a lot more trouble with skarmory then. It could be worth it to have something to 2hko most fast things with bullet punch and have such a powerful u-turn but i feel keldeo fits pretty well with this team currently, especially with reuniclus. overall i think specs keldeo + scarf terrakion will be your best option but it's up to you to decide of course.

Other than that, maybe try Ice Fang over Whirlwind on Hippowdon to 2HKO most physical dragons that are 4x weak to it but it's really preference more than anything.

good luck with your team my friend and i hope you like my advice :)