Gen 5 OU Sand Team

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Alright, so after reading several threads and experiencing some major faults on Showdown, I have thus decided to post my first thread for one purpose; I need help.

My team plays well within itself, but Rain Teams, even with dual-Sand Streamers, are a tremendous wall of a problem to my gritty veil, as well as many other Pokemon that I have come across.

Without further delay, here is the team.


Hippowdon (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Slack Off
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind

Opening up and serving as the hardest thing on my team to take down, Hippowdon has served me faithfully well. Setting up SR, then Whirlwinding anything that's trying to set up on her, there isn't much she isn't good at. Flying-types are the bane of her existence, however.

I chose Hippowdon as my Stealth Rock lead because I felt it would be better to open up with a Weather-inducer, unless the opponent has their own, which is when my othr SR layer comes into play. Also, Hippowdon takes extensive damage from many Pokemon, notably (in my experience) Alakazam, Gengar, Tyranitar, and Metagross. Mine is a mixed wall, as I have found Water-types rather abundant and annoying outside of Rain-teams as well as within them.

Tyranitar (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Atk / 76 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Brick Break

My pride and joy, Tyranitar, was once the most threatening thing I had at my disposal, but come the loss of Dragon Dance, and the Tyrant of Sand has taken a back seat to many other Pokemon. I chose him over Garchomp for a very simple reason; I don't like Dragon-types (Fairy-types, praise ye!).

I chose Tyranitar for a few simple reasons: It is my favorite Pokemon by far. It looks like Godzilla and is based off of said creature in some aspects. He has amazing offensive potential, even with the loss of Dragon Dance, he still proves to be one of my biggest threats, except for when anything running a Fighting-type move comes into play that either resists his STAB (or other moves) or out-speeds him.

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 172 Def / 88 Spd
Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]

The first Legendary I ever actually used in OU, this guy serves as a backup Stealth Rocker, and that's just about it. It takes out quite a few Pokemon in it's SR driven rampages, but he leaves much desired.

I chose this particular Pokemon because he seems to fit well with counter other Weather-inducing leads. Albeit, he isn't very useful outside of cleaning up, he makes an oddly nice alt. SR layer, and even with that, he can crush quite a few leads easily. His immunity to Electric-type attacks and Ground-type STAB are quite devastating.

Terrakion @ Salac Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Sacred Sword
- Stone Edge

Needed a Fighting-type immune to Sandstorm. He generally doesn't do a good job at what I use him for, and honestly, I have no idea what that is. I'm guessing he's pretty much just a bad choice.

Steel-, Rock- and Dark-types are ever prevelant in annoying me, and as such, I chose this nifty guy to attempt to check them. His Rock-type half allows him to survive his Fly-type threats, but other than that, he's quite frail in my hands, and never lasts very long. But, with Swords Dance and a Substitute out, he's proven to be a force to be reckoned with.

Gastrodon (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature
- Earth Power
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Recover

My second favorite Water-type (Swampert remains #1), Gastrodon has served as my main Rain-team counter for many games, and has surprisingly been able to hold its own well against them. However, it's but one Pokemon, and I feel a Rapid Spinner may be better in her place. Decidedly, though, she takes a good beating while dishing out an even better beating.

Being able to absorb Water-type attacks, and deal effectively with Tentacruel, this nifty Pokemon has served well in its place. When given the appropriate boost, it has taken down many Pokemon, while using Recover to keep itself in the game. Usually, it isn't walled by much of anything, unless another Gastrodon, Swampert, or Gengar come into play.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Toxic

Fire-types are annoying, and this is generally my go-to Fire-type check. He generally doesn't have much trouble once Earthquake-users are down for the count, but sadly, hos speed leaves too much to be desired even with max EVs. That all aside, who came up with a salamander that's both Fire- and Steel-type? Ground-types tear this thing apart.

Being able to shred through Steel-, Grass- and Ice-types is this guy's main purpose, and he does it well. He usually won't last long when an EQ-user swaps in, but once they're all gone, he'll crush anything slower than him in a heartbeat. Overall, though, he's only done so twice, and it an immense letdown other times.

As anyone could guess, I am entirely new to all of this, and have been using sets found on Smogon to get a hold of the pace of the metagame at hand. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you to anyone who actually took their time to look at this, and, in advance, thank you to anyone who may give me tips and tricks.
 
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This is not the first sand team I have come across with six Pokemon immune to sand damage on it - they rarely make for good teams because you are stacking weaknesses big time. Still, there is plenty that is salvageable in this team and it has some good ideas in it (even if those ideas are the smogon communities and not your own :p)

Two Sand Stream inducers is a bad idea, and Life Orb Tyranitar is, while maybe not a bad idea, certainly pretty rare. Life Orb is the sweeper's item of choice, while Tyranitar is typically more of a bulky attacker, which is why Tyranitar would almost always rather be banded or scarfed except for the Dragon Dance set. I'd recommend losing Ttar fr something else. I know it's your favourite. Well, if you want to use it at least make use of its bulk by not giving it an item that continually erodes its HP.

You're also lacking a Choice Scarf user and any priority moves. This is a bad idea because it will allow fast, frail threats such as Alakazam, and various Dragon Dance users, to walk all over your team because you cannot revenge-kill them.

Here are a couple of sets that are extremely standard and I think would make an awesome addition to the team.

Scizor @ Choice Band

- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Ability: Technician
EVs: HP and Attack
Nature: Adamant

Rotom-W

- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire/Ice]
- Trick

Ability: Levitate
EVs: Special Attack and Speed
Nature: Timid

I would recommend using these guys instead of Ttar and Gastrodon. Both of these give you momentum with a switching move; both give you revenge-killing (priority and choice scarf, respectively), and Rotom-W in particular gives you probably a better rain check than Gastrodon.
 
Yeah, sad that I was stuck with Smogon ideas (but what's a newbie gonna do? I'm still working on my unorthodox stuff), but your advice sounds quite nice.

That aside, could you provide maybe a bit more detailed of a description to Rotom-W's choice between HP Fire and HP Ice (I really have no idea which would be a better choice for any reason, as I only just began using Rotom-W on a Gen 6 Pokebank team).

When it comes to Terrakion, could you recommend anything else? I really, really don't like him, as he's only ever served me as cannon fodder. The same can be said for Landorus-T.

Also, despite being my favorite, I have noticed T-tar is usually the first guy to get dropped on my team, as he did on my Pokebank team as well (in favor of Rotom-W ironically).
 
HP fire kills ferrothorn, HP ice kills dragons, so the choice depends on whichever one is giving you more trouble.

And it's scarfed by the way, I didn't put that in but I hope from the set the item should be obvious....
 
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