SS OU Noooooooooooooooooooooooo! Not Sand!

“I hate sand, it’s rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.” -Most people after they get beaten by my team. Is it good? Maybe. Is it viable? Possibly.



Thorn (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers

Ability: Iron Barbs

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD

Impish Nature

IVs: 0 Spe

- Leech Seed

- Body Press

- Knock Off

- Gyro Ball

Ferrothorn in general is a great Pokémon for how it’s defensive typing allows it stall against most opponents/force a switch, with Iron Barbs giving Urishifu-Rapid Strike a hard time. Sandstorm doesn’t affect Ferrothorn, so it already has several turns where it’s doing good chip damage. With Leech seed for sustain alongside it’s leftovers, Body Press to deal some damage, knock off for general utility, and Gyro ball to hit hard against opposing fairies, Ferrothorn is a key staller on my team.



Hippo (Hippowdon) @ Smooth Rock

Ability: Sand Stream

EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 Spe

Adamant Nature

- Slack Off

- Earthquake

- Rock Slide

- Roar

!1!!111!!1 I’m not using Tyranitar as a sand-setter?! Yep, it’s true. Hippowdon is generally sen much less often in OU, which means many don’t know about its deceptively high attack and bulk. While Tyranitar has rock typing and gets that doubled special defence (as a result of sand), Hippowdon comes with the benefit of not being weak to everyone and their mother. With Slack Off to heal up, Earthquake to kill anything that isn’t a Landorus-Therian, Rock Slide to somewhat deal with Landorus-Therian, and Roar just in case, Hippowdon is a key component to the team.



Drill (Excadrill) @ Air Balloon

Ability: Sand Rush

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Earthquake

- Iron Head

- Swords Dance

- Rock Slide

You love him, you hate him, you still can’t believe he’s in UU, it’s Excadrill! He’s a sweeper, and a good one at that. Experimenting with Air Balloon (Expert Belt was the previous pick) to be immune to what would be a Ground-Weakness (and usually the reason he dies), His Sand Rush makes him the fastest Pokémon in the tier, and a complete killing machine. Earthquake is a primary STAB move, Iron Head takes out Fairy types, Swords Dance allows him to reach monstrous levels of power, and Rock slide is to cope with Landorus-Therian.



Sparks (Dracozolt) @ Life Orb

Ability: Sand Rush

EVs: 148 Atk / 176 SpA / 184 Spe

Naughty Nature

- Bolt Beak

- Draco Meteor

- Earthquake

- Fire Blast

You’re probably wondering to yourself why I have more than one sweeper. If you are, that’s perfectly fine. If Excadrill runs into trouble (aka the Pokémon out would one-shot him if he switched in, and it isn’t Landorus-Therian, God I hate that Pokémon), Dracozolt can take his place if he goes down, or vice versa. Bolt Beak has extremely large amounts of power in combo with Sand Rush, Draco Meteor is here to stuff Dragapult, Earthquake is just that good, and Fire Blast kills that Ferrothorn standing in their way.



Chomper (Garchomp) @ Leftovers

Ability: Rough Skin

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Swords Dance

- Earthquake

- Crunch

- Dragon Claw

I don’t really remember why Garchomp was placed on my team, but it has its moments. Leftovers are also somewhat there as a placeholder. Swords Dance boosts Attack, Earthquake is just obligatory on my team at this point, Crunch can take out the occasional Psychic type, and Dragon Claw was for a STAB Dragon Attack.



Oh, that guy. (Kommo-o) @ Throat Spray

Ability: Soundproof

EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Clangorous Soul

- Clanging Scales

- Aura Sphere

- Flash Cannon

Anyone who’s looked at Kommo-o for any amount of time would believe what I’ve done with it to be downright insane. Yet, there’s a good reason to running this set. Surprise factor. In OU, many people run vastly different types of Pokémon, but generally the defined meta means the same Pokémon are going be used. Not many are going to assume Kommo-o is there for what he’s actually meant for. A Clangorous Soul use is enough to bring Kommo-o to lightning speeds, with stupid amounts of Special Attack to hit hard with the STAB signature move Clanging Scales, Aura Sphere smashes through what would have been a good check with either Blissey or any Steel Type, and Flash Cannon turns what would have been a Fairy type that would dominate you into just another murder.

As a bit of proof, here are a few games where they did well.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1696771805

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1696814185

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1696818858



All right, before we finish, I want to give a shoutout to SteeneeMallow2. Their Balanced Sand team forms the hollow of my team, and I’d never, ever come up with the idea to use Kommo-o Special Attack.
 
Its a really interesting team , and here are few things which might help you to improve your team.
Sand as a whole depends heavily on hippo , so you would want it to be as bulky as possible . 252hp on hippo is therefore mandatory to ensure you have it hanging in the back.
Ferro is the only urshifu check (not really a check cuz - close combat ) , i would suggest using something like corvi or rotom-wash which are pretty much staple mons for sand
a defensive rotom wash set like :

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Level: 100
Calm Nature
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / other def and sp def evs according to need
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Thunder Wave/Will-o-wisp
- Pain Split

you need a stealth rocker in your team and a sp def check which can be garchomp
Garchomp @ Leftovers
Level: 100
Jolly Nature
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Protect/dragon tail

if even if want to run offensive garchomp , then scale shot is a much much better option than dragon claw .
moreover , you would likely want toxic on hippo rather than rock slide , yes you lose your chance to hit flying types or levitate users, but toxic is much better in the long run.
3 dragon types makes this team insanely weak to stuffs like focus blast lele , which can rip apart this team and in hindsight can even 6-0 it . the most amount of dragon types you would want is 2 . considering you keep garchomp and dracozolt , you can switch kommo-o for something like rotom-wash as previously mentioned by me
 

Amstan

beebadoobea
is a Tiering Contributor
new team: https://pokepast.es/1554bf96aae607fc

the first change made was the ferro moveset. ferro wants at least a hazard most of the time so spikes is pgood cuz u also got hippo for rocks. pwhip can be changed for gyro if u rlly want it but it shouldn't matter much.

2nd change was the hippo set. hippo likes spdef to actually not get killed by a light breeze from the special side cuz its physdef is decent enough already. rocks + toxic for rock slide and roar b/c hazards are good for dracozolt+drill and toxic makes zap alot worse of a switchin to drill.

the only change to drill was rock slide to rapid spin cause you lack hazard control. this team is just going to get run over by spikestack and rocks.

chomp was replaced by gastro cuz this team is rlly weak to volcanion and just waters in general. gastro also improves ur shifu matchup by a little bit but this team still gets kinda run over by shifu.

av torn for kommo to actually have a pult switchin so you can win in that matchup as well. icy wind to prevent dnite from setting up.

some things to look out for is the shifu matchup cuz you legit have zero switchins. try not to let rillaboom set up cuz barring torn you cant take a hit. torn will get ohkoed by a sd lo knock and bulky rilla will ko with knock into glide.
 
I'd like to thank both of you! I'm not exactly willing to give up Kommo-o, but I still appreciate the effort both of you placed into modifying my team.
 

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