SM OU Non-Stop Sandstorm

[cookiemonster450]

Hippowdon Tyranitar Excadrill Latios Scizor Clefable

Team Comp checklist:
Mega: Is it a T-Tar? A Scizor? A Lati? Post your answer in the survey!
Hazards: We got THREE stealth rockers - two of them are our Sandbringers, T-Tar and Hippo, and the other is Clef. Good luck defogging and rapid spinning against the barrage of Yawn, Dragon Tail and Wish passes.
Hazard control: Sand rush Exca with Rapid spin (and supported by team of 2 sandbringers and 1 cleric with healing wish). The team remains mostly hazard free, but let's just say if you see a hazard on my side of field, it's because I didn't think it was worth one round to do it.
Phazers: A Whirlwind, a Dragon Tail.
Crowd Control: Yawn on Hippo. Scarf-Trick Lati.
Where's the damage?: Exca tries to sweep but can't always. The second biggest damage output of the team is from residual sand chip and rocks combined. Then there's Lati to wear down foes and just take one life maybe. Scizor with his sweet coverage and good ol' BP can do some decent cleanup. And there's toxic on T-Tar just in case we run into some big, fat cleric-less bulkster.

1. Default Sand team mon
Excadrill @ Steelium Z
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin

Typical EV spread, Steelium Z to hit harder on STAB and Rapid Spin instead of Rock Slide for Hazard Control if and when needed. 'Nuff said. No wait. There are two sand-bringers - meaning we'll have terrain for days. It's sometimes nice to keep this guy alive for multiple stints out. Use aggressive switching a lot and fully utilize Exca. Don't forget it still has Rapid Spin though.

2. Sand-bringer Utility (1 of 2)
Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Pursuit
- Dragon Tail
- Toxic

Smooth Rock gives sand for days: which the entire team (other than Latios) enjoys. Pursuit to catch those psychic switchouts. Dragon Tail for occasional phasing needs. Toxic helps take down bulky stalls. The EV spread is meant to maximize its mixed bulk (Sandstorm buffs SpD. so +252 Impish for phys def). This guy can take a hit. Or two. Chopple berry not preferred over smooth rock due to team needs and weather dominance.

3. Bulky sand-bringer Support (2 of 2)
Hippowdon @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Slack Off
- Yawn
- Whirlwind
- Stealth Rock

Both T-Tar and Hippo? Both with Smooth rock? Overkill much?
I don't know. Sand is just must have on my team. The Smooth Rocks are for extending it and the dual Sand-bringers are for asserting dominance over weather when up against pesky rain. This is a very typical Hippo set other than the Smooth Rock, so 'nuff said here.

4. Surprise Coverage Scizor
Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Roost
- Aerial Ace

Max HP and Atk with Adamant for plug-and-play offensive prowess. Bullet Punch, Bug Bite and Roost are kind of explanatory. Knock Off not taken in favor of AERIAL ACE. This thing has interesting coverage as it hits stuff like M-Lopunny, Venusaur, Volcarona. Remember that Volc. that hard switched into your unboosted Bullet Punch? Now watch it Quiver Dance in your face and get KOd by technician-boosted Aerial Ace. Now that's double-A.

5. Tricky Scarf Lati
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Trick
- Ice Beam
- Psyshock

Quite typical set with Draco, Ice Beam, Psyshock and Trick, max SpA and speed with Timid and scarf. Psyshock preferred over Psychic to hit pink blobs and such better. The idea is to hit as many stuff with Draco as possible and let weather chip and Scizor BP do the rest (assuming Exca has failed). Trick cripples a lot of set-uppers, bulksters and whatnot, especially during the endgame. Deals with Zard Y, Gren etc.


6. Clerical Martyr
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Stealth Rock
- Healing Wish

Magic Guard is a must because SAND FOR DAYS. Wish and Heal bell to provide typical Clef support. Stealth Rock makes it the THIRD rocker on the team (and in some matchups, a viable Lead even). Healing Wish is for giving second wind to Lati, when it seems unsure if it can take a hit to receive a normal Wish. Bulksters like Hippo and T-Tar can take the Wish. Oh, and Exca -- just when they think you're done, you healing wish into an Exca and gg -- because let's face it, it's always going to be sandy.

You want to try it? Here it is https://pokepast.es/90f003d3f2db6301

Threats:
Ok so I am scrolling down SM OU viability ranking thread and listing mons that cause issues:
Celesteela - Two not-so-straightforward ways I take care of it: either gift it a Scarf, or shuffle their team with whirlwind/dragon tail until he's the only mon left.
Any balanced team led by a trainer who knows what's up - That is the only real threat to such str0nk balance. And a very viable one, otherwise I would have posted by 1900+ ELO with this team.

Can't think of anything else. How about you name names and I tell you why they're not threats. Gren, Mag, Ferro, Pex, Sableye, Stall, all that and more.

Cheers

 

[Ace Trainer Conan]

Seems like most people guessed right!

5. Tricky Scarf Lati
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Trick
- Ice Beam
- Psyshock

I didn't quite catch: Is that a Latios or Latias?

 

[TheJ3estPenguin]

Seems like most people guessed right!



I didn't quite catch: Is that a Latios or Latias?

Latios, also people probably looked at the post to see which mega it is before answering the survey

 

[Cervar]

Latios, also people probably looked at the post to see which mega it is before answering the survey

It‘s just that no sane human being would use vanilla scizor in OU. Tyranitar and Latios on the other hand aren‘t trash in their base forms.

 

[Bold School]

It‘s just that no sane human being would use vanilla scizor in OU. Tyranitar and Latios on the other hand aren‘t trash in their base forms.

That's not really true. I've run choice band Scizor in OU and it can be quite good, especially with all the fairy and grass types. It also has more initial power than the mega, which needs to SD up first. I mean, it can switch into Tapu Bulu's grass stab and often OHKO's it (with no defensive EV investment) or Mega Alakazam with bullet bunch. You can get a slow U-Turn pivot. You can run superpower for steel types and Chansey. Etc.

Obviously, it's not as good as Mega Scizor. But that takes up your mega. If you need another mega and Scizor still fits on the team, it can be perfectly functional to just run regular Scizor in OU so long as your team can deal with Lando-T, Tapu Lele, and bulky water types.

 

[ScalchopFren]

Since nobody here seems to actually be discussing the team, I'll step in. Fair warning, there's a lot to unpack here and I write a lot, so this is a long response.

1. Hippo without EQ (Earthquake) is not a good idea. Not only can it now straight up lose to Pokémon that it's supposed to check - Heatran, Toxapex, and Mawile come to mind - but you're also completely shut down by Taunt. Things like Magma Storm + Taunt Heatran, something that is fairly common in OU and that you would otherwise beat, now instead beats YOU. You can't heal or even Whirlwind it out, since Taunt would prevent any of your moves from working; all you can do is click Struggle until you die. So, change your set to the standard Hippo set so you can have EQ. You can keep Smooth Rock over Leftovers if you're that adamant about your sand, but at least run EQ so you can actually use it properly.

2. The Ttar set is bad. I'm sorry, it just is. Just about every physical attacker in OU still has some reliable/common way of 2HKOing or OHKOing it, and without at the VERY least running Leftovers you would have no way of taking any more than 2 hits unless you get healed by Clef. Not to mention its attacking moves are garbage, so you can barely do any damage to most of the tier and plenty of things can kill you back. I ran some calcs on Smogon's calculator (a useful resource, if you weren't already aware of its existence) so you can see what some standard sets are able to do to you, as well as the most you can do to them in return unless they switch on a Pursuit.

Excadrill:
252 Atk Excadrill Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tyranitar: 228-270 (56.4 - 66.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Tyranitar Pursuit vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Excadrill: 84-100 (23.2 - 27.6%) -- 72.5% chance to 4HKO

Hawlucha:
252+ Atk Hawlucha High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tyranitar: 504-592 (124.7 - 146.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
0 Atk Tyranitar Dragon Tail vs. 96 HP / 0 Def Hawlucha: 71-84 (22.1 - 26.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after sandstorm damage

Defensive Landorus:
0 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tyranitar: 204-240 (50.4 - 59.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Tyranitar Pursuit vs. 252 HP / 112+ Def Landorus-Therian: 51-60 (13.3 - 15.7%) -- possibly the worst move ever
(Note: you'll do even less to this one if you've been Intimidated)

Mega Swampert:
252 Atk Swampert-Mega Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tyranitar: 246-290 (60.8 - 71.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Tyranitar Pursuit vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Swampert-Mega: 51-61 (14.9 - 17.8%) -- possible 6HKO

I could list several more, but I think you get the idea.

Fortunately for you, Smogon offers a treasure trove of Ttar sets that would be far more useful than this one. Any of these three sets could work, though you'd have to be willing to replace Scizor if you go with the Mega Ttar option. The Assault Vest set might be your best choice so you can deal with Volcarona a bit better.

3. Scizor does not need Aerial Ace. Fully offensive Volcarona is the only Pokémon you mentioned in that description that even dies to an Aerial Ace without prior damage or a Swords Dance boost, and Scizor is not what you should rely on as an answer to it anyway. Everything else has the potential to take at least one Aerial Ace; Lopunny has a slightly below 50% chance of living, bulky Volcarona (a more common set than full offense) is still 2HKO'd but needs to be chipped more, and Venusaur devours it.

252+ Atk Technician Scizor-Mega Aerial Ace vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Lopunny-Mega: 252-298 (92.9 - 109.9%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Technician Scizor-Mega Aerial Ace vs. 248 HP / 112 Def Volcarona: 292-344 (78.2 - 92.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Technician Scizor-Mega Aerial Ace vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Venusaur-Mega: 158-188 (43.4 - 51.6%) -- 10.9% chance to 2HKO

Superpower is a far better "surprise" coverage move, since you can potentially catch Heatran with it if someone switches it into you. So once again, I'm going to refer you to the standard sets: Swords Dance Mega Scizor (you can swap Knock Off for Superpower if you so desire). Bug coverage generally isn't necessary on Scizor, but if you really want it, swap Bug Bite for U-turn so you can create a bit more momentum for yourself. It doesn't get the Technician boost, but it's generally more useful to Scizor anyway.

4. Bad set #3: Clefable. No attacking moves, no status infliction, no self-recovery outside of Wish...all of this makes for a dysfunctional Clef. The whole purpose of Clef is to be an annoying POS that lives for eons, not something that literally kills itself. Also, triple rocks is overkill and completely unnecessary. If you want to keep the Clef on the team, my recommendations are Moonblast over Stealth Rock and Thunder Wave over Healing Wish. Moonblast makes you not get COMPLETELY shut down by Taunt, and Thunder Wave helps cripple some potential threats like Greninja.

5. On the subject of Greninja, let's talk about your threat list section. The fact that one of your mentioned threats is essentially as broad and vague as "a good team used by a competent player" should already raise some red flags, but half of the things you claim to be non-threats can 6-0 your current team if used by someone who knows what they're doing. AshGren OHKOs or 2HKOs everything on your team except Clef - not that Clef can do anything in return - with either of Dark Pulse or Hydro Pump before it even transforms, and the only things on your team that outspeed it are Excadrill under sand (which will die to Water Shuriken anyway) or Latios if it still has its Scarf. Sableye can burn your entire team and Recover off almost anything you do to it (Magic Bounce also reflects Hippo's Whirlwind). Ferro takes jack shit from everything except Excadrill EQ and can whittle you down with Iron Barbs and Leech Seed damage very effectively. And since you asked me to name names, I will gladly indulge. Azumarill. Excadrill. Garchomp. Hawlucha. Kartana. Keldeo. Kommo-o. Landorus. Rotom. Swampert. Tangrowth. Zapdos. Everything I just listed is something you struggle to kill without one specific member, something that walls half your team or more, and/or something that can put significant offensive pressure on your team. And what's worse, several of them are quite common. If you want to play sand, you need both better sets AND better balance. I think you should have a look at some better sand teams - something like this, this, or this - to get a better idea of the kind of balance needed for such an archetype. Alternatively, you can read the SmogDex pages for Excadrill or Ttar (mostly Excadrill) to see what sets are viable and especially what are good teammates for them.

 

[cookiemonster450]

Since nobody here seems to actually be discussing the team, I'll step in. Fair warning, there's a lot to unpack here and I write a lot, so this is a long response.

Sir that was an extremely helpful and useful reply. Also, I did know before posting it that the team was a bit gimmicky and my threatlist description was cocky so I expected some sort of reply in that tone, but you schooled me on what's what without being the least bit condescending or rude. Thank you so much, and I appreciate your tone a lot. I have looked up all of the resources you mentioned and am modifying my teambuilding in the process. You have my respect and gratitude!

 

[ScalchopFren]

Sir that was an extremely helpful and useful reply. Also, I did know before posting it that the team was a bit gimmicky and my threatlist description was cocky so I expected some sort of reply in that tone, but you schooled me on what's what without being the least bit condescending or rude. Thank you so much, and I appreciate your tone a lot. I have looked up all of the resources you mentioned and am modifying my teambuilding in the process. You have my respect and gratitude!

Glad I could be of assistance :]