Well, with everyone returning to good old-fashioned Azelf HO, it's time to show that we don't need Snow Warning for Veil to work.
Ol' Reliable (Sandslash-Alola) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Slush Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hail
- Aurora Veil
- Icicle Crash
- Rapid Spin
All Hail the new king. (Pun genuinely not intended, why am I a genius?)
Set up hail. Set up Veil at 500 speed. Die or spin off webs. Crash Gliscor leads, or Latios that see a free HP Fire.
Necrozma @ Mind Plate
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Photon Geyser
- Earth Power
- Rock Polish
The team is pretty weak to relentless switching once our setup sweepers are cleaned out, and in the current Scizor-Azu-Mienshao-Ambipom priority-fest metagame, that's pretty important. Rocks are necessary, and this guy does so much damage with Photon Geyser. I had one game against Stall where it 2HKOd every member of the opposing team. Anything not named Blissey or dark typed just gets smacked. 388 SpA 120 BP attacks do work. I'm tempted to replace Rock Polish with HP Fire for Scizor, but it's been quite helpful cleaning up Offence matchups.
Clinclang (Kommo-o) @ Leftovers
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Close Combat
- Poison Jab
- Substitute
The win-con. When the opponent sees Azu, they think that's the aim, but for this team it's not. Azu is just too easy to wear down, and its pressure really helps let Kommo-o in. Sub lets us beat Amoonguss 1v1, who's the obvious switchin to this. If they stay in and try to beat down the subs, just get to +6 and end the game.
Soundproof is chosen for bulky MAltaria with Hyper Voice. I'm yet to regret that.
Big Fat Dave (Azumarill) @ Normalium Z
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Knock Off
- Play Rough
Standard. Bait-and-switch. Grab a kill and relevant chip, then let the opponent kill it. Once their guard is down, sweep with Kommo-o.
Zapdog (Manectric) @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Toxic
More pressure. This slot was originally Sceptile-Mega to give us an electric immunity, but the triple-dragon offence didn't do great work in a fairy filled metagame. Toxic lets us pressure absolutely nothing and really should be TBolt but i've not got around to it. (I guess its nice against Seismitoad, Quagsire, Swampert, that kind of thing.)
HAL 217 (Latias) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Healing Wish
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Ice Beam
Healing Wish is love, Healing Wish is life. Extra Veils, extra setups, extra Azu pressure, all wrapped up in a nice little offensive bow. His coverage isn't redundant either due to Kommo-o not carrying any dragon STAB.
Strategy
Play your opponent's expectations. The team looks like it loses to so many offensive threats, but its surprisingly good at tanking them. Kommo-o eats +4 Bullet Punches, an intact sash can stop a sweep from Altaria, and Necrozma eats a surprising amount of things due to Prism Armor. Get rocks early, get veil early and pretend to sweep, then actually sweep.
I'm not going to do a threatlist as I haven't really played enough games with the team. Double-Scarf teams are awkward, heavy priority is awkward, physical Altaria hurts.
Overall
As I adamantly refused to play veil while Ninetales was around, I'm not that experienced with it, and the team probably shows that. I'm just trying to point out that sandslash doesn't need support to set veils up.
