Battle Spot BSS Salamence Sand Team

[Redvader8]

After starting out with Mega Manectric as my preferred Mega in BSS, i noticed a lack of power the team desperately needed overall in order to be good enough to be competitive. I just finished building a new team based around Mega Salamence a few days ago, and noticed a few challenges with said team. Gengar, Kangaskhan, and Garchomp. After doing a bit of searching on the Pokemon Global link, and extensive testing, I believe to have found a rather strong team for BSS.

Salamence (M) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Return
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance

The Pokemon I decided to start my team around was Mega Salamence. Originally he was a more special set using hyper voice, draco meteor, fire blast, and double edge, but I noticed the same lack of killing power that manectric showed before. After doing some testing, (and knowing how good DD is in Ubers) i decided to make a more physical set, and using fire blast as coverage vs scizor, ferrothorn, and other fire weak mons. I chose return over double edge for staying power and also after a +1 of DD, the difference between edge and return is minimal since they both OHKO most of the format after a DD. Earthquake is for rounding out coverage and does great damage towards heatran. Its also a safe move to use if you suspect the opponent to have a rocky helmet pokemon. I noticed big challenge in killing garchomp 1v1, kangaskhan, and Gengar, so I decided to focus my attention first onto Gengar.

Excadrill (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Tomb
- Swords Dance

Tyranitar (M) @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 60 HP / 60 Atk / 132 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Tomb
- Superpower
- Ice Punch

I decided to add the sand core of TTar and Excadrill in order to shut down any kind of Gengar Shenanigans. TTar's EVs allow him to survive an earthquake from scarf-chomp, sash-chomp, and M-Kang, we retaliate normally with rock tomb if its one of those pokemon, and kill using ice punch or superpower. If its against Gengar, we set up rocks and then pile on the rock tomb until it switches out or dies. Sludge wave and shadow ball do very little to TTar in a sandstorm, but watch out for focus blast, they are rare, but you just gotta assume they dont have it. Excadrill takes over from there, sand rush allows it to outspeed almost anything, and is here to wreck not only gengar, but fairies, flying types, and talonflame fear it as well. Even if Excadrill isnt going to kill something, you can rock tomb to slow it down and make it easier to revenge kill with Salamence or something else on the squad. Swords dance allows us to switch into cress and porygon and sweep from there. LO for extra damage for Excadrill, Smooth Rock for TTar to ensure maximum amount of sand turns for sand damage and sand rush.

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Will-O-Wisp

Ferrothorn (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 SpA / 0 Spe
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Protect
- Thunder Wave

I then decided to focus my attention on Kang and Garchomp, considering they are two of the most used pokemon in the metagame. Ferrothorn switching into fake-out on Kang is the reason we run rocky helmet over leftovers. If they decide to go for fake out, they lost 60% of their life total. Leech seed for recovery on thorn, protect to milk those turns as well and scout for what they have up their sleeve. T-Wave is to help ensure fast pokemon wont outspeed Mence for a revenge kill if necessary and if they get full paralyzed, then its free leech seed gains. Gyro ball and 0 Speed EVs for max damage. Rotom wash completely hoses Garchomp 1v1. Will o wisp shuts it down unless its lum berry, and HP ice deals around 70% to 2HKO it. it will take around 35ish% hp off a normal outrage, and around 17%ish for a burned chomper. Also does well vs Mamoswine which straight up beats mence. Greninja also hates seeing these two due to volt switch into ferro Twave. These two can also keep up/contain suicune if its a more defensive variant. If its calm mind, refer to the following pokemon.

Sylveon (F) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 244 HP / 172 Def / 68 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rest
- Calm Mind
- Hyper Voice
- Snore

Snoreon is a fantastic pokemon that rounds out the team. It resists fighting type moves, is immune to dragon, and beats Breloom 1v1 (bonus points if you get to set up off their first spore, then snore after they spore again). Sylveon manages to beat suicune and has a good chance vs Swag+TWave shenanigans from klefki and thundurus. The EVs allow you to survive a double edge from Kang, speed allows it to outspeed base 60 unbooted mons like porygon and clefable. Psyshock can replace snore if you want it to hit specially defensive threats, but this metagame is so based around physical defenses that you wont run into specially defensive mons very often/if at all.

If you have any tips/suggestions, that would be great! If you want to try out the team for yourself, let me know your thoughts and what improvements can be made!

 

[Omastar68]

This looks good. Pretty unique while using common mons and not being too weird.

Excadrill i'd run sash. It's pretty frail despite that large HP stat, so sash helps to set SD. Also has synergy with Rock Tomb, live a hit then make them slower. Chomp sometimes runs a very similar set, Outrage over IH ofc. Sash is also more common on Exca then LO, tho I would go LO here if not sash.

TTar looks interesting. idk 252 Spe, but I gess in you case it's one more than you need fer max Spe 100s after a Spe drop, to tie some TTar and outspeed 244 Spe ones.

Ferro Gyro Ball and T-Wave is counter-intuitive, cuz T-Wave cuts GB's power dramatically. Protect is nice with Lefties, but not that good with Helmet, since you only have possibl LS healing o stall for.

Your team is pretty fast, so I think i'd run yer basic Gyro Ball with min Spe. Power Whip is a good secondary STAB, and ofc you'll still want LS. Then Protect with Lefties, or use SR and chage it on TTar. Other options include Knock Off and Explosion. Not a whole lot else.

That's all that really stands out to me as stuff that shood b changed. Rest looks fine, tho Sylveon might like a different item.

 

[Redvader8]

I'll be sure to try out sash for excadrill, and also chesto berry on sylveon has saved me in multiple situations, so I don't plan on removing it.

Edit: also T-wave and gyro maybe counter intuitive, but it helps in controlling the long game. Gyro ball is hardly ever used TBH unless if the opposing Pokemon needs to die like now or if leech seed and twave are already on the opposing Pokemon and I need to close a game. I really like having that set to deal with more stall type teams as rotom, ferro, and either Sal, sylveon, or TTar work well in those fights.

 

[a0161613]

Iron Head does more for you than Gyro ball on a paralysed target. Your logic doesn't make much sense if I'm honest.

 

[Omastar68]

Iron Head does more for you than Gyro ball on a paralysed target. Your logic doesn't make much sense if I'm honest.

Now don't be mean :P He's not that new but even so it's a common error on teams. Definitely Iron Head and T-Wave go together, but I can see how this kind of thing happens.

 

[Redvader8]

After doing some initial testing, you both seem to be right so far! Removing Gyro Ball and Rocky Helmet make ferro much better at stalling. I also adjusted the nature of Ferro to Impish nature and added 12 EVs to speed to outspeed T-Waved Positive nature base 100 mons. While it doesnt seem major, it was recommended for the set from the Smogon Strategy Pokedex. I removed 8 of the EVs from defense and 4 from Special Defense, so the evs are 252 HP, 244 Defense, 12 Speed. Also sash excadrill makes the setup much easier to accomplish and sweep from there.

 

[Omastar68]

What do you think about T-Wave on TTar? You cood also run Fire Blast with a -Spe nature, which would allow Mence to run Roost and an Adamant nature. You need a lot of investment on it to kill Ferro tho, but at least 252 SpA ohkos from full 87.5% of the time. Maybe even a special attacking TTar. Not unheard of, and Ice Beam has many advantages over Punch even on things with a big difference between atk and Spa in favr of the former. And Kang likes Ice Beam, and her atk is greater than her SpA by a much larger margin than with TTar.

 

[Redvader8]

What do you think about T-Wave on TTar? You cood also run Fire Blast with a -Spe nature, which would allow Mence to run Roost and an Adamant nature. You need a lot of investment on it to kill Ferro tho, but at least 252 SpA ohkos from full 87.5% of the time. Maybe even a special attacking TTar. Not unheard of, and Ice Beam has many advantages over Punch even on things with a big difference between atk and Spa in favr of the former. And Kang likes Ice Beam, and her atk is greater than her SpA by a much larger margin than with TTar.

Felt a bit too gimmicky. I tried it out and never really found a situation where I wanted the special attacks instead of physical, and it loses its ability to slow down threats like garchomp and kang. Also, when it comes to kang's stats, her SpA difference may have a larger margin inbetween, but its the power of that parental bond that makes things like ice beam work.

 

[cant say]

This team looks pretty solid overall. "Japan Sand" (Ttar + Excadrill with Mence in the back for Grass-types) is a really popular and successful core. Rotom-W and Ferrothorn deal with bulky Water-types fine as well, and Sylveon gives you a nice Dragon-Steel-Fairy core in the back.

I think for Tyranitar if you want to mess with Gengar you should definitely run Pursuit over Stealth Rock. You could also consider running a Choice Band, Choice Scarf, Assault Vest, Chople Berry, or Lum Berry to improve the Gengar matchup. I get the whole Smooth Rock thing but it isn't really necessary.

Excadrill has no business running Rock Tomb, use Rock Slide. Swords Dance is cute but you won't find that many opportunities to set it up. You could run Knock Off or Horn Drill there. I would definitely keep Life Orb though because you need the power.

If you want to use Thunder Wave on Ferrothorn you should probably use Iron Head instead of Gyro Ball. With Iron Head you'll want to use an Impish Nature (with perfect speed ofc) with a spread of 244 HP / 244 Def / 20 Spe. This allows you to outspeed paralysed base 100s (ie: Kangaskhan) and fish for flinches. Protect is kinda of a waste without Leftovers, you could try Stealth Rock there if you still want it on the team, or Power Whip / Bullet Seed.