Exit light, Enter night, GRAIN OF SAND

[Darkhound]

Hey Smogon I got a sand team here that I've been testing out and I could use a little help to improve it.

Team Building Process

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Ok so Volcarona is the pokemon I decided to build my team around and I am a huge fan of bulky offense teams

Volcarona is 4x weak to stealth rock so it is essential to have a spinner on any team utilizing the fire moth and that's where Starmie comes in

Like I said earlier I am a huge fan of bulky offense and to keep the pressure going a U-turn user is almost a must and Landorus seemed to fit in quite well being able to take out Heatran which would counter Volcarona

Neither Starmie nor Landorus are using any set up moves so they welcome the support of entry hazards and Tyranitar can set up Stealth Rock while posing as an offensive threat and the Sand Force boost is great with Landorus

Again Ferrothorn brings more entry hazard support with spikes as well as a stable defensive core with Tyranitar being able to take advantage of the passive Sandstorm damage

As you may have noticed by now my defensive core has a huge fighting weakness especially to Conkeldurr and Breloom being able to hit Starmie with ohko moves such as payback and bullet seed respectively which led me to Gliscor who counters both quite well

THE TEAM!

@Leftovers
Sassy, 252HP 64SpAtt 192SpD
Sand Stream
-Stealth Rock
-Fire Blast
-Ice Beam
-Crunch
I am utilizing Tyranitar as my lead pokemon in order to get SR up as early as possible this mixxed set allows Tyranitar to get around quite a few walls that he otherwise wouldn't have been able to such as opposing Ferrothorn and Gliscor as well as being able to deal some strong hits to specially based Dragonite and Salamence and catching Scizor on the switch in.

@Choice Scarf
Naive, 252Att 252Spe 6HP
Sand Force
-U-turn
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Hidden Power (Ice)
Landorus is my revenge killer and scout Sand Force makes STAB Earthquake a force to be reckoned with OHKOing most poks after entry damage perfect for a late game sweep when levitaters and flyers are eliminated Stone Edge is there for Gyarados and HP Ice is for dragons and Gliscor

@Leftovers
Relaxed, 252HP 88Def 168SpD (0 speed IV's)
Iron Barbs
-Leech Seed
-Spikes
-Gyro Ball
-Power Whip
More entry hazards and passive damage yes!!! gotta love switching into physical damage moves to stack up barbs damage. Ferrothorn isn't a slouch on the offensive side either being able to soak status moves such as thunder wave and toxic and being able to kill most physical sweepers with Gyro Ball + seed combo

@Toxic Orb
Impish, 252HP 184Def 72Spe
-Taunt
-Earthquake
-Ice Fang
-Swords Dance
Finishing up the sand core and bringing some more offense with Swords Dance and countering fighting Pokemon and stopping either set up sweepers or tanks. Gliscor is also another status absorber being able to absorb any status once Toxic Orb has been activated which stops spore Breloom dead in his tracks.

@Life Orb
Timid, 252SpAtt 252Spe 6SpD
-Fire Blast
-Bug Buzz
-Hidden Power (Rock)
-Quiver Dance
Volcarona may seem out of place on a sand team but with all the weather teams out there and Volcarona can actually punish a Sun team once their Heatran is eliminated as well as being a near unstoppable end game sweeper after a +1 boost

@Leftovers
Timid, 252Spe 252SpAtt 6HP
-Rapid Spin
-Hydro Pump
-Thunder
-Ice Beam
I HATE using life orb to rapid spin especially with sand being up I dont need all that passive damage against such a frail pokemon like Starmie but the power drop is noticeable, but like Volcarona Starmie can demolish Rain Dance teams which is the reason for Thunder over thunderbolt also thunderbolts power is something to laugh at with out life orb so I like the extra power and again Starmie can be a great late game sweeper even without having set up due to his high speed

One Last Glance!!

WEAKNESSES: Ok so what I have noticed is that I have a huge fighting weakness especially if Gliscor gets KOed and im not sure what to do about that. Baton Pass teams are also really rough for me and I could really use some advice on countering them.

Strengths: Aside from the fighting weakness the team has great synergy being able to switch around at ease with only one pokemon being weak to Stealth Rock and only 3 being weak to Spikes/Toxic Spikes including my spinner making it easy to keep the pressure going and stay offensive.

Well that's about it if you guys have any questions please let me know again any advice is welcome!! Thanks a lot for reading

 

[Adamant Zoroark]

We're off to never never land!

This team looks pretty nice. First off, props to part of the lyrics from "Enter Sandman" by Metallica in the title. I haven't rated teams in a while, so don't expect this to be amazing or anything, but I'll try my best.

First thing I notice is that Choice Scarf Terrakion could be problematic if Gliscor goes down, and Ice Punch Lucario can set up on Ferrothorn, and after that something will die to either Close Combat, Ice Punch, or ExtremeSpeed. Solving the Lucario problem is fairly simple, though. As long as you run 216 Speed EVs with a Jolly Nature on Gliscor, Lucario will never beat Gliscor unless it uses Ice Punch as Gliscor switches in or has Air Balloon, and Air Balloon on Lucario is uncommon since Excadrill has been banned for months. SubToxic Gliscor seems like a better set with the increase in Speed EVs; something that looks like this:

Gliscor (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Protect
- Toxic
- Earthquake

I'd try it out first, though, but I think you'll be better off with this set. The Gliscor set you are using now was a lot better when you could use Excadrill, but nowadays it's not really that good. I think using Dragonite over Volcarona will help you because, with Multiscale intact, Dragonite will avoid an OHKO from Stone Edge and OHKO with Earthquake after Stealth Rock and one layer of Spikes. This should be a good fit:

Dragonite (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage / Dragon Claw
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake

Outrage or Dragon Claw depends on if you want power or if you want to avoid being confused due to Outrage's side effect.

Hope this helps. Have fun!

 

[BTzz]

Hey, nice team! SD Toxicroak and Volcarona and two huge threats to this team. After setting up on Tyranitar, Toxicroak KOs Landorus, Volcarona and Starmie with a +2 Sucker Punch, Tyranitar and Ferrothorn with a +2 Cross Chop, and Gliscor with a +2 Ice Punch. Volcarona 2HKOes Tyranitar with +1 Bug Buzz, and easily sweeps from their (Starmie doesn't OHKO with Hydro Pump, and Landorus is outsped by +2 Volcarona). To fix this I suggest using a Choice Scarf Terrakion over Landorus as the team's revenge killer. Terrakion checks Volcarona and Toxicroak, resisting Sucker Punch and KOing it with Earthquake. You currently have 4 weak to Water so I suggest using Recover over Ice Beam so Ferrothorn doesn't have to take all those Water-type attacks by itself. Starmie loses coverage on dragons, but Tyranitar deals with the Lati's while Gliscor, Ferrothorn and Terrakion can handle dragons. Starmie should also be using Thunderbolt over Thunder, as Thunder had a poor 50% accuracy in sand, and you can't gurantee you'll be playing against a rain team.

Your Volcarona set doesn't function very well in the sand. Sand, LO and Hazard damage really hamper Volc's ability to sweep so I suggest using the ChestoRest set. This set can set up QDs, and Rest off all the residual damage to sweep. Using 96 Speed EVs is just enough to outspeed Choice Scarf Terrakion when Volcarona is at +2. Chesto Rest Volcarona can't get past Heatran, so I would consider using Bulldoze on Ferrothorn over Gyro Ball. With Bulldoze, Ferrothorn can lure in, and deal heavy damage to Heatran, paving the way for a Volcarona sweep. Bulldoze also hits SubCM Jirachi, who can be annoying if you lose Heatran. You already have Power Whip as a primary attack, so Gyro Ball won't really be missed. Finally, I would give Roar on Tyranitar a shot to help with Baton Pass teams, as well as racking up hazard damage. I would try Roar over Fire Blast, as Volcarona can just use Steel-types as set-up bait.

Terrakion | Justified | Choice Scarf
Jolly | 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Close Combat | Stone Edge | Earthquake | X-Scissor

Volcarona | Flame Body | Chesto Berry
Modest | 160 HP / 252 SpA / 96 Spe
Quiver Dance | Rest | Fire Blast | Bug Buzz

Hope this helps!

 

[bubbly]

Most of your problems stem from the fact that Landorus is somewhat redundant with Gliscor. I'm going to keep this pretty simple and second BTzz's recommendation of Scarf Terrakion > Landorus. Otherwise, nice team, nice RMT.

 

[RedthePokemonTrainer]

How do you have a HUGE fighting weakness when 4 out of your 6 pokemon Resist it? :O especially when one of them is gliscor.

 

[bubbly]

I guess he is pretty Mienshao weak (will it U-turn or HP Ice?). Bulk Up Conkeldurr could beat him easily too if Gliscor went down. Overall though I'd agree, Fighting types shouldn't be the main concern.

 

[Darkhound]

Hey guys thanks alot for the advice Z im glad someone got the reference =D BT I think im gonna lean a little more towards your suggestions simply because volcarona is a pokemon i WANT to use but thank you guys so much for taking the time to read and give me some advice i guess its back to testing so i can figure out what works best!!