Other ORAS OU Playstyles (Rain, Check Post #30)

[heritage]

OU Playstyles
Stolen from and approved by Subject 18 (Unlike the previous thread, there will only be one OP and it will be kept to a single thread, unless a mod lets me do it the other way.)
Shamelessly stolen OP from LilOuOn

Welcome to the OU discussion of the different playstyles! The main purpose of this thread is to choose a playstyle every week (I'll choose it) and you, (yes, you), are going to be able to comment, give your opinion and suggest pokemons that should be considered when making a team around the style [posting teams is also allowed, just keep in mind that this is not the RMT forums, so if you want to post a team try to make it short and use sprites of pokes, explain how does the team work and post replays if possible]. Obviously, your comments must have connection with the chosen style, as well as solid arguments of why your comment(s) are valid. With this, newer players can decide what playstyle they like most and, of course, more experienced players can also expand their knowledge. Remember to be friendly with other people; if you disagree with someone's opinion don't slam with an aggressive response, just let everyone know what you think in a kind way. The links to discussions of each playstyle will be posted in the OP so everyone can read it at anytime!

Don't be afraid of posting! If you have a great offense, stall, etc team, just think about what to say and go for it! Don't forget that participating in this kind of threads gives you opportunity to earn that awesome Community Contributor badge! Be careful of what do you post! Do your best and I hope that you like to contribute this thread!


Summary of the rules (Must read):

​

• Make quality posts. No one-lined posts.Your comments must be about the weekly playstyle chosen.
• No gimmicks. If you decided to post a team (or pokemon) don't suggest using pursuit Tauros to trap Latias and Latios while there is an overall better option named Tyranitar or Bisharp.
• Comment how the chosen style affects the current metagame and how it fairs in it.
• Support your team's posts with replays if possible. Explanation of them are a must.
• If you are comfortable, feel free to post one of your own teams and explain the process of making the team.
• Having a wide point of view is needed. Don't post that stall sucks because you always lose to it.
• Your new ideas must have strong arguments of why them should be considered.
• This one is important: We don't want this to become a debate of: "this metagame is stale and has no diversity due to X Pokemon/Playstyle". This thread is here to make a discussion about the different playstyles, not to discharge all your hate against weather. Please, incoherent posts will be deleted and possibly penalized, so think about what are you going to write.
• For reference see the past OU Playstyles projects to guide you on what to discuss.

Playstyle #01: Hyper Offense

Hyper Offense. The idea behind this playstyle is simple. Use the early game turns to set up hazards or Screens and begin ruthlessly pounding away at the opposing team. With enough offensive presence, you can easily pressure the opponent into not being able to remove hazards and quickly wear them down for an easy sweep. However, just putting together a bunch of offensive powerhouse doesn't mean its a strong team. What kind of support if needed for the sweepers? What about offensive synergy? And defensive? Do I need entry hazards? What can I do against Magic Bounce? Rapid Spinners? Defog users? Which Pokemon should you be using? And which one shouldn't you be using? What threatens HO? How do you handle stall? Balance? Hyper Offense?

Archive

Hyper Offence
Balance
Special mention to Trinitrotoluene 's amazing post on Hyper Offence
Sand
Rain

 

[heritage]

Reserved for whatever, maybe a hall of fame or something
Feel free to post now
And I want to raise my postcount

 

[MANNAT]

Hyperoffense is a playstyle that I have a ton of experience with, so here we go! In the current metagame, hyperoffense is a team full of sweepers and glass cannons that capitalizes on using pure offensive power to defeat the opposing team. These teams usually have a mon to set hazards in the beginning of the match and one defogger/spinner to remove hazards and keep their sweepers healthy. Basically every mon in the meta has to run extra speed just so that they can outspeed certain offensive threats and the average speed of the tier has significantly increased because of that. The most prominent/best mons on HO are Talonflame, Mega Lopunny, lead Garchomp, lead Terrakion, Bisharp, and much much more. There are several sweepers that can tear apart teams on HO, butt hey are generally fairly frail. Also, fast sweepers such as Hawlucha and Mega Sceptile can tear apart HO with their speed and power because most HO teams don't have dedicated walls. HO is very match up reliant, and a HO team can 5-0 someone as well as getting-6-0'd. (the reason i put 5-0 is because of certain suicide leads on HO). Most leads on HO are anti-leads or suicide leads that are meant to deal with the lead on the opposing team, and set up hazards so that their team can flourish. I may post a HO team later, but I've mainly been playing bulky offense lately so I don't have any good HO teams right now.

 

[SketchUp]

What kind of support if needed for the sweepers?
Something that can punch holes in the opponents walls (Rotom-W and Heatran) like Greninja [r.i.p.] or Talonflame
Setting up hazards is very important as it wears the opponent down, breaks sashes and forces defogs
Screens are not mandatory but they can be very helpful in teams with 1 lead + 5 sweepers

What about offensive synergy?
Just make sure you can defeat the most common walls. You often end up with saccing everything you don't need for the opposing walls

And defensive?
Make sure you don't lose 6-0 against things like Bisharp, Specs Keldeo and Mega Metagross and you're fine. Defensive synergy is needed as in don't have 4 pokemon weak to 1 type but it is not as necessary as for balance

Do I need entry hazards?
Assuming the main hyper offense is Lead + Wallbreakers + Stallbreakers + Wincon (or something like that) you definitely need it

What can I do against Magic Bounce?
Kill the pokemon with Magic Bounce. If you really want your hazards up and hate Sableye, try out Landorus-I or Clefable

Rapid Spinners?
Not very much as the only spinblocker for HO (Gengar) loses to Mold Breaker Exca and Offensive Starmie. With enough offensive pressure you can keep your rocks up tho

Defog users?
Bisharp.
Latios, Latias and Mew can be trapped. Skarmory and Zapdos often can defog but they don't have many opportunities to do + stay healthy

Which Pokemon should you be using?
Latios, Keldeo, Bisharp, Mega Metagross, Mega Lopunny, Mamoswine, Garchomp, Landorus, Thundurus, Azumarill, Tyranitar + Excadrill, Talonflame
Priority is important, but not necessarily needed. Having a fast mon is necessary if you don't want to lose against DD sweepers and Mega Lopunny

And which one shouldn't you be using?
Momentum killers like Ferrothorn and Sylveon

What threatens HO?
Stall if it has a good matchup. Playing against Hyper Offense is difficult as you have to think very much about every play you make (more than against balance) like which mon should I sac, should I predict this switch, defog or draco?

How do you handle stall?
Stallbreakers: Taunt Mega Gardevoir, DD Taunt Mega Gyarados, NP Togekiss, SD WoW Talonflame
Wallbreakers: Azumarill, Zard Y, Diggersby, Keldeo, Mega Pinsir, Terrakion, Victini, Kyurem-Black, Mega Heracross

Balance?
Try to weaken the walls like Clefable, Landorus-T and Heatran and find a opportunity to set up. Balanced with a weakened defensive core often loses once they lose momentum and the opponent can set up (DD Mega Gyara, PuP Mega Lopunny and NP Thundurus are some examples of pokemon that can kill balance

 

[Sun King]

In regards to beating stall, this is usually a frustrating match-up for HO. The best way to beat stall on HO, in my experience, is to blow through them with set up sweepers. This means removing any and all Unaware users. I would say just assume Clefables are Unaware unless you see otherwise when you are playing a stall team, because they WILL fuck up your sweepers. If you REALLY want to sway the matchup in your favor, things like Mega Heracross and Mega Gardevoir work wonders against stall. That being said, you still have to play competently. Don't switch Heracross in on things with WoW, and make sure you keep your Gardevoir alive. M-Altaria can usually put in a lot of work against stall once you get rid of Steel types. Just know that whenever you play stall, you're in for a long game--so don't try to make moves to win too early. Wait until the checks/counters to your sweepers are softened to a point where you can clearly sweep.

tl;dr Pack setup sweepers and don't play like an idiot, and you'll beat stall.

 

[AM]

There's a couple misconceptions with littelucario's post. For one not all Hyper Offense teams have hazard removal as it creates a loss of momentum, something is that is the opposite of what Hyper Offense wants to maintain. Lead Terrakion has lost a very solid amount of viability due to the centralization of M-Sableye which hinders its taunt set and has made it ineffective in the meta to a degree. One of the most prominent Hyper Offensive leads is Azelf due to its ability to set rocks, taunt other leads, a couple of coverage moves to go along with it, while having Explosion for suicide lead purposes, dual screens, and Skill Swap to counter-act its matchup against M-Sableye, M-Diancie, and non secondary coverage move Heatrans. Also not every mon on Hyper Offense is a sweeper. Some such as Kyurem-B, Manaphy, Gengar, and Latios find themselves on these builds as wall-breakers to break down defensive cores that would be a hindrance to the team. Priority at this point in the meta is sort of a necessity on these HO teams to gain the upper advantage against other offensive builds so such users of priority such as Extremespeed Dragonite, Gale Wings Talonflame (mentioning this cause I saw a Flame body one recently :/), Sucker Punch Bisharp, Aqua Jet Azumarill, just to name a few. Tagging my friend Trinitrotoluene cause he plays HO a lot and has a formula for making it cancer to play against sometimes so his input would be nice.

Edit: Maybe later I'll post some sets I like to use on some HO teams.

 

[Clone]

As someone who has been using Hyper Offense to great success for quite a while now, I want to throw my two cents in on what I feel is the face of Hyper Offense: Bisharp.

By now, anyone who's been around long enough should know what DeoSharp is. If you don't, it's the use of Deoxys Speed or Defense to stack hazards and to use Bisharp to prevent Defog. And while the Deos got the banhammer, DeoSharp still exists today, albeit it's only a shadow of its former glory. A great example of this is a team CBB made a few months ago at the end of XY, titled 'Without a Fight'. The team utilized a suicide lead of Stealth Rock Garchomp, and had Spikes Greninja along with SD Bisharp. And the way the team played made it hard to remove hazards, and the major component for that was the presence of Bisharp.

Bisharp by nature prevents the use of Defog. And it's not hard to see why. The two offensive Defoggers in the tier, Latios and Latias, lose to Bisharp (assuming both players are of equal skill). Additionally, Bisharp also pressures defensive Defoggers as well, although I'd make an exception for Mandibuzz. The reason for this, which I will say based on my experience with HO, (so this may not be 100% correct) is because many teams are not fully prepared for Bisharp with a +2 Attack boost.

I brought this up in the ORAS metagame discussion thread briefly (tho it was moreso about Defog and stuff), but based on my personal experience and what I've seen from watching other players battle, I've found Bisharp to be the wincon of a match 90% of the time, assuming it's the SD variant. Many teams by nature are weak to it, as very few Dark Resists exist, and of those that do, only a few are viable in competitive play. The most obvious example of this is Keldeo. Whenever I see a weakness to Bisharp on one of my teams, my first instinct is to slap on a Keldeo and call it a day. I've noticed this to be the case with a lot of teams I've faced. I'm not trying to say that that's the only way to deal with Bisharp (as it is in no way true), but simply the most common. Another thing I've noticed is that while teams may be prepared for Bisharp itself, they're not inherently prepared for a Bisharp with an attack boost. All it takes is one free turn for Bisharp to set up an SD. And if the Bisharp user plays well, more often than not that opportunity will arise. I can't really explain this myself, but the best way to describe this is that Bisharp's Sucker Punch is so powerful at +2 that very few things can actually live it (for example, Mega Gallade falls to a +2 Sucker Punch). Combined with Iron Head, Knock Off, and enough speed to outpace every notable defensive threat (run Jolly, it's better!!!), I find that many teams lack a good answer to a boosted Bisharp (and even then, once a faster Dark resist has been KOed, it's usually gg).

Because of this, I always have a Bisharp on my team whenever I build HO because it's just that good. It keeps my hazards up by deterring Defog ( and also beating offensive Starmie and weakened Excadrill), acts as a solid wincon against many balance and offensive teams, and is a solid wallbreaker against more defensively oriented teams. Overall I feel that because of these traits, Bisharp is the best hyper offense Pokémon.

I apologize in advance if this post was all over the place, tho the tl;dr is HO isn't HO w/o Bisharp.

 

[Jin White]

I'm an observer. I lurk a lot. Here's what I've gathered regarding hyper offense, which I hope is relevant & useful:

- Speed & priority are the name of the game. I think it was the Italian HO team when I noticed that the slowest pokémon, barring 'mons with strong priority, was lead Garchomp with base 102 speed. Everything else was faster and/or scarfed, or else it carried priority. Having this kind of speed control is what defines HO; it tends to mean that if the opponent wants to switch to tank a hit, they're taking two hits before they can dish out one, every single time.

- Target the same walls: smash them dead. Offensive synergy in HO means wearing down the one, two, at most three pokemon that can safely switch in to your pokemon's assaults. See Mob Barley's HO with his Adamant CB Victini, which too often lures & decimates opposing Lando-T. Once Lando-T is weakened, M-Lopunny has one significant less check to contend with. The same logic applies to opposing Rotom-W, Quagsire, Amoongus; use wall breakers specific for the pokémon your sweepers want weakened. BD Azu lures & weakens Amoongus & Slowbro for M-Lopunny, etc.

- There are other ways to spinblock. Azelf's Explosion prevents an opposing Defog or Rapid Spin. Similarly, Scarf Lando-T can hit Explosion vs. spinners & defoggers when no other move will kill, guaranteeing that rocks stay up while you bring in a faster 'mon to force the spinner back out. Keep death fodder for the same reason: switching something in to die to rocks will block a spin/defog.

- Have answers to opposing DD sweepers. Because HO teams are inherently frail, they can be more prone than balance to being swept. Priority helps a lot here, though 'mons like Zard X & M-Altaria can tank most common priority. Prankster T-Wave, nukes like Scarf Explosion, and upwards of 3 forms of priority will prevent an opposing sweep.

As always, know your win condition. As has already been mentioned, with HO it's rarely about the 1v1 match-up so much as strategically weakening certain targets & consistently putting the opponent on the back foot to make way for the sweep.

 

[silver97]

HO is by far the most fun archetype to use in my opinion, especially on the ladder because it makes games short and not boring. While it could seems easy to just slap powerhouses on a team and call it a day, it is actually difficult to build a solid one. The most important thing on this kind of teams is offensive synergy and you're wrong if you think that it means to have physical attackers to take care of special wall and special attackers for physical ones, even if not completely wrong because is needed to get past many defensive threats, but many successful offensive teams are built around a core of similar pokemon that aims to repeatedly lure in checks and weaken them until one sweeper breaks through them and cleans the opposing team; some example of this are the "italian offense", very popular at the beginning of last st which relied on pinsir+diggersby to overwhelm the opponent, or cbb' team that featured the 2 strongest sucker punch users taking advantage of the fact that most offensive teams often carried only one dark resist.
Wether a HO team is successful or not depends also on the way you support it. Usually these teams do not carry bulky support mons as they kill momentum, but instead they prefer to rely on suicide leads to lay hazards as fast as you can and immediately put your opponent under pressure without losing momentum; other ways to support the team are moves Such as memento or healing wish that respectively give you an opportunity to setup with a sweeper that can be crucial to win a game, while the second let's you completely heal a teammate without killing momentum. Screens also are helpful but they are a little bit more difficult to use because you have to Be careful when bringing in the sweeper to take advantage of the screens.
Speaking of hazards, they're really Important to keep up even more pressure on the opponent; personally i'm a fan of spikes stacking offense, but the problems with this meta are that after the Ban of deoxys and greninja we completely lack offensive Spikes layers, there is a huge presence of magic bouncer, defog users everywhere (bisharp mitigates this) and lastly there are some spinners that are almost impossible to block for offensive teams like starmie and sand rush exca.
Defensive synergy is not very important, it is limited to basic type resistances, because you should almost never find yourself in the position of switch out, you have to keep momentum on your side through volt-turn and double switches and sacking when you need to.
I'm not the best teambuilder (lol i Suck) but i can say that on these teams is important to have strong wallbreakers that open big holes in the opposing teams, priority users or however something to avoid being wrecked by setup sweepers, reliable win conditions to clean the house in late game and however everything that has good offensive presence is welcome, you should avoid instead passive things that kill your momentum.
The biggest drawback of this playstyle is its reliance on matchup to win games, it is incredibly important against every team archetype. If you face stall it will depend wether your wallbreakers can be easily handled by opposing teams or not, however the best thing you can do is keepin up the pressure as much as you can, not letting them taking a breathe and overwhelm them. Balance and bulky offense teams are probably the most effective vs HO because they combine the bulk to survive some hits with the power to retaliate with heavy attacks, but again matchup is really important; vs them you have to understand what threatens your team and what stops your wincon from closing the game and work to take them out. Rofl against other HO isn't even a real game it is all about matchup, especially lead matchup and 50/50, just try to create as many free turns as you can and Fire off STABs every time you can.

And that's it, here is my analysis of this playstyle

 

[Live4evil]

Mega Loppuny is also a major threat to HO since it can break sashes easily with a hard hitting Scrappy Fake Out. It is also faster than the entire unboosted meta game except for a few other Megas.

 

[Trinitrotoluene]

hi, AM tagged me so i can give my input, so here i am. warning for all who will read this post: miniature lecture inbound.

am mentioned that i have a formula (which i will refer to in this post from here on out as a framework) for hyper offense, and that is partially correct. this is because i actually have two versions of this framework. while i'm being completely honest here, i might as well mention that these frameworks can be traced back to stathakis (for version 1) and limitless (for version 2). i will have an example of a team that follows each formula in this post so you can try them out on the ladder. keep in mind that i made the teams in this post really quickly, so there may be a few holes in each of them. use them if you want to, and don't be afraid to make changes to them if you think it's necessary. also, keep in mind that these frameworks are not the only ways in which you can build hyper offense. if you have your own style, keep at it.

---

version 1: lead | breaker / sweeper (*5)

this framework creates what i call heavy offense, a subset of hyper offense that near-exclusively focuses on overloading counters on one side of the attacking spectrum. while this framework may look simple (just put a lead and 5 sweepers together lol), it is a lot more complex than its initial appearance suggests. when building heavy offense, it's important to prioritize offensive synergy over anything else. as such, these teams will often eschew defensive synergy and have multiple members that attack from the same side of the offensive spectrum and often are walled by the same or a similar group of pokemon. while this may appear to be a bad thing, remember that this is a design choice that facilitates the heavy offense team's goal. rarely will you ever have to switch when using these kinds of teams, and often, it's preferable to just sack mons so a teammate can come in safely and set up. this kind of reckless mentality keeps pressure on the opponent at all times, meaning that you more often than not will have momentum on your side of the game. of course, you have to keep the relevant threats of the metagame in mind, but that should go without saying.

heavy offense sample team:

sets

open up (Azelf) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Fire Blast
- Explosion

edges (Bisharp) (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Iron Head

short circuit (Thundurus) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast

the rattler (Landorus) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 92 Atk / 252 SpA / 164 Spe
Rash Nature
- Focus Blast
- Earth Power
- Knock Off
- Rock Polish

tape pack (Diancie) @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 64 HP / 16 Atk / 252 SpA / 176 Spe
Rash Nature
- Rock Polish
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power

keep it moving (Keldeo-Resolute) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Electric]

team description: just by looking at this team, you can see that chansey (as well as a few other specially defensive mons) walls a lot of these team members individually. however, since most stall and balance teams won't pack more than one or two special walls, this team can effectively break them with sheer offensive pressure and the use of lures, such as knock off landorus and psychic thundurus. at the end of the day, the team's goal is to get a sweep with one of landorus or mega diancie going. now, in case you haven't noticed, each team member has good offensive synergy with each other, breaking apart problem mons and opening up holes that the team can exploit as the game progresses. it is slightly weak to opposing set-up sweepers, most notably rock polish mega diancie, but when you use this team, you should not be giving opponents opportunities to set up in the first place.

for the curious, the nicks come from ulterior motive's album the fourth wall.

---

version 2: lead | breaker #1 | breaker #2 | utility | sweeper | speed

this is the framework that many of you may be more familiar with, seeing that limitless published this in issue #28 of the smog. for the unfamiliar, i'll give a quick and dirty explanation of the roles listed here before going into a bit more detail below. the lead is self-explanatory: most of the time, it's chosen to get hazards (usually sneaky pebbles) up quickly. the "breaker", a term that limitless coined, is a pokemon that is there simply to beat up on the opponent's walls so the sweeper can breeze through them later on. the utilitymon is there to check mons the rest of the team has trouble with, and, in many cases, (re-)capture momentum. the sweeper is usually the pokemon the team is based around, and as such, it usually is the team's main wincon. the speed mon is there to keep opposing boosting sweepers down.

now, here's a little bit more detail. for many hyper offense teams, the lead should be able to set up sneaky pebbles on the opponent's side of the field while keeping pebbles off their own side of the field. this was a metric adapted from dpp to evaluate the viability of a lead in the metagame, and even though team preview has been a thing for quite a while, it still is a good way of evaluating the effectiveness of a given pokemon as a lead. now, you may be questioning me about the importance of having a dedicated lead since team preview, which was established in the bw period and lets the players change their leads around, is a thing. to this, i say that having a dedicated lead makes the lead match-up much easier to carry out since you don't need to worry about having to change up your lead every single time you start a battle. a subset of the lead slot that i feel also deserves a mention is the anti-lead, which deliberately aims to prevent the opponent from setting up sr. teams that use anti-leads typically have a team member in the back that can set hazards up in place of the lead. another subset of leads that deserves a quick mention are those leads that can set up dual screens. these leads are rather rare, but they can cause a ton of grief down the road if they're not dealt with quickly.

common leads on hyper offense:

(anti-lead)

(anti-lead)

the breakers are a little more vague than the lead. basically, these pokemon soften up the opponent's walls so the sweeper can break through them in the later stages of the game. breakers can be lures that aim to, well, lure in a certain pokemon that would normally check / counter it and deal severe damage to the lured-in pokemon in the process. breakers can also be mons that simply apply tons of pressure to the walls themselves. in pretty much every case of hyper offense, you'll choose your breakers depending on the sweeper you've chosen to build your team around. as an example, if your sweeper (e.g.: belly drum azumarill) cannot effectively get past mega venusaur, a great complementary breaker would be a lure such as tail glow + psychic manaphy. alternatively, if you want to use pressure to break the mega venusaur, you could use something like swords dance bisharp. this concept can get a little messy, so if you're lost in building hyper offense, remember that your breakers are complements to your sweeper.

now that you've (hopefully) read that little paragraph on breakers, some of you may be wondering what the differences between a breaker and a sweeper are. in my opinion, the differences between your breakers and your sweeper are rather subtle. in the article i linked above, limitless notes that the only noticeable differences that determine if your pokemon is a breaker or a sweeper are when and how you use the pokemon. if it sees use in the early- to mid-game, then it would be considered a breaker; in contrast, if it sees more use in the end-game, it would be considered a sweeper. in addition to that small distinction, i also like to use my team building thought process as a way of determining whether a mon on my team is primarily a sweeper or a breaker. if i've built the team to give this pokemon as many opportunities to sweep as possible, then i'd call it a sweeper. in comparison, if i selected this pokemon to complement the sweeper, i'd think of it as a breaker. unlike the leads section, i will not list common breakers and sweepers since these are entirely team-dependent. the same will apply for the utility slot.

the utility is even more nebulous than the breakers. while limitless calls this slot the "pivot" slot and necessitates the use of u-turn / volt switch / baton pass in here, it really isn't as necessary as he claims. however, using a pivot as your team's utility helps because it gives the rest of the team an easier time switching around. as a general rule, know that the pokemon used in the utility slot checks mons the team has trouble with.

unlike the breakers and the utility, the speed slot is very simple. this is the slot dedicated to the team's revenge killer, which ensures that random fastmons don't overwhelm the team. in most cases, a choice scarf pokemon will take up this role. while they're not sweepers, they often are used to end the battle once the rest of the team has done their work. the only notable exceptions to this rule are swift swimmers and excadrill, which use beneficial weather to double their speed, as well as some naturally fast mega evolutions, such as mega aerodactyl. while certain priority spam teams (see: italian bunny offense) can excuse themselves from using a fast scarfer by virtue of having an overwhelming number of priority sources, most teams, regardless of overall archetype, will want to have at least one speed pokémon.

common speed mons on hyper offense:

(in rain)

(in sandstorm)

quick edit: when building and playing with these kinds of teams, remember to keep the relevant threats in mind.

hyper offense sample team:

sets

3d glasses (Azelf) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Fire Blast
- Explosion

maverick souls (Gengar) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Wave
- Taunt
- Focus Blast

forest fires (Kyurem-Black) @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 56 Atk / 252 SpA / 200 Spe
Mild Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 30 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Fusion Bolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Roost

recognise (Metagross) @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Hammer Arm
- Bullet Punch

green destiny (Azumarill) (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Knock Off
- Play Rough

bladerunner (Garchomp) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Rock Slide

not giving a description for this adaptation of my old mega mawile team since i've covered the roles of standard hyper offense in some detail above the importable.

the nicks come from fred v & grafix's remix album unrecognisable.

---

since this post is approaching tl;dr-level lengths already, i will not cover threats to hyper offense in this post beyond the generic speed-boosting sweepers like mega charizard-x, mega diancie, landorus, and mega metagross, which can sweep offensive teams if they can set up, insanely powerful wallbreakers, such as mega charizard-y, mega gardevoir, and choice specs keldeo, which can get free kos if they can switch in safely, naturally fast pokemon that can hit hard, such as sand rush excadrill, mega lopunny, swift swimmers, and talonflame, and powerful priority users. stall teams are also threats to poorly-built hyper offense since the poorly-built hyper offense may lack the necessary strength to break the stall team open. i might go into more detail about these threats later on, but this should be enough for now. thanks for reading this (assuming you didn't just skip to the end or skim it over just to copy the teams), and thanks to everyone who tries out the teams in this post :]

 

[Prinz]

Just gonna add that Infernape and Lum Berry Garchomp are really good Stealth Rock setter for HO teams as of now. Infernape is pretty understimated but Endeavor + Vacuum Wave is really annoying to play against, and that lets you to cripple at least one mon with Infernape most of time (Overheat also hits incredibily hard when it's in Blaze range). It's also fast enough to use Stealth Rock without too many problems, even if it still loses to Mega Sableye so you have to use at least one pokèmon to deal with it in your team like Mega Lop or Mega Diancie. Lum Berry Garchomp is also p good, being able to beat Sableye most times, and to threaten balanced cores as well (being able to Sword Dance on things like Rotom-W is really funny). To summarise, I think that they are both cool SR setters for HO teams and they should definitely see more usage :]

 

[cyberpunkbanana]

^^Just wanted to add that if run np or sd on ape instead of endeavor, you (usually) beat sableye 1v1.

 

[heritage]

I will be updating on Thursday from now on since Monday is boring!
Playstyle #2 : Balance

This week's playstyle will be Balance! Balance is usually overshadowed by Hyper Offense and Stall, but with Greninja being banned, it's become a more valuable playstyle. Balance tends to be bulkier and a lot slower, while still having enough offensive presence to still threaten Stall teams. Balance has become more common as of recently since Greninja is no longer here. How have you made good balance teams? What Pokemon do you tend to use? Staples to the playstyle? Any frameworks you use? What does this playstyle struggle against? What does it do well against?​

 

[firehusky]

On balance teams, I try to fit in a way of hazard removal, a way of setting up hazards, a way of not getting beaten by most top tier threats, 1 water resist, and 1 dragon resist. Clefable is pretty much a staple of balance, it's just so splashable and it's CM set is a great win condition, while Unaware sets are full stops to set up sweepers. It's also a decent SR setter, as it is able to beat Mega Sableye.

Balance is pretty much a few offensive mons, and a few defensive mons that can form a defensive backbone. For example, you have an offensive core consisting of Keldeo, Mega Gardevoir, and offensive Heatran, so your defensive core could be Ferrothorn, Rotom-W, and Latias. I find that most of my balanced teams have trouble against HO, since you won't really have more than 2 counters to one threat, and HO likes to stack stuff with common checks and counters together, so they can easily break through your counters.

 

[Turducken64]

I really enjoy balance and quite enjoy building it. Balance as playstyle is really nice as you can pressure a lot of mons while at the same time being able to pivot and tank hits relatively nicely.One thing I find symbolizes balance the most is offensive and defensive type synergy so stuff like FWG and DFS cores come to mind as they allow you to 'budget mons' very nicely as fitting everything you want on balance can be rough sometimes. One thing I would like to bring up is the several interactions that occur between the offensive core and the defensive backbone of a stall team as well as the interactions between the cores themselves. In my opinion balance teams need to have a defensive core that isn't to passive and provides very little momentum so something like chansey is out of the question. Stuff that can spread status, discourage setup due to decent attack stats or weaken mons to be cleaned later as well as provide safe switches and momentum via volt switch, u-turn and whatnot. The next thing about the defensive core is how compact it has to be to accommodate the offensive mons and vice versa this usually means each mon in the defensive core has to provide some utility such as rocks, status spreading, hazard removal. This also means your defensive backbone will lose to a wallbreaker or two as unlike stall you can't devote all your slots to defeating every relevant threat. This is where your offensive the synergy between your defensive core and your offensive core come in these offensive mons should be able to check or at least revenge kill what your defensive core is weak to and either a) eliminate the threat or b)apply enough pressure to the opposing team to gain the momentum you lost.The final interesting aspect of balance is how efficient the offensive core has to be to be able deal with both stall and offence typically a strong wallbreaker/stallbreaker and either powerful priority, or a fast mon is nice to deal with both stall and offence and the last slot can either be another wallbreaker or priority mon depending on what your team is looking weak to. The last thing your offensive core should be able to do is a)wallbreak for each other by either beating each others counters or by simply overwhelming a common check/counter. b) provide sufficient momentum or offensive to lead to setup opportunities. Now that I have gone over what I believe is interesting and important and balance I will give some roles/frameworks I enjoy using.


Some things I try to fit on every balance teams are (not all are necessary per se but it is nice). Feel free to disagree everyone teambuilds slightly differently.

Offensive roles

Fast mons/priority/Offense troll/scarfer
The whole point of this mon is to revenge kill or clean lategame stuff like mega manetric, mega lopunny, mega sceptile, raikou, torn-t and weavile are some of these mons that are naturally fast and outspeed the common 110speed tier. Band dnite, Mega scior, Bisharp, mamoswine, talonflame have ridiculously powerful priority that aids in revenge killing. Last but not least scarf lando-t, scarf ttar, scarf keldeo and scarf tran are all good options on balance as well as they all can revenge kill and check certain threats.

Wallbreaker/stall breaker
This mons job is to beat stall so stuff like mega garde, mega hera/ regular hera, mega gyara, lando-i, clefable, sub CM keldeo, taunt tran are all good options. Basically hit hard and beat common cores on both balance and stall categorizes this role.

Offensive utility
I hate losing to stall so having something that compliments your other offensive is important stuff like pursuit for wallbreakers that enjoy the psychics gone or softens defensive teams is nice this is kind of either of the other role depending on what you. This is a really loose role but is important as you need it to pair with your main wallbreaker. ie. gallade/bisharp. Gallade being the main wallbreaker and bisharp getting rid of psychics for gallade, stuff that hits really hard also fits under here as well trappers.

Bisharp check/fighting type
First off fighting is a great offensive typing allowing you to get by pesky chansey's as well as break down steels. Your fighting type also helps you greatly against bisharp which is an important mon you do not wanna be weak to. Stuff like keldeo, conkeldurr, mega hera, cobalion, chesnaught, and infernape are just a few fighting types that come to mind.

Fairy killer
Having a way to deal with bulky fairies wincons such as clefable, mega alt, are important having a way or two to handle them is important. (bisharp, cobalion, sludge wave lando-i with sludge wave, tentacruel, dragalge, scizor)

Defensive roles

Status absorber/cleric
I hate twave and untimely scald burns so i find it necessary to either run a cleric or something to absorb status so I don't have to deal with undo hax. Having a mon with either heal bell, aromatherapy or natural cure can be beneficial in the long run and easy's your time against stall as well as those annoying twave spamming teams jajajaja. The biggest issue is your cleric must not be too passive to allow for setup opportunities stuff like celebi, starmie, mega alt, sylveon and clefable come to mind for status absorbers or clerics that provide decent offensive presence.

Electric type/bird resist
This is pretty important role as the amount of utility, and team support this slot supplies is awesome. Stuff like zapdos, rotom-w, raikou, mega man, etc. provide important utility, such as providing momentum wearing down steels, and team support such as defog, status or high base speed as well as being able to handle birds which is pretty important. Other non electric bird resists tend to be steel or rock.

Fairy type
This is your fuck mega sableye slot as well as your dragon switchin and whatnot. IMO not having a fairy kinda sucks on balance really sucks lol. Mega garde, Clefable, altaria, sylveon, azumarill and togekiss are all decent options

Steel type
Something that is almost mandatory in ou checks a lot of stuff. Most tend to be bulky and can set hazards. Helps greatly against both fairies and dragons. Not much to say here its almost a necessity on all teams. Cobalion, bisharp heatran, ferrothorn, empoleon, and mega metagross are good options.

Hazard removal/setting
Fairly obvious stuff here balance relies and smart switches and gaining momentum so keeping hazards off your side and on your opponent helps a ton in the long run. Common hazard removers such as zapdos, starmie, tentacruel, and the latitwins fit nicely here. Some good hazard setters are heatran, ferrothorn, hippowdon, landorus (both forms), hippowdon, gliscor, and clefable.

Checks/counters to relevant metagame threats
These mons absolutely need to have a way of being dealt with by any balance team or any team in general mega sableye, mega zards (mainly-x). mega gyara, lando-t, keldeo, mega gross, lati twins, bisharp, and bird types. As well as being able to handle boltbeam coverage edgequake coverage and handle gengar/lando-i to an extent they suck to wall on most balance outside of specially defensive gliscor. I normally prefer to offensively deal with those two.

Note I did not post all mons you can use in each category but gave a few examples. Thank you for hopefully reading my guide not the greatest can be improved will post some of my favourite cores in a bit.

 

[bludz]

Balance is a fun playstyle because it allows you to adapt to opposing teams very well. Calm Mind sweepers such as Clefable, Mega Sableye and Mega Slowbro work well on balance builds because while they check and wall many threats, you still have an offensive presence unlike pure walls such as Chansey. It's not necessary but I find that having at least 1 pokemon with U-Turn allows you to gain momentum against stall teams and prevents more offensive teams from gaining too much momentum against you. I also think that Bisharp and Defiant Thundurus fit well in balance builds because they can generate a very powerful offensive presence without any setup (besides switching into Defog), and most balance builds like to have offensive firepower but can't afford to run a bunch of setup sweepers. Metagross also fits that description

Turducken64 summed it up pretty well to be honest that was about all I had to add.

 

[heritage]

Sorry for not updating yesterday
Playstyle #3 : Sand

This week's playstyle is Sand! Weather in general has received a nerf, and it now limited to only 5-8 turns. Excadrill is a fantastic Pokémon in Sand since it is no longer Ubers, and it works great with Tyranitar and Hippowdon, and it's capable of sweeping entire teams without much effort. What Pokémon work well under Sand? How bad did the nerf affect Sand as a playstyle? Is it even still viable? How can you make a good Sand team without being really cookie cutter?

Just a reminder, this is the OU forum. Please keep discussion on Pokémon who are actually viable.​

 

[p2]

Despite the weather nerf, Excadrill is still a massive threat in the metagame due to how fast and how powerful it is. It's likely to see an a decent increase in usage again as ScarfTar is rising in usage again and Hippowdon is seeing more usage because it just walls the hell out of most physical attackers while providing support.

Excadrill @ Life Orb / Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin / Swords Dance

Excadrill is definitely one of the scariest sweepers in OU, due to how easily it can set a Swords Dance, have nearly unresisted coverage, while being extremely fast in sand and having an immunity to Thunder Wave and Toxic, on top of all that, it's 4x resistant to SR, so it can easily switch in and lose very little HP from it.
Despite all these great aspects, it's lacking in bulk as 110/60/65 really isn't that impressive and it can be fairly easy to revenge kill with priority (Mach Punch and Aqua Jet). It's also a viable spinner for offensive teams and can beat spinblockers with right predictions, Mega Sableye doesn't want to take an EQ on the switch and Gengar doesn't want to take an Iron Head. It can run SR, but that's better off used on TTar or Hippowdon. Air Balloon is also a viable choice so it doesn't auto lose to Jolly Excadrills or losing a speed tie.

Also, don't use Sandslash, Stoutland or Mega Steelix, they aren't good in OU despite hitting decently hard and Excadrill just outclasses them offensively

 

[Deoxys Prime]

Sand is probably my favorite weather archetype because I enjoy bulky offense as much as I do. I'd like to talk from the two common angles about this team archetype.

Offense:
Sand has always been respectable offensively. Two premier types on sand teams are Ground and Rock which are also an excellent offensive type combination even if they don't pair terribly well defensively. Common sand threats like Excadrill, Tyranitar, and Garchomp have always been noted for their huge damage output and have been viable (often too viable) since they were added to the game. However, offense in sand shouldn't be limited to picks like those because they share a lot of common walls or common revenge killers. Azumarill walks all over all 3 of them.

Diversifying offense in sand generally comes down to a few choices. Ideally you want something that provides good coverage in addition to types you already have and it can often be preferable to have an attacker that does not take residual damage from the sandstorm if possible. Trying too hard to avoid that residual damage can lower the overall viability of the team though. Here is a short list of stuff I like to run in offensive positions on sand teams:

Sand Offense

Tyranitar - Core as a sand setter and as an offensive member of sand teams, most sand teams will elect to run one. It can run a lead set, act as a setup sweeper, act as a bulky attacker, possibly run mixed attacks, and more. It does have some common weaknesses to be sure to be ready to handle those weaknesses if you run Tyranitar.
Excadrill - Offensive sand glue. Blazing fast in sand, titanic damage, great coverage, and can also clear hazards. Most offensive sand teams will run this. It is your quintessential bread and butter sand team member.
Garchomp - Garchomp is common just because it is good all of the time. Most types of teams can benefit from Garchomp. It's fast and it's strong. The new Mega form is kind of lackluster but makes a decent wallbreaker when Sand Force is active. It also runs a nifty mixed set that can get past most of normal Garchomp's checks and counters.
Clefable - Clefable is so viable in OU and it runs Magic Guard anyway. It's essentially a team glue at this point. It provides Fairy type coverage that not much else will in sand. It also can set up and act as a win condition or bring some useful cleric support if you so choose.
Alakazam - Interestingly, I think Alakazam is one of the best revenge killers for a sand team. Alakazam is one of those odd choices that I describe as never doing quite enough damage to kill what I need it to. In sand, this is different. Residual damage from Sandstorm adds up over time and then Alakazam can act as a lategame cleaner after stuff has taken a chunk of residual damage. Magic Guard keeps Focus Sash in tact or allows it to use Life Orb to good effect.
Keldeo - I only list Keldeo for its coverage. Most of the options I've listed will not carry the same coverage that Keldeo does. Keldeo fits very well with usual offensive members of sand teams because of the alternative coverage and respectable damage.
Azumarill - Azumarill is for the same reason as Keldeo. I mostly list it as an alternative Fairy to Clefable because it adds Water and Fairy coverage simultaneously.
Heatran - I can run this in either an offensive or defensive position. Scarftran is a reliable choice for unique coverage but suffers from the frequent Ground/Water weakness found on sand teams.

Defense:
Sand teams generally have a lot of bulk anyway. Dedicated defense isn't always necessary but I'm mad dumb and can't play full offense teams at all so I generally like having a set of defensive switch-ins. That aside, there are a lot of quality defensive team members that fit sand. Some defensive choices I occasionally run are:

Sand Defense

Hippowdon - Your one alternative Sand Stream choice. It has good physical bulk, access to reliable recovery, good utility, and does more than 0 damage.
Ferrothorn - The common Grass and Water weakness is alleviated nicely by Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn can do all sorts of things. Speed control with Thunder Wave, additional attack coverage with Power Whip, scout with Protect, stall with Leech Seed... you name it. The usefulness of Ferrothorn can't be understated. We see it everywhere though and you certainly won't be a hipster running this.
Skarmory - Like Ferrothorn it alleviates common weaknesses (Grass and Ground) but also has phazing and hazard removing support. The better recovery from Roost also makes it a good alternative choice to Ferrothorn.
Gastrodon - Gastrodon is... different. I literally only run it for Storm Drain on sand. I wouldn't run it on other team archetypes, myself. With a Storm Drain boost it becomes a potent special attacker with good bulk and recovery.
Gliscor - Gliscor is usually stally as hell. You can certainly change it up though. It makes for a solid pivot in sand. With U-turn, Roost, and Poison Heal it has a ton of longevity and continue pivoting long into the game. A more stall oriented sand team might do better with one of its classic toxic stall sets though.
Mandibuzz - Like Skarmory, but a little different. It has a little more special bulk and access to Foul Play. They can be compared closely though. It also has Dark and Ghost type resists, which are pretty rare but not a big threat to sand in general.
Mega Venusaur - Wat? Mega Venusaur? I mostly list this because of the beautiful core it makes with Tyranitar. They cover each other incredibly well. Venusaur covers multiple types that sand hates to face off against. It is good because it is a strong special attacker and strong wall simultaneously. I recommend Leech Seed for recovery in a sand team because of Synthesis losing strength in sand. Leech Seed helps mitigate residual damage too. This is probably my most off-beat sand pick though.

Honestly, I have bad habits when making sand teams. I always have this tunnel-vision focus on making sure that everything fits the whole sandstorm thing when in reality that isn't important. It's a bad habit that, in the end, can leave your team with an awful lot of weaknesses or leave it high and dry if your weather is lost. I find it hard to make really good weather teams because of that. It can be hard to let go of. I struggle picking good complements much of the time. If you go hard with the whole sand thing and end up with a team that looks like Tyranitar, Excadrill, Garchomp, Hippowdon, Gliscor, and Gastrodon you probably won't have such a good time. I know, because I've done stuff like that before.

 

[56k]

Since sand inevitably requires using a tyranitar, it's often far too easy to get "slash happy" with ttar and try to theorymon all the possible uses it has for it's ridiculous movepool (thunderbolt! focus punch! stealth rocks!). In my opinion, if you have tar on your team, it had better have pursuit and furthermore should have it's dual STABs crunch and stone edge so that it can definitely do it's job like check birdspam and just generally hit hard with neutral crunches. The last move is a toss up and ought to be fire blast or ice beam depending on which pokemon you hate more (gliscor or ferrothorn, landorus or bisharp, etc). Stealth rocks isn't used here because there are better setters to use (like heatran or clefable) that can more easily make room for the move.

Excadrill's role is obvious and is meant to use the interim turns of double speed to smash through things with its 135 base attack. You can definitely try out the SD sets if you want but the one listed here has immediate Life Orb power and the ability to spin. Drills typing, moderate bulk, and immunities lets it spin on quite a few threats out there without getting hurt, and is a good option to have when hazards start to get out of control from opposing spikes users like chestnaught or ferrothorn. Life Orb earthquake ensures that mega sableye can't switch in to spin block you as well, because drill is just too powerful.

Keldeo is the main pokemon taking advantage of Tyranitar's pursuit. It is the best offensive water type now that greninja is gone and utilizes choice specs to significantly increase the power of it's STABs to the point of breaking through some uninvested bulky waters or bulky grasses. Depending how the battle plays out and if you bring them down to the right %, Ttar can permentantly get rid of pokemon like latis, celebi, slowbro, amoongus, and starmie that might otherwise wish to switch out and preserve their ability to check/counter keldeo. It is not easy to get into such a checkmate position because the opponent is probably completely aware of the possibility to be pursuit killed, but having that option sometimes makes the opponent hesitant to make their best move which is a weakness you can exploit. Other keldeo counters like venusaur and clefable can be worn down from repeated switch ins, sand breaking the effectiveness of moonlight, and wasting turns on recovery which can give you a free switch to a teammate.

Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Fire Blast

Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Electric]

Notes:
-The core is lacking ground immunities and would greatly benefit from at least 2 flying/levitate pokemon
-The core does not have any mega pokemon -- you are free to choose anything from loppuny to sableye
-The core does not have a hazard setter. There are dozens of SR users to choose from and finding one with synergy isn't hard
-The core would benefit from a legitimate dragon resistance/immunity because excadrill can't really switch into moves well
-The core has notable problems with fighting types like conkeldurr and breloom due to the shared weakness of ttar and drill

 

[Taehl]

While I don't think full sand teams are viable anymore, I do think cores like Tyrannitar-Excadrill are currently extremely good. Especially Life Orb Excadrill in the sand is terrifying at the moment. It can beat a lot of the new mega's, and with all the fairys running around, Excadrill can have a field day.
I use this core on my team and it has been destroying things lately:

Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 232 HP / 108 Atk / 168 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit

Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

 

[Celticpride]

I think Sand is a very good playstyle, for a few reasons. First, Excadrill has a lot of positive traits that make it hard to stop. It resists most priority (especially Brave Bird) and is immune to Prankster TWave. It's also got great STAB coverage in addition to being one of the best spinners out there. Second, Tyranitar being the primary Sand setter is a positive because even outside of setting Sand it still has a ton of utility in Pursuit trapping and setting Rocks. It's also got a lot of power even when it doesn't invest in offensive stats. The same can't be said about something like Politoad or Ninetales. A big reason I think Sand is so effective is that the primary core offers the potential for complete hazard control, freeing up other spots without having to jam Defog in somewhere.

As far as building Sand offense, once you have TarDrill, you have to shore up their shared weaknesses. Lati@s, Mega Altaria, and Slowbro are good examples of supporters, as they all resist Fighting and Water, with other helpful resists thrown in. Sand can go for a more balanced look by building a core around Slowbro, with a common partner being Ferrothorn. For a more offensive look, mons that can lure and smash Excadrill's checks and counters are recommended. Common checks to Excadrill include Skarmory, Gliscor, Landorus-T, Chesnaught, and Rotom-W. So from there, you want to pack some strong Water types, as well as some Fire coverage (not Fire types really as you already have 2 Water weaknesses). Excadrill also struggles with fatter teams, so a powerful wallbreaker is helpful as well. Keldeo and Landorus-I are a powerful wallbreaking duo that often excel on Sand teams (going back to gen 5). They share common checks, chief among them Lati@s. Sand happens to naturally utilize one of the best Pursuit trappers out there, so they work well with Sand from a synergy perspective. I built a very quick Sand team using the steps I was just talking about:

Quick Sand Team

Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 116 Atk / 144 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock

Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Surf
- Roost

Keldeo-Resolute @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Calm Mind
- Substitute

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 232 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Synthesis

Talonflame @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 88 HP / 252 Atk / 168 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Roost
- Swords Dance

Nothing too spectacular, but by looking through that you get what I was talking about. Multiple Water resists, two Ground immunities, two mons that appreciate Pursuit trapping, three Fighting resists. An additional cleaner helps Excadrill against offense (Talon and Exca can easily carry you against most offense). Latios covers the Sand core perfectly type-wise, and takes out Rotom-W and Chesnaught. SD Talon takes out other bulky Grass types, and doesn't worry about Scarf Lando while cleaning. Keldeo breaks down stall and fits in really well synergy wise. Venusaur way seem like an odd pick with the way Sand cuts off recovery, but it offered Fairy, Fighting and Water resists as well as dealing with some other threats to the Sand core. That kind of teambuilding process shows when Sand becomes less about a core and more about a team.

 

[Terry24]

Yes that Sand Offense is my favorite playstyle and its the one im familiar with the most. I would like to list some pokes I like to use on sand offense excluding Staples that support the playstyle and deals with its usual counters like Breloom(focus sash), Landorus-T(choice scarf), Chansey, Mega Sableye, Skarmory, Rotom-W

Sand Offense Partners

Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Play Rough
- Superpower

I like to use this azu set because it helps break defensive pokes like chansey and ferrothorn because it has the Potential OHKO both of them. Aqua jet heps deal with scarf lando because banded azu does massive damage to it. Also thr reason for its EV spread is to outspeed normal banded Azumarills.

Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid/Modest Nature
- Fire Blast/Flamethrower
- Roost
- Solar Beam
- Focus Blast

Zard Y is one of the best pokes to support sand offense. Its has great wall breaking power for many of the bulky grass, water and steel types that threaten sand like ferro, skarmory, rotom-w, alomomola, Bronzong Suicune etc... Zard Y usually can either OHKO or 2HKO these types of pokes. It also threatens mega sableye because it can usually 2HKO mega sableye even after mega Sab gets a +1 in sp def from calm mind. If you dont want to miss fire blast against mega sableye or in general I would prefer the Modest nature with flamethrower.
252+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Flamethrower vs. +1 252 HP / 0 SpD Mega Sableye in Sun: 168-198 (55.2 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO. Also Double weather on sand teams is a great way to counter rain teams.

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- ExtremeSpeed
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance

This Dragonite is one of my favorite pokes to use on sand team because of its ability to counter Breloom, talonflame and thundurus with just dragon claw + extremespeed because no matter what they do as long as multiscale is still in tack. Also Its a late game sweeper

Jessie (Wobbuffet) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 28 HP / 232 Def / 248 SpD
Bold Nature
- Encore
- Safeguard
- Counter
- Mirror Coat

I know this looks kinda weird using Wobbufet on sand but here me out first. It really helps because of itss trapping abilty in order to set up and also great against scarf lando because if they U-Turn on wobbufet using lando Counter almost ensures that ur opponent is forced to sack poke. Your able to lock slower pokes into a specific move with encore which gives u a free switch depending on the situation at hand. The reason for lum berry instead of leftovers because of the need to counter Lead breloom that its always ensure a safeguard can be use which forces your opponent onto using an attacking move so u can use counter on.

Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Superpower
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave

This thundurus set is great support on most my sand teams because it can handle pokes like skarmory, be able to potentially 2HKO Chansey after rocks with superpower and its T-Wave support is very crucial because it ensures better revenge kills/possible kills against set up sweepers like mega gyarados.

 

[Terry24]

Mega Latias Sand Balance

Tyranitar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock

Or

Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Crunch
- Ice Beam
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake

Latias @ Latiasite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 100 Def / 160 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Stored Power

Chesnaught @ Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Super Fang
- Leech Seed
- Spiky Shield
- Drain Punch

Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Play Rough
- Superpower

Volcarona @ Lum Berry
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain
- Fiery Dance
- Quiver Dance

This is one of my favorite sand teams with i built around bulky mega latias because it sets up many of the slow bulky pokes which threatens sand. The use of chesnaught its to counter breloom by luring in breloom with tyranitar then hard switching into chesnaught so the sand breaks its sash. the use of super fang is to help deal with stall better. Here are some replays.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-205545152
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-203944221