Speedy Boi Sand Balance
Click sprites for team importable.
Teambuilding Process
Stoutland was the focus of this team. With its incredible 518 speed under sand, it is able to outspeed everything except for scarf latias and scarf infernape, enabling it to easily sweep under sand, especially as the relative lack of these two sets being used anymore enables stoutland to run adamant. Naturally, I needed sand to pair with it to take advantage of its sand rush ability. I didn't want to run both gigalith and hippowdon unless I had to, as this would be taking up 3 teamslots not 2, and as it turned out running smooth rock hippowdon is more then sufficient, as it offers more reliable sand turns than two leftovers pokemon anyway, and hippowdon has recovery to keep itself up throughout the match. Hippowdon also served as the stealth rocker for this team.
While stoutlands STAB normal attacks in return and facade are impressive, ghost types are irritating to it forcing it to constantly hesitate on clicking any of its moves. Aerodactyl was therefore chosen next as a pursuit trapper, also taking advantage of the sand set by hippowdon. It also serves as a swap in to moltres for the team. It can also trap scarf latias for stoutland, which albeit uncommon can force it out if stoutland isnt at high HP, although stoutland has the bulk to eat a draco when at high HP. It also allows for revenging pokemon such as nasty plot infernape and lucario, which stoutland cant do due to vacuum wave.
Another problem for stoutland, though less so due to superpower is steel types. While stoutland can kill (or sturdy at full) aggron if it swaps in on a superpower before mega evolving, it can eat superpowers after mega evolving decently due to filter. However, scizor is probably the biggest issue, as resists normal while not being weak to superpower, has priority and can even pursuit stoutland as it swaps out if banded. Therefore, I decided to add an amoongus + magneton trapping combination next. Magneton can also trap other steels such as aggron and volt switch on them for slow chip, even though it cant stay in on them. Amoongus also serves here as a swap in to primarina, and can serve as an answer to altaria should stoutland die, and can help chip down steels due to an immunity to toxic + hp fire, and can spore dangerous pokemon.
In the final slot I needed a defogger, extra security against hydreigon and latias, and a way to deal with suicune should stoutland not be at high hp and able to freely swap in on it. Empoleon offered these roles, with roar able to phaze pokemon such as vincune/crocune and reuniclus. It also provides another answer to primarina for the team, which is important in matchups against both a primarina and a scizor where you dont want to waste the eject button on amoongus.
The Team Members
Stoutland was the focus of this team. With its incredible 518 speed under sand, it is able to outspeed everything except for scarf latias and scarf infernape, enabling it to easily sweep under sand, especially as the relative lack of these two sets being used anymore enables stoutland to run adamant. Naturally, I needed sand to pair with it to take advantage of its sand rush ability. I didn't want to run both gigalith and hippowdon unless I had to, as this would be taking up 3 teamslots not 2, and as it turned out running smooth rock hippowdon is more then sufficient, as it offers more reliable sand turns than two leftovers pokemon anyway, and hippowdon has recovery to keep itself up throughout the match. Hippowdon also served as the stealth rocker for this team.
While stoutlands STAB normal attacks in return and facade are impressive, ghost types are irritating to it forcing it to constantly hesitate on clicking any of its moves. Aerodactyl was therefore chosen next as a pursuit trapper, also taking advantage of the sand set by hippowdon. It also serves as a swap in to moltres for the team. It can also trap scarf latias for stoutland, which albeit uncommon can force it out if stoutland isnt at high HP, although stoutland has the bulk to eat a draco when at high HP. It also allows for revenging pokemon such as nasty plot infernape and lucario, which stoutland cant do due to vacuum wave.
Another problem for stoutland, though less so due to superpower is steel types. While stoutland can kill (or sturdy at full) aggron if it swaps in on a superpower before mega evolving, it can eat superpowers after mega evolving decently due to filter. However, scizor is probably the biggest issue, as resists normal while not being weak to superpower, has priority and can even pursuit stoutland as it swaps out if banded. Therefore, I decided to add an amoongus + magneton trapping combination next. Magneton can also trap other steels such as aggron and volt switch on them for slow chip, even though it cant stay in on them. Amoongus also serves here as a swap in to primarina, and can serve as an answer to altaria should stoutland die, and can help chip down steels due to an immunity to toxic + hp fire, and can spore dangerous pokemon.
In the final slot I needed a defogger, extra security against hydreigon and latias, and a way to deal with suicune should stoutland not be at high hp and able to freely swap in on it. Empoleon offered these roles, with roar able to phaze pokemon such as vincune/crocune and reuniclus. It also provides another answer to primarina for the team, which is important in matchups against both a primarina and a scizor where you dont want to waste the eject button on amoongus.
The Team Members
til the world ends (Hippowdon) (F) @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
Hippowdon is a necessary component of any sand balance. A standard EV spread here is used, however smooth rock was chosen over leftovers to allow it to set 8 turn sand on entry, which gives aerodactyl and stoutland much more reliable sand for their antics. Hippo serves as a pivot for the team, swapping in on non threatening pokemon to set rocks, heal itself up, reset sand, and whirlwind pokemon such as altaria if amoongus is low on hp. Whirlwind was chosen over toxic as it allows hippowdon to phaze pokemon such as altaria, while racking up chip damage to put pokemon in range of stoutlands attacks.
break the ice (Stoutland) @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Rush
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Facade
- Return
- Superpower
Stoutland is the focus of this team. Under sand, and with its choice band, it reaches an incredibly threatening 525 Attack and 518 Speed, making it able to outspeed pretty much anything without priority, except for anything as fast or faster than scarf infernape. Return is it's main attack to spam, as it has respectable power and is a STAB move, and isnt resisted by many pokemon. Superpower allows it to hit rock and steel types supereffectively, in particular OHKO'ing aggron on the swap if it hasn't mega evolved yet. Crunch rounds out the perfect Normal/Dark/Fighting coverage, allowing it to hit ghost types on predicted swaps, in particular doublade which can't be trapped by magneton due to it's ghost typing, and isn't really pursuit trapped by aerodactyl due to its defence and ability to OHKO it. Facade is chosen as the final move, as this allows it, along with its respectable bulk for an offensive pokemon to swap into scalds / toxics and become far more powerful, in particular 2hkoing hippowdon, alomamola and gligar when statused, making it a terrifying stallbreaker in the same light as a facade altaria.
criminal (Aerodactyl-Mega) @ Aerodactylite
Ability: Unnerve
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Roost
Mega-aerodactyl is the next member of the team. It also massively takes advantage of the 8 turn sandstorms, giving it a very respectable special bulk of 301 HP 339 Spdef. This allows it to reliable pursuit trap ghost types which would be problematic for stoutland, such as gengar and chandelure, while being able to pursuit trap other pokemon such as starmie and latias (albeit risky in starmie's case). Stone edge and earthquake give it reliable edgequake coverage, in particular allowing it to act as the main answer to moltres and togekiss, and revenge pokemon such as nasty plot infernape, and terrakion. Roost is chosen in last as it allows it to more reliably check pokemon such as moltres over the game, and allowing the team to function as an effective sand balance even when stoutland is dead.
toxic (Amoonguss) @ Eject Button
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire] / Stun Spore
- Spore
Amoongus forms the next pokemon on the team, acting as part of the trapping core for scizor (and other steels such as cobalion or aggron in matches where scizor isnt present, or already dead). It also acts as one of the primarina and altaria checks, and eject button allows it to swap in on any pokemon and then get a free swap and regenerator recovery in matches where it doesn't need it to trap a scizor, including offering a free swap into stoutland. Moveset and EV spread are very standard, allowing it to survive a specs psychic from primarina and maximise physical bulk. Spore allows it to sleep a potential irritating pokemon for the team, while sludge bomb allows it to hurt altaria and primarina, as well as pokemon such as celebi on the swap. Giga drain allows it to heal itself and hurt water types, while HP Fire allows it to hurt scizors that try to set up on it instead of swapping, or deal with scizor if it had to proc its eject button early, while stun spore is an alternative that allows it to paralyse a swap in.
overprotected (Magneton) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
Magneton forms the other half of the steel trapping core, being able to trap and kill (or maim in the case of very bulky scizors) scizor with HP fire, and chip at other steels such as aggron and cobalion with volt switch. Thanks to choice scarf, it is able to outspeed cobalion in particular, as it's good physical bulk allows it to be 3hkoed by return from stoutland, and it has a small chance of surviving a superpower too, while being able to chip it with rocky helmet damage. Moveset is very standard, Flash cannon allows it to hurt pokemon such as altaria and mamoswine, the latter of which in particular can be irritating for this team, as while it cant come in for free on many pokemon it can do a lot of work. Thunderbolt allows it to put in last ditch damage against a pokemon such as aggron, and can use the death afterwards to bring stoutland in for free if aggron is now in range.
hold it against me (Empoleon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roar
- Scald
- Toxic
Empoleon is the last pokemon on the team. It serves as the teams defogger, and is able to threaten the ground types such as hippowdon and gligar which can stomach stoutlands attacks before its statused with scald. Roar allows it to phaze pokemon such as suicune and reuniclus, pokemon that are bulky enough to only be 2hkoed by stoutland. Toxic in the last slot allows it to hurt pokemon such as latias and hydreigon. Empoleon along with amoongus hippowdon and aerodactyl enable the team to act as a standard defensive sand balance core should stoutland die or have a bad matchup, which along with scarf magneton allows it to still win plenty of games without stoutland necessarily doing much. Empoleon can also act as a backup answer to pokemon such as aerodactyl and doublade, as which it will get hit hard, it can survive an earthquake / sacred sword (which is becoming less common on the latter in favour of shadow claw anyway) and threaten them with scald.
Threatlist
Thanks for reading!
