SM RU Sand Semi-Stall (Peaked #1 on RU Ladder, 91+ GXE, 1745 ELO)

[hjkhj]

Introduction:
Here's my Sand Semi Stall that I used to climb the ladder up to the number 1 spot. It features Florges as its cleric, Mandibuzz as its defogger, Mega Steelix as its stealth rock setter, Gigalith as its sandstorm setter, Quagsire as a general wall to beat set up pokemon, and Stoutland as its main Sand abuser. Enjoy the team :]

Proof of Peak:


The Team:

Florges @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy

Florges is mainly here as a cleric that can beat Mega Blastoise. Although specially defensive Mandibuzz can also 1v1 Mega Blastoise in theory, its susceptible to being burned and being forced to use many of its roosts by having to take multiple ice beams. Furthermore, being able to pass wishes to Gigalith and Mega Steelix means you do not need to rely on rest as the only form of recovery. Aside from that it allows the team to break through taunt Mandibuzz, which this team would otherwise have some trouble getting past.

Mandibuzz @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 212 SpD / 48 Spe
Careful Nature
- Roost
- Defog
- Brave Bird
- Knock Off

Mandibuzz is the obvious choice of defogger for the team, as its ability overcoat allows it to not take sand storm chip damage. Additionally, Mandibuzz is able to knock off leftovers on Bronzong and Registeel, allowing for you to chip them down over time. It also gives you a way to break gligar with Stoutland by knocking off its eviolite so that Return will be able to 2hko. It has brave bird as it allows you to lure in Chesnaught and Virizion which would otherwise be able to come in and set up leech seeds and spikes or swords dances respectively. The speed allows you to out speed max speed Marowak, which although uncommon, would be disastrous to the team otherwise.

Steelix-Mega @ Steelixite
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Careful Nature
- Rest
- Stealth Rock
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake

I decided Mega Steelix would be the best stealth rock user for this team as it has the ability to do a respectable amount of damage due to sand force actually being utilized under sand, as well as counter most powerful physical attackers. Furthermore, with the Max Hp, Max special defense, it can take on special attackers much more reliably as well. In addition, it provides a way to answer Choice scarf trick Gardevoir, which would otherwise be an issue. The moves are fairly standard aside from Rest, which I chose to include because it allows Steelix to be a more consistent wall. Due to rest, it can set up stealth rocks on a Milotic's first scald, then click rest on the second, which you may the proceed to heal off with aroma therapy.
0 SpA Milotic Scald vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Steelix-Mega: 132-156 (37.2 - 44%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
As you can see, even after a a max roll + burn damage, you are able to survive the next one and click rest healing off all damage.

Gigalith @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rock Blast
- Toxic
- Rest
- Earthquake

Gigalith is here as the sand setter, which I feel works excellent on stall because it deal with threats that would otherwise decimate stall such as nasty plot poisinium Z Salazzle, choice specs eruption Typhlosion and nasty plot Ninetails. The moves are again fairly standard aside from rest which I chose to include due tot he same reason as Mega Steelix; it allows it to be a more consistent wall. It also really did not need the fourth move slot as there is already a rock setter on the team, and rest allows it to constantly come in on powerful special attacking fire types such as the ones mentioned above.

Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Toxic
- Scald
- Recover
- Earthquake

Quagsire is an obvious addition to stall, as it gives the team a way to deal with dragon dance Feraligatr, and choice band Zygarde 10%. It has the standard move set and the standard EVs since it is what works best. Unaware allows the team to be less scared of physical set up sweepers such as the aforementioned Feraligatr. Furthermore, it gives the team another way to break down Gligar even if it has its eviolite in tact by way of repeatedly clicking scald and PP stalling Gligar out of roosts.

Stoutland @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Superpower
- Crunch
- Facade

Stoutland is the main sand abuser of the team. Stoutland allows the team to revenge kill any mons that may prove to be problematic as well as break through many defensive pokemon such as Registeel, Bronzong, and Milotic to name a few. Choice band Stoutland also 2hkos many of the regularly used pokemon in the tier as not many teams prepare for a choice band Stoutland under sandstorm. However, its main function is to revenge kill the pokemon that can be problematic to this team such as Pangoro and Araquanid.

Importable: https://pokepast.es/b84a16aaa040865e

 

[teachable]

Curse lax seems like it'd maybe justify running curse on quag itself over toxic, in addition to giving you a second win con. Otherwise cool squad :).

 

[hjkhj]

Curse lax seems like it'd maybe justify running curse on quag itself over toxic, in addition to giving you a second win con. Otherwise cool squad :).

Very good point, however giving up toxic on Quagsire kind of sucks because toxic allows it to punish things like rotom-Mow on the switch in, and curselax gets PP stalled by Rest mega Steelix barring a crit.
+6 0 Atk Snorlax Body Slam vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Steelix-Mega: 94-111 (26.5 - 31.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
As you can see, since it is not 3hko, you can constantly rest and PP stall his body slams. Alternitvely, if hes not rest talk, but rather a coverage move instead of sleep talk, you can PP stall rests by clicking toxic from quagsire, then swaping to something after it uses a rest on the first sleep turn, then swap to another thing on the second sleep turn, then swap to quagsire on the turn it wakes up to absorb any attack it clicks then click toxic and repeat the process.

 

[pokemonisfun]

why couldn't you post this before I lost my RU open game :(

 

[hjkhj]

why couldn't you post this before I lost my RU open game :(

Sorry my guy :(
if you needed some teams you could've PM'd me. I'd always be happy to help team build or give you one of my teams anytime

 

[teachable]

Very good point, however giving up toxic on Quagsire kind of sucks because toxic allows it to punish things like rotom-Mow on the switch in, and curselax gets PP stalled by Rest mega Steelix barring a crit.
+6 0 Atk Snorlax Body Slam vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Steelix-Mega: 94-111 (26.5 - 31.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
As you can see, since it is not 3hko, you can constantly rest and PP stall his body slams. Alternitvely, if hes not rest talk, but rather a coverage move instead of sleep talk, you can PP stall rests by clicking toxic from quagsire, then swaping to something after it uses a rest on the first sleep turn, then swap to another thing on the second sleep turn, then swap to quagsire on the turn it wakes up to absorb any attack it clicks then click toxic and repeat the process.

Curse lax runs fire punch/earthquake, at least often enough for you to worry about it. Also they run frustatrion.

 

[hjkhj]

Curse lax runs fire punch/earthquake, at least often enough for you to worry about it. Also they run frustatrion.

Ah, I see. Then yes, curse quagsire is a definite option. But like I said before, you can still PP stall it out of rests. Thanks for the feedback btw :]

 

[Luthier]

Hey man! First of all, I just wanted to say that the idea that you have is super cool. It's really hard for people to find these interesting ideas in a tier that basically spams entei and barbacle. Anyways, that being said, I have a couple of things that I would like to point out.


Weaknesses

- So the reason I wanted to start off with this is because the first thing I noticed was that 5 out of 6 mons on your team (a) don't answer this properly or (b) don't switch into a seed flare. And with a special defensive drop, your Florges won't even be a solid check since it takes so much from a seed flare from offensive Shaymin

• 252 SpA Shaymin Seed Flare vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Florges: 112-133 (31.1 - 36.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
  
  
• 252 SpA Shaymin Seed Flare vs. -2 252 HP / 4 SpD Florges: 225-265 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

So this brings up the reason that you use the specially defensive Mandibuzz. But when I thought about how I could break this team, I noticed that mandibuzz was also your defogger. This means that with rocks up, in order to act as a safe answer to shaymin, you have to switch into rocks, take the seed flare while hoping for no special defense drop, and then basically try to pivot around and hope that you deal with the shaymin well enough.

The next problem I noticed with your team is that outside of Stoutland, you have no way of actually pressuring this thing. Especially if it is this set: https://pokepast.es/4ed284c1a5c8ce48. This mon not only switches in on 5/6 of your mons, but also can throw off toxics and scalds while at the same time maintaining its own status with refresh. And when this mon is burned, it switches into return.


Possible Changes

So for me to create an actual solution to both of these mons, you would need to completely revamp this team. However, to make this as manageable as possible, I would suggest a couple this for you. ​

​

1. Change the Mandibuzz set. Brave bird is a cool lure and I understand that, but in a sand type of team, your goal shouldn't be to lure in offensive threats, but to rather blow them out of the water. Since you are running smooth rock on the gigalith, you will most likely have sand up for most of the game. Because of that, change the Mandibuzz from Brave Bird to U-turn. This allows you to not only switch in to things like virizion and shaymin, but also to switch in and then slow pivot out into something like stoutland in order for you to revenge.
2. The next thing you can do is try to role compress on the team. While it may be hard for the mandibuzz to defog since it is taking damage, you may want to change the defogger to the Florges and swap out something like aromatherapy. Yes, you do lose the durability that is required in a cleric, but with a sand team, the goal should be more to rush down the opponent rather than "stall" them out. And even though the game plan of the team is to basically stall, the team is more of a semistall team, where you wait for the chance for you to bring in the sand combo and try to win via those mons. Now, if you do run defog on Florges rather than the Mandibuzz, your Mandibuzz can now run Taunt. If it runs taunt, you are better off against other stalls and the Milotic set that I had posted above.

There are just a couple of things I noticed with your team. If you have any questions, please tell me. And of course, great job with the team and good luck!

 

[hjkhj]

Hey man! First of all, I just wanted to say that the idea that you have is super cool. It's really hard for people to find these interesting ideas in a tier that basically spams entei and barbacle. Anyways, that being said, I have a couple of things that I would like to point out.


Weaknesses

- So the reason I wanted to start off with this is because the first thing I noticed was that 5 out of 6 mons on your team (a) don't answer this properly or (b) don't switch into a seed flare. And with a special defensive drop, your Florges won't even be a solid check since it takes so much from a seed flare from offensive Shaymin

• 252 SpA Shaymin Seed Flare vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Florges: 112-133 (31.1 - 36.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
  
  
• 252 SpA Shaymin Seed Flare vs. -2 252 HP / 4 SpD Florges: 225-265 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

So this brings up the reason that you use the specially defensive Mandibuzz. But when I thought about how I could break this team, I noticed that mandibuzz was also your defogger. This means that with rocks up, in order to act as a safe answer to shaymin, you have to switch into rocks, take the seed flare while hoping for no special defense drop, and then basically try to pivot around and hope that you deal with the shaymin well enough.

The next problem I noticed with your team is that outside of Stoutland, you have no way of actually pressuring this thing. Especially if it is this set: https://pokepast.es/4ed284c1a5c8ce48. This mon not only switches in on 5/6 of your mons, but also can throw off toxics and scalds while at the same time maintaining its own status with refresh. And when this mon is burned, it switches into return.


Possible Changes

So for me to create an actual solution to both of these mons, you would need to completely revamp this team. However, to make this as manageable as possible, I would suggest a couple this for you. ​

​

1. Change the Mandibuzz set. Brave bird is a cool lure and I understand that, but in a sand type of team, your goal shouldn't be to lure in offensive threats, but to rather blow them out of the water. Since you are running smooth rock on the gigalith, you will most likely have sand up for most of the game. Because of that, change the Mandibuzz from Brave Bird to U-turn. This allows you to not only switch in to things like virizion and shaymin, but also to switch in and then slow pivot out into something like stoutland in order for you to revenge.
2. The next thing you can do is try to role compress on the team. While it may be hard for the mandibuzz to defog since it is taking damage, you may want to change the defogger to the Florges and swap out something like aromatherapy. Yes, you do lose the durability that is required in a cleric, but with a sand team, the goal should be more to rush down the opponent rather than "stall" them out. And even though the game plan of the team is to basically stall, the team is more of a semistall team, where you wait for the chance for you to bring in the sand combo and try to win via those mons. Now, if you do run defog on Florges rather than the Mandibuzz, your Mandibuzz can now run Taunt. If it runs taunt, you are better off against other stalls and the Milotic set that I had posted above.

There are just a couple of things I noticed with your team. If you have any questions, please tell me. And of course, great job with the team and good luck!

Hey, you're absolutely right that I really can't pressure a milotic aside from the stoutland, so I definitely think you're right about changing a move on Mandibuzz to taunt. However, having to get rid of aroma therapy on Florges would really worsen my matchup Vs. Balance, since it allows me to to heal off the rests from gigalith and steelix. So then the question becomes what would I be able to change in order to keep aroma therapy on Florges as well as fit in defog and taunt Mandibuzz. My solution would be to simply remove brave bird from Mandibuzz for taunt. I may be missing something, but from my calcs it seems like Mandibuzz can come in on rocks+ seed flare and take the next seed flare which would still be doing under 50, so I believe leaving defog on Mandibuzz should be fine.

252 SpA Life Orb Shaymin Seed Flare vs. 248 HP / 212+ SpD Mandibuzz: 82-97 (19.3 - 22.9%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Life Orb Shaymin Seed Flare vs. -2 248 HP / 212+ SpD Mandibuzz: 164-192 (38.7 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

That being said, I'll definitely try out the changes you suggested. Thanks for the feedback :]

 

[ImKoolKidz]

hey man. ive seen that cb emboar is a huge threat to your team. superpower does over half to quas and you cant directly switch into floreges bc of flare blitz. thus, you have to sack a mon almost everytime emboar comes in. also, usually teams with emboar run healing wish gardevoir for longitivity, so more trouble that you have to deal with.

any suggestions?

 

[hjkhj]

hey man. ive seen that cb emboar is a huge threat to your team. superpower does over half to quas and you cant directly switch into floreges bc of flare blitz. thus, you have to sack a mon almost everytime emboar comes in. also, usually teams with emboar run healing wish gardevoir for longitivity, so more trouble that you have to deal with.

any suggestions?

Yeah, emboar is really hard to handle for any stall team, it basically comes down to if you can get the super power vs. Flare Blitz play right or not. Other than that, usually you play the Emboar match up more offensively and not let it come in for free

 

[ImKoolKidz]

alright thanks #banemboar lmao