Sand Team (OU) (No name yet)

[Saph]

Hello ppl. this is a team constructed with the help of Usatoday. Also descriptions done by him as well. This team has been fairly effective in the meta.
Team in preview

In Depth Look

TZilla (Tyranitar) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Atk / 76 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
Ttar is here to set up the sands. With rains popularity i didn't want to be stuck with hurricanes and thunders coming at me, however common they are. Choice Banded ttar works very well in trapping latis and other things. one thing it cant deal with however is the pony. Tyranitar acts in a way that this team depends on in the form of instant power that allows us to wall break the entire team of our opponent early to mid game if they have sand or lose the weather war. Tyranitar is important to the team also because it not only is able to deal the massive damage early game we need after removing skarmory it is also able to negate the rain that most balanced sand teams hate to face. Crunch allows us to break the opponent down early game without having to rely on stone miss hitting. It also allows us to 2HKO most forms of jirachi, hit landorus therian for some nice chunk damage. Stone edge allows me to hit some very crucial pokemon such as volcarona, heatran, infernape, and regular landorus incarnante. Superpower finally enables us to hit heatran, skarmory, ferrothorn, and magnezone.

Saladin (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 200 HP / 64 Atk / 244 Def
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
This thing sets ups rock effectively because it can easily switch in on most offensive threats. Intimidate is a fantastic ability to have on landy because of its bulk. U-Turn is to keep momentum flowing and it hits latis super effectifely which is good. Earthquake is for great stab since landy has such high base attack. Stone edge is to hit those dragons that try to switch in on the EQ.*

Rocky (Breloom) @ Fighting Gem
Trait: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
Fighting gem breloom is surprisingly good. Breloom can outspeed some threats and spore them taking care of them for a while. A sleeping poke is a useless poke. Swords Dance is to set up on the sleeping poke or on the switch. Bullet seed is to break subs and for good stab. Mach Punch Boosted is enough to take out other priority users or choiced mons if they're at 50ish depending on which mon.*

Paul Blart (Magnezone) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon
Say hello to Mr. Blart, he allows us to have the speed that this team is lacking besides latias. With volt switch he can come in on a hurricane from tornadus and kill it with a volt switch or if we're lucky we can even surprise an expert belt keldeo or even choice banded terrakion with flash cannon. It also helps us remove skarmory for breloom to come in late game and sweep. Hidden power fire is for ferrothorn and forretress mainly allowing us to hit them for a solid 2HKO. Thunderbolt is there to break substitutes incase we need to stay in or simply ensure a KO upon some pokemon such as broken rotom wash.

Maid (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 28 SAtk / 232 SDef
Calm Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Scizor annoys me a lot U-Turn will seriously hurts me if magnezone or landorus are gone or if they go into scizor while it u-turns. Insert rotom wash this is a pokemon that has received a lot of love from me for it's ability to keep not only landorus incarnate in check with latias, but the ability to solely counter any rain team lacking a choice specs latios. Will-o-wisp deals with the offensive threats of the metagame such as scizor, toxicroak, and garchomp (If it tries to block the volt switch). Spreading status also helps ware down my opponents pokemon to a evident breloom sweep. Volt switch is there to keep momentum going and destroy water types with volt switch namely jellicent, politoed, and keldeo. Volt switch also allows us to find a widely volt turn core when pairing rotom wash with a defensive landorus therian. Hydro pump is a high powered stab that can be the instant power that rotom needs it also allows rotom wash to hit the inpubescent fire types of the tier such as volcarona and infernape. Pain Split can wear down most my opponents pokemon with the highest amount of health that try to wall rotom wash.*

Javelin (Latias) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Recover
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Life orb latias is greatin todays metagame as it can sponge many hits the metagame has to throw at it and dish them right back with a power that few dragons lack. The choice to use latias over latios is simply because it can sponge hits from keldeo and chloropyll sweepers better. The given ev spread allows latias to live a +2 sludge bomb from a venusaur and OHKO back with psyshock. Hidden power fire deals with the pokemon that try to come in and wall me, this mainly being steel types such as scizor, ferrothorn (allowing a 2HKO in sand), magnezone, and skarmory. Psyshock offers a good stab dishing out decent damage to most pokemon such as toxicroak with an sd, venusaur, and conkeldurr. Psyshock's effect also allows latias to deal some a plump 30% to the pink blobs. Finally draco meteor is a fantastic stab with life orb allowing Latias to dish out damage similar to that of latios enabling this team to take on some common threats such as garchomp, starmie, and weakened tyranitar. Recover is required with sand (assuming i have it up) and life orb wearing down latias every turn as it helps keep latias healthy for sponging future attacks or dealing more hits with draco meteor.

import:
TZilla (Tyranitar) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Atk / 76 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

Saladin (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 200 HP / 64 Atk / 244 Def
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Stone Edge

Rocky (Breloom) @ Fighting Gem
Trait: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed

Paul Blart (Magnezone) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon

Maid (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 28 SAtk / 232 SDef
Calm Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Javelin (Latias) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Recover
- Hidden Power [Fire]​

 

[Vert]

Hey there!

For the most part, this is a solid team, but there are a few weaknesses. The most notable on are the common DD users. The most popular ones are Gyarados, and Salamence, which can steam role through this team, and Volcarona, so this is something to prepare for. Offensive Starmie (LO and Chice Specs) can also sweep this team clean in the rain, if Tyranitar has been weakened. Magnezone, your only Choice Scarf user, is dead weight against it as it gets defeated by Hydro Pump, failing to outpace Starmie since it only reaches 360 Spe. No fear! There are some suggestions that can fix these problems.

Before I get there, Thunder Wave seems the way to go over Will-O-Wisp. What is Will-O-Wisp doing? Burning stuff. However, Thunder Wave has more utility on a slower team like this. It comes useful when facing stuff like Alakazam and Tornadus, wich is very helpful. Also, Low Sweep seems the better option over Swords Dance on Breloom. As I said before, the only fast 'mon on your team is Latias, which can't faint, letting stuff like Band Garchomp clean the path. Low Sweep helps break down Breloom's common switch-ins. Examples are Latios, which suffers the 2HKO by Low Sweep + Bullet Seed, or a Low Sweep scoring in to a Spore. With this, use a Life Orb on Breloom to boost its moves or a Meadow Plate / Fist Plate, depending if your iffy about Sand Damage and LO Recoil stacking up, or want to bost Bullet Seed or Low Sweep.

A way to fix your weakness to those threats I mentioned before is by running a Choice Scarf Keldeo. Not only does Tyranitar remove its counters like Jellicent, but it synergizes well in the team and defeats the common threats that steamroll through your team like Gyarados and Volcarona. It provides a much better check to pokemon like Starmie as well. I would say over Magnezone, since it is mainly meant for Scizor and Dragon - SPAM.

Good Luck! n_n

Keldeo | Choice Scarf | Justified
Timid | 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe | 0 Atk
Hydro Pump | Secret Sword | Icy Wind | Hidden Power Electric

 

[Lady Alex]

I agree with using Keldeo over Magnezone. Magnezone doesn't look like it's doing a lot for your team right now. The only other thing I suggest is to get rid of Swords Dance on Breloom for Low sweep and to use Jolly over Adamant. A fighting gem set is typically used to Breloom can get past one of its checks who normally switch in after something has been spored (like latias for example), rather than sweep outright. The jolly nature is to outspeed base 115s whose speed has been reduced. If you want to keep Swords Dance, I would just use LO over the Fighting Gem.