SM Doubles OU Japan Sand

[Redvader8]

Howdy! I'd consider myself an avid Pokemon competitor, and found my favorite doubles team last year in VGC thanks to ORAS. However, the last slot has been quite difficult to figure out what exactly I want there. But here is what I am using now.

Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Ice Beam
- Rock Slide
- Superpower

Scarf-Tar. Your typical set with access to ice beam for additional coverage and chance to OHKO Mega-Mence after intimidation. Sets up weather and pairs nicely with its sand rusher excadrill. One thing about the duo is that if you dont know what to do, you can luck out with dual speedy rock slide and flinch your way to victory. Tar is fantastic right now due to Mence being available as a partner and its ability to fight tapu koko well. Crunch is also fantastic with the new ghosts running a-muk. Superpower is there originally for Mega Kang, but I havent seen it for a while now so its arguably changeable right now.

Excadrill (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake

Sand rush sweeper excadrill reaches a peak of 550 speed in the sand, faster than any unboosted and most scarfed pokemon out there. Sash allows you to take any hit at least once so you can get more damage in later on. Its preferred over life orb for longevity and can survive priority. kills fairies and ice types for mega mence as well which is a HUGE plus going for it. Dual rock slide is always fun to run, but the stab iron head can make big swings in turns. This and T-tar are my pseudo speed control duo with sand rush and scarf to go as fast as possible to prevent getting hit in return. The slower stuff is the last 2 to help vs trick room.

Salamence-Mega (M) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Protect
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Draco Meteor

The best mega in DOU, mixed mence doing its thing of yelling a lot and dropping the bombs on fellow dragons. Went for a more basic 4/252 spread instead of 44/212 since M-Gardevoir isnt a thing atm and doesnt need the additional attack to score major kills anymore. Still strongest single target attack for it. Covers TTar's and excadrill's weakness to ground, water, grass, fighting, and fire. Draco Meteor could be fire blast, but with Mega Mence legal, almost everyone is using one so having it is almost mandatory.

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 28 SpA / 92 SpD / 132 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp
- Discharge
- Hydro Pump

Rotom-w is added to the force to deal with water, fire, ground and physical types in general. Levitate pairs great alongside excadrill. Discharge is used due to alolan-marowak's presence on the team and the prevalence of it in general right now makes it a good choice. Also the 30% para chance is a nice addition over tbolt. EVs are the same as the previous generation since I lack creativity, but it has decent bulk and can take a few hits thanks to sitrus berry and will-o-wisp.

Amoonguss (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Spore
- Protect
- Giga Drain
- Rage Powder

This is where the more flexible parts of the team come in. Amoonguss is here to fight trick room teams and spore down threats to the sweepers. Rage powder protect the sweepers from individual target attacks and hopefully dealing some damage through rocky helmet. Im possibly thinking of changing this to tapu bulu but I am not sure about the loss of redirection and sleep spam.

Marowak-Alola (M) @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Atk / 68 SpD / 16 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Bonemerang
- Protect

Last mon is the new Marowak with the mosts shocking attack stat of all, reaching 524 attack. The rest are spent on HP and SPD to to survive a modest tapu lele psychic. 16 speed to speed creep opposing slow marowak. I'm not sure on this slot though, previously I used aegislash for its wide guard support, but marowak is such a powerhouse against bulky steel type mons like celesteela that I feel it warrants a spot. Another mon I tried for a bit was Tapu lele and that felt great as well.

So far it has gotten me to 1477 with a 23-2 W/L ratio over the past couple of days. I love the archetype, but want others opinions on it

TL;DR Basic Japan Sand for first 4 pokemon, what are your thoughts for the last 2 slots?

 

[Sylveon.]

Hey there, tbh I really like this team. I have been playing around with sand myself last few days. The main thing which immediately came to my mind after seeing your team is how does he kill fat waters? I know you have rotom but discharge is weak to be honest specially against fat stuff like milotic at +1 special defense or something and amoongus really struggles this generation. By no means it is bad or something, only that it isn't as effective as it once was.

Since the primary trio of mega-mence,excadrill and ttar is optimal. I'd say we can replace rotom-wash with gastrodon since it makes your non ludicolo rain match-up pretty good. Next up we can replace amoongus with Tapu-Bulu thus providing the team with necessary terrain change as well as weakening earthquakes and shit. Also if you change amoongus to bulu, you can change earthquake on excadrill to drill run so that you are not affected by grassy terrain negatively. Also, you can consider life orb on excadrill to reliably KO tapu-lele at -1, but yeah focus sash might be better.

And finally since you are really weak to celesteela you can either keep marowak-a, but seeing that you have 2 electric immune mons, you can also use sub-tran here which easily sets up sub against slower team and continues to annoy the shit out of them, and since gastro draws away water weakness and bulu helps the team against ground attacks, three of them mesh pretty well.

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Tapu Bulu @ Grassium Z
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Superpower
- Taunt
- Protect

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 212 HP / 188 Def / 80 SpA / 28 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Icy Wind
- Earth Power
- Recover
- Protect

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 24 HP / 232 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Substitute
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Protect

Anyways, best of luck :)

 

[Test Bot #]

Several small changes:

Definitely use life orb on Excadrill to bring out maximum damage, and don't even think about putting Tapu Bulu because its ability, Grassy Surge, will reduce your Excadrill's Ground-type STAB move by half. Using Zapdos instead of Rotom-W may help out your team, too. After all, it provides another way for Excadrill to outspeed its opponents; it has Tailwind. Tailwind will also prove to be helpful as it allows Tyranitar to KO mons such as Scarfed Landorus-T and Deoxys-A without having to worry about them KO'ing back. Plus, Zapdos's Thunderbolt, boosted by Electrium Z, should have no problem in OHKO'ing bulky Water-types or Celesteela (unless they have an additional resisting type). Volcanion can also be used in place of Alolan Marowak. I personally put Roar on mine to deal with Trick Room setters and other annoying setup mons. Firium Z should help you to OHKO any Steel types (-Heatran), but remember that you can only use one Z-move per battle. In addition, a speed of 232 should let you outspeed Scarfed Landorus-T (Jolly) under Tailwind. Lastly, I suggest that you get a Terrain setter of your own, and one that specifically isn't a Grassy Terrain setter. In your case, Tapu Lele may be your best choice. I personally like to have my Tapu Lele scarfed to KO Mega Salamence or just to spam Psychic. If you're worried about using Double Scarfs, you can always change your Tyranitar's sets.

But overall, it's a really well-made team. Nicely done!

 

[Sylveon.]

Several small changes:

Definitely use life orb on Excadrill to bring out maximum damage, and don't even think about putting Tapu Bulu because its ability, Grassy Surge, will reduce your Excadrill's Ground-type STAB move by half. Using Zapdos instead of Rotom-W may help out your team, too. After all, it provides another way for Excadrill to outspeed its opponents; it has Tailwind. Tailwind will also prove to be helpful as it allows Tyranitar to KO mons such as Scarfed Landorus-T and Deoxys-A without having to worry about them KO'ing back. Plus, Zapdos's Thunderbolt, boosted by Electrium Z, should have no problem in OHKO'ing bulky Water-types or Celesteela (unless they have an additional resisting type). Volcanion can also be used in place of Alolan Marowak. I personally put Roar on mine to deal with Trick Room setters and other annoying setup mons. Firium Z should help you to OHKO any Steel types (-Heatran), but remember that you can only use one Z-move per battle. In addition, a speed of 232 should let you outspeed Scarfed Landorus-T (Jolly) under Tailwind. Lastly, I suggest that you get a Terrain setter of your own, and one that specifically isn't a Grassy Terrain setter. In your case, Tapu Lele may be your best choice. I personally like to have my Tapu Lele scarfed to KO Mega Salamence or just to spam Psychic. If you're worried about using Double Scarfs, you can always change your Tyranitar's sets.

But overall, it's a really well-made team. Nicely done!

Actually grassy surge doesn't reduce drill run's damage output, only earthquake, magnitude and bulldoze.

 

[Test Bot #]

Drill run is fine, but he has earthquake which is just as fine. I wasn't referring to your post when talking about it btw, although your suggestions are just as fine.