Hello all, Lord Wallace here. It's been a good minute since I've posted an RMT, it feels a bit nostalgic to be honest. While I'm usually the type to really put some effort into RMTs and make them visually detailed, I'm going to refrain from doing that today since this team is definitely still very much a WIP, seeing as its my first real effort at building in SS, I expect to take a substantial amount of knowledge from better players to make this team much better. So its quite unlike other RMTs I made before I fell off the face of the Earth for teams that have proven success and are more of a showcase. So I'm keeping it simple this time.
Hippowdon @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Toxic
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
We're using sand, so we need a setter. Hippowdon is part of my two man defensive backbone for the team accompanying Toxapex, and it helps Pex ward off bothersome electric types such as Zeraora and Tapu Koko. It's also pretty good at hitting Toxic on potential switch ins to my Sand Rushers such as Landorus-Therian, Zapdos, and Swampert. This is pretty much as standard as you get for Hippo in this gen. The SDef spread helps Hippo pivot into a variety of bothersome threats like Tapu Lele, Dragapult, and Heatran. It's also fairly ok against Volcarona since bulky variants often need multiple QDs to bring Hippo down, opening itself to take multiple EQs, and more offensive variants simply wont be able to set up more than one QD leading to an easy Sand Rush revenge kill.
I experimented with other options here on previous variants of the team including Phys Def Hippo, Ice Fang Hippo, and even switching to a very aggressive Tyranitar set but once Toxapex was added to the team this Hippo variant had to stay, and I found Toxic to be the most consistent move over stuff like Whirlwind and Ice Fang. Its unfortunatley less of a wall here and more of a pivot and support for Toxapex since not having Lefties really blows for its longevity. You shouldn't expect to sit on mons forever with this, you pivot in on an appropriate threat, get sand up, and get out on the presumed switch. The negative Speed nature and IVs are for the occasional Trick Room shenanigans, the only threat of note that is now outspeeding Hippo is Melmetal, which typically don't run min speed anyway and my team usually handles it just fine.
Dracozolt @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bolt Beak
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Outrage
Dracozolt has had a slight decline in the metagame recently in terms of other players beginning to adapt to its mixed set with Draco Meteor. This set aims to take advantage of the shift in the metagame favoring SDef Landorus-Therian by going all out on its physical attacks instead and running Outrage over Draco Meteor in the fourth slot. Outrage from max attack Dracozolt does around the same amount of damage to the staple SDef Grounds, but without suffering the -2 stat drop afterward and therefore threatening to 2HKO both SDef Landorus-Therian (Intimidate accounted for) and SDef Hippowdon after Stealth Rock damage, forcing them to either switch out or lose their Dracozolt and Excadrill checks. The standard SDef Swampert is also shredded by Outrage where Draco Meteor and Earthquake fail to win to win that 1v1. Other than that, Dracozolt just does Dracozolt things, having an even stronger Bolt Beak on this set than on the mixed one, and making an excellent Drill partner by getting a free turn on some of its most common switch ins including the likes of Corviknight, Mandibuzz, and Slowbro. It also annihilates Tapu Fini and Calm Clef for Hydreigon if given the chance. Fire Blast remains on the set despite running Adamant for Kartana and Ferrothorn. Technically Flamethrower could be run here since PhysDef Tangrowth and Ferrothorn both are still 2HKOed and Kartana obviously still drops, but I like Fire Blasts consistency against SDef Ferro and it is better at picking off severely weakened Landos which would otherwise lock me into Outrage. Flamethrower can also miss the 2HKO on Rillaboom, a mon that bypasses Bolt Beak's added power with priority.
Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
Excadrill makes for a solid Dracozolt partner and also supports the team's other dragon, Hydreigon. Since Dracozolt prefers to use Life Orb to switch up moves and attempt a sweep, Excadrill's Rapid Spin is vital for preventing it from taking even more residual damage from Spikes and Stealth Rock. Additionally, Excadrill can either lure in mons like Corviknight that Dracozolt takes advantage of, or weaken checks like Landorus-Therian and Ferrothorn for Dracozolt to sweep afterward. As the only Steel type on the team, Excadrill is also important as an offensive pivot into weaker Dragon moves like those from Dragapult and into Fairy types like Clefable, hence why Leftovers are preferred for a bit more longevity. Excadrill is fairly straightforward, it either opens up a path to sweep for Dracozolt or Dracozolt does so for it, all the while being the designated Fairy killer.
Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- U-turn
While building the team I decided upon a set of ideal criteria for the teams' next members after Hippo and the Sand Rushers were chosen, and I came up with the following:
Immunity to EQ, extra Water and Grass resists (Dracozolt wants to preserve its health), and can bust shit up.
Specs Hydreigon just seemed like a natural pick to give the team even more immediate power against balance to accompany the offense killing Sand Rushers. Initially I toyed around with a Trick/Healing Wish Latias here before realizing Latias sucks and cant do anything.
Hydreigon is super neat because it can keep up momentum with U-turn for a safe switch into Hippo or a Sand abuser and offensively takes on some of the biggest pains for this team including Urshifu-S, Crawdaunt, KYUREM, Rillaboom, and Bisharp. This Pokemon is just a pain for many teams to switch into, and those that can switch into it are just a U-Turn away from Excadrill or Dracozolt pain.
The moveset could be changed to include stuff like Earth Power for a better time against Heatran or Flash Cannon for Fairies like Clefable, but I preferred to keep a consistent STAB in Dark Pulse to spam and Flamethrower is just nice to better handle Steels like Corviknight (especially SDef sets that shrug off Dark Pulse), Ferrothorn, and Bisharp. I do not like missing Fire Blast.
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Nasty Plot
- Focus Blast
- Heat Wave
Tornadus was probably the most difficult team member to justify and is the one I could most see changing, but Nasty Plot Tornadus was chosen as a better means to punish bulkier balance styles and add a bit more immediate speed to the team at the same time. There's many teams and Pokemon out there right now that feel a little too comfortable just sitting on a Tornadus expecting the standard Knock Off/U-Turn set to set up their rocks or Protect or heal up or throw out a weak Scald or Toxic, and in my opinion NP Torn is an underprepared for threat in this meta that is supported fairly well by this team, particularly having two solid answers to fast Electric types that would put an immediate halt to this set. Having another measure to keep Grass offense in check is also nice and with three weaknesses to Ground on the team doubling up on immunities also seemed ideal.
Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 28 Atk / 228 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Haze
- Gunk Shot
- Recover
- Scald
Throwing on a big fat Pex on a team that's supposed to be Sand Offense might seem strange, dissonant even, but in my opinion the current meta makes it a bit difficult to throw out all caution to the wind defensively, so for this team I preferred to at least have a 2 man defensive backbone to somewhat be able to switch into things, and a water type of some kind seemed to me like the best way to take advantage of SDef Hippo's strengths and to support it. I toyed with many other bulky waters in this slot like Slowbro and Tapu Fini to accompany Hippowdon before settling on Pex for my team’s needs. There’s just no denying it, Pex is extremely solid as a blanket check for physical threats that otherwise give my team an immense headache. These include Weavile, Urshifu, Hawlucha, Kartana, Dragonite, Victini, and more.
Additionally, this is not a completely normal Toxapex as you may have realized, and now I'm going to explain the attack investment and the inclusion of Gunk Shot. You see, one of the Pokemon that was giving prior versions of the team all kinds of hell was Tapu Fini. Sure Dracozolt threatened it but there was no way it was switching into a Moonblast and Timid variants actually outsped it outside of Sand. Tornadus was also an option to take it on, but it seemed a bit inconsistent to rely on a Pokemon that resists neither of Fini's STABs and has to hit likely more than one 70% accurate move to come out on top.
But the kicker for me in terms of deciding on this set, was the trend I was noticing of stallbreaker Tapu Finis that were more than happy to stay in on Toxapex and try their Taunt + Nature's Madness or CM horseshit. Gunk Shot with the bit of attack investment secures a 99.8% chance to 3HKO Bold variants of Tapu Fini even with Leftovers recovery, and it always surprises me how many players are willing to stay in and take two even when Pex can regen Nature's Madness damage while their Fini is potentially dead now or close to it. It's pretty much free real estate for Hydreigon after that, speaking of which this Pex also isnt as passive against Clefable and relieves some pressure off of Drill to always switch into Clef Flamethrowers, Calm Clefs take 60 min from Gunk Shot. In general I found that STAB Gunk Shot helped relieve some of Toxapex's passivity as a Pokemon compared to when it only uses Scald to attack off of 53 Special Attack. 63 base attack isnt good either, but its better, and if anything was going to make that work it would probably be a 120 BP STAB move that can also poison. Frailer Pokemon like Hawlucha and Weavile still take a respectable amount from the move and now suddenly Pokemon such as Tapu Koko and Lele aren't just switching into Scalds. Lele faces a 75% chance to be OHKOed after Rocks. Volcarona takes more from Gunk than Scald and it also isnt weakened by Quiver Dance, with even 252 HP variants facing a 3HKO, not to mention a potential poison and sand chip. For what it's worth, Gunk with this investment also breaks Kyurem's subs...if you can land all of them. Barraskewda also takes much more from Gunk than even Scald under rain, its a clean 2HKO in fact.
Threats:
Garchomp and Kyurem absolutely push my shit in. Scarf Kyurem isn't common or good really but it literally can just lead and click Freeze Dry turn one. Specs gets a kill every time its in. Garchomp is just a motherfucker to deal with due to its bulk, good matchup against Pex, and Scale Shot boosting its speed just above what Dracozolt hits in sand, if it gets going at all I'm likely sacking a couple mons trying to revenge it or even just losing outright if I'm unlucky at all. Dragapult is also a bit of a nuisance since Hippo lacks passive recovery, but its lack of power makes it more manageable.
Aight where my Team Raters at?
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