Sandstorm Stall (GEN IV)

[Zwei]

My friends and I are having a tournament and one of them has some weird banned list that bans legendary pokemon with a full exception. Also with other stuff, it isn't really finished yet so I have an okay on some pokemon like Heatran. So some copy and paste from Smogon and also another rule which limits the leftovers to only two per team.

Smeargle:

Item: Focus Sash

Nature: Jolly

Ability: Own Tempo

EVs: 252 HP 4 DEF 252 SPE

Moves:

~Explosion

~Extremespeed

~Spikes

~Stealth Rock

Just my lead I guess needed to set up all the entry hazards, not much I can say about it should be obvious. It just needs to last long enough to do its job and if it lasts long enough then I can use explosion or if better extremespeed.

Hippowdon:

Item: Leftovers

Nature:Careful

Ability: Sand Stream

EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD

Moves:

~ Curse

~ Slack Off

~ Earthquake

~ Ice Fang / Stone Edge

Now the main star of the team he sets up the storm which will give Garchomp his needed advantage to out speed everything and do the needed damage when I need it. Curse helps with the attack damage and the such.

Blissey:

Items: Leftovers

Nature: Bold

Ability: Nature Cure

252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe

Moves:

~ Aromatherapy

~ Softboiled

~ Seismic Toss

~ Thunder Wave

The idea behind this set is fairly straightforward: switch in on a special attacker, heal your team of any status ailments, and respond to the opponent's next move appropriately.

Aromatherapy is the main move on this set, cleansing your team of any status problems that it may have. With it, your team no longer has to worry about having a dedicated status absorber, as Blissey can easily use Aromatherapy to heal off any problems. Softboiled provides an instant recovery move for Blissey, while either attack is acceptable. Thunder Wave cripples Gengar and Rotom-A who may switch in thinking they can take a Seismic Toss, while Toxic is there for stalling capabilities. It should be noted that without Protect, the ability to stall is more difficult as Blissey can no longer alternate between Wish and Protect and instead must rely on constantly using Softboiled.

Garchomp:

Item: Life Orb

Nature: Jolly

Ability: Sand Veil

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Moves:

~ Swords Dance

~ Outrage

~ Earthquake

~ Fire Fang

Need a sweeper to take out pokemon that could give me problems and it will out speed all I need. It will come in handy later if I need to rush the game to finish up, but prefer to stall. Fire Fang is good to get rid of pesky grass pokemon that could come in.

Torterra:

Item: Life Orb

Nature:Impish

Ability: Overgrow

EVs: 212 HP / 252 Def / 44 Spe

Moves:

~ Seed Bomb

~ Earthquake

~ Leech Seed

~ Roar

While Torterra is usually seen as a fearsome sweeper, it can also be played as a tough tank, especially with a beefy 384 HP and 339 Defense. As Torterra holds key resistances to the common Rock-, Ground, and Electric-type moves, it's easy for Torterra to come in, sponge an attack, and begin Leech Seeding foes. Torterra's usefulness doesn't end there; if needed, it can set up Stealth Rock, and even Roar out opponents, such as Dragon Dance Altaria, who fails to OHKO Torterra even with a boosted STAB attack. Torterra can also scare away sweepers with its powerful STAB moves in Wood Hammer and Earthquake.

Torterra ideally works on teams that require a physically-bulky Pokemon who can also hit common switch-ins hard. As a plus, Torterra is one of the more reliable Rhyperior counters in the game, fearing only Choice Band boosted Megahorn. After surviving Rhyperior's attack, it can then threaten Rhyperior with a 4x super effective Wood Hammer or Seed Bomb. Roar works best in the last slot, as it can help Torterra rack up Spikes and Stealth Rock damage, as well as prevent Baton Pass chains from setting up.

Starmie:

Item: Life Orb

Nature: Timid

Ability: Natural Cure

EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Moves:

~ Rapid Spin

~ Surf

~ Thunderbolt

~ Recover

Starmie is a fine choice for spinning away entry hazards. While Forretress, the other common OU spinner, is slower than Rotom-A and is neutered by Will-O-Wisp, Starmie is faster and can use STAB Surf to combat Rotom-A. Surf also provides a reliable weapon to use against Infernape and Heatran, whose hits are buffered by this set's defensive investment. With Thunderbolt, Starmie is an excellent counter to Gyarados. Recover keeps Starmie at high health, which lets it perform its countering and spinning duties reliably throughout the match.

[wraith89]

All right. I know I don't normally rate teams, but I'll try to see your scope and see what you are thinking before I rate this.

I'm not entirely fond of that Smeargle lead though. You have invested in 252 HP and holding a Focus Sash despite the fact that it is already hopeless. You want Explosion and Extremespeed to hurt as much as it can, so if you are adamant about that Smeargle, dump in all that HP EVs into Attack (if you can). In general though, I'm not entirely sure if Smeargle will work here. I would try to incapacitate the other guy's lead with Spore to put them to sleep. If it's something like Lead Machamp with Lum Berry, you're still faster and you can Spore them again after Lum Berry activated because of Own Tempo and Focus Sash saving your Smeargle from fainting. I would try to have some sort of disabling move because with Smeargle's frailty and rather "mediocre" speed, it isn't working out, and more often than not, it is difficult to have set up more than just Stealth Rocks. Even if you do switch it out and bring it back in, that sand will pretty much neuter the one thing saving it (Focus Sash) and a faster thing will destroy it.

I might want to suggest a Forretress lead or perhaps a Skarmory lead, but seeing as you already have a Starmie as a spinner, I wanted to see a different direction. Your team hates Ice attacks as I can see (aside from the relatively frail Starmie and the wallish Blissey), so having a Steel Pokemon someplace that can set up Stealth Rocks or Spikes or even both may not be a bad idea. Not to mention they are immune to sand as well. A stall team will absolutely want Toxic Spikes running around. Yes, I know it ruins your Blissey's Paralysis strategy, but there are Pokemon immune to Twave (Grounds/Elecs with specific abilities) or fast Pokemon who fly that are immune to TS (Gyarados/Gengar/etc...) or Steels/Poisons (Metagross/etc...) so all isn't lost running both. I'm just not entirely sure what the whole idea about this team is, so if you could shed some light about it, that can really help.

Also, I am not familiar with the metagame your friends are running so I can be amiss with what I'm saying. Seeing as legendaries are banned and Garchomp isn't... heh heh, that Garchomp can sweep a whole team if they allow it to. I'll see what I can think up of later, but that's all I have time for for now.

[Zwei]

We're all sort of new to the competitive pokemon battling so that wanted to keep it simple with everything. What I wanted is to try was something simple and I always liked using bulky pokemon so setting up a stall team seemed like it would be fun. With Torterra it would cover the water weakness and Garchomp had fire fang which covered the grass weakness. Smeargle thought it would be a decent lead to set up what I needed, but I could probably replace it Empoleon, but if Fortress would work better then I can use it instead. Starmie could be replaced with Tentacruel which seems to be a bit bulkier then Starmie. Blissey I can replace Twave with protect and softboil with Wish it might offer better support. Like I said still new to this.

[wraith89]

Wish is an event move: if you don't have the NYPC event, Blissey cannot have Wish

(very few people know this because they read Smogon for granted so I don't blame you)

Nah I understand you. Having fun is more important than winning, which MANY people tend to forget. I just wanted to know how exactly you were going to approach this is all. It's perfectly okay to be new, don't be afraid to ask for help!

Just want to point out that Torterra is neutral to water, not resistant, so beware. He can still counter many physically oriented Pokemon very well, which isn't bad. Underrated, but I trust that you know what you are doing with him. I'm just saying watch out, because many bulky waters carry Ice Beam, and we all know how well Torterra takes an Ice Beam. I would keep Starmie, however, as it is your only check from making this team into an Infernape fodder. Okay, fine, there's Garchomp, but still.

Tentacruel would make an excellent support Pokemon as it has plenty of advantages:

1) overall bulkiness (particularly on the special side)

2) ability to lay down Toxic Spikes in addition to Rapid Spinning

3) can counter Mixape (mixed Infernape running Close Combat/Fire Blast/Grass knot) very well

4) can eat Toxic Spikes just by switching in!

It comes at the cost of being weak to Ground and Psychic, however, but it is your call.

Don't just replace Pokemon with whatever. You need to think it through. I do run Empoleon as a bulky water though, but I'm not sure if it fits into your team. Well, okay, it is immune to Sandstorm and can take Ice hits very well thanks to its 4x resistance to it. Electric and Ground weaknesses are covered by the majority of your team... though Fighting is only covered by Starmie. It can Roar stuff out so everything can be inflicted by some form of residual damage. Yeah, let's try to think this a little through, and maybe we will get somewhere.

Other notable valuable Wishpassers come in the form of Vaporeon or... uh that's all I can think of for now. You can get Wish by breeding with Smeargle or something (yes, another hereditary move). Hippowdon can also make a mean lead, especially for stall. One of the best leads in fact, as he can ROAR and set Stealth Rocks as well. In fact, I would suggest that and replace Roar on Torterra with Substitute or Stone Edge, methinks.

[Zwei]

I can probably hack in wish, but that would not really be all that fun.

Empoleon does help set up stealth rock and the resistance does help a lot over other pokemon. Forretress seems bulky and does help set up everything and with gyro ball it can probably do damage to pokemon that is faster then it. I have a feeling my friends are going to have faster pokemon so I am thinking Forretress would be better then Empoleon in this team.

Yea I am going to keep Starmie because I have a feeling that my friends are going to run a lot of ghosts so that will help against them.

Need something to do deal with ground as I can see that is going to be huge problem, maybe replace I am not sure maybe replace Torterra with a Skarmory which can cover fighting and ground.

Edit: just noticed the bottom let me just arrange some pokemon around

[wraith89]

Hacking Wish is a no no. I do not condone that. >

I was hoping you'd play by legal bounds though, but... meh. I don't know.

Torterra deals with Ground Pokemon just fine. He makes an adequate check to the majority of them and resists Ground itself. I would watch out, however, for something like Ice Fanging Gliscors which will at least 2-3HKO.

Er, how does Starmie deal with Ghosts again? On the contrary, it is weak to it and wouldn't make a good switch in to that. A good Pokemon that checks Ghosts very well is Tyranitar (who also provides sandstream) or even Scizor (immune to sand, has U-turn to scout, priority Bullet Punch). If you feel like they can do you well, then it will. However, I wouldn't put them in just for the sake of defeating your friends; that's rather not nice... and it wouldn't really be stall anymore.

Skarmory, however, is a very good Pokemon for stall. It can add Spikes support, phaze Pokemon away, and wall physical hits to no ends and roost them. Now we're getting somewhere.

[Zwei]

Nah not going to hack wish like I said that is no fun.

Just checked psychic doesn't deal with ghost for some reason I thought it did. D:

Want to stay away from tyranitar and I want to keep it has stallish as possible so going to ignore Scizor as well.

Pokemon so far, Hippodon, Blissey, Skarmory, Garchomp, Mamoswine and Starmie.

So Skarmory deals with fighting and ground

Mamoswine seems better to take care of ground, grass, flying and well gliscor especially.

Now I have water weakness, I guess Starmie can handle that and shut them down Tbolt.