One of my five teams.

[Silent Storm]

Demonic Storm

Wifi and Shoddy team.

OK my friends, I get this wacky idea in my head to build one of my first ever weather based teams, when my brain is scrambling on what kind of deck I create based on weather, and I narrowed it down to two things:

• Rain Dance
  
• Sandstorm
  

Rain Dance has its benefits of me being able to out speed most things and kill while boosting the power of water while sandstorm is kinda a stallish weather condition with the ability to screw up focus sash and boost special defense, now I have made a rain dance team but I like sandstorm teams more because of sandstorm hitting stuff not rock and ground, and setting up rocks is easier in my opinion.

Demonic Line up

OK so here is the line up for this team, as you can like most teams nowadays this is comprised of mainly OU titans and support Pokemon, unoriginal (for some Serebii members standards, they know who they are >=]) but still awesome when they get the ball rolling, this is by far the best team I have as it is bulky and strong, speed is lacking here but that is to be expected when creating teams like these.

In-depth look

Hippowdon @ Leftovers

Ability: Sandstream

Nature: Impish (+ Defense, - Special Attack)

EVs: 236 HP | 24 Attack | 192 Defense | 58 Special Defense

• Earthquake
  
• Stealth Rock
  
• Ice Fang
  
• Slack Off
  

.......................

Comments & Suggestions:

OK my peeps, I start the game out with Hippowdon, my past experience tells me that Hippo is an effective lead and can set up Stealth Rock and Sandstorm reliably which is crucial to this kind of team as this negates the effects of Focus Sash, Leftovers and turns many 3 hits into 2 hits.

Hippo also helps against Tyranitar and physical hits, with Scizor down Tyranitar can be a major pain in the backside, so with Hippo around, I am able to take down Tyranitar effectively as well as take hits for the team. Ice fang seems out of place here but at least it helps with Flygon and Salamence who is already being worn down by Sandstream and Stealth Rock.

Zapdos @ Leftovers

Ability: Pressure

Nature: Timid (+ Speed, - Attack)

EVs: 252 HP | 80 Special Attack | 176 Speed

• Thunderbolt
  
• Heat Wave
  
• Roost
  
• Hidden Power [Grass]
  

.......................

Comments & Suggestions:

Zapdos is one the most vital members of my team and probably the Pokemon I can rely on, being the main counter to most counters here helps alot. Since I don't RS, Zapdos along with Salamence are my Stealth Rock weak Pokemon though this is taken care of by Roost. Zapdos also acts as my Phazer since my team is otherwise set up bait.

To further display the power of this guy I have compiled a list of stuff that die to him:

• Lucario
  
• Heracross
  
• Bronzong
  
• Celebi
  
• Breloom
  
• Torterra
  
• Skarmory
  
• Forretress
  

If it wasn't for Zapdos, I'd probably have difficulty taking down the these titans.

Scizor @ Life Orb

Ability: Technician

Nature: Adamant (+ Attack, - Special Attack)

EVs: 252 HP | 252 Attack | 4 Speed

• Bullet Punch
  
• Brick Break / Quick Attack
  
• Roost
  
• Swords Dance
  

.......................

Comments & Suggestions:

Scraped CBzor for SDzor.

Apart from Rhyperior who is not even that much of a set up Pokemon, I lacked many set up pokemon, I had CBzor as I believe revenge killing with him was best but in the end I just scraped the whole idea as I never really like thay Pokemon to begin with.

The basic idea here is for me to set up as quickly as possible so I can do significant damage to my opponent, Brick Break helps agaisn't screeners that could hurt me while Bullet Punch helps with Tyranitar, originally I had 244 speed EVs here but becaise I was never really interested with out speeding Tyranitar (Bullet Punch still hits him first) I moved all those EVs to HP as the EVs Smogon suggests is only there if you don't have Bullet Punch.

Vaporeon @ Leftovers

Ability: Water Absorb

Nature: Bold (+ Defense - Attack)

EVs: 252 HP | 252 Defense | 4 Speed

• Protect
  
• Hidden Power [Electric]
  
• Surf
  
• Wish
  

.......................

Comments & Suggestions:

Lost a big paragraph here. =/

Short and sweet, Vaporeon acts as a team healer, while dealing with Gyarados and Infernape both who are hurt by Sandstream and Stealth Rock

Starmie @ Leftovers

Ability: Natural Cure

Nature: Timid (+ Speed, - Attack)

EVs: 136 HP | 156 Def | 216 Speed

• Thunderbolt
  
• Surf
  
• Recover
  
• Rapid Spin
  

.......................

Comments & Suggestions:

This is something d2m suggested for me to help against MixApe and Gyarados but after more testing and research I have discovered he helps against Toxic Spikes + Spikes - which are normally seen on Stall teams that would give me some problems, Rapid Spin would get rid of entry hazards which helps Rhy sweep.

Also Starie adds a bit more speed to this team as well as status absorbing thanks to Natural Cure.

Rhyperior @ Liechi Berry

Ability: Solid Rock

Nature: Adamant (+ Attack, - Special Attack)

EVs: 4 HP | 252 Attack | 252 Speed

• Substitute
  
• Rock Polish
  
• Stone Edge
  
• Earthquake
  

.......................

Comments & Suggestions:

At the end now, I here we have the star of the show, Rhyperior.

I was browsing on Smogon, where I found someone promoting the use of Substitute Rhyperior. Now I have been a fan of Rhy ever since I got a glimpse of the new evolutions in 4th gen around 2007, also there was some hype around him early DP.

Basically how he works is that you use Sandstream + Solid Rock + Substitute as a defensive for him so you can set up up Swords Dance and sweep, the set I have here works a little different, near the end I use my berry to power up Rhy while having blasting speed, the thing the old version suffered from was speed, though he was protected by Sandstorm and Solid Rock, this set remedies his speed problems while giving him decent attack, which is much more scary than having good attack buy poor speed.

Edited April 26, 2009 by Silent Storm

[Illithian]

In my opinion, your team has 2 big weaknesses.

Firstly, if your Zapdos is taken down, your team suddenly can be sweeped by Lucario, Heracross, and Breloom. Skarmory will ruin your team with EQ immunity. Abomasnow will ruin your fun.

You don't have anything that can effectively counter a Machamp from sweeping your team with Dynamicpunch or RestTalk.

I know I'm not a fantastic RMTer but I'll try.

Hippowdon @ Leftovers

Ability: Sandstream

Nature: Impish (+ Defense, - Special Attack)

EVs: 236 HP | 24 Attack | 192 Defense | 58 Special Defense

Earthquake

Stealth Rock

Ice Fang

Slack Off

An excellent lead that also serves as an Anti-Lead with Sandstorm. Late game, EQ could help you a lot. Keep this guy.

Zapdos @ Leftovers

Ability: Pressure

Nature: Timid (+ Speed, - Attack)

EVs: 252 HP | 80 Special Attack | 176 Speed

Thunderbolt

Heat Wave

Roost

Hidden Power [Grass]

Quite a powerhouse. With perfect coverage this guy could sweep a team. Move the HP EVs to complete SpA and Spe. This guy is going to go down to Stone Edge no matter how many you put in. It might survive one Ice Shard, but that seems unlikely. Leftovers almost seems a waste, but it does negate SS damage which is definitely a blessing. I'm a little confused as to how you intend to use Zappy as a Pseudo Hazer, but thats beside the point.

Scizor @ Life Orb

Ability: Technician

Nature: Adamant (+ Attack, - Special Attack)

EVs: 252 HP | 252 Attack | 4 Speed

Bullet Punch

Brick Break / Quick Attack

Roost

Swords Dance

I have a lot of issues with this pokemon. Heatran laughs at you as he outspeeds your pathetic base 65 speed and hits you with a STAB 4x Lava Plume, as does basically all non-physical fire type in the entire metagame. On the other hand, Bullet Punch is incredibly powerful with STAB, Technician, and Swords Dance. So long as you arent faced with a fire type and basically a forced switch, you'll be okay. You may want to swap out Brick Break for Superpower and Roost for X-Scissor to take advantage of more power and STAB, but thats at your discretion.

Vaporeon @ Leftovers

Ability: Water Absorb

Nature: Bold (+ Defense - Attack)

EVs: 252 HP | 252 Defense | 4 Speed

Protect

Hidden Power [Electric]

Surf

Wish

Not much to say here. HP Electric really isnt worth it with Zapdos and Starmie both having Thunderbolt. Swap it for Ice Beam so you can take care of Dragons a little better (along with Skarmory, although debatably covered by Rhyperior).

Starmie @ Leftovers

Ability: Natural Cure

Nature: Timid (+ Speed, - Attack)

EVs: 136 HP | 156 Def | 216 Speed

Thunderbolt

Surf

Recover

Rapid Spin

Basic Smogon Starmie. RS is a blessing for Zappy and this guy is perfect for absorbing Toxic Spikes or Toxic. Also great against Mamoswine which are steadily getting more common.

Rhyperior @ Liechi Berry

Ability: Solid Rock

Nature: Adamant (+ Attack, - Special Attack)

EVs: 4 HP | 252 Attack | 252 Speed

Substitute

Rock Polish

Stone Edge

Earthquake

Okay I'm going to be honest, I think this guy requires way too much setup. Its basically setup bait for any water type, and horrible typing ruins this guy. With such a massive weakness to HP Grass, I feel he isnt worth keeping. Either switch him to a Choice Band set (not many things enjoy taking a Stone Edge or an EQ from a 614 attack stat) or swap him out completely for possibly a Mamoswine. I reccomend a Curse Mamoswine with Ice Shard and Avalanch which will seriously help out the fact that none of your pokemon have ice attacks.

Overall a great team. I hope I was of some help.

[Silent Storm]

Those are not big weaknesses.

Firstly, if your Zapdos is taken down, your team suddenly can be sweeped by Lucario, Heracross, and Breloom. Skarmory will ruin your team with EQ immunity. Abomasnow will ruin your fun.

That is true but 90% of the time Zapdos is not taken down so easily thanks to roost and leftovers, and even if Zapdos is taken down I can play around those threats.

Lucario is frail so priority should deal with him, most Heracross are choice banded so i can predict around him and force him out same goes with Breloom, predict around him thanks to Natural Cure Starmie.

Skarmory's EQ immunity is not irrelevant here as Skarmory is eaily taken down by Zapdos of Starmie.

You don't have anything that can effectively counter a Machamp from sweeping your team with Dynamicpunch or RestTalk.

The counter mentality annoyes me, countering became redundant during the trantition from DP to Platinum, so my way of dealing with Machamp is to take full advantage of his medicore speed, by this I mean he is very easily revenge killed by faster opponents.

The only thing Abomasnow ruins is sandstorm, which itself comes back as Hippowodon is not taken down early in the game, but when things get tough, Scizor who resist Abomasnow ruins him with Bullet Puinch and/or U-Turn if I decide to go with Choice Band or add U-Turn over something on the Swords Dance set.

I have a lot of issues with this pokemon. Heatran laughs at you as he outspeeds your pathetic base 65 speed and hits you with a STAB 4x Lava Plume, as does basically all non-physical fire type in the entire metagame. On the other hand, Bullet Punch is incredibly powerful with STAB, Technician, and Swords Dance. So long as you arent faced with a fire type and basically a forced switch, you'll be okay. You may want to swap out Brick Break for Superpower and Roost for X-Scissor to take advantage of more power and STAB, but thats at your discretion.

Yet I am not going to be keeping Scizor in on Heatran or any other non-physical fire type as that is suicide.

On the topic of Superpower over Brick Break, that itself will not happen, as Superpower despite being a very powerful move imo ruins the whole point of the Swords Dance set, Brick Break being the weaker move is still powerful after a boost and can break dual screens (Ligth Screen + Reflect) imo that is more useful than sacrificing a power boost which is the case with Superpower.

On the topic of Roost < X-Scissors - you have a point but even then I am not convinced , I would much rather use an atack with the same typing (U-Turn) which can help with scouting (seeing what my opponent will play if he switches in) thus minimizing the risk of switching into a move that could kill my check for the opposing Pokemon.

But roost is still goo here as in increases my Pokemon's survivibility thus increasing the amount of time Scizor has of sweeping/dealing heavy damage.

Okay I'm going to be honest, I think this guy requires way too much setup. Its basically setup bait for any water type, and horrible typing ruins this guy. With such a massive weakness to HP Grass, I feel he isnt worth keeping. Either switch him to a Choice Band set (not many things enjoy taking a Stone Edge or an EQ from a 614 attack stat) or swap him out completely for possibly a Mamoswine. I recommend a Curse Mamoswine with Ice Shard and Avalanche which will seriously help out the fact that none of your pokemon have ice attacks.

I should have made it more clear that this is a Rhyperiror team.

The way this team works is by using Pokemon that help eliminate Rhyperior's counters/usual switch ins so by the time Rhyperior comes out he is able to set up Sub reliably and and proceed to clean up whatever mess is left late game, as it is not practical to reveal him early game.

After subbing, the speed boost he will get from Rock Polish + the Special defense boost from Sandstorm + Solid Rock + he already great attack with Leftovers should make it so that he is extremly hard to take down.

• Timid Heatran's Earth Power is a 3HKO.
  
• Zapdos Hidden Power Ice won't 2HKO Rhyperior.
  
• Blissey's Ice Beam won't break the Substitute.
  
• Bronzong and Forretress's Gyro Ball won't break the Substitute.
  
• Cresselia can only break it with Grass Knot.
  
• Physical Jirachi that lack Iron Head are walled by this beast.
  
• Salamence Earthquake is a 2HKO at best.
  
• Scizor won't OHKO with Bullet Punch.
  
• Gliscor Earthquake won't 2HKO.
  

But I am liking Mamoswine being here, as an alternative I will make a team with some heavy changes to this team making it more Sandstorm-like.

Thanks for posting, I will consider Ice Beam on Vaporeon and maybe add Psychic somewhere on Starmie.

[Enkidu]

Su(b)perior Democracy ? http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49703 It looks like you just took that team, but used the advice of Rater's on smogon ( that the poster didn't take )

Now on to the semi - rate

This teams main weakness's are Dragon Dance Kingdra,Mahchamp and Spikes/Toxic spikes as only zapdos is immune to them, and starmie will find it hard pressed to beat any of the Rotom formes 1 on 1.

Nasty Plot Mix ape is also a problem for your team, as once it gets 1 Nasty plot off Even Vaporeon takes something like 65% + from grassknot. So unless he's at full health you'll be in trouble. The standard MixApe set Destroys most of your team in One hit, with the exception of Starmie and Vappy .

DD Salamence also causes you some problems, although SR + sandstorm will wear him down quickly enough, I still see him taking out at least 2 of your pokemon after 1 Dragon dance with just outrage.

I can predict around him and force him out same goes with Breloom, predict around him thanks to Natural Cure Starmie.

The point is that you CANT predict around breloom, you have no one that can absorb sleep well, letting him sub up as you switch out and Leech seed really hurts a lot of this team.

You have no grass types, and Scizor isn't Ev'd to really take outrages, so many of the teams that Run Choice scarf flygon can Late game sweep through your team.

Lucario is frail so priority should deal with him,

The only priority you have is Bullet punch, which does next to nothing to Lucario. If your Scizor isn't CB, you can brick break and hopefully get the OHKO assuming Lucario ( who only comes out late game ) Does not finish off scizor with close combat.

On that note, Swords dance scizor needs 228 speed EV's to Outspeed Neutral speed nature Tyranitar ( Adamant ) to hit first and KO with brick break as the SD LO version cannot OHKO a Full Health Tyranitar after SR damage with bullet punch.( assuming your switching into it without a SD ) So you need to rely on a faster brick break in order to do it.

Someone else can rate the rest.

[Greencat]

I'm using my iPhone, so this won't be long. Swampedt would have fun with this team after he threw his stealth rocks. You may need a grass or a pokemon that can take one down.

[Silent Storm]

Su(b)perior Democracy ? http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49703 It looks like you just took that team, but used the advice of Rater's on smogon ( that the poster didn't take )

Well....not really much to say other than that is half true, around the time Rhyperior was popular I wanted to make a team based around it, after some searching I came to that thread, took some of its line up and made some adjustments that fit my liking.

Replaced Slowbro with Vaporeon (I read the rates now only to find out Vaporeon was suggested) as I wanted recovery.

I replaced Blissey with Salamence, preferably the wall breaker set (4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe Naive with Outrage / Brick Break / Fire blast / Draco Meteor) as I hated Blissey from the start, then switched to Blastioise cause someone suggested I use a Rapid Spinner plus I wanted to give Blastoise a try, then someone suggested I use Starmie, again I never paid attention to the rates there so I didn't know Starmie was also suggested.

After I replaced Scizor with Lucario cause I was using Scizor on every other team, then switched back to him using the SD set with Brick Break over Superpower and roost over X-Scissors as I don't like choice items/superpower was not appealing to mee plus I wanted Scizor to have recovery, again I never paid atention to most of the rates so I didn't know SD Scizor was suggested.

And on the topic of Rhyperior, the set I am using is a set I saw somewhere on Smogon that I liked because of the speed boost.

Thanks for posting though as I have been meaning to revamp this team some more getting rid of some members and replacing them ( Rhyperior with LO Mamoswine as well as adding Ice Beam on Vaporeon and then using CB Scizor with U-Turn) I will look into those Pokemon that hurt this team and find effective checks for them.

[wraith89]

Starmie is weak to Pursuit, unfortunately, so I'd use Blastoise as a starter. Sure he can't hurt things too well, but he's good with stalling with Toxic or Restalk. However, Starmie is more of a standard spinner... but it always get hit by Pursuit which almost always OHKOs it.

[Doc]

well i dont go by what other people use i just use other peoples ideas as a template to create my own team, your team looks deadly enough to me but i do have 1 problem, 4 leftovers, isnt that banned, i thought you could only have a max of 2 of the same item on your team.

[Gold88]

Nice team m8, maybe you could have some problem with the standard Tbold/HWave/Hp ice zapdos

[Silent Storm]

well i dont go by what other people use i just use other peoples ideas as a template to create my own team, your team looks deadly enough to me but i do have 1 problem, 4 leftovers, isnt that banned, i thought you could only have a max of 2 of the same item on your team.

Me too.

Four letovers are not banned.

[Torte de Lini]

Y'know, I like your whole team except for the lack of diversity. Double-waters + Ground/Rock.

Hippo is good.

Vaporeon is okay.

But now you have Starmie. The best rapid spinner in my opinion. To me, it doesn't sound like you need a wisher if you have Slack off for Hippo, Scizor can't be saved and Starmie can withstand punches.

No to Rhyperior. His cons outweight whatever pros you seem to show. I'd replace it with a mixed fire type or ghost. With a ghost type, you can switch-in on a known rapid spinner and prevent them from taking out your stealth rocks, which is always a good thing. Some use Gengar as a subpasser, which fits off nicely in your team.

You have a good start, but some things need to be changed. A rare Swampert can easily fuck you up.

[Silent Storm]

So far I am liking the rates here.

That is true, Swampert can be especially annoying this team.

I was thinking of adding Celebi somewhere on here as I have generally had great success with him, I was also thinking of ditching Starmie and Rhyperior for Mamo and somebody else.

[wraith89]

So far I am liking the rates here.

That is true, Swampert can be especially annoying this team.

I was thinking of adding Celebi somewhere on here as I have generally had great success with him, I was also thinking of ditching Starmie and Rhyperior for Mamo and somebody else.

I use Swampert a LOT... but you do have Zapdos with HP Grass to deal with the mudfish. But once your Zapdos is down, it'll be hard to take Swampert down... so maybe if you had another check...

Celebi is another Pursuit weak but good defensive Pokemon. You can replace Starmie if you want... although you'll still want a viable spinner. Donphan comes into mind...

[Silent Storm]

^ OK, so from the good rates I have gotten so far:

DDSalamence

Machamp

Kingdra

Lucario

Infernape

Breloom

Spikes/Toxic Spikes

Harm my team, to help with DDSalamence (sorta) and Toxic/Spikes Donphan would help over Starmie due to him having Ice Shard and Rapid Spin or I could go with a spin blocker.

To help with Infernape Vaporeon can stay, still considering Ice Beam but I want to do something to Gyarados.

I am stuck on the rest.

[Destati]

Hippowdon is not neccessarily the best lead. People see Stealth Rock and think lead. Its a common mistake. Hippowdon is meant to be the pokemon that comes in after the anti-lead messes up the opponent. Nearly every Anti-lead hinders Hippowdon.

Honestly, I don't see the point in Starmie. You don't NEED a rapid Spinner, especially for your team. Only Zapdos takes extra damage from stealth Rock. You'd have a better time with a pokemon like Jirachi to better compliment your Sandstorm, because I don't see the point in making a Sandstorm team with only 3 Sand Pokemon.

I don't get your Rhyperior set. The whole idea is that you Sub while they switch Pokemon. If you just keep subbing, when will you have time to use Rock Polish?

Also, nice formatting.

[Torte de Lini]

I disagree, starmie is always a great add, especially with reflect so it doesn't seem totally pointless.

Surf Stab is a nice add to everything else.

To be honest, I would switch Rhyperior with Dugtrio to fit the Sand team nicely. 1/2 dark moves, 1/2 ground moves and Life orb or something to make it very deadly.

[Destati]

I don't see the point in having both Starmie AND Vaporeon though, thats what I was trying to say.

Rhyperior can be really annoying in a sandstorm though. It already gets that weird ability and now its special defense is even better.

[Torte de Lini]

Agreed, his team can take punches or can't survive one. Thus not needing Vaporeon