Topic: Monotype Ground Team - Darude Sandstorm (OU)

[Avian]

Hey all, I've recently been working my way back into competitive after some friends from school started up a

monotype gym leader tournament and I drew ground! So I've been working on how the team is gonna run in Pokemon

Showdown with some pretty good results - I got six wins and two losses last night, with losses to water and fairy. So

without further adieu, here's my team!

Note: I really didn't want to use lando-t because I don't like it lol

Dirt Man (Hippowdon) (F) @ Leftovers 
Ability: Sand Stream 
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Def / 104 Spe 
Impish Nature 
- Slack Off 
- Earthquake 
- Stealth Rock 
- Toxic 

My Hippowdon is your basic sand and rocks setter, tanking a huge amount of hits and generally being annoying with toxic and slack off. I've seen some variants with whirlwind to shuffle the other team and rack up chip damage with rocks but I'm not sure if that's the best option for my offense oriented team.


Sludge Man (Nidoking) @ Life Orb 
Ability: Sheer Force 
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe 
Naive Nature 
- Sludge Wave 
- Earth Power 
- Ice Beam 
- Fire Blast

Man Nido is a beast. The amount of coverage given backed up by the 30% boost from sheer force allows for a huge amount of special damage.


Sand Man (Excadrill) @ Life Orb 
Ability: Sand Rush 
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe 
Adamant Nature 
- Earthquake 
- Iron Head 
- Rock Slide 
- Shadow Claw 

Excadrill forms the core physical offense part of my team, and when under sand offers a terrifying combo of speed and power. Shadow claw offers some more coverage versus ghosts and psychics which is nice because I have no direct type counter versus either.


Frost Man (Mamoswine) @ Life Orb 
Ability: Thick Fat 
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe 
Jolly Nature 
- Ice Shard 
- Superpower 
- Stone Edge 
- Knock Off 

Mamoswine is... wow. Really strong. Ice shard makes most drags and flying types cry very hard and knock off allows for the shutdown of a lot of power from other team!


Mud Man (Seismitoad) @ Choice Specs 
Ability: Water Absorb 
EVs: 152 HP / 252 SpA / 104 Spe 
Modest Nature 
- Grass Knot 
- Earth Power 
- Sludge Wave 
- Scald 

Seismitoad. The myth. The legend. The... lumpy toad? Seismitoad is a blessing in that is to only allows for me to freely swap in on water types or scalds/hydro pumps on a predict and eat em up, but also dish a large amount of damage out in return. I chose Seismitoad over Gastro because of this strength and it has served me pretty darn well in battles!


Lava Man (Camerupt-Mega) @ Cameruptite 
Ability: Sheer Force 
EVs: 168 HP / 252 SpA / 88 Spe 
Modest Nature 
- Fire Blast 
- Earth Power 
- Ancient Power 
- Will-O-Wisp 

Camerupt rounds out the team with a nice coverage against grass types. With its monstrous special attack stat coupled with sheer force, the camel really mops up late game. With points put into hp it can switch in on an attack or come in after a sacrifice and live long enough to mega evo and do some damage. Plus, that hair is top tier.

Thanks for reading and hopefully leaving some comments and criticisms!!! c:

[Richard and Blaziken]

Timid > Naive on Nidoking, no reason for Naive if you're not running anything physical.

Swords Dance > Shadow Claw on Excadrill, SD allows it to actually sweep while Shadow Claw's coverage is largely unimportant.

Mega Camerupt is a pretty poor choice for OU in general.

Surprised at the lack of Garchomp, it's easily one of your better options for such a team. This seems to be a heavy offense team, and with the reliance on Sand, MegaChomp could work, but Choice Band is probably more consistent overall.

[SirBlaziken]

Even if you hate Lando-T, you should consider it heavily because that is the posterchild for ground types in OU. With its ability, it makes a great physical wall. Just be sure to run for your life if something is a special attacker, because it doesn't really take well to ice.

Also, have you considered flygon garchomp as a physical attacker/mega? Sure its mega is 10 base slower, but it's frankly a better option than mega camerupt imo. You can stick with the camel if you want, but at least consider trying to find a place for garchomp. Garchomp is a speedy (or speedyish, can't remember) attacker that can set up (but doesn't have to sometimes) and wreck teams if timed right. Some people tie a choice scarf on it (much like I am with blaze blaziken in a special draft league i'm doing) and use it to revenge kill. Your predictions if you go that way need to be great because imagine if you go for the outrage/eq and your opponent pulls out a togekiss.

SR is also mandatory, which you do have. Otherwise, just test different things and see what works for you. I wish flygon had a mega and was actually viable......

Good luck to you, because I'm probably going to have to ask about monotype stuff, because I have no clue what i'm doing when it comes to making a team myself.

[sylar]

yall honestly came on here to post a darude sandstorm joke im omw to send you anon hate

[Avian]

I didnt rly consider garchomp o: he is pretty versatile yeah..... would rocky helm n rough skin work dyou think? 0:

also i just love camerupt its so dumb lookin lol... but yeah its speed rly kills it

thanks for the nature change rich im rly bad at rememberin to change those

also wheres my anon hate sylar i demand it

[SirBlaziken]

Rocky helmet and rough skin has been known to work, but personally I prefer a sub SD set with lefites.