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I have most of my competitive battling experience through Smogon, and was very used to my old UU team (Crobat, Snorlax, Flygon, Arcanine, Forretress, and Lucario for those interested.) However, I decided to try out some OU, and furthermore, a Sand Team, as the two best Pokemon with Sand Stream are both OU. I decided on Tyranitar as my main sand setter, both because of its better stats and I like it more, even though Hippowdon has the better defensive typing, and threw on some other Pokemon I thought would do well and have done so, like Scizor and Gliscor, and some I thought would do well and really...didn't, like Nidoking and Clefable. I switched Nidoking for Magnezone, and went through several different 6th members, like Tentacruel, Excadrill, and Coalossal, until finally settling on Mandibuzz. However, that's just background information, I'm happy with my team and this isn't rate my team anyways

I was looking for a Pokemon that could set up Leech Seed. I heard Amoonguss was a good defensive Pokemon for Sand Teams, and intended to use it, until I learned it didn't get Leech Seed. I decided to use the same type Combo, and wanted both a Special Attacker and a Specially Defensive Pokemon, as my team was mostly Physical, that could learn Leech Seed. Venusaur is what I came to, and gave it Black Sludge to augment the sand damage, as well as protect for stalling, giga drain for leeching and damage, and sludge bomb for things that giga drain doesn't hurt, besides Steel Types, which can be a problem for it

I honestly wasn't so sure at first, and expected to scrap it, but it's done like, amazingly. It just synergizes with Gliscor so well. If a Pokemon is neutral to Rocks, which Tyranitar sets up, and then gets Toxic on the switch in/first turn from Gliscor, it's already down 18% of its health. Then, Venusaur switches in, lives a hit, hits Leech Seed, and protect stalls it until it dies of Poison and Leech Seed. Gliscor recovers 1/8th of its max HP on its turn, and Venusaur recovers 3/16th of its every turn while it stalls out the opponent

Of course, it's not entirely infallible; both are weak to Ice and if Venusaur takes over half its health on its switch in, it can become much harder to set up. Additionally, switching can hurt its Leech Seed stall and requires second toxicing, but also forces a switch in hit which could be predicted and hit with Leech Seed again. But, like, Venusaur resists one of Gliscor's weaknesses and is a pretty bulky Special Wall that gets good stalling utility. Gliscor doesn't resist any of Venusaur's weaknesses, but it has a great defensive typing anyways, and is a really bulky Physical Wall that gets good stalling utility. They cover each others' weaker defenses, and can just so easily stall opponents. And, in the case of Ice Moves, you can easily switch to Magnezone or Scizor, which both resist it, or Tyranitar, which has really high Special Defense with its ability, all of which can tank it and potentially get a KO next turn

I've never really heard anything about the core before, but they just work amazingly well with each other, and I wanted to ask if it's ever been seen or if it's really as great as I feel it is, because really, if you can set it up correctly and have the right stat investment, it walls the absolute hell out of many a team. The Sand damage isn't even that damaging to Venusaur as it's cancelled by Black Sludge and still heals by 12.5% every turn with Seeds until the 5 turn sand storm ends.

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flagging b/c the title seems a bit... opinionated/discussion? but the question isnt. but idk what to change the title to. so i'll leave it for someone else to decide
It also lacks the exact format—Gliscor isn't in Gen 8 OU. I tagged Gen-7 but the asker has to clarify themselves.
They told me to ask there lol. Hopefully they were not angry despite my error :V

1 Answer

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You didn't ask in Smogon forums, so I did for you.
You also didn't specify the Generation, so I'm supposing Generation 7 since Gliscor isn't available in Gen 8.

Regardless, here's what Katy, a Smogon user told:

Hello, to your question, Gliscor isn't in Gen8 OU and not in Generation 8 in general, as they scrapped that Pokemon out of the game entirely, if you looking for a defensive Ground-type which can set up Stealth Rocks there is Garchomp as an option with a more defensive approach, Landorus-Therian can also be considered with a more defensive spread and it gives the team a true Ground-immune as Venusaur being half Poison isn't great at covering Ground-type attacks. A Steel-type which can help is also Heatran, as it covers the Fire-weakness of Venusaur and is able to set Stealth Rocks or just pressuring the opponent with a niche Choice Specs set in sun-based teams as Eruption under sun hits anything like a truck. Torkoal can also be considered as it has the valuable tools to set Stealth Rocks and help with removing them due to Rapid Spin.
If you want to go for a sun-based team there plenty of viable options to help Venusaur out, however I would suggest a team similar to this one:

There other options of course and with this thread you will be able to figure out the roles of each Pokemon in the current metagame, to make it easier for yourself in the future: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ss-ou-role-compendium.3657644/
If you want to figure out how viable each Pokemon is, I highly suggest to dive into this thread: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ss-ou-dlc2-viability-ranking-thread-read-post-235.3674058/
These two threads can help you out for future teambuilding approaches and which role each and every viable Pokemon can give for your team!
I hope that helped! :)

In Gen7 OU, there other viable options to pair Gliscor with a Steel-type, I would say something like this:

as it covers a lot of their weaknesses and something like Toxapex with Toxic Spikes can help this team out to wear down opposing Pokemon.
I feel this is the best approach you can do with Gliscor + a Steel-type as Mega Venusaur and Slowbro take a different approach with teambuilding process. But regarding OldGens, I think the best way to ask is here: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...k-ii-roa-edition.3468567/page-62#post-8767127 as this thread is mainly reserved for the current generation of OU.
I hope this helped :)

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