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.
