Pokémon VGC 2021 Series 8 - Sand Team

Question

Poképaste: https://pokepast.es/353ece320346a416

Well, this team is a Sand-Mixed Lapras + Zacian team. The reason I chose to build around Sand is because it has amazing matchup against lot of Pokémon, such as the Dogs, Lapras, Thundurus and Zapdos, Incineroar, Yveltal and Xerneas and the list goes on. Here's the team:

Tyranitar (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 12 HP / 236 Atk / 20 Def / 4 SpD / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Lash Out
- Superpower
- Protect

Tyranitar's job here is the standard sand-setting role. It hits real hard with Life Orb. This spread survives a Superpower and Max Knuckle from a Thundurus while Dynamaxed and OHKOs it with Rockfall. I was thinking on running it band, but since Dynamax overrides the Band, I chose Life Orb.

Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Horsepower
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance

Excadrill is so good against so many things. 244 Speed passes Regieleki, so the rest I chose investing in some bulk. I am normally Dynamaxing it, Swords Dance punishes passive play and enables Excadrill to basically sweep while in sand.

Rillaboom-Gmax @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 76 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- Protect

My main reason to choose Rillaboom was so I could deal with Groudon and Kyogre. It's almost a OHKO with Grassy Glide into Kyogre, and OHKO's Groudon. I've seen myself leading it with all my other Pokémon. It's a very good counter against sand's threats.

Zacian-Crowned @ Rusted Sword
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Level: 50
EVs: 36 HP / 220 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Behemoth Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Howl
- Protect

Zacian, oh Zacian. This thing is a monster. It dishes out so much damage. I chose Howl instead Swords Dance so I can also give Tyranitar, Excadrill and Thundurus attack boosts while also boosting Zacian's. I chose Zacian as restricted because it could break through things such as Dialga that can wall the Sand Duo

Lapras-Gmax @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Water Absorb
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 244 SpA / 12 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Freeze-Dry
- Ancient Power
- Protect

I think it's impossible to talk Zacian without Lapras. Both pair very well and Lapras offers another "game-mode" to my team. I've seen myself also using them with Sand, and it worked well because G-Max Resonance does not set up Hail, and I have backup Sandstorm with Ancient Power / Max Rockfall

Thundurus (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Defiant
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wild Charge
- Fly
- Superpower
- Lash Out

Last team pick. I was in doubt between it and an Intimidator, but I chose Thundurus because I was struggling against Intimidate Cycling, plus Max Airstreams helps Zacian and Tyranitar alot because of the Speed Control, and it's one of the best pokémon in the Series 8 meta in my opinion

Team Problems:

I miss Intimidate here, although I can play around not having Intimidate, but it would help

Also Intimidate Cycling, although Thundurus pressure it, the Attack drop is still real on Tyranitar and Excadrill

Burns. I made sure I had ways to deal super-effective damage to thinks like Weezing, Dragapult, Dusclops, but getting burned really could difficult my game plan

Trick Room. It's a thing thats hard to avoid, but since it's not very common in the meta, and I can double flinch / kill Amoonguss, Indeedee and Togekiss very easily, I can play around it

That's the team, hope you guys like it!

Answer 1

This is a really cool team that kind of reminds me of a successful Series 5 Team, I just have a few suggestions on how to improve it.

First, because you don't have a good way to activate the Weakness Policy on Lapras, but you do have Excadrill, I'd recommend giving the Weakness Policy to Tyranitar. The spread seems okay, but you might want to shift some EVs from attack to HP, as Nico Cognetta did in the above PokePaste, since Tyraniar gets hit hard by a lot of things.

Next, Excadrill. I mentioned that you have excadrill to activate Tyranitar's Policy; I like using Earthquake on Excadrill over Rock Slide for this reason. You already have 3 main Dynamax targets, so you won't be setting your own Sandstorm with Max Rockfall often, and Earthquake is a stronger spread move. You can keep High Horsepower for single-targeting, but I'd recommend protect over swords dance, since you already have defiant to deter intimidate and howl on Zacian. Finally, Adamant feels unnecessary, as I mentioned, you are pretty strong already. I like being able to outspeed base 80s like Venusaur, and you also get a little more bulk by investing less in speed.

Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 52 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- High Horsepower

Rillaboom is nice against the weather duo in theory, but you have AV Thundurus and Water Absorb Lapras for Kyogre already, and Groudon's main partners, Venusaur, Charizard, and Thundurus, can OHKO Rillaboom while Groudon protects or switches, so I'm going to suggest removing it in order to add some of the things you mentioned you'd like on the team: Intimidate and answers to things like trick room, and burn. Incineroar fits the bill really well: it's an intimidator that is immune to burns (making it a good switch-in) and can fake out/taunt TR users or Will-O-Wispers. Incineroar is a good 'glue mon' and I think it would work well here.

I'm not sure what Zacian spread you're using, as your paste uses a bulky set whereas your RMT uses a spread with a lot of attack, but I'm going to recommend this spread:

Zacian-Crowned @ Rusted Sword
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 92 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Behemoth Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Howl
- Protect

I like this spread since it outspeeds Thundurus and can get howls off before it attacks (which is the only real benchmark you need to hit), gets the nature bump in attack, and has just enough for max HP and 4 in both defenses. Max speed Zacian usually feels unnecessary to me, but especially on this team, where you have Excadrill and Incineroar to deal with Zacian (not to mention that a standard Zacian's behemoth blade will do less than half to a max HP set behind Aurora Veil).

Next, since I'm suggesting giving the Weakness Policy to Tyranitar, Lapras needs an item. Light Clay Lapras is my personal favorite set, but you could just give it the life orb that Tyranitar is no longer using, if you like to play more aggressively. Light Clay variants usually run perish song over coverage, but if you do opt for a life orb set, you should always be running Thunder over Ancient Power, even on a sand team. It's pretty much wasted coverage, and Thunder is much stronger both in and out of max. Finally, I prefer some speed on Lapras, since it speed ties with things like Incineroar. (I use 100 speed, but you can go up to 124 to beat practically every incin out there.) This is the set I'd use:

Lapras-Gmax @ Light Clay / Life Orb
Ability: Water Absorb
Gigantamax: Yes
EVs: 204 HP / 4 Def / 196 SpA / 4 SpD / 100 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Perish Song / Thunder
- Hydro Pump
- Freeze-Dry

Finally, Thundurus is good, I don't have anything to say about it.

I hope this helps!

Comments

I'll def. try out changing Drill's and Ttar spreads, also change up Lapras. Although I really like Rillaboom I'll def. try out Incin, thanks for the help :)

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No problem, happy to help!