Rate My Hippowdon Sand Team

Question

Hippowdon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Toxic
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake

Hippowdon is the chosen sand setter of the team. I prefer Hippowdon because of its longevity with Slack Off and its great physical bulk. Toxic along with sand builds up a lot of chip damage, and Stealth Rock further bolsters that. Earthquake is a suprisingly powerful STAB that prevents this set from being taunt bait.

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
- Gyro Ball
- Endure

Ferrothorn is another great physical wall that can handle threats to Hippowdon like Urshifu-R. Leech Seed provides some sort of recovery, and Spikes keeps up the hazard stack. Gyro Ball is powerful STAB that works well with Ferrothorns low speed, and Endure is somewhat niche but can let Ferrothorn activate Iron Barbs an extra time.

Blissey @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Teleport
- Toxic
- Soft-Boiled
- Seismic Toss

Blissey is the teams special wall, and also supplies the team with another toxic provider. Teleport can get other teammates in safely, and Seismic Toss provides reliable chip damage to wear the opponent down.

Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Rapid Spin

Excadrill is a solid Sand Rush sweeper, and can easily clean off the opposing team on a safe switch in. I was considering switching Rapid Spin for Rock Slide and use a Life Orb set, since I'm not often rapid spinning due to Excadrills lackluster bulk.

Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Hex

Dragapult is great at scoring KO's after a bit of chip. Shadow Ball is reliable STAB, whereas Draco Meteor provides some incredible power. U-turn keeps the momentum going, and Hex gets pretty powerful if the opponent is poisoned. However, I can definitely see switching it out for more coverage.

Clefable @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Thunderbolt

Clefable was kind of an afterthought for this team, so I'm open to a replacement. Would a defogger could be feasible so Excadrill can run a more offensive set? Anyways, Clefable can set up in sand without fearing chip damage with Magic Guard. Max Defense EVs let it survive more physical hits that it otherwise wouldn't with its 75 base defense, and Calm Mind still provides the power boost and special bulk. Moonblast is STAB, and hits the Fighting types that Ferrothorn might struggle with, and Thunderbolt hits Flying types.

Answer 1

As someone who loves sand so much, there are a couple things that would improve the team by a lot

First off, Skarmory > Ferrothorn. If you are using Excadrill over Garchomp as your main sand abuser, then Skarmory is almost a must have. Metal birbs in general are staples on sand teams because of their sheer defensive utility, being one of the few mons to hard counter Rillaboom. Of course, there are other options like Amoonguss and Tangrowth but by far, metal birbs are the best picks because they're immune to sand and they're also not that vulnerable to scale shot Garchomp, which is a mon that could give sand a lot of trouble. In this situation, Skarmory is better than Corviknight because Skarm can learn spikes and with rapid spin, you don't have to concede your own hazards when you need to remove the ones on your side of the field. Ferrothorn is not a good pick on sand because you are stacking weaknesses to Rillaboom. Yes, it stuffs banded Rilla but at the same time, can Ferrothorn actually kill Rilla? No and you lose to sd variants

Based on your team structure, the one thing that you absolutely lack is the ability to kill metal birbs. While metal birbs are great on sand teams, they are also the bane of sand teams. Neither Excadrill nor Garchomp can get past metal birbs and as such, one of your team slots must have the ability to get past metal birbs. Dragapult can somewhat get rid of them but it is not guaranteed. It is an option to replace hex with fire blast just so you can smack them. While I am not going to say it is required, but you might want to look at some options to fight get rid of them such as Magnezone or Dracozolt

A minor change, use specially defensive Hippowdon instead of physical. Your team is incredibly vulnerable to magma storm Heatran who can just pick apart your team one by one. Excadrill checks it but there is no way it is switching in to a magma storm

Here are the sets

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Spikes
- Body Press
- Iron Defense

Dracozolt @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 148 Atk / 176 SpA / 184 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Fire Blast
- Bolt Beak
- Earthquake
- Draco Meteor

Hippowdon @ Leftovers / Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Toxic
- Slack Off
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Note, if you want to use both Excadrill and Dracozolt, then you need smooth rock on Hippo. Unless you're really switching it in a lot, it can manage without lefties. If you want to use Dracozolt or Magnezone or any other answer to metal birbs, then it should be on the slot of Clefable. You could replace Dragapult but its speed control outside of sand might be too valuable to let go