Sand Tornado! : Battle Spot Doubles Team

Hi guys I am back with another team I replaced for the current one I was using. Cuz there was a lot to do and things always almost complicated, the team wasn’t bad but this one is something I have lot of comfort using with. It also has some really interesting mons so welcome to this post. Let’s get started with this team building process to get an outline for the mon selections and then head into the team :

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Team building process:
So as for a first I was looking for a mega and though scpetile might be good to work around but no matter whatever I built, the team had major weaknesses to some of the most common types and mons in the metagame, so that I idea was dropped, going down the list garchomp shone out to me, and also I did had some ideas to use it effectively.


Next came up some always effective idea that go well with mega garchomp and have proven their worth in the past. Then came the tyranitar and I needed a tailwind setter so added tornadus, as I had a few things in mind to synergize it with the team.
  

Next I put on rotom-w to deal with things that my first three mons were weak to and take in effective switch in’s.
   

The top four were the central idea of this team, with the last two slots I focused on correcting the flaws in the first four and added venu for rain and fairy weakness, then added up lucario for the fighting coverage, which completed the team.
     

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The Team:


Garchomp-Mega @ Garchompite  
Ability: Sand Force  
Level: 50  
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Atk / 4 Def / 84 SpD / 44 Spe 
Adamant Nature  
- Earthquake  
- Rock Slide  
- Outrage
- Protect

So the first team member is garchomp, with pure offensive pressure. I didn’t choose for a mixed spread cuz then I would’ve gave myself an auto-loss to myself even to weak moves like ice wind and loss in a 1-on-1 condition. The pure sheer offensive investment and speed makes it useful in it’s standard form as well, whenever opted in the basic form. Garchomp is simple and gain advantages from it’s team mates like tornadus and tyranitar. 2 x mons immune to ground and another two to boost it’s attacking power it is almost always gonna be an effective offensive beast on the field. There isn’t much time where I brought it standard in a match either m-venu or m-chomp get’s on the field. I took a note to not m-evolve the turn if I send it out and simply protect stall to keep the speed barriers higher. the credit to this awesome spread goes to Delta fro pokemonforever.com i asked him for his garchomp spread after we met on showdown and he said that his spread survived a life orb sylveon's hyper voice which felt amazing to have on this spread. Getting ma outrage right was anissue but surely this pokemon brings immense amount of pressure on he field whenever needed.
there is no specific reason to use mega garchomp, say that to counter some specific meta-threats, but the offensive pressure it brings to the field is absolutely scary and useful.

252+ SpA Life Orb Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 84 SpD Mega Garchomp: 179-213 (83.2 - 99%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Thundurus Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 84 SpD Mega Garchomp: 172-203 (80 - 94.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Pixilate Mega Gardevoir Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 84 SpD Mega Garchomp: 186-222 (86.5 - 103.2%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Mega Swampert Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mega Garchomp: 184-220 (85.5 - 102.3%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
112 SpA Mega Salamence Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 84 SpD Mega Garchomp: 180-212 (83.7 - 98.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
124+ Atk Mega Garchomp Outrage vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Salamence: 204-242 (119.2 - 141.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
124+ Atk Sand Force Mega Garchomp Earthquake vs. 176 HP / 0 Def Shuca Berry Heatran in Sand: 198-234 (105.3 - 124.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
124+ Atk Sand Force Mega Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Aegislash-Shield in Sand: 146-174 (87.4 - 104.1%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
124+ Atk Mega Garchomp Outrage vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 278-330 (165.4 - 196.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO



Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf  
Ability: Sand Stream  
Level: 50  
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Rock Slide  
- Crunch  
- Ice Beam  
- Superpower

Tyranitar had to come with garchomp to fulfill it’s purpose. Choice scarf allows it to get of fast rock slides and get me away with lucky hax. Sandstream is the ablity that also puts some stall work with things like leech seed and will-o-wisp against things like cresselia. Tyranitar gives a bit of coverage with dark and fighting type as well as ice beam to help hit tons of types dragons and ground types for good damage. There really isn’t much to say about a scarfed tyranitar, it’s standard and does it’s job. If someone wonders why exactly I am using the idea of a scarfed t-tar or not a LO or WP variant was that I didn’t wanted the whole of my team to be reliant on tailwind and needed some speed to control whence tailwind peters out or even before it is set up.

SpA Tyranitar Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 140-168 (85.3 - 102.4%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
0- SpA Tyranitar Ice Beam vs. 4 HP / 0- SpD Salamence: 156-188 (91.2 - 109.9%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Tyranitar Superpower vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 154-182 (92.2 - 108.9%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Tyranitar Superpower vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Tyranitar: 256-304 (146.2 - 173.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Tyranitar Superpower vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 154-182 (91.6 - 108.3%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Tyranitar Superpower vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Bisharp: 280-332 (198.5 - 235.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Tyranitar Superpower vs. 252 HP / 96 Def Ferrothorn: 104-124 (57.4 - 68.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Tyranitar Crunch vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Aegislash-Shield: 102-120 (61 - 71.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Etc….


Tornadus @ Sitrus Berry  
Ability: Prankster  
Level: 50  
EVs: 152 HP / 4 Atk / 152 Def / 164 SpD / 36 Spe  
Careful Nature  
- Sky Drop  
- Tailwind  
- Role Play  
- Taunt

Tornadus is the pokemon I am most excited to discuss with you guys. So whenever I looked at using the geni’s I’ll look at thundy and lando, and I say they are threats, and whenever I looked at tornadus, it was like…. Ok this mon is bad. Until now and the re-introduced moves really excited me, as I saw Wolfe Glick once play a move I am using *role play* so here is my explanation for this set I chose. Tornadus was the thought of a tailwind setter. So tailwind had to come. Taunt was way too helpful to shut down everything, so I couldn’t drop that idea of using it. The third move role play is very interesting it can be used to copy , basically mirror abilities. Why and how is it useful? well the first thing is the weather, many times I’ll lead with t-tar vs another team with a charizard, as the charizard m-evolved whenever the sun came out I role played my own t-tar to reset sand. Another thing is to copy venu’s thick fat or even lucario’s inner focus even if it gives up prankster it is a turn later that it has done the work with prankster. Other benefits are taking advantage of opponent’s intimidate, flash fire, lightningrod, swift swim, sand rush and etc and sure was helpful in a lot of my matches. Sky drop is again an amazing utility move here, going for tailwind +fast sky drop negates atleast a turn and get’s me in a much better defensive position to do stuff, which was amazing in tons of matches. Now for the EV spread, I copied Toler Webb’s nationals thundurus spread, it gives it the advantage of both defenses and tons of attacks to 2-3HKO’s because it was simply tempting to use. The speed investment is here to speed creep the mons who are built to creep max speed brelooms which is again a good benchmark.
Another interesting note that I took off of tornadus while in many battles was that sometimes a move will leave me under just the sitrus activation point (at bout 55% health) and then it’ll be weak to it’s partner’s attack and may get knocked out pretty easily on the next turn. While in this situation sitrus berry was crocked thanks to sandstorm’s residual damage and turned their moves into a possible 3HKO which was nice. Though at some points tornadus did got knocked out by my own sandstorm but it wasn’t before it left a advantage on to for my own team.

252 Atk Landorus-T Rock Slide vs. 152 HP / 152 Def Tornadus: 78-92 (45 - 53.1%) -- 23.8% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Kangaskhan Return vs. 152 HP / 152 Def Tornadus: 85-102 (49.1 - 58.9%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Return vs. 152 HP / 152 Def Tornadus: 135-160 (78 - 92.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 152 HP / 152 Def Tornadus: 100-118 (57.8 - 68.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
212+ SpA Rotom-W Thunderbolt vs. 152 HP / 164+ SpD Tornadus: 128-152 (73.9 - 87.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice vs. 152 HP / 164+ SpD Tornadus: 100-118 (57.8 - 68.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
My showdown won’t work for sitrus for some reason so apologies…


Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers  
Ability: Levitate  
Level: 50  
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Def / 116 SpA / 4 SpD / 140 Spe  
Modest Nature  
- Hydro Pump  
- Thunderbolt  
- Will-O-Wisp  
- Protect

Rotom-w is a pokemon I have experience using effectively and with this specific staple spread for the past year since VGC 15 was introduced, basically I was the one of the first people who were actually running bisharp-creeper toms. Rotom-w just simply amazingly auto-checks many meta mons. Whether it was the popular most geni-duo lead, heatran, rotom-h, charizard and specially behind tailwind I don’t have to risk getting damage before I land a super effective hit. With things like scarfed t-tar with often little room to go for a super power, on a doubtful OHKO or just dependant on the situation, also it had potential to do a lot with sucker punches and iron head, so it had to be countered with the speed EV’s and burn back before they make a move. It is also good against things like P-u-P kang as it tries to boost to settle it back to neutral. Accuracy was a big trade off in my practice matches but t sure is worth it. It also is for switch in’s like ice attacks mostly from tornadus and garchomp. After handling the sitrus berry to my tornadus for it’s betterment considering how important it is for the team, I added leftovers to counter-act sandstorm’s residual damage as well as get into a slightly better position by protect stall and maybe survive an upcoming attack.


Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite  
Ability: Chlorophyll  
Level: 50  
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 76 SpA / 52 SpD / 4 Spe  
Bold Nature  
- Leech Seed  
- Protect  
- Sludge Bomb  
- Giga Drain

Mega venusaur was put after a lot of though from many threats to the top four mons on this list. I literally at one point though that this team can’t work well if it faces those threats on the field any day. These specific thingies were rain, ludicolo beats almost everything to perfection and the threat of hyper voices from sylveon and gardevoir was very real. a grass poison type could be the answer however the ice weakness shouldn’t be added more to the team, in this case the perfect mon to handle issue and threats mentioned was a mega venusaur. I went on and choose Aaron Zheng’s spread from APEX which may seem like a long time ago however this spread helped it leech seed and bulk stall many opponents and was more than good in the late game. The sp.atk investment may seem idiotic with it’s means of doing damage but to be honest it also get’s 2HKO’es on the same mons with these investments. Venusaur handles the teams very well that have sylveon or dominant rain or bulky waters and becomes an amazing substitution for mega garchomp where it couldn’t shine as much. Tailwind further triggers this mon to a new level of being a threat. Leech seed also counter-acts the residual damage taken from sandstorm while punishing others as well.
I am not trying to prove that stall works in VGC but there were too many good scenarios in battles to talk about here. Mega venusaur gains momentum from using leech seeds and firing of sludge bombs to get poisons which idk how but it does bout 50% of the time. And most of the time I brought tyranitar. It was hilariously funny to see opponent’s struggling against 3 auto-damage counters at once and slowly helplessly fade away on their selves.

76 SpA Mega Venusaur Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 60 SpD Sylveon: 102-120 (50.4 - 59.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
76 SpA Mega Venusaur Giga Drain vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Politoed: 108-128 (65 - 77.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Politoed Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Mega Venusaur in Rain: 50-59 (26.7 - 31.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 124+ Def Mega Venusaur: 114-135 (60.9 - 72.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Mega Gardevoir Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 124+ Def Mega Venusaur: 114-134 (60.9 - 71.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Mega Gardevoir Psychic vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Mega Venusaur: 168-198 (89.8 - 105.8%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
76 SpA Mega Venusaur Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 124 SpD Mega Gardevoir: 92-110 (52.5 - 62.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
76 SpA Mega Venusaur Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 156 SpD Suicune: 84-102 (40.5 - 49.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
76 SpA Mega Venusaur Helping Hand Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 156 SpD Suicune: 126-150 (60.8 - 72.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 124+ Def Mega Venusaur: 151-179 (80.7 - 95.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
etc.....


Lucario @ Focus Sash  
Ability: Inner Focus  
Level: 50  
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe  
Adamant Nature  
- Close Combat  
- Feint
- Helping Hand  
- Protect

Last slot is here and you were weirded out that why am I using a lucario over many other things that should be used? and i surely don't recommend using this pokemon to everyone. this lucario gets very team specific and not good at all against raw meta power to every reason you can think of. Well let’s get to the reasons why I choose it and then jump into the spread and moveset: my team had no absolute way to counter a kangaskhan, not even one! Accept when you nail W-o-W with your rotom-w. still fighting coverage is something I notice myself keeping in every team that I build so it couldn’t be absent for this one. At first I was into the thought of using an AV hariyama but then the fairy weakness would get me every time if played smartly and even the thought of scrafty is worse than hari’s fairy weakness. I needed something to take atleast one move and still no be weak to things like ice mostly. Lucario is a pokemon that shone to me from the list. Even though the hyper voice is neutral it can always survive atleast one with it’s focus sash. It’s inner focus ability made it even better against kang’s with fake out (hope fully they don’t low kick ) bullet punch is weak but good against faries however it never got used, not even once I might replace it for some other moves. Close combat is self explanatory. However I am gonna get questions for the choice of helping hand. This move was actually put over a lot of though regarding to support the team. 
This  slot originally was a blaze kick to absolutely OHKO a ferrothorn, but then I looked up for it’s movepool and came across many moves that should be used instead of it as ferro already takes a chunk from CC. Helping hand came with a lot of serious help to this medium-offense team needed. Seriously I mean just think of it. Tyranitar has rock slide, garchomp has two other spread moves,venusaur and rotom aren’t the beast of the variants they are (special attackers) helping hand basically contributed to the whole of the team when lucario can’t do much offensively on the field. This move came in handy against priority moves like aegi’s shadow sneak once to pick up the OHKO and control the situation from there. Hence bullet punch is almost never getting used should I opt for feint over it? yes i did, one thing i noticed if i ever get outsmarted by protect games or people were stalling out whenever my partner mon was gonna fade to sandstorm damage, it was the perfect oppurtunity to use this move also it gave me surety against the deadly breloom though. Now the spread not much fo the 252/252/4 EV’ as u already know what it is for but I may get questioned for specifically using adamant nature on my mon other than jolly as most would think. Well lucario is a fast mon with a base 90 speed stat with 252 investment it outspeeds things like breloom, bisharp etc as well as 252 timid heatran by exactly one point ‘142’ and further from their I didn’t saw any real reason to give it the jolly nature other than simple opt for move power. Another good thingie sandstorm doesn’t breaks luc’s sash. After tailwind it outspeeds kangs and destroys terrakions as well.

252+ Atk Lucario Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 192-228 (96.9 - 115.1%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Lucario Close Combat vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 204-240 (112.7 - 132.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Lucario Close Combat vs. 212 HP / 20 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 198-234 (95.6 - 113%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
etc.... *good stuffs counter*

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Team Mechanism:
.Many people still not get the raw components of the team so I thought it would be reasonable to put forward how I play this team to win. This team takes advantage of tailwind in the early stages of the game and then bulk out the last few weak one’s left. Especially mega venusaur in one game took out 3 opposing mons whence tailwind was down by the help of leech seed, G-drain healing and the good stuffs of a sludge bomb getting poisons, don’t forget that sandstorm was up a few turns.
.The team get’s into better positions by switching in-and-out mostly using sky drop of tornadus to waste turn and get something really useful on the field. Tornadus is the mon that carries this team to victory and the rate at which it is brought is 100% for now.
.The whole team ended up pretty much in junction with sandstorm from t-tar as u saw some great examples, while it works as a squad against the metagame well too. Btw it wasn’t intended from start to make a team almost immune to sandstorm.
. This team doesn't really work or win with glory of beating up 4-0 or 3-0 cuz that simply doesn't matter until timer stall runs in. it usually takes a 1-on-1 in the end. there were situations where garchomp wrecked everything and gave me a 4-0 win.

Conclusion:
So this was my team guys it was very fun and got me success, as always hoped you guys liked it and enjoyed going through it, make sure to give it a try on your own too, who knows you may like. Bye for now!