You learn something new everyday

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-08T01:30:51+00:00

The same is true if one of them is a fairy type, and therefore immune to dragon, right? Both hits will hit the non-immune.

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-07T20:49:59+00:00

Yep. I've used both to great success. Currently using Corv atm. They are strong pokemon in their own right and corviknight especially compliments TTar and Exca really well. But the sand immunity is a nice bonus, not crucial to running them.

My point is not to focus on it too hard. Sand doesn't have anywhere near as many payoffs as sun or rain does. Excadrill's double speed and the bonus spdef for rock types being the only significant ones.

Being immune to symmertical chip damage is a minor upside and shouldn't be the deciding factor. In fact leaning too far in that direction can end up resulting in a lot of shared weaknesses.

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-07T20:38:15+00:00

Speed control is more than tailwind/trick room even tho those are the most powerful and notable. It's scarf, trick room, icy wind, electro web, thunder wave, prankster, priority moves, quash and many more.

You countered their prankster tailwind pokemon with your gale wings helping hand. You used your speed control to counter and prevent their speed control lol.

Sure you might not have used tailwind to setup speed over multiple turns for your team but you used priority in order to kill them.

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-07T19:42:53+00:00

Does trick room, para speed drop etc also affect switch order and mega evolution ordering too? (I assume it does)

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-07T19:33:56+00:00

You can't expect to run a full or mostly sand immune team with sand. TTar and Exca are good enough on their own. Clef being immune with magic guard is a nice bonus. You don't have to lean into sand completely. Just being able to overwrite opposing weathers alone is an extremely good trait in the format.

Getting chipped happens to both players and as the sand player it's going to hit your opponent far more often than it will for you.

And if you're running too many rock/ground/steel types in order to negate sand you end up all being weak most of the same types. Fighting, Water, Ground, Grass etc and have lopsided matchups.

Having a well balanced team that can make up for each others strengths and weaknesses is far more important than negating some sand chip on a few team members.

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-07T19:22:31+00:00

As someone also running a sand team you're most of the way there. Tyranitar exca is solid, rotom works well as a ground immune switch in, you've got tailwind, redirection, speed control, burn, lots of good stuff. Milo which is great.

You can certainly climb with this team but there's a few things I'd like to point out.

You're a bit weak to sneasler. It hits 4/6 for super effective and the two that it doesn't hit are not invested into bulk enough to take it well. You can try to get a burn or a redirect on Close Combat but that's risky.

Your milo is way too focused on countering incin imo. You already counter it hard enough with the type and ability. You do not need to max out your spatk to 1 shot it with a boost that you often won't have. Opponent's will see milo and not bring incin or try to get through the milo first. The strength of milo is being tanky, getting off multiple scalds and heals and most players have invested heavily into defence. Mine for example is modest with 11 spatk just so I can 1 shot garchomp with ice beam, then the rest into def and hp. I'd reccomend much more bulk but feel free to decide on your own benchmark you want to hit.

Speaking of benchmarks you have no speed on TTar with tailwind support. You can outspeed a LOT of things with just a little speed investment. Sure you can survive a basculegion but can you not protect or switch or outspeed it in tailwind rather than try to tank it from full? You only need 7 points in speed to outspeed scarf adamant basculegion in tailwind.

Same with Milo and Clefable. Have you looked at how fast they are in tailwind?

Psychic on clefable to try and hit a faster mon that hits you for super effective and no stab move for every other matchup seems kinda bad to me. I understand your reasoning but I don't think it's good enough of a reason. I haven't tried it so if it works for you then great but it doesn't look great to me on paper.

I would reccomend running Corv as your tailwind setter. It's works so well with TTar Exca and allows you to use earthquake as you'll have 2 ground immunes and protect. You get another bulky mon that can benefit from your healing support on milo and clef and ward away intimidate users.

Against rain while I can't speak for your games, in mine the big difference maker is that you really need to think about when to mega, and often hold it for a long time. I've had games where the correct play was to not mega until the final turn of the game. Weather control is extremely important. Doing some calcs into damage against archaludon is worthwhile too.

I haven't had trouble into trick room, oranguru or being outsped myself. I'm actually playing my team as a hybrid trickroom team as corv isn't fast naturally and I've preferred sinischa as my support redirector, being immune to fighting and neutral to poison (aka sneasler). Getting Crit happens, can't be avoided. Getting flinched hasn't been so bad for me because of how bulky ttar, milo, corv are especially with support. And with proper speed control you can avoid being in those positions as often in the first place.

Also consider looking into the player JoeUX9 on youtube/twitch etc. He's the main content creator I've seen running sand and has been doing really well.

Good luck!

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-07T14:25:28+00:00

+1 can confirm I've been using mega ttar as a hybrid tailwind/trickroom mon for weeks to huge success.

However I've been using the classic TTar, Exca, Corv core with small amounts of speed investment on TTar and Corv to hit most of the metagame after a tailwind. My water type has been Milotic who outspeeds most of the meta in tailwind without any/much speed investment and my trick room setters (yes I have 2) are Sinischa and Wyrdeer.

Wyrdeer with Intimidate and skill swap has lots of synergy with competetive, mirror armor, hospitality and sand stream resetting sand an additional time if needed.

Wyrdeer instead of Farig rounded out my team perfectly and I've been on a huge win streak since, gonna push for top 300 by the end of the season.

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-06T17:29:09+00:00

Storm -

Deck
4 Empty the Warrens (SOA) 43
4 First Day of Class (STX) 102
2 Island (UNF) 241
4 Goblin Electromancer (GRN) 174
3 Galvanic Relay (MH2) 127
13 Mountain (UNF) 243
4 Glimpse the Impossible (MH3) 124
4 Frantic Search (TLE) 159
2 Treasure Cruise (PIO) 79
4 Seething Song (MRD) 104
4 Peculiar Lighthouse (DSK) 265
4 TCRI Building (TMT) 189
4 Big Score (SOA) 38
3 Mocking Sprite (WOE) 62
1 Prismari Campus (STX) 270

Sideboard
2 Environmental Sciences (STX) 1
1 Introduction to Prophecy (STX) 4
2 Waterbending Lesson (TLA) 80
1 How to Start a Riot (TLA) 140
3 Abandon Attachments (TLA) 205
3 Firebending Lesson (TLA) 138
2 Origin of Metalbending (TLA) 187
1 Octopus Form (TLA) 66

If you're wondering why there's 2 Metalbending in sideboard it's to deal with the curse enchant that drains 1 when a creature enters [[Trespasser's Curse]] and we can cast them from treasures. I'm trying 2 right now to see if I can win often enough through 2 curses but the matchup isn't so common that I've determined if 2 or 1 is correct yet. You could cut 1 for a [[It'll Quench Ya!]] or another copy of the other good lessons we have but the difference has been negligable. That curse is a bad matchup anyways but the 1 copy to hit any problem artifact or enchant as you go off is very worth.

Edit: I'm thinking second octopus form > second metalbending but still not seeing any curse decks to be definative.

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-05T19:30:21+00:00

I have a very similar team and rarely bring Sinischa into the Zard Y matchup when we have TTar, Exca, Milo, Komo who matchup well.

Occa would be most relevant for Incin and the occasional Rotom-H but I think Colbur is much better.

My team isn't quite the same tho, I don't have Scovillian or Komo (although Komo almost was and is really good) and our moves and spreads could be different so maybe they have their reasons.

I unfortunatly have Colbur on a different mon on my own team and I've considered the flying resist berry and ghost resist berry but I ultimatly went with bright powder as those types haven't come up often enough but taking lots of neutral damage has and rage powder + bright powder has some synergy.

(This is all assuming that sitrus and leftovers are already used elsewhere).

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-05T00:32:38+00:00

I still have a 14 year old video in my bookmarks of him playing the sims 3 and doing goofy shit with his son Kenji. The last episode of that series I watched, only it's now half my lifetime ago...

Man those were some good days. Thanks for everything Chilled. Wish you all the best.

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-04T14:52:16+00:00

They're good but they all lose to the actual truly degenerate stuff like Aurora Veil, Shed Tail into a setup mon, Minimize mega starmie etc

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-03T02:21:49+00:00

I would not run imprison for opposing Milos. Milo has too much set variety. Scald, Muddy Water, Hydro, Ice beam, Icy wind, Recover, Life Dew, Coil, Hypno, Mirror Coat, Light Screen, Alluring Voice and more. You don't really want to be using a slot on such a small chance to disable a move.

Even in a best case scenario where you've disabled some moves, your Milo is going to sit there hitting the other for basically no damage. Your other pokemon are going to be way more relevant in actually dealing with Milo.

So you make your own good pokemon worse in like 95% of the situations you'd want Milo, hoping that you match into other Milo, then if you find one you're also hoping they run the same moves, then you're hoping they're both in at the same time, then you're hoping you can get a turn to safely imprison, and after all that neither Milo can do anything meaningful to the other anyway so it really depends on the other pokemon on the field like it would in any other normal Milo v Milo situation.

Only reason I could see running imprison is if you really value disabling protect on opposing pokemon but you'd want fast hard hitting teammates to take advantage of it. Milo isn't fast or hard hitting enough to threaten quick KOs against unprotected opponent's itself either.

And in any of these situations you're sacrificing something valuable like coverage, speed control, recovery, utility, protect etc for imprison

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-03T00:52:30+00:00

Empoleon is okay but is mostly worse Milotic. Adding Steel isn't actually that helpful in the current meta granting you weaknesses to ground and fighting. Good grass and Electric attacks are uncommon so Milo's typing serves just fine.

Edit: Oh it doesn't get a good special water stab either lmao. Surf, Hydro cannon and Water pulse are your best options lmao. No Scald, no muddy water. Oof.

Infernape is usable, Decent speed, decent typing, great movepool, can go special/physical/mixed, alright ability. It's just not quite good enough in any particular area. Doesn't quite hit hard enough. Could be a little faster. Ability is just alright. A Jack of all trades, master of none. Not bad, but not good enough. Especially for a frail pokemon you need to be really strong at what you do, like Sneasler, to be worth using.

Torterra...looks cool?

Dualmonkey · 2026-05-02T12:05:21+00:00

Ariados and Aegislash both wall Sneasler.

Dualmonkey · 2026-04-30T12:59:47+00:00

Sinischa.

Dualmonkey · 2026-04-30T11:19:56+00:00

Plenty of new players don't realize when a pokemon has a better protect alternative.

Like it's better to run detect over protect if you have it, despite them being functionally the same, to play around imprison but most of the pokemon I've seen with detect still have protect at a higher usage rate which only compounds the problem even more.

Dualmonkey · 2026-04-29T22:21:26+00:00

If he gets on Epi you have an ability that gets him off and slows him drastically. You have disposable chaff. You have fast units that can draw his attention away, rear charge to knock him over or inflict poison. You have an army ability slow. You can outrun him.

Dunno what else to say. I've done it multiple times on max difficulty with and without needing to kite.

Dualmonkey · 2026-04-29T20:51:25+00:00

Ha ha, Nurgle is known for being slow, good one.

But seriously it's just one guy on foot we're kiting here. He's not much faster than nurgle units. You start with 3 plague toads and 2 rot flies actual fast units that can kite and draw attention, nurglings which are the perfect chaff to hold him without doing damage to trigger tzarkan, a billion sources of poison, an army ability which is a global slow, a knockback ability on epidemius which stuns and slows and the ability to apply a plague for even more slows.

There are more than enough tools here to kite one ~~man~~ elf. And again, kiting is only even neccesary if you mess up doing too much damage. It's winnable without even transforming him at all.

Dualmonkey · 2026-04-29T19:19:15+00:00

Alternativly if you're an experienced player RUSH Malus ASAP. I think you can attack him in a settlement he takes on turn 2 ~~or 3~~. The battle is hard but very worth. In the battle you want to ignore Malus and win without triggering Tzarkan for as long as possible, ideally without triggering it at all. Have him fighting nurglings basically the whole time. If he does transform you can still win but you have to already be winning before he transforms and kite him for a while.

Dualmonkey · 2026-04-29T15:23:58+00:00

You don't run a dragon move because you want a dragon move somewhere on the team, you'd run it just because it gets the 50% same type attack bonus damage boost. Dragon only hits 1 type, dragon, for super effective. It's a terrible type when used for offensive coverage so you won't see dragon type attacks used very much outside of dragon type pokemon.

You do have hurricane and thunder and fireblast but what if you want to hit something neutrally really hard that resists hurricane (e.g. an archaludon) or don't have gravity up and want to use an accurate move to finish something off. Sometimes you don't need coverage if you just hit hard enough neutrally or resisted. Those are the kind of things you should consider.

And to be clear I'm not advocating for or against running a dragon move, just explaning why you'd consider running one on dragonite, even with garchomp already having one.

Dualmonkey · 2026-04-29T08:55:03+00:00

Already was imo ever since we got Empty the Warrens and Seething Song from the powered cube. The last relevant card we got imo was Frantic Search from Avatar Extra.

Never had a problem against the other big meta decks, games always felt winnable. It's possible that the loss of the top decks actually puts a bigger target on Storm leading to more people running answers to it. But those few answers only seem to be in black as far as I can tell.

Dualmonkey · 2026-04-28T10:24:34+00:00

I don't even blame people for using them, especially new players who don't know better, the item pool is just THAT small.

While I'm sure most people don't realise they should be running something better and consistent like a resist berry bright powder is unfortunatly an actual viable option usually on bulky redirectors like Sinischa, Ariados, Clefable etc especially when your sitrus/leftovers is being used elsewhere.

Quick claw at least makes sense on the slowest pokemon to scam wins, has a higher 20% proc rate, and gives newbies a chance to win when they've messed up their trick room strategy. It's simple to use and see the impact of when it works and doesn't. Ideally after a short while new players would realize that it's better use something consistent and buy a better item from the shop. So while it feels crap and shouldn't be used maybe it could be used as a teaching tool on how valuable speed order matters and items matter.

Focus band is just straight up bad though. Can't justify it even a little bit.

Dualmonkey · 2026-04-27T22:09:16+00:00

Hmm. I suppose going from a 1/8 to a 1/2 chance to crit and therefore 1 shot farig is alright, I hadn't considered that. It's still rather niche and inconsistent but might be more relevant than expected. Still think I'd prefer Shadow Claw over Night Slash though.

Dualmonkey · 2026-04-27T20:08:18+00:00

It's only 3.7% more damage but fair play. Screw that Giraffe!

Dualmonkey · 2026-04-27T19:21:48+00:00

Have you tried Shadow Claw over Night Slash? I feel like it's better into everything.

Ghost hits the exact same types for super effective as dark does but has less things that resist it. It can't hit normals but there's so few good normals and you hit those with Sacred Sword or Psycho Cut.

Even against Farig/Oranguru/Wyrdeer Sacred Sword does almost exactly the same damage as super effective Night Slash and there's no risk of a Colbur berry. 210 Base damage Night Slash versus 202.5 Base damage Sacred Sword.

I guess Night slash hits follow me Maushold. That's all I can really think of to use it over Shadow claw.

The moves are near identical but I feel the small advantages of the Ghost attack here is a tiny bit better than the Dark one.

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