SV Ubers Houndstone gets #1 on ladder Ft. AV Ting-Lu

Nikebeamz

formerly ImDoneThrowing
I have been using a bulky sand team for quite a while now and have finally hit #1 on the ladder using it.
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The Team: https://pokepast.es/cfa6f1e8f83d3618
S/o to TyCarter for testing this team and providing some replays; we ran this team in the Ubers seasonal tournament as well.

Intro
I was very intrigued by sand from the start of the gen because of the presence of Houndstone and its access to perhaps one of the most powerful moves of all time, Last Respects. This team synergizes sand with electric terrain by using Miraidon and Iron Bundle. In addition, my main defensive core, terra fairy Hippo and terra steel AV Ting-Lu, are both extremely effective at dealing with the box legends, which I will talk about later. Specs Bundle is an absolute monster, with blissey and perhaps terra steel, water absorb clod being effective walls. Houndstone has the ability to clean up late game while being ev invested for outspeeding Bundle in sand while also having investment in bulk. Miraidon is probably the best mon overall in the tier and is a setup sweeper on this team. Finally, we have Hat, which is used to stop hazard stack from opposing Ting-Lu and webs.

Individual Roles
hippoDON.png


Hippo is a great counter to scarf Koraidon which is common as well as band sets
252 Atk Choice Band Koraidon Collision Course vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 162-192 (38.5 - 45.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

Although SD sets can be scary we have access to Whirlwind and terra fairy for emergencies.
+2 252 Atk Koraidon Collision Course vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 216-255 (51.4 - 60.7%) -- 91.8% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Rocks on Hippo are the only hazards on our team, so it is important to get them up.

The team can struggle with Chien-Pao. When I see a chien-pao on an opposing team, I am mostly likely going to save terra fairy on hippo or use either a terra on Ting-Lu or Hound to deal with it.

Houndstone.png


The star of the team, EV for 410 speed in sand. One of the underappreciated roles of hound is to be able to spin block tusk and threads and Wisp them as well. We can run life orb instead of spell tag, but I have been personally doing just fine with spell tag
252+ Atk Spell Tag Tera Fighting Houndstone Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Flutter Mane: 236-278 (94 - 110.7%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
Also from experience, I have found that running terra blast fighting is much better than body press, mainly because of ting-lu
120 Def Tera Fighting Houndstone Body Press vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 162-192 (31.5 - 37.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery (running def ev)
vs
252+ Atk Tera Fighting Houndstone Tera Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 200-236 (38.9 - 45.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery.
This is important since eq from ting-lu will 3HKO.
Terra fighting helps hound beat Chien Pao and Kingambit as well.

Ting-lu.png

*Slaps roof of Ting-Lu*. This baby can:
252 SpA Choice Specs Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Vessel of Ruin Ting-Lu: 218-258 (42.4 - 50.1%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Flutter Mane Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Vessel of Ruin Ting-Lu: 200-236 (38.9 - 45.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Hadron Engine Miraidon Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Vessel of Ruin Ting-Lu: 181-214 (35.2 - 41.6%)
252+ SpA Beads of Ruin Tera Fire Chi-Yu Overheat vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Vessel of Ruin Ting-Lu in Sun: 270-318 (52.5 - 61.8%)

Yeah so this thing can basically switch into any special attacker in the tier. Terra steel is extremely important again terra fairy Miraidon. Heavy Slam can be substituted with terra blast, as terra blast steel does more to terra fairy Miraidon. However, having heavy slam allows you to get additional damage on Scream tail and potentially bulkier Flutter Manes. Despite this set not running any defensive or attack evs, body press allows us to 2HKO bundle, as well as being able to hit terra dark Chien pao in conjunction with us using terra steel. Despite this set lacking hazards, I still believe that AV ting-lu is a really great set in ubers and for sure is under-used in its ability to shut down any Miraidon set.

Iron Bundle.png

Nice team you got there, its a shame that you have no Bundle switchins. TLDR Bundle demolishes other HO teams. In conjunction with electric terrain and its ability to outspeed all of the 405 speed mons in the tier and their scarf variants in terrain, you get the best special attacker in the tier (besides miradon). Using terra ice is exteremly important especially when going up against another bundle since:
252 SpA Choice Specs Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Iron Bundle: 249-294 (98.4 - 116.2%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
However, you have be really careful about using terra ice.

In this match https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-1801950400-bxc1yc9jojcs453epxn9pkdnv47ul8epw (ironically, the game that got me my peak)
I use my terra ice right away to guarantee winning the mirror matchup against the opposite bundle. However, I leave my team to be swept by sd Chien Pao. However, since the opposing pao is life orb, I can pressure it with sand, and luckily for me, my opponent over-predicts by expecting me to switch into iron bundle on his ice move.

Everything else about this bundle set is super standard. Although running specs over boots leave us susceptible to hazards damage, without specs, you are unable to OHKO Chien pao, the box legends, and many others mons in the tier.

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Hat was the newest addition to the team. I originally ran Cinderace out of all things for hazard "removal". I was going to switch to using rapid spin Iron Treads which further synergizes with electrin terrain, but I ran into one particular mon on the ladder that was an absolute menace to my team: Terra ground Hawlucha. Taunt Hawlucha can setup for free on hippo, and terra ground ensures that Miradon cant kill it. I found using Hat to be my best option. It is a relatively standard set that will help the team beat+2 Hawlucha as well as preventing hazards from the most common hazards stacker in the tier: Ting-Lu. Mystical fire can be used to chip Iron Treads

Miradon.png

This team originally used scarf Miraidon, however, I have found using the standard agility+cm set above to be quite successful. Terra fairy is standard as it lets us beat the other non-terraed box legends as well as ting-lu. This set does have an issue with Iron Treads, but it is also important to note that Bundle can switch into Treads for free most of the time, and specs hydro pump has a favorable roll against even max spdef Treads with the spdef boost in electric terrain. I feel like the Miradion set on this team is for sure something that can be played around with.

Threats
I have already mentioned threats to this team such a Chien Pao, but there are specific team comps that are not too common which can give this team a problem. My last loss on ladder with the above team was to OreoSpeedruns, who was running webs. He was U-turning on my Hat switch in with Masquerain to get a lot of momentum and eventually, I got impatient and stayed in on it with Ting-Lu instead of switching to Hat, and he wisely decided to get up webs that turn. I also forgot that bundle doesnt get its speed boosted in webs + terrain which resulted in me losing the match.

Hazards stack in general can be a big problem to the team if you dont use Hat well. Normally if I see a Glimorra lead, I will lead Bundle and trade rocks for getting an easy kill. Ting-lu is the most common spikes stacker which Hat can handle well.

Although Pelliper is not common, it has definetly been a huge problem for me when using this team. When I used this team in the seasonals, my opponent brought Koraidon + Peliper + Threads, and was able to play around my then scarf Miradion very well. However, going against rain or Peliper is winnable if played right. I expect this team not the be viable in the post-home meta because of Basculegion in Rain, which is going to be so broken lmao.


Replays
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-1799977301-mg5ew3vhm40mujpa32zm69wn0rl5qvypw (win rain on high ladder + mirror bundle start)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-1798526781-myu78ge3y7ofy4z08wwde0abakzdipspw (win against odd screens team, but I'm using many of the techs I have previously mentioned).
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-1798497803-m76lxwyd5npkznf2814owf1ufa9gmv1pw (Carter uses terra steel ting-lu very well)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-1791406157-njrixyavd2qsiaaihk2324h98b03qb0pw (Carter using hound very well)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-1799688567-ibg69er9xper8xjv5f23842xgh3kvt0pw (win against #1. Crit didnt matter because hound was able to kill with shadow sneak even if he sacked Koraidon to get rid of sand).
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-1785958629-fm9o8r1rmvbd2z4w4d2288lbou57zbmpw (beating hawlucha)

This is my first time making an RMT so if there's anything I could do better, please let me know
Also its 2 am so hopefully I didn't make too many dumb grammar errors.
 
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Yoooo I got a mention! Honestly, for me, that’s pretty awesome. yeah this is definitely NOT 2 months late lmao Anyways, I wanna make a suggestion for this team.

:hatterene:
Nuzzle > Calm Mind

I personally really dislike Calm Mind on Hatterene, as it’s way too hard for it to set up and do much because of its low speed. Hatterene already handles three of the four main Ground types in Ubers, except for Treads, who is checked in some form by 3 other Pokémon on this team. Also, Calm Mind sweeping isn’t really Hat’s job here. Thus, I think Nuzzle is a fine move here, as it can solve the webs issue, while giving Houndstone even more leeway and allowing Miraidon to skimp out on Agilities more. Plus, you can’t go wrong with a chance to get lucky :)

edit: oh hey that’s my 100th post, that’s also pretty neato
 
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Nikebeamz

formerly ImDoneThrowing
Yoooo I got a mention! Honestly, for me, that’s pretty awesome. yeah this is definitely NOT 2 months late lmao Anyways, I wanna make a suggestion for this team.

:hatterene:
Nuzzle > Calm Mind

I personally really dislike Calm Mind on Hatterene, as it’s way too hard for it to set up and do much because of its low speed. Hatterene already handles three of the four main Ground types in Ubers, except for Treads, who is checked in some form by 3 other Pokémon on this team. Also, Calm Mind sweeping isn’t really Hat’s job here. Thus, I think Nuzzle is a fine move here, as it can solve the webs issue, while giving Houndstone even more leeway and allowing Miraidon to skimp out on Agilities more. Plus, you can’t go wrong with a chance to get lucky :)

edit: oh hey that’s my 100th post, that’s also pretty neato
Hey thanks for the suggestion and congrats on your 100th post :blobthumbsup: . Ill definitely try nuzzle and see how it goes. I haven't been playing much ubers ladder recently but sometimes I come back to the team above and try to make adjustments. I was thinking helmet over lefties on hippo to punish uturn spam from koraidon. Also been messing around with the miradon set since I feel like it doesnt put in enough work in games. https://pokepast.es/9bb761fd2f482e44 still not a fan of this miradon set :puff:
Unfortunately, I dont think hound will be good at all in the home meta.
 

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