[4TH Gen] Heavy Stall

[LakersFan05]

I have always played hyper offense teams, but ive been losing many battles. So I tried a heavy stall team and I found that it suits my playstyle. This team has been amazing so far. My winstreak has skyrocketed with this team which is surprising considering this is my first stall team and I just started wifi battling recently.

*CHANGES in BOLD*

Hippowdon
Nature: Impish
Ability: Sandstream
Item: Leftovers
252 HP/ 152 Def/ 104 Sp Def

-Earthquake
-Slack Off
-Stealth Rock
-Roar

I replaced Skarmory with Hippowdon since everyone has suggested it. It seemed redundant to have fort and skarm. The reason I used skarm in the first place because of DD Kingdra and Dragonite, but I have suicune to take care of them. I tested out hippowdon and it has improved my team in terms of synergy with the rest of my team since it resists electric attacks. Most importantly, it made my Infernape problem a lot easier. Choice banders and metagross especially the ones with thunderpunch are a lot easier to handle since it can take strong hits on the switch. That is what made hippowdon better than skarm for my team. A nice bonus is the sand stream ability. Rain Dance teams can be somewhat problematic if either blissey or suicune is dead.

Forretress
Nature: Careful
Ability: Sturdy
Item: Leftovers
252 HP/ 6 Def/ 252 Sp Def

-Toxic Spikes
-Stealth Rock
-Rapid Spin
-Payback

Toxic spikes and stealth rock complete my entry hazard abuse. I chose forretress because it is reliable as Skarmory because of its defenses. I am always guaranteed stealth rocks and maybe toxic spikes if I’m lucky. This stall team is meant to cause a lot of switches and so toxic spikes is essential just in case blissey can’t toxic. Every stall needs rapid spin because I found when using this team, I switch a lot too since I go from skarm to bliss and bliss to skarm. Payback is for ghosts.

Blissey
Nature: Calm
Ability: Natural Cure
Item: Leftovers
24 HP/ 252 Def/ 232 Sp Def

-Seismic Toss
-Aromatherapy
-Toxic
-Softboiled

Blissey completes my skarm/bliss combo. I chose calm nature since I am using a physically defensive skarmory. And so I did not really find the need to use bold. Also, zapdos can sweep the rest of my team and I found that Calm Blissey was the best way to counter and outstall any zapdos. I just switch to skarm when needed and it has worked for very well. With calm nature and 232 Sp def EV’s, Blissey can take choice specs azelf, life orb zapdos etc. like a boss. Will-o-wisp and toxic can be a big pain for stall teams, so I chose Blissey because it is a reliable cleric. Seismic Toss is good for out stalling zapdos, suicune, heatran, magnezone etc. I have toxic just in case I don’t get toxic spikes up. Also, blissey can force a lot of switches. I predict the switch and go for toxic.

Spiritomb
Nature: Calm
Ability: Pressure
Item: Leftovers
252 HP/ 140 Def/ 116 Sp Def

-Rest
-Pursuit/Sleep Talk
-Shadow Ball
-Hidden Power [Fighting]

Every stall team needs a ghost to stop the opponent from rapid spinning entry hazards. I chose Spiritomb over Rotom because of the surprise factor. Also, it is neutral to shadow ball which it can take well. I also like Spiritomb because of pursuit which can trap gengars and most importantly explosion azelfs which can sweep my team. I found that spiritomb with toxic spikes can stall out a lot. I use hidden power fighting for offensive heatrans that can sweep my team. The reason I do not use Sleep Talk right now is because I have blissey with aromatherapy. I have used a sleep talk set, but I am still deciding if I should use it because it has saved my ass in past games. But gengars/starmies can be mad annoying for my team which is why I favor pursuit.

Suicune
Nature: Bold
Ability: Pressure
Item: Leftovers
252 HP/ 252 Def/ 6 Spe

-Calm mind
-Surf
-Hidden Power [Electric]
-Roar

Suicune with calm mind and roar is a HUGE surprise factor. When I use calm mind, it bluffs an offensive cune set or crocune set. Surprisingly, it works! I switch to cune on a water or fire move, set up a calm mind or two, I predict that the opponent will switch to a pokemon that counters suicune (electric,grass etc), and so I roar, which spreads even more entry hazard and status damage to the opponents team. As a result, the opponent is forced to use one of his/her pokemon as death-fodder for suicune to kill. So in the end, I have an offensive bulky cune and an annoying phazer. It also has great synergy with blissey.

Shaymin
Nature: Modest
Ability: Natural Cure
Item: Leftovers
252 HP/ 76 Sp Atk/ 180 Spe

-Seed Flare
-Hidden Power [Fire]
-Leech Seed
-Protect

I like it because it covers suicunes weaknesses and suicune covers shaymin weaknesses. It also has great synergy with bliss since bliss can also bubble fire and ice attacks. Most games, it has been very useful for stalling and forcing switches and other games, it just dies and does nothing. It plays a support role for cune and bliss. If cune and bliss are dead, shaymin is nothing, considering I use leech seed and then I switch to cune or bliss for annoyance. I also like this set because it is a great stall breaker. Stall vs Stall can be annoying at times. It is also a good revenge killer against scizor and metagross. This is the only mon on my team I am looking to replace if there is anything better, but I do not know any good replacements. I was thinking of replacing protect with substitute for more reliability and annoyance if cune or bliss is dead.


Thats it...so far the threats that I have had problems with are trick pokemon (gengar, starmie, rotom). If I predict a trick, I switch to spiritomb to take the trick and then pursuit.

 

[SilentRevolver]

Hey before I can rate you should post an EV spread and Moveset with Item etc. for Spirittomb. PM when it's done and i'll rate. Good luck!

 

[Windsong]

Okay, innovative little stall team you have yourself, Marco!

Problems

The glaring problem that I see right off the bat is that nothing really likes taking repeated Stone Edges from CBTar, and it can basically power its way through your entire team.

In general, your team just has trouble against stuff that hits hard from the physical spectrum; Curselax, though rare, can beat you in a last Poke situation, as your only real way to beat it is to use leech seed to deplete rest's PP, CBApe, though also really rare, can deal a heavy amount of damage to your team, as nothing can really switch in, and it can easily turn the tempo of the battle against you with U-Turn.

Solutions

An easy solution to both of these slight weaknesses, as well as getting rid of a lot of the redundancy of using both Skarmory and Forretress would be to run Hippowdon over one of them, as it can safely sponge hits from TTar, Physically based Infernape, etc, as well as provide another bit of residual damage for the team in the form of sand stream.

Sets:

Hippowdon@Leftovers
Careful | Sand Stream
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD

- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
- Slack Off

 

[bubbly]

Okay, first of all, Forretress and Skarmory are redundant together, one of them needs to go. Suicune doesn't cover many threats to your team particularly well, same with Shaymin; neither of these two really fit. Windsong's Hippowdon is a very good option which gives you a solid counter to some of the things giving you problems.

Overall, I'd say: Replace Forretress with Hippowdon. You lack Toxic Spikes and Rapid Spin support, so, replace Suicune with Tentacruel. This allows you to get past Infernape much better, since a NP set will currently sweep your whole team. Shaymin like I said isn't really doing a lot. Generally this final slot goes to something which covers the weaknesses of your core. I'm not really sure what you should put here yet.
Finally, Spiritomb does make a nice way to dispose of Azelf and some Gengar, but apart from that, its inferior to Rotom. ScarfRotom-W also covers a lot of the threats you're experiencing, can absorb Trick for you, gives you a way to take out last pokemon set up sweepers, and makes a generally better spinblocker thanks to outspeeding Starmie. On the other hand, while I think this is a positive change, you run into issues with being Pursuit trapped so Spiritomb is a decent choice too.

Lastly, I think Celebi would be a much better choice than Shaymin in the last slot, but only if you keep Spiritomb. The only problem is this basically turns into a clone of Obi's stall team :( but that's hard to avoid sometimes.

Anyway, good luck:)

 

[jdesai927]

Apart from the changes listed above, I'd like to say just one thing. I know it's a little maverick, but I think everyone has an easy counter to Skarmory leads, so you should change that if you can. Infernape destroys your "core" and if it grabs a single SD predicting a switchout, you're history. For this reason I suggest that you add a Scarfed or Priority revenge killer, probably in the place of Shaymin, who looks to be the most replaceable part of your team. If you're not using Hippowdon, Scarf Flygon would probably be the best choice, because you'll want to have something to absorb electric attacks aimed at Skarmory. If you are using Hippowdon, you could also consider Scarf Jirachi, giving you a Trick user to absorb other Tricks as well as cripple enemy walls, especially since your team has a hard time doing anything at all offensively.

That being said, I think you should consider replacing Forretress with something that'll facilitate your stall but also give you some extra oomph in the offense department in case Spiritomb (though I agree Rotom-A is a much better choice) is KO'd and your entry hazards are spun off. One good example is Roar/DD/Waterfall/Outrage Gyarados, which will work in the same way as Suicune, except physically, but can also serve as a defensive pivot (and possibly an auto-phazer with Intimidate) and attract electric-type moves (read: free turns for Hippowdon/Flygon).
All in all, a solid foundation for a team, just make these few changes and you'll have an awesome one!

 

[MasterX]

mixed infernape looks somewhat of a problem to your team since it can hit all your pokemon for super effective damage with the right move except spiritomb, fire blast for forretress and shaymin, close combat for blissey, thunderpunch for suicune and the rest is severly damaged by fireblast. while hippowdon does help your problem it is still weak on the sp def side. I suggest you pump more evs in sp def because most players will not hit on the physical side anyways.

 

[luza]

erm, y do u have stealth rock on both ur hippo n forry? i suppose u meant spikes on forry right?

 

[Cicada]

You have some issues with Infernape and DDnite.
Infernape can come in and hurt your team a lot, since he ohko 4/6 members of your team, Spiritomb lose the duel with him, and Suicune havn't a recovery move. Btw, Suicune take a bunch of damages with GK, OHKO if +2.
DDnite doesn't take a lot of damages of your attacks and can piss you off especially if Roost.
HardStall teams can give you a headache too.

First, I suggest you replace Suicune by RestTalk Gyarados, which bring you a decent check to Breloom and DDnite/Kingdra, a better check to Infernape/Lucario/Heatran ect.., he work well in tandem with Forrey and Hippowdon too.
Imo, I think Rotom-A work better in place of Spiritomb, mostly because of his immunities to Spikes/TSpikes, which is very helpful in stall games. You lose a consistant way to beat out Starmie though, if you feel you havn't huge issues with stall, make what that seems better to you.
Good luck with your team.