XY NU NU Stall (attempt)

[mikexcelsior]

So I'll start by saying I'm a beginner to RU and I haven't really found my stride in competitive battling in any tier, so I'm pretty much open to any restructuring or even to scrap the whole thing. With that said; My RU Stall Team:

Crustle @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Rock Blast
- Knock Off

Crustle is the premier entry hazard setter, setting both SR and spikes, Sturdy ensures at least one hazard is set up,and it has huge physical bulk and and few weaknesses (albeit to common rock and water types) and tanks the any neutral hit on the physical side like a champ. The bulk offsets his speed (or lack of it) and Rock Blast and Knock Off ensure he's not completely useless when encountering a taunt lead, and may even surprise KO/cripple some pokemon instead of setting up hazards. However due to it's lack of reliable recovery it is worn down quite easily and depends on wishes for long term survivability.

Spiritomb @ Leftovers
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Spiritomb is one of the more bulky offensive pokemon which forces switches (and rage quits) by sitting on his single weakness and invested physical defenses, boosting his special defense and attack and spamming DP. Should he get worn down RestTalk allows him to continue setting up/dealing damage and Infiltrator allows him to damage Sub-anything, DualScreeners (Meowstic-M and Uxie/Azelf being the most common I've seen both sport a weakness to dark) and of course net a free turn when someone sets up a sub/screens in front of it forgetting that infiltrator is indeed a thing. Being a mono-attacker of course means his coverage is severely limited, but due to RestTalk it doesn't matter unless the pokemon can actually damage him, otherwise they either switch out, racking up entry hazard damage, or eventually die due to the ever-more-powerful DP.

Articuno @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Ice Beam
- Substitute
- Roar
- Roost

Articuno is Special Tank and Phazer #1. I decided not to run a straight SubToxic as Dragalge provides more than enough ways to poison pokemon, and so opted for the Ice Beam to deal late-game damage to Grass/Ground types to finish them off. Articuno's special defense allows it to tank anything that's not a Fire type move and phaze, racking up status and entry hazard damage on your opponent's team. This pokemon has single handedly won games in late-game phazing threats, killing stradlers and then roosting off the damage. Ofcourse it's crippling 4x rock weakness means most physical attackers can damage it and it loses 50% to SR but besides those weaknesses Uno has proved to be one of the teams MVP's when played right.

Audino @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
- Double-Edge

Audino is the cleric and special tank. taking neutral damage from every special move except innacurate focus blast allows Audino to switch in, tank a hit and either set up a wish or heal the team's status ailments. She supports the teammates without reliable recovery namely: Dragalge, Crustle and Sandslash, thus ensuring key elements of the team are available for the long term. Regenerator gives her superb longevity and ensures she can serve her teammates for as long as possible.

Dragalge @ Black Sludge
Ability: Poison Touch
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Sludge Wave
- Scald
- Toxic Spikes
- Dragon Tail

Dragalge is honestly the reason I started building this team. With it's invested Special bulk it can switch in on almost any special attack (even the stray Psychic), and set up a layer of toxic spikes or phaze with dragon tail (which has a 30% chance to poison with Poison Touch) and so is the premier status inducer in the team. Scald allows for burns to be inflicted which benefit the special tanks int he team which cannot take many physical hits, and allows for Steels not to get away from status. His only let down for me is his horrendous speed which forces him to take a hit before doing anything, and so gets worn down very easily.

Sandslash @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Toxic

Sandslash is the team's spinner. The removal of SR (above anything else) helps this team immensely, with Articuno's 4x weakness and Crustle's 2x weakness. Entry hazards generally wear the team down as switches are made frequently and also complicate Audino's Wish passing. His physical bulk allows him to tank most hits to enable the spin. Knock off covers all spin-blockers bar Spiritomb, and EQ dents Steel types which are resistant to entry hazard damage and immune to poison. Again the lack of reliable recovery leads to a dependence on Audino for continued longevity throughout the match.

So as you can see the idea is simple enough. Set up an array of entry hazards:SR, usually at least 2 layers of spikes, and 1 layer of poison spikes; Make the correct changes to force switches/phaze, minimize and mitigate damage; finish up weakened mons whenever chance shows itself.


Any suggestions/guidance welcome,
mikexcelsior

 

[Brawlfest]

This seems like an alright team, but a crippling weakness to ice is immediatly emminant upon first glance. Stuff like LO Cryogonal or NP Jynx can plow through your team when given the right support. Furthermore, the team appears incredibly weak to strong water types, who run through you the moment that Dragalge is taken out. This said, the team does appear solid, and could work well in practice, although reliance on Articuno to tank special hits means that you are often pressured in terms of hazard control, forcing you to play a little too carefully in my opinion.

I feel that Defensive Cryogonal is a suitable replacement for Articuno. Like Articuno, it offers a great ground immunity, special bulk, freeze dry, and recovery, but the key difference lies in their difference in typing. Unlike Articuno, Cryogonal can still reliably check things when rocks are up, something that Articuno dares not do, and Cryogonal has far less weaknesses. Furthermore, Cryogonal is a more reliable spinner on a defensive team than Sandslash due to the amount of pokemon it forces out, and with Haze it offers invaluable utility to stall like your own. Its also a great spinner due to an immunity to Toxic Spikes, Sticky Web, and Spikes, letting it consistently spin hazards without hinderence.

I feel that Defensive Lanturn is superior to Sandslash. Should you switch to Cryogonal, Sandslash's utility is literally 0. Lanturn is a good replacement because Sandslash really doesn't help your team with either of its two primary niches of Rapid Spin [which it is outclassed at], or Stealth Rocks [which Crustle has]. Lanturn on the other hand acts as a immediate check to the Water and Ice type sweepers that I stated troubled you, and still offers an immunity to Electric attacks. Furthermore, it pressures water types and gains momentum with Volt Switch. I would also reccomend running Rest on your set, as Lanturn has invaluable utility to your team, and in such Rest is necessary for recovery, which shouldnt be a huge issue with such a reliable cleric in Audino, but if you are paranoid you could just run Ice Beam to beat stuff like Vileplume.

Hope this helps ^.^
________

Cryogonal @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Def / 92 Spe
Bold Nature
- Freeze-Dry
- Haze / Toxic
- Recover
- Rapid Spin

Lanturn @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 204 HP / 96 Def / 208 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Volt Switch
- Toxic
- Rest / Ice Beam

 

[mikexcelsior]

Ok these sounds like good suggestions (as much as i loved the bird v__v) I'll test it thanks.

 

[mikexcelsior]

so after A bit of testing, the team is lacking good physical bulk. Crustle and Spiritomb are the only ones able to take a strong physical hit, and im down to one phazer in Dragalge who cant really switch in on a boosted physical hit unless it's fighting (maybe). And a lot of pokemon get the chance to set up on me (maybe it's how I'm playing it... idk) So.. are there any physically defensive phasers i can look into? I had a Steelix with roar at one point but that would open me up for Water types again.

I'll continue playing around with it I guess..

 

[soulgazer]

mikexcelsior i can't really do a big rate as i am on phone, but I think going physically defensive on dragalge with protect (good to scout vs CB Sawk and get some nice recovery with Black Sludge) or hidden power fire over scald would greatly help with your physical attacker problems (phdef dragalge+sdef audino is rly hard to break).

I would also consider a better Rock-type over Crustle. Rhydon > Crustle would work well as it can help you against opposing CM Spiritiomb. You do lose Spikes by going to, but i believe Rhydon would make your team more solid overall. You could also try Steelix, so it comes down to preference i guess.

Rhydon's spread is something like 252 HP / 16 Atk / 240 SpDef with an Adamant nature (iirc you 3hko spiritomb, correct me if im wrong). Set is Rock Blast / Earthquake / Roar | Dragon Tail / Stealth Rock

I made these changes around Brawlfest's rate btw

 

[Bobby REKT]

Most of the time Crustle is used on hyper offense teams to get damage off on other pokemon so that the sweepers can sweep more easily. He also has huge weaknesses to a common leads such as Rhydon, Seismitoad, Gigalith(not really common), and Golem, because of this, he works much more effectively on hyper offensive teams as a suicide lead that only need him to set up hazards and die. That being said, I suggest you use Ferroseed. Ferroseed effectively sets up hazards multiple times, and has reliant leech seed recovery, and hurts physical attacks quite a bit with iron barbs.

Ferroseed @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 12 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Gyro Ball

Since rocks are a must on most teams, I suggest taking toxic of sandslash and putting rocks on