ORAS OU Status Stall - An oldie revisited

[Arutha19]

Hello Smogon.

Introduction
I have been absent from competitive battling for some years but have recently begun to get back into the swing of things. I always enjoyed the stall play-style and thought that this would be the best place to start (on familiar ground). After a few weeks reading around the X/Y Overused metagame I begun to build the best stall team I could with the help of this community (who responded beautifully, helpfully and enthusiastically). This is the result of that combined effort. All changes suggested by other raters that I have chosen to impliment are included in this original post, therefore, the team below is the team as it currently stands. Without further ado, here it is:

Overview
The team is a Stall team. As I said above I always enjoyed this style of play (I know, I'm such a bore) and I hoped my familiarity with it may make it easier to return to competitive Pokemon. Firstly, the team is based around three well-known cores: the VenuTran core which is wrapped up in a larger-scale FWG core, (well known for the excellent type synergy and coverage it offers, which I believe is useful in a Stall team) complimented by the SkarmBliss core (which is an ever-popular core among the myriad of stall players out there, again, due to its excellent synergy and coverage). I also decided that I ought to have a good balance of Special and Physical walls (and perhaps mixed walls too) to solidify the teams overall synergy/coverage. It ought to be noted that, more through coincidence than planning, the team seems to have gravitated toward status afflictions as the main cause of residual damage as opposed to entry hazards (with only one entry hazard user and one phaser on the team). Nevertheless, this has proven to be a perfectly acceptable and reliable method of damage-dealing.

The Team
Heatran (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 216 HP / 252 SDef / 40 Spd
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Lava Plume
- Protect
- Stealth Rock
Member one of the FWG core and one half of the VenuTran core. I favour a specially defensive EV spread here with a calm nature and a little speed investment to out-speed Mega Mawile. 0 Attack IVs and the attack reduction from the calm nature helps to mitigate potential confusion/Foul Play damage (as there are no physical attacks in this move-set). Lava Plume is a straightforward STAB attack with a nice burn chance that never goes amiss. This is really the only spot for Stealth Rocks on the team and they are just to useful against the likes of Charizard-Y and Talonflame to pass up. Protect is a move with dual purposes: Firstly, it enables Heatran to scout move-sets. Secondly, it allows Heatran to stall-heal himself with Leftovers in a pinch. Both have proven invaluable. Lastly, Will-O-Wisp may seem redundant given Lava Plume has a good burn chance, however, if my opponents realise that Heatran does not have a reliable burn method they tend to switch in powerful physical attackers that force Heatran out, allowing them a free turn to set up. Also, Will-O-Wisp serves to reliably inflict status upon those Pokemon that are immune to Toxic (which is the preferred method of status-infliction on this team, typically) such as Mega Venusaur.



Venusaur (F) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 248 HP / 60 Def / 200 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 6 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 Spd
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sludge Bomb
Member two of the FWG core and the second half of the VenuTran core. The EV spread and bold nature are designed to turn Mega Venusaur into a mixed wall and, rest assured, she is a bloody good one! Giga Drain is a great STAB attack that provides supplementary healing alongside the more reliable Synthesise. Sludge Bomb is another great STAB attack with a good chance to poison and is great for hitting switch-ins with a surprise status affliction. Hidden Power Fire is controversial, to be sure. However, it allows Mega Venusaur to act as a check to VoltTurn teams and to hit some of the other common switch-ins with a surprise super-effective move before I switch out myself. IVs are obviously set up for Hidden Power Fire but, conveniently, the low attack IV presence (and bold nature) also helps to minimise potential confusion/Foul Play damage (as there are no physical attacks on this move-set).

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
IVs: 0 Atk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
- Calm Mind
Member three of the FWG core. Slowbro's solid Water / Psychic typing and excellent defensive stats allow it to handle various important threats such as Landorus-T, Mega Charizard X, Keldeo, Talonflame, and Mega Lopunny. The combination of Regenerator and reliable recovery in Slack Off makes it easy to keep Slowbro healthy and allow it to act as an all-around defensive pivot. 0 Attack IVs helps to mitigate potential confusion/Foul Play damage (as there are no physical attacks in this move-set). Scald is a great, spammable STAB move with a nifty burn chance that can cripple a wide variety of Pokemon such as Bisharp. Slack Off provides reliable recovery for Slowbro that, combined with Regenerator, makes it increasingly hard to wear down. Thunder Wave is a direct way of stopping Speed-boosting Pokemon such as Mega Charizard X and Volcarona and crippling Speed-reliant Pokemon immensely so that teammates are able to revenge kill them. Calm Mind can be used to turn Slowbro into a defensive win condition and patch up its lower Special Defense, especially in the face of special attackers such as Keldeo, Tornadus-T, and Volcarona.

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Defog
- Roost
- Whirlwind
One half of the SkarmBliss Core, however this setup is designed to be more specially defensive than previous Sakrmorys may have been. This is to allow it to check Fairy Types (Thus the inclusion of Iron Head) which can be a major offensive threat to this team such as Mega Diancie, Mega Gardevoir, Clefable, and Sylveon. Skarmory is also a good check to other special attackers such as Latias, Latios, and Tornadus-T. Skarmory still has great physical bulk, so it is a great check to many physical attackers as well. Defog is failry obvious as it removes entry hazards, Roost is to keepy Skarmory healthy and Whirlwind is for phasing.

Chansey (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Wish
- Soft-Boiled
- Seismic Toss
Not SkarmBliss but SkarmChan! I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that Chansey completely outclasses Blissey in terms of overall bulk thanks to Eviolite. True, this comes at the cost of a weakness to Knock-Off but intelligent play can circumvent this threat quite easily. The EV spread and nature are designed to turn Chansey into a mixed wall (which it does quite well, but its always a bit better on the special side of things). Chansey is the teams Wish-passer (Heal Bell is included elsewhere) which aids the teams overall longevity (especially Heatran, who has no healing move of his own). Speaking of which Soft-Boiled is Chansey's healing move. Seismic Toss is for some damage-dealing and Toxic is for hitting those things Seismic Toss cannot. As Seismic Toss is not dependent upon the attack statistic 0 attack IVs and a bold nature help to mitigate potential confusion/Foul Play damage.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 SAtk
IVs: 0 Atk
Calm Nature
- Heal Bell
- Soft-Boiled
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
Clefable blends into the team beautifully as a mixed wall capable of checking the likes of Mega-Medicham and Mega-Diancie. As such, the EVs and nature are set up to that effect. Magic Guard is an obvious inclusion to counter the statuses that might cripple this Pokemon. It pairs well with Heatran who is capable of dealing with the Poison and Steel types Clefable struggles against. Moreover Clefable adds much to the team in the form of Heal Bell, allowing status afflictions to be healed by someone other than Chansey (allowing Chansey to pass Wishes which greatly improves the entire squads vitality). Lastly, Calm Mind has a dual purpose shoring up Clefables Special Defence in a pich and allowing Clefable to potentially serve as a win condition should I have need of one. After a few Calm Minds Moonblast hits ridiculously hard (which is Clefable's STAB attack allowing it to wall dragons too). Again, as there are no physical attacks on this move-set 0 attack IVs and the calm nature both minimise potential confusion/Foul Play damage.

Last Words
So thats the squad! I think I have managed to cover most of the huge threats in the OU meta-game, but please feel free to pick it apart. If you notice any weaknesses or wish to point out any inefficiencies/superior sets please feel free to do so! If you wish to copy and paste the team then feel free to do that too. If you notice anything during your use of the team then please comment to that effect! Any information/rates/test results/criticisms would be very much appreciated.

Thank you for your time and effort

Oh, and please be gentle :)

Importable
Here is the importable for ease of copy and paste:

Heatran (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 216 HP / 252 SDef / 40 Spd
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Lava Plume
- Protect
- Stealth Rock

Venusaur (F) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 248 HP / 60 Def / 200 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 6 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 Spd
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sludge Bomb

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
IVs: 0 Atk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
- Calm Mind

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Defog
- Roost
- Whirlwind

Chansey (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Wish
- Soft-Boiled
- Seismic Toss

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 SAtk
IVs: 0 Atk
Calm Nature
- Heal Bell
- Soft-Boiled
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast

 

[Jordansucksatpkmn]

Small nitpick, lando I is ubers so there's no reason to mention him in your post

 

[Arutha19]

Amended accordingly. Thank you!

 

[Plus]

got your PM and honestly I haven't rated in a while but a couple of things I see right off the bat:

The team folds too easily against some of the more common megas in today's metagame - namely Medicham and Diancie. This is compounded by the fact that you're not running any attacks on your Skarmory, which leaves you even more vulnerable to 3 Attacks Mega Garde with Taunt. Your Clefable is 2HKOed by HJK and Diamond Storm (this isn't even factoring in the physical investment lots of Diancie use nowadays) which leaves you little leeway to deal with the common offensive threats running rampant in OU.

Run Iron Head over Whirlwind on the Skarmory and change the spread to something more specially defensive. Whirlwind isn't necessary since you have Quag to take SD Exca and Scizor, while Ninjask isn't even remotely viable in OU and even if you were to play poorly to the point where SDpass actually does happen, you have Quag for backup so it's straight redundant.

I also don't think you need that much speed on the Skarm and you didn't really name any specifics where the speed for Taunt would come in handy. Just run enough to speed creep most Skarm, 24 is about enough I'd say. You already outspeed all the other entry hazard users save for like Landorus-T and Heatran, but you have no business with Heatran and Lando-T requires too much speed investment. Going defensive is fine here but I'd also consider switching to a specially defensive build to better handle Mega Garde Hyper Voices.

Fix the Clefable spread so you have more defense to better handle Diancie and Megacham, it's still not going to be perfect but it's still better than nothing. Run 252 hp / 176 def / 84 spdef calm which helps you take physical hits better and also doesn't lose to Kyub.

I'd honestly consider going Slowbro over Quagsire so you at least have something that takes Megacham a little bit better, though that will make you a bit more ZardX weak. Still, it's not nearly as common as Megacham and Lop these days so do put that into consideration if you do infact find yourself losing to these megas in the future.

Look up some of the sets on the dex for a general idea of what I'm talkin about, too lazy to write up a summary :x

And that about ends my train of thought, off to dinner, peace out rmt

 

[Arutha19]

got your PM and honestly I haven't rated in a while but a couple of things I see right off the bat:

The team folds too easily against some of the more common megas in today's metagame - namely Medicham and Diancie. This is compounded by the fact that you're not running any attacks on your Skarmory, which leaves you even more vulnerable to 3 Attacks Mega Garde with Taunt. Your Clefable is 2HKOed by HJK and Diamond Storm (this isn't even factoring in the physical investment lots of Diancie use nowadays) which leaves you little leeway to deal with the common offensive threats running rampant in OU.

Run Iron Head over Whirlwind on the Skarmory and change the spread to something more specially defensive. Whirlwind isn't necessary since you have Quag to take SD Exca and Scizor, while Ninjask isn't even remotely viable in OU and even if you were to play poorly to the point where SDpass actually does happen, you have Quag for backup so it's straight redundant.

I also don't think you need that much speed on the Skarm and you didn't really name any specifics where the speed for Taunt would come in handy. Just run enough to speed creep most Skarm, 24 is about enough I'd say. You already outspeed all the other entry hazard users save for like Landorus-T and Heatran, but you have no business with Heatran and Lando-T requires too much speed investment. Going defensive is fine here but I'd also consider switching to a specially defensive build to better handle Mega Garde Hyper Voices.

Fix the Clefable spread so you have more defense to better handle Diancie and Megacham, it's still not going to be perfect but it's still better than nothing. Run 252 hp / 176 def / 84 spdef calm which helps you take physical hits better and also doesn't lose to Kyub.

I'd honestly consider going Slowbro over Quagsire so you at least have something that takes Megacham a little bit better, though that will make you a bit more ZardX weak. Still, it's not nearly as common as Megacham and Lop these days so do put that into consideration if you do infact find yourself losing to these megas in the future.

Look up some of the sets on the dex for a general idea of what I'm talkin about, too lazy to write up a summary :x

And that about ends my train of thought, off to dinner, peace out rmt

Thank you very much for your insight. The suggestions you've made have been adeed accordingly.

Ive speced Skarm to be more mixed (but I've left whirlwind in becasue im taking quagsire out) and I've fixed Clefables WV Spread, thought its moveset is the same

I've also replaced quagsire with a standard Slowbro set from the dex, though I'm open to suggestions here

Im losing one of my main toxic-ers, so you think this will be an issue?
How do you think the overall team synergy is now?

 

[Plus]

if you're afraid of ddzard x then toxic on slowbro is always an option over twave. the thing with quagsire in regards to this team is that it helps beat exca and sd scizor but at the same time slowbro beats exca and heatran + hp fire venu should suffice for sd sciz. Lots of stall nowadays choose to run mega sableye with some grass type like tangrowth and amoonguss which is nice because it doubles as hazards control and a medicham response but since you opted to start venutran with this team, I think this should work fine. I'd also keep an eye out for CM rest hydration manaphy which is gaining a lot of traction, though even if you used quagsire you'd lose to it even with unaware. As long as you keep clefable and venusaur healthy I think you'll be okay, but it's still a legitimate threat for lots of stall teams.

That being said, I still don't think WW is a necessity here since you do handle the things that set up on Skarm with what you have so far, and hurting diancie + mega garde is extremely important for stall teams such as this one. another great thing about iron head + taunt is that it completely shuts down the standard twave cm moonblast clefable set that is becoming the standard. Iron Head is worth it.

 

[RufflesPro]

You can change your Clefable to Unaware that way your team doesn't fold to Rain Dance Manaphy with Psychic and Serperior when Mega Venusaur is weakened. Also change your spread to 248 HP / 108 Def / 152 SpD with a Calm Nature that way, you still have a decent amount of physical bulk to take some things such as Dragonite after it sets up. At the same time, it also keeps a lot of SpD to help you counter Manaphy and Serperior (Not subseed). The specific EVs are also to check max SpA LO Torn-T which otherwise destroys your team.

Your team is VERY weak to Taunt Gengar. It literally 6-0s since it can stall out Chansey. So I recommend using 248 HP / 84 Def / 176 SpD with Calm Nature on Mega Venusaur. That way Sludge Wave will never 2HKO Mega Venusaur with rocks up. I also recommend using Knock Off > HP Fire on Mega Venusaur. On a stall team, it's always nice to have a solid Knock Off user to slowly cripple the opposing team. At the same time, it hits Gengar hard and cripple him enough so that Mega Venusaur isn't always forced to switch on it.

Other than that, your team is really weak to opposing Stall/SemiStall. You can't outstall them because you lack Mega Sableye, and at the same time, you can't break them. So I recommend Stealth Rock > Wish on Chansey and Stallbreaker Talonflame > Heatran. Your team doesn't really need wish support, on the other hand Rocks are very useful. As for Talonflame, with Taunt and WoW/Bulk Up it can cripple the opposing team and really give your matchup vs. stall a huge boost.

sets

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 108 Def / 152 SDef
IVs: 0 Atk
Calm Nature
- Heal Bell
- Moonlight
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Def / 176 SDef
Calm Nature
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Sludge Bomb

Chansey (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Soft-Boiled
- Seismic Toss

Talonflame
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SDef / 8 Spe
Careful Nature
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp / Bulk Up
- Roost
- Acrobatics