I promised I'll write this up, and (though with a long delay), I have!
A Tough Competitor - Essays On The Art Of Quickstall
Written by BackStreetTabby
Co-Developed by Ogami
Note - Skip to Section 6.2 if you wish to look at the team first.
A Note on Version Release
This essay is a documentation of the growth of quickstall and its practical applications. As the playstyle grows with contributions from other community members, changes will be recorded in this document. Because of this, the team is still in its early stages, and may show more flaws than my previous, mostly perfected RMTs. This is a “joint” RMT, combined with details on the playstyle that makes it work.
A Note on References
In no way do I claim that I had originally thought up the concept of the team archetype of quickstall, nor that I was the only one that have applied it to competitive teams, either intentionally or unintentionally. I claim that I was the main pioneer because I was, proved by consistent and in-depth research both on the Smogon Forums and Pokemon Online Forums, the first to ever record details, workings and functions of this new concept while intentionally putting it into action by publicly publishing this document. I apologise beforehand in the case that a member of any major pokemon forum had published a similar essay before me; however, for now, I proceed under the claim that I had ultimately invented, developed and pioneered the art of quickstall. The playstyle I call “quickstall”, unless explicitly specified, refers to the playstyle described here, rather than the playstyle (if I am not mistaken) put into play in BW Ubers by Bojangles and Fireburn.
This team would be considered a pioneer of this playstyle. However, one must keep in mind that while this team is very good in its own right if played correctly (even I, with only average battling skills, managed to bring it up to around 2400), quickstall teams in general are very difficult to make. One must use many of the elements described in this document, while keeping an offensive factor intact; and players must not play it like a defensive or offensive team. All in all, quickstall is a incredibly potent and effective playstyle, but it is not something a random player “just picks up” like hyper offense. I must ask you to not bash this playstyle and the team without some effort to understand how it works.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank users Bojangles and Fireburn for originally inspiring me to improve traditional stall; though I created the word “quickstall” independently and intended for it to refer to the variant of stall that I describe in this document, I found in my research to make sure my claim was true that it was they who originally coined the word; and their usage represents a completely different playstyle to the one I pioneered, one of their descriptions (albeit quite short) of their playstyle served as the spark for mine: “a team that still keeps offensive pressure, but also keeps you fortified against the enemy in case things go sour”. Though our playstyles turned out to be completely different in the end, it was they who originally gave me inspiration; and I would like to congratulate and credit them.
Also, I must admit I was greatly inspired by Ajwf’s Daunting Dreadnoughts stall team. It, on one hand, proved that stall teams were viable to great extent in the current metagame if done correctly. Personally, I found that I didn’t have the competency and experience in stall, which led me to thinking of this kind of team. Also, this thread may have similarities with his most recent Momentum Stall, which (ninja’d!) spurred me up to finish this article. I believe we both started working on this at roughly the same time (correct me if I am wrong), but credit must go where credit is due.
Introduction to Essays On The Art Of Quickstall
It has always been known that competitive battling as a intellectual’s advantage. I had always never succeeded much in achieving top-ranking peaks on the ladder; nor have I ever entered any tournaments, regional or simulator-based. I have, in a way, resigned myself to the fact that I am not, and probably never will be, as good as many other players out there. However, I, if am allowed to say with humility, believe myself to be much better in the “ultimate” intellectual’s role in pokemon. Though my original love was teambuilding, along the way I was introduced to something far greater; metagame theory and analysing playstyles. It has then in which I decided to put my energies onto developing the theoretical part of pokemon. I had always been an avid amateur scientist and astronomer, and I knew that this would naturally tie in to my original loves as well.
However, I soon realised that the metagame was extremely stale. I originally blamed it on the fact that the BW2 era was going on for so long without addition of notable new pokemon and strategies. However, this continued in X and Y, where I hoped it would change. In the end, it’s always the same pokemon used in every single team, the same playstyle. I resigned myself to the fact that some pokemon would be more popular than others; it was logical and I was forced to accept it. However, one trend I just could not comprehend was the staleness and the lack of variety of playstyles. I long believed that each playstyle was good as the next; why so much limitations? After some practical research, I originally came to the beginning of this new project; I decided that I would try to achieve continuous equality of playstyles, even if that was my only contribution to the community.
It was long said that stall was nearing the end of its lifespan. With metagame analysts bringing up many factors, such as powerful behemoths and dedicated wallbreakers being added to the lineup and the fact that as the generations progress, there is a noticeably large increase in the amounts of offensive and defensive threats stall teams must deal with. It is my opinion that traditional stall teams, or hereby called passive stall teams in the way that they rely on completely passive damage to wear opponents down, are fundamentally flawed. Though I myself was an avid stall player until the end of Generation 4, otherwise known as the DPPt era, I quickly found that stall teams were not, however good the composition may be, acceptably competitive in BW, or Generation 5. This was partly due to the sheer amount of powerful wallbreakers armed with an array of coverage moves; many effective against many high-usage walls and tanks. It was during this especially long era that I first started to question the fundamental concepts of stall teams. Pokemon is quite like physics in this regard; until a theory, such as Newton’s laws of gravity, was tested in extreme circumstances, it works well. However, when used in extreme circumstances (as Einstein proved by showing the difference in theoretical and actual measurements in gravitational lensing) it breaks apart. Passive stall was one of those fundamentally flawed playstyles. Though it had held out during Generation 4, where there were not as many threats to counter, it ultimately failed when presented with the hoard of powerhouses Generation 5 brought out. However, much like the aforementioned law of gravity, it always just needs something different to remove that flaw; for that case, it was Einstein’s law of relativity; in this case, I believe it is the playstyle I have named quickstall.
Quickstall is not a playstyle that can be defined lightly, unlike simpler playstyles like hyper offence where the underlying is quite simple; on the other hand, quickstall is not an original playstyle, but one including elements from its ancestor, while making changes to it to remove its flaws. Though as of now it is quite exclusive, with only one team actually showing the power it holds, it is my hope that other competitive players will take this and improve this; after all, all currently major playstyles were not the work of one man, or even a small group. It was added to and improved by the whole of the community, and eventually reaching its peak. It is to try to start this flow in which I write this now.
Section 1 - Metagame Analysis of Past Generations and why Stall is Fundamentally Flawed
In Section 1, I will be going over a quick history of the competitive metagame from Generation 4 onwards (partly because I do not have experience in the earlier eras) in relation to stall teams, and I show how stall’s position has changed. Afterwards, I will be explaining how stall teams are fundamentally flawed, and will point out each flaw, which will be necessary to fully understand to understand the concept of quickstall.
Generation 4 is widely regarded by many as the most stable metagame previously in existence. Lacking powerful powerhouses that could break apart walls easily, it was a exemplary era where semi-stall playstyles thrived. Common pokemon seen in DP teams included bulky attackers such as Gyarados and Machamp; while dedicated walls such as Blissey, Skarmory and defensive Heatran could exist without being threatened instantly by 1HKO moves. There were several factors helping the formation of such a balanced metagame. The first was the nature of the pokemon commonly seeing high usage. Gyarados is a prime example. Intimidate helps sponge attacks, making it an excellent bulky attacker. On the other hand, it has lacklustre speed and relatively weak STAB moves, meaning it often had to stack several boosts before powering through common walls such as Skarmory. Due to this, it was a “chip” metagame instead of a metagame where most pokemon’s ultimate purpose was to set up one boost and utterly demolish bulky teams that were successful in Generation 4. Smart switching, entry hazards, and the balanced nature ultimately indicated one of the most competitive metagames in pokemon history, where skill difference and team composition was the most applicable factor. A variety of playstyles thrived here; from absolute stall to bulky offence to offensive playstyles that may have been ancestors of the current hyper offence. All of these playstyles, if played correctly, could defeat other team archetypes.
Generation 5 was a metagame drastically different from Generation 4’s reign of bulky offence. With the advent of ridiculously powerful pokemon with excellent wallbreaking STABs such as Terrakion, stall was forced into a very small niche where only the best-structured stall teams could survive the onslaught of pure power thrown at them. Also, these newly induced powerhouses also had very good setup moves, meaning that any previously acceptable “passive” stall teams would simply be setup bait. Also, the speed tiers were upped; the world where knowing if a pokemon could outspeed a Jolly or Adamant Lucario was gone; anything below 100 Base Speed was considered extremely slow. There were attempts to recover from this in the form of Trick Room-based teams; however, these were ultimately not very successful. Infinite weather also served a major role in the hyper offensive nature of Generation 5. Weather abusers such as Keldeo could break through even the sturdiest, most reliable special walls in the form of Blissey, while Chlorophyll sun sweepers could outspeed almost every non-scarf pokemon in the metagame, while being almost impossible to wear down because of abundant use of healing moves such as Giga Drain and Horn Leech. At the end of Generation 5, stall and some balance playstyles were all but dead; crushed behind the onslaught of hyper offence. In this era, however, some players stared to develop seeds for the revival of stall in the shape of a new concept that hadn’t been majorly used in previous Generations; quickstall. It was based on the concept of stalling out the opponent, but on the player’s own terms; stopping recovery and setup. It also worked to fix one of stall’s greatest flaws; setup sweepers and wallbreakers.
Generation 6 was an attempt to bring the metagame closer to what it looked like in Generation 4, and for the most part, it has been successful. Sticky Web completely nullifies sweepers relying on their speed, while the advent of powerful priority users such as Talonflame, Aegislash and the revived Azumarill would be a major hindrance to potential sweeps, which has, as an example, completely ended the reign of Terrakion. However, it still retains some of Generation 5’s hyper offensive nature in the form of ridiculously powerful Mega Evolutions of the like of Pinsir and Lucario. Though speed’s role has greatly been reduced, stall teams are still under fire because of the multitude of powerful wallbreakers in the metagame. However, there is still currently hope for stall. Because of the physically based metagame, more and more attackers are susceptible to abilities such as Intimidate and status such as burns that lower their attack; in the current situation, this must be exploited if stall is to make a comeback.
Though stall may have a “chance” in generation 6, it is only because the conditions have softened. As shown with the example regarding the theory of gravity disputed over with Newton and Einstein described in the introduction, it only functions relatively better because it is not under such intense “pressure”. If stall keeps its fundamentally flawed base, it will repeat the same fall from grace it experienced during the transition to Generation 6. Because of this, a fundamental change is necessary to ensure stall’s spot as a very viable and reliable playstyle in future generations as it was with Generation 4 and partly Generation 6.
Traditional stall’s largest weakness is its overt reliance on passive damage. Its fundamental concepts describe it as a playstyle that “aims to wear down the opponent using passive damage, whether it be entry hazards, status conditions, or harmful weather, while ensuring victory using superior recovery options”. In simpler terms, stall is a playstyle that sponges all hits and recovers easily while wearing the opponent out. There is a large flaw in this playstyle mathematically already, as some observant readers may notice. With a probability x (based on both luck and strategy execution) of an opponent breaking through a player’s defenses, and the overall chance of the opponent crippling your defenses and winning being x multiplied by the number of terms to an extent, a longer battle as often induced with stall teams drastically increases the probability of a loss, which inversely contradicts stall’s fundamental concept base of “using long games to wear the opponent out”. This only works when the attackers are so weak that even two critical hits of their most powerful attacks can’t break through the defenses and that the opponent has no way of wearing down your walls in turn by preventing “reliable recovery” using methods such as Taunt and no setup moves, which is extremely improbable in a serious match, even more so with powerhouses in the forms of Megas introduced in Generation 6.
There are also many ways to stop stall’s rampage. The first are powerful and/or super effective attacks. Even the most powerful defenders still have weaknesses that the attackers can exploit. Another major way is to use boosting moves to raise your offensive prowess to a level that can easily break through the walls. Either way, simple measures such as Magic Bounce, Magic Guard, Taunt and Substitute can stop the passive walls from wearing down the attackers. Though phasing moves are often called the most reliable counters to these pokemon, there are two problems to this. The first is that these strategies expect, rather need, the phaser to live the attack. Even if it does live, unlike revenge-killing, the sweeper can just find a time to switch in once more and set up. Even multiple phasers cannot counter a setup pokemon that they cannot touch damage-wise. The next is that it is simply a one-time solution to a permanent problem. What I mean by that is that it can always set up again. It’s not a permanent solution, as is revenge-killing.
The next is the complete synergy required in stall teams. Each pokemon is required to perform a unique and essential role. If a opposing sweeper manages to take out one teammate, the team more often than not falls apart. It is not unlike a game of chess. If you manage to open one pathway for an enemy queen, let’s say, to invade your territory while the adjacent pieces cannot touch it, the whole defense is crippled. The same can be said for stall teams. If a pokemon was delegated the role of defending against stallbreakers, and if it falls to an untimely critical hit, unexpected coverage move or something, your team is left open for stallbreakers to sweep clean. Though delegating roles are very important, overspecialisation can often mean the end for well-meaning stall teams.
Section 2 - The Fundamental Pillars of Quickstall and How They Cover Flaws In Passive Stall
Quickstall, by its simplest definition, is a playstyle that stalls the opponent out on the player’s terms, both by passive damage and active damage. It is different from classic balance in the sense that it possesses enough bulk to sponge hits from even most hard hitters. It is also set apart from passive stall as these team also uses large amounts of active damage, or “chip damage” in easier terms.
Quickstall was originally based on the core idea of removing stall teams’ largest enemies; setup sweepers and stallbreakers, both users of Taunt (or similar) and powerhouses with extraordinary powerful attacks. In this section, I will look over each in turn, briefly overviewing stall’s weaknesses to these factors, and how quickstall lays down groundwork to cover up these holes. Because of this, I would not call quickstall an independent playstyle like major selections such as bulky offence, hyper offence and trick room; rather, it is a subset of stall. Now that that has been made clear, proceed to the contents.
Quickstall is based on several major concepts, added to the original fundamentals possessed by stall:
- To minimise set-up opportunities
- To minimise the amount of harm a boosted sweeper could do to the team’s essential core
- To be able to recover quickly after taking near-fatal amounts of damage or being afflicted by near- crippling status.
I will cover each in turn.
Passive stall team’s largest fear was and always will be setup sweepers. If a boosting sweeper manages to raise its offensive potential, even the most well-prepared stall teams will be forced to take a large amount of damage while phasing it out, while balance and more offensive playstyles can still easily deal with them by methods such as scarfers and priority. Quickstall aims to cover this weakness by using several methods. The first is to have multiple, relatively fast Taunt users to discourage setup or to stop it if necessary. These pokemon also serve as excellent breakers of opposing stall, meaning their roles are not necessarily exclusive and aids the team in different ways as well. Good usage of Taunt is considered one of the major factors that makes a stall team a quickstall team. Many passive stall teams, though being able to use Taunt, lack the base speed in order to use it well. Though +1 boosters, like users of Dragon Dance and Shift Gear can be dealt well with passive stall to an excellent, +2 boosters like Swords Dance and Nasty Plot users can easily 2HKO most walls, while they cannot do any significant damage back.
The second method is to have enough offensive potential to discourage the sweepers from setting up. Bulky tanks can threaten often frail setup sweepers with 2HKO’ing attacks, while Taunt users counter slower users, such as dedicated wallbreakers. One of the defining factors of a quickstall team is the fact that the team members can use attacks to good extent, having medium to high power behind their attacks. This ties into the definition of quickstall; in the form where quickstall-based pokemon can do medium amounts of chip damage outside of indirect forms. Though not at the extent of balance, this quality itself seems to belong to an already existing sub-variant, a hybrid of stall and balance; semi-stall. However, these teams tend to sacrifice some bulk for attacking power; quickstall still holds the ability to sponge powerful attacks as very important, and should be kept this way.
The third (and fourth, to see it differently) are rather niche options, but they work well on teams that can integrate them well without drastically changing the team. Users of Topsy-Turvy (Malamar being prime candidate at the moment) can stop setup sweepers if it manages to take a hit, and inversely uses the previously boosted setup sweeper as setup fodder, ironically enough. On the other hand, and on a more practical note, the two viable users of Unaware; Clefable and Quagsire both hard counter setup sweepers with specialised EV distribution. Though both do not possess exceptional bulk, their good typing manages to keep them OU-viable choices. These choices should not be made without careful thought, as a team using these pokemon does not necessarily mean that they will be successful at stopping setup sweepers.
Next, the second fundamental of quickstall is to minimise the amount of damage a sweeper already boosted can do the team. There are two methods of doing this. The first is to use pokemon with ridiculously good defensive stats and having small amounts of weaknesses. Skarmory and Blissey, staples of Generation 4, come to mind. These pokemon can sponge up to +2 threats, or for Blissey, can often sponge up to +4 if the opponent does not have a Fighting-type move. Granted, these are only on their side of the spectrum. All a physical attack has to do is look at Blissey for it to expire, while Skarmory isn’t very good at taking special attacks itself. Because of this, mixed sweepers using moves such as Shell Smash and Work Up can be quite dangerous. Owing to this fact, mixed walls with good defenses on both sides are often necessary as well. Luckily, these mixed sweepers tend to not have as many boosts, so the stat level needed to stop them aren’t as high as those for dedicated sweepers. Another, and more minor but excellent way, is to use the aforementioned Unaware users. since they have already been described in the previous paragraph, this one shall not.
The third is the ability to recover near-fatal amounts of damage without giving a significant advantage to the opponent. As discussed previously, stalling battles tend to have one or more mistakes that lets the opponent severely cripple one of the essential walls. Firstly, let us discuss the concept of “essential” walls. Essential walls are defensive pokemon that hold a large amount of responsibility in keeping the team’s framework intact. Often called “core members”, they conform to the classic framework of a central core of three pokemon, a core supporting the central core of two, and a “glue” to the team. Quickstall aims to fix this by distributing weight evenly through all team members. I personally use a variant of three cores of two, each having one main responsibility. That way, a certain function can still be performed even if one pokemon is crippled beyond recovery or down, albeit at a lesser extent. Nonetheless, this is only my variant, and other users are bound to find other, and perhaps more effective, team frameworks. Until then, however, I will refer to this 2-2-2 team framework as the standard of quickstall, so keep this in mind.
One major flaw of stall teams is that they are obliged to take a turn after taking large damage to recover. This can easily give the opponent a major advantage. Especially if the wounded pokemon in question is against a setup sweeper, it becomes a state of mind-games where only a large skill difference can bring about a win. Though this may be acceptable in low-level play, real competitive play (as in tournaments and such) cannot and should not rely on predictions. Stall’s original selling point was its reliability; unlike risky hyper offence and the like, stall has reliability and stability at its core, and removing that makes the team something different altogether. There are several, albeit some niche, solution to this. The first is to use recovery that harms the opponent as well. Setup sweepers will not appreciate sapping moves such as Leech Seed, which greatly inhibits their ability to sweep. Pain Split, though less reliable, still harms the opponent significantly and eases countering them. The second and more unique is the use of Regenerator. Common pokemon that have Regenerator as its ability, such as Slowbro, Tangrowth, and even Reuniclus can take less powerful hits and recover the health by simply switching out, preventing the team from being worn down by offensive pressure overall. Using a pair or more completely counters VoltTurn strategies that attempt to prevent recovery by keeping the defenders in a state of emergency.
Section 3 - The Concept Of Playing On Your Own Terms: Explanation and Analysis
Passive style is designed to take on a variety of team archetypes in their preferred condition and still come out on top. Though this way of playing may have worked in Generation 4 due to the general lack of brute power and the small amounts of threats to prepare for, it is an extremely uphill battle in the current, versatile metagame. Quickstall’s backbone, so to say, is to stall the opponent out on your own terms. This makes stalling significantly easier. There are several methods of keeping the opponent unable to set up their own condition, which changes depending on the type of team that is being played against.
Limiting Recovery. Against the common bulky offensive teams seen in the Generation 6 metagame, an essential strategy is to stop the opponent from recovering from your assaults. This is not unlike hyper offence in some ways, where your main aim is to overwhelm the opponent with powerful attacks. However, this is significantly more difficult since due to the relative powerlessness of your attacks. Because of this, correct usage of Taunt is absolutely essential to success. Taunt shuts down any support options the opponent may have, meaning they are susceptible to chip damage. It also stops them from setting up to try to break through your bulky walls, meaning with superior recovery, the chances of coming out on top is quite high. This is made even more so using the powerful mega evolutions’ power against them. A critical factor to abuse is that megas do not have passive recovery. Though they are often very bulky, they are liable to being stalled out with damaging status conditions and a multitude of weak attacks. This implies that if you do manage to create a situation where the opponent can’t seriously hurt you, if you use support such as burns and Taunt correctly, you’ve already won.
Stalling Momentum. For more hyper offensive teams employing the likes of Talonflame, a good tactic to utilise is to destroy their momentum. This can be done in several ways. First of all, since hyper offensive teams’ main goal is to overwhelm you with powerful attacks, if you manage to lower the attacks’ power to something that you can handle, they no longer hold such a power over you to overwhelm. Abilities such as Intimidate, status conditions such as burn, and reflective Screens all are viable options. Another is to take advantage of any choice items the opponent may have. Since pokemon found on stall teams are very bulky in their own right, nothing short of a boosted neutral or powerful super effective hit would bring them down to fatal range. By abusing immunities and resistances on your teammates against a choice-locked pokemon, you can “keep the momentum” in your own right by Taunting the switch-in or setting up a Substitute to give you a free turn in which to stall or inhibit them.
Emergency Plans. If a pokemon does set up, which is quite common compared to the length of your average battles, a plan of action is needed to recover quickly. Though passive stall teams rely on just phasing them out, this indicates a free turn for the attacker. For example, Skarmory can reliably phase out a +2 Special Lucario, but is brought down to Sturdy range, where an opposing Garchomp can from there sweep one’s team. Though having phasers are very important, it is also essential to have no such suicidal phasers in your core. Furthermore, the phased can easily come back again and set up, which means without a full-health phaser you are essentially doomed for a sweep. There are several way to combat setup sweepers. The first is to have, to match your team, a very bulky but powerful pokemon with priority. However, this still is not a complete counter if the pokemon in question is weakened and the sweeper also has a priority move, such as the common Talonflame. The second is more specific, but is extremely effective. Unaware users can completely nullify boosts, and can potentially grind any sweep to a halt.
The concept of playing on your own terms is not unlike the concept of momentum. As long as you are the player who controls it, the opponent is forced to switch; otherwise, he runs the high risk of being KO’ed. Playing on your own terms is a larger, more overencompassing trait. For example, if the opponent has multiple Spikes on the field, you are playing on his terms concerning that aspect of battle, because he is inhibiting you from switching so often. There are many situations concerning this; a player may have the opponent on his terms and the opponent he on a different aspect of the battle. The ultimate goal of quickstall is to have all circumstances in your favour; it’s almost a guaranteed win at that point, since completely playing on the opponent’s terms translates to which that recovery is near impossibility. Though there are many aspects of playing on your own terms, I will try to show some of the largest.
Momentum. Unsurprisingly, momentum is one of the largest and most powerful “terms” existing in competitive pokemon. Stall teams, and quickstall in extension are at a disadvantage concerning this, since they usually have a lack of VoltTurners. However, through the use of Regenerator pokemon and immunities concerning Volt Switches, quickstall teams can hold its own by stealing the momentum in different ways than offensive teams does.
Entry Hazards. Entry Hazards is a very prevalent “term” that affects players both mentally and physically. It discourages switches, giving you a smaller amount of options. To succeed as a quickstall team, hazard control is vital. This is where stall teams always lose out (ironically indeed). Because of the prevalence of the unblock able Defog, stall teams can ease their switching (which they do very often) but also limits their own hazard-stacking. Since quickstall teams only use Stealth Rock (or a layer of expendable Toxic Spikes at most), and SR users are bulky enough to set it up multiple times a game, they have a significant advantage in this regard.
Win Conditions. Though many win conditions exist (almost an infinite number depending on your team), most rely on a final setup sweeper. Since the methods described in the above sections stop this completely, the opponent essentially loses their win condition and are forced to improvise with their remaining pokemon. Quickstall, however, doesn’t have a singular win condition, since it focuses on wearing opposing pokemon down until victory, which means again that it can easily make the opposing team play on your own terms.
Residual Damage. Items such as Rocky Helmet, abilities such as Iron Barbs and Flame Body (and many others) all cause or run the risk of negatively afflicting the opponent when attacked. This puts pressure, both psychologically and physically, onto the opponent. It also is a great way to heap damage on the opposition while running your own agenda.
Forcing Switches. Though phasing and such causes switches automatically, there are ways to put pressure on the opponent by putting them in checkmate positions. Delayed-effect moves, such as Yawn, all cause the opponent to switch out (lest they be crippled for the rest of the match). It’s great for bringing in a weakened pokemon that wants to recover from Wish or something similar, as it almost ensures a free turn while the opponent switches out.
Though there are many other “terms” that need time and experience to know and understand completely, knowledge of these “terms” can help drastically on constructing and playing well a quickstall team. These often overlap with the classic idea of having multiple “advantages”. However, “terms” only include factors that are not defined by luck or things one can change during the battle (with some factors that can be changed pre-battle, but does not influence luck).
Subsection 4 - Ambiguity in Playstyle Selection
I admit, to a part, that there is some ambiguity in the team in its final stages regarding if it is indeed utilising quickstall or is just plain traditional stall. Quickstall teams are different from regular stall in a much less dynamic way than balance is from hyper offence. To put it simply, quickstall relies on immunities, defensive momentum, and the ability to keep up offensive prowess while having defensive ability to fall back on. If it is played the way it was originally meant to be played, it should have the ability to flow with the tide if you will; it effectively shapes the stage of the game in a much more potent way. Playing quickstall requires much more knowledge on its fundamentals rather than just putting 6 offensive pokemon on a team and calling it hyper offense. Of course, I could’ve gone that route and spared myself a lot of thinking, it is my belief (and will continue to be so) that the most successful teams are the most versatile.
Section 5 - Noticeable Roles of Quickstall
Though I will list some defining roles in quickstall, the playstyle in general is not meant to be very confining. I am certain evolutions of quickstall will happen in time; and there is nothing more harmful towards that than listing popular pokemon for quickstall. Because of this, I will only list main roles, not specific pokemon themselves.
Framework Walls. In quickstall, defensive ability is a must. These pokemon, which I call framework walls (as they set up the framework for other members to fall back on) should have a specialised immunity or quad-resist, while having good defensive coverage against most of the metagame. In quickstall, these pokemon act as a back-up, something to fall back on in the case of a powerful attack. Since the most disadvantageous situation for almost every playstyle is the free switch-in the opponent gets after a kill, quickstall aims to have something to stop or at least alleviate that to some extent. In the case that the disadvantage cannot be prevented, however, these pokemon need to cause switches as to regain the momentum. Oftentimes, moves causing switches such as Toxic, as well as STAB moves powerful enough to break Substitutes are needed.
Quickstallers. After the momentum has been regained, these relatively fast stallers weaken opposing pokemon. Named after the strategy, these are staples of every quickstall team. Strategies such as SubToxic, for example, are great for this as it forces the opponent into a checkmate position. If they switch, the staller gets a free Substitute; if they keep attacking, they will eventually die of residual damage. Usually, 1 or 2 is enough, and the framework walls should work to support them, and give them something to fall back on when an opponent comes in on a staller without a Substitute. These aren’t unlike set-up sweepers in offensive teams; they are the main "win condition" of quickstall teams, as they generate pressure and keep momentum while retaining defensive capabilities.
Defensive Pivots. To bring in the main stallers (and weaken firepower enough so the opposing tank struggles to break the Substitute), pivots with attack-lowering moves or abilities such as Intimidate, and/or excellent defenses as to force a switch are needed. These usually do not possess reliable recovery (though it is helpful), and know a slow U-Turn or Volt Switch.
Offensive Clerics. Though quickstall teams should generally play cautiously to avoid status on the main quickstaller, in the rare case that they are inflicted clerics can work to help them recover. Clerics stop momentum, meaning that not all quickstall teams need it. However, if used as an extra slot on a pivot, it can serve well in the right conditions.
Entry Hazard Setters. Because of the large momentum that quick stall teams generate, entry hazards can capitalize on this. Usually, Stealth Rock is enough, as taking the time to set up Spikes will destroy any momentum this has.
Section 6.1 - A Study of a Model Team - Teambuilding: Conception to Success
Following true to the concept of quickstalling, I decided to make a core that could handle most set-up sweepers. Since the original members often included in passive stall teams were extremely generic and predictable, I decided to start of with something radically different. In analysis section “Playing on your own terms”, I discussed a specific way to counter set-up sweepers; pokemon with the unique ability Unaware. Since there are only two users actually viable, I decided to test the integrity of Unaware pokemon and selected Quagsire and Clefable to be members of my first core. Interestingly enough, they have decent defensive and offensive synergy together. I put them together with some randomly selected pokemon that I knew would be of some use in a quickstall team.
Quagsire, Clefable, Gliscor, Skarmory, Mega Scizor, Tyranitar
Oftentimes, these “experimental” teams I make to test out concepts often end as dismal failures. However, to my amazement, it went ahead and gave me a 10-win streak before being defeated. I started to think that quickstall indeed may be a very viable stall tactic in today’s metagame. However, I decided to return to the start and investigate which pokemon could use the Unaware core’s support.
Quagsire, Clefable
I soon found that Scizor had excellent synergy with both. Other than having reliable recovery, it could revenge-kill, scout and remove hazards while being able to tank many hits. I wasn’t marking it off as a mega quite yet, since I may be in need of a better mega pokemon, and Leftovers is quite useful. Though Defog may seem detrimental to a stall team, but remember, quick stall teams, in my dictionary, do not rely on entry hazard damage as my main source of passive damage, and Stealth Rock is often enough. Having many layers on the field means if the opponent manages to Defog or Rapid Spin, I’m now playing on their terms since I’ll lose my best source of damage. Not to mention Defog can’t be blocked.
Quagsire, Clefable, Scizor
I knew I needed a reliable Stealth Rocker. I also noticed that my current members were extremely weak to Charizard Y; Clefable wouldn’t be able to take a sun-boosted Fire Blast from base 159 Special Attack anyway. I decided on Heatran; though it lacked recovery, Clefable could support it with Wish. It also had Roar, which could rack up Stealth Rock damage against 4x or 2x weak pokemon.
Quagsire, Clefable, Scizor, Heatran
Next, I soon found that these four are extremely Earthquake weak. In a metagame where everybody and their mother runs Earthquake as coverage moves for physical attackers, I knew this would be quite annoying. I had several options. First of all, Skarmory is a great physical attacker, but then this team would be assassinated by Magnezone. Gliscor is also a good choice, but that would make my team doubly weak to Water, which is never a good thing. Finally, Dragonite is a great mixed wall with Multiscale but is Stealth Rock weak. I decided to run Gliscor for now, since it has Toxic Orb and can absorb status, can use a fast Taunt, and has excellent defence (not to mention it’s a good check to Lucario not carrying Ice Punch).
Quagsire, Clefable, Scizor, Heatran, Gliscor
Since I had two Electric immunities and 2 four-times resist types to Grass, I decided to go for Jellicent, which patches up my water weakness nicely with an immunity and bulk to take Volt Switches from defensive Rotom-W easily. Though it is Toxic bait, Clefable stops that nicely with team support via Heal Bell.
Quagsire, Clefable, Scizor, Heatran, Gliscor, Jellicent
Since I had no mega on my team, and Scizor was wanting bulk, I decided to chance Scizor into a Mega variant. It doesn’t have Swords Dance because of the necessity of Defog, but it works out fine since most stall teams will be stopped with Taunt from Gliscor and Jellicent anyway.
Quagsire, Clefable, Mega-Scizor, Heatran, Gliscor, Jellicent
After playing this team a bit, I stumbled upon what I call “teambuilder’s block”. It’s where the team should work great on paper, but somehow fails to meet expectations by giving me absolute loss after loss. Oftentimes, when I have team builder’s block I try to drastically change the team to something new. I decided to go back to quickstall’s roots and try to replace my 4 non-Unaware teammates to pokemon that would usually befit passive stall. We’re back to square 1 for now.
Quagsire, Clefable
I decided to look for inspiration. I went over old generation 5 Stall RMTs, and eventually decided several pokemon that I could try out. At this stage, I kind of understood why the original team didn’t work; the Unaware core was designed as a backup for setup sweepers, but since my other team members were so offensive I was only using them as mediocre walls.
Quagsire, Clefable, Chansey, Skarmory, Mega Venusaur, Heatran
Unfortunately, this wasn’t working either, and it was probably at this point where the sorry remnants of a team experienced its darkest hour. I decided to go back to the original concept; since in my knowledge no other player was running my exact playstyle, I had no way of knowing if it even had potential to work or not. But since I put so much effort on this concept, I was determined to come through. I divided quickstall’s roles into three partitions; dealing with offensive teams, dealing with balance, and dealing with stall. I soon realised my main problem with my previous version of the team was that it could be worn down so much with elements such as VoltTurn. I divided several pokemon in each role.
Quagsire, Clefable | Tangrowth, Slowbro | Skarmory, Blissey
Though I had my doubts, this team far exceeded my expectations. One of the few teams that worked in practice as well as on paper, I finally had my Mark 1 for the quickstall team. Right now, to any sceptics that may be present, I want to justify how this team is different from the classic balance team, and how it is also differentiated from traditional passive stall. First of all, unlike many stall teams that can be overwhelmed by powerful attacks, momentum and passive damage (since all stall pokemon need free turns to recover health), this team utilises the regenerator core of Tangrowth and Slowbro to ensure that I cannot be worn down. Next, it also isn’t traditional balance because of the presence of defensive behemoths Skarmory and Blissey, indicating a form of stall. Next, let’s look to see if this team fits our definition of quickstall. It minimises setup opportunities by using Taunt from Skarmory, and the presence of Blissey to discourage any special attacker not named Lucario from setting up and the Unaware duo to do the same psychologically. It minimises the amount of harm a pokemon boosted could due to Unaware and good walls such as Blissey and Skarmory that can usually live even boosted hits with ease. Skarmory can beat a +4 Scizor 1 v 1, which is quite a feat. Finally, it can recover from taking near-fatal damage by smart switching between Tangrowth and Slowbro to quickly recover health while disrupting the opponent’s momentum. However, some pokemon weren’t performing their roles as well as planned. Ogami, who was also collaborating on this project, pointed out that this team lacked offensive presence, and I decided to revert back to some original pokemon I had in my (previously unsuccessful) team.
Quagsire, Scizor, Tornadus-T, Slowbro, Gliscor, Blissey
Scizor and Gliscor more than made up for the gap which was Skarmory; in fact, I was quite shocked to learn that Scizor and Skarmory both shared the same base Defense stat, while Scizor had the advantage of better special bulk and higher HP stat, as well as good priority. Gliscor, on the other hand, makes for a great staller and stall breaker with his ability to absorb status, fire off a fast Taunt, and his double Leftovers recovery. Tornadus-T was quite an interesting addition, but worked out excellently; he made up for the spot Tangrowth vacated with an even faster Taunt and momentum-making skills.
I quickly found Blissey wasn’t pulling her weight; even with Seismic Toss added, it was still incredibly easy setup fodder for pokemon such as Lucario, and Quagsire isn't strong enough to calmly wall an Adaptability STAB Close Combat. I decided to replace Blissey with Snorlax; they both have great Special Defense and HP, but Snorlax can hit much harder, and still has pseudo-reliable recovery with Rest, as well as being one of the rare counters to Charizard-Y.
Also, as Lucario, one of the largest threats to stall was banned at this stage, I decided to change the team’s overall style to a more offensive one. It was here that the development for quickstall stopped for a while; I needed a break, and went on to create more offensive, balanced teams. However, in that process (as well as some nice ideas from Ogami), I found an interesting core, which really suited quickstall of Heatran, Zapdos and Gastrodon. Their respective immunities to common attacking types allowed me to create a more offensive, yet quickstalling team, as I didn’t have to rely on pure defensive stats anymore.
Heatran, Gastrodon, Zapdos
I decided to re-add Slowbro, as it was an excellent counter to physical Dragons and Azumarill, which this team was troubled with. Also, it strengthened the team’s quality of being on the offensive while not sacrificing defense in the process.
Heatran, Gastrodon, Zapdos, Slowbro
As more insurance against physical attackers (and once again tying into the idea of quickstall), I decided to introduce Landorus-T. Gastrodon and Slowbro covered its weaknesses, making it an excellent defensive pivot, as well as a Fighting counter that wasn’t utterly demolished by boosted Terrakion.
Heatran, Gastrodon, Zapdos, Slowbro, Landorus-T
Finally, I decided to take advantage of this team’s offensiveness by adding on Mega Scizor as my final pokemon. It can Defog, allowing Zapdos to stall better, while giving the team some powerful priority.
Heatran, Gastrodon, Zapdos, Slowbro, Landorus-T, Mega-Scizor
This is the current reincarnation of the team. Much more offensively minded than the first version, it utilizes immunities well to check offensive threats, while having good offensive power to break through defensive teams as well.
Section 6.2 - A Study of a Model Team - Team In-Depth Analysis
Note: Since this team is still under construction, the descriptions are somewhat short and lackluster compared to my two previous RMTs. However, once I have gotten enough feedback, I’ll update them to be much longer and detailed.
Heatran (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 248 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Magma Storm
- Roar
- Ancient Power
Heatran forms the first section of my three-part defensive core. The combination of Heatran, Gastrodon and Zapdos is incredibly underused (in fact, I don’t think I have ever seen Zapdos being introduced to the equation in Gen 5, where Heatran+Gastrodon was all the rage), but is very potent. Heatran contributes as an excellent special wall with good coverage and utility. Lava Plume is great for making the opponent think twice on bringing in a set-up sweeper because of its large burn rate, while serving as an accurate STAB. On the other hand, Magma Storm is a relatively underused, yet effective move. With its trapping ability, it allows me to deal with problematic threats that switch-in, as well as potentially giving Zapdos, the main quickstaller, a free Substitute. On the other hand, Roar ensures I’m not setup fodder for SubBoosters, which ironically enough is the team's most threatening foe. Finally, Ancient Power allows me to effectively counter Talonflame, as well as deal good damage to Dragonite, Salamence, and other Flying-types.
Gastrodon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Def / 160 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Recover
Gastrodon comes in where Heatran left off. Its surprisingly good bulk allows it to take on most variants of Greninja, and stall it out (Ice Beam does about 30%). Scald and Earth Power complement each other nicely, while giving switch-ins something to think about. Toxic and Recover allows Gastrodon to stall out threats Zapdos cannot deal with. However, it is worn down fast by opposing Spikes users, meaning support from Scizor is essential. Storm Drain is an incredibly useful ability, giving it an immunity to Water-types, making it THE BEST Rotom-W counter in the game, period. It prevents Rotom-W from generating momentum by forcing it to manually switch out, and poison a switch-in.
Faster than Thunderbird (If you get the reference)
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 80 SDef / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Toxic
- Roost
- Substitute
Though this team functions as a unit, Zapdos is definitely where all the the team support goes. SubToxic Zapdos is an incredibly underused, yet effective set in the current metagame. Since many attackers have incredible firepower, Zapdos uses Substitute to weak their attacks, while gradually using Toxic to wear them down. On the other hand, Zapdos possesses extreme bulk already; even CB Tyranitar can be stalled out due to Roost making it neutral to Stone Edge. Of course, Zapdos is hard-countered by Gliscor and Venusaur, but Slowbro and Scizor to some extent can help neutralize them, as well as the fact both like to come in on Heatran (psst; loltrap). Though it may seem not very effective, SubZapdos is one of the best pokemon in the game. Once it gets a free Substitute on a slower pokemon, it can usually kill off one and heavily cripple another, while switching out with full health. Though Discharge may seem illogical on a Toxic-based set, it its good for hitting switch-ins such as Scizor and Venusaur, and paralysis is very useful for such a relatively slow team. Pressure allows Zapdos to stall out harmful attacks, such as Hydro Pump and Stone Edge, and ultimately render them useless.
Landorus (Landorus-T) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
Landorus-T’s the team’s main defensive pivot. Intimidate softens otherwise crippling blows and neutralizes Dragon Dance attackers to an extent, while its excellent typing gives it an immunity to Ground and a resistance to Fighting. Earthquake is its best STAB; even without investment, it hits incredibly hard. On the other hand, Knock Off allows this team to deconstruct opposing stall and offensive teams alike, removing threatening items such as Choice Band/Specs. Stealth Rock is a necessity on quickstall because of its tendency to cause switches. Its slow U-Turn allows me to bring in more important members such as Zapdos unharmed.
Scizor (F) @ Scizorite
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Atk / 164 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
Mega-Scizor is an underestimated defensive threat. Its defensive stats are (marginally) BETTER THAN SKARMORY, while good priority in Bullet Punch serves it well on the offensive side as well. Its main purpose is to take out fast sweepers that get out of control, such as Alakazam and Gengar. With Technician and STAB, Bullet Punch hits very hard even with low investment. U-Turn, on the other hand, lets it re-gain momentum much easier, especially with the threat of Bullet Punch. Defog is essential on this set to to give Zapdos a much easier time stalling, as well as maximising defensive potential on Slowbro, Heatran, and Gastrodon.
Slowbro (M) @ Assault Vest
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 56 SAtk / 60 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
Arguably the most offensive pokemon on the team, Slowbro attacks hard with very good coverage. Assault Vest allows Slowbro to check Rotom-W in the case that Gastrodon goes down, while its physical bulk makes it an excellent counter to Azumarill and most dragons. Scald and Psyshock are obligatory STABs, hitting defensive behemoths such as Blissey, while crippling offensive Terrakion. Fire Blast allows Slowbro to demolish Skarmory and Ferrothorn, while Ice Beam capitalises on its ability to switch into Outrages by 1HKO’ing them.
Export:
Section 7 - Outro
Though this was a long read, I thank you for looking through it. This is what quickstall is; at its fundamentals, a playstyle that abuses both offensive and defensive prowess and synergy, while stalling out the opponent while keeping momentum using a quickstaller.
So, what are your opinions on this? I personally believe that this playstyle has great potential, and while it may have flaws atm, that’s the same for all playstyles. In the end, it comes down to the player’s battling ability.
This, I believe, took me a full month to write up. Now for a well-deserved coffee break...
NOTE: This thread is still incomplete. The main reason I posted this in a stage not final was because several friends prompted me to post this (as this was, as they say, extremely overdue). Because of this, the post's framework is complete, but may just be blocks of text. I'll finalise this soon, and will probably post it in the OU discussions (with a revised copy) afterwards.
A Tough Competitor - Essays On The Art Of Quickstall
Written by BackStreetTabby
Co-Developed by Ogami
Note - Skip to Section 6.2 if you wish to look at the team first.
A Note on Version Release
This essay is a documentation of the growth of quickstall and its practical applications. As the playstyle grows with contributions from other community members, changes will be recorded in this document. Because of this, the team is still in its early stages, and may show more flaws than my previous, mostly perfected RMTs. This is a “joint” RMT, combined with details on the playstyle that makes it work.
A Note on References
In no way do I claim that I had originally thought up the concept of the team archetype of quickstall, nor that I was the only one that have applied it to competitive teams, either intentionally or unintentionally. I claim that I was the main pioneer because I was, proved by consistent and in-depth research both on the Smogon Forums and Pokemon Online Forums, the first to ever record details, workings and functions of this new concept while intentionally putting it into action by publicly publishing this document. I apologise beforehand in the case that a member of any major pokemon forum had published a similar essay before me; however, for now, I proceed under the claim that I had ultimately invented, developed and pioneered the art of quickstall. The playstyle I call “quickstall”, unless explicitly specified, refers to the playstyle described here, rather than the playstyle (if I am not mistaken) put into play in BW Ubers by Bojangles and Fireburn.
This team would be considered a pioneer of this playstyle. However, one must keep in mind that while this team is very good in its own right if played correctly (even I, with only average battling skills, managed to bring it up to around 2400), quickstall teams in general are very difficult to make. One must use many of the elements described in this document, while keeping an offensive factor intact; and players must not play it like a defensive or offensive team. All in all, quickstall is a incredibly potent and effective playstyle, but it is not something a random player “just picks up” like hyper offense. I must ask you to not bash this playstyle and the team without some effort to understand how it works.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank users Bojangles and Fireburn for originally inspiring me to improve traditional stall; though I created the word “quickstall” independently and intended for it to refer to the variant of stall that I describe in this document, I found in my research to make sure my claim was true that it was they who originally coined the word; and their usage represents a completely different playstyle to the one I pioneered, one of their descriptions (albeit quite short) of their playstyle served as the spark for mine: “a team that still keeps offensive pressure, but also keeps you fortified against the enemy in case things go sour”. Though our playstyles turned out to be completely different in the end, it was they who originally gave me inspiration; and I would like to congratulate and credit them.
Also, I must admit I was greatly inspired by Ajwf’s Daunting Dreadnoughts stall team. It, on one hand, proved that stall teams were viable to great extent in the current metagame if done correctly. Personally, I found that I didn’t have the competency and experience in stall, which led me to thinking of this kind of team. Also, this thread may have similarities with his most recent Momentum Stall, which (ninja’d!) spurred me up to finish this article. I believe we both started working on this at roughly the same time (correct me if I am wrong), but credit must go where credit is due.
Introduction to Essays On The Art Of Quickstall
It has always been known that competitive battling as a intellectual’s advantage. I had always never succeeded much in achieving top-ranking peaks on the ladder; nor have I ever entered any tournaments, regional or simulator-based. I have, in a way, resigned myself to the fact that I am not, and probably never will be, as good as many other players out there. However, I, if am allowed to say with humility, believe myself to be much better in the “ultimate” intellectual’s role in pokemon. Though my original love was teambuilding, along the way I was introduced to something far greater; metagame theory and analysing playstyles. It has then in which I decided to put my energies onto developing the theoretical part of pokemon. I had always been an avid amateur scientist and astronomer, and I knew that this would naturally tie in to my original loves as well.
However, I soon realised that the metagame was extremely stale. I originally blamed it on the fact that the BW2 era was going on for so long without addition of notable new pokemon and strategies. However, this continued in X and Y, where I hoped it would change. In the end, it’s always the same pokemon used in every single team, the same playstyle. I resigned myself to the fact that some pokemon would be more popular than others; it was logical and I was forced to accept it. However, one trend I just could not comprehend was the staleness and the lack of variety of playstyles. I long believed that each playstyle was good as the next; why so much limitations? After some practical research, I originally came to the beginning of this new project; I decided that I would try to achieve continuous equality of playstyles, even if that was my only contribution to the community.
It was long said that stall was nearing the end of its lifespan. With metagame analysts bringing up many factors, such as powerful behemoths and dedicated wallbreakers being added to the lineup and the fact that as the generations progress, there is a noticeably large increase in the amounts of offensive and defensive threats stall teams must deal with. It is my opinion that traditional stall teams, or hereby called passive stall teams in the way that they rely on completely passive damage to wear opponents down, are fundamentally flawed. Though I myself was an avid stall player until the end of Generation 4, otherwise known as the DPPt era, I quickly found that stall teams were not, however good the composition may be, acceptably competitive in BW, or Generation 5. This was partly due to the sheer amount of powerful wallbreakers armed with an array of coverage moves; many effective against many high-usage walls and tanks. It was during this especially long era that I first started to question the fundamental concepts of stall teams. Pokemon is quite like physics in this regard; until a theory, such as Newton’s laws of gravity, was tested in extreme circumstances, it works well. However, when used in extreme circumstances (as Einstein proved by showing the difference in theoretical and actual measurements in gravitational lensing) it breaks apart. Passive stall was one of those fundamentally flawed playstyles. Though it had held out during Generation 4, where there were not as many threats to counter, it ultimately failed when presented with the hoard of powerhouses Generation 5 brought out. However, much like the aforementioned law of gravity, it always just needs something different to remove that flaw; for that case, it was Einstein’s law of relativity; in this case, I believe it is the playstyle I have named quickstall.
Quickstall is not a playstyle that can be defined lightly, unlike simpler playstyles like hyper offence where the underlying is quite simple; on the other hand, quickstall is not an original playstyle, but one including elements from its ancestor, while making changes to it to remove its flaws. Though as of now it is quite exclusive, with only one team actually showing the power it holds, it is my hope that other competitive players will take this and improve this; after all, all currently major playstyles were not the work of one man, or even a small group. It was added to and improved by the whole of the community, and eventually reaching its peak. It is to try to start this flow in which I write this now.
Section 1 - Metagame Analysis of Past Generations and why Stall is Fundamentally Flawed
In Section 1, I will be going over a quick history of the competitive metagame from Generation 4 onwards (partly because I do not have experience in the earlier eras) in relation to stall teams, and I show how stall’s position has changed. Afterwards, I will be explaining how stall teams are fundamentally flawed, and will point out each flaw, which will be necessary to fully understand to understand the concept of quickstall.
Generation 4 is widely regarded by many as the most stable metagame previously in existence. Lacking powerful powerhouses that could break apart walls easily, it was a exemplary era where semi-stall playstyles thrived. Common pokemon seen in DP teams included bulky attackers such as Gyarados and Machamp; while dedicated walls such as Blissey, Skarmory and defensive Heatran could exist without being threatened instantly by 1HKO moves. There were several factors helping the formation of such a balanced metagame. The first was the nature of the pokemon commonly seeing high usage. Gyarados is a prime example. Intimidate helps sponge attacks, making it an excellent bulky attacker. On the other hand, it has lacklustre speed and relatively weak STAB moves, meaning it often had to stack several boosts before powering through common walls such as Skarmory. Due to this, it was a “chip” metagame instead of a metagame where most pokemon’s ultimate purpose was to set up one boost and utterly demolish bulky teams that were successful in Generation 4. Smart switching, entry hazards, and the balanced nature ultimately indicated one of the most competitive metagames in pokemon history, where skill difference and team composition was the most applicable factor. A variety of playstyles thrived here; from absolute stall to bulky offence to offensive playstyles that may have been ancestors of the current hyper offence. All of these playstyles, if played correctly, could defeat other team archetypes.
Generation 5 was a metagame drastically different from Generation 4’s reign of bulky offence. With the advent of ridiculously powerful pokemon with excellent wallbreaking STABs such as Terrakion, stall was forced into a very small niche where only the best-structured stall teams could survive the onslaught of pure power thrown at them. Also, these newly induced powerhouses also had very good setup moves, meaning that any previously acceptable “passive” stall teams would simply be setup bait. Also, the speed tiers were upped; the world where knowing if a pokemon could outspeed a Jolly or Adamant Lucario was gone; anything below 100 Base Speed was considered extremely slow. There were attempts to recover from this in the form of Trick Room-based teams; however, these were ultimately not very successful. Infinite weather also served a major role in the hyper offensive nature of Generation 5. Weather abusers such as Keldeo could break through even the sturdiest, most reliable special walls in the form of Blissey, while Chlorophyll sun sweepers could outspeed almost every non-scarf pokemon in the metagame, while being almost impossible to wear down because of abundant use of healing moves such as Giga Drain and Horn Leech. At the end of Generation 5, stall and some balance playstyles were all but dead; crushed behind the onslaught of hyper offence. In this era, however, some players stared to develop seeds for the revival of stall in the shape of a new concept that hadn’t been majorly used in previous Generations; quickstall. It was based on the concept of stalling out the opponent, but on the player’s own terms; stopping recovery and setup. It also worked to fix one of stall’s greatest flaws; setup sweepers and wallbreakers.
Generation 6 was an attempt to bring the metagame closer to what it looked like in Generation 4, and for the most part, it has been successful. Sticky Web completely nullifies sweepers relying on their speed, while the advent of powerful priority users such as Talonflame, Aegislash and the revived Azumarill would be a major hindrance to potential sweeps, which has, as an example, completely ended the reign of Terrakion. However, it still retains some of Generation 5’s hyper offensive nature in the form of ridiculously powerful Mega Evolutions of the like of Pinsir and Lucario. Though speed’s role has greatly been reduced, stall teams are still under fire because of the multitude of powerful wallbreakers in the metagame. However, there is still currently hope for stall. Because of the physically based metagame, more and more attackers are susceptible to abilities such as Intimidate and status such as burns that lower their attack; in the current situation, this must be exploited if stall is to make a comeback.
Though stall may have a “chance” in generation 6, it is only because the conditions have softened. As shown with the example regarding the theory of gravity disputed over with Newton and Einstein described in the introduction, it only functions relatively better because it is not under such intense “pressure”. If stall keeps its fundamentally flawed base, it will repeat the same fall from grace it experienced during the transition to Generation 6. Because of this, a fundamental change is necessary to ensure stall’s spot as a very viable and reliable playstyle in future generations as it was with Generation 4 and partly Generation 6.
Traditional stall’s largest weakness is its overt reliance on passive damage. Its fundamental concepts describe it as a playstyle that “aims to wear down the opponent using passive damage, whether it be entry hazards, status conditions, or harmful weather, while ensuring victory using superior recovery options”. In simpler terms, stall is a playstyle that sponges all hits and recovers easily while wearing the opponent out. There is a large flaw in this playstyle mathematically already, as some observant readers may notice. With a probability x (based on both luck and strategy execution) of an opponent breaking through a player’s defenses, and the overall chance of the opponent crippling your defenses and winning being x multiplied by the number of terms to an extent, a longer battle as often induced with stall teams drastically increases the probability of a loss, which inversely contradicts stall’s fundamental concept base of “using long games to wear the opponent out”. This only works when the attackers are so weak that even two critical hits of their most powerful attacks can’t break through the defenses and that the opponent has no way of wearing down your walls in turn by preventing “reliable recovery” using methods such as Taunt and no setup moves, which is extremely improbable in a serious match, even more so with powerhouses in the forms of Megas introduced in Generation 6.
There are also many ways to stop stall’s rampage. The first are powerful and/or super effective attacks. Even the most powerful defenders still have weaknesses that the attackers can exploit. Another major way is to use boosting moves to raise your offensive prowess to a level that can easily break through the walls. Either way, simple measures such as Magic Bounce, Magic Guard, Taunt and Substitute can stop the passive walls from wearing down the attackers. Though phasing moves are often called the most reliable counters to these pokemon, there are two problems to this. The first is that these strategies expect, rather need, the phaser to live the attack. Even if it does live, unlike revenge-killing, the sweeper can just find a time to switch in once more and set up. Even multiple phasers cannot counter a setup pokemon that they cannot touch damage-wise. The next is that it is simply a one-time solution to a permanent problem. What I mean by that is that it can always set up again. It’s not a permanent solution, as is revenge-killing.
The next is the complete synergy required in stall teams. Each pokemon is required to perform a unique and essential role. If a opposing sweeper manages to take out one teammate, the team more often than not falls apart. It is not unlike a game of chess. If you manage to open one pathway for an enemy queen, let’s say, to invade your territory while the adjacent pieces cannot touch it, the whole defense is crippled. The same can be said for stall teams. If a pokemon was delegated the role of defending against stallbreakers, and if it falls to an untimely critical hit, unexpected coverage move or something, your team is left open for stallbreakers to sweep clean. Though delegating roles are very important, overspecialisation can often mean the end for well-meaning stall teams.
Section 2 - The Fundamental Pillars of Quickstall and How They Cover Flaws In Passive Stall
Quickstall, by its simplest definition, is a playstyle that stalls the opponent out on the player’s terms, both by passive damage and active damage. It is different from classic balance in the sense that it possesses enough bulk to sponge hits from even most hard hitters. It is also set apart from passive stall as these team also uses large amounts of active damage, or “chip damage” in easier terms.
Quickstall was originally based on the core idea of removing stall teams’ largest enemies; setup sweepers and stallbreakers, both users of Taunt (or similar) and powerhouses with extraordinary powerful attacks. In this section, I will look over each in turn, briefly overviewing stall’s weaknesses to these factors, and how quickstall lays down groundwork to cover up these holes. Because of this, I would not call quickstall an independent playstyle like major selections such as bulky offence, hyper offence and trick room; rather, it is a subset of stall. Now that that has been made clear, proceed to the contents.
Quickstall is based on several major concepts, added to the original fundamentals possessed by stall:
- To minimise set-up opportunities
- To minimise the amount of harm a boosted sweeper could do to the team’s essential core
- To be able to recover quickly after taking near-fatal amounts of damage or being afflicted by near- crippling status.
I will cover each in turn.
Passive stall team’s largest fear was and always will be setup sweepers. If a boosting sweeper manages to raise its offensive potential, even the most well-prepared stall teams will be forced to take a large amount of damage while phasing it out, while balance and more offensive playstyles can still easily deal with them by methods such as scarfers and priority. Quickstall aims to cover this weakness by using several methods. The first is to have multiple, relatively fast Taunt users to discourage setup or to stop it if necessary. These pokemon also serve as excellent breakers of opposing stall, meaning their roles are not necessarily exclusive and aids the team in different ways as well. Good usage of Taunt is considered one of the major factors that makes a stall team a quickstall team. Many passive stall teams, though being able to use Taunt, lack the base speed in order to use it well. Though +1 boosters, like users of Dragon Dance and Shift Gear can be dealt well with passive stall to an excellent, +2 boosters like Swords Dance and Nasty Plot users can easily 2HKO most walls, while they cannot do any significant damage back.
The second method is to have enough offensive potential to discourage the sweepers from setting up. Bulky tanks can threaten often frail setup sweepers with 2HKO’ing attacks, while Taunt users counter slower users, such as dedicated wallbreakers. One of the defining factors of a quickstall team is the fact that the team members can use attacks to good extent, having medium to high power behind their attacks. This ties into the definition of quickstall; in the form where quickstall-based pokemon can do medium amounts of chip damage outside of indirect forms. Though not at the extent of balance, this quality itself seems to belong to an already existing sub-variant, a hybrid of stall and balance; semi-stall. However, these teams tend to sacrifice some bulk for attacking power; quickstall still holds the ability to sponge powerful attacks as very important, and should be kept this way.
The third (and fourth, to see it differently) are rather niche options, but they work well on teams that can integrate them well without drastically changing the team. Users of Topsy-Turvy (Malamar being prime candidate at the moment) can stop setup sweepers if it manages to take a hit, and inversely uses the previously boosted setup sweeper as setup fodder, ironically enough. On the other hand, and on a more practical note, the two viable users of Unaware; Clefable and Quagsire both hard counter setup sweepers with specialised EV distribution. Though both do not possess exceptional bulk, their good typing manages to keep them OU-viable choices. These choices should not be made without careful thought, as a team using these pokemon does not necessarily mean that they will be successful at stopping setup sweepers.
Next, the second fundamental of quickstall is to minimise the amount of damage a sweeper already boosted can do the team. There are two methods of doing this. The first is to use pokemon with ridiculously good defensive stats and having small amounts of weaknesses. Skarmory and Blissey, staples of Generation 4, come to mind. These pokemon can sponge up to +2 threats, or for Blissey, can often sponge up to +4 if the opponent does not have a Fighting-type move. Granted, these are only on their side of the spectrum. All a physical attack has to do is look at Blissey for it to expire, while Skarmory isn’t very good at taking special attacks itself. Because of this, mixed sweepers using moves such as Shell Smash and Work Up can be quite dangerous. Owing to this fact, mixed walls with good defenses on both sides are often necessary as well. Luckily, these mixed sweepers tend to not have as many boosts, so the stat level needed to stop them aren’t as high as those for dedicated sweepers. Another, and more minor but excellent way, is to use the aforementioned Unaware users. since they have already been described in the previous paragraph, this one shall not.
The third is the ability to recover near-fatal amounts of damage without giving a significant advantage to the opponent. As discussed previously, stalling battles tend to have one or more mistakes that lets the opponent severely cripple one of the essential walls. Firstly, let us discuss the concept of “essential” walls. Essential walls are defensive pokemon that hold a large amount of responsibility in keeping the team’s framework intact. Often called “core members”, they conform to the classic framework of a central core of three pokemon, a core supporting the central core of two, and a “glue” to the team. Quickstall aims to fix this by distributing weight evenly through all team members. I personally use a variant of three cores of two, each having one main responsibility. That way, a certain function can still be performed even if one pokemon is crippled beyond recovery or down, albeit at a lesser extent. Nonetheless, this is only my variant, and other users are bound to find other, and perhaps more effective, team frameworks. Until then, however, I will refer to this 2-2-2 team framework as the standard of quickstall, so keep this in mind.
One major flaw of stall teams is that they are obliged to take a turn after taking large damage to recover. This can easily give the opponent a major advantage. Especially if the wounded pokemon in question is against a setup sweeper, it becomes a state of mind-games where only a large skill difference can bring about a win. Though this may be acceptable in low-level play, real competitive play (as in tournaments and such) cannot and should not rely on predictions. Stall’s original selling point was its reliability; unlike risky hyper offence and the like, stall has reliability and stability at its core, and removing that makes the team something different altogether. There are several, albeit some niche, solution to this. The first is to use recovery that harms the opponent as well. Setup sweepers will not appreciate sapping moves such as Leech Seed, which greatly inhibits their ability to sweep. Pain Split, though less reliable, still harms the opponent significantly and eases countering them. The second and more unique is the use of Regenerator. Common pokemon that have Regenerator as its ability, such as Slowbro, Tangrowth, and even Reuniclus can take less powerful hits and recover the health by simply switching out, preventing the team from being worn down by offensive pressure overall. Using a pair or more completely counters VoltTurn strategies that attempt to prevent recovery by keeping the defenders in a state of emergency.
Section 3 - The Concept Of Playing On Your Own Terms: Explanation and Analysis
Passive style is designed to take on a variety of team archetypes in their preferred condition and still come out on top. Though this way of playing may have worked in Generation 4 due to the general lack of brute power and the small amounts of threats to prepare for, it is an extremely uphill battle in the current, versatile metagame. Quickstall’s backbone, so to say, is to stall the opponent out on your own terms. This makes stalling significantly easier. There are several methods of keeping the opponent unable to set up their own condition, which changes depending on the type of team that is being played against.
Limiting Recovery. Against the common bulky offensive teams seen in the Generation 6 metagame, an essential strategy is to stop the opponent from recovering from your assaults. This is not unlike hyper offence in some ways, where your main aim is to overwhelm the opponent with powerful attacks. However, this is significantly more difficult since due to the relative powerlessness of your attacks. Because of this, correct usage of Taunt is absolutely essential to success. Taunt shuts down any support options the opponent may have, meaning they are susceptible to chip damage. It also stops them from setting up to try to break through your bulky walls, meaning with superior recovery, the chances of coming out on top is quite high. This is made even more so using the powerful mega evolutions’ power against them. A critical factor to abuse is that megas do not have passive recovery. Though they are often very bulky, they are liable to being stalled out with damaging status conditions and a multitude of weak attacks. This implies that if you do manage to create a situation where the opponent can’t seriously hurt you, if you use support such as burns and Taunt correctly, you’ve already won.
Stalling Momentum. For more hyper offensive teams employing the likes of Talonflame, a good tactic to utilise is to destroy their momentum. This can be done in several ways. First of all, since hyper offensive teams’ main goal is to overwhelm you with powerful attacks, if you manage to lower the attacks’ power to something that you can handle, they no longer hold such a power over you to overwhelm. Abilities such as Intimidate, status conditions such as burn, and reflective Screens all are viable options. Another is to take advantage of any choice items the opponent may have. Since pokemon found on stall teams are very bulky in their own right, nothing short of a boosted neutral or powerful super effective hit would bring them down to fatal range. By abusing immunities and resistances on your teammates against a choice-locked pokemon, you can “keep the momentum” in your own right by Taunting the switch-in or setting up a Substitute to give you a free turn in which to stall or inhibit them.
Emergency Plans. If a pokemon does set up, which is quite common compared to the length of your average battles, a plan of action is needed to recover quickly. Though passive stall teams rely on just phasing them out, this indicates a free turn for the attacker. For example, Skarmory can reliably phase out a +2 Special Lucario, but is brought down to Sturdy range, where an opposing Garchomp can from there sweep one’s team. Though having phasers are very important, it is also essential to have no such suicidal phasers in your core. Furthermore, the phased can easily come back again and set up, which means without a full-health phaser you are essentially doomed for a sweep. There are several way to combat setup sweepers. The first is to have, to match your team, a very bulky but powerful pokemon with priority. However, this still is not a complete counter if the pokemon in question is weakened and the sweeper also has a priority move, such as the common Talonflame. The second is more specific, but is extremely effective. Unaware users can completely nullify boosts, and can potentially grind any sweep to a halt.
The concept of playing on your own terms is not unlike the concept of momentum. As long as you are the player who controls it, the opponent is forced to switch; otherwise, he runs the high risk of being KO’ed. Playing on your own terms is a larger, more overencompassing trait. For example, if the opponent has multiple Spikes on the field, you are playing on his terms concerning that aspect of battle, because he is inhibiting you from switching so often. There are many situations concerning this; a player may have the opponent on his terms and the opponent he on a different aspect of the battle. The ultimate goal of quickstall is to have all circumstances in your favour; it’s almost a guaranteed win at that point, since completely playing on the opponent’s terms translates to which that recovery is near impossibility. Though there are many aspects of playing on your own terms, I will try to show some of the largest.
Momentum. Unsurprisingly, momentum is one of the largest and most powerful “terms” existing in competitive pokemon. Stall teams, and quickstall in extension are at a disadvantage concerning this, since they usually have a lack of VoltTurners. However, through the use of Regenerator pokemon and immunities concerning Volt Switches, quickstall teams can hold its own by stealing the momentum in different ways than offensive teams does.
Entry Hazards. Entry Hazards is a very prevalent “term” that affects players both mentally and physically. It discourages switches, giving you a smaller amount of options. To succeed as a quickstall team, hazard control is vital. This is where stall teams always lose out (ironically indeed). Because of the prevalence of the unblock able Defog, stall teams can ease their switching (which they do very often) but also limits their own hazard-stacking. Since quickstall teams only use Stealth Rock (or a layer of expendable Toxic Spikes at most), and SR users are bulky enough to set it up multiple times a game, they have a significant advantage in this regard.
Win Conditions. Though many win conditions exist (almost an infinite number depending on your team), most rely on a final setup sweeper. Since the methods described in the above sections stop this completely, the opponent essentially loses their win condition and are forced to improvise with their remaining pokemon. Quickstall, however, doesn’t have a singular win condition, since it focuses on wearing opposing pokemon down until victory, which means again that it can easily make the opposing team play on your own terms.
Residual Damage. Items such as Rocky Helmet, abilities such as Iron Barbs and Flame Body (and many others) all cause or run the risk of negatively afflicting the opponent when attacked. This puts pressure, both psychologically and physically, onto the opponent. It also is a great way to heap damage on the opposition while running your own agenda.
Forcing Switches. Though phasing and such causes switches automatically, there are ways to put pressure on the opponent by putting them in checkmate positions. Delayed-effect moves, such as Yawn, all cause the opponent to switch out (lest they be crippled for the rest of the match). It’s great for bringing in a weakened pokemon that wants to recover from Wish or something similar, as it almost ensures a free turn while the opponent switches out.
Though there are many other “terms” that need time and experience to know and understand completely, knowledge of these “terms” can help drastically on constructing and playing well a quickstall team. These often overlap with the classic idea of having multiple “advantages”. However, “terms” only include factors that are not defined by luck or things one can change during the battle (with some factors that can be changed pre-battle, but does not influence luck).
Subsection 4 - Ambiguity in Playstyle Selection
I admit, to a part, that there is some ambiguity in the team in its final stages regarding if it is indeed utilising quickstall or is just plain traditional stall. Quickstall teams are different from regular stall in a much less dynamic way than balance is from hyper offence. To put it simply, quickstall relies on immunities, defensive momentum, and the ability to keep up offensive prowess while having defensive ability to fall back on. If it is played the way it was originally meant to be played, it should have the ability to flow with the tide if you will; it effectively shapes the stage of the game in a much more potent way. Playing quickstall requires much more knowledge on its fundamentals rather than just putting 6 offensive pokemon on a team and calling it hyper offense. Of course, I could’ve gone that route and spared myself a lot of thinking, it is my belief (and will continue to be so) that the most successful teams are the most versatile.
Section 5 - Noticeable Roles of Quickstall
Though I will list some defining roles in quickstall, the playstyle in general is not meant to be very confining. I am certain evolutions of quickstall will happen in time; and there is nothing more harmful towards that than listing popular pokemon for quickstall. Because of this, I will only list main roles, not specific pokemon themselves.
Framework Walls. In quickstall, defensive ability is a must. These pokemon, which I call framework walls (as they set up the framework for other members to fall back on) should have a specialised immunity or quad-resist, while having good defensive coverage against most of the metagame. In quickstall, these pokemon act as a back-up, something to fall back on in the case of a powerful attack. Since the most disadvantageous situation for almost every playstyle is the free switch-in the opponent gets after a kill, quickstall aims to have something to stop or at least alleviate that to some extent. In the case that the disadvantage cannot be prevented, however, these pokemon need to cause switches as to regain the momentum. Oftentimes, moves causing switches such as Toxic, as well as STAB moves powerful enough to break Substitutes are needed.
Quickstallers. After the momentum has been regained, these relatively fast stallers weaken opposing pokemon. Named after the strategy, these are staples of every quickstall team. Strategies such as SubToxic, for example, are great for this as it forces the opponent into a checkmate position. If they switch, the staller gets a free Substitute; if they keep attacking, they will eventually die of residual damage. Usually, 1 or 2 is enough, and the framework walls should work to support them, and give them something to fall back on when an opponent comes in on a staller without a Substitute. These aren’t unlike set-up sweepers in offensive teams; they are the main "win condition" of quickstall teams, as they generate pressure and keep momentum while retaining defensive capabilities.
Defensive Pivots. To bring in the main stallers (and weaken firepower enough so the opposing tank struggles to break the Substitute), pivots with attack-lowering moves or abilities such as Intimidate, and/or excellent defenses as to force a switch are needed. These usually do not possess reliable recovery (though it is helpful), and know a slow U-Turn or Volt Switch.
Offensive Clerics. Though quickstall teams should generally play cautiously to avoid status on the main quickstaller, in the rare case that they are inflicted clerics can work to help them recover. Clerics stop momentum, meaning that not all quickstall teams need it. However, if used as an extra slot on a pivot, it can serve well in the right conditions.
Entry Hazard Setters. Because of the large momentum that quick stall teams generate, entry hazards can capitalize on this. Usually, Stealth Rock is enough, as taking the time to set up Spikes will destroy any momentum this has.
Section 6.1 - A Study of a Model Team - Teambuilding: Conception to Success
Following true to the concept of quickstalling, I decided to make a core that could handle most set-up sweepers. Since the original members often included in passive stall teams were extremely generic and predictable, I decided to start of with something radically different. In analysis section “Playing on your own terms”, I discussed a specific way to counter set-up sweepers; pokemon with the unique ability Unaware. Since there are only two users actually viable, I decided to test the integrity of Unaware pokemon and selected Quagsire and Clefable to be members of my first core. Interestingly enough, they have decent defensive and offensive synergy together. I put them together with some randomly selected pokemon that I knew would be of some use in a quickstall team.
Quagsire, Clefable, Gliscor, Skarmory, Mega Scizor, Tyranitar
Oftentimes, these “experimental” teams I make to test out concepts often end as dismal failures. However, to my amazement, it went ahead and gave me a 10-win streak before being defeated. I started to think that quickstall indeed may be a very viable stall tactic in today’s metagame. However, I decided to return to the start and investigate which pokemon could use the Unaware core’s support.
Quagsire, Clefable
I soon found that Scizor had excellent synergy with both. Other than having reliable recovery, it could revenge-kill, scout and remove hazards while being able to tank many hits. I wasn’t marking it off as a mega quite yet, since I may be in need of a better mega pokemon, and Leftovers is quite useful. Though Defog may seem detrimental to a stall team, but remember, quick stall teams, in my dictionary, do not rely on entry hazard damage as my main source of passive damage, and Stealth Rock is often enough. Having many layers on the field means if the opponent manages to Defog or Rapid Spin, I’m now playing on their terms since I’ll lose my best source of damage. Not to mention Defog can’t be blocked.
Quagsire, Clefable, Scizor
I knew I needed a reliable Stealth Rocker. I also noticed that my current members were extremely weak to Charizard Y; Clefable wouldn’t be able to take a sun-boosted Fire Blast from base 159 Special Attack anyway. I decided on Heatran; though it lacked recovery, Clefable could support it with Wish. It also had Roar, which could rack up Stealth Rock damage against 4x or 2x weak pokemon.
Quagsire, Clefable, Scizor, Heatran
Next, I soon found that these four are extremely Earthquake weak. In a metagame where everybody and their mother runs Earthquake as coverage moves for physical attackers, I knew this would be quite annoying. I had several options. First of all, Skarmory is a great physical attacker, but then this team would be assassinated by Magnezone. Gliscor is also a good choice, but that would make my team doubly weak to Water, which is never a good thing. Finally, Dragonite is a great mixed wall with Multiscale but is Stealth Rock weak. I decided to run Gliscor for now, since it has Toxic Orb and can absorb status, can use a fast Taunt, and has excellent defence (not to mention it’s a good check to Lucario not carrying Ice Punch).
Quagsire, Clefable, Scizor, Heatran, Gliscor
Since I had two Electric immunities and 2 four-times resist types to Grass, I decided to go for Jellicent, which patches up my water weakness nicely with an immunity and bulk to take Volt Switches from defensive Rotom-W easily. Though it is Toxic bait, Clefable stops that nicely with team support via Heal Bell.
Quagsire, Clefable, Scizor, Heatran, Gliscor, Jellicent
Since I had no mega on my team, and Scizor was wanting bulk, I decided to chance Scizor into a Mega variant. It doesn’t have Swords Dance because of the necessity of Defog, but it works out fine since most stall teams will be stopped with Taunt from Gliscor and Jellicent anyway.
Quagsire, Clefable, Mega-Scizor, Heatran, Gliscor, Jellicent
After playing this team a bit, I stumbled upon what I call “teambuilder’s block”. It’s where the team should work great on paper, but somehow fails to meet expectations by giving me absolute loss after loss. Oftentimes, when I have team builder’s block I try to drastically change the team to something new. I decided to go back to quickstall’s roots and try to replace my 4 non-Unaware teammates to pokemon that would usually befit passive stall. We’re back to square 1 for now.
Quagsire, Clefable
I decided to look for inspiration. I went over old generation 5 Stall RMTs, and eventually decided several pokemon that I could try out. At this stage, I kind of understood why the original team didn’t work; the Unaware core was designed as a backup for setup sweepers, but since my other team members were so offensive I was only using them as mediocre walls.
Quagsire, Clefable, Chansey, Skarmory, Mega Venusaur, Heatran
Unfortunately, this wasn’t working either, and it was probably at this point where the sorry remnants of a team experienced its darkest hour. I decided to go back to the original concept; since in my knowledge no other player was running my exact playstyle, I had no way of knowing if it even had potential to work or not. But since I put so much effort on this concept, I was determined to come through. I divided quickstall’s roles into three partitions; dealing with offensive teams, dealing with balance, and dealing with stall. I soon realised my main problem with my previous version of the team was that it could be worn down so much with elements such as VoltTurn. I divided several pokemon in each role.
Quagsire, Clefable | Tangrowth, Slowbro | Skarmory, Blissey
Though I had my doubts, this team far exceeded my expectations. One of the few teams that worked in practice as well as on paper, I finally had my Mark 1 for the quickstall team. Right now, to any sceptics that may be present, I want to justify how this team is different from the classic balance team, and how it is also differentiated from traditional passive stall. First of all, unlike many stall teams that can be overwhelmed by powerful attacks, momentum and passive damage (since all stall pokemon need free turns to recover health), this team utilises the regenerator core of Tangrowth and Slowbro to ensure that I cannot be worn down. Next, it also isn’t traditional balance because of the presence of defensive behemoths Skarmory and Blissey, indicating a form of stall. Next, let’s look to see if this team fits our definition of quickstall. It minimises setup opportunities by using Taunt from Skarmory, and the presence of Blissey to discourage any special attacker not named Lucario from setting up and the Unaware duo to do the same psychologically. It minimises the amount of harm a pokemon boosted could due to Unaware and good walls such as Blissey and Skarmory that can usually live even boosted hits with ease. Skarmory can beat a +4 Scizor 1 v 1, which is quite a feat. Finally, it can recover from taking near-fatal damage by smart switching between Tangrowth and Slowbro to quickly recover health while disrupting the opponent’s momentum. However, some pokemon weren’t performing their roles as well as planned. Ogami, who was also collaborating on this project, pointed out that this team lacked offensive presence, and I decided to revert back to some original pokemon I had in my (previously unsuccessful) team.
Quagsire, Scizor, Tornadus-T, Slowbro, Gliscor, Blissey
Scizor and Gliscor more than made up for the gap which was Skarmory; in fact, I was quite shocked to learn that Scizor and Skarmory both shared the same base Defense stat, while Scizor had the advantage of better special bulk and higher HP stat, as well as good priority. Gliscor, on the other hand, makes for a great staller and stall breaker with his ability to absorb status, fire off a fast Taunt, and his double Leftovers recovery. Tornadus-T was quite an interesting addition, but worked out excellently; he made up for the spot Tangrowth vacated with an even faster Taunt and momentum-making skills.
I quickly found Blissey wasn’t pulling her weight; even with Seismic Toss added, it was still incredibly easy setup fodder for pokemon such as Lucario, and Quagsire isn't strong enough to calmly wall an Adaptability STAB Close Combat. I decided to replace Blissey with Snorlax; they both have great Special Defense and HP, but Snorlax can hit much harder, and still has pseudo-reliable recovery with Rest, as well as being one of the rare counters to Charizard-Y.
Also, as Lucario, one of the largest threats to stall was banned at this stage, I decided to change the team’s overall style to a more offensive one. It was here that the development for quickstall stopped for a while; I needed a break, and went on to create more offensive, balanced teams. However, in that process (as well as some nice ideas from Ogami), I found an interesting core, which really suited quickstall of Heatran, Zapdos and Gastrodon. Their respective immunities to common attacking types allowed me to create a more offensive, yet quickstalling team, as I didn’t have to rely on pure defensive stats anymore.
Heatran, Gastrodon, Zapdos
I decided to re-add Slowbro, as it was an excellent counter to physical Dragons and Azumarill, which this team was troubled with. Also, it strengthened the team’s quality of being on the offensive while not sacrificing defense in the process.
Heatran, Gastrodon, Zapdos, Slowbro
As more insurance against physical attackers (and once again tying into the idea of quickstall), I decided to introduce Landorus-T. Gastrodon and Slowbro covered its weaknesses, making it an excellent defensive pivot, as well as a Fighting counter that wasn’t utterly demolished by boosted Terrakion.
Heatran, Gastrodon, Zapdos, Slowbro, Landorus-T
Finally, I decided to take advantage of this team’s offensiveness by adding on Mega Scizor as my final pokemon. It can Defog, allowing Zapdos to stall better, while giving the team some powerful priority.
Heatran, Gastrodon, Zapdos, Slowbro, Landorus-T, Mega-Scizor
This is the current reincarnation of the team. Much more offensively minded than the first version, it utilizes immunities well to check offensive threats, while having good offensive power to break through defensive teams as well.
Section 6.2 - A Study of a Model Team - Team In-Depth Analysis
Note: Since this team is still under construction, the descriptions are somewhat short and lackluster compared to my two previous RMTs. However, once I have gotten enough feedback, I’ll update them to be much longer and detailed.
Heatran (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 248 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Magma Storm
- Roar
- Ancient Power
Heatran forms the first section of my three-part defensive core. The combination of Heatran, Gastrodon and Zapdos is incredibly underused (in fact, I don’t think I have ever seen Zapdos being introduced to the equation in Gen 5, where Heatran+Gastrodon was all the rage), but is very potent. Heatran contributes as an excellent special wall with good coverage and utility. Lava Plume is great for making the opponent think twice on bringing in a set-up sweeper because of its large burn rate, while serving as an accurate STAB. On the other hand, Magma Storm is a relatively underused, yet effective move. With its trapping ability, it allows me to deal with problematic threats that switch-in, as well as potentially giving Zapdos, the main quickstaller, a free Substitute. On the other hand, Roar ensures I’m not setup fodder for SubBoosters, which ironically enough is the team's most threatening foe. Finally, Ancient Power allows me to effectively counter Talonflame, as well as deal good damage to Dragonite, Salamence, and other Flying-types.
Gastrodon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Def / 160 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Recover
Gastrodon comes in where Heatran left off. Its surprisingly good bulk allows it to take on most variants of Greninja, and stall it out (Ice Beam does about 30%). Scald and Earth Power complement each other nicely, while giving switch-ins something to think about. Toxic and Recover allows Gastrodon to stall out threats Zapdos cannot deal with. However, it is worn down fast by opposing Spikes users, meaning support from Scizor is essential. Storm Drain is an incredibly useful ability, giving it an immunity to Water-types, making it THE BEST Rotom-W counter in the game, period. It prevents Rotom-W from generating momentum by forcing it to manually switch out, and poison a switch-in.
Faster than Thunderbird (If you get the reference)
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 80 SDef / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Toxic
- Roost
- Substitute
Though this team functions as a unit, Zapdos is definitely where all the the team support goes. SubToxic Zapdos is an incredibly underused, yet effective set in the current metagame. Since many attackers have incredible firepower, Zapdos uses Substitute to weak their attacks, while gradually using Toxic to wear them down. On the other hand, Zapdos possesses extreme bulk already; even CB Tyranitar can be stalled out due to Roost making it neutral to Stone Edge. Of course, Zapdos is hard-countered by Gliscor and Venusaur, but Slowbro and Scizor to some extent can help neutralize them, as well as the fact both like to come in on Heatran (psst; loltrap). Though it may seem not very effective, SubZapdos is one of the best pokemon in the game. Once it gets a free Substitute on a slower pokemon, it can usually kill off one and heavily cripple another, while switching out with full health. Though Discharge may seem illogical on a Toxic-based set, it its good for hitting switch-ins such as Scizor and Venusaur, and paralysis is very useful for such a relatively slow team. Pressure allows Zapdos to stall out harmful attacks, such as Hydro Pump and Stone Edge, and ultimately render them useless.
Landorus (Landorus-T) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
Landorus-T’s the team’s main defensive pivot. Intimidate softens otherwise crippling blows and neutralizes Dragon Dance attackers to an extent, while its excellent typing gives it an immunity to Ground and a resistance to Fighting. Earthquake is its best STAB; even without investment, it hits incredibly hard. On the other hand, Knock Off allows this team to deconstruct opposing stall and offensive teams alike, removing threatening items such as Choice Band/Specs. Stealth Rock is a necessity on quickstall because of its tendency to cause switches. Its slow U-Turn allows me to bring in more important members such as Zapdos unharmed.
Scizor (F) @ Scizorite
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Atk / 164 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
Mega-Scizor is an underestimated defensive threat. Its defensive stats are (marginally) BETTER THAN SKARMORY, while good priority in Bullet Punch serves it well on the offensive side as well. Its main purpose is to take out fast sweepers that get out of control, such as Alakazam and Gengar. With Technician and STAB, Bullet Punch hits very hard even with low investment. U-Turn, on the other hand, lets it re-gain momentum much easier, especially with the threat of Bullet Punch. Defog is essential on this set to to give Zapdos a much easier time stalling, as well as maximising defensive potential on Slowbro, Heatran, and Gastrodon.
Slowbro (M) @ Assault Vest
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 56 SAtk / 60 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
Arguably the most offensive pokemon on the team, Slowbro attacks hard with very good coverage. Assault Vest allows Slowbro to check Rotom-W in the case that Gastrodon goes down, while its physical bulk makes it an excellent counter to Azumarill and most dragons. Scald and Psyshock are obligatory STABs, hitting defensive behemoths such as Blissey, while crippling offensive Terrakion. Fire Blast allows Slowbro to demolish Skarmory and Ferrothorn, while Ice Beam capitalises on its ability to switch into Outrages by 1HKO’ing them.
Export:
Heatran (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 248 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Magma Storm
- Roar
- Ancient Power
Gastrodon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Def / 160 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Recover
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 80 SDef / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Toxic
- Roost
- Substitute
Landorus (Landorus-T) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
Scizor (F) @ Scizorite
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Atk / 164 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
Slowbro (M) @ Assault Vest
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 56 SAtk / 60 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 248 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Magma Storm
- Roar
- Ancient Power
Gastrodon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Def / 160 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Recover
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 80 SDef / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Toxic
- Roost
- Substitute
Landorus (Landorus-T) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
Scizor (F) @ Scizorite
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Atk / 164 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
Slowbro (M) @ Assault Vest
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 56 SAtk / 60 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
Section 7 - Outro
Though this was a long read, I thank you for looking through it. This is what quickstall is; at its fundamentals, a playstyle that abuses both offensive and defensive prowess and synergy, while stalling out the opponent while keeping momentum using a quickstaller.
So, what are your opinions on this? I personally believe that this playstyle has great potential, and while it may have flaws atm, that’s the same for all playstyles. In the end, it comes down to the player’s battling ability.
This, I believe, took me a full month to write up. Now for a well-deserved coffee break...
NOTE: This thread is still incomplete. The main reason I posted this in a stage not final was because several friends prompted me to post this (as this was, as they say, extremely overdue). Because of this, the post's framework is complete, but may just be blocks of text. I'll finalise this soon, and will probably post it in the OU discussions (with a revised copy) afterwards.
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