Other Metagames BH Spore Stall

[Still Alive!]

Introduction​

This team is a relatively stall-y team that uses spore a ton. The team is mostly centered around subseeb Giratina, with the rest of the team playing various roles that aim to take care of any counters to Giratina. There aren't any outstanding sweepers on the team, for the most part the team's made of bulkier Pokemon who use a lot of spore and switching moves to keep momentum going and gradually chip down opponent's health.

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The Team​

Mega Metapod (Giratina) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 72 Def / 184 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leech Seed
- Infestation
- Substitute
- Spore
​

Giratina is sort of the meat of the team. It's EV's and nature maximize bulk, and Poison heal and leech seed keep it sustainable. The Toxic Orb also has the bonus of keeping it from being put to sleep and Imposterproofing it. Essentially, Giratina just spores opponents, sets up sub, and then uses infestation and leech seed to chip down opponent health while trapping them and healing. Ghost typing protects it from being trapped by other stallers, allows it to check imposters of Regigigas, and lets in switch in on predicted Normal or Fighting moves. Against Imposters of its self, leech seed can be thrown down on them on a predicted switch in or on their first turn out in hopes of winning the speed tie, but if they manage to get down a sub they either have to pp stalled out or killed with Greninja. Imposters won't be trappable though, since they get ghost typing, so seeding them will probably only force them out, not kill them.

tøp tier (Registeel) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Spore
- Rapid Spin
- U-turn
- Haze
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Registeel is here to deal with setup sweepers, remove hazards, and act as a pivot. Setup and Contrary sweepers can be dealt with well with prankster haze, and spore as well, depending on the risk of running into safety goggles, dazzling, and whether they seem capable of OHKOing. Besides just using Haze, though, Registeel can be brought in pretty safely in a lot of situations to spore and then u-turn out. Steel typing makes it a great hazard remover, as it resists stealth rocks and doesn't worry about Toxic Spikes. Safety Goggles protect it from Magic Bouncers bouncing back spore.

Gay Power (Regigigas) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Turboblaze
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Fake Out
- Swords Dance
- Baton Pass
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Regigas is here to kill frail sweepers and provide momentum. The Fake Out Extreme Speed combo 2HKO's common sweepers like Deoxys-A, Pheromosa, and Mewtwo-Y. Turboblaze is run to bypass Dazzling. It can 3HKO Rayquaza-M after a swords dance, and hits Chansey hard. Swords dance also allows it to do good damage agaist bulkier Pokemon. There aren't really any Pokemon on the team that benefit much from Baton Pass-ed Sword Dance boosts, but Baton Pass still allows it to act as a pivot while letting teammates deal a little more damage. Generally fake out and baton pass work have great synergy with Registeel's Prankster Spore and U turn.

Frog dude (Greninja-Ash) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Water Bubble
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sparkling Aria
- Dark Pulse
- Vacuum Wave
- Taunt
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Greninja breaks substitute stalls (including Imposters of Giratina) and kills fragile sweepers. Taunt stops common stallers from doing much, and leaves them open to Water Bubble boosted Sparkling Aria, which hits through sub, or STAB dark pulse if they resist Water. The sash lets greninja hit fragile sweepers hard, take a hit, and then finish them off with priority Vaccuum Wave. Max speed investment lets Greninja outspeed Gengar-M and Taunt Entrainment sets or Dark Pulse Mold Breaker sets.

IStoleThisSet (Zygarde-Complete) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Whirlwind
- Core Enforcer

Zygarde is here to be a bulky pivot who weakens opponents or does a little chip damage and then U-turns out to keep momentum and deal chip damage and activate regenerator. Whirlwind is mostly for bulky substitute pokemon that Greninja can't deal with, namely Kyogre, who resists Sparkling Aria and often runs Electric special moves. Core Enforcer and Knock Off just generally aim to mess with opponents, though this team benefits especially from knocking off Leftovers and Safety Goggles and suppressing Psychic Surge, Electric Surge, Poison Heal, and Regenerator.​

Snek (Rayquaza-Mega) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spore
- Substitute
- Oblivion Wing
- Giga Drain
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Rayquaza is here as a late-game clean up sweeper. Spore lets it set up substitute safely and then heal up with Giga Drain or Oblivion Wing. Focus Sash makes sure it can get off that first spore against strong, faster pokemon, and Liquid Ooze ImposterProof's it.

 

[woofmasterarf]

Hey Still Alive! Did you try Topsy-turvy on Registeel? It does one step better than eliminating stat boosts. It reverses them into stat decreases.

 

[Still Alive!]

Yo Stevan's Sceptile, thanks for the suggestions, but a few of the Pokemon you said I might have trouble with I listed specific counters to.

Sturdy-safeguard shedinja: this Pokémon can be really annoying if one has it on his team. With its ability sturdy, none of your Pokémon can inflict damage to it. You don’t have a stealth rock either, or a Pokémon with moongiest beam/sunsteel strike. So most of the time it will be an easy win for your opponent.

Giratina checks Sturdydinja with infestation. I feel pretty safe switching it in against shedinja too, because the only real scary moves shedinja can carry are endeavor and status. Toxic Orb protects from status, and Ghost typing makes it immune to endeavor. Every once in a while I run into scrappy Endeavor shedinja, but as a general rule I can find ways to kill that with other mons since if its scrappy it can't run sturdy.

Normalize gengar: this is one thing many teams are weak against, and yes, yours too. Your team lacks a Pokémon which is as fast/faster than gengar, so it can easily normalize all your Pokémon and you’ll end up forfeiting.

My team doesn't lack a Pokemon "fast/faster than Gengar". Outspeeding Gengar-M is, as I explained, the reason for maxing Greninja-A's speed. I run taunt and dark pulse on it, one stops entrainment and the other is a supereffective STAB-move. Also, if Greninja happens to be dead, Registeel's prankster spore can usually keep down a Mega Gengar long enough to deal with it (as common variants run spooky plate or focus sash, I've never run into safety goggles Gengar-M), usually with a switch in to Zygarde-C, who can supress Normalize/Mold Breaker or knock off Spooky Plate.

Multi-hitting moves: this is one thing I’ve seen many teams having, especially primal groudon with shell smash-skill link. Many of your Pokémon have focus sash, which will be useless in front of these kind of moves.

I mean, yeah, Multi-Hit moves can be annoying, but usually they're not too scary unboosted (Registeel's Haze), and in the case of the skill link Groudon you talked about, Greninja-A decimates Max Hp Max SpDef +SpDef Nature Groudon Primal with Sparkling Aria regardless of whether it has a life orb, unless of course there's harsh sunlight, in which case a Life Orb's not really gonna help. I like focus sashes because they help in more situations than other items IMO.

Finally, your Deoxys-S set is pretty good and I might consider switching a Deoxys-S for Rayquaza like you suggested, but I sort of like Rayquaza more because this is more of a defensive team build. Also, unless u run into nuzzle or something like that, lum berry and Magic Bounce together seems like overkill, and after lum berry is used up it seems it would be easy for the foe to just nuzzle again.

I might not use all your suggestions, but still, thanks for taking the time to give me some pointers on my team!

 

[Still Alive!]

Hey Still Alive! Did you try Topsy-turvy on Registeel? It does one step better than eliminating stat boosts. It reverses them into stat decreases.

Thanks Stacy, but I prefer Haze because it's not stopped by Magic Bounce, or, since I'm running Prankster, Dark types and Dazzling.

 

[woofmasterarf]

Still Alive!: Ok that makes since.

 

[anaconja]

This team looks great, and I'd like to make it better with some suggestions:
- You should consider putting an Assault Vest on Zygarde to add more special bulk (perhaps change Whirlwind to Dragon Tail?)
- You might want to change some of your pokemon because three of them are weak to Ice and Dragon (2 doubly weak to Ice, in fact) That means you can be pretty easily swept by Refrigerate Kyurem-Black and Contrary Rayquaza-Mega with Draco Meteor.
- Greninja-Ash is good (never thought of Sparkling Aria before) but when Water Absorb Groudon-Primal is sent it it can't do much, so you might want to consider a ground-type move.
- Rayquaza-Mega really doesn't need Liquid Ooze. Even if the Imposter Chansey can't absorb health from you, you can't either, and eventually the Chansey will win. The classic Tail Glow and Triage is a better way to go.
- Regigigas 3HKO'ing Mega Rayquaza isn't enough, as Triage and Tail Glow-boosted it OHKOs Regigigas and regains any health it lost from it. Consider a PH Shift Gear + Facade set, or a Shell Smash Dazzling set.

A good start, but definitely needs some working on. Good start, though!