after it became pretty clear that pangoro and moltres were getting banned, i started theorizing about what the new metagame would look like. the first thing that came to mind was that defensive builds would be far, far more effective than before. i've generally always avoided stall teams, stemming from my dislike of facing them and general preference towards more balanced and offensive builds. but i decided that i wanted to become competent enough at this playstyle to be able to understand and beat it with more ease in the future, and that's worked out with this team. i've not got huge achievements with this team (obviously, considering how early on it is in this new metagame), but i really only play pokemon for fun, and this team went on a 21-0 streak before i lagged out, got a hilarious amount of hax, and made stupid decisions when i was too tired to really be playing. i'm not retiring the team, but i think i've made it as good as i can myself through testing, and i'll probably move onto building more balanced /offensive ones, so i'd like to hear your feedback on what could make it better, as i'm still quite new to this playstyle. so let's start!
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The Long Count (Drapion) @ Black Sludge
Careful / Battle Armor
EVs: 248 HP / 208 SpD / 52 Spe
Knock Off / Toxic Spikes / Taunt / Aqua Tail
drapion is really vital to the team, due to the number of different qualties it provides. toxic spikes are the most important of these, without a doubt. very rarely will i set up more than one layer, since most pokemon only stay in for three turns or less, and a single layer outdamages a double layer in that time. taunt is probably the next most important move, preventing opposing defogs, set up, recovery, and generally being very useful agaisn topposing defensive teams. knock off is my stab move that is neccessary to beat calm mind users in tandem with taunt, and knocking off leftovers makes my opponent succumb to toxic spikes all the quicker. aqua tail might look a bit surprising on a defensive drapion, but with my lack of a super fat special wall, i absolutely need to minimize the chances mega camerupt can fire off free attacks. an interesting thing i noted about stall teams is that since it takes far longer for an opposing pokemon to die, opponents have a far lower number of free switchins to bring super strong wallbreakers like mega camerupt in, so double switches are a lot easier to pull off and are more rewarding. aqua tail also helps weaken down rhyperior that think they an get a free switchin, making a lategame steelix sweep easier to pull off. the EVs outspeed max exploud and golbat that creep a little, so i can knock off the former to drastically reduce its damage output, and taunt/knock off the latter.
River Warlord (Poliwrath) @ Leftovers
Relaxed Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Circle Throw / Scald / Rest / Sleep Talk
an old relic of last generation, i chose poliwrath for my team due to it offering exactly what the team needed: a surefire answer to some top threats. the main pokemon i rely on it to counter is feraligatr; while it may not be able to break a gatr sub in one hit, that's fine, as gatr can boost up as much as it likes, it's just not going to break through poliwrath, especially when poisoned. the typing also allows me to take on clawitzer and houndoom to some degree, two excelent wallbreakers. further checked offensive threats include but are not limited to tyrantrum, emboar, mega steelix, glalie and camerupt, escavalier, drapion, durant and cobalion. rest and sleep talk keep me healthy and is especially viable in conjunction with heal bell, while both stabs offer tremendous utility by racking up poison and burn. i didn't expect too much from poliwrath initially, but it's been a really reliable team member to fall back on. water absorb is very nice for pivoting in on scalds to nab that extra bit of recovery.
Furor Teutonicus (Steelix) @ Steelixite
Careful / Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Atk / 204 SpD / 20 spe
Curse / Rest / Heavy Slam / Earthquake
this was the pokemon i started out with. i wanted the first pokemon to be one that absolutely got better with the two latest bans, and i had no doubt that steelix was best suited to this role. it's my endgame win condition, a great answer to opposing stall breakers, and a brilliant midgame pivot, especially when used in tandem with aromatisse. heavy slam and earthquake are the obligatory stab moves, and have pretty great coverage together. curse sets me up for the sweep, letting me break through pretty much anything physically based opponent, walls like alomomola and cresselia, and opposing boosters. rest is an important move as it's steelix's only form of recovery, and keeps steelix healthy in the early and midgame. it and heal bell, or simply wish and coming in on poison or steel moves, keeps steelix in tip top shape until its ready to sweep, while not wasting its impressive defensive capabilities when they're needed earlier on. lategame, steelix is tanky enough to generally not be too disturbed by spending two turns asleep, as by that point ive eliminated powerful specially attacking water- and fire-types. 32 attack evs guarantee the ohko on -1 cobalion (or if im at +1) to minimize the close combats i have to take, while 20 Speed EVs creep amoonguss, which i'd like to be able to beat midgame
Sun Never Sets (Aromatisse) @ Leftovers
Bold / Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 64 SpD / 16 Spe
Moonblast / Wish / Protect / Heal Bell
the cleric. lots of my teammates depend on aromatisse for recovery through all stages of the game, be it from waking up from their own rests, or receiving the wish support. i'm not really sure how much explaining i have to do here, as it's a fairly standard pokemon and everyone knows what it does. as said before, i have a good few teammates that lack recovery of their own; aromatisse solves that issue. heal bell allows me to play a bit more recklessly when it comes to letting things get poisoned and burned, and moonblast is a great, strong stab with a solid side effect. it generally 2hkos all the things weak to it. the evs and nature are to make good use of fairy's primarily physical resistances, and i creep the uninvested base 30 speed group of pokemon o that i can get in a clutch wish or heal bell should the situation arise. the special defense evs make taking clawitzer on far more comfortable, as they let me avoid the 2hko from scald, and thus stall it out with relative ease.
Iklwa (Golbat) @ Eviolite
Impish / Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Defog / Roost / Brave Bird / Toxic
golbat is the obligatory hazard remover stall teams require. it's great bulk makes this fairly easy to do, and with the nature of toxic spikes, it's not as counter productive as it might seem. my general gameplan is to get toxic spikes up as quickly as possible, while allowing my opponent to set hazards of their own in the meantime if it comes down to that. by the time every poisonable pokemon has been well, poisoned, i defog, and then prioritze getting stealth rock up. of course, this strategy varies if there are few poisonable pokemon, if they have a grounded poison-type, or if they have a large amount of pokemon vulnerable to stealth rock, but you get the idea. toxic is for those levitating annoying mons like braviary, cresselia and uh, articuno (yes i did see one), and has some sick synergy with infiltrator. roost obviously keeps me healthy, and i chose brve bird over super fang because virizion is quite the threat, and i generally like being able to get off reliable damage with a powerful stab. the evs let me outspeed and ohko adamant emboar, something i dont want to let run around for too long. golbat's typing is really gorgeous, letting me take on a really wide range of pokemon, from whimsicott to virizion. speaking of, the latter is the main reason i chose to make this physically defensive.
Druidic Lore (Druddigon) @ Leftovers
Careful / Rough Skin
EVs: 248 HP / 20 Atk / 240 SpD
Stealth Rock / Dragon Tail / Sucker Punch / Earthquake
and we come to the last pokemon (always a relief to finish typing up an RMT). I needed a Stealth Rocker for obvious reasons, and there were a couple of holes that needed to be patched up. enter the drudd. druddigon solves my otherwise massive delphox issues, as well as being a great check/counter to other elemental opponents. it has a specially defensive spread to soak up the special attacks its resistances are more suited to taking, and its ability discourages the use of physical moves anyway. if you laugh at the moveset you'll make me sad :( it does everything i need of it: dragon tail is pretty strong and racks up immense amounts of damage over the course of the game and discourages setup, while sucker punch has been far more useful in practise than i thought itd be on paper. it can shave off the last 25-30% of most offensive pokemon, which has been extremely clutch in multiple situations if i don't want to or can't afford to tank another powerful hit. it also ohkos delphox after SR and a round of LO/poison damage. earthquake is because i have as few pokemon as setup bait for some threats i can't directly wall as possible: in this case cobalion and mega camerupt. the 20 attack EVs guarantee the 2hko on the former.
hey, thanks for reading this guys. i think the team's pretty good, but i know it can be made better. i've done my best to try and solidly cover as many threats as possible, as through testing i've not yet found one mon that completely screws me over. cobalion is common and annoying though, as it's practically immune to my hazards and things can get ugly after an SD. mixed abomasnow also isn't pleasant to handle. if you can guess where the nicknames are from you'll make me a very happy cherub ^.^ here's an importable if you want to give it a whirl:
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The Long Count (Drapion) @ Black Sludge
Careful / Battle Armor
EVs: 248 HP / 208 SpD / 52 Spe
Knock Off / Toxic Spikes / Taunt / Aqua Tail
drapion is really vital to the team, due to the number of different qualties it provides. toxic spikes are the most important of these, without a doubt. very rarely will i set up more than one layer, since most pokemon only stay in for three turns or less, and a single layer outdamages a double layer in that time. taunt is probably the next most important move, preventing opposing defogs, set up, recovery, and generally being very useful agaisn topposing defensive teams. knock off is my stab move that is neccessary to beat calm mind users in tandem with taunt, and knocking off leftovers makes my opponent succumb to toxic spikes all the quicker. aqua tail might look a bit surprising on a defensive drapion, but with my lack of a super fat special wall, i absolutely need to minimize the chances mega camerupt can fire off free attacks. an interesting thing i noted about stall teams is that since it takes far longer for an opposing pokemon to die, opponents have a far lower number of free switchins to bring super strong wallbreakers like mega camerupt in, so double switches are a lot easier to pull off and are more rewarding. aqua tail also helps weaken down rhyperior that think they an get a free switchin, making a lategame steelix sweep easier to pull off. the EVs outspeed max exploud and golbat that creep a little, so i can knock off the former to drastically reduce its damage output, and taunt/knock off the latter.
River Warlord (Poliwrath) @ Leftovers
Relaxed Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Circle Throw / Scald / Rest / Sleep Talk
an old relic of last generation, i chose poliwrath for my team due to it offering exactly what the team needed: a surefire answer to some top threats. the main pokemon i rely on it to counter is feraligatr; while it may not be able to break a gatr sub in one hit, that's fine, as gatr can boost up as much as it likes, it's just not going to break through poliwrath, especially when poisoned. the typing also allows me to take on clawitzer and houndoom to some degree, two excelent wallbreakers. further checked offensive threats include but are not limited to tyrantrum, emboar, mega steelix, glalie and camerupt, escavalier, drapion, durant and cobalion. rest and sleep talk keep me healthy and is especially viable in conjunction with heal bell, while both stabs offer tremendous utility by racking up poison and burn. i didn't expect too much from poliwrath initially, but it's been a really reliable team member to fall back on. water absorb is very nice for pivoting in on scalds to nab that extra bit of recovery.
Furor Teutonicus (Steelix) @ Steelixite
Careful / Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Atk / 204 SpD / 20 spe
Curse / Rest / Heavy Slam / Earthquake
this was the pokemon i started out with. i wanted the first pokemon to be one that absolutely got better with the two latest bans, and i had no doubt that steelix was best suited to this role. it's my endgame win condition, a great answer to opposing stall breakers, and a brilliant midgame pivot, especially when used in tandem with aromatisse. heavy slam and earthquake are the obligatory stab moves, and have pretty great coverage together. curse sets me up for the sweep, letting me break through pretty much anything physically based opponent, walls like alomomola and cresselia, and opposing boosters. rest is an important move as it's steelix's only form of recovery, and keeps steelix healthy in the early and midgame. it and heal bell, or simply wish and coming in on poison or steel moves, keeps steelix in tip top shape until its ready to sweep, while not wasting its impressive defensive capabilities when they're needed earlier on. lategame, steelix is tanky enough to generally not be too disturbed by spending two turns asleep, as by that point ive eliminated powerful specially attacking water- and fire-types. 32 attack evs guarantee the ohko on -1 cobalion (or if im at +1) to minimize the close combats i have to take, while 20 Speed EVs creep amoonguss, which i'd like to be able to beat midgame
Sun Never Sets (Aromatisse) @ Leftovers
Bold / Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 64 SpD / 16 Spe
Moonblast / Wish / Protect / Heal Bell
the cleric. lots of my teammates depend on aromatisse for recovery through all stages of the game, be it from waking up from their own rests, or receiving the wish support. i'm not really sure how much explaining i have to do here, as it's a fairly standard pokemon and everyone knows what it does. as said before, i have a good few teammates that lack recovery of their own; aromatisse solves that issue. heal bell allows me to play a bit more recklessly when it comes to letting things get poisoned and burned, and moonblast is a great, strong stab with a solid side effect. it generally 2hkos all the things weak to it. the evs and nature are to make good use of fairy's primarily physical resistances, and i creep the uninvested base 30 speed group of pokemon o that i can get in a clutch wish or heal bell should the situation arise. the special defense evs make taking clawitzer on far more comfortable, as they let me avoid the 2hko from scald, and thus stall it out with relative ease.
Iklwa (Golbat) @ Eviolite
Impish / Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Defog / Roost / Brave Bird / Toxic
golbat is the obligatory hazard remover stall teams require. it's great bulk makes this fairly easy to do, and with the nature of toxic spikes, it's not as counter productive as it might seem. my general gameplan is to get toxic spikes up as quickly as possible, while allowing my opponent to set hazards of their own in the meantime if it comes down to that. by the time every poisonable pokemon has been well, poisoned, i defog, and then prioritze getting stealth rock up. of course, this strategy varies if there are few poisonable pokemon, if they have a grounded poison-type, or if they have a large amount of pokemon vulnerable to stealth rock, but you get the idea. toxic is for those levitating annoying mons like braviary, cresselia and uh, articuno (yes i did see one), and has some sick synergy with infiltrator. roost obviously keeps me healthy, and i chose brve bird over super fang because virizion is quite the threat, and i generally like being able to get off reliable damage with a powerful stab. the evs let me outspeed and ohko adamant emboar, something i dont want to let run around for too long. golbat's typing is really gorgeous, letting me take on a really wide range of pokemon, from whimsicott to virizion. speaking of, the latter is the main reason i chose to make this physically defensive.
Druidic Lore (Druddigon) @ Leftovers
Careful / Rough Skin
EVs: 248 HP / 20 Atk / 240 SpD
Stealth Rock / Dragon Tail / Sucker Punch / Earthquake
and we come to the last pokemon (always a relief to finish typing up an RMT). I needed a Stealth Rocker for obvious reasons, and there were a couple of holes that needed to be patched up. enter the drudd. druddigon solves my otherwise massive delphox issues, as well as being a great check/counter to other elemental opponents. it has a specially defensive spread to soak up the special attacks its resistances are more suited to taking, and its ability discourages the use of physical moves anyway. if you laugh at the moveset you'll make me sad :( it does everything i need of it: dragon tail is pretty strong and racks up immense amounts of damage over the course of the game and discourages setup, while sucker punch has been far more useful in practise than i thought itd be on paper. it can shave off the last 25-30% of most offensive pokemon, which has been extremely clutch in multiple situations if i don't want to or can't afford to tank another powerful hit. it also ohkos delphox after SR and a round of LO/poison damage. earthquake is because i have as few pokemon as setup bait for some threats i can't directly wall as possible: in this case cobalion and mega camerupt. the 20 attack EVs guarantee the 2hko on the former.
hey, thanks for reading this guys. i think the team's pretty good, but i know it can be made better. i've done my best to try and solidly cover as many threats as possible, as through testing i've not yet found one mon that completely screws me over. cobalion is common and annoying though, as it's practically immune to my hazards and things can get ugly after an SD. mixed abomasnow also isn't pleasant to handle. if you can guess where the nicknames are from you'll make me a very happy cherub ^.^ here's an importable if you want to give it a whirl:
The Long Count (Drapion) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 248 HP / 216 SpD / 44 Spe
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Toxic Spikes
- Taunt
- Aqua Tail
Druidic Lore (Druddigon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 248 HP / 20 Atk / 240 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Dragon Tail
- Sucker Punch
- Earthquake
River Warlord (Poliwrath) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Circle Throw
- Scald
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Furor Teutonicus (Steelix) @ Steelixite
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Atk / 224 SpD
Careful Nature
- Curse
- Rest
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
Sun Never Sets (Aromatisse) @ Leftovers
Ability: Aroma Veil
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
Iklwa (Golbat) @ Eviolite
Ability: Infiltrator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Toxic
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 248 HP / 216 SpD / 44 Spe
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Toxic Spikes
- Taunt
- Aqua Tail
Druidic Lore (Druddigon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 248 HP / 20 Atk / 240 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Dragon Tail
- Sucker Punch
- Earthquake
River Warlord (Poliwrath) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Circle Throw
- Scald
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Furor Teutonicus (Steelix) @ Steelixite
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Atk / 224 SpD
Careful Nature
- Curse
- Rest
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
Sun Never Sets (Aromatisse) @ Leftovers
Ability: Aroma Veil
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
Iklwa (Golbat) @ Eviolite
Ability: Infiltrator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Toxic
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