obi
formerly david stone
I've noticed a lot of people act as though anything that promotes stall is horrible, and that defensive play is automatically not fun, so I figured I would post why I prefer slower play.
There is one primary reason for this. The earlier you are in the battle, the less information you have, both about the opponent's team and about how they play. This lack of information means that you are limited in your use of prediction and long-term thinking. Instead, you are forced to guess. Guessing wrong with an offensive team often means you lose. Stall teams have a bit more "wiggle room" for wrong guesses, meaning the game stretches out a little longer so you can maximize the portion of each play that is prediction as opposed to guessing.
Contrary to what many believe, there is prediction involved in using a stall team. This is especially true in stall vs. offensive, at least as long as the stall team is good. If your team consists mostly of Pokemon who just sit there walling stuff without really doing anything (non-Calm Mind Cresselia, for instance), then yes, prediction isn't going to help much. However, when you are setting up Spikes, Stealth Rock, and Toxic Spikes, you need to get as many free turns as possible.
If they have Heracross, for instance, it would be great to have it be heads-up against your full HP Skarmory. That way, Heracross couldn't safely stay in and Close Combat, giving you a turn to use Spikes without losing any HP. Moreover, when the game has lasted a little bit, you can start to get a feel for how the opponent plays, so you'll know whether he's willing to take that risk of Brave Bird and stay in and Close Combat you. This means you may switch your Skarmory into Heatran, knowing that he's already seen your Blissey and wants to bring in some sort of physical attacker to take advantage of Blissey. This kind of play will usually mean you lose Skarmory if you haven't gotten a good read on your opponent, and it's difficult (often impossible) to get a good read before you've played them for a few turns.
In the fairly classic Hippowdon vs. Roosting Zapdos match-up, things are also interesting. You obviously want to EQ on their Roost, and Ice Fang / Slack Off otherwise. If you don't have Ice Fang, then Roar is still a good choice as long as you have Stealth Rock down. You might even want to throw in things like a switch to Blissey / Tentacruel / Spiritomb when Zapdos uses Hidden Power so that you can waste its PP. However, for something like a switch to Tentacruel vs. Zapdos to not be suicide, you have to have enough information about their play style to reliably know they aren't going to use Thunderbolt.
In stall vs. stall, yes, prediction is minimized, but prediction is not the only form of in-battle skill (as opposed to the pre-battle skill, team building). Stall vs. stall is probably the highest form of long-term thinking. You need to think several turns ahead to be able to do any damage to them, otherwise you'll be getting worn down just as much as they are. In Skarmory vs. Skarmory, for instance, you have to decide whether it's worth it to set another layer of Spikes or Whirlwind in hopes of weakening his Tentacruel (I'm assuming both teams are my stall team here for simplicity).
However, prediction still comes into play. The best example of prediction + long-term thinking is Tentacruel vs. Skarmory, with a Wish Pokemon on Tentacruel's team (probably Jirachi now that Blissey can't Wish). You have to decide whether it's worth it for your Skarmory to possibly lose some HP to Tentacruel's Surf to hurt it with Brave Bird. You have to predict when their Wisher is going to stay in (and not Whirlwind) and when they are going to try to switch to Tentacruel (and thus Whirlwind, unless they are weak, in which case you Brave Bird). The most interesting long-term thinking is the decision on whether to sacrifice Tentacruel to take down Skarmory, or vice-versa. This is essentially a question of which will be more harmful to your opponent in the long run: Spikes or Toxic Spikes.
I hope these examples show that the stall game is far more nuanced than "OK, he brought in Special Attacker X, time to switch to my special wall.". But to get back to my original point, I feel that stall is what allows this situations to really come to light. Early on in the game, you simply don't have enough information about your opponent and their team to make accurate judgments on what they can do / will do. Drawing out the game a little gives a larger pool of information to maximize skill and minimize 'luck' (I consider a situation of blindly guessing what the opponent will do luck).
There is one primary reason for this. The earlier you are in the battle, the less information you have, both about the opponent's team and about how they play. This lack of information means that you are limited in your use of prediction and long-term thinking. Instead, you are forced to guess. Guessing wrong with an offensive team often means you lose. Stall teams have a bit more "wiggle room" for wrong guesses, meaning the game stretches out a little longer so you can maximize the portion of each play that is prediction as opposed to guessing.
Contrary to what many believe, there is prediction involved in using a stall team. This is especially true in stall vs. offensive, at least as long as the stall team is good. If your team consists mostly of Pokemon who just sit there walling stuff without really doing anything (non-Calm Mind Cresselia, for instance), then yes, prediction isn't going to help much. However, when you are setting up Spikes, Stealth Rock, and Toxic Spikes, you need to get as many free turns as possible.
If they have Heracross, for instance, it would be great to have it be heads-up against your full HP Skarmory. That way, Heracross couldn't safely stay in and Close Combat, giving you a turn to use Spikes without losing any HP. Moreover, when the game has lasted a little bit, you can start to get a feel for how the opponent plays, so you'll know whether he's willing to take that risk of Brave Bird and stay in and Close Combat you. This means you may switch your Skarmory into Heatran, knowing that he's already seen your Blissey and wants to bring in some sort of physical attacker to take advantage of Blissey. This kind of play will usually mean you lose Skarmory if you haven't gotten a good read on your opponent, and it's difficult (often impossible) to get a good read before you've played them for a few turns.
In the fairly classic Hippowdon vs. Roosting Zapdos match-up, things are also interesting. You obviously want to EQ on their Roost, and Ice Fang / Slack Off otherwise. If you don't have Ice Fang, then Roar is still a good choice as long as you have Stealth Rock down. You might even want to throw in things like a switch to Blissey / Tentacruel / Spiritomb when Zapdos uses Hidden Power so that you can waste its PP. However, for something like a switch to Tentacruel vs. Zapdos to not be suicide, you have to have enough information about their play style to reliably know they aren't going to use Thunderbolt.
In stall vs. stall, yes, prediction is minimized, but prediction is not the only form of in-battle skill (as opposed to the pre-battle skill, team building). Stall vs. stall is probably the highest form of long-term thinking. You need to think several turns ahead to be able to do any damage to them, otherwise you'll be getting worn down just as much as they are. In Skarmory vs. Skarmory, for instance, you have to decide whether it's worth it to set another layer of Spikes or Whirlwind in hopes of weakening his Tentacruel (I'm assuming both teams are my stall team here for simplicity).
However, prediction still comes into play. The best example of prediction + long-term thinking is Tentacruel vs. Skarmory, with a Wish Pokemon on Tentacruel's team (probably Jirachi now that Blissey can't Wish). You have to decide whether it's worth it for your Skarmory to possibly lose some HP to Tentacruel's Surf to hurt it with Brave Bird. You have to predict when their Wisher is going to stay in (and not Whirlwind) and when they are going to try to switch to Tentacruel (and thus Whirlwind, unless they are weak, in which case you Brave Bird). The most interesting long-term thinking is the decision on whether to sacrifice Tentacruel to take down Skarmory, or vice-versa. This is essentially a question of which will be more harmful to your opponent in the long run: Spikes or Toxic Spikes.
I hope these examples show that the stall game is far more nuanced than "OK, he brought in Special Attacker X, time to switch to my special wall.". But to get back to my original point, I feel that stall is what allows this situations to really come to light. Early on in the game, you simply don't have enough information about your opponent and their team to make accurate judgments on what they can do / will do. Drawing out the game a little gives a larger pool of information to maximize skill and minimize 'luck' (I consider a situation of blindly guessing what the opponent will do luck).