Great Defensive Combos

Ever so slowly I've been turning over to the world of walls and stall, and I've seen certain combinations of walls that work tremendously together. As common sense would tell you, these combos are generally consisted of one physical wall and one special wall, who cover one another's weaknesses. Here are some of the combos I've been seeing or using recently.
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OU

SKARMBLISS


Ah, everyone loves SkarmBliss. Whether Skarm's running Spikes Support, which it normally does, or if it's just there to stall, it fits perfectly with Blissey, who can run Wish support or status you all to death. Since Skarm's weaknesses, Fire and Electric, are normally seen in special form, you switch Blissey in on those (or any special attack for that matter) Skarm's Whirlwind all helps tremendously if you have a load of hazards up, and if you just so happen to Whirlwind a special attacker in, look who you have to switch to! :O

FERROCENT


Ferrothorn + Jellicent, also known as FerroCent! I normally use Ferro as a special or mixed wall, but throwing it with Jellicent lets you use its higher Defense stat. These two cover each other's weaknesses perfectly, I believe! Let's see : Jellicent takes no damage from Fighting, and resists Fire, Ferrothorn's two weaknesses. Ferro resists Electric, Grass, and Ghost, making these two good to go! Ferro can run a Spikes Support set, a Leech Seed stall set, a Curse set, or even a Choice Band set! Jellicent just tanks the special attacks that get thrown at Ferro (namely Fire and Fighting attacks), and can even handle physical attacks on its own with Will-O-Wisp! 'Cent also gets the godly Recover, as well as Taunt to shut down other walls and set-up sweepers. FerroCent is the SkarmBliss of Generation 5!

TENTASCOR


My personal favorite wall combo, Gliscor and Tentacruel! Since the others have cool names, why don't we call these two..... GliCruel! No, lame. Perhaps..... TentaScor! I like that one :D I like a lot about this combo. One thing is the amazing synergy. Gliscor takes no damage from both of 'Cruel's weaknesses, Electric and Ground. Tenta resists of Gliscor's 2 weaknesses, Water and Ice. A problem with these two is Psychic attacks, most of which are special. Tenta is weak to them, and Gliscor takes neutral. However, unless it's something like a Psychic from Reuniclus, Tenta might be able to survive 2 or 3. Still, you'd most likely have something else on your team that resists Psychic. Gliscor is a Taunter, has Poison Heal which can be used to Toxic Stall the others with Tenta's TSpikes, and can also function as a Physical sweeper once any special-based threats are gone with Earthquake and Ice Fang! Tenta is commonly seen as a Spinner and Toxic Spiker, and along with those moves I run Scald to spread some Burn and Venoshock to take full advantage of Poison. Gliscor reaches 354 HP and 383 Defense with the right nature and max EVs, and Tentacruel has 364 HP and 372 SDef, with the same conditions. These two are so insane together, and I see no reason why this isn't as popular a combo as the two mention above. TentaScor for life! <3

HEATWASH


Rotom-Wash and Heatran! It's not exactly perfect resistance coverage here, as Rotom takes neutral from Heatran's Fighting weakness, but nevertheless, it's still a great Defensive combo! Heatran takes 0.25 damage from Grass attacks, Rotom's only weakness, and Rotom in turn has Levitate to take in those pesky Earthquakes and resists Water. Rotom-W has Base 107 on both defenses, but only Base 50 on HP. It can make up for this with Pain Split! Bring this in with low health on a Blissey and watch your HP reappear! It also has a Base 105 Sp.Atk combined with Electric + Water STAB! If using these two together, I recommend making Rotom-W more physically defensive. This is because Heatran is almost always specially defensive. It can run Stealth Rock, Roar, Toxic, Subsitute, Lava Plume, Torment, and many more options! TormentTran has been declining in usage this Gen due to growing threats, but a good ol' Special Def 'Tran takes any special attacks that aren't Water, Ground, or Fighting.

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UU & RU

CRYOGION


Ahh, the first of our lower tier combos. Cryogonal and Drapion. They both have a mediocre Base 70 HP. Drapion has 110 Defense, and Cryogonal has 135 Special Defense. It's not the type coverage that makes these two a good combo, because Cryogonal's pure Ice typing sucks. Not to mention Drapion is only weak to Ground! But I like these two in UU because they help one of my favorite strategies, Toxic stall. Drapion sets down the Toxic Spikes, and Cryogonal can Rapid Spin and stall with Recover once the poison is spread nicely. Cryogonal can ever fare well against some physical attackers for a little bit, but only if he's faster. Base 105 Speed seems pretty good. If the opponent is Toxic'd and you're faster, Subsitute as long as you can and Recover when you're low on health, then switch out because after one physical hit, you won't be staying long. If anything, this would just help stall out the Toxic on the opponent. Even if you max out Drapion's HP and Defense, it gets Agility and Swords Dance which you could use with Crunch and Brick Break! In my opinion, bulky sweepers are the best sweepers. The main point here is if you use these two, make sure it's a Toxic based team.

TANGEON


If you wanted, one could call these two "Umbrela"! I think in UU it's not so much the type resistance synergy that matters, but it's the actually use of the Pokemon. Tangela has Base 115 Defense, and Base 40 SDef. And on the Eviolite and you have defensive gold! One could choose to make Tangela a purely physically defensive wall, as with max HP, Defense, and Eviolite, it hits 334 HP and 541 Defense.Tangela has Base 100 Sp.Attack, Giga Drain, Leech Seed, Substitute and Regenerator, allowing it to slowly wear away at the foe's HP. Umbreon has amazing defensive stats with 95/110/130, making him one of the best mixed walls around! Even with a neutral nature and 0 EVs, Umbreon hits 225 Defense. With Max HP it has 394 HP and it also has 394 SpDef if it's max EVs and a beneficial nature. I'd use Umbreon as a purely support-oriented Pokemon, as it has options such as Heal Bell, Yawn, Wish, Moonlight, Charm, Confuse Ray, and Mean Look. The only things stopping these two from running rampant in UU and RU are the oh-so-common Bug attacks.

CRESSELOSEED



Cresselia and Ferroseed! I'm not sure if these two are allowed in RU, but I'll definitely be using them if they are. Either way, these two are a great pair for UU stall. Cresselia has, in my opinion, the best defensive stats in the game with Base 120 HP, 120 Defense, and 130 Special Defense. What I would do here is max out HP and Defense with a +Def -Atk nature, giving her 444 HP and 372 Def! Even with 0 EVs and this nature, which is neutral to SpDef, Cress has 265 Special Defense! I normally use her as a dual screener with Thunder Wave and Lunar Dance, because that's her best use IMO. Feel free to correct me by showing me something with better defensive stats that Cresselia! Ferroseed on the other hand, uses the Eviolite to boost his already decent stats. The 44 Base HP is a huge letdown, but the support options are what make Ferro great. Stealth Rock, Spikes, the rare Gravity, Leech Seed, Thunder Wave, Toxic (duh), Swagger, Substitute, and Ingrain are all options that Ferroseed has to offer! When paired with Cresselia, I'd have Ferro have max HP and Special Defense.

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Well, that's it for now! Please feel free to post any more combos like this, or even defensive cores consisting of 3 Pokemon! I will definitely be adding more to this when some suggestions come along. Also, I'll get to posting the most common sets I see for all of these whenever I have time and data!

Thanks for reading!

-JC
 
Slowbro + SDef Ferro or Jirachi is probably one of my favorite combos.

Slowbro + Altaria is also incredible as a defensive status-spreading/cleric/support core in UU.
 

A uu Stall combo that works better than it looks, these guys can stall better than expected. Not exactly perfect resistance coverage here, but crygonal can recover and rapid spin, which can really help a team, and drapion can set tspikes. not perfect, but viable in lower teirs
 
How about in RU, the best defensive combo (besides cress and evolite ferroseed) evolite regeneration tangela and leftovers umbreon they complement each other very well and work effectivly work nicely in RU or any teir actually
 
Good post.

A small nitpick, you said Gliscor resists both of tentacruel's weaknesses, electric and ground. But that sort of implies that those are its only two weaknesses, when it is also weak to Psychic. And seeing as most psychic attacks are special, Gliscor won't be taking those well :/
 
How about in RU, the best defensive combo (besides cress and evolite ferroseed) evolite regeneration tangela and leftovers umbreon they complement each other very well and work effectivly work nicely in RU or any teir actually
I love the Tangela/Umbreon combo myself, but with Yanmega and Bug in general running rampant in RU, it's hard for these two to really shine. IMO, something that absolutely walls and kills all of the Bugs in RU needs to be included in the core in order to really work it's best.
 
Good post.

A small nitpick, you said Gliscor resists both of tentacruel's weaknesses, electric and ground. But that sort of implies that those are its only two weaknesses, when it is also weak to Psychic. And seeing as most psychic attacks are special, Gliscor won't be taking those well :/
Thanks for that, it was kind of late at night when I was making this so I'm going to have to go through again and fix everything up.
 

alphatron

Volt turn in every tier! I'm in despair!
You say that ferrocent is the skarmbliss of generation 5. I say that skarmbliss was not so easily defeated. Ferrocent loses out to a multitude of pokemon in the metagame, such as breloom, virizion, Gengar, chandelure, hydriegon, etc. But of course, that is what your other four team members are for.
 
I like to use Forretress and Swampert together. I have Forretress set up entry hazards and Swampert Roar the for away, racking up entry hazard damage. They also resist each others weakness(they both have 1) and are immune to sandstorm.
 

Katakiri

Listen, Brendan...
is a Researcher Alumnus
While not completely defensive, Max Speed Jolly Wobbuffet & Wish Chansey/WishBliss can run teams ragged as long as they're supported by a Rapid Spinner or a Grounded Poision-Type Toxic Spikes Absorber with their own Spikes/Toxic Spikes. Toxic Spikes being ideal so Wobbuffet can do a little Shadow Tag Encore Toxic Stalling.

I personally use Scolipede for that in OU since he outspeeds such a huge chunk of OU & had that infinitely scary Megahorn for Deoxys-S, Tyranitar, & Latios and a surprise EQ for Heatran. In UU I use Venomoth to do my Toxic Spiking since it easily breaks down Defensive cores that rely on Tangela, Slowbro, Umbreon, Hitmontop, & really anything paired with Chansey that's weak to Bug STAB with Psychic coverage.

But yeah, WishBliss + Jollyffett + Poison-Type Spiker. It's good.
 
Proposing the Moltrodon RU core of Moltres and Gastrodon.


Moltres makes an excellent physical wall, with the only common physical attacks that bother it being Stone Edge, Rock Slide and Waterfall. Gastrodon can take any of these attacks with ease, getting a SpA boost from Water attacks in particular, and can proceed to further harass the opponent. Subroost Moltres takes any Grass attack aimed at Gastrodon easily, and can deal with a wealth of physical attackers as well as most bug types. Tank Gastrodon can take most special attacks very well, although it annoyingly remains neutral to Bug. Both have instant recovery, and whilst Moltres admittedly needs Rapid Spin or Magic Coat support to function well, with its high speed and good offensive STAB it can sometimes be successful even without this support. Although the core is susceptible to status, Rest Talk Gastrodon with Earth Power and Ice Beam is also a perfectly viable option.
 
Let's see : Jellicent takes no damage from Fighting, and resists Fire, Ferrothorn's two weaknesses. Ferro resists Electric, Grass, and Ghost, making these two good to go!
You forgot about Dark. But Ferrothorn resists that too xD. Also, Scizor+Rotom-W is good offensively and defensively. Scizor x4 resists Grass, and Rotom-W resists Fire. Not only that, but it's an effective scouting core with U-Turn and Volt Switch.
 

BTzz

spams overhand rights
is a Contributor Alumnus
Latias+Skarmory is a nice combo. They cover each others weaker deffensive sides and a number of each others type weaknesses.
 
I think FerroCent is overrated, anyways I like slowbro + ferroseed in RU/uu
Specially defensive ferro that is.
 
Amoongus and Slowro make an absolutely amazing defensive core. They cover each others weaknesses perfectly except for flying, dark and ghost. Amoongus runs specially defensive and Slowbro runs physical defense. Amoongus can take shadowballs all day and recover off damage from regenerator, giga drain and leftovers while slowbro can take Brave birds remarkably. THey both have regenerater so they can easily switch between each other absorbing resisted hits while the toxic that either one can easily set up chips away at a foes health. Amoongus can clear smog away boosts when an opponent tries to use their defensive nature as set up fodder. Unfortunatley Yanmega kinda screws them over but I normally use them in OU with Heatram to form an absolutely AMAZING fire, water, grass as well as a less common but still great poison, psychic and steel core
 

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