Stall in BW2

[ToF]

i think the only possible stall of any use atm is rain stall. yes it helps boost keldeo and the two therians, but it supports the stall mons im using the best. ppl can go steal this team if they want, i think it's the best its gonna get atm

defensive politoed, chansey, celebi, skarmory, tentacruel, jirachi. no room for a spin-blocker, no room for another steel, can get a bit boned by terrakion, but you have to play smart and not allow important things in the game to get whittled down.

 

[dragonuser]

Yea thats pretty much as good as stall can get in this metagame, yet its still at a huge disadvantage. If the opponent brings a Nasty Plot Thundurus-T + other offense you will be at a severe disadvantage. The main thing with stall at the moment is that with so many powerful wallbreakers running around, its almost impossible to not be weak to one of them. It really is a shame that stall has taken such a big plummet recently, and the addition of Pokemon like Garchomp and Kyurem-B (looks like it will be voted OU) isn't helping its case.

 

[cmurph]

Ive been using rain stall with decent results. Peaked at like 2050 on showdown, not sure the rank. I used rain stall with Roserade for toxic spikes support, sub roost Kyurem as the main toxic staller, and Jellicent as a spin blocker. The team did well overall but I found toxic spikes to be very underwhelming due to the unusually high number of poison types in this metagame. Rain and opposing stall teams often pack Tentacruel, sun teams almost always pack Venusaur, and sand teams often pack Amoonguss, not to mention the occasional Toxicroak or opposing Roserade. The only other big problem with the strategy that I found was bulky set up sweepers that were immune to toxic spikes, such as CM Jirachi and CM Latias (especially sub or refresh versions)

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Yeah I was thinking in philosophy class today that rain stall might be the only stall that might the only easily viable in this metagame. Rain stall already has pre-built in several checks for Genesect such as Tentacruel and Ferrothorn, Chansey can also take a hit on a u-turn, plus prediction is made much easier thanks to protect on nearly every pokemon usually. Overall, its probably the least "g-weak" of all the stalls. This is a shame since rain stall usually is the stall most pressed for team slots, meaning you can't run extra checks to things as easily / at all.


I realize some people have had success with sun stall, but that's not exactly regular stall. Still I encourage you crazy sun stall nuts to share your teams.

 

[Lady Alex]

I'm waiting in hope for someone to come out with a really successful full stall team. I've seen a few people using relatively defensive sun teams with dugtrio and calling them stall, but I see that as more "balanced" than stall oriented. My biggest concern when trying to think of a rainstall team is a spinblocker. In the past, rain stall typically didn't feature spinblockers, but, with the prevalence of offensive genesect teams with rapid spinners, I feel like stall needs to have a measure against that, since chansey has a very difficult time switching in on genesect repeatedly unless it locks itself in on a special move. Maybe having a secondary Genesect check would eliminate the need for a spin blocker.

The way stall has gone is pretty discouraging, and I've pretty much given up trying to build a full stall team until, hopefully, things like Genesect and Tornadus-T are given the boot. I'll leave the task to someone else for now :(

 

[alkinesthetase]

i've given a lot of thought to the value of a spinblocker right now. to be honest i think it's the role stall needs the least atm. spinblocking is at its maximum value in stall vs stall, a matchup that is often decided by who holds down hazards better, and the likelihood of that matchup happening on ladder these days is like zip shit lol. with good play you can at least try to wear down the opposing spinblocker. as long as you don't let offense establish hazards faster than you, you can keep forcing the spinblocker in. the challenge is retaining enough momentum to keep setting those hazards in the first place. only cruel in rain can afford to keep doing so repeatedly, even then that can be worn down (cruel is the best spinner in the game right now bar none though lol, cruel in rain is a force of nature).

i've been playing with sableye and right now i rather like it. prankster burn and taunt is godly for two reasons: one, FUCK FERROTHORN, especially if you're running rainstall because then killing ferro becomes VERY difficult. burn is not enough because if it starts stacking hazards on you, your team gets really worn down getting rid of them, so you need to both cripple ferro and disable it. sableye does this job excellently and it does it well to most spinners too. and two, FUCK GENESECT - sableye makes an okay genesect check because with heavy sdef investment it's only getting 2hkoed by a +1 uturn, and any genesect dumb enough to stay in gets burned which turns it into setup bait for basically every CMer in this game. in general sableye performs a lot of utility roles very nicely. the main problem with spinblocker sableye is that it gets run over by starmie and outlasted by tentacruel if it's in rain. sun sableye is a god though.

jellicent is also really good and i like it a lot as well. it also has taunt/wow which is a fabulous combination just in general. it lures out genesect a lot and with special defense investment you can take tbolts to burn it. the issue with jellicent is that it's also water type, and that tends to give it a lot of overlap with the only two good spinners right now, starmie and tentacruel. the electric/dark weaknesses start to become a problem if you run jelli alongside either of these mons. this is why i run sableye even in less-than-ideal weather environments (eg rain), because it introduces no weaknesses to the team and can still spinblock okay.

tbh though the need for a spinblocker is less than the need for a spinner and man most spinners are shit these days lol. donphan is honestly not very good right now, rain just washes it away and it doesn't have an especially good defensive typing. forry made me want to cry the first time i used it because of its terrible special defense and how easily it gets worn down - in my opinion the only reason to use forretress on ANY team is because it compresses roles, otherwise it's pretty easy to outdo. cloyster does not fit on stall for obvious reasons. this means you basically have only two good options - starmie and tentacruel (forry is "okay" if you run it on weather so that you can avoid waterspam).

you get another problem from there which is that, if you run either of those, they basically become your bulky water, so you have to be really careful about the typing of the rest of your team. for example jellicent + tentacruel or starmie is a risky combination. there are only a few bulky waters that can coexist safely alongside cruel/mie. generally it's most important to not have an electric weakness (otherwise thundurus-T will mess you up, and it has an easy enough time messing stall as it is) so i've been experimenting with sdef rotom-w. i wanted to try lanturn actually but the ground weakness means it basically cannot exist alongside tentacruel who is again the best spinner in the game by far, so perhaps if i start using reflect type starmie (which is pretty good, beats ferrothorn one on one!) i will try it.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Forretress is still a solid spinner for stall if you use the right set for it: spikes / HP ice / pain split / rapid spin. Forretress is the God of compressed rolls for a stall team, it sets up spikes, spins against any spike setter infitely bar offensive Doexys-D, and can check dragons locked into outrage or even count Landorus and Gliscor.

Forretress has one huge ass problem though, its massively g-weak, most Genesect run famethrower, that instantly turns into into a liability in this metagame. Its such a same to see such a great spinner hurt to badly by one pokemon.

I might get into this metagame again, Ive been toying with the idea of rain stall of simply throwing multiple checks unto one team, Hitmontop and Terrakion look like some interesting choices I can play with, both take only around 25% from Genesect's special moves if they aren't boosted and can provide critical team support. Im honestly surprised more people haven't started using Hitmontop, its a much better check to Genesect than heatran. Again, as I and other have said, in order to have a successful stall team in this meta, you have to have several checks to Genesect.

 

[alkinesthetase]

Im honestly surprised more people haven't started using Hitmontop, its a much better check to Genesect than heatran.

yeah this is something i have REALLY been thinking about. been playing sand for the past few days, tentacruel may be godly but it really doesn't like the sand damage, which is why starmie tends to be a better spinner in that environment thanks to recover. i rather dislike bulky starmie though (but i intend to try reflect type before giving up altogether) so i have been browsing for more options which got me thinking about top. there aren't many good spinners in the lower tiers for us to fish through really - blastoise is generally just a shittier tentacruel (although looking at its movepool is slowly making me reconsider... better def stat, and roar is a major appeal), and claydol is freaking awful. top is right on the edge of being awful, but it's not SO awful that i want to dismiss it on the spot.

top has even less recovery than cruel though seeing as at least cruel in rain will hold up forever; top will get worn down. it also tends to - well, besides spin - accomplish even less than cruel... it's more status vulnerable and an uninvested close combat doesn't do shit lol (you don't ohko terrakion and you have less than 25% to 2hko 252/88+ ferro.... pretty much says it all). still, the fact that it's a spinner makes it worth considering regardless lol. i'm thinking rest+cleric or restalk atm.



and believe it or not i was actually trying spikespin/hp ice/eq forry for a while lol. everyone talks about eq forry never existing, TIME TO PROVE THEM WRONG 8D ground/ice coverage is reasonable neutral, and moreover eq hits things like terrakion (which you do wall, but which you'll never damage with hp ice). i was experimenting with spikes roserade and good old skarmory after that though and running spin-only forry is honestly a waste of a slot so i set it aside after that. forry is also really bad in rain - which is deceptive, you'd think it would appreciate having its fire weakness reduced, but its sdef is SO BAD that it doesn't even matter, all the rain ends up doing is helping you get 2hkoed by starmie scalds >_> it's okay in sand though and ofc it's probably the only good spinner in sun.



EDIT: so i am now actually contemplating OU rain dish blastoise since it has been released. foresight is not legal with rain dish (it's an egg move and iirc rain dish is only available on male blastoise) but you could run scald/toxic/rapid spin/roar (standard UU) or even a restalk set, which is legal thanks to bw2 tutors and viable because blastoise gets phazing (that means it's not setup fodder while asleep): rapid spin/dragon tail/sleep talk/rest. the fighting resistance that cruel has will be sorely missed, and the immunity to toxic even more so, but blastoise's superior defense and access to phazing are seriously growing on me in theory.

yes i am considering this

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

If your disappointed by close combat's power try high jump kick on Hitmontop. It might look like a shitty option on paper, but it doesn't take a huge cognitive leap to use toxic on ghost types instead of high jump kick or rapid spin, its pretty obvious when Jellicent comes in. Hitmontop can't even touch Gengar because of sub, so don't even attempt sucker punch. Im pretty sure high jump kick kills Terrakion in one hit as well as killing Ferrothorn (protect can be annoying) and doing massive damage to anything else that switches in, remember its 130 base power STAB. When I run hitmontop I go with a moveset of high jump kick / rapid spin / toxic / protect or rest if I have a cleric.

Im probably going to try stall again this weekend, I might stand a better chance now that I have some ideas to combat Genesect spam.

 

[haxcho]

I might get into this metagame again, Ive been toying with the idea of rain stall of simply throwing multiple checks unto one team, Hitmontop and Terrakion look like some interesting choices I can play with, both take only around 25% from Genesect's special moves if they aren't boosted and can provide critical team support. Im honestly surprised more people haven't started using Hitmontop, its a much better check to Genesect than heatran. Again, as I and other have said, in order to have a successful stall team in this meta, you have to have several checks to Genesect.

Terrakion can be onehitted by Genesect with Flash Cannon, so even Terrakion can't change in savely and neither attack savely without a scarf, so it's quite a mediocre check imho.
In fact, I tried it on a team mainly as a genesect-check and threw it out again because it was just too unreliable at that.
Hitmontop might be decent against Genesect, but outside of that, it isn't really impressing, or am I wrong?

 

[alkinesthetase]

252 SpA Genesect Flash Cannon vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Terrakion in sand: 182-216 (56.34 - 66.87%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Genesect Flash Cannon vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Terrakion: 270-318 (83.59 - 98.45%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Genesect: 204-241 (72.08 - 85.15%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

not a great matchup for either of them really but very few scarf genesect run flash cannon so this is hardly a relevant concern. running flash cannon costs you a lot of coverage; frankly a genesect carrying flash cannon is easier to beat than one carrying its standard coverage. such is the problem with running any nonstandard coverage on genesect - you gain the ability to beat a particular threat or series of threats but you lose out overall. if i was running rak as my stall panic button and i lost it to a genesect flash cannon, i'd probably be leaping for joy that sect was missing one of tbolt, fthrow or ice beam.

you're honestly more likely to bump into banded iron head than you are to bump into scarf flash cannon. flash cannon sees less than 4% usage on genesect (iron head sees about 4.1%). banded iron head obviously beats rak but it's not that common either

EDIT: good points on zapdos penguin, i actually had not thought about using it in sand yet but now i'm really considering it. am i the only one who is like dying for LR zap to be released? i am so getting that shit on my teams once it is out, specially defensive zap with LR should be yet another solid genesect check (and roost means you aren't fucked by rocks COUGH ROTOM HEAT COUGH)

 

[peng]

The closest thing I've had to a successful stall team so far in BW2 is SDef Hippowdon / Shed Shell Skarmory / SDef Zapdos / Seeds + Protect Ferrothorn / Fat Starmie / Scarf Terrakion. Even though this is the most solid "stall" (its probably generally closer to balance but its defensively-oriented which is close enough) team I've been able to build in the last 4 or so months, its still weak to a ton of stuff like Double Priority Lucario, CM Reuniclus, and Sludge Bomb Venusaur. Luckily the 2 former aren't particularly common atm and sun as a whole can be sort of played around okay between Hippowdown, Scarf Terrakion and just pressure with hazards (Zapdos is also generally okay against them). Its also Terrakion weak but hey, what team in BW isn't?

Unless you are running rain, I think that stall really requires some sort of scarfer in BW2. This was true to an extent in BW1 but there were still some decent sand stall builds that didn't run scarfers (tyranitar doesn't really count here). Generally there are just too many things to check and counter with not enough teamslots to beat them all using only defensive Pokemon, whereas running a scarfer in that 6th slot takes a lot of pressure off your defensive Pokemon and also means you aren't boned if get critted or fully para'd at a bad time.

Stall is definitely nowhere near as viable as it was in the past but its still just about usable imo. Luckily the standard rain offense teams (toed / gene / torn-t / dug / fillers) are pretty easy to counterteam by just running tbolt / heat wave / roost / filler Zapdos who tears them open pretty easily which takes a lot of pressure off when teambuilding. I'm sure theres going to be a half-decent stall team coming out of BW2 eventually, and its probably going to come from someone who really scrapes the bottom of the barrel to find some niche Pokemon / set that nobody else has really started using yet. BW1 Gastrodon was an example of a generally mediocre Pokemon becoming excellent under the demands for an offensive rain check in that meta, and Zapdos is doing a similar thing now. Centralized metagames like this are where the innovative teambuilders really flourish, and I'm hopeful theres a set in the depths of RU / NU that could give a boost stall's viability. Problem is nobody can be bothered to devote this much time to trying to revive what is generally seen as a dead playstyle when you can just run something more consistent like rain offense.

 

[alexwolf]

Akinesthetase my main problem with Blastoise is that unlike Tenta, it can't beat Jellicet, the best spinblocker in the tier. Blastoise really needs to use Roar in order to have something over Tenta, but then it can't SubToxic stall because it doesn't have the moveslots.

Imo if only Deo-D and Genesect leave from OU, stall is going to become a lot more viable.

 

[DrunkDemon]

I agree that Sableye is super useful for stall currently. In addition to having use against Ferrothorn and Genesect as you mentioned, it also functions extremely well as a general check to physical attackers, and can easily pull you out of situations that would normally be problematic for stall teams, like when facing a Dragon Dance Salamence. It's really tough to play with a traditional stall team that focuses on just walling everything, but broad checks to threats, like Sableye, are much more effective. This meta being the way it is, I don't think I'm ever going to use a stall team without Sableye.

Regarding its issue with spin-blocking reliably, I think Sun is the way to go to solve that, but unfortunately Sun stall is very meh with the exceptions of Sableye and I guess Cresselia and Chlorophyll sub seeders. That's why I thought of something interesting to do with Sableye instead of just using Ninetales: use Sunny Day. I figure, why not, since it pretty much has a free moveslot after WoW, Taunt, and Recover. It isn't as effective as just having Sun up automatically, but it's still effective with Prankster as long as you don't switch it directly into a Rain-boosted Hydro Pump or something. I've found that it makes Sableye a decent Rain check in general too, in some ways more effective than a full-on Sun team since it you can get Sableye in much more easily than Ninetales. This may seem weird, but on my Quickstall team I've found it quite useful alongside mixed wall Hippowdon. Hippowdon does quite well against Sun teams and can phase many of the metagame's sweepers, but struggles against Rain. That made Sunny Day especially important for my team, since I'm working with only one Water resistance due to a need to fill certain support roles. It may seem like a liability to be using a sun-inducing move on a Sand team, but since I'm not using any abusers, it's not too big of a deal, and Hippowdon can just bring Sand back if Sun starts to get inconvenient. The support capabilities Sunny Day brings to Sableye have been an invaluable addition to my team.

 

[alkinesthetase]

my main problem with Blastoise is that unlike Tenta, it can't beat Jellicet, the best spinblocker in the tier.

yeah i was considering the switch to reflect type starmie on my current team but then i was like "shit now i'm jelli weak". roar/spin/scald/toxic works to beat it with blastoise though. i think jellicent is just a tad underrated right now to be honest; it really is a great spinblocker except that most teams don't really demand that functionality =P

for sableye i like to use the last moveslot for substitute. i haven't NEEDED it yet (generally against any defensive-to-balanced team sableye doesn't need sub to do work), but against more offensive teams, it lets sableye take big hits without dying so that it can keep getting stuff done against phys attackers. props to temp v1 for posting that set in the OU leads thread. however sunny day sableye on sand actually sounds very interesting; that's where i am using sableye right now... that's definitely worth exploring.

 

[Bl1tzkri3g]

IIRC, Blastoise does get foresight, which allows it to spin on jellicent or anything else, often causing switches so you can get the most out of Rain Dish+Lefties coverage, although i'm unsure of which move you would drop though, all are important.
Sableye is interesting, its most effective in sun i've found (sunny day sounds good) because otherwise it's nuked by the current best offensive type in the game, water, from Poli/Keldeo/Starmie and the like. He's the rare defenisve pokemon who's harder to get in than to use, as he cant switch in on strong STAB because he just isn't that bulky. When he does get in, though, he does some intense work on physical attackers with that Prio Will-O-Wisp + Recover. I've found his best set to be Will-o-wisp/recover/taunt (absolutely vital, it kills stall/semi-stall)/night shade, but i suppose night shade would be what i drop for sunny day.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Blastoise does get foresight, hell its in its analysis on smogon.
http://www.smogon.com/bw/pokemon/blastoise

When comparing Blastoise and Tetacruel, one must remember the deferences between them. Blastoise has a higher special attack and defense, while tetacruel has more speed and special defense. Blastoise's higher special attack is negligible since your using it for defense purposes, its nice, but not all to important. The defense might on the surface seem to be a serious advantage for Blastoise, but what seriously tips the scales for Tentacruel is its poison typing. Tentacruel's poison typing allows it to take hits from fighting, bug, and grass types much easier, it also makes it immune to poison as well as absorbing toxic spikes. All of those really aid tentacruel in stalling, it can now tackle Scizor and Conkeldurr, take on Ferrothorn one on one, and its immunity to poison makes sure Blissey can't just toxic stall it to death, being a grounded poison means that toxic spikes don't beat you. Tentacruel also has access to toxic spikes... which are useable.

The only real things Blastoise brings to the table are better defense to take on maybe Terrakion better, and dragon tail / roar to phaze. If your team already has a scizor, Genesect, Conkeldurr and Keldeo check, I guess Blastoise is an option.

 

[dragonuser]

One of the biggest boons that Blastoise had over Tentacruel in BW1 is that it could reliably spin against most Sand Teams (not weak to Landorus/Ground-Types). In BW2 this isn't as big of an issue, and has made Blastoise a little bit less viable in the metagame. Foresight/Dragon Tail/Haze are also benefits of using Blastoise. While his niche still exists, it has gotten smaller and it is less effective in this stronger and faster paced metagame.

 

[bubbly]

I'm using Blastoise on my current rainstall team and it's been working really nicely. I will say that Ferrothorn has been a massive pain, but Tentacruel can't handle Ferro that well anyway, even with Protect.

For the record, the team is Politoed / SpDef Dragonite / Blastoise / Taunt Skarmory / Amoonguss / Jirachi. I really like Dragonite in particular in this metagame, you absolutely ruin the standard Rain offense since it can't touch you at all with MultiScale and the bulk investment. Also, focusing on paralysis is much better in this metagame than the traditional focus on Poison.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

I will say that Ferrothorn has been a massive pain, but Tentacruel can't handle Ferro that well anyway, even with Protect.

Wut?

I can't tell you how many times ice switched by Tentacruel INTO Ferrothorn and beat the thing easily one on one, if you are having issues with it I highly suggest you run substitute on it. Substitute forces Ferrothorn to use power whip, when it misses you got your sub up, meaning you can spin with ease or try to burn hax it to death.

also Im loving that team structure

Edit: bubbly is a guy ._.

the set I use is scarf / rapid spin / substitute / protect, I don't thing ive lost to Ferro with it unless power whip critted, its also great vs Gengar

 

[Lady Alex]

He's right that Tentacruel struggles to beat Ferrothorn. It will always lose one on one unless it gets a burn. Tentacruel is very durable, so it usually is able to get several tries before it's too late though. Nonetheless, Ferrothorn is a problem pokemon for it.

 

[alkinesthetase]

protectcruel really sucks against ferro, you just get seeded and struggle to go for scald burn. i haven't had a good run with rainstall yet but if i do perhaps i should give subtoxic a try... i've been running that protect/toxic set that lavos showed me and it works well on weatherless (scout 3-attacks gengar for its motherfucking tbolt -_-), but god am i sick of ferrothorn.

EDIT: oh and fwiw, one of my old teams was so weak to 3 attacks gengar that i was actually contemplating running psychic on my chansey because it always breaks gengar subs, which would let me both wall gengar and hurt it

then i realized chansey was my hydreigon counter

twas a sad day

 

[Lady Alex]

Heh... yeah, gengar is becoming a problem lately. I've been using straight up Thunder on my weatherless HO team just to deal with Tentacruel in the rain. I've seen a lot of other people running tbolt on it, too. If Genesect and Tornadus get removed, maybe Chansey/Blissey will see a rise in usage, giving stall a bit of room to breathe. If Drizzle and drought end up being tested and banned, I can see stallbreaker Mew seeing an increase in usage as well. It would be useful for stall in that it's pretty dangerous for sand offense and provides a lot of support against opposing stall teams that would be popping up. Maybe I'm looking too far into the future, though.

 

[MMII]

Forretress is still a solid spinner for stall if you use the right set for it: spikes / HP ice / pain split / rapid spin. Forretress is the God of compressed rolls for a stall team, it sets up spikes, spins against any spike setter infitely bar offensive Doexys-D, and can check dragons locked into outrage or even count Landorus and Gliscor.

I love Forry so much for this. I never like running more than one hazards whenever I use him. It's too much for him to be responsible for and it prevents him from taking advantage of his surprisingly useful movepool. He has all sorts or little niches you can give him with moves like Gyro Ball (solid stab), Earthquake (FU Heatran, Magnezone, and Chandelure), Volt Switch (scout), HP Ice (there are a lot of Physical attackers X4 weak to Ice), Pain Split (troll Ferrothorn to infinity), Toxic, Protect (scouts and Toxic stalls), Dual Screens, and Sunny Day (surprise Rain).

 

[DrunkDemon]

This thread has gone dead for a little bit, which I think is a shame, since I've found this thread to be very informative. I originally posted this in the underrated sets thread, but I think it would be cool to discuss how (if at all) it fits into stall currently.

The Fluffy Menace! (Prepare for a bit of an essay, because I know this is going to require some explanation.)

Altaria @ Leftovers
Trait: Cloud Nine
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Dragon Pulse
- Roost
- Roar / Haze
- Heal Bell

I know, I know, what am I thinking? At first glance, it seems like Altaria is outclassed in pretty much every aspect. Dragon Dance sets are inferior to every other Dragon Dancer - and every sweeper really - in the tier, it's bulk is actually not bad, but Latias, Dragonite, and even Salamence seem to perform better in defensive roles due to their abilities, movepools and/or stats. Since it's inception it seems to have been doomed to roam the lower tiers. But with the advent of BW, Altaria got something that really turned around it's viability in OU: Cloud Nine. This is a really anti-metagame ability, since it completely removes the effects of weather while Altaria is in play. This allows it to make deceptive use of it's bulk, since between it's key resistances and any weather boost to Fire or Water moves being removed, it can easily shrug off attacks. For reference, Altaria takes weather-boosted attacks almost two times better than standard Latias.

Of course this sounds great on paper, but to understand how Altaria actually fares against weather we have to look at how it stacks up against common threats on weather teams. Here are some examples of how surprisingly beefy Altaria is:

252 SpA Choice Specs Keldeo Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Altaria: 102-120 (28.81 - 33.89%)

+1 252 SpA Life Orb Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Altaria: 137-162 (38.7 - 45.76%)

Yeah, it's that good. (Even HP Rock Volcarona gets phazed if Stealth Rock isn't up.) Just this alone is unique, and would give Altaria reason enough to have some use, but it doesn't stop there. I took a look at several prominent Rain and Sun threats, 14 to be exact, and Altaria is able to check at least some variants of 10 of them. Just to list them out, they are: Politoed, Keldeo, Gyarados, Rotom-W, Thundurus-T(Scarf, you should really have another response to this though), Tentacruel, Toxicroak, Ninetales, Venusaur, and Volcarona.

You might be thinking things couldn't get any better for Altaria, but there are still a few perks it has. To start, it isn't trapped by Dugtrio. This is huge, since it's quite common to see Dugtrio used as a way to eliminate certain weather checks. Heatran, for example, is commonly forced to use the awful Shed Shell in order to prevent combinations like GeneTrio from running it over. Altaria has no such problem. Second, it has reliable recovery. Using Heatran as an example again, although it's not particularly vulnerable to hazards, is prone to getting worn down quite a bit over the course of matches, often resulting in it being incapable of walling it's intended threats. Altaria is weak to Stealth Rock due to it's Flying-type, so this is crucial to its' success as a defensive Pokemon. Finally, it also gets some nifty support moves you don't see too much of in OU. I generally prefer to use Roar, but Haze is insanely useful against Baton Pass, which even well-built Stall teams often auto-lose to. Heal Bell is also really great, since it supports your team excellently, and prevents defensive variants of Ninetales, Politoed, and Tentacruel from wearing it down with status.

Unfortunately, there are some ways in which Altaria falls short. What stands out the most is it's 4x weakness to Ice; a lot of Pokemon wield these moves, and it seriously hurts our fluffy friend's walling capabilities, since there are certain threats - and variants of threats - that Altaria absolutely cannot hope to defeat. Altaria is also incapable of walling Genesect and Tornadus-T. This is quite unfortunate, as they're arguably THE offensive threats in the current metagame (I guess you can get lucky with a Hurricane miss against Tornadus, though). Stealth Rock also hurts Altaria some, as although it can still wall the threats in needs too, it will have a more difficult time switching in repeatedly. Finally, it also struggles with Dragon types, since they can easily pummel it with their super-powered STAB moves. This isn't anywhere near the end of the world, though. Specially Defensive Rotom-W, for example, solves three of these issues easily.

Here's a log of Altaria in action:
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou3525583

Possibly more to come.

In summary, Altaria is criminally underrated, and should at least be considered on teams ranging from Stall to Balance that struggle with weather.