I've had a few months off playing on the ladder but when I got back into it this week I realized my experience has been similar to yours; almost every team I face now, even lower level ones, are packing a rather obnoxious stall/wall breaker and their teams in general are pretty mean to stall due to the new megas and the way teams are now designed around them. This has made playing stall much more unpleasant and difficult. Balanced offense seems to be the best playstyle right now because they can simply throw a stall breaker like Manaphy on their team to basically deal with a whole playstyle and not being deadweight against other styles, while still having 5 other team members to optimize against the rest of the meta. Afterwards I built a balanced team and was having a lot more success with it than pure stall. It seems like a team full of walls isn't as good as it once was, but it's still viable.Since getting counterteamed bad like a week ago playing stall on ladder, I stopped playing, (also due to finals) Are people still running hard stall breakers on ladder or can I actually play stall on ladder now?
Gengar is also a huge threat:cf his post
So this is the team that OrdA and I designed... it's a very, very solid team but it just gets broken by some threats that are too common for my liking. These threats are MG Clefable (which last mons this team like no other) and TG RD manaphy. Endeavor leads are kinda a bitch too since end+Pursuit takes a life, guaranteed. That's kinda a rare niche problem but I'm not a fan of losing alomomola or worse, Rhyperior, so early.
It needs knock off or those spdef def drops will be the death of you.I guess I could try taunt Gliscor alone, as it lets Clef get to +1 but forces it out with EQ damage as Clef can't recover. Still has an issue with TG RD manaphy, but that's not terrible.
I had P2 but it still broke through me :(.I will definitely be defaulting back to porygon2 on the next team that I make for a damn ghost immunity that I otherwise never seem to have.
Definitely is worth a mention and a 30 point SpA boost never hurts either nor does a reduced Knock Off weakness. It definitely has the potential to be a strong centerpiece for stall, but it does face a bit of competition from Altaria due to its better typing.Mega Latias got a 20 point spDef boost and a 30 points Def boost. Not worth a mention?
Gliscor @ Toxic OrbIt needs knock off or those spdef def drops will be the death of you.
What set are you thinking about?
Taunt/knock off/earthquake/protect?
Without protect you risk the 2hko:
252 SpA Life Orb Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 244 HP / 192+ SpD Gliscor: 156-185 (44.3 - 52.5%) -- 21.5% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Poison Heal
It's not the best Keldeo counter by any means, but it has the typing to be able to do so and you can invest more EV's in the special side to your liking to make it more of a comfortable counter. HP Flying isn't particularly common anymore either. Conk gets seeded and Knock Off does nothing after the first one and he can't recover with Drain Punch like he can against other things like Skarm, guaranteeing the damage you do to him stays permanent.jbtc10 thing is diggerby not particular common, keldeo can burn it and I believe hp fly is 2hkp, Terrak Stoneedge hits hard, Conk knock off hurts and if its guts wisp just makes it stronger.
The easiest way to address the HP Ice issue is this: give Bronzong 0 Spe IVs, leaving all the others at 31. In older generations, that was only a base 68 powered HP, but with the new mechanics, that doesn't matter anymore and you're good to go. Although I'll say that I've found Toxic to be an awesome replacement in the last slot. Bronzong sucks momentum away, and is begging to have things come in a set up on it, like Charizard-X, Talonflame, and Mega Gyarados. CM Stored Power Mega Latias is something terrifying that only Toxic Bronzong can stop by spamming Gyro till it can't make a Sub, and nailing with Toxic as it Roosts; otherwise Latias just stalls you out of Gyro PP, and HP Ice can't do enough back. The only thing you really miss out on is nailing Lando (I or T) and Gliscor hard; however, these frequently have Knock Off, so even with HP Ice it's risky.I've started using bronzong for it's unique coverage of handling diancie, gliscor, landorus-t, latis and even some landorus-Is as well. There's much less stress on sylveon for teams that have multiple dragons or fairies, for example. At the moment I'm just using this regular old set:
Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
I realize someone may criticize bronzong's shortcomings compared to say skarmory or ferrothorn but I think it's important to note that he can actually hit heatran, magnezone, diancie, etc really damn hard. Stall sometimes scoops up real niche pokemon from lower tiers and I'm really liking him on the team that I'm using (with sabeleye, sylveon, talonflame, tentacruel, and a random 6th poke)
But I was wondering how I could alter the EVs and IVs? For example, can I lower my speed IV (for better gyro ball) but still keep HP Ice? Also, how should I shift bulk around if at all? Max def seems pretty solid so far but I suppose there's random weak HP Fires out there, stuff like that, to pay attention to.