ooook so I guess I shoul post what I've done so far, and actually explain my previous post. I've always thought that Ditto was really unexplored, and one thing I've always wanted to try out was a stall team with Ditto. This means that stall can in one turn become incredibly agressive, provided I can get Ditto in on the right Pokemon, as well as giving me a way to clean up teams late game and stop a lot of dangerous Pokemon from outright sweeping me. Ditto was obviously the first Pokemon I put down. From there I drew up a list of top threats I absolutely had to counter in order for my team to be effective, as well as a list of qualities these Pokemon should have in order to make a good stall team.
Stuff I need to counter:
- Braviary
- Emboar
- Ludicolo
- Golurk
- Musharna
- Samurott
- Zangoose
- Sawk
- Exeggutor
If I can counter every single one of these, I reckon I can do a decent job at walling all of NU (for example, stuff like Gurdurr has really similar counters to Sawk, Cinccino to Zangoose etc).
Stuff I want to have on my team (as many as possible):
- Hazards
- Status moves
- Any other sort os passive damage
- Spinblocker
- Phazer
- Revenge Killer
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Recovery on as many Pokemon as possible
- Rapid Spin / Taunt (to beat other stall teams)
- A win condition, as opposed to simply not losing.
Now obviously getting ALL of this into just 5 Pokemon (now that I have Ditto) is going to be a struggle, but I think I came pretty close.
The first two Pokemon I added were Regirock and Frillish. This gives me counters to: Braviary, Emboar (between the two of them), Samurott, Zangoose (again between them). Two Pokemon beating 4 of the most dangerous in NU sounds good to me. I also get Stealth Rock, a great spinblocker, and even Taunt if I can fit it on. Both Pokemon can also easily run Toxic, and Frillish gets Scald / Will-O-Wisp. So that leaves me with Ludicolo, Golurk, Musharna, Sawk, Exeggutor. Next up I go for perhaps the best stall Pokemon, Lickilicky. This gives me a great chance to beat Ludicolo, as well as Exeggutor. It also provides Wish, Heal Bell, and even phazing if I decide on Dragon Tail. Now looking at my team, Psychic types still completely wreck me, and I have no priority which, even on a stall team, is still a great tool to have. Skuntank fixes both of these problems, and is surprisingly bulky with enough investment. Also another option for Taunt which is great. Now we're left with just Sawk and Golurk, two very difficult Pokemon to counter. The first thing that sprang to mind is another great Pokemon for stall, and something that seems to have fallen off the radar now that Amoonguss exists: Tangela. It provides an essential Ground resist so I can beat Golurk, as well as a neat Sawk and Gurdurr check.
With that, I've got 6 Pokemon! Regirock / Frillish / Lickilicky / Skuntank / Tangela / Ditto. I think between them I've covered most threats in NU, but there is no way to really tell without actually playing with the team. Right now I'm going to go actually build the team (movesets, EVs etc) and start laddering. Thats when I'll really get a feel for the team and what it beats and what it doesn't. I'll be making changes (both small and big) in all likelihood, and I'll document them all here one way or another. I realise this is a lot less involved than how some builders like Zeb went about teambuilding, but I think this is the best way to build stall, and hopefully the results will be positive!