UU Stall (1st RMT)

[Luxpluff91]

Introduction
​

Hello fellow smogoners. I have recently decided to go back to competitive Pokémon via PS. My favorite play style has always been dedicated stall, but seeing how OU is filled with extremely powerful Pokémon, which even the sturdiest walls have trouble with, I ended up trying my chances at UU instead.

I wasn't disappointed; UU is a very rich format, with many powerful Pokémon to choose, but not weather dependant like OU. The fact that quite a few of my favorite Pokémon reside at UU is also a nice bonus!

I have been using this team for a couple weeks now, with good results. So, without further ado, here's the team:

The team at a glance



Team building process

Hide

I knew I wanted to play stall, so that meant 2 things from the start: hazards set-uppers and a spin-blocker. I chose Registeel as my Stealth Rock user, Roserade as my Spiker and Cofagrigus as the spin-blocker.

I also wanted a spinner myself, and a cleric. In went Blastoise and Umbreon; the latter also provided Wish support.

I finished the team by adding my favorite Pokémon, Zapdos, which provided phazing with Roar.

The team was working ok, but I felt it could be better. I had only 2 physical walls, and Zapdos, much to my displeasure, wasn't pulling its weight. To balance the physical/special defenses of my team, I searched for physical walls that learned Spikes. Qwilfish was the answer, and he took Roserade's place.

Seeing how useful Qwilfish's Intimidate was, I decided to switch Blastoise with Hitmontop, which not only has Intimidate, but also a useful resistance to Rock.

Finally, I needed a bulkier special wall, capable of phazing. I tried two other options in this slot: Virizion, which couldn't handle Slowbro if it had Psyshock, and Snorlax, which could be Roared away by opposing Suicune before I could Whirlwind. Enter Meloetta, supporting great Special Attack and Defense, and Perish Song!

The team in a depth




Puffin (Qwilfish)

Item: Black Sludge
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Moves: Spikes / Pain Split / Waterfall / Poison Jab
Qwilfish is my lead when I see a team with many Physical attackers; Intimidate cuts their attack and prompts a switch, which allow me to use Spikes. It's my main counter to Arcanine, Darmanitan, and Victini, being my sole Fire resist. Double Intimidate action with Hitmontop is a huge plus, and lets me stop stat-uppers like Scraty cold, however I do have to watch out for Bisharp.
The first three moves are standard, although I don't have many opportunities to use Pain Split. Poison Jab helps a lot against Virizion and Abomasnow, and is usually unexpected.




Titanium (Registeel)

Item: Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Moves: Stealth Rock / Shadow Claw / Seismic Toss / Thunder Wave
Registeel is my other usual lead. It's an important piece of my team thanks to it's resistances to Grass, Ice, and Dragon, and appreciates Wish support a lot.
The moveset is standard. Shadow Claw is pretty weak even when it hits for super effective damage and I'm considering using something else; but then again, it's movepool is so shallow. Definitely taking suggestions.




Topsyturvy (Hitmontop)

Item: Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Moves: Close Combat / Rapid Spin / Sucker Punch / Toxic
Hitmontop is one of my most valuable Pokémon. It does a lot for the team: pairs up Intimidate with Qwilfish, removes hazards, resists Rock. Toxic is useful for crippling Ghost-types when they switch-in to spin block. Sucker Punch is helpful sometimes for taking weakened, faster Pokémon out, such as Raikou, Azelf and Chandelure, but has little merit out of that. I'm considering Earthquake or Stone Edge in its place.

Musica (Meloetta Aria Forme)

Item: Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Moves: Perish Song / Psyshock / Thunderbolt / U-turn
Meloetta is one of the recent event Pokémon, and definitely a welcome addition to the game. She sports great stats on the special side, and her movepool is decent, too, except for the lack of reliable recovery. Perish Song is my phazing move, and Psyshock and Thunderbolt provide some good coverage to put her 128 base Special Attack to work. U-turn is mostly a filler. I'm considering using Protect on the last slot to stall for Perish Song and Leftovers recovery, or even Rest.

Anubis (Cofagrigus)

Item: Leftovers
Ability: Mummy
Nature: Bold
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SDef
Moves: Will-O-Wisp / Rest / Shadow Ball / Knock Off
Cofagrigus is my trustworthy spin blocker, and a superb counter to the plethora of Fighting-types in UU. It's the most resilient Ghost in UU, with the exception of Dusclops. Cofagrigus' advantages over the cyclops ghost are a higher Special Attack, the ability to use Leftovers, Knock Off, and an arguably more useful Ability in Mummy.
Rest works well on Cofagrigus because the top three spinners, Blastoise, Claydol, and Hitmontop, cannot deal significative damage to Cofagrigus without status. Usually, they'll use a combination of Toxic + damage move (Scald, Earthquake or Stone Edge, respectively) to try and wear Cofagrigus down, while I Knock Off their Leftovers and burn them. Using Rest leaves me with a healthy spin blocker, while their spinner is weakened and has to switch out, or be knocked out to burn damage.




Umbra (Umbreon)

Item: Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Moves: Wish / Protect / Heal Bell / Foul Play
Umbreon is definitely my MVP. It keeps the team healthy by passing gigantic Wishes and curing statuses with Heal Bell, and is capable of doing considerable damage with Foul Play. Umbreon's Synchronize is also relevant, and acts as yet another source of status for my team. It's especially useful against Sableye; I let it Taunt my first Pokémon and switch to Umbreon on the predicted Will-O-Wisp, allowing me to inflict status on it ignoring Prankster + Taunt.


Biggest threats

Zapdos Defensive sets aren't a problem, but offensive sets are troublesome since I don't have an Electric resistance and it can offset the Life Orb damage with Roost. Pressure is also a nuisance since I have limited attacks that actually hurt it.
Rotom-H Not a huge threat but generally annoying, thanks to (again) my lack of Electric resists and Trick.

Chandelure It's insanely powerful and can cripple me with Trick. Meloetta's immunity to Shadow Ball is welcome, but Fire Blast and Overheat are threatening. Need to keep Umbreon and Meloetta healthy to deal with it.

Raikou & Suicune (and Calm Minders in general) Calm Mind is a very powerful strategy in UU, with both Raikou and Suicune having access to it. If left unanswered, they will easily clean a team. Raikou's lack of recovery makes it easier to deal with, but Suicune usually has Rest, so keeping Meloetta up is a priority.


Thanks
Thanks for rating my team, hope you enjoyed reading.
​

 

[KM]

This team is very interesting, and in fact very similar to a team that recently peaked the UU ladder, which was also centered around Meloetta, but his a bit more offensive. (Oddly enough, he also used a Umbreon, Qwilfish, Registeel, and Cofag ._.) His RMT is currently on Page 2 if you want to go see how he dealt with some stuff.

A couple little suggestions -

First off is that qwilfish. I'm the first person to advocate using a qwilfish, and I love the thing, but I really don't think it needs dual stab to be effective. I would personally replace Poison Jab with Toxic Spikes - I think you'll find that Toxic Spikes will help your team out a lot in stalling things, and will also prevent things like SubCM Raikou and Suicune from being so much of a problem. Moreover, you don't have a lot of statusing on your team, and they also help with opposing stall - unlike Toxic, toxic spikes can not effectively be heal belled away.

Your registeel could do with some tweaking too. I really don't understand what Shadow Claw does for it at all, and I think there are much better things to fill with the spot. The most obvious answer is Rest. You have a heal beller, so why not make use of Registeel's one form of reliable recovery + status nullification?

For your Meloetta, I'd actually suggest keeping U-turn. U-turn actually has decent synergy with your perish songing set, as you can U-turn out on the last turn and gain some momentum by seeing what they switch into to avoid death from the P Song. I'm not sure about the set as a whole, but if it works for you then that's all that matters.

Some other minor things - as to your Hitmontop's sucker punch, you have a couple options. Stone Edge is the superior move if you're looking for coverage, but you could also replace it with something like Protect for extra damage with Toxic as well as to ease prediction against Choiced users.

Also, just something to note, your team is literally 100% shut down by taunt sableye. You may want to add a more offensive special attacker in place of Meloetta, or something. Just a thought.

Best of luck, and a nice team overall! Welcome to UU :)

~Pleasure Kitten/Kitten Milk

 

[Luxpluff91]

This team is very interesting, and in fact very similar to a team that recently peaked the UU ladder, which was also centered around Meloetta, but his a bit more offensive. (Oddly enough, he also used a Umbreon, Qwilfish, Registeel, and Cofag ._.) His RMT is currently on Page 2 if you want to go see how he dealt with some stuff.

A couple little suggestions -

First off is that qwilfish. I'm the first person to advocate using a qwilfish, and I love the thing, but I really don't think it needs dual stab to be effective. I would personally replace Poison Jab with Toxic Spikes - I think you'll find that Toxic Spikes will help your team out a lot in stalling things, and will also prevent things like SubCM Raikou and Suicune from being so much of a problem. Moreover, you don't have a lot of statusing on your team, and they also help with opposing stall - unlike Toxic, toxic spikes can not effectively be heal belled away.

Your registeel could do with some tweaking too. I really don't understand what Shadow Claw does for it at all, and I think there are much better things to fill with the spot. The most obvious answer is Rest. You have a heal beller, so why not make use of Registeel's one form of reliable recovery + status nullification?

For your Meloetta, I'd actually suggest keeping U-turn. U-turn actually has decent synergy with your perish songing set, as you can U-turn out on the last turn and gain some momentum by seeing what they switch into to avoid death from the P Song. I'm not sure about the set as a whole, but if it works for you then that's all that matters.

Some other minor things - as to your Hitmontop's sucker punch, you have a couple options. Stone Edge is the superior move if you're looking for coverage, but you could also replace it with something like Protect for extra damage with Toxic as well as to ease prediction against Choiced users.

Also, just something to note, your team is literally 100% shut down by taunt sableye. You may want to add a more offensive special attacker in place of Meloetta, or something. Just a thought.

Best of luck, and a nice team overall! Welcome to UU :)

~Pleasure Kitten/Kitten Milk

Wow, I just check the team you mentioned, and it's extremely similar to the one I'm using!

Your suggestions are all very good, I'll try them out as soon as I can. Thank you!

Also, on the matter of Sableye: it's annoying, but other than that, not a huge problem.