tl;dr coming, but some stuff I wanted to get off my chest that's been on my mind about XY stall.
I've gotten a few games in with a new stall team I built and, yeah, ResTalk Gyarados is becoming my go-to bulky Water for stall this gen so far. My problem with Slowbro is, despite Regenerator, it's incredibly weak to any team sporting VoltTurn and enough teams right now run this strategy somewhere, even when it's not the main focus. I feel the last thing you want to give offense is momentum, so that's my big beef with Slowbro atm. Gyarados is basically a big middle finger to physical Mega Lucario and nearly every other Fighter, doesn't do too bad against special Mega Lucario if you need to Roar/Dragon Tail it, and can even take on special Landorus if you can keep SR off the field (Psychic/Sludge Wave is it's best bet). As stated above, Scizor can do nothing to it and Volcarona needs to be heavily boosted and carry Giga Drain to do real damage.
On the subject of ResTalk Gyarados, I originally wasn't sold on Dragon Tail for the same reason that Princess Bubblegum said: you can't phaze anything behind a Sub. I'm getting more and more intrigued by it though. Dragon Tail seems especially useful when you don't have hazards out since you are at least still doing damage while you phaze. Hitting Dragons like Garchomp is a plus. There aren't really any Sub + boosting sweepers in OU right now that I can think of except for the bane himself: Bisharp. Granted, Gyarados can't (shouldn't) come in on it at all, but Bisharp is, admittedly, enough reason to keep me from running Dragon Tail. Has anyone really ran into any Sub + NP/SD/Agility/etc. sweepers enough to not run DTail (besides Bisharp obv)?
As far as the others, I'm hesistant on Suicune as a ResTalker unless it's running Roar (so basically the exact same set that Gyara would run but with Scald as STAB). Seems like Quagsire, Gastrodon and Vaporeon (lol?) are popular enough to deter something more classic like CroCune. Somebody else was pretty successful with ResTalk Dragalgae running Toxic Spikes. I've even been thinking about running ResTalk Mega Venusaur in the sand since Synthesis doesn't mix with weather other than sun or clear skies, but I haven't made that leap yet.
The weather nerf was a HUGE boon for stall IMO. But, I still think stall should focus on covering as much as possible and then whatever it can't cover is left up to the player to come up with a battle strategy/protocol to get around those threats. Speaking of threats, that's what stall needs to be covering. Type coverage isn't enough and hasn't been since gen 4. You wear yourself out and spread your defenses too thin when you focus almost exclusively on types. There are stall teams in the RMT forum that have potential, but there are popular threats/combinations in the meta right now that these stall teams would get flat out swept by. I also don't think we should be afraid to run a revenge killer. I know some people feel "stall isn't stall unless it's full stall aka 6 walls/tanks with specific roles", but IMO this is a risky game stall can't afford, especially with each metagame getting more offensive since (again) gen 4. Yes, people will argue that the 5 walls/tanks with roles + revenge killer is more "semi-stall", but IMO all it takes is for a skilled offensive player to make a few proper "predictions" and the whole 6 wall thing falls apart. I agree with others here that saccing a 'mon is the last resort for a revenge kill, but a revenge killer is insurance b/c games drag out with stall and at any point the situation could change where you're at a disadvantage/about to get swept. A revenge killer does not have to be a Scarfer. It could just be something really fast and powerful. I like running stuff base 120 speed or higher with specific coverage like pseudo-BoltBeam or something like that. It could be something with amazing priority (I've considered Talonflame...yes, Talonflame). Trappers work too: think Pursuiters like Scarf Tyranitar (he's fast enough in this bulky meta and says "fuk Mandibuzz") or Gothitelle. Hell, I'm even thinking of using Scarf Bisharp with all the Defog running around.
Biggest threats for stall are or will be: Mixed Mega Garchomp, NP Thundurus, special Landorus, Mega Lucario, Kyurem-B, Mega Pinsir/Heracross, and Manaphy. There are others like Talonflame, Mixed Aegislash (you CANNOT be weak to this idc who you are), etc. but they are easier to prep for than the others I stated. Stall NEEDS to be ready for these, whether through the team itself or some protocol the player has come up with (initial switch to scout, then switch again/attack, etc). Otherwise, stall will have to wait for bans or it just straight up won't survive this gen. And, believe me, I want stall to have a "resurgence" as much as anybody (it wasn't terrible in BW2, but it was pretty mehhhh).
Also, Hippowdon is amazing, Skarmory is damn near a requirement and Mega Venusaur is the based messiah for stall.
I apologize if I went all "Stall 101" on everyone, but that was just some stuff I've been thinking about.
An old friend of mine gave me this advice back in late DPP: you don't have to beat the entire metagame, you just have to beat their team of six. I think this rings more true for stall this generation than ever.
/me jumps off soapbox
