NU Hazard Stall

What with all the absurdly powerful sweepers in NU, it's fairly difficult to make a decent traditional stall team. however, I've been doing pretty well so I'd appreciate any feedback.

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Whirlipede @ Eviolite
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SDef / 8 Def
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Whirly is a good mixed wall and my go to lead. Almost always gets 2 layers of toxic spikes up and often even a couple of layers of normal spikes. Resttalk for longevity and general stalling. Speed boost also helps after a couple of turns. Unfortunately he is susceptible to the ever present knock off, as are doublade and Xatu

52+ Atk Golem Stone Edge vs. 248 HP / 8+ Def Eviolite Whirlipede: 206-246 (72.7 - 86.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Typhlosion Eruption (150 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252 SpD Eviolite Whirlipede: 266-314 (93.9 - 110.9%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO


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Qwilfish @ Black Sludge
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Impish Nature
- Taunt
- Waterfall
- Destiny Bond
- Pain Split

Great physical wall and a reasonably fast taunter, still can't catch venomoth though. tanks those fire attacks which otherwise decimate Doublade and Whirlipede. Not 100% sure on the moveset, destiny bond seems a bit counter intuitive. This walls the huge fire/fighting spam going on at the moment. Unsure if using spikes/t spikes is necessary or a good idea.

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Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter
- Transform

Standard ditto, stops those set up sweepers from setting up in the first place or sweeps their entire team. My counter for the overpowered and omnipresent venomoth as well as all the shell smashers such as barbacle, huntail and gorebyss.

lickilicky.gif


Lickilicky @ Leftovers
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
- Dragon Tail

Special wall, cleric and phazer. Almost unbreakable specially, and can hit physical switch ins with dragon tail, racking up hazard damage and such. Oblivious is to absorb taunt, all moves are self explanatory.

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Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Gyro Ball
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak
- Sacred Sword

Amazing physical wall, stops fighting types in their tracks and doesn't even take that much from knock off. Often my win condition as shadow sneak is pretty strong after a swords dance, especially as my opponents will be weakened by hazards. Is also a great spinblocker since all spinblockers are physical and even if they are super effective e.g. sandslash they are still beaten by SD and SS. One problem for doublade and my whole team really is mixed earth power archeops, it rips through the whole team, fortunately it's pretty uncommon.

xatu.gif


Xatu @ Light Clay
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Careful Nature
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Roost
- U-turn

What's worse than facing a team packed with walls? A team with walls and double screens. Xatu halts opposing leads and gives my team even more bulk. It's function is simply to go in, set screens and u turn out to a wall. Also functions reasonably as a special wall. Unfortunately, it is susceptible to accelgor which is irritating.

Replay:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/nubeta-119324889

Threats:
Offensive accelgor
Defog
 
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Hello there, this is a pretty interesting team, although I do spot some weaknesses. Firstly, your lack of a reliable spiker (Whirlipede is terrible due to a reliance on rest talk making it setup fodder), as well as an inability to get past opposing stall makes this team rather weak as a whole. Even with Xatu in place has issues dealing with ground moves. On the whole, electric types also cause issues, and ditto honestly just does not have its place here. Overall, the team needs a lot to improve. Knock Off spam also messes this team up like crazy.

As I said you were very weak to ground types and stall, as Xatu really cannot retaliate against either of these and doesn't offer much utility with screens for a stall team. Instead I reccomend Bulky Calm Mind Sigilyph which not only acts as a good status absorber and pivot, but is also able to set up completely and fully on stall without the reliance of other teammates, and can switch in consistantly to ground types without being worn down, and can actually deal damage back.

Next off as I said Whirlipede is doing something your Qwilfish does 10x better. Instead I would invest in Defensive Sandslash who can still remove annoying rocks from your side of the field, but more importantly checks electric types that give you huge issues and helps to beat up opposing leads with a stab EQ. Rocks are also huge, as a stall team cannot succeed without them, or else they basically cannot pressure flying types, and because of this Sandslash offers far more utility.

My final change would be to use Defensive Granbull over Ditto. Not only does it have near perfect synergy with Lickilicky, but it also is able to check something key the rest of your team couldn't..Knock Off. This alone is scary enough to warrant use of defensive fairies, and with Intimidate and a solid Defensive stat intact it makes use of this to beat out common checks. Frankly, Ditto is better used on offensive teams, as often times you will be dealing with bulky stall breakers which Ditto not only cant deal with, but can potentially allow to set up more.

Minor Changes:
Qwilfish: The moveset should be Waterfall, Spikes, Toxic or Toxic Spikes, Pain Split as it is the best spiker in NU and you should take advantage of this, and this specific set offers reliable recovery in tangent with a strong spiker.

Hope this helped. I know I changed a lot, but I needed to in order to make the team slightly more competitively viable.
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Sigilyph @ Leftovers / Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Heat Wave
- Roost



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Sandslash @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock

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Granbull @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Def / 248 HP / 8 SDef
Impish Nature
- Play Rough
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Roar
 
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while i think it's far too early in the tier to be trying to build a good stall team, i'd like to point out that i really dislike that whirlipede set and probably also whirlipede in general. you can take the two important moves on that set, move them to qwilfish (who can just run taunt / waterfall / spikes / tspikes) and have another slot to cover other issues. you do have ditto to "cover" the pokemon that can set up on whirlipede, but anything with substitute can just prop one up and proceed to sweep as long as they can punch through doublade. give yourself another slot for a 'mon to deal with more threats.

also, running dual screens on what's meant to be a stall team is more or less counterproductive. you're using a pokemon to generate defenses that you don't need; don't use a dual screens set. if you're adamant on using xatu, try out a bulky set with roost + toxic (no screens). otherwise, try out something new.

kind of lackluster in the suggestions department here, but your team is all over the place and i can tell it's something you haven't tested much, or you're particularly reminiscent about particular losses (your team isn't really weak to accelgor...). give the meta more time before trying to develop a solid stall team.
 
Thanks, yeah whirlipede is pretty gimmicky. Also, is there any point running something with defiant/competitive to discourage Defog or is everyone just using spinners?
 
Thanks, yeah whirlipede is pretty gimmicky. Also, is there any point running something with defiant/competitive to discourage Defog or is everyone just using spinners?
defiant and competitive have no merits on a stall team since its users don't fit and stall teams don't have the offensive presence to take advantage of it very well. i wouldn't say defog is nonexistent, but xatu and several spinners in nu are viable where you probably won't see defog users on a lot of teams, but rather just some. still, i wouldn't recommend using a defiant or competitive pokemon since pretty much all of them are subpar in general and are threatened by the defog users or can't break through them too well
 
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