Yes, we're totally doing another stealth rock topic, but probably not the kind of topic you think. Since I want to avoid any potential misunderstandings, I'll say this right off the bat. This is not a topic for any talk about stealth rock being overpowered or breaking the metagame.
The purpose of this topic is to answer a question that's been on my mind for quite some time. We all know how good of a move stealth rock is, but is it possible to win games today without using it? Okay, so sure, you can still win games without laying down stealth rock. In the same way, a really good player could utilize a relatively lousy pokemon and still win some games, but at the end of the day they would probably be much better off using something better. Is it the same for stealth rock though? Are all teams out there worse off by not having an SR user? Is your team handicapped by not having any way to put stealth rocks down?
So far, I'm thinking that the answer is yes. The more and more I play, the more is seems like stealth rock is what won me the game, more so than how I played and what pokemon I used. No matter what kind of team you're playing, better off having one of your pokemon use stealth rock. If you lost the match, it was most likely because you didn't put stealth rocks down ASAP.
First off, let's look at the sweeping capabilities of individual pokemon. I'll go as far as to say that stealth rock assists these pokemon the most. Let's look at a random pokemon like...let's say, nasty plot infernape under sunlight.
So let's just say that this thing is at +2 with a LO and a timid nature, and that it outspeeds the rest of your team and sunlight is up. Not to worry, you've got access some pretty decent walls who can stand up to infernape. His attacks are first blast, focus blast, and vacuum wave. Your walls don't need to worry about vacuum wave, so let's see how they stand up to the first two moves.
Fire blast vs. 252/0 gyarados: 83% - 97.5%
Fire blast vs. 252/0 standard tentacruel: 76.6% - 90.4%
Fire blast vs. 248/0 standard jellicient: 77.4% - 91.3%
Fire blast vs. 0/0 multiscale dragonite: 50.5% - 59.4%
Focus blast vs. 252/252 Calm Gastrodon: 83.8% - 98.6%
Blaze boosted fire blast vs. 248/0 Giratina: 83.1% - 97.8%
What do all of these calcs have in common? While none of these pokemon are ever ohko'd under normal circumstances, stealth rock removes that factor entirely. Wait, did I say normal circumstances? My apologies. Normal circumstances these days include stealth rock already being down. That's why skarmory was never mentioned as a check to blaziken. In the same way, these pokemon are not guaranteed to check Infernape either. The same applies to many other sweepers too.
Another example is choice band terrakion:
Close combat vs. 252/252 bold tangrowth: 44.8% - 53%
Stone Edge vs. 252/252 slowbro: 42.1% - 49.7%
Close combat vs. 252/252 skarmory: 41.3% - 49.1%
Stone Edge vs. 252/252 Celebi: 43.8% - 51.5%
Close combat vs. 252/252 forretress: 47.5% - 55.9%
Without any hazards down, those three pokemon are some of the most reliable counters to a jolly CB terrakion. Even the ones that take over 50% can heal off damage from leftovers and threaten terrakion back with the right move. Except for forretress, they can all heal off the damage he dealt to them as well should terrakion turn tail and switch out. But with SR down, the terrakion user doesn't have to worry about any of these pokemon. They just have to get lucky and hope that they get a high enough damage role in order to 2hko.
So that should show how important they are for sweepers and heavy hitters. They aren't merely residual damage-they are the difference between netting kos and failing to do so, the difference between sweeping and being walled/checked, the difference between losing and winning. I'm sure many of us already know this. Suicide leads like aerodactyl in fourth gen and deoxys-S in fifth gen existed solely to lay down stealth rocks. People were fine with using teams that only consisted of five pokemon so long as they put down stealth rock and kept their opponents from doing so.
But stealth rocks merely used to aid sweepers. They're used to stop them too!
Yeah, these pokemon are going to get their own section. Sure, stealth rock is great for cutting the lives of any LO sweeper short, but some teams downright depend on SR for stopping these two. For crying out loud, both of these pokemon were nominated for ubers. Both of these pokemon are such good boosting sweepers without stealth rock that some teams carry both an espeon and a spinner.
Let's look at multiscale dragonite first. The value of this pokemon comes from being able to tank a hit and set up in everyone's face. And I mean everyone. This thing sets up on LO Starmie at maximum hp. Without having SR down, this formerly borderline pokemon becomes good enough to be used on over 1/4th of all OU teams. It's no wonder Cloyster's usage has risen recently. If you made the mistake of not having SR down, then prepare for this pokemon to deal a ton of damage to your team.
Volcorona is another one. It currently has two counters and one check. Heatran (which is a special case thanks to hp ground and not having the ability to do anything back outside of laying down SR and using roar) and scarfed terrakion are the counters, while landorus is the check. Volcorona sets up on a ton of stuff and, thanks to latios and the now banned thundurus, isn't exactly stopped by the special walls of choice for OU. If used on drought teams, it sets up in the face of bulky waters. When running a bulky set, it could care less about most of the attacks coming its way. LO Alakazam? Nothing a quiver dance can't fix as it uses rest/morning sun to heal off the damage. But with SR down? This pokemon is reduced from a giant threat to thorn in the side. Now it can't even set up on max attack Ninetales, which it normally gets away with when it has max hp.
I could go on, but I'd like to stop now before it seems like I'm rambling. If need be, I'll bring up more examples.
The purpose of this topic is to answer a question that's been on my mind for quite some time. We all know how good of a move stealth rock is, but is it possible to win games today without using it? Okay, so sure, you can still win games without laying down stealth rock. In the same way, a really good player could utilize a relatively lousy pokemon and still win some games, but at the end of the day they would probably be much better off using something better. Is it the same for stealth rock though? Are all teams out there worse off by not having an SR user? Is your team handicapped by not having any way to put stealth rocks down?
So far, I'm thinking that the answer is yes. The more and more I play, the more is seems like stealth rock is what won me the game, more so than how I played and what pokemon I used. No matter what kind of team you're playing, better off having one of your pokemon use stealth rock. If you lost the match, it was most likely because you didn't put stealth rocks down ASAP.
First off, let's look at the sweeping capabilities of individual pokemon. I'll go as far as to say that stealth rock assists these pokemon the most. Let's look at a random pokemon like...let's say, nasty plot infernape under sunlight.
So let's just say that this thing is at +2 with a LO and a timid nature, and that it outspeeds the rest of your team and sunlight is up. Not to worry, you've got access some pretty decent walls who can stand up to infernape. His attacks are first blast, focus blast, and vacuum wave. Your walls don't need to worry about vacuum wave, so let's see how they stand up to the first two moves.
Fire blast vs. 252/0 gyarados: 83% - 97.5%
Fire blast vs. 252/0 standard tentacruel: 76.6% - 90.4%
Fire blast vs. 248/0 standard jellicient: 77.4% - 91.3%
Fire blast vs. 0/0 multiscale dragonite: 50.5% - 59.4%
Focus blast vs. 252/252 Calm Gastrodon: 83.8% - 98.6%
Blaze boosted fire blast vs. 248/0 Giratina: 83.1% - 97.8%
What do all of these calcs have in common? While none of these pokemon are ever ohko'd under normal circumstances, stealth rock removes that factor entirely. Wait, did I say normal circumstances? My apologies. Normal circumstances these days include stealth rock already being down. That's why skarmory was never mentioned as a check to blaziken. In the same way, these pokemon are not guaranteed to check Infernape either. The same applies to many other sweepers too.
Another example is choice band terrakion:
Close combat vs. 252/252 bold tangrowth: 44.8% - 53%
Stone Edge vs. 252/252 slowbro: 42.1% - 49.7%
Close combat vs. 252/252 skarmory: 41.3% - 49.1%
Stone Edge vs. 252/252 Celebi: 43.8% - 51.5%
Close combat vs. 252/252 forretress: 47.5% - 55.9%
Without any hazards down, those three pokemon are some of the most reliable counters to a jolly CB terrakion. Even the ones that take over 50% can heal off damage from leftovers and threaten terrakion back with the right move. Except for forretress, they can all heal off the damage he dealt to them as well should terrakion turn tail and switch out. But with SR down, the terrakion user doesn't have to worry about any of these pokemon. They just have to get lucky and hope that they get a high enough damage role in order to 2hko.
So that should show how important they are for sweepers and heavy hitters. They aren't merely residual damage-they are the difference between netting kos and failing to do so, the difference between sweeping and being walled/checked, the difference between losing and winning. I'm sure many of us already know this. Suicide leads like aerodactyl in fourth gen and deoxys-S in fifth gen existed solely to lay down stealth rocks. People were fine with using teams that only consisted of five pokemon so long as they put down stealth rock and kept their opponents from doing so.
But stealth rocks merely used to aid sweepers. They're used to stop them too!
Yeah, these pokemon are going to get their own section. Sure, stealth rock is great for cutting the lives of any LO sweeper short, but some teams downright depend on SR for stopping these two. For crying out loud, both of these pokemon were nominated for ubers. Both of these pokemon are such good boosting sweepers without stealth rock that some teams carry both an espeon and a spinner.
Let's look at multiscale dragonite first. The value of this pokemon comes from being able to tank a hit and set up in everyone's face. And I mean everyone. This thing sets up on LO Starmie at maximum hp. Without having SR down, this formerly borderline pokemon becomes good enough to be used on over 1/4th of all OU teams. It's no wonder Cloyster's usage has risen recently. If you made the mistake of not having SR down, then prepare for this pokemon to deal a ton of damage to your team.
Volcorona is another one. It currently has two counters and one check. Heatran (which is a special case thanks to hp ground and not having the ability to do anything back outside of laying down SR and using roar) and scarfed terrakion are the counters, while landorus is the check. Volcorona sets up on a ton of stuff and, thanks to latios and the now banned thundurus, isn't exactly stopped by the special walls of choice for OU. If used on drought teams, it sets up in the face of bulky waters. When running a bulky set, it could care less about most of the attacks coming its way. LO Alakazam? Nothing a quiver dance can't fix as it uses rest/morning sun to heal off the damage. But with SR down? This pokemon is reduced from a giant threat to thorn in the side. Now it can't even set up on max attack Ninetales, which it normally gets away with when it has max hp.
I could go on, but I'd like to stop now before it seems like I'm rambling. If need be, I'll bring up more examples.
