Big Fishes and other Methods of Stalling

[DarkMavis98]

That Dang Fish​

This is an all-out defensive team with a primary and secondary wall for both physical and special attacks. Matches typically involve large amounts of switching and an attempt to make all of the opponents severely ill with toxic. With the exception of Mow Rotom none of these pokes are particularly fast (Steelix has gyro-ball so that is by design) and only Rotom and Sawk (my offensive staples) have powerful attacks. This has generally made me mostly weak to setup teams particularly those that are specially based since Steelix has the more dependable phazing move in roar and I typically try to steer him away from special attackers.

Rotom-Mow @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Leaf Storm
- Trick
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Cut Rotom is just about always my lead. By which I mean I can probably count on one hand the number of times I didn’t start with this guy. Every one of those times it didn’t work out well for me. With choice scarf he outspeeds just about every poke I need him to and serves well as a revenge killer.The dual STAB with Volt Switch and Leaf Storm are the main attacks with trick used primarily to cripple support leads and the occasional set up sweeper.

Alomomola @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Waterfall
- Toxic

Alomomola is my main physical wall. She is the standard bulky water with practically no offensive potential although waterfall can come through in the right situation. She relies primarily on toxic and Wish-Protect stalling to defeat foes. She does particularly well once toxic has been spread around the opposing team and can really take down a physically based team. She is particularly susceptible to special attackers particularly those that carry both electric and grass type attacks (like galvantula) because I cannot easily predict and switch to Steelix (listed below) to take the electric hit.

Altaria @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Roost
- Dragon Pulse
- Perish Song
- Heal Bell

Altaria is usually my go to special wall due to his superior typing and ability to (occasionally) take a physical hit from a surprise mixed sweeper. He also provides heal bell support to keep the team healthy and Perish Song to help combat setup users. Dragon pulse provides some damage and avoids being taunt fodder. I only with that I could put toxic on this guy, then we would be good.

Cryogonal @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic​

Cryogonal provides rapid spin support and is a secondary special wall. Unlike Altaria, he carries toxic and a STAB Ice Beam which often makes Cryogonal a superior choice to Altaria due to his ability to deal more damage. The main drawback is his complete inability to take a physical hit, but I generally avoid ever putting him in that situation. I have other pokes for that.

Steelix @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 SDef
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball
- Roar

Steelix provides the essential Stealth Rock support and doubles as my secondary physical wall. He typically needs to rely on Alomomola for wish support, which often results in them both taking hits from physical foes. Ideally this prolongs the turns and allows toxic to rack up while Alomomola remains healthy with regenerator and Steelix can set up Stealth Rocks and phase any setups with roar. On a bad day, this ends with Steelix spending a good deal of time with low HP and threatened out by Superpower wielders or any special attackers leaving Alomomola to deal with all the physical threats. I used to run Dragon Tail on this, but I realized that I would sometimes get worked over by sub-boosting opponents. I actually changed this after a sub-roosting Braviary actually got to +6 with bulk up and destroyed 4 of my pokes before Rotom took him out.

Sawk @ Choice Band
Trait: Mold Breaker
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge

Sawk is my late game sweeper. Sometimes he needs to double as a revenge killer, but I try to save him for as late in the battle as possible so he can just do some mop up. Close Combat is, of course, the usual choice, but occasionally I will use Ice Punch. Earthquake is a slightly less used option since most of the types it hits hard are dealt with by moves that actually hit flying foes, although Mold Breaker deals with levitating opponents. Stone Edge sees some situational usage when I need to take care of both an Entei (or some other fire type) and a flying opponent.
​

This team has been fairly successful for me, but it definitely has some trouble with setup teams and for some reason the move Drain Punch. I find that I tend end up with a break away special attacker more often than physical attackers, although, it is not always the case.


Thank you for reading and I appreciate any of your insight.

Here is the Export:​

Rotom-Mow @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Leaf Storm
- Trick
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Alomomola @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Waterfall
- Toxic

Cryogonal @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic

Altaria @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Roost
- Dragon Pulse
- Perish Song
- Heal Bell

Steelix @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 SDef
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball
- Roar

Sawk @ Choice Band
Trait: Mold Breaker
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge

I can't get the spoiler tag to work. : (

 

[Plus]

Things like Bulk Up Gallade might give you a bit of trouble, and CM Spiritomb seems pretty troublesome as well. Luckily, you do have Altaria's Perish Song to deal with slower mono-attacking set up sweepers like Spiritomb, so that isn't much of a problem. However, Gallade can be problematic because none of your Pokemon can truly kill it off in one shot, and your best bet would probably be Alomomola to Toxic it. However, even that isn't reliable if it were to run Substitute.

Set-up sweepers are a common problem for most stall-based teams, but Perish Song Altaria helps fix this problem, which is usually one of the better ways to combat such threats. If you wanted a way to kill such sweepers right off the bat, maybe you should consider running CB Entei instead of Sawk because it has priority, is faster than CB Sawk, and takes pressure off of Cryogonal to beat things like Tangrowth right off the bat. Tangrowth is annoying for this team because it walls a significant portion of the team, can put things to sleep, and your only way for a quick kill is Cryogonal, which can't risk switching in on a Power Whip.

Another perk of using Entei is that it retains Sawk's wallbreaking abilities, especially on Stall based teams. CB Flare Blitz 2HKOes the standard Slowking with Stealth Rock up, and messes with Hail Stall very effectively. You have Cryogonal to spin away entry hazards that would hinder Entei's longevity, as well as Wish from Alomomola to keep it healthy. Entei completes your FWG Core with Alomomola and Rotom-C, providing you much better synergy than Sawk would on this team. For example, if an Amoonguss or Tangrowth were to come in on Alomomola, you could Wish on their switch and pass it to Entei effectively much better than with Sawk.

It also helps that Entei can pick off things like Spiritomb and Gallade better than Sawk can. Granted, Entei isn't a good response to BU Gallade, but it deals such a heavy hit to Gallade even if it has one Bulk Up on, and if for some reason you can't force a switch using Altaria, Entei is a good option to simply break through set-up sweepers with sheer power.

Entei@ Choice Band
Adamant 252 atk / 252 spe / 4 hp
Flare Blitz/ Stone Edge/ ExtremeSpeed / Sleep Talk

Good luck with the team, hope I helped.

 

[cacturne]

I will third the entei>sawk on a banded poke and would also like to say that in RU altaria is a pretty lackluster special wall. It is an okay cleric but has too many common weaknesses including stealth rock I would suggest a specially defensive gallade set which has more bulk, wish passing, and resistance to stealth rocks.
here it goes
Gallade @Leftovers
Ability: Steadfast
Careful 248HP 244SpDef 16Spe
Drain Punch/Wish/Protect/Will-o-Wisp or Toxic
Will-o-Wisp lets you tank hits on both sides of the spectrum and makes up for gallade's poor defense but toxic is a more traditional stalling move and has better accuracy