Freezing Cold
Hello Smogon! After experimenting with a few offensive teams recently, I decided to go back to my teambuilding roots and create a stall team, which is my preferred play style. The only weather I had yet to use in a team was hail which often gets overlooked due to the threats that rain, sun and sand bring to the table. With the current very offensive metagame full of non-hail teams, hail stall would seem unlikely to pull off, and that was my motivation when trying to make this team successful. It has been quite successful so far and this has been achieved by expert belt Abomasnow decimating opposing weather starters, allowing the 5 other stall-tacular team members rack up residual damage under the crashing hail.
Abomasow
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Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 Atk/ 144 Sp.Atk/ 112 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Blizzard
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
- Earthquake
Abomasnow has two purposes. To bring the hail and eliminate the bringers of any other forms of weather, allowing for my team to function at its best. The coverage of wood hammer and earthquake + the EV spread OHKOs most variants of Politoed, Ninetales, Tyranitar and Hippowdon, with ice shard nabbing follow up damage for 2HKOs and eliminating dragons. Abomasnow is the only team member who doesn’t function as a stall mon and that has any attack/special attack investment; this is only because weather dominance is very important for this team.
Skarmory
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Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP/ 252 Def/ 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
- Whirlwind
When it comes to stall, it’s hard to beat the classic Skarm-Bliss duo. Skarmory is a fantastic physical wall which can survive any unboosted physical hit with a 416 defense stat. Skarmory is also a very reliable hazard setter and phazer. With that staggering defense stat and sturdy, Skarmory can sponge all sorts of hits before shuffling the opposing team into layers of spikes and rocks. I opted for leftovers over shed shell so I could keep sturdy intact in the hail and because I’ll play around Magnezone if the opponent carries one.
Blissey
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Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/ 252 Def/ 252 Sp.Def
Calm Nature
- Aromatherapy
- Softboiled
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss
Completing the duo is the dedicated, rage inducing special wall Blissey who simply won’t succumb to special attackers lacking Psyshock. As we all know, she is the strongest special wall in the game so not much needs to be said. She and Skarmory check most special and physical threats together with their great defensive synergy, with fighting attacks are happily taken by Sableye. She also functions as my teams’ cleric, which is essential when executing stall.
Tentacruel
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Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP/ 236 Def/ 20 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
- Toxic
Tentacruel is great because it can effectively stall in hail and even better in the rain, which is why the trait of choice is rain dish for extra recovery. A rapid spinner is 100% necessary for any stall team and I opted for Tentacruel over Forretress and Donphan for a few reasons. First, he can function in the rain fantastically while other spinners don’t quite measure up. Tentacruel has rain dish for constant recovery, as well as a boosted STAB in scald, and neutrality to water attacks plus a 4X resistance to fire. Donphan receives a 4X weakness to water and Forretress gains a water weakness and still has a fire weakness under the rain. Second, Tentacruel fits in greatly to my defensive synergy which is the backbone of stall. He can easily take fire attacks which threaten Skarmory and Abomasnow and fighting ones which threaten Blissey. Looking at the moveset, you may be surprised to see knock off, but it is actually very useful, capable of knocking off leftovers to counter hail damage and attack boosting items such as life orbs or expert belts.
Latias
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Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/ 228 Def/ 28 Spe
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
-Psyshock
-Roost
Latias provides great synergy by resisting multiple attack types with threaten other team members such as fire, fighting, electric, and ground. By utilizing calm mind, Latias’ special defense can reach sky high levels as well as a large special attack levels too. After a few boosts she can distribute pretty powerful attacks while maintaining great bulk. The EV spread allows for 364 HP and enough speed to beat max speed positive natured base 70s like Politoed and Breloom. In conjunction with a bold nature, Latias reaches a 300 defense stat, just to add to her amazing
overall bulkiness.
overall bulkiness.
Sableye
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Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP/ 120 Def/ 136 Sp.Def
Calm Nature
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Night Shade
Prankster Sableye is my MVP and such an underrated Pokémon despite such great capabilities. Prankster taunt stops any boosting sweeper regardless of their speed and completely shuts down opposing stall mons such as Ferrothorn, Forretress, Skarmory, Blissey just to name a few of the many. Will-O-Wisp is incredibly useful against strong physical attackers by halving the attacks of such beasts like Terrakion or Garchomp and can then recover + hail stall them to their end. Sableye also boasts 0 weaknesses and 3 resists, 2 being fighting and psychic which deal super effective damage to Blissey and Tentacruel. If you don’t believe in Sableye’s trolling power, I suggest you try him out on your next
team and you won’t be disappointed :)
team and you won’t be disappointed :)
There you have it! I hope you all enjoyed reading and rating this team as much as I enjoyed creating it. I’m open to suggestions so please feel free to rate. Also, leave a luvdisc if you’d like :)
