National Dex Lagging Tail Mola - Semi Stall - 1938 ELO - 86.6% GXE

Kyo · Jun 23, 2024

https://pokepast.es/bf19d3631327b5ab

Something like two years back in SS NatDex I made an RMT for an unusual semi stall team that I really enjoyed. This is just one of my favorite types of teams to use for whatever reason, and I usually find them the most consistent. So here's another semi stall, this time for SV NatDex, featuring lagging tail Alomomola. I didn't try to farm any ridiculous GXE this time, but I think the peak ELO is enough to prove the team is at least competent.

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This team originally came about when I was trying to build something that could abuse Mega Ttar's new access to knock off. Ttar has an impressive ability to tank super effective hits and return back even harder. Even with limited attack investment, knock off hits like a truck while stripping valuable items from defensive walls. This is especially helpful for Ursaluna to start making progress in fat vs fat matchups. Pursuit can pressure certain nuisance mons like Slowking-Galar, either outright killing or forcing a defensive tera that leaves it vulnerable to toxic from Alomomola. It also forces choiced Tapu Lele to play carefully at the risk of being trapped for 80-90% of its HP. Fire punch coverage helps deal with opposing Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor which are otherwise a bit frustrating for the team to wear down. I'm using rock blast over stone edge on this set. With knock off being Ttar's main damage dealing move, this gives me the best possible accuracy against Mega Charizard-Y and Volcarona while hitting through sub Kyurem. Sand stream disrupts weather and improves the matchup against sun and rain teams with Ttar being able to threaten pretty much every weather setter with a super effective rock blast.

:sm/ferrothorn:

Rocky helmet Ferrothorn is an absolute champ in the current landscape of SV NatDex. Granted Ferro in general is very good right now, but the contact damage + sand chip from Ttar can be downright obnoxious for teams that lack recovery. Even if Ferrothorn goes down, the opponent's breaker may be irreparably damaged and unable to clean up the rest of the stall core. This is more or less the strategy for dealing with a number of mons like Mega Medicham, banded Urshifu, and offensive Great Tusk. Don't be afraid to just go for tera ghost early because you won't want to switch into these mons without having your type change activated. Clefable won't always be able to deal with offensive fighting types, and you will most likely need to preserve it for other threats. Although it may be tempting to drop leech seed entirely when Ferro has no leftovers and the team has two wish support options, I would recommend against it. Leech seed is very important for stalling out a number of mons that the Clef/Corv/Mola core can't such as Archaludon, SD Gliscor, Mega Scizor, CM Iron Crown, and curse or ID Garganacl.

:sm/ursaluna:

Obligatory ground type for the team that deals with Koko better due to being only 2x weak to hp ice rather than 4x in the case of Gliscor. This eases the burden on Ferrothorn which lacks leftovers recovery and may need to tera into a ghost type. Ursa functions in much the same way that Ttar does on this team. It's a bulky stat stick that is exceedingly difficult to knock out in one hit. It also compresses a ton of defensive value that might not be obvious at first glance. Bulletproof can shut down a number of offensive threats. Mega Charizard-Y is unable to hit Ursa with weather ball or focus blast leaving solar beam as its best option. However, clicking solar beam on a switch to Ttar causes the move to enter an initial charge up turn whereafter Ttar tanks the hit and kills back with rock blast while Zard is completely unable to switch. Being a ground type with bulletproof, Ursa is also fully immune to the classic Glowking combo of sludge bomb + twave. Sludge bomb immunity is especially helpful when tera'd into a fairy type. This massively improves the matchup against every common Darkrai set which will be unable to attack you with anything besides dark pulse/psyshock/ice beam and is fairly frustrating for offensive Mega Venusaur. Mega Venusaur in general is not a big problem for the team. However, some sets choose to drop grass STAB for hp fire in which case Corviknight becomes a much less reliable defensive answer. Focus blast immunity is situationally useful for a bunch of other stuff too like Iron Val, Iron Crown, Tapu Lele, and Torn-T and weather ball immunity improves the matchup against Zapdos and Torn-T in rain although Ttar can deal with them too. Ursa helps the team eliminate Raging Bolt as well by virtue of typing and weather ball immunity. If timed correctly, you can tera fairy on Bolt's draco meteor or Z draco and hit back for massive damage.

The moveset here is pretty unconventional, but it's designed to completely fold a lot of stall/fat cores. Ursa has significant speed investment so that, in tandem with tera fairy, you can shut down ID Corv and Skarm. 193 speed creeps Mega Scizor and Heatran which can be useful as both are a nuisance to the team. Fat teams tend to have very limited options to deal with this Ursa set long term as typical unaware answers like Clefable and Dondozo lose to taunt over time. This set also outspeeds and taunts will-o-wisp Skeledirge. Double wish and heal bell support keeps Ursaluna coming back over and over throughout the course of longer games.

:sm/alomomola:

And here we have not only the featured mon of this team but arguably the most important defensive piece as well. Lagging tail Alomomola applies toxic, keeps the team healthy with wish pass, and provides slow momentum into Ursaluna or Ttar. I'll do my best to explain why lagging tail is so important here and include some replays to demonstrate at the end of this post. It guarantees in most cases that Mola will tank whatever is across from it on the field and pass wishes slowly so that anything on the team, even at low HP, can be safely healed up. A good example of this is with opposing Ferrothorn which underspeeds Alomomola. You can simply tank a power whip and then pass directly into Ttar or Ursaluna. It's also much easier to scout out future sight Glowking when you switch with flip turn after chilly reception goes off. Lagging tail's negative priority means you always lose speed ties with opposing Mola. Therefore, the opponent is at risk of taking a toxic on the mon they want to heal or being chipped by flip turn + sandstorm into an immediate pursuit trap. At the same time, you never have to worry about passing a wish out to low HP Ttar or Ursaluna and dying to opposing Mola's flip turn. This is part of the reason I have Mola set to lvl 99 in case your item is lost to knock off. Slow flip turns also shut down Garganacl spamming salt cure and Toxapex spamming scald or toxic. Tera dragon is pretty standard here as the obligatory Zard Y check and eases the matchup against Ogerpon Wellspring.

:sm/clefable:

Another fat wish passer and cleric, fun times. This team doesn't have any real status absorbers besides Mola so having aromatherapy support is great. Unaware shuts down a number of threatening mons and probably needs little explanation. Basically, the team is slow and revenge kills through tanking hits with Ursa/Ttar/Ferrothorn. Clefable handles a lot of the attack and sp attack boosting mons they don't want to stay in on. Having two wish users on the team is a massive boost to longevity as it's one of the few healing options not hit by the Gen 9 PP nerf. Most other defensive mons can no longer afford to spam healing as a way to PP stall or scout attacks. Sometimes just wishing and protecting repeatedly in front of a threat like tera poison/steel Gouging Fire is enough to stall out PP on flare blitz/heat crash and win 1v1. I have tera poison here to make Clefable immune to toxic and so that you can repeatedly loop between Mola flip turn and Clef against most toxic spikes setters. Toxic immunity is somewhat important in that aromatherapy only has 8 pp and you can get stuck curing your status in front of something spamming toxic and run out of PP quickly. Poison also resists Iron Val's STABs which is great for specs/cm sets and other more niche scenarios. I don't tera Clef that often and other types like water or dragon are probably viable here, but this is what I'm most comfortable with.

:sm/corviknight:

There's not that much to talk about here. Corv is hazard control for the team and sometimes a PP staller. Although ID body press sets are more common on fat teams, I needed brave bird here so that Mega Venusaur can't sit around forever on this team. It also 1 hit KOs Mega Medicham and is a roll to KO Iron Valiant from full. I'm using tera psychic as an optional hard answer to Medicham while retaining my resist against Lele's main STAB move. There are a few other niche situations where this is useful like against tera fighting CM Iron Crown or to switch to a resist against CC from Mega Lopunny and offensive Great Tusk. You're probably not gonna tera Corv in the vast majority of games. Substitute is a major headache for anything trying to cripple Corv such as Glowking's twave, Ferro's twave/leech seed/knock off, Mola's knock off, Pex's scald/knock off, etc. You can also 1v1 stealth rocks Garganacl and PP stall a number of mons including power gem Glimmora and magma storm Heatran even with taunt. This set has a lot of speed investment so that I can move first in front of most defensive Heatran sets. It also speed creeps 252 adamant Mega Mawile and Ursaluna. This is great since every bit of chip counts against those two. Helmet Ferro won't be able to outright 1v1 them but can deal heavy chip so that they're in range of Corv or pursuit trapping from Ttar.

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This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I typically worry about these mons the most.

:sm/scizor-mega:

3A sets without healing are arguably easier to chip down and remove. Roost SD sets are annoying though, and Clefable doesn't really beat them even when tera'd unless Scizor is also leech seeded. Try to snipe with Ttar's fire punch or preserve Ferrothorn to apply leech seed. BP + U-Turn can be PP stalled by tera Clef and sub Corviknight.

:sm/ogerpon-wellspring:

Not an unplayable matchup by any means, but if Ferro doesn't hit its power whips this can get sketchy pretty quick. Wellspring can't directly 1v1 tera dragon Mola unless it runs taunt indicating it has no superpower coverage for Ferrothorn, but over the course of a longer game a well-played Ogerpon is scary.

:sm/charizard-mega-y:

Typically, you want to tera Alomomola in the Zard Y matchup unless you really outplay the opponent and manage to limit Zard Y using only your TTar and Ursa. However, burning tera dragon on Mola leaves the team notably weaker to Gouging Fire and doesn't allow you to tera ghost Ferro against offensive Tusk.

:sm/ursaluna:

The strategy to dealing with Ursaluna is not too complicated. You need to position so that you can switch Ferrothorn into any attack other than a fire punch or +2 headlong rush. Either of those moves can 1 hit KO Ferro from full. If you can avoid this, Ursa is forced to make contact twice and take massive chip damage leaving it open to revenge killing from Corv or pursuit trapping from Ttar.

:sm/heatran:

Offensive Tran actually runs speed investment so you can't easily PP stall it with Corviknight. Z solar beam hits Ttar very hard and kills Alomomola outright. You'll want to protect scout with Mola/Clef to attempt to waste their Z move. Tera dragon Mola soft checks offensive Heatran but is still hit hard by earth power and isn't always an ideal tera for the rest of the matchup.

:sm/magnezone:

Almost nobody is using this in SV NatDex right now. Obviously, it's kinda scary as you can only save Corv or Ferro from being trapped and they're also forced to use tera for that game. All in all, this is an uncommon matchup issue to run into and can be played around sometimes.

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Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy the team :)

Sami · Jul 21, 2024

What does the Mega Tyranitar spread do?

Kyo · Jul 21, 2024

S0A0M0I0 said:
What does the Mega Tyranitar spread do?

Hits 224 speed which is a speed creep I commonly use for uninvested Lando-T as well as Tusk/Moltres/Gouging Fire to a lesser extent. It’s a bit unnecessary since Lando is only 218 speed but since a lot of other mons value speed creeping Lando I think it’s worth it to cover those too. Spdef investment survives a focus blast from Zard Y if sand is up. 28 def is for a number of random things, lives 2 eqs from Gliscor, lives +1 adamant eq from Dragonite after stealth rocks, and then the big one is surviving +2 uninvested bullet punch from Mega Scizor after rocks damage. Leftover EVs in attack and adamant nature to give it some damage output

National Dex Lagging Tail Mola - Semi Stall - 1938 ELO - 86.6% GXE

Kyo

Letting In The Sunshine

Sami

formerly S0A0M0I0

Kyo

Letting In The Sunshine