At first, the title of this threas was gonna be 'my first good stall team', but I decided to add 'OU' to the title because I used to have an amazing stall team in NU with Torterra, Tropius and Walrein as its core. Subseed Tropius with harvest isnt something to be taken lightly.
Here's the team.
Finger your prick (Ferrothorn) @ Shed Shell
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 196 Def / 252 HP / 60 SDef
Impish Nature
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
Ferrothorn is usually my lead, as he is with many other teams that have Ferrothorn. Where my Ferrothorn is different from most is that he carries niether leftovers nor protect. I read an article on the smog about protect (http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue22/safe_battling), and I realized that leech seeding and then protecting the turn afterwards to gain extra HP usually gives my opponent a free switch-in to something that can KO/set-up on my Ferrothorn. When my opponent predicts a protect, I can t-wave, leech seed or try to send out a safe counter to the predicted switch-in. I put the extra EVs into special defense because Ferrothorn should be able to take advantage of all of his defensive stats, rather than just one of them. The extra damage i take from physical attacks is insignificant - a +1 outrage from Salamence isnt going to OHKO it any time soon (yes, kids do try to outrage sweep when i have Ferrothorn near full health). The lack of leftovers really isnt that bad - Ferrothorn has a relatively low HP compared to many of the things that I use leech seed on, so i end up restoring around 16% each turn. Shed shell is used to escape from Magnezone because I never seem to be able to predict them coming in on me.
dont EQ me pls (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SDef / 248 HP / 8 Spd
Calm Nature
- Substitute
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Roar
Heatran was the most used pokemon throughout 4th gen, but i dont think I ever saw one when I was an excited 12 year old who discovered that Garchomp and Salamence are good on wifi (despite them being banned). In fact, i thought Heatran was useless. Its typing makes it weak to water and ground, plus its slow. Little did i know about a playstyle called 'stall'. While stall was less present than suicidal offense in 4th gen, it made a comeback in 5th gen. Heatran became a commonplace annoyance on the OU ladder because I underestimated it. Thankfully, I learned how to conquer it - use your own Heatran (or pack EQ on Dragonite instead of fire punch). My Heatran, like 5/6 of my pokes, is a unique set made from a combination of more common sets. The most notable move on the set is substitute. Heatran usually isnt a status-move magnet, but i have found it more useful than i originally thought i would. It gives me a free turn to toxic or roar opponents who i would otherwise have problems with. Lava plume is used to take on opposing physical attackers in an attempt to burn them. My defensive core is mostly specially defensive, so it never hurts to get a burn or two. I used to have stealth rock instead of toxic, but my team is able to take care of most* flyers well enough that spikes work fine. Roar is used to stop opponents from setting up, and for generally being annoying. The EV spread is based solely on special defense, but it also seems to take physical hits nicely (Hey, I only take 99% from a +-0 Gyarados waterfall!). I put 4 extra speed EVs in so i can out-speed other specially defensive Heatrans.
Somalia (Jellicent) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
- Night Shade
- Recover
- Magic Coat
- Will-O-Wisp
Jellicent is perhaps the best spinblocker of 5th gen OU. It takes most spinners' coverage moves quite nicely, plus it can burn them if they decide to stay in. Recover is on pretty much every Jellicent set for reasons which i need not mention. My team resists water well enough that I dont need water absorb, plus it always makes me smile when the opponent's one coverage move that can hit me is disabled. Also, I dont mind letting my Jellicent get burned from Scald - hey, at least it's not toxic. Night shade is used for reliable damage that can hit well through calm mind and light screen, plus take out most substitutes. Magic coat is probably the only part of this set that surprises people - in fact, it makes opposing Deoxys-D a cinch to cripple . If i see a Deoxys-D on the opponent's team, I kneejerk lead off with Jellicent, and every time i have done that, they lead with Deoxys. They will attempt to set up rocks or taunt me, and i simply bounce them back. "Boing." (This is perhaps the #1 reason why I dont feel the need to have stealth rocks on Heatran.) There goes Deoxys. The only attacking move I ever see on Deoxys is ice beam, which they will never use on a Jellicent. So, they switch, and based on what i predict, i can use night shade or will-o-wisp. Will-o-wisping a Scizor or Tyranitar is one of my Jellicent's favorite things to do. I also like to use Jellicent as Toxic bait every so often so i can bounce it back to whoever launched it. As the nickname implies, I did used to run energy ball until i realized that Jellicent had giga drain now, and then i realized that giga drain did nothing unless i was using it on Gastrodon. Oh, and i like the blue Jellicent more than the pink one.
Bumper (Latias) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spd / 4 SAtk
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Recover
The 4th spot on my team actually used to be held by Hitmontop. In fact, I typed up the RMT with Hitmontop a while ago, but i clicked 'preview', and it said i wasnt logged in, and I lost it all. Hitmontop was used to spin hazards (with foresight if necessary), intimidate a sweeper (and then die), or revenge kill a crippled poke. Apart from his bulk, Hitmontop was disappointing in terms of offense. CC never did as much as i expected it to (even if it was super effective), and mach punch did even less. I only remember sweeping with him once. Plus, my team had problems with status moves, as i didnt have anyone with substitute at the time (Heatran used to use stealth rocks instead of substitute). I also wanted a strong special attacker other than Starmie, preferably someone who wouldnt get choice locked. I also only had one set-up attacker, and that was Dragonite. I'll get to them in a minute. I decided on Latias because I wanted some bulky substitute offense. I was considering running the subCM set on Latios for a while, but I get tired of seeing so many Latios on everyone's teams. Plus, i think Latias is cuter. My Latias absolutely cannot touch any steel type with more than, say, 20% of its HP, but the rest of my team can deal with Steel types quite nicely. Timid is used over Modest because I like outspeeding the occasional non-scarved Terrakion (although my Starmie was made almost exclusively for that purpose...).
Sanic (Starmie) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 216 Spd / 20 SDef / 20 Def
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
Starmie is one of 2 pokes to be OU since the days of RBY (Dragonite took a dip into BL during early 4th gen). Base 115 speed and 100 special attack isnt as good as Alakazam's stats, but Alakazam has an inferior movepool. My starmie is scarved to make up for the fact that i only have 1 priority move, and I needed a remedy to cure my weakness to scarved Terrakions. Water/Ice is used to get good neutral coverage, and to hit +1 dragons. Thunderbolt is used to hit the water-types that resist water/ice. Rapid spin on a scarf set, you might ask? Well, Claydol runs it in UU (although he also has trick, which I used to run over thunderbolt) to good measure. Natural Cure is also a great ability for a scarved set, but I do like Alakazam's magic guard better (although paralysis becomes a big problem). The power that my moves hit seems to be underwhelming at times - I only do about 60% to a specs latios with my ice beam attack. This set isnt made to be a hard counter to dragons though - While i did once 6/0 a monodragon team with Starmie as the star player of my team, there was some preparation done before i could go in for the sweep (Dragonite needed to be hit first to get rid of multiscale, etc etc). The EV spread is used to outspeed all timid base 110s (with or without a scarf) by at least 1 point. The extra 40 EV points i had were used to bulk up my Starmie a bit, which has saved me from certain defeat a couple times. All in all, scarved starmie is 9/10, would bang.
Swagonite (Dragonite) @ Choice Band
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- ExtremeSpeed
- Outrage
- Superpower
- Fire Punch
My favorite pokemon ever since 3rd gen has been Aggron. However, since Aggron is near unusable in OU, I use my 2nd favorite poke, Dragonite. I was saddened when i learned that Dragonite was inferior in 4th gen. 5th gen, as you all know, gave him multiscale, and a leg up on Salamence. Multiscale gives him an almost guaranteed turn to set-up, but most D-Dance sets like to run lum berry, which pretty much turns Dragonite into Terrakion bait in sand. So, for the longest time, i ran a D-Dance Dragonite with leftovers with Dragon claw, Flamethrower (to hit Ferrothorn and Skarmory better, even without the +1 boost from D-Dance), and Earthquake. While the lack of priority was annoying, it didnt stop me from sweeping most teams once i got to +2 or more. Then i encountered a guy in PS who said that choice band Dragonite is annoying. I never took band Dragonite seriously before - i thought that set was just for people who wanted to run D-Nite over Salamence without good reason. Then i tried it for a few rounds. My opinion was changed the moment I hit an opposing Dragonite with his multiscale still intact with Outrage. OHKO'd. The guy got so mad, and he quit. I prefer superpower over fire punch to hit the occasional balloon Heatran, among other things.
As the title says, this team is stall-oriented, but I have found myself doing offense a couple of times with this team. All of my defensive core has some way to do residual damage to the enemy team, plus the core has t-wave/toxic/will-o-wisp to inflict whatever status is most appropriate.
Up until i made this team on PS, i was no more than a mediocre player. I dont think i had ever gone positive on any tier (i did get around a 1.5/1 W/L ratio in UU a while ago with a monofighting team i made) until i made this team. Ever since then, Ive felt more confident in my abilities, even though i still get around a 1/1 W/L in OU with it. At the time I'm writing this, I have 102/101, and i think i know why it's not better.
Threats to my team, you might ask? Weather is usually not a problem for me - Ferrothorn handles sand well, Heatran can take on sun teams, and Jellicent can wall a lot of rain. But, each of these weathers have their certain attackers that can tear me to shreds. Almost all sets of life orb Landorus in sand get a guaranteed KO on me before i pull out Starmie (if he's still alive - otherwise im probably gonna get swept). In rain, Thundurus-t is devastating - even my Ferrothorn takes a lot from its resisted Thunder[bolt]. Starmie doesnt OHKO with ice beam unless Thundurus has taken some previous damage. While not really a sun attacker, many sun teams carry Rotom-W on them to counter rain, and he can be quite problematic. My Latias does do a nice job of countering him, though, if i dont get burned on the switch-in. Ferrothorn does resist both of Rotom-W's STAB moves, but the risk of getting burned is a turn-off. Using Starmie as trick fodder is out of the question, as my Starmie doesnt carry HP grass (i wouldnt think any Scarfmies do outside of rain).
Well, thats about it. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Senseless hate?
>mfw this is my first post on this website
Here's the team.
Finger your prick (Ferrothorn) @ Shed Shell
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 196 Def / 252 HP / 60 SDef
Impish Nature
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
Ferrothorn is usually my lead, as he is with many other teams that have Ferrothorn. Where my Ferrothorn is different from most is that he carries niether leftovers nor protect. I read an article on the smog about protect (http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue22/safe_battling), and I realized that leech seeding and then protecting the turn afterwards to gain extra HP usually gives my opponent a free switch-in to something that can KO/set-up on my Ferrothorn. When my opponent predicts a protect, I can t-wave, leech seed or try to send out a safe counter to the predicted switch-in. I put the extra EVs into special defense because Ferrothorn should be able to take advantage of all of his defensive stats, rather than just one of them. The extra damage i take from physical attacks is insignificant - a +1 outrage from Salamence isnt going to OHKO it any time soon (yes, kids do try to outrage sweep when i have Ferrothorn near full health). The lack of leftovers really isnt that bad - Ferrothorn has a relatively low HP compared to many of the things that I use leech seed on, so i end up restoring around 16% each turn. Shed shell is used to escape from Magnezone because I never seem to be able to predict them coming in on me.
dont EQ me pls (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SDef / 248 HP / 8 Spd
Calm Nature
- Substitute
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Roar
Heatran was the most used pokemon throughout 4th gen, but i dont think I ever saw one when I was an excited 12 year old who discovered that Garchomp and Salamence are good on wifi (despite them being banned). In fact, i thought Heatran was useless. Its typing makes it weak to water and ground, plus its slow. Little did i know about a playstyle called 'stall'. While stall was less present than suicidal offense in 4th gen, it made a comeback in 5th gen. Heatran became a commonplace annoyance on the OU ladder because I underestimated it. Thankfully, I learned how to conquer it - use your own Heatran (or pack EQ on Dragonite instead of fire punch). My Heatran, like 5/6 of my pokes, is a unique set made from a combination of more common sets. The most notable move on the set is substitute. Heatran usually isnt a status-move magnet, but i have found it more useful than i originally thought i would. It gives me a free turn to toxic or roar opponents who i would otherwise have problems with. Lava plume is used to take on opposing physical attackers in an attempt to burn them. My defensive core is mostly specially defensive, so it never hurts to get a burn or two. I used to have stealth rock instead of toxic, but my team is able to take care of most* flyers well enough that spikes work fine. Roar is used to stop opponents from setting up, and for generally being annoying. The EV spread is based solely on special defense, but it also seems to take physical hits nicely (Hey, I only take 99% from a +-0 Gyarados waterfall!). I put 4 extra speed EVs in so i can out-speed other specially defensive Heatrans.
Somalia (Jellicent) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
- Night Shade
- Recover
- Magic Coat
- Will-O-Wisp
Jellicent is perhaps the best spinblocker of 5th gen OU. It takes most spinners' coverage moves quite nicely, plus it can burn them if they decide to stay in. Recover is on pretty much every Jellicent set for reasons which i need not mention. My team resists water well enough that I dont need water absorb, plus it always makes me smile when the opponent's one coverage move that can hit me is disabled. Also, I dont mind letting my Jellicent get burned from Scald - hey, at least it's not toxic. Night shade is used for reliable damage that can hit well through calm mind and light screen, plus take out most substitutes. Magic coat is probably the only part of this set that surprises people - in fact, it makes opposing Deoxys-D a cinch to cripple . If i see a Deoxys-D on the opponent's team, I kneejerk lead off with Jellicent, and every time i have done that, they lead with Deoxys. They will attempt to set up rocks or taunt me, and i simply bounce them back. "Boing." (This is perhaps the #1 reason why I dont feel the need to have stealth rocks on Heatran.) There goes Deoxys. The only attacking move I ever see on Deoxys is ice beam, which they will never use on a Jellicent. So, they switch, and based on what i predict, i can use night shade or will-o-wisp. Will-o-wisping a Scizor or Tyranitar is one of my Jellicent's favorite things to do. I also like to use Jellicent as Toxic bait every so often so i can bounce it back to whoever launched it. As the nickname implies, I did used to run energy ball until i realized that Jellicent had giga drain now, and then i realized that giga drain did nothing unless i was using it on Gastrodon. Oh, and i like the blue Jellicent more than the pink one.
Bumper (Latias) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spd / 4 SAtk
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Recover
The 4th spot on my team actually used to be held by Hitmontop. In fact, I typed up the RMT with Hitmontop a while ago, but i clicked 'preview', and it said i wasnt logged in, and I lost it all. Hitmontop was used to spin hazards (with foresight if necessary), intimidate a sweeper (and then die), or revenge kill a crippled poke. Apart from his bulk, Hitmontop was disappointing in terms of offense. CC never did as much as i expected it to (even if it was super effective), and mach punch did even less. I only remember sweeping with him once. Plus, my team had problems with status moves, as i didnt have anyone with substitute at the time (Heatran used to use stealth rocks instead of substitute). I also wanted a strong special attacker other than Starmie, preferably someone who wouldnt get choice locked. I also only had one set-up attacker, and that was Dragonite. I'll get to them in a minute. I decided on Latias because I wanted some bulky substitute offense. I was considering running the subCM set on Latios for a while, but I get tired of seeing so many Latios on everyone's teams. Plus, i think Latias is cuter. My Latias absolutely cannot touch any steel type with more than, say, 20% of its HP, but the rest of my team can deal with Steel types quite nicely. Timid is used over Modest because I like outspeeding the occasional non-scarved Terrakion (although my Starmie was made almost exclusively for that purpose...).
Sanic (Starmie) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 216 Spd / 20 SDef / 20 Def
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
Starmie is one of 2 pokes to be OU since the days of RBY (Dragonite took a dip into BL during early 4th gen). Base 115 speed and 100 special attack isnt as good as Alakazam's stats, but Alakazam has an inferior movepool. My starmie is scarved to make up for the fact that i only have 1 priority move, and I needed a remedy to cure my weakness to scarved Terrakions. Water/Ice is used to get good neutral coverage, and to hit +1 dragons. Thunderbolt is used to hit the water-types that resist water/ice. Rapid spin on a scarf set, you might ask? Well, Claydol runs it in UU (although he also has trick, which I used to run over thunderbolt) to good measure. Natural Cure is also a great ability for a scarved set, but I do like Alakazam's magic guard better (although paralysis becomes a big problem). The power that my moves hit seems to be underwhelming at times - I only do about 60% to a specs latios with my ice beam attack. This set isnt made to be a hard counter to dragons though - While i did once 6/0 a monodragon team with Starmie as the star player of my team, there was some preparation done before i could go in for the sweep (Dragonite needed to be hit first to get rid of multiscale, etc etc). The EV spread is used to outspeed all timid base 110s (with or without a scarf) by at least 1 point. The extra 40 EV points i had were used to bulk up my Starmie a bit, which has saved me from certain defeat a couple times. All in all, scarved starmie is 9/10, would bang.
Swagonite (Dragonite) @ Choice Band
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- ExtremeSpeed
- Outrage
- Superpower
- Fire Punch
My favorite pokemon ever since 3rd gen has been Aggron. However, since Aggron is near unusable in OU, I use my 2nd favorite poke, Dragonite. I was saddened when i learned that Dragonite was inferior in 4th gen. 5th gen, as you all know, gave him multiscale, and a leg up on Salamence. Multiscale gives him an almost guaranteed turn to set-up, but most D-Dance sets like to run lum berry, which pretty much turns Dragonite into Terrakion bait in sand. So, for the longest time, i ran a D-Dance Dragonite with leftovers with Dragon claw, Flamethrower (to hit Ferrothorn and Skarmory better, even without the +1 boost from D-Dance), and Earthquake. While the lack of priority was annoying, it didnt stop me from sweeping most teams once i got to +2 or more. Then i encountered a guy in PS who said that choice band Dragonite is annoying. I never took band Dragonite seriously before - i thought that set was just for people who wanted to run D-Nite over Salamence without good reason. Then i tried it for a few rounds. My opinion was changed the moment I hit an opposing Dragonite with his multiscale still intact with Outrage. OHKO'd. The guy got so mad, and he quit. I prefer superpower over fire punch to hit the occasional balloon Heatran, among other things.
As the title says, this team is stall-oriented, but I have found myself doing offense a couple of times with this team. All of my defensive core has some way to do residual damage to the enemy team, plus the core has t-wave/toxic/will-o-wisp to inflict whatever status is most appropriate.
Up until i made this team on PS, i was no more than a mediocre player. I dont think i had ever gone positive on any tier (i did get around a 1.5/1 W/L ratio in UU a while ago with a monofighting team i made) until i made this team. Ever since then, Ive felt more confident in my abilities, even though i still get around a 1/1 W/L in OU with it. At the time I'm writing this, I have 102/101, and i think i know why it's not better.
Threats to my team, you might ask? Weather is usually not a problem for me - Ferrothorn handles sand well, Heatran can take on sun teams, and Jellicent can wall a lot of rain. But, each of these weathers have their certain attackers that can tear me to shreds. Almost all sets of life orb Landorus in sand get a guaranteed KO on me before i pull out Starmie (if he's still alive - otherwise im probably gonna get swept). In rain, Thundurus-t is devastating - even my Ferrothorn takes a lot from its resisted Thunder[bolt]. Starmie doesnt OHKO with ice beam unless Thundurus has taken some previous damage. While not really a sun attacker, many sun teams carry Rotom-W on them to counter rain, and he can be quite problematic. My Latias does do a nice job of countering him, though, if i dont get burned on the switch-in. Ferrothorn does resist both of Rotom-W's STAB moves, but the risk of getting burned is a turn-off. Using Starmie as trick fodder is out of the question, as my Starmie doesnt carry HP grass (i wouldnt think any Scarfmies do outside of rain).
Well, thats about it. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Senseless hate?
>mfw this is my first post on this website
