Didn't have the time or stamina to see myself qualify,
lol jk
This was my first serious OLT run, and my goal was to qualify using only my own teams. I was prepared with some others if I needed to avoid getting sniped and/or win a match in under 30 minutes, but thankfully, that didn't happen. I ended up using three stall-ish teams and one short-lived attempt at HO to qualify.
https://pokepast.es/9f39b7b2c18e3453
This is the third team I built and the one I used for most of my games (1500-1800). It's pretty evident why I plateaued with it; it's extremely weak to fairies, especially Primarina, and I couldn't figure out how to fix those issues without scrapping the team entirely. Nonetheless, it was a fun team to grind low ladder with. The highlight of this team is the Volcarona set, which looks stupid but has logic. Offensive teams will usually have something like a Dragapult as their Volcarona check, and you just need to chip it into +1 Flamethrower range to sweep. Defensive teams will have Blissey / Pex / Ditto / whatever, so forget sweeping; just use Volc for hazard control.
https://pokepast.es/d2cfca8657cc82d2
This is the first team I built, but I got bored using it around 1500 ELO and ditched it until 1800+. The idea was to abuse the Teleport Blissey + Dragapult core John W mentioned in his post to answer threats such as Substitute Gengar, Alakazam and Hydreigon, but I eventually had to drop Teleport for Heal Bell to get a better matchup vs. stall. It's nothing too flashy, but I made several less standard adaptations to compensate for its weaknesses, such as Stealth Rock / Wish Jirachi for role compression and fast Mandibuzz for Bisharp.
https://pokepast.es/e82e8f010333081e
This is the second team I built, and it ended up being my favorite one. I also started using it in low ladder, but I ditched it until my final push because I didn't like how it felt at the time. My main gripe was that Unaware Clefable was a necessity on paper and a dead slot in practice; as it turns out, it gets a lot better at high ELO due to homogeneity of hyper offense teams. The star of the show is Cobalion, a Pokemon I've attempted to make work since the Pokemon Home release; its main role on this team is a Stealth Rocker and Bisharp counter, but its STABs, speed tier, and access to Volt Switch give it enough offensive presence to allay pressure from bulky boosters like Clefable and Hatterene, pressure opposing stalls in conjunction with Knock Off support, and revenge kill sweepers like Rillaboom, Crawdaunt, and Urshifu rather than having to incur unfavorable trades to eliminate them. I also managed to squeeze in the aforementioned Dragapult / Teleport Blissey combo on this one.
I've already written about this set
here, but I want to say a few more things. I used this Tangrowth set on all three of my teams (credits to ABR for itemless). Infestation is genuinely useful outside of the surprise sleep kills it can land, and with Knock and Giga Drain as Tangrowth's only two must-haves, it's a no-brainer to me to put Infestation in one of the last slots. Here are some other ways you can use it:
- Knock Off isolation: You can Infestation a switch-in and no longer have to risk Knocking a Ditto or a Tricked Scarf (or you can trap one of these Pokemon if they try to come in to absorb Knock).
- Pivot removal: Infestation prevents an opponent from double-switching out of Tangrowth, enabling you to switch in a response to common pivots such as Amoonguss and Toxapex and guarantee they'll remain there.
- PP stall: Trapping a Pokemon forces them to stay in and waste PP, and because Tangrowth tends to lure Amoonguss and Clefable, Corviknight is an ideal partner. Infestation's 32 PP count also offers an edge in these stall wars.
- Chip damage: An obvious use of Infestation, of course, but it bears mentioning. A scenario that came up a couple of times in my run was Infestation + two turns of Burn + Stealth Rock does 40% min and will outdamage Amoonguss's Regenerator. Sand chip may also be come into play; one of the most common OLT teams featured Tyranitar + Amoonguss, so it was relevant even without my own sand. Infestation's aforementioned 32 PP will ensure that Giga Drain recovery isn't a longterm solution.
Other options: I played a few games with Binding Band but found that I preferred additional Crawdaunt insurance. I also observed that sleep became less and less useful when I couldn't trap something; I think it was still the best choice for the kills it did get, but I might consider running something like Sludge Bomb in the last slot for Rillaboom and Clefable.
There's been some talk about Ditto lately, and I wanted to touch on it a bit, since it's a popular stall feature, and none of the final versions of my teams ended up having it. I don't rate Ditto that highly as an anti-offense tool, especially in a meta where HO is perpetually refashioning itself to beat stall. The threats Ditto revenges can all generally be managed by some standard stall component, whereas Pokemon like Hatterene, Bisharp, and Sub Gengar are both resilient to Ditto revenge kills and call for more niche defensive answers. Instead of Ditto, I opted for Dragapult as speed control, who fares much better against the aforementioned Sub Gengar and (Sash) Alakazam while still offering an answer to sweepers like Toxtricity and Azumarill. I believe Ditto's real value is ensuring that you (should) never lose a stall vs. stall matchup, but it's more likely to translate it into a draw than a win, and I was confident in my ability to convert most stall mirrors into draws without it, even against opposing Ditto.