Peaked #2 (2045 ELO) – Hydrapple Stall

This team was built by quacc and myself
https://pokepast.es/ea07630b4864a081
Table of Contents:
Introduction:
Proof of Peak
With this team, quacc and I were able to reach over 2000 ELO with this team multiple times on the ladder and achieve the peaks shown above. quacc also achieved an individual peak of #7 with 2036 ELO using his version of the team.
This team also raised my GXE from around 83% to 86%. If I had to guess, I would say I had an 87-89% GXE while using this team.
Peak Games:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2039124170-4ze38jw4z7dv5s48hhe22c61vvt4gerpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2039870870?p2
Team Members
is the star of the show and provides invaluable defensive support for the team.
’s primary job is to absorb Knock Off from
and
with Tera Ice. Thanks to the Sticky Hold ability,
cannot lose its item, meaning it can always swap into Knock Off without fear of losing its Heavy-Duty Boots.
is also unique in this function because it has much higher defenses than
or
, and does not rely on its dual-typing to stay hazard-resistant like
. Therefore,
is free to use Tera Ice to avoid the 50-50 of Knock Off versus Triple Axel that
and
struggle with. As a result,
is truly the only Pokémon that can fulfill this role.
After switching in,
can use Giga Drain to recover HP off the Pokémon that switches into it or use Body Press to OHKO a
or cripple a
that thinks it has a free switch-in.
In addition to this critical job,
walls other threatening Pokémon like
,
, and Choice Band
with ease using the combination of Giga Drain and Body Press.
Finally, instead of running a traditional utility move like Dragon Tail, I elected for the "Goob Button."
With Tera Blast Ice,
can snatch OHKO’s on Swords Dance + Knock Off
, which is another notorious stallbreaker. I have included many replays of
beating
,
, and
at the end.
Max defense allows
to live hits from almost every physical attacker in the meta. 27 Speed IVs ensure that
is slower than opposing
in case you need to prevent a Wish pass.
’s job needs no explanation. Calm Mind is used to wall set-up sweepers, allowing
and
to split the special wall duties depending on the matchup and preserve recovery PP.
I elected for Seismic Toss over other options like Shadow Ball and Flamethrower because Seismic Toss
beats every special attacker in the meta when used in combination with
without needing the additional coverage.
Finally, I chose to use Stealth Rock on
as I found that having 2 attacks on
was more valuable than having a move like Protect on
instead. However, should you prefer an easier matchup versus
, Protect can be slotted in on
and Stealth Rock moved to
instead.
Tera Water is used to wall Tera Water
in Sun. Tera Fairy is also a viable option depending on the
set you choose, which will be explained below.
is another Gen 9 OU stall staple. Unaware ensures that
can wall almost every setup physical attacker in the meta such as
,
, and
.
I elected to use Curse + Waterfall over my traditional Body Press + Avalanche set as I found much more success with it in this very offense-heavy meta.
Tera Fighting still remains the best tera for
and allows it to beat Tera Dark
.
is another stall staple.
Scald allows
to fish for burns to cripple opposing Pokémon while Flip Turn lets
Wish Pass seamlessly in front of a variety of Pokémon thanks to minimum speed ensuring that
takes the hit while another team member can receive the Wish unscathed.
Flip Turn also allows
to escape common trapping Pokémon like
.
However, there are also a few key deviations from the traditional sets.
Because
and
are the primary Knock Off absorbers,
no longer needs to fulfill this role.
As a result,
can run Tera Dark. Because
does not have Protect on this team, it is up to
alone to stop Future Sight with Protect. Therefore, Tera Dark can alleviate this burden by eliminating the damage from the move completely while
uses protect to avoid damage from the incoming attack. Because
becomes completely immune to Future Sight, being poisoned by
is often manageable when playing around Future Sight. Tera Dark also lets
wall Mixed
, which is otherwise a big threat as this team does not have any other Regenerator Pokémon to assist with this task. However, should you run Tera Fairy on
to wall Mixed
,
is free to run Tera Steel instead to have a better matchup versus
.
Finally, instead of maximum Physical Defense,
is running a mixed spread. Once again, due to there being only one Regenerator Pokémon on this team,
needs to be capable of scouting everything from Choice Band
to Choice Specs
and sponging many different hits while Wish passing.
Threats
As I always say, although this team is very tough to beat, it is not unbeatable.

This team is very dependent on abilities for healing, as the two most frequently used Pokémon on this team,
and
, require their abilities to perform their roles. Therefore, a Pokémon that can nullify these abilities can be extremely challenging to beat when paired with additional threats.
and 
Not much needs to be said about these two. Both are borderline un-wallable and have been massive threats to stall since the day they were released. I have included some replays of this team beating these Pokémon.

Recently, there has been some usage of a particularly annoying set with Tera Ghost + Fire Spin + Taunt. As the team stands, there is little counterplay to this Pokémon. Your only hope is to try and catch it on a switch in and fish for status on it with
and/or Tera Ghost
. If this set becomes more popular, running Shadow Ball and/or Tera Ghost on
might be advisable.
Replays
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2028819763?p2
Aislinn using the team in OUPL Semifinals Tiebreak: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-740187
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2030218392?p2
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2031972504?p2
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2038207048
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2038220787?p2
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2028167272?p2
Taunt
+ Swords Dance
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2032243611?p2
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2034478475?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2032079637-4tenie7jyo3p4y5kexa2d8k19zwtw15pw?p2
Choice Band
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2030483378-o8b7aq5pngxkqwn6izuxd2c0y93rmrbpw
Choice Band
+ Taunt
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2039870870?p2
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to everyone in the Stall Discord and Community. Everyone there is super helpful and passionate about Pokémon which in turn motivates me to build teams and ladder.
In particular, big thanks to quacc for helping me build and ladder with this team.
Thank you to duckycrater and NidoTheKing for impactful innovations and optimizations.
Shoutouts to Pinkacross for the idea to use spoilers to break up text, which he first used in his RMTs.
Finally, while this RMT is a great starting point, it is far from comprehensive. Feel free to ask me any questions about the team or specific matchups in the comments or on Discord. The link to the Stall Discord is here: https://discord.gg/5kesazdPxF.






This team was built by quacc and myself
https://pokepast.es/ea07630b4864a081
Quacc’s Version: https://pokepast.es/c3cf18921ecf99fd
Nickname Version: https://pokepast.es/affb1500163a8f55
Nickname Version: https://pokepast.es/affb1500163a8f55
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Proof of Peak
- Team Members
- Threats
- Replays
- Acknowledgments
Introduction:
Following the release of DLC 2, stall has struggled to find a footing in a meta that was once again flooded with a wave of new offensive Pokémon and very few defensive countermeasures. While Highv0ltag3 did find tremendous success with his semi-stall team in the early meta, it quickly became outdated. Despite
dropping from Ubers and initially promising Pokémon like
returning, there were no truly elite hard stall teams.
With the goal of changing this, I experimented with many different stall teams, but I could not find a 6-Pokémon combination that could withstand the sheer number of threats in the meta. In particular, I found it extremely difficult to beat teams that featured hazard stack + a strong Knock-Off user like
or
which could punish conventional answers like Tera Flying
and
with strong STAB Ice-type attacks.
The next day, quacc sent me a DM with an idea he wanted to test out.
quacc thought it would be cool if we used Tera Ghost
+ Curse + Regenerator to chunk HP off of opposing Pokémon while not losing health ourselves. I took one look at this idea and knew that this idea was spectacular.
Spectacularly garbage that is.
Not only had we tried this before with
and failed miserably, but
just did not seem like a good Pokémon. It was 4x weak to Ice, had a shallow utility move pool, and while it had high physical defense, it had received 0 increases to those defenses from its previous evolution
.
However, as I took a closer look at that screenshot, I realized something absolutely groundbreaking.
And from there, the team was born.


With the goal of changing this, I experimented with many different stall teams, but I could not find a 6-Pokémon combination that could withstand the sheer number of threats in the meta. In particular, I found it extremely difficult to beat teams that featured hazard stack + a strong Knock-Off user like




The next day, quacc sent me a DM with an idea he wanted to test out.
quacc thought it would be cool if we used Tera Ghost

Spectacularly garbage that is.
Not only had we tried this before with



However, as I took a closer look at that screenshot, I realized something absolutely groundbreaking.
And from there, the team was born.
Proof of Peak
With this team, quacc and I were able to reach over 2000 ELO with this team multiple times on the ladder and achieve the peaks shown above. quacc also achieved an individual peak of #7 with 2036 ELO using his version of the team.
This team also raised my GXE from around 83% to 86%. If I had to guess, I would say I had an 87-89% GXE while using this team.
Peak Games:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2039124170-4ze38jw4z7dv5s48hhe22c61vvt4gerpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2039870870?p2
Team Members














After switching in,



In addition to this critical job,




Finally, instead of running a traditional utility move like Dragon Tail, I elected for the "Goob Button."
With Tera Blast Ice,






Max defense allows







I elected for Seismic Toss over other options like Shadow Ball and Flamethrower because Seismic Toss


Finally, I chose to use Stealth Rock on






Tera Water is used to wall Tera Water








I elected to use Curse + Waterfall over my traditional Body Press + Avalanche set as I found much more success with it in this very offense-heavy meta.
Tera Fighting still remains the best tera for



With the onslaught of setup sweepers in this meta,
is simply not capable of walling everything. As a result, I turned to my signature Amnesia
set. Most importantly,
walls
in Rain, which would otherwise sweep through this team with ease.
is also great against
and the increasingly popular Calm Mind
.
Tera Steel was chosen to resist Stored Power and Psyshock while maintaining Fairy Resistance, allowing
to beat Stored Power sweepers such as
,
, and
.
The EV spread also seems bizarre upon first glance, but it is actually just an optimization of my older spread that allows
to more easily live attacks like Psyshock before using Tera. Shoutouts to NidoTheKing for this optimization, which he discussed here.
Finally, the move selections may seem unorthodox to many, but in my opinion, this is the optimal
set for this meta.
Poison Sting was chosen for a number of reasons. Firstly, it has 56 PP, which ensures that even Calm Mind + Agility
and
cannot out-stall
. Secondly, the move does not make contact and has a 30% chance of inflicting poison. As a result,
can freely spam this move against Pokémon like
and Taunt
to fish for poison without worrying about activating Flame Body or getting chipped by a Pokémon with a Rocky Helmet switching in.
Poison Jab is also an option for this move slot should you choose as it does have some benefits over Poison Sting, most notably increased base power, but in my experience, I find that Poison Sting is preferable.
Bulldoze was chosen because it has double the PP of Earthquake and still allows
to hit Pokémon like
and
super-effectively. The damage drop-off is not material as
isn’t exactly a heavy hitter in the first place.







Tera Steel was chosen to resist Stored Power and Psyshock while maintaining Fairy Resistance, allowing




The EV spread also seems bizarre upon first glance, but it is actually just an optimization of my older spread that allows

Finally, the move selections may seem unorthodox to many, but in my opinion, this is the optimal

Poison Sting was chosen for a number of reasons. Firstly, it has 56 PP, which ensures that even Calm Mind + Agility






Poison Jab is also an option for this move slot should you choose as it does have some benefits over Poison Sting, most notably increased base power, but in my experience, I find that Poison Sting is preferable.
Bulldoze was chosen because it has double the PP of Earthquake and still allows






Scald allows



Flip Turn also allows


However, there are also a few key deviations from the traditional sets.
Because



As a result,












Finally, instead of maximum Physical Defense,





With DLC 2,
has thankfully returned to stall to resume its role as a defensive menace.
is an extremely powerful progress maker and provides excellent longevity versus fatter teams. However, I am not a fan of the traditional Toxic + Earthquake + Spikes set as it is simply too passive. As a result, I have returned to my signature set which I first featured on my most prominent DLC 1 stall.
Tera Ghost allows
to function as a Rapid Spin blocker under certain conditions, which can be a powerful win condition for the team. It also gives the team a better chance against Pokémon like
in Trick Room.
Knock Off ensures that
can force progress against teams that rely on Heavy Duty Boots to avoid hazard damage or cripple Pokémon like
that rely on Leftovers recovery.
Finally, although unorthodox, Poison Jab was chosen over Toxic for a number of reasons.
I was simply tired of
swapping in to
freely to block Spikes and threaten the team back with Calm Mind. By using Poison Jab instead of Toxic,
is able to flip the script and obliterate its nemesis
by dealing super-effective damage and inflicting poison through Magic Bounce. This also eases the burden on
and
, as once
is poisoned, it is no longer a threat to sweep the team.
Poison Jab also has the additional benefit of beating another big threat to stall, namely Tera Flying + Taunt
. This set has been terrorizing stall for almost a year, but Poison Jab lets
shut it down quickly.
Finally, Poison Jab allows
to beat another annoying Pokémon for stall to deal with,
. Like
,
has become too accustomed to being able to sit on
and wall it in this meta. Poison Jab ensures that this is no longer the case as
can quickly burn through
’s recovery PP. Poison Jab also has more PP than Toxic, so this
set easily wins PP stall handshakes with opposing
.
Shoutouts to duckycrater in the Stall Discord for proposing this innovation. In my opinion, this should now be the preferred set for
on stall.
The version of this team that quacc used does have Toxic
, but as a result he is forced to run Avalanche + Curse
to ensure Taunt + Tera Flying
can’t sweep the team easily. Both options are viable.
I have included some replays where Poison Jab
wins games that traditional
sets simply would not have won.


Tera Ghost allows


Knock Off ensures that


Finally, although unorthodox, Poison Jab was chosen over Toxic for a number of reasons.
I was simply tired of







Poison Jab also has the additional benefit of beating another big threat to stall, namely Tera Flying + Taunt


Finally, Poison Jab allows









Shoutouts to duckycrater in the Stall Discord for proposing this innovation. In my opinion, this should now be the preferred set for

The version of this team that quacc used does have Toxic



I have included some replays where Poison Jab


Threats
As I always say, although this team is very tough to beat, it is not unbeatable.


This team is very dependent on abilities for healing, as the two most frequently used Pokémon on this team,




Not much needs to be said about these two. Both are borderline un-wallable and have been massive threats to stall since the day they were released. I have included some replays of this team beating these Pokémon.

Recently, there has been some usage of a particularly annoying set with Tera Ghost + Fire Spin + Taunt. As the team stands, there is little counterplay to this Pokémon. Your only hope is to try and catch it on a switch in and fish for status on it with



Replays
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2028819763?p2
Aislinn using the team in OUPL Semifinals Tiebreak: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-740187

Tera Dark
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2028113732?p2
Psyshock
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2028118256?p2
Stored Power
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2028824914?p2
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2030307130?p2
Taunt
1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2035968940
2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2030240397-llhna44wgfcbts02ebbjd6owv5fcem0pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2037311892?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2028139443
Mixed
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2028161078?p2
+ 
1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2029701842-ejw5kc20e6mbpanrkr6tfxykoztge0rpw
2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2031276134-kjfu1blpmfwgxysrc123buufelabp5fpw
+ Swords Dance
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2030387993-pzks7qtzk084necds5ze781kkhqh8trpw
+ Psyshock
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2030456457-2cc8qd0nokt2f4a799twfb0y6wemi5epw?p2
Mixed
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2039863063

Psyshock

Stored Power




Taunt

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2035968940
2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2030240397-llhna44wgfcbts02ebbjd6owv5fcem0pw


Mixed




1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2029701842-ejw5kc20e6mbpanrkr6tfxykoztge0rpw
2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2031276134-kjfu1blpmfwgxysrc123buufelabp5fpw




Mixed



Choice Band
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2030966344?p2
+ Mixed
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2031948060
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2032009292?p2
Mixed
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2035932456?p2
Mixed
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2035965261?p2
+ 
1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2035997333
2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2036007623?p2
+ Mixed
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2036014976?p2
+ Mixed
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2027919573
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2028624069
Choice Band
+
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2039884600?p2





Mixed

Mixed




1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2035997333
2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2036007623?p2








Choice Band













Taunt






Choice Band

Choice Band




Acknowledgements
Many thanks to everyone in the Stall Discord and Community. Everyone there is super helpful and passionate about Pokémon which in turn motivates me to build teams and ladder.
In particular, big thanks to quacc for helping me build and ladder with this team.
Thank you to duckycrater and NidoTheKing for impactful innovations and optimizations.
Shoutouts to Pinkacross for the idea to use spoilers to break up text, which he first used in his RMTs.
Finally, while this RMT is a great starting point, it is far from comprehensive. Feel free to ask me any questions about the team or specific matchups in the comments or on Discord. The link to the Stall Discord is here: https://discord.gg/5kesazdPxF.
Last edited: