Hi all,
This is my first post here, but I've been lurking this site since the advance days. I go by the handles Akin or Pollo and currently am hovering around the 1450's on the Standard Smogon Ladder. I figured I'd post the team I've been using lately and hopefully get some feedback that might help me improve my team.
Here it is my stall team:
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Impish 252HP/152Def/88SDef/16Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Slack Off
Blissey @ Leftovers
Calm 252Def/176SDef/80SAtk
- Wish
- Protect
- Toxic
- Flamethrower
Rotom-h @ Leftovers
Calm 170HP/252Def/88Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Will-o-wisp
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Skarmory @ Shed Shell
Impish 156HP/252Def/96Atk/4Spe
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
Nidoqueen @ Leftovers (Poison Point)
Calm 100HP/116Def/252SDef/40Spe
- Toxic Spikes
- Earthquake
- Fire Blash
- Thunderbolt
Porygon2 @ Leftovers (Trance)
Bold 252HP/120Def/96SDef/40SAtk
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Toxic
- Recover
Okay the general strategy is simple, throw up spikes and stall till they die. I don't have a spinner because if facing a team where you really need to spin they usually have something that can block the spin. I ran this team with Forretress and Hitmontop for a bit and never made a game saving spin. The only spikes that are really impossible to handle are Toxic Spikes, and Nidoqueen sucks those up nicely. Listed below are the general thoughts I had behind each pokemon I have on my team.
The Hippowdon, Blissey, and Skarmory are almost the exact same as Obi's stall team. I really wanted to get away from Obi's team as much as possible, but with these three pokes it just wasn't possible. Blissey is such a special sponge there is no way not to take her. She's easy to convert into a wishpasser to support your team, and with Shamin-S and Scizor as popular as they are now Flamethrower is still the best attack for her to take when combined with toxic. Hippodown is the only ways to get a Sandstorm, Stealth Rock, and a great physical wall all out of one pokemon. I orginally ran Forretress in place of Skarmory for Rapid Spin but Skarm is just a better steel wall for my team. Forretress's lack of recovery and pseudo haze really doesn't make up for a rapid spin that I almost never get to use, and in addition, Brave Bird provides much better coverage for my team that Earthquake, which I have two other copies of, or Gyro Ball.
Rotom-h is like a Mismagis with less speed and more defense. I made him a Rest Talker to give him reliable recovery and to absorb status on my team. His job is to block those pesky rapid spinners. Okay now let me justify his last 2 moves. First, lets take a look at the list of possible spinners the game has: Armaldo, Blastoise, Claydol, Cloyster, Delibird, Donphan, Forretress, Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, Hitmontop, Kabutops, Sandslash, Starmie, Tentacruel, Torkoal. Electric & Ghost covers everything on that list and with that in mind I started out with Thunderbolt and Shadowball as his two moves. Problem is, he kept getting pursuit killed and Thunderbolt and Shadowball basically bounced harmlessly off the two favorite pursuit users, Tyranitar and Scizor. Adding Will-o-wisp, and 88 Speed EVs to outspeed any non-jolly Scizor, makes it so Rotom-h can do something usefull even if he's doomed to die, even if he's sleep talking and its a 1/3 chance. It also gives me a status to hit steels and poison types with. Now I only have room for 1 move for coverage lets look again at the spinners. From those the only one's I'm probably going to see are: Blastoise, Claydol, Donphan, Fortress, Starmie, and Tentacruel. Shadow Ball covers all of those hitting the greatest threat Starmie for 2x but its coverage outside the spinner list Thunderbolt provides much better coverage and hits for 2x damage against my team's greatest threat, Suicune. Taking Thunderbolt means I can't hit Claydol and Donphan. However, Claydol is almost unseen in OU, and Donphan is ruined by Will-o-wisp, levitate, and lack of recovery.
Nidoqeen is my toxic spiker tosser and absorber, but I also EV'd her to counter two popular threats to my team, Lucario and Infernape. For the standard Infernape, Flamethrower with a Nasty Plot and Life Orb does 80-94% damage. For the lesser seem physical nape, Nidoqueen can take everything but a Sword Danced Fire Blitz. After a Swords Dance physical Lucario does 71-84% with a Close Combat, 64-75% with Extreme Speed/Crunch, and only 40-46% with Stone Edge. Everything Spec's Luke does is shrugged off by Nidoqueen with exception to HP:Ice which does 60-70%. In response Nidoqueen can OHKO both these guys when they have no HP or Def EVs. Nidoqueen can be brought down by Fire Blast in place of flamethrower on Nape and by Ice Punch on Lucario, but I find she counters 80% of the sets currently in the meta.
Porygon2 helps cover the weakness of the rest of my team. Life Orb Gyarados with waterfall simply deals too much damage for Skarmory to hand with Brave Bird. Porygon2 on the other hand only has a 20% chance of losing to Gyra, stupid flinch. Porygon2 counters Salamence in much of the same way. Porygon2 can also come in and wall any choiced Heatran that is using a fire move. When Heatran switches, Porygon2 spits toxic to hopefully hit the switch. Porygon2 isn't really an essential part of my team he just does a good job of countering three popular threats to my team, Salamence, Gyarados, and Heatran.
This is my first post here, but I've been lurking this site since the advance days. I go by the handles Akin or Pollo and currently am hovering around the 1450's on the Standard Smogon Ladder. I figured I'd post the team I've been using lately and hopefully get some feedback that might help me improve my team.
Here it is my stall team:
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Impish 252HP/152Def/88SDef/16Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Slack Off
Blissey @ Leftovers
Calm 252Def/176SDef/80SAtk
- Wish
- Protect
- Toxic
- Flamethrower
Rotom-h @ Leftovers
Calm 170HP/252Def/88Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Will-o-wisp
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Skarmory @ Shed Shell
Impish 156HP/252Def/96Atk/4Spe
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
Nidoqueen @ Leftovers (Poison Point)
Calm 100HP/116Def/252SDef/40Spe
- Toxic Spikes
- Earthquake
- Fire Blash
- Thunderbolt
Porygon2 @ Leftovers (Trance)
Bold 252HP/120Def/96SDef/40SAtk
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Toxic
- Recover
Okay the general strategy is simple, throw up spikes and stall till they die. I don't have a spinner because if facing a team where you really need to spin they usually have something that can block the spin. I ran this team with Forretress and Hitmontop for a bit and never made a game saving spin. The only spikes that are really impossible to handle are Toxic Spikes, and Nidoqueen sucks those up nicely. Listed below are the general thoughts I had behind each pokemon I have on my team.
The Hippowdon, Blissey, and Skarmory are almost the exact same as Obi's stall team. I really wanted to get away from Obi's team as much as possible, but with these three pokes it just wasn't possible. Blissey is such a special sponge there is no way not to take her. She's easy to convert into a wishpasser to support your team, and with Shamin-S and Scizor as popular as they are now Flamethrower is still the best attack for her to take when combined with toxic. Hippodown is the only ways to get a Sandstorm, Stealth Rock, and a great physical wall all out of one pokemon. I orginally ran Forretress in place of Skarmory for Rapid Spin but Skarm is just a better steel wall for my team. Forretress's lack of recovery and pseudo haze really doesn't make up for a rapid spin that I almost never get to use, and in addition, Brave Bird provides much better coverage for my team that Earthquake, which I have two other copies of, or Gyro Ball.
Rotom-h is like a Mismagis with less speed and more defense. I made him a Rest Talker to give him reliable recovery and to absorb status on my team. His job is to block those pesky rapid spinners. Okay now let me justify his last 2 moves. First, lets take a look at the list of possible spinners the game has: Armaldo, Blastoise, Claydol, Cloyster, Delibird, Donphan, Forretress, Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, Hitmontop, Kabutops, Sandslash, Starmie, Tentacruel, Torkoal. Electric & Ghost covers everything on that list and with that in mind I started out with Thunderbolt and Shadowball as his two moves. Problem is, he kept getting pursuit killed and Thunderbolt and Shadowball basically bounced harmlessly off the two favorite pursuit users, Tyranitar and Scizor. Adding Will-o-wisp, and 88 Speed EVs to outspeed any non-jolly Scizor, makes it so Rotom-h can do something usefull even if he's doomed to die, even if he's sleep talking and its a 1/3 chance. It also gives me a status to hit steels and poison types with. Now I only have room for 1 move for coverage lets look again at the spinners. From those the only one's I'm probably going to see are: Blastoise, Claydol, Donphan, Fortress, Starmie, and Tentacruel. Shadow Ball covers all of those hitting the greatest threat Starmie for 2x but its coverage outside the spinner list Thunderbolt provides much better coverage and hits for 2x damage against my team's greatest threat, Suicune. Taking Thunderbolt means I can't hit Claydol and Donphan. However, Claydol is almost unseen in OU, and Donphan is ruined by Will-o-wisp, levitate, and lack of recovery.
Nidoqeen is my toxic spiker tosser and absorber, but I also EV'd her to counter two popular threats to my team, Lucario and Infernape. For the standard Infernape, Flamethrower with a Nasty Plot and Life Orb does 80-94% damage. For the lesser seem physical nape, Nidoqueen can take everything but a Sword Danced Fire Blitz. After a Swords Dance physical Lucario does 71-84% with a Close Combat, 64-75% with Extreme Speed/Crunch, and only 40-46% with Stone Edge. Everything Spec's Luke does is shrugged off by Nidoqueen with exception to HP:Ice which does 60-70%. In response Nidoqueen can OHKO both these guys when they have no HP or Def EVs. Nidoqueen can be brought down by Fire Blast in place of flamethrower on Nape and by Ice Punch on Lucario, but I find she counters 80% of the sets currently in the meta.
Porygon2 helps cover the weakness of the rest of my team. Life Orb Gyarados with waterfall simply deals too much damage for Skarmory to hand with Brave Bird. Porygon2 on the other hand only has a 20% chance of losing to Gyra, stupid flinch. Porygon2 counters Salamence in much of the same way. Porygon2 can also come in and wall any choiced Heatran that is using a fire move. When Heatran switches, Porygon2 spits toxic to hopefully hit the switch. Porygon2 isn't really an essential part of my team he just does a good job of countering three popular threats to my team, Salamence, Gyarados, and Heatran.
