RESERVOIR DOGS
At a Glance:
Introduction:
Hi, Costa here. Long-time lurker, infrequent poster, and guy with way too many nicks to ever get known in the community. I've been playing competitively since Gen 4, and have had my share of success on the ladder but I've never really made an effort to reach out to other players. I play all sorts of playstyles, but I've had my greatest success with rain stall, and my current build is the one you'll get to see in this thread. The team is themed after one of my favorite films, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. The nicks also have the added bonus of driving the opponent crazy if he/she didn't understand the reference. I sat 2260+ (top 5) while first testing this team before the reset on an alt, and when the ladder reset I decided to ladder "seriously" to see how well it would fair. I went 27-0 and got first place on my alt, Mr Cabot (The man who sets the Reservoir Dogs on the diamond heist)
Teambuilding:
When I went to create this team, and any stall team for that matter, I thought to myself, what is the best spinner in the game? The obvious answer is tentacruel in the rain.
I've had a great deal of success with skarm + chansey in this generation, and their ability to set-up hazards multiple times means I wouldn't be too worried about a spin-blocker, as jellicent's typing overlaps greatly with poli+tenta.
Now I needed something to counter terrakion. There really isn't much to choose from, and hp electric slowbro also lets me beat gyarados, who is a huge problem for rain stall.
The team needed something to stop set-up sweepers on the special side, and the presence keldeo usage warranted the addition of specially defensive celebi.
Having two psychic types really hurt, and I needed something to take kyurum-b's choiced fusion bolt so I elected to remove slowbro for tangrowth. It matches slowbro's immense physical bulk, and also provides sleep powder, which can take alot of pressure off of the team. Amoonguss was also tested, but even fully invested in defense it couldn't provide the same support for skarmory that tangrowth provided.
Mr. Orange (Politoed) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Toxic
- Protect
- Encore
So Why this Poke?: Politoed really only has two jobs on my team, setting up the rain that makes Tentacruel the best defensive spinner in the game, and playing as fodder when I want to switch something in for free.
Why this Set?: Physically bulky toed allows me to switch into T-tar pretty freely and change the weather. Scald and protect are self-explanatory. Toxic allows me to beat sun teams easily by poisoning ninetales switch-ins, and it also helps with lati@s. Encore is used over perish song because celebi has perish song, and encore+perish song allows me to beat any baton-pass team I might face.
Why Mr. Orange?: In Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Orange is shot during the diamond heist, and spends the entire film bleeding out while still remaining an integral character in the film. Similarly, Politoed plays the role of fodder, but is incredibly important to the team as the weather inducer.
Mr. Pink (Chansey) (F) @ Eviolite
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- Seismic Toss
- Softboiled
- Aromatherapy
So Why this Poke?:Chansey is a boss. The incredible amount of bulk allows her to wall the wide majority of special threats on her own, and provides a direct stop to the newly suspected landorus-i.
Why this Set?: I've been using these EV's forever and they seem to work, so I didn't see a need to change them. I ran some calcs way back when, but at this point I forget what they do. Seismic Toss and Softboiled are pretty straightforward. Stealth Rock is placed on Chansey because she is bulky enough to set them up multiple times, and without a spin blocker this happens quite often. Hazards are diversified as Chansey sets up on special threats, while Skarmory sets up on physical ones. I chose aromatherapy over wish, because aromatherapy allows my tentacruel to directly challenge and try to burn other tentacruel, without relying on getting the first burn. Essentially everyone on the team has recovery other than politoed, so wish is really not necessary.
Why Mr. Pink?: Mr. Pink is the last man standing at the end of Reservoir Dogs, and Chansey never seems to die. Also, having the colors match up once really screws with some people as they don't understand why the other nickname don't match up with the corresponding pokemon.
Mr. White (Tentacruel) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Protect
So Why this Poke?:Tentacruel is the reason I run rain-stall over other types of stall. Tentacruel in the rain gives a team a check to many important threats such as scizor, lucario, and keldeo with pseudo-recovery, that can also spin.
Why this Set?: There's a reason this is the standard set. The sub-tentacruel set does not stay alive as long without protect, and toxic spikes are invaluable in the meta. Against teams without an answer for T-spikes (commonly sand offense), I'll often lead with tenta and get a layer down.
Why Mr. White?: Tentacruel is the Harvey Keitel of this team. The head honcho. The boss.
Mr. Blue (Skarmory) (F) @ Shed Shell
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Spikes
- Roost
- Whirlwind
So Why this Poke?:SkarmBliss is a core which has been successful for an extremely long period of time, and for good reason. He provides an answer for dragons, and his ability to phaze is extremely important for this team. Between Mr. Blue and Mr. Pink, I'm going to have hazards on their side of the field.
Why this Set?: It's standard for a reason. With running shed-shell I need all the defense I can get, so there's really no room for extra speed to run taunt over brave bird. Shed-Shell is used as a big "Screw You" to drag-mag, and while I do miss the lefties recovery sometimes, the ability to switch him in even if the other team has mag/gothitelle is invaluable.
Why Mr. Blue?: Mr. Blue is in charge of crowd control. Skarmory takes control of so many prominent physical threats, namely dragons, and handles them without worry. He's the forgotten character in the film as well, and so many players attempt to set up their d-nite when he's still in good condition.
Mr. Brown (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 216 SDef / 16 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Reflect
- Perish Song
- Recover
So Why this Poke?:Celebi provides an answer for the special threats that chansey cannot handle, namely stat-uppers. Her typing allows her to handle the choiced psyshocks being thrown at chansey, and the ability to outright wall keldeo.
Why this Set?: Specially defensive Celebi is something I haven't really used before on my rain stall builds. The EV's allow Celebi to outspeed adamant breloom, while providing maximum bulk while hitting a bonus point in special defense. Psychic is the STAB of choice, as it hits many threats for neutral damage, and I'm going to be switching out of most things giga drain would hit. Reflect is used to allow celebi to handle ttar, and it's used over baton pass because I want to do something on turns the perish count is dropping, without passing the counter to my switch in. It's saved my ass on numerous occasions. Perish song is invaluable to this team, as it provides a stop to many threats for rain stall, such as CM Reuniclus, CM-Sub Jirachi, CM Latias, and to an extent thundurus-t (who is a bitch for this team). Recover is standard to help keep celebi alive.
Why Mr. Brown?: Mr. Brown dies during the heist, and unless the opposing team has one of the previously mentioned niche threats, celebi is often going to be sac'd early so I can gain momentum.
Mr. Blonde (Tangrowth) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Sleep Powder
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Shock Wave/Power Swap/Leech Seed/Knock Off
So Why this Poke?:Tangrowth is amazingly bulky, and whenever I build stall I come to the question, "What am I going to use to stop Terrakion?". More and more often I'm turning to tangrowth, as its bulk is unrivaled, and regenerator allows me to keep it alive very easily.
Why this Set?: Sleep Powder is great in conjunction with a phazer. In case you don't know, once a poke falls asleep, it maintains the same counter. With a slow sleep like Tangrowth's, I often immediately switch to skarm to whirlwind, and if their counter is 2 (or 3 for that matter) I know I can keep them asleep the entire match. Leaf Storm is chosen because tangrowth is used as a pivot, and it surprises alot of Hippowdon users who expect power whip. HP Ice allows me to hit dragons and the now-common Landorus-T for huge chunks of health. The fourth slot is a little more troubling. While technically illegal (it's a 4th gen tm) PS allows me to use shock wave, which lets tangrowth counter gyarados. Other options include: power swap (which is cool when stuff tries to set up on you) leech seed, and knock off, depending on the user's preference.
Why Mr. Blonde?: Mr. Blonde is a crazy guy. I play incredibly aggressive with tangrowth, and since he isn't used very much, nobody knows what to expect from him.
Things that Suck:
Concluding Remarks:
Stall is definitely a viable playstyle. While countering everything in the meta is a near impossible task (I'll keep trying), an aggressively played stall team can still hold its own. I hope you enjoyed the RMT, and hopefully this will give me a way to become more involved with the community. Changes and constructive criticism is welcome, as stall is a constantly evolving play-style and hopefully some outside opinions can make this solid team even better. As of now, alot of "standard" teams and cores simply cannot break this combination, and it gives me many lop-sided victories with little risk needed and nearly no guess-work/prediction which is nearly required to succeed on the offensive side of the spectrum.
I gotta give a few shout-outs to end as well:
Kidogo-It's great to see you get so involved in the community. I hope you get back into the [rs] skype chats so we can team-build together sometime.
Seedy-<3
Kevin Garrett- We've only talked a few times, but your gen 4 KG Stall RMT was the reason I stuck with competitive pokemon.
Delko-You were really nice when I talked to you about halo some time ago on another random alt.
Importable: (Feel free to steal, just keep the nicks)
Mr. Orange (Politoed) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Toxic
- Protect
- Encore
Mr. Pink (Chansey) (F) @ Eviolite
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- Seismic Toss
- Softboiled
- Aromatherapy
Mr. White (Tentacruel) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Protect
Mr. Blue (Skarmory) (F) @ Shed Shell
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Spikes
- Roost
- Whirlwind
Mr. Brown (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 216 SDef / 16 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Reflect
- Perish Song
- Recover
Mr. Blonde (Tangrowth) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Sleep Powder
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Shock Wave
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Toxic
- Protect
- Encore
Mr. Pink (Chansey) (F) @ Eviolite
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- Seismic Toss
- Softboiled
- Aromatherapy
Mr. White (Tentacruel) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Protect
Mr. Blue (Skarmory) (F) @ Shed Shell
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Spikes
- Roost
- Whirlwind
Mr. Brown (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 216 SDef / 16 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Reflect
- Perish Song
- Recover
Mr. Blonde (Tangrowth) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Sleep Powder
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Shock Wave