Ricky, Julian, & the Green Bastard
RU Stall
RU Stall
This slowly evolved from bulky offense to Stall with a subsitution or two and a set change on Drapion. My matches typically progress in three phases; 1) Force a series of switches that allows me to kill their method of removing hazards 2) Set hazards 3) Phaze/Stall! This playstyle requires a lot of staying power, so three of my team have reliable recovery (2x regenerator, rest/talk) and Tangrowth sometimes manages to pass Leech Seed if I time switches well. Rhyperior cleans up opposing Poison and Steel types that threaten to avoid hazard damage and interrupt my playstyle
Drapion @ Black Sludge
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 248 HP / 244 SDef / 16 Spd
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Toxic Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Taunt
Utility drapion really makes this team. He lays toxic spikes, outspeeds many stealth rockers with taunt, knock off, as well as phazes and racks up hazard damage. His bulk is excellent as well, he is rarely OHKO'd by any attacks except strong earthquakes. He synergizes quite well with the Tangrowth/Slowking defensive core, being able to switch in on strong poison attacks that threaten tangrowth and strong grass/electric attacks that threaten Slowking. Sometimes I consider dropping Whirlwind for another coverage move or swords dance to threaten calm mind boosters.
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Extrasensory
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Rhyperior (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Ice Punch
- Iron Head
Temporary placeholder that has worked well on this team with some brief playtesting. The nature of my team suggests a bulky stall set and then his surprising offensive capability comes as a surprise it seems. Ice punch threatens grass which bugs the rest of my team. Switches in on electric attacks that Slowking seems to draw in.
Green Bastard, parts unknown (Tangrowth) @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Lax Nature
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Knock Off
- Giga Drain
The nickname says it all. Really the team hinges upon this MONSTER of a wall. A lot of people will run AV on tangrowth, but I think that is really limiting. I ran leech/spore for a while but I decided that having protect was more important. Toxic status is usually being spread through the opposing team if my team is doing its job properly, so spore is redundant considering I have t-wave on Cobalion for steel/poison types that are immune to t-spikes. A major weakness to the rest of my team is ground attacks, which is patched up by this guy's wonderful resist to ground and outstanding physical bulk. Tangrowth's ability to draw out a match (thereby racking up hazard and status damage) is pretty mindblowing. Often tangrowth will switch in on a physical attack it resists, force a switch while landing a leech seed, protect a turn racking up 2 turns of leech seed/leftovers recovery, and switch out healing to full with Regenerator.
Ricky (Cobalion) @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Sword
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave
Nobody really expects this. 9 matches out of 10 this is my lead. Usually when he isn't my lead the opponent doesn't have a poison type or rapid spinner so I lead with Drapion for a quick spikes setup, however this isnt that common in this meta. His taunt outspeeds about every hazard layer commonly used in the tier. T-wave is for poison/steel types that can't be poisoned. Sacred Sword is decent but I really regret not being able to damage ghost types sometimes.
Spiritomb @ Leftovers
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 244 SDef / 16 Spd
Calm Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Spinblocker extraordinaire, Spiritomb is a really strong pokemon in this tier. Foes will often not expect this calm mind set, as it is far more common to run will-o-wisp. This effectively counters other calm mind users such as Reuniclus and Cresselia, with the added bonus of Infiltrator which has come in handy many times. My EV's have changed back and forth on this one. I really like a full physdef investment, but I ended up changing it to this spread in order to more effectively deal with opposing calm mind users. The 16 speed investment allows you to outspeed uninvested Doublade, which is situational but otherwise challenges my team.
Julian (Slowking) (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 220 HP /108 Def / 180 SDef
Calm Nature
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Scald
- Fire Blast
Similar to the AV slowbro seen in other metas, he forms the second half of the regenerator core that makes up my pivoting stall. Fire Blast threatens grass switch ins like Amoongus which will often trouble me. Slowking synergizes well with Tangrowth by switching in and sponging many of the strong Fire attacks that will demolish Tangrowth. I've toyed with the EV setup a bit, because I felt like full investment in SDef was just more bulk than was necessary and I would benefit greatly from the defense (especially in tanking fire physical attacks).
Major threats;
Sigilyph is ruinous to my team. Unless Raikou can deal with him, I am dead in the water.
Toxic immune and capable of demolishing my physical wall with STAB X-Scissor. I wish I ran rhyperior to deal with this jerk. Often I will deal with him by phazing with Drapion, but he will either completely fizzle or take out multiple pokemon just by the nature of Hustle
Specs variety or just plain subseed, this guy really throws a wrench in my stalling ability.
*Shudder* This guy gives me nightmares. Slowking walls it pretty well but its usually a 1 for 1 trade.
Finally, here's some replays that demonstrates some synergy:
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