Semi-stall madness

[miamiheatballa3]

Team At a Glance:

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Team Breakdown:

I'll be going for a Parahax strategy here with Swampert to set up Stealth Rocks and and do some Roar scouting to start with and then bringing in Jirachi, Blissey, and Cresselia to T-Wave the hell out of the other team. Machamp is the main sweeper along with Zapdos doing a bit of sweeping of its own. More in a detailed breakdown below.




Team In-Depth:

Swampert (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed nature (+Def, -Spe)
- Earthquake
- Waterfall
- Stealth Rock
- Roar

Breakdown:

Of all the leads I have tried over time, Swampert has been the most consistent. With just his STAB coverage, he can hit most common leads quite well. He remains quite useful later in the game, and he doesn't have to get rocks up straight away.

Moves Explanation:

I chose to go all physical and just use EQ and Waterfall. Surf just wasn't cutting it, and Waterfall has a flinch chance anyways. SR doesn't really need to be explained, every team should use them. Roar is chosen for the last slot, as I have always found it to be a ridiculously good move for messing with opponents. It can build residual damage, scout, and stop set-up from certain sweepers. I chose Waterfall instead of Ice Beam because Cresselia has Ice Beam, so the Water move gives a bit more type coverage throughout the team.
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Jirachi @ Leftovers
Serene Grace
Careful
252 HP / 220 SDef / 36 Spe
- Wish
- U-Turn
- Iron Head
- Thunder Wave

Breakdown:

One of the T-Wavers. Jirachi is great at Parahax. Jirachi can sometimes turn into a stalling sweeper if facing the right pokemon (aka not resistant to steel) using the Parahax strategy. Because of the hax between Iron Head and Paralysis combined makes it so the opposition basically never attacks. If Iron Head will not do much damage to the opposition, a simple T-Wave and U-Turn out will suffice.

Moves Explanation:

Because of the hax between Iron Head and Paralysis combined makes it so the opposition basically never attacks. If Iron Head will not do much damage to the opposition, a simple T-Wave and U-Turn out will suffice. Wish and U-Turn is also nice if a waiting pokemon with no recovery move of its own needs some healing power. Wish also can help Jirachi itself.
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Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Speed
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Softboiled
- Thunder Wave
- Flamethrower
- Heal Bell

Breakdown:

Blissey is an old favorite for taking almost any special hit without caring. She stops pretty much every special attacker in OU, and is an excellent team supporter as well.

Moves Explanation:

Softboiled is basic recovery. Every Blissey should carry it. Heal Bell is great utility. Machamp and Scizor don't have to be afraid of burns, Cress doesn't have to worry about getting hit by a Toxic. Flamethrower helps against another Forretress trying to set up among other steel types Blissey could use help with. Another T-Waver to get this Parahax set up down.
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Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 Speed
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Hidden Power Grass
- Heat Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Roost

Breakdown:

An almost perfect Scizor counter, a great Metagross/Lucario counter, Zapdos and it's bulkiness can take a hit from almost anyone.

Moves Explanation:

Thunderbolt is basic STAB, and always should be on Zapdos. Heat Wave incinerates all those pesky Steel-types bar Heatran (who takes a lot from Tbolt anyways). Hidden Power Grass is to keep Swampert at bay. Zapdos is technically a sweeper on this team with nice coverage. A bulky sweeper that can heal itself and spread the type coverage is always nice!
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Machamp (M) @

Lum Berry
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Atk / 160 Spe
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bulk Up
- Ice Punch
- Payback
- Dynamicpunch

Breakdown:

Machamp is a monster, and the star of the team. The main sweeper, it will be taking advantage of all of the previous T-Wave set up.

Moves Explanation:

After the rest of the opposition is slowed down by T-Wave, you use a Bulk Up, which already makes its attack crazy high. If paralysis hax play in your favor, just keep Bulking Up until the hax give up. Then you hit them. DynamicPunch is stupid good on Machamp. Can't miss, 100 Base Power, and guaranteed to confuse. Nobody except Ghost-types wants to get hit by it. Payback forms perfect Fighting/Dark coverage, and messes up every Ghost seen commonly in OU. Ice Punch gives it more type coverage against threats like Dragonite and Flygon. Beast.
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Cresselia (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Def / 160 SpD
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Moonlight
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
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Breakdown

Cresselia is constantly underrated. Despite being messed up by Tyranitar, she is still completely viable, and as a great supporter for my team in general. She hasn't been OHKO'd once at full health. Maybe one time she's been 2HKO'd.

Moves Explanation:

Thunder Wave is an all-around great move, slowing faster threats down, allowing Machamp to rip through them easier. Ice Beam hits a lot of things for neutral coverage, and is a super-strong hit on Gliscor/Dragonite/Flygon. Moonlight, while somewhat unreliable, is a good healing move if Ttar or Hippowdon don't show up. Yes, running Psychic is quite unorthodox but I had no Machamp counter. Once I stuck in Psychic over Reflect, Machamp was 2HKO'd. If you have another way to counter Machamp for me, so I can put back Reflect, please tell me.
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I am going to provide a threat list now, but since I have not been running this team very long now, I am going to put an asterisk next to the explanations of opponents that I haven't faced yet.

Threat list:

Scizor: Zapdos's Heat Wave

Heatran: Swampert's EQ, but sort of a problem if Swampert isn't around

Tyranitar: Machamp's DPunch*

Gyarados: Huge problem without Zapdos

Gengar: Machamp's payback

Jirachi: Can be a problem even if Zapdos and Heat Wave are around

Rotom-A: Payback from Machamp

Starmie: Tbolt from Zapdos

Infernape: Get it paralyzed and then have Machamp DPunch it

Metagross: Swampert's EQ or Heat Wave by Zapdos

Swampert: Zapdos's HP Grass*

Blissey: DPunch by Machamp (or any good physical hit)

Machamp: 2HKO by Cress's Psychic, so if you suggest to rid Cress of Psychic, also suggest another Machamp counter

Lucario: EQ by Swampert or Heat Wave by Zapdos*

Azelf: ParaIronHeadhax by Jirachi will get it done eventually*

Breloom: Haven't faced it and don't see a defined counter on the team*

Gliscor: Waterfall by Swampert, Ice Beam by Cress, or just a few good physical hits is fine

Flygon: Ice Beam by Cress, otherwise, could be large problem*

Skarmory: Zapdos all the way*

Vaporeon: Zapdos or Blissey

Jolteon: Swampert's EQ, a good physical hit by Machamp will OHKO it too

Suicune: Zapdos can Tbolt it*

Dragonite: Cresselia can switch in and take a hit and handle it with Ice Beam
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Celebi: Payback by Machamp*

Magnezone: Swampert's EQ or Zapdos's Heat Wave, or Machamps DPunch

Zapdos: Stealth Rock takes it down a bit and is finished by Cresselia's Ice Beam or Machamp's Ice Punch*

Kingdra: no defined counter*

Togekiss: Ice Punch from Machamp, or T-Bolt from Zapdos*

Bronzong: Zapdos's Heat Wave but could be a problem otherwise*

Thanks for any help given, appreciate it! :D

EDIT: Updates to team

 

[RaikouLover]

This is a good start, but what this team lacks is a strategy. You cannot just put 6 bulky pokemon on a team and call it semi-stall. They usually have to have a defined strategy. Usually semi-stall revolves around entry hazards and maybe one priority sweeper or a fast scarfer for clean up. Your only hazard here is Stealth Rock and while you have a solid defensive core you are simply playing to counter the other team's strategy instead of executing your own. So basically, this team will lose easily to other stall teams, as you have no rapid spinner and no set up sweeper and every single one of your pokemon can be set up on in some way (other than maybe Machamp for hax).

Since you already have Machamp, why not go with a Bulk Up Machamp team idea? You can use the rest of your members to try to paralyze everything, then have Bulk Up Machamp sweep with Parafusion.

Here is Machamp:

Machamp @ Leftovers / Lum Berry (Rotom)
Ability: No Guard
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Atk / 160 Spe
*Bulk Up
*Dynamicpunch
*Payback
*Ice Punch

With just 1 bulk up, a paralyzed team will get murdered by this thing.

Then, you could replace Scizor with a Paralysis Jirachi, and slap T-Wave on Zapdos or Blissey if need be. Hope this helped.

 

[Piccolo]

Zapdos needs Hidden Power Grass over Toxic. It wouldn't be able to beat Swampert otherwise. Scizor and Machamp already do great damage on walls.

RaikouLover's suggestion to implement a parahax strategy is good. If you go with it, I instead suggest the standard Adamant Swords Dancing Lucario. I's probably the best Pokemon to take advantage of having paralyzed foes because of Swords Dance (of course) and its strong STAB Close Combat and Rotom-killing Crunch. Plus, it doesn't necessarily need the enemies to be paralyzed to do quickly do heavy damage or revenge kill (ExtremeSpeed).

 

[miamiheatballa3]

This is a good start, but what this team lacks is a strategy. You cannot just put 6 bulky pokemon on a team and call it semi-stall. They usually have to have a defined strategy. Usually semi-stall revolves around entry hazards and maybe one priority sweeper or a fast scarfer for clean up. Your only hazard here is Stealth Rock and while you have a solid defensive core you are simply playing to counter the other team's strategy instead of executing your own. So basically, this team will lose easily to other stall teams, as you have no rapid spinner and no set up sweeper and every single one of your pokemon can be set up on in some way (other than maybe Machamp for hax).

Since you already have Machamp, why not go with a Bulk Up Machamp team idea? You can use the rest of your members to try to paralyze everything, then have Bulk Up Machamp sweep with Parafusion.

Here is Machamp:

Machamp @ Leftovers / Lum Berry (Rotom)
Ability: No Guard
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Atk / 160 Spe
*Bulk Up
*Dynamicpunch
*Payback
*Ice Punch

With just 1 bulk up, a paralyzed team will get murdered by this thing.

Then, you could replace Scizor with a Paralysis Jirachi, and slap T-Wave on Zapdos or Blissey if need be. Hope this helped.

I have this T-Wave Jirachi:

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Serene Grace
Careful
252 HP / 220 SDef / 36 Spe
- Wish
- U-Turn
- Iron Head
- Thunder Wave

So replace Scizor with that? And then I could put T-Wave on Zapdos for Toxic. Then I could even give Grass Knot to Jirachi to take care of the Swampert weakness. Sound good?

EDIT: I'm gonna go with that except get a Zapdos with HP Grass and replace Blissey's Toxic for T-Wave, I figure if I'm going with a Parahax strategy then I don't need Toxic. Going to update the first post.

 

[miamiheatballa3]

I'm considering replacing Swampert with a Baton Pass Ninjask to help Machamp with its speed or a TrickScarf Uxie which will be like Swampert by setting up Stealth Rock but it can also use T-Wave. Yay or nay?

 

[Shizzle]

This team has no core strategy or gameplan, but rather just to wall whatever comes in. Its just a clusterfuck of insanely tank pokemon. Firstly, you absolutely need to be going with weather and entry hazards with a team of 5 walls, because otherwise LO sweepers can pick off your team one by one with ease.

Gyarados after a Dragon Dance walks through this team undisputedly, and MixApe.

You need to fix your threatlist, because you are not going to be getting half those moves off. I mean Zapdos cannot switch into Starmie at all, and Ice Beam + any other attack will KO. Just another example is Machamp using Ice Punch on Togekiss >.>, Air Slash? I don't even think Ice Punch will KO.