Hello everyone, today I will be presenting to you by far one of my most successful teams, a semistall team that includes some standard elements but also features a few interesting choices that have significantly contributed to the success of this team. I have been a primarily offensive player for a very long time, as can be seen by my teambuilding workshop, The Age of Offense. However, after playing with this team for a long time, I feel like I have discovered another side of me that also loves the options offered by defensive teams, most often balance or semistall so I can keep momentum if needed and pressure the opponent outside of passive hazards and status conditions. I'm writing this for the second time since the original RMT was lost thanks due to a horrible mistake on my part, so hopefully I can write this better the second time. Also, Shoutout to FullLifeGames for updating his awesome Sprite Converter so I could mass produce images for this RMT. :]
To begin with, I have developed a compendium of semistall Pokemon that are used in the current metagame. Some of the most common options (on semistall) include:
Some less common but solid options are:
Finally, there are some niche mons that aren't usually seen much or at all on semistall such as:
All of these mons can function well in a team that it supports and supports it properly (its all about synergy!). I have outlined the roles of all of these mons below (organized alphabetically), and then sectioned them into 4 groups/roles so that you can more easily find certain mons and build a team yourself. I highly recommend checking out this list, especially if you're trying to build a semistall team or just want to have a better understanding of the playstyle to beat it or play with it better.
Aerodactyl-Mega: Best on sand builds w/ hippo, Aero is an interesting option with its high speed and offensive pressure. Taunt + Roost allows it to maintain its health while stallbreaking, and it also has access to Defog or Stealth Rocks if needed, although using either limits its options. It also works decently well as a pursuit trapper.
Aggron-Mega: Insane bulk w/ filter makes this a great mon despite being uncommon. It can Rocks, T-Wave, or Dragon Tail while hitting hard with Heavy Slam.
Alomomola: A very passive wish-passer w/ Regen, Alomomola is all about support. Even with Toxic / Scald, its very prone to being set up on by Substitute users or Steel types and is very passive so you have to play carefully with it.
Altaria-Mega: A great mon all around with amazing defensive typing, support in heal bell, and the ability to sweep with Dragon Dance and maybe Cotton Guard.
Amoonguss: Good support with Spore + Stun Spore as well as Regenerator and Synthesis to maintain health. Clear Smog is also very useful while Gastro Acid has some niche uses.
Ampharos-Mega: A bulky and strong pivot, especially with Resttalk. Can be either physically or specially defensive, and also has access to heal bell if needed.
Aromatisse: An interesting choice over other Faries because of Aroma Veil, which allows it to Wish and Aromatherapy even if the opponent tries to Taunt / Encore you.
Audino-Mega: Functions as a pivot when its not mega, and fulfills every role of a cleric.
Breloom: Either a bulk up set or a subseed set can function as decent support while also absorbing status and knock off once its toxic orb has been activated.
Bronzong: One of the best answers to Gardevoir, Zong is a decent rocker as well as beating bulky grounds with levitate. You can even run Heat Proof if you need it.
Camerupt-Mega: A hard hitting tank with unique typing and access to Stealth Rocks.
Celebi: Celebi has many options to fulfill a variety of roles. Some moveset options include Stealth Rocks, Thunder Wave, Perish Song, U-Turn, Baton Pass, Substitute, Nasty Plot, Swords Dance, Calm Mind, and Heal Block. Solid defenses, natural cure, and recover make it a good physical/special/mixed, while it also has a variety of offensive options in Giga Drain, Psychic, or Earth Power.
Chandelure: Often outclassed by Gengar, Chandelure boasts flash fire / infiltrator and a slightly different defensive typing with better special attack and defenses. It functions best as a spinblocker and stallbreaker with Taunt, WoW, Hex, Substitute, and/or Pain Split.
Charizard-Mega-X: SDef Zard can tank a variety of hits while spreading burns and can also phaze with dragon tail. DD variants can sweep the opponent, and can also run a bulky spread to set up with greater ease.
Chesnaught: Chesnaught has good support in Spikes and Leech seed while checking pokemon such as Bisharp, while also having Synthesis to heal itself. Wood Hammer and Drain Punch are solid offensive options.
Clefable: Clefable is either usually a Rocker, a CM setup sweeper, or is support with Wish and Heal Bell. Unaware stops set-up sweepers while Magic Guard protects it from status and hazards. It has many options in its movepool including Flamethrower, Focus Blast, Stored Power, Encore, Knock Off, Thunder Wave, or Healing Wish.
Cobalion: A decent pivot and Stealth Rocker with some offensive presence with defensive utility.
Cofagrigus: Cofagrigus can spin block, Wisp, and use T-Spikes to support its team.
Crobat: Crobat has good utility with high speed and access to Taunt, Defog, Roost, and U-turn. Offensively it can Brave Bird or utilize Super Fang. You can also run no-item acrobatics to absorb Knock Off with greater ease.
Diancie-Mega: Diancie has a strong offensive presence while also preventing hazards with Magic Bounce. It also can use utility options such as Heal Bell or attempt to sweep with Calm Mind.
Doublade: Doublade is a bulky spin-blocker that can pursuit trap most psychics with ease. It can also use an SD set, potentially with Rest Talk for longevity.
Dragalge: Dragalge has great special defense and strong offensive presence with Adaptability and good special attack. It also has access to T-Spikes, Dragon Tail, and Haze.
Dragonite: Multiscale + Roost + decent defenses can make DNite a bulky monster that can parashuffle with Sub + Dtail + T-Wave. It can also run a Bulky DD set successfully.
Empoleon: Empoleon has a unique defensive typing and Stealth Rocks + Defog, with good utility in Scald, Knock Off, and Toxic.
Excadrill: Drill can be a strong offensive spinner and revenge killer on hippo teams, but this will make the team more balanced than semistallish. Drill can otherwise run a SDef set with mold breaker toxic to hit bulky grounds it lures in as well as Sableye-Mega.
Ferrothorn: Ferro has good defensive typing and defenses with support options in Stealth Rocks, Spikes, Leech Seed, and Thunder Wave with offensive presence in Power Whip and Gyro Ball.
Forretress: Forry has high physical bulk and some utility with Volt Switch as well as access to Counter. It also has access to Stealth Rocks, Spikes, and Toxic Spikes as well as Rapid Spin.
Garchomp: Tank Chomp can function well on semistall if it has wish and heal bell support or runs Rest in its 4th moveslot. Chomp is a good physically bulky rocker with D-Tail, and punishes contact moves with Rough Skin + Rocky Helmet.
Gardevoir-Mega: Gardy can be a bulky sweeper with Wish + CM or general support with WoW while also hitting really hard with Pixilate Hyper Voice.
Gengar: Gar is a great stallbreaker with WoW + Taunt + Hex + Sub/Pain Split and also a decent spinblocker. If you team is more balanced than semistall, it can also run LO 3 Atks Taunt to success as well.
Gliscor: Glisc can absorb status and try to sweep/stallbreak with access to Taunt and SD. It has good physical or special bulk especially with Roost + Poison Heal, or can try to toxic stall with protect + substitute. It has good offensive options in Earthquake, Knock Off, Facade, or Rock Slide.
Gothitelle: Goth is mostly seen on stall builds but some semistall can warrant its use if you need to trap and remove specific pokemon, which goth can do with ease with Shadow Tag. The Trick CM Rest Psyshock set is effective but anyone you play will look down on you.
Gyarados-Mega: Regular or Mega, Gyara has some good support options in Scald, Thunder Wave, or Dragon Tail, and RestTalk, while regular gyara has intimidate. Mega Gyara can use DD RestTalk to good success, mainly because Mold Breaker will allow it to break unaware stall fairly easily.
Heatran: Tran is a good specially bulky rocker and great defensive typing with Flash Fire, while also breaking stall with Taunt + Toxic.
Hippowdon: A fat, bulky ground thats good at getting up rocks and checking mostly physical threats as well as electric types with a mixed def spread. It can also get up sand to support Sand Rush Excadrill or Rock Types like MAero by giving them a SDef boost.
Infernape: Ape is a solid answer to Bisharp / Weavile and can utilize WoW, Slack Off, and Taunt/Encore to break the opponents team slowly.
Jellicent: Jelly is a solid spinblocker and water immunity with great bulk. WoW/Toxic + Taunt + Scald also allows it to be effective against stall as well.
Jirachi: Rachi can fulfill a variety of roles due to its expansive movepool and base 100 stats across the board. Rachi can set up Rocks, Wishpass with u-turn or healing wish, or run a variety of sets such as paraflinch, cm, or subtoxic.
Kyurem: SubRoost Kyurem w/ Pressure is great at slowly stalling out the opponent, especially when combined with T-Spikes support.
Latias-Mega: CM Stored Power variants can break stall, while Defog Variants with Reflect Type/Reflect and BoltBeam or T-Wave can support the team.
Lickilicky: Similarly to Aromatisse, Lickilicky cannot be taunted while it can wishpass and heal bell to support its team while boasting good bulk.
Manaphy: Rain Dance Manaphy with either CM rest or TG 2 Atk can support the team and break stall very effectively.
Mandibuzz: Mandi is the best full on counter to Hoopa as they never run T-Bolt, and it still has good defenses and provides Defog support as well as Taunt/Whirlwind and/or Knock Off/Foul Play.
Meloetta: Meloetta can potentially run a CM Set and even has Skill Swap to attempt to beat Unaware, or it can also try some Heal Bell set. Meloetta also has great Special Attack and Defense you can utilize.
Mew: Mew has the arguably best movepool in the game, and you can choose to run almost any kind of set you would like. The most common is the stallbreaker set with Taunt / Roost / WoW / Knock Off, but you can also run Stealth Rocks, Defog, Ice Beam, Low Kick, or any other move available to it. Its great as a SDef wall but it can also be mixed or physically defensive as well.
Nidoqueen: Nidoqueen has good SDef and access to Stealth Rocks + T-Spikes and Roar, while also being able to hit decently hard with Sheer Force boosted Earth Power, Ice Beam, or Flamethrower.
Registeel: Registeel is certainly a niche pokemon but its insane physical and special bulk can be put to good use. Registeel can utilize Stealth Rocks, Toxic, Thunder Wave, Iron Head, Seismic Toss, Curse, Rest, and/or Sleep Talk.
Reuniclus: Reuniclus is amazing as a physically defensive CM Sweeper, but it can also utilize a variety of uncommon options such as Acid Armor, or run an AV Regenerator set.
Roserade: Rose has access to Spikes + T-Spikes + Sleep Power, can recover with Rest + Natural Cure or Synthesis, and has good offensive options with Giga Drain, Sludge Bomb, and HP Fire/Ice, while also using its good SDef to tank special hits.
Sableye-Mega: Sableye is very effective at preventing hazards with Magic Bounce while also spinblocking, and its good bulk helps it a lot as well. It can function as support with Fake Out (to ensure Mega) / Foul Play / Knock Off and WoW, or run a CM set to try to sweep.
Salamence: Mence is an odd choice, but it has good bulk with intimidate and has Wish to support its team. It can also run a bulky DD Refresh Roost set to attempt to slowly set up and sweep the opponent.
Scizor-Mega: Scizor can run a Bulky SD set or utilize Defog to support its team, while utilizing U-Turn to gain momentum or Knock Off to cripple the opponent while beating most fairies with solid steel typing + technician BP.
Seismitoad: Toad is a hard answer to Electric types such as Manectric or Raikou as they don't carry HP Grass in OU while absorbing Water hits as well. It gets up Stealth Rocks and can support the team with Scald, Knock Off, Earth Power, and/or Toxic.
Serperior: Serp is a good manaphy check while provided offensive presence with Contrary Leaf Storm. It can also maintain its health with Giga Drain / Synthesis and break stall with Taunt or get free turns with Substitute.
Shaymin: Shaymin is a nice Bulky grass type that can run SubSeed, Healing Wish, or just a bulky attacker with Aromatherapy, Natural Cure Rest, or Synthesis. Its similar to Roserade but it has much better physical bulk and potentially check Manaphy with its base 100 Speed.
Shedinja: Shedinja is an interesting option most often featured with Sableye-Mega and Dugtrio (see Branflakes325 's RMT) to block attackers with Magic Guard. It also easily spinblocks pokemon such as Starmie (assuming they lack HP Fire).
Skarmory: Skarmory has good support options in Stealth Rocks, Spikes, Whirlwind, Taunt, Counter, Toxic, and Roost. Its unique defensive typing and stellar Physical Defense allow it to handle most physical attackers with ease.
Slowbro-Mega: Firstly, regular slowbro has many uses as a physical tank with T-Wave, Scald, and Regenerator. With or without mega it can also successfully run a CM set that aims to sweep the opponent, generally lategame.
Slowking: Slowking has access to Nasty Plot unlike Slowbro and has better Special Defense in exchange for worse Physical defense.
Snorlax: Snorlax has good special defense and can aim to sweep the opponent with a Curse RestTalk set or just be fat support with Whirlwind + Body Slam and pseudo resist Fire and Ice attacks with Thick Fat. It can also potentially Pursuit trap the opponent.
Starmie: Starmie has high speed and is a solid scald switch-in with Natural Cure, while it also provides Rapid Spin support. It can also Scald the opponent, maintain its longevity with recover, and utilize one of Reflect Type, Reflect, Psyshock, Thunderbolt, Toxic, or Thunder Wave in its last slot. If you don't need its high speed, Starmie can also run a physically or specially defensive set to take hits better.
Steelix-Mega: Steelix is somewhat outclassed by Aggron but has a Ground typing and better special bulk that can be useful at times along with insane physical defense. It can set up rocks, phaze with roar, and Heavy Slam / Earthquake to hit the opponent with its good attack stat.
Suicune: Crocune is a potent physically defensive CM sweeper, and it can also run Roar > CM for phazing, or Roar > Sleep Talk to try to sweep stall better while beating other CM users.
Swampert-Mega: Mega Pert hard counters most electric types and has some good bulk and attack. You can use it as a stealth rocker or a SDef Curse RestTalk sweeper .
Sylveon: Sylveon is a great, specially defensive support with Wish and Heal Bell. You can also try a CM Wish/Baton Pass set to try to sweep. The main perk of Sylv over any other Fairy like Clefable or Florges is the pixilate boosted Hyper Voice.
Talonflame: SDef talon can check a variety of attackers and revenge kill with gale wings Brave Bird or Acrobatics. To just break stall and spread burns, Taunt + WoW is the best in your last two moveslots (the second move would be roost after flying STAB). If your goal is to sweep, a Bulk Up set would work well, especially with Taunt. If you want to spread burns AND try to sweep, WoW + Bulk Up works as well but I prefer the other two sets to this one.
Tangrowth: AV Tang is a good pivot with Regenerator and it has access to a variety of attacks including Giga Drain, Leaf Storm, Knock Off, Focus Blast, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Sludge Bomb, or HP Fire. You can also choose to run a leftovers set so you can use non attacking moves such as Sleep Powder, Leech Seed, and/or Synthesis.
Tentacruel: Tentacruel is a solid rapid spinner with T-Spikes support. It can also use a variety of attacks such as Scald, Acid Spray, Knock Off, Haze, and/or Mirror Coat.
Togekiss: Togekiss is solid defensive pokemon that hard counters Garchomp and can provide Defog or Heal Bell support. It is also a solid Nasty Plot sweeper and can run mono attacking to break stall but still provide Heal Bell support.
Tornadus-Therian: Torn is a fast and solid pivot to most special attackers with AV and has a variety of attacking options including Hurricane, Focus Blast, Heat Wave, Knock Off, U-Turn, Grass Knot, Icy Wind, or Iron Tail. Tornadus is mainly amazing as a pivot with its high speed, bulk with AV, and Regenerator.
Virizion: Virizion is an uncommon choice for sure but its high SDef and typing makes it a solid answer to Manaphy, and it can attempt to break the opponent with a bulky SD or Sub CM set.
Volcarona: Roost Bulky Volcarona is easily capable of sweeping the opponent with a slow setup while also checking some attackers, provided you can keep Stealth Rocks off the field.
Weezing: Weezing is a unique choice for sure, but it is immune to Ground attacks with Levitate and has great physical bulk. Its also capable of setting up T-Spikes, burning the opponent with WoW, restoring its health with Pain Split, and can hit Fairies or Steels with Sludge Bomb / Clear Smog and Flamethrower respectively.
Zapdos: Zapdos is a solid defogger that can affordd to defog on Bisharp, and check to birdspam with its defensive typing. It also has a variety of attacking options such as Thunderbolt, Discharge, Volt Switch, Heat Wave, or HP Ice. It can also run T-Wave, or attempt to pressure stall with a SubRoost Toxic set.
Zygarde: Zygarde is a good phazer and stallbreaker with its SubCoil set that allows it to slowly sweep the opponent while phazing out opposing phazers and forcing out unaware mons (bar clefable) to rack up hazards.
Spikes
T-Spikes
Defog
Rapid Spin
Other (Magic Bounce, Spinblocking)
Physical setup
Other (Taunt, Status, Trapping, Pressure Stall, etc.)
Heal Bell / Aromatherapy
Natural Cure
Magic Guard / Poison Heal
My teambuilding process is directly below, and I highly recommend reading it to better understand my team.
The team starts off with SubSynth Serperior as the mon I wanted to build around.
I wanted heal bell support to ease sweeping for Serperior, especially considering that I expected it to often get burned by scald throughout the game. While I was considering varying Diancie sets for this, I decided on Altaria in the end since its more consistent user of the move and gives me another sweeping option lategame.
To round off the core's weakness to flying types such as Talonflame, to handle fairy types such as Clefable, and to take Ice attacks, I added Heatran. Its typing fits very well with Serperior and Altaria, and Tran has a good movepool to give me options against the aforementioned threats, also being the stealth rocks setter on the team.
I lacked a solid answer to any pokemon with EdgeQuake or other type combinations with ground coverage, meaning Pokemon such as Earth Power Diancie or Mamoswine can still break through the core fairly easily. Skarm provided me a sturdy ground immunity and secondary steel-type that could take on strong physical attackers such as low kick Weavile while Heatran could support Skarm from strong special attacks, especially fire moves.
Since I chose not to use Defog on Skarmory, I wanted to have some alternate form of hazard removal, preferably Rapid spin to keep my own hazards up while I removed my opponents. I decided on Tentacruel as it also offered me T-Spikes and could not get easily pursuit trapped, two qualities that the most common spinner, Starmie, lacks. Although I am weaker to the bulky grounds that are the most common rockers, Tentacruel still has its own merits that I preferred over Starmie.
I had every single form of hazards on my team bar Sticky Web, so it was natural that I would want a spinblocker. I scrolled through the list of ghost types and found Sableye to be perfect the perfect fit. The main qualities of prankster with Taunt, WoW, and Recover were priceless to the team, and the added Dark Type gave me an immunity and solid answer to major issues such as Alakazam. I could not only spinblock now but prevent defog through priority taunt, keeping my hazards on the field. Although Mega Sableye is certainly more bulky, something that would additionally help regular sableye, the Prankster is much too important for my team to be successful.
The proof of my ladder peak can be found below
To begin with, I have developed a compendium of semistall Pokemon that are used in the current metagame. Some of the most common options (on semistall) include:
Some less common but solid options are:
Finally, there are some niche mons that aren't usually seen much or at all on semistall such as:
All of these mons can function well in a team that it supports and supports it properly (its all about synergy!). I have outlined the roles of all of these mons below (organized alphabetically), and then sectioned them into 4 groups/roles so that you can more easily find certain mons and build a team yourself. I highly recommend checking out this list, especially if you're trying to build a semistall team or just want to have a better understanding of the playstyle to beat it or play with it better.
Alphabetical List & Description
Hazard Control
Stealth Rocks
Spikes
T-Spikes
Defog
Rapid Spin
Other (Magic Bounce, Spinblocking)
Stall Breaker / Bulky Sweeper
Special setup
Physical setup
Other (Taunt, Status, Trapping, Pressure Stall, etc.)
Cleric / Status Absorber
Wish
Heal Bell / Aromatherapy
Natural Cure
Magic Guard / Poison Heal
Pivot
The team starts off with SubSynth Serperior as the mon I wanted to build around.
I wanted heal bell support to ease sweeping for Serperior, especially considering that I expected it to often get burned by scald throughout the game. While I was considering varying Diancie sets for this, I decided on Altaria in the end since its more consistent user of the move and gives me another sweeping option lategame.
To round off the core's weakness to flying types such as Talonflame, to handle fairy types such as Clefable, and to take Ice attacks, I added Heatran. Its typing fits very well with Serperior and Altaria, and Tran has a good movepool to give me options against the aforementioned threats, also being the stealth rocks setter on the team.
I lacked a solid answer to any pokemon with EdgeQuake or other type combinations with ground coverage, meaning Pokemon such as Earth Power Diancie or Mamoswine can still break through the core fairly easily. Skarm provided me a sturdy ground immunity and secondary steel-type that could take on strong physical attackers such as low kick Weavile while Heatran could support Skarm from strong special attacks, especially fire moves.
Since I chose not to use Defog on Skarmory, I wanted to have some alternate form of hazard removal, preferably Rapid spin to keep my own hazards up while I removed my opponents. I decided on Tentacruel as it also offered me T-Spikes and could not get easily pursuit trapped, two qualities that the most common spinner, Starmie, lacks. Although I am weaker to the bulky grounds that are the most common rockers, Tentacruel still has its own merits that I preferred over Starmie.
I had every single form of hazards on my team bar Sticky Web, so it was natural that I would want a spinblocker. I scrolled through the list of ghost types and found Sableye to be perfect the perfect fit. The main qualities of prankster with Taunt, WoW, and Recover were priceless to the team, and the added Dark Type gave me an immunity and solid answer to major issues such as Alakazam. I could not only spinblock now but prevent defog through priority taunt, keeping my hazards on the field. Although Mega Sableye is certainly more bulky, something that would additionally help regular sableye, the Prankster is much too important for my team to be successful.
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