I was getting bored of just using the same kind of Offensive teams over and over again, so I thought why not attempt to make a Stall team and see how well it does compared to some of my Offensive teams. So when I finished it and used it in battle for myself I was suprised and just how good it really was. After using it and beating so many people with it I thought why not post it on Smogon and see what you all think of it. So without any further ado, here it is....
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Hippowdon@Leftovers
Nature: Impish
EV's: 252 HP / 16 ATK / 152 DEF / 88 SP. DEF
Trait: Sand Stream
Stealth Rock
Earthquake
Roar
Slack Off
Description:
As far as physical walling goes, you won't find many Pokémon better than Hippowdon in DP. Rock resistance, 10% better overall physical defense than Skarmory, and a one turn recovery move without any drawback makes Hippowdon a hard Pokémon to budge. It laughs at any Aerodactyl, ruins most-physical Salamence or Electivire, counters physical Tyranitar better than anything ever did in RS, and can even switch in against Jolly Choice Band Heracross Megahorns and recover off all the damage. Not including Explosion, Selfdestruct or critical hits, no Pokémon can OHKO Hippowdon with any physical attack. For those reasons, Hippowdon is a perfect candidate for use of Stealth Rock. It can set up the entry hazard and then use Slack Off to recover any damage it takes, and it can even utilize Roar effectively to pile up residual damage on your opponents team.
Tentacruel@Black Sludge
Nature: Calm
EV's: 204 HP / 96 SP. ATK / 172 SP. DEF / 36 SPD
Trait: Liquid Ooze
Surf
Sludge Bomb
Rapid Spin
Toxic Spikes
Description:
Supporting Tentacruel. Thanks to his high Special Defense and Water typing, he can just shrug off Ice Beams and Surfs, so he should have a few opportunities to get in a do his thing. Surf is the obvious choice, with Ice Beam and Sludge Bomb for coverage. Ice Beam also covers Dragons and Flying-types, while Sludge Bomb provides more power against most Grass-types and helps to wear down other Waters, like Milotic. It can also poison some incoming Flying-types (such as Gyarados) who are immune to Toxic Spikes. Knock Off and Rapid Spin are incompatible breeding moves, so pick which you need most. Even if you go with Knock Off, Tentacruel can still serve as your "spinner", but only to remove Toxic Spikes, by absorbing them as he switches in. Toxic Spikes gives you some more support for wearing down opponents and can prove useful to drain the likes of Dusknoir and Spiritomb, who will block Rapid Spin. Giga Drain can 2HKO an incoming Water/Ground-type, but it does less damage than Sludge Bomb against most other Water-types.
Cresselia@Leftovers
Nature: Timid
EV's: 96 HP / 252 SP. ATK / 160 SPD
Trait: Levitate
Calm Mind
Moonlight
Ice Beam
Psychic
Description:
Part sweeper, part tank. This plays somewhat like a special version of Curse Snorlax. The Speed is designed to outspeed Adamant Heracross, a major threat to Cresselia (after a Calm Mind, Psychic will OHKO). What you plan on using for your secondary attack depends on your team. Charge Beam is for Gyarados once again, Hidden Power Fighting is for Tyranitar and Weavile and Ice Beam works on Garchomp, Salamence, and other Dragons. Hidden Power Bug is also an option if you want to hit Darks and other Psychic-types. However, it does far less damage to Tyranitar and Weavile compared to Hidden Power Fighting and has inferior type coverage.
Skarmory@Leftovers
Nature: Impish
EV's: 252 HP / 96 ATK / 152 DEF / 4 SPD
Trait: Keen Eye
Spikes
Roost
Drill Peck
Whirlwind
Description:
This set has become the new D/P standard for Skarmory. Roost gives Skarmory improved tanking ability compared to Advance, when its only recovery methods were Rest and Leftovers. Brave Bird or Drill Peck are there to let Skarmory deal damage when called for. Brave Bird is the preferred attack as it packs more of a punch, and that helps significantly, considering Skarmory's mediocre Attack, and gives it an easier time against opponents like Gyarados. Drill Peck can be used if you can't afford to take the recoil, however. Roost lets Skarmory recover HP. In situations where Skarmory is faster than its opponent, Skarmory can also use Roost to remove its Flying-type for the rest of the turn in order to reduce damage from things like Stone Edge and ThunderPunch. The choice between Spikes and Stealth Rock depends on your team and your preferences. Spikes takes longer to fully set up, but will do more damage to things that aren't weak to Rock. If you have more problems with things like Gyarados and Salamence, then Stealth Rock will probably work better. Keep in mind that Stealth Rock is learned by many competent Pokémon, whereas there are few good Spikers. Whirlwind allows Skarmory to force things that are using stat raising moves to switch out, and simultaneously makes whatever comes in take damage from Spikes or Stealth Rock. If whatever is forced out is ineffective against Skarmory, you can then either use Whirlwind again or use Brave Bird. Your choice of item depends on whether you are playing under item clause, and if you're afraid of Magnezone. Leftovers will give Skarmory better tanking abilities, while Shed Shell will allow Skarmory to give Magnezone (or the rare Probopass) the slip. It also helps confound trapping Pokémon such as Mean Look + Baton Pass Umbreon.
Celebi@Leftovers
Nature: Bold
EV's: 252 HP / 220 DEF / 152 DEF / 36 SPD
Trait: Natural Cure
Leech Seed
Grass Knot
Recover
Hidden Power [FIRE]
Description:
With Recover and solid base 100 Defenses, Celebi is an excellent candidate for a defensive seeder. Leech Seed will quickly frustrate most of its opponents, and Recover just makes life harder for them. Grass Knot is easily Celebi's most reliable attacking move, as it has STAB, 20 PP (32 with PP max) and being surprisingly powerful on many of the Pokemon that thrive in the OU metagame, most notably Tyranitar and Gyarados. Celebi's last move mostly depends on the trainer's need. Hidden Power Fire gives Celebi the opportunity to hurt Steel types such as Forretress and Metagross reasonably hard, whereas Hidden Power Ice severely dents Garchomp and Salamence. The EVs demonstrate how Celebi can be defensively oriented on the physical side. It is so resilient that not even an Expert Belt boosted Ice Punch from a maximum attack Adamant Electivire can 2HKO it. This particular Celebi set is often used as a utility counter in a team, as its typing and magnificent defenses allow it to counter threats such as Gyarados and Breloom.
Blissey@Leftovers
Nature: Calm
EV's: 252 DEF / 80 SP. ATK / 176 SP.DEF
Trait: Natural Cure
Ice Beam
Wish
Softboiled
Toxic
Description:
The #1 special wall in the game has had to reinvent herself slightly to keep up with DP's new special threats. The general idea is to switch in, use Wish and then Protect to directly mirror the effects of Softboiled, except that you can waste more turns for PP stalling and Toxic damage. Alternately, you could use Wish preemptively (with more than half of your HP intact, even at full health) then using the next turn to attack, thus doing damage to them and healing yourself. The Wish / Protect combination is all the more appealing on Blissey in DP thanks in large to the popularity of Choice item users. The silver lining to this set resides in the fantastic safety net Protect casts over Blissey. At any point over around 50% HP, WishBliss will not be threatened by Choice-boosted Pursuit from Pokémon like Tyranitar, Weavile and Heracross simply because of Protect. She can Protect heads-up to see if they used Pursuit, intending to deal a heavy blow to a switching Blissey. If they use Pursuit, Blissey will be Protected and can stay in and Wish the next turn while taking a 40 base power Pursuit assured to do less than 35% to her (assuming the threat stays in, which it may not), then follow up with Protect the subsequent turn to guarantee the 50% HP recovery. If they attack straight up with one of their powerful STAB moves, you're more than free to switch out to the appropriate counter with which your team should be equipped anyway. This matchup becomes even more attractive when you factor in the possibility that the above Pursuit threats could likely have switched into a Wish in the first place. Remember though, this strategy, like most, can be used against you if you rely too heavily upon it. Consider a Tyranitar heads-up against a Blissey that used Wish on the switch. Tyranitar uses Crunch as Blissey Protects, and then switches out of the full health Blissey to which it no longer poses such a large threat. But later, when Tyranitar is heads-up against the same Blissey, it uses a dangerous Dragon Dance as Blissey Protects, assuming that Tyranitar was of the Choice Band variety. This is just something to keep in mind. Anyway, if you want to ensure Blissey stays alive longer, be it to pass Wishes or to endure as a special wall, you can run Softboiled over Protect. The reason to use Softboiled over the very useful Protect is primarily an issue of PP. Wish only has 16 PP, so if you are involved in a long, drawn-out stall war, Wish can get worn down as you try to heal your teammates and yourself with the one move. If you have Softboiled, you can heal yourself with that and rely on Wish to heal everyone else. Another disadvantage of Protect is that with Wish + Protect as your only method of healing, a special attacker could hit Blissey as it switches in, then go to a big threat like Tyranitar as Blissey uses Wish. If Blissey stays in to get healed, it risks letting Tyranitar get in some Dragon Dances. If Blissey switches out, then it hasn't gained any HP. This cycle can continue throughout the battle, thus preventing you from ever healing your Blissey, and thus opening you up to a potential special sweep. Softboiled has another minor benefit. If you are using Blissey in Hail or a Sandstorm, then Blissey will die to the weather if you are knocked to 6.25% HP or below. If you Wish on that turn, you won't have time to Protect next turn to heal yourself, whereas if you Softboiled you are safe. Softboiled also reduces the threat of a Pokemon setting up on you. Toxic is a great move here regardless of whether you choose Protect or Softboiled. Either way, you have two moves to use that aid in stalling. As you're sitting around healing yourself, you won't really be doing anything aside from PP stalling. If you hit them with Toxic first, then they are losing HP while you stall with recovery moves. Toxic is a good move even if you have Toxic Spikes down, as Toxic is this Blissey's only chance to take down Togekiss. It also helps to hit threats like Gyarados on the switch. For the attack, Flamethrower is probably Blissey's best bet. You definitely want the ability to hit Gengar, so Flamethrower, Ice Beam, or Thunderbolt would be your choices for an attack. Flamethrower hits nearly every Pokemon that's immune to Toxic super effectively. It also helps cover Heracross somewhat, who may want to come in on Toxic to abuse Guts. However, you obviously cannot hit Heatran with Flamethrower and Toxic. You could, however, PP stall Heatran out of its Fire move or Wish and switch to something that can take it on. Ice Beam helps cover Mixed Salamence (the Choice Specs version isn't going to get through Blissey regardless) and keeps Dugtrio away, assuming you can't hit them with Toxic. Thunderbolt stops Gyarados from setting up on you and still hits Skarmory and other Steels for moderate damage. If you want, you could lose Toxic or Protect / Softboiled for another attack. There are a few things to note about Wish Blissey. There is a rumor that Wish Blissey only comes in Calm or Modest (or some other random set of natures). This is false. To the best of anyone's knowledge, Wish Blissey appears in all natures. However, there is a movement to ban event moves on all Pokemon, and this would include Wish Blissey. Nothing has really solidified about this yet, however.
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Thanks for reading and I look forward to see what you think of the team ~ RetroBlast
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Hippowdon@Leftovers
Nature: Impish
EV's: 252 HP / 16 ATK / 152 DEF / 88 SP. DEF
Trait: Sand Stream
Stealth Rock
Earthquake
Roar
Slack Off
Description:
As far as physical walling goes, you won't find many Pokémon better than Hippowdon in DP. Rock resistance, 10% better overall physical defense than Skarmory, and a one turn recovery move without any drawback makes Hippowdon a hard Pokémon to budge. It laughs at any Aerodactyl, ruins most-physical Salamence or Electivire, counters physical Tyranitar better than anything ever did in RS, and can even switch in against Jolly Choice Band Heracross Megahorns and recover off all the damage. Not including Explosion, Selfdestruct or critical hits, no Pokémon can OHKO Hippowdon with any physical attack. For those reasons, Hippowdon is a perfect candidate for use of Stealth Rock. It can set up the entry hazard and then use Slack Off to recover any damage it takes, and it can even utilize Roar effectively to pile up residual damage on your opponents team.
Tentacruel@Black Sludge
Nature: Calm
EV's: 204 HP / 96 SP. ATK / 172 SP. DEF / 36 SPD
Trait: Liquid Ooze
Surf
Sludge Bomb
Rapid Spin
Toxic Spikes
Description:
Supporting Tentacruel. Thanks to his high Special Defense and Water typing, he can just shrug off Ice Beams and Surfs, so he should have a few opportunities to get in a do his thing. Surf is the obvious choice, with Ice Beam and Sludge Bomb for coverage. Ice Beam also covers Dragons and Flying-types, while Sludge Bomb provides more power against most Grass-types and helps to wear down other Waters, like Milotic. It can also poison some incoming Flying-types (such as Gyarados) who are immune to Toxic Spikes. Knock Off and Rapid Spin are incompatible breeding moves, so pick which you need most. Even if you go with Knock Off, Tentacruel can still serve as your "spinner", but only to remove Toxic Spikes, by absorbing them as he switches in. Toxic Spikes gives you some more support for wearing down opponents and can prove useful to drain the likes of Dusknoir and Spiritomb, who will block Rapid Spin. Giga Drain can 2HKO an incoming Water/Ground-type, but it does less damage than Sludge Bomb against most other Water-types.
Cresselia@Leftovers
Nature: Timid
EV's: 96 HP / 252 SP. ATK / 160 SPD
Trait: Levitate
Calm Mind
Moonlight
Ice Beam
Psychic
Description:
Part sweeper, part tank. This plays somewhat like a special version of Curse Snorlax. The Speed is designed to outspeed Adamant Heracross, a major threat to Cresselia (after a Calm Mind, Psychic will OHKO). What you plan on using for your secondary attack depends on your team. Charge Beam is for Gyarados once again, Hidden Power Fighting is for Tyranitar and Weavile and Ice Beam works on Garchomp, Salamence, and other Dragons. Hidden Power Bug is also an option if you want to hit Darks and other Psychic-types. However, it does far less damage to Tyranitar and Weavile compared to Hidden Power Fighting and has inferior type coverage.
Skarmory@Leftovers
Nature: Impish
EV's: 252 HP / 96 ATK / 152 DEF / 4 SPD
Trait: Keen Eye
Spikes
Roost
Drill Peck
Whirlwind
Description:
This set has become the new D/P standard for Skarmory. Roost gives Skarmory improved tanking ability compared to Advance, when its only recovery methods were Rest and Leftovers. Brave Bird or Drill Peck are there to let Skarmory deal damage when called for. Brave Bird is the preferred attack as it packs more of a punch, and that helps significantly, considering Skarmory's mediocre Attack, and gives it an easier time against opponents like Gyarados. Drill Peck can be used if you can't afford to take the recoil, however. Roost lets Skarmory recover HP. In situations where Skarmory is faster than its opponent, Skarmory can also use Roost to remove its Flying-type for the rest of the turn in order to reduce damage from things like Stone Edge and ThunderPunch. The choice between Spikes and Stealth Rock depends on your team and your preferences. Spikes takes longer to fully set up, but will do more damage to things that aren't weak to Rock. If you have more problems with things like Gyarados and Salamence, then Stealth Rock will probably work better. Keep in mind that Stealth Rock is learned by many competent Pokémon, whereas there are few good Spikers. Whirlwind allows Skarmory to force things that are using stat raising moves to switch out, and simultaneously makes whatever comes in take damage from Spikes or Stealth Rock. If whatever is forced out is ineffective against Skarmory, you can then either use Whirlwind again or use Brave Bird. Your choice of item depends on whether you are playing under item clause, and if you're afraid of Magnezone. Leftovers will give Skarmory better tanking abilities, while Shed Shell will allow Skarmory to give Magnezone (or the rare Probopass) the slip. It also helps confound trapping Pokémon such as Mean Look + Baton Pass Umbreon.
Celebi@Leftovers
Nature: Bold
EV's: 252 HP / 220 DEF / 152 DEF / 36 SPD
Trait: Natural Cure
Leech Seed
Grass Knot
Recover
Hidden Power [FIRE]
Description:
With Recover and solid base 100 Defenses, Celebi is an excellent candidate for a defensive seeder. Leech Seed will quickly frustrate most of its opponents, and Recover just makes life harder for them. Grass Knot is easily Celebi's most reliable attacking move, as it has STAB, 20 PP (32 with PP max) and being surprisingly powerful on many of the Pokemon that thrive in the OU metagame, most notably Tyranitar and Gyarados. Celebi's last move mostly depends on the trainer's need. Hidden Power Fire gives Celebi the opportunity to hurt Steel types such as Forretress and Metagross reasonably hard, whereas Hidden Power Ice severely dents Garchomp and Salamence. The EVs demonstrate how Celebi can be defensively oriented on the physical side. It is so resilient that not even an Expert Belt boosted Ice Punch from a maximum attack Adamant Electivire can 2HKO it. This particular Celebi set is often used as a utility counter in a team, as its typing and magnificent defenses allow it to counter threats such as Gyarados and Breloom.
Blissey@Leftovers
Nature: Calm
EV's: 252 DEF / 80 SP. ATK / 176 SP.DEF
Trait: Natural Cure
Ice Beam
Wish
Softboiled
Toxic
Description:
The #1 special wall in the game has had to reinvent herself slightly to keep up with DP's new special threats. The general idea is to switch in, use Wish and then Protect to directly mirror the effects of Softboiled, except that you can waste more turns for PP stalling and Toxic damage. Alternately, you could use Wish preemptively (with more than half of your HP intact, even at full health) then using the next turn to attack, thus doing damage to them and healing yourself. The Wish / Protect combination is all the more appealing on Blissey in DP thanks in large to the popularity of Choice item users. The silver lining to this set resides in the fantastic safety net Protect casts over Blissey. At any point over around 50% HP, WishBliss will not be threatened by Choice-boosted Pursuit from Pokémon like Tyranitar, Weavile and Heracross simply because of Protect. She can Protect heads-up to see if they used Pursuit, intending to deal a heavy blow to a switching Blissey. If they use Pursuit, Blissey will be Protected and can stay in and Wish the next turn while taking a 40 base power Pursuit assured to do less than 35% to her (assuming the threat stays in, which it may not), then follow up with Protect the subsequent turn to guarantee the 50% HP recovery. If they attack straight up with one of their powerful STAB moves, you're more than free to switch out to the appropriate counter with which your team should be equipped anyway. This matchup becomes even more attractive when you factor in the possibility that the above Pursuit threats could likely have switched into a Wish in the first place. Remember though, this strategy, like most, can be used against you if you rely too heavily upon it. Consider a Tyranitar heads-up against a Blissey that used Wish on the switch. Tyranitar uses Crunch as Blissey Protects, and then switches out of the full health Blissey to which it no longer poses such a large threat. But later, when Tyranitar is heads-up against the same Blissey, it uses a dangerous Dragon Dance as Blissey Protects, assuming that Tyranitar was of the Choice Band variety. This is just something to keep in mind. Anyway, if you want to ensure Blissey stays alive longer, be it to pass Wishes or to endure as a special wall, you can run Softboiled over Protect. The reason to use Softboiled over the very useful Protect is primarily an issue of PP. Wish only has 16 PP, so if you are involved in a long, drawn-out stall war, Wish can get worn down as you try to heal your teammates and yourself with the one move. If you have Softboiled, you can heal yourself with that and rely on Wish to heal everyone else. Another disadvantage of Protect is that with Wish + Protect as your only method of healing, a special attacker could hit Blissey as it switches in, then go to a big threat like Tyranitar as Blissey uses Wish. If Blissey stays in to get healed, it risks letting Tyranitar get in some Dragon Dances. If Blissey switches out, then it hasn't gained any HP. This cycle can continue throughout the battle, thus preventing you from ever healing your Blissey, and thus opening you up to a potential special sweep. Softboiled has another minor benefit. If you are using Blissey in Hail or a Sandstorm, then Blissey will die to the weather if you are knocked to 6.25% HP or below. If you Wish on that turn, you won't have time to Protect next turn to heal yourself, whereas if you Softboiled you are safe. Softboiled also reduces the threat of a Pokemon setting up on you. Toxic is a great move here regardless of whether you choose Protect or Softboiled. Either way, you have two moves to use that aid in stalling. As you're sitting around healing yourself, you won't really be doing anything aside from PP stalling. If you hit them with Toxic first, then they are losing HP while you stall with recovery moves. Toxic is a good move even if you have Toxic Spikes down, as Toxic is this Blissey's only chance to take down Togekiss. It also helps to hit threats like Gyarados on the switch. For the attack, Flamethrower is probably Blissey's best bet. You definitely want the ability to hit Gengar, so Flamethrower, Ice Beam, or Thunderbolt would be your choices for an attack. Flamethrower hits nearly every Pokemon that's immune to Toxic super effectively. It also helps cover Heracross somewhat, who may want to come in on Toxic to abuse Guts. However, you obviously cannot hit Heatran with Flamethrower and Toxic. You could, however, PP stall Heatran out of its Fire move or Wish and switch to something that can take it on. Ice Beam helps cover Mixed Salamence (the Choice Specs version isn't going to get through Blissey regardless) and keeps Dugtrio away, assuming you can't hit them with Toxic. Thunderbolt stops Gyarados from setting up on you and still hits Skarmory and other Steels for moderate damage. If you want, you could lose Toxic or Protect / Softboiled for another attack. There are a few things to note about Wish Blissey. There is a rumor that Wish Blissey only comes in Calm or Modest (or some other random set of natures). This is false. To the best of anyone's knowledge, Wish Blissey appears in all natures. However, there is a movement to ban event moves on all Pokemon, and this would include Wish Blissey. Nothing has really solidified about this yet, however.
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Thanks for reading and I look forward to see what you think of the team ~ RetroBlast
