Hey guys, this is Bill/newfren, I'm mostly known for being mod of the PS! Underused room and generally being bad at the game. This has generally lead to me playing far more defensive teams, as the predictions required when you're playing offense or balance generally make me lose the game.
Thus, this team. It's probably the best team I've made since slowbro left us to go to ou in like, june, and it's weathered the tier shifts fairly well, requiring basically no changes to deal with updates to the meta like zygarde and alakazite. This is mostly designed as a ladder team, or as something I can take into room tours and succeed. It wouldn't work too well in a tournament setting because hard stall teams are easy as fuck to counterteam, but it deals with most relevant threats in the metagame fairly well.
So first of all I started with the core I've been using since slowbro left the tier. This covers fairly well every offensive pokemon in the tier that doesn't boost their attack. Blissey obviously chews on basically any special hit while also providing various forms of team support, Alomomola takes on most physical moves in the tier while spreading toxic and passing wishes, while Aromatisse is my hydreigon/mixed attacker check, who can also take some of the load off of alomomola when playing opposing fighting spam.
Then I decided I really wanted toxic spikes on this team, and as yet I stilll had no way to remove hazards from my side of the field. So in comes tentacruel. Tspikes are really good for stall in this meta, dealing with the more common subcm cune and subcoil zygarde really well.
I didn't have the best move in the game on my team yet, and I had no way to punish mindless voltturn teams from clicking the buttons until my blissey was dead, so specially defensive gligar was the obvious next step. It also gives me a back-up hydreigon check, as well as being the best lucario counter in the tier.
I still didn't have a way to deal with crocune, and I was looking very roserade weak. I also still wanted another lucario check because that mon terrifies me. So I decided to go with cm reuniclus - I chose this guy over something like CM cresselia because frankly I hate the fact that cress doesn't get magic guard.
The Team
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Soft-Boiled
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss
- Heal Bell
Blissey is my primary special wall, and it does its job admirably. The evs are because investing in HP for blissey is a bit of a pisstake - this gives better overall bulk. Bold nature because it lets you live cool things like 2 Mega-zam psyshocks if there's no SR, and 0 Atk ivs for avoiding foul play damage. Softboiled is for instant recovery that can't be stopped by switching to a fucking swampert, toxic because that's how this team actually manages to kill anything, seismic toss for wearing down toxic immune pokemon like tentacruel and nidoqueen, with Heal Bell for curing status. Natural Cure means blissey is also my primary status absorber. Blissey takes on threats such as Celebi, Nidoqueen, Chandelure, Special Goodra, Houndoom, Scarf or Specs Hydreigon, Kingdra, Noivern, All Porygons, All Rotom-Formes, Shaymin, etc. Blissey is also one of the things on this team that least minds trick, mostly because I have so many back-up special sponges on this team that blissey is rarely necessary for me to win. That's another reason to run softboiled over wish - it's much easier to heal yourself when you're tricked.
Alomomola @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 104 HP / 244 Def / 160 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Scald
- Toxic
If there ever was a pokemon that picked the team up and put it on its back, it was this champion sunfish right here. This is my first Wish passer, and by far the most reliable, while also functioning as my primary physical wall. EVs are from the RU spread, because I always liked them way more than whatever the uu spread has. I think Molk originally posted these around the start of XYRU and I haven't looked back since - in exchange for taking like, 3% more on physical attacks, it chews weaker special attacks way better. Bold because it does actually need to chew those hits, 0 atk ivs just in case someone thought using foul play against a physical wall was relevant. Wish/Tect because it's alomomola's second best recovery option and supports the shit out of the team. Scald because it's the only way I can kill crobats, and toxic for when I don't have tspikes down or need to tox a burd. Regenerator is Alomomola's best form of recovery (this ability is so great, oml) and rocky helmet is actually a really good item for alomomola. This is my first check for volt switch teams - it means they can't just u-turn constantly, because they'll die after doing it 9 times. Alomomola is your primary switch-in to absol, aerodactyl, aggron, arcanine, cloyster, crobat, darmanitan, donphan, entei, flygon, hippowdon, honchkrow, infernape, krookodile, machamp, metagross, quagsire, and swampert. It's also the thing you switch into scary low ladder pokemon when you don't know what they'll do.
Aromatisse @ Leftovers
Ability: Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Aromatherapy
- Moonblast
Aromatisse is my standard.fairy. I'm of the opinion that basically every stall team in underused could be better with a fairy on it, and aromatisse is generally the one I turn to. This is my second wish passer and second cleric - I really like having two clerics on this stall team because having a status'd alomomola or gligar really sucks, and sometimes I come across teams where blissey just can't switch in. It also gives me a better match-up against opposing stall, as they'll generally run out of cleric pp before I will (assuming they have a counter to reuniclus). EVs are fairly straight forwards - this is my fighting spam check, so it's max physical defense to actually take on fighting spam. 0 Atk again for foul play. Wish/Tect because it's Aromatisse's best recovery option, Aromatherapy to support the team, and moonblast so it can actually deal with hydreigon/fighting types. Aromatisse is my switch-in to absol, chesnaught, physical goodra (cb is a fucking threat), haxorus, honchkrow, hydreigon, krookodile, machamp, mienshao, noivern, sableye, scrafty, and starmie.
Tentacruel @ Leftovers
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 240 HP / 244 Def / 24 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Acid Spray
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
Tentacruel is the first of my hazard removers, as well as being the pokemon that sets up tspikes. It's generally also the first pokemon you want on the receiving end of a trick, because it doesn't stay in long to do things anyway. EVs are pulled straight from the analysis and have been serving me well so far, again atk ivs to 0 for foul play. Scald is because spreading burns wins me the game, acid spray lets me actually spin against sableye, toxic spikes because so many threats would be way harder to deal with if I didn't have these, and rapid spin because sometimes I only want to remove the hazards on my side of the field. Tentacruel isn't my main switch in for many pokemon because of the overlap with alomomola, but it still deals with chesnaught, infernape, jirachi, lucario, machamp, and roserade (scout for offensive leaf storm first).
Gligar @ Eviolite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Defog
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Roost
Spdef gligar is probably the most reliable pokemon on my team that isn't alomomola. This is my primary answer to lucario, my stealth rocker, my second hazard remover, the second part of my answer to hard volt-turn teams, my mega-zam counter - it does it all. EVs are max spdef because I don't know of any better spdef gar spreads, hyper cutter because I can't run immunity defog :[. Gligar is my first switch in to alakazam, ampharos, diancie, espeon, forretress, galvantula, infernape, machamp (watch out for ice punch/knock off), raikou, rotoms (that I think are going to volt switch), and toxicroak.
Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Calm Mind
- Recover
Stall teams are bad without a win condition, so here it is. I'm really liking reuniclus in uu except for hydreigon and krook, but my team is fairly well prepared to deal with those two (plus you can actually set up over the scarf version of those, especially if they lock themselves into something dumb). Reun doesn't just act as a win condition though - it also acts as my main status absorber and crocune counter. It's my main switch in to: celebi, chesnaught, empoleon, florges, hippowdon, machamp (basically only on close combat), roserade, snorlax, and suicune.
Threatlist:
I hope you enjoyed this look at stall in the XY metagame, see you in ORAS.
Thus, this team. It's probably the best team I've made since slowbro left us to go to ou in like, june, and it's weathered the tier shifts fairly well, requiring basically no changes to deal with updates to the meta like zygarde and alakazite. This is mostly designed as a ladder team, or as something I can take into room tours and succeed. It wouldn't work too well in a tournament setting because hard stall teams are easy as fuck to counterteam, but it deals with most relevant threats in the metagame fairly well.
So first of all I started with the core I've been using since slowbro left the tier. This covers fairly well every offensive pokemon in the tier that doesn't boost their attack. Blissey obviously chews on basically any special hit while also providing various forms of team support, Alomomola takes on most physical moves in the tier while spreading toxic and passing wishes, while Aromatisse is my hydreigon/mixed attacker check, who can also take some of the load off of alomomola when playing opposing fighting spam.
Then I decided I really wanted toxic spikes on this team, and as yet I stilll had no way to remove hazards from my side of the field. So in comes tentacruel. Tspikes are really good for stall in this meta, dealing with the more common subcm cune and subcoil zygarde really well.
I didn't have the best move in the game on my team yet, and I had no way to punish mindless voltturn teams from clicking the buttons until my blissey was dead, so specially defensive gligar was the obvious next step. It also gives me a back-up hydreigon check, as well as being the best lucario counter in the tier.
I still didn't have a way to deal with crocune, and I was looking very roserade weak. I also still wanted another lucario check because that mon terrifies me. So I decided to go with cm reuniclus - I chose this guy over something like CM cresselia because frankly I hate the fact that cress doesn't get magic guard.
The Team
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Soft-Boiled
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss
- Heal Bell
Blissey is my primary special wall, and it does its job admirably. The evs are because investing in HP for blissey is a bit of a pisstake - this gives better overall bulk. Bold nature because it lets you live cool things like 2 Mega-zam psyshocks if there's no SR, and 0 Atk ivs for avoiding foul play damage. Softboiled is for instant recovery that can't be stopped by switching to a fucking swampert, toxic because that's how this team actually manages to kill anything, seismic toss for wearing down toxic immune pokemon like tentacruel and nidoqueen, with Heal Bell for curing status. Natural Cure means blissey is also my primary status absorber. Blissey takes on threats such as Celebi, Nidoqueen, Chandelure, Special Goodra, Houndoom, Scarf or Specs Hydreigon, Kingdra, Noivern, All Porygons, All Rotom-Formes, Shaymin, etc. Blissey is also one of the things on this team that least minds trick, mostly because I have so many back-up special sponges on this team that blissey is rarely necessary for me to win. That's another reason to run softboiled over wish - it's much easier to heal yourself when you're tricked.
Alomomola @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 104 HP / 244 Def / 160 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Scald
- Toxic
If there ever was a pokemon that picked the team up and put it on its back, it was this champion sunfish right here. This is my first Wish passer, and by far the most reliable, while also functioning as my primary physical wall. EVs are from the RU spread, because I always liked them way more than whatever the uu spread has. I think Molk originally posted these around the start of XYRU and I haven't looked back since - in exchange for taking like, 3% more on physical attacks, it chews weaker special attacks way better. Bold because it does actually need to chew those hits, 0 atk ivs just in case someone thought using foul play against a physical wall was relevant. Wish/Tect because it's alomomola's second best recovery option and supports the shit out of the team. Scald because it's the only way I can kill crobats, and toxic for when I don't have tspikes down or need to tox a burd. Regenerator is Alomomola's best form of recovery (this ability is so great, oml) and rocky helmet is actually a really good item for alomomola. This is my first check for volt switch teams - it means they can't just u-turn constantly, because they'll die after doing it 9 times. Alomomola is your primary switch-in to absol, aerodactyl, aggron, arcanine, cloyster, crobat, darmanitan, donphan, entei, flygon, hippowdon, honchkrow, infernape, krookodile, machamp, metagross, quagsire, and swampert. It's also the thing you switch into scary low ladder pokemon when you don't know what they'll do.
Aromatisse @ Leftovers
Ability: Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Aromatherapy
- Moonblast
Aromatisse is my standard.fairy. I'm of the opinion that basically every stall team in underused could be better with a fairy on it, and aromatisse is generally the one I turn to. This is my second wish passer and second cleric - I really like having two clerics on this stall team because having a status'd alomomola or gligar really sucks, and sometimes I come across teams where blissey just can't switch in. It also gives me a better match-up against opposing stall, as they'll generally run out of cleric pp before I will (assuming they have a counter to reuniclus). EVs are fairly straight forwards - this is my fighting spam check, so it's max physical defense to actually take on fighting spam. 0 Atk again for foul play. Wish/Tect because it's Aromatisse's best recovery option, Aromatherapy to support the team, and moonblast so it can actually deal with hydreigon/fighting types. Aromatisse is my switch-in to absol, chesnaught, physical goodra (cb is a fucking threat), haxorus, honchkrow, hydreigon, krookodile, machamp, mienshao, noivern, sableye, scrafty, and starmie.
Tentacruel @ Leftovers
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 240 HP / 244 Def / 24 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Acid Spray
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
Tentacruel is the first of my hazard removers, as well as being the pokemon that sets up tspikes. It's generally also the first pokemon you want on the receiving end of a trick, because it doesn't stay in long to do things anyway. EVs are pulled straight from the analysis and have been serving me well so far, again atk ivs to 0 for foul play. Scald is because spreading burns wins me the game, acid spray lets me actually spin against sableye, toxic spikes because so many threats would be way harder to deal with if I didn't have these, and rapid spin because sometimes I only want to remove the hazards on my side of the field. Tentacruel isn't my main switch in for many pokemon because of the overlap with alomomola, but it still deals with chesnaught, infernape, jirachi, lucario, machamp, and roserade (scout for offensive leaf storm first).
Gligar @ Eviolite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Defog
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Roost
Spdef gligar is probably the most reliable pokemon on my team that isn't alomomola. This is my primary answer to lucario, my stealth rocker, my second hazard remover, the second part of my answer to hard volt-turn teams, my mega-zam counter - it does it all. EVs are max spdef because I don't know of any better spdef gar spreads, hyper cutter because I can't run immunity defog :[. Gligar is my first switch in to alakazam, ampharos, diancie, espeon, forretress, galvantula, infernape, machamp (watch out for ice punch/knock off), raikou, rotoms (that I think are going to volt switch), and toxicroak.
Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Calm Mind
- Recover
Stall teams are bad without a win condition, so here it is. I'm really liking reuniclus in uu except for hydreigon and krook, but my team is fairly well prepared to deal with those two (plus you can actually set up over the scarf version of those, especially if they lock themselves into something dumb). Reun doesn't just act as a win condition though - it also acts as my main status absorber and crocune counter. It's my main switch in to: celebi, chesnaught, empoleon, florges, hippowdon, machamp (basically only on close combat), roserade, snorlax, and suicune.
Threatlist:
Curselax: If I see one of these, I basically take the L. Any advice for ways of dealing with this would be appreciated - at the moment, I have to acid spray it a shit ton with tenta, who tends to be worn down fairly easily.
CM Recover Mega-Alakazam: If anyone ran this it would be threatening as hell, but luckily for me noone does. CM Zam by himself is pretty scary, but I can generally land a status on it with blissey before it starts steamrolling, or I can set up with reuniclus against it.
Hard Volt-Turn with Life Orb Mienshao: The main way I deal with the physical side of volt-turn is by wearing it down with alomomola, but I can't do that the regenerator mienshao. Generally I deal with it by understanding that eventually they have to stop clicking u-turn if they want to actually kill things, so eventually I can land a scald burn on something. Tspikes also tend to help out a lot in theses match-ups, but all the volt-switch teams are carrying gligar and vaporeon now, which nullifies their effectiveness.
WPPass Celebi: This thing destroys me pretty easily. The best way to deal with it is to set up with Reuniclus alongside it while it nasty plots and then hope that they don't have something left to kill reun with. You tend to have to sacrifice a lot of pokemon to deal with this.
Ice Punch Lucario + Volt Switch: A solid volt switch core built around a lucario means I have to hesitate on sending gligar in and instead send out tenta or reuniclus to deal with it, because if it's ice punch luc then I lose my gligar and blissey gets pressured by volt switch spam.
Trick on weird things: If a trick lands on alomomola or gligar, I tend to lose the game. That's why you don't even switch alomomola into rachi until you figure out if it's lefties or scarf - trick scarf rachi is a terror, and I'd much rather have that scarf on my tentacruel.
SubCM Jirachi: This is something else I have to lean heavily on my reuniclus to deal with, which is a problem because subcm jirachis get free subs when I go into tenta then a free CM when I go into Reun.
Guts Machamp: This is a problem for basically every stall team that doesn't have a crobat - it can 2hko everything on my team when it gets into guts, so I have to pivot a shit ton and try to avoid statusing it. I have a bunch of pokemon that can switch into all of its moves as a whole, but it's still hard as fuck to deal with.
Specs Shaymin: If this thing gets drops on my blissey then it becomes really hard to pp stall it out of seed flare - which is the only way I have of dealing with it. I tend to have to ptect out some seed flares when it gets in on alomomola and aromatisse, and just try and not let it get in on tenta/glig/reun.
CM Recover Mega-Alakazam: If anyone ran this it would be threatening as hell, but luckily for me noone does. CM Zam by himself is pretty scary, but I can generally land a status on it with blissey before it starts steamrolling, or I can set up with reuniclus against it.
Hard Volt-Turn with Life Orb Mienshao: The main way I deal with the physical side of volt-turn is by wearing it down with alomomola, but I can't do that the regenerator mienshao. Generally I deal with it by understanding that eventually they have to stop clicking u-turn if they want to actually kill things, so eventually I can land a scald burn on something. Tspikes also tend to help out a lot in theses match-ups, but all the volt-switch teams are carrying gligar and vaporeon now, which nullifies their effectiveness.
WPPass Celebi: This thing destroys me pretty easily. The best way to deal with it is to set up with Reuniclus alongside it while it nasty plots and then hope that they don't have something left to kill reun with. You tend to have to sacrifice a lot of pokemon to deal with this.
Ice Punch Lucario + Volt Switch: A solid volt switch core built around a lucario means I have to hesitate on sending gligar in and instead send out tenta or reuniclus to deal with it, because if it's ice punch luc then I lose my gligar and blissey gets pressured by volt switch spam.
Trick on weird things: If a trick lands on alomomola or gligar, I tend to lose the game. That's why you don't even switch alomomola into rachi until you figure out if it's lefties or scarf - trick scarf rachi is a terror, and I'd much rather have that scarf on my tentacruel.
SubCM Jirachi: This is something else I have to lean heavily on my reuniclus to deal with, which is a problem because subcm jirachis get free subs when I go into tenta then a free CM when I go into Reun.
Guts Machamp: This is a problem for basically every stall team that doesn't have a crobat - it can 2hko everything on my team when it gets into guts, so I have to pivot a shit ton and try to avoid statusing it. I have a bunch of pokemon that can switch into all of its moves as a whole, but it's still hard as fuck to deal with.
Specs Shaymin: If this thing gets drops on my blissey then it becomes really hard to pp stall it out of seed flare - which is the only way I have of dealing with it. I tend to have to ptect out some seed flares when it gets in on alomomola and aromatisse, and just try and not let it get in on tenta/glig/reun.
First of all I'd like to thank Calloflochie, Bud Hertz, DatLatias, fbc, and ZvZ for being pretty cool guys when I first showed up to the UU room on PS and convincing me to stick around - it's so much better than lobby.
All the current auth in UU are great guys, especially DMT, CoolStoryBrobat, Calloflochie, King UU, Dudeman130498, Technosis, PokeGyarados, Nightmare Vampire, dingbat, namehtmas, sniperaim, @Pleasure Kitten, Meru, Mahmudkipz, Yifeng, gobosox, Duskt70, and also anyone who I've forgotten because I can't look through /roomauth right now.
I'd also like to give a shoutout to the UU Council for trying something new with tiering this gen - it's made UU easily the best tier in XY. Let's continue it into ORAS, yeah?
And the rest: Bouffalant, RowDog, eaglehawk, Xpzm3, DatGuyChuck, a whole bunch of other guys who I can't remember but who I generally like.
All the current auth in UU are great guys, especially DMT, CoolStoryBrobat, Calloflochie, King UU, Dudeman130498, Technosis, PokeGyarados, Nightmare Vampire, dingbat, namehtmas, sniperaim, @Pleasure Kitten, Meru, Mahmudkipz, Yifeng, gobosox, Duskt70, and also anyone who I've forgotten because I can't look through /roomauth right now.
I'd also like to give a shoutout to the UU Council for trying something new with tiering this gen - it's made UU easily the best tier in XY. Let's continue it into ORAS, yeah?
And the rest: Bouffalant, RowDog, eaglehawk, Xpzm3, DatGuyChuck, a whole bunch of other guys who I can't remember but who I generally like.
I hope you enjoyed this look at stall in the XY metagame, see you in ORAS.
