Monotype "Triple Degenerator" Whiscash Mono-Water Stall (Peak #7 Ladder, 1766)

[Vin Flint]

Triple Degenerator Stall

Importable

Whiscash @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Rest
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Whirlpool

Pelipper @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- U-turn
- Scald

Lanturn @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heal Bell
- Volt Switch
- Toxic
- Scald

Toxapex @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Recover
- Haze

Slowbro-Mega @ Slowbronite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Calm Mind
- Fire Blast

Slowking @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Power Gem
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam

First and foremost, to anyone who had the misfortune of running into this on ladder, I apologize. I know that stall isn't a fun archetype to play against. But hey, maybe you can pick this team up and try it yourself. You need like half a brain cell to play it, and it works phenomenally against most matchups, so if you enjoy choking your opponent's team out slowly but surely and watching people get salty, go ahead and try it out.

The name of this team comes from the three Regenerator Pokemon on the team that form the primary defensive core: Toxapex, Slowbro (before mega evolution), and Slowking. This core lends itself to a unique stall playstyle of constantly switching to heal yourself as well as PP stall your opponents which is a pretty degenerate way to play, hence the name. However, I did not start building this team by starting from the defensive core. Instead, I started by adding Whiscash as a sort of team builder challenge, and I just incorporated the Degenerator core to support it.

Just a quick note before I get into the team, I posted this in the Monotype Sample Team thread and went further in depth on this team (like, paragraphs on paragraphs in depth), so if you want a more detailed breakdown on matchups and playstyle, check out that post, linked below.
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/monotype-sample-teams.3599682/page-9

Now that you have a little background on the team, let's jump right into it.

The Cast

Whiscash @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Rest
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Whirlpool
Whiscash originally started out as a meme set only created for fun, but over time I realized that I may have stumbled on a hidden gem from the lower tiers, at least for the Monotype tier. It has a great defensive typing that has only one weakness that is relatively uncommon to begin with, and it has enough bulk to take some hits. But primarily, this mon is used to trap opposing walls such as Chansey or Toxapex and make life hard for them. If you are able to trap the opponent using Whirlpool, you can then inflict them with Toxic damage to rapidly chip them away with residual damage and Earthquake. Some mons that Whiscash can deal with by trapping include Chansey, Porygon-2, almost any electric type that doesn't run a grass move, Alolan Muk, and Toxapex. Even if you don't have the time to set Whirlpool, simply using Toxic allows you to switch between the Degenerator core to chip away at opposing threats. For example, you would not be able to trap and kill a DDance Dragonite before it killed Whiscash, but simply setting Toxic allows you to sacrifice Whiscash to allow Mega Slowbro to come in and use Slack Off until Dragonite is chipped away by Toxic. Finally, a small but important feature of Whiscash is that it gets Hydration, which allows it to get rid of Toxic damage or wake up immediately after a Rest when in the rain. If it weren't for this trait, Whiscash would be completely outclassed by Swampert, which can run the same set with even more bulk. However, Hydration Whiscash paired with Pelipper allows you to completely restore Whiscash with almost no drawback.

Pelipper @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- U-turn
- Scald
Pelipper is here as the only way to remove hazards from the field. Hazards can be a big problem for this team, as they can completely negate the benefits of Regenerator especially when you start trying to PP stall your opponent, but Pelipper is able to Defog these hazards away to help your team out. However, most teams usually run Stealth Rocks as their only hazard, and Stealth Rocks alone are not that big of an issue for the main core of this team. Sometimes, if you have both of your Toxic Spikes up from Toxapex, you might not even want to Defog the rocks away since your T-Spikes are more valuable. In those cases, Pelipper is still valuable as a rain setter that not only helps Whiscash as previously mentioned, but also boosts the power of Scald for everything else. Pelipper is also the only ground resist on the team (technically this is immunity, but since nothing else resists ground on this team, I thought it more fitting to say resist), so it can switch in to help Toxapex if it is being threatened by an Earthquake. There isn't much else to say about this set. Scald can be scary for a lot of opponents under rain, U-turn lets you slow pivot into something else, and Roost is just reliable recovery that lets Pelipper takes some hits.

Lanturn @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heal Bell
- Volt Switch
- Toxic
- Scald
Lanturn is a monster in the Mono-Electric matchup. It takes very little damage from Tapu Koko's Grass Knot, and Lanturn is able to Toxic it in return, then Volt Switch out into something and chip away further at Tapu Koko. Lanturn's primary purpose is to spread Toxic in case Toxapex is unable to set T-Spikes, but it can also remove status with Heal Bell. For example, if Whiscash used Rest after Pelipper was KO'd, then Lanturn would be able to wake it up and allow it to trap other things. Scald can fish for burns and also deal nice damage against things that are weak to water, and Volt Switch is a good electric stab that also pivots out into other things that can take hits from anything that the opponent switches in.

A Brief Intermission Before Exploring the "Degenerator" Core
This is my first RMT post, and in the guidelines for posting, I read that I should put down a reason for choosing that Pokemon. Well, for the next three Pokemon, I only chose them because of their synergy together, and I don't know how to express that other than to group all three of them together. So before I continue, I will state here the purpose of the Degenerator core. The following three Pokemon are great in conjunction because of how you can switch between them to recover HP without using any of your move's PP, and also because of how you can PP stall opponents that cannot set up. The best example of this is Mega-Venusaur, against whom I switch between Toxapex and Slowking while siphoning away Leech Seed and Giga Drain PP. Since Giga Drain and Leech Seed each individually deal less than 33% damage, Regenerator switching more than compensates for the health lost, and the Mega-Venusaur just sits there uselessly while it loses its recovery PP. Then, I am able to chip away at it with Scald and burn damage and there's no way for the Venusaur to recover HP (unless it runs Synthesis, but that runs out quickly, too). I will elaborate more on each Pokemon below, but this is the overall reason why I run this core.​

Toxapex @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Recover
- Haze
Now we can get into the good stuff. Toxapex marks the beginning of the Degenerator core. It has Toxic Spikes which can severely hamper an opponent's team by causing residual, increasing damage. Scald doesn't deal much damage, but it lets you fish for a burn against certain threats, and that burn is sometimes way more valuable than Toxic damage. Recover lets you stall opponents out, especially if they are on a timer with Toxic. Finally, Haze covers the great weakness of this team that is setting up by removing all boosts on opponents. Without this, the entire team gets swept by things such as Volcarona. The EV spread is optimized to take physical hits as best as possible, since there's little reason to worry about the special side (read the Slowking section for more info).

Slowbro-Mega @ Slowbronite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Calm Mind
- Fire Blast
Mega Slowbro is meant purely to take physical hits and to be able to hit back hard. It is important on this team because it gets 3HKO'd by LO Kyurem-B Fusion Bolt and by Banded Dragonite Outrage as well as other similar physical threats, whereas the rest of the team gets at best 2HKO'd by these types of threats.

252 Atk Life Orb Teravolt Kyurem-Black Fusion Bolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro-Mega: 164-195 (41.6 - 49.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragonite Outrage vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro-Mega: 154-183 (39 - 46.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Diggersby Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro-Mega: 153-180 (38.8 - 45.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO​

Furthermore, after a single Calm Mind, it is in a similar situation where it can take most special hits and set up even more Calm Minds and recover more health until Slowbro is capable of sweeping on its own. Scald can fish for burns against the aforementioned Physical threats after recovering a bit of health, and Fire Blast hits Ferrothorn hard enough to OHKO after a couple Calm Minds. Slowbro can be used even before Mega Evolution as a physical wall for weaker physical threats and switch in and out with the rest of Degenerator. Mega Slowbro is both a potent offensive threat against certain teams as well as your best physically defensive option, making it great for this team.

Slowking @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Power Gem
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
With Assault Vest, Slowking takes almost any specially based attack barring Electric Terrain boosted electric moves, which Lanturn covers anyway. If you read my little annotation in the Toxapex section, this is why I have no special investments in that mon. Slowking covers those attacks very well already. Here's a couple calcs in case you aren't convinced yet.

252 SpA Latios Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Slowking: 96-114 (24.3 - 28.9%) -- 99.3% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Slowking: 151-179 (38.3 - 45.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 SpA Tapu Koko Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Slowking in Electric Terrain: 162-192 (41.1 - 48.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Slowking: 103-122 (26.1 - 30.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO

The only issue with this set is that it has no recovery options except to switch, so you would typically want your opponent to have Toxic on them when you try to wall them out with this mon. However, if you are able to get an attack off, the four attacks that Slowking has are more than enough coverage to deal damage to the threats that this team needs to deal with. Scald is just a solid stab move to have, not much else to say there. Power Gem can be useful against Charizard-Y, but this move can also be replaced with Earthquake for more damage onto Tapu Koko since you can stall out Solar Beam by switching between Toxapex and Slowking. Fire Blast is strong against Ferrothorn, which would otherwise wall out the entire team, and it also hits other steel types for a lot. Ice Beam hits a lot of flying types for enough damage to force a reaction of some sort, if not outright OHKOing stuff like Landorus. Slowking pairs well with Toxapex because these two are able to switch in and out a lot together to PP stall certain opponents, and otherwise Slowking just eats special hits that the rest of the team cannot otherwise take.

And yeah, that's that! Thanks for looking at this team despite the long post, and I would appreciate feedback. I'll write a little more below about my thoughts on the state of the game and making unorthodox, fun sets, but if you're not interested, or you're burned out of reading, that's it! Thanks for taking the time out of your day to check this out, let me know what you think about it, and feel free to take this team and use it. It's a great laddering team, especially if you enjoy stall.

A Quick Meditation on the State of the Meta
This may not fully apply to the Monotype tier, but I've heard a lot of players in OU complain about how "stale the meta is," and I haven't been hanging around the Monotype chat room enough to know if they feel the same way, but I think that across all tiers, the root cause of this feeling is the lack of experimentation on ladder. Every time I log onto Showdown and begin to ladder, I can tell from a quick glance at the other team what I can expect. And I get it, to a certain extent. There are some sets that work better than others, and those become meta because everyone begins to use those sets. The standard mono-water teams, for example, are standard because all of the pieces have been proven to work. And people who want a high ladder ranking or people who want to improve their understanding of the game will gravitate towards these teams and sets, and I'm not faulting anyone for that. But when everyone sticks to the same sets and reuses them over and over, the game might get boring for them. The game becomes too linear and predictable, and combined with the salt that comes naturally with losing, Pokemon might stop being fun to play. I definitely felt this recently, and I was pretty close to just quitting this game and moving on to something else. In came Crawdaunt mono-water offense to save the day. I gained a sense of accomplishment when I brought this unorthodox Crawdaunt + Eject Button Politoed rain team up to 1600 on the ladder (about top 100 for those who aren't familiar with the Monotype ladder). Some other teams that I've built are stall mono-electric (peak 1580), Malamar Z-Trick Room mono-psychic (this one was pretty bad, but still fun to play), this Whiscash team (peak 1766), a really weird monofire team with AV Heatran, suicide lead Infernape, and Rest + Clear Smog Torkoal, and currently, a Chimecho mono-psychic team that brought me just above 1700 and might take me even further. This is not only a lot of fun to play, I'm unearthing new sets that actually work quite well even though they're not meta or were relegated to lower viability rankings. I don't even think Chimecho is on the mono-psychic viability rankings, and already that thing is stealing some kills. In the end, my point is that the meta is what you make it, and by coming up with new, heat sets, not only can you make the game fun again, but you can also potentially find something that everyone else missed. I mean, nobody is running Whiscash but it was a crucial part in getting me to top 10 on the ladder. So I guess to end this segment, just keep making "heat" sets and keep making Pokemon fun. Because at the end of the day, this is just a game, and if we lose sight of what makes this game fun, then what's even the point?

If you made it this far, thanks for reading this cringe section, and I wish you all the best. Thanks for looking at this post!​

 

[Eien]

Hey, I'm really impressed with how far you went with this team! Congratulations on your peak. The triple "Degenerator" core as you call it is really cool; I love off the wall stall builds. The team actually looks incredibly solid, but I do still have a few key threats I think your team is incredibly weak against, so I got two main changes you could try out.

Instead of using Whiscash, why not try Quagsire? If you want to keep the trapping strategy, Quagsire can actually trap even better than Whiscash, since it gets Infestation, which no non-Ghost-type Pokemon is immune to, whereas Whirlpool is ineffective against Pokemon like Mantine. Not only that, but it even has Recover, which lets you actually wall Pokemon compared to Rest, which requires either Drizzle to be on or Heal Bell support. The real reason Quagsire is much better for your team is because you're pretty weak to a lot of setup sweepers. You have most wallbreakers covered with your "Degenerator" core, but I'm really worried about Pokemon like Belly Drum Azumarill that you actually cannot beat, since it looks like if you don't luckily hit the 30% to Scald burn it, it sets up on everything other than Toxapex and sweeps for free. I would suggest not running Earthquake (like you do right now) and running Haze instead. It may seem weird to use Haze on an Unaware Pokemon, but I think it's very important to let you take on two big threats: Porygon-Z and Mega Latias. With Haze, you can block them both entirely, compared to right now where you can definitely lose to them if you don't play immaculately. Of course, Quagsire in general also covers massive threats like Substitute + Calm Mind Jirachi, Stocked Sparksurfer Alolan Raichu, Mega Pinsir, Mega Gallade, Dragon Dance Dragonite, and more. That's a lot of setup sweepers you really can't touch. This option keeps your team very similar to what you had with Whiscash, since it still walls Zeraora and acts as a sturdy physical wall that can trap.

Without Whiscash, Pelipper is much less valuable, since you don't need its Drizzle to support Hydration. There are a few more key threats I noticed that your team struggles with: Mega Diancie, which 2HKOes Toxapex with Psychic, Mega Slowbro with Moonblast, and Slowking with Diamond Storm. Calm Mind Latios sets, especially those with Dragonium Z, seem unstoppable as well because you have no way to Toxic poison them. That's where I think Empoleon can come in. Empoleon can stop both of them and even covers Defog and Stealth Rock at the same time, something you needed because you lack Stealth Rock currently. While you might be a bit suspicious of replacing your Ground immunity for a third, Pokemon weak to Ground, you're actually pretty safe against Ground-types, as the Slowking and Mega Slowbro core pretty much walls the entire type. Anything that could get past those two can take out any immune Pokemon anyway.

I hope this helps, and I hope your team will get even higher on the ladder if you keep using it! At first, it looks kind of gimmicky, but when I was thinking about the threats to Water, your core actually took care of most of the usual Pokemon that most teams lose to. I really enjoyed reading this. Very nice team!

importable

Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Infestation
- Recover
- Toxic
- Haze

Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Defog
- Stealth Rock

 

[Vin Flint]

Hey, I'm really impressed with how far you went with this team! Congratulations on your peak. The triple "Degenerator" core as you call it is really cool; I love off the wall stall builds. The team actually looks incredibly solid, but I do still have a few key threats I think your team is incredibly weak against, so I got two main changes you could try out.

Instead of using Whiscash, why not try Quagsire? If you want to keep the trapping strategy, Quagsire can actually trap even better than Whiscash, since it gets Infestation, which no non-Ghost-type Pokemon is immune to, whereas Whirlpool is ineffective against Pokemon like Mantine. Not only that, but it even has Recover, which lets you actually wall Pokemon compared to Rest, which requires either Drizzle to be on or Heal Bell support. The real reason Quagsire is much better for your team is because you're pretty weak to a lot of setup sweepers. You have most wallbreakers covered with your "Degenerator" core, but I'm really worried about Pokemon like Belly Drum Azumarill that you actually cannot beat, since it looks like if you don't luckily hit the 30% to Scald burn it, it sets up on everything other than Toxapex and sweeps for free. I would suggest not running Earthquake (like you do right now) and running Haze instead. It may seem weird to use Haze on an Unaware Pokemon, but I think it's very important to let you take on two big threats: Porygon-Z and Mega Latias. With Haze, you can block them both entirely, compared to right now where you can definitely lose to them if you don't play immaculately. Of course, Quagsire in general also covers massive threats like Substitute + Calm Mind Jirachi, Stocked Sparksurfer Alolan Raichu, Mega Pinsir, Mega Gallade, Dragon Dance Dragonite, and more. That's a lot of setup sweepers you really can't touch. This option keeps your team very similar to what you had with Whiscash, since it still walls Zeraora and acts as a sturdy physical wall that can trap.

Without Whiscash, Pelipper is much less valuable, since you don't need its Drizzle to support Hydration. There are a few more key threats I noticed that your team struggles with: Mega Diancie, which 2HKOes Toxapex with Psychic, Mega Slowbro with Moonblast, and Slowking with Diamond Storm. Calm Mind Latios sets, especially those with Dragonium Z, seem unstoppable as well because you have no way to Toxic poison them. That's where I think Empoleon can come in. Empoleon can stop both of them and even covers Defog and Stealth Rock at the same time, something you needed because you lack Stealth Rock currently. While you might be a bit suspicious of replacing your Ground immunity for a third, Pokemon weak to Ground, you're actually pretty safe against Ground-types, as the Slowking and Mega Slowbro core pretty much walls the entire type. Anything that could get past those two can take out any immune Pokemon anyway.

I hope this helps, and I hope your team will get even higher on the ladder if you keep using it! At first, it looks kind of gimmicky, but when I was thinking about the threats to Water, your core actually took care of most of the usual Pokemon that most teams lose to. I really enjoyed reading this. Very nice team!

importable

Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Infestation
- Recover
- Toxic
- Haze

Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Defog
- Stealth Rock

Thanks, that's actually a great idea. I'll definitely make that version of this team and test it out. I definitely noticed that my team lost to a lot of set up sweepers and I usually defaulted to Mega Slowbro for +1 Dragonite or Lanturn to click Toxic on setup Latios/Latias. Toxapex could sometimes deal with some setup sweepers, but Quagsire completely walls a lot of the threats that I have lost to in the past. The only downside might be that Quagsire is more susceptible to Toxic, but with the additions of Empoleon and the already existing Toxapex and Lanturn, I can probably figure that out. I was a little on the fence with Empoleon because of a lack of reliable recovery, but when I think back on a lot of my battles, Pelipper just died after removing rocks once and I had to play with hazards up anyway, so if I can at least put up hazards of my own that could be nice. Great additions IMO, and I'm looking forward to testing them out!