Ultimate (st)All-Stars
a RMT by BinarySolo
This is my first RMT and I’ve written it about one of my most successful teams yet, however I still don’t have much of a decent rating so please gimme a hand!
Team Building Process
The last team I made was hyper-offense and worked pretty well, but it wasn’t outstanding. So I decided to see if stall was the play-style for me by making my first stall team. Because most stall teams are just Hippowdon/Blissey/Rotom-A/Skarmory/filler/filler, I also wanted to make something a little bit creative yet not gimmicky. The bread and butter of most stall teams are Spikes, so naturally I wanted a Pokemon who could set them up easily and at the earliest opportunity. Froslass fit the bill as it has high base speed, and is usable in the lead position, meaning I could give it a Focus Sash and almost always lay down 2 layers of spikes, sometimes more.
Next I wanted Toxic Spikes, and let me tell you there aren’t too many Toxic Spikers out there! In a previous team I had used Tentacruel but found that it was basically useless (or at least the set I was running was) so I didn’t want to use that. Roserade was a good choice, however I found it wasn’t as useful outside of the lead position. I didn’t want to use Forretress because it’s defences and utility moves were all it had going for it; it was basically set up bait for most things unless it Exploded on them (which I didn’t want to do, what with the team being about stalling, not blowing stuff up). And so I came to Drapion, who had decent Defence and HP, with the typing to take many common Special Attacking types easily. Drapion also had pretty good synergy with Froslass, meaning that when a Scarfgar or whatever came in to KO it I could switch to Drapion easily and set up Toxic Spikes. Drapion could also pHaze with Whirlwind, which let me get the most out of my entry hazards. All in all Drapion was the perfect Pokemon for my team to set up Toxic Spikes.
The last entry hazard I wanted was Stealth Rock, which could strip large amounts of HP of otherwise dangerous sweepers like Gyarados and Salamence. I also needed a Pokemon to pHaze dangerous Pokemon that were setting up, such as Swords Dance Scizor. Hippowdon seemed like an excellent choice because of its bulkiness and access to the aforementioned moves. Its ability also helped strip even more HP off the opposition, while I could cancel the effect of Sandstorm on my own Pokemon using Leftovers.
With all those hazards, I needed a Pokemon to take advantage of them. Enter Suicune, the star of the team! The Crocune set turned out to be extremely hard to take down once it set up, so naturally I chose that. It also had good synergy with the rest of the team, with Drapion taking Grass hits and Hippowdon taking Electric attacks. Toxic Spikes also helped it sweep and took care of Vaporeon, who would otherwise wall me.
At this point I really needed a Spin Blocker, so who better to choose than Rotom-A? It has good synergy with the rest of the team (particularly Suicune) and with Charge Beam it could break Pokemon who could otherwise wall it. It also provided a much-vaunted Fighting immunity, since Froslass probably wasn’t sticking around for long. In the end I chose Rotom-C, mainly because it could play mind games with Swampert and hopefully force them out even if I didn’t run Leaf Storm.
With one Pokemon left to choose, I wanted something that held the team together and covered things that the team would otherwise have trouble with. With its multitude of resistances and high Special Attack, Heatran could take hits and deal heavy damage back in return. It also has a useful immunity to Fire, a type which otherwise burns through my team with not much trouble. Heatran also had sets which could contribute to the stalling nature of the team.
The last thing to do was test the team, and it worked pretty well! For a while I tried different Pokemon to set up Spikes, but found that Froslass was the most reliable despite its fragility.
With that, I had team Ultimate (st)All-Stars:
In-depth analysis
Froslass (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Cloak
EVs: 252 HP/252 Spd/4 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Taunt
- Spikes
- Ice Beam
- Destiny Bond
Froslass is my team’s lead. The idea is obviously to get several layers of spikes up or (quite often) die trying. Taunt stops slower leads from setting up Stealth Rock and other hazards, plus it stops Ninjask straight in its tracks. Ice Beam is a solid attack and it’s particularly handy against Aerodactyl leads as they’re KO’d before they do any damage, keeping the Sash intact. Spikes are for punishing switches (which my team causes a lot of) and just racking up damage so my sweepers can sweep. Destiny Bond works with Taunt to ensure the opponent attacks and dies with Froslass or has to switch but suicide leads generally aren’t a good idea for a stall team so I might change that for something more productive. EVs are very simple, max Speed so that I can outspeed as many things as possible and max HP for survivability, with the leftover EVs going into Sp. Attack. I’m considering running some more Sp. Attack EVs so I can 2HKO Zapdos with Ice Beam, but I don’t see Zapdos often anyway.
Drapion (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252 HP/46 Def/212 Spd
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Taunt
- Crunch
- Earthquake
Drapion is a key member of my team, laying down the valuable Toxic Spikes that help me sweep with Suicune. It has pretty decent defences so if it needs to switch back in to lay down another layer of T-spikes then it’s no trouble, providing it doesn’t switch into a Ground attack. Taunt stops sweepers trying to set up on Drapion and STAB Crunch makes dealing with Latias a bit easier, although it never OHKOs. Earthquake hits any grounded Poison-types trying to absorb my T-spikes. The EVs are straight from the Smogon analysis. Battle Armour stops Critical Hits, which is occasionally helpful when switching in as an untimely crit could ruin my strategy.
Hippowdon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP/168 Def/88 SDef
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Roar
- Earthquake
Hippowdon is a sturdy physical wall. To be honest it isn’t that important to the team as many Pokemon can set up Stealth Rock. Hippowdon is useful for taking hits and pHazing threats but not much else besides that. Earthquake is the mandatory attacking option in case I’m Taunted. I’m thinking of replacing Hippow with Swampert as they both do similar things but Swampert could be helpful in taking down Latias. Ideas?
Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Surf
- Sleep Talk
- Rest
- Calm Mind
The main sweeper, Suicune can come in on lots of attacks with its decent amount of resists and great defences. Once it’s in safely, standard procedure: Calm Mind, Rest off any damage I receive during set up, and sweep with Surf. Not much can stand in the way of a boosted Surf, and even 4x resists can be overcome with several Calm Minds. T-spikes support from Drapion only makes sweeping with Suicune easier. EVs aren’t for taking hits for anything in particular, max HP and Defence for physical bulkiness with leftovers in Sp. Defence. Obviously heavy investment in Sp. Defence isn’t necessary because after even 1 Calm Mind, Suicune’s Sp. Defence stat surpasses it’s Defence. Nature is again for physical bulkiness while not lowering any important stat. Has good synergy with Rotom.
Rotom-c @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 64 HP/212 Spd/232 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Substitute
- Charge Beam
Rotom-A is the secondary sweeper and has good synergy with Suicune. Rotom resists attacks that are super-effective against Suicune, and Suicune is bulky enough to take most attacks aimed at Rotom. Substitute stops opposing Pokemon from statusing Rotom and is handy against Blissey, especially Seismic Toss variants. Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball form a dual-STAB offense which, while lacking coverage, does the job well. Charge Beam is of course for boosting Rotom’s Special Attack. The reason I have both Thunderbolt and Charge Beam in the same set is because Charge Beam just isn’t powerful enough to do considerable damage, even with several boosts. Timid outspeeds neutral-natured Lucario, so with some entry hazard damage I can KO it before it does any serious damage. Has excellent synergy with Drapion, Heatran and Suicune.
Heatran (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 244 HP/220 Spd/32 SAtk/12 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Protect
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
Heatran brings a multitude of resistances to the team and holds the team together. Protect scouts what the opponent is planning to do with a Choice user (e.g. if they Earthquake or use a different move to hit the predicted switch-in) and racks up more Poison damage while recovering HP with Leftovers. Substitute works to the same effect as Protect but of course only works against slower Pokemon or those that can’t hurt Heatran. Substitute eases prediction (e.g. if I’m against, say, Scizor then I could Substitute instead or risking hitting their Fire resist) and protects from status. Lava Plume and Earth Power form a good attacking combination, resisted by only a few Pokemon. The Nature and EVs are from the TormenTran analysis because this was originally a TormenTran but the single attack thing always bit me in the arse so I ditched Torment for Earth Power. I kept the EVs as they make Heatran quite bulky. Lava Plume also aids me in having a decent chance to burn incoming physical attackers such as Gyarados and Salamence, thus making them easier to deal with.
Pokemon I have a bit of trouble with
Pokemon I have a lot of trouble with
A final glance...
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That’s all! Thanks for reading and please give my team a rate :)
Images from Arkeis.com and most sprites from PokemonElite2000.com. Rotom-C sprites from Bulbapedia.Bulbagarden.net and the type images by "Frozen in Time" of the PokemonElite2000 Forums. Thanks!
