Congratulations on your win,
false. I'm not content with your depiction of me, though :) It's certainly no concern of your own: it's your post and your own experience, and I won't forget you yourself gave me a platform to share my insights as a player around a year ago. Nonetheless, I'd like to be viewed as more than an objective to be overcome, a prop in a tournament run narrative, or a collection of stall teams waiting to be counterteamed. What better way than to accomplish this by sharing my own OST experience? I know I didn't make it far, but I believe you don't need an occasion to talk about the game. This post will most certainly contain its share of creative and underrated sets, but I hope you readers and OU forum moderators will forgive me for venturing outside the thread's immediate topic. And if not, I don't care because I have mods in this forum anyway.
Over the course of several team tournaments, I'd accumulated a ton of teams that I never actually ended up debuting because they didn't feel perfect enough to me. My goal this OST was to stop obsessing over building perfect teams and just have fun playing. This happily coincided with the optimal approach for building stall: Every time I use stall, I have to play a game of cat and mouse where I try and anticipate which anti-stall measure someone's going to bring against me and build deliberately against that. In doing this, it's necessary to scrape the bottom of the barrel because people are preparing for standard. It's not just for fun; it's actually strategic. Although eliminated, I'm happy with my performance because nobody managed to successfully counterstyle me; I accurately called out what measures people would bring against me and took precautions accordingly. My three game losses I attribute mainly to other factors.
https://pokepast.es/42ae86b2eed26140
The biggest factor about this team is probably not what's on it, but what's not on it: No Chansey. I fully believe that Chansey-less stall is viable and worthy of further investigation. Granted, this is the exception, not the rule: you need to have Greninja, Alakazam-Mega, Volcarona, Charizard-Y, and Magearna covered at a minimum, and you'd probably still want to consider whether or not you can cover more niche stuff like Z-Celebrate Victini as well. And that's just the Pokemon-centric counter view; can you handle status? Do you need Wish or Stealth Rock? Do you want something that
can facetank an SD Bulu and Toxic it? Not something I'd go out and try to deliberately build, but I find myself not auto-filling a slot with Chansey more and more often.
elodin's dog (Delphox) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magician
EVs: 248 HP / 76 Def / 184 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Mystical Fire
- Low Kick
Everyone likes to talk about Victini's cool typing, but it generally lacks the recovery and utility necessary to earn a place on a stall team. Enter Delphox, who, in comparison, has too much utility to fit in four moveslots. Its typing and Mystical Fire make it perfect for checking CM Lele, whom I anticipated because it gave me trouble in my last OST round, as well as Magearna, Clefable, and Reuniclus. Low Kick prevents it from being a sitting duck against Tyranitar and Heatran, and I 100% expected Tyranitar.
Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Clear Smog
- Toxic
- Recover
It was no accident that false's Manaphy was completely useless against my team. There are 8 Pokemon that I view as the canonical set of stallbreakers: Manaphy, Blacephalon, Mega Medicham, Gyarados, Mega Heracross, Mega Mawile, Charizard-X, and Hoopa-Unbound. Coming into this game, I was acutely aware of the fact that I consistently covered only the last 6, so it was no surprise to see the other two in the same series. Most people don't consider Gastrodon on stall because of its redundancy with Chansey and Quagsire; covering Manaphy might be its only exclusive niche. Having said that, I think it has a lot of potential, but you'll probably have to pull a Finchinator and *gasp* drop your Chansey.
Aggron @ Aggronite
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Head Smash
I've long considered Head Smash Aggron to cheese Mega Sableye, but unfortunately never got a chance to use it before Sjneider whipped it out in SPL. So once again, this is another thing I'm stealing from UU. Other cool things: Mega unSTAB Head Smash kills Hoopa, who takes no damage from Heavy Slam due to its weight, and Zapdos (needs SR if Mega).
https://pokepast.es/0ae8d5fd2846a9e5
So, after that spiel about not needing Chansey, let's go the opposite route and put two Chanseys on one team. This team is the first level removed from standard stall; it covers all of the aforementioned stallbreakers except for Manaphy, covers stat boosters that might take advantage of my tendency to drop Unaware, and better enables me to play Chansey in an aggressive way while still retaining long-term insurance against special sweepers. This team went 3-0, but I knew I was dropping it after Round 4, because it was weak to CBTar, which I anticipated people bringing vs. me.
barkanine (Arcanine) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Protect
- Flamethrower
- Morning Sun
There's not much to say about Arcanine because its value comes almost exclusively from its ability to counter Mawile, with Kartana and Bulu coming as a bonus. Don't let this be understated, though; Mawile is so common and its counters so sparse that any new avenue for stall checks to Mawile is one worth exploring.
Altaria @ Altarianite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Body Slam
- Earthquake
- Roost
This is what I want to talk about. Arcanine frees up a Mega slot that I usually use for Aggron. Its typing allows it to check three of the canonical stallbreakers in Heracross, Zard-X, and Gyarados. Secondary check to Bulu and Greninja. Has a ton of utility options, most importantly, Defog. Hoopa resist. I didn't end up Mega evolving it in any of my games, funnily enough, so it could just tank status.
hija de blis (Chansey) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Seismic Toss
- Counter
- Soft-Boiled
Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Def / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Toxic
- Confide
- Seismic Toss
- Soft-Boiled
Having both of these dumbasses on one team allows me to actually use all of the utility options I want to use between them. Well, that's not even true because I had to drop Stealth Rock. Chansey usually wants Wish/Toxic/Stealth Rock/Heal Bell/Confide. I opted for Counter > Stealth Rock for the cheese factor; having Blissey in the back meant I didn't care about Chansey taking random 50+% to get a kill and relieve some pressure
from a Kart/Mawile/Tar. Now that the tech is known, I'd probably go Stealth Rock on this team.
https://pokepast.es/e9e9bbe32ae54c9f
I only used this team in Round 1. I think it has some glaring weaknesses, but it wins consistently in tests for whatever reason, so even though I really don't like it, it is what defined my run going forward.
pig breach (Piloswine) @ Eviolite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 208 HP / 52 Atk / 248 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Icicle Spear
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
A cool Pokemon that sadly isn't very useful anymore; I built around it because it pretty much hard counters every Zygarde set, but also has additional utility against Tapu Koko and certain Magearna sets.
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Def / 52 SpD / 72 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic Spikes
- Mirror Coat
- Rapid Spin
When I was building this team, Clefable was common enough that I wanted to have a spinner to ensure that I didn't have to trade rocks. Although this team was built around Piloswine, I think Tentacruel actually has the most potential; spinning, Toxic Spikes, and Toxic Spikes absorption are all very valuable commodities. Mirror Coat is a nice cheese option for Heatran, and it worked in my games, but it's too easy to play around once you know what's coming.
I hope these teams and reflections will inspire others to try and inundate the metagame with their own stupid stall teams, because I feel like the development of the stall metagame has stagnated as of recent when the pool for building has not run dry quite just yet. Thanks for reading, and see you all in Snake. :D