Stall Teams in UU

[Sage]

Stall is quite viable in UU I have found since I have started fiddling around in the tier. One of the biggest threats to any stall team is clerics (and magic bounce). I would like to discuss good checks and counters to the clerics in this tier.

A few things to consider:

1. Most threats to stall in UU are weak to Fighting (Blissy, Umbreon, Mega Absol, Steel types).
2. Florges is weak to Poison and Steel.
3. Hitting physically is much better than hitting specially.
4. Knock Off and Pursuit are handy tools to have.

One answer I came up with is Toxicroak. Both of his STABs hit all of the above threats super effectively plus he gets Knock Off AND Pursuit. Poison Touch also helps wallbreak and deters Wish to an extent because they will want to Heal Bell off the poison. Dry Skin I'm sure could potentially help in some way as it is his best ability, but none of the above threats use water attacks so I feel that extra boost to his damage and synergy with stall is better.

Something along the lines of...

Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Ability: Poison Touch
252 Atk/252 Spe/4 HP
Adamant Nature

Poison Jab
Drain Punch
Knock Off
Pursuit

Any other ideas?

How are Blissey and Umbreon threats to stall, it can' the to hard to stall they're cleric moves, they only have 8 pp, and having a Toxicroak means you're running semi stall, not to mention the above set is not viable. Use Mega Aero if you want a good mon on Semistall, he has access to Pursuit (which hits harder) and can check threats to stall like NP Mixnape, CM Chandelure, Victini, etc. Florges also is not common in stall, since Blissey is in the tier. It's a balance only mon really. I also don't know about your bias towards physical attackers, you need both to break stall.

 

[teal6]

Pursuit Honchkrow is incredible as a Blissey counter, and a tough issue for stall teams. I've been on both sides of this - trying to play and beat stall teams (I have more of an issue with them in UU than any other team, it seems).

Because of Pursuit Honchkrow Blissey can't reliably switch in, and you end up in a prediction war. The first pursuit one a switch out won't come anywhere near OHKOing Blissey, usually doing around 50%, but once it is revealed the mind games really begin. If you don't switch out you can take a Pursuit and Softboil it away, but if the Honchkrow goes for BB you are going to take a massive amount of damage. The best situation here is likely to try and stall out the recoil on Honch by having it take BB damage and Life Orb, it'll wear itself down quickly enough IMO.

I do with Wish/Protect Blissey is the better option in UU to be honest - it may remove a potential SR from Blissey's set but there are plenty of other stall pokemon that can use SR easily and effectively so that isn't much of a problem. With Wish/Protect you can outlast Honch relatively easily, especially if you wish on a Pursuit turn, the LO damage starts to add up, and by abusing protect you can stay alive while it whittles itself down.

Also, passing big Wishes is never a bad thing for a stall team.

 

[Xyldaz]

A great mon to use on stall is probably Hydreigon. It's really uncommon to find it in this kind of playstyles but it does it work incredibly well, which is stopping setup sweepers and stallbreakers with taunt. It checks so much threats to stall like Sub CM Chandelure, CM Suicune, Krookodile, M-Houndoom, Mew, Jirachi, some Mixed Victini, check Honchkrow, some Nidos and even SD Haxorus. It has acces to reliable recovery and great STABs. Tspikes also allows him to stall pokes such as Blissey.

The moveset i'd recommend using would be this one :

Hydreigon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 128 SpD / 132 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Roost
- Taunt
- Toxic/Dragon Pulse

The EV's let's you outspeed 136 speed Haxorus by one point. Toxic is for luring in Aromatisse, Granbull or Florges and cripple them while Dragon Pulse is to you check Haxorus after SR and Honchkrow after 2 rounds of SR. (0 SpA Hydreigon Dragon Pulse vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Honchkrow: 186-219 (54.5 - 64.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-uu-16174 This is a replay showing how Hydreigon puts in work against stall.

 

[DiscoDucky]

Hazards have become less critical to Stall's composure with the rise of Defog. Most run Rocks and Toxic Spikes if they have like Nidoqueen or Forretress. Also the only pokemon who commonly run phasing moves in UU right now are Swampert, Hippowdon, and Goodra. Only Hippo really fits in a stall team, the others more suited to balance.

and occasionally granbull

 

[Sage]

and occasionally granbull

Does Granbull phase? I didn't know it got roar, derp. Well on stall I'd run RestTalk with Play Rough and Heal Bell/ EQ so it doesn't really matter.

 

[Wobblebuns]

So the big shift is near and there would be interesting departures and arrivals in the tier. Heracross and Mew leaving is a good thing for the most part; I mean, those are less threats to deal with after all. However, losing Slowbro is just as impactful -though this time it's on the negative side- to stall as it just lost one of its greatest assets. I've always considered it a significant part of the playstyle as it offer so much useful support. Being an extremely durable physical wall is one, what's more is that it also provides a form of "gradual" offense for stall making it a great win condition during stalemate scenarios. A specific looming threat I see is CroCune; it'll be trickier to handle as it can set up rather easily because of the passive nature of stall teams. Clear Smog Amoonguss would've been a great answer to it, but I believe it's getting the boot to...?

Now for drops, I think there's Smeargle, Togekiss, and Vaporeon. I won't go to detail about them but these are my initial thoughts.

Smeargle
It can set up relatively easy against stall. Hazard-stacking set is annoying. Boost-passer set is threatening. Save us Sableye!

Togekiss
It can be an asset with its typing and variety of support options, but I see it more as a foe because of the threat its NP set imposes. Bless us with your grace, M-Aerodactyl.

Vaporeon
Certainly a welcomed addition to stall. It's a good mixed wall with clerical abilities which is much appreciated. It has a sizeable Special Attack stat and more balanced defenses to distinguish itself to Alomomola.
I miss Slowbro.

It'd probably better to discuss these things once the changes are implemented but what do you guys think so far?

 

[DiscoDucky]

tbh Togekiss is a great addition to semi-stall and allows stall teams to effectively deal with faster offensive teams via paraflinch (kinda unorthodox for stall but w/e). But yeah wobbs point about the NP set is pretty legit, but you can likewise use NP Togekiss as a strong wincon for a stall team. NP/Air Slash/Roost/Defog provides the team with a wincon, dark/fighting/hydreigon counter, and utility all in one.

It's definitely going to rustle stall greatly.

 

[GoofiousMaximus]

Kiss is versatile tbh it can either play the cleric or the paraflincher sometimes even on the same set with

Airslash
twave
healbell
roost(or wish of your team lacks recovery and needs wish support)

He doesnt have aa very useful fairy STAB even jirachi has moonblast.... but its hella bulky and can get the job done vs a number of things either physically or special due to its great new fairy typing only being weak to Ice/Elec/Rock/steel and poison, all of which are EASILY covered by a steel type partner

 

[Sage]

Kiss is versatile tbh it can either play the cleric or the paraflincher sometimes even on the same set with

Airslash
twave
healbell
roost(or wish of your team lacks recovery and needs wish support)

He doesnt have aa very useful fairy STAB even jirachi has moonblast.... but its hella bulky and can get the job done vs a number of things either physically or special due to its great new fairy typing only being weak to Ice/Elec/Rock/steel and poison, all of which are EASILY covered by a steel type partner

Togekiss got banned, sorry fren :P

 

[GoofiousMaximus]

LOL haven't played UU in a while my bad.

 

[Gemdiet]

I like to use Sableye as a staller in UU.
This is my current moveset:

Sableye @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Will-O-Wisp/Toxic
- Shadow sneak/Foul play
- Recover
- Protect
This is just for fun though, and it could be much better. I'm just using it on Showdown, so fun to make people ragequit with Recover and protect.