Let's talk about stall

[Oglemi]

Ever since I posted Team Zoidberg Stall, stall teams in general have gotten a huge boost in popularity, and have been further refined, with players like SilentVerse and DittoCrow using them to great effect and dominating the top of the ladder.

So what's with the popularity of stall? Well, it could be that, as DittoCrow puts it, their current stall team is unbreakable. And with SV's current win of the first mini-tourney shows, it might actually be true. You can see SV's team in action with the replay shown in that thread.

So, what makes a good stall team you may ask? Well, SV's team is littered with entry hazards, and employs a very unique, yet highly effective spinblocker and cleric in Misdreavus to keep the hazards on the field. It also consists of possibly the best spinner in the tier, Cryogonal. Once the hazards are set, SV is free to phaze the opponent to death with Steelix and Slowking, or just continually switch between various members of the team. Another highlight of the team is that nearly every offensive threat is accounted for with the teammates.

So what's the point of this thread you may ask (besides praising SV and DC)? Well, let's make it our mission to find a way to break through stall, by possibly finding an underestimated threat or strategy not yet found in RU. Or maybe, fight stall with stall?

Where to start:

Possibly the most common way of breaking through stall is with the help of Taunt. The other common way is through wallbreaking. If SV and DC are to be believed however, there are no wallbreakers that can break through their stall.

List of Pokemon in RU with access to Taunt:
Aerodactyl
Aggron
Archeops
Bouffalant
Crawdaunt
Drapion
Druddigon
Electivire
Gallade
Jynx
Mandibuzz
Primeape
Qwilfish
Spiritomb
Steelix
Whimsicott

Post any sets or teams you think have a chance against stall, your experiences with and against stall, and anything else you want to talk about.

 

[spuds4ever]

In my experiences with and against stall, I can say it's very hard to pull off. There are so many threats to deal with and literally every defensive core is going to be weak to a couple of threats which you then patch up on while still having to squeeze some offense, hazards, and probably a spin-blocker too. It just feels like RU stall has too much to handle and too few tools to use against immensly powerful threats like CB Aggron and druddigon and specs typhlosion and moltres etc.

 

[Amire]

Well this set should at least on paper be able to singlehandy beat the Zoidberg stall team:

Mandibuzz (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Big Pecks
EVs: 252 HP / 136 SAtk / 120 Spd (speed is to outspeed cryogonal)

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Nasty Plot
- Taunt
- Roost
- Dark Pulse/Air slash

It may be weak, but it's a nightmare for stall teams.Yes, it seems pretty much useless against offensive teams, but should be really effective against stall teams not carrying dragon tail or something like Aggron or relicanth. It's definately worth a try and it is also a good check against Cofagrigus.

My personal experience with stall is that it's very hard to counter all the hard hitters in the tier while still having both stealth rock and spikes on the same team. Thats why I think stall is underwhelming in the tier as it is currently.

 

[alexwolf]

Expert Belt Modest Magmortar with Fire Blast, Thundebolt, Focus Blast and HP Grass is enough to destroy any stall team... Enough said!

 

[Molk]

Golbat (M) @ Eviolite
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 248 HP / 172 Def / 44 SDef / 44 spe
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Taunt
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Super Fang

This guy seems to do pretty well against stall, golbat has a fast taunt coming off of a base 90 speed that outruns all of the common stallmons bar cryogonal (and its kinda predictable they will try to switch him in and you can just rape him with BB) he taunts the opposing pokemon, and they just do pathetic damage to it as golbat super fangs and brave birds them to death, roosting when needed. Slowking psyshock doesnt do all that much to it, and if golbat is at full hp its only a 3hko, same with cryogonal ice beam. Regardless, something to take those moves could really help golbat out. outside of those guys, stall cant do much to golbat outside of a scald burn lol. Not bad! Super fang helps him get past steelix as well.

Mandibuzz can do the same thing as golbat except its slightly slower and lacks super fang.

Overall i think golbat does a pretty good job of breaking down stall teams.

 

[DittoCrow]

There are certainly many ways to break stall besides Taunt: no team is perfect. Yes, me and SilentVerse's team counters the majority of Pokemon in the tier, but definitely has weaknesses. I'll expand on this in another post, but the best way to counter stall is by using heavy offense. With heavy offense, you will mostly be "overloading" on one side of attacks, physical or special. I know that doesn't make sense so here's an example: a physically defensive core of Steelix + Poliwrath counters many of the physical attackers in the tier, but neither have reliable recovery. By using an offensive core of Choice Band Aggron and Choice Band Entei, you will "break" the defensive core. Aggron is sent out. The stall player predicts Aggron to Earthquake on his switch to Steelix, so he sends in Poliwrath, who takes 30.98 - 36.71% from Earthquake. Poliwrath then switches out to a teammate such as Cryogonal, to resist Earthquake. Switching out creates a hole in the core, because now Entei is able to break it. Flare Blitz does 77.96 - 92.65% to Steelix and 28.64 - 33.85% to Poliwrath; this means that Steelix is basically dead and Poliwrath is now 2HKOed by Flare Blitz (including the damage dealt by EQ and some hazard damage). This makes it extremely hard for the opposing team's dedicated physical/special walls to take repeated hits, resulting in the core being "broken". By wearing down these Pokemon, it allows a sweeper, such as Feraligatr, to come in and finish off the remains. Maybe that wasn't a good example, idk, but hopefully you get the point?? Forgive me if it sucks xD More comments to come though.