SS PU Stall (Peak #1 85.1 gxe)

[wuhoodude]

(Click for pokepaste and also importable down below)

So I started casually laddering on PU and wanted to experiment with sableye after being inspired by a cool sableye stall in NU. Using some experience from playing in higher tiers, I threw this team together. After several adjustments from the initial version, I was able to propel myself to rank #1.



Sableye @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Foul Play
- Will-O-Wisp
- Encore
- Recover

This team was inspired by a sableye team, so naturally it was the first pokemon I added. I opted to run max special defense to be able to consistently switch into mixed virizion's leaf storm and heal off the damage. I ran foul play as the limited answer against sub bulk up braviary for this team. Will-O-Wisp weakens physical attacks and wears down the fighting pokemon that aren't particularly damaged by foul play. Encore is useful for locking opposing pokemon into a move like toxicroak using nasty plot or shell smash omastar.



Pyukumuku @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spite
- Block
- Rest
- Recover

Next I added pyukumuku as a stop to setup pokemon that may get past sableye like ribombee and dazzling gleam mespirit. Pyukumuku also traps opposing bulky pokemon like vaporeon and aromatisse. I first ran soak toxic which trapped bulky pokemon but failed to beat bulk up rest scrafty and toxicroak. PP stall pyuku still allows it to trap the bulky bulky pokemon but also deal with most sweepers that can bypass toxic.



Talonflame @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Defog
- Toxic
- Roost

Talonflame provides the team with hazard removal and can threaten the fighting types mentioned before. With flame body, it can phish for burns against trevenant locked into a grass move. It also checks other grass types like tsareena and specs whimsicott, which could potentially break through the rest of the team if it tricks the next pokemon on the team. Toxic lets talonflame wear down rockers like palossand, regirock, and gigalith.



Audino @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
- Knock Off

The next pokemon is audino, which provides wish and heal bell support. Originally I had lickilicky since it is taunt proof and bulkier, but the team was really weak to specs alolan exeggutor. Audino is able to pivot into alolan eggy so that sableye can take the next hit. At first I wasn't sure about running boots on either audino or sableye because of the lack of passive recovery from leftovers, but boots is key to not take hazard damage so that they can pivot into threats. Audino is much better at this than lickilicky and can still provide wish and heal bell support. Knock off is useful for removing passive recovery from other bulky pokemon and specs from jolteon and whimsicott.



Weezing @ Black Sludge
Ability: Neutralizing Gas
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Will-O-Wisp
- Rest
- Toxic Spikes

Weezing is my dedicated knock off absorber and provides toxic spikes support for the team. At first I ran levitate so that it could avoid ground attacks but lost a battle due to opposing toxic spikes, so I changed its ability so it could absorb the opposing tspikes. I haven't benefited that much from neutralizing gas stopping an opposing pokemon's ability, but it could help against guts throh or gurdurr if I ever run into one of them. Will-O-Wisp lets weezing wear down steel types like silvally-steel so that can it can keep up toxic spikes to pressure the opposing team. This is important against a team with guzzlord, which is really the only way to deal with it because of its bulk.



Palossand @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Water Compaction
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Shore Up

Finally we have palossand as the last pokemon. Palossand provides the team with stealth rocks, electric immunity, and a rock resist. It is always able to switch in on aggron and can check lycanroc if played carefully. The set is directly from the smogon analysis which lets palossand live a grass knot from heliolisk. I opted to run toxic to try to poison guzzlord that comes in if toxic spikes aren't up.

Threats:

I have to admit, I don't have much counterplay against sub bulk up braviary. I could run physically defensive pyukumuku, but being able to deal with specially attacking setup sweepers in general seems more important. I first ran knock off on sableye but switched to foul play as it's really the only way to break sub if I can get sableye in safely and encore.

Since prankster doesn't work against dark types anymore, sableye is unable to burn absol. If there is an absol in the team preview, I really have to keep weezing healthy to potentially deal with it. Otherwise I have to get up toxic spikes and try to stall it out.

Against cb lycanroc, keeping weezing and palossand healthy is key. Palossand has to be very careful about crunch.

Even with several answers for toxicroak, np is still a threat if it gets lucky with poisons or spdef drops.

This is quite a problem with its many different sets that it can run. The most important counterplay is burning it or poisoning it to slowly wear it down.

Against cb you have to play very well with audino, talonflame and weezing.

Peak

Importable

Sableye @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Foul Play
- Will-O-Wisp
- Encore
- Recover

Pyukumuku @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spite
- Block
- Rest
- Recover

Talonflame @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Defog
- Toxic
- Roost

Audino @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
- Knock Off

Weezing @ Black Sludge
Ability: Neutralizing Gas
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Will-O-Wisp
- Rest
- Toxic Spikes

Palossand @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Water Compaction
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Shore Up

Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8pu-1301563161-8yq821exhrn11am2nkg8ttpyyadyw1bpw (they also tried stealing my team even after I said I was gonna post eventually so gotta expose lol)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8pu-1286697172-8hq3yrugzltt1e57wywbqpk7vyxhav0pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8pu-1286908097
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8pu-1303440834

Shoutouts:
Thanks to daniYSB for inspiring me with your NU sableye stall
Thanks to ctproonie217 for being a chill ladder opponent. Wish I saved some replays of our battles. Grats on PU voice.
Shoutouts to all the fellow bewear fans and supporters. Free the bear!

​

 

[TONE]

Hey there wuhoodude really nice team and congrats on the peak! Stall is difficult to use since the abiltiy to deal with every possible set is next to impossible, but you did a solid job regardless. Looking at the the threats you mentioned, I felt there were some things you could consider if you wanna keep using the team, granted this is all optional:

->

While Pyukumuku is basically designed to fit stall teams, the lack of being unable to do anything back is a bit of a hassle and not being able to threaten stuff like Absol which you mentioned was a problem as your main way was to PP stall or toxic stall. Vaporeon can help act as a better check to some of the physical attackers like Lycanroc with the pressure of Scald especially since Pyukumuku is your Water resist and if it's in a weakened state, you could be in trouble against Arctovish especially if it gets in on anything not named Sableye and it's definetly a mon you'd rather burn than poison. To also alleviate the issue you said with Sub BU Braviary, I'll suggest Roar on Vaporeon. Having the ability to phaze out setup sweepers makes up for the lack of the Unaware mon that was subbed out and it also prevents Toxicroak from freely setting up in your face too, so that's an added bonus.

->

This was a bit more difficult to try to justify, but looking at how you said you struggled with Absol and Guzzlord wasn't that surprising considering you had no Dark resist. While is the better Wish passer, Aromatisse provides a Wish passer and a Dark resist all in one slot so you aren't pressured by Absol as much and you can still check Guzzlord by scouting for Heavy Slam with Protect then going into your Steel resist. To try to keep the same benchmarks you were trying to do on Audino, Aromatisse is Heavy-Duty Boots with enough Special Defense to take a Modest Choice Specs Leaf Storm from Exeggutor-Alola. I also added slashes to both Aromatisse and Vaporeon to test out some other ideas. If you don't wanna feel overwhelmed with 2 WIsh users, you can forgo Wish on Vaporeon for Heal Bell to make it the cleric and go with Leftovers and Aromatisse can free tup the cleric spot for another move. I put Thunderbolt here just to have a way to prevent opposing Talonflame from coming in for free on it. If you do run Thunderbolt, take 24 EVs out of Defense and put it into Special Attack to get the guaranteed 2HKO on Max HP Talonflame with Thunderbolt.



Knock Off > Foul Play

With the setup sweepers handled, I feel you can go back to Knock Off on Sableye since the main Knock Off user you had is gone and being able to remove Heavy-Duty Boots and passive recovery on your opponent's team is very handy for Stall.



Scorching Sands > Earth Power

Palossand doesn't really miss out on the added damage that Earth Power provides and if you can burn those annoying Physical attackers, SD Toxicroak mainly, you'll be in much better shape in the long run.

Grats again on the peak, and hope you like my suggestions!

Sets

Sableye: Knock Off > Foul Play

Vaporeon @ Leftovers / Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish / Heal Bell
- Protect
- Roar
- Scald

Aromatisse @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy / Thunderbolt

Palossand: Scorching Sands > Earth Power