>Toxic/Burn Stall Team <
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Introduction
This is my first team for Sun/Moon OU. As the title said, the main goal of the team is to stall the opponent out while his mons die to poison or burns. I'm currently at about 1500 elo in the Showdown ladder, which is, in my opinion - I started competitive Pokemon after the release of SM, so I'm quite new - not that bad. I also tried more offensiv teams and trick room teams, but with less succes.
Teambuilding Process
When I took part in a VGC17 tournament and used my perfect Celesteela the first time, I noticed its great bulk and tought it would fit well in a stall team.
Toxapex is one of the best stallers in the current game, walling major threats such as Pheromosa, and its weaknesses, except the electric one, are well covered by Celesteela.
Next step was to search for a bulky electric counter. I choose Gastrodon, also due to its ability Storm Drain which makes it a great counter against rain teams and Araquanid as well.
For the fourth slot I chose Eviolithe Porygon 2 which can switch in basically everything which isn't fighting type and poison it or cause servere damage to dragons like Garchomp and Zygarde.
To prevent entry hazards, Leech Seed and to burn dangerous physical attackers, I chose Mega Sableye as the fifth member. Usually, I use Sableye as the lead. It also removes annoying Items like Marowak's Thick Club, to support the team.
For the last slot, Tapu Bulu was chosen due to its synergy with Toxapex and because it removes the enemy's terrains, so that the enemy can't prevent being poisoned by using Tapu Fini's Misty Terrain.
Then, I noticed that my opponents usually switch very often and that entry hazards could be useful. I also sometimes had problems with opposing setuppers; and my Celesteela died too fast, because it doesn't have access to healing moves like roost and has to rely on Leftovers and Leech Seed. So I decided to remove Celesteela from my team and replace it with Skarmory. Same typing, even better physical bulk, but access to Spikes, Roost and even Whirlwind to remove boosting opponents, negating their boosts and to maximize the Spikes damage. Only downside is the weaker special defense.
The Team
Reflector (Sableye-Mega) @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Knock Off
- Foul Play
- Recover
Usually my lead. With its ability, it prevents entry hazards from being set against me and also causes opposing Celesteelas to seed themselves. Knock Off removes items from the opposing pokemon, most important Life Orbs and Marowak's Thick Club. Foul Play was chosen over Fake Out, because it uses the foe's attack stat instead of Sableye's own low attack, causing severy damage to powerful attackers like Mega-Metagross or Swords Dance-boosted (Mega-)Scizor.
Will-O-Wisp is for crippling physical attackers like Gyarados, Garchomp or Scizor. Sometimes I don't mega-evolve to surprise the opponent with a priority Will-O-Wisp thanks to prankster.
I'm also thinking about using Fake Out or Protect to safely mega-evolve, but Knock Off and Foul Play are both too important, as Knock Off is very important against Marowak and Foul Play is necessary to kill Metagross if I couldn't manage to burn it.
Death Star (Toxapex) @ Binding Band
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Scald
- Infestation
- Recover
Binding Band is a quite unusual item, but it is very useful for this deadly Toxapex. With Binding Band-boosted Infestation Toxapex can remove or at least heavily pressure otherwise annoying threats like Tapu-Fini or Mandibuzz, because Infestation is not prevented by Taunt nor the Misty Terrain. It's also quite a good check against Celesteela, because Infestation does more damage than Celesteela can regenerate with Leech Seed.
Toxic and Scald are there for inflicting status, increasing the passive damage dealt every turn even more. Scald also makes switching in against Toxapex very difficult since a lot of Pokemon who counter Toxapex, like Metagross or Garchomp, don't like burns.
Gastrophobia (Gastrodon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover
Thanks to its ability, it is my go-to counter against water types in rain teams. While it absorbs the opponent's rain-boosted Hydro Pump or Liquidation, rendering the rain useless for him, it deals surprising high damage with its double-boosted Scald. Scald also makes switching in against Gastrodon risky.
Its electric immunity is very useful since both Skarmory and Toxapex are vulnerable to electric moves, Earthquake not only hits those electric types hard, it also hits steel types like Magearna super-effective. The only problems are grass type coverage moves like Grass Knot on Tapu Koko or Energy Ball on Xirkitree.
I also thought about Ice Beam, but I really don't need it on Gastrodon as long as I have the following mon in my team:
duck.exe (Porygon2) @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Toxic
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
This thing can switch in basically everything that's not fighting type and even tanks Z-Moves pretty well. Trace makes it an even better switch-in, as it uses the opponent'S ability against him, hindering some mons severely or gaining a great advantage for Porygon itself.
There's one ability which I always trace if I have the possibility to do so: Drampa's Berserk. Porygon2 is bulky enough to let his HP fall below 50% and heal up repeatedly, so that it gains one SpAtt boost after another and becomes a really deadly duck.
With Thunderbolt and Ice Beam it has great type coverage as it can hit nearly everything at least neutral. Porygon is often used to kill dragons with their double ice weakness, as it can switch into them safely and score the OHKO or 2HKO with ease.
Tapu Bull (Tapu Bulu) @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Toxic
- Horn Leech
- Leech Seed
- Protect
The bull supports especially Toxapex very well, because its Grassy Terrain negates Toxapex's ground weakness, and generally a Stall team is supported well by the additional healing. It also removes opposing terrains, making Tapu Fini vulnerable to Toxic and removing the type boosts.
Apart from that, it counters Tapu Koko (which would kill Gastrodon if it has Grass Knot), Tapu Fini, checks Tapu-Lele (without Specs/Calm Mind boost) and can seed or poision opposing mons on the expected switch-in.
Horn Leech hits really hard, OHKOing more frail mons like Tapu Koko, and it helps Tapu Bulu with keeping itself healthy and pressuring the foe. If they don't have a grass-resistant mon left, they get severe damage on switchin.
Protect maximizes the KP regeneration done by Grassy Terrain, Leftovers and sometimes Leech Seed and also helps stalling out poisoned mons, especially when they will die next turn and would otherwise cause severe damage to one of my mons.
Flying Knight (Skarmory) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Brave Bird
- Roost
Skarmory supports the team by hard-countering grass types like Tapu Bulu or Kartana due to its double resistance, setting entry hazards and removing opposing setup sweepers from the field, negating their boosts.
Brave Bird hits very hard if it isn't resisted and hits Decidueye, which is commonly used as a defogger, super-effectively for a OHKO or 2HKO.
Thanks to its ability, it can finish off a pre-damaged dangerous opposing pokemon which would otherwise maybe sweep through the whole team.
Whirlwind helps to handle setup sweepers and substitute spammers and maximizes the damage dealt by the spikes as well. After layout ot the third spikes layer, I like to use Whirlwind repetitively to cause even more spikes damage.
I also thought about using a Shed Shell to prevent getting trapped by Magnezones, but Magnezones are not very common and in most situations, Leftovers are the better choice.
Conclusion
Sadly, not everyone likes stall teams, I sometimes get hated from Showdown opponents, but my team works quite well and can handle most of the current Metagame's threats, but those three are problematic for me:
Introduction
This is my first team for Sun/Moon OU. As the title said, the main goal of the team is to stall the opponent out while his mons die to poison or burns. I'm currently at about 1500 elo in the Showdown ladder, which is, in my opinion - I started competitive Pokemon after the release of SM, so I'm quite new - not that bad. I also tried more offensiv teams and trick room teams, but with less succes.
Teambuilding Process
When I took part in a VGC17 tournament and used my perfect Celesteela the first time, I noticed its great bulk and tought it would fit well in a stall team.
Toxapex is one of the best stallers in the current game, walling major threats such as Pheromosa, and its weaknesses, except the electric one, are well covered by Celesteela.
Next step was to search for a bulky electric counter. I choose Gastrodon, also due to its ability Storm Drain which makes it a great counter against rain teams and Araquanid as well.
For the fourth slot I chose Eviolithe Porygon 2 which can switch in basically everything which isn't fighting type and poison it or cause servere damage to dragons like Garchomp and Zygarde.
To prevent entry hazards, Leech Seed and to burn dangerous physical attackers, I chose Mega Sableye as the fifth member. Usually, I use Sableye as the lead. It also removes annoying Items like Marowak's Thick Club, to support the team.
For the last slot, Tapu Bulu was chosen due to its synergy with Toxapex and because it removes the enemy's terrains, so that the enemy can't prevent being poisoned by using Tapu Fini's Misty Terrain.
Then, I noticed that my opponents usually switch very often and that entry hazards could be useful. I also sometimes had problems with opposing setuppers; and my Celesteela died too fast, because it doesn't have access to healing moves like roost and has to rely on Leftovers and Leech Seed. So I decided to remove Celesteela from my team and replace it with Skarmory. Same typing, even better physical bulk, but access to Spikes, Roost and even Whirlwind to remove boosting opponents, negating their boosts and to maximize the Spikes damage. Only downside is the weaker special defense.
The Team
Reflector (Sableye-Mega) @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Knock Off
- Foul Play
- Recover
Usually my lead. With its ability, it prevents entry hazards from being set against me and also causes opposing Celesteelas to seed themselves. Knock Off removes items from the opposing pokemon, most important Life Orbs and Marowak's Thick Club. Foul Play was chosen over Fake Out, because it uses the foe's attack stat instead of Sableye's own low attack, causing severy damage to powerful attackers like Mega-Metagross or Swords Dance-boosted (Mega-)Scizor.
Will-O-Wisp is for crippling physical attackers like Gyarados, Garchomp or Scizor. Sometimes I don't mega-evolve to surprise the opponent with a priority Will-O-Wisp thanks to prankster.
I'm also thinking about using Fake Out or Protect to safely mega-evolve, but Knock Off and Foul Play are both too important, as Knock Off is very important against Marowak and Foul Play is necessary to kill Metagross if I couldn't manage to burn it.
Death Star (Toxapex) @ Binding Band
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Scald
- Infestation
- Recover
Binding Band is a quite unusual item, but it is very useful for this deadly Toxapex. With Binding Band-boosted Infestation Toxapex can remove or at least heavily pressure otherwise annoying threats like Tapu-Fini or Mandibuzz, because Infestation is not prevented by Taunt nor the Misty Terrain. It's also quite a good check against Celesteela, because Infestation does more damage than Celesteela can regenerate with Leech Seed.
Toxic and Scald are there for inflicting status, increasing the passive damage dealt every turn even more. Scald also makes switching in against Toxapex very difficult since a lot of Pokemon who counter Toxapex, like Metagross or Garchomp, don't like burns.
Gastrophobia (Gastrodon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover
Thanks to its ability, it is my go-to counter against water types in rain teams. While it absorbs the opponent's rain-boosted Hydro Pump or Liquidation, rendering the rain useless for him, it deals surprising high damage with its double-boosted Scald. Scald also makes switching in against Gastrodon risky.
Its electric immunity is very useful since both Skarmory and Toxapex are vulnerable to electric moves, Earthquake not only hits those electric types hard, it also hits steel types like Magearna super-effective. The only problems are grass type coverage moves like Grass Knot on Tapu Koko or Energy Ball on Xirkitree.
I also thought about Ice Beam, but I really don't need it on Gastrodon as long as I have the following mon in my team:
duck.exe (Porygon2) @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Toxic
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
This thing can switch in basically everything that's not fighting type and even tanks Z-Moves pretty well. Trace makes it an even better switch-in, as it uses the opponent'S ability against him, hindering some mons severely or gaining a great advantage for Porygon itself.
There's one ability which I always trace if I have the possibility to do so: Drampa's Berserk. Porygon2 is bulky enough to let his HP fall below 50% and heal up repeatedly, so that it gains one SpAtt boost after another and becomes a really deadly duck.
With Thunderbolt and Ice Beam it has great type coverage as it can hit nearly everything at least neutral. Porygon is often used to kill dragons with their double ice weakness, as it can switch into them safely and score the OHKO or 2HKO with ease.
Tapu Bull (Tapu Bulu) @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Toxic
- Horn Leech
- Leech Seed
- Protect
The bull supports especially Toxapex very well, because its Grassy Terrain negates Toxapex's ground weakness, and generally a Stall team is supported well by the additional healing. It also removes opposing terrains, making Tapu Fini vulnerable to Toxic and removing the type boosts.
Apart from that, it counters Tapu Koko (which would kill Gastrodon if it has Grass Knot), Tapu Fini, checks Tapu-Lele (without Specs/Calm Mind boost) and can seed or poision opposing mons on the expected switch-in.
Horn Leech hits really hard, OHKOing more frail mons like Tapu Koko, and it helps Tapu Bulu with keeping itself healthy and pressuring the foe. If they don't have a grass-resistant mon left, they get severe damage on switchin.
Protect maximizes the KP regeneration done by Grassy Terrain, Leftovers and sometimes Leech Seed and also helps stalling out poisoned mons, especially when they will die next turn and would otherwise cause severe damage to one of my mons.
Flying Knight (Skarmory) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Brave Bird
- Roost
Skarmory supports the team by hard-countering grass types like Tapu Bulu or Kartana due to its double resistance, setting entry hazards and removing opposing setup sweepers from the field, negating their boosts.
Brave Bird hits very hard if it isn't resisted and hits Decidueye, which is commonly used as a defogger, super-effectively for a OHKO or 2HKO.
Thanks to its ability, it can finish off a pre-damaged dangerous opposing pokemon which would otherwise maybe sweep through the whole team.
Whirlwind helps to handle setup sweepers and substitute spammers and maximizes the damage dealt by the spikes as well. After layout ot the third spikes layer, I like to use Whirlwind repetitively to cause even more spikes damage.
I also thought about using a Shed Shell to prevent getting trapped by Magnezones, but Magnezones are not very common and in most situations, Leftovers are the better choice.
Conclusion
Sadly, not everyone likes stall teams, I sometimes get hated from Showdown opponents, but my team works quite well and can handle most of the current Metagame's threats, but those three are problematic for me:
-
Tapu Lele: Hits incredibly hard, even when Psychic terrain is removed by Tapu Bulu. Especially Calm Mind Tapu Lele can sweep my whole team, because I can't OHKO it - maybe except if I'm leading with Bulu, but Sableye is the better Lead in most cases - and it does more than 50% of damage to all my mons, making healing and stalling it out impossible.
-
Tail Glow Xurkitree: After one Tail Glow, it OHKOs most of my pokemon, due to its access to Energy Ball, Gastrodon isn't an option against Xurkitree, and Tapu Bulu is hit neutral by Dazzling Gleam.
-
Magearna: Immune to poison, very bulky and hits really hard too. Due to its access to electric type moves, I can't wall it with Toxapex or Skarmory, so I have to rely on Gastrodon and Porygon2.
There are some other mons which are sometimes annoying, most notably Marowak (which dies to poison/scald or loses his Thick Club to Sableye), but usually I can handle them. The real problems are the three pokemon named above and luckly random critical hits which KO a mon which would otherwise survive the hit.
Maybe is adding a more offensive mon like Scarf Garchomp (Poison Jab, Earthqake) an option, to be faster than the three listed threats and kill them before they can kill my pokemon? If yes, which Pokemon should be replaced?
Maybe is adding a more offensive mon like Scarf Garchomp (Poison Jab, Earthqake) an option, to be faster than the three listed threats and kill them before they can kill my pokemon? If yes, which Pokemon should be replaced?
Flying Knight (Skarmory) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Brave Bird
- Roost
Death Star (Toxapex) @ Binding Band
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Scald
- Infestation
- Recover
Gastrophobia (Gastrodon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover
Reflector (Sableye-Mega) @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Knock Off
- Foul Play
- Recover
duck.exe (Porygon2) @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Toxic
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
Tapu Bull (Tapu Bulu) @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Toxic
- Horn Leech
- Leech Seed
- Protect
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Brave Bird
- Roost
Death Star (Toxapex) @ Binding Band
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Scald
- Infestation
- Recover
Gastrophobia (Gastrodon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover
Reflector (Sableye-Mega) @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Knock Off
- Foul Play
- Recover
duck.exe (Porygon2) @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Toxic
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
Tapu Bull (Tapu Bulu) @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Toxic
- Horn Leech
- Leech Seed
- Protect
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