WECAMEASROMANS
Banned deucer.
AT A FIRST GLANCE
INTRODUCTION
Since BW is out in Japan already, and most Smogonites are playing that instead of DPPt now, this is probably the best time to retire this team and say my farewells to the 4th gen metagame. I was originally going to wait until BW came to the U.S. in spring to post this up, but when the RMT forum finally allowed BW teams, I decided I should post this up rather sooner than later. This is my last gen 4 team, and after that I will be playing 5th gen entirely. I have been extremely successful with this particular team. Regarding peak numbers, I have gotten up to #7 on the TU leaderboard, acquiring a CRE of 1707 twice. I probably would have gotten higher if the server didn't disconnect on me so much. On PO's Beta Online server, I ranked #9 out of an enormous 38532 players.
As you can see, this team is very stallish and defensively minded. While numerous stall teams look like carbon copies of another, it is the player that contributes to the success of the team, not the team itself. You need to know how to play the team in order to be good. A lot of players seem to think that any team that abuses entry hazards is considered stall, which is not true. While most stall teams do in fact, abuse entry hazards, the primary goal for stall teams is to outlast their opponent, by means of any residual damage. This includes entry hazards, poison, burn, Sandstorm, hail, leech seed, etc. I also heavily rely on PP stalling to beat my opponent.
My team likes having the momentum on its side. The more favorable matchup I have, the greater momentum I have, which increases my chance of winning. Against offensive teams, I generally switch to whichever poke I have that can deal with the threat my opponent has. If I know for a fact my opponent will not stay in, I will generally switch to a poke that can deal with what I think they will switch in to my counter before. This will not only massively weaken my opponent's team since they will be switching in and out numerous times with entry hazards down on their side, but it gives me the upper hand in the matchup and I still have the momentum on my side. Against an opposing stall team, this is of even greater importance, since stall vs stall both sides will have a lot of entry hazards up and one bad switch can mean you lose momentum for a long period of time, and ultimately lose the match. Phazing can help or hinder this. If you phaze in something that can't harm you that much, you can just phaze again on their obvious switch or just attack them outright. If you phaze in something that can do massive damage to you, then you must switch, which in return gives your opponent the upper hand.
Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP/4 atk/252 spdef
Careful nature (+spdef, -spatk)
- Toxic spikes
- Spikes
- Rapid spin
- Payback
Everyone should be familar with what Forretress does by now. I chose Forrey as my lead instead of Hippowdon because it matches up better against various other leads and is able to set up more entry hazards from the get go. While SR only takes 1 turn to set up, toxic spikes and spikes takes two and three turns, respectively. This allows me to set up my hazards much easier and faster. Hippowdon can set up SR later in the match when it is not threatened at all. Forrey also has the added benefit of spinning rocks that the opponent's lead placed on my side of the field.
The amount of leads Forretress can set up on are endless. With opposing stall teams leading with Hippowdon nowadays, I immediatly gain the advantage from the start. Against hail stall teams leading with Abomasnow, Forrey also gets the advantage over them as well, as long as they are not carrying HP Fire. Other leads that put Forrey in an instant advantage include Swampert, Skarmory, Metagross, and Bronzong. Against Azelf leads, I will switch to Heatran right away because a huge number of them carry Fire Blast. I will then get them down to their sash with a flash fire boosted flamethrower, and protect as they explode. If they didn't use Fire Blast, they would have taunted, which Heatran doesn't mind anyway. Then it's just a matter of flamethrowing as they SR and switch to Spiritomb as they explode. Aerodactyl leads can be played around with a combination of payback and rapid spin. This will get me a 6-5 advantage, with Aero not getting SR up and my Forrey with a little over half its health. Against sleep leads, I will just switch to Spiritomb or Milotic, depending on which is more fit. Fire type leads such as Heatran and Infernape will require me to switch to Milotic right away. Against the ever popular anti lead Machamp, I will instantly switch to Spiritomb to take dynamic punch, and then activate its lum berry with will o wisp. Once they see WoW, they immediatly bring in something like Heatran to take it. This is why after I burn it the first time, I bring in Milotic as they switch to their Heatran, still giving me the advantage. Shuca berry Tran is also commonly used with anti lead Champ, which makes this stragety more successful. Even if they don't switch out, the most logical move they would make is ice punch, which Milotic can take like a beast. Then its just a matter of switching back into Spiritomb for the dynamic punch again and burning it again. (this time for real)
I usually set up toxic spikes first because they help this team more than spikes would. For instance, leech seed Shaymin is completly non threatening to this team if two layers of toxic spikes are down, but it could be a bit problematic if they aren't. Likewise, offensive Celebi with Recover is also stalled out with toxic spikes support and Blissey. Keep in mind though, that if either of these two lack HP Fire, Forrey can set up on them all day. Toxic spikes also help me stall out numerous pokes that I would otherwise have trouble beating, including Swampert, Kingdra, Vaporeon, and Blissey. Rain dance teams fall under the hands of this team by a combination of toxic spikes, Blissey, Milotic, and Hippowdon. Spikes is also valuable for this team, being able to damage grounded pokemon for up to 25% of their health. This is helpful, especially with the case of Breloom, which I will discuss how I deal with it later. Forretress is one of the most important members in a stall vs stall matchup. If you have more entry hazards down then your opponent, they will suffer more damage then you in the long run, giving your team the momentum it needs to win. If your opponent is stupid enough to let their spinblocker die for whatever reason, Forretress can have a field day with rapid spin. I rarely use payback on Forrey, if I predict a Rotom-A switch I will likely just set up another layer of spikes or toxic spikes. The only time I use payback is probably for Subsplit Gengar, and it beats Gengar 1 on 1 everytime.
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP/252 def/4 spdef
Impish nature (+def,-spatk)
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack off
- Roar
Hippowdon fulfills two roles on this team. First, it easily sets up stealth rock, and automatic sandstorm is a bonus. Stealth rock is the most vital entry hazard in the game, since it hits each poke in the game for some damage bar Clefable, which isn't even OU. Stealth rock also takes 25% off of every flying type, which is extremely important especially in the case of Dragonite. My main method of beating DD Dragonite is to send out Hippo against it, slack off any damage it does to me by attacking, and roaring it out when it decides to DD up in my face. If it is an offensive version with LO and no Roost, taking it out with Hippo is easier since a +1 jolly outrage with LO isn't going to KO Hippo anytime soon, allowing me to Roar it and slack off when neccessary. Against lefties DDnite with Roost, I must burn it Spiritomb and then stall it out with a combination of Forrey and Hippo. If it's the last poke then Blissey needs to finish weakened ones off with ice beam. CB ones are the most dangerous, since they 2HKO everything on this team except for Forrey, but SR, SS, and lack of Roost makes it worn down fast. Gyarados is much more easier to deal with, but SR obviously makes it easier for me to finish it off and limits its longevity in general.
The second role for Hippo is obviously to wall physical attackers. Hippowdon is usually my first switch in for an abundance of physical threats, including Tyranitar, Flygon, Metagross, Lucario, and Scizor. Tyranitar isn't getting past Hippowdon anytime soon unless its a CB version with Aqua tail, which barely 2KHOes. Then Milotic can come in and laugh at it all day, while threatening back with a STAB surf. Metagross is a little bit more threatening since it has 20 more BP than Ttar's Crunch and can raise its attack one level, but it is still cleanly 2HKOed by EQ and I can slack off the damage. Hippowdon may seem like a strange switch in to Flygon since it can't touch it at all, but most are scarfed which means they are locked into one move. This means that Hippo can spam SR, slack off when neccessary, and repeat the process. They will eventually run out of PP and struggle, and I will still have plenty of slack off PP remaining since a scarfed flygon's EQ does like 20% to this Hippo variant.
Hippowdon has all those defense EVs because he needs it. Simply put, I do not require Hippowdon to take any special hits at all, except the occasional HP Grass/ice from the likes of Jolteon and Zapdos, which barely 2HKOes. I need something to take physical attacks well and able to recover damage for a whole game, and by making Hippowdon as physically bulky as it can possibly be, I get it. Hippowdon is my first switch in to Lucario because as long as Hippo has 90% of its HP left, Lucario will never OHKO it. (CC maxes out at 89% with an adamant nature) I've had some people attempt to take down Hippo at full health because everyone expects a specially defensive variant now, and they paid the price for it. One of the major reasons why I made Hippo so physically bulky is because of Breloom. The stragety I use for beating Breloom involves a combination of Spiritomb and Heatran. However, if one of them is down or Spiritomb is at extremely low health, I will really struggle to beat it. This is where Hippo comes into play. A seed bomb from max attack Breloom doesn't even 2HKO this thing, and then I can comfortably Roar it out, forcing it to take spikes and Sr damage when it comes in. Brelooms also carry sub often, which even helps me drain 25% of its health. When Breloom's health is low enough, Hippowdon can finish it off with EQ. Similary, a max attack Gyarados' waterfall also fails to 2HKO this, while I roar it back out.
Spiritomb @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/228 def/28 spdef
Bold nature (+def, -atk)
- Will o wisp
- Shadow Ball
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
There are two reasons why I am using Spiritomb instead of Rotom-A. Well three, actually. First reason is because its cooler looking and more awesome. Second reason is because of Spiritomb's additional dark typing. This gives Spiritomb neutralities to dark and ghost, something Rotom would kill for. Especially with the dark neutrality, this has saved me from matches countless times. First of all, it means that a +2 Lucario can't OHKO me with Crunch. In fact it takes like 60% damage from it. This itself is huge because if, for some whatever reason, Hippowdon is in a weakened state and my opponent reveals a Lucario, this thing can also act as a secondary Luke counter, albeit not a very good one considering WoW only has 75% accuracy. (still better than stone edge though) Neutrality to dark also makes it not pursuit bait from Tyranitar. This is important because I have been noticing the increase of Scarf Tar in stall teams. If I had rotom, I would basically lose against every stall vs stall team that has a scarf tar. Some players have attempted to pursuit this thing with Ttar only to find out it does so little and get burned in return.
Spiritomb is also a counter to all Machamp sets bar none. It's not weak to payback and is even slower than Champ to make it pitfully weak, and immune to Dynamic punch. It can then burn it or attack it with shadow ball. The dark typing also gives Spiritomb a useful neutrality to ghost, which is huge for opposing stall teams. It allows me to eliminate Rotom-A with shadow ball while their shadow ball only does neutral damage. Likewise, subsplit Gengar also loses to this 1 on 1.
The other reason why I chose Tomb over Rotom-A is because of Pressure. Pressure stalls out so much stuff and combined with rest, players can often find themselves out of PP before taking Tomb down. Pressure helps me against things like last man Curselax or Cursepert, etc. My normal stragety for beating these two is to wait till they are the last mons on my opponents team, and then burning them while they curse up. I can then just rest or shadow ball untill they are at low hp when they have to rest, and then I switch to Milotic to haze all their precious stat boosts away. Repeat this process however times neccessary. With pressure, I can be assured that these two will struggle before I do. Rest talk + Pressure can also PP most stall teams. Since the common trend for stall is now Hippo/Forrey/Bliss/Rotom/Gyara, once Gyarados is gone, My Tomb can just come in and stall these out with Rest and pressure. Rotom is cleanly 2HKOed by shadow ball, so it can't beat me either. Then I can just sit there alternating between will o wisp and shadow ball, resting when neccessary, and watch them struggle sooner or later.
My method of beating Breloom is by using a combination of Spiritomb and Heatran. First, I will just let Milotic take the spore since it doesn't really mind the status. Then, I will switch to Spiritomb while they sub, losing 25% of their health. Since its immune to focus punch, the only thing that it can do to me is seed bomb, which does around 34% while I break their sub. Then I switch to Heatran as they attempt to seed bomb Tomb again. At this point, Breloom obviously needs to switch or be OHKOed. This is why I say spikes is so valuable in beating Breloom. Instead of flamethrowing the switch, I just Roar their switch in, letting them take all that entry hazard damge for nothing, and letting something harmless (I hope) come in. Sometimes if I'm lucky enough I roar Breloom right back in. If this was to happen, I would then flamethrower the second time instead of Roaring, because they expect me to Roar again and they would just focus punch. I can repeat this process until their team is starting to wear down due to hazard damage. However, since seed bomb will be doing quite a bit of damage to Spiritomb, I can also just heal it by rest. It is important to let Milotic take the spore, not Spiritomb, because I desperately need to know when I can wake up, instead of random sleep talking and hoping when I can wake up. Lots of Breloom users think they can get a free sub into a sleeping Tomb, but it would have woken after the second turn while breaking their sub, while they only do around 34% with seed bomb again.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash fire
EVs: 252 HP/4 spatk/252 spdef
Calm nature (+spdef, -atk)
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Protect
- Roar
Standard specially defensive Tran. This is more often than not the MVP of my team, as without it I would have lost about probably 1/3 of my matches. It takes special attacks like a champ, not even being 2HKOed by a Vaporeon's surf. One of the best ways I like to use this is against SubToxic Zapdos. The second I find out its sub toxic I will switch in Hippowdon on Tbolt or sub, and then going to Heatran on an immune toxic. Since they will likely tbolt, I can Roar them out, meaning they will have lost 50% of their health the next time they come in, thanks to SR. I can alternate between flamethrower and Roar each time it switches in until its the last poke left, which then I can just spam flamethrower on it. If it tries to Roost stall it out, Earth power hits them hard while also occasionally lowering the special def one stage.
Heatran also does remarkably well against opposing stall teams. What I do against Forretress is to send out Spiritomb while they try and rapid spin, then I switch in Heatran while they set up spikes/tspikes/payback. Since they will obviously not let their Forrey die that easily, they will then switch to a vaporeon or a gyarados or a blissey or whatever, eat some hefty entry hazard damage, only to get sent back to wherever they came from by Roar. Again, similar to Breloom, if I happen to roar Forrey back in, I will flamethrower instead of Roar on the second turn because they probably will anticipate my Roar and decide to spin instead. I can also do this to Skarmory, except for its even easier than Forretress because Skarmory can't do anything back to Heatran except for a weak brave bird or something. Heatran is also my first in line of defense for the Rotom formes, especially the sub charge ones where nothing else on my team can harm them. Especially in the case where Rotom-H comes in on my Forrey to block rapid spin, Heatran getting a flash fire boost is essentially guaranteed since it will either overheat or will o wisp. If they are stupid enough to let Rotom die to Heatran like that, good for me, Forrey can rapid spin all day long. If they switch out, thats still okay for me, since whatever switches in is going to take a lot of damage from entry hazards and flash fire boosted flamethrower. Even the Rotom-W formes aren't a problem for this beast, just as long as they aren't carrying specs. A scarfed hydro pump does around 35% to this, and I gain some health back by lefties. I actually do more damage to them with flamethrower then they do to me with Hydro pump.
I chose flamethrower > Lava plume because I need the extra power flamethrower provides. Fire blast and overheat were thrown out because they have poor accuracy and PP. Flamethrower gets me just the right amount of damage to things like Celebi, Shaymin, Zapdos, Jirachi, and Rotom. Besides, I already have Tomb to spread burn around, so the burn rate doesn't really matter to me. Earth power is needed so I can OHKO opposing scarf Heatran. This Heatran variant can actually survive an earth power from an opposing Heatran, while still KOing back with its own. Protect does two things. First, it gains an extra turn of lefties recovery while your opponent is struck with an extra turn of residual damage. Second, it scouts for choiced moves. The best example of this is Flygon. Normally you would always switch out for the risk that you would get KOed by EQ, but if they use u-turn they still have the momentum. With protect, you know what move they will use, and can respond accordingly. If they EQ, I just go straight to Hippo to PP stall it. If they u-turn, I just stay in to roar their switch in out and bring a new mon in. This can also be applied to other choiced attackers like Heracross.
Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 def/252 spdef
Bold nature (+def, -atk)
- Aromatherapy
- Seismic Toss
- Softboiled
- Ice beam
All of us should know by now what Blissey does on the battling field. It walls special attackers to hell and back, no matter what you are. The only special attackers this thing can't beat are the ones with recovery and can stall it out, like Crocune, which will be later explained on how I deal with it. However, this thing works especially well with toxic spikes. With two layers of toxic spikes down, stuff like Leech seed Shaymin and Celebi become pointless to face, as they will both be stalled out eventually. Shaymin can possibly be a nuisance to face if it has rest to cancel out toxic, but then I can just switch in Heatran for free, and Roar as they will obviously switch for more damage. Vaporeon is also stalled out, and the only thing it can do to Blissey is to pass wishes to a switch in. I've had Vaporeon try and stall out Blissey before by toxic, but once they see aromatherapy, this is easily nullified. Subpetaya Empoleon, one of the most dangerous sweepers in the metagame, is suddenly taken care of just by slapping Blissey onto my team. One of my favorite ways to deal with LO Starmie is with a combination of Blissey and spiritomb. If I have hazards up, I see all the pokemon I've revealed so far. If my opponent has seen my Spiritomb already, but haven't seen Blissey, they will most likely use Hydro Pump in an attempt to 2KHO it. My actions are to switch in Blissey turn 1 as they hydro pump, and then immediatly switch to Spiritomb as they rapid spin and attack it with Shadow ball. Obviously if my opponent hasn't seen Spiritomb yet and only saw Blissey, I would just switch in Spiritomb right away. If they've seen both, I would just go with the first stragety because switching in Spiritomb is more logical than switching in Blissey, so they won't expect the unexpected. Sometimes this fails, but most of the time it works, so I tend to stick with it.
I chose Aromatherapy and Softboiled over Wish and Protect. This lets me be more reckless with status afflictions throughout the entire game. For instance, if I haven't set up SR up and I desperately need it down, and I'm facing a SubRoost Zapdos, I will let my Hippowdon take the toxic to SR. Another benefit to Aromatherapy is when I am facing a sub Heatran that has toxic. Since Milotic is my first switch in to Heatran and it randomly gets poisoned, I don't need to worry about it as much when Blissey can just heal it right off. If I had wish and protect though, I would have to deal with the poison throughout the whole match.
Ice beam is my preferred secondary attack over anything else. It's extremely useful for this team. Once Spiritomb manages to burn Dragonite, I just have to keep roaring it out till its the last poke left, and then I send out Blissey to land a good hit with ice beam. Blissey can also take on scarf Flygon like a beast, and KO it back. Mix Flygon with Draco Meteor is probably the most dangerous set to this team, but the most powerful attack it can land on Blissey is a LO Earthquake, which doesn't even 2hko. Ice beam takes care of it. Ice beam also gets me a few surprise kills on Breloom that thinks they can set up on Blissey.
Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP/248 def/8 spe
Bold nature (+def, -atk)
- Surf
- Hidden power Electric
- Recover
- Haze
Milotic is my first switch in to a myraid of the metagame's top threats, namely Heatran and Gyarados. With maxed out HP and nearly maxed out defense, plus an awesome base 125 special defense, most balanced teams have a very difficult time taking this thing down. Any attempts to wear Milotic down by toxic can be taken care by Blissey. Milotic is usually my first switch in to Heatran, rather than something like Blissey, because Blissey has be wary of the omnipresent explosion. An explosion from Heatran does around 78% to Milotic, meaning that if I predict an explosion I can just recover off the health. Outside of explosion, Heatran can't do anything to Milotic. LO HP Grass isn't even a 2HKO. Another fire type, Infernape, who is notorious for breaking down stall, is stopped cold by Milotic. However I am careful enough never to switch into a CC, because it unfortunately 2HKOes. So if Infernape comes in on my Heatran or a Blissey, going to Milotic is out of the question. Instead, I would switch in spiritomb to take the obvious fighting move, and then switch in Milotic to take a weak Fire move. If they come in on Forrey however, switching to Milotic would be my first choice.
Recover is the main reason why Milotic is chosen over any other poke, as without it, I could just have easily replaced it for a Vaporeon, or a Suicune, or whatever. Having a one turn recovery move differentiates it from any other bulky water because it makes room for three other move slots. Haze is Milotic's primary function, as without it, my team would lose to any random poke that can somehow block toxic spikes. Curselax and Cursepert are stalled out by a combination of Spiritomb and Milotic. However, I cannot apply this particular stragety to Crocune, since Surf will be doing a lot of damage to Tomb. With Suicune, I basically alternate back and forth between Milotic and Blissey as it CMs or Surfs or whatever. I haze before it gets too many stat boosts, like +2 or +3, highest being +4. I recover when neccessary. You might think Suicune will stall me out since it has pressure, but this isn't the case. All you have to do is keep switching around as it attacks for so little damage and wastes its PP. If you keep switching around without attacking, you won't waste PP, allowing you to win the PP war. An interesting thing to note is that Softboiled and Recover still have 16 PP under pressure, not 8.
The only other thing worth mentioning here is that I chose hp electric over ice beam. While ice beam might alleviate a MixNite problem, if I don't carry HP Electric, then the only way I can beat Gyarados is to burn it with spiritomb. This would just open me up to being completly weak to Taunt Gyara. Besides, I can always play around with MixNite by sending out Spiritomb against it, which lures out a Draco Meteor, and then I switch out to Blissey, Heatran, or Forrey to take it. After Dnite is at -2 and is weakened enough by SR, LO, and SS damage, I can send in Spiritomb to burn it while it Roosts, allowing something like Blissey to finish it off.
INTRODUCTION
Since BW is out in Japan already, and most Smogonites are playing that instead of DPPt now, this is probably the best time to retire this team and say my farewells to the 4th gen metagame. I was originally going to wait until BW came to the U.S. in spring to post this up, but when the RMT forum finally allowed BW teams, I decided I should post this up rather sooner than later. This is my last gen 4 team, and after that I will be playing 5th gen entirely. I have been extremely successful with this particular team. Regarding peak numbers, I have gotten up to #7 on the TU leaderboard, acquiring a CRE of 1707 twice. I probably would have gotten higher if the server didn't disconnect on me so much. On PO's Beta Online server, I ranked #9 out of an enormous 38532 players.
As you can see, this team is very stallish and defensively minded. While numerous stall teams look like carbon copies of another, it is the player that contributes to the success of the team, not the team itself. You need to know how to play the team in order to be good. A lot of players seem to think that any team that abuses entry hazards is considered stall, which is not true. While most stall teams do in fact, abuse entry hazards, the primary goal for stall teams is to outlast their opponent, by means of any residual damage. This includes entry hazards, poison, burn, Sandstorm, hail, leech seed, etc. I also heavily rely on PP stalling to beat my opponent.
My team likes having the momentum on its side. The more favorable matchup I have, the greater momentum I have, which increases my chance of winning. Against offensive teams, I generally switch to whichever poke I have that can deal with the threat my opponent has. If I know for a fact my opponent will not stay in, I will generally switch to a poke that can deal with what I think they will switch in to my counter before. This will not only massively weaken my opponent's team since they will be switching in and out numerous times with entry hazards down on their side, but it gives me the upper hand in the matchup and I still have the momentum on my side. Against an opposing stall team, this is of even greater importance, since stall vs stall both sides will have a lot of entry hazards up and one bad switch can mean you lose momentum for a long period of time, and ultimately lose the match. Phazing can help or hinder this. If you phaze in something that can't harm you that much, you can just phaze again on their obvious switch or just attack them outright. If you phaze in something that can do massive damage to you, then you must switch, which in return gives your opponent the upper hand.
Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP/4 atk/252 spdef
Careful nature (+spdef, -spatk)
- Toxic spikes
- Spikes
- Rapid spin
- Payback
Everyone should be familar with what Forretress does by now. I chose Forrey as my lead instead of Hippowdon because it matches up better against various other leads and is able to set up more entry hazards from the get go. While SR only takes 1 turn to set up, toxic spikes and spikes takes two and three turns, respectively. This allows me to set up my hazards much easier and faster. Hippowdon can set up SR later in the match when it is not threatened at all. Forrey also has the added benefit of spinning rocks that the opponent's lead placed on my side of the field.
The amount of leads Forretress can set up on are endless. With opposing stall teams leading with Hippowdon nowadays, I immediatly gain the advantage from the start. Against hail stall teams leading with Abomasnow, Forrey also gets the advantage over them as well, as long as they are not carrying HP Fire. Other leads that put Forrey in an instant advantage include Swampert, Skarmory, Metagross, and Bronzong. Against Azelf leads, I will switch to Heatran right away because a huge number of them carry Fire Blast. I will then get them down to their sash with a flash fire boosted flamethrower, and protect as they explode. If they didn't use Fire Blast, they would have taunted, which Heatran doesn't mind anyway. Then it's just a matter of flamethrowing as they SR and switch to Spiritomb as they explode. Aerodactyl leads can be played around with a combination of payback and rapid spin. This will get me a 6-5 advantage, with Aero not getting SR up and my Forrey with a little over half its health. Against sleep leads, I will just switch to Spiritomb or Milotic, depending on which is more fit. Fire type leads such as Heatran and Infernape will require me to switch to Milotic right away. Against the ever popular anti lead Machamp, I will instantly switch to Spiritomb to take dynamic punch, and then activate its lum berry with will o wisp. Once they see WoW, they immediatly bring in something like Heatran to take it. This is why after I burn it the first time, I bring in Milotic as they switch to their Heatran, still giving me the advantage. Shuca berry Tran is also commonly used with anti lead Champ, which makes this stragety more successful. Even if they don't switch out, the most logical move they would make is ice punch, which Milotic can take like a beast. Then its just a matter of switching back into Spiritomb for the dynamic punch again and burning it again. (this time for real)
I usually set up toxic spikes first because they help this team more than spikes would. For instance, leech seed Shaymin is completly non threatening to this team if two layers of toxic spikes are down, but it could be a bit problematic if they aren't. Likewise, offensive Celebi with Recover is also stalled out with toxic spikes support and Blissey. Keep in mind though, that if either of these two lack HP Fire, Forrey can set up on them all day. Toxic spikes also help me stall out numerous pokes that I would otherwise have trouble beating, including Swampert, Kingdra, Vaporeon, and Blissey. Rain dance teams fall under the hands of this team by a combination of toxic spikes, Blissey, Milotic, and Hippowdon. Spikes is also valuable for this team, being able to damage grounded pokemon for up to 25% of their health. This is helpful, especially with the case of Breloom, which I will discuss how I deal with it later. Forretress is one of the most important members in a stall vs stall matchup. If you have more entry hazards down then your opponent, they will suffer more damage then you in the long run, giving your team the momentum it needs to win. If your opponent is stupid enough to let their spinblocker die for whatever reason, Forretress can have a field day with rapid spin. I rarely use payback on Forrey, if I predict a Rotom-A switch I will likely just set up another layer of spikes or toxic spikes. The only time I use payback is probably for Subsplit Gengar, and it beats Gengar 1 on 1 everytime.
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP/252 def/4 spdef
Impish nature (+def,-spatk)
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack off
- Roar
Hippowdon fulfills two roles on this team. First, it easily sets up stealth rock, and automatic sandstorm is a bonus. Stealth rock is the most vital entry hazard in the game, since it hits each poke in the game for some damage bar Clefable, which isn't even OU. Stealth rock also takes 25% off of every flying type, which is extremely important especially in the case of Dragonite. My main method of beating DD Dragonite is to send out Hippo against it, slack off any damage it does to me by attacking, and roaring it out when it decides to DD up in my face. If it is an offensive version with LO and no Roost, taking it out with Hippo is easier since a +1 jolly outrage with LO isn't going to KO Hippo anytime soon, allowing me to Roar it and slack off when neccessary. Against lefties DDnite with Roost, I must burn it Spiritomb and then stall it out with a combination of Forrey and Hippo. If it's the last poke then Blissey needs to finish weakened ones off with ice beam. CB ones are the most dangerous, since they 2HKO everything on this team except for Forrey, but SR, SS, and lack of Roost makes it worn down fast. Gyarados is much more easier to deal with, but SR obviously makes it easier for me to finish it off and limits its longevity in general.
The second role for Hippo is obviously to wall physical attackers. Hippowdon is usually my first switch in for an abundance of physical threats, including Tyranitar, Flygon, Metagross, Lucario, and Scizor. Tyranitar isn't getting past Hippowdon anytime soon unless its a CB version with Aqua tail, which barely 2KHOes. Then Milotic can come in and laugh at it all day, while threatening back with a STAB surf. Metagross is a little bit more threatening since it has 20 more BP than Ttar's Crunch and can raise its attack one level, but it is still cleanly 2HKOed by EQ and I can slack off the damage. Hippowdon may seem like a strange switch in to Flygon since it can't touch it at all, but most are scarfed which means they are locked into one move. This means that Hippo can spam SR, slack off when neccessary, and repeat the process. They will eventually run out of PP and struggle, and I will still have plenty of slack off PP remaining since a scarfed flygon's EQ does like 20% to this Hippo variant.
Hippowdon has all those defense EVs because he needs it. Simply put, I do not require Hippowdon to take any special hits at all, except the occasional HP Grass/ice from the likes of Jolteon and Zapdos, which barely 2HKOes. I need something to take physical attacks well and able to recover damage for a whole game, and by making Hippowdon as physically bulky as it can possibly be, I get it. Hippowdon is my first switch in to Lucario because as long as Hippo has 90% of its HP left, Lucario will never OHKO it. (CC maxes out at 89% with an adamant nature) I've had some people attempt to take down Hippo at full health because everyone expects a specially defensive variant now, and they paid the price for it. One of the major reasons why I made Hippo so physically bulky is because of Breloom. The stragety I use for beating Breloom involves a combination of Spiritomb and Heatran. However, if one of them is down or Spiritomb is at extremely low health, I will really struggle to beat it. This is where Hippo comes into play. A seed bomb from max attack Breloom doesn't even 2HKO this thing, and then I can comfortably Roar it out, forcing it to take spikes and Sr damage when it comes in. Brelooms also carry sub often, which even helps me drain 25% of its health. When Breloom's health is low enough, Hippowdon can finish it off with EQ. Similary, a max attack Gyarados' waterfall also fails to 2HKO this, while I roar it back out.
Spiritomb @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/228 def/28 spdef
Bold nature (+def, -atk)
- Will o wisp
- Shadow Ball
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
There are two reasons why I am using Spiritomb instead of Rotom-A. Well three, actually. First reason is because its cooler looking and more awesome. Second reason is because of Spiritomb's additional dark typing. This gives Spiritomb neutralities to dark and ghost, something Rotom would kill for. Especially with the dark neutrality, this has saved me from matches countless times. First of all, it means that a +2 Lucario can't OHKO me with Crunch. In fact it takes like 60% damage from it. This itself is huge because if, for some whatever reason, Hippowdon is in a weakened state and my opponent reveals a Lucario, this thing can also act as a secondary Luke counter, albeit not a very good one considering WoW only has 75% accuracy. (still better than stone edge though) Neutrality to dark also makes it not pursuit bait from Tyranitar. This is important because I have been noticing the increase of Scarf Tar in stall teams. If I had rotom, I would basically lose against every stall vs stall team that has a scarf tar. Some players have attempted to pursuit this thing with Ttar only to find out it does so little and get burned in return.
Spiritomb is also a counter to all Machamp sets bar none. It's not weak to payback and is even slower than Champ to make it pitfully weak, and immune to Dynamic punch. It can then burn it or attack it with shadow ball. The dark typing also gives Spiritomb a useful neutrality to ghost, which is huge for opposing stall teams. It allows me to eliminate Rotom-A with shadow ball while their shadow ball only does neutral damage. Likewise, subsplit Gengar also loses to this 1 on 1.
The other reason why I chose Tomb over Rotom-A is because of Pressure. Pressure stalls out so much stuff and combined with rest, players can often find themselves out of PP before taking Tomb down. Pressure helps me against things like last man Curselax or Cursepert, etc. My normal stragety for beating these two is to wait till they are the last mons on my opponents team, and then burning them while they curse up. I can then just rest or shadow ball untill they are at low hp when they have to rest, and then I switch to Milotic to haze all their precious stat boosts away. Repeat this process however times neccessary. With pressure, I can be assured that these two will struggle before I do. Rest talk + Pressure can also PP most stall teams. Since the common trend for stall is now Hippo/Forrey/Bliss/Rotom/Gyara, once Gyarados is gone, My Tomb can just come in and stall these out with Rest and pressure. Rotom is cleanly 2HKOed by shadow ball, so it can't beat me either. Then I can just sit there alternating between will o wisp and shadow ball, resting when neccessary, and watch them struggle sooner or later.
My method of beating Breloom is by using a combination of Spiritomb and Heatran. First, I will just let Milotic take the spore since it doesn't really mind the status. Then, I will switch to Spiritomb while they sub, losing 25% of their health. Since its immune to focus punch, the only thing that it can do to me is seed bomb, which does around 34% while I break their sub. Then I switch to Heatran as they attempt to seed bomb Tomb again. At this point, Breloom obviously needs to switch or be OHKOed. This is why I say spikes is so valuable in beating Breloom. Instead of flamethrowing the switch, I just Roar their switch in, letting them take all that entry hazard damge for nothing, and letting something harmless (I hope) come in. Sometimes if I'm lucky enough I roar Breloom right back in. If this was to happen, I would then flamethrower the second time instead of Roaring, because they expect me to Roar again and they would just focus punch. I can repeat this process until their team is starting to wear down due to hazard damage. However, since seed bomb will be doing quite a bit of damage to Spiritomb, I can also just heal it by rest. It is important to let Milotic take the spore, not Spiritomb, because I desperately need to know when I can wake up, instead of random sleep talking and hoping when I can wake up. Lots of Breloom users think they can get a free sub into a sleeping Tomb, but it would have woken after the second turn while breaking their sub, while they only do around 34% with seed bomb again.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash fire
EVs: 252 HP/4 spatk/252 spdef
Calm nature (+spdef, -atk)
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Protect
- Roar
Standard specially defensive Tran. This is more often than not the MVP of my team, as without it I would have lost about probably 1/3 of my matches. It takes special attacks like a champ, not even being 2HKOed by a Vaporeon's surf. One of the best ways I like to use this is against SubToxic Zapdos. The second I find out its sub toxic I will switch in Hippowdon on Tbolt or sub, and then going to Heatran on an immune toxic. Since they will likely tbolt, I can Roar them out, meaning they will have lost 50% of their health the next time they come in, thanks to SR. I can alternate between flamethrower and Roar each time it switches in until its the last poke left, which then I can just spam flamethrower on it. If it tries to Roost stall it out, Earth power hits them hard while also occasionally lowering the special def one stage.
Heatran also does remarkably well against opposing stall teams. What I do against Forretress is to send out Spiritomb while they try and rapid spin, then I switch in Heatran while they set up spikes/tspikes/payback. Since they will obviously not let their Forrey die that easily, they will then switch to a vaporeon or a gyarados or a blissey or whatever, eat some hefty entry hazard damage, only to get sent back to wherever they came from by Roar. Again, similar to Breloom, if I happen to roar Forrey back in, I will flamethrower instead of Roar on the second turn because they probably will anticipate my Roar and decide to spin instead. I can also do this to Skarmory, except for its even easier than Forretress because Skarmory can't do anything back to Heatran except for a weak brave bird or something. Heatran is also my first in line of defense for the Rotom formes, especially the sub charge ones where nothing else on my team can harm them. Especially in the case where Rotom-H comes in on my Forrey to block rapid spin, Heatran getting a flash fire boost is essentially guaranteed since it will either overheat or will o wisp. If they are stupid enough to let Rotom die to Heatran like that, good for me, Forrey can rapid spin all day long. If they switch out, thats still okay for me, since whatever switches in is going to take a lot of damage from entry hazards and flash fire boosted flamethrower. Even the Rotom-W formes aren't a problem for this beast, just as long as they aren't carrying specs. A scarfed hydro pump does around 35% to this, and I gain some health back by lefties. I actually do more damage to them with flamethrower then they do to me with Hydro pump.
I chose flamethrower > Lava plume because I need the extra power flamethrower provides. Fire blast and overheat were thrown out because they have poor accuracy and PP. Flamethrower gets me just the right amount of damage to things like Celebi, Shaymin, Zapdos, Jirachi, and Rotom. Besides, I already have Tomb to spread burn around, so the burn rate doesn't really matter to me. Earth power is needed so I can OHKO opposing scarf Heatran. This Heatran variant can actually survive an earth power from an opposing Heatran, while still KOing back with its own. Protect does two things. First, it gains an extra turn of lefties recovery while your opponent is struck with an extra turn of residual damage. Second, it scouts for choiced moves. The best example of this is Flygon. Normally you would always switch out for the risk that you would get KOed by EQ, but if they use u-turn they still have the momentum. With protect, you know what move they will use, and can respond accordingly. If they EQ, I just go straight to Hippo to PP stall it. If they u-turn, I just stay in to roar their switch in out and bring a new mon in. This can also be applied to other choiced attackers like Heracross.
Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 def/252 spdef
Bold nature (+def, -atk)
- Aromatherapy
- Seismic Toss
- Softboiled
- Ice beam
All of us should know by now what Blissey does on the battling field. It walls special attackers to hell and back, no matter what you are. The only special attackers this thing can't beat are the ones with recovery and can stall it out, like Crocune, which will be later explained on how I deal with it. However, this thing works especially well with toxic spikes. With two layers of toxic spikes down, stuff like Leech seed Shaymin and Celebi become pointless to face, as they will both be stalled out eventually. Shaymin can possibly be a nuisance to face if it has rest to cancel out toxic, but then I can just switch in Heatran for free, and Roar as they will obviously switch for more damage. Vaporeon is also stalled out, and the only thing it can do to Blissey is to pass wishes to a switch in. I've had Vaporeon try and stall out Blissey before by toxic, but once they see aromatherapy, this is easily nullified. Subpetaya Empoleon, one of the most dangerous sweepers in the metagame, is suddenly taken care of just by slapping Blissey onto my team. One of my favorite ways to deal with LO Starmie is with a combination of Blissey and spiritomb. If I have hazards up, I see all the pokemon I've revealed so far. If my opponent has seen my Spiritomb already, but haven't seen Blissey, they will most likely use Hydro Pump in an attempt to 2KHO it. My actions are to switch in Blissey turn 1 as they hydro pump, and then immediatly switch to Spiritomb as they rapid spin and attack it with Shadow ball. Obviously if my opponent hasn't seen Spiritomb yet and only saw Blissey, I would just switch in Spiritomb right away. If they've seen both, I would just go with the first stragety because switching in Spiritomb is more logical than switching in Blissey, so they won't expect the unexpected. Sometimes this fails, but most of the time it works, so I tend to stick with it.
I chose Aromatherapy and Softboiled over Wish and Protect. This lets me be more reckless with status afflictions throughout the entire game. For instance, if I haven't set up SR up and I desperately need it down, and I'm facing a SubRoost Zapdos, I will let my Hippowdon take the toxic to SR. Another benefit to Aromatherapy is when I am facing a sub Heatran that has toxic. Since Milotic is my first switch in to Heatran and it randomly gets poisoned, I don't need to worry about it as much when Blissey can just heal it right off. If I had wish and protect though, I would have to deal with the poison throughout the whole match.
Ice beam is my preferred secondary attack over anything else. It's extremely useful for this team. Once Spiritomb manages to burn Dragonite, I just have to keep roaring it out till its the last poke left, and then I send out Blissey to land a good hit with ice beam. Blissey can also take on scarf Flygon like a beast, and KO it back. Mix Flygon with Draco Meteor is probably the most dangerous set to this team, but the most powerful attack it can land on Blissey is a LO Earthquake, which doesn't even 2hko. Ice beam takes care of it. Ice beam also gets me a few surprise kills on Breloom that thinks they can set up on Blissey.
Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP/248 def/8 spe
Bold nature (+def, -atk)
- Surf
- Hidden power Electric
- Recover
- Haze
Milotic is my first switch in to a myraid of the metagame's top threats, namely Heatran and Gyarados. With maxed out HP and nearly maxed out defense, plus an awesome base 125 special defense, most balanced teams have a very difficult time taking this thing down. Any attempts to wear Milotic down by toxic can be taken care by Blissey. Milotic is usually my first switch in to Heatran, rather than something like Blissey, because Blissey has be wary of the omnipresent explosion. An explosion from Heatran does around 78% to Milotic, meaning that if I predict an explosion I can just recover off the health. Outside of explosion, Heatran can't do anything to Milotic. LO HP Grass isn't even a 2HKO. Another fire type, Infernape, who is notorious for breaking down stall, is stopped cold by Milotic. However I am careful enough never to switch into a CC, because it unfortunately 2HKOes. So if Infernape comes in on my Heatran or a Blissey, going to Milotic is out of the question. Instead, I would switch in spiritomb to take the obvious fighting move, and then switch in Milotic to take a weak Fire move. If they come in on Forrey however, switching to Milotic would be my first choice.
Recover is the main reason why Milotic is chosen over any other poke, as without it, I could just have easily replaced it for a Vaporeon, or a Suicune, or whatever. Having a one turn recovery move differentiates it from any other bulky water because it makes room for three other move slots. Haze is Milotic's primary function, as without it, my team would lose to any random poke that can somehow block toxic spikes. Curselax and Cursepert are stalled out by a combination of Spiritomb and Milotic. However, I cannot apply this particular stragety to Crocune, since Surf will be doing a lot of damage to Tomb. With Suicune, I basically alternate back and forth between Milotic and Blissey as it CMs or Surfs or whatever. I haze before it gets too many stat boosts, like +2 or +3, highest being +4. I recover when neccessary. You might think Suicune will stall me out since it has pressure, but this isn't the case. All you have to do is keep switching around as it attacks for so little damage and wastes its PP. If you keep switching around without attacking, you won't waste PP, allowing you to win the PP war. An interesting thing to note is that Softboiled and Recover still have 16 PP under pressure, not 8.
The only other thing worth mentioning here is that I chose hp electric over ice beam. While ice beam might alleviate a MixNite problem, if I don't carry HP Electric, then the only way I can beat Gyarados is to burn it with spiritomb. This would just open me up to being completly weak to Taunt Gyara. Besides, I can always play around with MixNite by sending out Spiritomb against it, which lures out a Draco Meteor, and then I switch out to Blissey, Heatran, or Forrey to take it. After Dnite is at -2 and is weakened enough by SR, LO, and SS damage, I can send in Spiritomb to burn it while it Roosts, allowing something like Blissey to finish it off.
