I made a team and it works pretty well! I've been number one on the ladder for quite some time now, so figured I would share it.
I began experimenting with stall after Gholdengo was unbanned, which is why this team is named "Gholdengo stall" in my teambuilder without using Gholdengo. However, this proved to be difficult as 1) Gholdengo EVO doesn't grant a lot of bulk, and 2) There's a lot of dark types running around. However, I found that the slowpoke, gligar, chansey and vullaby core could fairly consistently wall most things offensive threats and wallbreakers. These four were pretty set in stone, while the remaing two slots took a while longer to fill. Rhydon and Dusclops both improve my matchup versus opposing stall and stallbreakers significantly. The final iteration of the team has been consistently very successful and able to handle most archtypes well.
Roles and teambuilding process:
As stated, four pokemon were locked in from the beginning. However, I did experiment with different sets and stat spreads.
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is essential for most stall teams. With unaware it's a reliable hard-counter to most special attackers in the current metagame. Initially I CE'd it with
for the typing and access to will o wisp. However, Clefable has a few notabale advantages over Skeledirge. First of all it's not weak to dark, a common offensive type in the metagame. Second, Clefable gives you 25/25+ defences while Skeledirge only gives 22/17+. The most important benefit is that Clefable gives you access to wish, which is invaluable for keeping the team healthy. Since Chansey is only meant to stay in on special attackers I went for max HP and max SP.def. With HDB you take very little damage switching in and can use wish to pivot around. Wish also has 16 PP, which is handy if your teammates run out recover PP. Chansey handles most variants of
(rain)
and other
&
cross evolutions.
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was also a no brainer. It's one of two knock off absorbers on my team, which is absolutely crucial as I don't have any hazard removers. When status it has 484/703/306 raw defences with max HP & defence. Evenmax attack adamant
5 hits icicle spear doesn't OHKO after rocks + burn. This is also the best counter to opposing offensive Gligars, which it's able to 1v1 with scald. I won't dwell to much on why Gligar works, I'm sure you're familiar with it if you're reading this. As for the movepool I considered running knock off, but the benefits don't outweight the opportunity cost. I also have knock off on Vullaby and Dusclops, which is usually enough. Gligar gets so many switch ins that the opportunity to lay multiple layers of spikes was prefered over stealth rock.
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slowpoke is my wincon. Most games end with slowpoke sweeping after it gets of a curse + amnesia. I usually wait until I've scouted my opponents team out for anything that can stop it, such as salt cure, toxic, encore and trick. With 165/89/120 defences and intimidate this thing gets plenty of opportunities to switch in and set up. Once people see amnesia they will usually switch right into their electric type, if they have one. However, neither
or
can reliably 2HKO at +4 sp.def, while liquidation is a guranteed 2HKO. Liquidation does between 81-96% to
so it needs to be careful switching in aswell. Slowpoke is a pretty good teammate to
and
too, as they can switch into even more after an intimidate. I've considered running more sp.def, but the extra physical check was more useful. Dragon tail and Thunder Wave are also options over amnesia, but neither option is particularly useful compared to amnesia. Bulky setup sweepers aren't all that threatning against
,
and salt cure
.
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this was going on the team no matter what. At first I CE'd it with Gyarados, but another unaware user was too important. With 145/90/140 defences and great defensive typing this things is able to counter most of the dark types running around. Foul play is great for handling threats like
,
,
,
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,
+
and much more. Toxic is always a nice option to have when burns don't cut it. Knock off is also a great utility move and significantly improves my match up versus opposing stall and HDB cores. It's very important to assess whether you need to keep Vullaby healthy at all times. I usually never sack this until I've seen my opponents entire team, as you never know if their last mon has
last respect. Keeping this healthy is extremely important versus
, if you live the icicle spear foul play should OHKO.
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most expect this to be regenerator, but magic guard Dusclops is absolutely necessary. First of all it gives me a switch in to salt cure from
cross evolutions, which can be extremely annoying to deal with. Opposing :dusclop: gargancl: with salt cure + curse is a nightmare deal with if I didn't have Dusclops. Second, it gives me another switch in to knock off. Now, you might correctly point out that Dusclops is weak to knock off. However, with 85/155 defences it's able to live any unboosted knock off, even from
and burn it. Finally, Dusclops is able to comfortably prevent my opponent from spinning away my hazards. As you have more hazard PP than they have defog or mortal spin PP, you will eventually win the hazard war. Since this thing usually absorbs a knock off throughout the game I decided to give it sticky barb. With knock off you can remove their item and if you time it right give them the sticky barb. This is great versus opposing stall teams.
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I initially ran this with
to better handle
, but it was extremely underwhelming. Three unaware users really wasn't necessary, and there's few things it can handle that the rest of my team couldn't on its own. It rarely finds opportunities to switch in and get up rocks. However, Rhydon was still a good base for a cross evo, even if Skeledirge didn't fit. I need a stealth rocker and eventually I landed on a
cross evo. The quad weakness to grass/water really isn't that difficult to handle, as both are quite rare as coverage moves. In comparison to
you trade a weakness to ghost/dark for steel/fighting/ground, while gaining a resistance to flying and fire. In the current metagame this was an easy decision. Rhydon functions as a status absorber and stealth rocker. Salt cure is excellent for making progress and stopping setup sweepers.
Threats:
can break through my entire team depending on the set. I usually have to sack atleast one pokemon to take it down or to status it.
if my team has been weakened this thing can sweep, I have to keep
healthy at all times to check this.
banded can break through my team if
and
are weakened.
I can't stop this from getting of a belly drum, and if it has the right moves and speed investment then it 6-0s my entire team right of the bat.
& Last respect can be a huge problem to deal with if Vullaby is weakened.
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. Pivot cores can be quite frustrating to deal with if they have reliable hazard control. Electabuzz forces me to switch into Chansey, and there's nothing preventing them from volt switching until my team is sufficiently weakened for a wallbreaker. A good regenerator user could be helpful here, but I couldn't fit it in. Gligar can't reliably switch into hurricanes. I lost to Zendattas' rain team because of this, which you can watch in the replays.