Monotype Still Water

[cwarning]

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Hello and welcome to my recently thrown together Stall team! Stall is one of my favorite archetypes to play because I love strategizing and feeling like I'm piloting the game. This type of playstyle is really commonplace with me considering I play Stax and Control in Magic, the Gathering, but that's about all you really need to know about me. You didn't come here for those details, you came here for the team.

I built this team primarily because my personal group of friends are preparing monotype teams for Pokemon Sword and Shield. We all drew types from a hat and whatever type we pulled, we had to build a team around it. I pulled Water from the hat, and instead of building Swift Swim or Balance, I wanted to try my hand at putting together a Stall team. The house rules we set are a bit different from the monotype metagame from what I understand as well because we're opting not to use legendaries or Uber tier level Pokemon. This allows us to play rather barebones, which helps considering we can easily breed for IVs and it also gives our teams an almost "gym leader" type of feel to it. I've done this a few times before with these friends, and it's always proven to be a challenge and a blast to see what people come up with given the constraints of the house rules. I'm here because I want to seek advice from competitive players who have experience with monotype teams, and I'd really appreciate any and all feedback, comments, and criticism.

Big Chungus (Azumarill) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Whirlpool
- Perish Song
- Protect
- Rest

Azumarill is kind of the centerpiece behind the whole team. His Perish Song set is incredibly useful to trap Pokemon that are otherwise problematic for the rest of the team and he can really put in work against a predicted grass move given his immunity to grass with Sap Sipper. One can opt for Thick Fat instead, but fire and ice already doesn't affect Azumarill too much, and grass immunity is vitally important in my opinion. Whirlpool is used to trap the opposing Pokemon while Perish song sets a clock for the opponent to try and outpace. Protect buys us a turn when we're stalling during a Perish Song or when the opponent is crippled by Toxic or Burn coupled with residual Whirlpool damage. Rest is the only good form of innate recovery Azumarill has access to while also removing a harmful status effect.

Quagsire (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Recover

Unaware Quagsire does so much for us. He's an answer to our worst matchup against electric types, and he switches into setup sweepers with ease. Scald is used as a STAB move with a chance to burn the opponent, and Earthquake is simply a powerful STAB move to hit what Quagsire wants to switch into very hard. Toxic withers down enemies while we... ya know... stall. Recover offers Quagsire some inherent longevity as well.

Toxapex (F) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 140 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic Spikes
- Haze
- Recover

I was really glad that I was able to use Toxapex on this team. Pex is an absolute powerhouse and walls so many things. She forms a nice Regenerator core with Alo as well. Scald is here again for a STAB move that can proc a burn. Toxic Spikes can be set up over the course of two turns to afflict a grounded opponent with Toxic. Haze resets buffs to halt setup sweepers. Lastly, Recovery is here again just to be annoying and stall because you can never have too much longevity when your goal is to stall.

Alomomola (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 8 HP / 252 Def / 248 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Wish
- Protect
- Mirror Coat

I absolutely love defensive Alomomola. This is a mon that I've played in UU alongside Blissey and they've covered each other's weaknesses impeccably. Through a similar vein, that's her role here as well. Alo and Pex form a great Regenerator core with one another and provides Wish support on top of that. Scald is here again for redundancy because it's really the best water STAB move stall can use. Wish and Protect are used in conjunction with one another to heal Alo, or provide Wish support for a teammate given her massive health pool. I'm currently flexing between Mirror Coat and Knock Off at the moment, but I'm not entirely sure what's more beneficial for the team.

Mantine (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Defog
- Roost

Mantine is here for Defog support as well as a ground immunity for Pex and Lanturn. On top of that, he can bait an electric attack for both Lanturn and Quagsire to eat. Scald is here again for the reasons I've provided already, and you can expect to see a similar sentence in regard to Lanturn's moveset. Air Slash is a solid STAB move to cause a flinch and offer offensive coverage for flying. Defog is used to remove hazards, and Roost offers Mantine some longevity as well at the cost of being grounded for a turn.

Lanturn (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 128 HP / 128 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Volt Switch
- Protect
- Heal Bell

Lanturn was ultimately decided on over finishing off the team with a defensive Mega Swampert or a Mega Slowbro. The reason being is that Lanturn is a switch-in to an electric move that doesn't have a 4x weakness to grass. On top of that, Lanturn offers cleric support and serves as a pivot to gain momentum for our Regenerator core. Scald is here because it's Scald. Volt Switch turns Lanturn into a reliable pivot. Stall loves Protect to capitalize on all of the residual damage we're dealing. Finally, Heal Bell cures our team of status effects.

That about wraps it up for the team. I plan to edit and update this list as I test things further. I'm mostly concerned with my matchups against electric teams, but so far I've been playing around them fairly well. Similarly, grass also seems like a potent threat to us, and I'm worried steel and poison can also be a bit awkward to play around given their immunities to Toxic. Otherwise, I feel a bit weird for not including a Mega Evolution on the team, but I don't know where I would fit it if I were to include it. Suggestions are greatly appreciated and I look forward to hearing from you! Thanks!

Replays:
Stabilizing Against Electric
Unaware Quagsire Carry
Greedy Plays vs Poison
Trapping Bugs
Ice Unaware of Unaware Quag

 

[Lin]

Greetings. Stall in monotype is indeed an interesting topic because it usually doesn't work simply because it's a matchup-based format. If you are facing Electric- or Grass-type for example, you might as well give up before even playing. However, if any type can run a stall team, its Water-type.

The team itself doesn't look bad. The lineup looks pretty standard and this is probably one of the best lineups you may expect from a Water-type stall team. There is nothing much to change here so I will just suggest you small adjustments.

EVs: 252 HP / 160 SpD / 96 Spe > Some other spread.
Air Slash > Toxic

Mantine runs 96 Speed in order to Haze Azumarill's Belly Drum. Since you lack Haze on Mantine and you have an Unaware Quagsire in the team, this spread has no real purpose. You may try 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 SpD just to be bulkier. Another note is Air Slash also offers very little use. Amount of Pokemon you will outspeed and effectively use Air Slash is quite limited, and it won't help you beat certain stuff like Mega Venusaur regardless, so no reason to keep it.

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD > EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 140 SpD
Black Sludge > Icium Z
Bold Nature > Calm Nature

Note that these changes are optional since your house rules include that you cannot use legendaries, so you may ignore the part concerning Jirachi. I'll say it anyway in case you decide to use this team to ladder or something. I suggest this set so you don't have a hard time against Taunt Kommo-o and Z-Happy Hour Jirachi. Mixed Taunt Kommo-o is an annoyance to your team once Azumarill goes down, and Z-Happy Hour Jirachi has tools to hit everything without any major problems or at least chip it hard enough to let a teammate clean late-game( Like Mega Gallade). 140 SpD and a Calm nature ensure that you live a Psychic from Jirachi at +1 after Stealth Rock to haze, and Icium Z lets you remove boosts from Kommo-o while Taunted.

Z Haze Toxapex

Toxapex @ Icium Z
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 140 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Haze
- Toxic Spikes
- Recover

Hope this helps out :)

 

[Samallmighty]

Hi cwarning! Stall water is definitely a respectable archetype and one any competitive player should be prepared for. I've been using this team as well for quite a while so I can tell it's a good one. Perish song said it's matchup reliant, well monotype is by definition matchup reliant, so I don't think this is an issue. Besides grass is actually far from an autolose given that you can pivot around your regenerator core to scout for coverage moves and then absorb wood hammers from bulu and spore from breloom with azumarill. I wish I saved a replay to emphathize this. A few tweaks I would suggest to improve the team:
1) air slash has no real purpose, even for grass types toxic generally puts more pressure to them than a weak uninvested air slash that ohkos no relevant threat (outside breloom whose focus sash is broken but how will you break it in the first place without rocks?). Also, as perish song pointed out, the speed ev is also useless here since you have a quagsire to take care of opposing z-bd azumarill. Haze is still a valid option but I'd personally go for toxic as you can't have too much toxic spreaders on a stall team, especially without rocks.
2) I don't know if your friendly rules allow mega-evolutions, but assuming they do, I'd advise to replace alomomola by cm m-slowbro. It gives you a very nice wincon, setting up even vs things you wouldn't expect him to like vs bisharp in the steel and dark mu. M-slowbro is also a better answer to almost everything alomomola covers like m-pinsir and m-gallade.
3) I'm debating which item is the best for toxapex. Black sludge is generally the go to for a defensive poison type but Perish song's suggestion of icium-z is quite standard as well. I also had success with rocky helmet in order to make you win more comfortably the u-turn spam war.
If you make these changes, well, you have the version I used for quite some time and I believe you can easily climb to the 1700's without many problems, except maybe finding some toxic people insulting you for the sake of playing stall and being heavily in favor of killing your whole family for that purpose (I mean, even when playing hyper offense, some people will still insult you anyways, so just ignore them xd). One last thing: havens posted a very similar rmt featuring m-slowbro instead of alomomola: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/tbt-to-dpp-water-stall-w-a-few-new-additions.3622061/ . Several of his sets are a tiny bit outdated due to the matagame shifting. But overall his team is extremely similar to yours, so I think you should read it! On a more original note, Vin Flint also made a water stall team: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...-mono-water-stall-peak-7-ladder-1766.3639995/ . I also tested this concept and although it works better with our beloved leader eien's changes, I can say this team is also one worth considering. Ayway, thanks for bringing this up and gl winning your friendly tourney ^^!

 

[cwarning]

Greetings. Stall in monotype is indeed an interesting topic because it usually doesn't work simply because it's a matchup-based format. If you are facing Electric- or Grass-type for example, you might as well give up before even playing. However, if any type can run a stall team, its Water-type.

The team itself doesn't look bad. The lineup looks pretty standard and this is probably one of the best lineups you may expect from a Water-type stall team. There is nothing much to change here so I will just suggest you small adjustments.

EVs: 252 HP / 160 SpD / 96 Spe > Some other spread.
Air Slash > Toxic

Mantine runs 96 Speed in order to Haze Azumarill's Belly Drum. Since you lack Haze on Mantine and you have an Unaware Quagsire in the team, this spread has no real purpose. You may try 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 SpD just to be bulkier. Another note is Air Slash also offers very little use. Amount of Pokemon you will outspeed and effectively use Air Slash is quite limited, and it won't help you beat certain stuff like Mega Venusaur regardless, so no reason to keep it.

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD > EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 140 SpD
Black Sludge > Icium Z
Bold Nature > Calm Nature

Note that these changes are optional since your house rules include that you cannot use legendaries, so you may ignore the part concerning Jirachi. I'll say it anyway in case you decide to use this team to ladder or something. I suggest this set so you don't have a hard time against Taunt Kommo-o and Z-Happy Hour Jirachi. Mixed Taunt Kommo-o is an annoyance to your team once Azumarill goes down, and Z-Happy Hour Jirachi has tools to hit everything without any major problems or at least chip it hard enough to let a teammate clean late-game( Like Mega Gallade). 140 SpD and a Calm nature ensure that you live a Psychic from Jirachi at +1 after Stealth Rock to haze, and Icium Z lets you remove boosts from Kommo-o while Taunted.

Z Haze Toxapex

Toxapex @ Icium Z
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 140 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Haze
- Toxic Spikes
- Recover

Hope this helps out :)

Thank you! I'll revise these meta specific spreads accordingly considering they may affect me with my house rules quite differently. Considering I'm Mono-Water in my friend group, Belly Drum Azumarill is only accessible to the guy who pulled Fairy. I think I'm willing to give Mantine more bulk considering I have Haze on Pex and Unaware on Quagsire to manage that threat. I've also noticed that Psychic is one of those hit or miss matchups. My team fell to a Contrary Malamar once because I lost my Quagsire, but when I played against the archetype again I figured out how to play around it. However, I realized Toxapex really does not want to switch into a Psychic type. I'll try your more mixed Pex spread out and see how I like it for tanking out physical attacks too.

Hi cwarning! Stall water is definitely a respectable archetype and one any competitive player should be prepared for. I've been using this team as well for quite a while so I can tell it's a good one. Perish song said it's matchup reliant, well monotype is by definition matchup reliant, so I don't think this is an issue. Besides grass is actually far from an autolose given that you can pivot around your regenerator core to scout for coverage moves and then absorb wood hammers from bulu and spore from breloom with azumarill. I wish I saved a replay to emphathize this. A few tweaks I would suggest to improve the team:
1) air slash has no real purpose, even for grass types toxic generally puts more pressure to them than a weak uninvested air slash that ohkos no relevant threat (outside breloom whose focus sash is broken but how will you break it in the first place without rocks?). Also, as perish song pointed out, the speed ev is also useless here since you have a quagsire to take care of opposing z-bd azumarill. Haze is still a valid option but I'd personally go for toxic as you can't have too much toxic spreaders on a stall team, especially without rocks.
2) I don't know if your friendly rules allow mega-evolutions, but assuming they do, I'd advise to replace alomomola by cm m-slowbro. It gives you a very nice wincon, setting up even vs things you wouldn't expect him to like vs bisharp in the steel and dark mu. M-slowbro is also a better answer to almost everything alomomola covers like m-pinsir and m-gallade.
3) I'm debating which item is the best for toxapex. Black sludge is generally the go to for a defensive poison type but Perish song's suggestion of icium-z is quite standard as well. I also had success with rocky helmet in order to make you win more comfortably the u-turn spam war.
If you make these changes, well, you have the version I used for quite some time and I believe you can easily climb to the 1700's without many problems, except maybe finding some toxic people insulting you for the sake of playing stall and being heavily in favor of killing your whole family for that purpose (I mean, even when playing hyper offense, some people will still insult you anyways, so just ignore them xd). One last thing: havens posted a very similar rmt featuring m-slowbro instead of alomomola: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/tbt-to-dpp-water-stall-w-a-few-new-additions.3622061/ . Several of his sets are a tiny bit outdated due to the matagame shifting. But overall his team is extremely similar to yours, so I think you should read it! On a more original note, Vin Flint also made a water stall team: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...-mono-water-stall-peak-7-ladder-1766.3639995/ . I also tested this concept and although it works better with our beloved leader eien's changes, I can say this team is also one worth considering. Ayway, thanks for bringing this up and gl winning your friendly tourney ^^!

Thanks for the advice! I'll be swapping Toxic over to Mantine right away. My playgroup is allowing Mega Evolutions, although I learned that Megas and Z moves will not be ported over to Sword and Shield between last night and this morning. I also found out the certain Pokemon may be barred from the game, and will not be transferable which is a huge letdown for me. That being said, the development of this team may change significantly between now and launch, but we're just going to have to wait and see how everything plays out. I'm not terribly torn that Megas and Z moves will be removed with the addition of Dynamaxing to avoid complexities. However, I really don't like how not every Pokemon will be transferrable at launch at least, and hopefully, public reception has some sort of impact. From a developer's standpoint, I do get it because it's difficult to render those 900 or so assets with motion in full HD, but it really feels like a cop-out to me for selling an incomplete game. That's just my hot take on things though, I'm just hoping my favorites can make the cut and aren't stuck in USUM. I just find this to be rather conflicting considering that it goes against the spirit of completing the Pokedex is all. I apologize for the small rant there by the way. I think I'll be testing Z Haze Toxapex though because I want to get a feel for what I like on the team. For what it's worth, I'll also be testing Mega Slowbro over Alo even though I'm going to miss the Wish support. It does feel like a rather inline replacement though and will help in this current metagame. Oh yeah, and I love it when HO players complain. It's one of the many reasons I play Stall, so death threats and insults are something I'm quite familiar with. ;)