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 Stall in Fifth Gen OU

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JimmyCrystal
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JimmyCrystal


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Stall in Fifth Gen OU Empty
PostSubject: Stall in Fifth Gen OU   Stall in Fifth Gen OU Icon_minitimeWed Aug 29, 2012 3:24 pm

Hey guys, I know I'm not a professor, but seeing darki's post about the Pokemon basics inspired me to write something, so here's a guide to stall in fifth gen. Any comments/questions/criticisms are welcome, just post below.

STALL:
A GUIDE TO STALL IN FIFTH GEN OU
By JimmyCrystal

Stall is a very effective and often underrated playstyle. It involves using bulky pokemon and passive damage to bring a team down, rather than powerful attacks and sweepers. Stall teams commonly are seen with all types of entry hazards, reliable recovery, phazing, toxic, and other such strategies.

This will focus mostly on the Stall environment in OU. Maybe a bit later we can add in other tiers, but I know *absolutely nothing* about UU and NU and very little about Ubers, particularly when it comes to stall.

RESIDUAL DAMAGE:
Residual damage is, in short, any damage not directly caused by a move. Entry hazards, damage from status effects, life orb damage, recoil from recoil moves, and damage from weather are all different kinds of residual damage. Residual damage is the main form of damage that Stall teams will deal, and as such, it is very important.

ENTRY HAZARDS:
One of the most important features of a Stall team is hazards. the majority of the damage inflicted through stall comes through hazards and other residual damage, so it is important to get hazards set up. For those of you who don't know, there are three types of entry hazards, spikes, stealth rock, and toxic spikes. Spikes cause damage to any grounded pokemon switching in, stripping that pokemon of 1/8 of their health for the first layer of spikes. Spikes can be used up to 3 times, each time putting one more layer in place. With 2 layers of spikes on the field, grounded pokemon take 1/6 of their health switching in, and with 3 layers, 1/4. That being said, spikes do not affect flying types, levitators, pokemon with an intact air baloon, or pokemon with the ability magic gaurd.

Stealth rock, the next entry hazard, is the most common. It can only be used once, and takes health from all pokemon switching into battle, barring those with the magic gaurd ability. Stealth rock takes a variable amount of health, depending on the pokemon switching in's weakness or resistance to rock. A pokemon nuetral to rock will lose 1/8 of its health switching in. One that resists rock will lose 1/16 or its health, and one weak to rock will take 1/4. This continues for 1/4 resist and 4x weakness. Stealth rock and spikes can only leave the battlefield if the move rapid spin (20 base power, 100 acc) is used and affects its target.

Toxic Spikes are a slightly different hazard. Like spikes, multiple layers can be set up (in this case 2), but unlike the first two hazards, toxic spikes don't cause damage switching in. Instead, Toxic Spikes poisons any opponent who is switching in, barring any pokemon who are already statused, flying types, levitators, pokemon with the ability immunity, steel types, or poison types. If one layer of toxic spikes is set up, opponents will be poisoned normally, taking 1/8 of their health per turn. If two layers of Toxic Spikes are set up, then any opponent switching in (without any of the aforementioned qualities making them immune) will be badly poisoned, or toxic poisoned. This means that they will lose 1/16 of their the first turn, with the amount increasing by 1/16th each turn, effectivelz making them lose more health the longer they stay in. Toxic Spikes can be removed by either a poison type switching in OR rapid spin, like the other entry hazards.

There are many hazard setters in OU. The list is as follows:

Dugtrio: Stealth Rock
Tentacruel: Toxic Spikes
Cloyster: Toxic Spikes, Spikes, Toxic Spikes
Chansey/Blissey: Stealth Rock
Forretress: Stealth Rock, Spikes, Toxic Spikes
Skarmory: Stealth Rock, Spikes
Tyranitar: Stealth Rock
Celebi: Stealth Rock
Metagross: Stealth Rock
Jirachi: Stealth Rock
Deoxys (Defense): Stealth Rock, Spikes
Infernape: Stealth Rock
Gliscor: Stealth Rock
Heatran: Stealth Rock
Ferrothorn: Stealth Rock, Spikes
Mew: Stealth Rock
Deoxys D: Stealth Rock, Spikes

It should be noted that there are many hazard setters in UU and RU that can be used quite effectively in OU play. However, I don't want to list all of the hazard setters, so you'll have to deal with this for now.

A quick overview of the list completely rules out two Pokemon:

-Dugtrio is too frail to act as a hazard setter for a stall team (and, quite frankly, has better things to be doing, not in a stall team).
-Cloyster is in OU purely for shell smash. Its atrocious special defense stat and hp make it a tough choice for a stall team. While it could be used as a spinner and pysical wall, its hp and stealth rock weakness make it a poorer candidate for the job.

TOXIC:
Toxic is generally a great move to have. It badly poisons its foes, dealing more damage each turn the opponent stays in. First it takes 1/16th of a foes health, and takes 1/16 of the foes health more every turn. So on the first turn it takes 1/16th, then 1/8th (2/16th), then 3/16th, then 1/4... etc. Toxic forces switches and helps wear down bulkier pokemon, espeically those with instant recovery (not rest though).

I won't list the pokemon who have toxic, because that would take forever. Generally you can assume that any Pokemon you want to have on your stall team can learn Toxic.

Toxic is one of the main ways in which Stall teams deal damage. It works quite well in conjunction with protect.

BURN:
Burning your opponent allows you to do two things: the first is that a burn causes residual damage at a constant rate of 1/8th per turn. The second, and more important reason to burn your opponent is that it halves their physical attack stat. This can be very useful as it allows the stall team to take on physical threats much more easily.

There are three major ways to cause a burn. The first is Wil-O-Wisp, a 75 accuracy fire type move that always causes a burn if it hits. It does nothing else. The second is lava plume, which is an 80 base power 100 accuracy special fire type move with a 30% chance to cause a burn. The third is scald, which is an 80 base power 100 accuracy water type move with a 30% chance to burn.

DEALING WITH STATUS AND HAZARDS:
CLERICS:
A cleric is a Pokemon who has the move heal bell or the move aromatherapy. When this move is used, it removes any status affects from Pokemon on the cleric's team.

The following OU Pokemon can be used as clerics:
Blissey/Chansey
Vaporeon
Celebi
Jolteon
Mew
Espeon
(and I think Meleotta in B2/W2... not sure)

Jolteon probably won't be on a stall team or running heal bell. It could make for an interesting option on a balanced or offensive team though.... Bliss/Chans, Vaporeon, Celebi, and Mew are probably the best options, thanks to their good defensive builds. Espeon is generally not seen on stall teams, since its her ability to lay down and block hazards (and other moves) with magic bounce that sets her apart, and these moves are usually taken care of by a cleric, a rapid spinner, and a hazard setter on a stall team anyway, making Espeon redundant and not very useful due to her frailty.

NATURAL CURE:
Pokemon with the ability natural cure can be used as status absorbers on Stall teams that lack heal bell (or just status absorbers in general). Natural cure heals the pokemon of status upon switching out. It can also be used in conjunction with rest to heal to full health and then switch out to wake up (this is refered to as naturalresting and is most commonly seen on shaymin and roserade).

The following OU Pokemon can have the ability natural cure:
Blissey/Chansey
Celebi
Starmie

REST TALK:
Users of the RestTalk strategy also make good status absorbers. They can switch into a status move like toxic and, when they get to low health, use the move rest to fall asleep for two turns. During these two turns they can use sleep talk, which randomly selects another move to use while asleep (this can be unfortunate when sleep talk uses rest). Almost any non fifth gen Pokemon can use RestTalk from the fourth gen move tutor. I think there might also be a tutor in B2/W2, which would help fifth gen pokes use RestTalk.

POISON TYPES:
Grounded poison types have the ability to remove toxic spikes purely by switching into the game. If you do not want to resort to a rapid spinner to take out toxic spikes, a grounded poison type can also be used (it is reccomended that you carry a rapid spinner anyway though).

The following are grounded poison types in OU:
Tentacruel
Toxicroak
Venusaur

RAPID SPIN:
Rapid spin is a 20 base power, Normal type move. It deals physical damage (lol) and makes contact with the opponent.

The most important effect of rapid spin in competitive play is the fact that rapid spin removes any entry hazards from the side of the field of the pokemon who used rapid spin (as well as disabling leech seed, which is often useful, and getting rid of trapping moves [i.e. Fire Spin, Wrap] which is not very useful). It should be noted that these affects only occur if rapid spin hits an opponent. If rapid spin misses, thanks to an ability like sand veil or another accuracy or evasion move, the hazards will not be blown away (same with leech seed and multiturn-trapping moves). It will also fail to affect ghost types, unless the move foresight has been used on said ghost type prior to the use of rapid spin. Protect also blocks the affects of rapid spin on the turn protect is used, while substitute does not block the affects of rapid spin.

Generally speaking, Stall teams don't like to take residual damage. It compromises the bulk of the pokemon on the team, which is why many stall teams use heal bell and rapid spin to ensure that they take as little residual damage as possible. Almost all stall teams will carry a rapid spinner.

The following OU Pokemon can learn rapid spin:
-Cloyster
-Donphan
-Forretress
-Starmie
-Tentacruel

Cloyster is hardly ever seen in a defensive role in OU. It mostly prefers to smash its shell and get sweeping. Donphan can work well as a physical wall, despite many weaknesses, and can also fit well into a sand team with sand viel. Donphan can also pack a strong earthquake and, even more importantly, key priority in ice shard. Forretress is a great physical wall that can take hits and respond with hazards (it learns all three) and rapid spin. It also has volt switch to maintain momentum. Starmie has great offensive prowess, but generally it is outclassed defensively. It can help with instant revovery and natural cure as well as STAB scald to cause burns (and toxic, since just about everything can learn that). Tentacruel is a great Specially defensive spinner. It has scald to deal damage and cause burns, and can also use rain dish in conjunction with black sludge to heal 1/8 of its health per turn. Coupled with protect and tentacruel's toxic spikes, this can make it very hard to take down in rain. It can also run clear body or liquid ooze on non-rain teams, making it versatile.

SPIN BLOCKING:
Stall teams like their hazards. Generally, they want them to stay around as long as possible. This is why most stall teams run a spinblocker.

A spin blocker is an often bulky ghost type. The general idea is that when a rapid spinner comes onto the field, the ghost type can be switched in, allowing the stall team's hazards to remain in place.

Spin Blockers still cannot block foresight rapid spin, however.

The Following Pokemon are the ghost types of OU: Gengar and Jellicent. Gengar is usually a more offensive Pokemon, and as such is rarely seen on Stall teams. This leaves Jellicent to spinblock. However, a couple more Pokemon should be mentioned. Here are the most usable spinblockers:
-Jellicent
-Spiritomb
-Sableye
-Cofagrigus
-Dusclops (Dusknoir)
-Froslass

The main advantages to each are as follows:

-Jellicent has instant recovery, is bulky, and can wall a lot of things with unique typing and water absorb. It works as a good check to rain teams, and well it has better special bulk, scald can help make the most of its physical bulk.

-Spiritomb has no weaknesses. It has Wil-o-Wisp and pain split for unreliable recovery. It has fair bulk, with good defenses but an unfortunately low hp stat. Additionally, if playing against a foresight rapid spinner, like hitmontop, it can pale at the thought of super effective close combat.

-Sableye also has no weaknesses. It has low defensive stats, but can make the most of them with instant recovery. It was granted a gift with prankster in gen 5, allowing it priority taunt, trick, Wil-O-Wisp, recover, and toxic, among other things. It also has night shade or seismic toss to break down pokemon it can't touch in other ways.

-Cofagrigus has great physical bulk (and usable special bulk too) as well as an ability that can shut down the likes of azumarril, medicham, and other pokemon who rely on their ability. It can use rest for recovery, and has options like wil-o-wisp, haze, toxic, and decently powered shadow ball.

-Dusclops is terrifyingly bulky in its defenses but lacks the power to do much damage and carries a lower hp stat than could be wished. It also lacks reliable recovery which hinders its usefulness, relying on pain split or rest to get its health back. Dusknoir can do more damage with its 100 base attack, but its bulk isn't nearly on the same level as Dusclops. It also lacks instant recovery.

-Froslass' main advantage over the other ghost types is its ability to set up spikes and spinblock at the same time. Most of the time, however, Froslass is outclassed due to the fact that most stall teams will use a bulkier hazard setter. Froslass is a definite consideration for hail stall though, able to abuse its snow cloak ability.

HAZING (AND UNAWARE):
Hazing is the using of the move haze. Hazers carry the move haze. Aren't Pokemon names complicated? Haze is an ice type move that does not damage the target. It has 100 accuracy. Haze gets rid of any stat changes, for instance, a swords dance boost. This allows stall teams to stop set up sweepers.

There are five potential hazers in OU:
Gengar
Dragonite
Politoed
Tentacruel
Vaporeon

Gengar can't use it particularly well, but other than that the other users can easily be seen on a stall team. Politoed especially is given a niche through unique moves like perish song and haze, giving it options to contribute to a rain stall team.

The only advantage of haze over phazing is that it doesn't have the unfortunate negative priority of phazing (-6). This can allow Pokemon like murkrow to use priority haze thanks to prankster.

Unaware is an ability that causes Pokemon with said ability to ignore stat boosts. For instance, a +6 bug bite from scizor will do just as much damage to a pokemon with unaware as a normal bug bite would, at +0 attack. There are no unaware users in OU.

PHAZING:
Phazing, or Psuedo-Hazing, is using moves to force the opponent's pokemon to switch out. Like Haze, this removes any stat boosts, but it also has a few other advantages that generally make it better than hazing. Phazing's other important effect is that it forces pokemon to take more entry hazard damage. On a predicted switch, phazing can be used to force an opponent's Pokemon back out of battle, both forcing a new pokemon in and making both pokemon that switched in during the turn take damage from entry hazards.

The following moves cause Phazing:
Roar
Whirlwind
Dragon Tail
Circle Throw

Roar/Whirlwind forces the opponent to switch pokemon with 100% accuracy, no matter if the opposing Pokemon is behind a substitute or not. The only real difference between the two is that roar is blocked by the ability soundproof. Both fail if the opponent uses protect. Dragon tail and circle throw are 90% accurate, 60 base power moves that cause the opponent to be forced out, unless said opponent is behind a substitute, protecting itself, or is immune to the move. These moves do a little damage to the opposition while phazing, and, even more importantly, these moves can still phaze through taunt.

The following OU Pokemon can phaze via moves:
Roar:
Hippowdon
Heatran
Donphan
Skarmory
Gyarados
Dragonite
Latios
Latias
Salamence
Ninetales
Virizion
Mamoswine
Lucario
Heatran
Haxorus
Tyranitar
Hydregion
Infernape
Jolteon
Keldeo
Venusaur
Terrakion

Whirlwind:
Hippowdon
Volcanora
Skarmory

Dragon Tail:
Salamence
Dragonite
Tyranitar
Hydregion
Haxorus
Mew
Gyarados

Circle Throw:
Lucario

DEALING WITH TAUNT:
There isn't too much to be said here, except that Stall teams hate taunt. A good check for taunt users is having at least one attack on every Pokemon, making your team less susceptible to taunt. With proper prediction, you can attack on the taunt turns, so as to actually manage to do something useful on the taunt turns (as opposed to using, say, stealth rocks and having nothing happen because of taunt). Some attacks, such as Seismic Toss and Night Shade, do 100 damage no matter what (assuming level 100 Pokemon) and can be used on Pokemon with poor attacking stats to circumvent taunt.

Another way to deal with taunt is to have your own, faster taunt user, who can outspeed and taunt your opponents, nullifying taunt. For instance, if you are facing a taunt gyarados, you might send in a sableye. Sableye can use its priority taunt to make gyarados' taunt fail, and proceed to wil-o-wisp it next turn (or something) (you get the idea).

WISH PASSING:
Wish is a move that has been around since the third generation, but it got a big boost in Generation 5: Wish now heals not half of the health of the Pokemon recieving the wish when passed, but half of the wisher's HP. So what does this mean? Well, let's look at how wish works.

When the move wish is used, whatever Pokemon is in play for the wishers team at the end of the next turn, regardless of what Pokemon this is, will recieve the wish, unless the Pokemon has fainted on that turn (you can't wish pass to something that will die upon switching in). Wish is often used with protect, so that it can also act as a psuedo-instant recovery move.

It should be noted that the Pokemon who can best recieve wish passes resist any moves that would be super effective against the wishing Pokemon. For instance, most people target Chansey with a strong, physical fighting type move. So, some of the best wish recievers to be paired with Chansey are physical walls and ghost types, and, in general, things that resist fighting type moves.

The following Pokemon can Wish Pass in OU:
-Vaporeon
-Jolteon
-Espeon
-Jirachi
-Latias
-Blissey/Chansey
-Salamence

Salamence, Espeon, and Jolteon stand out immediately as being too frail to be used effectively on a stall team. The wish passer who stands out most is Blissey/Chansey, being able to pass wishes over 350 HP, enough to heal most Pokemon back to full, and having only one weakness to fighting type attacks. With Eviolite, Chansey has much more physical bulk than Blissey, even allowing a defensive Chansey to pp stall out a choice banded scizor locked into Superpower. Vaporeon also has a notable 130 hp stat, with different weaknesses and resistances, and fairly good special bulk, as well as phazing support, water absorb, or on rain teams, hyrdationrest. Jirachi can run a multitude of sets abusing both serene grace and his 100 base stats combined with excellent typing.

WEATHER + STALL:
This could hardly be considered an OU Stall guide if I didn't include a section on the most powerful force in OU right now- Weather. In OU, it is one of the most dominant forces in the game. Some stall teams, such as sand stall and hail stall, focus on weather, where as others focus on countering weather, not utilizing it themselves. On a weather centric team, weather can be set up permanently by a weather inducer, or it can be set up through the use of a move like rain dance, which allows for Swift Swimmers to shine.

Generally, any Stall team using weather will prefer the permanent weather versions- most of the banned Pokemon with permaweather are offensive. So lets have a look at the weather inducers that we have to choose from:

-Politoed and Rain Stall:
Politoed is one of the most popular Pokemon in OU right now thanks to its drizzle ability which summons permanent rain to the field. Rain can do a number of things for stall teams- the first, and most obvious, is cut the damage from fire type attacks in half, allowing defensive Pokemon with fire weaknesses, like Ferrothorn and Forretress, to shine. Rain also triggers some interesting abilities, such as rain dish, dry skin, and hydration. Rain dish and dry skin both heal health in the rain- 1/16th per turn for turn in rain for rain dish, 1/8th of health per turn in rain for dry skin. Dry skin also loses 1/8th of its health per turn and heals 25% of its health when hit by a water type attack. Hydration protects its user from any type of status. This allows an interesting combination of Hydration + Rest, allowing a Pokemon, such as vaporeon, to heal back to full health immediately in Rain.

Politoed itself has decent Special attack, combined with what is essentially double STAB on water type moves thanks to rain, and fair bulk, especially its special bulk. This allows Politoed to take on a variety of roles, both offensive and supportive. Stall teams mostly deal with a more supportive toed, and especially a physically bulky toed since A.) Stall matches tend to last a while, so winning the weather war is vital, B.) An Offensive Politoed has few, if any, other offensive Pokemon to pair it with on a Stall team, making it harder to support, and C.) Politoed has a variety of support moves which can be extremely useful to stall. Politoed possesses Perish Song, to break up baton pass chains; Haze, to crush the hopes of Stat Boosters; Toxic, useful to spread on any stall team, and especially useful to hit Pokemon like Dragonite immune to toxic spikes; protect, always useful with toxic for stalling, as well as enabling it to scout for various moves on opposing Pokemon, especially choiced Pokemon, as well as heal itself with leftovers; and scald, which can help increase politoed's physical bulk by spreading burns, help it not be forced out by taunt, and giving it a weapon against dugtrio, who would love to trap and take out Politoed.

There are a number of useful supporters in rain stall. Essentially the list boils down to:

-Ferrothorn:
Two times weakness to fire and fighting in rain. Great defenses. Any two moves of spikes, stealth rock, and leech seed, as well as offensive options like power whip, bulldoze, and gyro ball and more support options like thunder wave.

-Vaporeon:
HyrdationResting, wish passing, heal bell, toxic, scald... this Pokemon does it all. The hardest part about using Vaporeon is deciding what not to put on it- there are so many good options.

-Tentacruel:
Rain Dish, Black Sludge, Protect, Rapid Spin, Toxic Spikes, Scald, and good speed and Special Defense all contribute to make Tentacruel one of the best support Pokemon in rain. It hardly ever dies, can take most special hits, and usually manages to spin hazards away.

-Forretress:
A single 2x weakness to fire in rain leaves forretress in good stead. Its great physical defense allows it to get up hazards (since it, of course, possesses all three) and rapid spin. It can also use volt switch to not only avoid taunt, but to keep momentum. Its often underrated nintey base attack makes its attacks like earthquake and STAB low speed gyro ball powerful too.

-Ninetales and Sun Stall:
I've never seen Sun Stall. No idea if it would work. Anyone who knows anything about it is welcome to write this section.

-Tyranitar, Hippowdon, and Sand:
Sandstorm is much more popular for stall teams than rain due to a number of factors. The first is that sand has the valuable property of multiplying all rock type's Special Defense by 1.5, making Pokemon like Cradily all but immune to Special attacks. The second obvious reason why so many stall teams use sand is because sand adds passive damage- at a rate of 1/16th of the opponent's health per turn, nullifying leftovers if the opponent is not a rock, steel, or ground type, or else has the ability sand rush or sand viel.

Tyranitar posseses great bulk on both sides thanks to the sandstorm SpDef boost and its great 100/110/100 defensive spread. It can play a defensive role easily thanks to its versitile movepool with options like roar/dragon tail, stealth rock, and toxic.

Hippowdon is even more defensive, espeically physically. Hippowdon has 108/118/72 defenses, but can use them extremely well with options like whirlwind, stealth rocks, toxic, and the all important Slack off for instant recovery, letting hippowdon take its place as a truly amazing physical wall.

Gliscor's ability to toxic stall should also be noted, with its ability to maintain constant health with poison heal, protect, and substitute.

-Abomasnow and Hail Stall:
Again, I'm sorry to say I don't know much about hailstall, but the main point is walrein. Froslass can set up spikes with snow cloak, and mamo can abuse it in other ways. Someone more qualified (in that you have actually built a hail team before) feel free to write this section.

THREATS TO STALL:
While threats are obviously somewhat dependant on the team itelf, I'll go over a few threats to stall in general.

Reuniclus:
The single biggest threat to stall. Magic gaurd makes him immune to passive damage, and great bulk + recover allows him to stay around for a while. He can set up calm minds on anything lacking phazing or hazing and proceed to tank. One strategy that I often use to counter reuniclus is to constantly phaze him out until he is the last Pokemon, then use perish song to finish him off. Another, somewhat obvious way to counter him is to carry a strong, dark type attack (probably physical, his lower defense) and finish him off.

Espeon/Xatu:
Espeon and Xatu can be annoying for stall teams since they often keep stall teams from laying down hazards and toxicing Pokemon for fear of it being reflected back. However, they are both rather frail, espeon in particular, and so with proper prediction they can easily be KOd (especially espeon. For Instance, a Brave bird from uninvested Skarmory will do upwards of 60%, always a 2HKO).

Mixed attackers:
Powerful mixed attackers, such as infernape and salamence, can be a problem for many stall cores, hitting them on their weaker defensive stats. Generally mixed attackers are frail, however, so a decently powered attack will generally take them out, if you can get it off.

Other treats to you will depend on your team.

STALL TEAMBUILDING:
When building a stall team, one must keep in mind that stall is not only having hazards, recovery, and clerics, Stall is also a playstyle. It involves minimizing risk in order to increase the length of the match and so inflict as much residual damage as possible. For that reason, Stall battles will often go upwards of 100 turns, and so being able to make safe switches is vital. For instance, while a stall team consisting of, say, Deoxys D, Starmie, Mew, Cresselia, Celebi, and Latias might have wish passing from Latias, heal bell from Celebi, Spikes and Stealth Rock from Deoxys-D, Phazing from Mew, rapid spin from starmie, and basically everything that an effective stall team can have. However, it would not work well as a team, due to the two obvious weaknesses to ghost and dark type attacks, due to the fact that the team is entirely comprised of psychic types.

Being able to make safe switching is perhaps one of the most vital parts of Stall. That's why Synergy is just as important, if not more important, than when building balanced or offensive teams. Synergy is how well your team fits together defensively; a team with good synergy has a Pokemon to take every common type of attack, and some combinations. For instance, a Zapdos with Hidden Power grass would easily sweep a team whose only Zapdos check was a Swampert. So various Pokemon on your team whose typing's combine well together make for better synergy- i.e., normal types work well with flying and ghost types who can take fighting type attacks.

Pokemon Stats also provide synergy. The most common example of this is the ever common BlissSkarm core. In generation 2, some people looked and saw that Blissey was one of the best special walls in the game. They noticed that Skarmory was an amazing physical wall. And so Bliss Skarm, and some of the first Stall teams were born. This made such an impact on the generation 2 metagame that it led to strategies like having a Sub-Punching Tyranitar with Thunderbolt to dismantle the core. It is widely agreed that Generation 2 was one of the most Stall centric generations with the introduction of BlissSkarm.

BlissSkarm (or ChanSkarm) works well in the fifth Generation metagame today as well. Skarmory acts as an amazing physical wall, taking tons of hits and using roost to heal back up, while laying down spikes and phazing the opponent through them. Blissey still works as an amazing special sponge, only rivaled by her little sister Chansey, and together with Skarmory, many Pokemon will have problems with either Blissey or Skarmory. This is an example of statistical synergy- neither pokemon has any resistance to the other's weakness; it is through their ability to wall both physical and special attacks that Skarmory and Blissey work well together.

Another core that has started to come into being with the fifth generation is FerroCent, a core consisting of, you guessed it, Ferrothorn and Jellicent. Together, they resist 15 of the 17 attacking types, only missing out on ground and flying. Additionally, a zapdos can complete the resistance coverage, taking ground and flying type attacks well. This is an example of a core based on typing synergy- opponents will be hard pressed to find a Pokemon that the team doesn't wall through its excellent type synergy.

Additionally, one building a stall team should probably have most of the things listed above- A cleric, hazards, wish passing, plenty of toxic, phazing, a spinner, and a spinblocker, among other things.

CONCLUSION:
Well, I guess that about raps up Stall in Fifth gen OU. Enjoy your stalling. Maybe I should also put in a section on dealing with rage quits. Um, yup. Any changes, more sections, additions, etc. are welcome. Thanks for bothering to read this (if you did).

Notes: I'll probably go back and do some things (like the sandstall section) more thoroughly later. Additionally, for some things, like hail and sun stall, I don't really play them (or in the case of sun stall, I have no idea if it actually exists) and so people should feel free to write up a section if they want. I might put in a part about spikes + gravity stall later. Um... yeah. I think that covers it.
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PostSubject: Re: Stall in Fifth Gen OU   Stall in Fifth Gen OU Icon_minitimeWed Aug 29, 2012 7:00 pm

amazing article Jimmy. I'm off to eat but I can't wait to read the whole article. what I read is awesome info. Thanks man. Very Happy
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PostSubject: Re: Stall in Fifth Gen OU   Stall in Fifth Gen OU Icon_minitimeWed Aug 29, 2012 7:20 pm

A great contribution Jimmy, thank you.
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Elements
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Stall in Fifth Gen OU Empty
PostSubject: Re: Stall in Fifth Gen OU   Stall in Fifth Gen OU Icon_minitimeThu Aug 30, 2012 12:49 am

http://www.smogon.com/bw/articles/ou_sun#stall

Sun Stall:
Spoiler:

There is a reason why you don't see Sun stall in OU.
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JimmyCrystal
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Stall in Fifth Gen OU Empty
PostSubject: Re: Stall in Fifth Gen OU   Stall in Fifth Gen OU Icon_minitimeThu Aug 30, 2012 12:42 pm

Thanks elements-
Unfortunately, I can't read the spoiler, but I read the smogon page (especially the part about sun stall). Yeah, I guess it's not really feasible. Can you pm me what's in the spoiler (or do something else so I can actually read it)? Thanks!
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PostSubject: Re: Stall in Fifth Gen OU   Stall in Fifth Gen OU Icon_minitime

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