The nerf to stall, while not direct, is pretty huge imo. Steel lost it's Ghost and Dark resistance, of course, which is the first hit it took. Things like Skarmory, Forretress, Bronzong, Jirachi, Heatran, and Metagross really hate losing that, as they can't switch in on some of the things they had no fear of coming in on before. For example, Sp. Def Jirachi can't come in on Gengar and feel safe, same for Metagross with Tyranitar.
In addition to that, some HUGE wallbreakers were added. Aegislash, which imo is the biggest one, can really break stuff with it's mixed set. Then you have Magic Bounce Mega Absol, Mega Garchomp, Mega Charizard Y, all of which have crazy wall breaking capability with their mixed sets.
Then look at what we got in the way of walls this gen. Florges, Sylveon, Carbink, Goodra, Gourgeist, Avalugg.
The only usable ones (OU) being Florges, Goodra and Gourgeist imo. So 3 walls, all easily broken by the Pokemon I mentioned before, so not really any help.
And of course, the big one, Defog was added. This means that even if you run the epic Jellicent, all of your hard earned hazards can still disappear in just 1 turn, without anything to block it.
In my honest opinion, this gen is the death of full stall.
I disagree with that. Stall is still effective but its "new stall" really, old school stall hasnt been good since gen 4 sadly.
I feel Defog also kills offense too as offense relies on Stealth Rock to get past many checks. Stall teams can use Defog too to thwart Spikes stacking against them (one of the best ways to wall break) and just wait until offensive hazard setters are dead and just use status to wear you down. It really makes no difference ive found. Also remember stall teams often use bulky Pokemon so can set up multiple times after you kill their Defogger. Which brings me to my next point.
Trappers easily remove Defog users and are easy to utilize on stall. Stall just has to adapt. Honestly if you use a Defog user against one of my teams you WILL go 5-6 down straight from the get go. Wasted slot vs elf stall.
Stall just has to be more aggressive, but its still quite usable.
Also all these wall breakers can still be stopped. Mix Aegislash is relatively weak and checked by bulky waters, Heatran etc.
Mega Abosol isnt beating Sylveon or Florgees anytime soon. MegaChomp is a little harder to check as it can go mixed but it has 4mss and struggles with bulky grass types like Gourgeist and also Gliscor if it uses SD + 3 Attacks. If it uses a Mix Set i.e ChainChomp then its walled by stuff like Gyarados and Togekiss and all out attackers are stopped by well anything with good mix defenses see: Deoxys-D, Jellicent, Vap, Sp.Def Hippow etc.
Lastly also still relevant trapping move buff were a pretty big boon to stall imo as far as residual damage goes. Even without hazards you'd be surprised how fast say Toxic/Wisp and possibly SS/Hail + Infestation/Wrap/Whirlpool absolutely ruin many pokemon in so few turns its scary lol.
Oh and Quagsire is awesome.
Anyway;
- Username: Dark Azelf
- Answer to current topic: see above.
- Experience in competitive battling: Lol since gsc. Got to #1 in most tiers ladders during gen 4 and 5. I also
pioneered Volt Turning in gen 4.
- Favourite Pokemon(s): Omastar, Weezing, Azelf, Skarm, Bliss, Trevenent, Gourgeist, Qwilfish.
- Preferred playstyle/core: Anything that works the best. So "elf offense", "elf stall", "elf defensive offense", "elf HO". Elf weak. :)
- Extra: Im shredded and my biceps are larger than urs.
-What's your inspiration and motivation to battle competitively?
I retired and im trying to not be rusty/enjoy comp battling again and get back into things.