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Offense vs. Stall

Stormborn

Indecisive
78
Posts
11
Years
  • Age 30
  • Seen Apr 26, 2013

Offense vs. Stall

Well let's see if this gets anywhere, hopefully get some discussion going.

These are the two main styles of play in competitive battling, which one do you think is better and which one do you personally play more and reasons why. Obviously other styles of team fall under these two categories.

-Offense can include hyper, weather, Trick Room, bulky,etc.
-Stall is either weather-based or just plain stall.
 
Anti

Anti

return of the king
10,818
Posts
16
Years
They're just very different in execution. I personally prefer playing with and against offense. I don't like battles taking forever. I don't like the lack of risk-taking inherent in stall. While I recognize that stall is a great playstyle, I think offense has a higher degree of difficulty but also a higher ceiling. I believe that an extremely well-built offensive team that is expertly played will beat the stall team with those same conditions most of the time, mostly because stall surrenders a lot of the initiative early in battles (unless people let hazards get up quickly in which case they're cooked).

Also, stall is mostly the same every time. You set up some hazards. You prevent Rapid Spin from screwing you. You stall some. You stall some more, shuffle around the damage, and throw in a little status. The formula is pretty much the same.

I think offense can be approached with a little more flexibility and creativity. For example, I remember using a Sleep Powder/EQ/HP Fire/Sludge Bomb Venusaur in Gen 4 that was a total baller (75% of the time...) and lured in a lot of unsuspected Scizors and Forrys. Not to mention non Shuca Tran. Even if you use lesser Pokemon in stall, I feel like there isn't the same thrill of luring stuff.

As much as it pains me, I've accepted stall as a playstyle. But offense is more fun, in my opinion.

YOLO
 

Stormborn

Indecisive
78
Posts
11
Years
  • Age 30
  • Seen Apr 26, 2013
Anti said:
They're just very different in execution. I personally prefer playing with and against offense. I don't like battles taking forever. I don't like the lack of risk-taking inherent in stall. While I recognize that stall is a great playstyle, I think offense has a higher degree of difficulty but also a higher ceiling. I believe that an extremely well-built offensive team that is expertly played will beat the stall team with those same conditions most of the time, mostly because stall surrenders a lot of the initiative early in battles (unless people let hazards get up quickly in which case they're cooked).

Also, stall is mostly the same every time. You set up some hazards. You prevent Rapid Spin from screwing you. You stall some. You stall some more, shuffle around the damage, and throw in a little status. The formula is pretty much the same.

I think offense can be approached with a little more flexibility and creativity. For example, I remember using a Sleep Powder/EQ/HP Fire/Sludge Bomb Venusaur in Gen 4 that was a total baller (75% of the time...) and lured in a lot of unsuspected Scizors and Forrys. Not to mention non Shuca Tran. Even if you use lesser Pokemon in stall, I feel like there isn't the same thrill of luring stuff.

As much as it pains me, I've accepted stall as a playstyle. But offense is more fun, in my opinion.

YOLO
Click to expand...
Yeah I agree, risk and reward is what makes offense so satisfying. Stall also requires you to constantly outpredict your opponent, while it's just as viable as offense I find it takes a exceptionally good player to make stall work well. Also stall is ill-suited to handle gimmicks, offense can simply outplay it while stall might be forced into a situation where they have no answer.

Exactly I think gimmicks are needed for a team to be truly exceptional, I mean in my reasonably successful UU team I ran a Scarf Azelf which was stupid but no one expected it so I always scored an easy kill and at times it turned the tides of the match. Stall basically means you always have to run a staple like Blissey/Ferrathorn/Skarmory/etc or you're already one step behind.

But admittedly a well-made stall team being used by a good player is exceptionally tough to crack but offense is just so much more open and fun to play. Matches can be done quicker and nothing beats the satisfaction of sweeping a team.
 

OliveCopper

Captain of Olive Kappa
306
Posts
10
Years
  • Seen Nov 29, 2016
The best Defense is a good offense. A fellow Pokemon Trainer taught me that.
 

mrdoingboing

5
Posts
11
Years
Well just from all of the threats and heavy hitters that emerged in gen 5, I personally think that stall became a little less viable and less rewarding in the long run. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's not viable at all, but I think offensive play is more rewarding for the most part. From personal experience, I find that playing stall really eases prediction most of the time, but offensive play with good prediction is much more rewarding. It really all comes down to how well a team is structured to complement the playstyle, so to each his own I guess.
 
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