The Old Ones (OU rain semistall)

[slant]

THE OLD ONES

"In those grisly eyes were mirrored all the unholy things and vile secrets that sleep in the cities under the sea, and that skulk from the light of day in the blackness of primordial caverns..."

INTRODUCTION

Hi everyone, I'm back with another team. This particular team showcases one of my favorite styles of battling, semistall. The formula for this type of team is pretty basic: a stall core of 3 pokemon, followed by a wallbreaker and 2 sweepers. The game plan is pretty simple too. Early game, focus on laying down hazards and spinning. Wear down the opponent as much as you can, and use the wallbreaker if necessary to blast holes in the opponent's defense. Once everything is worn down, it is a simple matter to mop up with your sweepers. One particular strength of this style is that it is so adaptable to the opponent's strategy, since it has a little bit of everything: walls, wallbreakers, phazers, sweepers, etc. Against a heavy offense team? No problem, I'll just rely on hazard damage and stall my opponent out. Against a stall team? Focus on setting up one of my two sweepers, then it's gg. I'll be presenting my rain semi stall here. I have a sand semi-stall too, but I'm having too much fun with that one just to give it away now

TEAM AT A GLANCE

TEAM IN DETAIL

Cthulhu (Politoed) (M) @ Choice Specs

Trait: Drizzle

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Hidden Power [Grass]

- Perish Song

- Focus Blast

- Surf

Move over defensive Politoed, I got a new best friend! My weather bringer and wallbreaker, this guy is SICK. With a double stab on water moves, this guy will cripple anything that stays in on its hydro pump that's not named chansey or Blissey. It is pretty bulky, but without any method of recovery, it tends to get worn down quickly. This is why Chansey's wish is essential for keeping it alive. If Politoed makes it all the way to late game it can perish song away any of my opponent's final attempts to pull off a last pokemon sweep. Surf is when I need a more reliable option than hydro pump. Focus blast is to hit tyranitar switch ins, but to be honest I don't find myself using it too often. I am considering switching this for hp grass to hit those annoying water types that are also immune to water attacks (I'm looking at you Jellicent and Gastrodon!). Finally, ice beam is not needed since I have two steel types to take on dragons.

Hastur (Chansey) (F) @ Eviolite

Trait: Natural Cure

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef

Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)

- Seismic Toss

- Softboiled

- Wish

- Stealth Rock

This pokemon shows up in a ton of my rmts, and for good reason. It is so bulky on both the physical and special sides. In particular, it is also my counter to sun teams, taking pittance from fire and grass attacks which are usually special. It also sponges electric attacks which plague half of my team. Wish makes life for my opponent hell. It's tough enough taking out my bulky sweepers once; giving them a second lease on life is going to cause major problems. Finally, Chansey sets up my stealth rock. Because it is such a great pivot, taking almost nil from special attacks, it easily sets up its hazards.

Nyarlathotep (Skarmory) (M) @ Leftovers

Trait: Sturdy

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd

Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)

- Spikes

- Brave Bird

- Whirlwind

- Roost

The second half of the (in)famous Skarmbliss combo. This guy covers the physical threats that my other team members can't. I play this guy the same way as Chansey - use it as a pivot to take physical attacks, lay down a layer of spikes as the opponent switches, switch out, repeat. Between Chansey and Skarmory it is not uncommon for me to get all of my hazards up (SR + 3 layers of spikes). At this point, I start whirlwinding to build up hazard damage, healing and switching when necessary. If I get to this point, there's a good chance that I can win through hazards damage alone. Notable threats that Skarmory counters include: most sand sweepers, Gliscor, and physical attacking dragons.

Dagon (Starmie) @ Leftovers

Trait: Natural Cure

EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 12 SAtk / 224 Spd

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Scald

- Recover

- Psychic

- Rapid Spin

The final part of my stall core. This is a modified Starmie, built to emphasize bulk over special attack. Regular starmie builds really tend only to get one chance to get rapid spin off, while mine is built to last. However, even with such low investment in special attack, it still has surprising power. For instance after stealth rock, gengar is outsped and ohkoed by psychic. Scald's power is boosted by the rain, and is no joke backed by Starmie's special attack stat (even with little investment). I chose scald over surf for the burn chance, thinking that it would outweigh the extra power, but now I'm not so sure. Feel free to try it with surf and tell me what you think.

Shoggoth (Toxicroak) (M) @ Leftovers

Trait: Dry Skin

EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Substitute

- Bulk Up

- Drain Punch

- Sucker Punch

This frog is so pro. SO PRO. I just love watching it drain punch something, only to gain back 60%+ health in one turn. While its bulk may not be anything to write home about, it gets such fantastic resistances that it doesn't matter (for example, it resists the stab moves from: Breloom, Terrakion, and Conkeldurr, all top tier physical threats). Also dry skin + substitute means you are only losing a tiny bit of hp every time you use it. If the opponent can't break your substitutes (which happens all too often once Toxicroak gets a bulk up in) then you will on average actually be GAINING hp. Finally, I'd like to point out that Toxicroak laughs at stall teams (especially rain stall). Whatever hp it loses from switching into hazards is quickly offset by dry skin, while it is immune to toxic, the main form of damage output from stall teams, and actually absorbs toxic spikes too. Against rain stall in particular, Toxicroak easily switches in on a predicted water move or predicted stealthrock/spikes/toxic spikes and can proceed to set up.

Shub (Jirachi) @ Leftovers

Trait: Serene Grace

EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Substitute

- Calm Mind

- Water Pulse

- Thunder

We all know how this guy works by now, right? After a few calm minds, this guy is almost invincible and destroys everything. Even without the boosts, it can still hax the shit out of the opponent with parafusion. Almost everything I said up there about Toxicroak applies to Jirachi too. Jirachi laughs at stall teams, boasting the same immunity to toxic. It also loves switching in on those bulky steels that set up hazards (Skarm, Ferro, Forretress), appreciating the opportunity to attempt a sweep.

THREATS

-The main threat to this team are trappers such as Chandelure and Dugtrio, who can eliminate my weather if I am not careful.

-A much smaller threat are electric pokemon. As I pointed out, 3 of my 6 pokemon are weak to it, but if I keep Chansey healthy it should not be an issue.

CONCLUSION

Anyways, that's the team! The Old Ones is one of my favorite teams, being able to effectively take on all kinds of playstyles. Chansey/Skarmory/Starmie form an effective core, being able to sponge all attacks and slowly get hazards up. Politoed by itself hits like a nuke; in the early game it can even take out multiple pokemon if the opponent is not careful. Finally, my two sweepers, although a bit on the slow side, can really break the opponent's team once they get going. Thanks for reading, and please feel free to rate/hate/steal as always.

Politoed (M) @ Choice Specs

Trait: Drizzle

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Hydro Pump

- Perish Song

- Focus Blast

- Surf

Chansey (F) @ Eviolite

Trait: Natural Cure

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef

Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)

- Seismic Toss

- Softboiled

- Wish

- Stealth Rock

Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers

Trait: Sturdy

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd

Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)

- Spikes

- Brave Bird

- Whirlwind

- Roost

Toxicroak (M) @ Leftovers

Trait: Dry Skin

EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Substitute

- Bulk Up

- Drain Punch

- Sucker Punch

Jirachi @ Leftovers

Trait: Serene Grace

EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Substitute

- Calm Mind

- Water Pulse

- Thunder

Starmie @ Leftovers

Trait: Natural Cure

EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 12 SAtk / 224 Spd

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Scald

- Recover

- Psychic

- Rapid Spin

Edited September 17, 2012 by slant

[Kamina]

Dang man nice rmt. i like the theme that you added as well! looks like a solid team i cant see much flaws besides the ones that you already pointed out . But why you no black sludge toxicrock ;_;. if opponent trick than they lose health so it can come in handy

[slant]

I'm not really a fan of black sludge. First off toxicroak doesn't really need to worry about trick since it is behind a substitute most of the time. Second, let's say that toxicroak is tricked and gives the other pokemon black sludge. Then the other pokemon now has a chance to crippled a SECOND pokemon on my team by tricking it my original black sludge. The tradeoff between this and a miniscule amount of extra damage doesn't really seem to be worth it.

Thanks for the rate!

[Kamina]

Also for politoed why do you have both hydropump and Surf! a hidden power that replaced hydropump would give the politoed a lot better coverage. Surf in the rain and specs will still to a ton of damage O hit koing any sweeper and/or if it does super effective damage

[Shanco]

I agree with Kamina. Might as well replace one of the two with Hypnosis for some status.

[slant]

Thanks. During testing I found that there was pretty much no situation in which hydro pump would cripple something but surf wouldn't. I've changed hydro pump to hidden power grass since Gastrodon really causes me problems.

[Skwayz]

Ok Slant, here I come.

Skarmbliss. Skarmbliss. You love that chansey huh ? But you know I really hate it. It's setup fodder without T-wave, and it's just an ugly-over-predictable pink blob.

Because you're weak to electricity, and because your team don't like gastrodon (EQ variant won't let Jirachi setup) you should add Ferrothorn. Ok he's ugly. Ok he's predictable. But hey. He check electricity, he check kingdra who really do a number to your team, and he still provide spikes/sr.

With ferro, you're now weak to fight. Meh. This is the bad part about ferro. But he's got a red eon friend, who just fit really well with him. The name is Latias. He's so damn bulky, he will do chansey job like 10000x time better, resist both Fighting and Electric move, who are your biggest weakness atm. He also provide a let game sweep, which is always welcome.

If you take latias, you're now a bit Ttar weak. And you really don't wanna have two psychic type on a same team. Solution is simple, Tentacruel>Starmie because if Tyranitar mannage to kill starmie, and put SR, you're now in a really bad situation. Tentacruel rapid spin like a pro under rain, and don't give a royal fuck about Ttar. Plus, toxic spikes is always welcome on that kind of team.

This is just a nitpick, but I think Scarf toed provide so much extra kill, that it his by far better than specs. (You outspeed all geniuses with a timid nature).

Skarmory -> Ferrothorn 252hp/168def/88Sdef 0 speed EV Relaxed Nature Stealth rock/Spikes/Power whip/Gyro ball

Chansey -> Latias 200hp/52def/252Sdef Calm Nature Calm mind/Surf/Recover/Dragon pulse

Starmie -> Tentacruel 252hp/252def/4Sdef Bold Nature Toxic spikes/Rapid spin/Scald/Protect

[Conor]

i'd reccomend sticking with Starmie, but giving him a defensive build. 252 Spd/ 252 Def/ 4 sp attk. with this build you can switch in and tank any physical fighting type move there is. i ran only 240 Def on my starmie for my stall team i just made and he was tanking a regular machamps build's dynamic punches with only 22% damage. it will give you a good chance to counter attack with psychic or scald when they switch in, let you recover, or rapid spin away hazards.