Mixed Tier Stalling Team

Here’s a new team idea that I’ve been working on lately. It’s for doubles and the main aim is to stall but I’ve thrown a couple of sweepers into the mix too, just so I can go on the offensive if needs be. Any suggestions would be appreciated!



Drapion @ Black Sludge

Nature: Careful

Ability: Battle Armour

EV’s: 220 HP/126 Special Defence/92 Speed/48 Defence/24 Attack



~ Toxic Spikes

~ Knock Off

~ Pursuit

~ Taunt



Drapion is my lead and the one who’ll start this whole thing off. Toxic Spikes is the main move of this set, while the others support it. Knock Off rids sturdy pokes of their Lefties and Pursuit hits those switching out to stop the Toxic count. Taunt stops other things from Taunting me and also keeps stuff from recovering. I went with Battle Armour over Sniper to prevent an untimely Critical from ruining my fun.



220 HP EV’s mean max Lefties recovery for Drapion. I’ve spread the others around to give it a better chance at taking both kinds of attacks. More have been placed in Special Defence since its Defence is naturally high. Attack and Speed also have a few for more bite in attacks and to get Spikes down faster.



I’m considering Aqua Tail as a possibility on this set so I’m not completely walled by Steels and Fighting types. I would then have something to fight Ground types with, too. It’s just that I’m not quite sure what I’d want to get rid of. I guess possibly Knock Off, but I’m still not 100%. A little guidance here would be really useful :)



Luvdisc @ Leftovers

Nature: Timid

Ability: Swift Swim

EV’s: 252 HP/252 Speed/6 Defence



~ Sweet Kiss

~ Water Pulse

~ Substitute

~ Aqua Ring



It’s a shame, really. Despite Luvdisc’s name, it never gets any luv at all… Well, I’ve set out to change that and make it do something! I actually used one on a really old team of mine (as a Psych Up sweeper) but it didn’t quite work out. I’m hoping this one will be different. This set is pretty much reliant on switches, so I’ve used moves that will hopefully cause a few. The plan is to bring in Luvdisc after a couple of layers of Toxic Spikes have been put down. Sweet Kiss helps keep the foe’s attacks at bay as they slowly lose HP. Substitute means Luvdisc can confuse things more safely, (and also keeps it around for more than a turn!).



Leftovers may seem like an odd choice on something as fragile as Luvdisc but since setting up Subs is a pretty important part of this set, I figured it wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all. I know I could have gone with a different number of HP EV’s for max Lefties recovery but Luvdisc’s base HP is so miniscule to begin with that I thought I may as well go all out.



The EV’s themselves are pretty self-explanatory. I need Luvdisc to be as fast as possible but also ‘bulky’. Those last EV’s seemed like they would be wasted put into Special Attack so I’ve just chucked them in Defence in the hope that I might survive a few weaker hits.



Just so you know, I’d hate to completely get rid of Luvdisc from this team, simply due to the fact that it never gets used. So could I ask that you only give me ideas for the EV spread and moveset?



Spiritomb @ Sitrus Berry

Nature: Relaxed

Ability: Pressure

EV’s: 252 HP/140 Special Defence/96 Defence/22 Special Attack



~ Curse

~ Pain Split

~ Will-O-Wisp

~ Shadow Ball



So when I decided that I’d like to make a team that could stall, I thought ‘what else could I use to make Pokes lose HP?’ Then I thought of Curse. I know it’s a pretty suicidal move on Ghost types but it fits the theme kinda nicely. It also isn’t so bad to Curse at least once, thanks to the Sitrus Berry. Spiritomb seemed a good choice for the job since it can take a hit pretty well.



The idea here is to Curse and then stall out the opposition by regaining HP through Pain Split. I can burn things if necessary which will be great for survivability, and attack with Shadow Ball (I prefer this over Dark Pulse since Spiritomb’s too slow to make use of the flinches). With Toxic in effect, opponents immobilised by Luvdisc and Curse, things will be going down (or switching) pretty fast.



I know it might seem like Spiritomb is wasting a team spot since the opponent can simply switch out of the Curse, leaving me with 50% less HP, but the real reason I’m using it is for Steel types. Since they are immune to Poisoning, this is the next best thing I have for stalling them out. When used in conjunction with Magnezone, they won’t be able to switch and I can Curse safely. W-O-W is great for those Steels since a majority are Physical attackers so they won’t enjoy a reduction to their attack.



What would you think of Shadow Sneak over Shadow Ball?





Mesprit @ Leftovers

Nature: Bold

Ability: Levitate

EV’s: 204 HP/146 Defence/80 Special Defence /56 Special Attack/24 Speed



~ Imprison

~ Psychic

~ Thunderbolt

~ Calm Mind



Although the idea behind this team is to stall, I still like there to be a good mix of team members who can cover for each others weaknesses. Mesprit is helpful when paired with both Luvdisc and Hitmonchan, thanks to Imprison. With the move in effect, the two are semi-protected from a weakness (due to Psychic and T-Bolt being two very common moves). This means Hitmonchan can Agility up with a little less worry and Luvdisc can confuse again without so much fear of being zapped. Calm Mind lets Mesprit build upon it’s already fairly solid Special Defence stat and become a sweeper if needed. I’m not as worried about physical attacks due to W-OW. I’m also hoping Mesprit will scare away Poison types that could completely ruin this strategy.



Hitmonchan @ Life Orb

Nature: Adamant

Ability: Iron Fist

EV’s: 252 Attack/100 HP/92 Speed/66 Defence



~ Agility

~ Close Combat

~ Ice Punch

~ Thunder Punch



Hitmonchan is my physical sweeper. The set’s simple enough: Agility up when I feel safe enough, and try to get as many things down as possible. Close Combat is Hitmonchan’s strongest move and Ice Punch is great for Dragons which seem to be everywhere. Thunder Punch is mostly for Gyarados, but I may replace that with Protect. This is mainly so I have something to hide behind while Mesprit sets up Imprison if I’m facing something like Alakazam. Mesprit already has T-Bolt, anyway. Tell me what you think guys!



Magnezone @ Shuca Berry

Nature: Modest

Ability: Magnet Pull

EV’s: 252 Special Attack/ 248 HP/ 8 Speed



~ Thunderbolt

~ Hidden Power Fire

~ Substitute

~ Magnet Rise



So here’s my best bet against those pesky Steel types who just won’t go down to Poison. The combination of T-Bolt and Hidden Power Fire hits a majority of the Steel types Super Effectively (bar, I believe, only Bastiodon and Probopass). HP Fire is great for opposing Magnezone and also Steelix. Substitute is mainly for scouting attacks. Magnet Rise is for ridding Magnezone of a nasty 4x weakness to EQ, something Steelix (as well as Metagross) will most likely carry.



So there you have it! Please leave any suggestions since I know this team could do with improvements. Thanks for reading!

Sorry for the double post, but I think I should say that I don't have a clue what's up with the text in the RMT. It's pretty horrible to look at. I'll try and figure out how to add pictures next time so it's a bit nicer on the eyes!

Luvdisc doesn't get much love for a reason. I once used a Luvdisc with Sweet Kiss, Toxic, Attract, and Substitute to stall out a Garchomp way back when, but it was entirely luck-based. Luvdisc doesn't have much opportunity to do well in general, and even if you simply ran a set like that which I listed above, well, ANY given Pokemon could run it, really, and likely much better.

I personally prefer Mismagius as a Curse user over Spiritomb. Curse, Painsplit, Sub, and a status move of your choice- T-Wave, Confuse Ray, WilloWisp, or even Mean Look. I generally go with T-Wave, since it gives you more opportunities to get a Sub up for a turn, and some free heals from Leftovers. Then you can Painsplit next turn, so long as they don't have a Sub up themselves. I'll also note that Curse CAN be Baton Passed, just like Leech Seed, so it's the ultimate BP team counter- especially since Curse isn't affected by Substitute.

You're right there, Shine. Luvdisc does have a very limited movepool though so I guess this is one of the better sets for it.

I was thinking of giving it Icy Wind, actually, just to encourage switches a little more. The least I can do is try it out- as you said there are things that can do it far better. I'm sure I'll be able to find a replacement if things don't work out.

Flirtacious Silver wrote:

You're right there, Shine. Luvdisc does have a very limited movepool though so I guess this is one of the better sets for it.

I was thinking of giving it Icy Wind, actually, just to encourage switches a little more. The least I can do is try it out- as you said there are things that can do it far better. I'm sure I'll be able to find a replacement if things don't work out.

I'm not sure I'd bother running Icy Wind on something like Luvdisc.

Icy Wind and Rock Tomb are most useful on teams that run lots of entry hazards and priority attacks, in my opinion. With fast enough Pokemon running a move like Icy Wind or Rock Tomb, you can scare switch-ins into switching back out, accumulating extra passive damage. Essentially, they have two options- stay in and get OHKO'd by a faster Pokemon (i.e., your Pokemon that just hit them with that Spd-dropping move), or they just keep switching and end up vulnerable to a sweep via priority attacks, because their HP would already be so worn-down by passive damage.

For instance, Aerodactyl, having 394 max Spd, outruns essentially everything after a Rock Tomb, even most Scarfers, can set up Rocks, and has high Atk, to boot. Shiftry gets Rock Tomb, as well, and mixes well with Leaf Storm, making him an effective wall-breaker. Besides that, he's relatively speedy and gets Sucker Punch for priority. Lucario can also serve as a strong wall-breaker, taking advantage of the switches for free Swords Dances between Rock Tombs, and after a Swords Dance, we all know how devastating ExtremeSpeed can be, allowing him to pick off opponents that have been weakened by passive damage.

The point here is that Luvdisc just doesn't pack the kind of power needed to scare off any targets because of a drop in Spd, since it can't really kill anything without running a stall set.