Stall in the Inheritance Metagame
There's been quite a bit of talk about Inheritance stall in the Other Metagames room recently, and with good reason. Now that Blacephalon is banned (rightly so), stall is incredibly potent, having just lost once of its most volatile answers. Stall is always an interesting playstyle, often met with annoyance from ladder players, but in inheritance stall can be particularly troublesome thanks to the presence of extremely potent blanket checks. In my experience, there's one core in particular that stands out as particularly powerful, and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it checks at least 80% of the metagame. Don't get me wrong, the 3-Pokemon core I'm going to detail isn't unbeatable: there are consistent and viable ways of breaking it present in the metagame. The issue it presents is that because the core is able to check such a wide variety of Pokemon, stall teams have enough flexibility in the last 3 slots that they can easily tailor a team to beat these specific threats. This results in stall being an extremely difficult to check playstyle that often enough wins from team preview because the opponent does not have the correct breaker. While this can be circumvented in different metagames by running certain lure sets, lures are much harder to pull off effectively in inheritance because of donor reveal. I'll detail the 3-Pokemon core I'm referring too below in an effort to generate more discussion on stall and maybe provide more insight into its place in the inheritance metagame.
The Core
Right off the bat, it's apparent that this core focuses less on typing synergy and more on sheer bulk, and in that sense it definitely succeeds. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say this core checks at least 80% of the metagame through sheer bulk alone (aided by the abilities for each Pokemon). The roles for each individual Pokemon are quite clear and similar to what they would be in standard play (albeit amplified due to their inherited sets). With stellar bulk on both sides of the spectrum, Cresselia can check an extremely large portion of the metagame and is extremely difficult to break past without powerful supereffective moves. Chansey and Buzzwole focus on checking attackers specific to one end of the attacking spectrum, with Chansey handling virtually every special attacker and Buzzwole being able to take just about anything on the physical end. Even though they don't have much synergy in terms of typing, the core still works extremely well defensively due to the ridiculous bulk of the Pokemon used. That's not to say there isn't any synergy, Buzzwole acts as a great absorber to Bug and Dark-type moves that threaten Cresselia and Fighting-type moves that threaten Chansey, Chansey can take on any special-based Fire-types for Buzzwole or threatening Ghost-types for Cresselia. These 3 work so well together that through all the variants of my stall team, they've always remained at the center of them (albeit with differing sets). To show how a team around this core can operate, here are the sets I commonly run on each member to achieve its particular goal.
The Sets
Cresselia @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 232 HP / 156 Def / 120 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Psychic / U-turn / Super Fang
- Toxic
- Roost
- Defog
This Cresselia inherits Unaware from Swoobat, but other Unaware donors can work as well. Unaware Cresselia is pretty ridiculous in terms of the sheer number of things it checks because it requires an astonishing amount of raw power to break past unboosted, and thanks to Unaware that's effectively the only option teams will have. The set is nothing too specific, most people know what Unaware Cresselia does but it does it extremely well, that being blanket checking a large portion of the metagame. The fact that such a potent blanket check also acts as a Defogger is very much worth noting, that's one of many factors that gives stall teams built around this core immense freedom with their last 3 teamslots. I personally run a mixed defensive spread as seen here to broaden the range of things Cresselia is able to check (I forget the exact details of the spread though), but teams struggling with threats like Necrozma ! Mega Medicham can opt for max defense as well.
Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 Def / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Heal Bell / Stealth Rock
- Wish
- Protect
Chansey is already infamous on stall across metagames, and Inheritance gives it the necessary tools to excel even further as a wall. This set inherits from Clefable, and again other Unaware donors could work just as well here. Chansey requires even less explanation than the above since it's fulfilling pretty much the same niche it does in OU: walling almost every special attacker in the metagame. While in some metagames Chansey's massive special bulk can be overwhelmed by boosting sweepers, Unaware again makes that a non-issue. Like Cresselia, Chansey performs an otherwise essential team function in addition to its defensive utility by acting either as a Heal Bell user or Stealth Rock setter, again according to the needs of the team. Again, you'll notice a common theme with Cresselia here: blanket check as much of the meta as possible while providing additional team support as needed, resulting in increased team flexibility. I've seen a lot of people in the other metas room advocate 252 HP / 252 Def Bold Chansey in the other metas room, but that set is pretty suboptimal when Chansey's main goal is to check special attacking threats, the decreased special bulk is especially notable against Torkoal inheritors with Specs and Eruption.
Buzzwole @ Leftovers
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Rest
- Toxic
The last Pokemon of the core aims to check physical attackers that rely on sheer power to deal damage, think of things like Basculin ! Terrakion with Choice Band that would otherwise have the raw strength to get past Cresselia. Fur Coat Buzzwole (inheriting from Alolan Persian in case it wasn't clear) is so physically bulky it's ridiculous, it pretty much doesn't take significant damage from physical attackers at all save for things like Victini ! Alolan Marowak's V-create (which only deals 75% maximum). Reliable recovery and a lack of team utility are both unfortunate, but in my opinion that hardly matters when you're pretty much walling the entire unboosted physical metagame. While it has no dedicated team support roles due to Alolan Persian's limited movepoll, Knock Off is helpful against opposing bulky teams and U-turn prevents offensive teams from gaining momentum with double switches, so not all is lost.
Threats to the Core
As I said previously, this core is far from unbreakable. There are some very prominent threats to this core, and I'll try and outline some of the most common or most effective ones below.
V-Create Fire-types:
When the above Pokemon inherit V-Create from Victini, they boast enough raw power to break past Cresselia and can beat the core's dedicated physical wall Buzzwole thanks to natural type advantage. Victini also donates strong coverage options in Bolt Strike (for Mega Charizard X and Alolan Marowak) as well as Solar Beam, Focus Blast and Thunderbolt (for Mega Charizard Y). These Pokemon are naturally very scary for any bulky team to face, particularly with stall.
Mega Medicham:
While it is soft checked by Unaware Cresselia, Mega Medicham inheriting from Necrozma can rather troublesome. If Cresselia is not at full HP, a Swords Dance boosted Photon Geyser can threaten a 2hko on Cresselia due to the move bypassing Unaware, and because Cresselia is used to check so many threats and get rid of hazards, it being at less than full HP is a fairly likely scenario. Less threatening than the above Pokemon but when played by a competent opponent it can be a real hassle to deal with.
Keldeo:
By virtue of its offensive typing and solid power, Keldeo poses a threat to this core and can do so with a variety of different sets. The two sets I see most, Sheer Force and Adaptability, both are able to 2hko Chansey with Focus Blast, meaning the core's dedicated check to special attackers will not suffice. Cresselia is at risk of being 2hkod after rocks by Sheer Force variants, while Adaptability sets 2hko outright. While Keldeo's moves are unreliable, banking on Focus Blast missing isn't enough to say this core has reliable counterplay.
Powerful Mixed Sweepers:
Powerful mixed sweepers (particularly those with Protean) that have enough raw power to get past Cresselia (or simply the appropriate coverage) are very dangerous as well, as these are often unpredictable (even with donor reveal) and hiding coverage moves until later in a match can easily give the player of one of these Pokemon a massive advantage.
Mold Breaker Attackers:
Attackers that run both Mold Breaker and Swords Dance are probably the most difficult breakers to answer with teams around this core. Because Mold Breaker bypasses both Unaware and Fur Coat, the core's dedicated checks to physical attackers both fall apart. Mold Breaker Pokemon can also run Choice Band to pose a threat, though Buzzwole has enough natural physical bulk that it can still fend them off well enough.
Partners to the Core:
Now that I've outlined some of the threats to this core, why not some potential partners? Supporting this core usually comes down to checking the above threats or providing other essential team functions. Here are some partners I've had success with:
Mega Sableye:
In addition to hard-checking Mega Medicham, Mega Sableye offers Magic Bounce support which is incredibly valuable to a team. Because it gains Magic Bounce after mega evolving, Sableye is usually free to inherit from anything, meaning it has a lot of flexibility in its moveset is a team is missing some crucial support role such as a Stealth Rock setter.
Motor Drive Toxapex:
A little weird but a great example of how stall teams can really tailor to threats like the ones above. Motor Drive Toxapex checks V-Create Fire-types as well as Keldeo thanks to its typing and great natural bulk. Inheriting from Emolga also gives it access to Defog, which frees up a moveslot on Cresselia for teams that previously had Defog there (dual Defog is also an option).
Regenerator Magearna:
Checks Mega Alakazam which can be a little annoying to the core, but its main utility is acting as a pivot with Regenerator, which effectively guarantees that matchups against opposing stall teams will end in a tie. Magearna can also run Heal Bell, either freeing a moveslot on Chansey or allowing for 2 Heal Bell users on the same team (which I've enjoyed during my tests).
In Conclusion:
Stall is a very neat playstyle in Inheritance, and despite people on ladder who ridicule stall players for unoriginality there's a lot of room to be creative with the last 3 teamslots to check the various things able to break that 3-Pokemon core. Partners and threats to this core are far from limited to the ones I listed here, those are just ones I've noted from my own experience building and on ladder. While stall is a frustrating playstyle at times, it can also be a major source of innovation and creativity, both from people trying to build stall teams and account for the major metagame threats and from people who find creative ways of getting around stall teams. Hopefully this generates some interesting discussion on stall's place in the metagame or on potential suspects, as I think in some ways stall can be overly restrictive, both in the teambuilding and playing phases, but I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this since I'm only speaking from the perspective of a stall user. Also, sorry for using stall on ladder. Anyways, peace.